Winter outings

Okay, a last post about Dallas for 2013!

Oh hey look, The high for Wednesday is 81!  YAY!  But on Friday, it's going to SNOW?!

Oh dear, that's Dallas weather for you.  And I thought I had escaped the bipolar nature of weather by returning from WashU back to Texas =.=  *this Texan girl likes her warm weather*!

So what do you do when it's cold and miserable outside?

You make macaroni and cheese from the box.  Ooey gooey delicious twists of delight.

Yes, it's from the box, but it's not the BLUE box!  haha, instead of Kraft's mac n' cheese, I had two free boxes of Betty Crocker mac n' cheese, so I decided to make one!  Mmmm, haven't had boxed mac and cheese in *ages*~  Haha, not that it's better than homemade, but I really missed melted, oozing cheese in general.  Adding pepper made it taste a lot better for me ^^

And you eat toasted gingerbread swirl bread!

The Pepperidge Farm (which is not an actual farm for you non-foodies, tee hee) company released their seasonal gingerbread-flavored swirl bread!  They usually have cinnamon raisin, but I haven't had gingerbread other than the cookies before, so I decided to give this a go.  And I also learned that my rice cooker can not only stew and steam things... it can TOAST.  O_O  Just putting the slices in there without water makes an excellent crunchy but not burnt texture!  But I have no idea when to take it out (hence the slightly burt areas in the photo!), haha~

I was also too cold to walk around in the apartment-- I literally lay in bed and study, and since there's air flow if I prop myself on my elbows and stomach, I lay with my face squished to my notes for max warmth!  XD  So I ran to the kitchen, threw some frozen dumplings in the rice cooker, and then jumped back into bed to wait for them to steam.  The green ones are my first circular Korean mandu dumplings!  :D  I like them a lot :)  The filling had the clear dongfen / glass noodles mixed with meat and veggies.  Nom! 

Like my soy sauce holder?  It's actually an egg holder from IKEA.  I'm so fancy, right?  ;)

After the dumplings, I had a sudden craving for bananas (randommmmm), but they were room temperature.. so what could a Wendy do? 

ZAP 'EM IN THE MICROWAVE

Haha!  I'm so strange, but I knew that too much heat makes a banana disgustingly watery and gross, so ten seconds was just enough to make the banana look normal on the outside but oozy in the middle @_@  It was like eating hot banana pudding!  Try it!  And let me know if I'm actually just crazy, or if it actually tastes good :P

Oh, and I also made banana bread for some friends as a "Go you!" study pep-up/pep-talk treat :D  Apparently everyone else likes walnuts in the banana bread, so I added those.  But personally, I don't like crunchy offenders in my banana bread; that's extra chewing!  Super lazy, blahhh~ 

What are these papers doing on the oven?

Remember how I said I was really cold?  Well, I wanted to bake the banana bread, and I was cold, so I studied while pretty much sprawling myself on the oven.  It was so nice and warm *heart* :P  My hands are usually really cold, like.. ice cold *not kidding*, so it was nice having a hand warmer while waiting for the bread to finish baking :)

~*~

The MS1's had a little holiday get together planned, and since they said there would be cookies to decorate... I HAD TO GO.  *cookies calling my name!!*

Charlotte showing off a festive cookie!

I made a Santa Claus cookie!

Shelly and Debbie trying their hand at decorating!

There was also a gingerbread building/decorating contest

I think creativity is really cool...

I would've never thought of a hexagonal castle gingerbread house, and I love the snow patches!!

The next day, I woke up to snow fall. 

More like frozen water, so the roads were iced over and slick.  The radio stations were all telling everyone to stay off the roads, haha~  Ah, silly Texans.  No capability of driving in the snow.  (me included!)

And then I decided that I *probably* wouldn't be able to drive to school

Ya know.. just maybe, since the visibility is just like.. ZERO TIMES INFINITY

... wait, is that just zero then?  haha :P

Chibi was totally encased in ice!  At first I felt really bad (How could I have let Chibi freeze to death alone in the night?!?!!?!)  But then I just convinced myself that he's actually a wolf, and he likes the ice.. and somehow that's logical and makes me feel better.  Yay!

