5 Songs That I Hate to Admit I Love

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Alice Vega

Hey guys! Happy Friday!

First off I want to thank you for reading my last blog post. It was the most read one I’ve done so far, so I guess that means that either A) everyone loves Maids, B) everyone loves reading about my personal life, or C) everyone loves Maids. So don’t worry, I’ve taken all that into consideration and the topic of Maid Cafes will be discussed and maybe even VLOGGED about in future posts. 😉 (I’m thinking about launching a Youtube channel… yay or nay?)

I’ve been working hard the past couple weeks transitioning from spring semester/sorority stuff to summer school, working more hours, and prepping for Anime Expo! So if it sounds like I’m busy, it’s because I am. But through all the busy work, I bear good news.

I finally have my own domain! 😀 -insert happy cheer- If you haven’t noticed, my URL address is just AliceVega.com as opposed to AliceVega.wordpress.com. I decided to just go for it because I’ve always wanted my own domain. So here I am! I’m like a new woman now.

Anyways, I wanted to do a fun topic today since it’s FRIDAY and we’re getting down and we’re looking forward to the weekend, weekend. (Get it? No? Ok…) I had the sudden inspiration to write about my favorite guilty pleasure songs since I actually was listening to Rebecca Black’s Friday song right before this.

OK so judge me all you want. I know this girl got ridiculously bagged on for having a really dumb song that went viral, but hey, she’s the one laughing at the end because she made tons of money AND got exposure. Do you know how hard that is to do that?? There’s millions of artists trying to break into the industry who will probably never get their big break but here’s this 15-year-old somethin’ that came waltzing in through Youtube and made a statement.

Photo from nydailynews.com

She made the biggest statements of statements. We have to thank her for letting us know that it’s Friday and that tomorrow is indeed Saturday and the day after that is Sunday.

Thank you Rebecca Black. I so excited.

Anyways, another song I hate to admit I love is Justin Bieber’s song “Baby.” Do you guys remember when Justin Bieber was just posting videos on Youtube? Because I distinctly remember that period of time and when he released this song, I honestly thought it was two different guys. Don’t ask me why, I just did. But hey, I’m a big supporter of Youtubers and as much as people hate on Bieber Fever, deep down I secretly will always support him since he was one of the lucky ones who crossed over to mainstream media.

Oh and it helps that Ludacris is featured in the song. AND he gives a Starbucks shout out. I just got 10 more cool points. Thanks, Ludacris.

Okay let’s move onto the next song. One Direction’s song “Kiss You.” Yeah, I get that this isn’t their breakout single, but this song is hella catchy. If you haven’t heard it, I suggest you open up your Spotify and listen to it. Like, even listening to the first 10 seconds will suffice. You can’t tell me that that’s not catchy! Everytime I hear this song, I tend to body roll when they sing “Yea-a-a-hhh” in the chorus. (Ok, I totally don’t know how to spell that, but you get the point.) Ooh, I know, so edgy! Body rolling to a One Direction song.

Again, I am not stopping you from judging me. And I bet now that you’ve listened to the “Yea-a-a-ahh” part, you’re body rolling to it too. Huh??

Anyways, the next song I want to talk about is a current one. You might have heard it on the radio since it’s that mainstream and catchy. It’s called “Bubble Butt” by Major Lazer Feat. Bruno Mars, 2 Chainz, Tyga, and Mystic. First of all, that combination of artists just spells a recipe for a hot mess. If you’ve ever watched the video, you know what I’m talking about. True story, I watched that entire music video just to see if any of the actual rappers (i.e. Major Lazer, 2 Chainz, etc.) made a cameo and they didn’t. So now I can say I watch that whole video in its entirety and I wish I didn’t.

But damn it, that song is SO catchy.

The last song I want to discuss is Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA. I’m not going to say much about Miley herself since she’s had the whole world pretty much talk about her, but I will say I don’t hate her nor love her. I used to watch Hannah Montana, so I’ll just leave it at that. Hey, everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days, everybody knows what I’m talking about —

Ok, I’ll stop. Seriously.

Are some of these your guilty pleasure songs too? I’d love to see your list. Leave it below in the comments! 🙂

-Alice

I Work at a Maid Cafe

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Alice Vega

Photo from lovelycomplex.net

Hey guys!

