National Oatmeal Day!

I used to love oatmeal. For a long time, it was my go to for breakfast. Now, it's just ok. I think I got sick of it. It's really healthy, though. I like putting cinnamon, Splenda, syrup, and raisins in it most of the time. I've also occasionally had it plain with just a touch of salt. It's good in cookies, too.

Someone responded to my intro thread on Susan's Place oddly. They said welcome to a new member and fellow human like themselves, who doesn't know of which gender they 'belong' to. Then, talking about how they related more to girls then what they were 'born as'. That I need to save time and decide soon to start my journey, otherwise I'd waste years of my life like they did. There's a lot to this...I know what my gender is. I'm agender. I don't have a gender. I even mentioned this in the my first post. I'm not confused about it. Also, the use of 'belong' is weird in itself. Was she really saying that I should belong to one of the 2 boxes: male or female? If I don't, then I'm confused or I can't make up my mind? That there are only 2 genders? How very binary of you, or exorsexist or enbyphobic. I wasn't born as a female. I was assigned that at birth. I don't think a newborn truly knows what gender they are themselves. Many people realize early in life, but right after birth? It's not like they could tell the doctor, even if they were aware of it at that time. Anyways, I've always been agender. I couldn't relate gender-wise to either girls or boys. Also, telling me to transition quickly is problematic. What if I want to go at a different speed? Why should I rush it? Transition will look different for me, too. She hasn't responded to my reply yet. Not sure if she will. I felt that I had to speak up for myself on there. There are many with binarist views, and when pointed out by the few enbies on there, they seem dismissive. The other forum that I joined recently, TransPulse, is pretty inactive. I just signed up with an enby forum yesterday, but haven't posted anything or really looked at it yet. It should be a lot better for someone like me. It's sad, though.

Finished Satsuriku no Tenshi or Angel of Slaughter (ONA). I liked it a lot. However, they left the ending very open-ended. Some commented that the game did that, too. There are a lot of theories. I have a couple, but won't bring them up because it'll spoil it. The creepiest characters were the therapist and priest. The therapist fell in love with Rachel and wanted her eyes. She's only 13. He has a fake eye that goes out of place sometimes. The blind priest seems to have been behind it all. He had a really twisted view of who he thought were angels and those that were 'fallen' or witches. Even tried burning Rachel up, accusing her of being a witch. He also uses some sort of mist that makes people hallucinate. He questions Rachel's faith in G-d throughout most of it. I wonder how long Zack was there participating in this 'experiment'. He didn't know about any of the other floors, besides the people there. How many people did Rachel kill before she had amnesia? How did she get amnesia? There's a lot more unanswered questions. I like shows that make you think, though.

Tried using Duolingo on my desktop today. It's quite different than the mobile version. There aren't as many chances to get gems, and there isn't a 'health' circle. Health doesn't seem to matter on there. I could probably get most of them wrong without having to refill it with gems. Takes a lot of the 'game' out of it. They have more speaking exercises, but they only give you 1 chance to say it. They don't let you try again if it's wrong. It seems like there are more cons than pros with the desktop. I'll go back to the mobile version tomorrow. I finished the Household unit, and started the Adject. 1 unit in Italian. The Household one was long. One thing I noticed that might trip me up in the future is 'mobile' is pieces of furniture in Italian. Quite a bit different than the meaning of the English 'mobile'. 

I've decided to edit an entire chapter every time I edit Alliance. Some chapters are rather long. I went through 14 pages today. That's also looking at both the ebook and print versions at the same time. So, if I see an error on one, I have to fix it on the other, too. That eats up more time than if I was just looking at one. Plus, I found a lot of errors. A lot more than expected...At least, it'll turn out much better when I submit it again. I still have to go back through it another time to make sure I found everything. I think I'll rephrase a few things at the beginning, too. If I go through a chapter each time, this stuff will seem to go faster. 

Asexual Awareness Week!

AAW started this past Sunday. I'm not sure if I'll do much more for it besides mentioning it in this post. I've already changed my profile frame and cover photo on fb, mentioned it on Instagram, and I normally share ace stuff on fb (not much to change there). Last year, I created ace-related art. It was the flag in the background, heart over that with the aro flag, and the agender symbol on top. I drew it in pencil, inked it with a pen, and colored it all in with both colored pencils and markers. People seemed to like it. I haven't touched that ace media list I was compiling in several months. Maybe I'll look into that again. If I don't want to add to it, maybe I'll just share what I have with everyone. 

I feel a little odd that most ace advocacy stuff (at least that's shared and through memes) is focused on the nasty comments we get. Sure, that needs to be highlighted, but we face a lot more issues. I think we try to tone it down for others, because for so long people have brought up the Oppression Olympics. We're told that we don't face oppression/discrimination, or if we do it's nothing like 'real' members of the LGBTQ+ community. That's really twisted. The funny thing is every letter experiences something different, and yet we all experience similar issues, too. Even the L experiences different issues than the G. Some people from our own community want to kick us out...Mainly because of ignorance. Many have the idea that it just means celibate straight people, or a stepping stone for their romantic orientation. If you're aro ace, they don't know where to put you. 

All asexuality means is you aren't sexually attracted to anyone. The spectrum has varying degrees of sexual attraction. Some are conditional, some people rarely feel it, and others may have sexual attraction until certain conditions are met. This doesn't say anything about how people view sex. That can range, like with any group of people. People can be repulsed by it, love it, favorable, positive, indifferent, etc. Some aces can have lots of sex, while others avoid it like the plague. I'm sex-repulsed, sex-positive, and very curious about it. A weird combo. Sex-positive is when people are for sex ed, talking about it (not necessarily in graphic detail), joking about it, people having as much or as little as they want with consensual partners, etc. My stomach churns when it's directed towards me, yet I'm curious. 

Erasure is a big thing. Many LGBTQ+ groups either leave us out completely, or they have that A for ally. Ally doesn't belong in it. If you're an ally, you're helping that community on the sidelines. It's much needed, and they have an important role to play. However, they are not in the actual community. There's an analogy that has them as soccer moms. Those soccer moms do a lot for the team, but they are not actually playing the game. When the A is used for them, it takes away the chance for players who hardly get called out onto the field from 'playing'. The A is for aros and aces. Some people say it should also be for agender people. As an agender person, I disagree. We're already under the trans umbrella. We're also covered by the non-binary and genderqueer umbrellas, which are under the trans one. We're covered enough. Aromantics are not the same as asexuals, and they've been trying to separate from the ace community for a long time. I'm both, but those are 2 different parts of me. 

