CVS is my best friend

I've been travelling so often that this has become long neglected - right now I'm in Maine with Olivia and Rachi, eating a lot of Thanksgiving food and enjoying great company in a gorgeous house. Last weekend was Minnesota with Matt, Ginny, Jack, and some new friends; shopping, revelry, and general excitement. As I'm blogging from the iPhone I can't put up photos yet, but they'll come in time :) wordposts will come too, but iPhone typing is slow enough as is without having to deal with my inevitable word vomit, so I'll leave that till I return :)

As a shallow-but-fun filler: I have to let you know that I love drugstore makeup. It's great to run into CVS for tissues or snacks and leave with a new eyeshadow. Its like a free gift, until you remember that paying with a credit card still means you're using real money, dammit.

But makeup in general just makes me happy: it makes you feel more confident, more attractive, but more than that, the act of putting on your face just makes you feel fresh and ready for the world. Sure, some of it is for the benefit of others, but its also just for my own enjoyment. I don't like caking product onto your face, and I don't take hours to apply it or refuse to be seen without eyeliner (that's ridiculous) - but I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at a decent ten minute everyday face. And getting to play with colors and pencils is just an artistic dream :) there's a reason I love any chance to do costume makeup - Halloween, Sevens, spirit events, etc...

Anyways. Back to my real point. While you should splurge on nice cosmetics when they're worth it, there are some drugstore finds that are absolutely easy simple gorgeous for a fraction of Sephora cost. And as a sterotypically cheap Asian, I feel like I should tell you about some products I'd rave about. This isn't an advertorial as unfortunately no brand in their right mind would ever pay my little self to talk them up in my obscure Internet corner of the world, so you can trust me that I find this stuff legit:

(accompanied by crappy photos I just took with my iPhone)

1. Milani eyeshadow boxes





These are the most incredible eyeshadows ever: long lasting and super pigmented. They just lasted me an entire Thanksgiving day and three naps without any primer, and they are pigmented enough to be Stand Out Awesome without looking cakey, dry, or excessive. A lot of shadows (especially matte ones) don't blend or sit well; these are fantastic. Keiko Lynn at keikolynn.blogspot.com uses them as well, and she does gorgeous makeup so I'd trust in that.






Here's a slightly better photo of the pigmentation, I'll try to replace it when I can use photos from a real camera. This is just one set, they have plenty of other colors: less than $10 USD for six shadows in one box. SUPER RECOMMEND! Not kidding! I am not even good at applying eyeshadow, but these ones go on incredibly!

2. A whole bunch of L'oreal stuff





So here's where I got lazy with the photography. From left to right:

-l'Oreal HiP Color Rich Cream Crayon in green: Ultimate in the lazy person's makeup arsenal. Just pop it open - it twists up so you don't end up abandoning it after it goes blunt because you don't have a sharpener - and slick it on, and you have perfect cat eyes lined and shadowed in 5secs. No exaggeration. Perfect for days where you're late for class but want to look decent despite the morning hair and oversized sweats. Blends well, is soft and slides on velvety, and won't run...an essential with my eyeliners as I've walked aroud in public with massive panda eyes on way too many occassions. Including an ENTIRE formal dinner. Bitches never let me know!

-L'Oreal liquid eyeliner: every girl should learn to use a good fine liquid liner because it's just so much longer lasting and precise. There are lots of other good ones on the market, but I use this one and it has a good applicator brush. Love it.


-l'Oreal HiP eyeshadow: Not as much value for money as the Milani, but I bought this one for my Halloween flower makeup and it's also got a decent pigment and color pallette.

4. Tube-style mascara





The two pictured here are Fiberwig Deja Vu, an Asian Sasa staple, and L'Oreal Double Extend, the American CVS substitute. TUBE MASCARAS ARE INCREDIBLE. They basically coat your lashes with little fibers that extend them indefinitely but are light as air, giving you long lashes that never fall out. Added plus: the mascara NEVER leaks, but comes off with warm water if you pull it lightly off your lashes. Sounds weird, but it's simple and gentle; the perfect mascara for short-lashed girls like me.

The L'Oreal version comes with a white primer step that helps extend and thicken lashes, the brushes are also slightly easier for application. But if you leave it on overnight, it will dry out and cling. Fiberwig has the same function and works consistently, but without the two step process. If you turn the brush so that you apply with the pointed tip instead of the long edge, you can vamp up lashes with fibers as long as you want them! It's like paint on fake lashes, and God knows I love fake lashes.

