Wednesday 30 November 2011

Already 20 Years

Today is my 20th birthday. Time goes by so fast. All of a sudden I am in my twentieth. I remembered when I was younger I always dreamt of what I would become when I am in my twentieth. I thought that I would be more mature, understanding, and smarter. It turns out that I am still the same person, inside and out. Is it a good or a bad thing? I can't say. Future will tell me.

As for now, I should still work to become the person I always thought to be. A smart, independent and understanding individual.

PS. tonight I had a wonderful evening with my closest friends. I feel extremely lucky to have them by my side. Love you girls <33333

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Here it goes, iPhone 4s

I feel that I have to write something about it, since I just got the phone 2 weeks ago. I like it very much. The phone indeeds changes some of my routine ways of doing things. For example, before I had the phone, I check my emails every two of three days since I found the process of going to the web page and sign in to my account annoying. This often leads to missing some important mails and not responding in time. Now, the process becomes so easy, I just need to press one button and I am at my email inbox. I check my mails several times a day and I can get notified immediately every time I receive a new email. I found it very useful.

The apps are also very useful. I download dictionaries, bus schedule , expense tracker, recipes apps, and reader. Similarly to emails, I just need to press one button and I will have access to the information that I was looking for. This offers me incomparable convenience than what I used to do with my laptop. I would need to turn it on, open a web page, go to google and then search for the info.

However, this convenience is a double-edge sword. With the same effortless one button-pressing, I can get to my favourite games and starting playing it. I found it very distracting when I have the phone around me while I am studying. I had a hard time controlling myself not to play with it. Nevertheless, my self-control is gradually improving. I found ways to counter its attraction: I need to put the phone in the bag while studying. In this way I could ignore and forget its existence and therefore stay focus.

Siri was among the main factors that drove me to buy the phone. However, after playing with it, I found the function less useful than I expected. First you need to have internet access in order to use it. Since I dont hava a data plan so I need to be in a place with wifi in order to use it. Second, you need to say you order clearly and slowly, enunciating everying word correctly, or else Siri would have a hard time trying to understand. In the meanwhile, I can see that the function still has a great potential. I am sure that with time Siri will become smarter and more accurate.

 In short, I really enjoy using the iPhone. It is convenient, easy to use, and incredibly entertaining.

Monday 28 November 2011

Warm and refreshing pink rosebud and date tea

Winter arrives! Thought this year seems to be particularly warm, there is still cold wind blowing so hard that you would feel you are being transported to North Pole. In such weather, nothing warm you up better than a hot beverage. Today I am going to show you my own recipe: the Pink Rosebud and Date Tea. The rosebud can rejuvenate skin and the red date can restore and increase blood flow. The tea is easy to make, requiring 5 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of boiling.
You need:

10 pink rosebuds
 4 red dates (jujubes)

then add 850ml (3 cups) of water.
put the ingredients in a bowl
bring water into ebullition
reduce heat intensity. Slowly boil using low heat for 15 minutes.
And here you go!


Wednesday 2 November 2011

iPhone 4s...

It has been a while that I has an internal debate about whether I should buy an iPhone. This little glass-and-metal device has nothing that looks the other phones. It is edgy and cool. Starting from one year ago, most of my friends gradually shifted to iPhone. First I was amazed by the phone's glass-like appearance and the swiftness of how it reacts to my fingers' movement. As I became more familiarized with the product, I was stricken by its seemingly countless applications. You can find every imaginable and unimaginable functions.

However, the product's negative consequence began to show as people grew increasingly dependent of the phone.

I remembered there was one time I went out to have a dinner with my best friends. It should had been a re-union night since we had not been together all of us for a long time. The evening was pretty agreeable but there was one thing that bothered me: my friends just seemed unable to separate themselves completely from the phone. From time to time, one person was updating what she was doing and where she was on her facebook where as another girl is checking on the feeds that popped out on twitter. Since the night was also to celebrate one friend's birthday, we took pictures and videos of the birthday girl and with all of us. When the photo seance was done, they immediately started to edit the photos and to upload them on the web. Since they all had iPhone and were doing the same thing, I was kind of left alone, not knowing what to do.

So was it because the fear of being an outcast that I wanted to buy an iPhone for myself?

