Today in Duolingo's Scottish Gaelic course, I finished the Days and Family 2 units. Got through a little of the Sport one. I'm 2 units away from the next checkpoint. There's apparently one section left, unless it expands suddenly after the 4th checkpoint. I'm at 8th place on the Amethyst League. Should be interesting where I end up at the end of the week again.
I've been gathering more illustrated references for drawing Vincent throughout the week. Learning quite a bit just from going over them. Found some references for body proportions today. I might look up folds in fabric tomorrow. After that, I'll try to find examples of the clothes he wears. That should be fun.
Edited the Cooking and Food chapter in my memoir. It's probably the shortest one. Only 4 pages of the ebook, and 5 pages of the print. Next one is on my family.
On Monday and Tuesday, I cleaned out my ears. I tried the suggestion online about waiting longer than it says in the directions each time. Most were actually saying at least 30 minutes. So, that's how long I did it for. I think it got a lot more out than my usual. However, I never got it completely clear. I wanted to do it once a day for most of this week, but things kept popping up. I'll try to get back to it. They say some of the most compacted ears need around 4 days of that at a time for it to clear. (Usually twice a day, but I can only stand it once a day.) I think I hear better now, at least.
Rosie had a routine lab work check-up yesterday. Supposed to be only blood work and a urine sample. However, we were at the clinic longer after I mentioned that she's been throwing up for about a week, several times a day, hasn't eaten since Tuesday afternoon, and seemed depressed and lethargic. So, they ran an emergency exam. They couldn't get a urine sample, because she was so dehydrated. She also was drooling profusely, which is another sign of dehydration, apparently. They injected her with a lot of fluids. They warned me that it was so much, it might look like she has a camel hump. Although, they said she was so dehydrated, it might absorb so fast, we wouldn't see that. I didn't notice something like that. They also injected an anti-nausea med into the same area, so it gets slowly absorbed like the fluids. They gave us a med that will boost her appetite. They warned me that it can do the same thing with humans (I really don't need an appetite boost), so I have to use gloves with it. I'm supposed put a 1 1/2" strip of it on a gloved finger, then put it in her ear. I'm not so sure she'd sit long enough for me to do that. She'll probably just flick it off, too. She seemed a lot more herself when she got home.
After that, my parent and I were going to go to JJ's Fish House for dinner. Had to park a little ways from it. It was raining heavily. Turns out JJ's was closed, so we had to walk all the way back in the rain. I was close to being soaked by the time we got back to the car. Went to Elmer's instead. Not many people there, but at least it was open. I got one of their specials of the month: Prime Rib Eggs Benedict without mushrooms. I can't have a traditional eggs benedict, because of the ham. This one didn't have any, so I gave it a shot. It had an English muffin, caramelized onions, crispy strips of prime rib, poached eggs, chipotle hollandaise, and chives sprinkled on top. Came with hash browns. Really good stuff, filling, and interesting flavors. Felt comforting, which is what I needed after Rosie's appointment. Also, had their chocolate cake. They only have one dessert now, and it's not even on the menu. Used to have a cobbler in addition to the cake. That was amazing! Sad it's not there anymore. Anyways, the cake came with a line of whipped cream down the side and a small bowl filled with strawberry compote. I mostly just had the cake. It was really rich tasting and like fudge.
Today, a little after noon, the vet clinic called to check in on Rosie. It was a little soon to ask, but nice of them. She seemed more herself today. Ate 7 out of the 9 pieces of her Greenies Dental Chews treats this morning. She needs them to help with her teeth. Usually gets 9 in the morning and 9 at night. That's recommended amount for a cat around her weight. They're tuna flavored, which both cats seem to prefer. They love it. She also had a couple of mouthfuls of her regular food right before the call. Not bad. I might not need to use that appetite stimulant med. They said that one of the blood test results indicated that she has internal bleeding. They wanted to take some x-rays to check. We're going to see how things go for a little while first. X-rays can be expensive, too. Maybe she just needs to heal on her own. Hopefully she feels better.
Youtube:
Miira no Kaikata (How to Keep a Mummy):
Re:Creators:
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) (quite a few spoilers from the manga in both vids):
Friday, December 20, 2019
Monday, December 16, 2019
International Tea Day!
I love tea! There are so many different kinds out there. I mostly only drink water or tea. More tea than water, at that. Just got some more tea: Bengal Spice, Salted Caramel, and Gingerbread. The 1st one's technically herbal, with no actual tea leaves. It tastes a lot like chai, only more of certain spices. One of my faves. I also like different types of actual chai. The other 2 are seasonal blends. I'm surprised at what blends they can create, and be so close to tasting like those flavors. There's no added sugar or calories, which makes it nice to have a taste without that added in. I also like mint, orange spice, green tea, black tea, chamomile, Earl Grey, cinnamon, hibiscus, jasmine, and more. I usually add Splenda to it. If it's something like chai, I occasionally will add a little milk.
I ended up at 5th place on Duolingo's Emerald League. So, I was promoted today to the Amethyst League. Yay! Didn't get a reward besides that this time. Only the top 3 get more. Made it to 2nd place today. Maybe I'll stay in the top 3 until the end of the week this time. In their Scottish Gaelic course, I finished the Hobbies and Travel units, and a little bit of Feelings 2.
Found some facial expressions, ears, and eyes examples for drawing Vincent. When out in public, he looks like he has a bit of an attitude, so that should be fun to draw. With people he feels safe with he's softer, kinder, and feels he can be himself. It'd be interesting to draw him again with that difference.
Finished editing Sweet Endless Terror. Started editing my memoir, More Than Meets the Eye, yesterday. Each chapter deals with a different topic. First one was on being aro and ace. The 2nd one, that I did today, was on being agender. My views and what I've done for transition-related stuff have changed a little. I was unsure about a lot of things when I first wrote it a couple of years ago. Now, I'm more positive on how I feel about it, my gender dysphoria, transitioning, etc. Interesting to read what I wrote back then. Tried to update some of it without changing it too much. Didn't need to change much for the aro ace one. That was a plus.
Finished watching Dr. Stone. It was better than I expected. I like that they tried to add real science to it, although there was quite a bit of fantasy/sci-fi, too. They didn't make Senku, the 'scientist', heartless either. He did many things that only benefited the village rather than himself. The 'mentalist' (he was more into psychology, and fighting with it) turned out to be a better person than he appeared to be at the beginning. A 2nd season is confirmed. Looks like it'll be about the fight between Tsukasa's army and Senku's village finally. This season was mainly a setup for it. The last big project of his was creating smartphones. They weren't really like our modern ones. More like a glorified huge phone (with several pieces) you can haul around places. He said it would be the key to the war, since communication is vital. They'll only have 2 'phones'. I think they're going to need more than that. Tsukasa essentially has brute force and many more people. Senku hasn't revived anyone from stone since the beginning, and the village he found is small. They were probably the only humans on the planet for thousands of years that weren't encased in stone. Many generations of them without knowing other people. They thought the 'stone people' were statues, not actual people. Tsukasa isn't an idiot, either. Should be interesting if Senku and his village can do anything more beforehand and how this will play out.
Ordered some things on Amazon yesterday. I really needed some of it. It's handy that way. Last time I got earplugs was 2 years ago. Didn't realize I was going through them that slowly. Probably not healthy that I used a pair for a couple weeks at a time. I wear them every night, because Rosie likes to scratch things loudly after going to the litter box. My bedroom is facing a 3-way stop, so there's traffic noises sometimes. There's also construction work going on really early in the morning. Birds can be really loud. Lots of reasons. I'll try to switch out pairs more often this time. This probably had compounded my ear issues, too.
I have Eustachian tube issues. Basically the tubes in my ears are backwards. Creates all sorts of issues, and has gotten more severe over the years. It produces too much earwax, air pressure changes hurt (makes it fun on planes and being in a car going up through the mountains), sometimes my balance is off, and other things. Sometimes it gets so bad, I can't hear. I've been told to use an earwax cleaning kit at least once a month, if not more. I end up doing it maybe once every few months. Not good. Plus, with those earplugs packing it in more, it's a recipe for disaster. With the kit, you add several drops of a peroxide (and something else, can't remember) solution in an ear, wait for a while with your head tilted, then tilt your head the other way to let it 'drain' over the sink (it 'melts' some of it, which is what most of the fluid is), then flush it out with a warm water filled bulbous syringe. Repeat for the other ear. I decided to get another 'kit', and that I'd try to do it more often. I haven't actually gotten my ears clear in a very long time. I usually manage to get some of it out, at least. I plan to leave the solution in my ears longer in the future. I was doing it for 7 minutes each ear. Apparently, if your ear is really compacted, it's recommended online to leave it in for at least 18 minutes each ear. So, I'll try that. It's painful yet eventually a really nice feeling when they're completely clear. It makes a fizzy popping sound just before. I can hear so much more after, it's almost too much.
I also ordered a purse. My current one is a couple of years old. I think I got it around the time I got the earplugs. It's the same kind/style/color. It's really a great purse, so why not get the same thing again? It's tough, the zippers have stayed intact, it can hold a lot yet flatten to almost nothing, good over-the-shoulder messenger-like one (I prefer those), color's nice, etc. The only problem is the material starts to pucker and fray after about a year and a half. It'd be good to have one without that again.
I decided to try Nyquil Saturday night. I wanted some relief from that weird cold/cough. The coughing attacks often happen while I'm in bed. Although, I still get them occasionally during the day. Sneezing a lot still, too. Back hurts sometimes because of it. That first night, I slept well for the first time in a long time. Last night, I was good until around 4:45am. Started hacking again. At least, I still got more sleep than usual. Hopefully, it'll work like the 1st night tonight. It really burns...Has more alcohol than I remembered. I used to use Delsym instead. That doesn't have alcohol and tasted like orange soda. This covers more things, though. I don't have to take Tylenol with it, because it has it already. Apparently, it also has the main ingredient that's in Delsym.
I ended up at 5th place on Duolingo's Emerald League. So, I was promoted today to the Amethyst League. Yay! Didn't get a reward besides that this time. Only the top 3 get more. Made it to 2nd place today. Maybe I'll stay in the top 3 until the end of the week this time. In their Scottish Gaelic course, I finished the Hobbies and Travel units, and a little bit of Feelings 2.
Found some facial expressions, ears, and eyes examples for drawing Vincent. When out in public, he looks like he has a bit of an attitude, so that should be fun to draw. With people he feels safe with he's softer, kinder, and feels he can be himself. It'd be interesting to draw him again with that difference.
Finished editing Sweet Endless Terror. Started editing my memoir, More Than Meets the Eye, yesterday. Each chapter deals with a different topic. First one was on being aro and ace. The 2nd one, that I did today, was on being agender. My views and what I've done for transition-related stuff have changed a little. I was unsure about a lot of things when I first wrote it a couple of years ago. Now, I'm more positive on how I feel about it, my gender dysphoria, transitioning, etc. Interesting to read what I wrote back then. Tried to update some of it without changing it too much. Didn't need to change much for the aro ace one. That was a plus.
Finished watching Dr. Stone. It was better than I expected. I like that they tried to add real science to it, although there was quite a bit of fantasy/sci-fi, too. They didn't make Senku, the 'scientist', heartless either. He did many things that only benefited the village rather than himself. The 'mentalist' (he was more into psychology, and fighting with it) turned out to be a better person than he appeared to be at the beginning. A 2nd season is confirmed. Looks like it'll be about the fight between Tsukasa's army and Senku's village finally. This season was mainly a setup for it. The last big project of his was creating smartphones. They weren't really like our modern ones. More like a glorified huge phone (with several pieces) you can haul around places. He said it would be the key to the war, since communication is vital. They'll only have 2 'phones'. I think they're going to need more than that. Tsukasa essentially has brute force and many more people. Senku hasn't revived anyone from stone since the beginning, and the village he found is small. They were probably the only humans on the planet for thousands of years that weren't encased in stone. Many generations of them without knowing other people. They thought the 'stone people' were statues, not actual people. Tsukasa isn't an idiot, either. Should be interesting if Senku and his village can do anything more beforehand and how this will play out.
Ordered some things on Amazon yesterday. I really needed some of it. It's handy that way. Last time I got earplugs was 2 years ago. Didn't realize I was going through them that slowly. Probably not healthy that I used a pair for a couple weeks at a time. I wear them every night, because Rosie likes to scratch things loudly after going to the litter box. My bedroom is facing a 3-way stop, so there's traffic noises sometimes. There's also construction work going on really early in the morning. Birds can be really loud. Lots of reasons. I'll try to switch out pairs more often this time. This probably had compounded my ear issues, too.
I have Eustachian tube issues. Basically the tubes in my ears are backwards. Creates all sorts of issues, and has gotten more severe over the years. It produces too much earwax, air pressure changes hurt (makes it fun on planes and being in a car going up through the mountains), sometimes my balance is off, and other things. Sometimes it gets so bad, I can't hear. I've been told to use an earwax cleaning kit at least once a month, if not more. I end up doing it maybe once every few months. Not good. Plus, with those earplugs packing it in more, it's a recipe for disaster. With the kit, you add several drops of a peroxide (and something else, can't remember) solution in an ear, wait for a while with your head tilted, then tilt your head the other way to let it 'drain' over the sink (it 'melts' some of it, which is what most of the fluid is), then flush it out with a warm water filled bulbous syringe. Repeat for the other ear. I decided to get another 'kit', and that I'd try to do it more often. I haven't actually gotten my ears clear in a very long time. I usually manage to get some of it out, at least. I plan to leave the solution in my ears longer in the future. I was doing it for 7 minutes each ear. Apparently, if your ear is really compacted, it's recommended online to leave it in for at least 18 minutes each ear. So, I'll try that. It's painful yet eventually a really nice feeling when they're completely clear. It makes a fizzy popping sound just before. I can hear so much more after, it's almost too much.
