This new messenger is supposed to be cross platform and totally improved. I would welcome any "improvements," but I can't help but feel peeved out by it all because they replaced some really simple and fundamental things that shouldn't have been scrapped. The whole reason why I chose to use Google Talk over other clients in the first place is because it was so simple. There were no extra frills and that's what I loved about it. Sometimes you just want to be able to chat with someone on a simple interface and that is it. The new focus will be a "recent conversations list" where the set up is more like text messaging. There is no more having a contact list organized by people you like to talk to and by who is online. There is no more having an "active" or "idle/away" or "invisible" status anymore. What? But all of those things are the basis of Google Talk and "chatting!" Their reasoning behind the abandonment of any actual status anymore is probably that you can send "offline" messages even when the person is not online (like text messaging). OK, cool, but maybe I'd actually text the person if they weren't online and I would want to use my messenger to, you know, actually chat with them if I can see them online???

They are replacing this client with something so completely different. Google Hangout is more like a new messaging app, not an improvement on Google Talk (because they have started a new, different system and concept…rather than actually taking GT features and improving them) so I'm not sure why they are lumping the two together. They are targeting a different audience than original Google Talk users…although I realize the number of GT users is probably pretty low. Most people have moved on from AIM (anyone use that anymore?) straight to FaceBook Messenger (ugh, count me out). In the end, I realize it's because Google won't want to support Google Talk anymore, so might as well throw old GT users into the new interface to get it started. A Google+ account seems to be necessary (I'm not sure yet though). If not, at the very least they seem to be trying really hard to pushing Google+ at everyone.

On the positive side, I guess it's cool that this will be something users of all devices can get in on. Apple, Android, and computer users. But then I'm already back to the negative side!!! Google is forcing you to use Chrome (and a Google+ account I assume) if you want to be able to use Google Hangout on your computer. *insert grumble here* What happened to options, man? I fired up Chrome for the first time in ages to give Google Hangout on my MacBook a try and was bombarded with maybe a hundred individual popups asking me permission to give keychain access to all websites that I had login info saved for. *rips hair out* After I manually clicked away all those pop ups and accessed the Google Hangout page, the button to download the desktop app doesn't work for me! WOW. Can I have a major tantrum right now??? So currently I can only use it on my phone.

It feels like your every move is being watched! Google Hangout has taken the same approach as FaceBook messages where it will mark each message you send as read when someone reads it. I don't know about you, but sometimes I don't like to respond to people. Not because of the person, specifically. But sometimes, someone I normally talk to will send me a message that I am not ready to respond to yet (for ex: [insert request or personal question here]). I'll get back to you, but at least give me the privilege of deciding when I'll respond without making me feel awkward for having read a message and not responding yet! Or when someone reads my message and doesn't respond right away after they read it, I can assume it's because of the reasons I mentioned above, or perhaps they read my message but can't reply instantly because if you're at work, for example, reading a message is much quicker than composing a reply message. In the end, I'd rather just not need to know whether or not messages are being read. I only care about your reply if you'll send me one. If it is urgent, send me a text or a phone call, man!

Additionally, all images sent by either party in the conversation will be saved automatically into a private album through Google Hangout – hopefully we'll have some options regarding this at least. I guess I'm just one of those people who feels like they're being watched/judged when everything is just so immediate and lacking privacy. I mean, I got freaked out when FaceBook got super stalker-friendly with activity feeds within your news feed page and etc. Now the chat program that I loved is becoming eerily similar.

So, if you couldn't tell, I am more peeved than I should be over this whole development. I'm sure in due time I'll ironically jump on the bandwagon just like everyone else and get used to it, but for now I'm going to mope over the slow (or quick?) death of Google Talk.

