Review of 2015

Before I gather my thoughts for this post, I always look back at what I've written at the start of the year, my resolutions and my review of the previous year. I realized that 2014 was a tough year for me but I had support endlessly which I'm forever grateful for. Thinking that 2014 was tough, 2015 was worse, it was bitter sweet. Sadly it was more bitter than sweet, never would I have thought that I would have to go through this in such early stages of my life. I saw that I put importance on health and not taking life for granted in my review posts which somehow along the months I suddenly have forgotten. 

For the first 9 months of the year, there were some struggles but it had not crossed my mind that it was hard or tough and this was until an incident changed my life forever. My significant other passed away on 22nd October. That was the worst day of my entire life. I cannot even put words to how I felt that morning when I received the news. His heart stopped beating in the morning where he was in the hospital.

It's still hard to talk about what happened so I'll write it in a different post on a different day. When he left, I lost my best friend, my lover, my family, my soul mate and a big chunk of me. The pain is still here and will continue to be with me as 2016 goes on. His death truly reminded me that health is important and during all days that has passed since my family have been supportive. I am forever grateful to my family especially my mother and my sister who have been with me. They truly showed me so much love and care.

I just one day at a time, I do not want to think too much. For now, I just want to grief his death so I didn't bother to think about the resolutions that I have set out for 2015. Honestly, I tried my best and with the events that happened I don't really care whether I succeed or failed but I will evaluate myself. Below are my 2015 resolutions and my progress.

• Eat healthily (I did manage to drink more water, less soda and also ate more vegetables)
• Exercise once a week (Nope)
• Plan my week and try to execute the plans (Worked for some weeks not all the time)
• Plan more blog posts (Failed)
• Learn more web development (Learnt a bit of javascript but have not practice it) 
• Be more positive (I think I was for a brief moment) 
• Grow more as person (I do care less what people think)
• Always think before I speak (Yeap)
• Control my emotions (Nope)
• Read 50 books (Only managed 43 books)

In the end, I feel that nothing matters anymore without him by my side. I just carry on and live while hoping that I will see him again someday. I will forever remember 2015 because of the pain and devastation that has struck my life.  To those who had a great year I'm envious of you, and to those who had a terrible year I pray that it will get better for you. What I plan to do for the year I will post about my resolutions for 2016. but it won't be much as some days I have motivation, some days I have none. 

Favorite books of 2013

My year in reading was fantastic as I was picking young adult titles that were new and unique to me. I usually read more adults books and this year after I picked up Divergent I researched for more books like these. I also Youtube people's book hauls, to be read and much and was expose to the booktube community. I was amazed as I did not realise there were so many channels doing this. I am so grateful for the books they introduced and reviewed as it help a lot to know what young adult books to buy. Most books I stumble upon are young adults book that are in the highlights shelves in the book store. Because much of those titles were made into movies hence I also followed the trend and read those books. 

This was also the year I join Goodreads and I was amazed with the database where there are a lot of ratings for books. It also recommended some good titles for me based on my genre interest. I'm quite happy with my reading progress and I hope I can do better in 2014. The books that I'm mentioning are not in any order and I love all just the same.

1. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell is a young adult contemporary book about two teenagers falling in love. It's cute, innocent, realistic and many many things about youth. It's certainly a story that is unique and touching. Here is my review: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2013/07/eleanor-park.html
2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is a young adult contemporary book about a girl going to college and she finds it hard to give up fanfiction while her twin sister does it easily and also does not want to spend much time with her. This coming of age story was super fun to read and it's adorable too. My review: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2013/10/fangirl.html
3. The coldest girl in coldtown by Holly Black is a young adult paranormal book where vampires are all quarantined and those suspected of the disease too. This is one vampire story that is unique and refreshing characters. The female protagonist is absolutely kick ass and brave.  Here is the review: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2013/10/the-coldest-girl-in-coldtown.html
4. Lola and the  boy next door is a young adult contemporary about a girl who got nervous when the boy next door is back. An adorable female character with a nice guy that is her neighbor and they used to be friends until something happened.  This is book can make you feel jolly because of the young and innocent love. My review: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2013/12/lola-and-boy-next-door.html
5. Insurgent by Veronica Roth is the second book in the divergent series. Although this book was published last year it was this year that I read the series and out of the three books I felt that this one was the best. The plots were good and there were good character developments. My review: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2013/05/insurgent.html
6. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare is the third book in the mortal instruments series and I felt that the plots were the best in this book. The characters were also fantastic as they grow quite a lot in this book. I've only read the first 3 books and this one is my favorite. The series is a good and unique to me. My review: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2013/10/the-mortal-instruments-city-of-glass.html
7. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare is the last book of the infernal devices series and this is my favorite book of the series. The whole series was fantastic but to choose the last book was the best one. The plots were good, characters are well developed and the ending was the best I could ever hoped for. My review: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2013/12/clockwork-princess.html

If you were to ask me to pick one out of those books, I would pick Clockwork Princess as my favorite for the whole year. The series was a fantastic prequel to mortal instruments and the ending was perfect. I also love the characters and the setting so so  much. The relationships between all the characters truly touched my heart and made me emotional at the end. I would definitely read this series again in the future. Truly a job well done by the author and I can't wait for more books from her.

Review of 2013

It felt like time really flew by quickly this year. It has been a tough year at the beginning months and those events really help me grew and gave me more insights. After some struggles, the following months was more calm and I'm grateful for that. The thing that changed was  my attitude and my maturity that I believe have been better now. Nearing the last few days of the year, I would think back and review my year, assessing how well I've progressed. Then I look at my resolutions post that I made at the start of the new and see whether I have achieved any of it. Sadly I only manage just a few. 

