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Good evening! I took a break from doing some art-related activities because I had to steer my focus of not straying away from being physically active. I really wish I could complete everything in one day: getting most of my place organized, do some creative art, further my play in a video game and complete my workout reps...AND I realized that's not always possible since I have certain priorities on a daily basis. Perhaps, I need to manage my time better *shrugs*. At least, I'm not skipping most of my workouts.

My mom Facetimed me randomly over the week just to check on my well-being, seems like she's doing well for herself. I was able to see my grandma (due to dementia, she probably no longer remembers the adult version of me), my uncle (who is starting to look like my belated grandpa) and his wife through the video-call. I was hoping she would text me before hand and let me know she was hanging out with relatives because my hands were full as I was fixing breakfast under a dreadful kitchen lighting. I was in my PJs, with unkempt hair.  At least give me a bit of time to primp up a bit! lol   My relatives couldn't quite see me through the screen and were confused by seeing just my kitchen ceiling lights and parts of my arm through the phone. I know my dad texted me a couple of weeks ago that they're having a family reunion and tried inviting Bern and I to a BBQ party. Once again, as usual, I had to pass it up because:

1. fuel prices are insane, which means a road trip would be expensive. Hopefully this bullet train project gets done & becomes accessible for all .
2. I want to see my relatives, but I can't be in crowded environments when I'm trying to keep my physical health up.
3. Bern can't miss too much work.
I hope it doesn't stay like this forever.

Bern and I picked up some peaches & nectarines from a farmers market-- for pies! I think I'll make a regular pie as opposed to a cobbler, because it will sit better as leftovers for just the two of us to eat.

Gunsmith Cats youtube screencap gun smith cats
 
I also have been watching Gunsmith Cats (recorded from the SYFY channel), since I enjoy going through 80s/90s animations & old commercials.  Similar to a lot of Anglophonic media, there's a major antagonist of the series was portrayed in a super stereotypical, eye-rolling type of manner X___X.  I'm well aware that the characters and the setting of the series are basically mimicked after American action tv & movies, so I get where they were going with this. Despite that bit, it's pretty entertaining. I do like the character designs of the lead characters in the show and the way they captured the likeness of Chicago and the area surrounding it. I just need to finish one episode! I didn't know SYFY channel aired anime series, this was during a time when I was got into Aeon Flux or Liquid Television on Mtv.
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Another warm day again (90 degrees Fahrenheit)! Bern and I waited around sunset to do our outdoor stroll. Going out after 6pm felt very niiiice because the temperature dropped ten degrees, with a little bit of a light breeze. I think anywhere around 75 degrees to 80 degrees Fahrenheit is my ideal range for summer. I'm a wuss when it comes to extreme heat-- I wouldn't be doing much of anything. It was a golden hour during our stroll-- there were a lot of walkers, friendly dogs and cyclists, especially on a weeknight!

grandma pizza
 
After that, Bern and I picked up our pizza from a local place-- which means it was movie night for us. We ordered a Grandma-style pizza. As usual, it was scrumptious! pizza eating person Because our group of friends raved over Godzilla Minus One, we ended up watching it. Godzilla Minus One is indeed a well-made movie, our friends were right! I'm so used to the cartoony/ campy mascot versions of the monster; this film was a good reminder that Godzilla from this universe is completely cruel. Objectively terrifying. I know this is typical of non-Hollywood media in general, but I appreciate when character-friends of a protagonist does not question their experiences of "unusual" sightings-- they tend to believe the protagonist, even if one of them was just skeptical for just a second..so, it's refreshing to see! It's been awhile since I watched a good blockbuster movie, the pacing reminds me of Jaws. I highly recommend if you're into monster films with some decent drama between the characters.

Also, here are some drawings I did from the past weeks:

Perona fanart from One Piece
 
Perona fanart from One Piece. She's just so fun to draw. I love drawing super girly princess-like characters.

 
Nintendo Direct Fanart

 
My semi-cursed reaction drawing of the Nintendo Direct announcement. I'm looking forward to Echoes of Wisdom and Dragon Quest(RIP Toriyama) reboot.



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I had no idea that Nintendo Direct happened today! I opened up as Discord chat seeing people posting youtube links to the game trailers. Bern and I have this tradition of getting up early and watching them together. I guess we have been so preoccupied that Bern has forgotten to tell me about it. It's very likely that I may not even get to any of these games for quite awhile, but I am excited to see what kind of games developers came up with. There were a handful of games that I did not expect to get released. pikachu decome happy Here are my reactions:


Dragon Quest 3 Screenshot

Dragon Quest 3 remake HD-2D

Oooooh, a Dragon Quest 3 remake! I don't have any way of connecting super old games to an older tv at the moment, so this will be convenient way for me to enjoy this game in a remake form.


