2nd of Shevat

I'm trying to stay off of social media for the most part until the weekends, which didn't work out too well last week. Only checking notifications, and posting personal stuff (statuses, pics of my food/cats/places, blog posts, at some point drawings and such on dA, etc.). So far, I'm following it closely this week. Been feeling even better because of it. I'm not even watching TV while I eat. Except, maybe the news at dinner time. I was watching the news every time I ate. There's too much going on, and I end up not focusing on what I'm eating. It's made things go a bit faster. Although, I'm also trying to eat a bit slower. I've been eating too fast lately. This makes my gut not too happy...Even gulping down tea can affect it. I'm less likely to inhale as much air if I sip it. It's recommended for people with IBD to sip drinks and take your time with food. 

I have been experiencing more symptoms of my colitis lately. One that was scary (kind of embarrassing to say it), and haven't had since I was diagnosed. Felt it while out grocery shopping. Made me panic for a moment. Not a good sign. I was ok, but it felt like my body was messing with me. It was like that before, too. 

For Italian today, I finished the Science unit and made it to roughly halfway through the V. Cond. one. The science one was interesting. As expected, many of the new words were similar to their English counterparts, but said quite differently. Some of the sentences have been rather dark. Maybe the people behind the course had a dark sense of humor? I like how in the German one they had the holy potato. There was even a thing about it on Duolingo's fb page. It was cute. These ones haven't really been like that.

I finished reading the manga Alive- The Final Evolution. It seemed to wrap up a little too nicely. Apparently, Taisuke ended up with Megumi. Nami would have been better...Megumi was brainwashed for most of it, and didn't show up much. Nami grew close to him. It didn't seem that Megumi felt much of anything towards Taisuke. At least they saved the world. All the power users had their powers taken away, so they ended up trying to have 'normal' lives. Taisuke lost an arm, and he was in a coma for a while. He was still having trouble with getting used to the prosthetic by the end. Yuuta's trying to figure out why Taisuke didn't just heal himself before their powers were taken. Hirose went with Mitama back to space where her people come from. They just wanted to accelerate human evolution by giving them powers. It didn't go well, though. Mitama decided that they'd just watch how humans evolve on their own. The heavier part of this was the mangaka (creator) did the last few chapters on his deathbed. I didn't know he had died. Those last chapters were more about how he views death, humanity, peace, and what it means to be alive. The last panel was Taisuke saying cheers to the moon, and thinking: I'll continue to live. It sends a different message knowing that's how he ended it, and it was his last piece of work before dying.

I decided to try outlining Shadow's torso and arms this time. His torso doesn't seem right, yet I know it's a rough sketch of it. I might look at my old artist's anatomy book (used to be my grandma's) to get more of a feel for it. I can build on that rough sketch of it, at least. 

Got to practicing my clarinet again. Played a few Irish tunes and mainly klezmer tunes. I actually wasn't too bad this time. Got to editing Alliance, as well. I'm 10 out of 20 chapters in. So much left...

Went for my walk. It was just misty at first, so I thought I could go without an umbrella. Being the true Pacific Northwest person that I am. The rain got much heavier halfway through. It felt good for a while, but than it cooled me down even more than I already was. It was in the low 40s, and my coat's not that warm. (It lost it's lining a while ago.) Still don't regret going out there. My hair wasn't as wet as I thought it was when I got back. Maybe it was really dry and need that? 

Started watching the 2nd season of Fukigen no Mononokean or The Morose Mononokean a couple of days ago. I'm surprised it's back. The 1st season ended 2 years ago. I liked it a lot, and it seemed to start off on the right foot this time, too. 

Started watching the 2nd season of Mob Psycho 100. The 1st also ended 2 years ago. Interesting that they're coming out at the same time. I knew this one would have a sequel for a while. This 1st episode seemed to change between a bunch of different art styles. More than usual. It was kind of cool. I'm glad this one's back, too. One Punch Man, which is created by the same mangaka, will have a 2nd season sometime this spring, I think. So, both of his works' anime versions are coming back. Yay! There are 3 new anime coming out this season that sound pretty good: Tate no Yusha no Nariagari (The Rising of the Shield Hero); Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atami no Ue (My Housemate is Sometimes on My Lap, Sometimes on My Head) (about a writer and cat); and Grimms Notes. 

