⋆ My personal notebook ⋆

About me

Likes

Sudoku, dark red, battleships puzzles, dark brown furniture, finding good books and cute clothes at charity shops, making stickers, the library, my new sherpa coat, delicate jewellery

Food and drink: millionaire milkshakes, millionaire bites, sushi, ranong green matcha, loaded fries, waffle fries, popcorn chicken, cherry bakewells, brown sugar milk tea, orange juice with coconut water

Dislikes

My painful joints!!, metallic tasting water, wooden ice lolly sticks or paper straws touching my teeth

Favourite products

Simple Moisturising Face Wash, Beauty of Joseon Green Plum Face Wash, Simple Replenishing Rich Moisturiser, The Ordinary Glycolic Acid, ARE PLUS Spot Patch, Beauty of Joseon Ground Rice and Honey Glow Mask, Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun Aqua-Fresh Sunscreen, Vaseline Original, Vaseline Rosy Lips, Vaseline Cocoa, Derma V10, Studio London Brow and Lash Gel, Rimmel Stay Matte Powder, Mitchum deodorant, Febreze Vanilla & Magnolia, Imperial Leather Oatmeal Bar Soap, Dove Beauty Bar, Palmolive Naturals Coconut & Milk Shower Cream, Nivea Soft Cream, XBC Aloe Vera Cream, County Sales Beauty Nail Polish Remover Pads, Rimmel 60 Seconds Super Shine Nail Polish

Research topics

Good ballpoint/gel pens to buy
Create my own 'canon' books
Morse code
Short term memory
Waking up early and falling asleep
What is shifting?
Addiction
Parasocial relationships
How does time work in dreams? Timeline? Do dreams happen at a normal speed or are they slower or faster than real life?
Why are dreams so random?
Is it possible to dream in another real language and understand it?
Can memories be created in dreams and then you get nostalgic in another dream or remember a moment from a previous dream or a made up past?

Projects

Copy illustrations from childrens books as practice - drawings and paintings
Steam clean the whole house
This website!
Project pan

Essay ideas

Trees and zombies

Website ideas

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✮ My vanilla cake recipe ★

Cake

Ingredients

1 cup white suger
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Supplies

Measuring spoons
Measuring cups
Large mixing bowl
Smaller mixing bowl
Whisk
Knife
Mixing spoon
Cake pan
Baking paper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 175*C
Baking paper in cake pan
Mix 1 up white sugar and 1/2 cup unsalted butter in large bowl
Add 2 large eggs one at a time
Mix in 2 tsp vanilla extract
In a separate bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix
Add 1/2 cup of milk and stir until smooth
Bake for 30-40 minutes

Icing

Ingredients

1 cup softened unsalted butter
2 1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Opt: food colouring and sprinkles

Supplies

Mixing bowl
Sieve
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Whisk
Knife
Opt: piping bag

Instructions

Sift 2 1/2 cup icing sugar into a bowl
Add 1 cup softened unsalted butter and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Whisk together
Opt: add food colouring
Use a knife to spread the icing
Opt: using the piping bag to make decorations
Opt: add sprinkles

Things to do instead of doomscrolling

Activities that don't require social media:

Play: DS, XBOX 360, The Sims 4, Roblox
Watch: movies, shows, documentaries
Write: stories, essasys, media reviews
Listen to: new albums, podcasts
Read: articles, research topics

Activities that don't require technology:

Read: books, research topics using library books
Write: a journal entry, shadow work
Cook or bake
Learn: languages using textbooks, dictionary, puzzle books
Physical: exercise, yoga, meditate, walk
Art: sketch, paint, junk journal, make a collage
Clean my space
Explore new places
Shower and pamper

Charity shop finds!

I love shopping at charity shops and findings things! Here is a list of items I've found at different charity shops.

Vampire Diaries The Awakening & The Struggle by L. J. Smith (50p)
White knit jumper (£3)
Classics Puzzles: Brain Training (£2.50)
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (£2.50)
Jane Austen: The Completed Novels (£4)
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walkers (£2.50)
The Secret Self: Short Stories by Women by Hermione Lee (£4)
White top with frilly wrists (£9.50)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with The Merry Men & Other Stories by R. L. Stevenson (£2)
Pretty postcard (FREE)
Plain thin sketchbook with some ripped pages (FREE)
Mokani Planner (£2)
Shrek 2 DVD (£1)
Shrek The Third DVD (£1)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid DVD (£1)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules DVD (£1)
Tangled DVD (50p)
Big Hero 6 DVD (£1)
Fenty Skin Cookies & Clean Whipped Clay Intensive Pore + Blackhead Face Scrub (£8)
ZARA Tan sherpa jacket (£12)
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys (£1)
The Magus by John Fowles (£1)
2 tape pens and a gluestick (£1)
Adventures in Stationery by James Ward (£2.50)

Resources

None of the art is mine! Here are some resources I used!

