Another Long Time No Post

It has been absolutely ages when I  had last posted. In fact, it's been so long that I can even remember my last post. I shall have to go and refresh my memory right now =P 

Okay, this is weird. The last time I posted was this time last year! Not quite this day last year, but it was October 2011. And the title of the post was "Another: Long Time No Post". It shows that my brain hasn't really been evolving much since haha - still on the same brain wave =P 

I don't actually have anything to write or anything particularly interesting to say. I just felt like blogging haha =P 

Well just a quick update, I am now into my third and final year at University and lately I've just been busy with applications, assignments and preparations for exams. And this post is basically me trying to procrastinate writing my graduate applications. Anyhow, I shall make more of an effort to post more (interesting) stuff =) 

Auf wiedersehen for now x 

(I've been learning German for quite a few months now... progress is slow but steady ^^) 

Baking Failure: Egg Tarts II

Yes, I am back again posting about baking and yes, I failed once again. There was some pastry left and some evaporated milk left too, so I thought I might as well just use it all because I don't have no use for the pastry and I don't like milk (evaporated milk included). So I had enough pastry to make five more egg tarts, and I divided the recipe for the middle egg bit by three. 

And this is what happened after about forty minutes:

I don't think I need to say anything anymore, the photo above it just describes it all. Well the pastry (I have decided to blame the pastry a few minutes after I put it in the oven). After about three minutes or so, I thought I'd just quickly check on it and I realised that the pastry basically shrunk T_T Because I rolled it out a bit more (YES, I BOUGHT A NEW ROLLING PIN BABY! =D That was also a reason why I wanted to bake, I was dying to try out my new rolling pin - although I do have to admit, most rolling pins does the same job). Ahem, before I went crazy about my rolling pin, the dough/pastry just didn't stretch and hold. My theory is that when the dough/pastry was being made in some Tesco plant (¬_¬) , they just didn't knead it enough hence it contracts when it's in the oven. This is all just a guess, there's no science behind i but I'm ought to start researching puff pastry (and next time I'm going to make mine from scratch, just so I have no one to blame but myself). 

Besides the pastry, the egg thing was a problem too. I don't know why it rises and sometimes it looks a bit like 'pineapple bun'. It's this Chinese thing that's called a pineapple bun (I personally don't like it but according to my sister and everyone else it tastes good so if you ever go to a Chinese bakery, try it ^^). 

There was actually something else I wanted to write about today, but I've been talking too much about these egg tarts and my rolling pin that I've forgotten what I was going to say. I've also been thinking, if a randomer just happened to come across my blog, I must look like a really free uni student with nothing to do and I have so much time on my hands, I just bake and blog all the time T_T I've decided, I'm going to set some goals. 

Current list of goals:

• Go jogging every morning (this was meant to happen a while ago but it's just been procrastinated every single morning when I tell myself to get out of bed) 
• Actually keep to the Special K plan (it's difficult for me to eat a lot of cereal because I don't like milk... I usually stick to the 'eat Special K for breakfast and lunch' thing (in my case, brunch) for about half a week then I get so bored from cereal) 
• Maybe this one is the most important: do my economics coursework, preferably do 300 words a day and finish it by next week? 
• Do sit ups... I've been so lazy since Christmas (Christmas was so long ago, I've been lazy for such a long time) I haven't done sit ups then... but I think I'll start again and do my 100 sit ups each night 

Other goals could be go to taekwondo, I really want to go but I'm too scared (and shy) because I completely suck at stuff like that, but that's more of a reason to go, so I can become good at martial arts =] 

And I used to do some yoga, maybe I should carry on... but I'm an extremist - I either do no yoga for ages, or I do lots in one night then the next day I wake up in pain because I over did it T_T 

Anyway, the weather's shining here ^^ hope the weather's being nice to you too =] 

Have a lovely day! x


P.s. I thought I should just say that even though the egg tarts look awful, they don't taste too bad =P 

Food Shopping

I haven't blogged all weekend so I thought I'd do a quick afternoon blog. Before I go onto the main topic, I decided to follow this DBSK fan group on blogger so now when I come on blogger, I get this gigantic list of updates. JaeJoong is apparently in Bangkok, YooChun apparently bought his brother a car last Christmas (or something like that) to celebrate his debut... I only scanned the headlines. 

