Protecting your creative work on the internet

I felt inspired to write another one of these posts since I keep coming across blogs where people will write "copyrighted by so and so." Uhh, cool. Do you know who enforces copyrights? YOU DO. There's no copyright police around making sure people are not going to steal your copyrighted material. (And yes, you can get a copyright registration with the US Copyright Office, but they don't enforce. Additionally, under common law, anything you create is automatically copyrighted so there a ton of people running around with copyrighted material.)

To enforce your copyright, you have to find out the identity of the infringer. You have to sue them. You have to pony up the money for litigation and in the end, you might just get an injunction (which means they have to stop using your stuff) and no money damages. P.S. If you are a blogger, you probably won't get money damages unless you are making money off of your site. The litigation costs are going to surpass whatever money you recover from damages to your site. Trust. Also, the internet is worldwide. If the infringer lives in another country, that may mean trying to find a forum (court) that has power to compel your infringer to stop and that is willing to hear your dispute.

That little mark that you put on your pictures means nothing if you don't have the means to enforce. It's smarter to use technological protection measures. You can code your pictures so that people can't right click and save or hotlink to your pictures. You can make it so that people can't highlight your text and copy and paste on to their sites. These mechanisms are much more effective and cost-effective in protecting your intellectual property. (I don't know how to do this yet- techno n00b, but if you care that much about your stuff, you should learn.)

Happy blogging.

vacation recap

I've been a techno-klutz for the past week. First, I accidentally knocked Kev's laptop from the hotel chair when I bumped into it with my hip. I thought it would be fine, since I've dropped my laptop more than once and it managed to survive. Wrong. I cracked the screen. The upside to that is he took apart his laptop and frankensteined his keyboard onto my laptop. (My keyboard was missing the 1 key.) So yay for that. We ordered another screen when we got home.

Then, on our way home from the trip, I started clearing out my camera so I can take new pictures on our last day and deleted all our trip pictures. I downloaded a recovery program, but since I took some new pictures, it wrote over the only pictures that I wanted. I consider it Murphy's Law in action. We sought out a giant Xmas tree and a giant heart and those picture were written over. Meanwhile, all the Usher concert pictures remained intact. Well, here's half of what would have been a cute couples picture.

Cool, huh?

Then when I was using a spray adhesive to attach tags to my Xmas gifts, I sprayed too much and covered his phone with adhesive...on the touch screen. O.o But I'm happy to report I've been damage free for 3 days now, and my bf has not dumped me. Yay.

Hrm, what else? The vacation was unremarkable. We went to Union Square, Ferry Building, Japantown, Berkeley and Fisherman's Wharf. We also took a tour of a chocolate factory (Tcho) which was actually started by the guy who started Wired magazine. The next day, I saw his daughter (the tour guide) and him eating outside of the Ferry Building. What a coincidence.

On the chocolate tour, Kevin was an eager beaver, raising his hand to answer and ask questions left and right. I made a comment about it after we left and he said, "I thought they were going to give us chocolate for participating." They didn't. Lame.

pre-vacation thoughts

Kevin wants to leave at 4 a.m. I woke up at noon today. Looks like I'm just going to stay up. We're going to SF, in case you're wondering.

I love winter break. Law school ruins our spring break by forcing us to come back and finish up the semester, so it's not really a break. You're still worrying about the semester. Summer isn't a break either. We worry about finding jobs and working. But winter, now there's a time to lie around, text your friends who are home for the holidays, and watch Netflix for hours on end.

Or go to Target.

Owls for my living room.

top from CAbi

skirt from Target

I love lace, but I'm not a fan of the wide black band on top. Oh well, it was $11.

Quilted pattern on the brain. These look less bright in person. I may have to take a daytime pic.

thoughts from the library

Florence Henderson aka Carol Brady is on the cover of "Senior Living." She is still alive. And yes that magazine exists.

