17th of Elul

Finished the Feelings unit for Chinese. On the only speaking section, I got my highest score ever. A 4.3. I mostly get in the high 3's. I think the highest score you can get is 4.5. I didn't think I would be that great this time. Some of the new words were rather difficult to pronounce. Although, one of them was kind of fun to say. That was: 越来越 or yuèláiyuè. Has a sort of rhythm to it. It means: more and more. Sometimes it's added to certain things like words related to feeling something, and adds a -er and -er to it. So, when it's with the word for 'sad', it turns into 'sadder and sadder'. The Feelings unit is the last one of their course. I'll try to catch up with the review stuff. There are 182 words/grammar points at the moment that it says I should review. Quite a lot. I might go over the characters, too. So, I'll be done with Chinese by tomorrow or the next day. Then, it'll be time to move on to a new language. Exciting! I wonder how many languages I can stuff into my head? I'm just too curious about learning this stuff.

Read more of the manga, Alive. Han's ability is to kill people than take over their body. She has all their knowledge and can blend in well. She can essentially become anyone this way. Interestingly, I think she only took over one woman, the rest were men. Makes me wonder if she felt more connected to them...She was finally caught and killed before she was able to escape to another body. There's another power user nicknamed the Poet. He can control and manipulate others just by touching them. He apparently has part of the 'heart' in him, and is stronger than he appears. He's terrified of men, though. He let the military observe and run experiments on him, as long as they locked him up. At first, no one understood why he wanted to be locked away. They thought it was in order for him to protect others. It seems more likely now that he wanted to hide. Everyone's after him now. He's supposedly a big key to everything. He mumbles a lot, and the military thought he was mentally unstable, but a lot of it makes sense to them now. He wasn't spouting nonsense. Yukie tells Taisuke that when they find the main 'heart' (the one Hiro is encased in at the bottom of the ocean) he should absorb it, and go into an 'eternal slumber' to seal it off. He's the perfect 'vessel', and she thinks it's the only option they have. Taisuke essentially is going to wait and see what happens. If it truly is the only way, he'll do it. It's getting even more interesting. 

Practiced my clarinet for an hour. I played a couple of advanced Mozart pieces, Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and some of the advanced solo classical pieces. I'm surprised how much I can fit into an hour. That's good, because I can make the 'rounds' through my books faster. Therefore, get to repeating pieces sooner, and improving on them more quickly. I can tell that I'm already improving quite a bit since I restarted practicing on a regular basis. Feels good. I might try to find and listen to some of the pieces at some point. To make sure I'm getting it more. Maybe at some point I'll post Youtube vids of me playing. I hate seeing myself on video, so it might just be the sound and some text. I can have people critique it and/or learn from me. That'll be cool. Although, Youtube might not be the best for critiques, considering there are a lot of trolls. I can critique myself through listening to it, too. I've recorded myself playing in the past, and played it back. I could pick up a lot of things from it. 

For cleaning, I did the usual cat stuff, my toilet, and the bathtub. I've decided to get back to cleaning for an hour. I probably did closer to 45 minutes, but that's not bad. I figured that my left shoulder is healed enough. I just hope I don't strain it again. That was the only thing keeping me from it. I decided to try something a little different for the tub. I normally use Comet and water, scrub it all with a sponge, then rinse with more water. It works, but it's tiring. I used Shower Scrubbing Bubbles this time. I don't know why, but I've felt reluctant about using Scrubbing Bubbles products. I let it sit for several minutes like it suggested. The smell was (and still is) nice, and the sound of the bubbles was interesting. They said you could wipe it off with a rag/towel or rinse it off. I rinsed it off using the shower head. It didn't completely lift off that way. I wiped the scummy parts with a paper towel, and it came off easily. Next time, I'll use a towel instead. Tomorrow, I plan to use the Scrubbing Bubbles on the shower walls, faucet/shower head (and other similar spots), and on the vinyl inner shower curtain. I had been wondering for a while about how I was going to clean that inner curtain. It's looking pretty scuzzy towards the bottom. I was surprised to read that Scrubbing Bubbles works on that, too. 

I was going to finally tackle that Dark Healer's head. Then, I blanked on his hairstyle...I'm noticing a rather boring pattern for most of my characters' hairstyles. I want to change that up, too. So, to get more ideas for it, I searched for styles. I came close to finding my 'vision' of him, before I got tired of looking. I'll look into it again tomorrow. I will get to drawing him again at some point.

Went back to watching D.Gray-Man. That was on hold for much longer than Kujira was. Probably a few years. I still remembered a lot of it. I'm roughly halfway through the old series. That one is 103 episodes long. That series originally aired in 2006 until 2008. It's rather old now. However, a new series that's a continuation of the old one originally aired in 2016. Quite a long time in between. I'll probably watch that after finishing the old series. It's much shorter, too. It's a surprisingly dark series. Especially with the last episode I watched last night. Someone commented with a pic of one of the most brutal/disturbing scenes as it was in the manga. It was even more so. Allen thought he saved Suman, but Suman's mind died while his body still lived. Ever the hopeful, Allen thought for sure that he'd find a way to revive his mind somehow. Suman was drooling and staring blankly, which added to it. As soon as Allen reached out to him, one of members of Noah (essentially the strongest demons) appeared behind him. He clapped, said goodbye, Suman, and Suman's upper body burst into butterflies. In the manga, it was an explosion of blood and guts everywhere. Maybe they had to censor it? The emotional rollercoaster with that was bad enough. Allen looked like he was going to mentally break at that moment. He finally 'saved' him, went through excrutiating pain with his arm, was pushed to his limits, saw townspeople die in the process, he kept telling Suman that he'd bring him back alive so he could see his family, and suddenly Suman 'explodes' like that. Feels like all that was wasted. He did get Suman's 'innocence' before the demons got it at least. Although, with one of the strongest ones showing up, and him clearly not able to fight anymore... He might lose that. 

I'm also close to finishing Isekai Shokudou or Restaurant to Another World. It's a comforting and peaceful series. The food looks amazing! A door to the restaurant appears once every Saturday in a fantasy world full of elves, fairies, demons, dragons, dwarves, royal humans, etc. The restaurant is from our world and is 'Western-style', yet they do have other cuisines. It's interesting to see the people from the other world show up, their stories, what food they order, and their reactions. At first I thought it opened up to many different worlds, but apparently it's just one other besides ours. They even showed a map of that world in the last episode I saw. 

Anjaan finally had a reincarnation themed episode. I thought there'd be one much sooner. Especially for an Indian supernatural show. It had a sad ending this time. It started with someone going to a police station with a bag of bones. Saying it was his and that they needed to find his killer. Turned out the person he thought he was the reincarnation of was real, and everything he said was true. They did figure out the killer, at least. I won't spoil the ending. 