Anyway, I've been busy doing coursework this weekend so I didn't do any food shopping. I had a 10am seminar this morning (why, oh why?). A seminar at 10am isn't too bad, the worst thing is, only after an hour I've woken up, she makes us think. My brain takes like two hours to wake up properly =P So, I went to the libraries but none of them had a spare computer for me to work at so I went home and went to the big Tesco to do food shopping. 

This is what I bought: 

• Special K (for brunch)
• Butter (for baking)
• Pastry (for baking)
• Eggs (for baking) 
• Chocolate (for baking cookies)
• Easter eggs (for my cousins)
• Shampoo (might as well, I'm almost running out anyway)
• Conditioner (same concept as shampoo)
• Crabsticks (either for soup, or I like just eating them as they as are as a snack)
• Cocoa powder (for my love for baking)

Basically... I've spent £20 and nothing actually contributes towards dinner. I just thought that was rather interesting. I suppose crabsticks sort of contribute... the soup could be a starter. I finally know why I never have anything decent to eat T_T 

I almost bought pizza... I put it in my trolley, then I put it back after thinking about the spots on my face. And OMG, why is the bad food always on offer? Walkers Sensations (I adore the sweet thai chilli flavour), they were half price and in stock. Usually the flavour I like is out of stock because it's just too popular. But I also managed to resist after thinking about the spots I'd get. I strolled round the supermarket again... I wanted to buy steak but then came the problem of what do I eat with the steak? Chips would be ideal but it's too unhealthy. Salad... the texture just doesn't go. Times like this, I really wish I lived at home or with people I know (as in, people who I can eat dinner together with), then cooking dinner wouldn't be such a problem. I made rice on Saturday (and I obviously overestimated my appetite again)... there's still some left in the fridge T_T My solution is just to eat noodles, they're the perfect portions - no leftovers =) 

Just looking at my list above, I'm sure I've bought more than that... I can't have spent so much money on that... oh yeah... cocoa powder, also for baking ^^; 

Easily Pleased

It's such a wonderful life when the slightest things makes you so happy - and I live one of those lives. I wouldn't say it's always 'wonderful', but it's good enough when buy buying a muffin tin lifts your mood =P 

Yesterday I went back to Specsavers for my appointment - I'm getting contact lenses. In fact, I've got some in right now: it's so bizarre because I can see without my glasses, and usually within my glasses, I need to squint to see far away; but now I can see far away, and when I squint, my vision doesn't actually change because I can see =D And this sounds rather stupid, but I decided to try my glasses on and hehehehehe I can't see with my glasses on =P (yes... I am that sad to try something like that =.=") 

So... after that, I went to Debenhams, didn't buy anything... I did see a few cool things in the home section (I love looking at home sections) but they were rather expensive =[ I saw this cup thing that was basically like one of those paper cups you get from coffee shops if you buy a tea or hot chocolate to take out, but it was reusable, it was made out of glass and the lid was like a rubbery material. But it was a bit stupid because it's heavy and it breaks easily... oh it was a flask (that was the word I've been looking for) besides it looked like a paper coffee shop cup. It was a great idea if only they had made it lighter so people can actually use it on-the-go. Anyway, they had a few other cool things but was ridiculously over priced... and rather impractical. E.g. they had this espresso cup set where you get seven cups with Monday to Sunday written on each of them. So it's like, you use a different mug each day. And there's this stand that comes with it, where you basically stack them up. It looks good, but if you had it stacked with Monday at the top and Sunday at the bottom... isn't a pain in the butt if you wanted, say, the Saturday cup? You'd have to take all of the other cups out... it looked good but was stupid. 