17th of Elul

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lemonade Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

27th of Tammuz

Managed to get back to writing Alliance 3. Wrote quite a bit this time. Yay! Still feels like there's a lot more to this one. Not sure how long it'll be. 

Went through the Clothing unit for Chinese. There were more measure words for clothing. This time the ones for usually thin clothing (like skirts) and the others (like coats) were different. I find it interesting that when they say something is good/beautiful/tasty, the ending corresponds to what they're referring to. It's like they're lit. saying good food, good clothes, good drinks, etc. So, it's very specific to certain things. The pic for the Chinese word for long had a woman with impressive super long hair blowing in the wind. It seemed a funny and exaggerated one. The speaking exercises weren't too bad. I was surprised that I pronounced the new words correctly most of the time. Some seemed a bit difficult. The sentences are getting longer, too. The next unit is Appearance.

Read more of the manga, Alive. They ended up being captured by the military, but Taisuke managed to free them with his powers. Technically, his power isn't just based on burning things, but destroying and regenerating cells. Interesting how much thought the creator put into their powers. They destroyed the truck that was carrying the rock or 'Heart of Akuro'. That also has Hiro inside it. Taisuke awakened it somehow and it started shooting and killing the soldiers around it. Taisuke and his group managed to escape by car. However, the military was able to transport it anyways to a ship. The captain thinks none of the power users will attack in the middle of the ocean and that it's safe. Turns out at least one of them, this time on Katsumata's side, made it on. 

For cleaning, I did it for half the time that I normally plan for. Just did the cat stuff and a little more of the laundry. Again, I still have some pain in my shoulder and didn't want to stress it too much. It might end up being like that for the rest of the week. It is getting better, though. The new mattress protector felt nice last night. It's really soft. Felt like an actual bed this way. I think I slept a little better. Still not as well as it should be, but it's a huge plus. 

For drawing, I inked the assassin. Then, started drawing the Dark Healer that Shadow talked to. Again, he had no name in the first book. Still doesn't, but he's a very important character. Also, if I remember correctly, he has a face tattoo/decoration. That'll be cool and something different to draw. He has tattoos on the rest of his body, too. That won't be visible, though. 

Watched 2 episodes of Million Yen Women on Netflix last night. (They're only about 20 minutes each.) I remember why I was turned off of this one after watching the first episode a while back. The ones I watched this time were better, but not good enough for me to keep going with it. Too much sex and referring to it. The main character has no self confidence. While I understand the women might be there to help him with that, he just looks pathetic. The women are strong willed and really tough, and I give them credit for that. They're very interesting characters and it does keep you guessing on who they actually are. The premise is that someone made an arrangement where 6 women will stay with a writer for a certain amount of time. He'll get a million yen each month, I think. The women also get paid a certain amount. It's more than he gets. He can't ask them questions or the deal's off. Another 'rule' is that everyone has to eat dinner together with no distractions like smart phones. One of them is a high schooler, another is a movie star, another has some sort of incurable disease that she'll die from soon (she hasn't told anyone yet), another is a nudist at home and runs a brothel, and I can't remember much of the others. The nudist is very open with things and kickass. She doesn't care what anyone thinks. She's pretty cool. Although, she tends to be very sexual at times. The writer's father killed his mother, her lover, and a policeman who walked in on the scene. The only one he's regretful for is the policeman's murder. After his father went to jail, the writer has refused to kill off any of his characters in his books. He's constantly getting death threats, too. I have a feeling the person who set up everything is trying to spark some creativity with the writer. He could write about his experiences with the women. He seems too dense to get that, though. 

The next Netflix one I might try tonight is Mob Psycho 100. They apparently made a live-action show of the anime of the same name. I love Mob Psycho. I don't know how that would carry over to a live-action. A lot of it was very artsy and trippy. The animation style, especially during fight scenes, is unique. Very difficult to get the same effect this way. There will be a 2nd season of the anime in the future, too. There's just no start date yet for that. Same thing with One Punch Man, which comes from the same mangaka (creator). I think I like that one a little more. They both have a similar type of humor.