I'm trying to be even more balanced with my nutrition today. For the last couple of days, I've been 'off' with a lot of it. I try to plan almost everything out the night beforehand. (Except for dinner usually, because that changes so often. I sometimes plan it when there are leftovers.) I might revise it throughout the next day. Turns out I'll be just 3g over for my carbs. Yay! I'm usually way over that. Protein will be close to 2/3 of what I should be getting daily. 90g is what's recommended. That's a lot better than usual. I managed to pack 38g of it into my lunch. I think that's the most I've had in one meal, and it was really filling. Not sure if I'll ever make it to 90g in one day, though. I'll keep trying. I'm low with my sugar for the day, which isn't good. Fiber is really low. I usually do better than that. I'll end up with just a little more than half of what's recommended for fat. That's unusually low for me. The interesting thing is that my macros section is a lot more balanced than I thought it would be. It's hard to balance all these things and shoot for 1400 (right in the middle of my range) calories for the day. Despite that, I'm making more of an effort with it. 

National Banana Lovers Day!

I love bananas! One of my fave fruits. I usually have one with my cereal for breakfast. They're very nutritious. 

It didn't really hit me until a couple of days ago that it's the month of Elul. I did make a post earlier this month with it in the title, but I didn't think much of it at the time. On the Jewish calendar, it's the month before Tishri. Tishri starts with Rosh Hashanah, or our New Year. It's lit. 'Head (of) the Year'. That's also the beginning of the High Holy Days (aka Days of Awe). It's a very important time for us. That ends with the end of Yom Kippur or our Day of Atonement. That's the most important holiday on the calendar. Then, later that month is Sukkot (lit. Booths), which is an 8-day long harvest-based holiday. A lot in one month. A lot of people do things to 'prepare' for it during Elul. 

I usually blow the shofar every morning during it. Except for on Shabbos (Yiddish for Shabbat). It's something my mom did with me, too. It's supposed to symbolize 'waking up' our souls for the coming holidays. It's a little thing, but I like to do it. There have been years where I completely forget about it. 

I'll probably 'attend' online services for the High Holy Days. The New York City one that I occasionally go to online is really good. Their synagogue is impressive. They also have interesting speakers in between services. There are only a couple of iffy things for me, but that's not bad. There are other congregations around the country that live-stream their services, too. It's a pretty cool thing. My immune system is still weird, I'm not comfortable (because of certain people) going to either local synagogues, tickets for going to HHD services are usually expensive, and it gets really warm and stuffy during them in person. That last one is because the synagogues are usually packed for every service. There have been years where there weren't enough seats. Everyone seems to feel that that is the time out of the whole year that they must go. Hence, why going online is probably the best option for me. I kind of feel like I'm there, too. The NYC one even has a pdf file online of their machzor or HHD prayer book. I might print that off beforehand. The last couple of years I've had to guess with some of it, since I didn't have it in front of me. It's pretty nifty that they've thought so much about their online audience. They even have a phone number you can call to hear the service translated in different languages like Spanish, German, Russian, etc. 

I managed to 'start' Shabbos like I used to last Friday night. Sang the blessings over the candles, juice, and bread. Didn't have grape juice, so I used cranberry raspberry juice. Didn't have challah, so I used the Norwegian bread that I like so much. It was a little different. Haven't done that in at least a year, I think. I also bensched after dinner. It's when we go through the Birkat Hamazon or blessings after eating. I forgot some of the melodies at first. If I do it more often, I'll remember. I also had my own service after that, using the prayer book I have at home. That was nice. I didn't do Havdalah, which is a ceremony that ends Shabbos. That's ok. I got to quite a bit. It felt good. Hopefully I can continue with Shabbos stuff again in the future. Make it a habit again. Good to do just before the HHD.

The air quality has been much better. It felt really cold a couple of days ago. The high was 60 degrees. Didn't feel like summer. We went from being in the high 80s to that...such an extreme. I'm much happier with it being chilly. Just wasn't really prepared for it. I love fall weather, and it seems like that's coming up quick. Today got up to 76, and tomorrow will get up to around the same temp. After that, it'll be in the mid to high 60s. Much easier to live with. Feels like we're finally getting a rest from the hot weather. Hopefully it won't come back until next year.

Both Alliance and Sweet Endless Terror have Select terms that end today. So, now all 3 of the ones I wanted out of Select will be by tomorrow. (The 3rd being Alliance: Dawn, which ended its term a couple of weeks ago.) I'm thinking of not turning on my computer until the beginning of next month. I want to make sure another heat wave won't hit in the meantime, and since it'll be close to a new year for me. Anyways, I won't prepare those 3 for submission to Smashwords until then. Once I do submit them, I'll have to wait a little longer for them to be approved for their Premium Catalog. Once that happens, it'll be distributed to a lot more places. It might end up being mid-September by then. 

After submitting them to Smashwords, I'll go back to writing Alliance 3. I've already forgotten most of it. I'll probably have to read what I've written already beforehand. To get back in the mindset. Can't wait to get back to it, though. Last year I ended up staying away from writing in July and August, too. I think this time I actually stopped in June. I've only stopped this year and the previous one because of the heat and smoke. It's not good for my desktop computer, and when it's on it generates quite a bit of heat. It's in my bedroom, so it ends up making it more difficult to sleep when it's hot out. I have more ideas for books, too. Will be nice to finally get to them after I finish A3. Not sure how long A3 will end up being.

I've made it to the last unit, titled Feelings, for Chinese. I'm almost through their course...It's been fascinating to me. I might still catch up with the review part after I finish it. Then, I'll move on to another language. I'm close to that. I'm still debating whether I want to take the Duolingo Russian course or something else. I'm curious as to how much I remember from taking Russian in college. I loved it. Duolingo's course will probably be better for it than it was for Chinese. I'm also tempted to go back to French, which I took all of the classes that were available in high school. Or, maybe on conversational Hebrew? Or, Italian? So many choices.

Started reading the manga, Code Breaker. I'm unsure if I like it. Despite it being a long first chapter, there's not much to the story yet. Not sure if I like the main characters either. With some manga, I instantly like it after the first chapter. I'll give it a couple more, and if I feel the same way I'll drop it. I still have quite a list of interesting looking manga that I want to read. There's bound to be some duds. This one also has an anime adaptation. I haven't seen it. 

Practiced my clarinet for an hour today. I played a lot of an advanced Mozart book, and a miscellaneous solo one. I tried to push myself with some of the most difficult Mozart pieces in that book, and ended up frustrated at times. I wasn't too bad, but what made it frustrating was more of what was written. Like, many were in half time, or something like 6/8. Oh, and changing time signatures multiple times in one piece...Some were agonizingly slow or seemingly impossibly fast. The one piece that he made specifically for clarinets, is especially frustrating. I think Mozart loved to mess with people. Some of it's fun to play, though. 

