there & here

story, cosplay, photo, & etc.

[langkasuy]

i finally read Don’t Make Me Think (~revised~), which i feel i should have read many years ago. the whole thing is meaty, but here were my favorite parts, cherry-picked and in no particular order:

In general, I think it’s safe to say that users don’t mind a lot of clicks as long as each click is painless and they have continued confidence that they’re on the right track — following what’s often called the “scent of information.” Links that clearly and unambiguously identify their target give off a strong scent that assures users that clicking them will bring them nearer to their “prey.” Ambiguous or poorly worded links do not.

Some people will complain that three [participants for a user test] aren’t enough. They’ll say that it’s too small a sample to prove anything and that it won’t uncover all of the problems. Both of these are true but they just don’t matter, and here’s why:

The purpose of this kind of testing isn’t to prove anything. Proving things requires quantitative testing, with a large sample size, a clearly defined and rigorously followed test protocol, and lots of data gathering and analysis.

Do-it-yourself tests are a qualitative method whose purpose is to improve what you’re building by identifying and fixing usability problems. The process isn’t rigorous at all: You give them tasks to do, you observe, and you learn The result is actionable insights, not proof.

You don’t need to find all of the problems. In fact, you’ll never find all of the problems in anything you test. And it wouldn’t help if you did, because of this fact:

You can find more problems in half a day than you can fix in a month.

[langkasuy]

i picked up some yellow tomatoes from the farmer’s market last week and finally made a sauce to go along with the maccherotto pasta i got at il corvo after reaching the cash register and feeling suddenly like i had to get more out of the 45 minutes that i spent in line than 2 boxes of pesto pasta.

(which isn’t to say it wasn’t worth it! just that those dry pastas are perfectly placed for impulse purchases. and also that it used to take like 20 minutes. but anyway)

apparently the pastas are made in bronze things which gives the pasta a texture that clings well to the sauce. idk. i just like the different shapes.

for the sauce itself, i referenced this recipe, with some things removed because i didn’t have them on hand. the final ingredient list for me looked more like:

1/4 cup olive oil

4 fresh basil leaves, bruised up

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder (to taste)

1/2 tsp granulated sugar (to taste)

1 tsp dried oregano

2 BIG YELLOW TOMATOES. like each about the size of two fists. sliced up but not seeded

~1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

the basil i bruised up because from a different pesto recipe i learned that that helps bring out the flavor better. and, i ended up simmering it for about 30 minutes and the flavor was pretty strong.

in the end everything turned out great! i imagine next time that i’ll try a shallot like the recipe actually calls for.

[langkasuy]

R won a watercolor from our work spinner the other day!

[langkasuy]

S, B, and i went to our first sip-and-paint event the other day! the painting was “citrus sunset” and the first time i really every tried acrylics. mixing opaques is fun but for now i really prefer watercolor and how easy it is to store. what am i going to do with a whole canvas….

the most exciting part was discovering that someone next to us had actually been painting US 😳  that painting is now hanging up in our office ✨

[langkasuy]

collin’s goodbye card 🐚👋

[langkasuy]

this weekend i finally received the mossery notebook i ordered some weeks ago :’) the packaging is so super nice!

i got the version with mixed media 224gsm paper and it really handles various inks and watercolor really well! the only thing that bled through significantly was….copic markers, again 😭

the pentel brush pen was especially fun on this paper ✨

[langkasuy]

1. one of my goals this year has been to exercise more. it’s been a tough ride but it does get easier. one thing is that progression is slow and doesn’t look the way i expected (ex. i am gaining /more weight/ despite all the other numbers looking healthier). even though it’s vaguely recommended to keep track of your exercises, writing them down makes me feel a little more like i’m in control & actually mastering the process.

2. i got really enchanted by fountain pens some time back and finally got my first one, a lamy safari! (extra fine version.) the ink i’ve been using with it is noodler’s bulletproof black, which has a shading i really like, and which doesn’t feather or bleed through on my small squared moleskine notebooks. the one strange thing is that the combination of this nib and noodler’s black for whatever reason leads to nib leaking. but, the ink stays put on the nib and isn’t actually too messy.

