Random April Favourites!

This favourites really doesn't have any beauty products at all, as they usually do. But, here are the things that I enjoyed in the month of April.

Muji Products

Items from Muji: 2 black pens, light blue pen, dark blue pen, pencil case

Muji is a Japanese store that literally means "no name brand." And for that reason, I love it. I love how minimalistic and plain everything is. All of the labels can be stripped off for a sleek look. I haven't tried their paper or home products, but I'm sure in the future I will be making lots and lots of visits back to that store!

Mildliners by Zebra

I very recently got these highlighters in the mail from Japan, but they are an instant favourite. These pastel colours are so lovely and candy-like. Can't wait to actually start using these!

Avatar

I saw that "Avatar: Legend of Korra" was on Netflix and was immediately intrigued because I had seen some of "the Last Airbender" when I was a child. And, oh my goodness, let me just say that it's better than some of the shows that were meant for adults. A must watch. I also went back to "Avatar: The Last Airbender" just to re-jog my memory, and I'm so glad I did. I'm enjoying the two series immensely. I love how every second is either action-packed, hilarious, or adorable. Why can't we be benders?? ):

Drawing

It's been so long since I've drawn anything, and I'm so glad that I now have the time to do it again. I recently borrowed the how-to book from a friend and am having much fun drawing these chibis.

Word Swag

The last favourite is an app that I purchased in April. Word Swag lets you create stunning words to go with your stunning images. It's the app that I used to create the first picture of this post!

The First Year Experience

First year was an interesting year for me, but, now that its all over, I can look back and see what I've done. So here's a list of some of the things that I've done and learnt this year.

• This year was the first year I'd ever lived away from my family (except for summer camps, of course). It was a new type of freedom, which came with both good and bad things. A good side of freedom is being able to do whatever you want, when you want it. Want to eat snacks at 2AM? Go for it! But, being completely free isn't always good because you're stuck with doing things like laundry, and having to buy your own things.
• Unlike high school, attendance isn't taken in universities, as I'm sure most of you know. But, however, that doesn't mean you don't need to go to them-- even if in the moment they seem useless because near finals, you will regret that. I had a class where going to lectures seemed useless because the teacher would drone on and on about useless examples, however, when finals came around, I panicked because I learned that those examples were actually important (hopefully I don't make the same mistake again, haha) Contrastingly, sometimes lectures are truly useless. Like, my physics class, for example. Going there did not benefit me academically in any way. I was not more prepared for tests and I did not understand more material by going. In those instances, I don't think it would hurt to skip a few classes (or all the classes ;) )
• On Monday, I had to say goodbye to the campus, and my dorm, a place that had become my home for the year. It was bittersweet because yay summer! and because I had to leave knowing that I would never see my dorm again, or ever live on campus. 
• I learned that moving out can be fun, but it's super stressful. Many times, I caught myself wondering "How the heck did I fit it all into my suitcase when I came here?" 

So, what's happening now? Well, I recently found a summer job (but more on that later!) so hopefully, I will gain some new experiences and make money. As for next school year, that will be filled with moving out (to my own apartment!) and maybe, for the first time, getting my own pet.

Thanks for reading this catching-up post with me,
--J

PS: Now that it's summer, expect many more posts to come!

To all Those That say That Sexism is not Real

If I knew the source, I'd link it here, I'M SORRY

Recently, I've had many converstations, and seen many conversations happen in which people said that sexism does not exist anymore, and that women are just complaining. I'm going to try to refrain from swearing in this post, but What the heck!?!?! Like.... actually, what the heck; are you kidding me? I guess it can be hard to understand some of the struggles a woman may go through more often than men.

This is not to say that all these situations are exclusive to women, because in most cases, they are not.  But here's a compilation of stuff:

Don't exclude me because I'm female!

I've seen so many times where girls that are fully competent at a task (say basketball) get completely ignored by males. In the entire game, they would just not pass it to her, because she was a female, and apparently females, even if they're good at it, are not as good as the males. I understand that as kids grow up, there becomes more and more of a physical difference between the sexes, but, as kids, you're BASICALLY the same. So what's your excuse?

Like, I get it, don't pass the ball to me, ever, because I literally will ruin the game for the team. BUT that's not because I'm a girl, that's because I'm a slut. And, just because I, and other females, cannot play basketball does not mean that NO girl can play basketball. Your gender does not determine your ability to do things. Please, don't assume.