Watched the first One Piece movie last night. It was short for a movie. Roughly a little more than 2 episodes. I had forgotten how much the animation has changed. I like it more now, but on the other hand I think they put more work into it in the past. This movie came out in 2000. They only had Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and Usopp at the time. Their crew has grown quite a bit since then. I might watch more of their movies in the future. I just didn't have anything 'scheduled' yet for yesterday. I might start watching the other things on my 'plan to watch' list for those empty slots in my 'schedule'. There's also one more anime coming out this season that I want to watch. I like to watch something different each day of the week with anime. Plus, the new stuff only comes out once a week. I tend to watch only an hour's worth, which is about 3 episodes. For instance, today I'll watch this week's episode of Black Clover, One Piece, and the finale of the 2nd season of Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan (The Disastrous Life of Kusuo Saiki). I don't want Saiki to end. Maybe they'll be back. 

Youtube:

Since I've caught up with One Piece, I decided to look at amv's related to it. These will give people a taste of what the series is like. It's a lot darker than it seems. In fact, I think it's one of the darkest anime I've watched. Every character has had a traumatic past. There's a lot of humor and goofiness, too.

National Chocolate Pudding Day!

I love chocolate pudding. Interesting that there's a day for it. It's very filling and soothing. Other puddings I like are: butterscotch, Oreo, and vanilla. 

There's another thing I forgot to mention on here. Last Thursday, Navient finally approved my IBR or Income Based Repayment plan application. Yay! Don't have to even think about it for a year. Then, I just have to reapply to renew it annually. That way they can see if there have been any changes in income, and adjust it accordingly. I don't have to pay anything this year, or for the rest of the plan if I don't make enough. Once the plan's time is up, whatever is left is forgiven. So, it goes away. It's like wiping the slate clean. They said only half of the applicants are approved for this plan. Makes it even better. Having to reapply once a year isn't bad. It eases my mind a bit.

Yesterday I went back to keeping a record of what I eat, calories, nutrients, etc. through MyFitnessPal's app. Went back to the set daily calorie range of 1200-1600 again. Of course, I'll also allow myself to have a bit more during the weekends. They're my treat days. I'm also focusing on my protein (I never get enough), sugar (with Pride stuff it's been a little high, but normally it's lower than what I should be having), and sodium (usually low on this, too). It's a balancing act that I haven't quite mastered. I want to be better about it, though. I have to remember that when I eat out and I get something that won't last as leftovers, it's ok to not eat it all. This would be with things like: ice cream, shakes, really messy burgers, fettuccine Alfredo (gets nasty the next day). Also, getting something when I'm pretty far from home. (Might not keep well after the car ride back home.) Everything comes in huge sizes at restaurants, and even with just getting stuff at the market. It's crazy. Difficult sometimes, too. It's set up so if you don't want to eat a lot, you end up wasting food most of the time. Either that or you overeat so much it's painful. Not good either way. Sure, most of the time I can make leftovers of things, but you have to split it up and make sure you eat the rest of it right away. When I eat like this, I tend to make quite a bit of leftovers. I have to think about that more, too. However, eating like this has always made me feel better and healthier. Even before I had any symptoms of colitis. It helps a lot in a different way with that, too. 

Did much better with Chinese today. Went through the Question + Answer unit. Almost every speaking exercise I did was perfect. These are usually full sentences. I thought my pronunciation would be off, but it was spot on according to them. It's cool to see 'perfect' keep popping up for those. They also have an option to play back your pronunciation. I don't like hearing myself, but that seems useful with trying to improve on it. I seem to be having a little difficulty with remembering how to draw some of the characters. It's like I forget a few strokes for some. A few I'm already familiar with because of learning Japanese. Still, not many of those have shown up yet. I've been hearing 'shénme' (or 什么) a lot in some of the dramas I've watched on Netflix. It sounded like 'shema' (or שמע). The shema is one of the most important prayers in Judaism, and lit. means 'hear'. So, it sounded interesting to hear to me. Turns out in Chinese 什么 is 'what'. They put it at the end of a question. I must have been hearing a lot of whats...I also have the simplified Chinese keyboard on my phone now. That's interesting. It has both the pinyin and characters. Haven't really used it much. 

