Am I Crazy?

Hahaha I've been AWOL for so long. Between school, sports, and extracurriculars, I've been too lazy to update my blog. Nevertheless, I am back with a new post!

I don't know, but there's something a little crazy about me. I am a total night owl, I love working at night. To tell the truth, I don't start my homework until night, like around 8 or 9 p.m. This may be interpreted as procrastinating or "setting off" work, but I do this because I like it, and I can't explain why. There's something about the stress of having to finish homework but having little time that makes me more efficient. It sounds weird, but I like to put pressure on myself, and I like that desire to complete work on a limited schedule. 

Anyone else also feel this way?

P.S- My apologies for this not-so-amazing post after my hiatus 

Dear Freshmen,

Dear Freshmen,
      Hello, and welcome to high school! I'm sure you are very excited for the next four years of your life! Since you are a freshman, you are new to this whole high school thing. Let me tell you a little something. High school is not as glamorous as people say. No, it's not like High School Musical. No, it's not intimidating. No, there are not a lot of parties. High school is the exact same thing as middle school, only with a heavier work load. Also, please do not use your lockers 24/7. Not only are you blocking up the hallways, but in high school barely anyone uses their locker. If you go into freshman year expecting romance, drama, and parties, you are in for a huge disappointment. Take freshman seriously, after all, colleges are able to see your grade, and it's probably the easiest year of high school. If it's one thing you must develop over the year, it's your time management skills. If you are involved with many clubs, do sports, and are in honors level courses, manage your time well. Get involved with school sports and clubs to make upperclassmen friends. Be sociable. Don't worry about getting lost at school, after a week you will be all set with all your classes. As a side note, don't be afraid to ask upperclassmen for directions, it is a common misconception that upperclassmen are mean. If its one thing you should not do, it's to act cocky If you are a douchebag/asshole/super cocky, you will not be welcomed by the upperclassmen. It's a senior boys thing to act all "big" and cocky. Be humble and modest. Chances are, you will have some drama with your friend group. Maybe your friend group stops hanging out with you. Whatever the problem, remember that a lot of people are going through the same thing. Honestly, this is your first year at high school. Make it great. Be heard. Be seen. Make a name out of yourself, build a reputation. Just be yourself and have fun.

Science Without Ethics

I am a huge fan of James Patterson, his Maximum Ride series were my favorite. For those who are familiar with those books, then you already know that Maximum and her friends are human/avian recombinants. For those who don't know, the protagonists of the books are humans that have been tested on, manipulated, and transformed so that they appear to be human beings, but they have wings. I love this kind of science fiction stuff that involves humans being genetically modified so that they have some special feature.

Well anyways...

A while ago I was discussing my love for the Maximum Ride books with by biology teacher, and I briefly described the recombinants to her. Me being me, I asked her if it would ever be possible to create human/avian recombinants. Obviously, she said no

But her last phrase, "Testing on humans is unethical." caught my attention. If we were to perform experiments and continue science without ethics, what would happen?

What things would we be able to invent? What would we create? Would we be able to create humanoid war machines like Captain America, or will we end up with zombies? It's very interesting to wonder what we would be able to do if we experimented on humans. Would we create a whole new race of humans who are genetically enhanced? I probably sound very creepy and psychotic, but I think it would be awesome if scientists were able to genetically modify humans so that we have wings (or something of that sort)!

Although I am curious about science and sci-fi recombinants, I do not endorse testing on humans. Imagine a world where it was legal to clone humans.. I would not want to live in that world. And what if we were able to genetically enhance humans but they turn on us?

Also, I though it was interesting that people in general believe that it is unethical to test on humans, but yet it is common practice to test on animals. There are a lot of companies who don't test on animals anymore, kudos to you, but I find it amusing that we humans value our lives over animals. Truthfully, we are animals too, and if you want to argue that animals don't have feelings like we do, animals die too, they experience pain, loss, and animals also have their families. Many Americans own pets who they consider as family members,  and I'm sure pet owners would not want scientists to test on their pets. Although I believe that it is unethical to test on animals, I believe it is necessary if the testing is conducted for medical research.