Anyway... then I went to Sainsbury... I love Sainsbury, but they're just too far. I ended up buying ice cream... I was craving ice cream the other day but Tesco Express didn't have any good ice cream. So there I was, walking with this tub of ice cream to the check out. Then I saw some pans and baking trays so I just glanced at it, then I saw the muffin trays! I made muffins for the UNICEF cake sale a few weeks back but I didn't have a muffin tray which screwed things over - although I did improvise pretty well... I made some make-shift muffin holders from tin foil and it worked amazing well =P So there I was, with ice cream and a muffin tray that was on offer. Muffin trays are ridiculously expensive now (I say everything is ridiculously expensive now, just because I am the one who pays for stuff now... and it's true that inflation is rather high...) I saw a muffin tray once, it was a really awesome silicon one, but I didn't buy it, then I went back and they didn't have it anymore =[ and all the other metal muffin trays are like £7... come on, it's only a muffin tin. So I bought mine for like £3.50 or something because it was half price =D As you can tell, I'm rather exciting about my muffin tin/tray... now I can bake good muffins =D 

So... I was in a really good mood, having bought contact lenses, ice cream, a muffin tin and some other random stuff... then I was humming to myself and swinging  my bag a bit until I walked past a police car with someone in it T_T That was embarrassing... I wasn't humming very loudly... but I always get super embarrassed... I never learn my lesson and keep singing/humming in public. These few days, there's been quite a lot of police around in Sheffield because of protests and stuff. Something about Nick Clegg is coming back and people are protesting against him... or something like that. 

I talk a lot... so here's just a few photos to make this post a little less wordy...

After making lunch, I ate jelly =] Raspberry flavour ^^ 

My new muffin tin =]
I am such a loser

Just Another Waffle

I've just been writing a lot in my blog posts recently. I thought I'd add a few photos to make it a little less boring. 

Yesterday's sky

This morning's sky

Pancake

As usual, blogging is one of my ways to procrastinate/distract myself/run away from work. Today's been a fairly good day. Though I woke up at a little bit pass half seven and then couldn't really get back to sleep properly. I finally got out of bed at 10am... then just doped around. Then I went to play badminton again today, I'm really glad I'm picking it up again. I really like badminton and I hope I can improve =] I miss those relaxed high school days where I have badminton training every Thursday lunch time. 

There's actually so much work to do, that thinking about it makes my brain melt. It's not quite helping that I'm cold (I had the window opened for about two hours just to freshen up my room) and I'm really full (from pancakes). The laundry is calling my name (not literally - I don't think I've gone crazy yet). But I was an idiot, today when I went to Tesco's, I didn't save my change for the washing machine... and I'm too lazy to go and buy something to get change. Besides, I had already bought all the things I needed to buy and I hate it when I have to buy something for the sake of getting change. I'll reassess the urgency of the laundry later to see whether it's worth the effort... 

Now I'm just writing lecture notes. I've -sort of - finished my tutorial work... I'm sure there's more to do but I can't be bothered anymore... I want to sleep. But I want to watch something good and entertaining. Dramas, for some reason, it's hard to concentrate lately... and I think most dramas now are pretty slow pasted and it's just a little annoying. Animes, I think I've watched most of the good ones, of course, there are always more out there, e.g. Ghost In The Shell that I'm yet to watch; and I still need to finish Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. 

I can't wait till tomorrow is over with for several reasons: I have three lectures and two tutorials tomorrow... I know it's only five hours (it's just like a normal day of school) but considering I have an average of two to three hours of uni a day... fivez hours suddenly seems so demanding. Also, I'l be seeing Na-chan tomorrow night. I'll be in London for a three-day weekend to meet my friend Ricardo who's from Portugal! I can't wait to see him =] and I'll be staying at Na's place... reminds me, I need to pack... I hate packing... When I'm going away for the weekend, I pack like I'm going away for a week. When I'm go home for a week, I pack like I'm going to a desert island for a month T_T 

Also, this netbook, to take or not to take? 

