sandwich

But I did feel motivation to take photos from a recent-ish visit to the Museum of Contemporary Arts! Exhibits are: I am Your Relative (Jeffrey Gibson), Land of Dreams (Shirin Neshat), and Winter (Felix Gonzales-Torres)

...

And look, a mass timber building! I fall on the optimism side of this.

pop

Cooking has largely felt very meh over the past month, evident by the last of photologs (also lacking motivation to post photos of meals out). But this Thai egg salad is great! The kind of light and summery dish I'm craving atm. 

recipe from Serious Eats

Leviathane Wakes

Another large series I've picked up (thanks Roy for the recommendation), apparently I have much trust in my memory tp keep all these stories straight. This one gives me Cowboy Bebop feels, specifically the grittiness, which is as high praise as any. The plot is also super grand, like Knight Run (which I remember very little of the enormous cast of characters, much like Tower of God opps), so I'm looking forward to reading the subsequent books. 

One quotation to share:

There were children playing on the commons. He thought of them as children, though he remembered thinking of himself as an adult at that age. Fifteen, sixteen years old. They wore OPA armbands. The boys spoke in loud, angry voices about tyranny and freedom. The girls watched the boys strut. The ancient, animal story, the same whether it was on a spinning rock surrounded by hard vacuum or the stamp-sized chimpanzee preserves on Earth. Even in the Belt, youth brought invulnerability, immortality, the unshakable conviction that for you, things would be different. The laws of physics would cut you a break, the missiles would never hit, the air would never hiss out into nothing. Maybe for other people, the patched-together fighting ships of the OPA, the water haulers, the Martian gunships, the Scopuli, the Canterbury, the Donnager, the hundred other ships that had died in small actions since the system had turned itself into a battlefield- but not you. And when youth was lucky enough to survive its optimism, all Miller had left was a little fear, a little envy, and the overwhelming sense of life's fragility.

Miller is definitely my favourite character.  

point

Stress shopping is so real but at least I make good purchases? Finally got Coperni's extension skirt this time around, on a slight sale too but still a lot to spend on a skirt. But at least I get beautifully finished seams! I admired the seams for a good bit. 

This is replacing my black pleated skirt, which I liked for the school-girl look but something about quarantine ending (and other life events that transpired in the first half of this year) is changing my preferences for clothes. For one I feel older, and that's translating to less interest in "cute" vibes. For another I feel more comfortable in my body, and that's translating into desiring more unique pieces and less concern about cohesion. And perhaps the biggest change is no longer going into the office, so my previous self-imposed constraint of clothes being appropriate for both work & time off is gone. Most of my primarily office clothes was also bought when I had less money, so quality is pretty meh (eg. Everlane silk blouse) and after years of wear does not inspire much desire. All this is to say exciting and expensive changes to the closet!

burns

Another memorial photo actually...my trusty little Zoji thermos of 7 years finally passed. It's been succeeded by a much bigger Stanley thermos. Am appreciating the larger capacity, but you will be missed.

skincare routine: quarantine

 Oh boy its been a while since I did a last update, but honestly there's not been too much change. 

This is going to be a bit of a memorial photo since in those Hada Labo bottles are the last refills I have and I'm been stubborn about not wanting to purchase new bottles. But alas most Japanese-based shops are still (???) not shipping to Canada and NA-based shops dont stock the refills -_- We'll see how long I continue being stubborn, since I might want to change to using the premium version for the tranexamic acid. Currently in a painful adjustment period from a new IUD, lots of hormonal acne with the PIH and PIE.

mt gulg

Oh boy do I not like the character animation of sge's skills. The spell effects are pretty cool, but the character motions make for pretty boring posing. Alas I tried, and the location is a good match for my glam!

step

A photo from a while back where I was in a super strange...and rare mood...of extraversion and stayed out late at a board game meet-up with Jae. Strange mood accompanied with not feeling hungry at midnight despite eating my previous meal at 2pm, and having seemingly clear capability to think at 3am but that's probably an illusion, I wonder if this is some amazingly effective defense mechanism. 

Not captured is the cool humid air. 

polish

Stress eating and shopping has definitely been a thing. Finally got over my years long mental block of buying jewelry and giving into it a little too enthusiastically during the ssense sale. Do very much love the ear cuffs, ring set, and super shiny bracelet (tho its been challenging to find other 22k gold - solid or not to match). 

kelesis

Finally had a chance to redo the screenshots for my whm glam in Amaurot, and discovered a few amazing vantage points. The designers are clearly proud of the modelling for Amaurot and want the players to admire their work uwu

Also assize is truly my favourite whm skill, the character motion for it is great too.

Toxic Positivity

Opps forgot that I had some quotations to post from this book. Overall I don't feel very strongly about the book, it is validating tho. 

Gratitude, like happiness, has become a moral obligation that we must fulfill. Without it, our culture tells us, you're probably doomed to a life of sadness and loneliness. Every moment demands the presence of gratitude and its exhausting. 

Emotions are something that all humans experience, but we don't all experience them in the same way. Many people use the terms "feeling" and "emotion" interchangeably; they're not the same thing. 

• An emotion is a physiological experience (like a rapid heartbeat or difficulty breathing) that gives you information about the world. It's a complex reaction pattern that is determined by the significance of the event.
• A feeling is your conscious awareness of the emotion itself.

Feelings are experienced consciously, while emotions manifest either consciously or subconsciously. With emotional education and practice, some people are able to experience an emotion and give it a name or a label, making it a feeling that they're able to understand and experience.

phoinix

Oooooof am finally done the current raid tier \o/ Been so long since I made this dnc glam in anticipation of this occasion!

Marry Him

Hmm not sure how I feel about this book overall, the tone feels fairly patronizing but I do like several points that it makes:

Love is timing, a verb and a noun

In his book Alone Together, Amato and his cowriter talk about the difference between today’s marriages, which are more individualistic, and the pre-1970s marriages, which he calls "companionate marriages, where you looked for a compatible and reliable partner to help you achieve mutual life goals. "Cooperative teamwork was the definition of a good marriage," Amato said. But now the focus has shifted to personal satisfaction through the marital relationship itself.

"One school of thought is, the increased divorce rate is because our culture became more individualistic and our expectations for marriage changed- it became a therapeutic relationship instead of a practical relationship.

the darker

Ok this is my favourite gpose location, the way the candle lights illuminate the rocky background (the texture!) works so well with most battle effects. Also I don't need to mess around lighting for way too long to bring out dimensionality. 

I might just rotate these as my wallpaper for a while.

denab

But ya know putting together glams both in game and irl (and watching fashion videos) has been a fairly consistent stream of joy in an otherwise fairly...challenging few months? 

Part 2 of AST relic glam:

sohr khai

Yeah my main motivation for playing ff currently is definitely only glams LOL

This one for my AST's HW relic is probably the most different from the style I go for. Below is part 1.