For cleaning, I got to the cat stuff, did laundry, took the trash and recycling bins in, swept my bathroom floor, and cleaned my bathroom mirror. More than I thought I would get to. Rosie wasn't too happy with me cleaning the bathroom. I had to lightly tap her on the butt with the broom in order for her to leave my bathroom. Couldn't sweep the floor with a cat there. She decided to lay up against the closed bathroom door, so whenever I came out she was right there. She didn't like when I sprayed the mirror with Windex, too. She got really nervous and turned up her face. She usually doesn't get 'involved' like this when I clean. 

For drawing, I looked up pics of eye/cheek makeup or tattoos. I have a vision of what the Dark Healer's facial art design is, but I have a hard time imagining it exactly when I go to draw it out. Some of the ones I found were very close. Many of them were feminine looking. I want it more masculine, because he's a man. There was a cool masculine looking facial tribal tattoo. I might use a combo of that and others. I'll draw a semi-simple one for his face, since the face is rather small. Then, I'll draw another more complex version by itself. A closeup, essentially. In my head, he has quite a lot of tattoos. A couple on his face, on his arms, chest, etc. Interestingly in my mind, I imagine Doina, who's a Light Healer, has tattoos as well, but they're more hidden. It's not like I demonized tattoos (Dark Healers may be considered 'evil') or glorified them. They're cool and intricate. 

Yesterday I went back to watching Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau or Children of the Whales. I put it on hold a year ago, because there were more interesting shows that came out at the time. It had a very slow start, and after watching 2 episodes yesterday, it didn't progress much. I'm halfway through it now, so at least there isn't much more. The art is rather unique, and even though the story has been super slow, it's been interesting. Interesting enough to keep going with it. It seems like they wanted to turn this into something bigger than it ended up being. At least, so far. Maybe it picks up at this point. 

So many things happened with Gintama. It was intense. They may have killed off a lot of beloved characters. Everyone kept fighting to save Earth, even after being slashed up. Sadaharu seemed like he faded out of existence at one point. He's a huge alien dog that's Odd Jobs' pet. He came back somehow, though. It seems like they defeated Utsuro at the end. However, the spaceship (I think it's called Heaven's Cradle), made it through Earth's atmosphere and crashed. It's huge. There was a bright light and then the ending credits rolled. What a way to end the episode! Luckily, there was a segment after the credits. Apparently, it was 2 years into the future. It was almost like how the first episode of the entire series started. Except Shinpachi was playing the same role as Gintoki. It was kind of like an inside joke. I hope they didn't kill off Gintoki, and that it's not really like they showed in that last bit. They did mention in the preview that we'll find out who died and what exactly happened after the crash. They also did mention that it'll be 2 years into the future. It feels like it ended already. There's no say on how many episodes this last season will be, but even if it's the usual 12 for seasonal anime, we still have at least a few left. I have a feeling they'd make more than that. So what else is left? (Besides finding out who survived and how things are now.) 

PTSD

This is like a 'special' post. Not the usual day-to-day stuff. I usually don't post during the weekends. What made me think of making this post was talking about my Bipolar 2 briefly on fb. I didn't go into too much detail. I've actually brought it up a few times on here. I noticed my lamotrigine was probably degraded while on our trip to Montana because of the heat. The negative thoughts made me realize something wasn't right. I also just listed off other mental illnesses that I have. I've mentioned the agoraphobia both on here and fb in the past. 

Another one that I have is PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. People develop it after a traumatic event(s). (Not everyone whose gone through traumatic events will develop it.) I used to think only people who are or have been in the military can have it. The police, firepeople, and those that have been raped, too. I was wrong. I've actually gone through many 'traumatic' events that have contributed to it. We didn't focus much on it in therapy, considering the Bipolar 2 thing seemed more of a priority, but my therapist did make me realize how much those events affected me. I'm still learning about it on my own. Also, Patients Like Me has helped with exploring it more. 

I might not have flashbacks with every 'trigger'. In fact, most of the time I don't. I mostly get physical reactions and my thoughts/feelings might suddenly change. 

Sexual abuse as a 9 year old at a Catholic daycare, was one of the 1st events (it was a few times, actually...By the same person) for me. The nuns ran it, but there were some members of the church that volunteered. I loved the nuns. They were cool. Until I told them what had happened to me. They told me never to tell anyone, including my parents. They'll 'take care' of it. I didn't see that volunteer again, and didn't tell my parents until my late 20's. I told therapists before that. Ever since then, not only have I felt uneasy towards men, but also Catholicism and Christianity as a whole. I used to think it was because of what they did to my ancestors, antisemitic views that only recently have been abandoned (like we killed Jesus, for example...), antisemitism and ignorance of others still widespread, how they have a stranglehold on everything and don't even realize it (it's not just Christmas everywhere, but calling Sunday 'family' day, expecting everyone to believe the same, and more), etc. No, it's not just that for me. It's more personal. As a kid, I associated that cover up as what the church did. It shaped how I viewed it. Every time I'm near a church or inside one, my stomach churns a bit. Something never feels right about it. I don't get that feeling with synagogues, Buddhist temples, mosques, etc. Just with churches. 

I've had 4 stalkers. That alone has made me feel like someone is always watching. Even in my own bedroom. 3 of them were men, and 1 was a woman. The woman was a roommate, and it didn't freak me out as much for some reason. Yet, one of the things she did was make a huge collage of pics she took of me sleeping. That uneasiness towards men intensified with these stalkers. I was terrified of all men at one point. Thought they would pull something or become another stalker. Took me a while to realize not all men were like this, and I was able to be more at ease with them. That uneasiness towards men in particular is almost nonexistent now. One of those stalkers was very violent and sexually assaulted me. He tried to rape me, but I managed to push him off and run to where my friends were. Every time I went into my dorm room after that, I did have flashbacks. I also felt like I couldn't get rid of his 'smell'. He also tried to punch me and break glass windows to get to me. He thought someone in the shower was me. She screamed and the police took him away. He was the most persistent, too. He would call me several times a day. It got so bad, I had to move to a different dorm and change my phone number. I still sometimes wonder if he's still following me around but has been quiet about it. 

Oddly, this might not seem traumatic to some, but some of my 'friends' used to pounce on me unexpectedly. Usually from behind so I can't even see them. They loved my startled reaction. It seemed harmless, but over time it's made me jump and/or cringe/tense up at first when someone wants to hug or touch me in some way. Even though most of the time they ask me first. It's a weird reaction. I might want that hug, but having that physical gut reaction almost every time is no fun. It can be confusing, too. (I didn't have this issue with hugs and such before those 'friends' started doing it.) After that initial reaction, I'm fine and can relax. I think this was also why people hugging me so much right after my mom passed away felt so weird. It was actually exhausting to me. 

