whatchu ben doin

hi guys! i'm finally...finally getting back here. i've been feeling pretty lethargic lately here and haven't been feeling like making blog posts, or anything else really. a good part of it has to do with my vacation that we ended up cancelling, and dealing with all that has been both upsetting and tiresome, for more than just me. i will elaborate further in my upcoming march planner post. work itself hasn't been all that busy lately, i have been given a few more administrative things to do recently (around the office, not for my client), but i still come home not feeling like doing much of anything. house-wise, nothing new really. i changed out some of the dying plants in the flowerbeds recently, but it needs re-mulching and edging when i have time and the weather cooperates. we bought some new patio furniture this past weekend. something to note that i never really mentioned before... honeywell skybell (the round one) is a piece of crap and just don't do it!!! 🙅 all of the complaints! but i'll save those for my 1 year in my house post. see amazon reviews before deciding to buy it! we got ours because it was from our security company and it synced with our system, but are toying with the idea of getting something different.

my skin officially hates me. i have no idea what is happening right now. if i recall correctly, it was in february that i was trying to go through my sample shampoo and conditioner stash. this made my skin freak out, so i spaced out using them and my skin cleared up for the most part. i eventually finished all them. yay! unfortunately, in the past two weeks or so, it started going crazy again and has been worse than that last time. i'm still in the process of trying to figure out what's causing it, as my diet hasn't really changed much. i also went back to my usual haircare routine in late february to early march, sans samples, and nothin. i thought it may have been one newer skincare product, but i cut it out for the past week and haven't seen a change. by not seeing a change, i mean that as many spots are appearing as they are disappearing (healing). and this is not just my face either. it's my usual places (back, shoulders, chest, face) and it's like i'm in middle school all over again. it's awful. i have some suspicions that it may be my laundry detergent as this is a new bottle of supposedly the stuff we've been using, but my clothes are retaining scent for a really loooong time after washing -- like wearing them a few days later and still smelling like detergent at the end of the workday, after walking around out in this heat for like 20+ minutes. something seems different about it to the point where paul asked me if i noticed something "off" about it. and him noticing something...is something. so i bought a different detergent today (another that we've used in the past) to try out for a bit. we'll see what happens. as mentioned before i started using green concealers, and they've definitely been helping with the redness. i need to do a favorites post here sometime... that will be on the ever growing laundry list for the blog.

going back to this blog.. there have been many things i've been thinking about with upcoming posts and such that i want to do or write (no, i don't really intend to do anything different than usual), but then thinking about them has been overwhelming and i internally rage quit and end up doing something else. which i guess is one of the reasons why i've been putting off posting recently. this very post, i've been intending to write for maybe 2 weeks now. blog posts have been nagging at the back of my mind for quite some time, and i'm just now finally taking the time to get around writing this one. something i kind of miss about this blog... well not this blog, haha, but back in the good ol xanga days, i would get on there and write about a whole lotta nothin. daily posts about my day. how i did absolutely nothing. how i'm doing in school. oh, here's some random quiz results i've taken on which anime character i am from a given show. 😉 misadventures of ex-boyfriends and shit my roommate(s) pulled. that all being said, i do want to shift to a more casual and candid way of doing things. for as long as i can remember, i typically have written (on here or otherwise) pretty formally or businesslike when situations don't necessarily need be or, conversely, i will be incredibly brief and be like, 'no i don't like that' without really giving any real reason. the latter being more applicable to this blog, haha. i think that if you've seen some of my posts since january, you've probably already noticed this change a little bit. something recently i did like and would like to continue doing is actually trying the samples in my subscription boxes then talk about them. instead of this haul crap where i'm like 'this is what i got, hehe!'. when i first started doing subscription box posts, it was partially because i was among the first to get my box/bag in the mail and it was before this whole sneak peek thing was happening. so i'd end up getting a lot of page hits because people wanted to see what i got. these days, with sneak peeks, no one cares. hell, i don't care. i think that's why i haven't been liking making these posts, until last month when i did my ipsy and sephora bag posts a few weeks after receiving them. i had some time to actually try things out here and there, and found it more enjoyable talking about them.