Typing using SwiftKey on WordPress mobile app

And the reason why I've had to use my phone a lot more lately is only because my dad has been trying to fix the power along my brother's area of our house because about a month ago the power supply fried alongside his room. Whenever my dad tries to fix it, he has to turn off the power, which connects to our router and renders us Internet-less for however long my dad decides to tinker with the power. Sometimes he's gone at it from when he gets home from work until 2am (by the way it has been almost a month now and it doesn't look like they've been able to fix it). In that time I just end up using my phone, which made me realize how cumbersome typing on a touchscreen can be a lot of the time.

Anyway, I had the trial version of SwiftKey for a short while and decided to just buy it when I saw that it was on sale for half price in the app store for two bucks. It could use some greater customization and improvements but it seems like a worthy app to have if you're into having a smarter autocorrect and word prediction, along with some customization with the look & layout of the keyboard. Currently my theme is the royal purple… Which is cool since I adore purple, haha. :)

Still trying to figure out if I want to try the hunt and peck method or the swipe method. I can't tell if I'm better at one or the other. For the hunt and peck method, I actually don't need to look at my thumbs anymore if I use SwiftKey! Its autocorrect is super good so I can just type away without looking at the keyboard, which kind of makes typing less of a hassle and brings back memories of when I never had to look at my keyboard on my slider phone. For the swiping method it's super cool to be able to type with just using one finger. If you get used to the gestures, I can see how you wouldn't have to look at the keyboard much either and it is pretty fast one you get used to it. I feel like the swipe method leaves me with more typos though. I suppose I'll just keep switching between the two and see which one is best for me.

My Dreamcatcher

For some reason I was at a store catered to young women (Like Forever 21) with my boyfriend and some of my friends. I was at the cash register after I had picked up a handful of jewelry. When a friend asked me why I bought all of that, I said they were supposed to be given as gifts. I think my dream went that way because two weeks ago I picked through jewelry for my friend's birthday.

So anyway, I was at the cash register trying to pay for my items. I think the cashier was telling me the store policy and her speech included the fact that credit card was fine. When I took my wallet out, she said credit card was not fine. For some reason I got very angry and confrontational, raising my voice (I'm never like that IRL, I just submissive say…oh…okay….haha). "Why would you say it's fine if it's not fine then?! You said that just a few seconds ago!" The cashier girl got flustered and brought out the manager to speak to me. The manager chided the girl about the situation, told her just to let me use my credit card, and left.

I took my credit card and license, putting it on top of my wallet. At that moment, a young woman was running and bumped into me, making me drop my wallet on the floor. I picked up my wallet and looked at her. She seemed apologetic, and then smiled at me nicely. "Here," she said, pushing a small bag (like a makeup bag) at me. "Keep it." I looked inside the bag and it had a bunch of goodies. I looked at after the girl speechlessly, since it seemed like such a kind act for a mistake that was so minor, with her smiling at me still. With that she ran away, and I contemplated running after her to return the bag since I didn't think I should keep it. But it was too late already, so I let her go and turned back to the cashier to pay. Of course, my credit card and ID were missing. I couldn't pay for any of the jewelry and left with my friends, angrily ranting about it.

Moral of the story is, don't accept nice gifts from strangers who smile too nicely at you, and if your wallet falls after you are bumped into, make sure your crap isn't stolen.

Click here to see my full tower as of today (April 19)!

Tiny Tower

I am not addicted anymore, but that's because it's been months now. But it shocks me that I am still checking up on it regularly! I personally am a sucker for 8 bit games. I do love my pixels. They are terribly appealing and cute to me. I should post more about that some other time! I am also a sucker for micromanaging games. Hence the previous addictions to Sims, RollerCoaster Tycoon, etc.

Anyway, Tiny Tower is pretty full of micromanaging at first when you get started, but after a while it gets repetitive like most micromanaging games are and you're practically granted permission to stop checking it every 5 minutes and just check it once a day instead.

There are people who visit the tower and then people who work & live in the tower called Bitizens. You can evict them from their apartments or move new ones in and give them jobs at the different shops you have. They all have dream jobs, too, and if you're lucky you'll get a new shop with their dream job. And yes, I have someone who has a froyo shop as their dream job.