Going through so many medical issues has also affected my PTSD. I came close to dying more than once. Once with a really bad case of pneumonia, then an awful case of pulmonary embolisms (I had 65 times the normal clotting factor), essentially hemorrhaging out for 8 months straight, etc. It makes me question almost every little medical thing I'm going through. Also, sometimes I think: could this be it? Colitis felt a lot like that before I was diagnosed. I panic sometimes with this stuff. Finding out my mom had breast cancer when I was 17, probably was the start of this. She passed away at a hospital 6 years ago, so that added more to my uneasiness towards hospitals. 

I've also been attacked by a Rottweiler as a kid. Physically, I just had scratches. It made me weary to walk near that area where the attack took place. Also, nervous around really big dogs. Hearing a dog snarl can bring that memory up, too. I'm better about this now, but every so often I do tense up when I see a big dog or hear growling.  

With my PTSD, it's also made me feel hyper vigilant about things. Very aware of my surroundings at times, making sure doors are locked, watching people closely, loud noises making me jump (feeling like something bad's about to happen), sometimes those loud noises are way too clear, sometimes closely watching unfamiliar animals, and more. I might not realize I'm doing this stuff half the time. 

Lemonade Day!

This holiday was yesterday. Lemonade's really nice on a hot summer day. It probably would have been good yesterday. I haven't made it in a while. For mine, I usually use lemon juice first to about a 1/2 inch in the glass, then add some sugar (roughly 1/2 as much as the juice), then fill up the glass with however much water I want. It helps mix it up more this way. I still end up stirring it afterwards, just not as much. Sometimes I use Splenda to cut down on calories, however it gets a weird aftertaste. 

It was also Cupcake Day. I'm starting to like those more. I just didn't think much of them in the past. It's nice to have a little individual serving of cake, though. It's cute. They come in many sizes, too. The ones from Safeway are amazing, but huge!

The air quality is pretty bad today, too. It's a bit more in the red unhealthy category than yesterday. I can see more of the smoke from looking out the windows. Some of it has seeped inside, but it's not nearly as bad as outside. My gut's not liking this either. It seems upset. Rosie seems a bit worried about the smoke. She knows it's not normal. It's also expected to reach close to 90 degrees. When it's that hot with an unhealthy air quality, it's oppressive. Makes it hard to breathe or do much. It still looks like things will be a lot better starting after tomorrow. I hope that's true, it improves, and we stay with normal clean air. We're also still in a drought. Hopefully, we'll get some rain soon.

Last night I watched an episode of the Indian supernatural detective series, Anjaan: Special Crimes Unit on Netflix. I'm really liking this show so far. It's interesting to hear so much English interspersed with the Hindi. Hindi sounds and looks cool. I might try that on Duolingo in the future. I've heard and seen it before, but I think this is the first show I've watched where they speak it and show it written out. I've mostly just seen/heard it in movies, which are brief. Duolingo recently created a course for it, too. They show a lot of cultural aspects as well. I love learning about other cultures, so that's been a treat for me. 

Anyways, I thought it would be hokey, so my expectations were low. I was pleasantly surprised. The only thing I haven't liked, so far, is that they killed off someone who I thought would be a main character by the end of the 3rd episode. She was a very likeable character. It was a rather big twist. There's a new woman that might replace her, though. Haven't seen much of her, so I'm not sure how I feel about her. The side stories that are connected to the main mystery are very interesting in themselves. Everything has to do with a yellow-eyed demon-like character, Vanraj, and the main character, Vikrant. Vikrant's a detective. Netflix has 15 episodes, but looking at the wikipedia article, it actually has 65. Maybe they'll put the rest up in the future. It feels like I'm nearing the end, yet I've only watched 5 episodes. Should be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Watched 2 episodes of Gintama last night. I was behind a few weeks. 2 because of the awful internet connection at the hotel, and another because I was reluctant to continue watching the final season. It's my fave anime, and to think it's ending soon makes it hard to watch...I'll catch up next week with it. They implied that a major character was going to die, hence another factor to not wanting to continue. Turned out that he might be ok. However, a different character died. One I wasn't expecting. Everyone hated him when he first showed up, and he was a real jerk back then. This story arc has really changed him, and they actually made me tear up while he was dying. Gintama's good at making people hate a character, and turning them into something more. They're usually not 'evil', just misunderstood. Deep down they can be good people. The creator is a genius at character development, as well as other aspects. I don't think I could ever truly like the real 'bad guy', Utsuro, of this story though. He truly seems evil and doesn't care what happens to others. He seems to want to destroy planets, including Earth at the moment, because it's fun. He technically can't die, and has been trying to find ways to kill himself. The longer he lives, the more bored he feels. I like that they're showing characters we haven't seen in a long time, too. Each one has had a hand in trying to save Earth. 

Also, last night I caught up to One Piece again. (There's a new one today that I'll probably watch tonight.) The mochi devil fruit eater is annoying. Luffy doesn't seem to be landing any hits against him. Brook and Chopper are turning into hard candies, but Pedro may have saved them. He killed himself with a bomb to kill the candy devil fruit eater. If he dies, Brook and Chopper will return to normal, and the ship will be free. I didn't want Pedro to die...Even if he wasn't in the story for long. He was cool. It was a big enough blast that it sent the ship flying, Big Mom was blasted, and nearby fleets were blown up, too. Probably won't kill Big Mom, but she may be wounded. The only problem is the mochi guy, and luring Big Mom out to sea now. 

Ended up burning 928 calories yesterday. Roughly 62% of my calorie intake for the day. I was surprised by that, but again it wasn't a 'normal' day. I didn't do the added stair climbing, but ended up climbing stairs 15 times. If I had done the extra ones it would have been 24. That's a lot. I burned 270 calories alone with the natural stair climbing. That's close to the amount of one of my meals. So far today, I've burned 353 calories. Not bad considering I've done a lot less things than yesterday. 

Got to studying more Chinese today. I hadn't played the game for today before. It was on spelling. You choose what letters (pinyin) go in the blanks for a word, and if you get it right they turn into coins that fall into a pot. I was correct with the spelling for all the words. The only thing I messed up on was one tone for a word. They noted it, but marked the word correct. Sometimes it's hard to remember the right tone. Especially if it's an up or down one. They look similar. I finished the In the Office unit. The speaking part was frustrating, but I didn't mess up too badly. Ended up getting a 3.4 out of 4 for the all speaking lesson. Doing Business is the next unit. 

Read more of the manga, Alive. Not sure where this one's going, but it's certainly intriguing. They all lost the 'Heart of Akuro' (and Hirose who's inside) when the ship that was carrying it sunk. It's still 'alive', even if it might be at the bottom of the ocean now. I'm not sure what Megumi's situation is now. She's taking care of the people who kidnapped her 2 years ago...Doesn't seem right. 

Got to practicing my clarinet. Probably was not the best time considering it was around 80 degrees outside. (We don't have ac at home.) After that hour of practice, I was sweating like crazy. I don't regret it, though. Played some jazz and mostly Irish tunes this time. Wasn't too bad today, either. A few mistakes, but I'm working through them. 

