I SAVED THIS TIME

    The best part of writing tbh is when you have this whole draft going, and there's a flow and it's sounding good, and then you think "hey, it's late and I'm tired. I'll sleep!" and then you save your draft, twice even, and turn off your laptop, and reopen your draft later 

A N D    N O T H I N G    S A V E D.  that's my favorite.

BUT LIKE, YA, THAT NEVER HAPPENS HI

It's been a long time :| I miss this! Writing is so therapeutic. And the coolest thing that comes with it is like, when you guys tell me you actually like reading my head meat words. Because sometimes idk man... some of this stuff is weird and it's literally just me farting my brain out but somehow that's enjoyable to some and that's pretty neato. So like, thanks. For realsies. 

I wish I sucked less at being consistent U_U 

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT. Here we are. and lol now you're gonna read about these accidentally vegan onigiri I made. For starters.

If you're like, "wtf is onigiri?" -- if the voice in your head could pronounce it (because mine couldn't at first for like, ever) it's those "donuts" Brock carried with him all the time and fed to Pokémon. Which is a lie. They're not donuts at all, they're rice balls wrapped in seaweed. 

Took me a long time to come to terms with feeling like Pokémon lied to me. 

Anyway yeah, so you make rice and shape em into little balls or whatever, can stuff em with ... stuff. and wrap them in seaweed, and they're super yummy! 

Mine were accidentally vegan because I used tofu (it was  lot and cheaper). But I'm an umami whore with food so I sauteed the tofu with onion and garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, gochujang, mushrooms... and idk. other stuff. Flavor is important.  

I remember I made these for a vegan Thanksgiving thing a few years ago. They're good. 

Probably because they don't taste like floppy nut water.  

But yeah, they were cute. Boyf took some to work. And easy to make :B

Things have been so ... full of food. All the time. I GAINED WEIGHT. And then I lost it. And I think I've gained it again? I don't know. Boyf calls it the Blizzard 20.

That when you work there, you're so happy and eat so much and gain 20 lbs. For me it was more like 28lbs. Blizzard 28. But it was good to know I wasn't alone because a lot of people totally confirmed it lol. BUT, things are cool.

merp.

Ummmm, what else? We've literally just been going out to eat all the time. It's horrible.

The Anaheim Packing District is cute, he's never been. We went for poutine.

We need to go back again. Because it's just so cute.

OH and for like, a little while, I got motivated to craft again with clay. I was on this huge Bendy and the Ink Machine kick, and wanted my own cute little Bendy for my desk so yeah I made one.

Omg I can't wait for chapter 4. If you're not familiar with the game, I did a review of Bendy and the Ink Machine aaaannnnd the first chapter is free on Steam.

Oh and then I started sculpting a Junji Ito character from Uzumaki;

I suck at faces. Sculpting details is really fun for me because I'm meticulous and crazy detail oriented, but it's also a curse for the same reasons. So if something doesn't look right, I'll work on that for hours until it does. 

BUT THIS WAS FUN :D

Except I got distracted and stopped. I don't know the first thing about figure sculpting. So it's an experimental project- which .. sounds redundant but. Yeah. This is as far as I got. buuuuut I think she came out good so far. The nose was the hardest part.

She's cute. I'll have to improvise the body and pose, which should be fun. When I get to it :B

but yeah, I was also doing a Bendy miniature.

Crafting with clay is so fun. I wish I had an open work space to be able to just sit and do it. Instead of my desk.

He's so cute ^_^

Not in the game, but... all the characters and the toys in the game are so cuuuuuute. I'll probably make the others as well. PLAY THE GAME. IT'S SO GOOD.

Mistakes in the guise of all-you-can-eat places are hard to not commit.

The seared salmon is SO. GOOD. But I feel like every sushi place I've been to that has seared salmon has done a good job as preparing it.

The stacked miso bowls remind me of the ramen noodle bowls in Fallout 4.

I'm just gonna be throwing random photos for memory's sake. Like these, because out of nowhere, boyfriend decided he would sew my pillow covers ends shut. It was the sweetest thing.

Oh. And um, an awesome snack:

Soft boiled egg (I boil them about 5 mins each or like 7-8 mins for like, 5 eggs.)

Make a dipping mixture from soy sauce, chili oil, and sesame oil

Sprinkle some furikake 

Experience Tranquility

Is this the most exciting post ever? YOU BET IT IS.

I had to take a break. I think I started this post on Wednesday? Can't remember.

