I just wrote a really lengthy essay for an assignment (about Dota, yay!), so I'm in a very write-y mood now. Therefore, I shall expend my writing energy by updating my blog! (Sometimes I feel this blog is like a parent, and I'm obliged to report about goings-on in my life every once in a blue moon.)
Let's start off with a random unrelated pic of my awesome hair!
GYM!
So anyway, I feel like my life is really good at this moment, besides the fact that I'm flat broke for this month, and had to withdraw next month's allowance early just to feed my poor bony self. :( And why am I broke, you may ask? Because I'm eating like a boss! I started going to gym last week with a couple of friends for health reasons, and after every session, I become this ravenous beast that craves meat and rice in quantities like I've never experienced before.
Some people are concern-trolling me by saying that I don't need to go to the gym because I don't need to lose weight! I'm so skinny! And bony! And unhealthy! Blablablah...NO. I am very aware that I am skinny, thanks to everyone and their auntie telling me so on a constant basis since I was 7 years old. Don't worry, I do not have body dysmorphia of any kind and GOING TO THE GYM IS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT LOSING WEIGHT!
I just woke up one lethargic winter's day feeling like I've been hit by a truck, and realized I have to do SOMETHING to change my passive lifestyle. And my apartment has a gym. A gym we pay AUD500 a month for (including other facilities that we don't use as well). So why not start going to the gym?
Just as well that I managed to persuade my 2 good buddies to accompany me to the gym :D Nothing's worse than being a noob at a gym except being the LONE noob at a gym. The first day we walked in, an assortment of flabby and stick-like limbs, it was pretty intimidating to see muscular guys doing impossible-looking workouts, and perfectly-toned girls effortlessly RUNNING on the treadmills. (To think my mom told me that BRISK WALKING was a good enough workout!)
Bewildered by the collection of foreign-looking equipment, I picked one that seemed pretty easy to start off with - the stationary bike.
/start digression
Momo and I actually came a day earlier to figure out how to operate the equipment...after randomly spamming buttons including the giant green one that said START, we left the gym without managing to get anything working. After telling my sister that, she just looked at us incredulously and said 'you just GET ON and START cycling.' Momo and I looked at each other as realization dawned upon us - realization that we're complete idiots. u__u Who knew it was so easy?
/end digression
Anyway, after that embarrassingly fruitless button-spamming expedition, we started our first day of gym! The stationary bike seemed so easy! I just hit the button that said 'CV workout' and started cycling, feeling like some super athlete, wondering why people feared the gym so much when it was SO EASY to exercise!
And then the bike program started to go uphill. I was like WUT IS DIS? It felt like trying to swim in the sea with bricks tied to my feet! I was DYING. My body started to burn up and my heart started pounding crazily. Before long, I was slumped over the handlebars of the machine, paddling feebly like the unfit piece of jelly that I am. My heart rate hit 170+ bpm at the peak of the program...and I was only doing a measly 65 rpm!
At the end of the 38 minute-or-so workout, I couldn't even stand up without feeling like I was going to keel over and die. Nevertheless! I persevered and returned 2 days later!
It was fun! I went another 2 times in the following week and by the 4th workout, I was cycling 100 rpm with no visible increase in heartbeat (but still struggling on the incline). My maximum heart rate was only 165 this time - a tiny improvement, but an improvement nonetheless! I'm going to keep this 2-3 times a week gym regimen until I have toned legs and hopefully maybe 1-2 kg in weight gain due to my enormous appetite :P
NEW TABLET!
Anyway, enough about exercise! Another new thing in my life is my beloved Google Nexus 7 tablet <3 My sister bought it for my 21st birthday this year, but it only arrived exactly one week ago.
I've already forgotten what life was without it. It's like I have everything in the palm of my hand - books, music, movies, social media, assignments and a whole plethora of free but awesome games to mess around with.
Only downside is that it only has a front camera, which can make camwhoring pretty awkward if you want to include more than just your face in the picture.
