It is February  but January lingers.

For the past 15 years or so my New Year's Resolution is not to make one. Why wait to be a better person when you can start any day. New Years Resolutions tend to be pretty grand and people tend to set themselves up for failure and then disappoint themselves. 

It is better to make small consistent achievable goals than just one grand goal that is done very rarely. 

 Buutt the getting better sleep is a good one though. Check out Sleep Hygiene with Trevor Noah

Also Year of the Tiger 22 is my lucky number! I keep flipping back and fourth with paperwork from 2021 that I forget it is indeed 2022. 

Everyone has something that the Pandemic has changed their life drastically with... My thing is better work/life balance. Before the Pandemic I was working 45-60 hour work weeks, working 7 days a week. I only took 1 Sunday off once a month for almost 2 years. One advantage during working so much of that is I utilized time management. So when someone says they don't have time for me it grinds my gears. Like seriously? Yeah you just don't want to make time just say so. These days I don't stand for drama in any aspect of my life. 

I've been thinking I've come a long way even in this last year last January/February I was still sleeping on a mattress on the floor in a studio apartment. It was cold, and I was working a toxic job that underpaid and overworked. I was close to failure but I did not give up. 

Now in days I work hard at my own pace but then take it easy. Since last Spring I don't sleep on a mattress on the floor. I'm still trying to work on getting up a little earlier. But I didn't think I would be where I am now taking the plunge to work for myself. Set my own schedule and not have that stress and fatigue. It was rough at first with losing my wallet, and the nightmare that followed that but things can and do get better. Hang in there. Merry New Year!

Cyclamen are some of my favorite flowers you can only buy in the winter.

Remember Summer Days is my current Jam

I was writing another post about my newish job as a Courier in Seattle. The highlights of wacky and wonderful things I come across. I am one of many to have joined the Great Resignation in October. My experience today at Uwajimaya in the International District has been Phenomenal. It is the largest Asian Food store I've been to. Usually I do my shopping at night to avoid crowds but today I had to go before noon to pickup my pre-order at Hood Famous Bakeshop around the corner from there. I think when I go there I'm definitely going in the day time.   

I get so excited its hard to express the feeling and connection, I lost my mother who is from the Philippines as a young child. The majority of the culture has been lost to me, despite growing up near other Filipinos. 

With the Hood Famous Bakeshop you had to order food along with alcohol. My order had Ube Eggnog and a small Filipino sweets box. Unfortunately the bakery was hit with a covid case and them being cautious and responsible closed the bakery down. They couldn't fulfil the sweets part of the order but came through with the Eggnog. In the end I choose the option of picking up the box at another time instead of the refund. Yaya more Pinoy snacks later!

I was feeling a little bummed I didn't get the box. I went to the Bakeship first before going to Uwajimaya. So I've been on this journey since I was a kid to find out the name of  what this ooie gooey brown coconut tasting sweet is called. I found it today. It is called Sapin Sapin. I'm seriously happy. Of course no one understands my happiness, since I haven't really came across people who lived my life similarly. 

Usually when I shop at night a lot of the Uwijimaya lunch packages aren't fresh or there isn't that many options available because the good ones have already been picked over. I was totally blown away with this Japanese Katsu sandwich. Cutlet was crispy and soft at the same time. I got some pork buns, other usual Filipino food I make. Made out like a bandit with my loot. 

I only tried an espresso shot cup sample of the Eggnog and it is delicious and rich. I know I can't drink a full glass of that. 

Merry Christmas to you all. Take care and stay safe. 

This is my 2020 & 2021 theme song :D

Current Epic Spotify Playlist

On my days off I started a tradition since last monthish of going to different cafes to try out different coffee and pastries. But sometimes I'll just hit up the usual places. 

I am a low ranking foodie. My food picture game is basic, nothing extraordinary. The thing that sets me apart and I joke makes me one of the worst is I’ll not only take a picture of my food 

but also friend’s food as well. 😂

I tell myself I’ll draw/paint this someday. I tell myself...

There is this one particular plate of tacos my friend had like 5 years ago and it pops up every now and then in my photo memories. I send it to my friend and say “Hey look at the tacos you had then at that place.” These particular tacos look ok but nothing visually outstanding. Not sure why I took a picture of those tacos. Will I ever paint those tacos? I leaning towards no, but it is in my photo reference gallery. And it is an ongoing joke. Maybe I'll use it for something, just maybe...

Here are a few places I’ve been to since starting this sweet adventure.

