Stumbling on Happiness

I have no idea what this says about me, but lately I prefer reading non-fiction to fiction. This was the exact opposite a few years ago. Maybe I've become disillusioned to storytelling after reading one too many bad novels (ie Twilight series -_-). Or got especially hooked on Malcolm Gladwell's fact-ridden anecdotes. Who knows.

Currently reading: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.

I read about it somewhere, and it had good reviews on Amazon, so I checked it out a la biblioteca. It doesn't seem so much self-help than an exploration of how humans work. Hopefully it'll be an interesting read.

Belted cardigans

One fashion pet peeve I have is when people belt their open cardigans!

J. Crew

It's supposed to "accentuate the waistline", but in doing so, makes the front look frumpy. Look how the material puffs out of the belt, and the fact that it's unbuttoned makes it appear unstable, as if the cardigan is about to shift out of the belt, or backwards, unflatteringly. Also, it takes away the functionality of the cardigan itself. Maybe that's my fundamental problem with this.. I dislike it when clothes have fake, sewn-on buttons or pockets that don't work, etc. If you're going to wear it, it needs to be able to do its job 100% whether you plan to use it or not! Basically, I hate that the cardigan looks trapped when it wants to be free as a little bird.

dailylook.com

Much better. I suppose this is more of a blazer that has some structure, which isn't a good comparison to a cardigan, so...

dailylook.com

Still better than belting it.

Aaaaaaaand so ends my fleeting study break.

Should tip reflect service?

I went out for dinner tonight to a sushi restaurant with a $3/roll happy hour on Wednesdays. I was looking forward to the meal, but didn't expect too much from the quality since it was so cheap. It turned out to be just ok, exactly how I thought it would. However, service was subpar. The place was not even close to being full (maybe 5 tables were occupied), and there were 2 servers, both who were pretty inattentive. My table waited close to 40 minutes before our food came out (after waiting for a while for someone to seat us), and I literally had to get up and wave down a waitress to ask for something after trying to make eye contact/get her attention for several minutes. I would have been more forgiving if the restaurant was packed and the waitress actually cared about her job, but again, neither were the case.

So my question: should tip be an indication of poor/fantastic service? I feel like in cases of great service, sure. But what about the opposite? Is it flat out wrong to go below 15-20% of the bill, no matter how bad the server?

I ended up giving 15% even though I didn't feel like it. Granted, my experience wasn't absolutely horrible.. ie the waitress wasn't rude nor offensive, but it made me think about tipping as a requirement vs. an optional commission of sorts.

Quarter life crisis

Corinne Bailey Rae-The Sea. Makes me sad, in a good way.

I've had a few heart to hearts with my dear friends lately, and it seems like we're all going through similar life "milestones". Mostly just not being exactly where we want to be yet, whether that's location/occupation/what have you, and while we're on our way, for the time being it's just hanging in there from day to day. I suspect we're not alone.

Mid-20s is so limbo.

I have to say that I am incredibly blessed with good sisters. I've been kind of numb these days, and taking a lot for granted, but this weekend I was reminded especially of how much God has provided in terms of people who care and whom I care about. Thankful.

3 years and some change

Days like this.. make me especially anxious to get out of this city. I can't wait to leave and start anew somewhere else.

Figuring out my learning style

I'm horrible, horrible, horrible some more, and then BAM something clicks, and I get it. Then I gain confidence, and with the practice, I do alright.

It doesn't seem to be a gradual process for me, as would be expected. One day I suck, and the next is smooth sailing.

This is important to know, because I tend to accept that I'm no good too prematurely. I think I'm always going to stay at the same level, when competence is just around the bend. Understanding how I work is helping me to not give up!

How this ties into dental school (because all my posts tie into dental school, obviously): I've been struggling with working with composite since the beginning of the semester, and I've been getting pretty frustrated as of late. This one faculty showed me the techniques like 384378 times and yet, I still felt incapable of working with it on my own. Like it would look like a perfect little tooth when the faculty did it, and then when I tried, it looked like a big fat ugly scratched up ice cube lol. Anyway, I worked my little paws off even as of yesterday without much success, but today dun dun dun! The composite had the resemblance of a shiny front tooth (#9). Not perfect, but I feel like I got the hang of it! And with that, I feel a bit more confident about next week's competency.

This can also apply to some hobbies I'm thinking of getting back into: tennis, knitting, guitar (if I can get a hold of one), and my new interest in Spanish. I'm subpar at best in all of these, but maybe I'll try again.

Kinda crushin

Big Phony. Stumbled across this guy's music today. I dig it. Too bad I didn't know about this earlier, because apparently he was playing shows in Seoul last summer while I was there. And yea.. he is one haircut away from kinda crushin to totally crushin. Just say no to curtain hair.

Special kind of homework

My makeshift laboratory, in the kitchen. The gas stove is my ghetto bunsen burner. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Mostly, this is happening because I did not haul myself to (school) lab this week like I should have. -__-

Calling it a night. Resuming tomorrow morning.

Living in a paperless world

I've always been a big fan of paper schedulers, and handwriting my to-do lists, but I'm just now realizing the streamlining power that is Google Calendars. I've mostly just used it to track my classes, since I'm linked to the public calendar set up for our class, but because I've become so dependent on it lately, I decided to add a few non-school items as well. I can actually see myself easily transitioning to using this as my primary calendar..

Plus, color coding FTW.

The one con I do see is that with paper, it's not only for scheduling, it is also for scrap paper.. jotting down grocery lists, random company's phone numbers, mailing addresses, etc. With an "e-calendar", if you will, I can't just bust it out in the middle of Kroger or something.. I suppose the answer is in getting a smartphone, but that's another story. I guess I'm just an old-fashioned girl living in a high tech world hehe

A peek at my week:

The Secret World of Arrietty

I'm usually not into cartoons. I can appreciate a good Pixar movie every now and then, but I'd rather watch stories involving real life people/actors. However, I just saw a preview for The Secret World of Arrietty, and it looks really good! It's now on my "to-watch" list.