Monday, January 28, 2013

if it's free, it's for me.

I was on facebook one evening and saw tons of ads for "first pair free" glasses from coastal.com. I normally ignore shared posts of that nature, and get really annoyed when it appears in place of content I want to see. Not this time, though. I've had my one pair of glasses since 2008. They were scuffed, scratched, the finish was chipped, and the legs had long lost the lovely glossy finish they had when they were new.

For once a facebook ad was relevant to my interests!!!

I recently went to my ophthalmologist for a routine checkup and left with a new prescription for lenses, but none of the frames at their office appealed to me. I usually spend a solid hour in those places, trying on every frame, and trying to make sure my expensive purchase wouldn't be something unsatisfactory.

This was my very first time buying glasses without scrutinizing my face in them beforehand. I'll admit, I was pretty nervous and I took my sweet time trying to find something I thought would look. I've always found locating flattering frames to be quite a task. After a long time spent browsing I finally spotted a pair of cat-eye glasses that seemed quirky enough to be a part of this experiment.

I found myself getting excited when I added the frames to my cart, and saw that they included anti-glare and UV resistant coating on the lenses. I recall having to pay a sizable amount to have that added to my old pair of glasses, because it wasn't covered by my optical insurance back in 2008.

When they arrived I was excited and scared! After 4 years of wearing one pair of glasses 24/7 it is strange to put different ones on. The old glasses were a comfortable part of my face. I at first felt incredibly goofy/self conscious, but then Ryan saw them and loved them on me. I was worried my mom, who tries to make sure I don't leave the house in something unflattering, would dislike them. She also loved them. I walked into work today and my coworkers all widened their eyes and huge smiles spread across their faces. They loved them on me.

I present to you ... my surprisingly successful and gloriously free Love L740 "Crystal Shadow" frames!

new glasses.

Unfortunately ... I am so pale that I can't wear these without a little bit of makeup. I found this a bit saddening because I am incredibly lazy most days, and my old frames allowed me to show up at work and not look too washed out under office lighting. I decided to order a darker pair of frames I also liked because of that. The brand is Derek Cardigan and I believe they're a part of the coastal.com exclusive "Grammar Collection." The non-freebie pair shipped out yesterday, and I'm quite excited for them to arrive. :)

Friday, January 11, 2013

my computer feels like home again.

teapot bath.

My mom & dad, upon hearing the plight of the untimely hard drive death, tacked on another Christmas present and ordered me a new one before my payday came by! I was so excited to upload and edit the photos I had taken during my period of photoshoplessness. Ryan assisted me in the install, and saved me from wailing about it being DOA (we just needed to tell my computer that it was ready and waiting.)

During that period I drank lots of a summer 2012 harvest of Laoshan black tea with my yixing set. Doesn't my little teapot look so happy when it is being rinsed with hot water? :') I also got impatient with an order I had taking FOREVER to arrive from China (gaiwan glassware!) and ordered a surprisingly lovely gaiwan off of Amazon! Immediately brewed up my remaining stash of a very floral Tie Guan Yin from a local tea shop.

iron goddess of mercy.

I'm seriously so happy to have my computer fully functioning once again. I have all my belly dance music I've collected over the years back, and can resume my practice sessions with my favorite songs. :) All my photos are accessible, and I can install other programs that don't belong on my SSD! Yayyyyy!!

How has your new year been so far? 

Thursday, January 3, 2013

farewell, sweet old hard drive.

RIP old HDD. :( For Christmas my dad was super generous and got an SSD for my computer, so that I could run things more quickly and have a more stable platform for my operating system to run off of. Things were going swimmingly until I accidentally knocked out my power strip from the wall. After that Windows 8 wouldn't run. My old hard drive running alongside my SSD would sometimes flicker out of "my computer" only to return moments later.

Today was the day. That hard drive held my photos, videogames, music, and programs. Today it finally died.

So until I order a new hard drive I won't have access to photoshop, and in turn won't be able to post photos I've shot in raw format on my camera. Thankfully I have my little phone camera, but I'm not going to drown you all in subpar shots because I am technologically limited at the moment.

Thank goodness my dad got me the SSD, otherwise I'd simply be without a computer. No extra hard drive to run Windows, no extra hard drive to hold any data. If not for that one Christmas present I'd be sitting at a desk without music streaming, and being cranky for not getting to browse the internet before heading into work.

Pardon all the technobabble, though! For those that think I am speaking pig latin (and really, I have no idea what I'm talking about half the time, Ryan is the brain behind the technology operations) ... the HDD has moving parts. An SSD has no moving parts. SSDs are fast and efficient and last a very long time ... like computer elves. HDDs are mere mortals that have limitations and short lifespans. I am using my SSD to run my operating system (Windows 8) and other core programs. I was using my HDD to store all my photos and clutter.

mist of the gorges. Untitled

While we installed the SSD we ran into a few hiccups, but I had brewed lovely tea to keep me chipper. Ryan can attest to the fact that I was so stressed out about my tower being uncooperative and not housing the SSD properly that I absolutely got teary-eyed and very downtrodden until he saved the day.

Pictured above is "Mist of the Gorges" ... an amazing Chinese green tea I picked up from The House of Tea!