An Eventful Weekend: Jumping, Rafting, and Camping

I'm sorry, I've been so off my blogging schedule lately. This past weekend was a pretty eventful one, which is partially why I'm a day late in posting this week. 

FRIDAY: I did nothing for most of the day, but later that night I went to a place called Skyzone with a bunch of people from my church! It's a place where you can just jump on trampolines everywhere. You can even play dodge ball, dunk basketballs, and do flips into the foam pit. It's a lot of fun, and I wish I had more pictures. I didn't want my phone falling out of my pocket while jumping so I kept it in a locker with my other stuff. 

SATURDAY: The boyfriend and I spent Saturday river rafting with one of his cousins and his cousins for his cousin's birthday! Because of the drought that California is currently in, the river wasn't as high or strong as it has been in past years, according to the workers. Regardless, we still had a great time! I recommend doing river rafting or white water rafting if you ever get the opportunity to!

SUNDAY: I had a normal day at church as usual, then I had an all-day training for the camp that I will be working at in less than two weeks! I don't have any pictures from the training, but after that I can tell you that I am seriously beyond excited for it! If you want to know why camp is such a big deal to me or if you're interested in going to a camp next summer, check out my top reasons to go to camp post that I wrote last year! As tiring as they are, camps are worth it.

So that was my eventful weekend; these next two weeks are going to be hectic as I prepare to go to camp next weekend (not this weekend). How was your weekend? Have you done any of these things?

7 Tips for Maximum Instagram Engagement

Instagram is easily my favorite (and strongest) social media platform out there (right next to Pinterest, that is). Although I don't post on it every day, I am definitely always on it, checking out other peoples' posts.

As a blogger, Instagram becomes more than just a place to showcase your life. It also becomes a way to promote your blog (and potentially other businesses/brands), depending on how strong your Insta-game is.

Depending on the type of blog you run and your own personal preferences, you can also choose between using your personal Instagram for your blog or creating a separate account for your blog. For myself, because of the nature of this blog and my own preferences, I've chosen to keep my personal Instagram even for my blog.

Regardless of whether or not you have a separate account for your blog or even if you're a blogger or not, let's face it: we all want more followers and likes. It's a natural thing to desire, since as human beings we want to be affirmed, and Instagram can be a space for that, if used in a healthy context.

But that's not what I'm talking about today. I'm talking about my tips (based on personal experience) on gaining more followers and engagement on Instagram.

I've read blog posts and articles where they say things like "use a ton of hashtags" or "use _____ filter" or whatever. I'm here to say that based off of my own experiences with Instagram, those don't work. 

With that being said, here are my top tips for Insta-engagement.

Discovering Delirium [Guest Post]

So today, I have the pleasure of having Lauren, one of my sponsors on my sidebar, post for me today. Although I don't talk about it enough, I'm truly a bookworm and love to read! I just recently finished reading Shopoholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella. But today, Lauren will be reviewing a book from a series she just started! I'm always looking for new book recommendations, so I hope you enjoy :]

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Hi everyone! I’m Lauren and I blog over at Sassy Sweetheart. I’m so glad Kriselle let me take over for the day to share with you one of my new favorite series! I picked up Delirium by Lauren Oliver without having any idea what I was getting myself into. Honestly, I just knew I had seen it places before so I figured if other people liked it, I might too. Spoiler alert: I did.

Summary from Amazon.com

Lena Haloway is content in her safe, government-managed society. She feels (mostly) relaxed about the future in which her husband and career will be decided, and looks forward to turning 18, when she’ll be cured of deliria, a.k.a. love. She tries not to think about her mother’s suicide (her last words to Lena were a forbidden “I love you”) or the supposed “Invalid” community made up of the uncured just beyond her Portland, Maine, border. There’s no real point—she believes her government knows how to best protect its people, and should do so at any cost. But 95 days before her cure, Lena meets Alex, a confident and mysterious young man who makes her heart flutter and her skin turn red-hot. As their romance blossoms, Lena begins to doubt the intentions of those in power, and fears that her world will turn gray should she submit to the procedure. In this powerful and beautifully written novel, Lauren Oliver, the bestselling author of Before I Fall, throws readers into a tightly controlled society where options don’t exist, and shows not only the lengths one will go for a chance at freedom, but also the true meaning of sacrifice. --Jessica Schein

My Thoughts:

I was immediately hooked. What I really loved about this story was that Oliver makes the world her characters live in so believable. Not only does it focus on the elimination of romantic love, but also more platonic love. Friends don’t greet each other with hugs and parents don’t comfort their children when they fall. I can’t imagine living in a world where relationships don’t mean much, which made this whole concept that much fascinating to me.

