Blogging is not easy. It really isn’t.

I just finished my first week at my summer job, starting the second, and I came to several devastating realizations.

1. I have no life.

Seriously. I’ve got work 8:00-4:00, but I have to travel over an hour each way. This means I have to get up at 6 am and go to bed by 11 pm to be able to do it all over again the next day. By the time I get home it’s around 5:30, which gives me enough time to help with dinner, eat dinner, clean up after dinner, and shower before going to bed. If I’m playing badminton, I would head out right after dinner, jump in the shower afterward, and hope that I can get up the next morning. I don’t have energy to think, let alone blog. Any time I have left over is inevitably filled by family obligations and social calls.

I believe a much-deserved shoutout should be given to all you bloggers who work full time jobs and yet are still able to blog each day, or quite regularly at the very least. I have no idea how you do it, but my respect for you all has been elevated to new heights.

2. Not only can I not blog, but I can’t read blogs either. 

I have been deprived of the time and energy to blog, so I thought that I would at least be able to browse your blogs when I have off-time at work. I work fast, and so have more free time than most. I really didn’t think it would be appropriate to blog at work, but I thought I could at least enjoy my daily blog reading. But no. My organization has blocked access to all personalized web content (blogs most definitely included). Which means I can’t even pass the time by catching up on everyone – no WordPress sites work. I am not a happy camper.

3. I am still not unpacked. 

My goal had been to completely clean out my room and unpack everything I’d brought home in the free week I had between exams ending and work beginning. All I have managed thus far is unpacking some of my clothes and reorganizing my dressers so that I have somewhere to put the unpacked clothes. I’d cleared off my desk (by stacking everything into several mountains in a corner), but it’s already beginning to lose visible surface area again. That was a huge fail.

4. My summer night class starts this week. 

I can expect time to be in even shorter supply when classes start. I think this pretty much speaks for itself.

5. I have gained weight since coming home.

Why must food in Toronto be so tasty and inexpensive?!

Banishing post-Titanic puffy eyes

Firstly, I have been sorely missing out on blogging and reading blogs. Despite how ridiculously overloaded I am, I end each day lamenting about my lack of blogging I just had to squeeze in this quick post, as I don’t know when I’ll have time to make another for the next few days as well.

Now. I know I’m a little late to the party. Okay, a lot late – 15 years late. But as 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the tragedy of Titanic with a re-introduction into the theatres of the movie in 3D, I was reminded of the fact that I still hadn’t yet watched Titanic at all. I was never privy to the quotes and quips my classmates made from the movie – a decade ago.

Well, at long last, I finally watched the movie a few days ago for the first time. And I bawled hysterically. I need me a Jack Dawson.

Jack as he watches Rose descend in a life boat, assuring her that he will be fine whilst she is borne to relative safety.

FOTD and mini shopping spree!

So I thought I’d try out the Mai Couture lip gloss I received in my April Glymm Box as well as a makeup look for my date this weekend

First beauty swap: Canada to US with blissno9

I finally received my package from blissno9 a few days ago from our international beauty swap – she’d received hers a week before I did Seems like Canadian customs takes a little bit longer to process.

Miko’s Monday: Boatload of cuteness

Busy day today, so I’ll let Miko share with you the various cute things I’ve seen over the week

Who, me?

“Easter dinner” with my roomie

As my roommate and I were the only ones left in the house over Easter weekend, we decided to have dinner together last night, as we hadn’t done so in a while. It really wasn’t an impressive spread, though – no turkey or fancy dishes. Our parents had dropped in for a visit so they had brought us homemade, pre-cooked food. All we had to do was heat it up and make some vegetables to go with it all.

It was pretty typical Chinese fare: pan-fried salmon fillets and brewed beef brisket and turnip (it tastes much better than my clumsy translation implies), courtesy of my wonderful mother; homemade barbeque pork made by his father; and we stir-fried bok choi and mushroom to go with it all. Yes, the pink chopsticks are mine

It just didn’t feel quite like an “Easter dinner”, though, so I figured dessert would be the perfect way to round i off! And what better dessert than warm freshly-baked brownies?

Win stila from Topbox

Fellow Canadian beauty addicts, Topbox is hosting another contest, ending April 18th:

Entering is via Facebook – if you’d like, please enter as my referral

Best of luck to all of you, and hope that one of us wins and can share the love by blogging about it!

FOTD and NOTD: trying out a look for my presentation

Short post today: the makeup I tried out for dinner over the weekend in order to see if it’ll work for my presentation. I’ve never done these types of posts, but I think the pictures will speak for themselves.

Miko’s Monday: Growing up with pets + Wine for kitties

Growing up, I’d always wanted a pet – a cute, furry, warm-blooded pet. The small fishbowl containing two goldfish did not count – I couldn’t pet them, I couldn’t cuddle them, and they had no personality that I could discern at 6 years of age.

Apparently my memory can last at least 24 hours – not just 3 seconds!

I would’ve wanted a dog to play with and to walk. A cat would’ve been nice to pet and cuddle. Even a hamster would’ve been fun to hold and nuzzle. But my parents said that if I wasn’t responsible enough to clean my room, I wouldn’t be able to take care of a pet. So the responsibility of the pet would fall onto their shoulders and my sister and I were already enough of a workload.

Mishmash of tidbits

So many little things I want to talk about – here’s a mishmash of some of my favourite blogging topics all in one post.

1. Art on MS Paint

I’ve been working on my poster presentation, and I prefer having diagrams and images on all of my powerpoint presentations rather than blocks of text. I’ve always hated siting in lecture where the prof reads off slides filled with rows and rows of text. Why bother lecturing? I could just read it on my own – don’t waste my time and put me to sleep.

Here’s one of the diagrams I drew on Microsoft Paint – pixel by pixel. No tablet, no PhotoShop. Time consuming, but oh-so-satisfying, because it is completely personalized for me, by me.

Wow, the resolution is terrible as a jpeg. It looks so much nicer as an original Paint bmp, but WordPress won’t let me upload bmp files