Cooking / Eating
- I don’t normally order the milky broth, but I was feeling adventurous, until I had to fish out two slices of craft cheese that I was told to stir in to keep them from burning at the bottom. We chatted over summer fjords, Swedish to Norwegian¹ and $60 pizzas.
- Mom’s 7-layer
cakedip² over the weekend rolled over into Tuesday’s lunch. To make matters worse, I discovered the bottom of the ziploc bag had been pierced by the tortilla chips. I still ate, as would any appreciative daughter, the dampened chips and drippy dip. - I treated myself to watermelon juice with 山粉圓 after a 6k run.
- We’ve officially established tapas as d’s birthday dinner tradition since last year. Instead of the paella, we opted for an assortment of tapas (duh), including pan con tomate, gambas al ajillo (an absolute must!), almejas a la marinera (which I spooned up like a buttery soup), and an entire dish of olives³. Prost! A celebratory cheer over sangria and vino tinto after a satisfactory dinner.
- d blew out the prank candles on the decadent double fromage without blowing chocolate shavings off. (ㅅ´ ˘ `) I did well.
- I made spicy Thai pasta twice this week. An easy way to stir-fry veggies to keep them crunchy, packed with everyday seasonings but bold, pungent flavors.
- We walked to the chain Udon spot, where I ordered a bowl with bean curd, tempura (do not recommend), and a soft-boiled egg. I loved that they offered an abundance of green onions and fried bits to sprinkle on top. Later that night, d rewarded me with beer for publishing again.
- Dad prepared dishes with the squid and an arm-length grouper he caught. The squid was stuffed with leftover takikomi gohan (seasoned Japanese rice), and for dinner, the grouper was fried and smothered in a sweet and sour sauce.
- d came home with a quarter of a huge watermelon, mango and dragon fruit to make up for the broken plate left behind the door (covered in ants by the time I’d discovered, eww).
Happenings
- I played a background extra for the company’s promotional film, speculating whether my nose made it into the cut and “How much longer do I have to stare at my screen?”
- I passed the test, scoring enough to prove my proficiency! I’d been waking up before my alarm, finding out the results in my dreams since leaving (first) the center that Saturday morning. “Accumulated from years of hard work,” u congratulated after it was revealed.
- I’m dating outside of my age range ha. Happy birthday 🎂💞
- l phoned me to chat about his musical camp while I expressed confidence in the current state of affairs, which are steadily progressing.
- On Friday evening, c and I dressed up to our favorite spot—Prague Café, a midnight café run by an elegant silver-haired couple. She wore a faded rosy-pink corset over a long, flowy white skirt that looked fantastical from afar, practically like a Disney princess. Exhausted from work, I slipped into a rose-patterned, low-cut Morgan de Toi dress to match her. She then embellished me with a ruby Edwardian drop-fringe négligée that popped under the dim scarlet lamplight. An Irish coffee, please.
- I went home to pick up $AUD (thanks, Mom) and the Columbia jackets I thrifted last year for Alaska in late June (which ended up being a bit too warm).
Editing (courtesy of d and c)
- modify font-sizes across the board, since I was using H2 and H3 completely reversed. Everything now looks slightly smaller and more compact.
- created dedicated pages to host each section’s posts underneath the see more menu and via header URLs.
- named the header on each page to add coherence or 𓎥?
- made the tags clickable, except for the ones under clippings
- swapped out the favicon for an olive you jar found on Pinterest, then to three olives on a pick, only to then switch back altogether per d’s preference. I can barely tell what it is in the tabs.
- adjusted the width of the post block to stretch to the center of the page, allowing posts without titles to overflow without triggering sideways scrolling
- added a contact email. Feel free to write to me at blahblah@oliviailla.blog
Replacing (Myself)
- a’s web browsing function is an absolute game-changer and potential job terminator once it becomes agile and grows limbs (ah)! If you aren’t familiar with it, it works by scanning the UIX, locating buttons, reading drop-downs, and filling in blanks to complete whatever clickty-clack task demanded. It operates literally without cursor motion (liked a ghost/ glitch). While each action lags by 3min as it deduces the right choice to complete the prompt, it’s completed what I’d dreaded since day one in an hour, when it usually takes me less than 10min. Just imagine how fast a will be when it doesn’t have to reprocess every choice!
- a is also able to access local folders. A chance to finally declutter the Downloads folder, or better yet, eliminating dragging and dropping entirely! The instructor advises always running a “dry run” just in case of irreversible damage. Am I at that point of surrendering it all??
- my clone figured out the concept of net positions within two days by deconstructing wallet balances and hedge sources, then pinpointing his first cross-day transaction. If only I’d had myself as an instructor three years ago, I would’ve felt a lot less defeated investigating discrepancies.
- my voice completely gave out after an afternoon explaining each business PnL and its related accounts. It’s astonishing how many rows of accounts I (used to) keep track of, and the ways they function both logically and illogically.
Consuming
- Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage (2026) by Belle Burden. I finished it within two weeks, reading at work and before bedtime. While coming off reserved and privileged given the status of those involved, the storytelling was riveting and emotionally touching. She did a great job reflecting on her past and present introspection. Almost meta? Catching what the readers are thinking about woman like her.
- Candace Owens vs. Andrew Wilson: The Great Debate. I actually caught it live at 11 PM, though I fell asleep a third of the way through. It was tough listening to him debate semantics rather than substance. He barely touched the overwhelming evidence and spent more time forcing Candace to repeat claims in specific wordings (presumably looking for a gotcha for a future video). The final 15 minutes were pure comedy as he suspected Candace Owens had gotten a pass on listing the 7 charges when he barely knew any himself. Just embarrassing. “I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you,” as Candace Owens put it.
- The Darkest Rabbit Hole in a Kids Show
- Professor Jiang This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von 1/3 in. Seems like he’s doing a US tour.
- Investigating Flock: America’s Mass Surveillance Company
- 2000s Disney Channel Kid, Spotify playlist
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