Last Semester!!

AHHHH!!! I see it now...the END!!!

Haha!! So this week marks the end of my college journey. I am excited and scared for what is to come.

I wish anyone who is in the same shoes, or close to it the best of luck!!! May the force be with you :) Study hard, but make some time for yourself too. I have to work a little harder on the first part though ;)

Why??

I really don't mean to get all emo, but lately I've been feeling like I've been making all the wrong decisions. I feel like even though I think before I speak, or do, it's still wrong, and I get burned. I always try to do what is right, and I try to be the one to be the bigger person, not just to be the better one.

I feel, I give a lot, but I don't get much in return. Finance class has taught me that the greater the risk, the greater the return. Lately, I've been risking a lot, but I've been crashing and burning a lot too. When am I gonna strike it big? I don't get it sometimes...why do I always get the shaft?

I think growing up around negative people has caused me to just instinctively be negative. I don't know why, but I can find the bad in anyone I meet, whether you're that person who always has to talk about yourself when no one else cares, or if you're that person who always have to have the last word in edge-wise, I always find that something about you that annoys me. So I will say this, YES, practically ANYONE who I have ever gotten to know, I have found something that annoys me about you. I don't know how to make this irritability go away, but I try...PROMISE!

You know, I think respect has a lot to do with all of this. I feel like I have so many things that work against me. I am young, or considered to be young in almost all aspects of my life. I am somewhat outgoing (at least to those who I get to know), this can be a turn off to some, the outsiders. I wish people would look beyond the years, and beyond the voice: I am smart, I know what I'm doing. If you give me a chance, you'll see that I'm not the stupid idiot that you think I am. It's hard to undo those first impressions.

Even though I am able to make friends, this thing inside of me makes me to turn, or lose them. I don't know how I will overcome this in the long run. I hope I figure out this key to my happiness soon, or else I will live a sad lonely life. If someone knows what I'm doing wrong...can you let me in??

Memorial Day Sales

So many good sales going on this week!!! To commemorate the holiday weekend some of my favorite places to shop is offering deals that I would so go for, but don't have the money :(

Kali's Nail Supply is going out of business. They're actually retiring, and it was a quick decision, so they will be open today from 10 till 6 and tomorrow from 10 till 4 and they're offering 50% off the whole store, at least their retail products, which include nail polishes, treatments, and other basics that don't require a license. Check out their facebook page for the details.

HauteLook is one of my favorite places to get things that I can't normally afford or don't have access to. This weekend they are offering free shipping for orders 50% or more. It looks like the sales are lasting through the weekend instead of the normal three days, and there also seems to be more sales going on now.

And Tokidoki is doing a Memorial Day sale with 30% off online and in store. I don't know of any Tokidoki stores here, but since their stuff is quite pricey, I think this would be a great time to buy those gifts to yourself ;)

Okay, not that many things I found. Just to help you people on a budget. It's also a great opportunity to buy gifts :) I think it's never too early to start Christmas shopping, although I usually scramble starting December 20th or so ;P

Happy Memorial Day!!!

Ending the Semester

WOW!! This semester was so intense!! I mean, I knew it was going to get more and more nuts, but I was so not preparing for this!!!

Presentation after presentation, then a bunch of exams. That's how it went for about 3 or 4 weeks after Spring Break. I mean, part of it is my fault because I really didn't do any of the stuff I had planned to do so that my workload wouldn't be that bad.

Hah...the end is near, and this is the first semester in a while where I feel I will get grades that I want :)

Hope everyone else is surviving well!!

My Purchase Goals for 2011

So I'm trying to acquire some new electronics this year, and things have NOT been in my favor. I've been wanting a new camera for quite some time now, and I can't seem to decide what kind of camera I want. ALSO, I've been wanting an iPod touch for some time, and now that it has a camera (actually 2), I really want one. I've been saying for YEARS once the iPod touch gets a camera, I'm getting an iPod touch.

So for the camera. In the past maybe 7-8 years, I've been buying a new digital camera almost every other year, which does NOT help my wallet. However, the last time I got a new camera was I believe in the middle of 2008, so I've actually been really good :) That camera recently flubbed an upload on facebook, which actually lit that desire to get a new camera too. Anyway, I hear about so many people doing their project 365, and I really would like to do one too because I like looking at awesome pictures, and hopefully take good pictures too, so I've been looking into these kinda "hybrid" cameras. Different people call them different things, but what I'm looking for is something that won't break the bank, that can zoom (optical zoom that is) really nice (at least 10x), and that can take really clear pictures (like DSLRs). So, looking around I run into the Olympus PEN series, which is this "hybrid" type. Slightly compact, but with a light sensor very close to a DSLR. The only thing is that the darn thing is over $500 (with tax and stuff). I can NOT afford that.

