Baby Steps

Disclaimer: Please blame Loni for everything you see in this post.

Okay...within the span of exactly one day, I have become disgustingly invested in Teen Mom. As in, sure, it's a little ridiculous, but so entertaining! I like to believe that I'd be a better mom than basically all of those girls, though I guess maybe not in their same situations. I watched a couple episodes with Loni today...and then I came home and watched like 3 more. Because, I dunno, but Maci's baby-daddy drama and Tyler and Catelynn's relationship drama is just really comforting to me. Sure, I'm stressed as hell, but at least I don't have all that going on.

Plus, those babies are so frickin' cute and I just want to play with all of them. I have a bazillion things I want to do before I have kids, but I mean, it can't hurt to vicariously parent through trashy reality tv, right?

Feel free to stage an intervention.

Strawberry Swing

Just watch this video. Someone showed it to me yesterday, and holy crap. It's so well-done, and the angle-changing is perfect and I have probably watched it a hundred times already. Happy Sunday!

We Are Just These People

Ignore that I look 3 months pregnant, if you will...
Top: Charlotte Russe; Sweater: Old Navy; Boots: Ross

First outfit post of the year! Well, okay, this is an old one, but still. I realized I still have a couple strays from the old apartment, so I'm going to post those before I start on the newer ones. I basically took...none during the hiatus, so I'm still trying to find places around my apartment now that would be good. Unfortunately, I'm on a major street now instead of a cute secluded neighborhood, so I have to steel myself and try not to feel like a loser struggling with my tripod and then proceeding to take pictures of myself with people continually walking/driving by. I should really invest in a boyfriend photographer and solve this issue.

Tuesday Tunes!

Music has been keeping me sane these past few weeks. I swear, looking for a job is practically a full-time job in itself! I'm currently trying to find time to finish editing those vlogs I did with Aki so hopefully new ones soon! But, thank goodness for some old and new favorites.



1. "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye ft. Kimbra
2. "Oh Goodbye" - The Colourist
3. "Not While I'm Around" - Neil Patrick Harris (Sweeney Todd in Concert)
4. "Countdown" - Jupiter One
5. "Kiss Me Slowly" - Parachute

Share Your Favorites!

Beast Mode

Somehow, though I don't seem to have time to eat regular meals or finish that painting or play the guitar right now, I seem to be finding a LOT of time to read. In the last 2 weeks I've read four books!! Okay, I'll admit, one was a re-read. Still, this is usual for on-vacation Mugdha, but very very not for balancing-a-bazillion-volunteer-activities-and-job-hunting-and-working-on-grad-school-apps Mugdha (phew, that was long). I certainly hope this trend continues throughout the year. I want to keep tabs on what I read this year, because I always seem to forget when people ask for recommendations!


Had to re-read it because the sequel came out. Set in the 1800s, it's YA urban fantasy with kind of a steampunk tilt to it, and damn is it good. I really liked all the characters, which is odd, since I usually can't stand the main girls in these stories.


Sigh. Will Herondale is such a tortured soul, man. This book was just as fast-paced as the first, but other than Will and Charlotte I grew to dislike most of the main characters. Also, the romance got sort of...drawn out for me. I like a little well-done romance, but this kind of distracted from the plot.


I have had this book recommended to me by at least 10 bloggers and like 4 other people in real life, so I had really high expectations. Unfortunately, it just didn't meet them. I think a lot of it was just that I didn't really like the prose-style it was written in and that I didn't like the main character. The setting was really interesting, though. I LOVE dystopias, so that part was great!


Perhaps you've been hiding under a rock and haven't heard of John Green, but all I have to say is GO READ THIS. NOW. And then go find the rest of his books and read them all too. You will absolutely not regret it. I promise.

Happy reading!

The Colourist

Last night, I went to a show with the roomie, Loni, and some other friends. I was really excited for the headliners, Grouplove, actually, because they'd come highly recommended and they're playing Coachella this year, and I really really like their album.

But, as fate would have it, I ended up liking the opening band way more! Let me introduce you to:


One of the people in our group is good friends with the band, so we got to meet them all and I am seriously in love with their drummer, Maya. She was adorable and fashionable and I really wish I had a picture of the sweater she was wearing because it was Fabulous. Actually, I wish I had pictures at all, but since I am a giant failure, I forgot my camera. Loni and I liked them so much, we ended up buying a CD which immediately earned a spot in my CD changer. You can check 'em out here!

Grouplove was really good too, but I mean, these guys just stole the show (and my heart) with their vocals, energy, and complete and total cuteness on stage.

Also, now I really want to be the cool girl in a rock 'n' roll band.
They take bio majors, right?

A Word On SOPA/PIPA

I was all set to do a post yesterday, but then I realized it was "blackout" day in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act and thought I would "blackout" my blog (by not posting {not as cool as wikipedia, I know}) in support of those protests. Honestly, if you don't know what I'm talking about, please please at least read through this.



