archived.

http://gabriellephant.blogspot.com

I'm archiving these posts to an different blog URL and starting afresh with a new gabriellephant. Find me there.


xo.

been feeling really defeated lately.

I keep wanting to start over but I can't seem to do that.
Don't know what to do anymore.


Once again:
Going to try taking a personal retreat & resetting life this summer.
Excuse me if I disappear.

missing: reward if found!

Almost exactly a year ago, I purchased something that I love very dearly:



Some of you may remember this elephantful item I discovered with Popsicles at our local Ikea. Well, sadly, it has gone missing. Somewhere between 13th St./5th Ave. and 68th St./1st Ave. my tray went missing. I have searched high and low for it but alas, it is nowhere to be found.

I even sent Momma Helen an email:

hi mum,

i had an elephant tray:
[picture]

can't find it; was wondering if you saw it when you helped me pack/unpack. i miss it. thanks.

- mui

If anyone else has any leads, please let me know. I really do miss it. Here's a close-up if you need help identifying it:



Thank you.

bet you didn't know i was a bandit in high school.

Taking a walk down memory lane. Circa 2003.

I seriously question if I will ever have time to update this again.

Keeping up 3 blogs is difficult. And so far, I'm only succeeding with one.

Will try my best to come back to this. I miss you, blogspot.

05.26.10

Today: Red Mango, Barnes & Noble, OST Cafe to read & work, friends, sashimi, wandering East Village, late night McFlurries, warm night.

hurt people hurt people.

true.

in honor of the world cup 2010.

I'm not a soccer fan at all (though Popsicles is pretty gung-ho about the sport), but I have to say that this Nike ad is prettyyy sick in that epic sort of way. And y'all know how I am with 1) well-done advertisements and 2) epicness.

Check it out below.

i will soar with you above the storm.

A wise woman told me earlier tonight that brokenness is a good thing, as it allows us to see how in need of God we are.

Feeling isolated or abandoned by the world should be seen as a step in the refining process. Therefore, I will attempt to be like Paul and count my blessings in the [slow] walk on a narrow, crooked, and painful road.


Already a bonus: Were I not going through this thorny experience, I would not be as conscious of these lessons. That's a start.

what a malicious world we live in.

I would never want to purposely make anyone cry, and I would hope you would never want to purposely make me cry either.


But it's true what they say; we live in an ugly world.

this weekend: green street, vulpesvulpes, & wellness exchange.

[via Sauce For Thoughts]

The ever lovely/quirky Tanya (& her band, VulpesVulpes) and the slightly odd A-Live (& his Green Street gang) will be performing at Webster Hall this coming Friday night. They'll be playing with The Wellness Exchange, which may or may not relate to NYU's Wellness program...someone can clarify that for me.

You can check out VulpesVulpes here
and download Green Street's new album [FREE] here.

Friday, April 30th at 8:00PM
Webster Hall
125 East 11th Street between 4th Avenue & 3rd Avenue
New York, NY 10003

Also see the Facebook event here!

Hope to see you guys there...I'll be there late, but you'll see me looking like a purple fairy. Kid you not.

a more affordable nyu?

Everyone is telling me to just take the free degree. Haha.

I received a strange email from NYU yesterday morning. Here is a paraphrase of the email chain between the NYU Admissions and myself:

NYU: Hi, Gabrielle! Congratulations on your impending graduation! Please send us this one document we need from you.

Me: Hi, NYU! Sorry, I'm confused. I graduated last year and am no longer enrolled at NYU for my studies. What's going on here?

NYU: I understand you won't be graduating yet. When you send us this document, you can graduate!

Me: Say what?

NYU: You're getting a masters from us, silly! You're graduating in May 2011. We just need to document from you.

So the issue at hand is that I have not paid for tuition at NYU (from my knowledge) nor have I taken a single class at this graduate school.

What happens then if I actually send them this one document...? Think I'd get a free degree? Haha.

[img via Geo12]

my movie moment: bob marley chorus on the subway.

After a long and stressful work day, I left my client's apartment and headed straight back to Manhattan on the 5 train. About 2 or 3 stops in, these two men got on the train, set up 2 congas and a guitar in the middle of the car, and started shouting some things at the passengers. With the exception of the man across from me (who was far too excited), everyone rolled their eyes, looked away, continued their conversations with one another. Because I'm a fan of the conga (and other like percussion instruments), they kept my attention. The man across from me kept jittering and saying to his neighbor, "When are they going to stop talking and start playing?!?!?"

And finally they did.
As soon as they started, I couldn't help but smile -- and neither could the woman next to me or the couple across from her. Clearly, these men had chosen a very good song: Three Little Birds (the inspiration for this blog's title!).

