National Fluffernutter Day!

Mood:

Yay for fluffernutters!It's a marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwich. Really good stuff. I haven't had one in a long time...Probably for the best, because it's not that healthy for me. Although, I do occasionally have a Nutella and peanut butter sandwich. This was yesterday, as well as National Pierogi Day. I love pierogies! Especially the cheese, potato, and onion kind. 

Finished watching Akuryo Byoutou or Demon Ward yesterday. It was surprisingly good, especially towards the end. I wished the episodes were longer, though. About 25 minutes for each one is not much.For such little time, they were able to pack a lot into each episode. So, I guess that made for better storytelling as well. Runa being hunched over or having horrible posture got to me a bit, but it was really just a part of the character. She seemed more 'real' since she wasn't perfect. The actress was amazing! Actually, a lot of the other actors were as well. The story had so many twists and turns. It was more fascinating than scary, to me. I'm glad that there was a happy ending to this one.

I finally made another appointment to see my therapist. This time should be a lot better. Hopefully, I won't be sick at that time, again.Had an interesting talk with her over the phone today. She actually seems to care, unlike how my other therapists were. They never called me. 

I've been getting up earlier, and going to bed earlier this week. I feel kind of energized. So, I guess that's a good thing. For some reason it feels like going to bed at about 11:30 is too late and unhealthy for me. I feel like I actually have more of a morning now, too. I'll see how long I can keep this up. Also, got back into doing my sit-ups. Doing 60 of them twice a day this week. Figured that was an ok amount to start with again. Before I stopped I was up to 85 twice a day. So, 60 feels much easier. Also, going back to being more strict about my eating. Hopefully, I'll get to do my late walk today. If not, hopefully tomorrow I can get to both...

Decided to drop the idea of dressing up in a Steampunk outfit for Halloween. Instead I'm going to dress up as Sin Petra, one of the characters from Alliance, my first novel. Should be interesting. I think I have a dress that's similar to what she wears in the novel. It's just not as long...I will have to get things like a wig, accessories, and makeup. Her hair is long and wavy with a dark green color, and each skinny strand looks like a snake that moves up close. She's a medusa. I doubt I'll find hair exactly like that.But, I'm thinking of getting either a wig that's dark green, or one that's black with dark green streaks. So, I'll see what I can do. I think this'll be more fun since I can play with it more. I know her more than anyone, considering I came up with her. Her accessories might have more of a Greek theme, considering she comes from there. Yay! Makes me kind of excited just thinking about it!Makeup should be interesting too. 

In Kakushou, I watched the second half of a 2-part episode. It was about a thief who was caught up in being a hostage in the very house he was robbing. The person who took him hostage was a part of a bank heist, and he was the only one who wasn't able to get away with the gang he was working with. Being frustrated, he ran into a house pushing a man back in who was heading out. Thinking that the man was the homeowner. When he found out, he made the thief be the one to negotiate with the police. A few hours into the hostage situation, the police and thief found out the homeowner's daughter was hiding in the attic. She had diabetes and didn't take her insulin beforehand, so she wasn't doing too well. Eventually, the person who had taken the thief hostage, found the girl and tied her up as well. He has killed before, and was willing to kill her if he felt that she was useless to him. The thief was even more on edge, considering he's been protective of kids since he lost his daughter recently. Eventually, they found a secret way of getting into the house (thanks to another thief who once robbed the owner of the house years ago), and saved the hostages. I'm glad they didn't have to hurt anyone. There was a dog just outside that kept alerting the criminal of their SWAT team's presence. A sniper managed to shoot its leash off, and it ran away. Everyone thought that he was going to kill the dog. All in all a good couple of episodes.

Wrote a bit more of my 2nd short story for my nightmare anthology. It's going in a lot of different directions that I wasn't expecting.Very interesting. Oh, and I saw that the local synagogue actually featured my first novel today in the weekly newsletter. Since I didn't hear a response to my email, I thought they didn't want to do it. I looked at my Smashwords' page views for Alliance right after I saw that, and the views started to really pick up. Feels kind of good, yet scary knowing people are really looking at it.