I'm getting more used to the tones, too. Using it over 'a', there are 4: ā, á, ǎ, à. First one is 'leveled', second is going up, third is down and up, and fourth is down. I sometimes say the u-like (or is it more of a v?) one too quickly, and it ends up sounding like one of the others. I liked how they showed them with hills at the beginning. Their mascot seems to be an old wise-looking man. He was trying to go uphill, walking across a flat plane, stuck in the middle of a valley, and falling downhill. It was cute and funny. I just realized, the dot on the 'i' for the pinyin with tones disappears and the tone marks replace it, so it looks a little odd. Normal: i, with a tone: ī. The next unit is Numbers, and after that there's a 'checkpoint' like what Duolingo has. 

Read more of the manga Alive. They plan to steal the Heart of Akuro. Supposedly Hirose is fused inside it. The US military found it and is keeping it in a lab on a base in Japan. Taisuke beat him, survived, but had amnesia. A big family, some with powers, helped him for 2 years. The 'mom' seems really suspicious. Once he saw Yuuta, Nami, and his sister again, he got his memories back. No one knows what happened to Megu and Katsumata. 

Did the usual miscellaneous cleaning. Hope to get back to cleaning my bathroom next time. I'll probably get to inking Doina and posting those 3 tomorrow. 

15th of Sivan

Something's been weird with the internet connection today (even with the pods' 'mesh'), so I'm using the blogging app this time. I think it might just be a regional thing, not just us. Haven't used it in a while. It's ok to use it occasionally. 

Finished formatting/creating the print version of the cookbook. I'm surprised I finished it already. Tomorrow, I'll start making the covers. It'll be interesting if I finish it then, too. It won't just be the art, but also figuring out the description. It might be something similar to the preface. Not exactly, but similar idea to it. There's not much left to do besides that and filling out the publishing forms. 

For German, I finished the Abs. Ob. 3 lesson, and started the V. Con. 2 lesson. Both these lessons are long. The first one had 8 parts to it, the 2nd one has 10. Most of the level 1 stuff has 5 or 6 parts. Usually, they increase the number with higher levels of the same lessons, so this is weird. I'm surprised I got as much done as I did. Only missed 3 questions. Not bad. After I finish the current one, the next lesson is on philosophy. That should be interesting. A little nervous they have a skull for its icon. I only have 8 lessons left of the course. However, for most of them, I've only completed the first level. There are 4 more to each lesson. So, even though I'm close to the 'end', it's not truly the end. Probably will take a long time to finish it all. I'm also curious about other languages like Chinese. Maybe even going back to Russian. Studied a little of that in college. 

Read more of the manga Alive. There were too many things going on at once. Everyone was fighting each other. At some point they seemed to be going crazy. An outsider tried to snap Taisuke out of it, but Hiro killed her in an instant. All that was left of her was part of her hair braid, and there was a crater where she had been standing. Taisuke screamed and seemed to 'break' at that moment. He triggered the 'heart' to come out of the lake. It's like a power orb. One of Katsumata's members immediately got it and absorbed it. She soon regretted it, because it didn't 'choose' her. It made her explode, and people could see her past in the black haze. She was annoying, but it was an awful way to go. The orb ended up choosing Hiro. When he absorbed it, there was a bright light, and that's where I stopped. It was also revealed that Katsumata's power is manipulation. He essentially has all his 'comrades' brainwashed. They'll do anything he says. He's annoying in different ways. Taisuke seems to have powered up, too. It seems like it's close to the end, yet there's a lot more chapters to this manga. I'm not even halfway through. 

I normally feel pretty nauseous, but today has seemed especially bad. It was made worse when I heard Tasha throwing up on the banister. Then, even more so when I saw it and had to clean it up. I felt like running to the toilet several times as I cleaned it off. Often when she throws up it's either clear or a hairball. That's usually not bad to deal with. This time was worse. There was actually food and other stuff, and was a lot. It stunk more that way, too. It must have felt awful, and I do hope she feels better now. Cleaning it up tired me out for a while. I didn't need that drama. 