speaking of subscription box posts, i'm toying with the idea of getting rid of my ipsy subscription. nope, not the walmart one which i was complaining about before (and will have a continuation of at a later time 😉), because i think it still has potential. but, yes, ipsy. first off, i feel like i haven't been using everything they've been sending me. i'm feeling overwhelmed because i'm getting stuff too often (for me) and i end up not liking most things and giving them away. i haven't been taking advantage of their coupon codes for the 300 companies they partner with each month, and their ipsy bundle deal thingies rarely interest me. i think i've gotten 2 sheet mask sets because they were reasonably priced, but now i have an endless supply of sheet masks that i'm not using because my face hates me. 😔 (nah, it was my fault for building up that stash, lol.) i think i will keep up with it a little longer, but i'm not confident at this point that i will keep it past this year. additional reasons why i'm feeling this way will come in my march ipsy bag post, whenever i finish typing it up.

anyway, i'm not really sure how i really want to end this post aside from a quick summary -- i haven't felt like doing the things, i want to be more real, and i plan to get some of my usual monthly posts up this week and next -- if i can. thank you for spending the time to read through all these muddled thoughts i've been having and i hope you'll come back soon for my upcoming posts! ~Lindsay

where i've been, 2017 reflections & 2018 goals

hi guys! it's been a while, about a month to be exact! between the holidays, work, being sick, cleaning and returning our apartment, having a new house, it's been a busy month-ish.

it has been nagging at the back of my mind that i've been neglecting this thing, but at the same time, a one month hiatus is not actually that long. and it's been nice not being super proactive and thinking about it. every so often i'll throw stuff onto my desk because i need to swatch it, or take photos, or something. my desk got cluttered and everything got shoved into a sephora bag. with that, i'm not using stuff because it's sitting on my desk in a bag! which is bad. gradually throughout the month, i have been photographing items and swatches in anticipation for making posts, but just haven't been posting. thankfully today, i finally sat down and spent a few hours going through and editing photos, sprucing up some old posts (not that much really), taking more photos, and prepping myself for all of my end of year (and end of month) posts that i've missed. i also dumped the bag across my desk to make sure i get it done! i hate messy workspaces. it'll be a bit before i'm fully caught up with my usual posts, so please bear with me!

onto the reflections and goals.

2017 was pretty good. not as hectic as 2016, that's for sure. 2016, i was on my first client project for a technology i was not super familiar with. two years later, i'm more comfortable working with it, which is great both for me and the client. a good bit of 2017 was focused on the house. we finally have a house! homeowners! a lot of stress was on saving enough for the down payment. meaning, we couldn't do anything fun or exiting last year because we couldn't afford it. the great thing about the builder we chose was that when we chose this house, we only had to put down a deposit for the lot/style of house we wanted. that was it. no down payment til closing. that is great! so for the months of march through mid-october, we had given them less than $2000 between the reservation and going over the allowed amount of add-ons that could be rolled into our loan. then mid-end of october came along, and we pretty much put down the equivalent of my yearly salary. that is a lot. i can't tell you how much we've spent on other house-related things in the past three months. thankfully, i'm not the one in charge of the credit cards. hehehe. but it's been one thing after another with this house. i fully intend to have a 1 year house update in october or november. but it's been expense after expense, little trip to lowes or home depot here and there. a little bed bath and beyond there. get a security system. pay home owner's association fees. fence request to the HOA. hire fence people. badger the poor builder man that my cabinet wasn't replaced when they said it was supposed to be done. apply for permits to even have a security system that the security people waited 3 weeks after installation to tell us that said permits were required by the parish (that's a county for you non-Louisianians).
enough life stuff. as for the blog, i think i did fairly well, keeping up with when things have come in to post about them. which is good. i'm not sure i can say i will be able to keep up the same consistency for 2018, but we'll have to see. i have been posting to instagram pretty irregularly recently. like i've gotten all kinds of planner stickers recently, but haven't felt the need to make like a bulk photo post of it. kind of because it feels like it's becoming too late to do so, yet at the same time, i will be posting about it on the blog, so it's whatever. i'm still taking photos as i get them, but yeah...

i'm never really good about making new year's resolutions, so i primarily just make some general blog goals. it's kind of fun seeing if i actually kept them up or not, especially since i can easily search the blog and find the original post again. anyway, that's beside the point. this year i have a few things i'd like to do that i've had in mind the past several weeks. i'd also like to note that all resolutions related posts or videos i've seen lately include at least some of these, which is helping reinforce the idea that i should actually do them.

