Lazy Sunday Brunch at Perla's

Sundays are bittersweet. It's still the weekend, but it's the last few hours of it and inevitably Monday will roll around where we all must return to work or school. The one part I do look forward to most on Sundays is brunch. Waffles? French toast? Eggs Benedict? Omlettes? YES, PLEASE. I've always heard great things about Perla's brunch and took the chance to find out. We ordered the lobster roll, which almost made me shed a tear at how delicious it was. We also got the brioche french toast, which comes topped with a scoop of coconut sorbet and toasted coconut. It. Was. Delicious.

As if I didn't already stuff myself silly, we were right next to a crepe truck (which was also next to an animal adoption truck) and I would not be me if I said no to crepes. So I got the mango and sticky rice crepe from Crepes Mille. It was only okay. Not as good as the real thing at Thai restaurants, namely because it lacked the signature coconut milk (I seem to be on a coconut kick). And speaking of coconut, I have recently discovered the most delicious coconut cream pie in Austin and possibly the planet--AND I DON'T EVEN LIKE PIE! You can find it at Woodland on South Congress in Austin. It's terribly good. So terribly good that no matter how full I am from dinner, I can't say no. Please don't cheat yourself out on life by missing this slice of heaven. You must get it. Must.

Tekken Blood Vengeance - Review

Um... it's a little embarrassing to admit, but I really enjoyed this movie. A lot. More than a lot. I walked in with zero expectations. I walked out of the theater giggling because I liked it so much. And I'm not even sure why.

Yesterday I attended the Tekken Blood Vengeance 3D one night movie premiere. I've been a fan of the franchise for over ten years now, so when I heard about the movie, I knew I had to see it.  Two-thirds through the movie, I needed to pee - really bad. But I held it in because I was so entranced. Yes, I was that into it. So for 30 minutes I practiced clutching my uh, bladder muscles, as I glared on in pure fangirl joy.

Video game movies and others in that genre usually spell bad terrible. I tend to walk away feeling like it wasted my time (I'm looking at you Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: The Pyramid of Light, which had zero relevance to anything). Admittedly, Tekken Blood Vengeance had its plot holes as well (Shin Kamiya was rather useless, other than as eye candy) and the 3D felt unnecessary. What I did appreciate about Tekken Blood Vengeance was that it helped flush out some of the characters in ways that the game could not, and I couldn't help but smile every time I recognized a fighting stance or move. Sigh. I know, this is probably one of the most ridiculous confessions I have ever made.

Anyways, I thought I'd write a review to justify my pure adoration for this movie amongst all the negative reviews its gotten. Three paragraphs later and I still don't have a solid reason. A number of hardcore fans of Tekken have voiced their dissatisfaction with the movie, namely because of its shortage of fighting scenes and a lack of full character coverage and for being non-canon. If you haven't seen it and you can't decide if you should...

How to know if you should watch Tekken Blood Vengeance:

1) You are a fan of Tekken. Obviously.
2) You are not a hardcore fan of Tekken.
3) You have no expectations for this movie. It appears the consensus is that if you walk in with high expectations, you will likely find yourself disappointed.
4) You like eye candy. CG'd eye candy. There are multiple shower scenes. Seriously.



At the end of the day, I love this movie for what it is: a 90 minute visual hailstorm of one of my favorite video games of all time. It was funny, beautifully created and it thrilled my inner child like no other to watch something I've loved so long on the big screen for—well, 90 minutes straight.

I graduated!

This past May, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a double major in Advertising and Journalism (concentration in Photojournalism), and a Business Foundations Certificate.

To celebrate, I got a haircut.





I don't break walls, I eat them.

So early in the morning...

shirt, skirt: forever21 | shoes: h&m | watch: tko

The last few months kind of rolled by and I haven't found the time to breathe, post, or write. My passions were tugging left and right into grey areas, and I've finally aligned myself to this one again. I love blogging because I have a public platform to display whatever it is I want. One person might read it, maybe ten, maybe hundreds. But it's there for the world to see. I like that notion.

I'm still doing my photography thing. Launching two new portfolios soon (but never soon enough) as well as working full-time now post graduation as a Social Media Associate for a social media management company. It's a start-up with a very start-up type environment, which gives me lots of room to stretch my mind muscles to be creative, make things work and grow. Life is a routine I'm settling into and trying to break at the same time. Currently addicted to this song: "Main Street" by Late Night Alumni.



*Many a thanks to my roommate Ari Morales for taking these photos!

An Update on Life: Running from a raging cheetah

The past few weeks have been a blur. Like a cheetah running behind you and all you're trying to do is not get eaten. And then at some pivotal moment in life years from now, you could potentially win a million dollars on a game show if you could recall how many spots the cheetah had. "Impossible!" you say, "It was far too hectic and dangerous for me to just casually lay about and count the spots on the cheetah. I would've DIED AND BEEN EATEN."




Yep, that's how the past few weeks have felt like and how I perceive I'll feel about it in the future. Like a blur I was trying to escape from, but later wish I could've remembered it better and enjoyed it more -- but it really would just be a meaningless wish because I would've gotten EATEN if I slowed down.

But that's not to say I didn't take a few moments for myself over the past few weeks. One of them was a recent development where myself and a couple of photographer friends get together and have a goofy fun time over food.

Last Tuesday, we went to Hopdoddy's for burgers on South Congress and had a photo walk and ice cream afterwards.




The Goodnight Burger, which I devoured.









PATTY CAKE!





All photos with me in it taken by Ari Morales. All other photos taken by me and all are edited by me. No cheetahs were harmed nor any small Asian girls during the posting of this blog post.