Shopping on A Budget

Now, I'm no fashion blogger, but I do know a thing or two on fashion, and clothes. Being a teenager, I do love to follow fashion trends and I love fashion. However, clothes can be very expensive, especially if you are someone like me who loves designer clothes. My family is not rich, so I can't drop 10k on a celine handbag or 1k on Valentino Rockstuds (I wish!). Also, since I am a teen, I do not have a high paying job that can pay for my expensive taste, which means I have to figure out how to buy the clothes I love on a budget.

I like to call myself the bargainista. Why? Because every piece of clothing, designer or no-brand, is less than $25. How do I do it? Read on!

Outlets

If you love designer clothing, you must shop at outlets. Premium outlets carry many designer brands such as J.Crew, Coach, Levi's, Polo Ralph Lauren, Kate Spade. Nike, Micheal Kors, et cetera. By shopping at the outlets, you can save so much money. The best time to shop at the outlets are around holidays, for that is when they have huge sales. Just a word of warning for people with high end tastes: some outlets have stores such as Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Versace, but their prices are no different from a regular store.

For Example:
I always shop at the Levi's outlet store. I get ALL my jeans from them. The retail price for Levi's jeans are pretty expensive, but all my jeans cost $19.99 or less. I've even bought their jeans for only $9.99!

Sales

Honestly, I buy all my clothing on sale. I love J.crew as much as the next girl, but their clothes are way too expensive. Thankfully, they are always having sales, which are amazing! If you shop when they have 50% of clearance, you can score big savings. This applies to every store. Most stores will have sales, and sale time is the best time to buy (obviously). Remember that amazing top you saw just when you walked in to the store? But it was $100? That top is most likely going to end up on the sale rack. I recommend checking out the new arrivals, but don't buy them, because they will probably be on sale later. Also, keep in mind that when you shop sales, even the discounted price may sometimes be very steep. So the best sale one can get is when the store has an additional discount on the sale price.

For Example:
Anthropoligie is known for being a very overpriced store. They are currently having 20% off of sale items. I was able to score a floral tank for $23 and a laser cutout leather tank that retails for around $90 for only $23. In my book, $23 is still expensive, but hey, for Anthro, it's a steal!

DSW

DSW is my holy grail for shoes. If you are a shoe girl like me, always browse here once in a while. I always browse and purchase shoes from their clearance rack. Most of their shoes are brands that you haven't heard of, but their genuine leather shoes are high-quality. DSW is for shoe addicts who prefer quantity over quality. However, all my shoes that I have purchased from there have lasted a while and are really comfortable. Oh and this is not a sponsored post. I know that recently DSW has been sponsoring a lot of vloggers and bloggers but I guarantee you this isn't sponsored,

For Example:
I recently purchased two gladiator sandals from DSW. One shoe was only $9.99 and the other was $11.95! One sandal was synthetic leather while the other (the $11.95 one) was real leather!

Lookalikes

The title says it all; lookalikes. If you see something you just absolutely adore but don't have a wallet fat enough for the purchase, look for a lookalike! Settle for that until you can afford the expensive version.

For Example:
Brandy Melville sells their signature Chiyo top (a caged bralette) for $19, but Forever 21 has a lookalike that costs only $9.80.

Forever 21/H&M

Some people avoid these stores because their quality can't compare to other stores. I agree, but if you are looking for trendy pieces, this is the place to shop. The prices are really affordable, and sometimes you can find something cute! Shop here if you prefer quantity of clothes over quality. I'd say that Forever 21 is more for the teenager/young adult crowd, and H&M for the older crowd, but I shop at both. These two stores are great places to purchase cheap basics. The downfall to these stores is that their quality isn't top-notch, and their inventory is either a hit or miss.

