There's another thing I forgot to mention on here. Last Thursday, Navient finally approved my IBR or Income Based Repayment plan application. Yay! Don't have to even think about it for a year. Then, I just have to reapply to renew it annually. That way they can see if there have been any changes in income, and adjust it accordingly. I don't have to pay anything this year, or for the rest of the plan if I don't make enough. Once the plan's time is up, whatever is left is forgiven. So, it goes away. It's like wiping the slate clean. They said only half of the applicants are approved for this plan. Makes it even better. Having to reapply once a year isn't bad. It eases my mind a bit.
Yesterday I went back to keeping a record of what I eat, calories, nutrients, etc. through MyFitnessPal's app. Went back to the set daily calorie range of 1200-1600 again. Of course, I'll also allow myself to have a bit more during the weekends. They're my treat days. I'm also focusing on my protein (I never get enough), sugar (with Pride stuff it's been a little high, but normally it's lower than what I should be having), and sodium (usually low on this, too). It's a balancing act that I haven't quite mastered. I want to be better about it, though. I have to remember that when I eat out and I get something that won't last as leftovers, it's ok to not eat it all. This would be with things like: ice cream, shakes, really messy burgers, fettuccine Alfredo (gets nasty the next day). Also, getting something when I'm pretty far from home. (Might not keep well after the car ride back home.) Everything comes in huge sizes at restaurants, and even with just getting stuff at the market. It's crazy. Difficult sometimes, too. It's set up so if you don't want to eat a lot, you end up wasting food most of the time. Either that or you overeat so much it's painful. Not good either way. Sure, most of the time I can make leftovers of things, but you have to split it up and make sure you eat the rest of it right away. When I eat like this, I tend to make quite a bit of leftovers. I have to think about that more, too. However, eating like this has always made me feel better and healthier. Even before I had any symptoms of colitis. It helps a lot in a different way with that, too.
Did much better with Chinese today. Went through the Question + Answer unit. Almost every speaking exercise I did was perfect. These are usually full sentences. I thought my pronunciation would be off, but it was spot on according to them. It's cool to see 'perfect' keep popping up for those. They also have an option to play back your pronunciation. I don't like hearing myself, but that seems useful with trying to improve on it. I seem to be having a little difficulty with remembering how to draw some of the characters. It's like I forget a few strokes for some. A few I'm already familiar with because of learning Japanese. Still, not many of those have shown up yet. I've been hearing 'shénme' (or 什么) a lot in some of the dramas I've watched on Netflix. It sounded like 'shema' (or שמע). The shema is one of the most important prayers in Judaism, and lit. means 'hear'. So, it sounded interesting to hear to me. Turns out in Chinese 什么 is 'what'. They put it at the end of a question. I must have been hearing a lot of whats...I also have the simplified Chinese keyboard on my phone now. That's interesting. It has both the pinyin and characters. Haven't really used it much.
I'm getting more used to the tones, too. Using it over 'a', there are 4: ā, á, ǎ, à. First one is 'leveled', second is going up, third is down and up, and fourth is down. I sometimes say the u-like (or is it more of a v?) one too quickly, and it ends up sounding like one of the others. I liked how they showed them with hills at the beginning. Their mascot seems to be an old wise-looking man. He was trying to go uphill, walking across a flat plane, stuck in the middle of a valley, and falling downhill. It was cute and funny. I just realized, the dot on the 'i' for the pinyin with tones disappears and the tone marks replace it, so it looks a little odd. Normal: i, with a tone: ī. The next unit is Numbers, and after that there's a 'checkpoint' like what Duolingo has.
Read more of the manga Alive. They plan to steal the Heart of Akuro. Supposedly Hirose is fused inside it. The US military found it and is keeping it in a lab on a base in Japan. Taisuke beat him, survived, but had amnesia. A big family, some with powers, helped him for 2 years. The 'mom' seems really suspicious. Once he saw Yuuta, Nami, and his sister again, he got his memories back. No one knows what happened to Megu and Katsumata.
Did the usual miscellaneous cleaning. Hope to get back to cleaning my bathroom next time. I'll probably get to inking Doina and posting those 3 tomorrow.
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