4. Ponds Cold Cream





Finally: take off your makeup, ph00ls. Don't wreck your skin by sleeping in it, no matter how hungover/high/tired you may be. This stuff is easy, oil based, unfussy, and can work with or without water. Might not be great for oily skin, but it works well for me and lasts ages.

So that's how I save money and still look like a million dollars (just kidding. My vanity does have bounds). But regardless, the only things I splurge on are blush, gel liner, and skincare. Drugstores are great, hit them up. And then someone tell L'Oreal to sponsor me, cause that'll just be the icing on this extremely unimportant cake.

Alternativey, you could just buy me expensive makeup that I clearly cannot afford. But seriously, if you swear by any cheap makeup staples by all means let me know!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you non-Canadians! I hope y'all had great meals, cause I just did :)

Lovexxx yvonen

- Posted using BlogPress for the iPhone. Cause Yvonne is a massive geek.

Transit

In Minnesota with the boys, Ginny included. Updates forthcoming, but for now I'm going to spend as much time as I can off of the Internet and on top of Matt onto life in the outside world. Temporary goodbye :)

Debaters know how to best Break It Down

So I disappeared from the blogosphere again. Why? Three words: Brown Debate Tournament.


I've spent almost 48 continuous hours this weekend with the team organizing & hosting the Brown Debate Tournament, an 80-team 20-pointer parliamentary event. And it's been a hell of a lot of work, but also a hell of a lot of fun. Holing up in the tab room running hand-tab, crunching numbers, and stuffing envelopes? Hitting up emergency after emergency? Carrying jugs of cold juice across campus at 9AM? Taking teams down to Thayer 101 in the rain, since the scheduling office effed up royally and gave us the most inconvenient rooms possible? Wondering if it would be a good idea to walk back to GA in the rain without shoes, and quickly discovering no it is not and now my feet are freezing off of my legs? Yeah, it took a lot. But hey, we did it, it worked well, and that in itself is worth it :)

And don't even get me started on that final round, where debate met stand-up in one of the funniest (yet well-reasoned) arguments I have ever seen... (Hint: It involved a lot of caning, pain analysis, BDSM theory, and usage of the phrase "vigilante sado-masochists". Don't ever let anyone tell you that debate is boring.)

Now, here's where I get to brag a bit about how awesome we are, which may be kind of obnoxious - but what I really mean to do is highlight all the incredible work that the whole team created and made possible. Such an amazing group of people :)

Things That Made This Tournament Way Cooler Than Any Other Tournament

• Running rounds on time. If you've ever debated on the circuit (AHEM, 3-hours-late-Harvard-tournament), you know what a massive achievement this is, especially for an 80-team event...
• The best party on the circuit: Open bar, dance floor, lights, and professional DJ = a hella good time. And hey, only one EMS case! (It was his own fault :P)
• Entertainment component of the traditional novice musical, back this year like never before. An APDA Inferno by Joe, Maya, and Mike can be found on my Facebook and hopefully on YouTube at some point.
• Tired of the usual pizza-and-bagels combination of tournament food? Enter early morning mimosas, bagels with lox, Indian food banquet, and jello shots for all judges.
• Innessa & Alex's trivia games while waiting for pairings to be announced
• Our general awesomeness. Yeah, I do get to make this a point: if Brown really is the US's douchiest college, I might as well do something to live up to it, right?

Now...party? Photos? Yeah girl, you know I'm on it.

I had to take four trips back to MoChamp from GA, in order to account for all the teams I hosted there. The instant I hit up the party, a dead drunk Lydia comes BOUNDING at me and attacks with the best weapon ever...THE POWER OF DANCE

Yeah, I know that my captions are damn cheesy. But fuck if we didn't Bring The Dance like nobody's business. Do you need proof?

Not convinced yet?

Well...what can I say? We are debaters, after all...

Mike mid-move, looking slightly sketch

More of that I-Mean-Business concentration.

PS: I love you Maya

And hell, we're still girls (even if for some of us, it is only at heart). We can do the nice posing thing too...

Sam, asianflushme, Jasleen, Pat

Maya, Lydia, and my favorite JUST-BARELY-LEGAL Jew boy, David

Aw. Debate couple. Cute. (Maybe my favorite photo from the night)

Yihan! One of my only APDA friends from the "China Cup circuit"...all six teams of it...

