Strawberries have always been soothing to me. Nice that there's a day for them. It's an interesting fruit. The seeds can be an issue for me, but they're not bad if they're cooked in something like pie or cake.
Finished watching Goodnight DJ on Netflix. Again, it's a Malaysian show in Mandarin. Very much like the Twilight Zone centered on radio DJ's or radio in general. The 2nd season clearly had a bigger budget and instead of a different story every episode, they were 2-episode stories. The episodes were twice as long, too. Very few characters had recurring roles, and some actors played different characters in different stories. Very interesting the way they went about it. I liked it a lot. The campiness in some of the stories might not be for everyone, but I thought they pulled it off. It ended on a positive note. Many of the stories had tragic endings, so this was nice. Each one also had some sort of moral to it.
I might go back to watching Mind Game next. I stopped a few episodes in a while back. Added another list on the right-hand side of this blog. It's most of the shows I've finished on Netflix. Thought it would be good to keep track of, at least for myself. Some of them I found in the Watch Again section, because I couldn't remember all of them myself. I tend to watch a lot of horror, supernatural, and detective shows on there...A majority of them are from around the world, which is what I wanted. I've started a lot more of them that I'll get back to soon. Plus, there are some new ones on my list. I'm trying to watch one show at a time now, and usually one episode each night. (If they're really short, 2 a night. If long, half of one each time.) Been blazing through a lot of them this way.
Up to the last level of the Basics 1 unit of Duolingo's Korean course. I'll probably finish that unit next time. Scanned that full body drawing of Shadow, and edited it in Photoshop. Still need to edit more of it, but I'm close to finishing that. Then, I'll decide how I want to color it. Edited more of Alliance. Managed to get through a couple more pages than usual today.
Started reading Neko de Gomen (Excuse Me For Being a Cat). It's an old manga that ran from 1989 to 1990. The style reminds me of Rumiko Takahashi's. She's a legendary mangaka (manga creator) who did Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, Mermaid Forest, and many other famous works. I thought she did this one at first, but it's by Akane Nagano. Maybe it's because it was put out a couple of years after Ranma 1/2 started? It was very popular at the time. Anyways, this one is similar to the Fly. They even referenced it in the first chapter. Yayoi's father put his daughter in what was supposed to teleport her to another container. A cat walked in just as he flipped the switch. She ended up merging with the cat. So, now she has cat-like tendencies and whenever she gets excited, her cat ears and tail appear. It's funnier than I thought it would be. Her father teaches physics at her school, and his nemesis is a chemistry teacher who wants to take over the world. He came up with something that turns plants into animals. He poured it on a venus flytrap and it went out of control. It reproduced and was evolving enough to do things like ice skating and hanging out at cafes. Yayoi, with the help of all the cats in town, defeated them. It seems outlandish, but those can be fun.
In Black Clover, they announced how many stars and rank that each squad earned, as well as who earned the most individually. Stars are given after a job is completed. Some jobs are worth more stars than others. The Black Bulls ended up 2nd. They usually have negative stars. This pissed off a lot of the other squads, especially the ones with the most royalty. Yuno had earned the most stars, but Asta was 2nd. They were ridiculed at first, since they're not royalty and both are orphans. After demonstrating their power, that changed. The king showed up for the first time. Quickly illustrating that in their world the king is a figurehead, and the real leader is the wizard king. Sad in a way, but good that the regular king doesn't do much. He's haughty and has an ego. Asta and the others were forced into training by a new captain of a different squad. They have to run and climb through a field with lava and volcanoes exploding around them. One of the volcanoes has an onsen (hot spring) at the top, which is their goal. Looks like it might be impossible to get there for Asta, considering most people can only get to the top if they have magic. He doesn't have it, however he has anti-magic power. Maybe he'll use that or call on that demon inside him.
In One Piece, everyone was finally reunited again. Luffy can barely move and was half asleep most of the time. The Sun pirates showed up to help the Straw Hats and say farewell to Jinbei. Jinbei has joined the Straw Hats. Germa 66 also showed up and were a huge help to them despite the leader, Sanji's father, trying to say how much of a failure Sanji is as they passed his ship. Luffy thought he was saying good things and just nodded, but wondered why he'd do that. In a way, I agree with Luffy, they were good attributes. Not a soldier, cares about others, loves to cook, kind-hearted, etc. Big Mom's about to eat the cake. Should be interesting to see how that goes. Seems like this arc is finally going to end soon.
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
21st of Adar I
Made it to level 3 of Basics 1 in Duolingo's Korean course. Almost to 4. These levels seem shorter than with the other units. They go over sentence structure and basic words like man, woman, boy, girl, bread, dog, cat, apple, home, etc. They also go over the word for is/am/are/etc., and it's negative form. They use it at the end of almost all of the sentences so far.
Read more of Mother Keeper. It's been interesting so far. Syal, who is one of Eden's cyborgs, decided to go on her own to investigate something at the biggest black market outside Eden. She was apparently a slave before she turned into a cyborg. A slave that was sold at that same black market. The 'boss' there didn't recognize her. She broke the 1st rule of the market, which they haven't mentioned yet. It's probably not to ask questions. Ricalna remembered it and will most likely have to go save her. She's strong, but their leader is a cyborg, too.
Inked the rest of Shadow. Next, I'm thinking of scanning, editing it in Photoshop, and either coloring it in Photoshop or printing it off and doing it with colored pencils. Either way, it'll be 'cleaner'. I didn't practice my clarinet yesterday or today, because I wanted my hands to relax more. They don't hurt as much as they did a few days ago, but I don't want to aggravate them at the moment. Hopefully, I'll get back to doing it soon. Plus, I still have something respiratory-wise going on. Harder to play with that. Edited a few more pages of Alliance. Made it to chapter 14 today. There are 20. Still quite a bit more, but I'm getting there.
Mob Psycho 100 II was intense last night. Most of the episode seemed really light-hearted, and Shigeo was growing more as a character. He was getting ready for a school marathon for most of it. He wanted to be in the top 10 to impress the girl he likes, Tsubomi. He normally is in the bottom 10. I've never really liked Tsubomi. She's his childhood friend, but they don't interact much. She doesn't think of him as a love interest, either. It seems like she's pretentious. Anyways, he did his best and was doing much better than usual, then suddenly he passed out. It was too much for him. After waking up in the nurse's office, he walked home alone. When he got there, his home was on fire. He ran inside to see if his family was inside and save them. The very last scene showed charred bodies reaching out to him, and he changed to his ??? form. Ekubo tried to tell him to close his eyes, but he didn't get through to him. I have a feeling those bodies aren't his family's. They were made to look like that, though. I think the person that set it on fire kidnapped them. He suddenly showed up at their door. He was the main villain at the end of last season, but had a very short time on-screen. The main characters didn't really meet him, except for Ritsu (Shigeo's brother).
Not much happened with Radiant. One of the inquisitors (a captain) named Dragunov, who's actually a good guy, is going to be punished for what happened in Rumble Town. His crew were starving, and they were trying to come up with a way of finding more food for most of the episode. They had given the people of Rumble Town the rest of what they had. Eventually, one of the town's they helped a while ago, felt they had to repay them and gave them a lot of food. With the knowledge that they'll be fed, he left for his 'punishment'. Not sure what that will be. Seth and his friends found out the price of coffee went up because of Rumble Town being destroyed. It's a major trading point. They tend to hang out at a cafe in Artemis. (Atemis is the only place sorcerers can live in peace.) I guess since the creator is French, coffee is a big thing in it. There's even a coffee monster that lives in the sewers that Doc's friends with. Since the cafe ran out of coffee beans and the monster was dying, Seth and Melie went crazy searching for more of them. Eventually they did find them, but it added more to their already huge debt. It seems there's only one more episode. An odd time to end it. Not much is going on and doesn't feel like it's close to ending. The number of episodes is weird, too. 21, when normally it's about 24 for something like this. 12 for seasonal ones. Looking at it again, there's going to be another season. Yay!