I also ordered a purse. My current one is a couple of years old. I think I got it around the time I got the earplugs. It's the same kind/style/color. It's really a great purse, so why not get the same thing again? It's tough, the zippers have stayed intact, it can hold a lot yet flatten to almost nothing, good over-the-shoulder messenger-like one (I prefer those), color's nice, etc. The only problem is the material starts to pucker and fray after about a year and a half. It'd be good to have one without that again.
I decided to try Nyquil Saturday night. I wanted some relief from that weird cold/cough. The coughing attacks often happen while I'm in bed. Although, I still get them occasionally during the day. Sneezing a lot still, too. Back hurts sometimes because of it. That first night, I slept well for the first time in a long time. Last night, I was good until around 4:45am. Started hacking again. At least, I still got more sleep than usual. Hopefully, it'll work like the 1st night tonight. It really burns...Has more alcohol than I remembered. I used to use Delsym instead. That doesn't have alcohol and tasted like orange soda. This covers more things, though. I don't have to take Tylenol with it, because it has it already. Apparently, it also has the main ingredient that's in Delsym.
Friday, December 13, 2019
15th of Kislev
Today, I finished the About Me and Phrases 3 units, and started the Body one in Duolingo's Scottish Gaelic course. I'm starting to get the hang of how they say things. A lot of the words aren't pronounced the way they appear. Some letters turn silent, some turn into ph/f or v sounds, de sometimes is pronounced as je (or something similar), e can sometimes be like ye, and it seems some words add a letter that's not written. Like, Alba, which means Scotland. It has an 'ah' sound between the l and b. There are patterns that I'm seeing, though. Makes it more interesting. At the end, I was at 6th place in the Emerald League. They seem to be more with it in this one. It'll be interesting to see where I land on there at the end of the weekend.
I finished shading the drawing of Junko on Wednesday, then posted it to deviantART and Instagram. I think she turned out better than Shadow. Surprised someone put it in their fave collection on dA, and quite a few people liked it on Instagram. I started looking at design ideas for Vincent yesterday. Found some hairstyle examples and hair color codes. Today, I looked at eye shapes and sizes. Next, I'll look at eye color codes. I'm doing a similar thing, but more detailed, of what I did with Junko. Made a separate 'notes' doc on my phone, then find and copy/paste pics of examples or tips on drawing certain features (divided by category) to it. It's like a special character sheet for him. I didn't look at color codes for Junko beforehand. This way I might already have an idea for that long before I start coloring. Looking at some of these examples and how-tos, I feel like I'm learning more about it, which is a nice plus.
Today, I finished editing Paralysis from Sweet Endless Terror. It was 11 pages of the ebook, and 29 of the print. There's only one more story left.
I apparently pushed myself too much with doing 2 2-mile walks a day. Had to stop to rest a little after Monday. My feet were on fire, and something was going on with my back. Both of which have only started to improve greatly today. Maybe I'll try the 1 a day thing again? I really want to get back to it. Not only that, but my cold symptoms have intensified. Had a hard time sleeping last night because of the coughing and feeling like stuff was stuck in my throat. Cough drops didn't help. I've had this 'cold' for a month now. (I don't think I've ever had a cold that lasted this long.) Trying to force myself to do those walks might have made those symptoms worse, too...
Recently there was an executive order that sparked a conversation on whether Judaism is a nationality. Judaism is many things, but it's certainly not a nationality. Like I've read from some comments, Judaism doesn't really fall under what the modern Western concept of religion is. It's more. It is a religion. It is a culture. There are many ethnic groups under the umbrella. For example, Ashkenazi have ancestry of Jews from Germany (Ashkenazi lit. means Germany) and eastern Europe. Sephardi come from Jews that came from Spain (lit. means Spain) and the Mediterranean. There are Kaifeng Jews (from China), the B'nei Manashe (from India), Ethiopian Jews, Mizrachi (from the Middle East), etc. Lots of groups from around the world. Each one has their own 'flavor' to traditions, customs, and foods. Even to how some speak the prayers in Hebrew. Plus, some ethnic groups created their own languages based on Hebrew and common languages around them. Like, Yiddish and Ladino. There are different diet restrictions for Passover. Some Sephardim (plural) make fun of Ashkenazim with how much stricter we are. It's also a philosophy. We've had many famous philosophers in the past. We're taught to question everything, which might be why many of us are scientists, too. We don't have a blind faith. There are even atheist Jews. Some are even Orthodox. There's mysticism, Kabbalah, (not everyone is into it) we even have certain ways to meditate, and something similar to yoga as well (not exactly and not as well known). There are many different branches of Judaism depending on observance and certain values. I'm a Reform Jew, and within that observance can vary greatly. It's basically what makes sense to you, and rationalizing things more. (There are core concepts that we agree on.) Also, we're very into social justice and tikkun olam or 'repairing the world'. Some branches aren't into that or interpret tikkun olam differently. I have thought about being Modern Orthodox. I feel a little in line with them, as well. Not completely, and I can't really be as observant as they are, but there are some things that 'speak' to me. There's also a culinary tradition to Judaism. There's just so much to it.
So, yeah, technically the religion category doesn't really fit. However, it is not a nationality. My nationality is American. I could say my ethnicity is half Ashkenazi and the other half mostly Celtic. That would be accurate. If it's deemed as a nationality, it hearkens back to the Nazis and Russia when they declared it a race/nationality, and therefore they were not true citizens of the countries they were from. The dual loyalty idea came out of this, too. Really freaking scary stuff. I needed to write about this somewhere. A facebook status didn't seem quite right, but on my own blog seems perfect.
Youtube:
Hataraku Saibou (Cells at Work):
Zombieland Saga:
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
One Piece:
I finished shading the drawing of Junko on Wednesday, then posted it to deviantART and Instagram. I think she turned out better than Shadow. Surprised someone put it in their fave collection on dA, and quite a few people liked it on Instagram. I started looking at design ideas for Vincent yesterday. Found some hairstyle examples and hair color codes. Today, I looked at eye shapes and sizes. Next, I'll look at eye color codes. I'm doing a similar thing, but more detailed, of what I did with Junko. Made a separate 'notes' doc on my phone, then find and copy/paste pics of examples or tips on drawing certain features (divided by category) to it. It's like a special character sheet for him. I didn't look at color codes for Junko beforehand. This way I might already have an idea for that long before I start coloring. Looking at some of these examples and how-tos, I feel like I'm learning more about it, which is a nice plus.
Today, I finished editing Paralysis from Sweet Endless Terror. It was 11 pages of the ebook, and 29 of the print. There's only one more story left.
I apparently pushed myself too much with doing 2 2-mile walks a day. Had to stop to rest a little after Monday. My feet were on fire, and something was going on with my back. Both of which have only started to improve greatly today. Maybe I'll try the 1 a day thing again? I really want to get back to it. Not only that, but my cold symptoms have intensified. Had a hard time sleeping last night because of the coughing and feeling like stuff was stuck in my throat. Cough drops didn't help. I've had this 'cold' for a month now. (I don't think I've ever had a cold that lasted this long.) Trying to force myself to do those walks might have made those symptoms worse, too...
Recently there was an executive order that sparked a conversation on whether Judaism is a nationality. Judaism is many things, but it's certainly not a nationality. Like I've read from some comments, Judaism doesn't really fall under what the modern Western concept of religion is. It's more. It is a religion. It is a culture. There are many ethnic groups under the umbrella. For example, Ashkenazi have ancestry of Jews from Germany (Ashkenazi lit. means Germany) and eastern Europe. Sephardi come from Jews that came from Spain (lit. means Spain) and the Mediterranean. There are Kaifeng Jews (from China), the B'nei Manashe (from India), Ethiopian Jews, Mizrachi (from the Middle East), etc. Lots of groups from around the world. Each one has their own 'flavor' to traditions, customs, and foods. Even to how some speak the prayers in Hebrew. Plus, some ethnic groups created their own languages based on Hebrew and common languages around them. Like, Yiddish and Ladino. There are different diet restrictions for Passover. Some Sephardim (plural) make fun of Ashkenazim with how much stricter we are. It's also a philosophy. We've had many famous philosophers in the past. We're taught to question everything, which might be why many of us are scientists, too. We don't have a blind faith. There are even atheist Jews. Some are even Orthodox. There's mysticism, Kabbalah, (not everyone is into it) we even have certain ways to meditate, and something similar to yoga as well (not exactly and not as well known). There are many different branches of Judaism depending on observance and certain values. I'm a Reform Jew, and within that observance can vary greatly. It's basically what makes sense to you, and rationalizing things more. (There are core concepts that we agree on.) Also, we're very into social justice and tikkun olam or 'repairing the world'. Some branches aren't into that or interpret tikkun olam differently. I have thought about being Modern Orthodox. I feel a little in line with them, as well. Not completely, and I can't really be as observant as they are, but there are some things that 'speak' to me. There's also a culinary tradition to Judaism. There's just so much to it.
So, yeah, technically the religion category doesn't really fit. However, it is not a nationality. My nationality is American. I could say my ethnicity is half Ashkenazi and the other half mostly Celtic. That would be accurate. If it's deemed as a nationality, it hearkens back to the Nazis and Russia when they declared it a race/nationality, and therefore they were not true citizens of the countries they were from. The dual loyalty idea came out of this, too. Really freaking scary stuff. I needed to write about this somewhere. A facebook status didn't seem quite right, but on my own blog seems perfect.
Youtube:
Hataraku Saibou (Cells at Work):
Zombieland Saga:
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
One Piece:
Monday, December 9, 2019
11th of Kislev
By the end of the week, I made it to 2nd place of the Ruby League on Duolingo. First time I've done that. I was promoted to the Emerald League, and rewarded 30 lingots. You get 2 lingots for every unit completed, so that's quite a bit. I got up to 1st place today. Doubt I'll stay at that. Went through the Numbers unit and some of the Family one. I managed to do it on Saturday and Sunday, too. It's been a while since I've done that.
Finished shading Junko's shirt in Photoshop. Not sure if I'm happy with how that turned out. I'm still new to shading, though. I should get better with it if I get to it more often. Next will be her long skirt. Soon, I'll get to submit it to Instagram and deviantART. Yay!
Today, I edited Let Me Out of Here! from Sweet Endless Terror. It was shorter than I remembered. 4 pages of the ebook, and 10 pages of the print. This one's probably the most trippy so far. Even more than Space Trip was, which is what I edited yesterday. Eternal Suffering has been the most gruesome so far. Went through that on Saturday. Page-wise, I'm halfway through. A little over halfway when counting the stories.
I'm going to try to get back to walking again. I have a new strategy for sticking to it. One 2-mile walk right after breakfast or brunch, and then another a little before sunset. 2 this time, because I don't think 1 a day was enough. 3 would be too much to start with. Plus, there wouldn't be much time between walks since I don't want to walk when it's dark. Especially this time of year. When the days get longer, I might add a 3rd walk. I might get to see the sunset this way, which can be motivating. Started this yesterday. Hopefully, I can keep it up.
Tried an interesting thing last night. It was a frozen chicken parmesan meal. There were little breaded balls of chicken, mini ravioli, parmesan, mozzarella, and a marinara sauce. It was in a carton that you heat up, much like Tai Pei's containers. It was packed with flavor and protein. It just seemed like a small portion, even though it was very filling.
Saturday night, I got chicken enchiladas and Mexican rice from our local market. They make them themselves. They come in huge portions. I had 1 enchilada, and it came with 2. Had half of the container of the rice. The enchilada was nice and zesty. Really filling. I find it funny that I got a rather snobby comment on it on Instagram. They were upset that I didn't broil it. Notice, I did not mention how I heated it up, but that's correct. I used the microwave. For shame! They also said it wasn't heated up enough. They went on talking about how they hate when people don't melt their cheese in tacos either. I could kind of understand if this was from someone from Mexico. I'd totally get that they'd do things differently. (I doubt what I had was truly authentic, let alone how I heated it up.) However, this person wasn't from there, nor did they have a Mexican background. Secondly, non-melted shredded cheese can be great in tacos. It gives more of a fresh feel. Thirdly, I'll have my cheese however I want, thank you very much. It actually was slightly melted. (Side note: it was nice that they didn't absolutely smother it with cheese. It was a little on top.) It wasn't heated up quite enough, but it wasn't like I ate it cold. It was so weird. It's been getting a lot of likes since then. I blocked this person, but I think others can see the comment still. Makes me wonder if they commented back to them. I won't know, and that's ok. I also had a salted caramel ice cream cookie sandwich from the same place. I don't think it was made by them, but I do think it was also local. I cut it in half, since it was packed with calories. Thought it wouldn't be as satisfying, but it was just right. Dinner and dessert both made for some great leftovers the next day.
Finished shading Junko's shirt in Photoshop. Not sure if I'm happy with how that turned out. I'm still new to shading, though. I should get better with it if I get to it more often. Next will be her long skirt. Soon, I'll get to submit it to Instagram and deviantART. Yay!
Today, I edited Let Me Out of Here! from Sweet Endless Terror. It was shorter than I remembered. 4 pages of the ebook, and 10 pages of the print. This one's probably the most trippy so far. Even more than Space Trip was, which is what I edited yesterday. Eternal Suffering has been the most gruesome so far. Went through that on Saturday. Page-wise, I'm halfway through. A little over halfway when counting the stories.
I'm going to try to get back to walking again. I have a new strategy for sticking to it. One 2-mile walk right after breakfast or brunch, and then another a little before sunset. 2 this time, because I don't think 1 a day was enough. 3 would be too much to start with. Plus, there wouldn't be much time between walks since I don't want to walk when it's dark. Especially this time of year. When the days get longer, I might add a 3rd walk. I might get to see the sunset this way, which can be motivating. Started this yesterday. Hopefully, I can keep it up.
Tried an interesting thing last night. It was a frozen chicken parmesan meal. There were little breaded balls of chicken, mini ravioli, parmesan, mozzarella, and a marinara sauce. It was in a carton that you heat up, much like Tai Pei's containers. It was packed with flavor and protein. It just seemed like a small portion, even though it was very filling.
