New School Year & Fashion's Night Out!

Hey hey hey! And we are back with another school year!

Wow, I can't believe summer vacation went by so fast. It's unbelievable that today is the last day of August - wow! These three months didn't even seem productive at all! I certainly didn't do so much. I had a volunteer job at the hospital and took some courses and caught up with some of my good friends.

I was not as productive as I was last year, at all! Didn't go to a lot of new places but I've been around DUMBO/Brooklyn Heights-area. It's quite beautiful; don't underestimate anywhere that isn't in the city.

I am so excited - next Thursday, as most of you know, is Fashion's Night Out! Boy, am I stoked! For those of you who don't know what Fashion's Night Out is, it's a one-night event (usually a day or a few days before September 11th) around the country, more exclusively in New York, where stores and boutiques have special events such as celebrity appearances, free cocktails and snacks, parties, prize giveaways, special gifts with purchases and such! Last year, I was at Lord & Taylor, where celebrity photographer and America's Next Top Model judge Nigel Barker was the special celebrity and shoe designer Vince Camuto was the special designer, and it was crazy, I tell you. Girls were screaming over Nigel Barker (who could blame them?) and Vince Camuto seemed like a laid-back, nice guy. Well, the events at Lord & Taylor just got better this year with Beyonce's little sis Solange, Ivanka Trump and Vince Camuto! Also, the Macy's events seem pretty extraordinary, so I'll possibly be going to that one.

If anyone is interested, I will post some photos from the upcoming one-night special. I hope many of you ladies will get the chance to go next week because it'll make your night unforgettable! Until then...ciao!

It's June Already?

Hey guys! Hope everyone's having a laid-back break so far (at least for us college kids). School has ended 3 weeks ago for me, 4 weeks in 4 days, can you believe!

But so far, I haven't really done anything productive, except catching up with a few friends (whom I haven't seen in MONTHS) and basically just applying for jobs everywhere. I've probably filled out at least a hundred applications, I can only name 5 or so at the top of my head. It's stressful when you don't have as much experience.

Alternatively, I am taking summer courses. I'm actually getting ready to go to my first class right now, (but I won't tell you where). :P At least I'm trying to compensate my grades for better ones.

It has been really windy over the last few days, which is not something we always look forward to in the summer. I have a feeling the highest it'll go this summer is around mid or high 80s, like 2 summers ago. Fine by me!

Anyway, I'm about to leave to catch my bus for class in a few. I just hope it won't be as stressful!

For All You Mamas:

Happy Mother's Day! (Only if you're a mom.)

I can sadly say that due to my hectic finals week schedule, I cannot celebrate this Mother's Day formally with my mother. Luckily, she understands but I still feel horrible inside.

For those of you who have moms, love your mother with all your heart. You might hate your mother for her annoyance or whatever it is that of her annoys you but bottom line, she's still your mother who cares deeply about you.

A few days ago, one of my cousin Jason's best friends, whose mother passed away four months ago, drank a bit too much and was crying hysterically about wanting to see his mother, in the middle of the night, on my block. I was at first, a little irritated by the noise from outside at two in the morning, but when I heard what he was saying, I couldn't help but shed a few tears because I couldn't imagine my life without my own mother. He was standing on the road, and couldn't care less about getting hit by a car. My mother, whose room is right across from where he was crying, was woken up by his rage and started getting teary as well. I guess my mother is one of the very fortunate ones whose mothers are still well and alive at the age of 81. But here was a 25-year old guy with three younger brothers under his wing, a widowed father, and has a low-paying job at KFC, who doesn't mind that he doesn't have too much to provide for his own family; all he wants is his mother back.

Even though I feel bad for not being able to celebrate Mother's Day with my mother, I'm going to make it up to her for sure. I promised her I will treat her dinner or lunch at the restaurant of her choice, no matter how expensive because, well...she's my mother. And if your mother is still around, do something for her, even if you think getting her a store-bought card is nothing, it'll mean the world to her. My mother has stored every card I've ever given her, even the ugliest cards I made from grade school, from Valentine's Day, Christmas, and Mother's Day.

Royal Fairytale

It's official: Prince William's college sweetheart of nine years, Kate Middleton, is officially the Duchess of Cambridge!

In case some of you are wondering, she's not Princess Catherine as many think she is, given her marriage to Prince William. She is also not to be referred to as just 'Kate' now, but formally as Catherine. As most of you know, she's referred to as a 'commoner' and because she wasn't born as a royalty, she cannot have that title, but didn't she look just like a princess from one of the Disney films? In addition, she's also known as the Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus, and Her Royal Highness Princess William Arthur Philip Louis. So many different names for one person, right?

Speaking of the Royal Wedding, it was magical. I'd never imagine people from all over the world would go to London just to catch a glimpse of the wedding but there they are, millions of people have come to London to be one of the millions to witness the Royal Wedding live. There is an estimate of two billion people from around the world that were watching the wedding, some even waking up at 4 a.m. EST to catch it live on television! Catherine looked stunning in her bridal dress, designed by Sarah Burton of the late Alexander McQueen, made from French lace and English lace. The dress has inspired many brides-t0-be to choose a very similar-looking dress, for which the Duchess' dress will stand as an inspiration for a long time. Catherine walked graciously down the aisle among 1,900 guests with the likes of David & Victoria Beckham, Joss Stone, Elton John, and Rowan Atkinson and 40 foreign royals.
At 8:25 a.m. EST, the newly wedded royal couple stood on the balcony of Buckingham Palace and kissed not once, but twice!