When it was time to groom Rosie, she was in the litter box, so I waited. Like usual, she scratched the bookcase and wall near it after she was done. I stopped her, and she ran out. Then, ran back in and just scratched some more. After stopping her a few times, all she wanted to do was clean herself. So, I told her I wouldn't be using the mitt today. A little while later she begged me to use the mitt. I couldn't say no after a few minutes of her doing that...I give in too easily with her.

In addition to the usual cleaning, I finished dusting my desk. My computer was packed with dust. I hadn't seriously dusted it in a long time. That can be dangerous. I used both a towel and an air duster on it. When I blew the air duster over the fan, it was like an avalanche of dust. Good that a lot of that stuff is gone now. The printer had quite a bit, too. I kept sneezing every few minutes while I dusted today. I didn't sneeze much with the other areas. I guess it shows that it was the worst area so far. It probably was making me sicker. There isn't much left to dust in my room, and I don't think the rest of it is too bad. Needs to be done, but it's not like how my desk was. After I finish dusting, I'll vacuum the room. I haven't done that in a while. Should be nice when I finish that, too. Setting a time to clean every weekday has helped a lot. 

Limiting my social media time has helped me, as well. Facebook was like the biggest time sucker, much as I still like it. Now my eyes are feeling healthier, I have more time for other stuff, and I'm not staying up late on it. That's to name just a few of the benefits I've had so far. I save most of my social media stuff for the weekend, although even with that I've set a time limit. On weekdays, I might post personal posts (my blog, Instagram, personal status on fb, etc.), an article I might have found through my Google news alerts, and check notifications. I don't go through my feeds during that time. I miss a lot of what friends and family post during the week, which is one of the only downsides. I could go through their posts first when I go through my 'feed' during the weekend. That'd be a way to stay on top of it. 

Started watching Chosen on Netflix last night. It's more of a Chinese 3-part special, than a regular show. I think it's a remake of an American one. It's a really intense thriller. It's good so far. It's about a family (parents, son, and grandpa) from China visiting Australia, and the father being forced to play a killing game. The 'chosen' person gets a box with a pic that has a time signature and name of the next person they have to kill. There's a gun underneath the pic. If they don't kill that person, they threaten your family. Another chosen person will be assigned to kill you, too. The father doesn't want to hurt anyone. It's interesting hearing both Chinese and English. Especially, the Australian accent mixed in there. Each part is pretty long, so I'm watching an hour each time. 

8th of Sivan

Wrote more of Alliance 3. I'm surprised how much I was able to write, considering I gave myself a little less time. I think I settled on a title for the cookbook: My Mother's Treasure Trove of Recipes. This way she's mentioned somewhere in the title, and it seemed like her treasure in a way. It fits to me. I didn't want it corny, plain, or too weird. I always save figuring out the title for just before formatting my books. It's a little late. Titles can be difficult. I might have figured out A3's as well. It might be Alliance: Darkness. The last one was Alliance: Dawn. I'm seeing a theme with that series. If I've figured that 3rd one out already, it's earlier than usual. I haven't finished writing the story for that one yet. Not sure how long it'll end up. It's 116 pages long at the moment. Roughly twice that if you factor in a regular paperback size. 

I also started looking at formatting an ebook version of the cookbook. At least, starting to reacquaint myself with the guidelines that both kdp (or Amazon) and Smashwords have. I could probably just copy what I did with previous books. I still remember a lot of the process, but I want to make sure. It should go faster than before, if I'm already pretty familiar with the process. Mainly simply skimming those guidelines. That's enough to remember certain parts for me right away. I've done this process 4 other times...The paperback formatting is much easier, since kdp has a blank template to fill in. However, it's a lot of copy and paste and can be time consuming. It's kind of like that for the ebook, too. I normally use .docx, but both kdp and Smashwords recommend .doc for the document. So, I usually make another one in that format. I end up with 3 different copies of one book. One that's the original, one that's for the ebook, and the final one that's for the paperback.