Thrifting

I've never been thrifting, but my friends who do always say they get amazing deals. Clothes from a thrift shop cost no more than $5. If you have a lot of time, and aren't afraid to get down n' dirty, go thrifting! If you have a more expensive taste, I would look into consignment stores and Revolve boutiques. These shops are basically high end thrift shops where they carry well known brands.

Standards

Standards are essential to getting the best deals. By standards, I mean your standards. For some people, $20 is considered a great price for a tee shirt, but for others $20 is too expensive. Personally, I think that jeans should cost no more than $25, but I know of some people in my school who pay more than $100 for jeans. Shop around your standards. Also, make sure that what your buying is with its price. Say you found a sweater on sale for around $50, but it was thin. In my opinion, I wouldn't buy it due to its thinness. However, if that same sweater was made from 100% cashmere, I would totally buy it.



I hope this helped!

The Scrutiny of Size

In today's society, there is so much taboo over size, and what is the "perfect size". Body image and size is undoubtedly on every teenagers' or young adults' mind. In the good ol' days (like the 90's and before) robust women were "in". Every women coveted Marilyn Monroe's curvaceous and voluptuous body. Nowadays, every teen wants the body of a Brandy Melville model; a stick figure frame and a mythical thigh gap.

The media has always advertised stick figures. In clothing magazines, all the women are uber thin, and the men all have bodies that are chiseled by the gods. On the runways, all the sleek models strut their tall and thin bodies. Recently, there has been a growing trend in plus size models, and "fativists". This is where a lot of drama and taboo plays in. Many people complain that the use of plus size models is normalizing obesity, and due to "fativists" putting down skinny people to help bigger women gain body confidence, skinny shaming/hating came to life. There is just constant back and forth bickering between the bigger and smaller community on what the media should support.

My personal opinion is this: Whereas society should not constantly spew pictures of super thin women that might push girls into anorexia, we also should not shift to the other end of the spectrum and normalize obesity. I believe that society should endorse a healthy body. I don't think a healthy body is defined by a clothing size, waist measurement, but rather defined by your lifestyle.

So, what is the perfect body size?

I think that the answer to this question is just a matter of personal opinion. Some people think that the perfect body is a supermodel-esque body, some think that it is an hourglass shape, and some people think that the perfect body is a size 14. Some people are born very thin, and are made fun of that. Likewise, some people are born heavier and are bullied for their weight. I believe that you should do whatever with your body to make yourself confident. If you are larger and would feel more comfortable loosing a few pounds, by all means do so. If you are larger and feel confident at your size, you don't have to change. The same goes for thinner people.

Remember, whether you are overweight or underweight or anywhere in between, be confident in your body and don't let anyone put you down due to your size. Do what makes you confident, and do what makes you feel healthy.

And the thing is, no matter what your size, everyone is a little self conscious. Stop fighting and realize that everyone is trying to battle the same thing.

Double Standards of Success

There are so many double standards in the world, however none of them are greater than the double standard of success.

As you probably know, this is the time of year in which college acceptance letters are mailed and received. Second semester seniors already know, or just found out which colleges they have been accepted to. Obviously, there will be a select few that are accepted into the prestigious and fabled ivy leagues.

In every school, there is that senior who is super accomplished, super prestigious, and super successful. There is that type of senior in my school, and in fact, she is a friend. To protect her identity I shall refer to her as Bene. (which means "successful" in Lain) To give you some background on Bene, she is not the pretentious type that you would expect to be accepted into an Ivy League. She's down to earth, very nice, mature, and secretly inappropriate and funny. I don't know what other colleges she was accepted to, however I know that she was accepted to Dartmouth, Yale, and Harvard. Pretty awesome, right?

I run a "Humans Of..." page for my school that is inspired by the popular blog Humans of New York. I featured Bene on my page, and if you are familiar with Humans of New York, they often interview the person they feature. I asked Bene, "What worries you the most about the future?" Part of her response was, "I'm trying to choose a college. I hope I'm not sounding pretentious right now, but I'm choosing between Harvard and Yale. I know people are going to give me flak for this, but it really is the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life!