So I’ve been really excited to write about this topic because it hits close to home for me. I finally wanted to write about my life as a maid… in a maid cafe.

It should come as no surprise to you that I’m pretty vocal about the fact that I work and manage a Maid Cafe. But let’s backtrack a little. I get asked all the time, “What is a Maid Cafe?” Well, I’m about to school you on Maid Cafe 101.

Maid Cafes originated from Akihabara, Japan and it’s basically an actual cafe, but with a fun role play twist. The waitresses are dressed in maid uniforms and act as “servants” (to a degree) and the guests are their “masters” or “mistresses.”

So what do you do in a Maid Cafe? Well in the authentic ones, since it’s an actual cafe, you can order food. The maids will usually decorate your plate in a very cutesy manner and power up your food. And by power up, I don’t mean any weird Dragonball Z or Street Fighter reference. They do it in a very “moe” fashion. Moe (pronounced mo-eh) refers to the adoration of young or innocent-looking female characters. So as you can see, a lot of this culture is derived from anime.

Aside from eating, your maids will usually entertain you by playing various games with you. At my maid cafe, we love to play jenga. We’ve all played so much jenga that we’re pretty much jenga masters.

(Ok, not really, but that game is the shit. Just saying.)

Last but not least, my most favorite aspect of the cafe are the performances. The maids usually dance or sing for the guests, making it like a dinner and show kind of feel.

Group pic! 😀

I’ve been doing this for 3 years now and I absolutely love it. It’s fun to play a character and basically make people smile all day. And now as a manager, I get to coordinate the shows and hire all the wonderful staff. It’s a pretty good gig, if I say so myself.

But most importantly, working in maid cafe made me realize a lot about myself. You see, through college, I always felt I needed to have this professional face on all the time. When my friends would ask me what I wanted to do in the future, I always said the typical answer of any Comm major or Journalism major… “OH I want to work in PR.” or “Oh, I want to do something in entertainment… like work in E! or Entertainment Tonight.” I started to feel my professional self was so void of anything I truly loved, which was my geeky side. I’ve been attending anime conventions for over 11 years now and even if I wasn’t working for one, I’d still be an attendee.

Anime conventions to me are a place where I can just be myself. Growing up, people always made fun of me for liking this “Asian stuff,” but at the conventions, I feel like I can be myself and no one will judge me. (Well, almost. But you get my point.)

I think the best part of working at a Maid Cafe is the people you work with. I would not be having as much fun as I am if it weren’t for the other maids and hosts (the guys). I’ve learned a lot from them and we’ve become a happy, dysfunctional family.

If you want to understand more and see all of this for yourself, go to one! Maid Cafes are very popular nowadays and they’re not only in Japan anymore. Just from experience, a lot of anime conventions or anime clubs here in the U.S. have their own Maid Cafe. I encourage you to see this for yourself.

Have you ever visited a Maid Cafe? Do you work at one too?! Let me know by leaving a comment. 🙂

-Alice

Asian Stereotypes: We Love Studying

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Alice Vega

Photo from chibiland.windy-goddess.net

Hey there friends! Happy TMI Tuesday.

So I was actually in the process of writing another blog post about… well… let’s keep it as a surprise for now. But I ended up saving that as a draft and writing this instead.

So let me be real. I have a midterm at 9 AM. It’s almost 3 AM and I haven’t really gotten a lot done. (Oops, sorry parentals.) I’m way too relaxed right before a big test and honestly, it’s because I HATE studying. In all my years of being a student, both high school and college, I am absolutely terrible at sitting down and memorizing shit. I’ve even fancied the thought that maybe my short attention span might be due to A.D.D, but then I realized, I don’t get THAT distracted. I’m just straight up lazy and I’d rather spend my time doing other things.

If there was a test on the entire series of Sailor Moon or Youtube Star Trivia, dear lord, I would get an A++++. I’d be that student that everyone wants to cheat off of because they bring their book to every class and actually open the book.

I titled this post “Asian Stereotypes” because this will be one of many blog posts where I address a stereotype that I definitely do not fit. I’m not sure why Asians are always perceived as smart, but hey, to me that’s a compliment! I don’t even have to do anything and I already look smarter than my non-Asian friends. But that goes out the door once you hear me open my mouth and I sprout out nonsense about the most random shit you’ll ever hear.