But this phenomenon of "people cant get themselves off the iPhone" is not only happening to my friends. As I walked on Sainte Catherine street this afternoon, I saw a young couple shopping. Their one hands were holding together where as the other hands were holding iPhones. Both the guy and the girl were not talking to each other, or observing around, or looking at their steps. Instead, they were concentrating on their individual iPhone. This scene was rather interesting for me to see. The couple was physically together, at the same place and time, but their minds wondered in I-don't-know-which-corner-on-the-web-or-in-the-numerous-apps...

Monday 31 October 2011

Failed Halloween III

When we finally decided to leave for the club, it was already 11. We took metro to get to our destination. It was actually very fun to just walking on the street or taking the metro at downtown on a Halloween weekend. You would see many people disguised in thousands of interesting creatures. This is what I encountered that night. Arrived at the club, there was really a HUGE line up. Thought I had been in this club several times, it was the first time that I saw such a long and crowded line. This Halloween event is very successful. So we started to wait in the line. A night of the end of October in Montreal was getting freezing. So this huge crowd just stood in the wind and waited, waited, waited. The line did not seem to move in 10, 20, 30 minutes...We waited for one hour already and just did not succeed to get in!!!

At 12:30, we just decided to give up since even the bouncer said "the night is done". Disappointed, I and my friends went into the AMC building to take seat on the banc in order to relieve our feet that were deformed by the heels. Some of my friends decided to go home. So I and my friend thought it was better to go back as well. Since it was already 1 the metro had stopped. We took a cab to get back to my friend's residence. I did not sleep well on that night since I can only have a sound sleep in my own bed. In the morning as I woke up, I was wondering why my parents did not call me once the entire night the following morning. I tried to find my cell phone but I could not find it anywhere. At that time, I realized that I also lost my cell phone!!!But where...? The most probable place is on the cab. This is the second time that I lost my phone in the cab. This Halloween night is such a failure. I did not have much fun and I lost my cell phone. This is life...?

Failed Halloween II

So arrived at the predrink, I and my friend ordered a chicken fried rice first. Of course we can not drink with an empty stomach! The little bar in which the predrink took place was pretty amiable. The wall was decorated and the light dimmed in order to create the atmosphere of Halloween. In the small space there were full of people who dressed up to become the creature that he or she wants to be in the innermost of their selves. People chatted between each other, played games, and drank. One thing that is a little bit disappointing was that although the predrink was called "all you can drink", there were really not much choices. There were only four kinds and they were all too much diluted. Nevertheless, I had a good time there: I met some people and played games together.
At 10:30, the organizer of the predrink advised us to leave for the club because he believed that there would be a huge line up for tonight, such an unique occasion. Nevertheless, we still decided to stay for a while longer since we did not had have enough drink. This proved to be a wrong choice...

Saturday 29 October 2011

Failed Halloween I

The midterm weeks were long and busy. Every week there were exams and presentations and almost every night I stayed at school library to study. So, the Halloween party was really something that I looked forward to since it was at the day that I have done all the midterm exams. After this seemingly endless midterm period, it would be a great occasion to have some fun and to celebrate with friends the end of midterms. However, that night was not as good as I expected.

It started in a rush. Since I had my last exam in the day, I spent all the time to study and I did not think about my Halloween costume. After I am done with the exam (which was no as hard as I expected), I had three hours to figure out what I am going to wear for the event. I thought three hours would be plenty of time for me to look to a costume, but I ended up to be wrong. I underestimated my procrastination and indecisiveness. Though I easily found a theme for the costume (Greek deities or goddess), I spent LOTs of time looking for the right clothing and accessories to create that ancient Greece feeling. Unexpected problems continuously popped up and it ended up that finding all I need for the costume in three hours was impossible. Finally I decided to wore the clothes I brought (just a normal outfit) and the hair ring my friend made for me (because she insisted that I NEED something for Halloween). I should make that decision in the first place, thus saving me from the stress and pressure that I felt during the three hours, while I run around the whole world looking for the right outfit. When I and my friend arrived at the predrink, we were already late for 30 minutes and we still did not have our dinner. Nevertheless, by that time I got eased up from the rush and felt very relaxed. I started to get excited for the night.

Want to know what happened after? The story continues tomorrow!