ss-hikaru

[ss-hikaru]

I have pretty fuzzy memories of the events in the previous Monogatari books, but I vaguely recalled liking Shinobu the most. So I was sorta looking forward to this? Especially after the Nadeko book. It ended up being more about Mayoi though.

The pacing of this book was pretty bad. Shinobu is a terrible narrator. The fourth wall breaking also got pretty stale, it wasn't even really that funny the first time. Overall it wasn't a very good story...but the character interactions kinda made up for it. And the Darkness phenomenon was interesting and made sense in that world. I should feel sadder Mayoi is gone but I feel like it might be temporary? I feel like it was hinting that Araragi could have done something if he had more knowledge. More time-travel shenanigans incoming? 😝

I'm also cutting the book some slack cos it feels like a set-up book. Set-up for Kanbaru and her aunt story and set-up for Ougi.

[ss-hikaru]

Pearlescent Hoodie and Enperry T-Shirt

Splatoon 2 gear time. I usually don't like pink but Pearl and her hoodie were so cute in Octo Expansion I really wanted to make it. I used a minky fleece which is sooo soooft 😊

I had a soft spot for the Enperry White King Tank in Splatoon 2 as it was my Splat-Bomb-Main Splattershot Jr gear. I don't really wear tank tops much IRL so put the design on a Uniqlo Airism shirt, to keep that sporty aspect. I used Sister Metallic HTV and it's really cool! Definitely will use again.

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #14

Fashion Theme: Grey and Sparkly Pink. In my head, the sunglasses are cos the outfit plus weapon is too bright 🤣

Emote: Bashful Brag, it's pretty cute. Feels like it matches the shoes in terms of vibe.

Gear Intent: I had to put quite a lot into SpPU because I'm bad at Kraken so need time to head back to a safer position when using it offensively 😅 ISS because I guess I liked the marking capabilities of the vanilla Heavy Splatling with Wavebreaker.

Overall Thoughts: I don't like this kit. It overlaps with the Nautilus with the Point Sensor and I don't think Kraken really synergises with it. Sure I could just save it for defensive purposes, but that feels like a boring way to play and besides the game is super stall-y already. It makes me so sad. Two not-fun kits for what I would've liked to be my main 😭

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Sisters (Marie) and Squid Squad T-Shirts

Ok, so we know the final fest theme now, and it's not the 3 idol groups against each other, so might as well post my Splatoon 1 and 2 outfits.

Marie is still my favourite news presenter. I wish I hadn't used the laminated glitter HTV though. But I also don't like the normal glitter HTV either 😅 Luckily Siser has a bunch of sparkly type HTV so I'll hopefully like at least one of them...

The Squid Squad tee is glow-in-the-dark 😁 I really like it (and I miss the Squid Squad BGM tracks 🥲). I'll definitely reuse this design once this t-shirt reaches end of its life, since it's a subtle gaming motif.

[ss-hikaru]

A Mending Job

After

Before

I made this blanket for my niece when she was 2 and it was doing fine until my bro and SIL got a puppy LOL. Niece came to me in tears asking me to fix it. Luckily I had kept the scraps so could applique over the hole. Apparently though, it's already been chewed through again 😅

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #13

Fashion Theme: Snazzily Silver. If only you could remove the bear paws. But no matter. I really like the Squink Wingtips. It's the kinda shoe I like to look at but would never wear myself.

Emote: Introduced in Splatoon 2 so Square Show-off.

Gear Intent: The usual splatling RSU but some SSU for the charge hold. SuPU to track people for longer and SCU to get more rain.

Overall Thoughts: I really like the main weapon. I just think that the kit doesn't really synergise in practice... Sure Point Sensor can be cool with charge hold, but you really need to have ink down to make the most of it. And Ink Storm doesn't really help you get in because you can't swim through it that easily. While I feel like I could play decently with this weapon, it felt like a really stall-y type of play because I had no tools to take on any of the backlines. When you don't have ink control and have to ink your own path to be aggressive with the charge hold, you're really just telegraphing your moves. So it ended up feeling very frustrating, just trying to hold the line until my team could try to make a coordinated play (unlikely in solo queue...)

[ss-hikaru]

I felt like this book was set sufficiently outside of Kingsbridge and following characters only tangentially related to the town that it felt like a bit of a stretch to call it a Kingsbridge novel. But I suppose as times change and the world becomes more globalised, it would be weird to contain it to just England.

I really liked Ned. He felt like a combination of all the good things about Prior Phillip and Merthin. I also liked how he fell in love with Sylvie despite his attachment to Margret.

