Chilling reflections by Drew Hayes

Plot

After the end of the last book life has gone back to whatever counts as normal for our superheroes and villains. With the addition of Tories line of self-defense products that are being launched forcing her to spend be presentable and spend time in the corporate world. That it until a dimensional nova bursts and sends shock-waves through the multiverse including earth. For a time the barriers between dimensions are weaker causing random (and not so random) portals to open releasing various monsters.

The nova is a time of chaos but also opportunity for those like VRX77 who can more easily travel to this dimension. Traveling here means hiding from Lodestar but it's worth it because this Tori Is a 97% match and VRX77 will do anything it takes to get her.

the New science sentries are struggling with the death of their teammate at the end of the last book. Something that's hitting Ellie hard and professor Quantum is plotting to get the team back to how he wants it even if it means kicking out certain members.

My thoughts

I didn't know the short story collection would be so integral to this but it is. For a large part of the story Ivan is off doing his own thing after getting called away to an other dimension by a friend from one of the short stories. Which I don't mind between him and Lodestar there are a lot of potential deus ex machina characters.

It had a point in the middle that felt very much like it was the end. With the main threat being neutralized. This book however is one where different characters follow different plots intersecting one another rather than converging like the other books. 

After Ike's death in the last book the characters ever present need for more power takes on a new urgency. Tori realize that even her new suit made from the material she stole from Alfred Settler doesn't hold up as well as she had hoped against VRX77 and the other more powerful foes they are coming up against. In this world there is always someone stronger and so getting stronger just means more difficult opponents.

Also professor quantum gets worse the more you learn about him to the extent that it's questionable why he is even in the AHC. At least if Quorum or Lodestar knew about it their reaction would be interesting. At least in this there are a sense of petty revenge in that his plans all fail and some theirs steal his stuff.

The epilogue sets up so much plots and I can't wait for the next book.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Chilling.

Witch king by Martha Wells

This book has been languishing on my to read shelf for far to long. I originally bought it because I like other books the author has written (Murderbot) but this one never really caught my attention. 

Kai wakes up imprisoned and held in stasis/dead under water with his demon powers bound. Realizing he has been dead for almost a year and now that he is free he sets out to find out who and why he was held prisoner and where his missing friends are. Since he found out they had disappeared at the same time he had. Finding a larger conspiracy then he was expecting. Interspersed in this is flashback from his youth and the war against the Hierarchs and rebellion he and his friends lead against them.

My thoughts

There is a lot of world building here to be explained, about the demons and their powers, about all the other kinds of magic users and their powers. This isn't really helped by every other chapter being a flashback too the original was and rebellion. The war it an other thing to be explained though even after reading quite a bit it's still confusing. There is some big meeting happening and they have been kidnapped to keep them from going but its not clear what the meeting is about or why it's important. All this explaining means that it took a long time for the plot to get going, over a hundred pages. In general it feels like a sequel. Maybe it's because of how it started, with them already imprisoned and with all that happens before. But just as it feels like a sequel it also feels like it never really got past the beginning. Even after 300 pages it still feels like it haven't really started.

Appart from this it's fine, but I don't like the characters as much as I like others she has written. Though that might have to do with this book having a larger number of them. All in all it's a bit meh to me. The descriptions are good, so is what action there is and the descriptions of magic but there is nothing tat realy speaks to me. In the end I might read the next in the series if it seems like it has more plot but also I might not.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Witch king

Save money#6 make stock

 This is a bit of an experiment since I've never done this before. But I was inspired to do this when I saw a video about environmentalism and a person said she saved her kitchen scraps to make stock. This was from a zerowaste perspective but it works equally well for frugal people. Not that stock is that expensive but still. 

So before I begin I should say that I've never made stock before. I know my sister tried to do chicken stock once and ended up throwing it all away so I'm not super confident. I decided to try it. 

Looking through my big cookbook I actually found a recipe for vegetable stock. So rather than look for another I used that. The recipe assumes using whole vegetables rather than scraps but well see. 

For a while I have been gathering scraps like carrot and parsnips peels, leaves from cauliflower, onion and other things. This was the work of a few weeks so I put it in boxes in the freezer and slowly filled them. 

Cooking

I'm not going to include the recipe here because it's not my recipe and I'm sure there are plenty you can find. But it was basically put vegetables and salt in pot add water, boil then let simmer. Finally run it through a sieve. To make it more flavorful I threw in some oregano. I have some growing (dying) in the window so the wilted pieces went in as well.

At this point I realized I have nothing to store it in except some glass jars which is less than ideal for freezing. I did worry that the jars would break when it froze but I also wasn't sure it would last in the fridge. I tried to not fill them completely and luckily they didn't crack. 

