Entropy : Finale

    My feet are cold. It's winter, woo.

Hmm, what will this year bring? Who knows? My lane looks chill though. Staying in it.

So far my greatest accomplishment of 2024 is getting coworkers into vintage oldies. I've been routinely putting that on or jazz lounge stuff, and they've begun putting some on themselves. That is my boast. Well done, me. Can't go wrong with the classics. Time to put on a little Henry Mancini.

Lets see.. where did we leave off? 

Eggnog time. Speaking of which, I still have some in the fridge. I'll save that for a cozy breakfast. Mornings in December hit different than mornings the rest of the year. All of the festive flavors come out to dance and it's just... mpf!

Mr. Chicken got us peppermint, chestnut praline, and gingerbread syrups. And of course eggnog. Tis the season for delicious lattes at home. And some crafting

Let this photo show that I made this beherit and it existed before I had to throw it away. Sigh. (I burned it trying to take an oven shortcut)

Soup season meant more trips to Taiwanese hot pot.

And impromptu gatherings in our lounge, drinking the world's Okayest Old Fashioneds. Fashioned by yours truly and our out of season orange tree. Teehee. I really gotta get a smoker.

Cold nights are nothing against the cold resist bonuses of friendship *

This night was especially fun. Improptu, but fun. Lifa's bro came up from SD and they ended up comin over, along with other friends. Turned into a good run. It also became the catalyst for Mr. Chicken to buy a fire pit! Because we need to keep leveling up.

Once the Christmas tree lights came on, so did Ophelia's apex predator mode.

All things considered, she was pretty well behaved. And she was a good helper with wrapping presents.

He wraps them so pretty, omg. Meticulous Mr. Chikm.

DESIGNER CON | money go bye byyyye

I wasn't planning on spending that much. I really wasn't. I just wanted to go look at stuff and maybe get a skullpanda blind box or two. Maybe 5. Who knows. But I'm also stupid. And like supporting art that I like. So.

Designer Con remains one of my favorite conventions in SoCal. It's the ultimate artist alley, but 90% original works. Some amazing, and some the world doesn't need, but exists nonetheless.
Behold example A:

We don't need a hand with legs and an ass, but there it is in all its glory. 

It has friends.

Saw a lot of jiangshi this year. Me likey! Also ran into someone we haven't seen in a while. He was there selling stuff. Stuff being the ghost bear you see before you.

There was a booth with marionettes! So cool! I wish they'd come back in popularity- marionettes in general. They're so neat. Something about their simple yet brilliant mechanical nature.

I look haggard and tired, but was good runnin into this guy again. He got us food last time, gotta drag him and his main somewhere. She asked about deets, I don't remember if he has mine or not. Brain can't brain. Anyway, Mr. Chicken picked up the collab he was there for, and now we have another ghostie in our display cabinet. It's cute. ^_^

I think I've seen this cosplayer here for the last 3 years now. It's kinda nice. I'll look forward to her next year. And look at this adorable Nosfu :3

So cute!!

This one dude makes realistic food miniatures and this Oga's Cantina piece was impressive!

OG Slick had an especially fun booth this year. His dissected series was to die for.

This was legit cool. They were also doing free tattoos I think? Or some kind of tattoo promotion, I'm not sure. The limit for the line did not exist.

If I had a personal fondness for the city of LA, I'd consider getting this. But LA smells like pee and is gross, and I don't feel safe walking around there without someone I know next to me SO. I'll just admire the theme.

I liked that they had both medical examiner and coroner attire.

Am assuming Slick was the medical examiner, and the staff were the coroners lol.

Also, this figure was hot in a weirdest way.

Like, Idk if it's the posture, the outfit, the vibe. But I saw it and was immediately attracted to everything about it lmao. There's something about this dude's whole... everything. He seems chill. LOL

Idk. I just like it.
Maybe I'll get him later this year.

These were cool but their vibes were just different. CB-301 is my boy.

Lunch at the Mariott wooooOUuouou

Yay Designer Con :D

meow meow

:3

There was also this booth that had Disney spooky kid stuff. It was so cute omg. I got a few little things here. I wanna get more but I couldn't find their shop online. Their booth is "Disney Fiend" but I think they rented out this side of the booth because they don't show up on the convention floor plan. Ah well.

I met cEvin Key! Wild. Last place I thought I'd ever meet him. Was cool chatting about Silent Hill and his involvement with it. God, it's so crazy... I saw Skinny Puppy live in high school and ... this is just. It's nutso. I kept it together lol, we had a normal chill convo, it's just weird. Only because it's my own fault. Albeit aged, idolatry is dumb!