Saturday night, I got chicken enchiladas and Mexican rice from our local market. They make them themselves. They come in huge portions. I had 1 enchilada, and it came with 2. Had half of the container of the rice. The enchilada was nice and zesty. Really filling. I find it funny that I got a rather snobby comment on it on Instagram. They were upset that I didn't broil it. Notice, I did not mention how I heated it up, but that's correct. I used the microwave. For shame! They also said it wasn't heated up enough. They went on talking about how they hate when people don't melt their cheese in tacos either. I could kind of understand if this was from someone from Mexico. I'd totally get that they'd do things differently. (I doubt what I had was truly authentic, let alone how I heated it up.) However, this person wasn't from there, nor did they have a Mexican background. Secondly, non-melted shredded cheese can be great in tacos. It gives more of a fresh feel. Thirdly, I'll have my cheese however I want, thank you very much. It actually was slightly melted. (Side note: it was nice that they didn't absolutely smother it with cheese. It was a little on top.) It wasn't heated up quite enough, but it wasn't like I ate it cold. It was so weird. It's been getting a lot of likes since then. I blocked this person, but I think others can see the comment still. Makes me wonder if they commented back to them. I won't know, and that's ok. I also had a salted caramel ice cream cookie sandwich from the same place. I don't think it was made by them, but I do think it was also local. I cut it in half, since it was packed with calories. Thought it wouldn't be as satisfying, but it was just right. Dinner and dessert both made for some great leftovers the next day.
Friday, December 6, 2019
8th of Kislev
Finished the Clothes and Pets units of Duolingo's Scottish Gaelic course. I'm really breezing through. I think if it really is a short course, I'll go back through everything and try to completely level out each unit. Each one has 5 levels or 'crowns'. With each crown, it's supposed to get harder, but I tend to get tired of that by the 3rd one. Once I get the basics like alphabet and such down, I usually just complete the 1st level of each. Maybe they have speaking exercises at the higher levels. I'll see. I made it to 2nd place today in the Ruby League. I don't normally make it up that far. The top 3 at the end of the week not only get promoted to the next league, they also get a chest filled with gems. I think since this course rewards you with red lingots, I'll get a certain amount of those. Either that or xp? Other courses use blue gems. I'm not sure what the difference is between those 2 gem systems.
I finished coloring in the drawing of Junko in Photoshop, and today I continued with shading. I did her other ear (cat ear, since she's a cat demon), and some of her hair. It's a little annoying, because if you go back over something, it darkens it. If I remember I can erase the 'shading' part without erasing the drawing, I can try to shade it without being very precise and without stopping for certain parts. Adds more to clean up after, but that's ok. I like the 3D effect it gives with shading. Looks more 'real'. After I finish shading, I can finally submit it to Instagram and DeviantArt. Then, it's to drawing the next character. I plan to try and keep doing something related to drawing every day.
Today, I finished editing Obsession from Sweet Endless Terror. That's 10 pages of the ebook, and 28 pages of the print. It's longer than the other 3 have been. Is This Real? and Heartless were pretty well done, I have to say. Only a few mistakes, and the flow of both was great. Trippy, but all of them are. They are based on my nightmares after all. I don't think they were the most out there ones. Obsession was good, too. Maybe not as good, but up there. (Especially the ending.) Probably the most graphic and brutal story so far. The Head's probably my least favorite story. Interesting to go through these again.
Started a new diet for Rosie last night. As soon as she finished her food, I cleaned her placemat, water bowl, and food bowls. Gave her some fresh water. Then, I measured out what's a recommended daily portion for a cat with a 'normal activity' level, and added one to each bowl. This was a portion based on the cat food that we use. I decided the 'normal' one, because she can be very active at times, and it might be a good one to switch to. The low activity one might have been too much of drastic difference. I put a portion each in the 2 bowls, because it seems Tasha has been eating from them, too. They were originally supposed to be for both of them, and then they attacked each other so often, Tasha had to have her own food bowl over the banister. Otherwise she wouldn't have eaten. She's been braver and more 'normal' the last couple of years. Almost to the point now where she should have been when we 1st got Rosie. It wouldn't be fair to only have one daily portion if both are eating from it. I'm watching to see how long it takes her (and Tasha occasionally) to finish it all. So far, so good. If it gets completely eaten by tonight, I might add another portion to them. Hopefully, this will help Rosie. Tasha has been getting thinner, and Rosie seems to be getting bigger lately.
Part of my face seems to be numb or paralyzed. Can't tell exactly. I can't smile or move my mouth like usual. It feels tight, too. I hope it's a temporary thing. I also still have cold symptoms. It's been over 3 weeks since I started feeling it. Longer than my usual for being (temporarily) sick. I'm not coughing as much, but still get nasty attacks. I've coughed so much that it threw my back off causing lots of pain. Since I'm coughing less, it's not causing as much back pain. That's a plus. My nose gets super runny at times, and I'm sneezing a lot still. Although, there are signs I'm getting better overall. It's just taking forever.
My parent and I were the only ones that showed up to the local trans support meeting on Wednesday. Sadness. A positive was that we could leave early to get a late dinner at Shari's. I got their special pretzel roll cheeseburger with tater tots. Last time I tried to get it, they gave me a vegetarian patty. This time they got it right with actual beef. It was really good. Simple comfort food. I also tried a slice of one of their special holiday pies: triple-layer pumpkin cream. It has a layer of cheese pie filling (it's looser and creamier than cheesecake), pumpkin pie filling, and a top layer of cream. It was heavily dusted with nutmeg. The pie itself had a ton of pumpkin pie spice. So much, it was like a slap in the face at first. It was much better than expected.
Youtube:
Fukigen na Mononokean (The Morose Mononokean):
Satsuriku no Tenshi (Angel of Death):
Hataraku Saibou (Cells at Work):
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
Zombieland Saga:
D.Gray-man:
One Punch Man:
I finished coloring in the drawing of Junko in Photoshop, and today I continued with shading. I did her other ear (cat ear, since she's a cat demon), and some of her hair. It's a little annoying, because if you go back over something, it darkens it. If I remember I can erase the 'shading' part without erasing the drawing, I can try to shade it without being very precise and without stopping for certain parts. Adds more to clean up after, but that's ok. I like the 3D effect it gives with shading. Looks more 'real'. After I finish shading, I can finally submit it to Instagram and DeviantArt. Then, it's to drawing the next character. I plan to try and keep doing something related to drawing every day.
Today, I finished editing Obsession from Sweet Endless Terror. That's 10 pages of the ebook, and 28 pages of the print. It's longer than the other 3 have been. Is This Real? and Heartless were pretty well done, I have to say. Only a few mistakes, and the flow of both was great. Trippy, but all of them are. They are based on my nightmares after all. I don't think they were the most out there ones. Obsession was good, too. Maybe not as good, but up there. (Especially the ending.) Probably the most graphic and brutal story so far. The Head's probably my least favorite story. Interesting to go through these again.
Started a new diet for Rosie last night. As soon as she finished her food, I cleaned her placemat, water bowl, and food bowls. Gave her some fresh water. Then, I measured out what's a recommended daily portion for a cat with a 'normal activity' level, and added one to each bowl. This was a portion based on the cat food that we use. I decided the 'normal' one, because she can be very active at times, and it might be a good one to switch to. The low activity one might have been too much of drastic difference. I put a portion each in the 2 bowls, because it seems Tasha has been eating from them, too. They were originally supposed to be for both of them, and then they attacked each other so often, Tasha had to have her own food bowl over the banister. Otherwise she wouldn't have eaten. She's been braver and more 'normal' the last couple of years. Almost to the point now where she should have been when we 1st got Rosie. It wouldn't be fair to only have one daily portion if both are eating from it. I'm watching to see how long it takes her (and Tasha occasionally) to finish it all. So far, so good. If it gets completely eaten by tonight, I might add another portion to them. Hopefully, this will help Rosie. Tasha has been getting thinner, and Rosie seems to be getting bigger lately.
Part of my face seems to be numb or paralyzed. Can't tell exactly. I can't smile or move my mouth like usual. It feels tight, too. I hope it's a temporary thing. I also still have cold symptoms. It's been over 3 weeks since I started feeling it. Longer than my usual for being (temporarily) sick. I'm not coughing as much, but still get nasty attacks. I've coughed so much that it threw my back off causing lots of pain. Since I'm coughing less, it's not causing as much back pain. That's a plus. My nose gets super runny at times, and I'm sneezing a lot still. Although, there are signs I'm getting better overall. It's just taking forever.
My parent and I were the only ones that showed up to the local trans support meeting on Wednesday. Sadness. A positive was that we could leave early to get a late dinner at Shari's. I got their special pretzel roll cheeseburger with tater tots. Last time I tried to get it, they gave me a vegetarian patty. This time they got it right with actual beef. It was really good. Simple comfort food. I also tried a slice of one of their special holiday pies: triple-layer pumpkin cream. It has a layer of cheese pie filling (it's looser and creamier than cheesecake), pumpkin pie filling, and a top layer of cream. It was heavily dusted with nutmeg. The pie itself had a ton of pumpkin pie spice. So much, it was like a slap in the face at first. It was much better than expected.
Youtube:
Fukigen na Mononokean (The Morose Mononokean):
Satsuriku no Tenshi (Angel of Death):
Hataraku Saibou (Cells at Work):
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
Zombieland Saga:
D.Gray-man:
One Punch Man:
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
5th of Kislev
The month-long holidays for December are: National Pear Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Not much this time. I love pears, though.
My Jewish calendar features 2 menorahs this time. I should say technically hanukiyah, which is the specific menorah used for the holiday. Menorah just means lamp. The one for Hanukkah has 8 branches and one holder for the shamash (helper or leader) candle. Usually the one for the shamash is raised up more than the others and/or is in the middle. A regular one has 6 branches and one holder. So, there is a difference. Each night for Hanukkah we light the shammash and another candle with it. They're really beautiful by the last night. Since my mom used to work for a Judaica shop, she collected a lot of them. Some were free, and some she bought discounted from the shop. Free if they had some minor flaw, like some branches were slightly bent. She and I would sometimes light a bunch of them on top of the piano. It was glorious seeing them all lit up, although it was pretty dangerous, too. When I do it myself now, I usually use one. Sometimes 2 on the last night. I have so many different ones that I inherited from her. I've been using a more traditional one the last few years, but it only uses Shabbos candles, not the slimmer Hanukkah ones. A couple of the branches are bent, too. It's quirky, yet impressive. People can see it more from the outside than the others. We're supposed to have it be seen, so it works. Anyways, one of the ones on the calendar is made out of copper from 1900. The other's iron from 1935. They don't say where they're from, unlike many of the other artifacts in previous months. However, the museum is in Amsterdam. They might have come from there. Interesting to see such old ones.
The elements calendar features tin this time. They talk about how tin soldiers were almost never made of pure tin. Tin-lead alloys were usually used. Many things called tin don't actually have tin in them, and it's come to mean any sort of thin sheet metal. They show a tin soldier that is 99.99% pure tin. There's a gray tin allotrope growing on a piece of metallic tin. A piece of the mineral cassiterite (tin oxide) from Bolivia. Lead-free solder, which is mostly tin. And, finally ingots of pure tin. Interesting.
Went to a family friends' place for Thanksgiving. We usually go there. This time it was my parent and I, the 2 hosts, and a work friend of the hostess. I was told there would be 6 of us, so that surprised me. They usually have a sizable crowd for their holiday dinners/parties. (They also host parties for New Year's Eve, sometimes Hanukkah, and a seder during Passover.) For the last couple of years, it's been noticeably smaller. Anyways, I've met their friend before at previous dinners. She's pretty nice and open-minded. They only have one dog left. The other passed away not that long ago. I miss that one, too. They were both big and really friendly. I couldn't eat the green salad we brought, since I'm trying to stay away from pain as much as possible. (Roughage like things scratch up against the scars in my colon. Fun fun.) We also brought a berry/grape salad. Didn't add anything to it, since I'm not familiar with fruit salads. My parent wanted to add whipped cream, which is apparently a thing. I just think fruit is usually good by itself. Like nature's candy. I technically wasn't supposed to eat the berries because of the seeds. I did anyways...The host smoked the turkey, like usual. There was gravy, homemade stuffing (a bowl of it without chestnuts for me), salmon for the person who doesn't eat turkey, cranberry relish (I don't like it, so they usually have the canned jelled stuff for me), cookies, and pumpkin pie. They forgot about a cooked green vegetable, which I probably could have eaten in place of the salad. We played a game of Trivial Pursuit, which is like a tradition there. It used to be very binary with the men against the women. Acknowledging me, and realizing it wasn't the best thing to do anyways, they stopped splitting us up like that. This time it was the 'away team' vs the 'home team'. 3 against 2 isn't bad. If it was with genders in general, I would be by myself and probably wouldn't have gotten very far. (The host would have been too, but he's relatively good at it.) We were in the lead for a while, but the 'home team' won. Sadness. The only thing that I didn't care for was when the hostess was talking shop with her friend for long periods of time. (They both work for OC or Olympic College.) They wanted to share and explain what they went through and such, too. At first it was interesting, then I started to get sleepy. After a while, I kept catching myself before falling asleep. If that was the only down part, that's pretty good.
Sunday was the start of Crohn's & Colitis Awareness Week. The only things I've done for it are added a frame to my fb profile pic, filled out an infographic on my experience, and shared both to Instagram as well. I've talked about my experience often on here. One thing that's surprised me is that you can still suffer symptoms while in remission. It really depends on how much damage it caused before going into remission. People tend to think in order to be in remission, you must not have related symptoms. Also, there's a high possibility of getting another autoimmune disease eventually with it. I apparently have another one, but they (doctors) don't know what it is yet. So, that's a fun thing, too. There isn't a cure for colitis. This can be hard for many patients to come to terms with. They'll have to deal with it for the rest of their lives. While in remission, it doesn't actually stop. The disease has just gone down to an unnoticeable crawl.