Another huge issue is 'corrective' rape. This affects aces of any gender. When some people hear that someone's ace, they view it as a challenge. They think that they can 'fix' them that way. This isn't talked about much, but it needs to be out there. 

There's also a serious issue that ace men specifically deal with. Men are taught that being hypersexual is manly, and if you're not, you're masculinity is questioned. It's not talked about much, because some people are scared to talk about it. When I read an article about it they mentioned that ace men challenge people's assumption of what makes a man. It's kind of sad if that's what people reduce men to. Ace women get flak too, but some think that women aren't supposed to be sexual in the first place. 

Another one is conversion therapy. Pretty much all of the letters in the LGBTQ+ community experience this. Not everyone in those groups goes through it, but many do. Some allos (short for allosexual[s] or people who aren't ace) seem to think it needs to be 'fixed' this way. Especially if an ace has absolutely no interest in sex. It's pretty horrid. Asexuality was regarded as a mental disorder up until very recently. A couple of years ago, I remember hearing people were running test trials on a pill that could 'cure' aces. That company didn't last long, thank goodness. It shows that it's still an issue, though.

Another one was about a study that came out a few years ago. People are the least likely to offer housing to aces. Gay people were turned down housing more so than straight people, but not as much as aces. Like most letters, youth get kicked out of homes because of being ace. It's just too much of an unknown and they're full of ignorance about it. It's more rare, but some aces are killed because of it, too. The reason it might seem rare is it's not reported often that way. So, we don't really know. That's another problem with it, we're so under-reported about this stuff. (Same with many other parts of the LGBTQ+ community.)

We don't have much representation in media. Some people say stories with aces and/or aro aces would be boring. However, not too long ago the creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, said that Luffy is aro ace. He didn't use those words specifically (probably because he didn't know there were labels for it), but he said that Luffy's not sexually/romantically attracted to anyone. One Piece is the most popular manga/anime. In fact, it won a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author. It's the best-selling manga series in history. (Based on copies sold worldwide.) Luffy is the main character. That says something right there. He's anything but boring. This kind of came through during the Amazon Lily arc. Luffy had fallen into Boa Hancock's bath house while she was bathing. She was obviously butt naked. He didn't flinch. Acted like it was normal. Everyone (no matter the gender) seemed attracted to Boa, but he was the only one who didn't have that reaction. When they imprisoned him, naked, and stared at him, he just seemed really irritated. He didn't care much. Most of the Amazonian women had never seen a man before. The creator said the only things Luffy is attracted to are adventure and food. 

He also said that there will never be actual romance in the series. He's really unique about it. So many series have romance as an element, it's crazy! That promotes amatonormativity, which is an issue aros face. Amatonormativity is the idea that everyone needs romance, has romantic attraction, and promotes monogamous relationships. Some people sum it up as a One True Love Complex. It's like what aces face with how people say sex is a need, right up there with food/water, and that everyone is attracted to someone sexually. I think that's called compulsory sexuality. Both are extremely harmful and pushed on us like crazy. Same with heteronormativity. This stuff actually hurts allo/straight people, too. This is another positive and more creative aspect to One Piece. I'm tired of romance being shoved into stories all the time. (Some of it is good and is part of the story, but not much.) It's like filler to me.

Another good thing about this series is that it's rather mature. Some people infantilize aces (another issue) and think what makes a story mature is romance and sex. Glad he didn't do that. Instead it touches on topics of slavery, genocide, grief, assault, arranged marriage, poverty, corruption, racism, abuse, gender inequality, and more. Heavy stuff. Yet, there's a lot of humor. The only thing that might be an issue for people is the way he draws some of the women. However, it's not all women, and he said he was pressured to make some of them like that at one point. I don't think they look bad, though. His style is very unique, and there are a lot of different types of body shapes for both men and women in that world. Even their heights vary wildly. 

There's also Jughead from Archie's Comics who's aro ace. Although, the live-action show, Riverdale, turned him allo. (Straight at that.) Even the actor that portrays him was pushing for him to stay aro ace. Todd from Bojack Horseman is also ace. He actually came out and said it. There was apparently several episodes where he explained it, learned more about himself, and met other ace people. I think he's alloromantic (not aro, or experiences romantic attraction), which is good to have a variety out there. I don't watch the show, but people said that it was one of the best portrayals they've seen in any show. It's rare that the character said it themselves, too. 

It looks like this is my 1000th post on here. Wow! That's a lot! Seems like a milestone.

I joined 2 trans-related forums: Susan's Place and TransPulse. TransPulse is set up similar to AVEN. I didn't get much of a response for my intro thread on Susan's Place, and felt a little down about it. I had quite a few responses to the one I started on TransPulse. I decided to post in more threads to get more of a feel of Susan's Place. Maybe people on there just don't look at the intros. I know a lot of other forums where regular members didn't really care about that section. Found a thread about what 'flavor' of non-binary person we are. Basically, asking what enby gender we are (if we know), how we feel about masculine and feminine, introduce ourselves, when we knew we were 'different', if we have dysphoria, etc. Lots of stuff. Had rather long posts in there. People actually responded to what I wrote pretty quickly. Someone said they felt exactly like me about all this stuff. That was interesting. Other people welcomed me, and said that I came to the right place. In the TransPulse intro thread, some were recommending resources for me, which was nice. I didn't post in other threads on there. 

I decided to make time for the stuff I didn't feel I had time for before, during the weekend. So, learning more science and history stuff on Saturdays. (In addition to more Jewish stuff.) Music and art stuff on Sundays. Reading (an actual book) and forums on both days. As well as, movies on Saturdays and games on Sundays. I split them up mainly because of Shabbat. I'm technically not supposed to 'create' things, thus art and games would be on Sundays. I feel like forums don't really count for this...I don't know. But, learning is a big thing in Judaism, so science and history would be great for it. I managed to touch on everything this past weekend, so it's doable. Might not be as much when I do things like shopping those days. That's ok.

For science, I'm following the list of disciplines I found on wikipedia, and only skipping ones that don't interest me. Those mainly being things like the study of mites. That would just make my skin crawl. There are also some that don't seem to have much to them. I'm starting with acoustics or the science of sound. It's a branch of physics. I have very superficial knowledge of it to begin with. Many musicians learn a little about it, but it's the very basic stuff. So, this one will be very interesting. It's useful for many different things, too. Music, physics, electronics, speech, ultrasound, marine science, aeronautics, etc. I found the Acoustical Society of America's site. They have free articles on there. Their journal, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America or JASA, has an fb page. They post news as well as free copies of the journal. Found a couple of channels on Youtube based on it. Lots of info sources available out there. It doesn't seem like a very popular area of study, though. Seems sad that way. I think I'll focus on it for about a month, then move on to the next thing. That'll be aerobiology or the study of airborne organisms. 

