Who wants that perfect love story anyway?

...cliché, cliché, cliché~
-- Part II (On The Run) | Jay-Z and Beyonce

Mmmkay! I'm going to try to get an entry in this week before it turns into August. My workplace asked if I could resume work on August 15th or so. My break feels short now (lol). So anyway, since my last entry, I had been monitoring twitter and the news about the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) rulings before they went on summer break and hoping that any law barring same-sex couples from being married would be ruled unconstitutional, but that didn't happen. This country is so slow paced when it comes to progress...ugh. On the bright side, if I wanted to marry a hot boy, I can in my home state of California and that is thanks to the Supreme Court justices who ruled that the Arizona based supporters of the same-sex marriage ban had no "standing" to defend and instate such law (or any private party for that matter but it's kind of a flaw in California's highly democratic legislative system that allows for a person or party to easily petition a law into ballot as long as they get enough signatures in a certain amount of time). Same-sex marriage was approved by Supreme Court of California in 2008 on the basis that marriage is a fundamental right that cannot be denied because of a person's sexual orientation (it's discriminatory) and basically having a law that denied someone a right everyone should have "because the public wanted it" was no excuse. Fairness is like this fundamental value we're taught since we were little. It makes no sense but yeah, me... married? -awkward laugh-

Furthermore, SCOTUS struck down the "Defense of Marriage Act" which didn't allow for married same-sex couples to receive federal benefits because their marriages weren't recognized by the federal government. The striking down of the act means that same-sex couples in the thirteen states that have legalized same-sex marriages are now able to do a list of things they couldn't do previously like file joint tax returns and get spousal support via military or social security. Nice to know that these married couples can support each other more now and contribute more to the economy, as a result.

A couple days after the ruling, the district courts allowed for marriages to resume earlier than the estimated 25 days. The announcement was, like, sooooooo perfect because the mayor of Los Angeles (Antonio Villaraigosa) was officially leaving office that day (he was termed out which means that he can't run for mayor anymore) and basically spent those 24 hours traveling across the county doing fun stuff like make his own hotdog at Pink's. He had the honor of issuing the first same-sex marriage post SCOTUS at city hall and marrying one of the couples who took the case to Washington D.C. It was beautiful :) ~

Photo Credit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/paul-katami-jeff-zarrillo-burbank-gay_n_3522055.html

Around the same time that day and in San Francisco, Kamala Harris married the lesbian couple who also worked to take the case to D.C. She's the Attorney General of California and I only recently learned that she's half Indian (from India) and half Jamaican. She's pretty and seemed so happy when she was addressing the media of when same-sex couples could begin marrying again. :) ~

Photo Credit: http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/06/lead-plaintiffs-in-calif-gay-marriage-case-marry-in-san-francisco/

Okay, enough political talk from me. Everyone should already know about it anyway. Although it does bug me when this could've been avoided, if people just took the initiative to vote. I was far from majoring in Political Science in 2008 AND I STILL VOTED IN FAVOR OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE (+ it was a historic presidential election. I don't see why you wouldn't want to take part in that). Changing your damn Facebook profile picture is kind of 5 years too late, don't you think? -__________-v Also, if only people who like to complain voted, things like public transport could be built and sped up at a more rapid pace too. Think the 99% unfairly taxed? GO FREAKING VOTE! Oi~ -__-b

In other news, I want to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific since the last time I went, I didn't even get to go in because of my stupid friend misreading the extended hours thing. My summer is slowly coming to an end anyway, so I might ask my dad again and maybe my little cousin(s) can come along with my uncle since it's just faster to drive there (it can take almost 2 hours via MetroRail). I haven't been inside it since I was, like, 11.

Also, I've started my summer quarter so I've been going to class on Wednesday nights. I thought that the class would be focused on theorists and how they pictured government but I'm apparently just learning to compare governments of other countries and how it'd help explain things at home like gun violence. The whole thing is kind of retarded because you can't be too sure of any conclusion, but yeah. I need to graduate, so I'm taking this stupid course. I also have NEVER gotten below a B- in this university, so I kind of want to keep my, like, 3.2 GPA (LOL). AUGH! I'M ALMOST DONE, GODDAMMIT! JUST THREE MORE ADDITIONAL CLASSES. My mom asked me if I was walking and I told her I didn't plan to because she was so busy anyway. My mom has been working 60+ hour work weeks for the past couple of months, my dad could care less, my brother doesn't care at all, so what's the point. 