Read more of Mother Keeper. It's been interesting so far. Syal, who is one of Eden's cyborgs, decided to go on her own to investigate something at the biggest black market outside Eden. She was apparently a slave before she turned into a cyborg. A slave that was sold at that same black market. The 'boss' there didn't recognize her. She broke the 1st rule of the market, which they haven't mentioned yet. It's probably not to ask questions. Ricalna remembered it and will most likely have to go save her. She's strong, but their leader is a cyborg, too.
Inked the rest of Shadow. Next, I'm thinking of scanning, editing it in Photoshop, and either coloring it in Photoshop or printing it off and doing it with colored pencils. Either way, it'll be 'cleaner'. I didn't practice my clarinet yesterday or today, because I wanted my hands to relax more. They don't hurt as much as they did a few days ago, but I don't want to aggravate them at the moment. Hopefully, I'll get back to doing it soon. Plus, I still have something respiratory-wise going on. Harder to play with that. Edited a few more pages of Alliance. Made it to chapter 14 today. There are 20. Still quite a bit more, but I'm getting there.
Mob Psycho 100 II was intense last night. Most of the episode seemed really light-hearted, and Shigeo was growing more as a character. He was getting ready for a school marathon for most of it. He wanted to be in the top 10 to impress the girl he likes, Tsubomi. He normally is in the bottom 10. I've never really liked Tsubomi. She's his childhood friend, but they don't interact much. She doesn't think of him as a love interest, either. It seems like she's pretentious. Anyways, he did his best and was doing much better than usual, then suddenly he passed out. It was too much for him. After waking up in the nurse's office, he walked home alone. When he got there, his home was on fire. He ran inside to see if his family was inside and save them. The very last scene showed charred bodies reaching out to him, and he changed to his ??? form. Ekubo tried to tell him to close his eyes, but he didn't get through to him. I have a feeling those bodies aren't his family's. They were made to look like that, though. I think the person that set it on fire kidnapped them. He suddenly showed up at their door. He was the main villain at the end of last season, but had a very short time on-screen. The main characters didn't really meet him, except for Ritsu (Shigeo's brother).
Not much happened with Radiant. One of the inquisitors (a captain) named Dragunov, who's actually a good guy, is going to be punished for what happened in Rumble Town. His crew were starving, and they were trying to come up with a way of finding more food for most of the episode. They had given the people of Rumble Town the rest of what they had. Eventually, one of the town's they helped a while ago, felt they had to repay them and gave them a lot of food. With the knowledge that they'll be fed, he left for his 'punishment'. Not sure what that will be. Seth and his friends found out the price of coffee went up because of Rumble Town being destroyed. It's a major trading point. They tend to hang out at a cafe in Artemis. (Atemis is the only place sorcerers can live in peace.) I guess since the creator is French, coffee is a big thing in it. There's even a coffee monster that lives in the sewers that Doc's friends with. Since the cafe ran out of coffee beans and the monster was dying, Seth and Melie went crazy searching for more of them. Eventually they did find them, but it added more to their already huge debt. It seems there's only one more episode. An odd time to end it. Not much is going on and doesn't feel like it's close to ending. The number of episodes is weird, too. 21, when normally it's about 24 for something like this. 12 for seasonal ones. Looking at it again, there's going to be another season. Yay!
Monday, February 25, 2019
20th of Adar I
I realized a couple of days ago that I might have arthritis. I kept ignoring the pain and stiffness in my neck (for a couple of days it was hard to even move it), hands, wrists, ankles, and in one hip. It's getting worse, although today hasn't been too bad. I've had a lot of cracking sounds from those areas, too. One of the most common complications of IBD is arthritis. With some forms, it's actually connected to if the person is flaring. So, once they're in remission with their IBD, the arthritis goes into remission, too. I've been suspecting that I'm flaring lately. That would make sense, then. Yet another thing to bring up with my new gastro next month. She probably won't do much about that right now besides order blood tests. She might do more after my colonoscopy. I'll ask her about getting an upper endoscopy, too.
Today, I got through Alphabet 3 in Duolingo's Korean course. Plus, a little more of Basics 1. Alphabet 3 is really on loan words. I didn't know Baskin-Robbins was a thing in Korea. It kept popping up, so I looked into it. Interesting. Starbucks did, too. That's to be expected, as well as Hyundai, motors, apartment, coffee, and party. Hyundai is actually spelled differently if you write out the Korean in romanized letters. Not sure why it's spelled this way for the English version. They were really pushing the 'party' thing. Ice cream was used a lot, too. Almost done with Basics 1 level 2.
Read more of MAR Omega. I thought they were going to make Kai into another Ginta, but he has quite a different story/personality. Might even be stronger than Ginta. He thought he didn't have magical powers, but it was sealed until he found Babbo and broke the spell over him. He's apparently one of Babbo's descendants, but Babbo is an Arm or basically a weapon. I think I vaguely remember that Babbo was special in that he was once human, so I could kind of see that. He lost his memories. They didn't regain much of them in the first series. At least, not in the anime. This time it seems most of it's going to be about regaining his memories and saving Kai's hometown that vanished.
I finished a drawing yesterday. I felt I needed to do something related to Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, but didn't come up with anything until last Friday. The idea was something around ice cream, since that's the aro food symbol. The meaning behind it is a bit cheesy, but I like it. We're thought of as cold-hearted, unfeeling, robot-like, etc. In reality, we're warm-hearted, kind, have a lot of other types of love to give, sweet, etc. Ice cream's cold but sweet and makes most people happy. I decided to have that, cake, a decorative spoon or candy all in a waffle cone. The cake is an ace symbol and the 'spoon' has the agender symbol on top. The only other symbol I know is an alien for agender people. Nothing food related. If I was more into it, I might have added a little alien holding it. The cake, ice cream, and 'spoon' are in the flag colors of each. The waffle is in the rainbow flag colors, representing the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. That can have many meanings. I went off a tutorial for the waffle cone, which came out better than expected. Actually, I like how the whole thing turned out. It's not prefect, which is ok. The colors were washed out a bit by my scanner. I'm not sure why it has issues with that. It was also probably the first time I edited something in Photoshop on my 'new' computer. I've had the computer since October, so it's still new to me. Had to get a recent edition of Photoshop, too. I was using a pretty old version on my old computer. Besides the editing, it was done in pencil, ink, and colored pencils. Other people seem to like it, which is nice to see.
I went back to the full body of Shadow drawing today. Figured out his shoes, then started inking him in. I don't know why, but eyes never turn out exactly the way I want them to, and I noticed that again while inking them. Oh well. I'll only get better with them through practice. They don't look awful, just that they're different sizes. Not sure about the folds in his clothes either, but at least I'm trying that. His overall new design is much better than it was. Should be interesting to see what it's like after inking the rest, erasing the pencil marks, and coloring him in. Also, edited a few more pages of Alliance.