Dragon Quest complete screen cap

Ahhhhhhh! Looks like we'll be getting 1 & 2 as well! my melody happy



I think Bern might like this game, since he's a big Mario fan. He'll update me his reactions and talk more about it once he gets home.


Hello Kitty Island Adventure
 
I could see my ten year old self really loving this. I noticed there are some adventure plays & house decoration elements, like in Animal Crossing. I'm not sure how the game play is.... It might be okay! Otherwise, the graphics looks stinkin' cute. I probably might play this around my sister.

looney tunes sports nintendo switch

I was NOT expecting a sports game with Looney Tunes, just like how I didn't expect that I would be Bugs Bunny Castle on the gameboy. As soon as I saw Lola Bunny, I cackled.  This looks like this could be a fun game, especially revolving around basketball. I do like the physical mechanics for Nintendo Switch Sports- Basketball.


Romancing Saga

Just like with other Square Enix games (Dragon Quest Games, Visions of Mana, & Final Fantasy). I am putting Romancing Saga 2 on my list. The trailer screen caps reminds me of Dragon Quest 11 with the scenery, voice acting, & game play structure, so I hope to give this a try!


Echoes of Wisdom screenshots

Well, I now know that this is their dominant branding when it comes to Zelda title cards: massive landscape shot with a protagonist in a scenery. Zelda is now the protagonist in this game, she looks so Polly-Pocket..so I am looking forward to this


Echoes of Wisdom screen cap
 

 

Her main weapon in this game is a staff that makes "echoes" of furniture, common objects, elements, and enemies. I'm digging her little hoodie cloak.


Metroid Prime 4 screen cap

What?!?! And I was also not expecting this. The trailer for Metroid Prime 4 looks beautiful. For all those Metroid fans who've been waiting-- I am very happy for them.








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Bern and I did a little stroll through a farmers market. It was just a way to get us active in the morning and we happen to stumble on a day when it was the more-eventful type of farmers market-- there were some bootleg Beatles performers. Dogs & people of all ages vibing to an outdoor market with mild weather. Keep in mind, I don't get out very often, and it has been months since we were last at the farmers market. So, a little stroll of culture felt very vibrant to me.


Found a pretty nice outdoor seating place, I looked at their menus, and their foods looks normal & not ridiculously priced. Bern and I are suckers for outdoors-option food places. As usual, I like shopping for plants.

 
 
I spotted some collections of Fleischer cartoons. We did a bit of "window shopping" and I thought this Calico Critters display is super cute. 


Since this is the last month for our cherry season, we bought 1.15 lbs. Compared to last year, they've gotten a bit pricey! In the region that I'm in, I believe we're getting cherry shortages this year. I ended up making mini cherry pies. Probably will be the last time and the only time for cherry pies this year. They're delicious as fruits, just not the most convenient. crying gif




 
I'm happy to find use for these mini Dutch ovens that my parents gifted me for last Christmas. I wish they came in even numbers! Bern and I just split the third piece...I've managed to pry them out smoothly and cut them in half without breaking it apart (yay, to parchment paper & butter solidification from the refrigerator). I ended up using the remainder of the cherry pie filling for no-bake cheesecakes. 
 
Perona

I also been keeping myself busy by just assigning myself to fanart drawings. I drew Shirahoshi for Mermay month & Perona for her birthday. At the moment, I'm working on another Perona drawing...because I'm not loving this one was much.

 

I just finished this yesterday..basically I was in a stream chat when we're all brainstorming some drawing ideas. I decided to draw a Good Burger hunny... because why not?
 
 

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For my Mermay month, I decided to draw Suvannamaccha, a popular folklore throughout most of Asia. You can read more about this character here. I have a bunch of mermaid drawing ideas-- I'm not sure if I'll get through them fast. Anyways, I think I am done with this.
 


suvannamaccha
 
 
I did a bunch of not-family-friendly type of drawings. Honestly, I'm quite proud that I push myself to do so because there are a lot of anatomy studies involved. Sorry, I can't share them here laughing ghost. If you're over 18, take advantage of the sources to study the references.

I also followed a few more of 18+ artist streamers, so I've been learning some new tips and tricks for them.