I used doqmeat's template for this journal!

Lots of graphics, pixels, stickers, etc

Lots of cute graphics

Links

Sites I use to track my media: Letterboxd, MyAnimeList, Goodreads

Library resources: library website, Libby, BorrowBox, Kanopy
Book resources: Planet eBook, Yes PDF, ReadAnyBook, Manga Reader, DrawingBooks.org
Movies and shows resources: Netflix, BBC iPlayer, HydraHD, M4UHD, HiAnime.to
Social media/sites I use: Substack, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, Spotify, NeoCities

Media journal!

This media journal contains all things media! I will keep a log of the media I consume, give ratings, write mini reviews.

Current media

Reading: Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
Watching: Alice in Borderland, Oregairu
Playing: My Sims (DS)
Listening: Diet Pepsi by Addison Rae, Close by Ne-Yo

Things I like in media!

Shows with good soundtracks!! I love listening to soundtracks. 3/5 tops artists on my Spotify Wrapped were artists who made the soundtracks to some of my favourite shows
I love movies and shows with time travel or space travel or dimension travel or even atomic travel. It's just so interesting to me.
I love groups. I love different personalities in one space. That is probably why I loved music groups. I just love when a cast has different types of people and I love seeing their different dynamics.
I love guitar riffs.

Favourites

Favourite media

Books: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson), Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters (Mark Dunn), Four Thousand Weeks (Oliver Burkeman)
Movies: The Parent Trap (1998), Shrek 2 (2004)
Shows: Severance (2022), Alice in Borderland (2020), Bridgerton (2020), The Office (2005), One Piece (2023)
Anime: NARUTO, AOT, Classroom of the Elite
Artists: Shreea Kaul, Lennon Stella, LE SSERAFIM
Games: The Sims 2 (DS), MySims (DS)

Favourite characters

Kobeni Higashiyama (Chainsaw Man)
Kenzo Tenma (Monster)
Shikamaru Nara (Naruto)
Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)

Favourite characters graveyard (Spoilers!!)

TADASHI from Big Hero 6: I loved him. Rest in peace, Tadashi.
NEJI from Naruto: NEJI!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! AAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!
SASHA from Attack on Titan: I watched AOT twice and somehow forgot she died?? I was so shocked the second time round.
ACE from One Piece: :(

Library

Book series I have started

Will be continuing

Twilight ◆◆◇◇◇◇◇
Vampire Diaries ◆◇◇◇

Dropping

Lord of the Rings ◆◆◇◇
Before the Coffee Gets Cold ◆◇◇◇◇
Inheritance Games ◆◇◇

Unsure

Empyrean ◆◆◇◇◇
ACOTAR ◆◇◇◇◇◇◇

The Anthropology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

NON-FICTION | 2025
Date(s): 28/01/2026 -
Rating: ?/5

This is really interesting so far!

Good Morning, Midnight

JEAN RHYS | NOVEL | 1939
Date(s): 21/01/2026 - ?
Rating: ?/5

I AM LOVING THIS!! I relate to the main character so much. I lover hearing her thoughts!

Vampire Diaries: The Awakening

L. J. SMITH | ROMANCE | 1991
Date(s): 01/01/2026 - 19/01/2026
Rating: 2/5

Initial thoughts: This was written before Twilight but all I can think about while reading this is how similar it is to Twilight. I disliked Bella's character so I have a feeling I will come to dislike Elena's character too. Let's see!

Summary

Elena meets new boy Stefan who seems to be avoiding her. Elena will do anything to have him. Strange things happen in the small town and Elena soon learns Stefan’s big secret.