My parent's going to Atlanta tomorrow for about a week. She'll actually be leaving really late tonight or early tomorrow, depending on how you look at it. It's NASP's (National Association of School Psychologists) annual convention. It's great that she can go this time, and should be interesting to go to Atlanta. They're warmer than us right now. Hope she has fun being with her colleagues and friends, as well as explore a bit.
Today, I got through Alphabet 3 in Duolingo's Korean course. Plus, a little more of Basics 1. Alphabet 3 is really on loan words. I didn't know Baskin-Robbins was a thing in Korea. It kept popping up, so I looked into it. Interesting. Starbucks did, too. That's to be expected, as well as Hyundai, motors, apartment, coffee, and party. Hyundai is actually spelled differently if you write out the Korean in romanized letters. Not sure why it's spelled this way for the English version. They were really pushing the 'party' thing. Ice cream was used a lot, too. Almost done with Basics 1 level 2.
Read more of MAR Omega. I thought they were going to make Kai into another Ginta, but he has quite a different story/personality. Might even be stronger than Ginta. He thought he didn't have magical powers, but it was sealed until he found Babbo and broke the spell over him. He's apparently one of Babbo's descendants, but Babbo is an Arm or basically a weapon. I think I vaguely remember that Babbo was special in that he was once human, so I could kind of see that. He lost his memories. They didn't regain much of them in the first series. At least, not in the anime. This time it seems most of it's going to be about regaining his memories and saving Kai's hometown that vanished.
I finished a drawing yesterday. I felt I needed to do something related to Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, but didn't come up with anything until last Friday. The idea was something around ice cream, since that's the aro food symbol. The meaning behind it is a bit cheesy, but I like it. We're thought of as cold-hearted, unfeeling, robot-like, etc. In reality, we're warm-hearted, kind, have a lot of other types of love to give, sweet, etc. Ice cream's cold but sweet and makes most people happy. I decided to have that, cake, a decorative spoon or candy all in a waffle cone. The cake is an ace symbol and the 'spoon' has the agender symbol on top. The only other symbol I know is an alien for agender people. Nothing food related. If I was more into it, I might have added a little alien holding it. The cake, ice cream, and 'spoon' are in the flag colors of each. The waffle is in the rainbow flag colors, representing the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. That can have many meanings. I went off a tutorial for the waffle cone, which came out better than expected. Actually, I like how the whole thing turned out. It's not prefect, which is ok. The colors were washed out a bit by my scanner. I'm not sure why it has issues with that. It was also probably the first time I edited something in Photoshop on my 'new' computer. I've had the computer since October, so it's still new to me. Had to get a recent edition of Photoshop, too. I was using a pretty old version on my old computer. Besides the editing, it was done in pencil, ink, and colored pencils. Other people seem to like it, which is nice to see.
I went back to the full body of Shadow drawing today. Figured out his shoes, then started inking him in. I don't know why, but eyes never turn out exactly the way I want them to, and I noticed that again while inking them. Oh well. I'll only get better with them through practice. They don't look awful, just that they're different sizes. Not sure about the folds in his clothes either, but at least I'm trying that. His overall new design is much better than it was. Should be interesting to see what it's like after inking the rest, erasing the pencil marks, and coloring him in. Also, edited a few more pages of Alliance.
My parent's going to Atlanta tomorrow for about a week. She'll actually be leaving really late tonight or early tomorrow, depending on how you look at it. It's NASP's (National Association of School Psychologists) annual convention. It's great that she can go this time, and should be interesting to go to Atlanta. They're warmer than us right now. Hope she has fun being with her colleagues and friends, as well as explore a bit.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
National Cherry Pie Day!
This holiday was yesterday. This is one of my fave pies! Cherries are one of my fave fruits, so it makes an awesome pie that way. It can be surprisingly difficult to find decent cherry pie sometimes. Sometimes there are huge sugar lumps, sometimes it's too watery, sometimes there aren't enough cherries, etc. Might be why I don't order it often at places like Shari's or feel like getting it at the markets.
Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week ends this Saturday. Didn't do much for it. Most people know that I'm aro on places like fb, dA, and Instagram. I post aro stuff occasionally on fb. Not often for the other stuff. Oh, I post about it on here, too. I thought a little about making aro related art, but couldn't come up with anything.
I got the referral letter for gender therapy through the mail yesterday. (Didn't see it until today.) I find the referring diagnosis both funny and insulting. I know they have to have something like it in order to cover it, but it's weird. It's: uncomfortable with one's gender. I'm not uncomfortable with my gender. I'm more uncomfortable with how society forced me into a box that doesn't fit. Seems backwards. Just because a doctor looked at me when I was born and said I was female, does not make my gender that. Would have been better if it was just gender dysphoria, but they can't do that until I get diagnosed by a therapist that I've seen. I wish things were better this way. At least, my new therapist will be covered and there'd be a small copay. However, I've noticed I haven't been billed for a copay for that 1st visit yet. Maybe they'll cover the whole thing? Doubt it. I guess I'll see.
Most of the snow is gone. There's more snow in the forecast, though. I really hope that doesn't happen. I'm tired of seeing it. It's just been cold with a slight breeze lately. Fun when you still feel like you have a respiratory/ear thing going on.
I'm trying to be better about eating a certain way again. Not related to the calorie thing. I'm still following that. Having more soluble fiber, and less insoluble. Insoluble fiber often aggravates my colon, since it's so scarred. That stuff scrapes across the scarring harshly. Plus, a lot of it triggers my colitis symptoms, and I think I'm flaring again. Soluble fiber is like soups, applesauce, oatmeal, cooked/peeled vegetables and some fruit, non-seedy/grainy breads, etc. Insoluble fiber is like a raw green salad, raw/unpeeled vegetables and some fruit, seeds, and more. Think the fibrous roughage type foods. Often thought of as 'healthier'. I've decided to try and stay away from most things that are nut-based. Creamy nut butters are comfort foods, but whole and pieces of nuts are triggers for me. (It's more than just insoluble with this.) So, I went to Shari's last night and their turkey dinner comes with the option of salad or soup beforehand. I got their tomato bisque. I still got a vegetable this way, and avoided the pain of the salad. The vegetables for that turkey dinner were well-cooked. That was nice, but I didn't have much of it since I wasn't really thrilled about it. I got their s'mores pie, instead of a nut based one. I like their nut ones, so that was sad. Their new hazelnut pie sounded so good, so I got it last time. It had so many nuts that 1/4 of the way in, I was feeling the effects. Partially why I decided to be better about this sort of thing. There are a lot of restaurants that have salad as a thing before the entree. I'll try to look at their soups to replace it. I don't think there are very many options for me at places like Red Lobster. We'll see. Gone back to not taking home leftovers, except for those few dishes that I know will still be good the next day/certain places. I'll try asking for smaller portions again, too.
Studied more Korean today. I've decided to completely level out the early units (at least) one at a time. I'm close to finishing the Alphabet 2 unit. There are 5 levels to each one. Alphabet ended up having 72 parts to it in total. So much! It'll probably be close to that for the one I'm on. This will also elongate the course a bit. It's much shorter than the other courses I've gone through. I want it to last at least to the 3-month mark. I'm surprised that I'm pretty much able to read it now. I've been saying it along with the speaker, but some things look like they should be said differently. I also feel like I'm getting some form of speaking exercises this way. Still not as good as the actual speaking ones for Italian and German. They were more structured, too.