So, my goal is actually going to be the Canon PowerShot SX30IS. It is also quite pricey, but BestBuy has it on sale for about $50 cheaper than what the Canon website shows. So, this weekend, I might pick one up. Another downside to this camera is that it is quite bulky looking, and after reading some reviews, it seems pretty heavy. So, it's not one of those carry around in my bag cameras. So I guess for the most part I will still be carrying my Olympus Stylus 1010 around still. I really don't know about this. I need help!!

So, as far as the iPod goes...I really messed things up by not getting one as soon as I wanted. Costco used to sell iPods for pretty cheap. My brother has access to the NEX and after comparing and putting everything into perspective, the Costco one was cheaper amazingly. So, earlier this year, I went to pick one up, and for the life of me I couldn't find the darn display. I kept walking around and walking around, and I'm thinking: this would be my luck if they stopped selling iPods altogether. So I finally found an employee and he told me that they stopped selling all Apple products...see: MY LUCK! So, after I recover from my camera purchase, I will as the brother to head out and get me my iPod.

Just wanted to vent out my frustrations with my need to be technologic. Will update when I get my goods!!

Party Time

Oh my...what a day! Today, my family and I celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday. It was such a great gathering. I was elected MC, and I was so nervous. Most of the guests were family that I don't get to see much, and the rest were my immediate family and my grandma's good friends. There was so much going on, and I was so thrown off from the beginning.

Let's start from maybe a month ago. When we first started planning what we were going to do, I really wanted to help, so I kept bugging my mom and her sister about different things that I wanted to make sure was going good. So, it was my own fault for being the MC, I ended up asking them, "So, who's going to be the MC?" and my aunty replied, "Oh, maybe you should do it!" Then she went on and told me, "Oh, you should dance!" I didn't end up dancing, but I got some great entertainers out of my pool of Okinawan friends.

Over the past maybe 2-3 weeks I have been continuously worrying about two things: making sure that my friends were ready to dance, and making sure I had the right material for the speaking part. It was hard because my mom and aunty were really busy, and I was getting more and more nervous.

Finally this past week I had been typing everything out, and trying to get the right material for the performances and the centerpiece giveaway game. Yesterday I was ready to practice the centerpiece game (which I made a left/right story for) with my mom and my aunty, so I was going to do it while we were getting the favors ready. However, my mom threw a curveball at me: she brought my dad. My dad is the worst critic that I ever encountered. He doesn't critique anyone...he CRITICIZES! It's horrible, and I already don't like him much, so when my mom urged me to wait for my dad to come back from transporting stuff around, I was getting more anxious. So, my mom told me to tell my story, and I think I got two sentences out, and I stopped because I wanted to ask for a suggestion to make the intro to the story flow a bit more, and my dad butts in saying that all the people there are old and that they're not going to understand me, so I was not going to tolerate this crap and I stopped, I didn't even read the story that my aunty was excited to hear. Later she asked me if I was going to finish, and I simply replied. "NO." I was too pissed off and I wasn't going to be criticized the whole way, so I refused to continue. I think I made her mad, but my mom understood why I did it, and only later kinda apologized/sympathized. It really seemed like my mom appreciated my hard work, but it just sucks that I always have to be so defensive and make other people mad at me for something I didn't do.

So, yesterday was kind of an eventful day...not in a good way though.

So, today comes, and I am getting more nervous and more nervous, especially since many things were not working in my favor.

For one thing, my dancers were not getting ready fast enough, and could not make it early to see the area they'd be performing. Not like it woulda really happened anyway, almost all the guests were early. So, that means we were setting up and doing everything with everyone there. It was sorta ok because everyone helped out. My mom was a bit mad because the old people were not ensuring quality control, but whatever it turned out!

So, the entertainment: it was so good! I am so happy and so proud of my friends. They really did a great job. To Julia and Michelle: THANK YOU for risking your joints and doing Shishi no Mai AND Ashibinaa! Also thanks to everyone else: Tori, Ashley, and Dazz, and the musicians: Lisa, Sean, Kenton, and even Melissa for doing all the hair and playing sanba. Times like this make me very thankful for great friends. Not the kind that will be nice to you so that they can get away with trying to be an adult rather than actually being one (vent moment). They did this for me, and I would do this for their grandmas too :)

The centerpiece giveaway game: frustrating! Anyway, I thought I was talking slow and clear enough for everyone to understand what's going on, but I was totally WRONG!!! Like I think I made this game for the totally wrong crowd...too many old people! Anyway, the centerpiece eventually went to someone, whether they cheated by claiming it theirs to begin with (Dazz), or they played their own game (the table in front of me).