By the end of the first verse, more than half the car was singing, humming, swaying, or tapping along. By the end of the chorus, everyone was grooving. One little boy even took a plastic maraca and played along. And as we hit the following stops it got more crowded but definitely more cheery. I swear when I say that people were smiling and laughing and singing, I really mean it was like a scene from a movie. I loved it.

At one point, the guitarist went around to grab the bills from people (he didn't even have to ask!). One woman just stepped on the train from the Wall Street stop and he said to her, "Excuse me, miss. You dropped something." She looked down and back up at him, confused and clearly unhappy with his presence. He smiled and said, "You dropped your smile! I saw it on the floor there and...there you go! It looks good on you. Don't lose that again, okay!" Haha, awesome.

Before they got off the train, they thanked New York and said, "Every little thing's gonna be alright, folks! Keep smiling and let's all try to make this world a better place with some love and happiness!"

Made. My. Day.

As Jay-Z said, "Rest in peace, Bob Marley."

insane/amazing: kids on russia's got talent.

Thanks, KP for the vid!



Kids do the darndest things...?
I'm wowed.

tattoo stockings on etsy.

Don't you love when one link leads to another to another to another...and you find some fun things along the way?

I was on Twitter and caught an article from NYULocal about NYU being deemed the 4th Most Hipster School (no surprise). Entertaining article (as all NYULocal articles are), and they always have these comments from this little community of NYUers who devoutly read and comment on every article (I think it's really cute!)

Anyway, some girl linked the photo from the article to its original posting and reference to hipsterism, which then led me to check out the rest of her blog.

Somehow, I landed on an Etsy site where two girls from Tel Aviv sell TATTOOED STOCKINGS. Some may say tacky but I say FABULOUS! Or maybe it's just the shoes that sway me so. Anyways, my favorite are these:



Great, no? Haha. And I came upon this all because of Twitter :)


PS - Google image "hipster" or "hipsters." It's great too.

the nehemiah band.

Just earlier, I heard my music-buff roommate playing this music video from her computer. She plays a lot of music and a lot of videos so I normally don't notice or inquire, but this time around the first verse of the song made my ears perk up. I heard some Christian-sounding lyrics, which is interesting since my roommate isn't a Christian, so after she finished I asked her about it.

The group is called The Nehemiah Band and were recently featured on MTV Iggy. I was really surprised and intrigued to see that they were an all-Asian group...I always think it's a big deal when Asian-Americans are visible in the movie/music industry. And I was even more impressed that they're a Christian band too. That's like a double minority in the industry!

Check them out:

cartwheeling it columbia style.

I was fortunate today in making good decisions, thus leading to a great day.

Fun times sitting at The Steps for hours with friends...soaking in the sun, the atmosphere, the people-watching, etc. And then another few hours cartwheeling (well, for me, learning to cartwheel...and for Beli, jumping/barreling/diving into people) on the lawn in front of Butler. Barefoot freedom!

(No pictures though, unfortunately...though Eric might have some footage on his camera of me plopping on the grass...)

Loved today. Gorgeous weather and awesome company.

what. the. $#@&. [is wrong with japanese game developers].

Irate is not adequate enough to describe my feelings right now after reading this CNN article about Japanese video games promoting rape.

Here is their video:


I'm in complete disbelief that anything like this even exists, and the fact that it does leaves me...well, let's just say that the words running through my head are not kosher.

I can't even write because I am fuming. My stomach actually hurts right now.

What pisses me off even more are the comments left below the article. I'm baffled at the ignorance and stupidity of some of the people who live in present day America. Besides the fact that some people clearly do not understand the magnitude of video games (or ANYTHING) promoting rape, some of those comments are just plain stupid. And y'all know how I feel about stupidity. Couple that with ignorance and apathy on a topic like rape and you will have one ANGRY Asian female named Gabrielle who is ready to !$%# up some Japanese game developers.

this is too awesome not to reblog.

From Jeannie's blog: "Remember the 3-year-old who loved Justin Bieber so much that she cried? (And then she got to meet him on Jimmy Kimmel, ha!) Well, this one-year-old hates Miley Cyrus so much that she also cries-- awesome!"

After 3-year-old Cody broke my faith in the future of our world, this little one-year-old gives me hope.

Not only that, but she has IMPECCABLE taste in music.



Ya'll know my love for Bon Jovi.

i woke up to a 'supplies!' from my roommate (literally?)

So I woke up late for work today.
I came out of my room and discovered Jeannie passed out on our futon. Not abnormal, as she often sleeps in our living room rather in her [homemade!] princess-canopied bed (haha). What was weird was that my Macbook had been shifted and my readings were placed on top of it, covering the keyboard.
I ignored it and went to the bathroom. When I came back out, Jeannie had sleepily returned to her bed (she probably does not remember this because she loves her amnesia-inducing sleeping pills). I then went to my computer to check the weather and shazaam, I felt like I was in some movie or something where the main character gets a super pleasant surprise.