Icicles! 

It was kind of pretty though :)

The next day, I couldn't take looking at freezer-burned Chibi.  I took my wooden spatula (usually used for stir frying my veggies ^^b) and attacked the snow with vigor until I'm pretty sure half of the apartment complex wondered what the thunking, clunking, and random meows and roars were in the parking lot.  After an hour of hacking away, I finally cleared off the windshield, side mirrors, and windows.  Whew!  Ended up with a lot of random cuts from the snow chunks and dry wind, but at least I've now had that experience.  Definitely need to invest in an ice scraper.. I don't think spatulas were quite meant for clearing off sleet ._.

Afterwards, Aurelia and I headed to the magical plaza of Hmart for lunch!  I drove ultra slowly, and when we sped up to get onto the highway, the ice on Chibi's hood flew towards the windshield with big THWACKS that Aurelia and I were screaming our heads off, haha!  And then random ice chunks from other cars would fly off randomly too, so we were both kind of freaking out randomly and then laughing our heads off :P

We decided on Omi Grill, but not for the grill.  Just for the Omi.  Haha, just kidding!  But we both had their all you can eat BBQ buffet before (and both died), so we decided to order regular food.  The place was super empty (usually they're packed), since no one wanted to venture out into the snowy roads.  We pretty much had a whole section of the restaurant to ourselves!  The waiters/waitresses were a lot more attentive this time than my last visit... probably since there was only two groups to cater to though~

Ahh, banchan makes me so happy :')  Good spread!

Aurelia and I both ordered tofu stew!  Hehe, Aurelia's like, "Wahh, so much fooooood!"

Well, I actually ordered stewed pollack with vegetables (pollack = fish), but the waiter kind of looked at me funny and then told me that's what Koreans order after they had a crazy night and are recovering from hangovers.  I should have told them that I was a Korean that couldn't speak Korean, and that I just partied all night long, haha!  I asked him if it tasted good, and he said yes, but then he recommended me to order something else, so my usual tofu stew it was!  It didn't disappoint either-- a hot and comforting meal to melt away the cold from the snowy weather and the gloominess of tests and whatnot!  I'm glad I had a friend to share it with too!

Yay for adventures into the snow! :D

~*~

Yet another reminder about this blog!  Well, more like update.  So I finally downloaded all my images and files from the online hosting company, and I have a little more than five thousand images.  I hope you guys don't mind, but I'm going to save myself from 293842938472389 years of toiling and just hope that you will enjoy my new blog.  I'm kind of sad about the imminent demise of this Dashipanda blog though... I wanted to be able to look back at my blog (with all its pictures!) and enjoy my journeys vicariously whenever I wanted to, as well as let others have that opportunity too!  It's okay though-- I'll try hard to make the new blog more interesting and inviting!  So for now, keep "www.dashipanda.blogspot.com" as your address to my blog.  I'll be posting a few more updates on where my new blog will be!  

And thank you, readers, for sharing my adventures with me.  Although I may actually be just rambling to myself 99% of the time, I know that 1% of the time, other people are enjoying my posts.  I'm really glad when people comment or ask me questions; it makes me feel helpful somehow, and I get to share what I love to do!  Again, thanks for your support! :D  Blog writing is actually pretty therapeutic in a sense, as I get to rethink about the events and see it from different perspectives sometimes :)

Aiite, peace out for now, XOXOXO!  

^ That's right, you get THREE sets of hugs and kisses, hahaha!

Happy holidays at home!

Quick note!

