Four Things

Fellow geek and book-worm extraordinaire Kristin of Super Space Chick tagged me to do this fun post called “Four Things.”

Weee!!!

I’m tagging Mandy of A Nerdy World,Vanessa from Nessbow, Gwen from Like Gwen Stacy, Gladys from Usagi in Wonderland,  Joie from Confessions of a Book Pimp, and Cazz from Nerd Burger. If you’d like to do one, I tag you too! Please leave a link for me to check out as well if you happen to do your own “Four Things” post. 🙂

Four Places I’ve Lived:

I’ve never lived in more than four places, so here’s a bit about the two cities that I have lived in…

• Stockton, CA – I’ve lived here my whole life, sans the two years I was away for school at SFSU. It’s located in the central valley, so the Bay Area isn’t too far away to visit for a day and the state capitol of Sacramento is only a 45 minute drive. A few notable films have been shot here too! Indiana Jones, Flubber, and Dead Man on Campus have all had a few scenes filmed at the University of the Pacific (UOP). And Harrison Ford once opened the door of a local sushi bistro for my mom and I. What he was doing in Stockton, I’ll never know. Anyway, Stockton was a nice place to grow up, but in more recent years I feel like it’s taken on more of a Gotham City vibe as far as crime is concerned. Even though the city is trying really hard to revive itself, I’m still trying to figure out how to get out of here [again]!
• Daly City, CA – I lived in Daly City for a couple of years while I studied Creative Writing at SFSU. It’s right outside of San Francisco, and the campus was practically IN Daly City. It was always sooo cold and foggy, and I got seasonal depression real bad. First I lived with my sister and her boyfriend, and then they moved to San Diego after she finished grad school. Then my aunt’s co-worker’s daughter moved in with me, and shortly after a couple of girls I used to be good friends with moved in too. Lesson learned from that experience: do not live with your friends unless you wish to remain friends. >__<

Four Jobs I’ve Had:

• Reading Tutor – This is the first job I’ve ever had, and I’m still currently there. I started back in 2008, but stopped once I transferred to SFSU. When I moved back home, I took a Children’s Lit class for fun because I was so bored from NOT finding a job, and it was taught by one of the professors I worked with at the Reading Lab. She told me that they were looking for tutors, so I looked into it and I’ve been working there ever since.
• Bookseller at Barnes & Noble – I worked at B&N for a year and 3 months. It was my first retail job ever, and I got to meet some really cool people. I decided to quit last June so I could focus more on writing and work on bettering myself because the environment often triggered my anxiety and I’d have so many panic attacks while on the clock. Wah wah. But damn do I miss getting 30% off books and toys though. – le sigh –
• Writer – If you read my last post, you know that I was invited to start writing for Wear Your Voice Mag as a fashion writer. This is my first real writing gig. I’m going to get paid to write about fashion, shopping, and geeky things — things that I’m passionate about! You can only imagine how excited I am, right?!
• Jewelry Maker – I run an Etsy store, and though it’s not as successful as others, I definitely consider it a job!

Four Things I Don’t Eat:

• Feta cheese – I call it “fatal” cheese because… well, I’ll just leave it at that.
• Chinese food – My family tends to order Chinese food a lot, and I will only eat it if there’s nothing else available. I’m just not a fan of the way it sits so heavily afterwards. Blugh.
• Raw onions – There’s just something about raw onions that is so gross! If I’m gonna eat it, it needs to be cooked.
• Black Licorice – Because eww.

Four of My Favorite Foods:

• Anything with chicken and pesto – Chicken pesto in my sammich, my pasta, my calzone, I don’t care what it is, I’MMA EAT IT.
• Dessert – Cookies, macarons, ice cream, cupcakes, Tiramisu, crème brûlée, cheesecake… GIMME GIMME GIMME!
• Pizza – Pizza covers all the food groups and it’s deloycious! My favorite toppings are grilled chicken, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. If you don’t like pizza, I don’t trust you.
• Japanese food – Hooray for ramen, chicken teriyaki, tempura, and miso soup!

Four Films I’ve Watched More Than Once:

• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
• That Thing You Do!
• Beauty & the Beast (almost any Disney movie, really)
• Zoolander

Four TV Shows I Watch:

• Parks & Recreation
• Mad Men
• Agent Carter
• Game of Thrones

Four Things I’m Looking Forward To This Year:

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens – I know I’m not the only one who gets chills whenever they see the trailer! And “Chewie, we’re home.” ALL THE FEELS.
• Captain America 10k – I’m both excited and worried about this because I haven’t been training properly.
• The Good Dinosaur – A Pixar movie about dinosaurs? YASS PLEASE. Also the fact that we’re getting 2 Pixar movies in one year is ridiculous! I feel so spoiled. 😀
• Whimsic Alley’s Geeky Crafts Fair – In December I’ll be a vendor at Whimsic Alley’s Geeky Crafts Fair!! I plan on prepping for it in October.  

Four Things I Can’t Live Without:

• Spanx – I wear a pair of Spanx (or Assets, whatever the hell they’re called) whenever I wear dresses and skirts. This means I wear them every damn day! They’re a thick-thighed girl’s best friend. #NoChubRub
• Portable phone charger – Portable phone chargers are a life saver when you’re out and about, especially at places like Disneyland or Comic-Con.
• Chapstick – I hate the feeling of dry lips, don’t you?
• Marvel movies – I often say that one of my main reasons for living is Marvel movies. I am not joking. My friend Caitlin has heard me say this many times. They give me so much life, you guys! SO. MUCH. LIFE.