Finished watching The Truth Seekers. It's a Singaporean private detective drama. They solve cold cases. I liked it a lot. I didn't care for the added tension towards the end. Plus, the love triangle thing...The characters were likable and felt like family. They left it wide open for another season. I'd so watch it if there is one in the future.
Started watching the 2nd season of High Seas recently. It's a Spanish mystery series set in the 40s on a luxury cruise ship. The cinematography's great, they have elegant costumes that would have been popular at the time, and a lot of aspects are accurate to the way things would have been. The acting is occasionally over-the-top. Very interesting story and kind of cool that most of it is from the perspective of 2 sisters. This season seems a little weird. Ghosts might be involved this time, although it might all be an act by someone they rescued recently. That someone is apparently lesbian or bi. Not sure if that's good representation, considering she could be stealing and a fraud posing as a medium. She kissed one of the sisters that believes her. As far as they've shown, the sister is straight, and recently got married to the owner of the ship. She could be bi...She seemed to like it. They were hinting that she'd do something like that with how touchy-feely she was with her. This season isn't long, and I'm already halfway through it. It'd be interesting to see how it goes. The 1st season was mainly about mysterious murders and the sisters' long-thought dead father. I wasn't sure there would be another season with how the last one ended, so it's been a pleasant surprise.
I finished Duolingo's Dutch course. I was thinking about going back to modern Hebrew next, but their course for it is awful. I can't seem to find any good apps for it, either. I thought about Yiddish, but that's hardly available anywhere. Although, I did read that Duolingo is creating a course for it and might be out in a few months. Started Duolingo's Scottish Gaelic course today. It's really new. Newer than I thought. Came out a week ago. There hasn't been any speaking lessons yet, but I'm at the very basic stuff. Some of the other languages didn't have those until a few more units in. They have a lot of different native speakers, which is good to get more of a feel to how it sounds. I knew the language was a little odd, but really looking at it brings that to light more. It's another language that my ancestors spoke, so I thought it would be good to learn that way. Not many people speak it anymore. There is an effort to change that, though. The course looks short, but maybe they're only showing me some of it, then once I get to the last checkpoint shown there will be more. If not, I still feel lucky to get a taste of it.
Finished editing Alliance: Dawn. Started editing Sweet Endless Terror. It's 12 short stories based on my nightmares. Went through the 1st story: The Head. It's the shortest one. 5 pages of the ebook and 8 pages of the print. I also didn't remember how short the ebook was. It's only 94 pages. The print is 255 pages. I formatted the print to be for a small book, so it makes sense. The difference is weird, though. Especially seeing them side by side.
Finished fixing the drawing of Junko's lines. In Photoshop, I added color to her skin, eye (she's winking, so only one is open), hair, shoes, and ears. They're not exactly the colors I had in mind, but they're not bad looking. I don't know much about color codes in Photoshop, but I'm looking them up as I go. I'll color in her skirt, socks, and shirt next. Then, I'll mess with shading. I have to remember to go a little darker with that than I did with Shadow.
Monday, November 25, 2019
27th of Cheshvan
Went to a Trans Day of Remembrance event on Saturday. The actual anniversary of it is on the 20th. It's a day to remember trans people who were murdered in the last year. Usually people read their names, the countries they came from, and how they were killed. Some of the names are unknown, and some of the causes of death are unknown. The majority are usually trans women of color. I think I read that there were 22 that were reported in the US, and 311 altogether worldwide this year. Again, these are just the ones that are reported. Some countries don't report it. (Like, Russia or Iran.) Sometimes they're overlooked, too. It's difficult to sit and listen to each one, but it is important. They didn't go through the whole list of names. The people that wanted to say them could (usually taking 1 or 2 names each), but that didn't cover them all.
I didn't like that it was so binary. No mention of enby people, and no inclusive language. Saying things like: "We remember our trans brothers and sisters." What about your siblings who were non-binary? Enby people are murdered, too. I totally understand the focus and spotlight being on trans women of color, since they're the most targeted. That's definitely a thing that needs to be said. However, it also felt like some of the time they forget other trans people are killed, too. Not only that, but many amab (assigned male at birth) enby feminine people are mistaken as trans women. That's a problem, as well.
After the names, there's usually a time for people to comment or bring up stories. Some stories about living trans people, as well as family/friends who were killed or died some other way. I think hearing about trans people that are living also helps people. This time they skipped this section, because they didn't feel there was time. Instead, they had a panel on politics. I think there was only one trans person out of the 4 people on that panel. The whole event was basically ran by cis people, and the panel seemed geared to them more. Many trans people take issue with this for something like TDoR, myself included. I know one of the people that helped set it up is trans, but she only spoke for little bit at the beginning. It was different last year. She seemed to have more of a role then. The panel seemed...inappropriate to me. I can't seem to pinpoint exactly why, but it didn't seem right at such an event. The comments/stories section would have been best. Oh, it's not really much of a panel discussion if only 2 people from the audience got to ask questions.
I had to leave for a little bit, since a huge coughing attack popped up. I didn't want to leave, but I didn't want to disrupt it, either. As I headed out of the auditorium towards the bathroom, people tried to talk to me. I couldn't respond much. Hope they didn't think I was rude. When I made it into the bathroom, I finally allowed myself to fully cough it out. It was so bad, I thought I would throw up. I didn't, luckily. That incident was embarrassing. After getting back there, the coughing was slowly coming back, but I was determined to stay and able to not make much noise. I'm still sick. It keeps lingering and it's annoying.
I've managed to both continue fixing the drawing of Junko in Photoshop, and finished editing Alliance/started editing Alliance: Dawn every day for a little over a week and a half. I normally don't do them on Saturdays, because of Shabbat. However, Shabbat ends a little after sundown, and that's still rather early this time of year. So, why not after that? I usually forget on Sundays or want to do other things. I think since I did it on a Saturday, I remembered it more. Junko's looking much better. I'm still thinning/straightening lines and taking away messy areas. I feel like I'm powering through Alliance: Dawn. Decided to go through a chapter a day, instead of maybe 1/2 of one a day. Went through all of chapter 5 today. That was 10 pages of the ebook, and 14 pages of the print version. It's a lot, but it feels like I can be more focused on it. I forgot about the time travel-like aspect in this one. Not revealing much about that. I like how the story progresses in this one more than the first. The first book is more of an intro to their world for readers, I guess. This one's definitely darker, too.
I didn't like that it was so binary. No mention of enby people, and no inclusive language. Saying things like: "We remember our trans brothers and sisters." What about your siblings who were non-binary? Enby people are murdered, too. I totally understand the focus and spotlight being on trans women of color, since they're the most targeted. That's definitely a thing that needs to be said. However, it also felt like some of the time they forget other trans people are killed, too. Not only that, but many amab (assigned male at birth) enby feminine people are mistaken as trans women. That's a problem, as well.
After the names, there's usually a time for people to comment or bring up stories. Some stories about living trans people, as well as family/friends who were killed or died some other way. I think hearing about trans people that are living also helps people. This time they skipped this section, because they didn't feel there was time. Instead, they had a panel on politics. I think there was only one trans person out of the 4 people on that panel. The whole event was basically ran by cis people, and the panel seemed geared to them more. Many trans people take issue with this for something like TDoR, myself included. I know one of the people that helped set it up is trans, but she only spoke for little bit at the beginning. It was different last year. She seemed to have more of a role then. The panel seemed...inappropriate to me. I can't seem to pinpoint exactly why, but it didn't seem right at such an event. The comments/stories section would have been best. Oh, it's not really much of a panel discussion if only 2 people from the audience got to ask questions.
I had to leave for a little bit, since a huge coughing attack popped up. I didn't want to leave, but I didn't want to disrupt it, either. As I headed out of the auditorium towards the bathroom, people tried to talk to me. I couldn't respond much. Hope they didn't think I was rude. When I made it into the bathroom, I finally allowed myself to fully cough it out. It was so bad, I thought I would throw up. I didn't, luckily. That incident was embarrassing. After getting back there, the coughing was slowly coming back, but I was determined to stay and able to not make much noise. I'm still sick. It keeps lingering and it's annoying.
I've managed to both continue fixing the drawing of Junko in Photoshop, and finished editing Alliance/started editing Alliance: Dawn every day for a little over a week and a half. I normally don't do them on Saturdays, because of Shabbat. However, Shabbat ends a little after sundown, and that's still rather early this time of year. So, why not after that? I usually forget on Sundays or want to do other things. I think since I did it on a Saturday, I remembered it more. Junko's looking much better. I'm still thinning/straightening lines and taking away messy areas. I feel like I'm powering through Alliance: Dawn. Decided to go through a chapter a day, instead of maybe 1/2 of one a day. Went through all of chapter 5 today. That was 10 pages of the ebook, and 14 pages of the print version. It's a lot, but it feels like I can be more focused on it. I forgot about the time travel-like aspect in this one. Not revealing much about that. I like how the story progresses in this one more than the first. The first book is more of an intro to their world for readers, I guess. This one's definitely darker, too.
Friday, November 22, 2019
24th of Cheshvan
I've been sick since my last post. Probably a cold. I suspected I came down with something in that one. It's still lingering on. Having coughing attacks, runny nose, and sneezing a lot. I know my body's trying to get rid of it all, but it's difficult to sit through on top of those 'mystery symptoms' I've had for a while now. I also know it can take longer to get over simple things like colds, while on something that works similarly as an immunosuppressant for my colitis.
Made an account and played a little on the PlayStation 4 on Monday. That was my first time on it. We've had it for a few weeks. I played a Sonic game, which was like a blast of nostalgia. I have a Sega Genesis that's still in good condition, and one of my first games was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I think that actually came with it. This one has similar levels, but is mostly 3D. Different options for actions, too. Apparently Sonic has a doppelganger in this one. Also, tried G-d of War. The graphics are amazing. Not sure I liked how often the controller vibrated. I died in kind of an annoying part. My son has to shoot arrows at a giant monster at certain times (have to press a button each time for his shots), and I have to attack that monster on my end (hitting other buttons). The monster kept going after me instead of getting distracted by my son. One of the son's last lines was: "Don't leave me all alone in this world!" Makes it seem even worse. He seems to be constantly looking for his father's approval and praise, too. Sad. He doesn't get it much. I want to download Morrowind, but it looks like they don't go back that far in the Elder Scrolls franchise on there. (I could be wrong.) They do have Oblivion which was a sequel to that. I don't think I ever played it. It might be similar. That'd be fun. I didn't go back to it after Monday, because I've felt worse since then. Maybe this weekend.
Finished editing Alliance. It was the 2nd time in a row. I hadn't edited it since I published it until recently. So, about 5 or 6 years in between. Long time. There were so many mistakes, I'm calling it a revised edition. I shaved off 3,000 words. Looks like it'll be a smoother read now. Not sure how many pages less. The print is made from a template that's for around 300 pages, and I think it was a couple of pages over that. It's now 298. Ebook is now 206 pages. I think it was quite a lot more beforehand. It's still my longest book out of the 5 that are out, from what I remember. After that, I immediately started editing Alliance: Dawn, the sequel. I like how this one is laid out more, it's jam-packed with stuff, and there doesn't seem to be as many mistakes so far. Although, I feel embarrassed that I misgendered my main character towards the beginning...It's like stabbing my baby. (It was just in one sentence, but still...) Hopefully, no one brought that up in the reviews. I haven't looked at that stuff since I started all this editing. At least I caught and corrected it. This one started with 147 pages for the ebook, and 220 pages for the print. Not bad. It's also 9,000 words less than A1 ended up with. Easier already that way. I went through all of the 2nd chapter today. I seem to be cruising through it.
Still correcting/editing the drawing of Junko in Photoshop. (Again, Junko's a character in Alliance.) Straightening and thinning out the lines, and taking out things that shouldn't be there at the moment. I don't know why, but I seem to have given her a human ear in addition to her cat ears. (She is a cat demon.) That was easy to correct. I can't believe I forgot to draw her tail. It dawned on me a couple of days ago. I could think of it as hidden behind her. She does have a knee out, so maybe it's behind that. I could draw it as a side thing in the future. I might draw her previous cat form, too.
Finished Duolingo's Dutch course. I'm unsure as to which language I should start next, so I'm taking at least a week-long break from it. (Might be 2, depending on how I feel.) Here are the ones I might learn next: Hindi, possibly going back to modern Hebrew (it doesn't have vowels written out, which makes it a little more difficult than what I'm used to), Gaelic, Welsh, Thai, or Vietnamese. Quite a mix. So far, I've recently gone through these Duolingo courses: German, Italian, Korean, and Dutch. I used HelloChinese for Mandarin after the German course, which was probably one of the best language courses so far. They recently had a huge update adding twice the amount of units. I might go back to that someday. I tried Duolingo's Russian course, but it was too glitchy. I thought it'd be fun to familiarize myself with that again, since I took it in college. Loved it back then. I feel lucky that Duolingo has so many options, and they add languages every few months. Some languages are great on there, and some...not so much.
Another anime I'm rewatching is Vandread. It originally aired in 2000. I watched it in my college's anime club. Probably around 2005. It was already 'old' by then. However, the concept I think was ahead of its time. It plays with gender a lot. It takes place in the future, where men and women have been segregated to 2 different planets for a few generations. They fight each other occasionally. The women have no problem with keeping up their population, since they've figured out a way to have children without men. If I remember correctly, they can only have girls, though. I think the men are having a harder time with that. The women don't seem as militant, either. Both genders have created their own fables of each other. Men depicting women as monsters. Women depicting men as aliens. The main character, Hibiki, gets stuck on a male battleship after female pirates take over it. He wasn't even supposed to be on it. Someone bet him to steal a high-tech robot, so he snuck in. He's just an engineer. A few of the other men that were supposed to be there get stuck, too. It's interesting to see their initial reactions to each other, considering they haven't met the other gender before.