Started watching Tokyo Ravens today. I'll talk more about it in the future. Really liking it so far, though. Watched a couple more episodes yesterday and today of Hitman Reborn. Getting exciting and interesting as well. Tripeace has been really good. Found out there was a group promoting the exact opposite of what Tripeace is. Tripeace tries to promote love and peace. This other group is brainwashing members of Tripeace into losing hope of peace, and making them attack other members. They wear animal skulls. Kind of creepy. 

日本語

Today I studied 2 kanji. The first one was: 息. When pronounced as いき (iki): breath, breathing; tone, mood. As そく (soku): son. That last one is ok to use for 'son', but 息子 or むすこ (musuko) is preferred. The other kanji was: 速. When pronounced as すみ.やか (sumi.yaka): speedy, prompt, smooth. As そく (soku): (suffix) gear, speed. As はや.い (haya.i): fast, quick, hasty, brisk. As はや.める (haya.meru): to hasten, quicken, expedite, precipitate, accelerate. 速度 or そくど (sokudo): speed, velocity, rate. 早速 or さっそく (sassoku): at once, immediately, without delay, promptly. 加速 or かそく (kasoku): acceleration, speeding up. 減速 or げんそく (gensoku): deceleration. 音速 or おんそく (onsoku): speed of sound. 光速 or こうそく (kousoku): speed of light. 

Banana Lovers Day!

Mood:

Yay, for bananas!One of my fave fruits!(And, one of the most popular fruits in the world.) I usually have a banana everyday, but oddly we've run out. So, I can't have one today...Oh well. 

Had an appointment on Friday for a 2-hour intake 'interview' at the new counseling center. Well, it's new to me, since I've never had a therapist at this one. At the other place, the intake was just a 1-page questionnaire and a 5-minute phone interview. Nothing like this place.It's interesting that most of their clientele are in the LGBT community, and they're kind of tailored for that community. 

I'm supposedly considered to be under that 'umbrella', because I have a trans parent. They've kind of taken me in, and become somewhat like a family at the support groups. That's another thing I've noticed, is I feel like there aren't very many COTs (children of trans) like me around.At least that are open, supportive, and accepting. The breakout ally group that meets every other Wednesday through a main trans group mostly has partners or parents of a trans person. They told me the last 2 times I was there that there are a couple who are like me, but they don't go to these things because they feel they'll be the only one with this sort of relationship. Hmmm...They also said since they know another person, they might contact these people and tell them to go to the group next time. That'd be cool! (Although, I won't be able to go to the next one, because Rosh Hashanah starts that night.) This group meets at this counseling center. Dad and I sometimes joke, saying that I'm a unicorn. Since I'm so rare.

Anyways, the center sounds like they'll actually get where I'm coming from. I've had a therapist argue with me just over whether my Dad was trans or not.These people might actually be good to talk to in detail about it, and might be a lot more understanding. There's really nothing negative I feel towards it, I just go through a different 'experience'.

It was a very thorough interview. Just to see who would be the best therapist for me. I realized that I haven't really gone over mourning my mom with a therapist.So, that'd be good to go over, too. There were lots of other things that I never really covered before with previous therapy. Its been a very long time since my last therapy appointment, and they said I should probably be seeing someone at least once every 2 weeks. (Might have been since January or February since my last therapy appointment.) Eventually, I'll try to get a psychiatrist through them, too. 

After my appointment, we went to a very small Indian restaurant for lunch. There was very little seating, and it was a bit cramped. They had a buffet going for lunch. Very good food!They kept wanting to give us more things from their tiny kitchen. (Some weren't even in the little buffet bar area.) 

The ferries were running really late on our way back home, so we went up to the area where they have restaurants and stores at the terminal. I got a very good Ben & Jerry's brownie ice cream bar, since it was so warm out. Then, we grabbed some burritos from Taco Del Mar, and didn't have them until we got home. Would have been too hot to eat anyways. 

With the help of Pinterest, I've gotten more in touch with my style in clothing, and what looks good on me, as well. Its helped a great deal. I like dark fall colors (those in general look good on me anyways), and things like slinky looking soft clothes. For a while there I couldn't remember what my style was.Simply because I haven't seriously looked for things in a long time. And, now I have to. I'm running out of clothes, because I tossed a bunch out. I even found something interesting recently at a mall in Seattle. It was on sale, but still pretty expensive. But, the fact that I saw something I liked was good. 