Finished drawing Shadow's clothes today. I tried to add folds to them, but didn't want to overdo it. Hopefully it looks fine. I'll draw his shoes and start outlining it all with ink next time.
Managed to practice my clarinet, too. Haven't in a while because of that respiratory stuff. Had to take more breaths than usual. Mostly played Gershwin and some from the Solo Pieces for Advanced Clarinetists book. I was better than expected. Hopefully, I can practice again tomorrow.
Edited more of Alliance. Found some really silly mistakes. Went through 4 pages of the print version, and 3 of the ebook. The print version is smaller in size. Not bad.
Finally, got back to cleaning today. Despite still feeling sick, I felt I really needed it. I swept my bathroom floor, used a strong version of liquid plumber to clear my sink, and laundered the large rug near the counter. Beforehand, that stuff was probably making me feel sicker. I haven't done it in a while. I used to clean something every day but the weekends. Hope to get back to that. It's hard when you're always fatigued. I don't remember actually laundering that rug before. (Might have, it's just been so long I don't remember it.) I've had it for many years. I just would shake the stuff off it. Stuff like hair and cat litter. It didn't smell right for a while. It'll be nice to see it clean. With cleaning, I'll try to do little sections of rooms again each time. It worked well. If I feel that I'm going to have to do a lot, I'm a lot less motivated to do it. Plus, this takes into account the fatigue.
Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week ends this Saturday. Didn't do much for it. Most people know that I'm aro on places like fb, dA, and Instagram. I post aro stuff occasionally on fb. Not often for the other stuff. Oh, I post about it on here, too. I thought a little about making aro related art, but couldn't come up with anything.
I got the referral letter for gender therapy through the mail yesterday. (Didn't see it until today.) I find the referring diagnosis both funny and insulting. I know they have to have something like it in order to cover it, but it's weird. It's: uncomfortable with one's gender. I'm not uncomfortable with my gender. I'm more uncomfortable with how society forced me into a box that doesn't fit. Seems backwards. Just because a doctor looked at me when I was born and said I was female, does not make my gender that. Would have been better if it was just gender dysphoria, but they can't do that until I get diagnosed by a therapist that I've seen. I wish things were better this way. At least, my new therapist will be covered and there'd be a small copay. However, I've noticed I haven't been billed for a copay for that 1st visit yet. Maybe they'll cover the whole thing? Doubt it. I guess I'll see.
Most of the snow is gone. There's more snow in the forecast, though. I really hope that doesn't happen. I'm tired of seeing it. It's just been cold with a slight breeze lately. Fun when you still feel like you have a respiratory/ear thing going on.
I'm trying to be better about eating a certain way again. Not related to the calorie thing. I'm still following that. Having more soluble fiber, and less insoluble. Insoluble fiber often aggravates my colon, since it's so scarred. That stuff scrapes across the scarring harshly. Plus, a lot of it triggers my colitis symptoms, and I think I'm flaring again. Soluble fiber is like soups, applesauce, oatmeal, cooked/peeled vegetables and some fruit, non-seedy/grainy breads, etc. Insoluble fiber is like a raw green salad, raw/unpeeled vegetables and some fruit, seeds, and more. Think the fibrous roughage type foods. Often thought of as 'healthier'. I've decided to try and stay away from most things that are nut-based. Creamy nut butters are comfort foods, but whole and pieces of nuts are triggers for me. (It's more than just insoluble with this.) So, I went to Shari's last night and their turkey dinner comes with the option of salad or soup beforehand. I got their tomato bisque. I still got a vegetable this way, and avoided the pain of the salad. The vegetables for that turkey dinner were well-cooked. That was nice, but I didn't have much of it since I wasn't really thrilled about it. I got their s'mores pie, instead of a nut based one. I like their nut ones, so that was sad. Their new hazelnut pie sounded so good, so I got it last time. It had so many nuts that 1/4 of the way in, I was feeling the effects. Partially why I decided to be better about this sort of thing. There are a lot of restaurants that have salad as a thing before the entree. I'll try to look at their soups to replace it. I don't think there are very many options for me at places like Red Lobster. We'll see. Gone back to not taking home leftovers, except for those few dishes that I know will still be good the next day/certain places. I'll try asking for smaller portions again, too.
Studied more Korean today. I've decided to completely level out the early units (at least) one at a time. I'm close to finishing the Alphabet 2 unit. There are 5 levels to each one. Alphabet ended up having 72 parts to it in total. So much! It'll probably be close to that for the one I'm on. This will also elongate the course a bit. It's much shorter than the other courses I've gone through. I want it to last at least to the 3-month mark. I'm surprised that I'm pretty much able to read it now. I've been saying it along with the speaker, but some things look like they should be said differently. I also feel like I'm getting some form of speaking exercises this way. Still not as good as the actual speaking ones for Italian and German. They were more structured, too.
Finished drawing Shadow's clothes today. I tried to add folds to them, but didn't want to overdo it. Hopefully it looks fine. I'll draw his shoes and start outlining it all with ink next time.
Managed to practice my clarinet, too. Haven't in a while because of that respiratory stuff. Had to take more breaths than usual. Mostly played Gershwin and some from the Solo Pieces for Advanced Clarinetists book. I was better than expected. Hopefully, I can practice again tomorrow.
Edited more of Alliance. Found some really silly mistakes. Went through 4 pages of the print version, and 3 of the ebook. The print version is smaller in size. Not bad.
Finally, got back to cleaning today. Despite still feeling sick, I felt I really needed it. I swept my bathroom floor, used a strong version of liquid plumber to clear my sink, and laundered the large rug near the counter. Beforehand, that stuff was probably making me feel sicker. I haven't done it in a while. I used to clean something every day but the weekends. Hope to get back to that. It's hard when you're always fatigued. I don't remember actually laundering that rug before. (Might have, it's just been so long I don't remember it.) I've had it for many years. I just would shake the stuff off it. Stuff like hair and cat litter. It didn't smell right for a while. It'll be nice to see it clean. With cleaning, I'll try to do little sections of rooms again each time. It worked well. If I feel that I'm going to have to do a lot, I'm a lot less motivated to do it. Plus, this takes into account the fatigue.
Friday, February 15, 2019
10th of Adar I
Went to my first gender therapy session yesterday. I think it was a good start. I was really nervous and excited. Wasn't sure if he was going to take me seriously. That would have been my biggest fear no matter who I saw. Last time I was in regular therapy was roughly 6 years ago. It wasn't long after my mom passed away. That's a long time. Wasn't sure what to really expect with this kind of therapy. Felt like I talked too much...He said that was normal. I didn't like that the intake forms only had the options of male or female. Off-putting when you're neither.
He said in order for my insurance to cover it, I had to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria. It used to be as gender identity disorder. He feels strongly against calling it a disorder, which was good to hear. He started going through DSM-IV, and realized it had really binary language. Then, he realized he was wasn't looking at the DSM-5, then went through that instead. The language was a lot better (still had to reword some things), and I've related to a lot of it. We spent a while on each criteria, since he wanted details on what I brought up.
He was a little odd about my romantic/sexual orientations. I think he was just new to them. Especially so when I brought up platonic attraction and qpr's. I said it probably sounded weird. He said he'd like me to not say the word 'weird' when relating to myself. It's self-judgmental and it might be out of the norm, but they're learning more about this stuff. Society doesn't like diversity and 'new' ways of thinking about things like relationships. So, things might seem 'weird' through society's eyes, but they really aren't. Next time, we'll go over more of the criteria, 'diagnose' me, and start going over a bunch of stuff that I brought up. Should be interesting.