I've always said I want to be a writer, even if it's just those frothy Harlequin-lites for teens, but I would never ever want to be associated with a book titled, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Yes, that also exists.

fashion craving: chain bags

I might as well not post my fashion cravings, because I never get them. I wanted some chain necklaces a year ago and didn't jump on the trend. Now they are gone, GONE. Well, I'm told by ladymags that these bags are "classic," so hopefully I can get on board before they depart with the incoming season of bags.

Cross-body, chain detailing, structured with a cute little lock. These are my favorite looks at the moment. Scroll over for brand detail.

At home exercises

I am one of those people who work out regularly. I have nothing to show for it really, but I like the feeling of exercising. So I've been cooped inside my apartment all day, freaked out about finals (yet I still find ways to waste time online). I've been craving some exercise and decided to try out these moves from Women's Health. They actually got my heart beating faster. Women's Health recommends 12-16 reps per move for all 4 moves. 2-3 circuits of all 4 moves. I've scanned them. (Click the thumbnails.) So if you don't have time to go to the gym, I recommend doing a short circuit at home.

who needs make up when there's photoshop

I downloaded some brushes from Obsidian Dawn and played around on an old make up picture. I gave myself top and bottom lashes and filled out a strand of hair. I had to make layers and distort the stamps to adjust it to my image, but it took a lot less time than actually putting on make up and doing my hair. When are we going to go upload our consciousness a la "The Matrix?" I'm ready to be a make up guru in that realm. =P

over the Fakesgiving table

Went to my 2nd Thanksgiving dinner last night where the following conversation happened.

Tim: Pigs...are they angry pigs?

Me: No, Tim, it's the birds that are angry, not the pigs. The pigs are just scared.

Ricky: They're not scared. They're smiling.

Christine: I don't get it. Are you guys talking about Farmville?

Me: Is it 2008?

Kardashian obsession

This picture will have to do. I was hoping to get a personal pic with my own camera! Stupid Borders screwed me over.

Let me start from the beginning. I secretly love "Keeping up with the Kardashians" ever since I caught Season 3 on Netflix. Khloe is my favorite. She's hilarious. The show won me over when in the car heading to county jail for Khloe's sentence, Kris asked, "Hey Khloe, if for some reason we have a bunch of time, do you want to go get breakfast?" Khloe just gave her this look like, "No, Mom. I have to go to jail!" I cracked up, because I can totally see my mom doing something like that.

I digress. Kim, Kourtney and Khloe were to appear at my local Borders today at 7. I got there at 4, figured I would study for awhile until they came. The place was nuts. There was a huge book signing line. People milled about. I found the table where they were to do the signing and plopped down near a bookcase. There were a row of seats near the table, which were of course already all taken.

I sat for maybe 10 minutes when the Borders people came and shooed us all away to make room for the paparazzi. Uhh, can't they find her outside of a Starbucks or any time? They have tipsters! We don't. What the hell. THEN they made everyone get off the chairs and said they were just moving them away from the table. Everyone reluctantly got up. They moved them about 4 or 5 ft away from the table, then put bookcases between the chair and signing table. RUDE.

They made it so we can't even get a glimpse of the table if we were not in the dang book signing line. People were still milling around and I heard someone say we were all eventually going to have to get in some kind of line. Dumb.

At this point, I decided to peace the heck out. I have been within a foot of Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore just walking around LA! No way I was going to put up with all this Borders BS. I'll probably have better luck running into them shopping.

Yes, that is my actual birthday cake. It says, "This is not turkey-shaped, Anh," in order to express Yves' disappointment that the man at Baskin-Robbins could not make a turkey shaped cake. She told him, "Make something a small girl, age 5-7 would like." Bonus, the HK heads are rings and the center is a bubble blower.

So what did I learn in the past year?

Learn people's names. I read it in "How to Win Friends..." It makes such a difference. The courthouse library where I worked could be alienating at times. I greeted my fellow externs by name and noticed little things about them. It changed everyone's attitude.