I also decided to watch the original Hunter x Hunter. That started in 1999. Saw some of it with that anime club, but we stopped to watch something else at some point. I never went back to it. So, it's one of those that I 'dropped' but am going back to now. I forgot about it and there were so many new interesting shows coming out. HxH is a pretty long series, especially if you put that first series (62 episodes), plus an OVA that's 30 episodes long, plus the series that started in 2011 (148 episodes) together seems like quite an undertaking. (That's not counting a couple of movies.) Nothing like One Piece, but still a lot. I'm willing to try it again.
Youtube:
Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler):
Fairy Tail:
One Piece:
One Punch Man:
Made an account and played a little on the PlayStation 4 on Monday. That was my first time on it. We've had it for a few weeks. I played a Sonic game, which was like a blast of nostalgia. I have a Sega Genesis that's still in good condition, and one of my first games was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I think that actually came with it. This one has similar levels, but is mostly 3D. Different options for actions, too. Apparently Sonic has a doppelganger in this one. Also, tried G-d of War. The graphics are amazing. Not sure I liked how often the controller vibrated. I died in kind of an annoying part. My son has to shoot arrows at a giant monster at certain times (have to press a button each time for his shots), and I have to attack that monster on my end (hitting other buttons). The monster kept going after me instead of getting distracted by my son. One of the son's last lines was: "Don't leave me all alone in this world!" Makes it seem even worse. He seems to be constantly looking for his father's approval and praise, too. Sad. He doesn't get it much. I want to download Morrowind, but it looks like they don't go back that far in the Elder Scrolls franchise on there. (I could be wrong.) They do have Oblivion which was a sequel to that. I don't think I ever played it. It might be similar. That'd be fun. I didn't go back to it after Monday, because I've felt worse since then. Maybe this weekend.
Finished editing Alliance. It was the 2nd time in a row. I hadn't edited it since I published it until recently. So, about 5 or 6 years in between. Long time. There were so many mistakes, I'm calling it a revised edition. I shaved off 3,000 words. Looks like it'll be a smoother read now. Not sure how many pages less. The print is made from a template that's for around 300 pages, and I think it was a couple of pages over that. It's now 298. Ebook is now 206 pages. I think it was quite a lot more beforehand. It's still my longest book out of the 5 that are out, from what I remember. After that, I immediately started editing Alliance: Dawn, the sequel. I like how this one is laid out more, it's jam-packed with stuff, and there doesn't seem to be as many mistakes so far. Although, I feel embarrassed that I misgendered my main character towards the beginning...It's like stabbing my baby. (It was just in one sentence, but still...) Hopefully, no one brought that up in the reviews. I haven't looked at that stuff since I started all this editing. At least I caught and corrected it. This one started with 147 pages for the ebook, and 220 pages for the print. Not bad. It's also 9,000 words less than A1 ended up with. Easier already that way. I went through all of the 2nd chapter today. I seem to be cruising through it.
Still correcting/editing the drawing of Junko in Photoshop. (Again, Junko's a character in Alliance.) Straightening and thinning out the lines, and taking out things that shouldn't be there at the moment. I don't know why, but I seem to have given her a human ear in addition to her cat ears. (She is a cat demon.) That was easy to correct. I can't believe I forgot to draw her tail. It dawned on me a couple of days ago. I could think of it as hidden behind her. She does have a knee out, so maybe it's behind that. I could draw it as a side thing in the future. I might draw her previous cat form, too.
Finished Duolingo's Dutch course. I'm unsure as to which language I should start next, so I'm taking at least a week-long break from it. (Might be 2, depending on how I feel.) Here are the ones I might learn next: Hindi, possibly going back to modern Hebrew (it doesn't have vowels written out, which makes it a little more difficult than what I'm used to), Gaelic, Welsh, Thai, or Vietnamese. Quite a mix. So far, I've recently gone through these Duolingo courses: German, Italian, Korean, and Dutch. I used HelloChinese for Mandarin after the German course, which was probably one of the best language courses so far. They recently had a huge update adding twice the amount of units. I might go back to that someday. I tried Duolingo's Russian course, but it was too glitchy. I thought it'd be fun to familiarize myself with that again, since I took it in college. Loved it back then. I feel lucky that Duolingo has so many options, and they add languages every few months. Some languages are great on there, and some...not so much.
Another anime I'm rewatching is Vandread. It originally aired in 2000. I watched it in my college's anime club. Probably around 2005. It was already 'old' by then. However, the concept I think was ahead of its time. It plays with gender a lot. It takes place in the future, where men and women have been segregated to 2 different planets for a few generations. They fight each other occasionally. The women have no problem with keeping up their population, since they've figured out a way to have children without men. If I remember correctly, they can only have girls, though. I think the men are having a harder time with that. The women don't seem as militant, either. Both genders have created their own fables of each other. Men depicting women as monsters. Women depicting men as aliens. The main character, Hibiki, gets stuck on a male battleship after female pirates take over it. He wasn't even supposed to be on it. Someone bet him to steal a high-tech robot, so he snuck in. He's just an engineer. A few of the other men that were supposed to be there get stuck, too. It's interesting to see their initial reactions to each other, considering they haven't met the other gender before.
I also decided to watch the original Hunter x Hunter. That started in 1999. Saw some of it with that anime club, but we stopped to watch something else at some point. I never went back to it. So, it's one of those that I 'dropped' but am going back to now. I forgot about it and there were so many new interesting shows coming out. HxH is a pretty long series, especially if you put that first series (62 episodes), plus an OVA that's 30 episodes long, plus the series that started in 2011 (148 episodes) together seems like quite an undertaking. (That's not counting a couple of movies.) Nothing like One Piece, but still a lot. I'm willing to try it again.
Youtube:
Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler):
Fairy Tail:
One Piece:
One Punch Man:
Thursday, November 14, 2019
16th of Cheshvan
My birthday was on the 7th. Went to a Thai place for dinner that night. Managed to get the last order of tofu spring rolls. They run out of those really quickly. Often there aren't any left by the time we get there for dinner. Got the most mild chicken pad Thai without the 'garnish'. A lot of the garnish is tough on my gut, especially when it's not cooked. I have issues with nuts, too. They throw quite a bit of peanuts on it usually. Understandable, but not good for me. It was pretty good. Felt like I got the 'meat' of it without the 'fluff' this way. Got their grilled banana rice cake for dessert. It normally comes with coconut ice cream, but they were out. They tried to give me mango sorbet instead. Definitely not the same. They had to take it back. I love the banana thing. They wrap a banana in a rice cake, grill it, and then drizzle coconut syrup on top. Looks nasty (bug-like), but is amazing!
During the day, I had my own laid-back celebration. Played Fate, which is an old rpg. Made it to a level deeper in the dungeon. I think I'm the furthest I've ever been, at level 42 of it. My character level is probably the highest so far, too. My reputation is Famous at the moment. There are apparently more levels to that. I like that they have pets. You can choose either a cat or dog at the beginning. Then, at some point you can find fish that will turn your pet permanently into some sort of monster. Normally, if your pet eats a fish they turn into a monster for a certain amount of time. So, technically, there are more pet options. I still have a cat. Named her Rosie, so it's like the real Rosie is with me. She's really strong now, too. There's the option of male or female characters, however they both wear the same things and there's really no advantage to being either. With all the armor and such on mine, you can't tell what gender they are. I like that aspect.
After that I watched some of my fave youtube vids on the big TV. That was fun. It was nice that AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network) made a thread wishing me a happy birthday. Hung around the forums there for a while.
Saturday, I went to the Oak Table for brunch. That's one of the places I really wanted to go to for my birthday. To me, it's a great place to celebrate things like birthdays. Really good food and they have some spectacular signature things. Some of it is really worthy of taking pics of, like their apple pancake. It's like a huge souffle with apples inside and caramel/cinnamon pieces or crust on the outside. There was a long wait. (One of the few things I hate about going there.) I got their smoked salmon eggs Benedict. I can't have regular eggs Benedict, since it usually has ham. This had an English muffin, smoked salmon, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Came with 4 small pancakes. It was delicious. The eggs Benedict itself was probably the perfect size for a breakfast. Very filling, too.
After that, we went to the Naval Undersea Museum. Hadn't been there since my teens. For planning my birthday, I wanted to visit things like museums that I hadn't been to in a while, and some things I never have. That list ended up much longer than I expected. That's ok. Gives me ideas to go to places in the future. There's a lot of stuff at the NUM. Some of it seemed too cramped with things.
Saw Doctor Sleep at a local movie theater after that. It's a sequel to the Shining. Basically about what happened to Dan after the events that took place there. It was better than expected. Despite her being a villain, I liked Rose the Hat. The actress has an interesting background. I also liked Abra. She seemed stronger than Dan is as an adult (she's a teenager), and sometimes smarter. The actress who plays her was really good. I liked the nods to the Shining movie throughout. For example, the music played when they were heading to the hotel. Ghosts from the previous one. I read even the Overlook Hotel set had to be entirely redone to look like the original, since the original had burned down.
Monday, my parent and I went to the Seattle Aquarium and Pacific Science Center. The aquarium was smaller than I remembered. I think it's been 7 years since I was last there. Didn't have my iphone at the time. (Didn't have a smart phone at all.) They had all gender restrooms. That was cool to see. Had a turkey sandwich with potato chips at their cafe. It had an everything bagel (had seeds, so not the best for me), artichoke aioli, roasted turkey, spinach, tomatoes, and olive tapenade. Really good.
The PSC seemed to have dropped in quality. Hadn't been there in probably a longer time than the NUM. I remember the dinosaur exhibit was in a larger room and had more things. I especially remember that because when my Girl Scout troop (I think it was actually with troops from around the region, there were a lot of us) slept over there, they put us in the dino room. (This was in the 90s.) It was big enough to hold so many people. What I saw on Monday wouldn't have been big enough. That was an amazing trip back then. It was a little scary to sleep next to the animatronic dinos at the time. I'm glad some of them still move. We also went to a laser light show, the planetarium, and watched movies at the theater, as well as had free reign of the rest of it. It was an awesome experience back then. Anyways, the nutrition/health area wasn't the same either. I was disappointed with the naked mole rats' enclosure. I think we saw them the first year they had them. They were in a deep table filled with dirt, and you could look at the sides into their chambers. I think there were things poking out of the dirt on top to get a better look. It was cool and interesting to see. Now, they're in something that looked like it was for hamsters, gerbils, domestic rats, etc. It looked sad. They weren't kicking up and digging in dirt anymore either. It was like pieces of paper. Didn't seem right. The butterfly exhibit was nice. The butterflies kept resting on the path, which made it difficult to walk along. One of them landed on top of my head. My colorfully dyed hair probably made me look like a plant. I would have liked them to land on my hand or something instead. A place I can actually see them. I don't regret going, despite the quality decreasing.
Another thing that was on my list was the MoPop (Museum of Pop Culture), which is right next to the PSC. I remember it as the EMP (Experience Music Project). It's apparently been renamed a few times. I've never been there. My parents did once. Sounds like it has more than just music related exhibits. I read that they have a horror exhibit, a new one on Minecraft, a fantasy/sci-fi one, etc. They still have music ones like one on Kurt Cobain's influence on music, Jimi Hendrix, punk, rock, and more. Sounds like it's really packed in there. Maybe sometime in the distant future I'll go there.
With being in such crowded areas, I seem to have come down with something. It's not like it's really horrible (although worse than yesterday), but I keep sneezing, coughing, have a stuffy nose, sore throat, and am dizzy. That's kind of a risk of doing stuff like that, since my meds work similarly as an immunosepressant would. Adds a bit more stuff to what I'm already dealing with. Feels like a punishment for having fun...
I decided yesterday to try a new 'schedule' with eating. Eat every 1 1/2 hours, splitting my meals in half. So, for instance, having cereal with milk for a 'first' breakfast, then a banana 1 1/2 hours later. Basically the main part, then my usual fruit later. For dinner, the main part, then dessert later. With the 'extra' times, I added having water. I'd end up getting more fluids this way. I've heard it's easier to digest things if they're a little at a time and frequent. Many people with colitis do a similar thing. This way I get the same amount of food, too. I don't really get hungry, either. Half the time, I don't feel hunger (even after not eating most of the day), but this helps even more with those other times. It really is like snacking all day. Getting up late and days where I eat out at restaurants or spend it mostly out somewhere will be different. I'm not sure why I didn't think about it this way when I was first told to eat smaller and more frequent meals. Might help with my dysphagia (trouble/painful swallowing), too. Less food to worry about at a time. This respiratory thing has been messing with my dysphagia. It's hard enough. Having a hard time even taking my pills.
I've decided to rewatch some of my fave anime and give another chance to ones I dropped. I still have some of my usual time 'slots' vacant. For instance, nothing on Mondays, and some days with just one episode of a current anime. I prefer 2 or 3 different anime, one episode each, daily. Most anime is a little under 20 minutes without the openings/endings. Really not much. I decided to go with oldest ones first. According to the date they were put out. Yesterday, I watched an episode of Cardcaptor Sakura. That came out in 1998. Really old school, and it apparently has some LGBTQ+ elements. One of the first ones that was open about it. I love CLAMP, even if their style is a little weird. It's an all-female manga creator group. I think this was one of their first projects. The characters in this one appear in other series like Tsubasa Chronicle. In fact, at least that, Cardcaptor Sakura, and xxxHolic are considered to be in the same universe. I only dropped CS before because it seemed too long. The original is 70 episodes long. The sequel was in 2018 and 22 episodes. Must have been an anniversary thing. There are a couple of movies, too. It's not as long as some of the others I've watched.
