This is my wallpaper for March. It's Subaru from the manga Dear by Cocoa Fujiwara. There's another manga called Dear, and that's why I mentioned the creator. That other one is a sports-type manga. This one falls under the supernatural and adventure genre. Quite different. This wallpaper came out cleaner than last month's Hell's Kitchen one. I like the effect, too. I only stopped reading this manga when there wasn't an update for a few months. I eventually gave up and put it in my 'dropped' list on MyAnimeList (they also have manga lists). It's been a very long time since I've read it, and I've noticed most of it, if not all, is available now. I really liked it. Even the romance aspect was done well enough that I actually enjoyed that. That's rare. If I ever do go back to it, I might have to reread the whole thing. I barely remember Subaru, and he's one of the main characters. The manga started in 2002 and ended in 2008, so it's a bit old. I might have stopped reading what was available in '09 or '10. That's how long ago it was. It's a longer series than some, too.
The weather calendar has an aurora above some mountains in Alaska. The smaller pics are a couple more supercell clouds with lightning coming out of them. Friday's blurb is about heavy rains and high winds (113 mph gusts) that happened in Russia in 1995. The only fatality was a goldfish. That seems sad that any life was taken, yet somewhat of a miracle that it was just a goldfish.
The month-long holidays for March are: National Frozen Food Month, National Noodle Month, Irish-American Heritage Month, National Women's History Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Frozen food is quite a nifty invention, and definitely should get some recognition. I love noodles! I'm part Irish-American, so that's a more personal one for me. Women should be recognized for their achievements, how they've changed history, etc.
Thursday was International Women's Day. I feel a bit strange about it. Some afab (assigned female at birth) enbies had very mixed feelings about it in the fb enby group I'm in. It seemed every other post on there that day was about how dysphoric it made them feel. Especially, when people would tell them Happy Women's Day, like they assumed they were women... Some responses had very good points. Society views us afab enbies as women, and therefore it's our day, too. We experience much of the same things. I understand this and somewhat agree, but it still doesn't feel right to me. This way of thinking would probably apply to trans men, too. They're men, but some might not be out or might not 'pass' as well others. (I hate the thing behind 'passing'...) They also have similar issues with reproductive health, with some added stuff to it. Some cis women exclude trans women, but they are definitely women and deserve this day. There are a lot of misconceptions that cis women that exclude trans women have. They still go through similar things. I don't know...Maybe it's the wording, or assuming everyone who looks a certain way should be included, or people that look a certain other way are excluded. There are issues behind it. Maybe everyone but cis men? And then for Men's Day (I think there is one), everyone but cis women? Still not right. I definitely can get behind the idea of Women's Day, though.
Pesach or Passover starts at sundown on March 30th, and will go until April 7th. In relation to the 'regular' calendar, it's earlier this year. (It's always on the same day on the Jewish calendar.) I keep thinking there's a lot more time before it starts. It must be because of it being colder out than usual and that it snowed relatively recently. The temp is supposed to warming up, though.
I might have a lot more people this time for my seder. Dad will most likely be there for all of it. She has 3 colleagues that have shown interest, and if they do go they might bring their partners. Pretty different compared to last year. I'd have to prepare and/or think about more food for it.
Haven't gone to the QFC at U Village yet. Was thinking about going today, but it's more likely Tuesday or this coming weekend. It has one of the largest selections of kosher for Pesach food in the area. Probably for the year round kosher food, too. Many people trek out there just to get things for the holiday. If you wait too long, there might not be much left. I think they set it up about 2 months before the holiday. I think, they have people who make sure things are kosher in that area in case people have questions. (Maybe they're from Chabad?) That's interesting in itself. They usually have interesting new things to try.
It'd be great if there was a pre-made charoset, and that it was in a jam form. I saw something similar online. Our tradional family one is chopped up apples, walnut pieces, grape juice (originally wine, but I don't drink it), and cinnamon mixed together. It's really good, but not good for my gut now that I have colitis. Even if it might still be in remission, it can irritate the damage I already have. I also still have trigger foods. Whole or pieces of nuts and uncooked (usually unpeeled) apples are triggers for me. Last year I mixed applesauce, peanut butter (might not be ok for it, considering I'm Ashkenazic), grape juice, and cinnamon together. It was weird, but still good. I only made a little for myself, considering I was the only one for most of my seder last year. (Dad came in at the end.) It also didn't upset my gut, which was a plus. It wasn't something I wanted to repeat. More like an emergency thing. I don't know what I'm doing for it if they don't have a pre-made one. I might have to do what I did last year, which might be weird for guests. Or, actually get a jam for it instead. Pesach food isn't exactly kind to people with colitis. I ended up ending the holiday early last year.
I did figure out what was leftover from last year, and what I'd still need. I did pretty well last year. Finished most of everything. Still have an unopened box of matzo farfel (matzo pieces), and another box that's barely been used. One packet of matzo ball mix left. Each packet makes roughly 10 balls. That's a lot. Unsure if I'd need more. Last year the soup part was chicken broth, carrots, celery, and parsley. Simple but good. There's half a canister of matzo meal left. Certainly not enough for at least making popovers for both my seder and our friends'. There's lots of potato starch left, so that's good.