Results

I'll admit this takes some time both to gather the scraps and to cook the stock. I'm currently at a point where I work from home and so have time to keep an eye at a pot that need to simmer for a few hours. 

I've used it in a few things since then some couscous and a soup. It's worked well though it is less salty than stock-cubes and it is less versatile so ill still be using them but this was I fun little experiment and I'm already starting to gather scraps for the next batch. 

Handbok i livets konst by Epictertus

Those that read my labour day post might recognize this book since it's the book I brought to read on the picnic.

This is a Swedish translation of the Greek original. In English the title would read Handbook to the art of life more commonly known as Enchiridion of Epictetus. It's technically not written by Epictertus either but is a compilation of his thoughts written by his student. 

Most importantly it's Roman/greek philosophy from around 100 A.D. Epictertus was for a time a slave belonging to Emperor Neros secretery. Meaning he and an interesting combination of high influence and low status. He was part of the stoic movement which among other things focused on self control and duty. 

My thoughts

The book it short only 70 pages and is made up of 53 texts each raging from a singe sentence to two pages. So it's a very fast read even if you stop to consider it. 

A lot of the texts express what is today called the circle of control. Basically that you should recognize that there are things in your life that you can control and things you can't. In Epictertus the things you can control are your own thoughts and actions. Everything else should just be accepted for what it is. He does take it a bit too far though when he talks about how one must accept the loss of things and family. He isn't wrong everyone you know will die eventually but the way it's phrased is a bit cold hearted especially since he doesn't seem to think that the loss should upset you. In general nothing should upset you. 

This is the parts where you are reminded of him being a slave and so having less control of his life than most.  

Apart from self control another theme is doing ones duty and to consider ones reputation. Though it does hold people to an impossible standard to the point that I think would sap any joy from life. I'm thinking of text nr 33 which says to avoid invitations to parties and to talk as little as possible. That just unnecessary harsh.

curly girl method an experiment

 For the last half a year I've seen a lot of curly hair things on the internet specifically the Curly girl method. I figured some more defined curls would look good on me so I decided to try it out and document my results.

As a starting point my hair is wavy and loosely curled when wet after some tests I concluded that it's also lowporosity and has thick strands. 

So what is the CGM I'm lazy so rather than reading a lot of different blogs I asked chatgpt to do it for me. Basically it's things you can do to get more curls and to have them survive for longer. Reading through it I did things several things that I already do although for different purposes. 

1 prewash detangle your hair with a wide tooth comb 

This is something I already do and don't feel the need to change. Though my main reason for detangling my hair before showering has more to do with limiting the amount of hair stuck in the drain.

2 washing use a shampoo without sulfates or silicones

So, there is several ingredients that weighs down your hair I used the  curlsbot to check the ingredients before my experiment. 

3 same with conditioner

I don't usually use conditioner, I've never really seen much difference weather I use it or not. But for this I'll get one and try.

4 apply gel while wet 

This is to not loose the curls while the hair dries. Reddit recommended I use aloevera gel for this. I have a vague idea that its skincare properties will translate to hair, maybe? My sister on the other hand who has also gone into the CGM rabbit hole recommended something called Ecogel.

5 air dry 

Again I already do this mostly cause I'm lazy 

7 refresh mist with water and scrunch waves into place 

This is things to do the next day. 

8 other

There is a few other things one can do like sleeping on a silk pillow case or with the hair in pony tail on top of head. I tried the second one but it was very uncomfortable and I value my sleep more than my hair so we shan't be doing this.

9 time

So chat gpt said nothing about this but some googling turned up that it might take some time to show results. 

The experiment

My plan is to try these things out one at a time to see what will make a difference starting with shampoo and conditioner. I'm going to try each for a month and see what difference it made.

For this I have 3 different shampoos. 

Garnier solid shampoo, with forbidden ingredients. 

By Viera curl shampoo, This should be specific for curly hair and has only approved ingredients.

Friendly lavender and teatree bar, this is not specifically for curls but it doesn't have any of the forbidden ingredients (after an update to the curlsbot it now has some but it's too late to change) and I already had some. 

The fact that two of them are shampoo bars might be a problem but I prefer them and haven't found anything that suggests it would make a difference.

To this I'll add conditioner TRESemme flawless waves and Aussie three minute miracle. 

Month 1

First out was the friendly bar and the Aussie conditioner.

The results was distinctly mid. My hair is wavy but not more or less then it always is. It is more greasy though unpleasantly so though it isn't really visible.

Month 2

Garnier time and still doing the Aussie conditioned.

Testing them I get some unexpected results the Friendly one leaves my hair greasy and full of build up. The Garnier doesn't something about the shampoo makes the conditioner stick so my hair so really soft. It is a little dry so I added a few drops of hair oil to the ends. 

