Thriller

     The sun struggled powerlessly against a sea of swelling clouds, brushing past with the fury of the seven angry seas. Fellow adventurers chirped, laughed, shifted in their seats around me. The programmed voice announced for the twentieth time that hour, "Riders … on your marks … get set … GO!"
     The hiss of steam rising from the rain-splattered rails was lost as green turned to yellow and the red still lingered on my retinas as my neck snapped against the headrest, eyes forced shut with the sheer velocity, tearing the remaining breath in my lungs out and shoving the ensuing scream straight back into my throat. It was too fast for sound. Spiraling like a rocket ship, my fellow astronauts shrieked with a medley of delight and fright as the sky suddenly seemed close enough to touch – I reached but physics shot my arm back against the safety bar clamping me down, saving me from free-falling four-hundred feet and kissing concrete. Soaring, soaring, soaring – all of a sudden time stopped for one millisecond. The earth stood still and I was standing at the top of it. Then, the true terror began. The ground, everything, my feet, my hands, the safety bar all disappeared from sight as the scenery changed to a view of the ocean, the trees, the other roaring machines and I was released by an invisible claw, at the mercy of gravity. A faint taste of bile rose up out of my stomach, taunting me with nausea. My cheeks flapped wildly, the skin peeled back from my eye sockets, temporarily revealing my skull. My stomach sank to my toes as I realized all that was holding me to the crazy beast was a strap, buckle, and flimsy piece of metal. The safety bar rose away from my lap and I slid around like an air-hockey puck, my mass clearly not enough to hold me down as I walked on the sky. Up there, all remnants of blue shocked into blinding white. And just as abruptly as it all started, it ended. The resounding jerk. Another hiss as the great iron dragon crawled back to its lair, preparing for its next herd of victims. My whole body was injected with horse tranquilizer; the blood in my face finally snapped out of shock and remembered to keep moving. My mouth was a desert, my eyes a drought. Still shaking and with hair standing on end, I glanced at my watch. Fourteen seconds.

[Another piece for Visiting Writer Week in Writing 1. Inspired by Cedar Point amusement park's Top Thrill Dragster in Sandusky, Ohio]

Why Do We Eat Seafood?

Today, my family drove up to Los Angeles to visit my very pregnant aunt and my grandparents. It was really awesome seeing everyone again, seeing that my aunt is healthy and the baby is doing fine, seeing my grandparents semi-satisfied at least in America again. And of course, I was spoiled rotten with a fresh batch of crazy expensive clothes and compliments of how tall I've gotten (though I haven't grown an inch since junior high). Oh family. Oh beautiful, sunny Californian not-white Christmas (Eves).

So to the point, we went to a favourite restaurant for lunch in Monterey Park's Little Taipei: Seafood Village, and boy do they have ohmygolashes-amazing seafood. I pretty much ate my weight in Dungeness crab legs and Snowfish and eggplant! I DESPISE eggplant (sorry, aubergine fans) but today's dish was absolutely scrumptious and sauceylicious. I have also lost my appetite for seafood throughout the years but the love was renewed upon taste of savory scallops and creamy clams.

Seafood Village's famous House Crab (photo creds to LAlist.com)

But then while I was breaking open crab leg after crab leg voraciously with my bare teeth (I know I'm a baller G), a question formed in my mind.

Why do we eat seafood?

I mean, aside from how awful it smells when it's not cooked right or the hyped up fear of mercury going straight to the brains of our unborn children and rendering them mentally wrong for the rest of their lives (bet your mother didn't think of that as she made your tuna sandwiches in your packed lunches, eh?) ... Seafood takes so much EFFORT to eat. It's almost counterproductive! Think about the calories you burn scraping the tiny little strings of pure-white meat from those exoskeletons.

Eating seafood is highly inefficient. I think that was some of the driving force behind my growing indifference towards seafood throughout the years. I don't particularly love staring into the poor dead eyes of fish or picking out the tiny bones (nature's payback towards us hungry customers) or eating their unborn children (and I'm sure karma will kick in somehow someday). And worse is sashimi ... raw fish. They didn't even merit a quick rinse through the boiler before being chopped up, flayed, and dipped in wasabi D:

I'm not a huge fan of mussels because of the weird sacs of dirt in their bellies, but I do love the scallops in their rainbow shells. The problem is, it's so hard to scrape those persistent little suckers off and when I finally disengage them from their firm grasp on safety, it's but a tiny morsel of chewy chewy food. Ooooh but I can't resist the chewy. It's like variable reinforcement - I keep coming back for more.

