Masquerade

So here I am, deciding to pick up blogging again coz I can never really let go of this 6 years worth of memories online journal thing. Plus I actually edited a crap ton of pics way back but never go around to actually writing the posts and being OCD lil me, its been forever bugging me like an unchecked list buried way back in my brain.

So, DCF masquerade party.

Do I ever love my new fellowship group for all their utterly fun events ♥

In case you didn't know, I am in love with masquerades. Not the debauchery stigma attached to it ok but the glorious dresses and fancy masks and the classy glamorous mysteriousness of it all. This could also be attributed to the fact that I am in love with all things Victorian or something like that. I have no idea if masquerades are from that period but you get what I mean. Old England/Europe whatever. And medieval times. I am a secret history/ancient days nerd kays.

Anyways, we were supposed to design these flexible plastic masks but bloody things were being all discriminatory by fitting only caucasian and hispanic features. Cheekboneless, low nosebridge and narrow eyed asians like me doesn't stand a chance in it. I look like some hillbilly alien in it and nearly killed 2nd sis with laughter when I wore it.

So I decided to use makeup. And youtube. And google image for blatant copying inspiration. I may have some makeup skills ok but artsy imagination I do not have. Am a boring science student.

First look I experimented with to decide if I wanted to go with makeup or buy a mask off ebay:

Decided that I could wing it at any rate so makeup it is.

Got even more adventurous the night before and went with a whole different design instead:

I cannot claim credit for the design as I copied it from this amazing girl here.

I used NYX black bean eyeshadow pencil, both black pencil and liquid eyeliner pencil for the black parts and NYX white eyeshadow pencil for the white and as a base for the yellow which is a mixture of a bunch of different yellow and golds from various palettes. Before topping it off with Hard Candy golden glitter eyeshadow to give it a glittery look and adding rhinestones. Also set both the black and white parts with eyeshadows respectively. I outlined my face with a white eyeliner pencil first in case you're wondering. Easier to erase if you make a mistake.

It looks really realistic from a distance and many people didn't know it was makeup till they were in my face.

Also super attention grabbing coz every single guy that night kept staring at it and compliments were endless.

Which was surprising to me coz I never expected them to notice, being the clueless species they are, and actually did it for the girls? Because I wanted a conversation starter with them ok since I'm fairly new and wanted to befriend them so we can ramble about makeup and stuff.

A lone pic of the night which I stole off someone's facebook coz I didn't take any. It is very uncommon to camwhore here ok unless you own a camera phone (mine suck) which is more acceptable to whip out coz its a phone I guess? Or if its a dslr. Anyways, this post went on longer than it should. Only 82131293 more backlogged posts to go. hum de dum.

Halloween 2011

Blogging for the sake of blogging even when I really don't feel like it at all but its a pity to just give up so here's a post on my christian fellowship group costume party.

No proper costume coz I waited way too late to get one, hence most are already sold out. Second, I am a cheapo and refuse to spend anything more than $20 bucks on a one time thing and thus there goes 75% of the costumes. Cannot wear slutty either coz its a christian fellowship so there goes 90% of the costumes. Combine all together and you get nothing.

Thus, I rummaged through my and my housemates'' closets and came up with this idea: nerd girl.

Ok I lie, my housemate (being the same procrastinator cheapo like me) came up with this 2 hours before her party and since hers was a day before mine, I just stole her idea :3

I did switched things up a little anyways and look more like a pro nerd than her heh.

I own nothing cept the white blouse and 3d glasses lols.

Anyways, slew of pictures of the party which was boring btw and thus I am now volunteering to be on the planning team because I have since come to the conclusion that my fellowship, awesome and cool as they are, have probably never heard of schedules and proper planning :\

man, I look super asian here. Also, I am tall ok! a lil above 5ft8! but that girl is crazy tall T__T and super pretty too like some gorgeous model I can stare at all day and am wondering why she doesn't just go be a supermodel.

Oh 2nd sis is Geisha girl. That cheapo bathroom robe like costume cost $20 ok! ripoff. And looks nothing like a geisha. But nothing makeup cannot help save ha!

Also, I know the flash is very unflattering where everyone looks 10 times fatter and I gave up trying to photoshop because its impossible so there.

Peter Pan, Hook and idk what. Lost boys maybe?

Bond, Bond Girl and the evil villain lols.

No really, dude went and print a M-16 (ok I think M-16 is a gun or something so M something whatever the British equivalent of spies I know it starts with M) ID since he's English and thought it fitting/perfect amongst us Americans who adore anything British.

Really, we do. I also realized how ignorant all my american friends are about the world with the questions they ask him :\

Although to be fair, I grew up in a commonwealth country so that might explain why I know a number of things of the UK. That and being in the Hetalia fandom ha. And you thought anime were useless entertainment.

70's divas dang I love them. So much flair and style and oomph! As you can probably tell, I love fierce girls. Sadly, I can never pull off such looks and look better on the cuter side (which I secretly dislike but you must flaunt what you're given with so I can only dream of being sexy fierce ha).

I thought he was Neo, but he said he was Mr. Smith, then come tuesday he said he was Neo so idk who he really is.