Take = not bored on the train. Plus I'm doing this photo project where I take ten photos each day... that way I can upload my photos each day. But it's heavy and adds to my luggage. 

Not take = I'll have to read a book on the train instead. But I'm also having problems concentrating when I'm reading recently. I can't upload my photos each day =[ 

Oh, the dilemmas in life xP 

Just Another Long Rant

Yet again, I have no arty contribution to my blog today. I haven't even finished (or continued, shall I say) the background I was working on. It's been really busy lately, and it's only been the second week into the term. Last weekend, I went to Manchester and it was awesome. It was wonderful to meet old friends again, especially one who I haven't seen for two and a half years, since I moved down to Hertfordshire. And I think, catching up with friends, seeing what they've been doing over the past year has been good. Sometimes, you just need those moments in life. 

I also bought lots (I say lots, but it wasn't that much, I wish I had bought more). I've actually eaten most of it already, and today's only Wednesday. I actually can't wait till my next trip till Manchester, I'm going to stock up like crazy. It's not that there isn't Pocky and stuff in Sheffield, but it's more expensive. If I was unaware, I would be willing to pay a ridiculous price for Pocky and all the other Japanese sweets, but you don't fool me when I know the prices >=[ There's this new Japanese store (which I mentioned in the previous post), and they were selling Pocky for £2.10 and Pretz for a similar price, the Chinese supermarket round here only sells it for 90p or £1.20 or something like that... but in Manchester I bought Pocky for 60p! So here's my mini rant on prices xD And just think about all the extra snacks I could buy from the money I save ^^ No one is going to separate me from my Pocky and cuttlefish (there's this snack which is called 'seasoned cuttlefish' according to the packet and it's damn amazing... It's not to everyone's taste but my life would be a sadder life without it ^^) 

I've decided that this post is going to be one of those where I talk a lot of myself. Interestingly, everyone seems to be blogging more about pictures and drawings and stuff. But in my old blog, my friends there and I used to just blog a whole page of writing... maybe blogger is just a lot less wordy? 

Today was my day off! YAY FOR WEDNESDAYS! I went bowling with some friends. First we went to Pizza Hut after I said I didn't like Nandos (we had a dilemma between Pizza Hut and Nandos). As usual, Pizza Hut had incredibly bad service. I wonder are they ever going to get it right? It's been so many years... surely some dude at the head office would have received enough and complaints and decide they must do something about it. There's really something wrong with the disciplines and management of that company. Today, I had to ask three times for a straw. The first time, the waitress said she'll get me one in a couple of minutes and walked off somewhere (she wasn't even going off to do something else that was urgent, in fact, she wasn't doing anything at all). Second time, I decided to try a different waitress, she also told me to wait a few minutes. Then finally, I asked the third waitress, and I finally got a straw. She also bought out a pasta dish my friend had ordered, then, just before he was about to eat it, he realised there was chicken in it. So they had to recook his dish, without the chicken. Another friend who ordered potato wedges for starters, then a small margarita pizza... but her pizza order was never placed. Sometimes I wonder will that place ever get things right? 

Then bowling was fun, after not bowling for so long... it felt a little weird but fun. I do regret not cutting my nails before hand though... because (maybe I'm bowling wrong) but I get this pain in my right thumb and after a few goes when the pain shows up... I'm worried about my nail breaking. It happened once and it was horrible. But nonetheless, I didn't come last. I only got one strike in two games, but it's a small achievement ^^ 

After bowling, I wanted to go shopping in town and make the most of my day ticket for the tram. But I had a stomach ache (I personally suspect the pizza because I hadn't eaten anything else that day besides my tea and biscuits which I have every day). Besides that, it was also because I was just super tired and needed to go home and rest. (Yes, I needed to rest, even though I did nothing but sleep till 10am and ate and went bowling... =.=") But the night before I was doing Purple Peace stuff till rather late; and boy, does making a website make your head hurt or make your head hurt? It makes your head hurt. Another thing I did on Saturday was discuss PP plans and this week I made a deadline for 21st February. That's the last day for the website to finish, and then we have to start promotions for our new website. But there's just so much to do on my super long to-do list. And the Purple Peace comic is driving me insane. But I know it'll all be worth it some day. PP is like my child (I know it sounds weird but just bare with it xP). 