It was a bit weird that there was no receptionist and a number code for the door. I thought the door could only be opened by staff or something. Someone came by, opened it for us, and found his door. Since there's no receptionist, he has to give you the intake forms. There were a lot of them. A lot to read. Hopefully, I filled it out right. The waiting room was nice. His Silverdale office has a receptionist.
Got a call from a receptionist there today saying that I needed to authorize my first session with my insurance. I thought I had messaged Ashley (social worker in my insurance's Gender Health Program) about the appointment when I made it, but didn't. She had asked me if the therapists were going to work out that day, so I immediately replied back about this appointment. Didn't get a response back on it. I messaged her today about the call, she quickly got back to me, and said she was able to authorize it immediately yesterday. Both them and I will get a referral letter soon authorizing it. She gave me a code so I could tell them about it before they got it. I called them back and gave them the code. Now, it's out of my hands. I did what I could. We should get it soon. I'm impressed with how quickly Ashley did all this. I feel bad I didn't tell her about it sooner. I'll try to remember in the future.
With this, I feel like I can finally start transitioning and get help with figuring out what I'd need to do. I have somewhat of an idea, but many things are still vague. It's a bit overwhelming. I'm excited for the future, though.
It's upstairs from Kachai Thai Kitchen, conveniently. So, we (my parent was with me) went there after dinner. There was a weird thing where they asked us if we'd take longer than 1 1/2 hours to eat. They also gave us only the Valentine's Day special menus. I had to ask for the regular ones. Really awkward. I think they were giving those out to every party of 2, though. I already don't like the holiday. (Only thing I like is the candy/chocolate, and those are on sale the next day.) Let's shove it in people's faces...Besides that, it was really good.
The snow is finally melting. Yay! I think we lost the most today. It seems like it'll continue to be warm enough to melt the snow for now. The forecast for towards the end of the week is showing more snow. I really don't want more, and many people are sick of it.
Youtube:
One Piece (the first one's on Brook's past. One of the saddest backstories in the series):
(This one's on Luffy's most recent fight. It's very fitting.)
Black Clover:
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
Mob Psycho 100:
He said in order for my insurance to cover it, I had to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria. It used to be as gender identity disorder. He feels strongly against calling it a disorder, which was good to hear. He started going through DSM-IV, and realized it had really binary language. Then, he realized he was wasn't looking at the DSM-5, then went through that instead. The language was a lot better (still had to reword some things), and I've related to a lot of it. We spent a while on each criteria, since he wanted details on what I brought up.
He was a little odd about my romantic/sexual orientations. I think he was just new to them. Especially so when I brought up platonic attraction and qpr's. I said it probably sounded weird. He said he'd like me to not say the word 'weird' when relating to myself. It's self-judgmental and it might be out of the norm, but they're learning more about this stuff. Society doesn't like diversity and 'new' ways of thinking about things like relationships. So, things might seem 'weird' through society's eyes, but they really aren't. Next time, we'll go over more of the criteria, 'diagnose' me, and start going over a bunch of stuff that I brought up. Should be interesting.
It was a bit weird that there was no receptionist and a number code for the door. I thought the door could only be opened by staff or something. Someone came by, opened it for us, and found his door. Since there's no receptionist, he has to give you the intake forms. There were a lot of them. A lot to read. Hopefully, I filled it out right. The waiting room was nice. His Silverdale office has a receptionist.
Got a call from a receptionist there today saying that I needed to authorize my first session with my insurance. I thought I had messaged Ashley (social worker in my insurance's Gender Health Program) about the appointment when I made it, but didn't. She had asked me if the therapists were going to work out that day, so I immediately replied back about this appointment. Didn't get a response back on it. I messaged her today about the call, she quickly got back to me, and said she was able to authorize it immediately yesterday. Both them and I will get a referral letter soon authorizing it. She gave me a code so I could tell them about it before they got it. I called them back and gave them the code. Now, it's out of my hands. I did what I could. We should get it soon. I'm impressed with how quickly Ashley did all this. I feel bad I didn't tell her about it sooner. I'll try to remember in the future.
With this, I feel like I can finally start transitioning and get help with figuring out what I'd need to do. I have somewhat of an idea, but many things are still vague. It's a bit overwhelming. I'm excited for the future, though.
It's upstairs from Kachai Thai Kitchen, conveniently. So, we (my parent was with me) went there after dinner. There was a weird thing where they asked us if we'd take longer than 1 1/2 hours to eat. They also gave us only the Valentine's Day special menus. I had to ask for the regular ones. Really awkward. I think they were giving those out to every party of 2, though. I already don't like the holiday. (Only thing I like is the candy/chocolate, and those are on sale the next day.) Let's shove it in people's faces...Besides that, it was really good.
The snow is finally melting. Yay! I think we lost the most today. It seems like it'll continue to be warm enough to melt the snow for now. The forecast for towards the end of the week is showing more snow. I really don't want more, and many people are sick of it.
Youtube:
One Piece (the first one's on Brook's past. One of the saddest backstories in the series):
(This one's on Luffy's most recent fight. It's very fitting.)
Black Clover:
Boku no (My) Hero Academia:
Mob Psycho 100:
Monday, February 11, 2019
National Pizza Day!
Pizza is very versatile. This holiday was actually on Saturday. It's another one of my faves. I love BBQ chicken, Greek, Mexican, Alfredo, pesto, cheese (multiple types in one), and more. There could be different types of dough, sauces, cheeses (some don't even have cheese), and toppings. There are even dessert pizzas, which feel more like giant cookies...My mom and I used to get individual pre-cooked pizza rounds (the plain base), then we'd put whatever toppings/sauces we wanted on, and heat them up in the oven. We came up with some interesting combos. There are interesting rather unique flavors at a local market called Central Market. They have a new one each month. Things like jalapeno popper, cheeseburger, baked potato, etc.
It's been snowing a lot today. We already had about 8-10 inches from the last dump on Saturday. Schools have had 3 snow days (I think), and will be closed again tomorrow. It seems to be the most snow this area has seen. I don't think it's cool that people have been making fun of the 'snowmageddon' here. This area isn't used to much snow, and many people live in rural areas. There are so few plows, they have to designate which streets have more priority. Ours isn't a primary 'priority'. We've only seen the plows once and that was last night. They didn't do much. The terrain makes it especially difficult with this much snow and ice. It's a different experience than what people have to deal with and are used to in other parts of the country. Plus, I don't think people realized how much we were actually going to get. To be honest, the ones that went to the markets to stock up were smarter about it. Sometimes people don't keep enough food in their house for more than a couple of days, too. People are also likely to lose power when it's like this. Great to be prepared. We should encourage that, not make fun of it. It seemed kind of snobby.
We went to Safeway and Central before it really started snowing. There were a lot of bare shelves. It was interesting to see what people thought were necessities. The bananas were completely gone at both places. There were hardly any of the fruits we normally get. They were also running out of chicken, bread, tortillas, eggs, milk, flour, beer, sugar, hot chocolate, and firewood. I remember an entire section of a certain cut of chicken was out at Safeway. That surprised me. I don't remember what cut it was. Firewood's understandable. You want to be able to keep warm even if the power goes out. Hot chocolate when it snows and is cold, also makes sense. Beer? I don't know, but then again I don't drink it. There were really long lines at both places. Luckily, we weren't getting much and went through the express lines.