It's Saturday morning now. Which is weird because I'm not used to writing this early in the morning, unless it's like.. the other kind of morning. Like, late morning. It's not even 10AM yet and HERE I AM.

RESUMING:

   Soooo back in December, boyfriend celebrated his 5th anniversary at Blizzard! Which mean he got his 5-year sword! It's sick you guys. And I'm so proud of him!

bb boi getting geared up!

Naturally when we got home, I wanted to take some close ups of it because it's so pretty!

It's real. It's heavy. It's so nice. It's a frikkin Kit Rae!

Long ass time ago, like when I was a teenager, there was this site called swordsonline dot com. It no longer exists, but I loved seeing all the different kinds of swords you could buy. And some of the prettiest ones were Kit Rae! So seeing this up close was pretty awesome. Both surprising, and yet not really surprising.

It now hangs near his desk at work :D

And he surprised me with the cutest thing ever LOOKIT

I was playing too much Fallout 4. It's possible. I developed a minor crush on two of my companions~ it's awful. And mentioned that I missed out on getting the Fallout 4 collector's edition with the Pip Boy that came with it.
SO HE FIXED IT

Except, since we both already have Fallout 4 for PC, he got the PS4 version for himself lol, and I got to keep the Pip Boy ^_____^ HEEEEE

In time, I may do a repaint job on it and make it look more battle worn and... radiation exposed-ish. It's so cool though. And there's a corresponding phone app that makes it so that, in theory, you can actually use the Pip Boy the way it's meant to be used. Pretty neato.

It now rests lovingly on my night stand next to my candle holder, coffin shelf, Cthulhu candle and Kyubey doll. Fits right in.

This is dumb but it marks a moment in my life where I care less about going out in public with unshaved legs. I'm not at 100% yet- not even close. Considering the camouflage, I'd say 20% but it's happening. I'm getting there and there's no going back. The old has reached me, and its grasp is strong. I dare not fight it, for I haven't the strength I once had to give fucks. The old, it feeds off my fucks, slowly, veraciously like a starved beast. I find myself these days looking for fucks, but they've left me... 

Just kidding, I'm just lazier but I still like to look cute ;)

OBSERVE YELLOW TONES IN THE LOS ANGELES SKY AND IN MY CURRY

This was before we went to Distant Worlds in DTLA.

Admittedly, I haven't played any FF games since FF3. Turn-based games never appealed to me. Not even Pokemon, even though I forced myself through it in Pokemon Pearl. And Mario and Luigi Partners in Time. But YEAH. I digress. Boyf invited me to join him and work people, with a face I couldn't say no to (he was going to just not go at all but there were tickets) so we went. 

I wasn't totally clueless, as I've followed with the games and recognize the songs. It wasn't a totally in vain invitation lol.

Suffice it to say that it was a beautiful concert.

I'm a smart potato and had us parked in Little Tokyo, and just Ubered to... that whole area situation. Expensive Parking Hell, lets call it.
Once we got back, Little Tokyo was as beautiful as ever at night ^_^

It'd been a while since I'd visited LT at night. Was good to be there again!

baka-chan

SUN NONG DAN

Lets just get this out of the way and expect this to be in almost all future posts because it's just a lifestyle at this point. Which is awful because it contributed to weight gain and we're horrible but it's just that good. I'm not even gonna deny it.

Like, c'mon. Look at this. Tell me you don't wanna eat this 4x a week?

Because we do. But that's a lot of money so the most we did was 2x and gained 847927583794273lbs BUT MOVING ON

Look what he got meeeeeeeeeee HE GIVES THE BEST GIFTS FOR NO REASON T___T

Or maybe he got sick of looking at my old Razer Lachesis (which is possible because he hated my Lycosa Mirror so...) But it's perfect for my little hands lol. I love it so much

And at one point, because I was getting stressed out playing Cuphead so I'd watch kinetik sand cutting videos, he surprised me with kinetik sand O_O AND WE CUT IT AND IT WAS SO GOOD AND CRUNCHY BUT SOFT AND GUSHY BUT STILL HELD TOGETHER YUMMILY

A N I M E    L O S   A N G E L E S

It's nearby enough so, we went!

Artist Alley was awesome this year! And I ran into a few people I hadn't seen in a while. These poop shirts down here... are beautiful. And I just want everyone to have good poops all the time. Even if you're an asshole to someone, I still hope you have a good poop because maybe it'll get you out of your shitty mood, even though it won't help your personality.

HAVE A GOOD POOP TODAY

SPREAD LOVE

Behold: Prince Sidon body pillow. Okay.....
Let me tell you the weener story. I hate that word so much. It's relevant.