Procrastination: Based on Attitude?

Most of you are probably too busy studying to read this at this point but procrastination is a big issue among students, especially when it comes to homeworks and exams. I'm pretty sure most of you have heard your friends whining on their Facebook statuses, saying how much they're putting off this and that, but we never tend to think about why we do it.

When we are overwhelmed by multi-tasking, especially during very important periods such as midterms and finals, we tend to do things that are important first, in a descending order. Everything comes off as stressful at first but slowly comes off as laid back as the least important tasks, the ones that we think are easy, are put off to last.

A high school senior from Roslyn High School takes the dodge to research why students procrastinate. Caroline Trezza of Roslyn Heights, Long Island surveyed 168 sophomores and juniors to find the cause of procrastination, to see the difference between motivation and self-confidence that affect their ability to complete assignments on time as part of her research for the Young Epidemiology Scholars contest, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for which she won second-place with $35,000.

Trezza, who says she also puts things off herself at times, concluded that those who were confident tend to get things done faster. To avoid procrastination, students should be taught to make completing tasks a priority at a very young age so they could easily be more acclimated in getting things done faster.

In my opinion, I don’t think the factor of procrastination has much to do with whether a teen is confident or not. In my high school, there were many students who were confident, or appeared confident, but most have failed to complete assignments on time. Confident or not confident, it varies on each person’s motivation to learn how to make things a priority no matter how important things are. As someone who is caught up with many assignments, I try to align my tasks in a descending order of the most important to least and sometimes by the time I get to the last, I figure how easy it would be to get that task done and I hold off by taking a break. I think many students try to make their work a priority, no matter how confident or not confident they are.

Finals: Self-Exhaustion?

At this time of the year (or should I say semester?), college students are the busiest. Actually, at this time and in the middle of December. And you might ask why. For one, finals week is approaching fast and some of us are so behind lessons, we have to catch up (*coughs*). Yes, there's so much cramming during finals, we lose sleep and can't eat a decent meal. What's worse is that the weather in New York is heading towards the 80s soon and we're stuck [at home]. At least it's better than not being able to go out during 90 degree weather, right?

Here is some advice for those of us whose nervous systems are about to blow up:

1) Take a 10 minute break. It won't kill you. Grab an iced coffee, mocha, latte, whatever fulfills you. Did I mention that Baskin Robbins is doing a 31 cent scoop tomorrow night? That should be break-worthy.

2) Take a nap. Even a 30-minute nap is fine. Staying up for 48 hours straight is no good at all and can affect the brain, which is something we all don't want. Especially for a final. Besides, your eye-sight can become worse if you face the computer screen or book all day. Ladies, you don't want poofy eyes now, do you?

3) Take a nice bath. Don't think about the work. Forget all your problems during that time!

Go Eco-Friendy!

Everyone knows it’s cool to be environmentally friendly, or “eco-friendly” and “green” (whichever name you prefer to call ‘being good to the environment’) these days.

Sure, you ditch those plastic bags they throw all your groceries in at the supermarket and use your own reusable bag, separate paper and plastic from regular garbage, recycle bottles, reuse scrap paper, and even drive around with your hybrid car. But what’s better than going to a free concert, knowing that you’re actually saving the world by doing so?

Origins, a cosmetics brand, known for their organic and natural skin care products and makeup went over the top this month to promote environmentalism.

On March 21^st, Origins at the metro-New York locations were handing out goodie bags filled with containers made from recycled products and two free concert tickets to see Train at their “Origins Rocks Earth Month” at Webster Hall on April 20^th, in exchange for pledges to be greener.

Last Wednesday, Train rocked the house with a packed venue and gigs. To go further in being green, a tree was planted for each attendee. Pretty cool! Opening acts included singer and song-writer Nikki Jean and winners of “Origins Rocks Earth Month Green Artist Search” Treetop Flyers, hailing all the way from London. As soon as Train took the stage with a train-like entrance, the crowd went wild. They covered some of their hits from their past albums and from their recent album “Save Me, San Francisco”, such as the first hit off their self-titled and album, “Meet Virginia”, “Calling All Angels” and “Soul Sister”.

In the midst of the event, lead singer Patrick Monahan awed his fans by picking eight girls up to the stage, or as he calls them “Trainettes”, to have their 15 minutes of fame. Before the night ended, Monahan unexpectedly walked through the crowd, taking pictures and hugging fans while singing “Marry Me”. You can only imagine how every fangirl went gaga, right?

To close the concert, what better way is there to end the night than playing none other than their biggest hit “Drops of Jupiter”, which struck most with nostalgia? All in all, it’s probably one of those small concerts you will still remember in 10 years. Who wouldn’t the lead singer of a three-time Grammy Award winning band that soared through the crowd? I think we’re all intrigued!

But that wasn’t the only thing Origins did to promote environmentalism. This past Friday, people had the choice of choosing one of the two cleansers Origins gave when they traded in their empty bottles of skin care, in honor of Earth Day. Millions of cleanser-striving lovers awaited outside their local Origins counter to open like Black Friday for free