trim

I'm overwhelmed by how much clothing I potentially need to buy...and the relative small percentage of my current wardrobe that I wear on a regular basis. I did keep track of my daily outfits throughout the winter as I said I would, which proves the 80/20 rule that I wear ~20% of my clothes 80% of the time. Editing down my closet is still very much a work in progress.

Another minor step is an effort to define a general colour and texture scheme:

I pulled these from my pintrest, so they're not entirely representative of reality. There's 3 categories:
always & forever, warm weather, and cold weather.

White, grey, black are obviously always & forever. I'd totally be okay with white silk top + grey knit cardigan + black jeans all day every day. Plus a

Warm weather gets some blush & lilac in soft and airy fabrics suck as silk and linen, chambray, saturated blues, striped tops, and khaki bottoms. Plus wide brimmed straw hats, and this lipstick.

Cold weather gets tons of wools, tweeds, and knits, paired with navy, forest green, and other earthy colours. Burgundy manages to sneak into clothing items, but mainly as a lip colour. Scarves and socks are a wildcard for colours and patterns.

...

Next to tackle are proportions?

sparrow

Oriental Beauty (from Tea Ave) from a couple of days ago.

Another very sweet tea. Sometimes I get a creamy mouth-feel, sometimes I get an herbal aftertaste. I'm horribly inconsistent at brewing tea.

In other news, I'm doing well drinking through my stash. Aka I get to make some big hauls soon :D

spring/summer 15

It's been a while since I've made a post like this. In fact it's been a year. This is because I'm reasonably happy with my autumn/winter wardrobe, and any upgrades will take significant capital.

But spring/summer is a totally different story, especially with moving to Atlanta and starting work. I already don't know how to dress for the warm weather (like, what is that even? It's the end of April and the temperature dropped below zero), let alone business wear in the warm weather.

While I'm not going to purchase anything until I've moved and seen what my co-workers wear, it's fun to predict what I'll need. Will review this in a month or so.

With the exception of the following 2 items which I'll likely buy before leaving:

Shirtdress options 1/2/3 and trench coat.

Unsure which shirtdress I like better, so I'm hoping one of them goes on sale to make my decision easier. I'm reluctant to buy any at full price actually. I like the first design the most, and it looks great on the body when I tried it on. However $145 for polyester is expensive, especially considering the second option is the same price but silk. But I'm not entirely satisfied with the colour and how the silk has a sheen in the second option. The third option has sleeves, which is more practical (though maybe not in Atlanta weather) but also most expensive out of the 3.

The trench coat is most probably going to be bought in the next couple of days. It turns out that Club Monaco is a rare example of a store that sets the same price in USD and CAD. The sales assistants were also really nice and helpful when I was trying it on, so I feel a little guilty. Thus I'm rationalizing this purchase by 1) I've wanted a trench for a really freaking long time, like years, and 2) congrats myself for surviving third year.

PS. typing out shopping impulses is a great way to restrain them. It's easy to get carried away in my head lusting over objects (like that Fire Emblem special edition 3DS that's now double its release price, ahem).

Other items that will complete my work clothes:

• Pencil skirts. Maybe 2-3 of these? Currently have one in grey, so the new purchases should be relatively colourful as I feel pressured by the South to not dress monochromatically.
• Work pants, ankle length. Already have 1 pair of full length black pants, so 2 pairs in navy and grey will suffice. Tempted to try Everlane's since US has free returns.
• Light coloured blazer and/or cardigan. Luckily I have a good collection of blazers already, but one more really can't hurt. Thinking of a cream linen one, but a cardigan is probably more practical.
• Tops. Sorely lacking in these, currently have 4 that I think is appropriate. Definitely getting a striped shirt, but probably need 2-3 more to have good rotation. I can already foresee problems with finding a non-sheer shirt. I'd love some more silk shirts. 
• Shoe. Eying the Quoddy Penny Loafer, but ugh I need to try on shoes and it will not be easy tracking a pair down. Still thinking of the fluevog monks too.

Non-work items:

• Loose, patterned shorts, maybe high-waisted. Should've bought that AA pair 2 years ago "orz
• Linen khaki pants. Looser in the tights, tapered at feet, looks good rolled up and wrinkled. To replace my Uniqlo chinos that don't fit anymore :(
• Light weight striped tee, but the strips don't extend all the way to the collar.

heavy in the air

gilded

Unfortunately next week's weather epitomizes pathetic fallacy. At least there'll only be 1 more exam left by Thursday.

temporal crossroads

2 finals and almost 1 play-through of Xillia are done.

(via)

The exams went alright, but I have no idea how I'm missing 100+ loot bags in Xillia when I've been to every map and has gotten all the treasure chests on each map. It's so time consuming revisiting every location, but at least I'm progressing on other titles along the way. I enjoy how there's achievements related to the mastery of each character's play style, otherwise I'd never have directly controlled anyone other than Jude or Milla.

