Batman: TAS

I'm currently obssessed with watching Batman: The Animated Series/the New Adventures of Batman/The Adventures of Batman & Robin (which are all technically the same series, just renamed between seasons) on YouTube.

There used to be a back-to-back hour of Batman/Superman TAS's when I was a kid so this is basically reliving my childhood on YouTube. =P

I always liked Batman more than Superman. Superman always seemed like too much of a goody-two-shoes, especially the mild-mannered reporter aspect. Bruce Wayne was a confident and aggressive businessman/playboy millionaire in addition to his strict training regiments to be Batman.

And there was always all those psychologicals aspects of it, like his childhood trauma and how all his villains are literally insane.

My favorite episode was Girls' Night Out, which featured an all-female cast with Supergirl and Batgirl teaming up against the combined forces of Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Livewire.

Here is part 1:

And of course, Part 2:

Enjoy!

Optimism

(icanread)

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Weekend Finds

Look how adorable this bride is! Since I'm also quite short, I hope I look this adorable at my wedding!

(image by Gene Higa - via Bustle, a division of Liz Beck Events, of which my two pals Amy and Pam are interns!)

100 Ways to Use A Strip of Bacon (via Mental Floss, downstream from Endless Simmer). I actually saw the little bacon cups myself a while ago on Not Martha.)

Get your kids to play outdoor games, even if you have to trick them.

Wonder how effective these anti-theft stickers are...

Yummy, cookie tables!

Apparently, the correct way to peel a banana...

Wisdom from the Dalai Lama (via Mental Floss)

4 Perfectly Round Circles

Hilarious n00b boyfriend video!

Amazing Flickr streams - official stream for President Obama and Michael Hughes, who superimposes souvenirs over the actual landmarks.

Penny Arcade and D&D

Did you see that Gabe of Penny Arcade has been asked to do the art for the cover of a new Dungeons & Dragons handbook??

On the subject, Gabe says, "The book is called the players strategy guide and from what I hear it's designed to help you build a solid character [...] I was really surprised that they asked me to do this. All the D&D book covers have such a strong and classic aesthetic. I was nervous about doing the cover because my style doesn't really match up with the rest of the books, but they assured me they wanted this particular book to have a different/distinctive look."

Webcomic geek + D&D geek = Awesome.

This is the Sound of Settling

I’ve never been good at doing things I hated to do.

I think it stems from a childhood of being pretty spoiled as a result of being an only child. When I was a child, my parents had tried to get me to do a lot of things I didn’t like, such as piano lessons. The only thing they never relented on was my Chinese, which I’m grateful for now. For everything else, if I protested or resisted, they simply told me I didn’t have to do it.

As a result, though, it seems that I am really bad at just putting my head down and plowing through things I dislike. I’ve always managed to get by on just the bare minimum. In P.E., I walked a 30-minute mile and just tried to look busy by standing around in the outfield or just running up and down the bball court instead of actually playing the sport. I was interested in learning, not sports. But I had to take PE so I scraped by with the least amount of efforts to get credit.

Side story: I once had a conversation with someone who told me, “You were one of those girls in PE! I hated those girls! I always wanted to win.” To which I replied, “Well, I always wanted to not play. So either way, it isn’t fair.”

I bet there are a lot of people who don’t settle or put up with things they dislike. I bet it can swing either way – they can be really successful because they go straight for what they want and never settle for less… or they can never succeed because they aren’t willing to dig through the dirt to find a diamond. What about the people who flounder around in the middle, like me? Some say you gotta do what you gotta do. Some people tell you that sometimes life forces tough choices and you have to do things you don’t want to do in order to survive. Some people say to never settle, even if you’re hurting.

Did you know that after 10 Things I Hate About You, Heath Ledger was offered many more teen romance roles? He turned them all down because he didn’t want to get type-casted in those roles his entire career, instead living on ramen and cereal while waiting for other opportunities.