With the money you earn, you can purchase new floors to build. You can build a very tall tower with many different floors. The reason I haven't quit the game is because each floor is a surprise! You never know what kind of shop will be built and I think some of the shops are very cute and/or clever. Like the "Mapple" store… *cough*AppleStore*cough* The plumber shop has a green pipe with a piranha plant and what looks like Mario & Luigi's costumes hanging in the back! How awesome is that!

Mario reference?

Each shop has 3 different items you can have in stock and sell. The first item is the cheapest, and the third item is the most expensive to restock, but it also earns you the most money, too. Some of the shops are truly dead on with what they would have in stock. I really like that.

Night Club Stock

The stock for night clubs made me laugh! How realistic. They really do charge you a cover fee to get in. And then the cocktails in the club are always expensive as heck! And finally, a VIP ticket will get you better perks. Ha.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share a past obsession I had. It's a super cute game. Great for both the people who get addicted and check every few minutes, and the people who only check once in a while. Tiny Tower is available on both iPhone and Android phones

My history of cell phones is kind of funny. To skip long-winded history, go straight below for current phone & pics.

Phone history:

When I was in middle school (~2001-2004), kids were starting to get cell phones. I never had one, even despite a "dramatic" little incident in 8th grade. I was a drama and choir kid, so we had a lot of practices after school. One day I told my mom in the morning that I didn't need to be picked up afterwards because I was going home with one of my best friends after rehearsal. We had so much fun that it was already 8pm and suddenly my brother shows up at the front door of my friend's house, saying I was in big trouble. That was a big WTF-is-going-on kind of moment. For some reason my mom didn't pay attention to me at all when I told her about going to my friends house…so the entire evening they thought I had been kidnapped and had called the police. *face palm* You see, if I had a cell phone at that point, it wouldn't have been an issue. Which I can understand why parents would give kids nowadays a cell phone even if they don't really need one. Despite that silly incident, I STILL wasn't given a cell phone yet.

In high school, my ex and my friends chipped in to buy me a pre-paid cell phone for my birthday. It was very thoughtful of them. I still couldn't use it to talk and text much, but it was definitely convenient. I had that flip phone for a while until finally my family added me to their plan because I absolutely needed it for college, and I got a purple flip phone with Verizon. I had that phone for a few years in high school and for more than half of college. It was an OLD phone…I had to put tape over the back cover to prevent it from falling out and the battery died within a few hours until I finally bought a replacement battery and back cover.

Thankfully, after many years with that old phone, I upgraded to a qwerty board sliding phone – still a feature phone only. But at least I didn't have to use the old T9 way of typing on a flip phone anymore. I really loved that phone. But as my luck would have it…only a few months after I had the phone, it got ran over by a car. LOL. In my own driveway. I guess it fell out of my pocket one day and it landed on the driveway (which slopes down to the sidewalk/gutter).

I thought I had lost it, but I found it had been run over and dragged all the way down to the gutter area. It was slightly wet and my hard case covering the phone had a tire mark on it. LOL. To this day we still don't know if it was my dad's car or my boyfriend's car that actually ran it over, but it wouldn't matter if we did know. That phone is useless to me now. Miraculously that was a pretty damn good cover because the phone looked brand new…the only issue was the LCD screen. It seemed to be messed up on the inside (no damage on the outside) because it was a jumbled screen of nothingness when I turned it on. So I had to shell out money to buy the same used phone on ebay.

My first smartphone:

After my 2 year contract was up, my family switched from Verizon's pricy (but quality) plans over to T-Mobile. Service isn't as great, but it is a great deal because I can finally get a smartphone with internet and unlimited texting for the same price I had a dumbphone with measly texting and no internet at Verizon! Finally! …Of course money is always a thing, so I went for a smartphone that was "free" (free after rebate). The deal of the day that I went for was the HTC One S.

This baby is thin as heck! Even with a very protective case it is still very thin.