We will have to go out again soon. I have a feeling it's going to stick around for a while. I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to my gender therapy appointment on Thursday. They might tell me to reschedule because they might not be open, or I might need to myself. I don't like that uncertainty.
I've been so distracted by it...I don't think the cats like it much. There's been a lot of foot flicking from both, Rosie had a droopy ear (when it first started snowing), both have been sleeping a lot in my room, Rosie's scratched at the sliding glass back door while watching the flurries, she's meowed at it, and more. It probably looks like the sky is falling to them. I'm a little concerned, since the lights have been flickering, that our power might go out.
I've managed to study Korean every day this past week except yesterday. I'm starting to get it more. Slowly being able to read it. It's interesting that they stick their word for be, exist, is, there, has, etc. to almost everything. It seems to always be at the end of a sentence, too. Also, interesting that girl is lit. woman child, and boy is lit. man child. They seem a lot more direct with things. Still no speaking exercises, but maybe they'll have them later on.
Edited more of Alliance today. Didn't feel like practicing my clarinet. I have a another earache and headache. Blowing into it would have made me feel worse. It might be because of pressure changes related to the weather. I don't know, but it's awful. Tried to draw folds in Shadow's clothes, but was too distracted. At least, I saw some tutorials on it.
Read more of MAR Omega. A familiar character from the first series showed up, Alvis. For a while, he was jerky until he got to know Ginta. He still seems to have an arrogance to him, but is nicer to people.
Started going back to Goodnight DJ on Netflix recently. It's a Malaysian drama in Mandarin. An anthology of short stories based around radio DJ's and radio in general. It's kind of like the Twilight Zone. In fact, they refer to it in one of the stories. Most have had horror elements, but the others are just nice supernatural stories. Most are full of camp and humor. Also, some of them remind me a bit of the Scary Movie franchise, only not as raunchy. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it really grew on me. I think I was unsure because there wasn't much info on it and didn't know what to expect. I like this sort of thing, though.
It's been snowing a lot today. We already had about 8-10 inches from the last dump on Saturday. Schools have had 3 snow days (I think), and will be closed again tomorrow. It seems to be the most snow this area has seen. I don't think it's cool that people have been making fun of the 'snowmageddon' here. This area isn't used to much snow, and many people live in rural areas. There are so few plows, they have to designate which streets have more priority. Ours isn't a primary 'priority'. We've only seen the plows once and that was last night. They didn't do much. The terrain makes it especially difficult with this much snow and ice. It's a different experience than what people have to deal with and are used to in other parts of the country. Plus, I don't think people realized how much we were actually going to get. To be honest, the ones that went to the markets to stock up were smarter about it. Sometimes people don't keep enough food in their house for more than a couple of days, too. People are also likely to lose power when it's like this. Great to be prepared. We should encourage that, not make fun of it. It seemed kind of snobby.
We went to Safeway and Central before it really started snowing. There were a lot of bare shelves. It was interesting to see what people thought were necessities. The bananas were completely gone at both places. There were hardly any of the fruits we normally get. They were also running out of chicken, bread, tortillas, eggs, milk, flour, beer, sugar, hot chocolate, and firewood. I remember an entire section of a certain cut of chicken was out at Safeway. That surprised me. I don't remember what cut it was. Firewood's understandable. You want to be able to keep warm even if the power goes out. Hot chocolate when it snows and is cold, also makes sense. Beer? I don't know, but then again I don't drink it. There were really long lines at both places. Luckily, we weren't getting much and went through the express lines.
We will have to go out again soon. I have a feeling it's going to stick around for a while. I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to my gender therapy appointment on Thursday. They might tell me to reschedule because they might not be open, or I might need to myself. I don't like that uncertainty.
I've been so distracted by it...I don't think the cats like it much. There's been a lot of foot flicking from both, Rosie had a droopy ear (when it first started snowing), both have been sleeping a lot in my room, Rosie's scratched at the sliding glass back door while watching the flurries, she's meowed at it, and more. It probably looks like the sky is falling to them. I'm a little concerned, since the lights have been flickering, that our power might go out.
I've managed to study Korean every day this past week except yesterday. I'm starting to get it more. Slowly being able to read it. It's interesting that they stick their word for be, exist, is, there, has, etc. to almost everything. It seems to always be at the end of a sentence, too. Also, interesting that girl is lit. woman child, and boy is lit. man child. They seem a lot more direct with things. Still no speaking exercises, but maybe they'll have them later on.
Edited more of Alliance today. Didn't feel like practicing my clarinet. I have a another earache and headache. Blowing into it would have made me feel worse. It might be because of pressure changes related to the weather. I don't know, but it's awful. Tried to draw folds in Shadow's clothes, but was too distracted. At least, I saw some tutorials on it.
Read more of MAR Omega. A familiar character from the first series showed up, Alvis. For a while, he was jerky until he got to know Ginta. He still seems to have an arrogance to him, but is nicer to people.
Started going back to Goodnight DJ on Netflix recently. It's a Malaysian drama in Mandarin. An anthology of short stories based around radio DJ's and radio in general. It's kind of like the Twilight Zone. In fact, they refer to it in one of the stories. Most have had horror elements, but the others are just nice supernatural stories. Most are full of camp and humor. Also, some of them remind me a bit of the Scary Movie franchise, only not as raunchy. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it really grew on me. I think I was unsure because there wasn't much info on it and didn't know what to expect. I like this sort of thing, though.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
World Nutella Day!
I love Nutella! I avoided trying it for a long time. I don't know why I felt uneasy about it at first. It's chocolate and hazelnut. A great combo. It's good on graham crackers, in a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich, crepes, brownies, and so much more. It's also the Chinese Lunar New Year. It's the year of the Pig. Next year will be the Rat, which is my zodiac animal.
This is my wallpaper for February. It's (from left to right) Gray, Erza, Natsu, and Lucy from Fairy Tail. Everything in February seems devoted to Valentine's Day. In other words, amatonormativity is especially shoved in people's faces right now. Amatonormativity is the idea that everyone who's human strives for romantic love/relationships and marriage. Everything else takes a back burner. The idea stresses that there are no other very close relationships, like queerplatonic ones. If you're single and/or don't feel romantic attraction, you're looked down upon, thought of as lonely, or something's wrong with you. Also, a certain kind of romantic love: monogamous, straight, and cis. It's harmful to pretty much everyone. Even those that are cis, straight, and monogamous. It's a term from the aro community, and wasn't meant to relate to sex/sexual attraction. That's different. Even some romantic aces say things like: "At least we can love!" Love, meaning romantic love. That hurts aros and aro aces. There's a lot more to the term, but that's the basics. It can be somewhat tough for an aro this month. We have Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week the week after Valentine's Day. Yay! We have that at least. Anyways, I thought it'd be nice to see some good platonic love this month. They're all good friends, even if Gray and Natsu sometimes butt heads. The atmosphere is nice and warm, too.
The month-long holidays for February are: Celebration of Chocolate Month, National Canned Food Month, National Cherry Month, National Potato Lovers Month, Barley Month, National African American History Month, National Women Inventors Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.
For my Jewish calendar, the main pic's of a Torah crown, gilded in silver, made in 1837. It has a lot of bells, and a vine-like design. The other pic's of a wooden tzedakah (basically charity) box, made in 1900. This one has sculpted birds on the sides.