Being this type of person means that at some point, you have to drawn a line between being confident and being stubborn. When do you know that you’re not getting what you want because it’s not fair or because of your ego? Are you fighting to fight or fighting to win, just because you hate being wrong and hate letting other people be right? Or, vice versa, are you trying so hard not to be stubborn and egotistic that you are letting people walk all over you?

Are you selling yourself short by settling or hurting future opportunities when you don't?

P.S. 5 points for naming the band in the post title.

Facing the Real World

As you know, I've been trying unsuccessfully to find a job since my college graduation in June of last year. Today, I went for an interview and tentatively accepted a staff position at an academic academy that does tutoring and standardized testing (SAT, ACT, etc.) prep. It's a 6-day work week and pays $9/hour.

She told me she wasn’t trying to lowball me, that it was the standard rate of pay for college-level or above education. Was that okay for me?

I wanted to say no, that I wanted the $36,000 average that UCSD claimed their new graduates made straight out of college. I wanted to protest about how my $40,000 education was only worth an extra dollar an hour compared to a high school education. I wanted to say that my internships were just as valuable as, if not more so than, any other work experience.

I wanted to cry, because I had always been taught that college was the fast track to success... that because I was smart enough to get into a good school and complete a degree there, I was supposed to have some kind of an advantage in the world.

And I know that I should consider myself lucky to get a job at all, because anything is more than $0/hour, especially for the experience and resume content... and I know that everyone has to start somewhere and that I will (eventually) move on to bigger and better things.

And even though I know, I know, I know.... that what I do as a job or how much I make isn't actually a reflection of what I'm worth as a person....

...it really hurts to feel like I'm not worth as much as I thought I would be.

The real world is pretty harsh.

Sound Advice

(via icanread)

Daily Joy: Blogging!

I can't believe this is already the last day of Daily Be's Daily Joy photojournal week!

Thanks, Karri, for the invite to this fun project! I've really enjoyed seeing you and other bloggers' posts about their daily joys. We should do this again sometime!

Today's daily joy is blogging!

(image via PRprep)

Thanks to all my readers and commentators for following my blog and giving me the opportunity to read and share so many great things with you! I've recently added a "Top Little Note Leavers" widget to the right and am in the process of piecing together a little competition for commenting in the not too distant future.

And thanks to all the amazing, inspirational, fashionable, fun, sweet, lovely bloggers that are too numerous to name (but check the blog roll to see me try) for all the work they do to keep me inspired and going.

This weekend, I have a date with Clement... we're finally going to see 500 Days of Summer and I think he has some other surprise for me? Who knows. We're celebrating 23 months together!

Daily Joy: FaceBook (and Friends)

Day 4 of Daily Be's Daily Joy photojournal week!

Daily Joy: FaceBook (and friends)

(image via {bits of beauty}, downstream from if it's hip, it's here)

I've heard a lot about how social networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace have tainted real face-to-face interaction and all that stuff... and I guess I agree to an extent, but sometimes I truly have to marvel at how far technology has come in terms of keeping people in touch.

Currently, two of my best friends are miles away from me... one in Seattle and one in Texas. Texan Tammi, a.k.a. the vegan blogger, is actually a friend from the second grade. I have seen her about twice in the 10 years since she moved out of California but I still talk to her ALL THE TIME. And, while our constant efforts to remain in touch need to be acknowledge, I really have to thank the Internet for providing that medium where we are constantly active. We tried the pen pal thing but things always got in the way and letters went unanswered. Comparatively, it feels like such little effort to respond to an IM or a FaceBook message.

In addition to this, it helps create the idea that we're always connected no matter how much we're in our own lives. So even though I've met a person once, I see their activity on FaceBook and know what they've been up to. It's not as awkward to reach out to someone when that person is putting himself/herself out there via this website.

And yes, I'm on it every single day. =)

Story of My Life

I just found the trailer for Post Grad, starring Alexis Bledel (of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gilmore Girls fame, not to mention an interesting cameo in Sin City).

This looks like the perfect movie for me and all my fellow students-turned-unemployed friends that graduated during the hard economy, especially the ones who -- like me -- feel like life hadn't turned out the way it was supposed to be.