National Potato Day!

This holiday was yesterday. I absolutely love potatoes! Could probably eat them all day and not get tired of them. There are so many different ways to eat or cook them. I don't think I had any potatoes yesterday, sadly. I should have...

The weather hasn't been great today. It'll be more of the same tomorrow. It's hot and smoky. So smoky, that right now the air quality index is at 165 and in the red. That's unhealthy territory for everyone. Particularly bad for the elderly, kids, people with respiratory issues, and people with other health issues (even difficult for people like me who have IBD). At least the sunlight coming inside is pretty. Again, the smoke is coming from wildfires in Canada, Washington (the state I'm from), Oregon, California, Idaho, and Montana. Wahoo! In the forecast, it seems that Thursday and on will be much cooler and less smoky. (Not sure if they expect the smoke to completely lift by then.) That's a positive light, at least. 

I've still been sticking to my 'diet' plan. Although I wanted Saturday and Sunday to be my treat days, I didn't reach my 'goal' for calories those days. I got to the high end of my 'normal' days at least. It amazes me how long some things last while eating this way. Like the muesli I got from Ikea seems only half empty. I've been having it for breakfast during the week, and switching to my normal cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch) during the weekend. Still have quite a bit of my regular cereal too, and that box is older. The bag of honey mustard and onion pretzel pieces seems endless, too. I've had that one for a while, and have had it for most of my afternoon snacks. Fruit lasts quite a while, as well. (Going by portion sizes/calories.) The only problem with that is that fruit goes bad pretty quickly. The other stuff can be fine for a while. 

I decided to do stair climbing at home inside, because of the awful air and heat outside. We have a full flight of stairs, so that's handy. I did 3 'sets' of running up and down those stairs 3 times yesterday. It got my heart racing. Quite a workout with just that. According to MyFitnessPal, I burned 163 calories with this. More than I thought. I also didn't realize that stair climbing is apparently a thing. Some people swear that it's the best exercise. Interesting reading about it. Maybe I'll keep it up even when I get back to walking. 

I've also been keeping track of my 'exercise' today on MyFitnessPal. Today's a bit different than usual, considering it's a big laundry day. (Plus, styling my hair...) So far I've burned 704 calories. More than I thought I would be at this point. Just playing my clarinet for an hour burned 145 calories. Cooking/prepping food, light cleaning, running up/down stairs, etc. are all possible entries on there and counted towards it. 

Studied more Chinese today. The training game today was on listening. They featured some traditional Chinese opera masks. That was cool to see. I think it was the first time I played this one. They say a word, and you choose the correct answer then drag it onto the other half of the mask. I didn't miss any of them. I stopped at the 2nd lesson in the In the Office unit. I only have 4 more units after this one. There's still some other parts of it that I haven't finished. I might study Russian after I finish this course. I loved studying it in college. I'm interested in so many more languages. Hopefully, Duolingo will be better with Russian. 

Played my clarinet for a full hour today. I'm happy I can do it for that long now. I played better than I thought I would. Still made some mistakes, but that's to be expected. Also, realized that I had been playing something incorrectly in the past. Maybe the time away from it made it more 'fresh' for me so I could see it. Today I played more Duke Ellington, Gershwin, and an advanced solo classical music book. The Gershwin one is also rather advanced. I was frustrated at times, but got through them. Rosie sat super close to me on the bed. I normally put my chair flush to the bed. It's not like I actually play it on it. She loved listening to me so much, she fell asleep and started drooling. As soon as I stopped, she looked at me as if to say: "Why did you stop? Keep up the music!" I was pretty loud at times and played high notes, and she still stayed so close...

I don't think I mentioned this, but I finished watching the anime Juuni Taisen or Zodiac Wars. Even though the winner was predictable, there were a lot of twists to it. Since they killed off the zodiac animals in reverse order, my sign won. He had an interesting power. He can live through 99 possible scenarios for every situation. Learning what worked more each time. He ended up being killed 98 times, and we were watching the 99th try. It was no wonder he was so tired. Even after he won the tournament, he died 98 more times while meeting with the one who organized the whole thing. If you refuse to answer his questions, you die either while still in front of him, or just outside of the building. The one who won was just a high school kid. He said he was forced into the tournament. I think he was the only one that wasn't really an assassin or warrior. After surviving and answering the organizer's questions, he was only given a few days to decide on a wish. They can grant any wish. The organizer even said that wish can be for more wishes. Going through 98 different possible wishes, he felt like he was going crazy. Eventually, he just wished that he'd forget about the whole thing. So, they erased his memories. I have a feeling that he may have dreamt the whole thing up. His 'world' seemed different compared to the others. I like that it was a very psychological one. It messed with the audience quite a bit. There are a lot of mixed reviews of it. Most people either love it or hate it. I liked it. Not the best, but it was good. Some people commented that it should have had more episodes. Well, they stuck to the zodiac theme and there were 12 of them. It wouldn't make sense that way to make it longer. I had hoped that they would have done more of a background on the rabbit and ox. There wasn't anything on the rabbit really, and he was the biggest and most ruthless killer. We only knew he was 'crazy' and a necromancer. Oh, and he really wanted friends. That's not much to go on. There was a little on the ox when they went through the tiger's background, but not much.

The anime Shiyan Pin Jiating's ending was disappointing. It was pretty good and very interesting. I watched most of it with the Chinese dub. It's actually based on a Chinese comic or manhua, and the anime is a collab between China and Japan. That in itself is interesting. I didn't like that each episode was only about 15 minutes, which is close to half of a regular anime episode. Since I heard the Chinese dub, it was handy while learning the language. The last episode ended way too soon. It seemed to allude to a 2nd season, but the ending was so abrupt...I don't know. They were finally agreeing to tell the person that was taking care of them about their family. That essentially all but Tannis (or Dennis depending on which version) are lab experiments. One is part spider, her identical twin is part plant (the spider's hair changed color and texture after transforming, so she looks different), one of them is part dog, and the last one is a psychic. Tannis is considered to be a genius. Most of the last episode was about Tannis convincing the others to go back home with him and try to learn how to live with other humans. The others wanted to live without him at the abandoned lab that was once their home, before their parents abandoned them. They didn't want to be a burden to Tannis anymore. They felt like they were monsters and deserved to fade into the shadows. Anyways, just as they were about to spill the family secret, it cut away. The psychic was overwhelmed with their caretaker's thoughts, and a name popped up that she recognized. Someone that hadn't been mentioned before. Why end it right there? 