I can't study while your legs are showing!

Okay, I can't stand this one. So often, I see these articles about girls being sent home from school for wearing "inappropriate" outfits, when in reality, most of the time, the outfits are perfectly fine. "Please go home and change, your outfit is distracting." Distracting to who?! Are males going to jizz in their pants because they can't stand seeing knees, or arms, or some collar? Why must a girl need to go home to change an outfit where there's nothing wrong with it? So that the precious boys can learn? What are the girls going to do about the time that it took for them to get home and back? Don't girls need to learn too? 

I understand, if the outfit is actually inappropriate, it would be fair to send them home. But often, that's not the case. Here are some examples: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Wage gap... Complicated, but real.

Okay, this one is a bit of a hard one to exist... So I'm gonna let John Green do it for me XD here it is.

Child Marriage

This one just makes me a mixture of both sad and mad. Those poor, poor girls in less developed countries. They don't deserve that, no one deserves that. I just wish they had a chance to grow up, physically and mentally. I wish that they had more freedom in who and when they got married, and when they needed to have kids. It breaks my heart that this still happens. 

Being Feminine is not a bad Thing

Another video link for this one, I think they say it better than me. Here's a video of the creators of ASAPScience, in which they talk about the overwhelming amount of comments on their videos that criticize the way they act "like women", are "so gay." Neither of those things define how good of content-creators, or educationers they are. In fact, I think they're great at what they do, regardless of how they may present themselves. 

---

These are just some of the examples out there. (Honestly, I'm just super tired right now and this list is getting long anyways.... I wonder if anyone is still reading LOL) But yeah, sexism is still happening, all over the world. There are SO many things I have yet to touch upon. And one day, I hope that this stuff won't be a thing anymore, and that men and women will have the chance to be who they want to be without being discriminated because of their gender.

Thanks for reading,

--J

Who am I? ...I Don't Really Know.

Who is this girl? I have no idea...

I know that I'm weird, and I know that I'm random, but I really have know idea who I really am. I tweeted a tweet earlier on the lines of "you are you, and that's all you're ever going to be, so be the best you you could possibly be," and I've decided, it's time to find who I am, and the best I can be.

Today I realized that a lot of what I do isn't for me, it's for other people. For example, I wouldn't say certain things because other people didn't want me to, or not post a picture I liked because someone told me it wasn't good enough. Not only that, I would also wait for and desire validation from others, usually in the form of likes on social media.

I'm tired of this. I don't want to live a life where I'm pretending to be someone else, when I don't even really know who I am. So, from now on, I will post whatever I want, say whatever I want, when I want without a care in the world, because this is me.

It's time to find out who I really am. I'm going to do this by first finding out what it is that I like, and then putting it out there in the world, even if someone else doesn't like it, because, let's face it, someone out there will always be a hater. I want to study more, learn more, and create more.

Overall, I just want to be me, and just me. And, surely, someone out there will like me for who I am..... right!? (lol).

So yeah. Since this is a pretty big part of my life, expect more updates.

--J

4 Study Tactics That Work

After two weeks of intense day-after-day of evalutations, lab reports, and assignments, the knowledge of needing good study tactics has been even further ingrained into my head, haha. Here are 5 study tips that I try to apply every time I have a ton of things to do!

1. Interval Study

Much like interval training, interval study is when you study for a period of time (usually 30 minutes, for me) and then take a short break (5 minutes). When you have a lot of things to do, you might think the last thing you should be doing is wasting time on breaks (like who has time for that shit??) But, it is important to give your brain a bit of a breather once in a while. During your break, your brain will have time to refresh itself and process the information that you threw into it in the last 30 minutes.

An app I use for this is Forest (available on iOS and Android). Not only does this app notify  you when you finish your mini study session, it also prevents you from getting distracted by going on your phone! (Killing two birds with one stone is always the way to go!)

2. Electronics = OFF!

I've already touched on this point above with the app Forest, but guys, it is so so so important to eliminate your distractions by turning off your electronics! It sounds obvious, but you have no idea how much it can help until you actually do it. 