Watched the first episode of Excel Saga. I absolutely loved it when I watched it back in college. I think that was in 2005. It came out in 1999. I think my ex-boyfriend introduced it to me. It has similar humor as Gintama, or I should say Gintama does. Since it's older. Probably got inspiration from it. It seems to have influenced a lot of other anime, too. Like, there's a common trope where a character dies by being hit by a truck. One of the first times Excel dies is by being hit by a truck. (It's in the first few minutes, so not spoiling it.) I like the Miss Universe character. She has the ability to bring characters back to life. She's constantly busy saving them. I remember the one that died the most often was Hayatt. She's an alien and apparently the atmosphere on Earth makes her sick. She's constantly coughing up blood. I remember the last episode was controversial, because there was a lot more violence, sexual jokes, and all around craziness than usual. It actually never aired on Japanese TV, and was sneaked into the DVD. I saw that and it was really outlandish, but fun in a weird way. The whole series is certainly not appropriate for kids. They parody a lot of things, like Gintama does, too. ES is short compared to CS, with only 26 episodes. Shorter than I remembered.
In addition to CS and ES, I watched the most recent episode of Radiant 2. It's getting intense. I'm wondering about Seth's past or who he really is more now.
I only have about 2 more units left of Duolingo's Dutch course. Not sure which language I'll do next. Cleaned up more of the drawing of Junko in Photoshop. Finished editing chapter 17 of Alliance. Only 3 more chapters. Managed to practice my clarinet yesterday. It's harder with being sick this way. Did advanced solo pieces, and some jazz.
The most recent chapter of Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) was way too short. In fact, it felt like an abrupt ending. There was a big cliffhanger. I like that Meirin's backstory is finally being revealed. The other servants had theirs shown a while ago. So far, it's showing her childhood and eventually will get to how she met Sebastian and Ciel. She's extremely farsighted. Her parents died not long after they immigrated to England (I think they came from Ireland, although they haven't said yet), and she was forced to live on the streets as a little kid. She survived with other homeless kids by shooting pebbles from a slingshot at a long distance, and hitting earrings/jewelry of the rich women just right for them to fall. Her friends would chat up the women and steal the jewelry when it fell, then they'd exchange them for money. They were able to eat because of this. She was treated like one of the boys. Looked pretty masculine, too. I think she was forced into being an assassin, and then Ciel was just one of her targets later. She did mention she was an assassin. She prefers to be a sniper, but she fights in other ways as well. She's a cool character.
During the day, I had my own laid-back celebration. Played Fate, which is an old rpg. Made it to a level deeper in the dungeon. I think I'm the furthest I've ever been, at level 42 of it. My character level is probably the highest so far, too. My reputation is Famous at the moment. There are apparently more levels to that. I like that they have pets. You can choose either a cat or dog at the beginning. Then, at some point you can find fish that will turn your pet permanently into some sort of monster. Normally, if your pet eats a fish they turn into a monster for a certain amount of time. So, technically, there are more pet options. I still have a cat. Named her Rosie, so it's like the real Rosie is with me. She's really strong now, too. There's the option of male or female characters, however they both wear the same things and there's really no advantage to being either. With all the armor and such on mine, you can't tell what gender they are. I like that aspect.
After that I watched some of my fave youtube vids on the big TV. That was fun. It was nice that AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network) made a thread wishing me a happy birthday. Hung around the forums there for a while.
Saturday, I went to the Oak Table for brunch. That's one of the places I really wanted to go to for my birthday. To me, it's a great place to celebrate things like birthdays. Really good food and they have some spectacular signature things. Some of it is really worthy of taking pics of, like their apple pancake. It's like a huge souffle with apples inside and caramel/cinnamon pieces or crust on the outside. There was a long wait. (One of the few things I hate about going there.) I got their smoked salmon eggs Benedict. I can't have regular eggs Benedict, since it usually has ham. This had an English muffin, smoked salmon, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Came with 4 small pancakes. It was delicious. The eggs Benedict itself was probably the perfect size for a breakfast. Very filling, too.
After that, we went to the Naval Undersea Museum. Hadn't been there since my teens. For planning my birthday, I wanted to visit things like museums that I hadn't been to in a while, and some things I never have. That list ended up much longer than I expected. That's ok. Gives me ideas to go to places in the future. There's a lot of stuff at the NUM. Some of it seemed too cramped with things.
Saw Doctor Sleep at a local movie theater after that. It's a sequel to the Shining. Basically about what happened to Dan after the events that took place there. It was better than expected. Despite her being a villain, I liked Rose the Hat. The actress has an interesting background. I also liked Abra. She seemed stronger than Dan is as an adult (she's a teenager), and sometimes smarter. The actress who plays her was really good. I liked the nods to the Shining movie throughout. For example, the music played when they were heading to the hotel. Ghosts from the previous one. I read even the Overlook Hotel set had to be entirely redone to look like the original, since the original had burned down.
Monday, my parent and I went to the Seattle Aquarium and Pacific Science Center. The aquarium was smaller than I remembered. I think it's been 7 years since I was last there. Didn't have my iphone at the time. (Didn't have a smart phone at all.) They had all gender restrooms. That was cool to see. Had a turkey sandwich with potato chips at their cafe. It had an everything bagel (had seeds, so not the best for me), artichoke aioli, roasted turkey, spinach, tomatoes, and olive tapenade. Really good.
The PSC seemed to have dropped in quality. Hadn't been there in probably a longer time than the NUM. I remember the dinosaur exhibit was in a larger room and had more things. I especially remember that because when my Girl Scout troop (I think it was actually with troops from around the region, there were a lot of us) slept over there, they put us in the dino room. (This was in the 90s.) It was big enough to hold so many people. What I saw on Monday wouldn't have been big enough. That was an amazing trip back then. It was a little scary to sleep next to the animatronic dinos at the time. I'm glad some of them still move. We also went to a laser light show, the planetarium, and watched movies at the theater, as well as had free reign of the rest of it. It was an awesome experience back then. Anyways, the nutrition/health area wasn't the same either. I was disappointed with the naked mole rats' enclosure. I think we saw them the first year they had them. They were in a deep table filled with dirt, and you could look at the sides into their chambers. I think there were things poking out of the dirt on top to get a better look. It was cool and interesting to see. Now, they're in something that looked like it was for hamsters, gerbils, domestic rats, etc. It looked sad. They weren't kicking up and digging in dirt anymore either. It was like pieces of paper. Didn't seem right. The butterfly exhibit was nice. The butterflies kept resting on the path, which made it difficult to walk along. One of them landed on top of my head. My colorfully dyed hair probably made me look like a plant. I would have liked them to land on my hand or something instead. A place I can actually see them. I don't regret going, despite the quality decreasing.
Another thing that was on my list was the MoPop (Museum of Pop Culture), which is right next to the PSC. I remember it as the EMP (Experience Music Project). It's apparently been renamed a few times. I've never been there. My parents did once. Sounds like it has more than just music related exhibits. I read that they have a horror exhibit, a new one on Minecraft, a fantasy/sci-fi one, etc. They still have music ones like one on Kurt Cobain's influence on music, Jimi Hendrix, punk, rock, and more. Sounds like it's really packed in there. Maybe sometime in the distant future I'll go there.
With being in such crowded areas, I seem to have come down with something. It's not like it's really horrible (although worse than yesterday), but I keep sneezing, coughing, have a stuffy nose, sore throat, and am dizzy. That's kind of a risk of doing stuff like that, since my meds work similarly as an immunosepressant would. Adds a bit more stuff to what I'm already dealing with. Feels like a punishment for having fun...
I decided yesterday to try a new 'schedule' with eating. Eat every 1 1/2 hours, splitting my meals in half. So, for instance, having cereal with milk for a 'first' breakfast, then a banana 1 1/2 hours later. Basically the main part, then my usual fruit later. For dinner, the main part, then dessert later. With the 'extra' times, I added having water. I'd end up getting more fluids this way. I've heard it's easier to digest things if they're a little at a time and frequent. Many people with colitis do a similar thing. This way I get the same amount of food, too. I don't really get hungry, either. Half the time, I don't feel hunger (even after not eating most of the day), but this helps even more with those other times. It really is like snacking all day. Getting up late and days where I eat out at restaurants or spend it mostly out somewhere will be different. I'm not sure why I didn't think about it this way when I was first told to eat smaller and more frequent meals. Might help with my dysphagia (trouble/painful swallowing), too. Less food to worry about at a time. This respiratory thing has been messing with my dysphagia. It's hard enough. Having a hard time even taking my pills.
I've decided to rewatch some of my fave anime and give another chance to ones I dropped. I still have some of my usual time 'slots' vacant. For instance, nothing on Mondays, and some days with just one episode of a current anime. I prefer 2 or 3 different anime, one episode each, daily. Most anime is a little under 20 minutes without the openings/endings. Really not much. I decided to go with oldest ones first. According to the date they were put out. Yesterday, I watched an episode of Cardcaptor Sakura. That came out in 1998. Really old school, and it apparently has some LGBTQ+ elements. One of the first ones that was open about it. I love CLAMP, even if their style is a little weird. It's an all-female manga creator group. I think this was one of their first projects. The characters in this one appear in other series like Tsubasa Chronicle. In fact, at least that, Cardcaptor Sakura, and xxxHolic are considered to be in the same universe. I only dropped CS before because it seemed too long. The original is 70 episodes long. The sequel was in 2018 and 22 episodes. Must have been an anniversary thing. There are a couple of movies, too. It's not as long as some of the others I've watched.
Watched the first episode of Excel Saga. I absolutely loved it when I watched it back in college. I think that was in 2005. It came out in 1999. I think my ex-boyfriend introduced it to me. It has similar humor as Gintama, or I should say Gintama does. Since it's older. Probably got inspiration from it. It seems to have influenced a lot of other anime, too. Like, there's a common trope where a character dies by being hit by a truck. One of the first times Excel dies is by being hit by a truck. (It's in the first few minutes, so not spoiling it.) I like the Miss Universe character. She has the ability to bring characters back to life. She's constantly busy saving them. I remember the one that died the most often was Hayatt. She's an alien and apparently the atmosphere on Earth makes her sick. She's constantly coughing up blood. I remember the last episode was controversial, because there was a lot more violence, sexual jokes, and all around craziness than usual. It actually never aired on Japanese TV, and was sneaked into the DVD. I saw that and it was really outlandish, but fun in a weird way. The whole series is certainly not appropriate for kids. They parody a lot of things, like Gintama does, too. ES is short compared to CS, with only 26 episodes. Shorter than I remembered.
In addition to CS and ES, I watched the most recent episode of Radiant 2. It's getting intense. I'm wondering about Seth's past or who he really is more now.
I only have about 2 more units left of Duolingo's Dutch course. Not sure which language I'll do next. Cleaned up more of the drawing of Junko in Photoshop. Finished editing chapter 17 of Alliance. Only 3 more chapters. Managed to practice my clarinet yesterday. It's harder with being sick this way. Did advanced solo pieces, and some jazz.
The most recent chapter of Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) was way too short. In fact, it felt like an abrupt ending. There was a big cliffhanger. I like that Meirin's backstory is finally being revealed. The other servants had theirs shown a while ago. So far, it's showing her childhood and eventually will get to how she met Sebastian and Ciel. She's extremely farsighted. Her parents died not long after they immigrated to England (I think they came from Ireland, although they haven't said yet), and she was forced to live on the streets as a little kid. She survived with other homeless kids by shooting pebbles from a slingshot at a long distance, and hitting earrings/jewelry of the rich women just right for them to fall. Her friends would chat up the women and steal the jewelry when it fell, then they'd exchange them for money. They were able to eat because of this. She was treated like one of the boys. Looked pretty masculine, too. I think she was forced into being an assassin, and then Ciel was just one of her targets later. She did mention she was an assassin. She prefers to be a sniper, but she fights in other ways as well. She's a cool character.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Election Day!
I voted through the mail last Wednesday. Some of it was difficult, because I didn't recognize some of the names and they weren't affiliated with certain parties. I tried to make an informed decision on those. 2 of the candidates running for school board, one of them I was familiar with beforehand, would be awful if they won. One that seemed a little too into 'loving kids', and the other is a big transphobe who probably hates anyone else in the greater queer community. I think I also recognized another name that was a member of one of the local synagogues. That'd be cool if she won. Some candidates seemed overqualified, if that were possible. Others essentially said vote for me since I'm running for another term. Nothing on their background or education. One initiative seemed like a no-brainer to be for. Unless you weren't for diversity...Another one was easy to vote against. It was put out by someone who tries to get ridiculous initiatives to pass every year. Usually harmful in some way. I didn't really like that there were so many advisory votes this time. Sure, it's great to get the people's opinion, but you've already voted on them. If there were like 2 or 3, that would have been fine. It seemed like there were around 8 of them.
The month-long holidays for November are: National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, National Pomegranate Month, Banana Pudding Lovers Month, National Memoir Writing Month, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.
Last Wednesday, we had a local trans meeting. There were only a handful of us. We had moved to a much bigger room. Seemed funny almost with such a small group of us. Most of the people that were there were non-binary, which was great to me. Not the usual. They wanted to have the same type of top surgery I wanted. People get weirded out when I bring up that nipples cause dysphoria for me, too. It's not just my chest. So, I'll need all of it to go. No masculinizing or feminizing. Simply flat. A member tried to talk me out of it a few months ago. That it seemed too out there. Seeing the pics that people share in fb enby groups of their after nippleless top surgery looks amazing to me. Looks more like how I'd want to see myself.
We all went to Shari's afterwards. I got their new simple pretzel cheeseburger. The burger seemed like a veggie one. I expected beef. It looked weird. Got their new graveyard shake for dessert. It's supposed to be a s'mores galore pie shake (they blend an entire slice with ice cream to make it) with added chocolate syrup, Oreo crumbs for the 'dirt' part, and gummy worms. They were out of the 'worms', didn't have much of the 'dirt', added a little piece of chocolate on top, and there didn't seem to be any extra chocolate syrup. There was a huge glob of what I think was a concentrated graham cracker ball. It was disappointing and bizarre.