Cute little Jiangshi bean :3

There was an LA/Hollywood art commentary thing. And uh, yeah.

GUMMY FETUS YAY
Idk what the other one is trying to convey.

Cristal came to check it out too. After discovering her lil kewpie babies, she's developed a very healthy collector mindset on um, acquiring them. All. I think Designer Con was overwhelming for her, especially the long drive, but she seemed to enjoy seeing the vortex collectors fall into. It was like looking into her future. Yaaaay. lol

After roaming around for most of the day, we called it and left with our goodies.

It's been eons since I've used scrunchies

But I got some a Daiso and I've never felt more powerful. I didn't go full on side-pony tail... yet. But it'll come. Just wait.

Peppermint white mochas at home hit different. Aaaaand this is Irene. She's dope. She got me an ear-raser as a xmas gift, lol. An eraser. Shaped like a human ear. I gotta ask her if she's a Van Gogh fan, lol. For Halloween she surprised me with a bucket of candy, and later an itty bitty little gem shaped like a coffin. I think her love language is gifts lol. Also if it wasn't already glaringly obvious, she a gotho. It's gravitational, I'm convinced lol. She's good people. I've never seen her lose her cool. The chill is too high level.

This is one of my favorite things to have a downtime with. Pepperoni or cheese pizza lunchables. Breakfast of morticians. Or maybe just Cynthias. Was this even breakfast. Probably not. Idc. I love lunchables. I should keep 20 in the fridge. Like, if I were a character in The Sims and my fridge had 100 lunchables in it, my happy meter would go up, I'm sure of it.


Aaaand I'm not sure what it is about December that made me wanna bake (not a fan), but here we are.

Oh yeah, I'd been watching some show called the Holiday Baking Show or something, and the things they were coming up with were so tempting. And all the flavors they kept talking about and stuff, omg. I wanted it. So, that must've been it. Anywho, I wanted candy cane chocolate chip cookies. So we made candy cane chocolate chip cookies!

I want more lol. These were so good. I don't even care for cookies, but man. All we did was get regular chocolate chip cookie stuff and crush candy canes to sprinkle into the batter. Easyyyy. So yummy!

For Christmas Eve, Lifa came over and I prepared some espresso cocktails and spiked eggnog.

And made Tallarin Verde! Mr. Chicken grilled up some yummy steak, too. Aaaand I almost forgot but Lifa was like omg where's that green sauce that gets drizzled on it? And I was like omg you're so right. My mother would never forgive me. Thankfully, I had some huacatay to make it with, and voila. Was a good dinner.

The rest of the evening, we saved our progress at the fire pit and drank some eggnog.

It was just right. Lotta drunkard rambling, but the friendship buff was at an all-time high. Super grateful for the peeps in my life. Everything else is just noise.

We roasted some s'mores. They were really sweet. But good.

At midnight, we opened presents and went sleepies. We our tummies were warm and cozy. A perfect recipe for sleepies.

The next day we went for a stroll and grabbed some coffee. Played some Lethal Company and had some soupies.

Mmmmm, soupies.

And noggies. Nom nom.

I lucked out and didn't have to work over Christmas this year. I worked New Years Eve but was able to leave early enough to get home and spend it with Mr. Chimkm. My work schedule is pretty awesome. The days are long, but so are the days off. Can't complain.

We stayed in for the New Year. Nothing felt worth risking taking damage from the drunks on the road.

No resolutions! I haven't really ever had any. But I think it's because I'm always thinking about my goals anyway, that resolutions feel redundant. If you wanna do something, get started on it! That's it. The real challenge is remaining consistent.

Again with the baking cravings. I wanted to make creme brulee.

It was 10pm. I prepped the custard and let it cool overnight. Woke up and blasted those little guys. It was sooooo good omg. I added espresso powder to the custard- dangerous. I could've eaten all of those. Right then.

Baking is kinda nice, I guess. I guess I could get into it more. At least... make more creme brulee. I'm gonna try using other ingredients. Maybe candy cane creme brulee?! OMG WAIT, EGGNOG CREME BRULEE. Holy shiddies. Eggnog creme brulee!?!?!? AAAHHHHH. Alright. That's it. I'm gonna do it. And the sugar on top is gonna be cinnamon nutmeg and sugar. OH GOD. No, I can't. It's too good. We won't be able to handle it. Oh man. Oh man, oh man oh man. Eggnog creme brulee. WITH ESPRESSO POWDER MAYBE?? I don't know.... hmm. Maybe one flavor profile at a time.