I thought it always sucked when my other Asian friends had parents who were super strict on their grades. I’m lucky to have parents who just trust that I’m doing well (until they read this post and see that I’m not getting anything done) and let me pursue what I want to pursue. You know what I’m talking about, right? Those parents that just expect you to be doctors or nurses or something else that’s highly regarded as a prestigious career. I for one would be so unhappy if I was forced to study something I didn’t care about. College is expensive!! Why on earth would I be spending thousands of dollars on a subject I give no fcks about? I’m happy that I got to study what interested me because it helped shape me into the person that I am today. (Which is a person that loves to talk. Can you believe there’s a major for that?!)

In all the anime that I watch, I always admired the bookworms that study hardcore and got top scores on tests. I remember when I was in 3rd grade, I was really inspired by Ami (Sailor Mercury) and one time at a sleepover when my friends and I didn’t know what to do, I pulled out a random textbook I had and said, “Hey guys! Let’s study!”

Needless to say those girls aren’t my friends anymore.

(Just kidding, we still keep in touch. Kinda.)

I hate to end this post on such a negative message that studying sucks, because in all honesty, we all do need to study in order to be good people. Even if you’re not in school, you still have to spend time working hard at your job in order to be great at it. So the moral of the story is, study hard. Read that textbook with laser focus and get good grades, kids.

Or you can be like me and blog about how much this sucks.

-Alice

ISAtv Introduces a New Variety Game Show

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Alice Vega

Photo courtesy of Youtube

So I’ll admit… I’m a little late on posting about this. But hey, I loved this show so much, I just wanted to share it with you guys in case you haven’t heard of it.

So let’s backtrack a little. ISA is a concert events company that focuses on showcasing rising Asian American talent from online videos. (Basically all the Asian Youtubers in one place.) Founded by the ever popular Wong Fu Productions and Far East Movement, ISA has blossomed into a popular source for Asian American entertainment on the internet.

So if you’ve ever seen any game shows from Asia, you’ll know their game shows are anything but normal. They’re loud, fun, crazy, and there’s always some sort of dancing. Well, at least in Filipino game shows anyway. I for one have always found Asian game shows very entertaining and hilarious to watch. My favorite would have to be Silent Library from Japan.

Photo courtesy by ISAtv’s Official Tumblr

ISAtv basically wanted to create their own version of those popular game shows. If you haven’t watched it yet, you better open up a new tab in your browser and start watching it. Like seriously. I’m waiting for you to do it. Did you do it yet? Ok…. good. All the contestants in this first episode are popular Youtubers that you might recognize. We have Wesley Chan and Ted Fu from Wong Fu Productions, David Choi, Jen FrmHeadtoToe, Ally Maki, Clara C, Freddie Wong, Brandon Laatsch, Mike Song, and Anthony Lee. Hosted by Amy Okuda and Philip Wang from Wong Fu, the contestants were put in different challenges and if they lost, well, they better be ready. Because Game Master Yoshi (a.k.a. KevJumba) was ready to punish the weak.

My favorite challenge they’ve done so far is the game called “Pass It On.” The contestants were lined up and separated by a curtain. Starting with either Phil or Amy, they acted out a phrase. The first contestant then had to act out the same phrase, using NO words, to the next contestant. Basically, if the games Charades and Telephone had a baby, this is what it would be. The last contestant then had to act out the phrase to either Phil or Amy, and he/she would guess what the phrase is. If you’ve ever played the game Telephone as a kid, you’ll know that people misconstrue messages very easily, so you can only imagine how crazy this game turned out to be. If I ever host a party of some sort, I totally want to play this game.

ISAtv’s Youtube channel currently has 3 parts up, and they’re releasing part 4 of the game show TOMORROW! Based on the preview, it looks like the contestants are going to have to go through some sort of obstacle course. Let’s hope Yoshi doesn’t subject them to more torture!

Just kidding, we totally want to see that. Go Yoshi, go Yoshi go!