Four Celebrity Crushes:

I noticed that in this section you’re supposed to list facts about your significant other. Seeing that I’m not attached to anyone (except for Chris Evans — we are in a super serious relationship in my Mind Palace), here are 4 of my current celebrity crushes.

• Chris Evans (obviously)
• Tom Hiddleston (duh)
• Domnhall Gleeson (isn’t he a cutie pie?!)
• Matthew Gray Gubler (love this weirdo)

Four Places I’ve Visited:

• The Philippines – I’ve been to the Philippines twice — when I was 5 and when I was 18 going on 19 (I actually celebrated my 19th birthday while I was there). The first time I went was to go to my grandpa’s mother’s funeral (somber much?), and then the second time I went was just to go I suppose. I don’t remember. x__x
• Europe – My aunt took my sister and I to Italy for spring break when I was in 5th grade! We went to Rome, Florence, and Venice. It was super exciting, but I really want to go back because I feel like I’d appreciate it so much more than I did back then. Also, pictures. I was not cute in 5th grade, I need to redeem myself! And when I was 16 I got to go on a tour of London, Amsterdam (with a brief stop in Brussels), and Paris with my aunt, mom, and sister. In Amsterdam, our tour group ate at a floating Chinese restaurant (random as hell), and then went on a tour of the Red Light District. It was weird.
• New York, NY – Visiting New York has been a dream of mine ever since I was probably 5. I finally got to go last year with my sister and we had so much fun exploring New York, Manhattan, and Brooklyn! Except we totally forgot to eat New York style cheesecake and failed to grab a black and white cookie. All the more reason for us to go back. 😀
• Portland, OR – Last year I got to go to Portland and it was the greatest city I have ever visited in all my life! The food! The people! EVERYTHING WAS SPECTACULAR.

Four Pet Peeves:

I can only pick four? Oh lord, here we go…

• Bad grammar – I majored in Creative Writing (technically it says English on my diploma, but whatever), OF COURSE BAD GRAMMAR IS GOING TO BOTHER ME. When people don’t use the right form of then/than, there/their/they’re, whether/weather, etc, it drives me insane. Or when a lot is spelled as “alot” when it’s supposed to be two words? Ruuuugggghhh. I’m totally okay with internet lingo such as speaking like Doge or saying things like “I can haz sammich,” but overall horrible, terrible, no good grammar? NO. SO MUCH NO. NOPE. OKAY BYE.
• Students using their phones during class – Why is your phone on the table during class? Why are you on Twitter when I’m sitting next to you looking over your annotations (this seriously happened yesterday)? Why are you texting? Why are you snapping selfies? Why are you on Snapchat? PUT YOUR DAMN PHONE AWAY. It is so hard to take students seriously when I see them fiddling with their phone. I’m so glad that I went to school before Smartphones became a thing. Don’t care if I’m dating myself here, but they’re so effing distracting!
• When *NSYNC is spelled incorrectly – N SYNC, N’SYNC, N sync, Nsync — THESE ARE ALL WRONG. The only way you should be spelling *NSYNC is with each letter in caps with no space between N and SYNC, and with an asterisk or apostrophe at the beginning. Okay? Okay. Cool.
• When people use the word “literally” as “figuratively” – The only time I’m ever okay with the word literally being used incorrectly is when Rob Lowe’s character on Parks & Recreation says it. Other than that, if you say things like, “Oh my god, I literally died when I found out blah blah blah” I’m going to side-eye you so hard. You didn’t LITERALLY die. If you did, that would make you a zombie since you managed to come back to life.

Four Things I Wish I Could Do:

• Run – I want to be able to run like Captain America in the beginning of Captain America: Winter Soldier for more than 30 seconds. >_<
• Sing – You know how in TV shows or movies, there’s a shy girl that’s like “Oh, no. I don’t sing. I’m not very good” and then she breaks out of her shell and has the voice of an angel? Yeah, that is NOT ME. When I sing along with whatever’s playing on Pandora or whatever I get super sad about my lack of talent in the singing department. I don’t even have a decent voice for karaoke, which makes me feel like I’ve failed as a Filipino!
• Ignore writer’s block – Writer’s block is the woo000rrrrssstt. I get distracted really easily, but when I finally get in the zone, I’m in the goddamn zone! However, I don’t allow myself to focus hard enough to get any of my creative projects done.
• Wield a light saber or some other weapon like a complete BAMF – Because not only would I look really awesome, it would also let people know that even though I wear girly things and sound like a My Little Pony when I talk (I have the girliest sounding voice, it’s ridiculous) that I am not one to be messed with. Y’know what I’m sayin’?

Four Subjects I Studied At School:

• Creative Writing – I only mentioned that I majored in it how many times in this post alone?
• Journalism – I was on my junior college’s newspaper staff for 2 semesters. It was extremely stressful and full of drama, but I somehow found a way  to have fun and also met my bestest friend in the newsroom. HI SHANICE!
• Graphic Design – I originally wanted to major in graphic design because I wanted to come out with a t-shirt line featuring some of the cute doodles I used to draw. Then I started taking classes and realized that though it was fun, I couldn’t see myself making a career out of it.
• Art History/Humanities – This was one of my favorite subjects because it combined history, art, and English all in one. What’s not to love?

Four Things Near Me Right Now:

• A pillow
• Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
• My phone
• Darth Vader cup