Characters

I did not particularly like Elena’s character or any character in this book. I would say the most likeable character would be Matt but he is a very grey character who just kind of lets things happen to him. What I did like about the main character is that she isn’t a complete stereotype. I feel like in high school romances the main character is either a popular mean girl or an unpopular sad outcast. Elena is popular and still a little mean but I think she is sweet (or maybe she wants to seem sweet because to me it didn’t feel authentic but then again maybe I am hung up on the ‘popular mean girl’ stereotype). I can tell the author wants us to like Elena but I didn’t really feel anything towards her. At times, I did feel frustrated because she really is boy-crazy. The part where the three girls share blood and make an oath and Elena says "I swear not to rest until he belongs to me" was so funny to me because they are really taking this so seriously. The obsession over Stefan reminded me a lot of Bella (Twilight) and her obsession with Edward. Reading Twilight was very annoying because Bella is literally Obsessed with him. If I had to choose between Elena and Bella, I would choose Elena because she at least cares about others aside from her boyfriend (Bella does care for Jacob but it doesn’t feel the same).

Aside from learning about Stefan’s backstory, I don’t feel like I learnt a lot about his character. Like he just seems meh. He is kind, soft, protective, a gentlemen. Maybe because it’s too predictable it bores me. Same with Damon: menacing, dangerous, evil. I need characters with a little more depth and layers to their personalities. This is just the first book so maybe we learn more about the characters later. Maybe we see a softer side to Damon but that too is too predictable.

I did like Bonnie’s character. She is more eccentric than the rest which is probably why I like her. I tend to like the weirder characters. I feel like there is more to her character that we will see in the later books. I’m not too sure about the Vampire Diaries world but there may be some other mythical creatures like Banshees. I think Bonnie may be similar to Lydia from Teen Wolf in a way; she seems like she can sense danger and death.

I feel like none of the characters are really that interesting. Some just seem like they aren’t really necessary. But then again this is only the first book in the series. I feel like Meredith wasn’t a necessary character. I think the story would have been just the same without her in it. Also, I thought Caroline would be a bigger character but she literally wasn’t around for most of the book. I think in a later book she’ll be more important and she’ll have a plot line with either Stefan or Damon.

Of course the mean bully is called Tyler. Tyler SMALLWOOD and DICK Carter. HAHAHAHA!

Plot

The plot was very basic. I mean I wasn’t expecting anything groundbreaking or a major plot twist. As a reader, we already know Stefan is a vampire because of the title even before he reveals it (although the actual word is never mentioned). The only ‘twist’ may be that the crow and evil man Elena saw before was actually Damon. But that was very predictable and not surprising. I think the most surprising thing would be Bonnie’s behaviour at the cemetery when she froze and a voice that wasn’t hers spoke from her mouth saying "Elena, there’s someone waiting out there for you." That was a little creepy. It wasn’t explained what possessed her but I guess we can infer that it was Damon possessing her with the Powers he has.

At the end of the book, Elena has a nightmare about Stefan being hurt after reading her missing diary. I’m guessing that could be a foreshadowing of something that happens in the next book. I think Damon took her diary and may be altering or adding new entries and then showing it to Stefan to manipulate him and show him who Elena really is: not the soft and innocent girl he thought she was.

Overall, I think this book is just meant to be a fun read for people who like vampire romances. I wonder what people who like Twilight think of this book. Some things in this book reminded me of Twilight. In my mind Twilight is so much more popular than Vampire Diaries and I wonder why. Is it because Twilight was movies instead of a long series? Is it because the main character was more relatable: not super popular, not super pretty? Is it because in Twilight we follow Bella’s life as a new girl whereas with Elena we are sort of plopped into her life? Maybe because of the year it was released? Or maybe the story is just better? If that is the case, then I don’t know if I will continue reading this series because I didn’t like Twilight that much. I liked it when I watched it the first time when I was 14 but reading and rewatching the first two books/movies, I wasn’t that into it. I bought the Vampire Diaries book (books 1 + 2) at a charity shop for 50p because I have been wanting to watch the show because I heard it was good. I saw it on the shelf and I thought it was funny for some reason so I had to get it. I will be finishing the seconf book (The Struggle) since they came together and from there we shall see if I will continue reading the series or just start watching the show.

My rating for this book? I honestly don’t know. I feel like I give most books that are just okay 3 stars. But then I look at the books I read and some 3 star books were quite good and objectively better than other 3 star reads. So… maybe 2 stars for this. Because it wasn’t anything crazy. I didn’t like the characters, the plot was very basic. I wonder if I prefer werewolves. I did very much enjoy Teen Wolf.

tab 3 pages

Movies

Human Lost

SCI-FI | 2019
Date: 15/02/26
Rating: 1/5

The visuals were amazing! But I just wish I understood what this movie was even about.

The Amazing Spider-Man

ACTION | 2012
Date: 09/02/26
Rating: 3/5

I really like this version of Peter Parker - he is so awkward but also a little sassy. I thought the film was very pretty with all the lights at night in New York. I wasn't amazed though but it was a good film.