Well, the good news is that seafood is supposed to be brain food. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils are supposed to be some miracle worker on development, lowering blood pressure, and high SAT scores and winning the lottery and whatnot (could be joking on the last one .. and a half). You can apparently get omega-3's from walnuts, olive oil, and soybeans all the same. In fact, I'm rooting for soybeans. They are the cure all for people who have food issues with just about anything in the world. Lactose intolerants drink soymilk. Mercury poisoning fearfuls get their omega-3's. Asian people add it to everything to make things yummy. Go soy.

So grab your cracker and pick because you're in for a long, dainty obstacle course through the shell and bones to a few bites of delish. I'm about to go exploit some more of what the Pacific Ocean's got to offer.

Colored Contacts Review (Eyecandylenses): Geo Angel Violet + Dali Extra Size Green

For many years now, I've been wanting to experiment with colored contacts. Brown eyes are nice, but sometimes they appear dull and well ... brown. A few years ago I tried some blue Acuvue ones at my eye doctor's office but I just ended up looking like a bionic weirdo.

I'm a wary online shopper, so I decided to ask friends who were already sporting the famed Korean Geo contact lenses where they bought their new eye colours. I got a list of about 3 sites from which one friend bought her lenses and decided EyeCandyLens.com was the best choice with their cute website design, huge variety of brands and colours, and customers-first attitude.

EyeCandyLens.com is based in Canada and they ship worldwide while frequently offering discounts (buy 2 get 1 pair free/Facebook discounts etc) year round. They operate on a Batch-ordering system, which only makes sense because if you were to purchase your own few pairs directly from Korea, shipping would be abysmal. So, place your order with a Paypal account (or concealed USD or CAD) and be patient! (I know many of you don't have Paypal accounts but perhaps you can work out a deal with your friend to borrow his or hers).

My order was Batch 28 and I ordered on October 4 (the beginning of the batch month) and received all my contacts in perfect condition around December 4. The wait seemed like forever, but it was reasonable considering the distance, the batches, and the distribution.

So, here's a picture-filled adventure of opening up my lenses!

The cute little packages! Thank you Chloe!

Geo lenses with Authenticity scratch-off thing (I didn't bother checking but you can online):

There's my lens! Creepppyyy :D

Free contacts case with every pair purchased! How convenient : )

Here's the Dali extra size green one:

I thought the green would would look more natural because of the gentle blending around the outer edge:

In case you were wondering how to open the bottle, you carefully use both thumbs to press up against the white part of the cap and go around the entire cap, trying to pry it loose a little bit. Once it is loosened up, if you press a little harder with both thumbnails, it will pop open and you can twist off the silver part too (like opening a jug of milk). There is a rubbery stopper covering the bottle's mouth, so just pop that off and pour out the solution slowly and let your lens slide out into your hand. Now soak your contacts in fresh solution for a few hours (in those nice pink contacts cases Chloe provided if you want) and then enjoy! If you wear the contacts immediately, your eyes will feel irritable after an hour or two so it's better to be safe and get all the harsh preservatives out first!


Doo doo doo: Trying on the contacts!

My eyes looked ridiculously huge when I put in the Extra Size Dali Green ones. I have relatively bigger eyes to begin with, so now I look really bug-eyed. My friends didn't notice the green at first, but they certainly noticed the size. Also, because the diameter of the contact is so big, it tended to irritate my right eye very often. The picture above is without flash.

The colours blended very well but my first impression was that I looked like a kitty. These aren't the most natural looking contacts, but they're great for looking dolly-eyed.

I was playing with green makeup to see if it would enhance the green but my camera didn't catch the colours right. The green still wasn't super obvious even with green makeup.