With my core group leader Carol who dressed as a farm girl just so she can get free Chipotle burritos coz they were giving out free burritos for anything farm related.

She's the kind of pretty I want to be *wistful

Scarlet from the game Clue! Or Cluedo if you're British. Or wth is that if you're from Malaysia like me who never heard of it till I came here. That girl is the most awesome girl I have ever met and I want with all my heart to get to know her super well but I am very tongue tied around her coz she just radiates awesomeness that I feel so inadequate lols.

My brilliant idea of substituting my purse for my schoolbag! it fits my costume perfectly right! Ingenious I must say!

And because flash was so relentless, I decided to make up for my misery by camwhoring in my bathroom where the lighting is perfect and I needn't use horrid fat inducing flash.

A whole slew of shameless camwhore shots I never really do and feel embarrassed to post up but my skin looks damn gorgeous here so let me be shameless for once:

This is prolly my fav. It looks like your typical regrettable high school yearbook photo haha.

Channeling my inner korean schoolgirl hurhur. 

Everyone always think I'm one till I'm starting to doubt my heritage I swear. 

I wasn't kidding when I said I was gonna be shameless and stupid.

Anyways, last pic which I like coz I personally deludedly think it looks like some japanese pv screenshot. feel free to disagree with me.

And there you have it, my halloween for the year 2011 and first time I ever got to dress up for one.

VBS 2011

So me and 2nd sis spent our summer working two jobs, where one was paid interns for our church and our duties include helping out in VBS aka Vacation Bible School and is held over the course of 5 days.

Fun fact: When asked how and where they first heard about Jesus, many youths and adults alike mentioned VBS. So this is definitely a ministry worth investing in.

The theme for Bethel's VBS was SonSurf from the Gospel Light series:

So for this VBS, we served mainly in the skit area and this is where I thank my uni christian fellowship for choosing me as one of their main actresses last year to perform in front of hundreds of college students so I kind of got over my fear and learned to throw all shame to the wind when it comes to acting. This was me last year:

Yes I was a cranky old grandma ok and for an extremely introverted person like me, it was a terrifying experience to be picked after being literally dragged into auditioning by a friend for the laughs. Did not help that this cute guy also kena chosen too only he got to act as the too cool for you student. Figures.

Anyways, back to Bethel. Sadly, there are no pics of me and the sis in costumes acting because I stupidly forgot to ask the pastor for pics and neither did I had the foresight to hand someone my camera. Too busy memorizing the script and rehearsing the whole day. As its not my church either, I have no access to any of their albums :C

My fav. kid Garune who declared me her best friend after playing ball with her and even drew me a pic of us :D

I really love love love the kids there and I guess I can say they love me too :3 The reason why I have been working with children ever since high school :)

The epic WATER SLIDE specially rented for the last day!

People here have all the luck and the life. I never had anything near that when I was a kid *sniff* Sometimes, when attending local events, just seeing all the outrageous decor and stuff makes me see just how easy and comfortable people have it here. Almost nothing is impossible; you just name it and they'll make it a reality.

Because it looks more impressive in video form:

I know what I'll be renting for my future kids' birthdays mainly so I can sekritly play with it myself.

Smaller pools for the smaller kids. Heck, forget the slide, we didn't even have this either! I had to use my own which I brought all the way back from Hawaii for years before Kuching even started selling those.

Daddy crashing the party because there was food hurhur. Yes, its always pizza. Like how in Msia parties are always about delicious bbq and and other never ending glorious food, here its always pizza or hotdogs or hamburgers only :C

Oh about 27 kids out of the 50 accepted Christ :)

A week later and it was our own church's turn for VBS.

We used Pandamania from idk what publication but what I do know it that its pretty sellout imo where I had to improvise for all the materials and programs as they wanted us to order every single item from them. Where is the creativity srsly if everything is already practically pre-made?

I may have never seen a more Americanized panda in my life than this.

So this time round, me and 2nd sis were in charge of craft and the daily wrap up session. First day was keychain making and instead of ordering premade wooden figures where they just had to draw in the eyes harhar, we made rock hard cookies (so hard that when we hurl it against the floor, it remained intact srsly) and had the kids decorate them to their hearts' desire.

We made a girl as an example and expected everyone to boringly copy it only to get our minds blown from their creativity like the alien above. To think I was thinking not every nice thoughts when he insisted that I glue the eyes vertically *shifty eyes* What. The kids I used to worked with were never that creative ok! We were trained to follow by the rules ah.

Just looking at this makes me want to weep tears of pride and joy T^T

But wait! Creativity is a double edged sword kays and there was this one woman helper who was suspiciously thrust into our department the last minute and at first I thought she just had no fashion sense (seeing as how she's all decked out in long dresses and boots with knee high socks in 90 degrees weather), and it was only when she started mumbling totally senseless sentences to herself did I start to fear for my life.

I'm sorry but why why why whyyyyy do I always get mixed up with people like this in churches everywhere? This is not the first time ok! More like the 10th or so. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate them or anything. I just.... dunno how to handle them. Hello, introvert here ok! Only somewhat extrovert because of churches always unexpectedly thrusting me into the spotlight.