It's totally exactly me, right now in life. Couldn't have come at a more accurate time.

Scheduled to be released on August 21. Any starving students want to go see it with me?

Daily Joy: Homemade Food

Day 3 of Daily Be's Daily Joy photojournal week!

Daily Joy: Homemade Food

Hands down, the biggest perk to moving home is Mom food. This picture was actually a joint effort by my mom and dad - home-cooked lad na. The sauce is a gravy made from beef stock and we picked up the noodles from the grocery store just hours before this went on the table. So delicious.

I hope I don't gain back all my college weight eating home food. O.O

Daily Joy: Little Surprises

Day 2 of Daily Be's Daily Joy photojournal week!

Surprises Let Me Know He Cares*

When Clement came to pick me up the other day, he brought me a little surprise gift - a candle and body lotion "set" from Bath & Body Works! This was an amazing combination of knowing me well and somehow anticipating my needs... I love candles and, just seconds before he arrived, I was looking for lotion.

And the message? Too cute.

*Name this song and artist for 10 points.

(I am totally keeping track of these points, BTW.)

P.S. I love you, too.

Daily Joy: Nieces

I'm participating in Daily Be's Daily Joy photojournal week! (I came up with that name, actually, since she didn't have a fancy title for it.) I'll be posting a picture everyday of something that gives me joy and writing about it.

Okay, so they aren't actually my nieces... they're Clement's nieces and they are 2 and 4. Here is a picture of them with Gong Gong (Chinese for grandpa; Clement's dad) over the weekend, celebrating Taiwanese Father's Day.

Side note - the Chinese celebrate Father's Day on August 8th because 8/8 sounds like the Chinese for father.

I don't have any brothers or sisters of my own so I have to live vicariously through Clement. I love doing all the little kid stuff with them like playing and reading bedtime books, which I usually get pulled into by sticky hands =P. Hard to say no to those adorable faces!

Weekend Finds

RIP John Hughes.

I love this movie... and own it on DVD.

(via roflrazzi)

Wikipedia actually has an entire article dedicated to unusual names... some parents are really mean. =\ (And some people are just kinda crazy.)

The sweetest proposal story! (Warning: you may "aww" out loud at work.)

(via A Cup of Jo)

Walk of Shame kit.

Balance your meals with color-coding... use nature's key!

Totally going to participate in Daily Be's Daily Joy photo week! Look for my posts all this week!

Apartment Livin'

Since I’ve moved back into my parents’ house, I’ve been thinking about all the differences between this and living in an apartment. For the sake of simplicity, I’m defining my college apartment living only as units in apartment complexes.

Things I’ll miss about living in apartments:

• Round-the-clock access to emergency plumbing, electricity, and other services… 95% of which get solved in a 24-hour time span.
• Amenities I use very occasionally but don’t have to maintain regularly – gym, pool, etc.
• Free coffee/tea/hot chocolate/cookies
• Hot water is (almost always) nearly instant available for showers
• Not feeling bad about 3 a.m. showers bothering anyone
• Free awesome stuff like a movie theater, unlimited use business center, or pool table
• Not being afraid to sell things on Craigslist with “must be picked up” taglines because it’s like you’re going to be living there that much longer anyway!

Things I won’t miss:

• Paper-thin walls
• Noisy neighbors, especially ones with dogs
• Anything to do with laundry rooms (restrictive hours, people who mess with your laundry, that weird not-quite-linen-fresh smell from the machines)
• Having to carry groceries up elevators/stairs and down hallways from the car to the apartment
• Needing to go through more than one door or hallway before I’m technically home
• Being stuck with ugly kitchen cabinets
• Can't install filtered water! (I hate the taste of Brita and hate buying bottled water.)
• Giving people two sets of instructions on how to get to my place -- one for the complex and one for the actual unit
• The way every single unit and hallway looks exactly the same and sometimes I have to check the number outside my door to make sure I'm in the right place.

I see skies of blue... clouds of white

(via icanread, downstream from daily be)

p.s. I love vinyl wall lettering, especially from Etsy.