At the end of this year (December 31st-ish), a lot of the images on my blog will die.  Er, well, you won't be able to see them.  I'll be in the ultra slow process of transferring files and whatnot to a new file hosting client, blahblah, basically-- until I finish moving things, many images will be lost for a while :(  I hope to be able to move all of them so that Dashipanda will still be an enjoyable blog to peruse through and for others to experience some travelling and eating adventures.  However, I started the blog in college, and there are A LOT of photos.  I'm not sure if I have the patience to redo *every single* darn image URL.  I should have thought of that before *doink // face palm*.  But in the worst case scenario, Dashipanda will just have my rambling words and that's it.  :(  I'm going to get a new blog domain and start afresh, so there will still be new uploaded photos there ^^b

Okay, end of quick note, begin the long note!

~*~

WHOO!  I AM SO PUMPED! :)  Wendy is so happy-- a break without having to study!!  Now I'm talking in 3rd person, great... 

After dropping Aurelia off at the airport, taking out the trash/recycling, and packing up, driving back home was kind entertaining-- I totally love Chibi; he makes driving fun ^o^  Hugging me with every curve and sharing each little bump with me, haha~  Going over a little fault line is like ROLLERCOASTERRRR~~~ :P  I bumped into two major traffic jams, one at the Woodlands, and another uh... somewhere else ^^'  But I had an awesome array of songs playing, and it was a one person party inside.  Of course, I might just be in a terrific fantastical mood too.  Near the end, I made a planned stop in the Woodlands to visit a Culver's!  I've never been to a Culver's (it's like a homey fast food restaurant with burgers, fries, shakes, cheese curds, and frozen custard.  Oh my goodness,  so excited!  I miss Ted Drewe's and Mr. Wizards back in STL, and we don't have any good frozen custard places in my area.  The nearest would be Conroe or Woodlands.  I had a coupon for a free mini-concrete (yay for freebies!), so I literally walked in and then walked out with a cute little cup of happiness in my hands.  The manager kept looking at me, so I wasn't sure if he thought I was leaving without paying or if Asians aren't very common in the Woodlands .-.  Anyone looking Chibi's way would have seen me all giddy and smiling in the driver's seat.  I was talking excitedly to myself and Chibi, haha~  Ahh, old habits never die..

Anyways, the custard was delish!  Pretty much tasted like a McFlurry, but definitely more.. poofy.  I'm glad I made the visit, otherwise I would have never known!  Maybe on another drive back, I'll try the cheese curds.  I heard they're everywhere in Wisconsin-- little fried bites of cheese O_O  *droolz*


Culver's
8800 Six Pines Drive
The Woodlands, TX 77380

When I arrived at home, I ran up to the door literally singing and rang the doorbell.  No answer, parents probably thought I was a solicitor.  So, *ring ring*.  Nope.. Okay, gotta pull a Connie and ring doorbells her way:  *spastically rings doorbell 23942398 times*  Still no answer D:  Whaaa?  I have no family?!

I entered through the garage, expecting Balto and Bacardi to welcome me with slobbery kisses and moo's (yes, they moo) of excitement.  Total silence.  Aww, where are my parents and my little doggies?  Chibi was sad too :(  Turns out that they went to pick up the doggies from the pet dentist, so I actually had time to put everything away and was playing piano when they came home!  Yay, reunited! ^_^

And of course, my parents fed me well.  haha, I am so stuffed x_x  Anyhow, got a lot of errands to run already =o=''  And tomorrow I'm going to the temple with them~  At least I have nothing to study for *so happy* !  Happy start of the break everyone!

And since I have no smiling pics for this post (too busy eating frozen custard and didn't think to take a selfie), here's a goofing-around pic from one of the shoots I did in the summer!  I remember it was SOOOO humid that day, and we were shooting in 99F @.@  Warmth sounds so foreign after the frost in Dallas this winter!  My mom said I'm too skinny now, and usually I think she just says that because parents like feeding their kids, haha ^^'  But this time, I think I definitely need to put on some more weight around my cheeks.. I was looking through some of my pictures where I could see my face, and compared to then, I look like a skeleton now x_x  Guess that just means.. MORE FROYO, MUNG BEAN SLUSHIES, AND GOING OUT TO EAT DELICIOUS YUMMY NOM NOMS FOR MEEEE.  I like caps.  I think they make me sound excited, haha :D

 

YAYY~~  Winter break-- let's hit it!