So, I know someone (if you already know who I'm about to talk about... I'll try to do her justice), who really likes Prince Sidon. She would, as she said, "eat his weener. He's beautiful." She also, later on, added that "sharks have two weeners!!!! SO PRINCE SIDO-" I cut her off with a mortified glare. 

Additionally, "weener" is the uglier descriptor for a phallic member. Like, I can't. She's ruined me.

SO ALL OF THIS CONSIDERED, SEEING THIS BODY PILLOW OF PRINCE SIDON WASN'T THE MOST PLEASANT THING TO COME ACROSS. Because all I could think about were HIS TWO WEENERS

But look how cute my two mains are. I ship them.

This ALA was his first Anime Con, so he went in completely not knowing what to expect. The environment wore him down (and me) so we did our due diligence, I introduced him to some people, bought our shit, and split. But, he enjoyed himself! It prepped him for more cons to come!

GUESS WHERE WE WENT TO AFTERWARDS :)

oops.

God that dish is SO good. If you don't know wtf this is, I wrote about it earlier on with some tips because this thing is a beast and my first time there, I went with someone who knew what was happening. Otherwise I would've scared myself. 

LOOT FROM ALA

Funny story, we were walking around, and boyf spotted this at a booth and immediately recognized it. This is the art I have as my phone background. It's the most beautiful fucking rendition of Symmetra. She's in my favorite skin, but ECCHI.

AND THE ARTIST WAS THERE!?! Hell yeah man. He wasn't as the booth so we had to circle back a couple times til he came back, but he did and he he signed it. Italian dude, was super nice. He spelled her name differently but I didn't give a shit I MET THE DUDE WHO REIMAGINED MY WIFE, BUT PERFECTLY. She hangs beautifully above my monitors so that I may look at her as much as I fucking want.

Ghost Pokemon and books, yaaaaaaaaaaaaay. 

Fakku was there. I saw that they did a book collab with Shintaro Kago and shat a brick. Got that asap. If you're a weeb, but like a weird(er) weeb that enjoys fucked up stuff... Shintaro's right up your alley probably. Like, I need visual stimulation when I read or else I lose interest. This also includes like, not-manga lol. If the descriptions suck, I can't. Probably why I enjoy Lovecraft so much. ANYWAY, Junji Ito really satisfies that for me. As does Shintaro Kago. They're different manga artists, but they both shock enough that my brain is challenged to register and stomach was is being shown to me. 

Basically, Fakku and Kago's collab is fucked up, and I loved it. The end.

And I didn't cosplay but I did a half-assed Tomie thing when we went.

She's cool. People get crushes on her and then end up hating her and wanting her dead. I can relate. Except she gets mutilated a lot. I think I could only get mutilated once since my body can't reproduce or rejuvenate the way hers does. Or I could get mutilated once and survive it but that'd suck. She just kinda is like, whatever! and goes back to tormenting people. I don't have the patience for that either. She invests. See, I can't, I have to eat and play video games.

OH. Another food thing! So there's this place called Black Ball. It's this Taiwanese dessert place with the subway layout thing kinda. Looks like this:

Looks like shit but IT'S DELICIOUS. I seriously hope some SoCal people who have seen the food places I've gone to have like, actually gone to them because I take pride in my selections lol. SO YEAH, this place serves like, bowls of stuff. Like in mine, it has boba, sweet taro, matcha pudding, grass jelly, sweet potato, and just taro chunks. Aside from the sweet taro chunks. They're different. It's the number 1. With added stuff. And you top it off with this little side of cream that they give you and IT'S SOOOOOOOOO GOOD. So you pick which one you want off the menu and add to it, or make your own bowl but omg. So yummy. Also yeah, this probably didn't help with like, dietary things either. We got this a lot lol

More food. Dada Shabu: all you can eat shabu-shabu!
And Inca; Peruvian place right next to campus. Literally right outside.

If I ever got a tattoo, it'd be this:
It's the spider geoglyph from my home country in Peru.

After work on Fridays we hang out on campus for a bit until people join us for movies and stuff. Lately we've been showing the Harry Potter movies. Next week is the last showing; Deathly Hallows pt 2. I've never before been able to say that I enjoy staying at work to kick it with people and watch movies. Yeah that's totally a thing now and I'm still grateful for it, I don't think I'll get used to it any time soon.

When we're at his place, this is our battlestation.