For my elements calendar, it's bismuth this time. Kind of made me gag that they shaped some of it into a heart for the main pic. It's the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol. Apparently, 57% of it in a bottle is bismuth. Both elements to the left (lead) and right (polonium) of it are toxic. Despite this, bismuth, as far as they know, is nontoxic. It's considered the very last stable element in the periodic table. However, recently it was discovered that bismuth has no stable isotopes, either. They show it forming crystals, 30 lb ingots of pure bismuth which is how they're sold commercially, and a multimetallic chain containing a link cast from 99.99% pure bismuth.
I'll try to stay more on top of posting than I have been. Apparently, missed a week. I've been feeling really awful off and on, and distracted by things like snow. It snowed Sunday afternoon until the next morning. They said there would be more later on Monday but there wasn't. It was a lot for us. We're not used to that much snow. Certainly not in February. It's also been cold enough that the snow isn't completely melting away. On Monday, the highs were in the mid-20's (F), and felt like 9 degrees. The strong winds made it worse. Again, all this isn't our norm. According to the forecast, there's a lot more snow coming Friday and Saturday. They predict 4" on Friday, and 2" for Sunday. That's a lot more than we got recently. Why can't it be more spaced out? I have my eye appointment on Thursday, so it'll be good before it snows again.
I made an appointment to see a new gastro. She's an MD, which is already a plus for me. They said I can't make an appointment for a colonoscopy until after I see her. I got a reminder in December (I think?) to get another one soon. The last one was in January of 2017. The one before that, which was my first, was at the end of July 2015. The receptionist said that it was definitely time. IBD patients are encouraged to get one at least every 2 years. So, I'm going to have the 3rd soon. It just might be sometime at the end of March or April. My appointment's in the beginning of March. I don't think I'm in remission anymore, and haven't been at least since this past summer. I hope they let me have the Miralax/Gatorade prep. That worked a lot better than the Golytely stuff. That's the only thing I really hate about it. The prep. It can be difficult to go on a completely liquid diet for a couple of days, too. Maybe she'll have insight on what to do about scarring, at least. I think that's given me the most pain. Although, I don't really know what it's like now. So, there might be something different, and/or if the disease is active, the focus will be different. We'll see. I might need to stop Lialda, because I'm not sure it's doing anything. Haven't been monitoring it, and haven't had any related blood tests in about a year. If I do stop it, it was my last choice before starting a biologic. Biologics are either taken through an infusion or self-administered through shots to the gut. I'm really nervous about those, but especially the shots.
I realized LingoDeer only let's you have one free 'lesson' for each language in their 'free' app. (Doesn't really seem free to me.) I like that I was able to go into detail with the alphabet and one lesson, but I'm disappointed. I went back to Duolingo's Korean course. It seems better than the last time I tried it. Then again, I had a better intro to the alphabet this time. It seems like a shorter course than the other language courses. I'm doing it a little different this time. After finishing the 1st level of the 1st unit, I did one part of the next, and then started the next level of the 1st, and kept going back and forth for each part of a lesson. Each lesson can have anywhere from 4 to 20 (I think) parts to it. Once I finished the 1st level of the 2nd unit, I did a part of the 1st unit, then a part of the next level of the 2nd, then the first part of the 3rd, and went all the way back to the 1st again. Eventually, I'll level out (there are 5 levels to each unit) of units, so I won't always be going back to them. This way I'll be able to review it and have some new stuff in the mix. It'll take longer, too. I'm almost finished with level 1 of Basics 1, and the 1st unit, which is Alphabet, is up to level 3. There are 3 Alphabet units. It seems to be going faster than I thought. I hope they updated it to have speaking exercises. Haven't encountered them yet, but if they do have them, maybe it's after the first checkpoint? This section is about the very basics. I have been repeating and sometimes saying what the native speaker says at the same time. It helps a little.
Started drawing Shadow's clothes. I want to add folds and such to make it 'act' like fabric. So far, I'm not happy with the results. I've just starting experimenting with that, though. He's not wearing anything fancy. Just a shirt, jeans, and sneakers. It shouldn't take me long with this part. Eventually, I'll ink over everything, then color it in.
Managed to practice my clarinet today. Haven't in about a week because of that weird respiratory thing I'm still going through. I'm still coughing stuff up, have a hard time breathing normally let alone controlling it for playing, still sneezing a lot, nose is stuffed up, and more. I shouldn't still feel this way...Anyways, it makes it more difficult to play a woodwind instrument. Played all of my Duke Ellington book, and a little of the Gershwin one. Sounded better than I thought I would, but had to take way to many 'breaks' to catch my breath. It actually hurt. I did it for a short time, too. I might do it for the same amount of time tomorrow, if I can. Edited about a page worth of Alliance.
Recently, someone on AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network) posted a thread demanding people 'enlighten' her on the 'issues of gender'. I thought she genuinely wanted to know about what she was asking in the 1st post. She wanted to know what gender identity is, what gender dysphoria is, what does it mean to be trans, how can someone have dysphoria if they're agender, and more. She claimed she was also asking this stuff because she wanted to confront her transphobic brother. Seems like a worthy thing. Especially if a cis person does it. She wouldn't listen to a single person on there about the gender identity part. A lot of them went in a roundabout way, so I thought maybe she needed it to be simpler. I also answered the other things in the 1st post and gave her my experience and perspective. We went back and forth on gender identity for a while. Eventually, she said: "I can't accept something I don't understand!" At this moment, I really felt like she was hung up on terf rhetoric. I couldn't quite tell if she was actually a terf herself, trolling, or just really not wanting to listen to others. I told her it comes off as saying: "I don't want to understand something I didn't accept in the first place!" I also said there are many things in this world that people should/have to accept, even if they don't understand it. She came back with claiming not to know what terf rhetoric was, and she doesn't accept most things in life. That last part seemed especially troll-like. She said she doesn't know modern culture either. That seemed odd...For some reason, especially on an AVEN forum, and in the gender subforum. That's a positive place where many trans people are active. The whole 'discussion' felt nasty afterwards. I let her have the last post, and it proved that she was at least a troll. People agreed with me. I've blocked her now. I think I'll still be able to see if there have been other responses and reactions to my posts in that thread. I looked at all the threads she started, and they seemed to just be there to get a rise out of people. A lot of demanding of things to be explained, too. In one thread she used the awful 'Abrahaimic religions' term that gets pushed around. It lumps 3 very different religions together. Plus, in Judaism, our focus is more on Moses, not Abraham, if we're talking about people. Neither of the other 2 focus on Abraham either. I'm glad someone told her to stop using it and said why.
Mob Psycho 100 II's most current episode was epic! They know how to do crazy battle scenes. Black Clover probably should be taking notes. The art seems to change a lot normally in MP. However, this seemed to really push things and do it well. For the first time, Mob got in touch with his positive feelings. Before, his negative feelings were feeding his psychic powers. He seems stronger with the positive ones. We don't know what his ??? power is like now. As he feels things his power goes up a certain percentage. (The 100 in the title is for 100%.) ??? is when he's over his supposed limit, extremely powerful, tends to be unaware of his actions, and turns into something that doesn't seem human. We still don't know much about it. This show just keeps getting better.
The month-long holidays for February are: Celebration of Chocolate Month, National Canned Food Month, National Cherry Month, National Potato Lovers Month, Barley Month, National African American History Month, National Women Inventors Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.