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My parents are about 380 miles away, which means they're just one little phone call away. Seems like my mom is doing okay...she's still trying to convince Bern and I to move back to our hometown, which is probably not going to happen for awhile, whether or not Bern and I want to make it happen. My sister just got off the phone with her from a separate call, according to Connie, our mom has been feeling a bit lonely. She also tried convincing my sister to move back in (objectively, she probably needs to move back temporarily because her rent has been kind of costly). My sister is superstitious and she thinks there's a ghost in her old bedroom. These were my mom's exact words to her, "She's not here anymore, you can come back now".  I'm not much of a believer, but I think my mom should just hang talismans around, just so my sister feels better about returning home.

I'm sure my brother and my sister-law took our mom out to brunch, I feel like they're good about this kind of stuff.
bunny gif

Other than that, as usual, I've been bottling my feelings all related to the Western hegemony. I'm not going to get into details, but if you're broke like me and you want to start to 'do something about it', I found a link that gets funding through a click that goes towards Palestinians-- so try to incorporate this into your routine. I believe they take one click per day? I also did a bit of social media- cleaning. I've already filtered out keywords pertaining of reality tv celebrities and their exes since March 2020.  ..I'm still trying to find the nicest way to re-explain to Connie that I don't want to hear about them every time she sends me a video clip involving them. I certainly do not want to purchase any of their products. It's hard to get into a lot of guilty pleasure entertainment when my mind is somewhere else. I even blocked a few of my favorite artists, and it's not personal-- what's the point of having your voice get heard if they're not going to use it? The goal is to make sure that they become aware because saving people's lives is a priority.

Anyway, I'll end my post with this drawing I did for a couple weeks ago:

 
boy bear and girl bunny

I've been going through some random Asian bridal pics through Pinterest. So many great poses for drawing inspiration.

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This weekend, Bern and I hung out with our parents-- I think it's been a couple of years since I last saw them in person. We made plans to visit the Huntington Gardens & Library Park, but their tickets sold out. In the past, we were able to purchase tickets without making reservations on a weekend during Spring. We ended up going to a Descanso Gardens instead, it's not as varied as Huntington Gardens, but we were able to see a number of beautiful  flowers. Next time, we just have to make sure to reserve our spot for Huntington's.

descanso

descanso gardens rose

Descanso Gardens descanso gardens
My outfit of the day-- 60s/70s inspired bell sleeved dress with romantic lines. Thanks to my Dad for the photos laughing ghost. I'll do an illustrative drawing later.

ootd

We ended up going to one of the best Thai food restaurants (&reasonably priced, outdoor seating) in Pasadena. I could no longer eat spicy foods, but they got enough things I can order from. I ordered my food like a basic witch. Bern got the pumpkin curry, and it smelled so good...and for my safety, I can't have a bite crying emoticon. It was so fragrant, I could smell fresh basil from his plate.


 
I think overall, despite getting my energy drained out, I had a pretty decent weekend. The weather was sunny, mild temperature and hints of breeze. Bern and I ended our day by resting to a One Piece episode and eating our leftovers.


 

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In the past, I've made complaints about Tiktok being very addicting and unproductive. Sometimes,  along with Twitter, I would doomscroll on my depressive days...and it's because these issues are more of a personal thing and not so much because of the apps I use. However, Tiktok is the only social media app that I find useful when it comes to food recipes, musical artists, art clips, local businesses, public resources, housing advices, and current events that are not from the Global North perspectives. The idea behind the ban is pretty concerning. It's also an app that I find the most entertaining too...I'm also going to miss some of the mindless content, things that are similar to Ratatouille musical or Appalachian Shakespheare-- it would be impossible to do these type of interactive trends over Instagram reels. There are many creators who rely on the TikTok algorithm to boost their personal businesses, and having an app banned can strip them away financially. The reasoning behind the ban isn't surprising and it makes me feel disgusted thinking about it. If it actually happens, I will be very upset for all of my favorite content creators. Just in case, I'll have to make sure I follow all of my favorite creators' socials.

Anyway, so far this week for a belated Songkran celebration, I've been having stir-fry glass noodles (cha mee suor), lemongrass chicken breasts, & grilled corn with coconut milk (not pictured). We had one warm day this week and I ended up having strawberry mango smoothie mixed with coconut juice...it was quite refreshing.

strawberry mango coconut smoothie cambodian stiry fry glass noodles




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It's Songkran week! Happy New Year to anyone who celebrates/partakes in Buddhist holidays. So far, it's been a rainy weekend-- I guess that's perfect for a water festival celebration, after all, having rain feels purifying. I sent my parents a text wishing them well since there's not a whole lot I can do to celebrate this weekend, especially with the rain and the temperature being 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Bern and I thought about getting some grubs at Wat Thai in North Hollywood, but I think would rather go on a different weekend.

rainy day

I'm not upset that my weekend has been cold and wet. We do need rain and it provides deep greens to our scenery. I know there will be plenty of sunny days and mild temperature later this week. I love scenic drives on rainy days. 