1. be a more informed consumer. you don't need that new thing that no one's talked about from an unknown brand. just wait for someone (that you follow online) to say something about it.
1. you don't need every color of that thing either. just get the one(s) that you foresee yourself actively using.
2. with this, saving money will be easier. (or will it, because planner stickers are so stinkin cute?!)
2. save money, stay within budget. i've had a lot of trouble with this one since ever, really. last year's penny challenge, lol that was a joke. and guess what i'm doing this year, the 52 week challenge. please help me now! granted, my budget this year is higher than before, so i theoretically should be able to do this. right now, the plan is to gradually save the amount i intended to save for the penny challenge plus the amount for this year's 52 week challenge. december will definitely be difficult! the ways i'm currently trying to alleviate are to save what i need for the 52 week challenge, spend under budget, and save any remaining.
3. actively go through your makeup stash. things expire, why would you let it sit unused?
1. start an actual rotation of products. don't think about doing it, do it! for things like mascara and liquid liners, try to keep only 1 or two in use at a time.
1. if you're not reaching for certain products regularly, get rid of them. return them (if possible) or pass them along. there's no sense in keeping them if someone else can use them before they go bad.
2. that thing that you have, why keep it if you don't like it?!
4. get rid of that sample stash! i have a huge stash of sample hair products and travel sized things. this one will be a slightly harder goal to achieve, as i am not ready to quit my ipsy or sephora subscriptions, but i definitely want to get rid of my shampoo/conditioner, leave-in's, body wash and lotion stash.
1. if you actually want to try all the things!, then alternate them in with your regularly used items. if you don't like them, it's only one day "lost". get over it.
5. finish those unfinished posts! that video you promised from the 2016 cruise you went on? yeah, where is it? part one was like 2 days of the trip, that was it. that's not everything!! that nume curling wand post that you've pushed off for 4 YEARS now? publish it, get it out of the way! (note: it is scheduled to be published soon. prior to me working on this post.)

i hope you all had a happy new year and have a great 2018! ~Lindsay

remember this?

hey guys! remember that one time i was all like: lets try blog monetization? well, its been over a year now and i have not seen a whole lot of benefit in my using it. frankly it's quite pitiful, but was a nice experiment...for science! anyway as you can now see, i have disabled ads because why keep them? ads are annoying, they clutter the screen, and i'm seeing no benefit by having them on here. i can't promise that they will never be enabled ever again, because if i start seeing high enough traffic (a significant increase from what we've got now) there will be the possibility for their return. further assessments will be made if such a time ever comes.

so, if my having ads on this blog dissuaded you from frequenting my site, i apologize and thank you for tolerating my shenanigans for the past year. i also hope that you'll continue checking back and giving me feedback in the future. ~Lindsay-chan ^.~

2016 reflections, 2017 goals and plans

hi guys! i've finally got the time to sit down, think, and pen my thoughts here. a lot has happened in the past year, so let's start with teh paul since there's relatively less to talk about.
teh paul's grant ended in may and for the past 4 years, he couldn't have an outside job per the grant's requirements. anyway, he started working as an intern at his current job. the president of the company is an instructor at school and has been trying to get him to work for him for like 7 years now... then with hard work and overwhelming votes of confidence they switched him to full time over the summer, and he began getting benefits etc. the fall semester came and went, and he and i had some final discussions regarding his PhD. trying to weigh out the pros and cons, versus the new full time position... it was a lot to think about, but in the end the conclusion was that it would be too much more time (minimum 2 years) before he'd get it finished if he kept at the current pace. not to mention the program he began writing to create simulations for his thesis is buggy, nowhere near complete, and hard to muddle through. so based on all of these things and some additional requirements by his major professor, it makes more sense for him to quit. additionally, his salary level would not change by much even if he did finish the PhD.