I was surprised that Bene got some backlash for mentioning that she was choosing between Harvard or Yale. One comment said, "The biggest worry about the future is whether you go to Harvard or Yale? Rough life." 

This highlights the double standard on Ivy League colleges. If you get in one, you would be very excited and proud, however if you didn't you'd probably think, "Whatever. People who are accepted are too pretentious." Also, if Bene was talking about choosing between Boston College and Boston University, no one would care that she mentioned the names of the colleges. Not that BC and BU are bad schools, they are just not as famous or held in prestige as Harvard or Yale. 

What really annoys me is when people who did not get accepted into their dream Ivy League school say things like, "Your college doesn't determine how successful you will be" or "Getting into an Ivy League doesn't make you successful" I totally agree that your college does not determine you successful you will end up in life, however when someone says,  "Getting into an Ivy League doesn't make you successful" I want to  scream, "Bitch, get your jealous ass self away from this planet. I know for a fact that if you got into an Ivy League, you'd be rubbing that acceptance letter in everyone's' face. Stop your goddamn hating!" (sorry but not sorry for the vulgar words!)

My super classy (not really) note to the haterz:

stfu cuz you all jealous

Honestly, the double standards of success are derived from jealousy. After all, "Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius." -Fulton J. Sheen

In a myopic sense, getting into a prestigious college, or the college of your dreams is the biggest success of your life. However, in a long term sense, your success is determined by your accomplishments of the goals you set for yourself, whether that is writing a novel, service trips abroad, landing your dream job, or becoming a millionaire. Don't let the fact that you did not get accepted into your dream college ruin your sense of success, and don't let the jealous haters prevent you from being proud to get accepted into an Ivy.

A Teenager's Opinion...

... on the missing Malaysian Flight 370

As a disclaimer, the opinions expressed are my opinions, and they are opinions. Obviously, people will disagree with me. In addition, I am not exactly the most politically educated person, so I might get some facts wrong, or I might not understand the politics between countries.

OK, I will start this off by saying: Dear Malaysia, you are not a teenager who got drunk for the first time. Get. Your. Sh*t. Together.

My biggest problem with missing Flight 370 is the search for the airplane. Kudos to those who are searching for debris, I realize that it is a nearly impossible task and I am very glad that 25 countries are now looking for the missing flight. But that being said, there are so many people looking for the flight, but who is the leader? Malaysia obviously should be the leader, because after all, it is their plane that went missing, but the Malaysian officials aren't doing very well dealing with the missing flight. Malaysia is so inconsistent. One second they are saying that all the flight passengers are clearing of any criminal suspicion, but another second they are stating that all passengers are under suspicion. Make up your damn mind!  Say if something groundbreaking was discovered during the search, then who would get the right to examine it. Would it be Malaysia? Or China? Or Australia? Or the country who first discovered it? There is such a lack of leadership. I'm not a very avid news-reader so I don't know why there is a lack of leadership or if one country has in fact taken control of this whole search.

Something that infuriates me is Malaysia's interactions with the affected families. As an Asian-American, this is more personal because the majority of the passengers (153 people) were Chinese, and there was an American couple on board. The flight is missing, and nothing has been discovered, but at least give the families answers or bad news! The families with loved ones on the flight want closure, so at least tell them that it is unlikely that anyone aboard the plane survived, or tell them that with the evidence that they have, everyone on board died. It's depressing news, but at least it offers some closure.

Also, I've been wondering, do the families of the missing flight passengers get compensation? I know that that's a terrible and materialistic/money-centric thing to think, because nothing can, and ever will replace a lost loved one. But honestly, do the families receive any compensation? At the very least, the families deserve answers.

I have also wondered what if they never find debris? What it the plane vanished without a trace? What then? What could explain something like this? Most importantly, why did the plane vanish?

As a side note, I have a huge respect for CNN. To me, its mind boggling how they can broadcast hours of coverage for the missing Flight 370 even though there are no new break throughs. How do they spend hours covering the same content without being uber repititional???