The first half of Delirium drags on a little bit. Lena starts out counting down the days to her cure. She can’t wait to be cured because she believes in her government’s ideas. She truly believes that love is a disease. Lena gets upset when her best friend Hana listens to unauthorized music and wants to go to forbidden co-ed parties. Even when Lena meets Alex, she still firmly believes in the process and tries to ignore him.

It isn’t until Lena starts to form a real relationship and romance with Alex that things start to pick up and get interesting. Lena has to make up elaborate lies to be able to get out of the house to see Alex. And when Alex tells Lena about life in “the wilds” outside of all of the government regulations, she starts to contemplate running.

I found myself initially annoyed with Lena for believing so firmly in her government, despite the fact that she had no reason not to. But after Lena meets Alex I found myself rooting for her and their love. Lena doesn’t let Alex take care of her. She is strong, independent, and so brave. She’s not the typical damsel in distress who needs a man, but instead learns from Alex as an equal.

The ending is such a cliffhanger. I immediately started Pandemonium when I was finished because I couldn't wait any longer to find out what would happen to Lena. I don't want to spoil anything for you by telling you about Pandemonium, but I will say things start to get very interesting when we're not in Portland anymore.

Bottom line: You'll love this series if you love Hunger Games, The Selection, or Matched. After you start to get into Delirium, you won't be able to put it down!

Your Story Blog Hop: Your Food

Welcome back to the Your Story Blog Hop, where you get to share and read about other peoples' stories! Here is this week's prompt:

This is more than your typical "what's your favorite food" post. What kinds of food did you eat growing up? Do you still eat it now? If you ate any cultural foods, what did you eat? Tell us about it!

People always ask about your favorite food, but this post is meant to be more than that! You can tell me what your favorite food is, and if you do, tell us why or how it became your favorite food. It can be a specific dish or a certain type of food, like Mexican or Russian food. 

If you grew up eating cultural food, whether of the country you live in or wherever you trace your ethnic background to, do you like that type of food? What kinds of food did you eat? Tell us all about it!

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Growing up, I mostly ate Filipino food. If you're not Filipino, you're probably thinking of Lumpia (egg rolls) or Pancit (noodles), and although I ate all that growing up, it's more reserved for parties instead of daily meals. 

If I wasn't eating Filipino food? Well, I was still eating rice with it! Other than burgers or if we were at a restaurant, my mom made my sister and I eat rice with everything, whether it was bacon, steaks, or fried chicken. 

Sinigang na baboy: the ultimate comfort food. #filipinofood pic.twitter.com/34FAo8dvbx
— Kriselle Mendoza (@krisellerhiax) May 26, 2014

One of my favorite Filipino dishes ever is sinigang na baka (see-nee-gahng nah bah-kah). In English it's tamarind stew with beef. If you're Filipino or grew up with Filipino friends, you are probably familiar with this. However, a stew that is so near-and-dear to my heart that I definitely don't eat enough of anymore is a lesser known dish called sinampalukang manok (see-nahm-pah-loo-kahng mah-nohk). In English, it's a tamarind stew with chicken. (Note: I made a mistake and put baboy (bah-boy // pig) in the tweet above, but I meant to put baka!)

The two have very different names but seem very similar according to the English translation, but there are, in fact, a few differences. The biggest difference is that sinampalukang uses tamarind leaves and ginger, while the sinigang is just a tamarind-based stew. And the words at the end of each stew are the types of meat used in it. Baka is beef, and manok is chicken. If you change the meat, then the stew changes too in smell and taste, like if you use hipon (hee-pon // shrimp) or isda (eess-dah // fish). 