Fresh out of Package

In comparison with my old phone, it's crazy how much bigger the screen is and how much thinner it is. 8MP camera? Sweeeet.

Comparing with my old phone

Of course…there are two things I really miss having that my basic phone had. The physical qwerty board and the battery life. Oh boy, do I love that physical keyboard. I could text without looking at my fingers and typos were almost non-existent. Battery life lasted me about a week especially since I didn't use it much for actual calls. Now I've already gotten used to the draining battery life of smartphones and the stupid typos, but it doesn't mean that I like it. But 'tis the sacrifice we must make for a wonder phone that can give you your emails, literally tell you how to get somewhere, take quality camera photos, give you the weather, find the best restaurants nearby, and give you endless entertainment when you're bored…till your battery dies, that is.

Phone in Ballistic Case

Project 365: What else is new… I attempted Project 365 (1 photo a day) again this year because my boyfriend encouraged us both to do it, but recently we both fell out of it which leaves nobody to encourage the both of us to continue it. lol. Oh well! It was fun while it lasted. From now on maybe I'll just try my best to take more pictures in general and not necessarily make it at least 1 a day anymore.

Google Reader: Did you guys hear about Google Reader (rss feed reader) shutting down in July? Bummer. Well, after poking around I saw that most people are switching over to Feedly because of the seamless transfer from Google Reader to Feedly. I gave it a go and transferred my account as well. Worked like a charm and so far I'm liking it. They even have a nice smartphone app, but it definitely caters more aesthetically than it does functionally. The site itself is much more superior.

Food Blog: Hmm, yes…I started up a food blog with my boyfriend a long time ago but we never really opened it up to the public. I'm not sure how comfortable we are about sharing it with our friends (you know, FaceBook and such), but for now I'm finally okay with linking to it from this blog. (Even now I still haven't made Faded Out public to FB or friends.) If you don't know by now, I love eating good food. Yelp has opened up the world of food for us, and finding new places with good food is like going on a new exploration. We are not food snobs, so we eat anywhere ranging from fast food to nicer restaurants (…within budget). Our food blog is called Happiness on a Plate. Since it's a food blog, it contains some of my cooking attempts too.

Well, hopefully I'll be back to blogging again. Like I mentioned in my last post I kinda lost interest in…everything lately. But I know more than half the battle is all in my head so I'm forcing myself to be happier and a better person.

So…I had been stressing over the OAT for months so you're probably curious how I did. Well, let's just say I did better than I expected but to be more competitive for a better chance I want to improve my scores. I did particularly well in biology and reading comprehension – the two things I love most, so at least that matches my expectations. Surprisingly I did either average or above average on the rest (organic chem, general chem, physics)…except the lowest score that desperately needs improvement is, of course, math. My strongest point has been writing and my weakest has been math ever since I started learning. My overall score and my science scores are good but my math score is bogging me down, so I'm going to take this opportunity to improve in math and hopefully bring everything else up to even better scores as well.

It was a crazy 5 hour test with only one 15 minute break – a break I literally only had 2 minutes left to spare (after having to check out, bathroom, eat a snack & water, and check in again) when I went back to my seat. At the end of the day I had a crazy migraine but it felt fantastic to be done.

I was familiar with the wet-erase board & marker format (no paper + pencil) and the completely computerized test, so that was good.

They were extremely strict about check in and check out procedures. I had to lock my possessions in a locker, have my picture taken, my ID checked, my credit card checked, sign a paper, take off my jacket, turn all my pockets inside out, lift my pants up above my ankles, roll up my long-sleeved shirt, and get checked by a metal detector. And of course, you are recorded while taking your test. So there's no cheating here.