• Exercise more (hopefully twice a week)  did not achieve this
• Eat healthily (more greens, more water, more fruits and less fast food) I did it! I actually ate very little fast food which is less than 10 times
• Read 50 books I manage to read 37 books where 2012 I only read 27 and there were many great books, great reading year!
• Separate my book reviews elsewhere I did not work on it at all =(
• Blog more often I did not blog more than 2012 sadly
• Become more positive I think I am slightly more positive but there is room for improvement
• No excuses for laziness I did get lazy in my skin care sometimes but I did not slack on my book reviews for every book I read in 2013 I did a review.

I think I could have done better especially on exercising. In terms of getting closer to my dreams, I am quite far behind. Overall, it's been a calm and good year for me as I know there are many who have to struggle more. I am quite fortunate to be where I am now and I'm thankful to have the people I love beside to support me. As I end the year feeling grateful of my life and slight regret on my laziness, it is a must that I have new resolutions which I will do in a new post. Goodbye 2013 and thank you for being good to me.

Keeping up with dreams

I haven't been writing a post like this for a long time because I wasn't sure I should put my thoughts and feelings into words. For most of this year I have been trying to chase my dreams slowly but surely and at one point which was some months ago I thought of giving up as I couldn't see much results in it. I told myself that I'm working hard and I did but after reviewing myself I know that it's not enough.

I don't only have one dream and hence I have too many things to work on and thus I easily get distracted. I think I can multi task and handle more than one thing but it's easy to lose focus too. Even being a person who is persistence it isn't enough, you must really want it so bad, work so hard that even if you're tired you don't feel it. Reading is like that to me, even when I'm tired I still wanted to read and this passion is something that lasted longest in me. 

Blogging is also a passion but I'm reluctant to write about personal things here. When it comes to reviewing I sometimes feel that I'm not qualified enough to do so and I worry much about view of others. I know all these are setbacks and excuses to just give up but I do have a small glimmer of hope and so I continue to blog when I feel like it. When I know I have to do something I always have the negative thought of it first before thinking of the positive effect. I look at the bad side of things before the brighter side and this is a major hold and myself committing to my dreams.

When those things came that I do some self reflecting I'm quite saddened by the result as I'm clearly far from my dreams and achieving something I should have been able to. The person holding me back is myself and since it was so clear it still is not enough. I know it is time to act more and think less because all those thoughts will just come rushing in and clouding up my passion and enthusiasm. After writing this, I feel a slight relieve that I am able to admit to the world I didn't work hard enough and that's why I am not where I thought I would be now. So end of my emotional episode, less thinking more working. I hope whoever who has many dreams and you really want it, don't think too much but work on it. Use the energy as efficient as you can and slowly but surely you will be there.

Brave

Lately I've been inspired by music and it sort of gave me the motivation to do things that I planned to do. Laziness have always been a downfall to me in executing my plans and I wished I was that eager teenager I used to be. Being all discipline and diligent in studying for my exams which I lack now. Of all the inspirational songs, Sara Bareiles' Brave was really meaningful. I thought of my past and remembered how I was bullied a lot in high school, being turned into a laughing stock. I kinda regret how I allowed it to happen and never stood up to the bully.

Secretly the way I thought that I was standing up was to beat her in studies but she wasn't particularly interested in it in the first place.  If only I was brave enough to tell her that even though you are bigger, taller, and look prettier that doesn't give you the right to bully anyone but I couldn't because I was dumber. I hope that more people who listen to this song will be brave to do what you want, things you want to say, and just be yourself without fear.  I hope I will also be brave to step out of my comfort zone from now on.

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.

Beastie Bay : An Overview

When I saw that this game was free I had my doubts because all Kairosoft games are not free. Then I had a friend talking about it and said it was good and so I installed it on my tablet. This game is a mash up of the Kairosoft trademark and Pokemon on the gameboy. It's so addictive that I played it for more than four hours straight. The idea of the game is like Pokemon,  you rare beast which are your allies and they help you in your quest. Your mission is to unlock areas on your island and also help other islands with their monster problems. 

In Pokemon you travel around fighting Gym leaders, but this game you help people handle their monsters problem by clearing them off. The Kairosoft trademark in this game is every unknown land you discovered on your island it belongs to you. You have to build homes for your allies and they will help you in gathering resources. In your quests, you will get to save people who are trapped and they will be residents on your island hence you have more people helping out in gathering resources. Other elements of the game is your characters will have tools to help the journey and also your allies have equipment to help boost their stats.

Gifts from Jessica magazine

I saw this special edition from the Kinokuniya website and decided it was a good deal. I bought it last Saturday and I'm impressed with the gifts. I got a Winko Photo Frame said to be RM 149 and the quality of the frame is definitely there but not why it cost so much. I also got a Dior nail vernis and a Dior Top coat. I have yet to try the nail polish but I've tested a Dior nail polish before and one coat is enough. I'm told that not all nail polish will always give the same results so after I have tried it I will update this post with pictures of it on my nails. Below are some pictures of the packaging. It came in a really hard cover box and it was a sturdy box. The whole thing was quite heavy because the frame was made from metal and the box was heavy too.  Although I can't read Chinese well but the magazine has a lot of fashion shoots, products  info and make up shots that I enjoy. My mother can read Chinese so the magazine didn't go to waste. 

I've always liked the idea of magazines/ fashion catalog working with high end brands and including a gift with the monthly or quarterly issues. That way the readers get to enjoy the magazine and also enjoy the brand even if it's a small scale product. Good way to market your brand and get people introduced to it.