I've been trying to really stick to my fitness routine this week. So far, so good.Up to 70 sit-ups, 2 times a day. I end up working up a sweat now. I can really feel it doing something after each time. Doing 2 of my 2-mile walks, as well. Still not entirely used to that, but it's getting there.I'm already feeling better. Feel like things are getting really baggy again. Even my new jeans seem to be getting that way. 

Did my nails again. This time it's a light pinkish-purple-y color. Kind of a bit metallic, too. There isn't a name for it on the bottle. I like it, though. Akuryo Byoutou is getting really good. The mystery behind the abandoned ward is getting more complex. 

In Hitman Reborn, things aren't looking too good for some of the Vongola. (Hibari's doing well.) It was interesting that Hibari knew exactly when his younger self was going to switch places with him. He just kicks butt all around. No matter how old he is, he seems to always be awesome. He's the most powerful Vongola member, and he only joins them when he 'feels' like it. Tsuna is surprising the enemy and Spanner with his ability to intuitively know what the enemy's about to do. And, how quick he learns from each fight. This whole story arc has been very interesting and intricate.

In Aka Aka, they still don't know much about this 'mystery man'. They just found out that he's using one of their friends' bodies as, essentially, a container for him to move around. And, he's not liking it. He keeps saying that he wants his body back to Yue. This has been very interesting too. The only downside is that I've caught up with the updates.The last one was 2 months ago. So, I don't know when I'll be able to continue reading it. In the meantime, I'm thinking of replacing it with another manga. One I obviously haven't read before. I have some ideas, but we'll see.

Played my clarinet. Did some klezmer tunes. Wasn't too bad. Only slipped up a couple of times. Wrote some more of my second story to my nightmare anthology. I think it's sounding scarier than it was in the actual dream it's based off of.

Sketched out an outline of Shadow, my main character. He's the first I'm drawing in my new 'project'. All my characters are going to be lined up and interacting with each other with a height measurement in the background. This way I can showcase their heights, clothing designs, and personalities. Shadow is one of the shortest ones. I want it to turn out with Junko hooking an arm around him, and have him waving. It might take a while to get that to look decent.

日本語

Today, I studied more compounds for the kanji: 真. There's a lot of them. Apparently, a very common one. All the better to go over them. 真面目 or しんめんもく (shinmenmoku): one's true character, one's true self, oneself; seriousness, earnestness. 真夜中 or まよなか (mayonaka): dead of night, midnight. 純真 or じゅんしん (junshin): purity, sincerity. 天真 or てんしん (tenshin): naivete. 真っ逆様 or まっさかさま (massakasama) (the hiragana is more commonly used.): head over heels, headlong, head first. 真っ盛り or まっさかり (massakari): height of, middle of, full bloom. Next time, I'll do more compounds for this kanji. 

deviantART faves:

Aliens from Strawberry Planet StupidFox - 95 You Tube I did not make these! First, a really cool up close pic of a strawberry. Second, a hilarious installment of the comic, StupidFox. Not sure how he got up there...Third, an awesome drawing of an artist's interpretation of what Youtube would look like as an anime character. Found this artist through dA's facebook update. They're drawing their own rendition of social media sites as their original anime characters. It's an interesting project. Chrome looks interesting, too. I decided to 'watch' them, too. Also, had someone fave a bunch of my dA food pics. They must have just come across one, and then found my gallery. It was interesting to see what they liked. I occasionally get those sort of people, but they always surprise me. 

Just Like That

Mood:

By Meg. This is the Japanese singer, not the Italian one of the same name. The song's kind of fun and jazzy. To me, it sounds like some sort of cover. But, it's really good either way. It's all in English. The last one I put up that was hers was 'Beautiful'. Totally different feel, but that shows how talented she is. Found out about the Italian artist of the same name, and she's pretty good too. I'll put up one of her songs soon, as well.

Did my first 2-mile walk for the day this morning. I normally just do one around sunset. It was already starting to really warm up as I walked. So, I was sweating like crazy about halfway through.I was good this time though, and put sunscreen on before I left. Doesn't smell very good, but I'd rather have that than get a burn.I'll do my 2nd walk maybe after dinner or a little later. If I can do both of them each day, including my sit-ups, it'd be awesome!