Aaaaaaaaaand I pout until we go get Black Ball ^_^
But it's fine because we pick some up for other people too and everyone loves it and is happy and it's fine! :D

We also went out to eat with his fam one night. To this Taiwanese street food place. It was so cute inside!

SO YUMMY

Tofu with rice

^_^

THAT'S MY CHICKEN

His parents also invited me to join them at the casino/buffet place and I was like omg I'm not fucking things up

There, I met his aunt and uncle. Everyone stuffed their faces, guys this place was SO NICE. And I got this card thingy that lets me go back! AND THE DESSERT SECTION o___o

His mom is so cute. She held my hand and I almost cried 

SHE HELD MY HAND YOU GUYS DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW MONUMENTAL THAT IS

That's not his mom. That's my chicken.
We strolled around the back area and it was so pretty. The day was beautiful and sunny but the clouds muted the sun rays, and the birds were out and we were just strolling around outside a casino on a Sunday- IT WAS MAGICAL. I felt retired.

The casino was out in the middle of nowhere, was awesome.
And for Chinese New Year, his mom gave us these:

And when it's time to come back to my place, this is how much he packs:

That purple bag and gym bag are mine. And my little suitcase is burried under there somewhere, but he brings everything. Because Monster Hunter.

AH, here's a ramen place that offers vegan ramen!

Just opened, a few weeks ago. But it was right next to Black Ball lololol so we had to try it out. It's the number 7. I found it interesting they use bok choy for their vegan base. It's usually soy but they have that option too. And kale noodles! I've seen spinach noodles. So yeah, vegan peeps.... Junkabok has a few locations.

Aaaaaaand of course.....

When we got here, he was greeted by many bats.

And some more food stuff! This place was inside Mitsuwa near work.

On Valentine's Day, I wasn't expecting to do anything because we both worked, but after work we were hungry so.... that changed. It changed into all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu. Again.

Sometimes I wonder if growing my own food would be more helpful than going vegan. Like, if I literally just grew my own chickens and maybe rabbits. And never had to go to giant corporations to shop for vegan food in the frozen aisle or go out to eat for food, therefore contributing to the meat industry and probably monsanto, or the industries that tear down land to grow more soy to support soy products. What if I just grew my own soy?

CONTROVERSIAL ETHICS THING TIME:

This came into conversation when my coworker told me about her friend who raises rabbits and tends her own garden. She refrains from contributing to large company profits by literally sustaining her own little farm situation. Which is probably one of the most noble things I've heard someone being able to do these days. She consumes the meat after she raises it, gets attached to it, has to harvest it, and humbly respects every piece of it because she knew where it came from and is thankful for it. That's a lot more than I can say for some of the vegetarians that visited starbucks who made me throw out the bacon from a sandwich or sausage patty in a breakfast sandwich because they "don't eat meat." You don't eat it, but are completely okay with having me throw it in the garbage? Brilliant. Poetic. Beautiful.

I don't know. Thought that'd be a nice follow up to the photo of the yummy little squids in my shabu dip. ;)

The routine has gotten routine, but nice. Comfortable. We carpool to work together every morning. And drive home together. And a nice reminder of that is that sometimes we'll see someone in front of us with a Blizz bumper sticker. And it always makes me smile.

For the Horde, indeed!

I screamed the first time I saw this. Because I see him almost every day and he's so precious and we must protecck him and omg

Working there has been unreal. And awesome. And eye opening. And I've met so many amazing people. Connected with some of the most bad-ass and down to earth peeps. Made *very* unique friends.

I love it there so much. I feel so lucky to be there every day. And I've come to realize and understand that I have luxuries and benefits that not many are able to get away with lol. But it's because of those little things that my job is as fun and rewarding as it is. And I'm so grateful for it every day lol. Because god.... lol ahhhhh I'm smiling, but.. yeah. I test my boss sometimes ^____^ 

BUT IT'S FINE :D

I'm really excited for what this year has to offer. So far it's been great, except for the car stuff I've been dealing with recently. It sucks, but in the grand scale of things, it's not as bad as it could be. Being where I am right now in life is great, and also extremely humbling. And while there was a lot of negative (in my life) before, in hindsight, I wouldn't change a thing ^_^. I'm thankful for all of it. 

And, the cherry on top: there's good news with my mom. Finally, some good news. It's about to be 2 years. But finally something is happening. We must wait a little more though. But I'm optimistic.

I hope everyone else is doing well. In some degree or another.

Enjoy the simple pleasures because they come and go so quickly!

LIKE REALLY GOOD POOPS