Lastly, here's a little piano piece by koreanjeenyus. I can't even remember subscribing to him but I came across this video in my subscriptions and rather liked it =] 

Back To Uni

I started lectures again today. I was so tired though. Even though I slept till 9:30 this morning and I was really tired. My poster woke me up though... I heard it fall and since then it has been annoying me by refusing to stick on the wall >=[ but I attacked it with a huge blob of blue tack. Mwuahaha >=] 

This term is so much more intense compared to last term. I have two maths lectures instead of one so I guess I'll have to do double the work. And I decided to be a good girl and started to make notes already... but this chapter is huge and I'm bored already. Its about functions of  or more independent variables =[ 

Today I also went into town and bought some stuff. I bought washing up liquid =] because my flatmates keep using mine and I can see it running out very soon. I also finally bought a refill for my Ambi Pur thing (I bought it ages ago, when I first moved in, and I didn't know you had to buy the fragrance separately, so for months I've just had this 'plug')... It's one of those you plug into the socket but this one's a light sensor so it's on during the day and it turns itself off at night. But actually, that's just weird... I just switch if off at the switch. Because it's stupid if it's on all day, because after a while, you won't notice it. So I switch it off when I'm home, then I switch it on before I go out, so when I come back it's all nice and fresh =] 

My room is just too messy right now. I'll tidy it soon... I went into my flatmate's room to have a chat today... and her room in it's 'messy' state is ten times tidier than mine... 

Plus the winds in Sheffield are ccrrraaaazzzyyy. Long hair + wind = hair in face. I was walking back from town and I could hardly walk.

I don't have any drawings to post today. I tried to draw in one of my lectures... I did an eye from the side but that wasn't anything special. Then I drew this squirrel character from my folder, but that didn't turn out too well either... 

I'll post a different type of picture though. 

This is an email from DVDHeaven that came through today. I really want these JYJ (*cough*justJaeJoongreally*cough) t-shirt(s). But I was rather offended when I looked at the price. Firstly, they're crazily expensive anyway. And now I refuse to keep being ripped off by all these companies for these rubbish quality t-shirts *cough*mymirotictshirt*cough* =[ 

But the price difference between their t-shirts made me sad: 

JaeJoong: $59.04 USD 

YooChun: $83.04 USD 

Junsu: $46.94 USD 

I'm happy that JaeJoong's isn't $83.04, because $60 dollars is more affordable than $83 =.=" but why is JaeJoong's t-shirt cheaper than YooChun's? (In my head, I feel like: price of t-shirt = popularity) 

Actually I don't really know what's the main point I wanted to make. I just wanted to point out that they're different prices and that annoys me. 

Anyway, my brain energy levels are dropping rather rapidly... 

Have a lovely week ^^ 

Fill my mind with knowledge - whether it stays in there is another story

You'd be pleased to know I'm being a very good girl. I've been doing my management essay (wooo!!) <-- I think I was being so sarcastic to the point that I can't actually tell whether that was a sarcastic comment anymore...

Nonetheless, in simply words: words are not my forte. I'm running out of words. I keep using the word 'consider'. Consider this, consider that. (Words like 'however' and 'therefore' are words you'd find at least once in every paragraph in my essays T_T)

So I decided to go on thesaurus.com (crap website really, but nevertheless, it was my source of words during GCSE and AS English). I thesaurused (yes, I'm aware that's not a word) the word 'consider'. Of course, nothing useful came up. If there was another good word out there that could replace the word 'consider' I would have used it already.