When I got back, I put nail polish on my fingernails. Now I have both sets of nails painted. Yay!I decided to do 2 different types together. One's kind of a bland mauve-like solid color, and the other's purple with glitter. Normally the glitter one doesn't show up too well by itself. With both of these combined, it looks pretty cool.

In Akuryo Byoutou, Runa finds out that Asahi is having the same exact nightmare. The nightmare starts off with the back of a woman bent over in a white kimono with fog around her and a full moon. She slowly stands up, turns around, and opens her mouth to reveal black gnarly looking teeth. Kind of weird. As this has progressed, I'm wondering if Runa and/or the rest of the staff are even alive or real. A lot of Japanese horror stories do that sort of thing at the end. But, maybe it'll be different. Everyone but the doctors have seen some form of a ghost. Each were different ones. They don't believe it, but the occurrences are happening more often. Most of the rest of the nurses think something is up with Runa. Like she brings bad luck, because horrible things seem to happen around her. The patients are even wary of her. But, Asahi seems to not be phased by it. At the end of this episode Runa finds out her friend, who was investigating the abandoned ward, had an accident and may have died. I say may have, because she saw her 'ghost' as she was being rushed into the ER. Same thing happened to one of her patients that died shortly after. The only problem I have with Runa is her posture. Wish she would straighten up a bit, but I think that's just part of the character. She's kind of creepy that way. The actress who plays her is amazing!

In Hitman Reborn, nothing much more happened. The Vongola Guardians are still looking for Irie. They're all in the midst of battle, though. It's kind of slowing them down. Meanwhile, Tsuna's been stuck with Spanner. He seems to be against the Millefiore. He wants to help Tsuna perfect his X-Burner. Right now he's fixing a pair of contacts for the eyes that'll help guide Tsuna to the best position. But, Tsuna has to wait until he's done. He's getting anxious, and wants to help and protect everyone. I'm really liking this story arc. Very interesting and complex. 

In Akaya, they find out that the people who used to be close to the kindergarten principal that was 'spirited away' (actually eaten), don't remember him but feel a deep sadness and loneliness. Like something is missing, but they don't know what. Yue and the others don't know why they remember him so well still. Towards the end of the chapter, a strange man showed up in front of them in a field as they investigated the area. Yue looked startled. First time he's looked that way. Its been very interesting so far. 

Played my clarinet. Did a couple of jazz tunes, and a lot of klezmer tunes. Might have rushed a couple of the klezmer ones a bit. But, wasn't too bad this time. 

Wrote more of the 2nd short story to my nightmare anthology. It's sounding a bit 'different' compared to my normal way of writing. But, interesting nonetheless. I kind of feel like each story will be told in a slightly different way.

Planned more of my drawing of all my characters out. Found some things to refer to for proportions. Looked for a simple meme to fill out, but didn't find any that caught my eye. Oh well. 

日本語

Studied more compounds for the kanji: 神. 神気 or しんき (shinki): the elements, spirit, mind, divinity. 神話 or しんわ (shinwa): myth, legend. 神聖 or しんせい (shinsei): holiness, sacredness, dignity. 神託 or しんたく (shintaku): oracle. 神通力 or じんつうりき (jintsuuriki): supernatural power, divine power, magical power. 神殿 or しんでん (shinden): temple, sacred place, shrine, sanctuary. 神道 or しんとう (shintou): Shinto. 神秘 or しんぴ (shinpi): mystery. I'll finally get to start studying another kanji next time.It has a ton of compounds, too. But, compounds help me in more ways than one. So, it's very good to do them. 

National Hot Dog Day!

Mood:

Yay, for hot dogs!One of my faves are beef Polish hot dogs. The ones at Costco are awesome, although HUGE. (And, they're kosher!) Plus, Hebrew National does pretty good regular hot dogs as well. Great during summer. Recently had a large Hebrew National one, and some 3-bean salad on the side for a dinner. Very filling and good.I usually like relish, ketchup or BBQ sauce, and mustard on mine. Sometimes, sauerkraut. 