I felt a little uneasy when one of the new members said that all trans people are autistic. Many trans people are, but many aren't. I think it seems like it's an unusually high percentage because trans people are often tested for it more. Often they, or other people around them, feel like something must be wrong with them for being trans. It's also this way for the rest of the LGBTQ+ community. It's more common in the cis/non-queer population than people think. Many of them go undiagnosed. There's nothing wrong with people who are autistic, but there is something wrong with saying all trans people are. What about cis autistic people? Are they really trans and don't know it? What about trans people who aren't? It might feel invalidating to them to hear that all trans people are. Correlation does not equal causation. I'm not autistic. However, I'm not exactly neurotypical, either. I have a lot of mental health stuff (bipolar 2, anxiety, agoraphobia, PTSD, etc.) and physical chronic illnesses (colitis, possibly another autoimmune disease, Eustachian tube dysfunction, multiple skin issues, etc.). Both have an impact on the way I think that would be different than someone who was healthy mentally and physically. Since I have these things, does it mean all trans people do as well? No. Not at all. I have a different perspective as an aro ace agender person as well. (Compared to allo cis people.) Being trans simply means you have a gender that doesn't match the one you were assigned at birth. That says nothing about mental health, being autistic, or other aspects of who that person is or what they have. Are all cis people the same? No. Thank goodness we're all different. The world would be boring if we were all the same.
We also talked about possibly having a potluck for my birthday at the next meeting tomorrow. Since it's the day before it. We don't celebrate birthdays as a group often. I can only remember 2 times in the past. It might be a fun thing to do in the future for members, though. My parent suggested she'd bring a cake and others could bring snack-like stuff. That sounds good. Not sure if it's actually going to happen. I might forget about it tomorrow until right before the meeting starts.
Someone on fb friended me that same day. I didn't recognize the name, but their profile mentioned they graduated a year ahead of me at the same high school. Although, they graduated from another high school at the same time...That seemed fishy. They had many mutual friends, so I thought maybe I didn't remember them. He seemed really nice on messenger that first night. Although, he insisted he'd find a way to make me feel better. That seemed questionable. On Halloween, he asked what I'll be doing. Seemed innocent enough. I said probably not much other than watch a horror movie and have dinner out. He asked about wearing a costume. I didn't wear one this year, but I did wear skeleton earrings. He said he'd like to see them in person. He said he doesn't get any trick-or-treaters, and his camper is so cold. He'd want someone with him. According to his profile he's either bi or pan, which I thought was cool. Not cool that he seemed like he was trying to flirt with me, get 'romantic', and creepy. Being aro ace, it takes me a while to realize someone is flirting with me, unless I'm hyper-aware. People tend to think I'm flirting when I'm just being nice, friendly, and polite. I don't want another romantic relationship. I had a boyfriend and that part was suffocating for me. He was all over me trying to be as romantic as possible, and often sexual which I wasn't that into either. I put up with it, because I felt I had to. (Silly society...) I was very attached to him emotionally, and strongly attracted platonically (I guess queerplatonically would be a better word). Because of this, it really hurt when we broke up. Anyways, I would love a queerplatonic relationship instead. It's hard to find that, though. This exchange creeped me out. I also wonder how people can flirt with others when they barely know the person. I understand after knowing the basics of who they are. Why not become friends first? I blocked this person, by the way.
Went to Red Lobster on Halloween for dinner. I was surprised to see any kids there. It was a way to get away from trick-or-treaters for a while. We live right in the middle of the neighborhood, right at a 3-way stop. It's a popular spot to go. It was like that even when I was kid. For the last few years we haven't been handing out candy. It's been nice that way. We just turn out the lights and usually go somewhere else for a while. I got steak with mashed potatoes and a caprese salad there. It comes with a choice of soup or salad. I didn't get either. All their soups now have shellfish or pork products, and the salads upset my gut, particularly the greens part. So, I got none of that. The caprese salad is perfect for me. I don't have issues with tomatoes. I don't eat the onions. The mozzarella is good for protein, and basil is healthy too. It's all in balsamic vinegar, which is oddly good for me. I don't normally get steak, but it was done right. It's a perfect form of more protein. All together, it was one of their lower-calorie meals, so I managed to eat most of it. Had their vanilla bean cheesecake for dessert. One of my faves. I'm never able to finish it, since it's so huge.
I don't really have plans for my birthday. Probably would celebrate it more this coming weekend. I do want brunch at the Oak Table. Went there last year, too. I'd like to go somewhere for a dinner, but not sure what really speaks to me for that. Might be at a Japanese steakhouse, but I also like a lot of other restaurants. Last year, we went to the Cheesecake Factory, I think. I went there not that long ago, so I wouldn't want that. Went to a zoo last year and got a mani/pedi. Not really feeling those this time. Maybe some museums? Not sure which ones, though.
I've been in even more pain lately. Especially in the right side of my abdomen and more intense patches in my right arm. I also passed quite a bit of blood recently. No #2, just blood. (Not related to a 'monthly friend' I would have if my IUD wasn't working.) That was fun. Had a slight reaction to that. I think my colitis might be flaring, although I've never had blood come out of me like that. I did have occult blood in a test, but none that was visible. It's common for people with Ulcerative Colitis to bleed a lot. I've had symptoms resembling Crohn's Disease more. Crohn's also can affect the colon. I think the pain on my side might be from my colon. That blood might have been from that area. (It hasn't bled since.) It's a constant cramp-like pain. Lying down makes it feel like it's oozing out and it twitches a lot. Not sure about my arm. There's resistance to both arms when I move them. The right one feels like it's been beaten up, someone's pushing on it in certain areas, and it burns. I have to wait to see what goes on with my insurance before I can do much about this stuff. It's just a pain to deal with. Still haven't gotten those 3 other test results back. I don't know if they take a while to run. It'd be nice to know those results already, though.
Youtube:
One Piece:
Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler):
Fairy Tail:
Ao no (Blue) Exorcist:
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
One Punch Man:
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (Assassination Classroom):
Black Clover:
Bungou (Literary) Stray Dogs:
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
National Oatmeal Day!
I love oatmeal! Usually I add syrup, sometimes cinnamon, raisins, salt, and a little Splenda if I'm having it as a breakfast. Oatmeal in things like cookies is also great. It can be pretty versatile. It's one of my safe and calming foods. Nutritious, too.
National Pumpkin Day was on Saturday. I used to hate eating things with pumpkin in them. Thought it was fun carving them as a kid (with the help of my parents, and didn't do it every year for Halloween), and loved having roasted pumpkin seeds (from those same pumpkins that we roasted in the oven) with a little salt. For some reason, I had no problem eating that part. Pumpkin pie on the other hand...Would not touch it for years. I still hate most squashes, but at some point that changed with pumpkins. Maybe I got enough guts to try a really good pumpkin pie or something. Now, if it has pumpkin in it, I tend to love it. Recently got pumpkin butter, which has real pureed pumpkin. It's not outstanding, but really addicting. Funny how they call it a fruit spread, when many people categorize it as a vegetable. Technically, it is a fruit. I guess it's like how tomatoes are. It's not as sweet as many fruit spreads, which is nice to have sometimes.
Managed to finally get my flu shot on Friday. Flu shots are even more important for me since I have at least colitis. Might have another autoimmune disease. One of my meds works in a similar way as an immunosuppressant. That means it suppresses my immune system so much my digestive system isn't bombarded by it. However, it also makes it super easy to get sick. And, when immunosuppressed patients get sick, it takes us longer to get over it. We're at risk of dying from the flu, because of this. We can't have the live version. That's the only one I've been told not to have for vaccines in general. If people I come in contact with also have the flu shot, it's an added protection. If I do end up with the flu, it won't be as dire as if I hadn't gotten the shot. When people in IBD groups say things like I'll never get the shot and list some bogus reasons (Big Pharma, it'll cause something like autism, hasn't been studied enough...), it can be harmful. Some people are banned from those groups on fb because of that. They take it extremely seriously. They also boot out people who are trying to sell something or promote some sort of health advice. I've seen many people try to sell miracle cures, say we need to find G-d, giving out misleading info, just need to think positively, etc. It's crazy. Actually a problem in many chronic illness groups. I hate actually getting the shot, though. It's quick, at least.
I got a blood draw since I was at the clinic already. I wasn't sure if my rheumatologist had ordered those 4 tests yet, since he didn't reply to my last message. Turns out he did, but put it in incorrectly. It took about 10 minutes over the phone for the lab tech to get it right. Meanwhile, I anxiously waited in the lab, not knowing if they could do it. It seemed like a lot of blood this time. I didn't get my usual reaction. It's usually an involuntary response where whenever I see/think about my blood or other medical stuff, I can pass out, or throw up, or both. Most of the time it doesn't get that bad. However, I tend to get really sweaty, my heart races, get really dizzy, nauseous, etc. It might go away once I put my head down and sip some water for a while. One of the worst times that it got to the point of passing out was while I was at WSU. I told the nurse about that feeling coming on just before the blood draw. She didn't know what to do and threw me in the bathroom. As I passed out, I hit everything around me on the way down. (Toilet lid, railing, sink, etc.) So, I woke up cut up, bruised, and out of it. Still got the blood draw done. She should have suggested a lying down position. The interesting thing about this 'response' is once it's happened, I don't get it again for a while. So, I could look at my blood all I want or other things, and nothing will happen. It gives me a calm and relaxed feeling after, too. It's so bizarre, though. I got one result back so far and it's negative. That's ok. If they're all negative/normal, then fine, I don't have scleroderma. If one or more is positive, then it needs to be looked into more. If not scleroderma, then I can move on to something else. I'll still get some form of an answer. I plan to wait until I know for sure what's going to happen with my insurance, and then I'll make an appointment to see a dermatologist. I know they'll have more things to look into.
Saturday, I had an early brunch at Elmer's. I got their chicken-fried steak and eggs breakfast. Had it with turkey gravy instead of country gravy. (The country one has pork sausage in it, and I don't eat pork products.) Added another dimension of flavor. The eggs were scrambled and it also had hash browns and a biscuit. The biscuit came a little late. I thought our waitress had forgotten or something. Turns out they took a little longer to make and it was a fresh batch. It was a really satisfying brunch.
Went to Port Gamble after that. It was very windy outside, so I didn't have the patience to take pics of that. Most of the leaves had fallen there, so it wasn't as nice as I thought it would look anyways. Went to the General Store and the Of Sea and Shore museum upstairs. The store has a cafe, too. They pack a lot into one building. That museum has apparently one of the largest collections of shells in the world. They really cram them in there. It used to scare me as a kid, because of the huge crabs and lobsters. Sharks not as much. All of them weren't alive, of course. A lot of the crabs were found locally. Knowing such big things were lurking in the waters near me got me more. There are some things from around the world, too. I had forgotten how many crabs they had. Almost seemed like half as many as the shells.
Got chicken parmesan from a local market for dinner Saturday. Had root beer and stuffing with it. I don't drink root beer that often, so it was a treat. My parent made stuffing to go with her dinner, and suggested I have some. The chicken parmesan seemed skimpier than usual, so I thought why not? Got a pumpkin spice scone from there for dessert. It was much better than the Starbucks' version. There wasn't a super thick layer of icing on top. Just a light drizzle. Seemed to have more of the spices, too. I think there was actual pumpkin in it. Nice.
Mairimashita! (Welcome to Demon School) Iruma-kun has been interesting so far. I'm liking it more than I thought I would. It's about a human, Iruma, who's sold to a demon. The demon always wanted a grandson to dote on. He makes a contract with him to agree to be his grandson. If Iruma hadn't agreed to it, he would have been killed. His human parents were awful towards him and he never had the opportunity to go to school before. His new 'grandpa' forces him to go to a demon school. If the demons find out he's human, he could be eaten. So far, no one suspects he is, and he's made 2 close and powerful friends. He's also managed to make one of his teachers his familiar by accident. It seems like humans have powers in their world, too. Only, he can't fly like the others. The other students think he's simply working out his leg muscles in order to get stronger. I've noticed the demon language is based on Hebrew. They tend to add circles and tiny lines to some of the letters, but it's easy to tell. Even the ranking of classes has actual clear Hebrew letters. Yod being the highest rank, which is interesting...Alef is the first letter in the alphabet (known as the alef-bet in Hebrew), and that's the lowest rank. I can read some of the words that they flash briefly, but from what I can tell, a lot of it seems to be gibberish. It's only shown for a few seconds at a time, though. In order to read and understand the language, Iruma's grandpa puts a spell over him where he hears and reads Japanese instead. Except for that ranking system. He seems to see it the way they do. When he speaks, demons hear their language. So, it works out that way. Iruma reminds me of a mix of Deku from Boku no (My) Hero Academia and Tsuna from Hitman Reborn.
The 4th season of Boku no Hero Academia has been good, too. Seems more intense than other seasons. Especially with the new villain, Overhaul. He appeared at the end of season 3. He seems more powerful than Shigaraki, who's the head of the League of Villains and the main antagonist of the series. Deku became an intern for Sir Nighteye, who was All Might's sidekick. (Getting an internship is another step to becoming a full-fledged pro hero.) He's also Mirio's mentor. Mirio looks a lot like Tintin from the Adventures of Tintin. He might be a parody of him. There's some sort of tension between Nighteye and All Might. So much so that All Might asked Mirio to introduce Deku to Nighteye. He couldn't bring himself to do it. In the most recent episode, it's revealed that Nighteye is investigating Overhaul. Deku comes face to face with him at the very end.