Zhiheng showed me how to break it down like a true French dancer. Suffice it to say that I learned a few classy-classy moves.

Afterwards, some of us went to Mike's room for more general abuse of substances, questionable fondling (some of which is on video footage...), moose hats, and more of Sam & Lydia's drunk lesbian tendencies:

Power pair: Peacock & Innessa rock out beneath the bear

I AM PEACOCK HEAR ME ROAR

Post-pass out. But pre-Lydia's "Hey, It's Probably A Great Idea To High Kick My Way Down Every Single Stair On The Staircase, Although I Am Wearing A Short Tight Skirt" phase.

I have more words to say on BDU, and on debate in general, and on what I'm doing here. Words are usually good. But it's late now, so I'll leave you with the pictures and the image of intense revelry in your mind...the kind of full-power dance that only true geeks can master...making it Work.

xxxloveyvonen

Falling into fall, and all the pretty things that come with it

Going to try and get back into a regular updating schedule. Still have a backlog of posts but they are mostly thematic, so I can take my good sweet time.

this photo from here

Today is Veteran's Day, the day the Western world commemorates war veterans. Being Asian, and a weak subscriber to the "Support Our Troops" kind of patriotic mindset, this is not a big deal to me. Brown doesn't even give us a day off of classes. I feel a little bad for being so indifferent towards a holiday that holds such massive significance for so many people, but nothing has ever really compelled me to feel otherwise. All the same - I'm not wearing a poppy loud and proud on my chest, but I still wish any veterans out there all the best! :)

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So. Brown. Fall has been setting in, and it's my first fall so I haven't had a chance to become jaded to it yet, but it's beautiful. Trees everywhere with leaves in colors I didn't know existed in nature: all these deep reds and bright yellows, seared oranges and cooked browns. There's this one tree right outside of Sayles Hall that we call "the magic tree", because it's the most vibrant yellow that I've ever seen in my entire life. On days where it's warm enough to sit out on the main green, we all grab our laptops and roll around the grass like fools, but the sweetest fools. For industrialized-city-girl-me, it's incredibly vast and comforting to be in a place where the sky is a real blue every single day of the week.

However, you should refrain from absent-mindedly pulling up bits of grass with your fingers: not just because it damages the aesthetics of the field, but because you might end up accidentally pulling up an earthworm and squishing it in your hand without realizing what it is. 

THIS IS EXTREMELY TRAUMATIC, OKAY?!

It feels kind of like chopped liver, until you realize that it doesn't make sense for chopped liver to be in the middle of the main green, look down at your hand, and then shriek and fling the damned thing to the side where it wriggles around disgustingly and then sinks into the ground to wait for its next unsuspecting victim.

Anyways.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died early in the fall, and I spent more time looking at trees with real eyes than with the eye of my camera lens, so I only have this photo that I took after the leaves fell:

It's still beautiful, though. I just love all the trees around campus. Huan Ting told me there are Japanese sakura trees on one of the greens, and I am going to Hunt Them Down (I think they are on Lincoln Field? Or on the Quiet Green. Regardless, I am going to find one and roll around in its blossoms until I have petals streaked all across my skin, like some sort of flower native.)

Kar on the main green, very amused by some sort of twig contraption.
She is even more easily amused than me, and that is REALLY saying something. This is a perfect picture

(Tangent: she is wearing the most incredible boots, which Kah got off eBay and gifted to her. I am jealous as hell because I never seem to find these sorts of things online!)

Myles looks like a little kid :) Can you believe the two of us are almost four years apart (Obviously he is the older one)? Such a great day.

More generally fun things:

When I got back from Northeastern, I found out my suitemates Fiona and Nat had done up the room with these cute little Christmas lights :) There is something about those tiny little bulbs that just feels like an overwhelming happiness impressed upon the room.

I also got a package in the mail from Matt. It actually got lost sometime after arriving on campus, forcing me to spend a considerable amount of time at the mailroom shouting things like "It's from a Matthew Pang. No, PANG. PAAAANG. That's P-A-N-G Pang. Come back later? Okay."

But it got here in the end, containing:

volume one of Frank Warren's PostSecret (If you don't already know what PostSecret is, you can check it out here). PostSecret is one of my favorite haunts, so this was a really beautiful gift to me :) But it came with an additional bonus twist...