for me, it's been a roller coaster. i'm just shy of the 1 and half year mark and still trying to keep up. the end of 2015 was pretty crazy, i was on an internal project that quickly died, then literally thrown into training for a newer (more exciting) technology and started on the project just shy of a year ago, with no practical experience. it has been great! ^___^ anyway, 2016 for this project was crazy and i'm surviving my project. i felt awful the first couple months on this project. new to the technology, only ok at programming (at least by my standards... and yes i'm aware that i'm selling myself short here.), and my friends were being kicked off the project seemingly left and right. (literally there are only 3 devs in our office for this project now, and i'm one of them.) but i somehow have managed. there are a few things that i know i can attribute to how i've managed to hang in here.
first is previous experience -- working in groups, lots of them--between jobs and my extensive schooling. second is my two degrees, having both of them is actually pretty useful in hindsight even though i often discounted my first while working on my second. having both psychology and (loosely) business technology degrees has helped me quite a bit on this project. these give me a different perspective that a lot of my team members don't have. being able to see the whole picture, ask pertinent and very often overlooked questions, and understanding what the business or customer actually wants. i often feel like i have a more open view or understanding to how people (customers of the client) could potentially break the site because of oversights, or features or placements of objects that make a more logical sense from their perspective. and a third reason that is to a wayyyyy lesser extent and i'm probably a terrible person for thinking this --but i'll say it anyway-- is that i help diversify the team. i'll leave this one at that. =P
one last note regarding the roller coaster project, a huge takeaway that i have from this project is communication. if you've been reading any of my work- and planner-related posts in the past year, you've seen the many frustrations that i've had over the course of this project. and i'm fairly certain i've mentioned it on here before, every sunday at my great grandparents' house, pawpaw would always say 'the most important things in life are mutual communication and mutual respect'. as much as you don't really want to admit something like this growing up, he's right, the old-old soldier knew what he was talking about. anyway enough about actual goings on of the project.. last year was pretty exciting. i saw two promotions and raises. one of them significantly larger than the other, but the client thinks we're doing a good job and wanted it to happen. and i'm really grateful to them for that, as well as this roller coaster experience that i have both learned from and can use to better myself in the future.

and that brings us to today. 2017, a new year! i think i'll first start of with the blog situation. as some of you may have read my original post or can blatantly see across your entire screen..... i opted into google adsense, which doesn't really draw that much revenue since lol who and how many people actually come here? and that brings me to some new changes. not too long ago, i finally added the blog link to my instagram to get more exposure, considering i am paying for this domain. maybe eventually i'll get it more out to the family instead of this 'closet' business, but this is my first step at a pace i am comfortable with. secondly, i will try to continue to post at the current rate and pace that i had since last year. considering that my work project is exhausting, and i don't always want to be on the computer more than the 9 hours a day that i am already investing in my project. as for life goals or plans for this year, as i have gently beaten over the head in this post, we are making more money now, like two legit incomes. and with that, we are anticipating having saved a comfortable house down-payment by the summertime. for the past couple months or so, we've been casually looking online at houses in the area (especially so after the flooding to know where to not go! lol), seeing what we do and don't like about houses, and making feeble attempts to locate houses in actual good school districts. lol, this is louisiana. haha. but we will see what happens over the course of the next several months. i will keep you all updated.

anyway, i hope you all have a great 2017! ~Lin-chan ^.~



by the way sidenote because this is an update post and there's not really any other logical place to mention it....... i know i keep saying this like in real life and to a few of my friends. i swear, i will eventually get our end of october cruise pictures up. i think most of my issue is getting the video edited so i know what photos i'm including into it and not repeating in the photo album. and by the way, several weeks ago i did spend a good 4-5 hours editing a 15 minute video, which encompassed days 1-2.5 ... but my tablet wasn't having it to export it, multiple times -- like it'd spend a long time compiling, but then video players tell me it is corrupt. ~.~ but i'll make another attempt to recreate the first video (on my phone this time!) over the weekend because i should have time to do so.

new blog layout (updated)

 

hi! so here's the last update for this. so i finished tweaking everything i wanted...annnnd if you haven't noticed, i got a domain! yayyy! ~L-c ^.~

[begin original post.]

hi guys! the blog is currently under construction, but it's almost perfect. i'm just tweaking a few things [ahem..photo sizes.........] and we'll be all set! anyway, back to my previously scheduled post.........
update: shoot me in the freaking face. the easiest fix i could come up with means that i literally have to fix each and every blog post ever, and that will take me some time. so please bear with me. i'm starting with pages and drafted/unpublished posts, and then i will fix the more recent posts to oldest posts.
update 2: i think it's fixed now... i had to dig into the css a bit more..