Buzzbrews Kitchen Review

Yes, I still frolic around town finding restaurants to try for fun :)  And this post is for BuzzBrews, a bar and 24 hour restaurant serving grub and breakfast all day and night!

I got the "Californication"-- veggie crepe with fruit and toast

The toast was nice, especially with the jam that had big chunks of real strawberries!  After noshing on crepes in St. Louis, I can't really get too excited over the one I had at Buzzbrews.  The skin was a little too thick and plastic-y, and it didn't have too much flavor.  To be honest though, I wasn't in the best of moods when I had this meal (hmm.. seems like I haven't been in the best mood for a while now.. must fix!).  But I was also craving sweet, so maybe that's why hehe!  Also, this crepe didn't have meat, in case anyone was curious~  Also, I don't like cantaloupe.  Why did I order this?!  XD

My eating buddy for the day, Derek, ordered the Pit Griddle Toast-- which is basically ginormous slabs of bread pan fried beautifully with egg mixture on it and sprinkled with pecans and buttery awesomeness.  (I'm pretty biased towards sweets :D)  It comes with maple syrup, but its flavor is fantastic on its own.  The two pieces of french toast come with bacon and eggs your way.

Buzzbrews Kitchens

4334 Lemmon Ave
Dallas, TX 75219

And yes, I still bake!  .. although rarely.  With anatomy over, I plan to pull that back into my life!  ^o^  

Slab of banana bread, anyone? 

Someone wanted this photo up again without the random whiskers and scribblings I put on it a few posts ago, haha!  Here you go:

Happy faces coming soon!

Happy turkey week!

Hope everyone is having a great turkey week (Happy Thanksgiving!) :D  This was my first Thanksgiving with family in four years, so it was a nice change of pace.  Definitely a much needed break! :)

Daddy's fried rice *heart*!

This guy warmed me up inside and outside.  Thank you, Balto ^^

Can you see Bacardi trying to sneak a bite in from dinner?  Hehe~

For Thanksgiving, my sister came home and the family made lunch.  Connie made mac 'n cheese and green bean casserole, my parents made a shrimp dish, stuffed chicken, and veggies, and I made a pumpkin pie.  It was a square one, since I couldn't find our circular pie pan! 

  

My sister made Mac and Cheese for Thanksgiving!  Om nom nom, so good~

My lovely parents :D

Feast!

~*~

Since I have told a few people, I guess I'll just go ahead and let everyone in on what's going on, haha~  ^^  I signed to an agency in Dallas in September for modeling :)  It's nothing fancy and nothing big-- In fact, they're more talent-based (meaning mostly actors and actresses!), but it's interesting and neat to see what actors do when they are rep-ed by an agency ^^b  There are things I'm not going to post, but I do think my experience is definitely not representative of how an agency runs... or at least how we interact with agents anyways!  More on that in the far, far future~

That said, I've decided I'm not going to pursue this too seriously any further-- definitely need to focus on life goals too!  It's tough, letting logic tell me what I know is right, especially when so many people laugh at me and expect me to fail.  Dreams are sometimes just dreams, I guess :(  I can still skip on them lightly, enjoy the experience, and have fun though!  Now, I am going to try just being regular me! :D  Let's try getting a fashion sense (that's probably the hardest thing for me to do, haha!), play with the hair a bit, and being a girl on a quest ^^  ... I also want to finally go to one of those Yelp Elite events hehe :P  Maybe I can meet food lovers like me too!!

Another sobering thought?  I'm super fortunate that my life is how it is now, but something from the past definitely hit me (again) and made me regret one of my choices.  Definitely a big life changer, quite possibly a future-changer too.  *But*, I'm going to type out a little phrase that has helped me get through past dips, and it also helped out a friend in need recently.  The silly thing is, Dr. Phil made this one haha!:  You may not always make the right choice, but you can always make the choice right.  That's what I'll do, and I'm going to make this one even better. :)

~*~

My sister and I watched Disney's Frozen today!  Kellogg's cereal was having this promotion, and I ate enough cereal to get 2 free movie tickets (woohoo! no extra effort whatsoever, being the cereal lover I am, hehe :3).  I thought the movie was great!  I laughed so many times, and I'm pretty sure the people around us may have been slightly annoyed ^^'' and I also cried :'(  Ahh, cartoons make me cry!

