Haute Comme 3 Pommes

Wow, there's less than hour to go before 2012 ends. I'm struggling to write a post that can express my thoughts coherently about this past year, so please bear with me! I`ll start with the top 3 highs and lows.

Lows:-Horrible grades despite my efforts and time spent on them
-A lot of self-hate for not being able to do well
-An emotionally draining friendship - to the point which I was ready to call it quits

Highs-Got an internship under a professor at my university
-Finding out what I love to study
-Making friends that I can laugh, cry, and spend time with for years to come

2012 was a rollercoaster year for me. There were times like I felt like the luckiest kid ever, other times I'd feel like a big ball of failure. This was the year I was supposed to do things right (academically) but I wasn't able to do it. There was a lot of pressure (all self-induced) to do well, and I'm sure that led to my academic epic fails. I wasn't happy, no sirree.In all honesty, I don't think I've felt so bad about myself until the last few months of this year. There was also a friend who, in my opinion, was asking for more than what I could offer. This did not help. I haven't been so angry at a friend before, and it was frightening to see that side of me come out. It would have been wiser to end that friendship (my other friends were for it), but I didn't. I'm glad I made that choice.

Although those events happened, I figured out a lot of things about myself. One, that I don't do well under pressure, so that has to go. Two, I'm the luckiest child in the world to have parents and friends who accept me for not my GPA, but for myself; they have been supportive and helpful in my times of need. In fact, my friends helped me find a back-up plan (since my Plan" A" went up in flames) that sounds just as good as Plan "A". Three, today might be bad, but there's always a tomorrow. And tomorrow will be different.

This post is getting too long, and there's less than 1 minute to midnight...

To 2012,
Thank you for allowing me to spend time with my beloved family.
Thank you for giving me friends that I treasure dearly
Thank you for showing me that in times of despair, there will be light

*start motivational talk*
It's been two weeks since I've posted, and oh boy, has my life gone up and down in that time. I won't whine,   I have to admit that I was subconsciously setting myself up for the crappy bits. In spite of it all ( oh look at me, using the English skills I paid for at university), I won't let the bad stop me from getting to the place I need to be.
*end motivational talk*

In other news, I got a small wage raise at work and became a big blob of burnt-out student today. And I don't care...YET. Big emphasis on the yet as finals month is rearing its head.
Today's big decisions:
-Get out of bed? Nope.
-Get out of my comfy pajamas? Nope. Okay I did, but it was hard. :(
-Read the wonders of cell junctions for the 3rd time? Nope.
-Solve lots of organic chemistry problems? Nope. okay I do this everyday but i gotta work on efficiency
-Speak like a sane person? Nope. Just kidding (?).

Okay, it's time to either get to bed, or try to review my Stats notes for online homework. I think sleep's gonna win this one.

http://hypetrak.com/2012/09/ms-mr-hurricane-twin-shadow-remix/
[Hurriane - Twin Shadows remix]

One of my favourite songs right now.

Well, I've clearly underestimated TforT big time. Putting it off until July was not such a great idea. Add a dash of frustration/ running out of my comfort zone for each illustration makes a not so fab experience. As much as I hate to admit it, I will not be able finish TforT by the time school starts - woo serving food to teenagers at the amusement park for the month of August / promised art for birthdays/ school-related things.

But that won't stop me. I can promise that all the sketches (pre-digital painting) will done, but colouring is another matter. If I live like a hermit for winter break, it'll be done. Maybe.

But to better things! I went to my first life drawing session since 2 years ago. I'd like to say I've improved (hallelujah for slightly better anatomy knowlege), but my sketches prove otherwise. Aka, I rocked the 3 minute and 5 minute poses, but still struggle with 30 seconds and 1 minute.

Ready for the art dump? Lets go.

I really don't want to stop with my little nerdy/anime phase right now, I've missed watching my shows so much! (currently watching Persona 4: The Animation then will proceed to this basketball one that my friends have been raving about and ATLA <3) Drawing original work has become harder when fanart is constantly swirling in my head. Stop it self, TforT is the thing you should be focusing on.