When it comes to my non-existent social life, my ex-coworker asked if I wanted to go bowling and I was super intrigued since I haven't bowled in over a year. I asked who was going and it turned out to be a bunch of other people I knew, so I went. I totally lost my groove but got some of it back by game 2. After game 2, the monitor still said we had another game so we got 3 games for the price of 2. WHAT A NIGHT! I went from having a shitty score like 40, to 90, then at least 100...lol

Lisa was on vacation with her boyfriend so no food pictures this entry (lol). July 4th was Independence Day for the United States and also my douchebag little brother's birthday. My mom had to work and was unsure of when she'd get off, so she left me money and asked me to help buy a birthday cake for him. I don't really mind since I'm basically doing it for my mom. Sadly, she would never ask my brother to do that for me and would instead, leave me money to buy MYSELF a cake *shifty eyes*...

So that afternoon, I went to buy him a cake after I watched my morning/afternoon talk shows. I went to the bakery my mom likes to go to and bought a cake with my awful mandarin. If you didn't know, I basically speak CHINGLISH. I walk in and the girl was like "you want to buy a cake?" in mandarin and I walk over to the fridge and was like... 这个SIZE有没有STRAWBERRY的？ and she was like "this [purple] one does.". So I was like...THEN我可以拿这个吗？which I don't think is proper but whatever. I got the cake. Mission accomplished. My mom forgot to tell me to also buy KFC but I kind of knew and wanted to get it anyway since I know she didn't want to cook dinner, so I went on the way home. After buying a 10 piece family meal, I went on to Wendy's to buy myself lunch and then ate. When night came, I decided to walk over to the park to watch fireworks rather than watch from the street corner, so I walked like a quarter before 9 o' clock. Surprisingly, I managed to catch two good shots from my cellphone so I think the likelihood of me catching a good shot of the city lights would be greater with my phone than my DSLR. It took a lot of pre-focusing and spontaneous shutter button pressing to get these.

The United States flag also just happened to be right there which was perfect. I forgot to mention that after I ran those errands, I was trying to nap for like an hour but it wasn't very successful. My mom came home before the sun started setting during that nap with some American Apparel samples. I now have some very flashy swim briefs. I just need to keep working on my legs (and my fat ass self, in general) because my thighs aren't firm enough for my liking. My errrr under thighs aren't that nice either because of acne scars and stretch marks. As you can tell, I'm not big on moisturizing my whole body. I'm trying to make it a routine though, especially since I had several cases of the heat rash and I need to keep my skin hydrated to lessen the itch. Maybe my thighs and butt will clear up by the end of summer with the effort I'm putting...*shifty eyes*. I've also made an effort to make my teeth whiter because they've been looking extra yellow to me recently. I have a box of Crest Whitestrips that was good by 2009 but I'm still using it. I actually gave a bunch to Lisa awhile back and I still have too much. She...didn't die...so I'm good...they're just chemicals after all *squint*. I've tried the premium ones before but they made my teeth super sensitive so I ended up buying a big box of the 5 minutes a day one instead. The strips were such a hassle that I just let the box collect dust, and 4 years passed by.

And since hydrogen peroxide is super cheap, I've been rinsing my mouth with it before brushing my teeth everyday in hopes that it'll really whiten my teeth because it's actually one of the active ingredients in whitening strips. It's only been about two weeks, so I don't think there's been any noticeable difference, especially since I drink coffee, colas, and tea like crazy. There hopefully will be if I can keep up with it for the next 6 months.   