Finished the German sports and 'perfect 2' lessons. I only missed 2 this time. That's pretty good. The next one is on art. It has 6 parts for the first level. That's a lot. Should be interesting to see what that one's like. 

The manga Alive has been getting really intense. They all made it to the lake. Apparently, if all the power users battle it out, the 'heart' will appear from the lake. We still don't know what that is. Yuta was badly injured. Megu was forced to hold onto Taisuke or she'd die. So, he has to maneuver around and fight with her clinging to him. When she wasn't being mind controlled, she seemed tough and kept coming up with clever ways to escape. Now, she seems so weak and like a 'damsel in distress'. It's kind of annoying. She's the only one there without a power, though. 

For cleaning, I managed to get some dusting in. It looks like I didn't get far, but the area I got to in my bedroom was really bad. There must have been an inch of dust. Not having Endust makes it take a little longer, and sometimes I can't reach far enough into the cracks. It's a lot better now, though. 

Started drawing Tzvi's head/bust from Alliance. I'm not happy with how he looks at the moment. I'll just try to improve on him tomorrow. Haven't drawn in a little while, so that might be why he's not looking right at the moment.

Started watching The Rain on Netflix last night. It's a Danish show. I'm unsure if I like it so far, but it was only the first episode. For most of the episode they were stuck in a bunker. The rain carries a virus. The bunkers are apparently the only safe places. 

Also, watched more of One Piece last night. Luffy and some of his crew finally made it to Zou Island, where the other crew members went before them. Zou in Japanese means elephant. I knew that before, but I wasn't sure if there was another meaning. Turns out the entire island is on the back of a slowly moving ancient elephant. It reminds me of some sort of story that I can't place. The creator was clearly influenced by epic pirate legends, the Odyssey, Gulliver's Travels, and much more. Larger than life/epic stories. I love that sort of thing. Should be interesting to see what the island is really like, and what the rest of the crew is up to. Last time they appeared they were being attacked. They didn't show much of island itself, either.

1st of Sivan

It's the beginning of the month of Sivan on the Jewish calendar. It's also Rosh Chodesh Sivan. On the first of every month, there's a holiday, too. It's moon based and considered a women's holiday. This also means Shavuot is coming up. We celebrate and study the Torah all night and day of it. Also have lots of dairy, like cheesecake. 

Had a hard time sleeping last night, too. Ended up getting up later than I wanted again. It's understandable considering how warm my room was. I had a window fan up for a couple of hours before I went to bed. I thought it was making it too cool by the time I was getting ready for bed. So, I put it away, but left my window open. It quickly warmed up again. I was too tired to get the fan again...The cats also fought a lot in my room. Probably to get to the window. That was fun. Tonight should be better. It'll be a lot cooler, and the rest of the forecast looks like it'll be nice and have decent temps. 

Rosie managed to rip off the butterfly and wire from her new toy (we got it a few months ago). That had to have required a lot of force. She's a strong cat, so it doesn't surprise me much. I was thinking about looking for replacements for the butterflies, but find it odd to have to keep replacing them. Plus, now it'll be hard to get the broken wire 'stub' still attached to the machine off. There should be a similar toy out there that doesn't need constant replacements. She's really upset that we threw out what was left of it today. She has so many other toys! 

Didn't get to writing Alliance 3, the cookbook, or drawing today, either. Did much better than I thought I would in German. Only missed one question this time. About halfway through the lesson now, so it's a bit long. 

Read more of Alive. It seems that Taisuke's power isn't just heat based. He did seem different compared to how the others gained their powers. He can stop falling midair and land safely, use heat, and now heal or negate another 'comrades' ability. I'm guessing on the last one. Yuta had completely petrified and was starting to crumble, but Taisuke held onto him and begged for him to come back to 'life'. He suddenly went back to normal. While Taisuke was holding him, he did feel warm. So, it might still be heat based. They'll probably find out soon. They met a pastor with the power to petrify. He kills people, because he thinks he's ending their suffering and sending them back to G-d. Also, that people should be grateful for what he's doing. They defeated him, and he's taking them to the lake where Katsumata's group is meeting to get the 'heart'. Still don't know what that 'heart' is. 