I think I only used one box of matzo, so I might do that again. It's sometimes hard to figure this stuff out when it'll just be you that's eating it, besides at the seder. Dad doesn't follow it, nor does she need to. It was a bit easier when we had to plan for Mom and I.
Also, found out that Dad and I will finally be going to Leavenworth for 3 days. Her spring break covers most of Pesach. We've been wanting to go since at least my birthday back in November. It was going to be a birthday thing...It can still be that and a spring break thing. The only downside is we'll be gone for 3 of the days of Pesach. Since a lot of the food doesn't sit well with me, I'll take a mini break from the holiday. I'm not skipping chametz (food not kosher for Pesach) on that trip anyway. They have things like pretzel, gingerbread, and chocolate factories. Plus, I'm sure most of the options at restaurants will be full of chametz. I'll observe at least the first day and second night of the holiday, and maybe when we come back I'll go back to eating Pesach food. It'll be 5 days instead of 8...I might just go back to eating that way when we come home to finish whatever I get for the holiday. I don't know.
I'm up to 160 pages with writing both books. So much! I think I'll finish writing the cookbook before Alliance 3. However, I'm going to have to do a lot of rearranging, making more sections, and a lot of editing of it. My mom had things in a weird order. The dessert section is the longest, and I might break it down further with pies, cakes, candy, etc. sections. I'm up to 6 chapters for Alliance 3. I'm surprised at the direction it's going. I just let the story flow out of me. Of course, with the framework of the story so far. It definitely builds up on itself, and I can be more creative with it that way.
I've decided to have some sort of promo for the ebooks every month. The one for this one has passed, but it was a countdown deal for the memoir. It started off at $0.99 and worked it's way back to the regular cost. Next month, I plan to have Alliance as free and Alliance: Dawn with the countdown deal at the same time for the first week. That might boost the series a bit. In May, I'm going to set Sweet Endless Terror to free for the first week. The only promo options I have are free or the countdown deals. The more books I publish, the more I can promote and have a presence. I think Alliance 3 and the cookbook will be done by the end of April. So, I'll have 6 out and be able to promote them more. Might have 2 promos a month when those 2 are out. Each 'select' period is 3 months long. However, A2 and the memoir are a month off from the other 2. So, the next ones might not be the same as either of them...So, technically, if they're staggered like that, I might be able to promote them even more. Once things pick up more, I'll lay off doing the promos a bit. I plan to embed A2 and the memoir on here, too. That way people can see it everytime I post and check it out. After I publish the 2 I'm currently writing, I'll start the next 2. Can't believe I'll have 6 published, let alone 8. I plan to continue the Alliance series for a while, and I have lots of ideas for other books.
I also got back into drawing. Not drawing a lot, but a little almost each day during the week. I'm drawing different perspectives of Shadow's wings. He's the main character of Alliance. I'm trying not to give too many things away of the series, but It's a big thing in it and I was tempted to draw it. I'm not used to drawing or even thinking about wings. The first 'perspective' didn't turn out the way I wanted, but was still good practice. It's seeing them head on from the back when they're down. The second perspective is better, and I'm finding my 'style' more with it. Still not perfect, but better. Looked better before I inked it and erased the pencil drawing part. It's of them completely outstretched, and head on again from the back. The next perspective will be from the side. I might finish that 'series' with that one. I have a lot more ideas for drawing. Many of them having to do with Alliance or Sweet Endless Terror.
Still keeping up with my German. According to Duolingo, I'm 56% fluent at the moment. It doesn't feel like it. Some of it really does remind me of Yiddish, which has been interesting. Yes, Yiddish is a combo of German, Russian, and Hebrew. It still's interesting. It also somehow sounds like 'family' and 'warm' to me.
I started being even better about my health last week. Making sure I go to bed at a decent time (getting ready at the latest: 10:30pm), and getting up at a more decent time (about 8 or 8:30am), too. Better than going to bed as late as I was, and getting up at around noon. I have more of a day this way. I'm still not getting enough sleep during that time. It takes forever for me to get comfortable, fall asleep, then I toss and turn, am wide awake at certain times for a while, etc. I get maybe 5 hours of sleep in total now. More than I was getting a couple of weeks ago. So, at least that's getting better. I'm not going to care as much about the time I go to bed and get up during the weekend. Unless I'm going somewhere in the morning.
I also went back to being more focused on my set amount of calories for the day. The 1200-1600 calorie range. (Sometimes I'll allow myself up to 1800 for non-treat days.) I'm not keeping each meal to 280 calories, like I tried to do recently. I've noticed the best way for me is to only care about getting to the minimum and not going over the max by the end of the day. Breakfast and snacks tend to be less calories than what I have for lunch and dinner. Lunch isn't that much more. With this way, I'm surprised at how much I can have for dinner. My Fitness Pal is very handy for not only keeping track of the calories and nutrients, but also planning out my day.
Since I've managed to get a little more energy and 'time', I've also been doing some cleaning. I haven't cleaned my bathroom in a while, because of the fatigue from lack of sleep and my colitis...I managed to sweep the floor one day, do the toilet another day, and the sink another day. I still feel I only have enough energy to do a little bit at a time, but at least I'm getting to it. Feels like I'm accomplishing more this way. Hopefully, I can keep it up this coming week.
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