Bern and I ended up doing errands-- mostly groceries. To celebrate, I plan on making some of my childhood favorites for this week-- I'll do my best to update!




 

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This week has been a mixture of rain, sunny, warm and cold. Since April just started, I'm thinking of switching out my Valentine decors for a bunch of rabbit stuff... I don't know, I love my Valentine-related displays. Bern and I didn't do a whole lot for our Easter Weekend or April's Fool Day. Neither of us grew up religious (all of our childhood stuff were just cultural), and we're both way too emotionally exhausted to pull creative pranks towards our friends. Since we can't be around a lot of unmasked people, we did end up having a quiet outing after an hour of errands. We did some window shopping, people-watching, strolling & getting lunch from a windows-only food joint. There were so many thrift stores around-- we didn't do any actual shopping, it's just nice seeing them around. Sometimes we just like having a change of scenery.


I liked that they had a sticker machine in front of a second-hand shop. I normally don't see a whole lot of anime-related stuff on this street. The artwork (picture on the right) touches my heart. Unfortunately, I don't think very many people are health-conscious at the moment as they were in the year 2020 spinning bear



Just appreciating the store lettering for Mystic Museum & Halloween Town.

teriyaki bowl

Bern and I ended up getting teriyaki bowls at one of those windows-only & outdoors-only seating places.
 
So that was pretty much our highlight of the week!

Other than that, I've binged to 49 episodes of Arsenal Military Academy. I like to describe the plot line similar to Mulan's story, a girl who cuts her hair and disguises herself as a young man to an all boys military school but set in early 20th Century (1910s-1920s). Like a lot of period C-dramas, there's usually a combination of comedy, action, & romance. The costumes aren't a hundred percent historically accurate (very common with films in general), but it looks as if the stylist department really had loads of fun. They really did took the creative liberties to make the costumes & makeup look nice. Besides the lead character, there are a handful of other strong women characters (one being the boss villain of the series), loads of teamwork and character development. Most of the supporting side characters were likable to watch. Of course a lot of gun wielders, since the series involves 1910s assassins, but at the same time, you'll still find some martial arts scenes-- they're pretty sick af. Just make sure to watch the series on Viki instead of Youtube because not all of the episodes are available.


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I've been super preoccupied lately. Scheduling phone calls, house maintenance, interactions, daily exercises, and preparations for Bern's birthday. I spent some time baking cake layers (I did it a week before) and took the whole day to assemble buttercream, cake layers, curd, and ganache together. I crafted the fondant cake toppers the night before the assembling. Just like last year, Bern likes the cute clown stuff, so I kept it in that theme. Last year, I used blood orange for my curd & buttercream, this time, I used regular oranges... the taste isn't that much different. Still good, nevertheless. A friend gifted us a pizza delivery, so that made our day immensely....and saved us money for takeout orders since the inflation on food has been quite ridiculous. Bern requested the whole day off from work-- I was just happy to be able to spend my time with him. pikachu heart

clown cake birthday decoration

clow cake in the dark cake slice

I haven't been able to play any video games this week, except for the Princess Peach demo. So far, I like it-- it feels like most of the newer Kirby games I've played. Princess Peach looked super dashing in her swordsman costume! I think the game play is someone what straight forward, like with a lot of Nintendo games. The graphics are charmingly vivid to look at because it's quite colorful. I wouldn't mind having a Princess Peach game in my collection, but I want to wait because I still have sooo many other games I want to finish up first. 