For history, I'm using another alphabetical list. Starting with art history. I took art history in college. It's a very interesting subject, and there's a lot to it. I remember the textbook for it was one of the biggest and most expensive. It's really vast. I found an app on art history. They cover a piece of art every day. They go over the elements of it, the artist, style, time period, and more. They go into a lot of detail, which is cool. I also found a couple of fb pages on it. There's lots of stuff on other sites online, too. There's probably a lot that we didn't cover in that class. Actually, I remember we only used about half that textbook. I'll spend a month on this, too. Next one for this is chronology. Although, I'm not sure if there's much to it. If not, I'll move on to cultural history. Some of these topics in the history list share things from the science one, which is fine. 

I went back to reading Stone Kiss by Faye Kellerman. It had been a couple of years since I stopped reading it. I only finished the first chapter before. Got through a lot of it this weekend. It's a detective series with a Jewish side to it. A really good series. Maybe I can finally finish what I have of it soon.

For music, I tried to look for clarinet-based apps and fb pages. There weren't very many, and none of them were good enough to like or download. I did find some music history-based pages on fb. I plan to go over some music history in the future. I've taken a couple of classes on different periods in college, and it would be interesting to go over that stuff again or learn new stuff about it. Maybe I'll go chronologically through those historical periods. I also want to hear more music from around the world, and download some of it. Maybe look into music theory, too. Or, even look into music specifically from countries that I'm learning the main language of. (Many countries have multiple languages.) Like, Italian music for now. I can go in many directions with this.

For art, I might do things like fill out memes that are made to help improve drawing/character development. I went through my 'collection' on deviantART, and found quite a few blank ones that I downloaded to fill out in the future. There are things that focus on reactions/expressions, drawing the oldest (or first) and newest character, some on the artist themselves (like how would you draw yourself in your style), outfits for characters, drawing in different styles, etc. All good for practice and getting more 'in touch' with my characters. I might go through all of my inbox on there, too. It's really backlogged, because I don't go on there nearly as much as I used to. I have several 'stacks' of deviations (art pieces) in there from artists I follow and groups. Each stack from the groups has around 200 deviations. That's a lot to go through. There a lot of journals and some on faves/llamas. I'm surprised I'm still getting so many faves and llamas. Llamas can be given by other members, and the more you get, the more the llama on your profile changes. I think mine's still an albino llama. At some point, it has sunglasses, a hat, outfits, and more. I might post to my journal on there. It's been a while. I can look at more art on there, fb, Instagram, and other places. Another thing that might be good is drawing buildings and scenery from Alliance, as well. All this will help me improve, and I can be more active on dA which is full of other far better artists to learn from.

I started watching Tensei Shitara Slime Datte Ken, or That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. I wasn't sure about this one at first. It's from this current season, and I'm not far behind. It's better than I expected. It's about a 37 year old human, Satoru, who was stabbed to death by a robber. He was reincarnated as a slime named Rimuru, in basically a video-game like fantasy world. I have a feeling he is in a video game somehow. Slimes in video games (particularly rpg's) are often very weak. They're usually the first thing gamers have to attack. Even Fate has them as 'gels' that only inhabit the first couple of levels of the dungeon. However, it seems the opposite with him. He's a very powerful being. He can absorb almost anything. He gains knowledge of whatever he 'eats', can mimic those skills/spells, can make and store an unlimited amount of health potions from eating herbs, and more. He had to 'eat' a bat in order to talk, and eat something in order to see. They really are detailed about it. The animation is top-notch, and changed a few times. There was even a 3D scene. In the opening, it seems he can transform into a humanoid. Does that mean he eats someone? There's a lot of comedy, too.

Started Zombieland Saga. It's also one from this current season, and I'm not far behind. When I first read the description of it, it didn't interest me. Then, Crunchyroll shared a clip on fb of it, and I was intrigued. I thought it was a typical pop idol-type anime. Pop idols in general are not really my thing. It's far from that, though. 7 girls are brought back to life as zombies by a 'mysterious' producer. The lead was killed 10 years ago by a truck just as she walked out the door, starting her walk to high school. She seemed so happy and was going to audition to be in an idol group. This all happened in the first couple of minutes, so it's not like I'm spoiling that. She was the first to 'awaken' as a zombie. The other girls were mindlessly stumbling about and terrified her. They're all different ages and from different time periods. The producer wants to boost tourism for Saga prefecture by creating a zombie idol band. So far, there's only one girl that hasn't woken up yet, and she keeps biting everyone. The producer is a pro at applying makeup that makes them appear 'normal'. Also, it seems like each episode has a music theme. The first one they performed a heavy metal concert. Again, the lead or Number 1 was the only one 'aware'. It was hilarious. The 2nd episode was on hip hop. The rapping was actually pretty good, and they added a little of traditional Japanese music to the background as well as some modern music flare. It's a hilarious series so far. 

Started watching Radiant, too. It's also from this current season. It's an adaptation of a French comic. Apparently, one of the first anime adaptations of a series from France. From what I read, they cut a lot of the distinctly French-type humor for the first few episodes. They also made Seth, the main character, less reckless. Alma, his teacher and guardian, changed a bit, too. Kind of sounds like they watered it down a bit for the beginning. It's a mage/sorcerer based series. People who get near or touch a demonic-like being, called Nemesis, either die or become sorcerers. The sorcerers are looked down upon until regular humans ask for their assistance against the Nemesis. Sorcerers are the only ones who can kill them. Seth is an orphan with horns. I'm assuming that when people come into contact with a Nemesis (and live), they gain something like horns, bat wings, or really big hair. There's a lot of unknowns with this one. It's interesting, but seemed a lot like other series like D.Gray-man, Black Clover, and Fairy Tail. Doesn't seem very 'French' at all yet.

Global Cat Day!

This holiday was yesterday. I love my cats. Rosie is especially attached to me. Cats are a lot more affectionate and loving than many people think. They just may express it differently than dogs. They all have different personalities, too. (Same thing with dogs.) Every time Rosie sees me, she seems so happy and excited. She also treats me like both a parent and kitten. I don't know how that's possible...She encourages me to eat more. Particularly if I haven't eaten much or have forgotten during the day. Today's National Pasta Day. I love pasta. Pretty much any kind.