Here's a chibi from Avatar The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra. He's such a playa. Will have him coloured and ready for love tomorrow.

Feeling lazy on a nice day is a bad sign. I should probably head out for a run. Then again, I did do my first Grouse Grind run with A yesterday (1 hour and 8 minutes for my first time, very pleased). Which was quite wet and foggy. Surprise surprise, we live in Rain City. Thanks A, for bearing with me and telling me to slow down! I probably would have lost any motivation to keep moving somewhere after the halfway point.

*Brb, doing quick painting of a character before I get back to TforT (my new shorthand). I leave you with these two great videos. If you don't smile AT LEAST, we can't be internet friends anymore.

Remember my post about living life like a parisienne, simply spending time at cafés and enjoying time with your companions? What a beautiful - and expensive- past-time. Well, here's the visual accompaniment to that, with my lovely senior classmate, H!

For dinner, we had ramen at this small restaurant on Robson and Denman. We were lucky enough to avoid a big line-up - H claims that that particular restaurant has high quality ramen. While we waited, we ordered our ramen. You can pick the richness of the broth(this is based on how much fat they put in) , the cut (fat or lean) of the meat, and extra toppings. As we made our way into the shop, I was mystified. It had the exact layout of what I would imagine a traditional ramen shop would be like (I blame two RPGs for this haha). As mentioned before, dinner was good for the price we paid (well, I paid).

Afterwards, we left the restaurant with warm bellies... which were ready for dessert. The plan was to have cheesecake, but we ended up at this upscale patisserie (H's friends changed their minds) which I've longed to visit for a while now.When I heard the news, I might have started talking in an octave higher than I normally do . And started doing funny hand gestures. Classy. H paid for dessert, and I got 7 fabulous macarons while they got a spiked tea. Then we sat with their friends and had a lovely conversation while enjoying the sunset.

Eye Eat 17: - Spicy Garlic Ramen with medium broth and lean pork (H's)
                   - Miso Ramen with light broth and lean pork (mine)

[mine]

The verdict: I thought my miso ramen was good, but there were some things I was iffy on. First, the broth. Maybe it's just me being a pansy about spicy things, but there was a spicy note to the broth. The last time I checked, miso was not spicy. In spite of this, the broth was flavourful and I enjoyed it.Another thing which I wasn't fond of was the cut of pork. Lean meat doesn't mean dry meat. Enough said.

Eye Eat 18: Macarons - lemon, raspberry, mint, passion fruit, salted caramel, gianduja (fancy word for chocolate hazelnut), and earl grey.

[beautiful presentation, I felt bad opening the box haha]

[passion fruit, salted caramel, and mint macarons]

*the sudden improvement in image quality is accredited to a different camera with manual focus

The verdict: Between this patisserie (that H and I visited) and the one where I got the caramel macaron, I personally favour this one. These macarons were more dense and cake-like, and generally more rich in filling. Take for instance, the lemon macaron (not pictured since my camera died and I ate it). The lemon ganache/ filling was thick and bursting with lemon flavour. The mint one turned out to be a pleasant surprise! I expected the ganache to be too minty for my taste (something similar to the paste in After Eight chocolates), but it was very light. However, the earl grey one was a miss. I've actually never had earl grey tea (I haven't developed a taste for citrus teas), but I felt this one wasn't up to par with the others. There was something off with the flavour - I can't describe it in words. If there's one that I'd recommend to my friends/classmates to buy, it'd be the raspberry one. There were raspberries in the shell, and this provided a nice, fruity note to the almond taste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JXMdpGpfBU&feature=related

This piece captures the essence of a good evening. All you need is someone to talk to and good food. Once those two components come together, magic happens. You forget about the daily stresses of life; the burdens of tomorrow are washed away with a wave of calm. Plans, schedules, they all slow down and come to a gentle halt. There is no such thing as moving forward. All you want is to live in the simplicity of those wonderful moments.