What are some of your favorite Asian game shows? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with me! 🙂

-Alice

Post-Grad Revelations

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Alice Vega

Hey there guys! Welcome to my humble abode.

If you know me well enough, you’ll know that I have a tendency to start multiple blogs and ultimately discontinue them (cue sad music here). But this time, things are different. This time, I’m super excited to start this new blog and really get to know my readers on a more intimate level.

Things are also different this time around because… well… I have more time on my hands now. Why, you may ask? Well, if you couldn’t tell from the freakin’ title of this post, I have semi-graduated! Yes, yes, you may now applaud. I have semi-graduated from Cal State Long Beach from the College of Liberal Arts with a B.A. in Communications Studies.

Heyyy girl heyyy! I finally did it! But wait whaa…? What do you mean semi-graduated?

Ok, so I tricked you. Kind of. I haven’t technically graduated YET but I will be finished in the fall and then I can have a real celebration of some sorts. Not that I didn’t celebrate now because I definitely made sure to celebrate the end of an era. I celebrated with a homie you may or may not know well named Jameson. He’s Irish and deadly. You should meet him sometime. I would show you photographic evidence of how much of the bottle I happened to finish on my own, but I don’t even know where that bottle is. Yeah, it was one of THOSE nights.

Ok, let’s get back on track. The title of this post is “Post-Grad Revelations” which means I need to tell you guys what revelations have occurred since I semi-graduated almost two weeks ago.

5 Things I Learned Once I Graduated College

Always have a rehearsed answer for your family when they ask you what your plan is now.
Let’s be real. There’s probably a 80% you don’t know what the hell you’re doing today, let alone the rest of your life. But to keep everyone at ease to know you’re not a complete failure, just rehearse a generic answer so that your great-great-great-great grandparents don’t start turning in their graves.
Do what you’re passionate about.
Most people tend to get extremely lost once they graduate because they feel this expectation has been set on them to immediately dive right into some successful career. But hellooo, that’s not how life works. (Unless you come from a family of money.) But for us regular folk, we need to work hard. My personal philosophy is do what you’re passionate about and do it well. You have a college degree now, you don’t need to take anyone’s shit! Just do what makes you happy and everything will fall into place.
Alcohol intake ~~needs to~~ should be less than 9000.
First of all, if you don’t get that “over 9000” reference I tend to do a lot, shame on you! I hope Frieza, Cell, and Buu all come and knock your face out.
(So yeah, it’s a DragonBall Z reference. Don’t judge me, bro.)
But anyways, if you were the type of college kid who practically came into class hungover everyday, you might want to take a step back and reevaluate what you got goin’ on. Don’t get me wrong, I love 2 for 1 drink specials more than the next person, but we’re adults now. Let’s be a little more responsible.
…. Says the girl who still watches DragonBall Z. Tee hee.
Create two accounts for all your social networks.
So this only applies to the people who are going to be working in highly respected fields. You probably don’t want your boss or coworkers to see your ratchet pictures from last weekend. But if you’re like me, you should create an alter ego for yourself, give that alter ego his/her own social network and go crazy. You see, I curse like a sailor and admit that I consume more alcohol than I should, so I let that alter ego run wild in her own Twitter account. And now her own blog. But if you’d like to meet my tamed, professional self, well… why would you? You’re no fun.
Last but not least, don’t forget that it’s all about the simple things in life.
Ok you bad ass college grad. I see you with your degree and soon-to-be fancy job. It’s cool and all that you’re on a good path, but don’t forget the little things that make you happy. If you make most of your life pertain to work, you’re going to be one cynical motherf*cker. If you’re like me, one of my favorite past times is to spend hours and hours on 9gag. Hey, what can I say… I love me my internet memes. Baby sloths FTW.

So there you have it. 5 things I’ve learned thus far. It would have been a longer list, but I just graduated 2 weeks ago so calm down. I’m practically still a fetus. This list can continue as life goes on. In fact, feel free to add your own! I wanna know what you think. Leave a comment and tell me what you have learned since you graduated from school.

That’s all I’ve got! If you somehow find me endearing, make sure to subscribe to my blog. I’ll be posting some awesome stuff sporadically whenever inspiration hits. You know how us writers do.

And now I leave you with this ridiculously brilliant meme. (I actually did LOL)