2013 Resolutions!!

The first day of the year has always been a holiday for me through my years. Even though it is a holiday it's not a day I actually enjoy because when I was young it was a day I feared. What I feared when I was in school days was I was going to start a new school year which results in having to learn new subjects, having new teachers and exams all over again. Among all those that I fear, growing older is a fear of mine. Every now and then I have the same fear and it's because I always feel I could have done more this year. So this year my biggest goal is I must do more than I did last year. It is something that is really general but I hope every night I will evaluate the day and make goals for the next day. I have put a lot of thought into my resolutions that will put me closer to my dream coming true.

• Exercise more (hopefully twice a week)
• Eat healthily (more greens, more water, more fruits and less fast food)
• Read 50 books (trying to achieve this again this year)
• Separate my book reviews elsewhere
• Blog more often (I have this every year because sometimes I'm lazy and I  need to stop this habit)
• Become more positive (I'm a pessimist)
• No excuses for laziness

These resolutions are what I believe that will help improve my lifestyle and also bring me one step closer to my goal. It's hard to achieve it but saying it's hard is a negative thinking so I'm trying to switch to I can do it, I can grow more and I can be better than I was before. I won't say I will try but say I can instead and instead of hoping I will make it an action. Let's all work harder towards a better tomorrow and grow as a person. Happy New Year!! 2013 will be a great year! Lots of love to everyone all over the world. 

Looking back at 2012 >.<"

It had come to that time of the year again where I reflect on how 2012 was. I started with reading back on my blog post on 2012 resolutions and realized I didn't complete most of it. I guess I drifted away from it which is sad because I didn't stay focused enough. So below is this year's resolution and my analysis

• I realised that if I wanted to read a book a month then I won't achieve reading 50 books this year, therefore I have to change it back to reading a book either a week or just slightly pass it. Sadly I did not manage to read 50 books but it was more than 2011. In total I read 27 books which was slightly pass half of the amount.

• I only played one game which was a professor Layton series and I loved it

• Continue learning Japanese myself have to relearn everything again. This is the saddest thing I've realized because I left this alone since the first quarter of the year.

• Share my learning experience on blog as often as I can I think I did?

• Gain weight ( a big challenge for me) I'm happy to say I've gained 2kg but my target was 5kg

• Stay fit (eat well, drink less cold drinks/ soft drinks, eat more vegetable) I've learned to eat more vegetable, manage to cut out soft drinks (maybe cheat a little), manage to less fast food.

• Take more photos and learn photography and photo editing Nope

• Learn eye make up techniques Too little

• Learn new programming language Failed T_T

Even though I seem to fail at my resolutions but there are certain things that went really well this year. Firstly I have picked up a sport, picked up a hobby and made new friends. Spending time with my new friends was fantastic and my new hobby resulted from hanging out with them. I didn't read 50 books but I'm proud I did read more than 20. The thing that made the difference for me this year is the boost of visit in my blog and I'm glad that my Kairosoft tips are appreciated. I am also happy that I got a tablet because it made reading eBooks easier than on my mobile. There some things that I'm not proud of and I will work harder to make a difference, there were many lessons that I learnt and I hope I can apply those things my life in 2013.

I have not made up my mind in what new resolutions I want to set, maybe tomorrow after lamenting the good things of this year I will write a post. For now I like to wish everyone in the world a Happy New Year and I wish there will be less war, less disasters and more happiness in the world. I also hope the world economy will be better and recover instead of getting worse.

Laniege products that I love

Laniege is a brand from Korea that is famous for using Himalayan Snow water as an ingredient. I first got to know the brand from a Youtube beauty guru Bubzbeauty where she was talking about the sleeping mask that was a star product of the brand. You wear the mask to sleep and you wake up with bright, soft and supple skin. I'm not a mask users then and so I decided to try the mask. I was really impress with the results the next day because my skin was so soft even better than the normal moisturizer. Another thing I love about this brand is that their promotion sets always offer a lot of travel size of their products. The beauty consultant is also generous in giving samples. 

After testing the travel size multi-cleanser, I fell in love with it. I was comparing it with my experience with other cleansers and this one after wash my skin felt fresh and most of all it felt soft like after I applied the sleeping mask. So I tried more products and felt in love with more of them. The products I bought are all over period of time since last year and I have been slowly changing into the brand from Estee Lauder. 

I love the smell of all their products that I purchase, it smells really fresh and soothing. The water essence and the water bank gel moisturizer have watery texture and it absorbs into the skin really quickly, after that my skin feels so soft to touch. I really love how this product has worked for me because lately Estee Lauder has stopped working for me which was saddening. Another thing I like to mention is the price point for this brand is definitely above drugstore but below brands like Estee Lauder, it's somewhat on par with Clinique and this factor is one of the attractions for me because it's value for money. Lastly the packaging of the products are very sturdy plastic, the essence and moisturizer are in glass which the only downside is it will be heavy to travel with.

