National Meatball Day!

Mood:

This holiday was actually on Wednesday. They're like little balls of awesome!Although, some can be large. I've made some beef, lamb, chicken, and (I think) turkey ones before. The lamb meatballs were interesting. I think it was a Greek recipe. There was mint and cinnamon mixed in them. The chicken ones were for a Japanese corn soup recipe. Meatballs can be good in spaghetti, which is how I usually have them, or in a sandwich. Some are just great by themselves with their own sauce.

I'm starting to get back into my walks again. Yay!It's been a while. I've felt sick off and on for a while, and that's sapped my motivation to get out there.Anyways, I'm doing both 2-mile walks again. I hope to increase it to 3 of them in the near future. 

The weather's been kind of wild lately.So, every time I go it's like an adventure. During yesterday morning's walk, it was incredibly windy (we lost power overnight because of it) half the time. There was a mist-like rain every so often, and then it'd downpour. At times, it was nice and sunny with no wind or rain. I guess it also makes it exciting. I had put my hair up in a bun beforehand, so it wouldn't get in my face. Ended up having some tendrils come out anyways, but at least it wasn't all of it in my face. Tried to keep the hood to my coat up when it really started to rain, but it flew off. I probably looked like a mess...Today's morning walk was just nice and sunny. It's cooler, temperature wise, than it looks out there.

I'm also back to doing my sit-ups on a regular basis. I'm starting off with 10 twice a day, again. A good starting point. Trying to stick more to the way I want to eat, too. As close to 1200 calories a day as I can. I normally spread those out between 5 meals. My range that I set for myself is 1200-1600. I won't go below 1200. If I want to splurge every once in a while, I might allow myself up to 1800. But, no more than that. For a while, since I was feeling lousy and sick, I didn't care as much. It actually feels good to get back to it.I don't feel really hungry most of the time. Except for when I wake up, but I think that's normal. In order to have my meds more balanced, it's best for me to have 5 small meals throughout the day, too. They even say it's best in general for people with IBD. Still hope to, in the future, talk to a nutritionist about what I need more of. And, then I'll jumble things around again. I know I've had malabsorption issues (particularly with protein), so I'm trying to have things as balanced as I can for now. Doesn't mean I should load up on calories until I talk to someone about it. I've gotten back into tracking it with My Fitness Pal's app, as well. They apparently don't like the amount of calories I've had so far this week. Saying it's too little.

I also rescheduled that appointment with my gastroenterologist. It was going to be March 17th, but apparently she didn't tell her staff that she'd still be on vacation at that time. They called a little while ago, telling me to reschedule. So, this time it's for April 4th, and pretty early in the morning. Especially early for me, since it's kind of a ways out there. I asked about getting a later time, and they said the next one that's in the afternoon is in June. She wanted to see me last month...So, I don't think that works. I'm having some more issues that I might bring up through an email to her. Her staff will probably get it, but at least they'll know. I don't mind them helping me while she's gone. Not sure what they can do about it, though. I can't really do one of those nasty tests she wanted me to do with this 'problem'. Not sure they can do a sigmoidoscopy, either. It'll be my first time, and I'm nervous about it.I want to be knocked out for it, but I'm not sure if they'll really do that. She also wants me to do another blood test in the middle of the month. She didn't ask me to do it last month, because she wanted to make sure the prednisone was out of my system. That way she can see if it helped at all with absorbing azathioprine. She seemed doubtful when I talked to her last. She said she'd talk more about remicade and humira at the appointment, if the tests come back the way she expects them to. I might have some things to bring up, too. 

Also, my ears have been hurting a lot lately. They started hurting around the time I felt the most sick last month. I have a strange Eustachian tube problem, where my ears have too much wax and fluid. Sometimes just the fluid moving around really hurts. It can make internal noises, too. (It makes some really freaky sounds.) Of course, I'm the only one that can hear it, since it's just fluid moving. It's unusual, but I'm told by doctors to use Q-tips in my ears every day. Of course, in a careful way. I usually use a kit to clean out my ears once a month, but haven't for a couple of months. That might be my problem. Also, weather and pressure changes can affect it. So can getting water in my ears. When it's really bad, I lose my sense of balance, too. I'll have to clean it out and see if it gets better. It feels like my eardrums are going to burst or the ears themselves are going to rip apart, though.I can usually hear extremely well after I clean them.

