22nd of Iyar

On May 3rd, or 18th of Iyar, it was Lag B'Omer. People usually have bonfires, do archery, and get haircuts. A fun one. I guess we celebrated Cinco de Mayo a day before. Went to Azteca, and got their burrito blanco. It had grilled chicken, white rice, beans, peas, carrots, and jalapeno cream cheese on the inside. There was a flour tortilla with cheddar, cojita, and a cream sauce on the outside. It was amazing! Humongous, though. It was also Herb Day on the 5th. Cooking with herbs is great! A lot of the time they make the dish. It was also National Astronaut Day. That's cool that there's a day devoted to them. They go through a lot.

This is my wallpaper for May. It's the first of the Hitman Reborn manga wallpapers I made recently. I obviously didn't make the art. I just placed two chapter pages together. I like how this one turned out. However, it would have been nice if I was able to make the one on the right big enough to be a standalone wallpaper. It would have stretched the image way too much. Oh well. Tsuna, the main character, is in his Dying Will mode on the left. Xanxus is on the right. I think, with the one on the left, Tsuna was in the middle of his big fight with Xanxus. Xanxus and his family, Varia (an offshoot of Tsuna's Vongola mafia family), were villains at first. They eventually sided with Tsuna and the Vongola. Xanxus thought he was the rightful next boss of the Vongola. He fought the previous head, which resulted in those scars. He was certainly not happy that Tsuna was next in line instead. He felt even more humiliated having an 'outsider' take over. I like Xanxus and even his character design is cool. He's a complex character. He's never truly 'good'. Just like some of the other people that eventually ally themselves with Tsuna. 

The weather calendar's main pic's of a storm cloud. They describe it as a big spaceship. It looks more like a giant mushroom to me. Still, it's impressive. The two smaller images are of a lightning storm in Texas. 

The month-long holidays for May are: National Asparagus Month, National BBQ Month, National Egg Month, National Hamburger Month, National Salad Month, National Salsa (the sauce) Month, National Strawberry Month, National Vinegar Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, Mental Health Month, National Inventors Month, National Pet Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. So many this time. 

Yesterday, I decided to start keeping more of a schedule through my google calendar to be more on top of things. Things like blogging more often, if not every day. This blog was originally meant to be daily. There will be shorter posts that way. I usually make a to-do list every day, except for Shabbat. With my calendar, it seems easier to stick to. Before, sometimes I'd spend too much time on something, so it's a little nudge this way. Mainly the too much time was with my computer being too slow when I wrote, edited, with online stuff, etc. Now, I'll have set times to cut it off and move on. I might end up writing less, but at least I'll get to things. I've gotten everything from my list done so far today. Writing, editing, cleaning, etc.

Also, trying to get up and go to sleep at decent times again. I plan to get up at 8am most days, and go to sleep as close to 10pm as I can. That's really not bad. For a while I'd get hooked on my phone and stay up until about 1am, which isn't healthy. 

I'm also trying to not go through my fb feed during the week. Going through it mostly on the weekends, but with set times. That cuts quite a bit of time out. I plan to mainly look at notifications, share what I find through my google news alerts or other places I might stumble upon outside of fb, and write personal posts. Blog posts are counted as personal posts...So, in many ways I'll still be active on there, just not nearly as much as I used to be. I know a lot of my friends have gone through periods of totally swearing off fb. They'll even deactivate their accounts. They were just so addicted to it. I understand that. I'd like to still be in contact with people, get world news, see funny LGBTQ+ memes or stories, occasionally be active in the groups I'm apart of (the enby one has been helping me the most), etc. I'll just limit it more. Mainly for my sanity, trying to sleep a decent amount, time for other things, my eyes (I can tell my eyes are straining more lately), and more. 

Instagram is different to me. I mostly just post what I eat, my cats, drawings, landscapes, etc. It's not all the time. Also, I don't follow many people. I'm following 26 people currently. A much smaller percentage of those people seem to actually be active. I have a lot more people that follow me. Up to 82 right now. I'm rather surprised by that. With every few posts lately, I seem to gain at least one follower.

DeviantArt's different, too. I haven't actually been going through my deviation stack notifications. Those are the ones of art/journals of artists and groups I 'watch'. Those have been really stacking up. I mostly look at reactions to my own art/profile. When people fave, collect, give me llamas, and watch me. So, I don't spend that much time usually. At some point, it'd be great if I went through that other stuff that's just piling up...

I only managed to write a page of Alliance 3 today. My computer was super slow at the time. I gave it an hour...I normally type fast, especially when I don't have a block, so it was extremely annoying. Got a lot more editing done of the cookbook. My computer suddenly decided to speed back up to normal for that. Only have about 15 more pages to edit of that. Then, I'll make a source list. 

Today's German lesson was on language. That was interesting to go through. I only got one wrong on that. 

Finished the manga Animal Sense recently. It was much shorter than I expected. It's about a girl that can 'possess' any animal around her. She saved many people around her, including herself, with that ability. The end was interesting. She was so emotional, apparently all the animals from the forest she was in came out and helped. She didn't possess them. They just were drawn to her. They could have done more with that and continued the series...The only thing I didn't like was the main character's hair. It was bizarre. 

I'm a little disappointed that there was no update for the manga of Ao no Exorcist or Blue Exorcist today. It has been 2 months. Normally it's once a month. Maybe the next one will have an added special chapter or it'll be longer than usual? I read some of +Anima instead. That one has been pretty good so far. From where I stopped today, there's about 10 more chapters left. 

I finished drawing and inking Ravel's head today. I don't think it turned out as great as my previous designs of him. Not bad, though. I was hung up on his horns and hair for a while. Started drawing Nico, too. I'm slowly learning what my style is, what looks good, how to improve in general, etc. It's kind of fun getting back into it again. 

I hope to get a walk in after dinner. That way it's cool enough and it's still sunny out. Might do that for a while. Eventually, I'll add another walk in. I'm realizing I'll certainly have time for another one if I keep this up. If I recork my clarinet, I'll probably have some time to cram playing it in as well. 

I dropped Dances with the Dragons a couple of days ago. It was really boring. I gave it 4 episodes. It was way too into politics, dialog, and the story didn't progress much. I normally love complex shows that make you think. However, this one tried and failed horribly. They promised dragons, yet we only saw them a few times. There was Middle Eastern sounding music as a soundtrack, but it didn't seem to fit any of the scenes. The main characters had long names. I think their full names had 6 names each. None of them were catchy either, so they were hard to remember. They really tried to do something with this show, so it's sad. 

I started more food 'journeys'. I was and still am doing a cheese journey, where I try new (to me) cheeses. I'm adding journeys in bread, jams/preserves, teas, etc. I don't know why I didn't start those when I started the cheese one. I like trying new things. It takes me a while to get through stuff, especially if it's just me, but it's still fun. I started the bread one with sheepherder's bread. It's originally from the Basque region of Spain. It seems to be a mix of French and sourdough. Tough on the outside, very soft inside, and has a slightly sour aftertaste. The loaf is huge and round. Has an interesting design, too. It's good. I won't be able to try some of the really seedy breads, because they affect my gut. Should be interesting to see what I can have. Tried the lingonberry jam that my dad had. This one actually comes from Sweden. It tasted like cranberries, but stronger somehow? Very interesting. It was good with the bread.