I got a jewelry cleaning kit this past weekend. It comes with 2 2-sided polishing cloths (one for silver and the other for gold), a small brush, and a tray that you dunk into a tub of cleaning solution. It seems like quite an operation. Depending on the size of jewelry, you put 1 or 2 pieces in the tray. Then, dunk them for 30 seconds, rinse with lukewarm water while brushing them, and finally use one of the cloths. One side helps clean it further (helps with the tough grime), and the other side is to polish it off. I've never cleaned my jewelry before. I started wearing earrings when I was 14. (Clip-ons before that, of which I obviously don't have anymore.) So, it's been a while. Some are really awful looking. I think they were even causing infections near the holes. A few months ago, I stopped wearing them on a regular basis because they were hurting too much. I ended up with weird lumps around the openings. Anyways, I cleaned all my studs first, and they look so much shinier and feel cleaner. I did some of my bigger earrings yesterday, which took a bit more effort. They turned out much better, too. There was only one pair that I couldn't scrub off the green stuff completely. I thought the pair was fake gold, so it seems odd to me that they'd turn green. I know it oxidizes over time, and may have affected it if it were 'real'. Also, even if it were, it seemed excessively green. I hardly wore them. At least, they look better now. I have a lot more earrings to clean. It'll take a while. It's good to do, though. 

I got frustrated so much with Duolingo's Russian course that I dropped it. Even without the glitches, it wasn't structured very well. I started learning Italian Monday. I can tell already that it's set up like their German course, which was great. I'm liking it so far. There have been speaking exercises right away, unlike the Russian course. (That never had them.) I've been spot on with those. It's fun to say. It also seems rather easy right now. I know I just started, but I'm breezing through with only a couple of minor mistakes. A lot of it makes sense. I'm noticing that some Italian words that people say here in the US are mispronounced. That's been interesting. Also, interesting that a cookie is a biscotto, and cookies are biscotti. This goes for any type of cookie. Candy is caramella, which lit. is caramel. So, all candies are referred to that way. Makes sense, but might get a little confusing when specifically talking about caramel. Today, I finished the Plurals, Animals, and part of the Food 2 units. Quite a bit. After the Food 2 one, it'll be Possession. That'll be the end of the 1st section or trek. 

I made a list of possible future languages to study. It's longer than I expected. Here it is so far: Indonesian, Hindi, Korean, Spanish (I know snippets of it already), Romanian, Gaelic (not sure if it'll be Irish or Scottish), Dutch, Norwegian, Vietnamese. Each one will be about 3 months each, like I have been doing. I'll also be learning more about the cultures around them, as well. 

After going through a forum poll on AVEN, I realized I have a lot of interests. That popped up in my mind when I went to an international market downtown, too. (To me, they had so many fascinating different types of food.) I'm curious about pretty much everything, not just the languages and cultures. All different types of sciences, stories, writing, media (includes anime, manga/comics, movies, shows, etc.), food from around the world (includes snacks, cheeses, breads, etc.), math, reading, music (almost every aspect from playing it to listening, history...), history, drawing/photography, my religion, and so much more. It can be overwhelming and sometimes intimidating. I sometimes forget about them. That doesn't mean my interest in them has waned, but that there are just so many of them. I sometimes feel like I don't have the time.

I thought it'd be interesting to focus on science, history, more Judaism, reading, drawing/art (like memes to practice with), music, and more stuff during the weekends. For science, I found a list of disciplines I can go through alphabetically. (Since I wasn't sure where to start.) There are a lot. I thought depending on what it is, I'll focus a month or two on them. I'll skip some of the ones that I have no interest in. Like, the first one on the list is acarology or the study of mites. That would make my skin crawl...I might start with aceology or the study of remedies or therapeutics. Or, acoustics. There are a lot of really interesting sounding ones on the list that I don't have much knowledge of. That would be fun to expand that knowledge. I plan to look into pages on fb related to those fields, possibly find books on it, read articles, maybe see if there are apps devoted to it, and more. I might go through anthropology stuff when I get to it. That's what I was majoring in in college, but I could reacquaint myself with it or see what's new. I could do something similar with history. I want to get through my really old reading list too, and eventually add to it. For music, I could look up music-based fb pages for things like music history, clarinet, musicians, etc. I could discover and download new songs, too. 

With Judaism, I could look into Jewish philosophy (I loved it when I took a course on it) and study more of the Talmud, Mishnah, etc. I could look for more Jewish pages and apps, too. All that in addition to getting back into regular Shabbat stuff again, like going over the weekly parsha (Torah portion) and my own services. My own, since my immune system has weakened quite a bit. Even though I'm currently taking an anti-inflammatory med, lialda, it's heavy duty and still messes with my immune system. Not as much as azathioprine, at least. Anyways, I'd easily catch something if I went to one of the 2 synagogues in the area for it. Also, doesn't help that I have other 'issues' with both. I can still have the 'experience' with live-streaming services. Sometimes, I just go through on my own with an old prayer book. 

Sometime in the near future, I might upload audio vids (with text) to Youtube of playing the clarinet. Audio, because I feel weird with seeing myself on video. Although, my new computer has a webcam...It might be easier, and I might ease myself into it. Either way, hearing myself when I play them back might help me improve. It'd be nice to get some constructive criticism from people. However, I know there are a lot of trolls on there. So, we'll see with that. I don't think I've gone back to playing long enough or on a regular basis to do this yet. 

Also, I've decided to join a few trans specific forums. (Haven't registered with them yet, just found them.) I've never been a member of one. I've joined many other types of forums in the past. This might help me. If anything, I might befriend other trans people, and commiserate with people who 'get it'. AVEN has a gender section, but it's not that big. It's usually full of people questioning what they are, which is a great starter for people. It's just...not in depth or anything. The ones I'm going to join are: Susan's Place, TransPulse, Non-Binary & Genderqueer Support Forum. I think I've heard Susan's Place briefly mentioned in the local trans group. It seems to be one of the oldest. I didn't know there was a specific enby forum. That's pretty nifty. We have some specific issues that we deal with that binary trans people don't. We experience a lot of the same stuff in general, though. It's like another layer/element for us. All 3 forums are huge! The generalized trans forums both actually have a surprisingly large enby section. I found these 3 through a google search. There might be other great ones out there, especially because these were pretty much the first ones that came up. I didn't know there was such a large community online. Gives more choices. If I don't like them, for whatever reason, I can easily find others.