Decided to drop Kabukichou Sherlock. Kabukichou is an entertainment and red-light district. They focus quite a bit on the red-light district part. It seemed to make fun of drag queens and gay people. I don't think it actually touched on trans people. The head of the detective agency is a drag queen who holds their meetings at a drag queen bar that they own. Some of the gay people they showed briefly have seemed 'real' and they didn't make fun of them, but with others it seemed like they were the punchline in some sort of joke. Mrs. Hudson, the head of the detective agency, also tends to grope one of the detectives whenever they see each other, which I'm not cool with. I do like the twists on Sherlock and Watson. Sherlock tends to perform rakugo, a form of storytelling while sitting on a stage with only a fan and cloth as props (usually comedic stories), when he solves a case. His personality totally changes as he does it. While at crime scenes, he really throws himself into it. Sniffing everywhere, lying where the victim is/was or their bed, getting down on all fours to inspect the floor, etc. More than the other detectives. The others try to beat him in solving it. Even going so far as to destroy evidence. The main case is on Jack the Ripper, but they solve side cases at the same time. Watson is a doctor, and ever since he found a transmitter in a body, it seems like someone's after him. Someone blew up the place he was staying at. He's had to stay at different hotels because of the fear that they'd be blown up, too. He only wanted the detectives to help with his case, but got roped into helping Sherlock instead. Now he lives with him along with Moriarty, who's a teenager. I think Moriarty is also a detective in this. However, in the books he was one of Sherlock's archenemies. Don't know what his connection is to Sherlock in this one. If it didn't have the more sexual or homophobic stuff, I think I would like it a lot. I can't get passed that, though.
Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit (the Japanese name is even longer...) has been a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect much from it. They live in a world that was once ruled by dragons. Once those dragons disappeared, many different types of fantasy-based beings started coexisting peacefully with humans. Like, vampires, homunculi, elves, orcs, etc. Nine is a terrorist organization that wants the powers of the dragons, create chaos, and to change the world. The police form a unit to combat Nine called Special 7. They have abilities that surpass the average human (many aren't human). The main character is Seiji who's a rookie and human. He doesn't seem entirely human to me, though. They make fun of him lightheartedly at first, then realize he has a lot of potential. The Nines seem to hardly be there, so they solve side cases in the meantime. Although, they might have been involved in the most recent case with a bomber. Especially because the bomber used magic. They never found who the bomber was, but they had to disarm 4 bombs in different buildings. They had to figure out how to do it with only one detective at each, with the same amount on the timers, had to be disarmed in a certain order, and none of them had experience with bombs. Luckily, the homunculus named Bellemer on their team, who's also a ninja, helped them from afar with watching and giving instructions from drones. She's dealt with bombs before. Most of the characters have been very likable and quirky. It reminds me a lot of Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) and Hamatora.
Yesterday, I went through more of Duolingo's Dutch course. Finished Politics 1, and got halfway through Gerund. The politics unit was interesting. Got more of a view into their government, royalty, and some laws. Made it to #13 of the Ruby League. Hopefully, when I do it later today, I can get higher in the ranking.
Yesterday, I scanned the drawing of Junko and started cleaning her up in Photoshop. First time I've scanned something with my new printer. It's much better than the previous one. It doesn't thicken the lines and add blue marks. It's clearer. Doesn't add more gunk to erase in Photoshop. She looks pretty much like she does on paper, but with slightly lighter lines. I'll continue to clean her up in Photoshop next time. It might not take me as long as it did in the past.
Got to editing Alliance yesterday, too. Even though there seemed to be interruptions every time I tried. Went through 5 pages of the ebook and 7 pages of the print. Not bad.
National Pumpkin Day was on Saturday. I used to hate eating things with pumpkin in them. Thought it was fun carving them as a kid (with the help of my parents, and didn't do it every year for Halloween), and loved having roasted pumpkin seeds (from those same pumpkins that we roasted in the oven) with a little salt. For some reason, I had no problem eating that part. Pumpkin pie on the other hand...Would not touch it for years. I still hate most squashes, but at some point that changed with pumpkins. Maybe I got enough guts to try a really good pumpkin pie or something. Now, if it has pumpkin in it, I tend to love it. Recently got pumpkin butter, which has real pureed pumpkin. It's not outstanding, but really addicting. Funny how they call it a fruit spread, when many people categorize it as a vegetable. Technically, it is a fruit. I guess it's like how tomatoes are. It's not as sweet as many fruit spreads, which is nice to have sometimes.
Managed to finally get my flu shot on Friday. Flu shots are even more important for me since I have at least colitis. Might have another autoimmune disease. One of my meds works in a similar way as an immunosuppressant. That means it suppresses my immune system so much my digestive system isn't bombarded by it. However, it also makes it super easy to get sick. And, when immunosuppressed patients get sick, it takes us longer to get over it. We're at risk of dying from the flu, because of this. We can't have the live version. That's the only one I've been told not to have for vaccines in general. If people I come in contact with also have the flu shot, it's an added protection. If I do end up with the flu, it won't be as dire as if I hadn't gotten the shot. When people in IBD groups say things like I'll never get the shot and list some bogus reasons (Big Pharma, it'll cause something like autism, hasn't been studied enough...), it can be harmful. Some people are banned from those groups on fb because of that. They take it extremely seriously. They also boot out people who are trying to sell something or promote some sort of health advice. I've seen many people try to sell miracle cures, say we need to find G-d, giving out misleading info, just need to think positively, etc. It's crazy. Actually a problem in many chronic illness groups. I hate actually getting the shot, though. It's quick, at least.
I got a blood draw since I was at the clinic already. I wasn't sure if my rheumatologist had ordered those 4 tests yet, since he didn't reply to my last message. Turns out he did, but put it in incorrectly. It took about 10 minutes over the phone for the lab tech to get it right. Meanwhile, I anxiously waited in the lab, not knowing if they could do it. It seemed like a lot of blood this time. I didn't get my usual reaction. It's usually an involuntary response where whenever I see/think about my blood or other medical stuff, I can pass out, or throw up, or both. Most of the time it doesn't get that bad. However, I tend to get really sweaty, my heart races, get really dizzy, nauseous, etc. It might go away once I put my head down and sip some water for a while. One of the worst times that it got to the point of passing out was while I was at WSU. I told the nurse about that feeling coming on just before the blood draw. She didn't know what to do and threw me in the bathroom. As I passed out, I hit everything around me on the way down. (Toilet lid, railing, sink, etc.) So, I woke up cut up, bruised, and out of it. Still got the blood draw done. She should have suggested a lying down position. The interesting thing about this 'response' is once it's happened, I don't get it again for a while. So, I could look at my blood all I want or other things, and nothing will happen. It gives me a calm and relaxed feeling after, too. It's so bizarre, though. I got one result back so far and it's negative. That's ok. If they're all negative/normal, then fine, I don't have scleroderma. If one or more is positive, then it needs to be looked into more. If not scleroderma, then I can move on to something else. I'll still get some form of an answer. I plan to wait until I know for sure what's going to happen with my insurance, and then I'll make an appointment to see a dermatologist. I know they'll have more things to look into.
Saturday, I had an early brunch at Elmer's. I got their chicken-fried steak and eggs breakfast. Had it with turkey gravy instead of country gravy. (The country one has pork sausage in it, and I don't eat pork products.) Added another dimension of flavor. The eggs were scrambled and it also had hash browns and a biscuit. The biscuit came a little late. I thought our waitress had forgotten or something. Turns out they took a little longer to make and it was a fresh batch. It was a really satisfying brunch.
Went to Port Gamble after that. It was very windy outside, so I didn't have the patience to take pics of that. Most of the leaves had fallen there, so it wasn't as nice as I thought it would look anyways. Went to the General Store and the Of Sea and Shore museum upstairs. The store has a cafe, too. They pack a lot into one building. That museum has apparently one of the largest collections of shells in the world. They really cram them in there. It used to scare me as a kid, because of the huge crabs and lobsters. Sharks not as much. All of them weren't alive, of course. A lot of the crabs were found locally. Knowing such big things were lurking in the waters near me got me more. There are some things from around the world, too. I had forgotten how many crabs they had. Almost seemed like half as many as the shells.
Got chicken parmesan from a local market for dinner Saturday. Had root beer and stuffing with it. I don't drink root beer that often, so it was a treat. My parent made stuffing to go with her dinner, and suggested I have some. The chicken parmesan seemed skimpier than usual, so I thought why not? Got a pumpkin spice scone from there for dessert. It was much better than the Starbucks' version. There wasn't a super thick layer of icing on top. Just a light drizzle. Seemed to have more of the spices, too. I think there was actual pumpkin in it. Nice.
Mairimashita! (Welcome to Demon School) Iruma-kun has been interesting so far. I'm liking it more than I thought I would. It's about a human, Iruma, who's sold to a demon. The demon always wanted a grandson to dote on. He makes a contract with him to agree to be his grandson. If Iruma hadn't agreed to it, he would have been killed. His human parents were awful towards him and he never had the opportunity to go to school before. His new 'grandpa' forces him to go to a demon school. If the demons find out he's human, he could be eaten. So far, no one suspects he is, and he's made 2 close and powerful friends. He's also managed to make one of his teachers his familiar by accident. It seems like humans have powers in their world, too. Only, he can't fly like the others. The other students think he's simply working out his leg muscles in order to get stronger. I've noticed the demon language is based on Hebrew. They tend to add circles and tiny lines to some of the letters, but it's easy to tell. Even the ranking of classes has actual clear Hebrew letters. Yod being the highest rank, which is interesting...Alef is the first letter in the alphabet (known as the alef-bet in Hebrew), and that's the lowest rank. I can read some of the words that they flash briefly, but from what I can tell, a lot of it seems to be gibberish. It's only shown for a few seconds at a time, though. In order to read and understand the language, Iruma's grandpa puts a spell over him where he hears and reads Japanese instead. Except for that ranking system. He seems to see it the way they do. When he speaks, demons hear their language. So, it works out that way. Iruma reminds me of a mix of Deku from Boku no (My) Hero Academia and Tsuna from Hitman Reborn.
The 4th season of Boku no Hero Academia has been good, too. Seems more intense than other seasons. Especially with the new villain, Overhaul. He appeared at the end of season 3. He seems more powerful than Shigaraki, who's the head of the League of Villains and the main antagonist of the series. Deku became an intern for Sir Nighteye, who was All Might's sidekick. (Getting an internship is another step to becoming a full-fledged pro hero.) He's also Mirio's mentor. Mirio looks a lot like Tintin from the Adventures of Tintin. He might be a parody of him. There's some sort of tension between Nighteye and All Might. So much so that All Might asked Mirio to introduce Deku to Nighteye. He couldn't bring himself to do it. In the most recent episode, it's revealed that Nighteye is investigating Overhaul. Deku comes face to face with him at the very end.
Decided to drop Kabukichou Sherlock. Kabukichou is an entertainment and red-light district. They focus quite a bit on the red-light district part. It seemed to make fun of drag queens and gay people. I don't think it actually touched on trans people. The head of the detective agency is a drag queen who holds their meetings at a drag queen bar that they own. Some of the gay people they showed briefly have seemed 'real' and they didn't make fun of them, but with others it seemed like they were the punchline in some sort of joke. Mrs. Hudson, the head of the detective agency, also tends to grope one of the detectives whenever they see each other, which I'm not cool with. I do like the twists on Sherlock and Watson. Sherlock tends to perform rakugo, a form of storytelling while sitting on a stage with only a fan and cloth as props (usually comedic stories), when he solves a case. His personality totally changes as he does it. While at crime scenes, he really throws himself into it. Sniffing everywhere, lying where the victim is/was or their bed, getting down on all fours to inspect the floor, etc. More than the other detectives. The others try to beat him in solving it. Even going so far as to destroy evidence. The main case is on Jack the Ripper, but they solve side cases at the same time. Watson is a doctor, and ever since he found a transmitter in a body, it seems like someone's after him. Someone blew up the place he was staying at. He's had to stay at different hotels because of the fear that they'd be blown up, too. He only wanted the detectives to help with his case, but got roped into helping Sherlock instead. Now he lives with him along with Moriarty, who's a teenager. I think Moriarty is also a detective in this. However, in the books he was one of Sherlock's archenemies. Don't know what his connection is to Sherlock in this one. If it didn't have the more sexual or homophobic stuff, I think I would like it a lot. I can't get passed that, though.
Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit (the Japanese name is even longer...) has been a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect much from it. They live in a world that was once ruled by dragons. Once those dragons disappeared, many different types of fantasy-based beings started coexisting peacefully with humans. Like, vampires, homunculi, elves, orcs, etc. Nine is a terrorist organization that wants the powers of the dragons, create chaos, and to change the world. The police form a unit to combat Nine called Special 7. They have abilities that surpass the average human (many aren't human). The main character is Seiji who's a rookie and human. He doesn't seem entirely human to me, though. They make fun of him lightheartedly at first, then realize he has a lot of potential. The Nines seem to hardly be there, so they solve side cases in the meantime. Although, they might have been involved in the most recent case with a bomber. Especially because the bomber used magic. They never found who the bomber was, but they had to disarm 4 bombs in different buildings. They had to figure out how to do it with only one detective at each, with the same amount on the timers, had to be disarmed in a certain order, and none of them had experience with bombs. Luckily, the homunculus named Bellemer on their team, who's also a ninja, helped them from afar with watching and giving instructions from drones. She's dealt with bombs before. Most of the characters have been very likable and quirky. It reminds me a lot of Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) and Hamatora.
Yesterday, I went through more of Duolingo's Dutch course. Finished Politics 1, and got halfway through Gerund. The politics unit was interesting. Got more of a view into their government, royalty, and some laws. Made it to #13 of the Ruby League. Hopefully, when I do it later today, I can get higher in the ranking.
Yesterday, I scanned the drawing of Junko and started cleaning her up in Photoshop. First time I've scanned something with my new printer. It's much better than the previous one. It doesn't thicken the lines and add blue marks. It's clearer. Doesn't add more gunk to erase in Photoshop. She looks pretty much like she does on paper, but with slightly lighter lines. I'll continue to clean her up in Photoshop next time. It might not take me as long as it did in the past.
Got to editing Alliance yesterday, too. Even though there seemed to be interruptions every time I tried. Went through 5 pages of the ebook and 7 pages of the print. Not bad.
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