The reason I am really excited by all this hubbub about SOPA/PIPA is that it's really brought the internet together in a way that the world really hasn't seen before. The power of the internet be cray! Sure, it's just an American bill, but tons of people use Wikpedia, Reddit, Google, and the many many other sites that fully or partially "blacked out" yesterday. I think it's a really strong political message of unity to the American government that, no, we DO NOT want our internet censored like that.

The main issues are:
1) The bills allow individuals or companies who think a site in infringing upon their ownership of content to completely shut off revenue channels for that site with basically no investigation. As bloggers, many of us do thrift sales or have etsy shops or have sponsors or do actual business via our blogs. This could mean that, say you post that cute little manip you made of the latest episode of Glee and Fox found it, they could basically cut off all your business.
2) The bills allow the Attorney General to create a blacklist of "foreign" sites with minimal discretion. "Foreign" is simply defined as anything "not domestic" which has been defined as ".com, .org, .us" which is absurd. Also this could easily push internet businesses away from traditional domain names and into other markets.
3) The bills are both worded incredibly vaguely and could lead to further infractions regarding privacy, internet policing, and censorship in the future. They set incredibly dangerous precedents.

So, you guys, maybe we're just happy gals (and guys) minding our own business and telling the world our stories in our little corner of the internet, but really, this affects us all. Call or email your representative and let them know what you think.

Sorry this was so long!

Further links if you're interested:
A Quick Summary of SOPA
A Detailed Analysis of SOPA/PIPA
PIPA Bill Text
Should Copyrights Be Allowed to Override Speech Rights?
The US Recording Industry's (RIAA) Online Piracy Page

Tuesday Tunes!

Oh, wow. It's been a week since I've been back in San Diego, and I have not been as on top of things as I thought I'd be, hence the sparse blog posts. But, MLK day and this weekend were a nice break from which I hope to recover with vigor! (Now if only I could kick this stupid cold.)


1. "Puttin' On The Ritz" - Fred Astaire
2. "Colours" - Grouplove
3. "Someone Like You (Adele Cover) - Boyce Avenue
4. "Thistle and Weeds" - Mumford and Sons
5. "Frontier Psychiatrist" - The Avalanches

Friday the Thirteenth!

Let me tell you about how I lost my virginity...


Since it's Friday the 13th today, it seems like the perfect day to recap my Halloween exploits and tell you all about how I went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time. At the RHPS, which is SUPER FUN, but also SUPER NOT-FOR-KIDS, they like to call those who've never seen it "virgins" (where was your mind?) and then draw Vs and raunchy things on their faces.


Please don't ask me to explain anything...
My lovely roomie, Loni, and I dressed up as Magenta and Columbia from the show and proceeded to have the craziest experience ever! Let me tell you, you will either be appalled or you will not stop laughing the whole way through. There're callbacks to the movie, times where you get up and dance along, times when you throw things at other people in the audience, a LOT of screaming, and SO MUCH FUN.


Loni as Columbia


Me as Magenta


All in all, a really really good time! And the next night, I was Pocahontas, which hopefully I did justice, because otherwise I would never forgive myself.

Tuesday Tunes!

Five months is a really long time for music accumulation. I actually decided to check and my iTunes has over 400 new songs on it since August. I admit to having gone through a serious revisiting of my Alan Menken obsession, because, well, he's the best. Also, some great great albums have come out in that time, so without further ado:



1. "Kingdom Dance" - Alan Menken (Tangled Soundtrack)
2. "Bonfire" - Childish Gambino
3. "We Are Young" - fun. ft. Janelle Monae
4. "Princess of China" - Coldplay ft. Rihanna
5. "Amelia Jean" - Jack's Mannequin


Also, quick side-note: I am thinking about making some layout changes in the next couple weeks, so if at any point anything looks strange or stops working, please let me know as it may be due to that. Thanks!

HI! I'M BACK!
(cue intro to "Just Lose It" by Eminem)


So in case it wasn't obvious, I am officially back to blogging! I figured, what better way to start the new year and a new phase of my life than to come back to something familiar and comforting and awesome? Gotta have some stability while I desperately seek temporary employment, right?

Anyway, I have SO MANY things to share with you guys from over the past few months I've been gone! It sounds like a really long time when I say I've been gone for 5 months, but that time FLEW BY and I feel like that crappy place I was in over the summer is really and truly over, I've graduated college, I'm applying to grad schools in public health, planning a giant volunteer trip for the summer, and I am SO SO ready to get back to posting in this blog.

Now, I'm just going to leave you with a link to this little vlog one of my irl and blogging friends, Aki, and I are doing (shameless self-pimping) because I should probably organize the last five months into individual posts instead of ranting about all of them now.

Happy New Year!