This is with flash. The brown of my natural eye colour is a lot more obvious:



I also love purple and was REALLY impressed with the Geo Magic Color Violet lenses. They look super natural and subtle in room lighting but people definitely notice that there's something different about my eyes but it's not in a bad way. The dark outer black ring may seem unnatural at first but when you put it on, it's just fine. In brighter lighting, the purple really pops and works great with purple shades of makeup. Yay!

Verdict:

Geo Magic Color Angel Violet lenses 14.0 mm (can be purchased here)
Price: $23.00 USD
I'll give them a 9/10 for being very good for their price. In the wrong lighting they can look bionic but in most conditions they blend perfectly.

Dali Extra Size Green lenses 14.2 mm (can be purchased here)
Price: $28.60 USD
.2 mm makes a big difference! I think these more expensive bigger lenses weren't necessarily as good as I had hoped. I'm sure normal Geo lenses in green would be just as good. It's really hard to find nice green contacts that are not freaky looking and also have prescriptions. I give a 7/10

Eyecandylens.com is a great company to order from! Products are shipped reliably and are packaged with care. Thanks Chloe for helping me purchase my first pairs of colored contacts!
I give the site a 10/10!

I was not paid in any way for this review; these are my opinions after use. This product was purchased with my own money. Results may vary from person to person.

Forever 21 Twist: Oui, Oui, Tres Paris!

Christmas Shopping time is here! I went to Westfield Mall in Escondido today and was impressed by the number of shops and variety there. I mean, they even had a pet store filled with adorable puppies! But of course, my weakness lies in my obsession with Forever 21 and I stepped in to see what they had in "store" (okay, I'll stop with the puns .. maybe).

Forever 21 has become the store of glitz and glam and glitter. Flashy sequins, beaded shirts, walking disco balls, essentially. It'd be nice at the club, but all that shininess isn't practical for sitting in a classroom half the day or wearing to work. Thus, I have felt limited this year as far as practical clothes go. Off the shoulder tops and dresses are also incredibly popular, along with cage pumps and chunky jewelry.

This is taking it too far .. creating the illusion of a tank top with big sequins + frilly ruffles will make you look like a pregnant, sparkly whale-fish (and we all know whales are mammals).



I wonder if these Cage Pumps are even comfortable ... they seem to go great with leggings or skinny jeans and are all the rage.

For Winter 2009, it seems Forever 21 is phasing in loose, wide necklines and cinched waists. Sweet little cardigans are also in stock, along with faux biker jackets and brass-studded military-inspired jackets. The frustrating thing about fashion is the First Law of Beauty: Beauty is Pain! So if you live in a cold, blizzardy place, it's hard to look dazzling in 3 layers of chunky sweaters.

On a happier note, I really appreciate that Forever 21 has reached out and explored with ballet, French, and disco-inspired clothing. In particular, I have become enamored with the Tres Paris line and bought this adorable outfit (with a different beret and tights):

I'm a tee and skinny jeans kind of girl, with a love for basic black+white and artistic embellishments. This outfit would be what I call risque high fashion, since the shirt doesn't even reach my belly button but the skirt is so granny high rise that it makes up for it.
+ + = Tres Paris indeed

The Eiffel Tower Silhouette Top was $14.80, the Bow Front Skirt $19.80 and the Wool Blend Studded Beret &7.80, so with tax it's about $35 for the entire batch. Pretty good steal, eh? (I will upload pictures later)

With classy black and white with a pop of red, the Tres Paris line is an affordable way to embrace Parisian fashion without having to hop on a plane or break the bank. Berets, funky tights and high rise skirts are a must, slap on some red lipstick and you'll have everyone saying, "Oui, oui!"



Here's the rest of my haul:

Fab Turtleneck Top in Navy ($8.50) - it has a cute peephole in the back but mine is half-sleeves

Dotted Strip Tights ($5.80) - these actually look a lot more dark navy when not stretched out on a plaster white mannequin .. I haven't tried them on yet though.

Luxuriant Bracelet Set ($6.80) - Mom thought it was a good deal

I also got black Sweater Knit Food Tights ($5.80) for St. Louis year-long winters. Yay warm legs!

Enjoy the last-minute shopping, everyone! If you need stocking stuffers, Forever 21 has great makeup products for $1-3 and very cheap jewelry under $5. Meanwhile, Happy Holidays!