Growing Up?

I'm going to try really hard not to turn this post (or the rest of this blog for that matter) into an angsty emo diary... but it's quite hard moving back into my parents house. I feel like I'm back to being a teenager, in that awkward stage between no longer being a kid and not quite being an adult yet. It's starting to make me wonder what exactly it's going to take to make me feel like I've grown up and become an adult.

A lot of things have emerged over the last few years, living in apartments off-campus and away from my parents, like all my thoughts about what to do with my own space -- i.e. when I have my own house -- like composting and solar lights, or painting my walls colors in deep colors unlike the drab slightly-off-white I have been looking at all my life. Or my style of cooking, or my need to cuddle as I sleep (or else you have poor Percy and Pooch), or having a drop-off zone when I first enter the place...

At any rate, will being able to do all those things make me feel like an adult? Or will I go on for many more years trying to figure out life as I go and wondering if I can stand on my two feet? (On legs! On human legs! 10 points if you guess the movie.)

Or will there be some defining moment that makes me realize that I'm kinda old? O.o

What do you think?

Sleeping Together

This is totally me and Clement - we never sleep well when we are apart and when we sleep together, we pretty much automatially pass out into deep slumber.

(Sinfest)

Mouth-Watering Watermelon Bars

Don't these watermelon bars look delicious?? Recipe at Right@Home.

7

Hello! You bloggerinas have been busy while I was moving; I came back to find lots of amazing stuff to catch up on!

My pal Phoenix over at Res ipsa loquitur has just tagged me in a post to share 7 things about myself! Like her, I was surprised to be tagged by an amazing writer ;-) and am totally stoked about sharing my 7!

1. I am an only child and hate it when people ask if I was lonely growing up without brothers or sisters because it doesn't seem occur to them that I had an entire childhood like that and therefore don't have any basis for comparison. (Nobody ever asks if a person disliked growing up blond or something else they couldn't help. -_-")

2. I have been to Paris twice and Taiwan twice because I have a lot of extended family in both places.

3. I speak (mostly fluent) Mandarin Chinese, which I studied for about 5 years outside of school, but can't remember any of the French I supposedly learned over 3 years in school.

4. I have never broken a limb, knock on wood.

5. When I was little, I thought being a school bus driver would be a great job. My 6-year-old brain had concluded that their jobs consisted only of picking up kids for school, dropping them off after school, and the occasional field trip. Even when I was little, I was lazy!

6. I used to be heavily addicted to World of Warcraft and was in an active raiding guild back when the cap was 60 and there were 40-man raids. (And you wonder where the "geek" part of my description came in.)

7. My boyfriend's nickname for me is "Bunny" because apparently the way I do air quotation marks looks like I'm making two pairs of bunny ears hop forward.

Tag, you're it -- I'd love to hear 7 from Jasmine, Brenda, Deb, Emily, Dionne, Nina, Lisa, and Tammi!

Strung Up on the Vitamin String Quartet

As promised, here is my compliation of Vitamin String Quartet videos!

Brief descrition from Wikipedia:

"According to their website, The Vitamin String Quartet comprises a rotating collective of Los Angeles musicians widely known for its tributes to cutting-edge rock acts. They have released a series of string quartet tribute albums, released by Vitamin Records using a wide array of instruments, but primarily violins and violas.

"Vitamin String Quartet is about applying rock n' roll attitude to classical technique," says Tom Tally, a violist and arranger who has performed on and produced over thirty-five Vitamin String Quartet albums."

"We Will Rock You" - Queen

"Don't Speak" - No Doubt

I had no idea this song could sound even sadder but I was quite wrong.

"Wonderwall" - Oasis

"When You Were Young" - Killers

Check out their YouTube channel to see if they've covered your favorites!

Oh, and can I just say, as a former violinist, how different and refreshing it is to hear the cello actually play melodies instead of just the boring harmonizing parts? Poor cello players.

Moving Forward

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

-TS Eliot

Moving out and on from San Diego. See you on the other side.