Then something caught my eye... on the right hand side, they had this little box which said: "Today's word picks on Dictionary.com". They had four words: qiviut, couture, truculent and selcouth. Mind, when I typed 'selcouth', a little red squiggly line appeared beneath it o_O

I clicked on each word, read the definition and chose my favourite. So today, I'm going to share the word: truculent.

truc·u·lent

   

[truhk-yuh-luhnt, troo-kyuh-] Show IPA

–adjective

1. fierce; cruel; savagely brutal.

2. brutally harsh; vitriolic; scathing: his truculent criticism of her work.

3. aggressively hostile, belligerent.

Origin:

1530–40; < L truculentus, equiv. to truc-, s. of trux savage,pitiless + -ulentus -ulent

—Related forms

truc·u·lence, truc·u·len·cy, noun

truc·u·lent·ly, adverb

—Synonyms

1. See fierce.

—Antonyms

1. amiable, gentle.

I'm not sure whether this word will come in handy... but it seems like an interesting word to know. E.g. why are you being so truculent to that piece of paper? o_o not sure whether it actually fits in a context like that...

Since blogger red squiggly lined selcouth, I'm deciding to share that word too ^^

sel·couth

   

[sel-kooth] Show IPA

–adjective Archaic .

strange; uncommon

Origin:

bef. 900; ME selcouth, OE seldcūth, equiv. to seld ( an ) seldom + cūth couth²

—Related forms

selcouthly, adverb

The life of coursework: procrastination

Quick note before I click post: this is going to be a complaining post. Well, (1) I need to get the stress of coursework out of me, (2) this is part of my procrastination plan (writing this post has managed take about 10 minutes).

The title says it all. Basically, distraction is the key to procrastination. The general story is: I have a management essay due this Thursday and an economics assignment due next Tuesday. The management essay is about half done... I just have to waffle another 400 words about managers lying for the organisation... I have a general thought on it, but I just can't seem to express in it words... well, let's wait for the inspiration to come~~ (hopefully soon).

In the mean time, I've decided that I can't write about my economics assignment without reading the textbook and making notes first, but that numbs my brain after two and a half pages or so... so now I'm finding 'interest/productive' things to do rather than making notes. Mind, I have been working diligently for the past few hours making these notes.

At this point, you'll be thinking I did great, making notes for a few hours. What you don't know about is the five or six hours before I started making notes: I was watching Korean variety shows (again) whilst attempting the management essay and the econs assignment in turn every hour or so. In two days, I actually finished U-Kiss's variety show: Vampire. I've tried to watch this a few months ago but it wasn't that interesting... but then I desperately needed some distraction (omg, for a moment there, I had this word block and couldn't spell distraction... I was like: #des'? no, 'dis'?) <-- Excuse that moment of retardedness. Now I'm watching Chef's Kiss, another U-Kiss variety show... I was enjoying it until about episode 7, this was the point where I started to make notes and could no longer concentrate on reading the subs and keeping up... (I still carried on watching it though... I'm on episode 9 now T_T)

The life of coursework. Sigh. What can I say. I hate it. And it'd be much better if I was actually writing it right now rather than complaining on this blog...

I feel like eating sushi...

I've concluded that when I'm doing coursework: I eat a lot T_T

I bought some fizzy cola laces from Tesco's yesterday... I ate two packs yesterday and ate the other one today... it was three for £1. They didn't last very long and I was rather disappointed; not because they didn't last very long, but because they didn't taste that good (certain bites tasted really bitter =S) and eating them didn't make me feel any happier. I feel this is where the economics of happiness should come in... or maybe talk about marginal utility theory (some new micro stuff I learnt a few weeks ago) but I think I'll give it a pass and I'm sure not many people are interested to know.

If only writing the management essay is like blogging. I'm sure this post exceeds the extra 400 words I need to finish it.

Back to making notes... Annyeong~