I'm surprised I did average on one section because time is a huge factor on the test and there is just not enough time. At 5 minutes left for one section I decided it was time to make educated guesses. Well even my educated guesses took too long and I was left with 1 minute left – so then I decided it was time to blindly fill in the answers at the very least. Well 30 seconds left, and I was still clicking in an answer and then clicking next. It takes more time than you think – and so my time expired before I even got to fill in random answers for all my questions. LOL so that means I left a whole bunch blank and yet I still did average on the section…if I can just manage time better I know I can improve…or at least I hope I can. Anyway, I wised up for the next section and realized a quicker way to do it – press the letter (a, b, c, d, or e) on the keyboard and keep the cursor hovered over the "next" button to be quicker. Wish I thought of that earlier.

Well, at least now studying will be much easier on me since I know what to study, I have all my materials prepared already, and I have gone through the material at least once. Now besides studying, I'm on a job search and hoping to throw some volunteer work in there, too. I spent a long time fixing my pitiful & outdated resume and it depressed the heck out of me. If a career-related job doesn't come my way (which it most likely will not, with my zero experience), I'll just try my best to find a food-service or retail job and tutoring to get some cash, people skills, and work experience.

I'm watching this anime show that focuses heavily on hikikomori (people with extreme social withdrawal) with my boyfriend and it makes me think that I am an antisocial NEET (not in employment, education, or training) but he adamantly argues that I am at least studying on my own, trying to seek work, and definitely not antisocial.  Sometimes, I'm not so sure. I say that half jokingly and half seriously. ha ha…

Once we had our tickets, we headed over to Disney California Adventures (DCA) to get Fast Passes reserved for World of Color and then back into Disneyland again. It was just lines, lines, lines. Lines to get bags checked, then lines to get into Disney, lines to get into DCA, then lines to get back into Disney, lol. You will not be able to survive the lines if you do not 1) have fantastic company with you or 2) have something to keep yourself busy with.

City Hall

6 yr anniversary

The first thing we did once we were in Dland again was go to City Hall and get our free happy anniversary badges. :) Thanks to these badges, a lot of the Disney cast members wished us a happy anniversary.

We took advantage of their Fast Pass system, which is where you get the Fast Pass ticket and this allows you to come back at your appointed time slot to get into a faster, shorter line for the ride at your appointed time slot. We used this system to get into Space Mountain, Star Tours, and Indiana Jones. In between these major rides, we went to…

• Buzz Light Year Astro Blasters
• Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
• Snow White's Scary Adventures
• Mad Tea Party
• Alice in Wonderland
• It's a Small World
• Pinnocio's Daring Journey
• Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
• Peter Pan's Flight
• Haunted Mansion

Churro

As a pre-lunch snack to keep us tided over, we had those infamous Disneyland churros. Overpriced just like any theme park, but at least they were deliciously surgary and hit the spot.

Chicken lunch

For lunch we had the chicken plate at the Plaza Inn. It was pretty darn good, except I personally would have liked them to use a whole lot less salt in it. Yikes. *drinks a ton of water*

Other snacks we had to tide us over during the evening:

Pineapple Whip Float

Beignets & Mint Julep

• Dole whip floats: Oh my goodness, these are amazing. I've never had dole whip before, so I didn't expect much, but it exceeded my expectations!
• Mint Julep and beignets: Amazing, amazing! Finding the Mint Julep Bar was difficult for us since it was rather elusive! But it was sooo worth it and we had the pleasure of hearing a song from this jazz band.

Jazz band

It was our first time seeing World of Color, which is a water show paired with music and lights to project color images onto the water sprays. Since we got Fast Passes, we had a very close up view of the show, but unfortunately we didn't arrive early enough to get a spot right behind a roped off area to ensure nobody was directly standing in front of us. This means I spent more time staring at the back of people's heads. I still got to see a lot of the show though.

Flounder

Ariel

Pocahontas Scene

Princesses & their princes

Luckily for us, we were still in DCA during the second show, so we were able to see it at a different angle and almost saw the show twice. The great thing about our second location on the bridge was that we could see every single thing without being obstructed by the back of someone's head! The bad thing about it was how far away it was located from the show – it's true that the closer you are, the more magical it feels with the water and lights all up in your face. It's a show that will wow the kids but also feel romantic when you snuggle up with your significant other.