Went to my first non-Jewish and same sex wedding on Sunday. I'm so happy for them!They're our neighbors, that live not too far from us. Incredibly nice people. One of them always asks me how I'm doing when she catches me while I'm walking. (She's usually in her car.) They run a pet nanny business. I think we used them once, as well. It's cool that they have a giant pride flag displayed at their house outside. They had been together for 30 years already. Felt like they were already married, but weren't recognized by the state. And, now that they can be, they finally got their chance to have a wedding.

Anyways, they held their wedding at their church. Apparently, the church is very progressive and welcoming. Not sure if it was my first time at a church service...Felt a little weird at times.That church has held 6 weddings this year, all same sex couples. Really cool. Despite me feeling a bit uncomfortable, the people were nice to me. I just wanted to celebrate with the couple. It seemed like a good wedding. A lot of passages about love. 

After the service, we all headed to the banquet hall(?) and had lunch. There wasn't very many places to sit for a while. But, we found a nice sunny place. There were a lot of things that I couldn't eat, and quite a lot that Dad couldn't eat.I had the fruit salad, a hybrid of some sort of egg salad and potato salad, tuna salad croissant sandwich (with some grapes mixed in that surprised me), and some Caesar salad. They had punch or water. Wasn't sure if the punch had grapefruit in it, so I had to stay away from it.(Can't have grapefruit with the meds I'm on.) 

Then, they did a bunch of toasts to the couple. Couldn't have champagne (alcohol's not good for me either, messes with my meds), so I acted like I was doing the cheers without anything in my hands.Later, I grabbed a couple of cupcakes before they managed to make it over to the tiny cake and cut it. We were both getting tired and wanted to leave. I thought I couldn't leave without taking at least a cupcake.The carrot cake one's icing was not very good. Tasted too cream cheesy. The cake part of that was ok, but not the best. The other one was chocolate, and was pretty good. 

Started Dangan Ronpa a couple of weeks ago. It lit. means 'Bullet Rebuttal'. It's adapted from a murder-mystery visual novel. The video game was released soon after. The game itself produced 2 manga adaptations. Its become pretty popular, apparently. So, doesn't surprise me that they'd make an anime adaptation. It takes place at an elite high school called Hope's Peak Academy, which accepts talented 'Super High School Level' students from the highest caliber in various fields each year, along with one average 'Lucky Student' selected by raffle. Makoto Naegi is chosen as the 'Lucky Student'. As soon as he arrives at the gates, he passes out and wakes up inside the school. Where he meets 14 other newly picked Super High School students who are in the same situation as him. A sadistic, remote-controlled, monochrome bear named Monokuma appears, and tells them he's the principal and that they are imprisoned in the academy for the rest of their lives. He offers only one way for students to graduate: murder another student and get away with it. After a murder occurs, they hold a class trial, where they must determine amongst themselves who the killer is. If they can successfully determine who the real killer is, that person is put to a gruesome and ironic execution for disrupting school order. However, if the wrong accusation is made, then the true killer will be allowed to leave the academy, while everyone else will be executed. It's very interesting, and kind of funky. I love the murder-mystery genre, so this might be good. They've already killed off 2 people so far. One was killed by Monokuma for disrupting school order. She was yelling at him, and tried to stomp him to death. So he had spikes come out around her, and skewered her. The other one wasn't done by him. But, I think she killed herself. She was looking intently at a sword that was given to Makoto. She told him that she was too scared to stay in her room, and asked to switch rooms for the night. He left the weapons there. Now, everyone thinks he did it. The characters are rather off-beat, so it makes it even more interesting.

Started Uchouten Kazoku or the Eccentric Family on Saturday. (The lit. translation is actually 'Ecstatic Family', but the Eccentric Family is the official English title.) In Kyoto, there are 3 kinds of residents: humans, tanuki, and tengu. Shimogamo Yasaburou is the 3rd son of the tanuki family. His father, Souichirou, had been the head of the Kyoto tanuki community until he was eaten by the human members of 'Friday Club'. While taking care of an old tengu, fighting with other tanuki, and playing with a psychic human girl, Yasaburou approaches the truth of his father's death. He also likes to transform himself into the appearance of a human girl. Tanuki are raccoon-dogs, and tengu are associated with birds like crows or ravens, in Japanese mythology. The tengu, in some stories, will 'spirit away' people. Tanuki are usually tricksters, shapeshifters, jolly, mischievous, gullible, and absentminded. There are real tanukis in Japan, but they're obviously not like their folklore version. (Interesting how there seems to be more info on tanuki out there than tengu.) So far it's a very interesting story, and the tanuki in it live up to what I've read of the folklore stuff. The animation is a little...'different'. The characters' ears are drawn really oddly, and some of it seems surreal. Actually, some of the animation reminds me of Tsuritama. The flow of the art is nice, though. Liking it overall. Hopefully, it'll end up being one of the great ones this season...