Donut Factory 

Open until 8. So far one of the only places that serves coffee the latest. One of my next stops that serves coffee late is Distant World’s Coffeehouse. There is some strategic planning involved if you are not on foot. It is nestled in a busy intersection between two different one way roads. 

The purple one is ube flavored. 

 Brown one with the chopped nuts is the Ferraro Rocher, has the real candy on top.

Ferrero Rocher containers make the best reusable paint palettes. 

It is also an excuse to buy the candy for the sake of the arts. 

Nutella bar with a pirouline on top.

The display case is massive. I only took a picture half of the display. It also was pretty tall, I'm 5'2 and it was gigantic case towering over. This is at my eye level, with another few rows on top. 

Mercury’s Coffee

Went to Mercuy’s Coffee this week. Apparently they roast their beans here too. The espresso is good and they offer so many pastries, lunch items and coffee. They have plenty of outdoor seating. Parking is tight but manageable. 

Hiroki

Everything here is so good, and beautiful. I haven’t tried it all yet. Small cozy cafe with plenty of parking. 

I would say their tiramisu is the best I’ve ever had. To top their normal tiramisu that they offer a green tea tiramisu. Sounds weird at first but when you try it is so delicious. There is a reason it sells out quickly. 

Probably hands down one of the best mochas I’ve tasted. They use the matcha whisk to stir the mocha powder and espresso. It always has a little hint of matcha tea in the coffee,  

Chocolate Gateau 

Mango honey cheesecake was too sweet for my taste. 

 

Current Spotify Playlist

 Started out as a quick ipad sketch of Cloud Strife. Then got Body Kun to pose for me to enter phase 2. Final Fantasy 7 Remake was a much better game that I thought it would be. I played it last year in the height of quarantine. The original is still better but they made combat interesting and fun. The OG helped cultivate my love of video games and its art when I was a kid and early teenage years. 

Giiirrrrrlll I'll just leave you hangin. Like get back to you like soon? A minute or two or never? I didn't take this one.  I'll have to find my screenshots from my playstation. I take more joke screens than anything. Compared to other people I caputred Tifa's Dolphin punch. Where she does a uppercut and a Dolphin spawns out of nowhere. 

My Resident Evil 2 Remake ones were pretty fun as well. 

In the next few weeks my time management should be under more control, and have more free time for art and more detailed posts.  

Spotify Playlist -

Quite often when you want your passion to be your profession and in the pursuit of perfection...Often can one forgot to have fun. Not everything you work on isn't a magnum opus or I mainly get stuck in the rut that I have to utilize my time as efficiently as possibly. Where everything I draw/paint has to be good. Or get caught up with just only doing theory and practice.

I'm only showing one sketch, but I want to clean them up and color and create Vector art with these. 

I was just watching tv and started thinking/sketching about food based puns as cartoon like characters. Normally I wouldn't draw these types of things, but I drew a couple pages worth of material that I think would make awesome t-shirts. Despite not initially setting out that "This will be an efficient use of my Time" it became something more that just efficient but creatively out of my normal box.

Right now I am totally into What We Do in The Shadows. You kind of have to watch the movie before the show, but I think it is great. Full of brilliant writing and dry dark humor. It is a Mockumentary about these 3 Vampires living in Staten Island New York. The icing on the cake that I do not want to spoil is that there isn't just one type of Vampire, there are multiple and some of the examples are real life examples. This is the Clip that got me to watch the show, found it by accident but glad I watched the movie and starting watching the show.

Spotify Tunes

Do you remember the 21st of September?

Well I do.  It kinda started the 2nd of September but technically it was the night of the 6th of September. 

 It has been a year since I moved to Seattle for a change of scenery and more career opportunity. 

I started my journey a day later than planned. I was running on a lack of sleep altered state, I realized it wasn't safe to start driving cross country. I have a high tolerance for driving, but if you are tired best to not chance it. I can drive 8-12 hours, around there is when I get tired. 

It took me longer to pack and clean the apartment I lived 5 years in. Then there was also the factor there were a few last people I did not get a chance to say goodbye to. I didn't realize I had so many friend and families I got adopted into. One of my friends joked that her parents treated me better than her at times. I even got money on my birthday from those parents. 

Honestly I never liked the place that I lived at but the people and connections I made there was made it bearable and wonderful. But then every place I lived at I at least had 1 lifelong friend, where I come back to town we have fun. 

Here I thought moving here to Seattle I would find myself, complete that entire journey. Boy was I wrong. Still I find myself asking so many questions and still am on that journey to find myself and find those answers. Even thought I am in a different chapter in my life. There has been so many highs and lows. The quest to find yourself seems like it is a continual journey. 

Playlist of Stuff I've been Listening to