...THAT IS MY NAME. AND FRANK WARREN'S NAME, AND THEY ARE ON THE SAME PAGE AND WRITTEN BY THE SAME HAND. WHICH IS FRANK WARREN'S HAND.

Obviously there were more eloquent ways of saying that, but I'm going to go with what I've got.

There is also a message in the back from Matt, but I'm not going to put that online. Suffice it to say that I hate being sap, but I have a pretty sweet boyfriend. :)

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And now I'm going to ditch the blog for a drug fueled Keeney orgy  a night of wild trashed partying  a midnight movie showing on Thayer  a WoW marathon with a horde (geddit) of geeks...

Eh, who am I kidding. I'm not even cool enough for the online gamers. The rest of my night is going to:

Making sweet, sweet love to my Econs notes in an attempt to do well on TOMORROW MORNING'S 10:30 AM ECONS MIDTERM.

Wish me luck, cause I'm gonna need it! Here's to consumer surplus and quasi-linear preferences.

xxxx



PS: To all you high schoolers still stuck in your APs, it's important to know that AP Micro/Macroeconomics are in no way comparable to Intermediate Econs in college. College prep my ass, you will be much better served with a good basis in Super Advanced Calculus. Trust me.

Questioning

Here's some random shit that's on my mind. 

[Possibly unsafe for people who are easily offended by gratuitous swearing (although if you've read this blog before, that shouldn't be a problem by now, right? :D)]

--Where the fuck did this bruise come from?

I woke up one day and there it was. Also note the dark undereye circles that distinguish the College Undergraduate from other breeds of Providence residents.

--Where the fuck did October go?
We're already over a week into November. This means I'll be home in six weeks. This is both an exciting and hideously scary concept.

--Isn't it awesome when you fall asleep with make-up on and wake up with a perfect smokey eye?
Whenever I take a nap wearing L'Oreal's metallic green eye crayons*, I wake up with a perfectly smudged eye that makes me feel like a million dollars.

(*which are EXCELLENT, by the way...smooth application and a thick tip means you can get perfect casual eyes in 10 seconds. Perfect everyday makeup tool for those mornings where you wake up five minutes before class but would still like to look reasonably put together despite your sweats and large Tshirt. +100points)

--What is Daylight Savings Time?
So I'm not dumb. I know what it is and why it exists. But all the same, it's a little depressing to see the sun go down at what is technically an hour earlier each day.

--Why are Sweater Dress Mondays so much fun?

BECAUSE THEY ARE. THIS IS A FACT NOT AN OPINION AND ALL YOU NEW ENGLAND LADIES SHOULD PARTICIPATE AS WELL BECAUSE IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
This is a very easy concept. Basically, we wear sweater dresses on Mondays. Because they are the ultimate zero-effort piece of apparel that still makes you look like you made an attempt to dress well!

--What the hell am I going to major in?
I've lost interest in my original tentative major, and now I'm stuck. More on this at a later point.

--How the hell do I lose all this weight I've gained?
This question should really be at the top, because it is extremely crucial. I wasn't kidding when I told you I was going to gain the freshman FIFTY, considering I'm practically a quarter of the way there already...

Any insights on anything at all would be greatly appreciated.

how I spent Halloween weekend - debate & dance

Told you I'd be back before long. I really don't have any self control, especially at times when I should be writing extended papers for Lit that I haven't started yet or even picked a prompt for, which is sort of a problem.


But that's how much I love you fools. (Or at least how much I love myself).

So: I spent the first half of my weekend debating at Tufts. This tournament had a better, looser, lighter feeling - I didn't feel as stressed or panicked as I did at Harvard a couple weeks before. (It also helped that the tournament did not run four hours late, like Harvard did a couple weeks before. And that it was smaller.) I went over there scared shitless that I was going to crash and burn and bring my partner down, since he's incredibly talented...but I managed to hold my own and pull in a 26/1 & 26.5/1, which has been really encouraging. Don't worry, I'm still painfully aware that I have a LOT to learn - especially when it comes to organization, flow, and current events - but I'm willing to practice, and for now I'm just happy that I didn't end up being a burden. Managed to improve my speaking average to a 25.7 and came in as the #5 novice team with David. The two of us clicked well as a team so I really enjoyed it :)

Preliminary motions: Long-and-complicated-hypothetical-case-I-won't-bore-you-with (Gov), Monetary compensation for blood donations (Opp), Term limits for Supreme Court justices (Gov), the EU should let Turkey in (Opp-Choice No), and Legalize sharia courts in Turkey (Gov).