It doesn't make it curly but it's nice and I considered getting more of it only to realize that it is apparently out of stock everywhere. 

Month 3

Curly girl time with the By Wiera and TRESemme. 

This is sort of in the middle a bit greasy but not much and again no change in the curls. The By Wiera is wierdly gelatinous but it's fine.

Results 

At the end of every test month I took a picture of my hair. This is my hair washed with shampoo and conditioner, air dried and nothing else. Looking at them now month two does have nicer curls but not to an extent that I cant say it's because of the length. In general this is not at all what the results should be according to CGM.

With results like these I think I'm going to give up on this use up my leftover shampoo and then try to get a hold of something like the garnier bar. 

As for the gels the eco gel that my sister recommended worked well and the aloe vera did nothing.

The Scum Villain´s Self-Saving System 3

This is the 3rd book in the serie if you are curious about the previous ones the reviews of the first and second are here. But the general premise is: Shen is dragged into the fantasy book he read and now has to fix the plot.   

Plot

After last book Shen is in the demon realm held hostage by his former disciple and stalker Lou Binghe.

Shang the author who is also dragged into the book visits and reveals more about the story and that the reason for several of the plot-holes is him dropping the more complex plot-lines about Lou´s parent in favor of adding more romantic partners. Mostly as a result of fan reactions.

This becomes relevant when Shen collapses unexpectedly and wakes up in his original body (technically its his second body) laid to rest in a mausoleum filled with dead demon kings and magical traps along with Tianlang-jun Lou´s father who is contrary to popular belief is not dead. But who does plan to get revenge on the humans who trapped him for decades. 

Thoughts

All descriptions of this series describes as danmei (boys love) and I've got to say it's not. The system ships the Shen/ Lou romance but Shen doesn't really have any romantic feelings for Lou. Don't get me wrong he cares for Lou but it's more paternal maybe. Also the more interactions they have the less sure I am of Lou´s feelings either. He is obsessed with Shen but I'm starting to think it more like a father figure. Though one he wants to fuck so maybe not. They definitely need to actually talk to each other rather than just making assumptions of the others feelings.

this all lead to  the book being a bit attempted rapey. I suspects that they will get together in the end but I'm not sure if I want them to. On the other hand that would be following the tropes and this author is very aware of tropes and cliches using and subverting them. So hopefully it will end well.

We do find out that part of last books plot was caused by the demon Zhuzhi-lang helping Shen. Though the help was ruining his reputation so he'd leave the sects that the demons are planing to destroy. I do like this character being another in the long line of people making Shens life difficult. Shen's continuing struggle to be dignifies, proper and respected being hindered by the system, Lou, Shang and many more is just one of the things that makes this book fun and enjoyable.

In this book The system forces Shen to explore various the backs stories of different characters including his own, sort of. At least it's the backstory of the character he is inhabiting. Alss the backstory of Tialang-jun Lou´s demon father who like Shen now have a body made from mushroom (it's a weird book). It does deepen them and adds substance to the book and explains some of the characters actions adding nuance to them. It wasn't necessarily something I'd thought the books were lacking but it is nice. 

save money #5 free stuff swapping

In my local facebook group I saw that a local garbage company was organizing an event. Here people could get rid of things that can't be recycled in the normal bins but also for things that were in good condition they would be set out for people to take. 

Events like this along with buy nothing groups are fairly common and good places to find things for free or at least cheap. The downside is that the selection tends to be limited so finding something specific can take time. 

I didn't have anything I needed but I had things I wanted to get rid of and I was curious. It is amazing how much things I found that I didn't want anymore. I wasn't even doing a decluttering just keeping an eye out and slowly the pile of things grew. Adding  that I'm maybe considering moving soon and it makes this very timely. 

The day of

The event started at 3 and I had a lecture until 4. It didn't say on Facebook when it would end but I assume it's at least a few hours so I'm trying to make it if not there is another event in a month. 

I did make sure to pack everything before hand so I could just leave directly after the lecture. That same day I'd gotten a delivery and the box came in handy to transport it. Partly since I was going to get rid of the box and I don't want to get rid of the bags.

Turned out my lecture ended early so I could leave and be there a bit after three. There were quite a lot of people there but not that many interesting things. They brought things out as they came in so there might have been something if I stayed longer. But I didn't. 

Though I did find some things a stack of clay pots but they didn't have draining holes so I left it. I did pick up a pot to use as a mold for some future candle-making endeavors. 

In the end I didn't find much I wanted but if I had been less picky or stayed longer there were plenty I could have picked up. I'm mostly glad to be rid of my things, mostly my printer which has been a source of frustration almost since I bought it.