This is what Sinampalukang basically looks like.
Source: Kawilang Pinoy

June Sponsor Spotlight: Raewyn + Lauren!

Today I'm spotlighting two of my sponsors for this month: Raewyn from Be a Warrior Queen and Lauren from Sassy Sweetheart Blog! The best part about having wonderful people sponsoring your blog is that you get to know them through their blogs and as people as well. I've really enjoyed talking with these two wonderful ladies!

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Raewyn is a newlywed from Southern California, like me! (The SoCal part, not the newlywed part.) Her blog, Be a Warrior Queen, is all about self-empowerment for women! She writes stuff about herself and her new hubby as well of course, but I think the whole basis behind her blog is great. We live in a society that puts down women all too often, and it's good to have a place where you can be encouraged.  

She's awesome. I hope to meet her one day soon, especially since we live less than half an hour from each other!

Facebook // Pinterest // Bloglovin'

Lauren is just like her blog--Sassy and a sweetheart! She and I both sponsored each other's blogs the past month or so, so it's been great getting to know her! She's a bookworm (like me) and has been spending a lot of time just enjoying summer these past few weeks! I recently guest posted on blog about the e-books vs. print books debate, and I had so much fun doing it!

Follow her around and check her out! 

Twitter // Facebook // Instagram

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Want to be featured like these ladies here? Want some love for your blog? Check out my sponsor page for more information! Livin' and Lovin' Blog is growing every day!

Getting Lei-d at Graduation // Giveaway Winners!

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter at all, you probably saw my tweets/Instagram post about my younger sister, who just graduated highschool last week! I'm so proud of her, as she is now a freshman at San Jose State University starting this fall.

Before coming to college, when I went to high school and middle school graduations, people would go CRAZY when it came to getting their graduate lei-d (get it? haha).

Trust me, my sign of my sister was not that bad (or big) compared to others. 

Throwback to when I graduated high school with my Filipino-Hawaiian sister!

Friends and family of the graduate would print out larger than life posters of that person's face, they would blow up floaties, they would create leis out of chips or ramen packs, and Pacific-Islander families typically created elaborate money crowns for their grads. All of this, on top of the candy, flower, and ribbon leis, graduates from where I'm from would be covered in leis, so much so that sometimes you can't even see the bottom half of the person's face.

When I got to college, I'll be honest and say I Facebook-stalked a lot of my new college friends (don't act like you never have!) and of course stumbled upon many of their recent graduation photos. Most of them weren't covered in leis, and they'd be lucky to have more than two.

When I went to my college's graduation last year, the only people that were covered in leis was a Filipino girl from Hawaii, and the only Pacific-Islander guy in that class (if you want to know, he was Tongan, and if you have never heard of Tonga before, look it up :])

Even my roommate during my freshman year of college (bless her heart) innocently asked me one day,

"Is it a Filipino thing to get covered in leis at graduation?"

I wondered, why is it that Asians and Pacific Islanders are typically the ones who go crazy like this at graduations? I grew up in a heavily Asian/Pacific-Islander community before college, so if non-Asians were doing it, it was typically out of influence from the Asians/PI's. If I ever see people at schools where it is not predominantly Asian/PI, the people who got lei-d were Asian/PI.

But the question is, why? 

To be honest, I'm not really sure, but I can make a few guesses.

They're just really proud of their accomplishment. They might've just been so happy and wanted to go all out for them. Simple as that, and completely understandable. More understandable for college especially.

They're very creative. If you see some of the posters and leis people make for their loved ones, so many of them are soooo nicely done and neat. For many people, they're just really creative and making beautiful signs and banners are just part of their natural way of expressing themselves.

They want to show off their graduate and their pride for them. This is pure pride. Not in a bad way, but pride as in they want to represent their graduate and show everyone that they did it. They want to show everyone how much they love them and how awesome they are for graduating. That's why if you go to a graduation in my hometown, everyone and their mom is almost having an unspoken competition for which family can be the craziest and loudest for their grad.

It's cultural. I don't ever remember learning about all the leis and stuff being cultural for Asians, but for Pacific Islanders there are the shell necklaces, the intense islander crowns and all that good stuff. It may be cultural for them to celebrate that way, but I'm not too sure.