Cue epically beautiful music. Crescendo as I open my laptop.



Thank you, to my beautiful roommate, for making my week immensely better :)

givology: what would you buy with $50?

So this weekend was the opening of The $50 Campaign for Children in Uganda. Sadly, I couldn't go to the Friday night opening party (or after party) since I was here:


(Sadly, I did not have my dSLR with me)

But Saturday, Mark and I got a chance to visit The Station Gallery on Franklin St. I loved it and even made my first art exhibit purchases! (This is a big deal because I am super broke and have been quasi-fasting in order to save up for a new Macbook -- I am now slightly set back but it's worth it!) I will be sure to post pictures of my two prized photographs once I get them in the mail next week.



I definitely recommend checking it out! It's a small exhibit but it took me some time to read the many descriptions posted up. Some are endearing and hilarious! Mark and I were even fortunate enough to get a "private screening" of the video they showed opening night, which featured the artists/children of Circle of Peace School in Uganda.

It just makes me want to be there :) Love it. Plus, I met some pretty awesome people.



It's opened until Thursday so try to check it out!! It's really great! AND all the money raised goes to keeping The Circle of Peace School opened for kids to go to, and hopefully to bringing more of the children in the outside villages into the education system! Go support changing lives :) Hehe.

OH! And even if you can't make it down there, you can purchase a drawing or painting, or support a child, through the Campaign's website!

addtionally, i miss writing here.

I've always wanted to write more but it's always just me saying that. Hopefully now that the year is nearly over, I'll be able to keep up with this more. I think writing things out will be therapeutic for me.

sadly...

I've come to realize that I am a negative force in this world. I've always had this feeling here and there but recently I've come to see this much more fully. As much as I want to inspire people and create passion and a love for life in this world, I don't. I may for a moment -- I've been told that I've inspired people in the past -- but eventually, that fizzles out...and worse, it usually goes to the other extreme where people end up harboring anger, bitterness, resentment. I bring bad energy to this world, apparently.

I'm trying to figure out how I can change this, how I can continue to spark passions in people and make people smile and laugh and want to do great things with their lives without it always ending in some kind of relational disaster where someone is unhappy and disenchanted.

be inspired!

[via ffffound]

corned beef & bok choy.

...is what my mom ended up making for dinner.

The quarter (to whole) green-blooded, freckled-face, "top-o'-the-mornin'-to-ya" self kept it very low-key this year. I didn't even bust out the green eyeliner (mostly because I'm on Long Island currently and I left it in my apartment in Manhattan).

I did retire the green donuts, Dr. Seuss t-shirt, and Notre Dame lacrosse hat and upgraded to some Marc Jacobs apparel (birthday gift via Jin). Celebrated with some fellow Irishmen (and -women) of the Town of Babylon.



And now for my fighting Irish face.


Lastly, tradition: A viewing of my favorite [deleted] scene from Boondocks Saints. Apologies for the crudeness...but it's great.

zooey likes hoops too.

Thanks Priscilla for sending me this!

She & Him - In The Sun (HULA HOOPS AT 2:10!)

incredibly cute.

pluto fanboys write hate mail (very cute).

It's old news but if you have issues with Pluto de-planetation (completely fabricated word), then join passionate 7-year-olds in their fight to advocate for the formerly declared planet!

Read some hate mail written by fellow Plutophiles.



[image via NerdGirlTalking]

spring break to-do list:

1. Go to a museum.
2. See Mom, Dad, Dog.
3. Watch a bunch of movies and shows, including HIMYM and Entourage.
4. Bake yummy cupcakes with my lover KP to celebrate St. Patty's.
5. Hoop, hoop, hoop (with my lover KP)!

KP: im SO EXICTED
ive been staring at my hoop with a goofy grin on my face for the past 3 days
hahahaha
i found my soul mate


Mmmmhmmm!<3

ted talk: the lxd -- awesome.

For those of you who love dancing (doing or watching). The music is really pretty too.
Thanks Jason for the vid!

international women's day: march 8th.

International Women's Day is coming up in less than a week (Monday, March 8th). In light of that, join the IRC in its petition to stop violence against women.

1 out of 3 women in the world will experience rape or abuse in her life. That's beyond scary and disturbing.

actual necessity: new macbook.

So, many of you know that my Macbook is old. Actually, it's the oldest model of the Macbook. I'm not sure you can even purchase this anymore. Many of you also know that my laptop gives me a lot of grief. What would normally take someone 2 hours to write a process recording or 6 hours to write a paper is actually doubled because my laptop just sucks that much. Don't even ask how long it takes to do something simple like making a blog post.

I've been saying for the last year or so that I need a new laptop because this one is dying on me.

