Ni No Kuni

Finished the main storyline! Such a fantastic game *u*
minor spoilers below

all images via. Too many awesome fanart to choose from. Scrolled through the entire archive and squealed whenever a toko image came up xD They're the most adorable bundles on exp ever. Like 3x the final boss' and even more than the optional final boss.

Plot: tbh I found the ending weak compared to the beginning/middle. They told the backstory of the main bad guys too late for me to feel much emotion for them. But Swaine and Marcassion's story, omg, so touching. And also little Alicia with Lucien, adorable. To tie in with characters, Drippy is fantastic. His accent (which is Welsh from the forums that I've read) is hilarious, and is always doing silly things especially when a serious cutscene happens.

Details: this is where the game really stands out to me, well other than the amazing design by Ghibli. So much care has been placed even in the tiniest of things, for example:

• Reflections and shadows sync with your movement perfectly
• Characters look miserably cold when you first step onto Winter Ilse, and is soon given a proper set of clothing
• Footprints appear in the snow when you're walking around, water splashes when you across streams

Gameplay: lots of good and some bad

• AI: gosh this was frustrating. The ai does not do a good job of controlling party members. They spam too much skills, and not even the useful ones either. "Hey this monster is weak to storm but lets use a light spell that cost 30mp!" MP is preeeecious.
• Traveling: tengri the dragon is like chocobos but so much better. It was annoying having to walk between locations, which was always far away from each other, in early game. But once you get the travel spell and the dragon, moving around becomes a breeze. Thankfully, because most of the late to postgame quests involve a lot of different locations.
• Familiar system: aka gotta catch 'em all. Having 3 familiars per character allows greater flexibility when party building. For someone who's slightly obsessed with planning, this resulted in spending a week worth of evenings reading up on the "best" combinations. But choosing the best doens't really matter since you can just as easily beat the game using the ones that you like (aka look pretty). It was frustrating at times trying to catch the more elusive familiars, but on the plus side I didn't have to do much additional grinding.
• Quests: hurray for the sidequests! Think Ni no Kuni pulled this off really well. In addition to the usual hunt-this or gather-these, there's the give-and-take-hearts and other elaborate quests (mostly postgame). All of the dialog are interesting to read (oh the puns, so much puns in the text), and most importantly, the random spells that you get are actually put to use in the quests. 

Art and Music: it's studio ghibli, enough said haha. Disappointed at the lack of cell shaded cutscenes though :( There's only like 5 in the entire game boohoo. However you are treated to their gorgeous watercolour stills near endgame and in the credits.

Apparently the watercolours were included in the LE wizard's edition, which I so regret not buying. Would have loved a physical Wizard's Companion ;__; Now they're going for like $200 on ebay wahhh.

Debating whether to platinum this or not. Completing alchemy and taming 250 familiars is a giant pain "orz

Oh and here's my main familiar, a pirate kitty! :D

Quite OP with radiant blade (heals % of damage dealt) and restoration cloak (heals % damage received).

jajaja

Hey look it's a pepper! :D

Mother Night

Vonnegut's books are always so good. Can't seem to pick a favourite out of the ones I've read, I'm always biased towards the one I've most recently read. In this case, it's Mother Night.

Synopsis from Amazon:

Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.

That is pretty much spot on, how Campbell views his "crimes" is with acknowledgement that he has done wrong, but doesn't feel guilty about committing them.

For example, his feelings on countries fighting each other:

Its impossible for me to get emotional about it, because real estate doesn't interest me. Its no doubt a great flaw in my personality, but i cant think in terms of boundaries. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies. I cant believe that they mark the end or the beginning of anything of real concern to a human soul. Virtues and vices, pleasure and pain cross boundaries at will.

which leads him to say:

Oh, God - the lives people try to lead.
Oh God, - what a world they try to lead them in!

His neighbour, a doctor, says to him when he complains of a headache:

It isnt broken and its filled with a heartbreakingly clear understanding of the self and the world.

Not sure how to tie this in with the other quotations, but:

Espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible 

Highly suggest you all to read something by Vonnegut :D It's such good humor, good dark humor. C'mon, any book that opens like this in the introduction is bound to be good:

We are what we pretend yo be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be

Oh and the ending, on one hand you see it coming, but then again, you don't expect it either. Like I knew it couldn't end any other way, but how it actually happens. I finished reading it on the subway, and just giggled in my seat.

Wild

Housing is almost settled "orz
Exchange also almost settled "orz

Regardless, Wild is a such an awesome book.

Review via Amazon:

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Picked this up after reading her collection of advice Tiny Beautiful Things, it's just as good and honest and touching and great at tugging at your heart. Reading the book seems like the author is the voice in your head speaking directly to you, and you experience the all of the raw emotions that she did on the trail.

For some reason I've only ever read fiction in a haste (hurray for finishing the book on the day it was due back at the library), so I rarely take down any quotations myself. That's where google comes in (y)

The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so profound to me that summer—and yet also, like most things, so very simple—was how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing I least wanted to do. How there was no escape or denial. No numbing it down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay. As I clung to the chaparral that day, attempting to patch up my bleeding finger, terrified by every sound that the bull was coming back, I considered my options. There were only two and they were essentially the same. I could go back in the direction I had come from, or I could go forward in the direction I intended to go

God is not a granter of wishes. God is a ruthless bitch.

The universe, I'd learned, was never, ever kidding. It would take whatever it wanted and it would never give it back.

I giggled. This was her response to losing one of her hiking boots down the slope of the mountain.

What if I forgave myself? I thought. What if I forgave myself even though I'd done something I shouldn't have? What if I was a liar and a cheat and there was no excuse for what I'd done other than because it was what I wanted and needed to do? What if I was sorry, but if I could go back in time I wouldn't do anything differently than I had done? What if I'd actually wanted to fuck every one of those men? What if heroin taught me something? What if yes was the right answer instead of no? What if what made me do all those things everyone thought I shouldn't have done was what also had got me here? What if I was never redeemed? What if I already was?” 

which can be summarized in

Maybe that was okay.

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Time to move forward with the reading list:

mixing

At the very least, I'll live on fried rice and cake next year. Cooking takes such a long time "orz

Sorry for the terrible white balance "orz Lemon cake via.

summerland

Rainy days are not nice, rainy nights are fantastic though.

The warm glow of the street lamps so nicely contrasts with the otherwise moody scene. I tried very hard to come up with a colour to describe the rest of the scene, something like a deep, almost black blue decreasing in saturation as you move upwards. I tried.
And the sound of the rain hitting the window pane is like a lullaby.

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In other news, vegetables are flowering!

Pepper on the left, and tomato on the right. I'm very surprised, thought the plants would grow bigger before flowering. Eagerly awaiting the bounty :D

Everlane Silk Blouse

After much waiting, my silk blouse finally arrived in the mail! Mine is a small rounded collar in blush/black, which is all sold out at the moment.

 

It's really wrinkled from the mail haha. I actually expected better packaging, but to their credit packing is pain in larger volumes (I know from helping out at Loose Button haha) and shipping takes  a toll.

Anyhow, the blouse is 100% silk and definitely feels like it. Very soft and comfortable to wear. The fit is loose in the body, so I prefer to tuck it into bottoms so it's more structured. I'm ~166cm and the length and shoulder is perfect. Unfortunately it is slightly sheer, but nothing a nude bra can't solve. Lastly really loving the rounded collar and the contrast, black placket, it's the details that make it stand out against other silk shirts.

Poor quality photo, but likely more helpful than the entire previous paragraph.