.Amani

.Amani
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Just a thought...

I'm finding lately that a lot of people on my friends lists (e.x., Facebook) don't seem to understand the nature behind 'Redemption'. The wrong usage of the word redemption isn't for the world to decide. Your personal decision on whether or not to look past a person's actions is purely your choice. But forgiveness from another =/= redemption.

The world is simply the world. The world targeting -X- person does not make the world a true judge, nor a redeemer.

Personally for me, redemption is a spiritual thing, having understood the nature behind that as well as conviction, repentance and forgiveness. But for some, if not a spiritual thing, it's definitely a sort of inner psychological thing as well. But never for outsiders to decide upon.

One thing I've learned about individuals who torment, is that somewhere inside they themselves are tormented, somehow, in some way. Whether it's by their past, present, physical, psychological or spiritual, they are tormented somehow. In religious/spiritual practices, especially in Christianity, the general idea of the path to enlightenment and redemption is to repent. When you feel conviction in your heart and spirit, you know you've done wrong, and you want to change yourself to keep yourself from straying from the right path. So you confess your sins, repent, and you're forgiven. This process can be done whether you're repenting to God, or you're confessing to and forgiving yourself so that you can move onwards. Mind you, repentance is not a simple saying of "God, I am sorry." Repentance is a continuous process that you must keep on going with. Even if you mess up again, that's not you failing, that's just merely a bump in the road and you can always try, try again and keep going.


Just so I can make sense of my rambling and put it in a certain direction... let's take for example, someone who's on Death Row.

Perhaps they're a serial child rapist & killer (using this example since it's regarded to be one of the most extreme cases). Obviously it's fated by law that they die for their crime-- most if not all people who were affected, or merely heard of this person, would say that this man deserves to die for what he did. It is the law and/or the people's choice to put him to death-- but do we truly have control over what happens from there on? People might go "Let God handle him", but at the same time some people may say that with the expectation that yes, this man would be sent to hell for all he did, end of story. Like there's a ".00000001%" chance that God would say otherwise.

But what if this person, after being isolated for so long due to the extreme social limits in Death Row, finally came to terms with himself? What if, say, he had found God during that last period of his life and changed himself spiritually? So as he goes into the electric chair or what have you, he has been redeemed by God, would the masses be angry if after the rapture they see this dude in Heaven? LOL like "Jehovah, are you sh*tting me? You're just trolling now rite?"


Or an even more popular topic-- Chris Brown.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Time to use my brain again.

So I'm officially back in school ♥

Not a degree course, just certificate courses for 1) Wedding and Event Planning and 2) Wedding and Event Design through Lovegevity's Wedding Planning Institute.

I've always been looking at this school, for at least two years now. When I was in my last school, the college adviser gave me a couple of suggestions on what to do as far as continuing education. At some point I decided I was just going to do a bunch of certification courses for the moment.

A couple of my friends used to go "why not just a degree course?" But really, there's no real degree course for Event Planning. The closest that I found was "Hospitality", and I just felt that if it's not on point to what I wanted to do, then I'm not going to bother with it. I don't like the idea of working around stuff that are *sort-of* connected to what I'm doing. Especially with the issues I did have going through high school, I feel that certification courses are easier for me to handle without emotional trauma, since I'm doing just what I want to do, rather than going through the college school system and taking Math and English and Language classes and etc. I feel I can't handle 2+ years of crap I don't want to do. Especially if it's gonna cost me 20+k dollars. No thanks.


So for now I'm doing these two courses. The Wedding and Event Planning course starts next Thursday, so I'll be going to it once a week at Brooklyn College from the 17th to sometime in May. As far as the Design course, Preston Bailey being the instructor, that's online so I've already started it. I'll probably make a review later on what I've seen so far and stuff, but at the moment I'm really enjoying it. The program is very interactive, but very much like a PowerPoint presentation when you go through all the sections.


My first impression was "It seems so brief :/" ... until I got to the part about Color Theory. Oh God, how I hated being introduced to Color Theory in my old classes, even though it was really for one day. I absolutely hated it and didn't understand half of it, but now I'm going to have to force myself and teach myself.

But really, I'm only near the end of the 1st part of like 7 parts. It seems short to me because I have trouble concentrating (especially when it's -on- the internet? lolo *has 5 different tabs open*), so mentally I practically skimmed it. I need to go back and read stuff again later on, so I can soak it in better, and then do extra research on my own, like again, Color Theory, and then more in-depth history on event planning, etc.