My sister Cony stopped by to drop off some gifts for Bern and I. My dad gifted Bern a bunch of good quality pants that no longer fits him-- they're old Levi's jeans and cargo pants. Bern mostly wear shorts because the weather here tends to be mild year round, I'm sure the long pants will be useful on cooler days. He even packed some sewing templates for me-- I guess my mom must have told him that I've been experimenting with the sewing machine. Cony got us a few trinkets that were meant to be dropped off during the holidays. I was in no rush to get them because I live quite far from her place and I told her to drop by anytime when it's the most convenient for her. We basically caught up on things. I told her that I have another "scan test" (a CAT scan)  coming up and that I can't be too sure if I will be completely cleared in the current condition that I'm in. I learned that my sister is now in a relationship with someone who she feels positive about, the last person she was with wasn't a very nice person-- I felt bad that she was dealing with his ill-behavior  . At least from what she has been telling me, I'm happy that her current boyfriend treats her well. My family actually met him, my mom even mentioned his name on the phone--- sounds like a green flag! happy pikachu

I've been meaning to post this, but I finished my Goku & ChiChi drawing awhile back, so I'll just end my post with my drawing here:

Goku and Chi Chi




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I just finished Shall We Dance (1996) this past week. It's a pretty light-hearted comedic film about a salary man who was trapped in a monotonous rut until he encounters a beautiful woman (ballroom dance teacher) at a window of a building as he was heading home in a train, he sees her by the window pretty often. One day, he skipped his path to a train station and ended up visiting the building by signing himself to the dance courses. After a few dance classes, he asked her out to dinner-- she rejected him by telling him that she prefers not to go out with her students (big yikes, because he's a married man with a teenage daughter). She takes dancing seriously and reminded him that the dance studio is to not be treated like a "disco". This has been a common occurrences for her and these are the type of students don't stick around dancing for too long, because they were more interested in her than the dance lessons. The MC continued to show up to the dance courses because he wanted to prove to the dance instructor that he's not that type of person.....Good thing is, he actually later then realized that he fell in love with ballroom dancing and even became friends with his classmates! One of his classmates happens to be his co-worker and they both agreed to keep their hobby a secret from their work life, the main character also kept his hobby a secret from his family. I don't think the director did enough to show the consequences or the reparations between the main character and his spouse ..it is almost as if they romanticized the main character's intent to commit adultery?

Otherwise, it was a decent film to watch! They did a charming job showcasing a shy, nearly mid-aged man picking up a new hobby, not being particularly great at it first, but does become a good dancer (mainly waltz style) as weeks passes by-- the most important part is that he truly enjoys it, dancing made him happy. The sight of watching his mid-aged classmates encouraging each other to dance better and see them all attending competitions together was very cute. ..They all felt like a team and each of his friends got different strengths in different dance styles.

This movie makes me think of hobbies in general and that one can never be too old, too this, or too that to get into a new interest. This isn't anything new, there have been countless of research that having hobbies is a great way to keep your brain strong!
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I'm sure most of y'all heard the news-- Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, has recently passed away during the year of the dragon. His art style for game art is one of the reasons why I got into Jrpgs-- I liked how he's not afraid to draw cute characters and give them cartoon-like features. I also noticed that he oftehn wrote characters that grows, gets married and have kids-- and their story would just continue and their kids would become the main characters of the medium! I could  be over-analyzing this, but seeing how he drew cute babies doing natural baby things and watching them grown overtime, I truly believed Toriyama embraced his parenthood.

Because I grew up watching the censored version of Dragon Ball on WB, I ended up rewatching it over the first two years of the pandemic. It was a completely different experience and its even better watching the series in its original form with proper context. So I love the series even more as an adult.  Just looking at this art inspires me to illustrate objects in a different way.  He's the master of drawing cute, roundish vehicles-- and I'm still doing my best to study his style because I love his take on vehicles.

I'm sure he have made some drawing/writing choices that were questionable...I don't perceive him to be a holy saint in any way, but I've connected with most of my friends from middle/high school because of Dragon Ball. I remembered gifting them print outs of Trunks and Vegeta to decorate on their binders.  Even in my adult work life, I've bonded with co-workers who are Dragon Ball fans. I even got relatives who've watched a lot of wuxia series, and we would gather around the television to watch DB.


Here's my fan art for Dragon Ball...its a WIP.  RIP Mr. Toriyama. Thanks for inspiring me to think outside the box when it comes to illustrations. 

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Well today, I spotted a giant cockroach in my kitchen..I basically screamed and almost cried. The thing is, I lived next to a creek, I'm actually used to seeing all kinds of bugs: daddy long legs, spiders, and splinter bugs... I do not react when they're around because usually they're always in their corner minding their own business. With cockroaches, I really loathe them...especially with the one I spotted this afternoon, ewwww. I think it was almost as big as a credit card in terms of length and the width of three Crayola markers lined together.  I found a bag and placed the opening of the bag near it as it slowly crawled into the opening-- I quickly folded the opening of the bag and took it outside. Maybe a trash panda will get a hold of it.