Managed to get some cleaning done. I dusted the walls in my bedroom, along with what was on those walls, and the closet. There's a huge painting my mom did when she was in high school that hangs over the head of the bed. It's heavy, too. In fact, when we put it up, I thought that it was going to fall and crush me in the middle of the night. It's of a high school friend playing the guitar. I don't think I've ever dusted it until now. I was afraid I'd take some of the painting itself off along with the dust. So much dust came off of it! It looks much clearer now. 

Tried the next bread on my 'journey', which is rosemary olive oil bread, for snack. It was tougher than I expected. After adding margarine and heating it up in the microwave, it softened up nicely. Smelled amazing, too. Part of that toughness might be because I didn't have it for a few days. It might have gone slightly stale. It was a decent bread.

I plan to have some 'fresh' 3-cheese tortellini with pesto for dinner. Got both the pasta and sauce a couple of days ago, so it's not as 'fresh' now. I think I had them both in the past and they were really good. 

Watched more of One Piece last night. I've got less than 100 episodes to go until I catch up to the current ones. Not bad. It's a really long series. This time they mainly went over what happened to Sabo. Everyone thought he died as a little kid. He had amnesia after that 'accident'. His memories only came back after reading about Ace's death a couple of years ago, which crushed him. Ace and Luffy are his adopted brothers. I'm glad Luffy was able to meet with Sabo at Dressrosa. Luffy was still asleep during what I watched last night. Sabo told his story to Luffy's crew, and left without saying goodbye to him. 

National Empanada Day!

It's been a while since I've had an empanada. I love the beef ones and peach ones. I think I saw empanadas as a dessert on Azteca's menu last time I was there. So, at least I know one place has them locally. 

It's warmer today than what was in the forecast. It got up to 80 degrees. I think it was about the same yesterday. We're not normally that warm this time of year. I was going to go for a walk after dinner yesterday, but I think it took me so long to figure out dinner that I just skipped it. Hopefully, I can do it tonight. Maybe I should think about dinner sooner, too. 

Managed to get everything but that walk done yesterday. So far, I've gotten everything on my 'schedule' done today. It really feels like a full day this way. I get an actual morning, which I didn't feel like I was getting before. I think Rosie's a little upset I'm not stopping to pet her as often...She has been biting, meowing, tripping me, and trying to scratch my pant leg more often. It's annoying.

Wrote a lot more of Alliance 3 today. My computer didn't slow down like yesterday when I wrote. In fact, even the internet connection has been more stable. Yay! A3 is up to 108 pages now. In normal book form that'd be roughly 216 pages. That's a lot. Finally got to the next chapter. The previous one ended up being over 20 pages, which is longer than my usual. Still trying to decide if I want to split that one up. I'm getting a pretty steady stream of ideas for A3 now. I did hit a block a couple of weeks ago, and wasn't sure where I wanted to take the story. The new ideas aren't what I expected, but have taken it to an interesting turn. Not sure how long this sequel will be. Feels like I just got into it. I don't want it to be too long, though.

Finished the generalized editing of the cookbook today. It's now a page shorter, at 102 pages. I'm all good with making it a little shorter. Next, I'll get the sources together. Then, I might look at other cookbook designs to make sure I like my current one. Eventually, I'll redo the preface/prologue. After that, I'll be formatting it for both the ebook and print versions. Still have quite a lot to do with this one. I still think it'll be ready to be published before A3. 

The lesson today in Duolingo for German was on abstract objects. Did better than I expected in this one. I think I might have missed 2 this time. Not bad. Next time it'll be on animals. I've liked the previous animal lessons, so that should be fun. I'm thinking of listening to the Rammstein CDs that I got and used to listen to as a teen. I thought the band was cool and still do. Their songs are still being used in some epic amv's (anime music videos). It might be interesting to pick out the German that I know now. I used to think their song Ich Will meant 'I will', but it's really 'I want'. A bit different. There are a couple of other bands I've heard of that I can look more into. Might look around Germany in Google Maps or other map apps during the weekends. It'd be cool to look around there. I could even cook German food if I wanted to. As well as watch their news somehow. With all this it'll feel like I really am in Germany. I know it won't really be the same, though. 