Sometimes, you might need to use the computer, but not the internet, in cases like that, I'd advise you to turn off the wifi. If you need the internet, then maybe look into add-ons that will ban you from using certain sites (ie. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) for a certain amount of time. Although I don't do this, an example of this type of add-on is StayFocused.

3. Have a Plan

It's a good idea to have at least a rouch idea of what you plan to accomplish every day. For me, I make a to-do list of all the things I ideally will finish every single day for a week, when I have busy weeks (eg. read chapter 12 for chemistry and finish lab report on monday). There's an actual week of my life where I did this, and it really helps! It's also a good idea to write down due dates, so you know the maximum amount of time you have to do something.

4. Lifestyle Matters

The way you live when you're super duper busy matters, too! If you're too stressed, your preformance levels will start to drop and you won't be able to do as much as you ideally could. So, to prep yourself so that you can achieve your maximum potential, get at least 6.5 hours of sleep. (I would say get a full 8 hours, but, really, who has time for that?) 

You are what you eat! Seriously! Putting junk into your body will only make you feel sluggish. Make sure you stay hydrated and fill your bodies with lots of nutrients! There are all sorts of foods that can help boost your brain power so you can get the most out of your time. Examples of these foods include avocados, blueberries, and broccoli. Read this for an explanation for what some of these foods are good for.

One last thing, IISuperwomanII recently posted a video called "5 REAL Ways to get Your Work Done" in which she outlines 5 seriously awesome strategies that we can implement into our lives when we want to get crackin'. (Seriously go watch it, it's an awesome video)

Anyways, I hope these were at least some what helpful. Do you have any tips that I didn't mention? If so, please let me know in the comments!

--J

DON'T BE SUCH A WASTE!

Hello from the other side!!! [..of midterms haha] I've actually thought about writing this post for a long, long time, but for some reason never got around to it. I think it's simply because there's so much stuff to write about that it just seems like a mammoth job. I'm gonna try to keep this short and concice though. This is a very important issue to me, and I've recently become a lot more troubled by it.. so here it goes!

I would add an image source... but I really cannot seem to find its source... so sorry!

In this day and age of mass purchasing and spending, we are wasting and throwing out more than ever! The average American makes ~4.5 pounds of garbage a day, and that's a statistic from 2007. I wouldn't be surprised if that number is much higher today.

Ever since going to university and eating university cafeteria food, I have been forced into many more situations where using reusable containers was not a choice. And as a person who hates wasting material, I feel absolutely terrible for using something for say half an hour and then throwing it out (ie. A coffee cup, or a paper plate). The campus where I go to school is home to another 12 thousand students. 12k students every day, using plastic cups, plastic utensils, paper/plastic containers, that's a huge amount of waste!

On a much bigger scale, think about how much garbage food courts make in a day just from one-use objects! And some times, you think you're putting your waste into recycling bins, however, nothing is being done. This is the case for Tim Horton's and Starbucks (at least, in Canada).

I encourage everyone to get aquainted with this topic, if they are not already. A great place to start is by watching "The Story of Stuff." To gain inspiration to start taking action, check out Mind Body Green to read the story of Lauren, an NYC girl who hasn't made any trash in two years.

Now, of course, you don't have to go to that extreme, because for many people, that kind of lifestyle is highly unattainable. But, if we all do little things collectively, we can provide a solution to a big problem. Instead of getting coffee in the traditional paper/plastic Starbucks cups, you can get your own reusable travel mug (and even get a discount!) Personally, I carry around my own set of utensils (fork and spoon) so I never have to use the plastic ones.

There's so many things we can do to put an end to this overspending on such unnecessary things that it seems silly to not do anything about it.



Thanks so much for reading,

--J

A New "New Year's Resolution"?

I said in an earlier post that I would only have 2, buuuuut, I think a third has creeped its way into my life.  The new one is..... exercise!

Now, now, I know that you all think, "Omg she is just like all the other annoying people who are like 'this year, I'm going to get super fit' and stop the regiment after a month." But I'm going to REALLY try. Try to exercise more, that is, just more, not every day.

I've been on and off following Cassey from Blogilates, but haven't actually done most of her workouts. But, recently, I've found myself back on her page more often and trying some of them out. (As a result, my body is sore to the max!)

If you guys also have exercise on your list of things to make a habit, and haven't given Cassey's workouts a try, here's one!

Have fun!

--J