Don't get discouraged when you make mistakes. I was used to feedback on a piece of paper. A marked up essay, some plus and minuses to evaluate my work. It's much more difficult to receive face to face feedback or to feel like you've done something wrong. I always just carried that weird churning feeling inside, but you know, it's best to move forward. You mitigate the mistake, minimize its effects, and get on with your day.

Always read parking signs. Sometimes I feel like you have to be a lawyer to figure out all the parking restrictions, esp. when there are two signs stacked on top one another. Read them. Or if in doubt, when a street is particularly empty, you probably aren't allowed to park there. There is no such thing as abundant parking in L.A.

unicorn costume how-to

This is way overdue since it's no longer Halloween. Nancy is right. Posting things after Halloween means that no one cares since it's 11 months until the next Halloween and no one is scrambling to find a costume. I'm just going to do it anyway, so I can link to it next Halloween.

These are the pieces you'll need. Two ears, a horn and a headband with two prongs. Yves used wire we bought at Michael's to attach her horn to her forehead.

For the ears:

I used a piece of glitter foam, because it's sturdy enough to stand up on its own. I thought about using pipe cleaners and felt, but this was more convenient.

I freehanded ear shapes and cut out four ear pieces.

I glued the pieces back to back and wedged them into my headband.

For the horn:

I drew a triangle on a piece of cardstock. 6 inches tall and 4.5 inches at the base.

I rolled the triangle into a cone and stuffed it with newspaper to reinforce it.

Then I cut a strip of gold fabric to wrap around the the cone. The fabric is a little messy, because it used to be the belt to my Wonder Woman costume.

I used a combo of these two adhesives to get the fabric to stick.

This is the completed cone.

Remember to leave a strip of fabric at the end to attach it to your headband. I wrapped the fabric around the headband and tucked it back into the bottom of the cone and stapled the fabric to get it to stay.

completed headband:

For the hooves:

I just folded a piece of fabric into a small rectangle, about 5 inches long and secured it with liquid stitch. Then I wore it kind of like an arm warmer.

unicorn costume

I know I said I was going to turn this into a regular blog, but I really have nothing to post. I love Halloween but couldn't come up with anything creative this year. My friend suggested we go as unicorns. Too bad all the costumes we researched online involved 1) unitards or 2) babies. After an unsuccessful trip to a discount dance store, we decided just to wear regular clothes and make accessories. We made horns, ears, hooves and tails. Here's the result:

My friend's fauxhawk looked great. I was thinking more of a curly mane with ribbons. I bought some hair glitter and rhinestones to bling out my face and hair. I couldn't find the rhinestones I was supposed to go out! AND my glitter hairspray didn't work. Ugh.

I didn't do much makeup-wise. I had some pretty white ribbon that had a pinkish purple sheen to them, so I went off that. Here's a pic for now and I'll do a how-to soon.

environmental beauty tip: say no to microbeads

I'm not a big fan of exfoliants, but from time to time, I like the way the scrubs feel. I've buying cheap body soap with "microbeads," not paying attention to what this substance is. Microbeads are finely ground of pieces of petroleum-based polyethylene. They are actual plastic beads that I've been sending down the drain.

(pictures are from Awakened Aesthetic)

The plastic beads go out into the ocean, where cute little critters may mistake them for food, or end up in this big pile of floating plastic in the Pacific. Like all plastics, they take a long time to degrade and we should be careful to keep them out of the ocean. So next time, read the label on your exfoliants carefully and steer clear of soaps that contain microbeads. Salt, oats, and other natural particles do just a good and possibly better job exfoliating and are worth the price premium.

stealing from Macy's

Okay, it only FEELS like a steal. I got this dress for around $10 at Macy's. It was $8.30 before taxes, marked down from $59!