It feels like I've been overwhelmingly sick every few days. I'll get incredibly nauseous and have come close to passing out. Also, my guts are acting up more than usual. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm flaring worse on those days or I really am sick. There are lots of memes shared in the 2 IBD fb groups I'm in about this sort of thing. Speaking of which, I'm getting really tired of seeing extremely graphic images through them. There are a few people who take pics of themselves high, too. That's weird. I know that some people smoke marijuana or use cbd oil to help with it, but I don't need those sort of posts. A lot of them seem very religious. Particularly, Christian. They tend to be much older than me. Yet, most people are diagnosed in their late teens to early 30s. It's odd. Although, I'd say a good chunk of the members are actually parents of IBD patients who don't have it themselves. That's added a bit of drama between them and actual patients of the group. Some people think it should only be for patients, others feel grateful that there are parents/family out there that support us and it makes them feel better, others are grateful but think there should be a separate group just for them. I agree with the latter. Many join to gain knowledge, but maybe there could be a few patients that join that family group to help them instead. They have quite a few anti-vaxxers. That's dangerous for a chronic illness community. Especially, for patients with autoimmune diseases. One of them seemed anti-LGBTQ+. I feel like dropping them both, and looking for others. Maybe there are some for LGBTQ+ IBD patients? Or, Jewish groups with it? Or, even ones for people younger than 50? There's got to be some out there like that.

I finished watching Hinterland on Netflix. Tried to go back to Let's Eat. I had only watched the 1st episode before. This second one was less about food, which is what it's supposed to focus on. It was honestly boring. The hyper-female-centric aspect got to me. (It wasn't just because I'm afab and not a woman.) It had stereotypes, and wasn't like women in real life. Sure, the main character was a tough woman with an attitude, but there was something about her, too. She was better than the others. 

So, I dropped that, and went back to The Method last night. I watched a couple of episodes a long time ago. It's a Russian detective show. There's quite a lot of dark humor, which I like. The main detective goes to extremes to teach people, and seems to go an easy/sly way of catching criminals. It can be intense to watch. Things move quickly. In the episode I watched last night, he caught the criminal by talking through the criminal's reasoning, saying it was valid, serving him cake, casually talking to the girls he kidnapped, and essentially cozying up to him. He went willingly. The detective's partner/assistant, who's learning from him, had the mindset that she had to have a weapon to arrest him. She was ready to hit him with a large rock. She's actually tough and has been the only one to 'survive' longer than a day with him. All his previous partners couldn't stand his 'methods' or accidentally died. In a few of the situations so far, she actually seems stronger and smarter than him, which might be why he pleaded with her to stick with him. I think this is the 1st suspect that didn't end up dying in a brutal way. I remember the one from the 2nd episode well. The detective was trying to talk him into turning himself in. Then, he grabbed his partner and was about to slash her throat. The detective was quick on his toes, and as soon as the knife started to move, he stabbed him in the neck with a pen. It was at such a spot, he couldn't speak as the blood gushed out. Just gargled a lot. This is, of course, on a mostly empty bus. At the next bus stop the detective just tossed the guy out onto the bench as he bled to death. He did it to save his partner, but I don't think he should have gone to such lengths. Parts of the episodes are set in the future with his partner talking to other detectives about whether he's fit to work. They think he's mentally unstable. And, there was some sort of incident that we (the viewers) haven't seen yet. That's what made them start investigating him. Meanwhile, as they're talking, she keeps drinking alcohol from a flask. It looks like the same flask that he uses currently. He drinks a lot, by the way. Currently, this has flabbergasted his partner. She doesn't really drink right now. Something changes her, too. 

I decided to start a birthday fundraiser on fb. (My birthday's on November 7th.) It's the first time I've ran one on there. It was a bit difficult to narrow down. After a while, I decided on the Trevor Project. They're an organization focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth. They have a crisis intervention lifeline (they're most known for), school workshops, educational materials/programs, online resources, advocacy, and help the parents. They recently recognized and trained their staff to help with what aces face. Not sure about aros. They might lump them together, which isn't really cool...Even if I'm both. This gained them even more 'points' with me. They want to help everyone in the community. A very worthy cause. So far, none of my friends have donated. Fb itself donates $5 to it no matter what. At least there will be that. There are 3 weeks left, so maybe that will change. After posting about it a 2nd time, a couple of people reacted. Maybe that means they'll donate later? I guess I'll see.

30th of Tishri

I apparently have another thing I should bring up next time I talk to my primary. I've noticed it in the past but ignored it thinking it wasn't a big deal. It's back with a vengeance this time, though. My right pinky finger is numb/tingly, and sometimes there are shocks of pain. Sometimes my other pinky finger feels the same way, just not as strongly. I think parts of both my ring fingers are affected, too. Just not all of it with those. Sometimes it feels like my pinky is gone, or like it's dead or something. It also affects how I grip with those fingers. I thought since it's just mainly a pinky that it wasn't a big deal. It's not all the time, either. Although, this time that 'feeling' is staying longer than usual. It might be Ulnar Nerve Entrapment aka Cubital Tunnel Syndrome. It's similar to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, just deals with a different nerve. For this, it's a nerve that gets trapped in the elbow. It happens to people who bend their elbows for extended periods of time. Particularly those that sleep on their sides with a hand under their pillow. I tend to sleep like this. It's the most comfortable position for me. I usually try to sleep on my back with my arms out at my sides at the beginning. I always end up on either side with a hand under the pillow by the end. It's a subconscious thing...There aren't many times during the day where I have my arms out straight. Sometimes I 'feel' this numb thing after playing my clarinet. You can't play it without bending your elbows. I've read the only way to get rid of it is to talk to a hand specialist. Sometimes you just need physical therapy. I don't want to...

I also need to decide whether I want a new primary soon, and make an appointment. It's been too long (over a year), and there are things like this that I need to bring up. In addition to asking how to get the ball rolling for medical transition stuff. If only to talk about it with them. If they don't know anything, that's ok. I also haven't seen anyone for my colitis in over a year, and they say it needs to be closely monitored. (At least, once every 3 or 4 months.) Even while in remission. My 'GI' (she's not an MD, and is really an assistant to an MD that I don't have) recently messaged me saying she renewed my prescription for another year of Lialda. However, without seeing me or someone else for so long, she can't order more. So, I need to find someone at the very least before that year's up. She does want me to find an MD, and thinks they'll be able to help me more. I'm glad she actually sent me a message. My primary hasn't, yet she usually sends a paper letter as a reminder for my annual physical. That tells me quite a bit right there. Maybe she expected that I'd switch to someone else, yet she's still refilling my prescription for Lamotrigine. It's weird.

