10 days of summer

This isn't a post specific to anything; just a collection of random thoughts I'm documenting.

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Crochet

I guess I picked up crocheting this and the past week, partially because I was bored. I mostly followed tutorials and eventually began to get the hang of it. Here's a list of the things I made so far.

• water bottle holder (or drink holder)

• a small heart

• a flower keychain

• a lily of the valley accessory, except it's pink and white

• a pouch

• air-pods case

• an unfinished drawstring pouch

• used an old metal headband and made it fluffy

• a roses coaster and a small basket

• chapstick holder

• scrunchie

• a bandana

• and some additional things

For me, I get the feeling that there's a limit to crocheting. Maybe because I've been doing it too much this past week, or because I only have two types of hooks, or I only have three yarn colors, but there's so many things you can make. At the same time, I'm hesitant with making amigurumis (small stuffed animals) because I feel like I might eventually neglect them and not like it as much as I should; so I haven't made any (except a mini bear, which also I found how they're pretty hard to make). I think I also have the problem of making things that are useful? And I figured that there's actually not much more things I need, except I guess it's true that this argument can be applied however if you're really practical. I would say however, I think out of what I made so far, the air-pods case and water-bottle holder are the most useful, considering I can put drinks (like from Dunkin') into the holder too.

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Cooking

I've been cooking sometimes at night with my sister this past week. I usually handle cutting vegetables, and sometimes making broth-based soups. I'm not too fond of handling dough, at least not yet.

So for just a record of food I cut I guess.

• mushrooms

  • something I found interesting is that you should probably slice it along the "lines" the mushroom grows. At the same time though, when I line up the mushrooms to slice, it becomes more difficult to secure with your left hand as you get to the end. Then I have to turn it so the side with the larger area ends up facing down on the cutting board, because otherwise it's a wobbly cut. I'm not sure if this is just a me problem. Probably should look into it.

• red onions (dice + slice)

  • Dicing is for sure easier than slicing/julienne in my opinion.

  • The problem I have with julienne is similar to slicing mushrooms. As you approach the end, the part of the onion contacting the cutting board becomes slimmer, and it begins to be harder to hold down. The onion also falls apart somewhat (since there's the natural parting). Again something I should look into probably.

• bell peppers

  • I don't think there's too much to comment on this? Except that I didn't know that you could just use your hands to remove the seeds.

• watermelon

• garlic (mince)

  • I mince them so slowly though.. might be technique?

• tomato (dice + slice)

  • They have so much water. Also I guess you use a serrated blade (the ones with /\/\ marks)

Another thing I tried to make this week is a smoothie. I used strawberries, blueberries, and milk, and a bit of honey. Something that surprised me was how if you let it sit for a while, the liquid turns into a gelatin-like texture, and Google says it's because of the pectin in the blueberry cell walls released. I guess that's not something I knew before; pretty cool.

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Other

I mean other than the miscellaneous college deadlines, I haven't been doing too much to get into it yet. It'll come soon though. It's kind of ironic how in senior year I kept saying I felt too old to still be in high school, but too young to be in college, but now when the time for college actually approaches, I'm quite hesitant. I guess I might never be 'officially' ready though, whatever that might mean.

Well, I guess I'll end this blog/entry with a list of cool finds I found this week.

Song-wise, I found two great covers of two songs I already loved.

• The Night we Met: Amazing art, and also an epic version of the original. But I still do love the original because when you listen to that, you get the feel that something terribly beautiful happened, but is now all lost, and while it was all so nice, you would be okay with it not happening anymore. It's like you surrendered to some kind of peace.

• The Phantom of the Opera: I love the art and harmony; I wish there was another cover of a duet that was like this that wasn't lesbian, though.

Material-wise, I went to the mall this past week.

• Claw-clips! I only had one, and I got two more. They looked pretty good in quality and also weren't that pricy, so yeah.

• A very pretty, flower lipstick; the description says it's a temperature-based color, and online says it's sometimes pH based, so it's specific to the "properties (for lack of a better word)" of each individual's lips. It might be something like a mixture of pH sensitive dyes.

Also, I've been watching a lot of conspiracy videos... nothing really about that though.