Hataraku Saibou (Cells at Work) and Satsuriku no Tenshi (Angels of Slaughter) have both been great. Hataraku Saibou is surprisingly violent, yet very accurate. Accurate for anthropomorphizing cells and their functions. The white blood cells look pretty much like what I'd imagine them being. The most recent episode was on a cancer cell. They actually made us feel sorry for them. Especially when he said things like: "Why was I born?" They made him look kind of cool, but scary. Satsuriku no Tenshi is a horror escape game. All the characters are pretty twisted. Rachel may be the most. I feel bad for Zack. Yes, he's a serial killer, but he had an awful past. Rachel's the one that thinks through clues and such, and Zack protects her, attacks people and things, and does the more physical stuff. They have an agreement that he needs Rachel in order to make it out; and she wants to die but can't do it herself (she thinks it'll go against G-d if she suicides), so Zack promised to kill her once they make it out. She has amnesia, and the only thing she remembers is witnessing a murder, a short therapy session, and her name. I'm not sure why she wants to die so badly. I'm wondering if when her memories come back that'll change. I do remember, at the beginning, she was terrified of dying. What changed that? The more I think about the story so far, the more intrigued I am. 

6th of Elul

Came back from a week-long vacation in Montana late Tuesday night. The internet connection at the hotel was awful, so I didn't post while I was gone. It's been a while. I was hoping to get back on track with blogging...Hopefully I will now. 

There was a lot more to Montana than I realized. I did go through a very small portion of the state when I was 5. We were moving from Kentucky to Washington by car. I don't remember much of what I saw of MT back then. 

It was unusually hot over there, and the smoke had made it's way to it, too. Perfect for vacationing there, right? Well, we would have gone through similar weather back home, so that part wouldn't have mattered. Actually, the air quality and smoke were much worse at home, so we were lucky that way. The smoke was from all the wildfires in Canada, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and Montana. We're all on fire here and there's no escape. It's much better today, and the air quality is finally in the 'good' category, but this may change on Monday. 

The cats went to their own 'hotel' called Alder Creek Pet Lodge. We had the most trouble with getting Rosie in the carrier. She has to have gone through some sort of trauma in the past with them, because she has such a visceral reaction. She struggles, cuts up the person who's trying to get her in, poops and pees, makes herself heavier, etc. I actually feel sorry for her. It shouldn't be such a scary and panic-inducing thing. I think she thinks that we'll abandon her if she's in it, too. Tasha was the most vocal on the way to and from it. She doesn't have such an issue with the carrier, but not knowing where she's going gets to her, I think. 

Tasha has joint problems, so she ended up in a 'cat condo' that's level and at the top, so she probably could watch the birds and lord over the other cats. It had a little cubbyhole for a bed, a partition separating the bed area and food/water/litter box area. Seemed actually pretty nice. She didn't have to jump. 

Rosie had a condo that was like a cage on wheels. There were a couple of platforms to jump onto. She doesn't like to jump often. I noticed they added another one to help her get around. Her litter box and a bed were on the bottom level. Her food and water were on the first platform. She was on the top platform when we came to pick them up. She kept rubbing me, too. I brought 4 toys for them. (2 for each.) They both got their stuffed carrot toys. Rosie's is a lot more beat up, and most of the leaves are gone. Tasha's just has bite marks. They both love their own carrot. It's cute. Anyways, Rosie had hid her carrot in her bed. She really didn't want anyone else to have it. Tasha didn't hide her toys...

They're so happy to be home now. I think the staff at their hotel treated them well, but they really just wanted to be home with their humans. At our hotel in Butte, MT, the housekeepers were weird. They asked if we wanted them to clean our room while we were away a couple of times. They didn't seem to do this to other people. 

Perkin's was in the same building as the hotel. That was somewhat dangerous. Perkin's is like a Shari's. They're also known for their pies and other baked goods. Their cookies, 'mammoth' muffins (they weren't as big as the muffins we get at home), and pies were very good. Pancakes were weird. Too salty and not cooked enough. So, I ended up having a muffin and melon for breakfast for a couple of the days. You could make your own breakfast, where in addition to eggs, you can choose what you want from the choices. I did this once. I chose a muffin, hash browns, turkey sausage, and melon. Seemed pretty decent, but a little too big. They apparently eat their muffins with butter, which was interesting. Also, they seemed to eat pies with a spoon. A little odd, but makes sense. There were subtle differences like that. Everyone said 'guys' a lot more often. It's considered neutral over there, too. I was surprised by how often they used it. 

We went to the World Museum of Mining. They had an interesting exhibit on dollhouses. There was also one on minerals. There's an area just outside the main building of the museum called Hell Roarin' Gulch. It's a recreation of an 1890s mining town. 

We also went on an underground mine tour. (It's also connected to the museum.) It was in the Orphan Girl mine going down to the 100 ft level. Apparently, we were the last ones to go down that far. It was starting to flood there. They can't stop it from flooding like that. I think the guide even said they don't really know the exact cause, but the water has been coming in gradually over time. It was fascinating down there. The only issues I had were how slippery it was at a certain point, the water dripping into my hair and down my arm, and feeling like I almost fell out of the 'cage' (it's like an old version of a lift) while looking up at the sunlight coming down from the surface. We had to wear hardhats with lights. We were given dog tags as souvenirs. 

Went to a pasty place after that. Miners used to grab them before or after they worked in the mines. The one I had had a filling of beef, potatoes, and onions. I liked the crust a lot. Just not the filling so much. The meat had turned into a block, there wasn't much seasoning, and it just wasn't that great. I ate about 2/3 of mine. Some people get it with gravy or chili, but it should be able to stand on its own. I have a feeling it was just that place's version of it that wasn't that good. I've had hand pies locally before, and they're amazing! 

We went to the Copper King (aka W.A. Clark) Mansion after that for a tour. That was definitely a highlight of the trip. There were a lot of cool and fancy things to see. It's apparently a bed and breakfast, too. I don't think they showed the entire house. We met the current owner, and had quite a conversation with her before the tour started. The tour guide was actually only 13 years old. Quite young for something like that, but she did well. She has 14 siblings, and is number 7. That's a lot of kids! Clark was a great great great grandfather of hers. (If I remember correctly...) So, it's been kept in the family. He also had many more mansions in places like Paris, New York, and California. Some have been destroyed. I wanted to tour the Clark Chateau, which was his eldest son's place. Just didn't have time right after the mansion, and it wasn't open when we were more free. Oh well. 

We went to the Berkley Pit after the mansion. The water in the pit is toxic. It's been mined too much in the past. If nothing's done about it by 2020, the water will overflow into Butte's water supply. So, they're trying to solve that. The color of the water was kind of eerie. A very light green-ish blue. There were birds flying near it, by they didn't venture too far over the water. It's killed off nearby wildlife, and the only creatures that seem to be able to live in it is a certain bacteria. 

The next day we went to Bannack. It's a ghost town. Only a few buildings actually impressed me. Most places were cleared out, and seemed almost identical to each other. The hotel, saloon, school, and a doctor's house were the most interesting. 