What do you think? Does your family do this? Are you not Asian/PI and your family still does this? I might talk more about this in a Youtube video sometime soon or graduation season next year because I think it's such an interesting phenomenon.

GIVEAWAY WINNERS: So if you entered my blog's anniversary giveaway, I announced the winners on the Rafflecopter widget already! Did you win? And even if you didn't, thank you so much for entering!

Until then,

My Guilty Pleasure TV Shows

Okay, so I have to admit that I watch a lot of tv. I didn't watch much when I first went to college but when my roommate brought a tv this year, I knew that I'd be going back to old habits. And it also doesn't help that you can stream everything online.

Everyone talks about shows like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, Parks and Recreation, and so much more. Maybe even The Office if you go to my school.

Well, I'll be the first to tell you (and probably one of few) to say that I don't watch any of those shows. I have a very interesting and different taste in television, and sometimes I'm still figuring out why I like some of these shows. But if you want to get an idea of what I normally watch or keep up with on tv, here are a few of my favorites:

Baby Daddy: A guy unknowingly knocked up a girl and dropped the baby on his doorstep not too long after she was born. He's living with his brother and roommate, and along with his childhood best friend, Riley, and his mom, they all help him out in raising the child.

Source: ABC Family

Ben and his brother Danny are hot, and baby Emma is so cute! On top of that, I just think that all the characters together are hilarious. Tucker, Ben's roommate, always ends up doing crazy things with their mom and you also see lots of Riley, Ben, and Danny exploring different relationships, even with Riley ending up with Ben at some point. And Bonnie, the mother, is a cougar. Enough said.

Awkward.: This is about a girl at Palos Hills High who had an unfortunate accident her freshman year, going through high school. Well, let's just say that the show truly lives up to its name.

Source: MTV

This show is actually loosely based off of a high school not too far from my home town. They even reference the same cities and everything! The major change with the location was the high school's name from Verdes to Hills. When I first found out that this show is based off the local high school, I laughed because I could see why.

Switched at Birth: Two babies are switched at birth, and one of the mothers who knew for a long time finally fesses up and both families are learning to live together as a family for the sake of the girls. Oh and the girls? One grew up in a preppy, wealthy home, while the other grew up in a not-so-wealthy neighborhood that is predominantly Hispanic. That girl is a natural redhead and deaf as well.

Source: ABC Family

I really enjoy sign language, so I appreciated the show's use of it. This show is more of a drama while the previous two are more comedies, and this show is a nice change for me. Enough drama, but not too much, unlike Pretty Little Liars, which I gave up on a few months ago after getting too impatient (and scared) with the storyline.

America's Next Top Model: This is basically a reality show to see who becomes "America's Next Top Model."

Source: The CW

Lots of people wish for this show to be done with after having 20 cycles, but as someone who is really into fashion and wishes she were tall enough to model, I enjoy this show. I mostly watch for the photoshoots, but hating on a little drama doesn't hurt either.

Legend of Korra: This is a spin-off series to "Avatar: The Last Airbender," a series that ended a few years ago. Legend of Korra continues with Korra as the new Avatar, the one person in the world who can master all four abilities of water, air, earth, and fire, and she is navigating her abilities with the help of the previous Avatar's family and friends, as well as her own.

Source: Deviantart

I binge-watched ATLA before the second season premiered last September. I loved the series before, but I loved it so much more after watching through it all again, because Korra as a strong female lead gets me so excited! She can really kick some butt!

What Not to Wear: This show ended last year, but I love it so much I put it on my list. WNTW was a show that took some of the worst dressers in the country and gave them a free, full-on makeover, with a new wardrobe, new make-up routine, and many times a new-found self confidence.

Source: TLC

This is one of the first shows that got me into fashion when I first saw my niece watching it back in 2007. I haven't kept up with the last few episodes of the series due to being away at school, but I loved the valuable fashion lessons I learned from Clinton Kelly and Stacy London.

Other than WNTW and ANTM, all of these shows are either premiering a new season or ending a season this week. What are your favorite TV shows?