Started watching Akuryo Byoutou or Demon Ward today. This was one of the shows I really wanted to watch this season, and I'm glad it's finally out! It's set within a hospital in the outskirts of town. Mysterious phenomena occur around a nurse named Runa Okami. According to a synopsis, the staff suspect her as the cause for some horrible cases and finds herself in danger. They haven't gotten to that point in the story yet, though. She did move from town to town growing up after she had a premonition of a classmate's death. In the 'vision' the classmate appeared all bloody and disturbed while moaning. She's been able to see 'visions' and ghosts ever since her mother died. People looked down on her for a while. But, I don't think the other nurses know about that sort of stuff yet. She has a friend who's a reporter, and wants to do a story on the abandoned ward of the hospital. The hospital hasn't gotten rid of it yet, because they haven't raised enough funds to bulldoze it. Runa is asked to go there to get something. Apparently it's kind of used as a storage for the time being. After finding what she was looking for, she got curious about the rest of the ward and went exploring. One of the last scenes of this episode was door locking on its own. So, now she's locked inside a creepy old hospital ward, where people have been spreading rumors about it being haunted.The main part of the hospital, that's still operational, is starting to have its share of rumors as well. They showed one of the nurses getting spooked by one of the 'ghosts'. This is looking even better than I thought it would. The trailer's pretty scary too. The atmosphere the show gives off is downright creepy. I love scary/mystery shows. 

Hitman Reborn just keeps getting more interesting. Got to know more about the arcobaleno. They won't reveal too much, still. In Aka Aka, Yue is getting a bit suspicious of what a 'meal' might actually entail. He has to choose one of the 2 humans he finds interesting, as his meal. There are dark entities that are eating people and calling them meals. He thinks he'll have to do something like that, but Kurogitsune told him that his 'meal' will be different. 

Managed to play my clarinet. I want to get to playing it on a regular schedule again. Maybe I will this time!Did some tunes from my advanced solo book. Started brainstorming my next short story in my nightmare anthology. Mapped out a bit more of my next drawing. The one where I'll have all my characters interacting with each other. Showing their heights, personalities, and clothes. Sounds great, but it'll take some planning and time. Still worth it. 

日本語

Today I studied the compounds for the kanji: 身. The general meaning for it is: body, one's station in life, person, somebody, corpse. 身体 or しんたい (shintai): body; torso, trunk; build, physique, constitution; health; corpse, dead body. 身長 or しんちょう (shinchou): height (of body), stature. 身辺 or しんぺん (shinpen): one's person, around one's person, affairs. 身代 or しんだい (shindai): fortune, property. 身軽 or みがる (migaru): agile, nimble, light (of foot); casual (clothing), light (e.g. luggage); carefree, with limited responsibility. 身形 or みなり (minari): dress, attire, clothing, getup, outfit, personal appearance. 身近 or みじか (mijika): near oneself, close to one, familiar, imminent. 身元 or みもと (mimoto): person's identity, ID, past, background. Next time I'll do more compounds of this one.

This week I'm doing 45 sit-ups twice a day. So far, so good. It feels really tight in my abdomen after I do it each time. Starting to sweat a bit with it, too.I've been taking my 2-mile walks too. Usually at night. The bugs seem to always like me.Someone once told me I must have sweet blood, because the mosquitoes always find me first. I also get attacked by gnats while walking through a short trail at some point during my walk. They've made thick clouds around me before. So, I decided to put bug spray on for tonight's walk. They didn't bother me this time! We also got sunscreen a while ago. Haven't really used it yet. Even though its been really sunny out and I easily burn...Hope to get into jump rope and Pilates soon, too.