Mmm.. Who best to enjoy waffle fries at a movie theater?...

... than my silly sister? :)  Flash attack!

I'm really glad we got to hang out this break :)  We weren't very close growing up, so I feel like I'm getting to know her better.  Pestering her with random texts is starting to work, mwahahahaaaa!  ;)  I hope her schedule becomes more regular, so we can meet up even more often!  She's going to be my travel buddy *happy* :D

These are our attractive faces.  haha! XD

Have a great holiday season! ^^

Pears and Hairs

First off, I want to give you guys a pear!

Yes, thanks for not hounding me, because I didn't realize I skipped last week's Friday post @_@  Did time really pass that quickly?!

With the months that passed, my hair has gotten pretty long.. probably need to trim those bangs a bit-- I'm starting to use hairclips to keep them out of my face!  They're in that awkward too-short-to-put-behind-the-ears, but too-long-and-I-look-like-the-girl-from-the-Grudge phase.  ^^'' 

Peek-a-boo~  My left eye can finally SEE, haha!  It's usually covered with hair~

So my anatomy tank buddies decided that Asian girls look mean when they're not smiling.  Is that true?

Speaking of anatomy, today was our last day of lecture!  (That also means our exams are coming soon D:)  But I received this photo from two lovely ladies during the lecture :)

Happy Holidays everyone! :D

Some sweets and some fun

And it's Thursday, not Saturday OR Friday, beat that!  (Well, I'm scheduling this post to be published on Friday around 6pm, so you'll think I typed it up Friday night :D)  Mwahahaha~  Haha, just kidding-- I know for sure I won't be able to get to a computer tomorrow night, so I'm going to go ahead and post some randomness a day before ^^b  *so on top of things, right??*  Hehe~

So first off, I'd like to ask all of y'all to add replace the bookmark for my blog (And you ALL have my blog bookmarked, yes?? ;D  Hehe) to dashipanda.blogspot.com instead of dashipanda.com.  Or if you don't have it bookmarked, just remember that the URL is currently dashipanda.blogspot.com.  I'm definitely switching the domain/.com address, and I might also change the blogspot.com address too, but more of that later!

Okay, so since I'm not allowed to post ten thousand food posts in a row and nothing crazy eventful happened this past week...  Well, someone accidentally shoved a table into me and I bruised a shin :(   and now some portions of my leg are green-- NOOOOOOOO!! :P

~*~

How's school, you ask?  Oh, why thanks for asking, so considerate of you!  The cafeteria food serves great stuff (love, love veggies!).

Omgah!

No.  Just kidding.

That's not from school!  Our school has a food court with a Burrito Jimmy's (burritos, tacos, and your typical Americanized Mexican food fare), Burger House, Big (?) Sal's (hand-tossed salads made with the items you point at and baked spuds, oh my!!  Thank goodness this is too expensive for me, otherwise I'd be eating potatoes every day :P), Subway (will never go there by choice, because I had it way often at WashU!), and some Chinese food place that looks soooo greasy and delicious but, sadly/fortunately, too expensive for this medical student.  It's peanut butter sandwiches for me :)  But I love them!  So delish :')  Om nom nom~

Anyways, the picture is from a Taiwanese restaurant called... Taiwan Cafe.  So original!  But Derek introduced the place and it's $6 for rice, 3 sides (meat or veggies, you call it), and unlimited complimentary soup.  Add bubble tea, and it's $6.50.  It's a good deal, and it was pretty good, but I was feeling sick that day, so I didn't eat much and couldn't enjoy the taste.  Plus, they didn't have any tofu dishes to choose from D:  I'll have to come back to give an actual opinion of Taiwan Cafe ^^  It's very popular too!  Lots of people were eating there, and it seems like they were expanding and building another room.