Read more of the manga, Alive. It's a very interesting series. Taisuke's (main character) group is getting closer to where Katsumata's group, or their adversaries, are. The reporters found Taisuke's group and are trying to hide their identities. They claim that they love to go to scenes where strange incidents have occurred. Like the police station that was blasted full of holes, and there was only one survivor. I'm really not liking Hirose. He's the main character's 'friend'. The one who used to get bullied and Taisuke would defend and fight them off. He's now with Katsumata and kidnapped Megumi who is also a close friend of both of them. Although, Hirose apparently wants his relationship with her to be 'more'. Megumi's the only one with Katsumata's group that doesn't have powers. At least, not yet. Not sure if she will. Katsumata's group is going to search for a 'heart'. Even the other members of the group don't know what that really means. They just know they have to have a certain amount of members, so they've been collecting them. 

Managed to clean my bathroom counter. That included things like the soap dish that was building up crud, my q-tip holder (a ceramic bowl) that had a layer of thick dust, etc. It really needed to be done. Even though it wasn't that long ago since I last cleaned that stuff. Yesterday, I did miscellaneous things for the 'cleaning' part of the day. Things like washing Rosie's big water bowl and giving her some fresh water, laundry stuff, and more. I might finally get to dusting and vacuuming my bedroom soon, if I keep this up. Haven't done either of those in a very long time. I also will eventually get to looking under my bed. It has been much longer since I went through that stuff. I remember cramming a bunch of stuff under there. I know tissues sometimes make their way in there, too. I'm a little scared to look...Since I don't really know. There could be hair, but I'm more nervous about finding bugs. I don't think there are any, but I occasionally see tiny black bugs near my bed. It's been a while since I've seen them. It still scares me a bit. I think most of the stuff I'll find I'll want to toss. 

Finished drawing Nico's head. I experimented a bit with the shape of his eyes. I'm still unsure what my style for my characters' eyes really is. This seemed better than the previous ones, though. He has the shortest and straightest haircut so far, so I didn't have to spend much time on that. I'll ink him tomorrow. I'll probably draw Rakesh, too. His design is a bit 'different' in my head. His eyes have no pupils. So, that alone makes him unique compared to the others.

Last night I watched more of the Singaporean drama, Mystic Whispers, on Netflix. It's funny, cute, and dark all at the same time. The 2 episodes (they're only a half hour each) I watched were about a ghost that had been overweight since she was a child. She was constantly trying to diet. Her dieting got more severe and she exercised intensely after falling for a coworker. Nothing worked, though. She eventually gave up one night and started binging on whatever was in sight. That's how she died. Before she went insane with the dieting she actually looked cute. She was very heavy-set, but it somehow suited her. She tried to possess Xiao Yun and lose weight as a ghost that way. She said she'd only leave Xiao alone when she lost any amount of weight. Xiao is one of the main characters. She can hear ghosts. That's why she tries to drown them out all the time with her music blaring in her noise-canceling headphones. Ji En is the other main character. He's a mortician and an exorcist (probably a fake one). Every time Xiao and Ji hold hands they can see the ghosts. Ji created a device for them in order to clearly listen to them, and they help them move on. They tried to get her to lose weight. The other side of this is Xiao is already very skinny. In fact, there's a running thing with Ji making fun of her being like bamboo. Apparently when the ghost possessed her she weighed as much as the ghost did...Her physique never changed, though. Nothing worked. At the end, she found out that the coworker she loved felt the same way about her. He thought she was adorable. That helped her move on. It was a sad yet good one. 

Watched more of One Piece last night, too. This arc has been really stretching. I'm still going through the Doflamingo one. I think it's close to the end of that arc. They've taken out most of the family's executives. There are only 3, including Doflamingo himself, of them left. They've also already rescued the Tontatta's princess, Mansherry. Law's not doing too well, but I still think he has something up his sleeve. I hope he doesn't die. I like him a lot. I have a feeling Mansherry will heal him. I won't mention his main injury, but he'll need her help. It's pretty brutal. He's normally the one to heal people. But, his ability is surgical. Hers is different. Plus, he probably can't perform surgery on himself, especially right now.