cone

I am still alive, barely there energy level wise. 

Been procrastinating on posting lots of food photos, including from my trip to Vancouver and Seattle. This is the best I can do:

litany

I just noticed how beautiful the E10 arena is, very unfortunate it's (rather raids and trials as a whole) is not available in explorer mode.

shadar-kai

I went to Anime North few weekends ago, it was my second time attending and first time staying for the whole weekend. The good: I didn't spend too much money on merch (since prints were off-limit as we ran out of wall space). the bad: I feel so old in terms of lack of energy ahaha. 

I did score a great deal on 3 dice via pay-what-you-roll, but I made a die as well! We've been interested in dice making for a bit and thought doing a workshop was a good way to see if we want to commit to the hobby. The first die, made without a pressure pot, is pretty ugly with all the bubbles rip. Polishing it by hand is also very time consuming. But hey now I have a die in Lethe's theme!

lilith

I spent about 3 weeks catching up to Circle of Inevitability, the second book in LotM trilogy. Feels good to binge this series, enjoying the cast of characters and their antics. It's rough recognizing characters names but not actually remember what they did in the first book, spent a while reviewing the wiki afterwards. 

This is to set up the fact that I have now become an Planter, praise be The Source of Life and The Mother of All Things.

This is one of the first blooms on our balcony trellis. We also planted basil, dill and chives, with plans for some strawberries (and others) in 2 more planter boxes. 

koji

Warmer weather eats, have yet to eat on a patio tho :(

• First gelato of the season at Mizzica
• Filipino breakfast for dinner with microwave garlic chips
• The chonkiest sandwich at Grandma Loves You
• The most savory and juicy chicken at Richmond Station, spring in a dish
• Finally trying Gus Taco now that they opened at The Well

Next food update probably when I get the first bingsu of the season.

dotty

Ever since I switched to a windows laptop and can't airdrop photos from my phone to computer, I've been really procrastinating on posting to the blog. Here are some very belated Usagi Shima screenshots of my finished island. It's a pretty cozy idle game, buns be cute.

I had the intent of stitching the screenshots together, but too painful without photoshop. When am I going to start getting the cloud subscription...

pendant

I came across an amazing comic from the ascians (mainly ES) perspective during the sundering and it brought up too much Shadowbringer feels. So here is Kiku also processing emotions in her crystarium inn room:

capsule

A very bad photo of a very good dish, in fact I think this is one of the best dishes I ever made. Got the elusive wok-hei and crisp-tender texture in a napa cabbage stir dry. All it took was smoke bombing the house by preheating the pan for like 30min and making sure there is absolutely no water at all on the cabbage. The joys of trying to overcome a low power home stove ;o; 

pied

Did part 2 of my seasonal closet switchover today, including cleaning my winter boots. Year 1 of the RM Williams with Year 10 of the Crockett & Jones.

external affairs

Do I need 3 different versions of Kiku looking tired? Yes because I can't pick between the shaders (higher contrast, warm, cool) but also its the most relatable she's been. 

utopia

Trying to recreate my commission from starstray was somewhat successful. Amaurot has the worst lighting "orz

Did another one for my only other whm glam:

lavender

More getting use to Anamnesis and (new) Ktisis posing controls, featuring looking away from camera:

kelesis

 

Getting this pose to work taught me the lesson that it's way easier to start with animations in game and rotate/move limbs than to use a downloaded pose and try to fix the couple of weird nodes "orz

highland potting fence

I still can't wait for the 7.0 graphics update so my wisteria trees will look gorgeous. Am also super ready for the housing item increase, prayge for enough slots to make a wine/jazz bar in my basement.

diadema

I procrastinated so hard on getting anamnesis, I can finally eat grapes now. 