Okay, since I tricked you about a picture from school, here's an actual picture from school!

 

We have a parking garage that's 5 stories tall (above ground, unlike college!), and I usually get there early enough to nab a spot on the 3rd floor.  But the other day, I came in the middle of the day and drove up, up, and further up until I reached the top!  Omgahh, so scary up there!  Actually, it was really nice; the weather was getting slightly chilly, so the brisk wind swept away my hair when I got out of the car.  (More like... it made my hair go all crazy and I was left spitting my hair out of my mouth by myself in the empty parking lot, haha!)  But the view was nice :D  And when I got back out to go home, the sun was setting.  Definitely something I don't even appreciate when I'm on the 3rd floor.  ^^

~*~

Boo.

 AHH Scary!!  D:  Okay, try to be a little cuter..

See?  Wendy with makeup isn't *that scary*

AM I?!?!?!  

Haha, I actually think I look super cheesy and weird with makeup and curled hair.  I think it's the eyebrows.  Or the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing :P  I'll put on less stuff there next time, but my eyebrows are a brownish color (like my hair), so if I use black eyeliner, it looks like I'm eyebrow-less!  Noooo, haha exaggeration, but slightly true ;)

But look at this!  *jump jump excited*

I have no idea how my hair turned into that bun, because I've been trying to learn how to do it for the *longest* time!  I was kind of sad when I took my hair out, because it'll be a while until that magically happens again, haha!

~*~

Anyhow, I went and checked out the famed Sprinkles cupcakery, and it was a happy evening for me!  Cupcakes for dinner-- om nom nom!~  ^o^

You can check out my review on Yelp, but basically I tried a limited edition cupcake promoting the 2 Broke Girls TV show, and it was more of a muffin than a cupcake (uber delish that way too!).  Graham cracker crust, vanilla chocolate chip cake, milk chocolate frosting with a sprinkle of sea salt.  Mm.  Mmm. Mmmmmmm........

After you order the cupcake, they don't just pack one up and give it to you.  Instead, you wait at the corner like you would at Starbucks while they prepare and box the cupcake(s) and call your name and all that fancy jazz.  Derek thinks it's to make it "higher-class."  Haha~!  Definitely not fitting in when I squealed and crammed myself into the cute chairs by the kiddy table.  They had a super small table with chairs for kids, and I was adamant about enjoying my cupcake there until Derek sat down in another kiddy chair and looked extremely uncomfortable XD

I got forks and a knife, because I thought I would be all dainty and use them like a lady

And then I opened the box

Look at my cupcake!  It would've looked better without the text, in my opinion =.=

But the frosting is smooth (classic Sprinkles frosting style)

Oh, and here's Derek's dark chocolate cupcake, but mine's cooler, ya know~

SO COOL THAT IT'S SNOWING.  Hahaha!  Okay, I added that in-- it wasn't actually snowing inside the shop, in case you thought so, haha!

One bite of the cupcake, and I was like..

This is so yummy.

(That's Crush!  My sister's doggie!)

Omgahh!  Thank goodness Sprinkle's is also semi-far away, because I would be eating these for dinner every day, hehe!  I love how there's not too much frosting, and it's not too sweet.  But you can't take that from me; I ate a Jilly's cupcake back in STL and loved it, while my friends were dying from sugar overdose :P

Anyhow, Sprinkle's has so many flavors to choose from, and they rotate daily!  Seasonal offers too~  I need to take a picture of the inside, because that really helps make the nice experience.  Even the music was the music from those high class bars (imagine the ones in skyscrapers and fancy fancy)!  Again, didn't fit in, because instead of enjoying it neatly and being all posh-posh, I was smooshing the cupcake into my face.  YUM!