Baby Driver

CRIME | 2017
Date: 29/01/26
Rating: 4/5

I've watched this movie before, years ago. I really liked it again. I really want to watch more movies like this where the music matches the movements in the movie. I really liked Baby's character and Debora is so pretty. The visuals and lighting were so good. I'm going to need to listen to the whole soundtrack! Why do I love diners?

Aftermath

ACTION | 2024
Date: 25/01/26
Rating: 4/5

I really enjoyed this movie because I, for some reason, love hostage movies. I haven't seen Dylan Sprouse seen Suite Life on Deck so it was nice to see him again! Every time he was on screen, I just thought "Wow, he looks so much like his brother." Hehe. I love when I recognise actors in movies and shows. Dichen Lachman from Severance is in this movie. I don't think this movie was anything groundbreaking but I personally really liked it because I just love movies where there's high-stakes and lots of tension. It was a fun movie, I liked the old veteran man, love Dylan Sprouse and Dichen Lachman.

Update: I read some reviews on Letterboxd and people HATED this movie omg! I do agree that the dialogue was bad, but when I'm watching a movie and I think something was a little cringe or bad, I immediately think that I'm the problem and I just don't understand cinema. Apparently, some scenes used AI, which to be honest I didn't catch. This is a just fun mindless watch.

Series

Alice in Borderland

THRILLER | 2020 - 2025
Date: 17/02/2026 - ?
Rating: ?/5

WATCHING

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected (Season 1)

SLICE OF LIFE | 2013
Date: 02/02/2026 - 16/02/2026
Rating: 4/5

This was really funny! I'm rewatching this after 10 years! But I honestly don't remember a thing! I only remembered "Yahallo!" I understand so much of what Hikigaya Hachiman thinks and agree with him mostly. I love how the anime shows the different character dynamics. I'm excited to see who Hikigaya ends up with in the end (if he does end up with someone). I hope it's Yui! I wonder if he ends up with Totsuka hehe.

The Office

SITCOM | 2005 - 2013
Date: 14/01/2026 - 13/02/2026
Rating: 5/5

I rewatched this after 6 years. I really love this show. It's like a comfort show to me.

Stranger Things

SCI-FI | 2016 - 2025
Date: 28/12/25 - 28/01/25
Rating: 4/5

I rewatched the first four seasons so that I could watch the final season. The ending was ok. Season 4 was my favourite for sure. I loved the previous seasons because the main characters would be in different groups investigating separately but they all eventually come to the same conclusion and meet up at the end to solve the mystery/problem. I think by the last season, there were just too many main characters and they were all in one big group all the time (at least not in distinct separate groups) and it just made me think what certain characters' purpose even was. Anyways, I loved the show overall. I can't wait to read theories on it! My fav characters: Dustin, Nancy, Steve, Murray, Eddie, Mr Clarke, Karen (I REALLY wish we got to see more of Mr Clarke and Karen. I would have loved to have seen Karen beat up more Demogorgons).

Games

The Sims 2

DS GAME | SIMULATION | 2005
Date(s): 05/02/2025 - 20/02/2025
Rating: 5/5
I first played this about 15 years ago. I love this game. 10/10 game. The graphics are terrible but it's such a fun and weird game! I remember the alien music scaring me. I never got to finish the game because I was always stuck on the blueprints mission. I started the game from the beginning a few weeks ago and just finished it now. It's such a strange game. I wonder how the meetings and pitches for this game went. The different characters, the different species, the different missions. It's all so weird!
PLOT: You're stranded in a town, become manager of a hotel, help a mafia boss launder money, stop a cult, meet a mole man, fight aliens with a water gun, and fight robots while wearing a rat suit. Also, Bigfoot lives in the basement.

Palia

PS5 GAME | ADVENTURE | 2023
Date(s): 25/12/25 - ?
Rating: ?
I love The Sims so this is really fun for me. It's like if The Sims was an adventure game with missions, with a little mix of Minecraft. It's really good so far.

Mirror's Edge

PS5 GAME | ADVENTURE | 2008
Date(s): Dec 2025 - ?
Rating: ?
I have only played a little of this so far. It's good but a little hard for me. I think I get motion sickness from this game lol.

Music

Other

Media wishlist

Books

Stand-alone books

Series books

DNF books

DNF (Not that I didn't enjoy these books, I just didn't get the chance to finish before they were due. I may or may not continue reading these books.)