The final boss fight felt very anti-climatic, especially since you don't gain any exp from it. Plot-wise, both parties were so reluctant to fight each other. It would be better if Maxwell was the final boss and Gaius/Muzet's fight is placed where Maxwell's fight was, heck they should even join the party for the fight against Maxwell. This could be incorporated into the story easily too.
Gaius and Muzet's relationship also mirrors Milla and Jude's, I'm tempted to play Xillia 2 just to see how the dynamics between these 4 will change (and also to see more of Alvin but I don't like his updated character design). Speaking of chracters:

(via)

*u* This image captures each character so perfectly haha, especially in their expressions. Gaius and Wingul looks so unamused, as they always do in the cutscenes (aside from the times they look angry). Ivar and Rowen's are also dead on. Plus they're all in formal wear, what more can I ask for?

Ans: The chimeriads (minus Jiao, plus Gaius) in vaguely school uniform-like outfits.

(via)

Sigh there should be a sidestory about them. They all deserve happy endings ;_;

This post is really just an excuse to post pretty fanart of Xillia that I spent too much time looking up cause the feels. There's still Milla's play through, so expect more pretty fanart.

spyrites

Then I remembered I still have Tales of Xillia to play.
2 days later and I've made it to the final boss with all sub-events done. A good amount of progress, if I may say so myself.

Alvin's back story is so heart wrenching, him and his mom, him and presa ;_; But the scene with Elize at the swing is so cute! The image sums up his story nicely:

(via)

Was hoping that the story between Leia and Agria would be developed some more since they're such good foils for each other. Also more about Rowen would also be good, his sub-event with Carrie is great. Gaius' and Karla's sub-events are also insightful. The supporting characters all have complicated backgrounds, they make Jude / Milla seem uninteresting.

repeat

I'm currently experiencing a great magnitude of desperation because season 3, chapter 43 of Cheese in the Trap is not unofficially out yet. I've tried various strategies to cope with this, such as

1. refreshing the scanlator's webpage every hour, or slightly better, after every section of notes that I review. 
2. re-reading the officially released chapters, which has been really helpful in reminding myself of the plot. But alas the official release is only up to 43 of the first season "orz 
3. reading ahead the Korean raws. Although I don't understand a word of the conversation, the artist does such a good job with the character's expression that I can mostly figure out what's going on. Now in addition to looking forward to sundays (official release), mondays (unofficial release, but they're not on a regular schedule), there's wednesdays for the raw release! 

The last frontier would be to go through forums where there's chapter summaries that are up to date with the raws. I'm really trying hard to resist. Otherwise I've been distracting myself with movies (and studying too, yeah).


Movies:
1. Parent Trap


The poker scene is really awesome, the camp scenes in general are pretty awesome just because of the sass. The movie also confirms that I need a butler in my life.

2. Whiplash & 3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (thanks Alex for the recs)

The trailer is a little misleading, there's far less romance in the actual movie.




These 2 movies both have very stylistic cinematography (is that the right term? art direction?). Whiplash being dark, grimy, and a little too heavy on the HDR; whereas The Grand Budapest Hotel has very saturated colours and evokes 2D in both in the actual 2D scenes and regular scenes. Both movies also feature a very strong (or oppressive, depending on whether you like them or not) mentor character.

qi

I write this in commemoration of the first time I'm experiencing 茶气, if it indeed is real.

It's actually kind of weird. This is the last batch of Rou Gui that I had, and frankly I didn't like how it initially smelled and taste as the roast taste was overwhelming. But woah the 回感 (aftertaste) is strong this time, its mildly sweet and pleasantly warming. As if I swallowed very viscose air (if thats a thing). It's been 20 mins and I still clearly feel it lingering at the back of my mouth, and permeating the rest of my body. Strange feeling.

Here's a discussion about what 茶气 is.

lions

It's finals again!

markings

Long time no see, was down with a bad cold for most of last week. It was a needed break from school though, to catch up on sleep and destress by reading a lot of manga.

1. Cheese in the Trap
aka my favourite webtoon, sorry Tower of God.
It's hard to say anything about this because it'll inevitably be a spoiler. The plot is so intricate that it makes the beginning chapters difficult to follow, but it's worth reading through. Both Seol and Jung will surpass your expectations.
Sarah if you see this, I highhhhhly recommend you to read this. 

2. Magi (and its sidestory about Sinbad)
Imagine One Piece and Negima mixed together and it's sort of the plot and setting of Magi. I'm usually reluctant to read Shonens, but this one has a good cast of characters. I like Sinbad's sidestory more, since it focuses more on going-on-an-adventure (One Piece) rather than the main story which focues more on we-have-to-save-the-world-against-evil (Negima). I like how the series spends time building up the main characters (both pro- and antagonists) and showing their backstory and motivations. If you do read this, I highly suggest also reading Sinbad's sidestory since it is a direct prequel and contains lots of relevant information. Plus Sinbad's currently the most suspicious characters

3. Ruler of the Land
This is a classical 武侠 story and it brings so much nostalgia. It's slightly similar to the Chinese story where the main character is a genius at learning martial arts but also only wanted to learn escaping techniques. In fact I clearly remember a scene where he gets into some minor trouble and was thrown into a local jail cell. In the cell, he was reading a legendary skillbook and learning the footwork movements. This story has all the 武侠 archetypes and plot devices, from the different clans to the legendary weapons, masters of different fractions all teaching their secret skills to the main characters, tragedy, romance, bloodshed etc etc.