***ran off to DotA and returned 2 hours later***
Okay, I don't feel like talking about my beautiful new tablet any more, although it's the best thing since discovering I COULD WASH MY FACE WITH OIL.
Yes, that was a very clumsy segue into the next thing I want to talk about. Good spot! Anyway, I've been washing my face with oil, vegetable oil, for the past month or so.
AMAZING OCM!
And can I just say, it's the best thing that has happened to my skin since...ever. I came across the OCM (oil cleansing method) while browsing a makeup/beauty tumblr a while back and decided I would give it a try.
Since most of my friends live in Malaysia, no one has ever seen my winter skin up close and personally. It is HORRIBLE. It's a maze of fine lines and wrinkles, and flakes of skin just fall off randomly through the day no matter how much heavy duty moisturizer I slather on my face. IT IS JUST SO DRY.
When I read the article that claimed washing my face daily with a mix of castor and vegetable oil and NO BRANDED CLEANSERS AT ALL I was like YEA RIGHT! Is it possible that 2 bottles of oil bought off supermarket and pharmacy shelves could replace my precious, super-expensive branded cleanser - and outperform it to boot?
YES IT CAN.
After a few days of experimenting with the ratio of oils, I found my perfect balance and it was smooth sailing from then on. Dry skin? A thing of the past! Blotchiness? All but gone! Blackheads and oil seeds? THEY FUCKING POP OUT OF YOUR PORES BY JUST MASSAGING THEM!
It's kind of surreal actually. All these years scarring my skin while trying and failing to extract blackheads...if I knew they would pop up without fuss just by coaxing them out with a bunch of magical oils.
It is also said that the OCM works even better on oily skin because counter-intuitively, oil dissolves oil! Faithful acne-prone users of the OCM swear that it won't make your face an oil slick. Okay I'm starting to sound like some crazy religious evangelist now so I'll stop and leave this basic guide [here].
Oh yeah, the oils also made my eyelashes grow. THEY GREW A WHOPPING 3mm! This is just amazing to me because I had the puniest, wispiest eyelashes ever seen on a person, and now I have somewhat average-length ones to flutter at cute boys with. (Just joking bf, you're the only cute boy I need :P)
I'm still so excited about it that when I look in the mirror I'm like DUUUDE I HAVE BOTTOM LASHES DUDE! Real honest-to-goodness, un-mascara-coated bottom lashes! Okay, sorry if I seem like I'm overreacting to a tiny 3mm of extra hair :( You all have naturally nice long curly thick lashes already, so don't rain on my parade please!
FINAL YEAR GAME PROJECTS!
As I may or may not have mentioned before (I really don't know, I blog so rarely now I don't remember what I've said) my team, Team Capsaicin, was awarded 100% for our first semester's game, Muddle Farm!
YAY!
Now we have the privilege of trying our best to live up to our newfound reputation as an ass-kicking, name-taking, multicultural asian powerhouse :X
Of course, it's 100% for a 12 week project developed by 3 students, so please don't expect Assassin's Creed or something. It's just a quaint puzzle game that no one wants to play but everyone loves to marvel at because it's JUST SO DIFFICULT TO PLAY! Even I suck at it, and I helped design it!
You can try it [here], if you like :)
So, this semester we've decided to make a game that's more accessible to all kinds of audiences :) People tend to find physics-based games intuitive, so what we're working on now is a puzzle game with awesome time-stopping, physics-influencing capabilities. I'm pretty excited as I'll be working hard on the level design during this mid-sem break. Hopefully it turns out to be a gem, not a dud.
It's called Vector, and here's a sneak peek of what the early stages of its development looks like:
Hopefully this game will be much more intuitive and easy to grasp. Our all-star team leader has successfully ported it to Android OS and hope to take things from there. (iOS sucks balls and is so bloody unfriendly to newbs, with it's exorbitant $99 PER YEAR license fee and ridiculous entry standards T__T)
Okay, my ravenous hunger has returned with a vengeance and I shall end this post abruptly as I often do.
Good night! :D