From now on, I will have to be extra vigilant with keeping my kitchen clean. All food scraps will just go into the freezer. I had to rewash my dishes because it was crawling around the dish rack. ;__;

After doing a full kitchen cleaning, I decided to call my mom just to check up on my parents. The last I Facetimed my mom, I could sensed her disappointment when I told her that I won't be able to attend my cousin's wedding. She understood where I was coming from and she knows that my health is a priority. I'd love to reconnect with my family members, it's just that I know that the wedding venue won't be an outdoor place, there will certainly be a lot of people, and I can't expect my relatives to make any accommodations for those who can't afford to get sick.

I can also sense my mom's nervousness every time I bring up my tests/ body scans... just to be sure that I don't have any "suspicious" cells left after a treatment I had a couple years back. I told her that Bern and I will be extending our lease in our Los Angeles home and that we're doing okay with rent after all...even she felt disappointed by that news. "Ahh ok, incase if things don't work out for whatever reason, you and Bern are welcome to live here anytime" she said, "it has been so quiet here". I love my parents for that, but I honestly feel unloved by my hometown (at least from several years ago).

Since I finally got my test results back, I wanted to put her mood to ease by sharing the good news--  I told her that there's nothing suspicious in my body, except that I just have to watch out for my digestive system and take things easy. Yayyy. It turns out she was at work with my elder cousin when I called her this afternoon-- we waved back at each other through the facetime. It makes me happy to see that our relatives  are around to keep her on her toes. Being reminded that my mom is pretty social makes me feel relieved to see that she isn't alone. Really hoping that they remind her of her blood sugar level and I hope that she pays attention to the food labels. I get that change isn't easy-- especially having to cut down certain foods that has been a healthy staple for your whole life.

kawaii sewing blob

Right now, I'm working on upcycling a pair of low quality skinny jeans and turning them into a ruffled denim skirt. I wanted a shape that goes with soft lines. I haven't been sewing for quite awhile, which means my line stitches are wonky-- that's okay though! All I need is more practice.

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  boa hancock
Pictures for mood: our lunch & chocolate boxes from different years

Afterall those days of work, Bern finally got a day off!  We treated this day as a Valentine redo. We had mixed berries pancakes for breakfast and some nice cold cut sandwiches with Zapp's chips for lunch-- all home prepared by me, just safe foods and no crazy acid reflux symptoms. We even found time to do a little park stroll..and we took advantage of the public workout booths dancing snoopy .  Our Sunday was mostly cloudy, which is fine because I was able to get some good amount of sun from this past week. As I am typing this, we're now in a rainy hour. As much as I like the sight and sound of rainy days, hopefully we get light rains and no flash floods, because our city's infrastructure isn't ideal for heavy rain. 

vday set up vday set up 2
Pictures for mood: my Vday mantle

Bern and I found a super delicious non dairy ice cream brand... they were chocolate bars with salted caramel filling. Simple sweet treats made my day. By the end of the evening Bern and I went back to our creative/artsy hour and I think I am done with this fellow: 

vaporwave art bear

I was feeling vaporwave and I wanted to draw a cute, long haired bear guy who happens to do pizza delivery ^^


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 Whether you are single, in a relationship or celebrating with a group friends I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day heart emojicon

Mine was turning out fine until I ate a burger takeout food that triggered my acid reflux-- I honestly thought I would have to head to an emergency room. I haven't had a painful reflux for quite years because I've been very careful in what I consume. I'm so used to cooking up my own meals and ordering from places that are "safe" for Bern and I to eat. Sometimes restaurants got hidden peppers and you don't realize it until your stomach feels it... especially if you're the kind of person who grew up tasting spicy foods and not remember how potent it actually is within the condition that you have. At this point, I'm kind of traumatized from doing takeout orders from food places we aren't too familiar with. Some restaurants aren't transparent about all of their ingredients and I have to keep that in mind (I should've known this by learning what happened to Keith Lee). Bern suggested a Valentine's Day redo and I would be fine with that. I'm just happy that I didn't have to go to an emergency room, the pain went  away a couple hours after taking an antacid... which includes running to a toilet bowl, emptying out the stomach and sleeping it off for a bit shocked emojicon

For the remainer of this month, I might just take some time to be my own Valentine alone: do some neighborhood walks, get proper amounts of fiber, absorb some sunlight, do some art sketches, and play cozy games. I'm thinking of snatching up a bouquet of roses and do some still life drawings of them ^^. 