I also got to see Amanda, which was fucking rad because I love her! And we got to dress up during the tournament! Which brings me to the part of the post I figure all of you non-debaters are going to skip to, because it's got pictures!

See, I know you illiterates too well.

This year I skipped my traditional "some sort of creepy horror movie girl or doll-figure" costume to go as a spring flower garden...somewhat fitting, since my middle name is Spring :) (Note that I bypassed the traditional superslutcostumemode)

makeup detail shot, but only after the end of the party

There are 20 fake flowers in my hair, since I'm a huge fan of huge elaborate headpieces

I fully believe in making your own Halloween costumes instead of buying cheap shit off the one-size-fits-all rack at Target. If you buy normal clothes and accessories and work them into an outfit, then you can still wear them again after Halloween is over. Who wants to blow all their cash on shapeless synthetic polyester anyways, right?

---

So for Halloween night, we went to "Wriston Rising" - a frat party in a giant tent on Wriston Quad. It started raining, so although it was dry inside, the grass quickly turned into a mudpit and I was so, so, SO glad I wore sandals...had a good time dancing, though.

so here are photos! And costumes, because those are always fun to look at :) Full sets are on Facebook, but these are better quality:

Pre-gamed with the boys @ Nik's before heading to Wriston. I am officially a bro now! Mostly due to my lack of social boundaries & guyish tendencies. I'm fucking short.
L-R: Nik the vampire, me, Myles, & StormSwarr (aka Sam)

Myles met me on the Main Green at night after I'd just gotten back from Tufts alone...seeing him walk down the path in this V mask was pretty damn creepy even though I knew he was coming.
Safewalk please!!!

Me & my girls at Wriston, L-R: me, Nat-the-cat, Ayane as Minnie Mouse, Rie the...something pretty??,  and Gianna as a waaaay hotter version of Cruella deVille

Myles decided it was too hot to dance with the mask on


Whereas I am just too hot for Kar to resist ;) ;)

Nat, Mahima, Gianna, Fiona

Costumes! These ones are just of people I knew, but there were some pretty great ones floating around: the Pope, a hyper-realistic Jesus, Obama, etc...
Tiffany: "I'm grinding with the Pope! Oh, and I've found Jesus!"

Jon was a desperate alcoholic. He left his fragile props in our room when we went down to Wriston, which is why I stubbed my toe HARD on a plastic bag full of empty glass vodka bottles in the middle of the night.

And I didn't even get a blowjob for it, what gives?!

Can you guess what Marvin is? A dead baby :) I love dead baby jokes, so this was one of my favorites.

Kate was a shooting star, clever yes?

Peng went as a super-fit boxer. Disregarding the fact that he is actually already sort of a super-fit boxer. (This guy runs triathlons! And all his tattoos are real, not part of the costume.)

My pretty Waylanders!

Sarah and Julia as the Berlin Wall. (Okay, so I'm dumb and don't actually understand this costume, although I know what the Berlin Wall is...)

moi & chef Marc

Every Halloween's gotta have at least one Kanye, right? Ethan & Ayane

As the night drew on, my shirt became progressively more and more unbuttoned. Oops (at least my bra matched the color scheme of a springtime flower garden, and my dress was long, so it made up for the added slut factor?)

JON AND I ARE CLASSS WITH ASSS

Kar breakin' it down

The aftermath of Halloween night? Surprisingly tame:

Ick. But ultimately worth it.

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So that was my Halloween. How was yours? Anyone dress up as anything epic? 
I want to see photos! Halloween is one of the hugest opportunities for creative dressing there is all year, so I shun all those who deliberately choose not to play along :)

with that, i'm out. adios, babes


muchlove

Sorry

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I've just been incredibly drained lately. On the train right now coming back from Tufts. There's a lot I need to deal with and some things that have really shaken me up over the last few days, but it's alright, I'm good. And I have a kickass Halloween costume I'll show y'all later :) thanks for biding with me. I need some serious time off (and knowing my blogaddiction, this only means about two days) but I will be back and blaring soon!

Love yvonen xx

How to make a pumpkin the American way

Pumpkin carving is a total American thing that I've never gotten to experience before. The international mentors here at Brown organized a pumpkin carving activity for us int'l kids last weekend, so here's how my first pumpkin experience went!

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