I told Aurelia that I'd go here with her, so definitely will be visiting again ^^  Can't wait!  There's also a cupcake ATM (yesss, that thing I saw on Yahoo way back when!), and Sprinkles' sister shop that serves ice cream~  :D

Sprinkles Cupcakes

4020 Villanova Dr
Dallas, TX 75334

And in case you think that I'm not eating well (cupcakes and froyo for dinner?), here's a glimpse of my *ultra fancy* cooking:

So those three piles of goop (haha!) are actually probably 3 of my favorite comfort foods on one plate!  I absolutely love scrambled eggs, sauteed onions, and mashed sweet potato.  But I was too lazy to make mashed sweet potatoes, so I pulled out a convenient can of pumpkin puree from the pantry and made it taste like pumpkin pie.  Mmm.. lovely.  My dad looked at this photo and texted me that my cooking skills were improving.  Haha!  Really?  I think they're going downhill:  from rice and chewable foods to mush that I can just swallow without chewing ^^'  Okay, I actually had to chew the onions (Darn.) because I didn't cook them until they were super soggy :P

 ~*~

Okay, now for some fun!

So you were probably wondering why on earth I was putting on makeup and curling my hair.  Or maybe not, since most girls do that anyways?  But I pretty much comb my hair and put on lotion for my morning routine, haha ^^'' 

Anyways, I've been having some fun with some fellow photographers!  Jason was learning how to photograph in natural lighting, so here's one of the photos from that shoot:

I recently stumbled upon a photo of well-known models with and without makeup, and I would just like to say that it's kind of shocking.  So in case you think that's what I look like with the curly hair (that I totally messed up on and need to learn how to do, durrr..), let me show you otherwise.  I also think my face looks really big in that photo, but I'm sure that's just the self-centered part of me going nyah nyah blah blah, haha~

After doing my daily exercises (if I can even call them that, haha!) and before I go take a shower, this is what I look like:

Uh.. I forgot to comb my hair =o=

Kitty says, "Can you do this and try to look cute?"

Oh, like this?

Cat says, "Now be all angsty and look like you wanna punch someone in the face."

Easy.  Mwahaha

Makeup really makes a difference, no?  (okay, granted, I was actually sweaty and my hair was a mess!)

I feel like a lot of girls are insecure without makeup.

Just remember that models have a lot of tricks and tips that help them.  Photoshop and makeup-- so don't feel insecure!  That's actually one of my biggest problems (not just on physical appearances), and I'm trying to overcome it by building up my confidence too.  It's working, slowly ^^

Watch, instant prettier-ness (well, hopefully anyways):

See?  I just turned off the lights

and if I tilt my head a bit, my face looks different.

Same thing with photoshop and lighting equipment-- all helps!

My mom will probably be like, "Wendy-ah!  Why are you posting all these not attractive pictures of yourself?!!  Boys will see!!"  Haha ;)  Just kidding (sort of)~  But I hope that if there's one girl (or guy) out there that feels a little better about their natural selves by reading this, that would make me happy.  Because back in college when people commented on my lack of fashion (which I have to admit, I don't really have a sense of still, hehe!), or saw pictures of my sister's Facebook page and said "Dannng!  She's a hottie!  You guys look totally different!," that didn't really help with my confidence problem.  I once commented on how pretty a Kpop star looked and that I wished I was as pretty as her, and someone told me I would never be because I don't use makeup.  Well, now.  Haha =o=  I may not ever be as pretty as that star, but I hope makeup isn't the solution to everything!  I'm curious what most people think though.  Makeup does work wonders, but I also think it can make people feel even more insecure.

One of my classmates saw me go to Anatomy from something, and I had some makeup (faint eyeliner and mascara) on.  He later texted me that he thinks I look better in my usual day-to-day makeup.  When I told him that I don't wear makeup when I go to class usually, he totally didn't believe me.  Not every girl wear makeup, man!  And they don't have to!  *grumble grumble*  I know he didn't mean anything like that, but it still kind of annoys me how society kind of expects girls to use that stuff.  Anyhow, I'm done ranting.  Have a good weekend!

Real me exposed!  Harsh bathroom lights, greasy sweat, and messy hair.

Keep smiling ^^