Recently someone posted in one of the IBD groups about how they couldn't take it anymore. Seemed suicidal. She kept saying she had had enough. None of the treatments were helping, and she doesn't want surgery. That was the last option. I was told almost as soon as I was diagnosed that many people with IBD become suicidal over time. Or, develop other mental health issues. It's a tough disease. The idea that it'll be with you for life, and most likely get worse over time, is a difficult pill to swallow as it is. Let alone going through so many different treatments, living with that pain (even if you're in remission, you may still be in pain, like I've been), not being able to keep anything down, constantly going to the bathroom, the fatigue, having malabsorption issues, etc. It's difficult to live with. Some have it more severe than others, and/or may have different symptoms. Again, it's more likely to worsen over time. Some people even refuse treatment altogether, and end up dying from complications. Heck, people can still die from complications even with treatment, although it takes longer and is rare. It's even more rare, but the treatments themselves could cause fatal complications. Most of the comments to her post were not good. Saying things like: "Been there, done that." "It'll get better. You're just having a bad day." "Think positive." That's not helpful. Sure, things might get better, but what if it doesn't for her? Some seemed dismissive. A couple of people posted about suicide hotlines, which was better. Some suggested she pm them. I think that was one of the best responses. She needed someone to talk to, and maybe even just to have someone listen. Someone who knows what having this is like, even if theirs isn't as severe. I didn't want to make it worse and didn't say anything. I'm sure the admins saw it at some point. Maybe they helped her out.

I played some of Fable: The Lost Chapters during the weekend. Haven't done so in so long...I think I only managed to play it on my laptop, which fried about a decade ago. I had to mess a little bit with the graphics. I like that they give you that option. The faces of the people in it looked scary at first, after tweaking it, they were a lot better. More normal. Everything else looks great, especially knowing how old it is. I had to essentially turn off the shadow quality. Still have faint shadows, at least. The shadows were a weird bright green beforehand. I also managed to change the resolution to what my computer is now, so it's full screen. That's 1920 x 1080. I didn't think it could go that high. It might go higher. The game itself runs so smoothly on my new computer. It's great. I realized why it has you start with a wasd config for the keyboard controls. It makes it a lot more fluid than the arrow one, oddly. I essentially only got to the point of almost the end of the 'tutorial' part. After joining the guild, passing the guild test, and the guild master is about to tell me about their home portal and getting around. That takes up a big chunk. It was fun, though. Next time, after the portal thing, I'll start really playing it and completing quests without it guiding me. I realized it starts you off with 'sexuality: unknown'. I didn't remember that he can end up being other things besides straight. Looked it up, and apparently he can. Technically, only 'unknown', straight, gay, or bi. That's still something. It changes if he marries other characters. I think I made him flirt with male npc's in the past, just to see what would happen. Never had him marry anyone, though. Apparently, he can have sex if he's married to his partner or he finds a prostitute. I didn't remember that...Not that I want that either. It's a complex and immersive world, so I guess there's a lot of possibilities. The expressions you can give him are funny, too. I like that there's quite a bit of humor mixed in with the seriousness. Like, you can become a chicken chaser with different titles the more you kick or punch chickens. It's rather dark...You can choose to be evil or good based on your deeds. Evil deeds are things like stealing, killing innocent npc's, farting in people's faces, etc. Good ones are helping others, watching stuff for them, beating up a bully, beating/killing villains (there's a difference in this), and more. Right now, I'm pretty neutral, but I'll probably end up being good. Maybe in the future I can play it again and make him as evil as possible. 

Managed to edit quite a bit of Alliance today. Finished the Questions unit, and started the People 1 one for Russian. I'm half thinking of dropping Russian, because of how awful Duolingo's course is. I'm remembering a lot of it, but I'm not sure how long I can overlook how glitchy it is. 

I think my next drawing 'project' will be drawing full bodies of my characters. Maybe different angles of their heads, too. I'm starting with Shadow, the main character. I'm trying to plan it out a bit more than I did with the heads. I've drawn a full body of him, but it was weird. I don't like his head's design from that heads thing recently. The hair wasn't right, face shape was weird, eyes were a little odd, etc. So, I'm saving pics I find to my phone that I can use as guides for parts of him. I found a chart of hairstyles a month or so ago. I also now have the 2 hairstyles I know that I merged together for how Shadow looks in my head. They're not exactly like his, but close. Also, found eye, mouth, and nose shape charts. Hopefully, I can get a better design using these as guides. I'll look for head shapes next. Might look for charts for other body parts, too. I want to improve, and haven't done many full-body drawings. I have a really old artist's anatomy book (I think it was my grandma's), but it's not the best. It helps sometimes, though. It's sad that every time I've drawn Shadow, I haven't liked his design. I should find something I'd like that's solid, considering he's the main character.

Practiced my clarinet. Played from the general solo book, jazz, Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and some pieces from the advanced classical solo book. I think I played better than last time. 

Started watching the last season of Fairy Tail. It's been about 2 1/2 years since its last season ended. A long time. I wasn't sure if they were actually going to make another one. It was like seeing old friends again. Natsu and Lucy are planning to gather the guild members again and rebuild the guild itself. The guild master is missing, and no one know's why he disbanded it. Natsu has become a lot stronger. We don't know about Lucy or Happy yet. Carla (people can't seem to agree on how to spell her name) can take on a human form now. She's an Exceed, who are essentially strong talking cats that can fly. (They hatch from eggs, too.) It was an interesting surprise. Wendy's apart of a different guild and they're trying to persuade her to quit and rejoin Fairy Tail at the moment. If she does, Carla will probably go with her. She's always with her, like Happy is with Natsu. Happy's another Exceed. Should be interesting to see how this season turns out. 

Finished the most recent season of Gintama. They told fans that it'd be the last season, but they really trolled us. In fact, they trolled viewers big time during the last half of the finale. At least they explained what the situation was for the series. The mangaka (creator of the manga) announced a while back that he was finishing it, but he still hasn't. He apparently is taking a hiatus? That's what I gathered. The anime staff said they had pretty much caught up and there wasn't enough material to adapt at the moment. They try to stay true to the manga. Over the years, I can tell the anime staff must be close to him. They seem to be fond of him in a very Gintama way. Joking about him a lot, but with some seriousness to it. Whenever he appears in the anime, he's portrayed as a gorilla and hardly ever talks. He usually writes them something like a letter or on a wall. He also comes in with a golden aura. Like, he's their G-d. Well, he essentially is to his characters. I think he does have a hand with some of the anime. Not sure when the next season will be. Not even sure if the mangaka really is ending the series. He loves to troll people and does it well.  

The last 4 episodes of Satsuriku no Tenshi are going to be available as specials. I watched the first of those. (It was the only one up so far. It'll probably be put out weekly like usual, which is odd considering how it came out this time.) It was pretty intense. Should be interesting to see how this one ends.