[langkasuy]

going to start also posting about my tea horde!

this is cinnamon cookie puer, which i got from a lupicia in los angeles. it smells amazing and somehow actually does have some cookie essence. even so, it’s not that sweet at all ✨

[langkasuy]

process 4 an abruh & hainter drawing 4 matt !

sidenote: realized one drawback of the neenah paper is that it’s so absorbent that sometimes the color i put down is absorbed right past the lines;;

[langkasuy]

tested out some different marker papers given to me by mary!

the top is Strathmore paper; the bottom, ”Neenah” Solar White paper. i drew something with the strathmore and something with the neenah and didn’t particularly notice any huge quality difference overall between them.

the neenah paper allows the markers to be a little more “wet;” you can really tell this from the above picture from the written text. i used a 0.25 multiliner to write the names of both papers, but the ink was absorbed much more by the neenah paper and the lines became thicker.

comparing between the two, it seemed that the colors shone out more in the neenah paper (though it could also be because the neenah paper was truly white). since the neenah paper is cheaper and you can buy it in reams (!!) it will probably be my go-to for maker drawings for now.

as a side note, both papers had very noticeable amounts of bleed-through.

while testing these papers out, i also tried using copic markers on some watercolor paper, and to my surprise they bled-through even more and the color on the front looked really muddy. i guess watercolor paper must be super absorbent when it comes to alcohol?

i’ve been looking for paper which stands up to bleed-through; even my stillman and birn zeta sketchbook bleeds through with very little pressure. maybe this is just not a possible thing with copic markers  😅

[langkasuy]

~ snorlax and drowzee watercolor 4 a friend ~

[langkasuy]

practicing copics on different types of paper with another of my faves ~

[langkasuy]

practicing with copics on different types of paper with one of my faves ~

[langkasuy]

i relatively recently discovered brush pens. my first was the pentel pocket brush, which is frankly pretty hard for me to use, haha. i decided to try a sampler of some other brush pens, and also brushed a little water over them all to see how they fared in waterproof-ness. in order from top to bottom:

Zebra Disposable Brush Pen (Fine).

my favorite of the set! it feels flexible and easy to control and is also reasonably waterproof (!).

Kuretake Fudegokochi Brush Pen (Regular).

pretty good! i noticed thick lines are very easy to control.

Kuretake No. 8 Fountain Brush Pen.

i really like this one somehow! it’s as brush-like as the pentel pocket brush, though it’s unfortunate that it’s really not as waterproof. i noticed in the instructions that it’s also not recommended to go for long periods of time without using this at least once, which is kind of unfortunate. the ink also runs a little less quickly than in the pentel (meaning it’s a little more streaky)...but maybe it’s because i went too long an interval without using it;;

Kuretake Bimoji Brush Pen (Extra Fine).

pretty ok! i find the grip kind of big and weird and i’m also unfamiliar with why there’s a string at the end which i probably will never put to any use. i also noticed it’s a little less black than the other pens. for some reason the extra fine tip also feels really delicate; i feel a little scared of breaking it.

Pentel Fude Touch Brush Sign Pen (Black).

this one really feels like a felt pen which is kind of unusual, but i noticed that thick lines were also pretty easy to control, like the fudegokochi. it feels a little less “wet” too.

Pilot Fude-Makase Color Brush Pen (Extra Fine).

pretty cool, the line variation feels really easy to do. like the bimoji, the extra fine tip feels really delicate. overall seems pretty solid, and is really dark.

Pentel Pocket Brush

my original! still kind of tough to use (as evidenced by how thick those lines are in the image above), but viscerally fun. the black ink is also VERY black; i compared it once to noodler’s black painted out with a brush and it was super dark and matte in comparison. i also really like how water didn’t affect it at all.

[langkasuy]

i've been working on a lot recently! unfortunately, my current design project is presently still mostly underground, so there's not much i can say about it, yet.

since graduating, i've found myself at a loss for what to write about. i've split off my cosplay blog into a separate blog, but haven't had much time for that either recently. my goals for this year summarize to "write more, draw more, and exercise more," and i've been working hard to de-prioritize anything that's misaligned.

for whatever reason, some months ago, i suddenly got really compelled to learn more about watercolors and ink. A got me a set of winsor & newton cotman watercolors and i’ve been experimenting here and there, and gathering more for my increasingly-ridiculous Art Stuff Horde.

i’ve been trying to draw more in general and feeling incredibly bummed sometimes about the gap between what i desire and what comes out. surprisingly, watercolors help me take it a little easier. unlike with sketching or digital stuff, you can let the color work its way around on its own. with less control, it's easier not to stress about perfection.

i really believed that i would never get into traditional art of any kind; but recently, i've become a fiend of stationaries and pens and papers and paints, and i'm excited to start talking about them a little more and incorporating them into this log.

[langkasuy]

Suzanne finally received the prototype deck of her card game for playtesting, which has my silly design.

the final version will be called "Just Four Kicks." it's seriously hilariously fun; keep a look out for it!

[langkasuy]

adjusting the hairs at the top of the lion's head. i like the one without any lines at all, but it seems like the top-right lion might be the chosen one.