I am loving the mesh overlay and keyhole back. I hate that the 90s are coming back, but this is much better than wearing pants to clubs like that awful 3-4 year span in the early 00's where the club uniform was slinky top and black Express pants.

I also got these tangerine heels for under $10! They were $8.50 at Crossroads.

I've been wearing them with skinny jeans. Can't wait to pair them with this black dress this weekend.

DKNY fave

psychic reading

I was in Sephora today when this lady came up to me and told me she noticed my presence (aura?). She said, "You seem happy and smiling on the outside, but there is a sadness inside you. I want you to call me and we can discuss this." She handed me her card.

I shook my head. Nope. Nothing that I can think of.

"Yes, there is a man. An American man." Well, considering that I live in the United States, just about every man I meet would be an American man. I looked at her to continue. "He is a man that you want, but you cannot have. There is a sadness in your love life."

"Nope, my love life is just fine," I assured her. "I am dating someone and I am very happy."

"What is he?"

"Chinese."

"No, this man is an American man."

"Oh, you mean a white person. Nope, I prefer to date other Asians."

"Then he is mixed, maybe not all American."

I shook my head again. Then I started asking her questions. I asked her when she decided to start a business. She said she was not in business. "Then why did you give me your card? You have a business card."

"Well, people have to know where to find me, how to find me."

"Yes, but you charge for your services."

"No, I don't have a business. I run this out of my home. I have two children."

I asked her when she decided to become a psychic. She said she didn't choose, but she knew at the age of 6 she's psychic. I asked when she decided to become one as a profession. She repeated that she is not in business. I said, "Well I assume you went to school. So at some point, you were considering a traditional career path. What happened at the junction that made you choose this?"

"What do you mean traditional?"

"You know, like a subject you can major in, a job that people typically have."

She didn't have an answer and said to call the number and we can talk about it. I said, "No! I don't want to know about my life. I'm interested in your career."

"Look it up on the internet," she said and walked away from me. haha, I love badgering people.

sucker for pink

Looking at Emmy arrival pictures on NY Times and Keri Russell stood out. I love everything about this look: the flowy pink dress, the wavy bun, the flower in her hair and those delicate flower earrings.

At dinner with my friend the other day, I asked her if she was wearing eyelash extensions. She was! Our other friend showed up and she was sporting them too. This is the fourth close friend to have them this year. Is this the cool new thing?

the bum who hated crackers

This bum came up to Yves and me while we were sitting at an outdoor cafe in New York City and asked for some food. He claimed he was hungry. We told him we didn't have cash and Yves offered him her crackers. He was so offended and told us, "I don't want no crackers. I'm going to choke on those damn crackers." He sputtered and gestured and I told him to, "Calm the fuck down." He then told me to suck his dick and walked away.

wee!

That would be the Manhattan skyline behind us.

new york, new yorrrkkk

I give up on beauty blogging. Too many products. Too many techniques. And who wants to see my face all the time? Haha.


In other news, I am going to NYC in less than a day! I haven't been since high school. I am so excited to go to museums and take pictures like a tourist. I am so jealous of friends that have a good eye for photography. All my pictures end up looking the same, because I have no pose other than the standard Anh-hand-on-hip pose and smiling until my Hamtaro cheeks explode.


Ever since this conversion back into a regular blog, I am bursting with things to record. I had a pretty amazing weekend. I went to V Lounge on Friday after Saint & Sinners with Kevin, Steph and Jung Ho. We originally planned to go to The Room in Santa Monica, but for some reason that place is really popular now. Steph and J stood in line and then gave up. We went to our old standby, V Lounge.



How cute are they, all dressed in gray!


Getty Villa on Saturday. I'm still waiting to see pics that Jess posts, so here's the only shot with all four of us.



I was a little apprehensive since none of them knew the others, but it worked out fine.