All in all, the party came and went, and my grandma doesn't recall much :/ whatever, we will soon have a scrapbook for her to look at :)

OneRepublic was AWESOME!!

So, I went to the OneRepublic concert on Monday, and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised...they are really good live. I think that is one major way to tell if a band, or artist is actually a true musician...if they are good LIVE.

I wish I had taken better pics to show, but I have come to terms with the fact that I NEED a new camera. My camera could not keep up with the technology at that concert man...I only took really blury pictures, and I'm not really sure how to control the shutter speed on that camera :/

Like I mentioned before, I had a hard time figuring out what I was going to wear on my feet...ended up wearing my "pretty" slippers from Aldo. They are my I want my feet to look nice, but I don't wanna wear heels footwear ;) Standing for that whole time was kinda gruesome on my feet, but it was all worth it.

One more thing before I actually get to the concert details, I could NOT believe what rudeness decided to show up at this concert! Like it was nuts how some people cannot respect others' space, or what politeness is about!! One issue was the bitches that decided to stand behind us because we are SHORT...like come on! You don't have to say it out loud like that! Anyway, those girls were bitching about how they worked in heels and now their feet were tired and sore and...I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!!! If you're going to be talking that loud and obnoxiously, please stand at least 10 feet away from me! Anyway, that was the least of my worries. The bunch of girls standing next to me had an issue on where my comfort bubble was. I mean it was, actually now that I think about it, quite weird. This girl with her friends decided that she did not want to bother her own friends (if they were even her friends) by bumping them with her big ass bag, but instead bump me, a stranger with it ALL NIGHT! Gosh, is this where politeness is going these days? Anyway, my strategy of getting closer and closer to her kinda worked, she kinda made space around herself. But what took the cake were these two girls who decided they were going to in a sense cut in front of us and make this super tall guy move into my friend's view, totally obstructing it actually. So I made ass...yesssss, and I am PROUD of it!! Too bad it didn't really work, it just made them scared the whole time and they didn't move. After the concert, we kinda started walking very close behind them. It was funny watch them a notch slower than running away. Whatever...it didn't not ruin the fact that OneRepublic put on a great show.

As for going back to this waterfront place, I think only if it's a really good artist. So only if they make this list I will consider going through that again:

• Jason Mraz
• Hot Hot Heat
• OneRepublic
• Good Charlotte

And that's actually about it. :)

It Is OFFICIAL!!! I Am Almost Done!

Hah!!! Never thought I'd say those words...ever! Anyway, after meeting with my advisor last week, it turns out that after taking one summer school class, I'll be able to graduate in the fall :) Now, what I am gonna do afterwards...I don't know :( I really want to do the JET program, but I'm just too affraid that my less than impressive grades may not allow me to do so. I really am trying to get those grades up, but it is really hard. I have one teacher that is really lousy. He does not know how to teach, and he has a really heavy Chinese accent, so it's hard to understand him. I think the worst part is that the way he words his tests is in the same grammatical structure that he speaks...grrrrr!!!

Well...yessss...the end is finally nearing :) That is all that is important to me really...

Ah! Next month, my family is throwing a surprise birthday party for my grandma! She is turning 80 :) Somehow in the planning of it all...I got elected to MC the thing? How that happened...I have no clue! My awesome friends will be helping with the entertainment...yay!!! Finally one Okinawan performance I will have quality control of :) Will update when that happens.

Onto other news: onerepublic concert is on Monday (President's Day) and I am excited to go. The only thing is that I think it's only standing room, so I don't really know what kind of shoes I'm gonna wear...most likely something flat, but I don't know!

Ok...I will update you on how the concert was and any other exciting news that may come up!

Trying to FInish the Game

So I have an appointment to see my advisor next week--YAY!! That is the first step :) Anyway, it takes a lot out of me to have to see people like that...especially when I have no idea what they're going to think of me (hopefully not: this is the worst student that will ever pass through these grounds).

So, I looked at a graduation worksheet for the first time in like 2 years :P which is why I was surprised to find out I should have been taking other classes before I got into Shidler. Well, at least it's not too late...I have two summer sessions that I can partake in, and the fall semester, which is when I would like to graduate. Thankfully I did take business writing and business law at KCC, so I am a step ahead of some of the other guys that I started the Shidler adventure with.

So I still have to look into the JET thing. It makes me scared, but at the same time I really want to do it. It would be the first time I ever lived away from home, and in a foreign country? Gosh...that almost makes me wanna pee in my pants :P

So, I'm glad I'm keeping up (sorta) with the blogging...