Epic Jack Sparrow part

Rainbow colors!

World of Color

Our last ride was Toy Story Mania, which I seriously LOVED. It's more like a game. The physics of it was seriously accurate. If, for example, you "shot" a ball (the gun is real and attached to your car but the things that come out of it are virtual) at a plate and a shard of the broken plate flew back at you, you can feel air blowing back at you! If you aim your dart higher, the dart will project farther. They really took the real life physics of objects & motion and then mirrored it perfectly in the virtual world. As soon as the ride is over, you'll just want to go again. It was a great ride to end the day with despite the agonizing line-waiting.

That's us in the reflection haha

Lastly, we ended our extremely long day with sharing a Chicken Chipotle Avocado sandwich from Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney. It has creamy avocado, tender chicken, crispy bacon, and addicting chipotle sauce with a little spicy kick, all inside toasty bread that is fluffily soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.

Chipotle Chicken Avocado Sandwich

Everything went so smoothly and as planned (we spent 2 hours the night before doing the planning…thank you internet for the tips and yelp for the food suggestions ) Mart and I had SO much fun together. Ah yes, it was a magical day.

Disney

My gifts for him

Although I did draw and color the Jake & Lady Rainicorn (from Adventure Time) picture myself, I don't take credit for the idea of the picture itself. My boyfriend and I love Adventure Time. It is the best cartoon ever! It is intended for kids but there is so much quirkiness, hilarious innuendos, and wonderful story telling that I can proudly say it's one of my favorite shows. Anyway, since we love the show and made it a pasttime to watch the show together, I thought it'd be cute to make a Jake plushie and a handmade Adventure Time Valentine card. It really brought memories back making that childish Valentine card. The old days of making handemade cards for your classmates and the strong scent of crayons. I remember him wanting a dog tag necklace before, so I decided to get him one. Get it? Jake the dog. And a dog tag necklace? Geeeet it? A personalized owl card, some freshly baked brownies, and a wrist strap for his iPod Nano to top it all off.

His presents for me :)

The dinner we had

If you notice, most of my gifts are food-related, LOL. He knows me best and knows I like to eat good food. He said his theme was "strawberries," hence the choco-covered strawberries he made himself, the amazing strawberry cream croissants, and the cute card he made for me. That silly guy decided to make chocolate strawberries the night before and then the morning of Valentine's Day he drove to get the croissants – all during the rush before an assignment he still had to work on that was due that day. Ha ha, he's so funny. At least he managed it all in the end. He also got us matching throw blankets at my request (he was panicking about not having any ideas so I just told him ) – they are the softest, most comfortable throw blankets I've ever had! They are just the thing on late study nights or movie nights. And then he took us out to dinner. We chose a pretty awesome restaurant and in the pictures you can see how much we indulged.

As you can see, we try really hard to make it spectacular for the other. We really enjoyed ourselves. 6 years is a long time, considering that means we've been together since we were still teenagers (I was 17) and are now in our early twenties. But in a way, it doesn't feel that long at all. Life flashes by before your eyes. We just have to do our best to enjoy it, and try our best to work things out.

In the time that I haven't blogged, I think I pretty much had ALL 4, but tonight and as of late, I am feeling #4 especially. I mean, I know who I am, who I want to be in the future, and how to get there. I guess right now I just feel like I slipped away into the cracks…and I'm not working hard enough to change that. In the end it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but I guess you can't compare one thing with another because we all have different circumstances no one will ever have exactly the same life that you live.

Basically…I just need some self-motivation – which I do have, for sure. I just have to polish it up and make it shine. And maybe have a little bit of butt-kicking. Anyway, I barely finished washing a sink full of dishes and whatnot. I'll either keep myself awake doing extra late night (or is this just "early" now?) studying, or I'll end up going to bed so I can see a new day…with sunlight.