The Beaverhead County Museum in Dillon was cool. I liked the bear, pianos, old camera, mammoth fossils, and a horse and buggy display. There was supposedly a lot more to the museum than that main building, but we only saw another old school. 

Sparky's Garage was one of the best restaurants we went to. It's garage/car themed with some quirky decor. It's mainly a BBQ place. I got the BBQ brisket sandwich. Some of the meat was a little too tough to be in a sandwich, but it was great. The sauce was good. While we were there, a lightning storm started. There was a lot of wind, too. Most of it had stopped by the time we left. Made for a little show. 

We went to Virginia City. It's a ghost town, but also a 'living' one. It's considered an open-air museum. The town was founded in the 1860s, and in the 1950s restoration started for tourists. There are 200 actual residents now. I liked what they did with that ghost town. Also, apparently it's extremely haunted. Didn't see any ghosts, but the mannequins were a bit creepy. They have things like restaurants, shops, and a still in use opera house in addition to the 'museum' stuff. The candy shop was huge, and people, young and old alike, were going nuts with the candy. The fudge and 'chocoholic' sections did look awfully good. In a different shop, I got prickly pear taffy. I hadn't had prickly pear anything yet, even though I've seen a few candies made with it. It tastes kind of like watermelon.

We watched a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde play at the opera house. Afterwards, they did a Vaudeville show. I love Vaudeville stuff. They really played off of the traditional old Vaudeville tropes, yet put modern spins on them. Most of it was silly, but nice. The last couple of skits were sad and emotional. 

On the last day, we went to Helena. We first went the Montana Historical Society museum. That was really great. I like that they put some emphasis on the Native American tribes of the area, their history, and more. Many places just gloss over that stuff. I got wild huckleberry taffy at the museum store. It's strong, but good. After the museum, we saw the capitol building. That was very impressive. More so than I thought it would be. 

We also went to a place for lunch called Benny's Bistro. It was jazz themed. There were portraits of some of the greats in jazz, including Benny Goodman. We sat in front of his portrait. He was one of the most famous jazz clarinetists. I tried using him as an example to get into jazz band, both in junior high and high school. Both directors told me that clarinets don't belong in jazz band. I could see if it was a brass jazz band, but it wasn't. It pissed me off back then. We wondered if the restaurant was named after him, but the waitress didn't know. There were instruments strewn about the walls, too. I got the Montana Rancher. It's a roast beef, pickled onions, horseradish sauce, colby jack, and lettuce sandwich. Very hearty. I ordered a half serving, and I can't imagine how big the full would have been. It came with a thick rosemary tomato soup, tortilla chips, and a madeleine. We shared a peach cobbler, which was one of their specials. It was good except for the bits of pit in every other bite. They didn't pit it well. 

Dad managed to drive us all the way back home from the hotel in Butte in one day. Impressive. We started at around 9:30am. Got home at about 10pm locally. It felt like 11pm, because we started the day in Mountain Time. Locally, we're Pacific Standard Time. An hour difference, but I think I felt it. We only stopped for gas, rest areas, a really late lunch, and a ferry. We had pretzels from the ferry's galley for dinner. I had lemon pound cake for dessert. 

While in Montana, at the beginning I thought I'd stick to my 'diet'. Ended up being too hard to stick to. I just tried not to eat everything on my plate instead. 

I loosely followed it yesterday, and today I'm back to being strict about it. I feel better when I follow it. Again, it's sticking to a 1200-1600 calorie range (up to roughly 1800 for treat days), and keeping track of protein and other nutrients. Splitting the day into 5 meals, too. 

My phone has been getting worse with its battery power. It goes way too quickly. Much quicker than it did just a few months ago. Made it frustrating in MT, since I wanted to at least take pics. Might next month look into upgrading. Apple doesn't even support updates to it, and I've heard it's hard to get any repairs or support for it as well. It's an iPhone 5c. I love my phone, except for this new battery issue and occasionally glitching out on me. 

I spent a week away from studying Chinese. HelloChinese, the app I use for it, has a plant that you refresh with reviews and lessons. My plant was all shriveled up and dark brown when I finally got back to it. It looked sad. It's back now, but still sickly looking after the 2nd day back to it. I had a slightly harder time with pronunciation when I got back into it. Remembered a surprising amount, though. 

I played my clarinet today. I think I might finally get back to practicing it on a regular basis. Managed to practice for an hour this time. It really was just the cork and pads falling off that kept me from playing that long before. I thought I just had to work myself up to it. It feels great to play it again. I played some klezmer, Mozart, a generalized solo book (lots of classical, but also other types of pieces), and a Duke Ellington song. Quite a bit. I played much better than I expected to at this point. I might not play again until Monday. I used to not play during the weekend, or at least not on Shabbat (Saturday). I might go back to that. 

22nd of Av

It's been hovering at or close to 90 degrees since my last post. Haven't posted much because of it. Today and the last couple of days have felt somewhat cold but nice at around 70 degrees. That's closer to our 'norm' for the summer, which is mid-70s. 

Hopefully I'll get to posting more often this month, like I was doing back in June. Was going to post yesterday, but I accidentally tapped 'clear' while writing the draft, and lost it. Frustrating. I'm not going to do the 'monthly' thing today. Might not do it for the rest of the month, either. 

Haven't had my desktop on most of this summer, and might not until next month. It's just been too hot. This also has meant that I haven't been writing more of Alliance 3. I did get to brainstorming what will happen next, for a couple of days. 

The countdown deals (for ebooks) don't seem to be very successful. I kind of understand with things like sequels. The free promos have been doing pretty well. The next free one is for my memoir starting on the 6th until the 10th.  Even if I don't earn royalties during those promos, every 'bought' copy makes my ebooks and my author rankings climb. That makes them more visible to people, they're suggested more often, people notice me more, etc. So, while it might not benefit me right away, it might in the long run.

The Select terms for Alliance, Alliance: Dawn, and Sweet Endless Terror (ebooks) will be ending at the end of the month. Once that ends, I'll wait a couple of more days, then publish them on Smashwords, too. I have to mess with their manuscripts a little beforehand anyways. You can't back out of the Select term until it ends, and you have to remember to uncheck the 'renew term' option. It's exclusive to them during that time. It takes a little more time for Smashwords to approve them for their Premium Catalog. Once that happens, it'll be distributed to a lot more places. 

I won't get reports for my paperbacks from Amazon's distributors for a little while longer. It'll be interesting to see how they do. 

