DWYTOTOS: Recommendations - Week 3

I've decided to start a weekly recommendations list: I have no clever name for it as of yet, so this week I've named it:

DWYTOTOS: Don't Waste Your Time On The Other Shit.

Catchy, right?

Tea and the other dank dranks

It's been a cold and rainy week, and I've been throwing a bunch of pity parties! What better to complete the image of the lonely soul than a lovely steaming cup of tea clutched in your hands as you stare forlornly out the window?

We ran out of Trader Joe's Pumpkin Chai Tea Latte Mix, so I've had to make do with the same brand's Peppermint Hot Chocolate. As far as I know, this stuff only comes out around the holiday season and we make sure to stock up on it. The only problem with the chocolatey substance is the packaging it comes in. The canisters are death to open and I've had quite a few instances where chocolate powder has exploded all over my pristine outfit of the day. Those were grumbly mornings.

To help this problem, I've poured all of our hot chocolate into the chai canister. That one has a plastic semi-flexy top, and a scoop, too!

It does look a bit sketch, though.

I usually use about a half scoop of chocolate and add hot water to half the cup, pouring soymilk in to the top. I'm not especially into hot chocolate, it's just that I always forget I dislike chocolate tasting things until the first sip.

Wait. This was the recommendations list, right?

Yeah. So - try it. It's got actual chocolate in it, which will inconveniently stray only to the bottom of the cup - so mix vigourously even when you're drinking. The peppermint is the kicker for me. I adore peppermint. 

Food aka Fuel fo yo hot bod

My go to food this week has been cashews. Now, I don't normally enjoy the nut, as I think it's far too oily and sweet. However, it really has perked me up whenever I sneak a handful whilst slaving over integrals. Maybe it's because cashews naturally remind me of myself. Scattered, some are smiley face up and others are frowny face down.

Yep.

Writing Utensil 

I am, as you will soon find out, a pen fetishist. A stationary supply lover. Someone who creepily caresses notebooks in stores and really doesn't care what other people think. I know what I like in pens and I know what I don't like. So you'll normally never see me picking pens up from the ground and keeping them. I'm too arrogant for that.

However, yesterday after our TOK final, a classmate of mine, M, told me he thought I'd left a pen on my desk. The first thing that flashed through my mind was skepticism. The idea of Amy leaving a pen haphazardly on the table was akin to a mama bear utterly disregarding her cubs and going out to party with the other grizzlies. I'm not sure where that metaphor was going. Anyhow, I looked at him, and the pen in his hand was most definitely not mine. Yet, because of my burgeoning mini-crush on M, I took the chance to be friendly and smiled and thanked him, taking the unsuspecting silver barreled object right before the bell rang.

I hurried to meet best friend M at the locker and forgot about the pen in my jacket pocket. When we sat down in physics, I absentmindedly took it out and tried it in my notebook.

And oh. My. Goodness.

I may have avoided larger barreled pens before, but this will no longer be the case. In my hand I had a Pilot Precise V5 RT. It writes like this:

My text:

• Ink moves smoothly out of the tip. There is slight resistance against the paper, but the tactile response merely adds to the appeal.
• I'm pretty sure this pen will write no matter which angle you apply it to the surface. It may just differ in intensity.
• No feathering as far as I can tell - but there is a bit of show through. This doesn't matter as much to me, though - I like not having pristine white pages. "Demonstration" is written in the upper right corner on the back of the page.
• Grip is rubber, body is plastic. Rather light, it feels quite comfortable in the hand. The clip is not a bother.
• Likely available in all sorts of colors & line styles. Y'all can go to Staples and investigate

Overall: Added to my preferred list. 

Music and Sound

Chris Liebing is the artist of the week. He's a DJ who's been working in German clubs making mixes and amazing tracks for the past few decades. Remember how experimental dance music and intelligent dance music was really popular in the 90s? It's still popular here on the Avelace Times. Liebing has a lot of music on YouTube and runs his own podcast, named am/fm. It's about an hour of his tracks interspersed with occasional snippets of his lovely German accented voice.

He often does collabs with other similar artists, so you can probably predict a trend in the Music section in the next few weeks. Liebing is like a gateway drug.

To Read or To Investigate

Pseudo code. Because of the math IA I've been on Wikipedia pretty often to look up what certain math algorithms are, and there's always some miscellaneous code on the article. My sister's boyfriend G explained it as a sort of diagram to explain how the algorithm functions in a program without using language that would actually run in a program.

The Stray Buttonholes and Misfits

Gap Denim Jacket. I picked one up for super cheap at a Crossroads thrift store on Monday and have already worn it twice this week. I've been looking for one for quite some time as I think they're so versatile and look good with nearly everything. A Banana Republic white denim jacket has been in my possession for quite some time now, but was always a little too flashy to be worn as much as I wanted to wear it. Now that I have a classic blue one, I'm very excited to see what it will add to my closet possibilities.

It also means that I have to take one of my jackets out, though. Which is fine. Spring is nearly upon us and I don't need to count the winter jackets and fleeces are part of my capsule in about a week.

So that's it! Hopefully this will be a bit more polished next time. If there is a next time. No pressure.