HI :DDD

Hope your all doing alright, im doing pretty well as of now.

2nd week has gone by without a hitch, academics are passing right by me with some effort, but not TOO much, which im grateful for.

Havent gotten around to doing last weeks work yet though, will probably do it in the coming few days :p.

I was too busy with SILKSONG BABYYYYYYY

…well, setting it up mostly.

I HAVE been playing it, just not much. I died A LOT while trying to configure it on the legion go, mainly because I switched operating systems, then had to fix the controllers and bios settings before it was playable.

Its a small web of issues but basically, the legion go’s default deadzones were horrible (which I couldnt change from nobaraOS), dead by daylight cant be played online on nobaroOS either (but now I CAN play it :)) and charging the device while playing TANKS the performance, which was made better by some bios changes but not NEARLY ENOUGH.

So given that, I figured id switch to bazziteOS, which is basically steam’s operating system but for the legion go, and I was able to get things up and running in a day, (THANFULLY) fixing most of the issues in the process

Also tweaked the bios of course.

Honestly, id just go for windows if it werent for how horrible microsoft has been lately with their data collection, but god did the infuriating matches on dbd when I hadnt fixed the deadzones TEMPT ME ANYWAYS, I WAS RIPPING MY HAIR OUT.

Now its all good though :].

Anywho, POST IMAGES :0.

Yea, I dont know if any of you know this, but ive been setting featured images on each post for a while now, sort of like a little thumbnail for each post. Not all of them of course (I didnt do this at all when I first started), as you’ll see now if you go check out the website’s post section, but I plan on filling them out now that ive made them public, so dont worry about that. When its all done, ill let you know here :).

Ill figure out how to get them to appear when I send posts as emails too, but right now im too pooped to do it (and I gotta head 2 bed 4 classes soon anyways)

Right now though, im really thinking about head space.

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You know, every single person has their own space, the small black box in their mind that gives them sense, emotion, reason and creative thought. You can try scanning a brain’s signals within itself sure, but that doesnt tell you much about whats going on in there other basic physical responses.

Calling it a “small black box” isnt doing it justice either, every person youve ever met, and I myself, all have infinitely looping chasms of space in our heads, where all sorts of situations, fantasies, and stories (fictional or not) are made to make sense. Theres practically a universe for every person whos ever been conceived, stored within their own mind.

What really captures my imagination at the thought of this though isnt just the sheer scale of it all. Its, and this is really the only word I can think to capture the idea, each mind’s aesthetic.

If every one of us has brain space to make our own, dont you ever think what another’s might look like compared to yours? What do they imagine late at night? What keeps them at the dinner table, stirring conversation? The sensations of joy, anger, or sadness, how do those look in another persons mind, with what tint do they perceive them?

Do you see yourself as a free spirit, often riding off into sunsets? Do you soak yourself in moonlight when your the least bit energetic? What music plays in your head when you study? What artstyle does your mind see in? When you daydream to music, is it 2D, or is it 3D >:/?

Both???

We meet so many people, many of which we grow close to, but do you know any of their minds? Their headspace?

Can you?

Depending on how long youve known a person, you might build a mental image, but something as abstract as this, at least from your mind to theirs, seems so unfathomably hard to translate I cant imagine ANYONE gets it right.

or maybe they do?

And of course, one of the foundations of your mind burrows its way deep into this question as a pervasive issue, your memory. Assuming you do have an image of somebody else’s mind, is it possible to retain it after long stretches of time, or will it fade? Warp?

How do you know, that it hasnt already. Is your image of them true?

I dont know. But I like sharing that space, sharing two minds. Whether it be with friends, family, or strangers.

How would you further that goal though? Surely I havent gone as for as I could, right?

I mean, it definitely needs an enjoyment of the other person, that goes without saying. other than that though, id guess that whats important is trust.

To even know the world off of someone else’s mind takes trust, mainly that their mind is similar to yours, compatible.

But I guess, you cant really know if you can share minds if you dont first try.

huh.

I should totally ask some1 to be brain buddies. dunno what itd look like, im sort of just spitting word outta my brain is they come and go, but its fun >:)

Brain buddies…

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Consider these shower thoughts, do what you will with it :).

Anyhow, I made a bunch of food this week. The main two staples were these though

Chicken and lentils with a bunch of veg, and some beef noodles and veg :0.