Tell me how to not be remotely creeped out when faced with art like this:

T__T

I don't want to know what the green things is. Ok to be fair, she is harmless and is in fact quite nice, always offering her food to people, but still.... This is so not my field of expertise. I am thankful for 2nd sis who is way more level headed than me where nothing fazzles her (but only because she has even more of her fair share of unique people).

But moving on to the 2nd day which was panda drumkits!

Copyrighted by mua ok because I totally came up with it in a fitful of inspiration. Ok so the paper plate pig I made in preschool might have helped.

Haha looking at them I learned that apparently the angle of how you glue the eyes is very important in determining whether it comes out looking like a panda or not. The girl was the only one who got it right.

Day 3 was paper fans:

So we caved and ordered it because it was cheap and the drawing keeps them preoccupied long enough.

Cute kid. But very ADD. Sigh. We had to do all his crafts for him while making sure he doesn't go about making a mess... At least he's cute and does listen every once in a while.

Dawww. The youngest class along with their cute fans. They draw better than me :C

Day 4 was mission bag dyeing for the kids in Latin America which I wasn't present for since I ran off to Huntington Gardens *ahem* coz I already pre-booked the free tix a month ago. So look, day 5 which was bracelet making:

Never assume when it comes to children. We thought the guys would be like 'oh this sucks, how boring, so girlish' but guess who were the ones dead set on making themselves one? Buying letter beads was a great idea.

A great week it was. Plus I got a $10 Starbucks giftcard too for helping out which I love very much because as much as I am in love with that store, I am way too stingy to pay $4 for some coffee. Yes, I know the post below this says otherwise but at least that bag can make cups and cups?

Anywho, VBSes are tons of fun and a good opportunity for you to sing all those praise songs at the top of your lungs without any inhibitions. I mean really, the more goofy and chill you are, the more kids will adore you. Just make sure you don't overstep the line into irresponsibility. Although its hard work, its worth every single bit in the end when you see those kids' smiles :)

Daddy's Graduation

Squeezing in a tiny post/overdue update before I go off to San Diego tomorrow and incur yet more photos which will probably never see the light of my blog until I decide to stop procrastinating.

So, most of you would have already known that my daddy moved to the states to study for his MDiv at Fuller Seminary. Also, some of you would have already known through facebook that he has since graduated last month. Yay for him and YIPPEE YAY for me for now there is no more papers for me to proofread *relieved*

So the graduation ceremony was held at a church which name I have since forgotten because I have a lousy memory just like that *sigh

My dad coming to Fuller not only enriched his knowledge, but also mine and I'm guessing the rest of our family too. For the last three years and counting, our dinner table talk and random chats consist of ancient history, blibical facts and issues on Christianity along with current world affairs.

I have to say that with all the stuff he learned that he eagerly shares with us, never in my life have the Bible appear so interesting and my views today are pretty radically much different from years ago. And by radical I don't mean I now go around torching people okay or whatever stereotype you are currently conjuring in your mind lols.

Random tidbit but do you know that zombies have somewhat appeared in the Bible? XD

Fuller is a pretty liberal seminary compared to many others and one is taught to question so many things in both life and the Bible that you sometimes wonder just what have you been believing in for the whole of your life till now. The beautiful thing however, is that with all the questions asked, there is a lot of answers and facts which only serve to strengthened your belief. Faith is not blind, contrary to what many think, but built on trust and understanding. I know many places nowadays usually like to put Christianity down as outdated and full of blind teachings with no supporting facts whatsoever that can't be questioned but I beg to differ. If that were the case, I would have given up for believing in something you aren't sure is real is the silliest thing ever no?

Nevertheless, 'liberal' as Fuller is, its/our moral beliefs still stand firm and there are certain stands I take that some may scoff at or ridicule. All I have to say is I sure don't hate anyone for not sharing the same views as me but I cannot go against something I truly believe in. Less hate, more love, and mutual respect for each other is what it should be imo.

Professor with awesome regalia from some equally awesome seminary. Totally magician haha

Anyways, enough about Fuller and more about my daddy who, shall I remind you again, has graduated. Trust me, you do not know how happy I am because really, when he studies, it feels like I am studying for him too and I say I deserve at least a corner, or two, of that cert. hmph.

With Fuller's president and his wife

Yes, he is going to become a pastor and while I am excited for him, I am also feeling somewhat burdened because it means yet another label tacked onto who I am: a pk aka pastor's kid.

Since I grew up as an accountant/businessman daughter, I know I am hardly like those born a pk and will probably never be exactly like them, all meek or crazy outgoing and perfect. On the other hand, neither am I Katy Perry either hurhur. I am just plain ol' me :)

Yet the expectations are already pouring in from everyone be it adults or peers or church leaders or non-believers on how I am supposed to behave simply because of who my father is. Some think I am not spiritual enough, some think I am too morally uptight and the only thing for certain is that you can never ever win. Not gonna lie, its tiring at times and sometimes I just feel a tad stabbity.

But when the going gets way too tough, I remind myself that I am only human, just like you, simply another sinner in need of Jesus's love and forgiveness; and as long as I am doing my best to live right by Him, its enough.