When it comes to my physical fitness, it'll be one year since I've taken my cardio initiative. I'm, like, 18 pounds heavier and I still don't have a nice flat stomach. Clearly, I suck at dieting. I'm not that annoyed though since it is a lifestyle I have to keep up to get a hot body anyway. My waist is tighter. I'm a bit more firm and my veins are becoming ever more distinct, but my stomach is like the last thing to go. I've pushed up my running from mile intervals to just long distance last month, so I'm hoping this change will mean physical change too. I set myself up to walk 1 mile, jog 2 miles, walk 1 + rehydrate, jog 3 miles and that's it. I usually finish this in 1.5 hours and get home in under 2 hours. No more walk one, run one. I've also reverted back to the Nike+ Running app since my Runtastic app is being annoying and not getting a good connection to GPS satellites. I think it might be the receptor in my phone or just Runtastic trying to make me not use a bootleg of the app *devil face*. With Nike+, I could at least start tracking right away with a weak GPS signal and it'll eventually get a solid connection. The calorie burn estimate is also a bit more reasonable than Runtastic's. Maybe my body will look better by Halloween or my 25th birthday TT O TT ~ I'll start cooking for myself once I'm done with school, I swear.

Here's a comparison of the two apps with (essentially) the same run. The emoticons are different because I was happy that my nose didn't bleed in the Nike+ one. I realized that using the air conditioner too much will make the air dry and lead to nosebleeds. It also made a lot of sense after googling that because I've always wondered why there was a latch to open or close an opening in the air conditioner to bring in fresh air. I was essentially circulating the same air and drying it out so I gave myself nosebleeds recently...oi~ 

The day after Independence Day, I got my ASOS order. I got these two from their 4th of July sale.

I thought the bottom shirt's sleeves were just rolled up to be styled that way because Topman always does that, but it's actually stitched that way so I don't have to roll them up! YAY! convenience! I bought the top one because I like scoop necks and it was all sailor-y, so I really liked it. They were both around $16.

Lastly, I've become a TV and music slob. I was anticipating the Lifetime movie titled Anna Nicole, FOR WEEKS. Ever since I saw Wendy Williams talk about it on her show, I was like "I NEED TO WATCH THIS". She's like the Paris Hilton of my tweens. The trailer was really good and the movie wasn't that big of a disappointment. Wendy Williams said she didn't care too much for the ending, so she liked it. I thought the ending kind of sucked but it was only because I felt like the story wasn't fully told due to it. Also since what happened to Anna Nicole Smith was not that long ago, I felt really close to the whole thing. *tears* Here's the trailer.

The trailer is amazing isn't it?! After watching it, I felt like her connection to Marilyn was closer than ever. Small town girl and brought up by a single mother who had shitty experiences with men. Momma gives Anna Nicole some tough love to learn from her mistakes. Anna Nicole had to do what she must to provide for her newborn son and aspired to be as great as Marilyn after seeing her in Playboy as kid. Drugs came into the picture because she wasn't comfortable with what she was doing and it ultimately lead to her addiction, and then downfall. I really think that she wasn't all that into J. Howard's money as people made it out to be. She even declined marriage to him several times because she knew what people would think of her (in the film anyway, but I think her sisters agreed on this). I think she only stayed with him because he was a man with such a good heart and those are so hard to come across T______T. You can also tell that she just wanted to be a good mother and really wanted to provide for herself and her son. Ugh...yeah, the movie is definitely worth watching. The ending was a little "ehhhh~" but it wasn't a waste of time.

To end, I was also anticipating Namie Amuro's "FEEL" album ever since the Hands On Me and Heaven music videos came out. To my surprise, the whole album leaked about 3 days before the official release date and it is chock-full of awesome. It's a freaking piece of pop music gold. If you like dance music, it's full of it and the music videos are well directed. Hands On Me and Contrail was filmed in downtown Los Angeles too (HAYYY~)! I've been a huge fan of Namie ever since her "Style" album came out. THAT ALBUM WAS PERFECTION TOO. I wasn't a fan of much prior to that. I only liked songs like "Say the Word", "Body Feels Exit", "I Will", and "Did U" before Style came out. Besides idolizing BoA at the time, I really looked up to Namie since her mom was murdered and she's a single mom. Her strive to continue with music and be such a huge star just made me adore her so much more. I also love her as a style icon because BoA's Japanese promo styles always bugged the hell out of me. Gah~!

That is all.