The chicken lentil was a total experiment, I sorta just worked with whatever I could find in my pantry this week. I took the boned chicken from the freezer, tossed it in with diced chicken breasts, and shakshouka-esc seasonings, and badabing badabong.

It does take some time with the vegetables to start, you put them (carrots and onions) on medium heat for a while till they smell nice, then throw in seasonings, then a can chopped tomatoes, then the washed lentils, and FINALLY some veggie broth that I made on the spot and the chicken from earlier.

NOW, you wait around 40 minutes and boom, meal ready.

Its really hearty and has this really nice more fiery flavour from the spices, since I made it differently than the original chicken lential soup recipe (and I basically combined like 3 different recipes I saw on youtube), but it made for a GREAT meal and im happy every time I eat it :).

O, also, you know how for soup a lot of people like to drizzle some lemon, or olive oil in their portion for flavour? I did that with nandos peri peri sauce, and its perfect >:0.

THE SPICE, WITH THE SPICESAPIUEFHOAIEUHFASASAAAAAAUGHH ITS BEAUTIFUL.

I love it, its delicious.

And probably (hopefully) really good for you.

The next recipe, beef noodles and veg, was much simpler. I used to use seperate pots too, but ive just stuck for one this week, and probably will for the forseeable future.

Cut all the veg (peppers, onion, green onion, garlic, ginger) and but them in order of aromo and taste enhancers to staple veggies after the beef has cooked.

For the beef, I put it in the pot when its on high heat, then press down on the beef as it sizzles in the pot for a minute before breaking it apart now. it makes for a really nice browned bit to each bite that really enhances the texture and flavour.

Once everything is in the pot though, you put in the sauce (for this time it was fish sauce, light + dark soy, oyster sauce sugar and corn syrup) and let it reduce for a while. This time a sort of went too heavy on the heat, so you can tell its a tad bit dry, but thats also mainly because I hadnt fully mixed it before taking the pic (and went really low on oil).

Once the sauce id done, but in the noodles, and cook on low till you like it. Then add the frozen peas, they unfreeze almost immediately in the food its awesome.

And voila!

Again, went pretty low on oil, just cooked the beef with its own oil from its fat (even if it was 3% fat) and didnt add any oil to the veg or noodles while they were cooking, but thats mostly because my last couple of attempts at beef noodles have all felt way too heavy and oily.

Thankfully, the change worked quite nicely, and I got a really healthy meal out of this too, other than the bunch of sugar I added of course.

It was mainly to finish up the bit I had left, but also as genuinely important ingredient that most recipes use.

Still though, ill be ditching it next time too.

I feel like I have too much sugar in the day, and thats without sweets. So I bought a bunch of sweeteners for general use, and hopefully once my sugar runs out I wont be buying any more :v.

About the dish this time around though, I had a thought while I was making this meal. Dont know if its because of the streak ive been on, first with vegetable soup and then lentils and now heavy veg and beef rice over pasta (cut the pasta portion in half) but something my mind came back to while making the meal was heavy role each ingredient outside of the vegetables were in MAKING the vegetables enjoyable.

I believe it was in adam ragusea’s video on chicken soup, where he said that one of the chief virtues of chicken soup was that it made large amounts of vegetables delicious. At the time I didnt think much, but having drilled so much research into food health as of late, I think it rings true for all of the foods that we eat.

A lot of the carbs, the protein, while they can be had alone, to feed the body substantively takes a GOOD amount of fruit and veg, and I feel great as of l8 with that concept in mind in my home cooking. Good thing that thats the case, because its honestly really easy now >:), veggies are a piece of cake (not literally).

Doesnt mean ive stopped indulging in any of my favorite foods, but its nice that my main meals are much healthier than they were when I first came to leeds.

And yea, the research is its own thing. Mostly just mucking about online for resources, but ive learned a lot about sweeteners, a bit about obesity, and a couple different faraway things about healthy dieting.

For the sweeteners, theres barely any long term research on the main few, like aspertame and sucralose-K, and CERTAINLY not more than a few to connect dots, research is still inconclusive. For me though, ive found putting some squash (flavored concentrate with sweeteners into my water every once and a while) helps keep my sweet cravings at bay whenever they show up, so even if theres a bit of risk im willing to use it regardless, especially since I can ween it out pretty easily.