24th of Tishri

I've kept up with my sit-ups. Up to 25 of them twice a day this week. I decided to do my push-ups a little differently last night. I usually do 'normal' ones, but I don't think I had the best form for them. It had been a while since I did them on a regular basis. Plus, my muscles are really weak now, especially in my arms. Having malabsorption issues messes with it. I still occasionally have that. Certainly not as often as I did when I first started having symptoms of colitis. My muscles were slowly weakening beforehand, too. This just made it progress faster. So, I caved and decided to start with 5 of them twice a day again, only for more than a week. Also, doing them with my knees or the 'easier' way. It used to be how they told the girls to do them in PE, which was pretty sexist. Anyways, it's probably perfect for me right now, and to work my way up to the normal ones. So far, it feels like my form is close to what it should be with the knees. Felt right. The only thing I'm finding a little difficult is going down far enough. I'm getting there. 

I'm finding a lot of bugs with Duolingo's Russian course. The recordings are awful most of the time, and there have been cracks in the sound. There are still no speaking exercises. I don't want to start with another course on a different app, and it's mainly to see how much I can remember. It's still really disappointing. It seems they didn't put much effort into it. Certainly not as much as German. Maybe it'll improve as I go further? Hope so.

Read Choujin Gakuen or Supernatural Academy. It's getting even more interesting. The greatest swordsman in the World's Strongest Committee's base apparently knows Adam. She was going to kill him until she saw his face. She's infatuated with him. She's also Tarou's mother. She decided to help his group instead of killing them. She found Yoshino, and Yoshino agreed to joining Supernatural Academy. Yoshino gave Uluru her permanent residency card. Permanent residency cards are sought after in that town. It was a big deal to give up. The leader of the group tried to make Yoshino her blindly obedient puppet. Now she's finally deciding something for herself. Hagi is 'secretly' allowing her to leave. He says he's on no one's side, yet he works for the chairman...I feel kind of bad for him, too. His wife just divorced him because of his work, and he lost custody of his child. Pretty heavy. Even Adam and his group felt bad for him. The real reason there are such harsh rules at their base is because they're preparing to go up against some sort of powerful foe. Don't know much about it yet, other than another group just broke in. They mentioned something like the "day has come". And the chairman seemed much more agitated by them breaking in than Adam and co. 

Managed to edit/read more of Alliance. Word definitely has a different 'look' now. It's going to take some getting used to. At least it's not drastically different. Just enough to tell. Went through more than I did with the old computer. It might not take me long to go through the whole thing. Then, I'll go through Alliance: Dawn. Once I'm done with both I'll reupload it to Amazon, and publish it through Smashwords as well. Might go through Sweet Endless Terror at some point, too. 

Practiced my clarinet. Haven't done it for about a week. Mostly played Mozart pieces. Wasn't too bad. I think I need to relax more when I play.

Watched more of Hinterland on Netflix. I'm close to the end of the 2nd season. There's one more season. It's good, but there's a lot of staring, some long pauses, and lots of scenic shots. It looks amazing on my computer. I can see so many details that I couldn't on my phone. 

Watched Black Clover last night. Vangeance, who's the Golden Dawn's captain, virtually destroyed the Diamond Kingdom's invading mages. Yuno who's in the Golden Dawn's squad, took care of most of the rest. It ended with the possibility that Vangeance might be the spy. Yami (captain of the Black Bulls), obviously suspecting him, asked him to take his mask off. We haven't seen him without it. It'd be kind of sad if he was the one. Not sure what Yuno would do. Plus, Vangeance is one of the strongest mages in Clover Kingdom. There were new opening and ending themes this time. The animation was interesting, but the songs were just blah. 

Watched One Piece. It seemed like they've been really stretching out Luffy and Katakuri's fight. They were even getting annoyed with the fight. It was interesting that it was a rubber man vs a mochi man. Mochi can be very sticky, and he can stretch it far. With Luffy, he can stretch and heat himself up to become 'softer' and more fluid as well as tougher. Except for the stickiness, it was pretty close to Katakuri's abilities. He had a trident, unlike Luffy who doesn't usually use weapons. So, he had more of an advantage. He also has 'awakened' his ability like Doflamingo did. He can turn anything he touches into mochi. I wonder if Luffy will awaken his? That'd be interesting. Katakuri can also 'see' a few seconds into the future, but Luffy can sense what's coming. The episode ended with Luffy being smothered by several layers of mochi, and Katakuri walking away to start what he called his ritual. He knew if they had continued to fight Luffy would somehow upgrade, and he didn't want to sit around waiting for that to happen. (Somewhat rare for 'villains' in the story.) I think Luffy acted like he suffocated to death by it. He obviously didn't, and there was a cut scene showing part of him underneath it. The next episode will be about Katakuri's ritual. Supposedly, not even his family has witnessed or been with him for it. No one knows what he does for it. Luffy's probably going to interrupt him. It'd be the perfect time. I hope they end this part soon, though. 

Youtube:

One Piece:

23rd of Tishri

This is my wallpaper for October. It's another manga wallpaper I put together a while back. Specifically, it's a Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler one. The left side has Soma, and it's from a very tragic chapter. Someone very close to him was attacked brutally while protecting him. I won't go into too much detail, since it might be too much of a spoiler. It was pretty shocking, though. The right side has Sebastian (holding the candle) and Ciel. That was from a special 10th Anniversary and Halloween chapter a couple of years ago. The manga has been around for about 12 years now. Hopefully it'll continue for a long time. However, it seems things are coming together quickly and like it might end soon. I could be wrong, though. I thought this would be great for a Halloween-themed one. Might change it to another one in a couple of weeks. I have a couple of Halloween-themed ones.

The month-long holidays for October are: National Apple Month, National Caramel Month, National Dessert Month, National Pasta Month, National Pasta Month, National Pretzel Month, Bat Appreciation Month, Corn Month, German-American Heritage Month, LGBTQ+ History Month, National Cookbook Month, National Seafood Month, Spinach Lovers Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. A lot of them this time. In addition to LGBTQ+ History Month, there's National Coming Out Day on the 11th. I'm part German-American. It's interesting that there's a month devoted to cookbooks. 