For my Jewish calendar, the main pic's of a Torah crown, gilded in silver, made in 1837. It has a lot of bells, and a vine-like design. The other pic's of a wooden tzedakah (basically charity) box, made in 1900. This one has sculpted birds on the sides.
For my elements calendar, it's bismuth this time. Kind of made me gag that they shaped some of it into a heart for the main pic. It's the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol. Apparently, 57% of it in a bottle is bismuth. Both elements to the left (lead) and right (polonium) of it are toxic. Despite this, bismuth, as far as they know, is nontoxic. It's considered the very last stable element in the periodic table. However, recently it was discovered that bismuth has no stable isotopes, either. They show it forming crystals, 30 lb ingots of pure bismuth which is how they're sold commercially, and a multimetallic chain containing a link cast from 99.99% pure bismuth.
I'll try to stay more on top of posting than I have been. Apparently, missed a week. I've been feeling really awful off and on, and distracted by things like snow. It snowed Sunday afternoon until the next morning. They said there would be more later on Monday but there wasn't. It was a lot for us. We're not used to that much snow. Certainly not in February. It's also been cold enough that the snow isn't completely melting away. On Monday, the highs were in the mid-20's (F), and felt like 9 degrees. The strong winds made it worse. Again, all this isn't our norm. According to the forecast, there's a lot more snow coming Friday and Saturday. They predict 4" on Friday, and 2" for Sunday. That's a lot more than we got recently. Why can't it be more spaced out? I have my eye appointment on Thursday, so it'll be good before it snows again.
I made an appointment to see a new gastro. She's an MD, which is already a plus for me. They said I can't make an appointment for a colonoscopy until after I see her. I got a reminder in December (I think?) to get another one soon. The last one was in January of 2017. The one before that, which was my first, was at the end of July 2015. The receptionist said that it was definitely time. IBD patients are encouraged to get one at least every 2 years. So, I'm going to have the 3rd soon. It just might be sometime at the end of March or April. My appointment's in the beginning of March. I don't think I'm in remission anymore, and haven't been at least since this past summer. I hope they let me have the Miralax/Gatorade prep. That worked a lot better than the Golytely stuff. That's the only thing I really hate about it. The prep. It can be difficult to go on a completely liquid diet for a couple of days, too. Maybe she'll have insight on what to do about scarring, at least. I think that's given me the most pain. Although, I don't really know what it's like now. So, there might be something different, and/or if the disease is active, the focus will be different. We'll see. I might need to stop Lialda, because I'm not sure it's doing anything. Haven't been monitoring it, and haven't had any related blood tests in about a year. If I do stop it, it was my last choice before starting a biologic. Biologics are either taken through an infusion or self-administered through shots to the gut. I'm really nervous about those, but especially the shots.
I realized LingoDeer only let's you have one free 'lesson' for each language in their 'free' app. (Doesn't really seem free to me.) I like that I was able to go into detail with the alphabet and one lesson, but I'm disappointed. I went back to Duolingo's Korean course. It seems better than the last time I tried it. Then again, I had a better intro to the alphabet this time. It seems like a shorter course than the other language courses. I'm doing it a little different this time. After finishing the 1st level of the 1st unit, I did one part of the next, and then started the next level of the 1st, and kept going back and forth for each part of a lesson. Each lesson can have anywhere from 4 to 20 (I think) parts to it. Once I finished the 1st level of the 2nd unit, I did a part of the 1st unit, then a part of the next level of the 2nd, then the first part of the 3rd, and went all the way back to the 1st again. Eventually, I'll level out (there are 5 levels to each unit) of units, so I won't always be going back to them. This way I'll be able to review it and have some new stuff in the mix. It'll take longer, too. I'm almost finished with level 1 of Basics 1, and the 1st unit, which is Alphabet, is up to level 3. There are 3 Alphabet units. It seems to be going faster than I thought. I hope they updated it to have speaking exercises. Haven't encountered them yet, but if they do have them, maybe it's after the first checkpoint? This section is about the very basics. I have been repeating and sometimes saying what the native speaker says at the same time. It helps a little.
Started drawing Shadow's clothes. I want to add folds and such to make it 'act' like fabric. So far, I'm not happy with the results. I've just starting experimenting with that, though. He's not wearing anything fancy. Just a shirt, jeans, and sneakers. It shouldn't take me long with this part. Eventually, I'll ink over everything, then color it in.
Managed to practice my clarinet today. Haven't in about a week because of that weird respiratory thing I'm still going through. I'm still coughing stuff up, have a hard time breathing normally let alone controlling it for playing, still sneezing a lot, nose is stuffed up, and more. I shouldn't still feel this way...Anyways, it makes it more difficult to play a woodwind instrument. Played all of my Duke Ellington book, and a little of the Gershwin one. Sounded better than I thought I would, but had to take way to many 'breaks' to catch my breath. It actually hurt. I did it for a short time, too. I might do it for the same amount of time tomorrow, if I can. Edited about a page worth of Alliance.
Recently, someone on AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network) posted a thread demanding people 'enlighten' her on the 'issues of gender'. I thought she genuinely wanted to know about what she was asking in the 1st post. She wanted to know what gender identity is, what gender dysphoria is, what does it mean to be trans, how can someone have dysphoria if they're agender, and more. She claimed she was also asking this stuff because she wanted to confront her transphobic brother. Seems like a worthy thing. Especially if a cis person does it. She wouldn't listen to a single person on there about the gender identity part. A lot of them went in a roundabout way, so I thought maybe she needed it to be simpler. I also answered the other things in the 1st post and gave her my experience and perspective. We went back and forth on gender identity for a while. Eventually, she said: "I can't accept something I don't understand!" At this moment, I really felt like she was hung up on terf rhetoric. I couldn't quite tell if she was actually a terf herself, trolling, or just really not wanting to listen to others. I told her it comes off as saying: "I don't want to understand something I didn't accept in the first place!" I also said there are many things in this world that people should/have to accept, even if they don't understand it. She came back with claiming not to know what terf rhetoric was, and she doesn't accept most things in life. That last part seemed especially troll-like. She said she doesn't know modern culture either. That seemed odd...For some reason, especially on an AVEN forum, and in the gender subforum. That's a positive place where many trans people are active. The whole 'discussion' felt nasty afterwards. I let her have the last post, and it proved that she was at least a troll. People agreed with me. I've blocked her now. I think I'll still be able to see if there have been other responses and reactions to my posts in that thread. I looked at all the threads she started, and they seemed to just be there to get a rise out of people. A lot of demanding of things to be explained, too. In one thread she used the awful 'Abrahaimic religions' term that gets pushed around. It lumps 3 very different religions together. Plus, in Judaism, our focus is more on Moses, not Abraham, if we're talking about people. Neither of the other 2 focus on Abraham either. I'm glad someone told her to stop using it and said why.
Mob Psycho 100 II's most current episode was epic! They know how to do crazy battle scenes. Black Clover probably should be taking notes. The art seems to change a lot normally in MP. However, this seemed to really push things and do it well. For the first time, Mob got in touch with his positive feelings. Before, his negative feelings were feeding his psychic powers. He seems stronger with the positive ones. We don't know what his ??? power is like now. As he feels things his power goes up a certain percentage. (The 100 in the title is for 100%.) ??? is when he's over his supposed limit, extremely powerful, tends to be unaware of his actions, and turns into something that doesn't seem human. We still don't know much about it. This show just keeps getting better.
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