early 20th century dress illustration fashion

Let's end this post with my last drawing from the past week! I saw a collection of vintage-inspired bridal dresses (I think they're made in the 90s, heavily taking inspirations from early 20th century styles) on Pinterest and thought to myself that I had to draw them.
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 Another productive week once again! I think I've been pretty great about recording all my meds, soaking up some sun, getting some art projects done, and not neglecting my exercises. I'm not new to Twitch, but I finally found a pretty cool art chat that got nice vibes. The person running the stream makes cute graphic/ illustrative designs and her followers are easy to talk to. Chatrooms can honestly be intimidating at times because I don't always have the best way of articulating all my specific thoughts into one sentence for a chatroom & I take my time forming my ideas into words. I'm just happy that I found a fun and happy group! I've only caught her streams twice, so hopefully, I'll run more into more of her streams in the future favicon gif gyaru

 We've been getting 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit weather, and now we're back to a rainy 58 degrees type of weather. Here are my OC drawings to set off a mood with the month of February:

valentine art bunny girl and bear boy

galentine's anthromorphic artwork

garden girl

I designed an image for my game layout page, also using my OCs in this artwork. I'm not quite used to Procreate yet, but I think I am getting the hang of it.  I tend to switch back and forth with Procreate & Clip Studio Paint. 



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 Around October, I joined a drawing prompt made by a creator with quite a following, I liked her art and her choice of words. They weren't too abstract in ideas, so it made it easy for me to come up with themes just by drawing different types of figures. I just wanted to draw pretty witchy women as anthropomorphic  characters. I haven't been able to post the rest of my Halloween drawings on my blog because my mind was just somewhere else. I've mentioned that October 2023 wasn't as spooky as I would hope for it to be, simply because I wasn't in much of a mood. Regardless, I've managed to push myself to draw-- it felt like a studying. 

Barbie Witch

I guess she'd be perfect for Valloween? The prompt for this was Barbie Witch, I actually based her off from the 1989 Sweet Roses Barbie doll.

Candy Witch Bunny

Here's my prompt for Candy Witch. I'm sure if you flipped through any fashion editorial pictures in the 2010s, its very common to see models posing with gigantic sweet treats. I put my own spin by adding Halloween themed treats as the props. 

Fruit Witch

The prompt for this was "fruit witch". Could I have gone with a lady doing burlesque in a bunch of fruit-like garments? Probably.  I didn't feel like it at the time...  so I went for the cottage core style instead. 

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 Yesterday morning, I clumsily knocked a glass bottle of fish sauce off of my kitchen counter. Luckily, the glass didn't break but the bottle cap came undone. Some fish sauce splattered on my kitchen floor, the wall, some cereal boxes & some snack boxes. Some splattered on my clothes. I spent the whole morning doing some handwashes, cleaning up the spill and the remainder of my laundry washes. I loooove fish sauce as a food ingredient, but I do not want any of the fish smell to linger! I ended up just sweeping and mopping the floor by the end of the morning. No big deal, the floor needs cleaning. 
 
I still like having some of my holiday lights around...they're like my fun, festive lamp. So I decided to keep them on my wall. I did, however packed a couple of holiday decors away. I find that it's less overwhelming for me to just do a small number of them each day.  I might just replace them with my Valentine's Day & Chinese New Year decorations, because I like making changes to my space. 
 
Last month, our neighbor was close to getting rid of their tv (all in perfect condition). They let me have it for free. Without hesitance, knowing that Bern and I need a back up monitor for his computer/ work related stuff-- I just picked it up! Ever since, Panda dropped some furniture for us, we finally found a space for our new TV.  I think I am starting to become like my dad, the "furniture & appliances hoarder". I hate seeing perfectly good and useful things getting thrown out. My dad isn't an even a science-textbook hoarder, btw.  I pulled out our Wii U console and hooked it up to the tv. I spent the whole day looking for HDMI & power cables (not sure why they weren't all together T___T).  

 
Windwaker title screen Windwaker screen shot
 
It's been over seven years! I decided to continue on my Wind Waker game, because I am Harley-- the queen of unpredictability. It took me be a bit of time to figure out my goals. All I know is that I helped a dragon at Dragon Roost Island & my hometown is filled with monsters under dark clouds. That's where I left off. 
 