I also liked the message of religious tolerance and the details about Sylvie's stationery/book business. I felt like I could smell the paper 😍

It was interesting how Follet inserted his characters into real life events/interacted with real historic figures. I felt like I learnt a little bit 😅

So I said the previous book was a bit predictable because it followed a very similar trajectory to the first, but this one quite often left me wondering what was going to happen next. So looking forward to book 4 now 😊

[ss-hikaru]

Nin Gojira Hoodie

This is the Fitzroy Hoodie pattern from Style Arc. It's pretty comfy! The cotton fleece from Homecraft Textiles is also nice, smooth on top with a bit of stretch 👍

I really like the Nintendo Godzilla design from the time the Nintendo website went down after they announced the Switch LOL. This is my third time using the design. I tried a puff HTV and even though I followed the instructions, I think it burnt 😒 This is kinda third strike for this particular brand of HTV. I wanted to support them cos they are Aussie, but Siser so far is the best quality brand hands down. Luckily it looks like it will come off cleanly after I wear and wash it a few times. Then I will reapply Siser Puff HTV instead 🙂

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #12

Fashion Theme: Minty Bubbles 😊 This was originally my Nautilus 47 gear because I thought it went well with the whole charge-hold aspect, but I wasn't happy with my first Zink Mini outfit cos it very much clashed with the colours of the weapon itself 😅 After the Nautilus 79 was released, I did a big Splatling Outfit Switcheroo with this result. I'm very happy now that the colours are cohesive 🤣

Emote: Mini Splatling feels like a happy weapon so enthusiastic waves it is.

Gear Intent: Mostly RSU because Splatling. LDE because this was before they undid the Splatoon 2 ink efficiency nerfs. And 1 main ISS because Toxic Mist is so ink hungry 😣

Overall Thoughts: This weapon is hard to justify playing outside of Tower Control because it hasn't got a sub that can poke or a special that is useful unless you manage to get close enough to the enemy, which can be hard on the corridor maps. But I like this over the vanilla Mini because I don't like Ultra Stamp 😅

[ss-hikaru]

Boyfriend Cardigan (Take 3...)

Welp, turns out the first time I made this pattern, I hadn't printed it to scale, that's why the fit wasn't good... I swear I set it correctly, it must have been a case of I changed something else which reverted the scaling to default...oh well. Take 2 was recutting the fabric to a size 6, too small for me but fits my mum. And then I ended up rebuying the same fabric to remake it 🤣 well, tried to anyway, they ran out of stock of that print but this one is pretty much the same so all good 😊

Now that I have the scaling right, the fit is really nice. Since this is a light knit I'm going to make another in a heavy knit 👍

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #11

Fashion Theme: Casual festival outfit! The Salmon Run geta sandals hadn't been released at this point, but in any case I wanted to stick to the white and indigo theme. I feel like this is the kinda thing I would wear to a festival because walking in geta would probably be really uncomfortable 😅

Emote: The off-balance stumble kinda matched how I felt about the game when I picked up this weapon. I was failing at getting results with the splatling weapon class and had resorted to missiles in order to stop feeling so helpless...

Gear Intent: One main of Special Power Up is my go to with missiles, one main of Quick Super Jump and Stealth Jump to take advantage of beacons...when I actually have any down lol. The rest is utility abilities.

Overall Thoughts: I really like this weapon. Getting two vertical swings is very satisfying and being able to charge slash for the ohko is both fun and allows aggressive play (or at least a chance at trading when in dire straits 😝). The horizontal swipe is great for dealing with dualies and the rainmaker (which is the main mode I use this on). On the otherhand, I don't think this weapon can really take advantage of missiles, but they are still good for displacement so it's not really a negative. Same with beacons, useful when you can set them but the map design means it's hard to put them in useful/interesting places as this weapon isn't really the sneaky get -behind-enemy-lines kinda weapon...not that the map design really allows that kinda play for the most part anyway 🙄

[ss-hikaru]

Date Night Chandelier Quilt Cover

Main Fabric: Date Night (Basic Grey by Moda)

Filler Fabric: Emma Loiuse Vanilla

Backing Fabric: Bambusa Flat Sheet Latte

So this is what has been taking up a lot of my time recently. I thought I'd finally done the math properly but I still ended up with extra blocks lol.

The pattern is based on this one from Lella Boutique. I had bought a fat eighth pack so wanted to use it on a fairly large project. And for the backing, I wanted to try a brand that wasn't Ecosa.

The blocks weren't particularly interesting to sew, but the overall effect is nice 😊

[ss-hikaru]

This book left me feeling a bit conflicted. It was very good, but thinking about death makes me feel very uncomfortable. As does the thought of losing cognitive function. I just feel like my thoughts will go into a bad, existential negative spiral if I contemplate it too long. The way the author showed the time of death from the victim's point of view was very unsettling. The way Joyce recalled her friends now no longer of this world was heartwrenching.

