Thoughts...

12/15/23: The Long Awaited Ladybug Update

Surprise! This site is not (yet) dead. I'm back with a big life update and a face reveal. When you last heard from me, I was 24, unemployed, and getting pretty depressed about it. A lot has happened in the last few months: I turned 25, became employed, and am less depressed! All jokes aside, I did have a minor quarter life crisis at turning 25, which is partly to blame for my absence. However, I did achieve my goal of breaking into the statistics world, and started my new career as a Research Data Analyst in late October. This job, in addition to being work-from-home, is about two thousand times better than teaching, so I'm very excited about it. I no longer spend 60 hours a week stressing about teenagers, which is a win in my books. In addition to my new life path, I have also completed my most intense knitting project to date: a Norwegian Fair Isle sweater!

Now that you have been thoroughly updated, I assure you that I will be back with more thoughts, recipes, and more in the coming year!

8/21/23: An Ode to the Neutrogena Clean Pore Cleanser

You were the only benzoyl peroxide facewash left on the shelf at the Rite Aid. I felt wary about you, the bright blue and orange packaging evoking memories of the harsh chemicals and drying formulas of early 2000s skincare. You were only $8, and while I love budget skincare, you were dirt cheap (sorry, its true). However, despite my initial reservations, I have grown to love you. The soothing tingle of your menthol, the option to use you as a face mask, and the undisputable fact that after years of different creams, serums, and pills, you are the ONLY thing to clear my skin. So thank you, Neutrogena Clean Pore Cleanser. I am sorry I ever doubted you. You will forever have a place in my heart, and on my shower shelf!

7/30/23: Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This was a recipe requested by a reader! My go-to brussels sprouts preperation that I've made for friends,roomates, and dinner parties. It is slightly based on the brussels sprouts at the restaurant Lemonade.

Ingredients

• Brussels sprouts ( I get them in a bag, but you can buy them on the stalk if you want)
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Balsamic vinegar
• Honey
• Chili Flakes

The key to this recipe is the method of preperation. First, preheat your oven to 450 F with a sheet pan inside. This pre-heats the sheet pan, making it so the sprouts can start roasting asap. While your oven preheats, prep your sprouts by trimming them and slicing in half. Get out a big serving bowl, and toss your sprouts in olive oil, salt and pepper. When your oven is heated, take the sheet pan out (don't forget oven mitts!) and dump the sprouts out onto it. Take a second to use tongs and make sure they are all cut side down. This will ensure maximum crispiness.

Roast your sprouts for 25ish minutes, turning them over halfway. While they are in the oven, you can make the dressing in the same bowl that you used to season the sprouts (which will also be the serving bowl. yay for fewer dishes!) The dressing a 1:1:1 mix of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and honey, but you can play with the ratio depending on how you like it. I always add chili flakes here for an extra kick, but you can leave htem out if you don't like things spicy. Alternativley, you can use hot honey as well! I've never tried it but I can imagine it would be good.

Finally, when your sprouts come out of the oven toss them straight into the dressing and make sure they are evenly coated. Enjoy!

7/27/2023: Teen Drama Revival

Many of you may know that I used to be a high school math teacher. In addition to it being a terrible job that caused me to have panic attacks, be yelled at by 15 year olds, and have my time and effort disrespected every day, it also did something completely unexpected: it RUINED teen dramas for me. Despite being an adult (technically) teen dramas continued to be my favorite form of all media (movies, book, shows) until I started teaching. After starting high school teaching in 2020, I couldn't enjoy any media featuring teens as it just reminded me of my students (yuck). Also I found that most of the teachers were portrayed very cruelly and unfairly, which of course is to be expected if your main audience is teenagers. This really bummed me out, as it made some of my favorite shows near unwatchable. Although, as it has now been an entire six (!!) months since I quit teaching, I'm happy to report that I can finally start enjoying teen dramas again. I still cringe at the unkind depiction of teachers sometimes, as 99% of teachers are just people trying thier absolute best at a job that destroys you. I'm not denying that some teachers truly are villanous though. Anyways, here is a list of my top teen dramas as of late:

• Never Have I Ever
• Gilmore Girls
• Dawson's Creek (I'm rewatching this one now! So good!)

• Freeks and Geeks
• Lizzie McGuire

I tend to stay away from the countless ABC Family shows (Secret Life, Switched at Birth, Fosters etc.) and I don't really care for fantasy like TVD. My teen dramas need to be funny, cutesy, and preferably from the late 90's-2000's. I'm very thankful that my traumatic teaching experiences are fading away and that I can begin to enjoy life once more!

7/24/23: Fun Website Add Ons

I just updated my site with a cute ladybug favicon! This was super easy and a fun way to add a personal touch to my website. I followed this tutorial and used this this converter to turn my .png to a .ico file. That convertio site has actually come in handy a ton when making my page, as Neocities only accepts certain file types. If you're looking for other fun things to add to your site you could add music with the SCM Player (this was super easy!), or make an 88x31 pixel button using Pixilart. While I am trying to keep my page as "90's" as possible, some of these little touches are just too fun to pass up!

7/19/23: Too Polished?

As I continue my journey of making this website, I am frustrated still with how I'm failing to emulate my favorite archived sites. There is a certain chaotic charm to old webpages that I can't seem to grasp, no matter how much pixel art, buttons, gifs, or tiled backgrounds I add. I'm beginning to wonder if my site is just too...nice, for lack of a better word.

For example, Abbagirl's Domain is far and away my favorite archived site, and its almost labrythine in its system of hyperlinks. Each page is super unique, having completley different styles, tons of gifs and images, and a wealth of content I can only asipre to. There are no flex boxes, no div containers, nothing! After a further look I determined that "Abbagirl" didn't use any CSS at all.

While I worked hard to make my website "cute", now I'm thinking that it doesn't really look the way I want it too. I know this sounds dumb, as I just redid this site completley, but I want this site to look worse! Perhaps I will create some shrines in the style of Abbagirl; I just love her site so much. Anyways, I will keep working on the site, and try to follow my own advice of taking things slow.

7/17/23: The Perfect Tomato Sandwich

Its HOT here in NorCal, reaching upwards of 100F everyday, making it the perfect weather for a tomato sandwich.To make my perfect tomato sandwich you will need:

• 1 ripe heirloom tomato (roma will also be ok)
• Garlic-Herb flavor cream cheese
• Two slices good sourdough bread (MUST be sourdough)
• Salt and pepper

1. Make sure you toast the bread, this step is crucial to both taste and structure
2. Spread your herb cream cheese on BOTH sides of your sandwich to minimize tomato slippage
3. Don't forget to season your tomatoes in between each layer if you will have more than one layer of slices

7/17/23: Getting back into it

It took a lot of procrastination,but this new site is up and (pretty much) running. I ws really putting off scrapping my old site, just because of the amount of work it would be to start completely fresh. Now that I have, I really feel so much better. I feel like the style of this site fits me much better!