Free travel size with purchase of sleeping mask

wonderful packaging

face scrub which smells so berrylicious

Another face mask to keep skin hydrated takes only 5 to 10 minutes

travel size of the essence, sleeping mask and multi cleanser

Christmas value set, 2 sleeping mask inside

Christmas set with water essence and water bank gel moisturizer

Multi cleanser, cleansing oil (remove makeup) and Christmas special 400ml toner

Products removed from the boxes, look at how cute the Xmas toner bottle look

Cleansing oil and cleanser

After I'm done with this bottle I'm keeping it

Sleeping mask, water bank gel cream and Water bank essence

I highly recommend you go to a Laniege counter and get samples because they are always generous and happy to help. Hope this "review" helps because I can't really write like a beauty guru.

SG trip Dec 2011

Since my grandparents have moved to Singapore each year I will make two trips to visit them. So I was sorting out my camera memory card and I realized that I forgot to share these pictures of the trip. It's all pictures taken in Orchard Road and that time was 10 days before Christmas so the place was already decorated for the occasion. The decorations were not as beautiful as the previous year and there wasn't much to see in the daylight. There was an interesting display of elephant decorated by various people all over Orchard Road and I thought that it was better than the Xmas trees around the area. The elephants decorated by various people have a description telling what it meant.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Please click this link for more pictures: more pictures

Nexus 7

Got my tablet recently and I am excited to use it for various thing. This is my first ever tablet so I get to do anything I want with it =P. My dad has the Ipad 1 and I could only borrow it occasionally for games but it ain't games that could keep me occupied for long.  One thing that I'm excited on having this tablet is that I could start buying eBooks and reading it on my Nexus 7. My cupboard is full of books and I don't have space to keep anymore books hence eBooks are my options. I like the size of the tablet, as you can see from the picture below it is slightly smaller than this book. Of course it's also bigger than some other books but the size is just nice for my hands to hold it. 

Many things that I use my smartphone for will be transferred to the tablet such as games and reading (eBooks, websites, blogs, news). The reading experience is pleasant as it's not small and just right for the eyes. The only comparison that I can make is between my smartphone and the tablet in terms of size and the lighting. This tablet is definitely smoother than my smartphone as it has a quad core in it and also using Jelly bean (latest Android OS) while my phone is on dual core using Gingerbread. The difference in loading games are noticeable and the tablet is definitely faster. 

2012 resolutions

Well another year has passed by so quick it felt like nothing changed for me. In terms of career, life and everything else I think I was kinda stagnant without budging a bit. Although it's that way but it wasn't a terrible year, I got to travel to Singapore three times and it was all great. Visited the Universal Studio Singapore and had loads of fun there, wished I could have spent longer time though. 

It was a year of stability and staying in my comfort zone all the time which made life boring, but in a good way. When I looked back at the resolutions that I made on 1st of January 2011, I didn't achieve any of it, which was sad. I told myself I was going to do it but then I end up with no time because I spend most of my time watching Youtube videos and TV Series. So this year I'm gonna stick to the old resolutions and add some new ones. So here it is:

• Read 1 book in a fortnight and review it. Gonna change it to once a month I realised that if I wanted to read a book a month then I won't achieve reading 50 books this year, therefore I have to change it back to reading a book either a week or just slightly pass it.
• Travel to Singapore and visit Universal studios (hopefully I will dare to sit on the roller coasters)  I did sat on the Mummy ride
•  Finished my Nintendo DS games that was released since 2009 (totally abandoned it already)
• Continue learning Japanese myself ( pick up from where I left off last year) have to relearn everything again
• Share my learning experience on blog as often as I can
• Gain weight ( a big challenge for me)
• Stay fit (eat well, drink less cold drinks/ soft drinks, eat more vegetable) I did manage to drink less cold drinks
• Take more photos and learn photography and photo editing
• Learn eye make up techniques
• Learn new programming language

That's quite a lot to achieve but hopefully it's more doable. In terms of reading it really depends because I sometimes I have the privilege to read more and some nights I'm too tired to read. But I read chic lit faster than fantasy books because fantasy tends to be thicker than chic lits. This year there are a few books I'm looking forward to, Meg Cabot is going to publish a new series for Heather Wells, Sophie Kinsella has a new single story coming soon and Trudi Canavan (my favorite fantasy writer) is ending her Traitor Spy trilogy. Movies that I'm looking forward this year so far is The Avengers and Dark Knight Rises (totally love Christopher Nolan's works).

I hope this year I will grow more as a person, become positive (really negative person), challenge myself more (read 50 books) and live a healthier life (picky eater). This year I want to come out of my comfort zone and do something that I feel passionate, I've had some plans going on and I hope to make those plans come in fruition, so please look forward to some new things. I wish everyone will have a promising year coming this 2012, don't forget good luck, positive mind and healthy body. Thank you for reading and I will try to post more often in my blog. Happy New Year!!