I got a new computer on Saturday. Put it together on Sunday and was still setting it up yesterday. My old computer, which was a Windows XP, was roughly 12 years old. It was on its last legs. I could pretty much only write slowly and play 2 games (The Sims 2 and Fate). Video wouldn't work (besides what's in those games), internet was iffy, most things didn't support it anymore (even most browsers wouldn't support it), it was noisy, like a furnace, it'd freeze every few minutes, etc. The last issue was shutting itself off suddenly. So many things wrong with it. It worked well for most of the time I had it, though. I feel very lucky to have had it in the first place. It was kind of sad taking it and its monitor off my desk, and then putting it in the garage to later be dumped. 

My new one is amazing! Seems futuristic to me. It's an all-in-one, so it has the computer inside the monitor. Takes up a lot less space. It also has a webcam, and I'm unsure how much I'll use that in the future. It's built into the top, you press that, and it pops up. Nice that you can pop it back in and have it popped up only when you use it. It has a DVD/CD drive on the side. The only issue I see with that is it seems like it can easily be damaged that way. It stands up or is sideways instead of the flat one that I was used to where the disc just sits. It seems delicate. 

It has speakers, but I'm using my old ones. They're better. I haven't actually used them in a long time. Mostly just used them when I occasionally played games. They sound far better than I expected. I don't think they've deteriorated or anything since I got them. I also have a sub-woofer connected to them that I forgot about before. There's more power to the sound that way. It might be weird if someone's downstairs when it kicks in, though. I'm listening to Pandora at the moment with them. It sounds so much better than even my new phone, and my phone sounds good as is. 

It has quite a lot of different ports. 5 USB ones (2 different kinds), a memory card slot, audio jack, and a few others. It also has a microphone. 

The monitor is bigger than my old one. I think it's close to 22". It has a 1920 x 1080 resolution, and the old one had a 1440 x 900 one. I thought the old one was big...I'm still not quite used to it being so big. It's also a touch screen. That seems to be the most futuristic part. The image is so clear, detailed, and crisp, too. I've already watched something on Netflix with it, and it was amazing!

Windows has changed a lot, too. The layout is a bit different, and I think they tried to make it similar to a smart phone with the 'apps'. It's interesting that it has Cortana built in. I haven't really used her yet, except for when I was setting it up. I found a way to make the desktop and taskbar closer to what I'm used to. I used to have a silver taskbar, and I'm not sure how to turn it to that yet. I might just set it to automatically pick a color from the background. Start menu is weird. The 'app' blocks move and make it look bulky. 

I managed to save all my pics and documents from the old one with a flash drive. That drive can hold up to around 5gb, and I filled up about half of it. I also imported all my music from my mp3 player to the new computer. That's basically where I put all my music from the old one, anyways. I'm not even passed filling up 1% of that mp3 player, and I have close to 340 songs on it. It's like an endless pit, and makes me want to put more on it. It feels more like 'home' with my pics, docs, and music from before. I'm glad I didn't lose any of it. I was worried the drive would be corrupted or something. It was plugged into the old one for a long time. 

The only issue I have is with Microsoft Office. You can't use it unless you sign up for the month-long free trial or subscribe. Once the trial expires, they'll charge for a year of it. (If you don't back out of it by then.) That's $100. Not as bad as some, but it'd be nice if Office already was factored into the price of the computer and you had it all ready for you. You wouldn't have to buy it or a subscription. I mostly just need Word. I know there's a free version, but I feel iffy about it. As an author, it's a key program. Even the formatting guides are based on docs in Word. Anyways, I ordered the free trial version for now. I need to edit/read Alliance again. I'm already a few pages in. Another issue is I'm unsure if I'm going to use the old copy I used before of Photoshop or end up getting a new one in the future. I can't create covers very well without it. Plus, I used it for editing my drawings, too. Those would be the only 2 programs I'd really need to get. 

It runs super fast compared to my old computer. It has 1tb of total storage. So much! Not sure if I'll need that much. It's much quieter. I figured out a way to not have to sign in every time it wakes up or is turned on. That would have been annoying. 

It came with a keyboard and mouse. The keyboard seems much shallower than I'm used to. Writing this, I am getting a bit more used to it. The mouse is ok. 

I installed Fate, the Sims 2, the Sims 2 Seasons Expansion, and Fable yesterday. Fate took almost no time. The Sims 2 has 4 discs, and the expansion is another 2. That took roughly 45-60 minutes. Much faster than my old computer. Fable is also 4 discs, and it took about as long. With my old computer, it probably would have taken an entire day for all of these. 

I wasn't able to save anything from when I played Fate before. I had made it down to the 38th level of the dungeon... (The final 'boss' is on the 100th, but you can venture further than that.) The furthest I ever went. Sad. I'll be able to go further in the future with my new computer, though. It'll give me less headaches with that game. It will probably run much smoother, too. Might be even more fun.

I was able to save the file for my previous homes/neighborhoods in the Sims 2 to the flash drive. I just haven't transferred them yet. I'm not sure if it'll really work. We'll see. 

I couldn't even run Fable on my old computer. The graphics card didn't support it. Fable is an intense rpg with beautiful graphics and a vast world. It was ahead of its time, and this is actually a sequel. I think I still have to mess with the settings for the in-game graphics. I played about 10 minutes of it, and the people looked a little scary. (The rest of it mostly looked great.) They have mesh and other graphics related settings. Still, it's far better than my old computer. I'm happy I can finally play it again! I never finished it the last time I played it. Another rpg I really liked was Morrowind. I thought I had a copy of it, but apparently not. This computer came with games already on it, too. It has Xbox, as well. 

It'll probably be easier for me to keep up with posting more often on here. It's so smooth and there are no interruptions with it. I might even get rid of the blogging app on my phone. It's pretty crappy and was the only one that linked up to it. I was lucky there was something for it. You can't post pics or vids with it, and it messes with the font and format. Before getting the new computer, I was thinking of migrating this over to Wordpress. Since they had many highly rated apps. I did have one on there a while ago, but didn't use it for long. I'm almost up to 1000 posts on here. (4 away!) That would have been a lot to transfer. It's cool to see how close I am to the 1000 mark. I never thought, when I started this blog, that it would make it this long with that many. I guess it'll continue to stay here, thanks to my new computer.

Dad had a major raise, and the first paycheck that factored it in was on Friday. The school district is finally paying their staff (she's a school psychologist) better. Well deserved and long overdue. It was also increased because of her years of experience. Pretty awesome! Something to really celebrate, too! She also got the same type of computer, since her 9 year old computer broke down a while ago. We both really needed them. She was able to have someone look and clean out the chimney recently. They were surprised by how dirty it was. It had to be fumigated because of all the spiders and their webs. There was a lot of creosote, too. Some of the installation was taken out. Well, at least now we can have safer fires in the fireplace. Just when it's starting to get much cooler.