Aside from home organization & maintaining my personal  health, yes, I am still feeling bitter about how things has been escalating since the past few months. I'm still upset at my friends who aren't vocal, yet they've been vocal about monstrosities of the past/ just selective about certain issues.  We also had to defriend one person from our hometown who's been vocal but in a way that went the opposite way. Yiiiiikes. These are all people in their late 20s- 30s, they can all read, ask questions, and research their shit, no excuses.  I feel like I'm going crazy at times. Luckily, I have Bern besides me to remind me that I am not. I don't even expect my friends to be a super hardcore when it comes to grave global issues. I don't even consider myself perfect in this area.  I would only be focused to just blog about mindless subjects like glittery makeup and vintage dolls by now, if things weren't so bad. At the least for the bare minimum, they can start avoiding the consumption of three major companies (stuff you can survive without) AND still enjoy these same things (sometimes even better & more affordable) from other shops. For instance, where I'm from, mom and pop coffee places are literally everywhere! All of my friends are not in food deserts either.  I have to accept this fact -- the people in my circle don't like sacrificing a bit of their comforts, even when things can be changed for better for all of us in the long run. I don't plan on cutting them off because I know they will have to eventually wake up. Because over fifteen years ago, I was pretty naive. Time is running short and I wouldn't want to wait super long for them to reach to that point.  

Anyway, to retain my sanity, I'll have to get back to my mindless hobbies. I've been following an artist influencer who's been sharing public parks, libraries, laundry mats and local food joints in LA. People like her have been giving me so much hope-- I don't want to stay trapped in my echo chamber bubble, I will have to get out and just meet people who want to try to make things better. Not to mention, her fashion sense is awesome too and she looks so beautiful just by sharing helpful resources. I'm going to have to discipline myself too! I'm fortunate that I grew up in a household with family members  & a community who are very hospital and not expect anything in return. Yeah, I'm fairly shy at times but I will have to re-awaken my people-interaction skills laughing ghost


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new year gif 

Happy New Year to you all, I hope your holidays went well for you!

I haven't thought up of any real resolutions yet because it's way too cold for me and I usually wait until late winter/ early spring to get a fresh start. Going by the Gregorian calendar is way too abrupt for me to stay focus. Plus, I was on my low- iodine diet for the past three weeks-- I have been feeling very uninspired. It's finally nice to start eating my normal foods again. Bern took me to a nearest Ranch 99 and helped me load up with grocery shopping, after that, we got some burgers-- they're quite delicious. Especially after three effing weeks. Bern forgot to grab *cute* snacks from Ranch 99, but got these Koala cookies from Target instead:

lotte koala

A couple of my friends (lets call them Croc and Panda) are moving away back to their hometown-- their apartment lease is up. If I am speculating his character correctly, I wished Croc put his proudness aside and ask Bern for help earlier!  I know they won't be gone for too long because just like Bern and I, they would not want to stay living with their parents, especially being in a long term relationship and living in separate places.  Panda apparently has strong ambitions to get her Masters at a school in LA, I hope that will be soon for her! I'm going to miss them because they're one of our very few friends who are health conscious and have been considerate about others' physical inabilities even if they're not so obvious. I hope it won't be ridiculously long before they move back over here. crying gif Panda ended up dropping a couple of her furniture to our place. Bern and I were in need of new furniture, so it works out! ..And it's kind of nice to have their things, because now it feels like I have a part of them. 

So far, my January has been pretty uneventful. I got invested in some Bay Area Californians and Keith Lee discourse on social media. Apparently, a few Bay Area folks didn't take his opinions too well, completely misunderstood him and felt insulted. Fans were upset at other fans for recommending him places in the Tenderloins. Most of the Bay Arean locals agreed with him. I can't weigh too much of my opinion about this because I grew up in an agricultural city-town of the Bay, going to San Francisco and Oakland would always be like a mini day trip.
girl eating food   

It sucks that our beloved food critic had to cut his trip short after being sent to an emergency room after an allergic reaction. Scary. I guess wherever he went, the restaurant did not thoroughly remove shellfish particles on their grill after telling him they would :/. I'm sure there are tons of delicious food places in every major regions of the US and I'm sure Keith, who's a smart guy, doesn't doubt that all! Afterall, his branding is about going to only hole-in-the-wall shops with dying businesses ..and he was transparent about visiting only 8 food places! I'm sure no sane person can judge a region made up of NINE DIFFERENT COUNTIES on the food culture, especially being right next to the ocean and agricultural places. If Keith is willing to come back, I would recommend a local paleta shop (fits his criteria for a -hole-in-a -wall) from my hometown... I can guarantee there aren't any shellfish foods there! Unfortunately, a lot of my other personal favorite mom and pop shops probably uses some sort of seafood-based seasoning for umami.  I think me being on a LID for the past weeks made me think of food AND that's probably how I ended up reading about the Bay Area food drama. haha laughing ghost


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