Well, folks, today was the straw. In my great anger against my current laptop, I have vowed tonight (after a frustrating day) to get a new laptop. What was holding me back before was that I am broke. Yes, we're all broke, I know...but I am really broke. But like I said, I am irate at this point.

Therefore, I will angrily and stubbornly fast one meal a day, not for religious purposes, but for monetary accruement in order to purchase this very much needed computer. I normally hate spending unnecessarily, but I have definitely reached the point where a new laptop is not just a "want" anymore but an actual "need." I have wasted too many hours (probably added up to be days or weeks) staring at a rainbow spinner or restarting my computer.

Oh yeah, and I'm throwing alcohol into the mix. Not because I drink all that much but because I tend to pay for people/take people out a lot.


So hopefully in a few weeks I'll have saved up enough for a new, functioning laptop.

And yes, I will become a lot more frugal and stingy. Deal with it :)

happy birthday to two awesome people!

Hope you guys have a blessed one! Love you two tons!

& when the sun shines.

And I admit
that I still dream about how things
were before.
I just don't know
if I could give you all this love
anymore.

But my feelings were so strong,
and I waited for so long.

I ain't a fool,
but what if God made me for you?

my new apartment! not.

Most of you who know me know that I love looking at apartments in New York. While most people loathe the apartment-hunting process, I [relatively] enjoy it. I am a Craigslist addict. In my free time, I just look at listings and pictures (on Craigslist and on other real estate sites), judging and dreaming. I stalk the listings of various individual brokers, compare and contrast, bargain and bargain some more, etc.

Folks, I'd like to say that I have found THE apartment. It is gorgeous, it is unique enough, and it is...$25 million dollars.

Sad. Face.

It's not even Manhattan! It's DUMBO! But check out the pictures and you'll totally get where I am coming from:










(Pictures from CANOE)

Yum.

snow day = sytycd clips.

I woke up this morning at 7:00am to go to work but discovered a ton of texts (followed by a call from my director) about work being closed due to the blizzarding weather.

This is the first time pretty much ever that I have a free Friday (except for holiday and summer breaks). I've never bummed so much before. I spent the morning looking for internships and doing some reading. Around 11:00am, Mallory woke up and we just bummed together. Then darling Esther Lee dropped by (surprise!) and made lunch for us with Jeannie. Figs stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped with onions and bacon? DELISH.

After being a true fatty-at-heart, I spent the entire afternoon not reading my African history book. Instead, I watched YouTube videos. But they're so good! I promise.


Who doesn't love this song?! Nostalgia, hardcore.


Warning: this one is uber sad.


Amusing/theatrical!


Love it. Need to dance.

the invisible minority becomes a bit more visible (at least, in the fashion scene).

[Picture taken from Racewire.org]

Most people who know me know that I'm not that into the Asian American social analysis scene. Not to say I don't care, but it has never been as great of an interest to me as my fellow Asian Americans. I don't know why.

BUT my darling friend Kim just send me this blog post that made me very happy and somewhat proud: Asian American designers taking over Fashion Week (and the fashion industry in general).

Maybe it's because I love fashion and art. Or maybe it's because I've become more self-aware about race & culture. Who knows. But I do love the fact that Asian Americans (immigrants, 1.5ers, and hapas) are emerging and getting recognized in our still-unicultural society.

The invisible minority starts to get noticed...finally.

flash mob in vancouver.

Nifty flash mob, dancing for Ethiopia; utilizing the Olympics to create awareness.
Thanks, Garland, for the link!

tanya lam of vulpevulpes - made of steel.

Even after all these years, I'm still in love with this girl.


Cover of Our Lady Peace's Made of Steel.

spotted:

Model Amanda Fields (best known from Project Runway) looking peeved as she walks along 17th, above Union Square. Who wants to bet on whether or not she came out of Barnes & Noble or Sephora?

Of course, spotting a Q-list celebrity isn't as wowing, especially when you've spotted her times before. Oh well.

The 3:18 Movement.

The 3:18 Project is finally starting.

http://the318movement.org

Check it out! :)

hearts all over the world tonight.

Actually, just SoHo. And more specifically Broadway from Houston down to Canal.










Houston to Prince (look for the one heart stamped on the Prada store, bt-dubs).

Battle wounds.




For more pictures and slightly more information, check out: Amalapropos or Newmindspace.

npr debate: the united states & israel.

This past Tuesday, Dainty Danit & I went to a Think Twice debate hosted by NPR (Intelligence Squared) at NYU's Skirball Center.



Debate motion: The U.S. should step back from its special relationship with Israel.

Was really interesting...I think you can watch the debate online now?
Sadly, I forgot to get a picture with Danit! :(


Also, May 11th is the debate on Obama's foreign policy. Very interested in hearing that one.