Happy Chinese New Year!

Sucks to Know

Just wanted to reflect on something I've been dealing with. Maybe I will be more at ease if I write it down and get it off my fingers.

I've been involved with the Okinawan performing arts community since I was 2...that's pretty much my whole life. It's actually quite unfortunate that I never had many other hobbies outside of this community, but in reality, it's something I can really be a part of for the rest of my life. I feel like this, in general, has made me the person I am today, and hopefully that's a good thing? Anyway, it's been an interesting road to get here, but recently I have encountered that this community, and this life may not be the great, big, fun place I have thought it to be for a while.

I feel that there are a certain niche group of people truly working to perpetuate our fine culture, through performing arts, and then there are people who try to be great people by using the performing arts world. These people who may look like they care, are those that should be looked out for. It seems that there are these people who want to be "known" and are just using the performing arts world as a stepping stone to get ahead in life. I feel this is the wrong way to approach this world. These people are in actuality ruining the culture by just thinking they know everything, but really ruining things as simple as pronouncing a word correctly, or following a somewhat traditional protocol. It bothers me because as I sit here unknown to people, just seen as another person there at these events, and there are those who are really doing it just for the recognition of it all, just to be popular. It sucks.

It may sound that I am just a salty bitch who just wants someone to notice my efforts for once, but it goes beyond that: I WANT PEOPLE TO CARE! One of the biggest factors in Okinawan performing arts, or even Okinawan culture in general, is heart, and how much feeling you put into it. I cannot stress enough how much unrecognized heart I see out there, and it's a shame. It's not only me, it's a lot of other people, other people trying to perpetuate this dying culture that don't have a voice loud enough, or a wallet deep enough. It seems to me those two qualities are the things that people look for in recognizing the perpetuation of our culture.

So in closing, I leave this question open to anyone who can answer it truthfully: How can we perpetuate this fine culture, and stay true to the fundamentals it has been built on?

School School School

So, school has started :( Nah...but I actually am liking my classes this semester, lots of interesting things to learn. I am thinking this is gonna be a great semester. I still have to see an advisor to make it official, but I may only have one more semester left! I'm taking three marketing classes and the management class that all the business students have to take. It's a bit weird that I'm kinda liking the global marketing class a lot. I think mainly because in my marketing research class, my professor stuck me with these two guys that I don't really mesh with... [sigh]. But like I said...one of the better semesters I've been having in college! One of the things I really need to do is be a bit more optimistic...I am attempting!

I have made it a goal to grow out my hair this year, and I already failed, less than a month into 2011 :( anyway, I got a hair cut last friday, and my hair is SHORT again. Well, my definition of short and the non-Okinawan's definition are a bit skewed, but I usually don't have my hair like this unless I want to get killed my my dance teacher. On the lighter note: my hair does feel a lot healthier, and less dry, so I'm learning to like it. I just ordered a travel kit of Moraccan Oil products that I will post about on my other blog. Hope it does my hair good!

So Chinese (Lunar) New Year is coming soon...ready for the rabbit already, too tired of the tiger year messing me up! I gotta clean my koto soon, so that it can be clean for this new year. Kinda excited/scared: next (actually next next if you're on the lunar claendar) year is my year...the dragon! gonna be pretty old pretty soon :/

So till next time...or next year? hah!!

SO...

I just realized that I haven't really posted much last year...like once...what's up with that??? Well seems as though I totally missed a whole lot of stuffs with you guys (does anyone read this?)...so I shall recap for you my 2010 (beginning in March...only fair since my last post was in February):