Moving limbs is hard tho

star anise

Updated egg cooking parameters for soy marinated eggs:

• Boil water per usual, add eggs only after water is vigorously boiling
• 6 mins gets you firm whites and liquid yolk
• Into ice bath, the temperature shock also really helps with peeling
• Overnight marinade (I just use 鹵水)
• Profit 

I would still do 6:30 for just set yolks if I'm eating the eggs boiled. 

peel

Hair is one area of my appearance that's had minimal continuous improvement, mostly because I don't want to throw additional time / effort into my daily routine for it. I've not changed anything aside from adding in a hyaluronic acid serum for my scalp (drastically reduced flakes) and changing up my washing & drying routine (drying before applying conditioner and letting hair air dry before applying oil then heat drying). 

But now I'm forced to change since my favourite shampoo (and its corresponding conditioner) has been discontinued by Aveda. Contrary to my expectations, my current litres still haven't ran out and I continue to dread the day that it finally does. Unfortunately the new product line that directly replaced this one doesn't give my hair the same experience / effect. So I've been looking for:

• Has litre size or refill packs
• Shampoo won't leave my hair feeling crunchy 
• Preferably herbal smell 
• Preferably locally available 

Surprisingly the first criteria eliminates like 90% of all choices. I do see other categories of cosmetics adding more and more refillable packaging, hopefully this hits mainstream sooner. But the remaining 10% are generally the more expensive options, and so I've spent about $100 on 3 sets of samples which is ouch. Will report back maybe at the end of the year and see if I found a new favourite.

一刀刀的割下所有記憶的畫面

Another work week done, another song that carried me through it:

But also a Tablo song I can sing?? I appreciate the official music video having simplified Chinese, but guess I better learn the traditional characters if I want to read the lyrics off during karaoke.

I've been losin' it
Feelin' low and high
'Cause I'm down all-day
But I'm up all night
落了空
獨自一人受
那是多麼痛

I'm all alone
Feelin' overdosed, singin' love songs
Runnin' out of lies
Runnin' out of time
When all I wanted was to run to you, girl
Run into your arms
傷太重
獨自一人受
那是多麼痛
早就註定
一敗塗地
求求你, baby

We dreamed about fancy houses
Thought we had at least a thousand years
Memories we got, they call us
And now they're all drowned out by tears
Help me
這根本沒道理


Baby, please don't let go
怎麼都變了
若選擇要切割
Then just take it slow
一刀刀的割下所有記憶的畫面, oh, girl
如果已走到了最後的分岔路口
If you wanna leave, baby, I'll let you go
該走就讓你走

Your memories got me so sick
那清晰的記憶重演
But I'd do it again, you were my best friend
Evеn bad times, they werе worth it
那些從前
那些大半夜
閑晃的街
都帶著你的甜
Late-night drives, hands up high
Speakers bumpin' lofi

We dreamed about fancy houses
Thought we had at least a thousand years
Memories we got, they call us
And now they're all drowned out by tears
Help me
這根本沒道理


Baby, please don't let go
怎麼都變了
若選擇要切割
Then just take it slow
一刀刀的割下所有記憶的畫面, oh, girl
如果已走到了最後的分岔路口
If you wanna leave, baby, I'll let you go
該走就讓你走

I'll miss you
Miss you for a thousand years
I'll miss you
Miss you for a thousand years
I'll miss you
Miss you for a thousand years
I'll love you
Love you for a thousand years
Love you for a thousand years
Love you for a thousand years

I'll be with you
With you for a thousand years

Mima of the Forest

I'm making a generalization here, but there's a way that some korean web comics that just perfectly depicts the raw feeling of loss. It's not like Murakami who wraps the sensation in whimsy that helps the reader contemplates the feeling. It just lets the loss take up the whole room. 

Like Muse on Fame in the previous post, and like whichever this series is.

So I don't make the mistake of not mentioning the series like before, this is the last chapter of Mima of the Forest.

arcadia

I thought the first arc of Muse on Fame hits hard, but oh boy Director Cheon's backstory is a sucker punch.