He of course has his own personal experiences all throughout, and he shared his concept drawings and before/after final products of weddings and stuff that he did.
They.
Were.
AMAZING.
In my future entry post I'll share. Because for me, it blew my mind.

The designs that were made were all fairy-tale like, and you'd think that you only see things like that in video game designs like from Final Fantasy and crap but, this guy seriously does it and brings it to real life. It's crazy. But I suppose the only downfall for it? Is that his clients have the expenses to make some ridiculous shit like that happen. I doubt I'll ever be able to have that happen soon ;____; /foreverpoor


In any case, once these are done, and if I don't have a job by then, I'll probably look into internships. Also thinking about doing Floral Design, as well as I think Image Consulting? and typical business courses. Just things that surrounds what I want to do.


Ending this before I start babbling on. blahh
Friday, March 4, 2011

Current Reads + Buys





I've been trying my hardest to keep away from Book-Off-- and the glory that is secondhand books and mags. Everytime I go in, I come out with something new and it's just ridiculous impluse buying that I need to stop. (Same with my shopping services-- my Taobao order I had to close and ship before I added like 50+ dollars of stuff from money that I owe Mai, whom I'm pretty sure I owe 300+ and-- I'm just a fucking mess)

Of course later on today I'm going out with Mei. Which means that after yoga we're gonna just get fat at Otafuku. Which just defeats the whole purpose of not buying from A, B, and C.


But at least Book-Off is usually cheap... it's just the amount of crap I end up pulling out the bookshelves and carrying to the register. I'm glad I developed a habit where I always question myself at least 10x before I actually make a purchase.

I've been concentrating on wedding books in particular, most of the shit straight off the dollar rack which to me is absolutely amazing speaking that most of these books are at least $30 each at their normal retail price.

So far I got..


"The Complete Outdoor Wedding Planner" ($1. Seriously) and "How to have a Fabulous Wedding for Under $10,000" ($7) , both by Sharon Naylor.

I started reading the latter first. I'm actually reading it much more than I am the bible
LOL
Mainly because I'm supposed to be planning my sister's wedding which was supposed to be this July... although... the future of that event happening is uncertain :/

My sister's pregnant, and she's due in June, and with their already tiny budget ($10k, compare this to the AVERAGE $50k NYC wedding according to statistics in 2009) becoming smaller now that this kid it's on it's way, it delays everything :c

"The Pleasure of your Company: Entertaining in High Style" by Kimberly Schlegel (Again, $1. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)

I've only skimmed this book so far, but I like the contents so far. It has your general info on planning/hosting parties, but rather than just straight-up weddings, it features different sized events, from dinners, house parties, to fundraisers and etc. Different themes, but unlike say, what you'd see from Preston Bailey with OTT florals and event design, I find the stuff in this book to be more simplistic but classy.


It makes event-design and hosting seem much easier, (though lolo it's not), and it kind of motivates me to try and host a few more casual parties when the weather gets better, if I have the means to. We'll see!


Other than that? Got some other cute shet.


A necklace from my boo David/Yuuki, who started his own brand Little Macaron for lolis and stuff <3

OTK boots from Rainbow's. THEY'RE ACTUALLY OTK ON ME. *cries* and they were 15 buxxxx fffff (watermarked cuz it's about to go up on Poupeee - u-)


So I've been shopping a -little - bit. But at least I've been trying to do it cheaply (for the most part)
Don't judge. = w=
Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Wonder Eye lens review

I was trying to tweak my layout... ended up shifting my banner off center. Now it won't go back = w= fml


Nothing to do today, so I just finished editing my second review video and put it up on Youtube. This is my second... I know I have clips doing BC-102, so maybe in a few days I'll be posting that up. If not, then in the process of editing. Still need to record for my King/Candydoll greens and Tear browns.







I need to stop doing videos with me looking a mess. Perming my hair tomorrow -finally- . All that nasty lookin new growth is gonna be gone. = A= Also hoping that my hair will be officially breast-length once it's straightened.

I really loved how the pictures came out though.. especially that last one... I didn't realize how long my natural lashes actually were until I saw that picture. Why do I wear falsies again?

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