Life of a Random

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley Publication Date:  July 15, 2014 Publisher:  Ballantine Books Format:  hardcover Source:  a friend :) Pages:  323 Note: All spoilers will be highlighted with black and surrounded with these [ ]. Katie’s got it pretty good. She’s a talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just like that, Katie’s life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all—but they don’t come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself do-over:   1.  Write your mistake 2.  Ingest one mushroom 3.  Go to sleep 4.  Wake anew   And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and K

I am half Taiwanese and half American. I'm proud of both sides and embrace both cultures. This is kind of why I chose racial stereotyping as the theme for my newest school design project. I've never experienced extreme negative/positive stereotyping (thankfully). I actually grew up in a solely white family, far away from my Taiwanese side. But there are still small things. I think it happens WAY to much, sometimes unintentionally. And that's okay, I'm not blaming anyone. I just want to show people how wrong they are to make these assumptions. So far I've talked about this on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook, but now it's time to talk to you lovelies about it too. :) My first question is: What race do I look like  (there is no wrong answer here. You can say one, multiple, or none) ? Secondly, what are some common racial stereotypes that you've heard of, thought yourself, or heard someone say? Please comment your answers! I'd love to

I almost thought I wouldn't be able to post today because I was originally going to put an Apartment Tour video on here and a few comments on apartment life and let that be that-- however , I couldn't take my apartment video today like I hoped because it was cloudy and the lighting was super bad inside. But as I was finishing uploading my latest K-pop reaction (which you can watch here ), an idea popped into my head. So you WILL be getting a post today after all. :) 5 Things I've Learned from My First Apartment This is the number one biggest difference between dorm-living and apartment-living: there is SO much more stuff to pack (and unpack. which you probably know if you've read my complaining tweets). You also have to get a bed, desk, and dresser AND other furniture for yourself some of which your school's dorms probably provided for you before. Curtains are waaaaay to expensive. WHY SHOULD I PAY THIS MUCH FOR PIECES OF CLOTH TO COVER MY WINDOWS. The

It's that time of the year again. School. (It's actually slightly terrifying that I'm a sophomore already.) Last school year   really messed up my blogging flow. I had been getting into a good rhythm (summer of 2014), but moving to a new college (2 hours away from home I might add) and taking new classes-- It was stressful. And when I’m stressed out about school, reading is the furthest thing from my mind. I’m a nerd like that. But blogging is a huge part of my life. It has been for the past few years. And I don’t want to stop anytime soon. SO, here’s my new plan that I will try my hardest to stick to. It involves a few, small changes. 1. I will now be posting, at the minimum, once a week. Now, if I have time I will try to slip in another post in the middle of the week around… say Wednesday. But that’s not a given. What IS going to happen is that there will be a post on the blog every Sunday. 2. Many of these posts will be pre-written and scheduled. I

(You can read her other post "K-Pop 101" here .) Why hello there, my lovely little random friends. Tis I, the illustrious Ely who visited this blog many moons ago to educate you all about the wonders of kpop. Why, you might ask, is this strange and rather idiotic person back? Well, apparently Skylar liked my guest post skillz (or lack thereof), and she suggested I do a follow up post. On what? (says you) Haven't we covered everything we can cover about boys wearing eyeliner and absurd amounts of hair-dye? Ladies and zentlemen, let me introduce you to the joy known to man as...kdramas. My father calls them Korean soaps. I call them delicious time-wasting morsels. Wikipedia calls them "televised dramas in the Korean language, made in South Korea, mostly in a miniseries format, with distinctive features that set it apart from regular Western television series or soap operas." Wikipedia, you suck. Pack your bags and leave. Basically, an average kdram

Rules: 1. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.  2. List the rules and display the award.  3. Add 7 facts about yourself.  4. Nominate 15 other bloggers (or however many you like) and let them know on their blogs! 5. Display the award logo and follow the blogger who nominated you (but don't feel obligated, I'm not about that life). Thank you sooo much Gabs (from My Full Bookshelf Reviews ) for giving me this award. I am a horrible person because I actually got this nomination in March . I know, I know. 7 Facts About Me: 1. I have bad knees. Not even kidding, especially my right knee. I can't even run too much because both knee caps have a tendency to slip out of place and then back into place. It's super gross, I know. It's also super painful. Not fun. (I injured my right knee really bad the first week of college and had to limp around with a swollen knee.) 2. I have a snapback obsession. Of course it's h

Artist Spotlight  is a brand-new feature that I'm going to be doing on here every once in a while that spotlights an artist (probably one that is relatively new or undiscovered) and shows off their amazing art work. Whenever possible, I will attach links to the websites where these artists display their art skills. Make sure to check them out and show them some love! Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Do you like chocolate (The right answer is yes)? YES, dark chocolate for me! Haha, on a more serious term, I was born in Montreal, grew up in Costa Rica, and currently study in the UK. What kind of art do you do? Currently I'm studying Graphic Design, but I'm a huge doodler-- can't have a pen without my hand itching to draw. I really like painting with oils or doing some print making if I have some free time. How long have you been doing it? Have you always done the same kind? I'm halfway through my second year in a Graphic Desi

It's time for a new TBR post! Crossing my fingers that I can read all, or at least most, of the books I choose. Also, just a quick note about future blogging. With school starting up again soon, I've been trying to think up a posting schedule that will help me keep blogging steadily without taking a big amount of time up. For the time being, I think I've settled on one post per week but more if I can handle it. When it gets closer to school starting again I'll update you all on which day you should expect posts and all that jazz. :) This month's TBR pile is: The Potter's Lady by Judith Miller The Chapel Wars by Lindsey Leavitt A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab Nimona by Noelle Stevenson Compulsion by Martina Boone **A Mystery Read** The idea of including a "mystery read" just came to me as I was typing this post up. Basically, I want you  to give me book recommendations and I'll pick a book to read from them.

This month was kind of crazy because of all the school things and the big road trip, thus there weren't as many posts this month and I didn't read as many books. Many good things happened though! I got to see BTS in Chicago . I passed my CLEP exam. I got tanner. ;) And now I'm going to recap July with you. As always there are many songs that I fell in love with this month. It's music. It's gonna happen. This is such a funky, rockin' summer song. And, of course, Big Bang is as crazy and fun as usual. (*cough* T.O.P are you on drugs *cough*) Seventeen just debuted this year in May. THERE ARE SO MANY. I am awful at remembering names. How do I file away 13 names in my brain? (I actually have by now. I was sucked in so fast oh my gosh.) I love this song. Especially the rapping.  So, I don't know how pre-debut this is (a lot, looking at Hansol's face) but, guys, this is pre-debut . Yes, it's Seventeen again. I have no regr