Something happened to Rosie the night before last. I noticed when I gave her a pat on the head before bed that night, that it felt 'crunchy'. I thought it was just my imagination. The next morning I could see something was clearly up with her fur. I have a hunch that Tasha, while up on the banister over the stairs, started throwing up, just as Rosie was walking by underneath. Gross. It was on the top of her head, one ear, behind that ear, down her back, and near the base of her tail. A chunk on her back looked especially like throw up. I dampened a towel in a warm water and tried to run it over all the areas. She kept moving around, and wouldn't let me dry her off. This made her clean the areas afterwards. So, that actually helped more. Later, I used her grooming mitt and managed to get most of what was left with it. It lifted off a lot more fur than usual and some of it was really stiff. There were still a couple of tiny patches near her tail. With her cleaning herself more and me using the mitt again today, it's practically gone. I feel bad that she went through something like that. I don't have cat/pet shampoo, so I couldn't wash it off of her. She also has claws...

I've gone back to being more strict about watching my daily calories and other nutrients. I try to shoot for 1200-1600 calories a day. Also, if possible, try to get to the recommended amount for things like protein, sodium, sugar, etc. I never make it to the recommended amount of protein, often am low on sodium, and end up close for sugar. Either a little under or a little over for sugar. 

While sticking closer to this, I usually end up with a lot of leftovers at restaurants. Restaurant portions are always so huge! I found (and bookmarked) out that most of the restaurants we frequent like Red Robin, Red Lobster, Elmer's, etc. have their nutritional info online. That makes it easier to figure out for portions. MyFitnessPal either doesn't have some of them or is usually not accurate. It's been eyeopening looking at them. Sometimes these places have so much food, I get overwhelmed. When I go, I usually guess and have half of it or I don't care how much I eat. With eating that way, I still end up overeating most of it. 

I'm tired of bringing home leftovers. Most things aren't great the next day, and it creates more clutter. To me, it's different with leftovers of things from home. With those on top of the restaurant ones, things tend to go bad (while sticking to my 'diet') before I even get to them. This creates a dilemma for me. I hate wasting food, yet if I eat everything it's very fattening (not to mention I might throw up if I could eat it all...). It's not my fault restaurants have such humongous portions, and I shouldn't have to compromise my health. 

I've decided to ask for smaller portions at restaurants. That way I can try and balance it. When I went to Elmer's for brunch recently, I ordered a pancake entree. (Specifically, cinnamon roll pancakes.) It usually comes with 4 pancakes, I asked for 1. They also left off the whipped cream without me telling them, which was a plus. It's just added calories. Normally their scrambled eggs are made from 2 eggs, I got 1. The chicken apple sausage normally comes with 2 links, I got 1. With all this, it greatly reduced the calories, and was decent with that and other nutrients for a brunch. I could eat the whole thing, too. 

It somewhat worked for Red Lobster that night. The waitor looked at me like I was talking gibberish when I asked for the salad and entree (with its sides) to all be halved. (I say somewhat because the salad wasn't really halved.) I asked for only one biscuit, too. I'm the only one who eats them, I don't usually eat more, and they make a lot of leftovers with a full basket. Dad got a reward through the app, with one of the options being a free slice of Chocolate Wave Cake. She didn't have any of it. It was almost comical looking when I only ate a 1/4 of the slice and a 1/4 of the ice cream. The whole thing was 1110 calories. That's an absurd amount. Half of it would have been too much. 1/4 of it's not bad. I had a 1/4 of a cinnamon roll at Shari's recently, too. The whole thing was even more calories than that cake. 

I've been keeping up with my Chinese most of the time. I'm surprised at how much I'm actually 'getting'. I recently realized they had a training section with games. Every day there's a new game to unlock using coins you've earned. I've done one on grammar, another on speaking, and today's was on listening. They're fun. I've scored high with them, too. I'm almost done with the current section. Just one more. They pack more into each unit as you go along. 

I finally took my clarinet to Ted Brown's to get recorked a couple of days ago. The mouthpiece cork had fallen off about 9 months ago. I played with it using dental floss in place of the cork for about another month. It was starting to do weird things by then. So, I hadn't played for 8 months. I was really itching to play again. It was also the first time a cork has fallen off from it. I've been playing it since I was 10, so it's close to 25 years old. They were surprised that it was the first time. The only issue it's really had is the keys getting bent. That's not often. They also added 3 new trill pads. They said the old ones were falling off. I did ask them to look over it to see if it needed anything more. It was ready the next day. Much faster than I expected. It seems to me they added a couple more pads than they mentioned. They only charged for the store's base charge of repairs and what they told me about. I also got cork grease. I haven't needed that in a very long time. New corks are thicker and more swelled up than the old ones. They flatten over time. The new ones need something to slick them up so they can easily be assembled. The cork grease smelled minty. Nice. My clarinet will smell good. I also need to clean it even more so now, since it wasn't touched for so long. 

I managed to practice it today. Yay! It felt good just to play. It was easier to play with the new pads and cork, too. Before, I thought it was just the muscles in my mouth weren't built up as much as they used to be. No. It was actually because of the old cork thinning down, starting to fall off, old pads not fully gripping, etc. I should have realized something was up, and that it wasn't about me practicing enough. (I had gotten close to an hour a day, that should have been a clue...) I might actually get back into it again. I'm more tempted this way. I think I should order new reeds online soon, too. I got a big box of them about 7 years ago. They warped a bit from sitting in a car that had the sun and heat directed on it the day I got it. They're really not meant to last 7 years normally. Might be even better with fresh ones. 

I've been watching the anime Juuni Taisen or Zodiac Wars. It's essentially a battle royale of anthropomorphized Chinese zodiac animals, and they're all assassins. They all have powers. They all had to swallow a poison-laced gem at the beginning. They're supposed to collect those gems from their bodies. Whoever gets the most and is the sole survivor wins. They only have 12 hours. The winner gets their wish granted and the antidote. Pretty brutal premise. They seem to be killing them off in reverse order of the zodiac. So, the boar was first. However, the snake was an exception. He died before the game even started. 

The rat's my sign, and normally it's the first animal going by the order. I like him a lot, and he seems to be the most intelligent, manipulative, can get out of 'sticky' situations, great survival instincts, has been goading people on passively, and more. Very much like how rat people are described to be. His power is called Killing All. He hasn't really used it yet. I think he's waiting for all the others to kill themselves and plans to fight the one that beats all the others. Smart. He's also very good at hiding. No one, but the rabbit, has really been trying to get him. A theory is that he's already won, but his wish was time travel. So, he's just playing it all over again. He seems bored most of the time, knows what people will do before they even move, knows them well, and the others feel like he's familiar but can't place him. Makes sense. He's more twisted than he seems. 

The rabbit's an interesting character, too. He's a necromancer. He's pyschotic and wants to make friends by turning them into zombies that work with him as a team. After they come back to 'life', they can still use their powers. The only way to 'kill' those 'friends' is to burn or freeze them. He can bring back dead birds, as well. He's very clever. I have a feeling he may not actually be alive himself. His eyes look the same as the others after they are turned into zombies. That would be interesting. Even if some of this show is predictable, there are a lot of elements that aren't. It makes you wonder how people will die, what their stories are, about their world, and more.