• Got into Shidler College of Business, with the intent to major in Marketing...yay!!! One step closer to that all mighty goal--> GRADUATING!
• Steak Dinner Fundraiser: Held a major fundraiser for my Okinawan dance school in April, we raised I believe about $8000!!! That was our very first attempt at doing a major fundraiser in the school. The only thing we had really done in the past was chili tickets and stuff like that. So this was a major hurdle that we leaped for :)
• In June, I got a great opportunity to got to Okinawa again (this was my fourth trip to Okinawa)!! I felt like this was a great experience with me really getting to soak in a lot of what I missed before. I feel like now that I am older, I really do appreciate all this good stuff. It makes me wish I was a lot older (and more mature) the first time I went, mostly because we did all that tourist-y stuff that really teaches you about the history behind the old Okinawa. Anyway, that just gives me a great reason to go back one day :) I will attempt to do a post journeying through that trip.
• After I came back, it really wasn't much. However, a couple of friends and I started a new outing event called Second Saturdays :) A spin off of the First Friday they do in Chinatown. We find something to do on the second Saturday on each month, starting in July. I really like this regular outing. Because we are all doing our own thing (my friends have "real" jobs, and me still in school), we don't get a chance to really hang out. We have been pretty regular with it, and will continue to be!
• As always Okinawan Festival came around. This year was an ok year. I didn't have to do a ton of stuff, just had to make sure my senpai was ok. And again, we only had to do one dance. Lots of people say that's such a waste doing the hair and makeup for one song, but in reality, I like that I don't have to stress during our segment trying to change, and making sure to be ready on time...it was chill :)
• So, apparently our dance school is not the only Okinawan organization in need of financials...Jikoen, the Okinawan Buddhist temple in Hawaii, had put on a fundraiser event that mocked the Okinawan Festival slightly, held in October. We danced, and I committed one of the worst fashion crimes of the century...and we're only 10 years through this one! Anyway...I'll leave it at that...no need to know details, if you were there, then you are lucky to have witnessed it, I guess...
• So by December, I had finished my first semester at Shidler. It was a good experience. This semester, I got to experience all different kinds of teachers: a new teahcer, a crap teacher, a teacher really dedicated to the subject, and a teacher really dedicated to the students. I won't name names, but you could say I had a rough semester, but it's fine because I know it only gets harder from here.
• Since the semester was so hard and work has been nuts...I am glad that I got to partake in a few wonder celebrations of the holiday season. A co-worker hosted a wine party at her house, where I discovered wine is not just rotten grape juice ;) That stuff can actually taste good! Of course we had our dance Christmas party, where we had to dance a classical dance...made me soooooo nervous, and it made me more nervous that Sensei said it was training for the all mighty recital (that will NOT be in 2011). After dancing the only hurdle is doing door prizes, and that's not horrible. And my good friends and I celebrated the holidays with karaoke :D After we sung our lungs out and partaked in a bottle of moscato, we headed to Dave and Busters where we exchanged gifts, and had a drink, then played games till we were sober enough to leave. Wonderful night of singing, drinking and gaming. We even gathered enough tickets for a pocket simon game for one of us.
• And to end the year, we did not do the traditional grandma's house ritual of fireworks and ozoni, which kind of sucked because this was the last new year's eve that fireworks would have been legal...I don't know what I'm talking about, I don't even do that crap...but IT'S TRADITION!!! You don't mess with that. I hope someone is working on repealing that. New year's won't be the same without the thick blanket of smoke covering the Hawaiian sky...

So here I am...recapped about ten months of my life in a few paragraphs. I really do hope that I do more blogging...let my thoughts flow a bit more, so things can be documented a little bit more detailed :)

Till next time...

Update + Nail Polish News

So lately I've been just a busy bee. With school and work, and of course the holidays...I think I really stretched myself thin this winter. Not to mention I got kinda sick :P Anyway...got some cool stuff for Christmas, hopefully this will encourage me to not shop to much in 2011...

Well...as I closed of 2010, I did a bunch of nail polish shopping :D I really haven't been into the nails in a while. Of course I have been doing my nails because I really can't stand the site of my naked nails, but I wasn't really into doing anything new lately :( I picked up a bunch of new nail colors that had been in China Glaze's previous collections from last year that didn't sell I guess so they were there for the taking...but what has intrigued me a bit has been the new colors from the Anchors Away collection for this spring.

Check out swatches from their facebook page (* = ones I am looking forward to seeing):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=589384&id=297979790625

• Knotty: Micro-particle beige shimmer (something like Sephora by OPI's It's Looking Like Rain Dear)
• Sunset Sail: Delightful peachy pink high shine crème
• Below Deck*: A flirty mix of taupe and violet
• Sea Spray: Calming pale blue crème
• Pelican Gray: High shine, cool toned grey crème
• White Cap: Whimsical and sparkling multi-dimensional white
• Lighthouse: Multi-dimensional, bright yellow glass speck
• Starboard*: Hip and playful green crème
• First Mate*: Sophisticated and rich navy crème (reminds me of Little Drummer Boy from the Holiday 2010 collection)
• Hey Sailor: A Vibrant crème red
• Life Preserver: Highly pigmented and luxurious poppy crème (shoulda been safety cone instead :P)
• Ahoy!*: Intense pink that flashes with reflective glass speck

Anyway...I hope you had a great holiday season...it's almost time for me to go back to school...yay? Well...I have made it a (unofficial) new year's resolution to blog regularly, along with to exercise more. Hopefully I can keep up with both this year! Also, I have started a new beauty blog