Today, I was itching for a run. I timed myself for the first time since high school. My mile time was 8:46, which is way better than anything I did in high school. The clock forced me to run faster than I usually do. After the initial mile, I decided to do 3 more, which was a bad idea. I started feeling nauseous after mile 2 and recalled my friend telling me that he ran until he threw up. 0.0 Thankfully, I made it without throwing up, but that was a terrible, terrible feeling. That's it for now, but I'll definitely be updating while on the NY trip.

slanted eyeliner brush

This is probably a "duh" moment for most of you, but brushes DO make a big difference. I used to think that it didn't matter what brushes you used. Paintbrushes look a lot like make up brushes. I had an old fine tipped paintbrush and I have been using it to apply my gel eyeliner.



I finally bought a slanted liner brush at IMATS and it was definitely worth it. There isn't much difference in the final look, but the ease of application makes it a useful tool. I credit the difference to 1) the slant of the brush and 2) the synthetic bristles (think the kind of bristles your toothbrush is made of). The gel glides on easily, and doesn't get stuck in the hairs of the brush. Applying is much quicker and I make fewer mistakes.

In sadder news, my Shu Umera lash curler is STILL missing. I am using my old E.L.F. curler. I really like the curls I am getting, but it's pulling out my lashes. Annnd I just bought Shiseido refills for my Shu, so they're just going to sit there. Boo.

Dear people who can't hit reply

Why do you take the time to copy and paste the original email into the body of your email? Why did you open up a fresh email window when you could have just piggybacked off of the original email? Do you know how many clicks you can save by hitting reply? (not to mention the strain of scrolling) And the best part of this ingenious function? Your message goes straight to its intended recipient! Try it some time. Thank me later.

---
Other Anh Nguyen. I am jealous of you. You are a 4th year med student at UCLA. You've been invited on various hiking trips and Getty outings. You are now able to take that liver class that you've wanted. I forward emails to you, because I don't want you to miss out on these wonderful opportunities. Your life seems pretty perfect despite the fact that you are surrounded by techno noobs who can't hit reply.

wait, what?

simple fotd/ pearl headband

IMATS

My friend and I went to IMATS again this year to stock up on MUFE (40% off) and Stila (50% off) products. It wasn't as magical this year, because I've already seen all the cool special effect exhibitions. My friend printed out a map and highlighted the booths we wanted to hit. Then we took turns standing in line while the other one shopped. Allll business, no fun. Not really. I did snap a couple of pictures of some of the models.







I did a little shopping after and I finally found some rompers! I've been wanting these for a year and couldn't find any ones that I liked.



I like the way this one fit. It's loose but not too loose. I took this picture with the flash off. It's a bright blue, silky material. It was about $25 at Reference. I am still wearing it. So comfortable.

oops

Awhile ago at work, I picked up a phone belonging to one of the volunteer attorneys.

Me: Why do you have this actress as your background? She's not even cute.
Him: That's my girlfriend. (pause) She took those glamor shots in Taiwan.
Me (gently putting down the phone): Oh.

sunday lunch

I loveeee these sandals. Jezebel.com had this whole post about how "nude" is politically incorrect, just like that peach crayon was once named "flesh." I'm just going to call them beige. So cute and they were only $10 at Forever 21.

drug store foundation

I've been trying out drug store foundations, but not really documenting. I still like Cover Girl the best, but this Maybelline Pure Makeup isn't so bad either. It was on sale for $3 at Walgreens, so I decided to give it a try.



It had a thicker consistency, not very creamy, but very buildable. It reminds me of Cargo's consistency, not too thick, but not as light as my Stila foundation


Bare face


Decent coverage, I added a little extra in that area where I had blemishes. Not too bad.

It's been awhile since I bought make up. I still had a Bare Escentuals gift card from my birthday (a whole 7 months ago!) and bought a shimmery moss green shadow (Purrfect).




Purrfect all over
Patio party in the crease
MAC Blacktrack on the top and bottom waterline
Diorshow mascara

Whole face: