zip

The most reliable indicator of my stress level is how much I want to read manga/webtoons.

ding

Last two meal prep of Houston!

A Chinese rag of some sorts: as asian of a dish as I can make with soy sauce as my sole asian pantry ingredient. Cremini mushroom as a stand in for shiitake, vietnamese rice noodles, and surprisingly affordable bok choy from Phoenicia. Tastes just alright but still darn comforting.

A Mediterranean veggie wrap: labne, sun-dried tomato, roasted garlic, zucchini, eggplants and potato with baby kale on pita. It does feel good to eat something healthy after cobbling together random meals since I was in Madison. I had the brilliant idea to par-cook the potato and eggplant in the microwave before roasting them to cut down oven time, and I think it worked wonderfully. The eggplants specifically turned out great, meltingly soft, with less than a spoonful of olive oil per slice.

The random meals I've made previously were a lemon-tuna-parsley pasta, in which I used parsley in vegetable quantities rather than garnish quantities, and a garlic-chipotle-chickpea-tomato stew which I will add some pasta next time to make it my pasta soup.

wrap

I signed up for a challenge of not buying new clothing from June 21 to September 21, which seems doable as summer sales are easier to resist then winter sales. And perhaps anti-thesis to the spirit of the challenge, I am spending some time planning the overall direction of my wardrobe. This is perhaps motived by that fact that I'll be working from home and so can wear whatever the hell I want, which hopefully means I'll dress up to my heart's content rather than living in lounge clothings all day, which is possible since I bought my very first pair of leggings, intending to be dragged to the gym on a regular basis, and they are indeed comfortable.

But back to overall wardrobe direction! I redid the color scheme analysis that I did back in 2015 (that triggered by the imminent need for PEY work clothing). To be honest, not much has changed haha.

The first thing I noticed is that my clothing colours lean cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter...which makes a lot of sense but I did not realize until now. I also noticed that I do actually have a lot of colours (as in the number of different colours, my actual clothing is probably at least 60% white/grey/black).

In terms of textures, my winter clothings are (unsurprisingly) heavy on knits and leather, whereas my summer clothings linens and looser woven cotton. I also prefer patterns on my summer clothing much more than winter.

star

cleave

I think I've found my ideal two summer "freshies", just in time for my last week in Houston. It is literally a sauna outside right now, I never expected to experience condensation on my glasses when eating a building in the summer -_-

But onto the perfumes!

Thomas Kosmala No. 8 Tonic Vert
This is green alright, but it reminds me of a big, fat green leaf, so there is some heaviness to it as well. If this scent was a knife, it would be a big vegetable cleaver. Still sharp, but with weight. For that reason I wouldn’t wear this in the current Houston heat ;o; Pretty good projection, can easily smell it from my wrists. The official description emphasizes the dryness and bitterness, which is more noticeable when I smell it from a close distance. I can also distinguish the mint note from up close. About 15min in, vetiver comes in strong and the feeling of heaviness goes away. Man it’s a lovely vetiver.

The second day I wore it out for a site visit and was not able to smell this on my neck despite the heat & humidity, perhaps it was too windy? Did notice the citrus opening, which unfortunately is the cleaner variety which i did not enjoy. Will need to wear this more to decide.

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Thomas Kosmala No. 1 Tonic Blanc
Orange blossom! Well, it’s apparently neroli so I’m not so good at telling the 3 apart yet. So far I do agree with the official description, it’s a dry floral, which is right up my alley. Once this settles on your skin, it looses most of the floral aspect and becomes a sharp aromatic scent, great for cutting though Houston’s summers. Performance is also good in terms of longevity and projection, especially considering this is a fresh scent.

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Both are very dry, slightly bitter or vegetal, aka perfect for hot, humid hell "orz Furthermore, I think I just don't really vibe with citruses. As much as I enjoy Penhaligon's Matthew, it's nowhere as refreshing as the two Thomas Kosmala scents. Considering the price of Penhaligon's portrait series, and my weird preference of only really wanting one scent per "line", I plan on purchasing full bottle(s) of one or both of the Tonics in lieu of Matthew. 

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On a completely different spectrum of scents, I definitely did not enjoy Akro Night ;o; It is suppose to smell like bodies after sex and I have to say, the opening is too accurate 😂 it's a powdery floral and sweat. I'm really not a fan of the sweaty smell (the cumin note) so this is not for me. But objectively I'm very impressed.

are

FINALLY! The confession we've all been waiting 61 chapters for in It's a Good Day to be a Dog.

To celebrate, here are two screenshots of blushing Seon looking adorable, I feel low-key creepy.

Observant folks will realize at the left screenshot was captured more than half a year ago. I've waited so long ;o;

cryptic signs

I forget the occasion but I looped this song for a couple of days.

opal

I finally went to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences over the weekend and ogled the gemstone exhibits. They sure are pretty. But at the same time, I can't help but feel that it is utterly absurd that we've placed so much values on shiny rocks. And that such vast inequalities are needed to support art (may not be an accurate statement today, but it sure is true in ancient times).

gust

I'm way overdue for a June monthly review but did (and does) not feel like writing about anything until I came across Style Bee's latest post on maintaining her personal style. It's perfectly timed with the summer sales that are going on everywhere.

To begin, I'm currently on track for my goal of 10 or less new additions to my wardrobe, so far this year I've bought:

1. Wilfred wool trousers
2. Ance Jensen boots
3. Tevas sandals
4. Everlane sandals
5. Leopard print scarf on taobao

I've been eying tons of dresses, because warm weather and seeing proposal photos of people I know, but haven't pulled the trigger on anything. There's a lot of reasons why I haven't bought anything, namely it's still a want at this point (no wedding invites yet), competing hobbies to spend money on, and analysis paralysis of so many choices. I honestly have really strict criteria for dresses, chiefly that it's gotta be work and casual appropriate, but still find enough that catches my eye. Although I'm the most tempted by Everlane's silk tank dress (my image of it flowing in the wind is perfect), which fits neither work or wedding guest 😂

But to bring the topic back to Style Bee's post and reflecting, the Everlane dress does fit the description of my style that I've previously came up with: simple & luxurious. Perhaps that's why I'm closer to pulling the trigger on this one versus many of the other options. My personal style has stayed remarkably consistent since...undergrad I'd say? That is not to say that I don't have the desire to incorporate other styles, namely ultra feminine / mori-kei / "hoe but make it fashion" (the Everlane dress would show off my pretty bralettes). But typically  the low expected cost-per-wear stops me from making the purchase.

Another tangent regarding the silk dress is that I've realized that if I own more silk items, then they warrant their own load of laundry and I can just machine wash all of them! Although I don't dislike hand washing, it is not as enjoyable as shoe polishing, and would rather offload to the machines.

But alas if it takes me an entire blog post to decide whether I want the dress, then the answer is clearly no.

where are you now

Canadian artist :D

hands & back

You may recall me mentioning Knight Run many years ago (most recently). The official translation of the two prequels finished and didn't continue onto the main episodes, but luckily a scanlations group are now regularly releasing updates.

The latest 3 episodes have been super intense. I was already astounded by the second prequel "A Town Where You Are" compared to "Pray" (which I already already really liked), but man the latest 3 chapters are heavy. Maybe because I've grown up alongside Anne? The feels ;_;

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I've also changed my routine to catching up on all of my followed mangas once a week and it frees up a lot of time on my week days.

MSN

I love my basic sunset photos :D

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Plus a middle of the day shot, in which I can see the limits of my phone camera's resolution :(

crisp

I think I'm approaching the limit of not eating home cooked asian food "orz So tempted to buy some supermarket tomatoes and just make tomato and eggs soup noodles (but no sesame oil ugh!). Meanwhile it's somewhat comforting eating a simple meat sauce pasta, since it's one of the first things that I learned how to cook:

This iteration with a low sauce to meat ratio (accidental, since I ran out of sauce, opps) and some remaining frozen spinach. I do like the drier consistency, also probably more authentic than the sauce-laden pastas that I generally make 😂

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Bonus cute cover with master in the latest Spirit Blade Mountain chapter

haunting you