I think after Joyce finally let go and cried I started feeling better about it all. It was cathartic for me as the reader too.

Once I was in a better frame of mindI was able to properly appreciate all the great things about this book:

Bogart was awesome. So pragmatic and straightforward.

It was also sweet reading Joyce's thoughts about Joanne.

The balance between the police and the Thursday Murder Club was well done.

I am curious if Karen and Jason get together after that amazing first date 🤣

To be honest I spent most of the book eagerly waiting for it to end thinking I wouldn't read anymore in the series, but by the end I felt more positive about it all. Afterall, as Joanne put it, it's about living and the Thursday Murder Club are doing just that. So I probably would read another but I'm not sure if I could take it if anything happened to the main cast or Stephen 😭

[ss-hikaru]

Splatoon 3: Zekko Hoodie

(Man'O Wardrobe Inspired)

So I have loved the Zekko Hoodie since Splatoon 1, and made a bootleg of it many years ago (with my hobby heat press...the vinyl didn't adhere very well so it was very bootleg...) but after making it I realised...it's a bit too much maroon than I'm comfortable wearing IRL lol.

So that hoodie got donated and Splatoon 2 came and went and I still had leftover fabric in my stash. And during that time, my thinking kinda changed from wanting to make things as close to the in-game version as possible to well actually I should make things I will wear because they are comfortable and to my preference. So I made this short sleeve cropped sweater with the leftover fabric and you know what? Apparently this is a doable amount of maroon 🙃

I made this way before they introduced the 3/4 sleeve variation on the hoodie, which I think is cute, but I know I can't do 3/4 anything IRL, so happy with this one as is.

[ss-hikaru]

Squid Fashion Exhibit #10

Fashion Theme: Maroon and Off-White. I've loved this hoodie since the first Splatoon, and I was originally using the Sudadera Celeste (like everyone else using Ninja Squid) so wanted to switch to something else quickly 🤣 The glasses were something that I thought wouldn't go with anything, but that maroon tint on the lenses ended up being perfect. And Rockenberg shoes are always cool 😎

Emote: When you're wearing weird glasses like this a dorky little jiggle seems appropriate

Gear Intent: Ninja squid cos roller with SSU to offset the swim speed penalty. SCU and SS for them missiles. 1 main of ISM cos I always run outta ink for that decisive swing. Yeah I could just learn ink management but this is easier 🙃

Overall Thoughts: This was my roller of choice based on playing it a little in Splatoon 2. I really like how it's a hybrid between the Splat Roller and Dynamo. For some reason Splat Roller doesn't feel nice to play to me. But with Flingza I still get that roller horizontal playstyle (cos Dynamo horizontal is so different) with the deliberate-ness of the slow vertical.

I like that it's quite versatile in that you can play sneaky or you can play area denial mid-line. I really like this weapon on Sturgeon Tower Control. Sneaking around mid and whacking people, then hiding around mid and whacking people is such fun 😝 I should play this weapon more often.

[ss-hikaru]

Fenix Sweater

Hmm I might have gotten the fabric pattern the wrong way around? 🤣 No matter, I like the way this looks 😝

This was a test of the Fenix Sweater pattern using fabric I bought for a potential sweater a long time ago. Not sure what I was thinking, only buying 1m for a sweater LOL. I'm proud that I managed to make it work by adding a yoke haha, even offsetting the pattern to make it distinctive. But not so happy about the puckering, I really suck at sewing stretch fabrics...

I tried making this by sewing the seams with my overlocker only. I think the seam is not quite wide enough, so the pockets weren't really properly secured, so I half-assed it and just sewed a zigzag stitch over those areas...with black thread... the funny thing is I actually barely notice it when I'm wearing it haha.

I really like how oversized this is. It's so comfy ❤️ And because of the print it makes for a decent WFH top 😝

[ss-hikaru]

This was a pretty slow burn. I only really started to enjoy it around the 60% mark. I found it a bit hard to get to this point because Winnie and Binh were both not particularly likeable. By the end of it though, I felt more sympathetic to both of them, although I can't say I grew to like them. What kept me reading was probably the non-chronological storytelling and the way the different stories ending up linking. It was very satisfyingly done.

I was surprised at the supernatural element. But it felt right due to the setting. I liked how things were open enough for interpretation while feeling pretty confident on my own interpretations.

I was also surprised because I had assumed 'going missing' was a bad thing. But in both cases it was more than the woman involved wanted to go missing.

This was a book that I read because it was on some recommended reading list. I usually don't really enjoy those book choices but this one was pretty good. I considered giving it a gold ranking, but to be honest I don't think I would ever reread it. I would recommend it to certain friends though.