Theres also the stuff on general dieting, and thats more of what ive already said. A lot of fruits and vegetables of course, and in general good to keep the satiety index in mind, butfood with a low glycemic index is really important too.

Theres also the main 3 evils of a modern diet (from what ive seen). Not necessarily bad but more that we have them too much on a daily basis. Those are salt, sugar, and saturated fats.

The sugar ive already told you about, its been reduced pretty substantially.

Salt was never a problem, though its nice to check labels for it now that I have it in mind while shopping.

And lastly, saturated fats. Theyre harder to TOTALLY eliminate, but just switching to skimmed milk has been good for me so far. Other than that, I may have had some ice cream from home bargain this week, and will likely continue to have some in the next, but I can at least say wth my milk being skimmed that I have less saturated fats in a week :v.

O, and on the topic of sweets, ive been getting oddly into oats and weetabix. May have mentioned weetabix last week but this week was a whole new level, I LOVE snacking on them as a nice low calorie treat its awesome. Now that ive adjusted to the taste its grown on me quite a bit.

The oats too, but less so. Ive been learning to make porridge oats, and although I have given it a couple of tries with some frozen berries, im still a long way to go till its a mainstay. Ill keep trying though, since if I CAN swap some of the heavy hitting sweet treats for oats more often than not, my stomach will probably thank me.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand yea.

…not sure when this became a food post but damn, there was a lot to say there I guess :p. Its been useful learning more about food, it IS fuel after all, so its worth talking about, but wow is this a lot.

Thanks for reading along so far :). Its been quite messy, and im quite scatter-brained compared to how I usually am (im SURE you can tell), hope you didnt mind that for this post.

About the aesthetics thing though, that HAS been on my mind, but in a way that makes more sense than usual, so I guess I should explain that a bit more before heading off.

Ive been thinking lately about how I present myself, both physically and socially. Ill focus on the physical for now, as I cant really put the social bit into words yet.

Physically, People who create art who present themselves closer to what their imagination might say usually have very distinct fashion, really cool knick knacks, or really cool rooms, and are just really cool people. ive met a couple of people like that in my lifetime.

I was thinking of how id do that myself. How could I make my waredrobe suit me and my style (whatever that is)? How could I make my room feel like MY room?

Thing is, itd cost a bunch to really get it right, and idk if I CAN even decorate my own room, or should, since I have no clue how long ill be living in this shared space (im scared to put my mindwave poster up in fear that itll be gone in like 2-3 years :’) .

(I could probably figure out how to hang the poster without the need to discard it when I move and just take it with me, but with everything going on atm ive just delegated it for just this thought bubble in my brain)

I mean, is this somewhere I plan to live for long? I havent really answered that question yet, but probably not right? So given that, Should I go all in on decorations? Wont matter if theyre easy to take with me if I move, but still costly

I really want to, but its probably not worth it RIGHT NOW. I have other things to worry about, mainly getting a mini fridge atm, since I can barely cook as it is and NEED more fridge space.

So yea, probably gonna leave that for l8r. Ill also have to figure out what to throw, personally I have a hard really time throwing stuff away, clothes or junk lying around (I do my best to store it) but thats a WHOLE other rabbithole.

With all good things, its mainly balance.

I can just leave the fashion for l8r, my wardrobe is drab but livable as is. Once I get the mini fridge ill probably just start decorating my room slowly but surely.

Or ill get the mini fridge in installments this month and this discussion will have been a bit less poignant :v. Who knows.

Anyways, thats mainly where my brain was at with the headspace segment. How I present myself both physically and socially. The aesthetic of an individual, I guess.

Now that I think about it though, I need to be able to put into words what art has to do with this, its such a visceral connection to a person’s mind, but I have no idea how id even say any of these words. I barely know what im saying right now, it must sound like jargon to anyone reading :p. Its just really hard to externalize this black box of mine you know?

Honestly? I REALLY wanna have a discuss about this with some1, but idk if we’d be able to get to the bottom of things.

Ill just have to keep refining it in my mind till I can type it down on keyboard I guess :v.

Well, again, thank you for being here, it means a lot :). That your willing to enter my head for a while is quite a meaningful event for me, even if im not there to see it. That I give a piece of myself in writing to those who care and the worldwide web as a whole is a joy, sobI hope you shared in that this read.

Thats all for now, hope to see you next week ❤