I wonder if I can do like.... ube.... creme brulee.... OH MY GOD, I CAN. WE HAVE THE STUFF FOR IT. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


Change of topic. :)

Work's been great. Learning a lot. It feels like my days aren't long enough sometimes for everything that needs to be done. Which is incredible because my days are longer than the average 8 hour day. But I love how much I'm learning and picking up. Lotta hacks, techniques, and support all around. My supervisors have been so dope with feedback when I nag them for it, lol. As are my colleagues. Everyone's been so dope.

Decorating my cart with all my stuff in it has been fun. Everyone gets to decorate as much as they want and wear cute scrub tops and earrings and we're pretty much left to our own devices, we just have to finish our stuff.

I think my favorite thing of all is how quiet the floor gets around lunch time. There are only a few of us left and that's when the oldies (20s, 30s, 40s) come on. Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby, Ink Spots, Fred Astaire, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Glenn Miller, the list goes on... If I could karaoke to Mae West songs, I 100% would.

It's completely unreal. There was a day where I was alone and had this music playing and like... I had to pause and take a step back, look at where I was, what I was doing, and like... take the moment in. "Heaven, I'm in heaven"

Don't take listening to music you enjoy during work for granted, cuz I've never been able to do that until now. It's like a focus buff. And a mood buff.

I dragged 2 of my coworkers out to .... *drum roll*

SUUUUUNNN NOOOONGGG DAAAAAAHN

They liked it! But I think were overwhelmed lol.

We all work on the same stuff so we spend the most time together and they've been so amazing. Waaah. Bless em for dealing with my derps on teh daily lol.

Walking in on these two snuggling made me wanna cry lol

He said he's a dog person. :D

Omg, so for Christmas, Cristal got me super nice scrub pants. They unfortunately cost hm hm so I lowkey felt bad, but I love them so so much. They're so comfy and stretchy, and warm, with 43 pockets and just fit really well. But again, they kinda hm hm so I'm not trynna get a bunch. But then Mr. Chimkm got me another set waaaaaaaahhhh. It came in today and I'm wearing it as lounge wear because it's so comfortable omg.
His cousin in a doctor, I gotta ask him what scrubbies he recommends.
Am not gonna lie, shopping for scrubs is kinda fun.

Like... we can get the hm hm scrubs, they are REALLY nice. I can't even deny that. But damn. lmao. The joggers look nice though. Fuck.

See this is where I'm dysfunctional. I'll throw hm hm at Disney magic key passes but hesitate on like, work scrubs LOL. Thatssss... that'ss, yeah. I WASN'T LIKE THIS BEFORE, I SWEAR.

Sigh.
But here we are!

Friends, food, and more food :D

KBBQ is my favorite flavor concert. So many songs.

Brisket, beef tongue, bulgogi. That's all I need. And cilantro. And pickled radish paper. I wanna go back damnit lol.

I tried to get their attention and they both just grunted LOL.


Aaaaand Mr. Chicken's auntie and uncle arevisiting. They treated us to peking duck for din din!

We hadn't been to this place before but it was super good. Got to try jellyfish too. Man. It didn't really have much flavor... tasted seafoodyish, but the texture was the star for sure. Crunchy soft. Like... gelatinous with a cronch. Was good. I liked it a lot. I think it was my favorite lol.

And of course fishie for good juju!

I drank my tea like a caveman, don't look at it. That was like my 18th cup. I love tea. And this fermented rice soup with sesame rice balls was SO GOOD T_T oh my god. Ugh. I want more, lol.

Am I hungry? I don't even know.

Aaaaand~!

I got my very own Porti-Boy! FINALLY. Some people get expensive clothing or accessories, I get an embalming machine. It's fine. Ophelia approves.
There were obvious traces of fluid in the tank so I had to clean it up as best I could. And the hose is missing, but! I'm happy with it. I love these machines, they're so stinkin' cute. Judging from the rust and discoloration, this Porti-Boy saw a lot of... stuff. Idk for how long, but man. I'm so stoked. If ya didn't know, this design has (been tweaked here and there) since the late 1800s. There's a reason it looks antiquated. I can't wait to set it up and make it cute and stuff. While this isn't the Turner model that I hope to one day encounter and own, it's still my very own Porti baby and I wuv it so so so much!

And to tie this all together... you thought you weren't gonna have to read about Disney...

Well, you won't. But Lifa also got a Magic Key Pass, SO WE'RE ALL GOING TO THE PARKS A BILLION TIMES THIS YEAR :D

Am already ready for Lunar New Year and maybe head there after next week. Huehuehuehue.


Time for sleepies! My work week commences tomorrow. I will try to get back to writing regularly, but we'll see how that goes. Hope everyone's having a great week, or weekend, or whatever. Keep up the goal things!! Do the thing! You can do eet! You do that, and I do a sleep.


Byyyyeeeee ^_^