Monday, May 19, 2014

World Baking Day!

Mood::iconchibiamericaplz:

I would love to get more into baking, and this reminded me.:iconberwaldplz:I'm usually kind of nervous about it. Like, I'll screw it up somehow. But, whenever I have baked things, they came out pretty tasty. Baking also kind of fascinates me for some reason.:iconchibinitalyplz:You can make so many different things with it. It's also Victoria Day for people who live in Canada. 

Yesterday was Lag B'Omer. It's a minor holiday during the 33rd day of counting the Omer. The Counting of the Omer starts during Passover and goes until Shavuot. Specifically for 49 days. An omer is an old type of measurement. When people sacrificed things like barley, they used an 'omer' amount. During Lag B'Omer people light bonfires, have weddings, parties, haircuts (some refrain from having a haircut or a wedding during the rest of the days of counting the Omer. Or, even refrain from listening to music. It's a semi-mourning time during the rest of it), some kids have their first haircut (usually when their 3), do archery (especially the youth), parades, and other traditions. It's kind of fun.:iconthailandplz:I haven't really celebrated it for a while, though. The bonfire and archery are probably the best known ones. 

Last week was a lot warmer than usual. The weekend was a little on the cool side, but nice still. This week isn't expected to get as warm, but it'll be up there.:iconheroamericaplz:I guess the warmer than usual weather will help me prepare for going to Scottsdale, AZ at the end of July. I'll explain a bit more as to why I'm going there soon. As it gets closer to when we leave. Probably not the best time to be there though...:iconitshotplz:

I'm going to do 70 sit-ups twice a day this week. It's starting to feel like a workout each time, again. Hopefully I can get both walks in everyday, too. If I keep up with the way I'm eating, I might lose it even quicker with all this again. Although, it's also more for just getting healthier in general. Even though I'm the healthiest I've been in a long time. I think I'm close to dropping another size. Yay!:iconranranruuplz:I've also noticed that I'm getting a bit more loose skin. But, I think as I keep losing, it'll bounce back. 
Started watching Smoking Gun a week ago. It's been very interesting so far. I was a little reluctant about it going from the summary that's online. But, it also has one of my fave actors playing the lead. The other actors have been really good, too. (And, there's also an actress I like that's in a supporting role.) Researchers at a private CSI lab solve cases using their scientific techniques. A lot like a Japanese version of CSI. Right down to everyone being at least somewhat quirky. But, it somehow feels like it's done better. And, the researchers don't have really fancy looking labs, offices, etc. Enishi Nagareta is one of the researchers, and tries to solve cases that the police may have overlooked. He has a thing for eating donuts. Especially while at a crime scene. (Which can't be good around evidence...:iconwtfukplz:) He proposed to a woman at the beginning, which was a few months ago. She seemed to be turning him down, so he walked away from her. The next thing he knows is he wakes up on the floor near her, and she's covered in blood. She was murdered, but he can't remember anything from when he left her until then. Which is a pretty good chunk of time. When not at work, he's constantly trying to remember. He even has a notebook with the times he can't remember, which he tries to backtrack with. Some detectives are still looking into him as being a suspect. And, he doesn't know himself if something like that happened. Kind of sad. The other researchers have their own 'problems'. One refers to her husband (I think) as a cactus and her only family. Her husband seems to be in a coma at a hospital. She also put a cactus near him there. One's a retired cop. A newer member basically deals with the more 'human' aspect with getting to know the victims. The boss is a rather eccentric, but awesome, woman. I loved that she says things like she's allergic to shady men. She also makes a huge feast for everyone every Wednesday. If you finish everything on your plate or say 'this is delicious', she'll just give you more. She's taking care of her late sister's kid. The kid helps sometimes, too. Very interesting group of people. Another seems 'normal', but he takes care of his siblings. I think they mentioned him having like 10 little siblings. 

I might have finished writing the 8th short story of my nightmare anthology yesterday. I still have to go through and edit it one last time. Kind of turned the original nightmare into something totally different, but still kind of disturbing. It's oddly fun to write, though.:iconseychelles-plz:

Played my clarinet yesterday. Did a lot of klezmer tunes. Wasn't too bad. Only a few mistakes. Some songs sounded particularly good. But, I think those are the ones I like the most. Got to get the others like that, as well.:iconchibiswedenplz:

Spent a while yesterday on JapaneseClass' site. Mainly doing the practice section. For attendance each day, you have to do 20 of them. But, you can continue doing them after that. It has a mix of kanji and vocab, new words/phrases, oblivion kanji/vocab, and weak kanji/vocab. It's a pretty good practice tool, like it suggests. You can do long combos of things you get correct, too. I think I beat my personal record this time with getting an 83 combo before I got one that was incorrect. Pretty good.:iconeduardplz:I've seen some people have chains of 200 word/kanji combos. I want to do that! I probably will at some point. I made it to the 412th rank on the site. There are about 30,000 people registered on there. (A lot of them are active.) That's pretty good. I was in the top 20 for the day yesterday. (Although, I have been on it quite often when I go on that site.) Yay! I'm getting up there.

Yesterday, I decided to see who some of the contestants were for the Eurovision contest. None of them really impressed me.:iconnataliaplz:I don't think they did last year, either. I really didn't care for the top 5 or so. The first place one didn't sound that great, and seemed to be more into that person's looks and message, but not of the actual music. There was one that seemed kind of catchy, but didn't draw me in. I think it was Switzerland's entry. A couple of years ago there were a lot more interesting ones. I kind of feel like they have a bias towards songs that use primarily English, and not their original language. Which is sad. I love hearing songs from other countries that are in that country's language.:icondenmarkgrinplz:It seems a whole lot more interesting, and you get a wider view of what the rest of the world sounds like. Also, decided to listen to some of the Pandora Hearts OST. It wasn't as exciting as I remember in the anime. (Although, a couple of tracks from the 2nd one sounded interesting.) The manga got me thinking about it again. Might look into Ranma 1/2's and Rurouni Kenshin's OSTs, too. For both, the background music seems to be interesting. Kenshin seems to have a cool fighting sound in a lot of it. Some of the ones from Ranma sound like they're enduring something big, and interesting fighting ones, too. I'll probably look at those next week. Kind of fun to look at, and I might be able to find some that I like...:iconchibiaustriaplz:

Drew more of Vincent's clothes in my new drawing project. This was what he wears currently, as his vampire self. I did the other one for when he was human already. He was human around the mid 1800's, so he had to have changed his style to 'fit in'. It makes it fun, though. Next will be Gun's outfit. He wears clothes that are based on traditional Chinese clothing. He is a Chinese dragon after all. (He's in his human form in the story.) Should be a bit more of a challenge, but fun nonetheless.:iconeestiplz:

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