hi guys! so back in january, i made a short list of goals that i had for the blog. and, well, updating the layout was one of the big things that i wanted done. so, if you can't already tell, it has been done!

i'd been thinking about this for a long time, and i decided that i am too lazy to go through the entire css and html to update it myself. it's over a thousand lines worth of code to sift through, and i ain't got time for that! or well..i do--i've only got two classes this semester, but no. so i began seriously considering purchasing a layout. i know i don't really have much of a following, but at the same time the design has always bothered me. anyway, i really like this one a lot and i hope it's easier to read, and more easy on the eyes.

i waited for an ebates* check to pay for this, which was probably a good thing and a bad thing.. good in that it was paypal credit (and that's what they take), and bad in that i actually got more than enough cash back because i spent all the monies.

this layout is from pipdig.co for those who are interested. i also manipulated a lot of the features and colors to make it "my own". hope ya like it.
~Lindsay-chan ^.~

*Affiliate Link.

2015 blog goals

hi guys! i wanted to make a few blog goals for this year. lets hope that i can keep up with them! ~Lin-chan ^.~

1. continue making at least one post per week
• we will see how well this works out once i start working this summer.....
2. notd redoux's (upcoming tag)
• i was randomly going through all my old notd posts...and there's soooo many with bad photos.......(nearly 40 of them!!)...... so the plan is that i will gradually recreate these notd posts, so long as i still have the polishes.
3. update blog layout
• i know that i don't really have much of a following, but at the same time the design has always bothered me. so the plan is to update the css/html sometime in the next few months.

update: notice for upcoming blog posts... (updated)

hi guys, so i wanted to give yall a status update for the blog because i have been trying to post at least once a week this year. but things are going to get pretty hectic in the upcoming weeks, and i'm not sure when things will work out exactly for me to post stuff. so here's the run-down.

• november hauls post will probably be late, delayed at most by one week, hopefully.
• 12/8-13: finals week, and yes i have a saturday afternoon final. ~.~
• 12/15-1/4 we will most likely be at the in-laws' the whole time, and i haven't played with the lighting in our new room yet. so i may or may not take any photos while there.
• long story short, sis-in-law moved back home and wanted her old room back, which is where we were staying, so now we're in bro-in-law's old room since he lives 4 hours away anyway. and teh paul's old room is father-in-law's room whenever bro-in-law is not in town because mother-in-law can't deal with the snoring.. musical bedrooms!
• december subscription boxes will be mailed to the in-laws', so hopefully i can get good photos up for the posts
• ipsy bag 
• popsugar must have
• target cyber monday beauty boxes
• 12/16 i'm getting my last two wisdom teeth out, so i'll probably not want to take photos of myself for a while.... aghhh! chubbeh cheeks and drugs!
• fall favorites & empties posts will be at most one week late. (early january)

as a life update, school's been ok. pretty much since mid-september, i've been over it for this semester. like peace out yo! pretty much my job offer sealed the deal, and my motivation to do well made a steep decline. now, i do still have some motivation because i'm super ridiculously close to an overall 3.0 GPA, which i've never had in college and i've been on the borderline for like 6 years now. so, as long as i get the following grades, i will have just barely over a 3.0. eeep! let's hope i get it and can maintain it with my two classes next semester!

class	current	grades i need/want
fin 3718	c	c
mkt 3401	b	b (a is preferable, but less likely) a
cmst 2064	a? b?	a b is more likely
isds 4125	b	b? a?
isds 4160	a? b?	a

~Lin-chan ^.~

blog plans for the upcoming year

 

hi guys! hope you had a great new year (and christmas) like we did! (above pix stolen from T's fb.) i've made a short list of goals/plans i'd like to implement into the blog this year. wish me luck, because i'm now signed up for 18hrs this semester! ~Lin-chan ^.~

• more reviews of things i purchase (vs. just hauling all the time)
• more attempts at nail art...maybe....
• more recipe posts vs. just putting the recipe into my recipe folder on google docs (the link to this folder is in top toolbar)
• post at least once a week
• empties/hit-pan posts every quarter -- if i have any during that quarter; now that i've got an empties bin!