Finished reading Asklepios, yesterday. Seemed like a very abrupt ending. They left so many things up in the air. Makes me feel like the mangaka was forced to end it early.There were a lot of twists in the end, too. Interesting to see who was actually on Buzz's side and who wasn't. And, one person wasn't exactly who he claimed to be. They even ended with hints that Pare might still be alive. Caligula, one of the most ruthless knights, was saved by Buzz. He still considers him a heretic, and he has made it his mission in life to kill anyone who's deemed a heretic by the church. So, when he found out he was saved by him, he immediately tried to taunt Buzz into killing him. He thought it was too much to be saved by the 'enemy'. He also lost an arm and a leg after his canon backfired on himself. His remaining arm was injured so badly, he couldn't use a sword beforehand. (He tried to shoot an arrow at them, but it didn't work.) I don't think he could hurt them after what he's gone through. The last scene with him, was that he had just escaped the room they were letting him rest in. He was crawling slowly through the woods with the help of a small knife. Kind of sad. The church also officially stopped calling Buzz a heretic.

I'm really liking One Punch Man so far. It seems like a normal 'superhero' sort of show. But, it's very unique in humor, interesting characters, the way Saitama acts, and both Genos and Saitama's powers are off the charts. Saitama more so than Genos. Saitama is so powerful, he sometimes underestimates it. Both Saitama and Genos decided to take the 'Hero Exams' in order to join the Hero Association. Genos got perfect scores in both the written and physical exam. He ended up being S-ranked. S-ranked heroes are the highest ranked. Saitama didn't do very well on the written exam, but was too good for the physical one. He broke most of the machines. So, he ended up being C-ranked. Yet, the people who assigned them ranks believe he's probably S level. He just didn't care much about the written exam. His attention span is really short, too. So, the organization will keep a close eye on both Genos and him. Saitama's not sure what his superhero name should be. Probably will end up being 'One Punch Man'...Not sure about Genos. He's a cyborg, and has become Saitama's disciple. Saitama reluctantly agreed to it.

I'm looking at more ways of promoting my novel. Smashwords has some interesting guides for that. I was going to print off some fliers, and put them up in a bunch of places. (Including around our neighborhood.) But, I'm really low on black ink. I'm also curious about other ways, for the time being.I don't have to do the fliers right away, anyways. I think I have to plan where I want them a bit more, too. I did ask those 2 congregations if they could promote it in their newsletters. The one I really don't care much about anymore, hasn't responded. The other one said they'll promote it on their facebook page instead. I'm cool with that. At least people that I know from that congregation will have a chance to see it. They also linked my official facebook page for that novel in their post about it. I'm not expecting a reply from the other congregation.(Just thought I'd ask both of them, just in case.) Also, I noticed that a lot of their members are in Israel right now, so I'm not sure if they even saw the email yet. Oh well. I might fill out a Smashwords interview thing. They say it helps some authors get noticed more. You get to choose the questions, and can even create some of them. Sounds fun. I might add hyperlinks to the novels in my forum signatures. I think I have the first novel hyperlinked in a couple of them. 

I managed to play my clarinet for 2 days in a row.Still doing 45 minutes of it. If I end up doing it more often, I might make the practice time 50 minutes instead. It felt good to play again. I'm also trying to go over pieces more until I get the spots I mess up down. I used to go over pieces so much that I got sick of them. But, I think I need to go back to that sort of thing. I don't think I'll improve much if I just play straight through a piece, and then immediately move on to the next. I'll probably continue to mess up the piece in the same spots. After playing the ones I mess up on correctly, I can start honing it in more to perfecting the whole thing. 

I started drawing out designs for symbols that represent each short story in my 2nd novel. (There are 12 of them.) After I'm through with them, I'll put them up on deviantART, and then make a Youtube vid with them. I'm a little stuck on symbols for a couple of them, but I'm sure I'll figure something out later. Some are really easy. Like a ribbon for the story, Ribbon. Or, a mask for Faceless. I'm also trying to decide if I want more than one symbol for each story.

日本語

 Studied compounds for 散, and started studying the kanji 残. In general, 散 means scatter, disperse, spend, squander. 散光 or さんこう (sankou): scattered light. 散在 or さんざい (sanzai): to be scattered, straggle, be found here and there. 散財 or さんざい (sanzai): expense, waste of money, extravagance. 散策 or さんさく (sansaku): walking, strolling, roaming, wandering, exploring. 散々 or さんざん (sanzan): thoroughly, completely, utterly; severely, harshly, terribly, miserably, wretchedly, badly. 散発 or さんぱつ (sanpatsu): sporadic, scattering. 散髪 or さんぱつ (sanpatsu): (having a) haircut, hair-dressing. 散布 or さんぷ (sanpu): scattering, sprinkling, spraying. 散文 or さんぶん (sanbun): prose. 散歩 or さんぽ (sanpo): walk, stroll. 散漫 or さんまん (sanman): vague, distracted, loose, half-hearted, diffuse. When 残 is pronounced as ざん (zan): remaining, leftover, excess. As 残る or のこ.る (noko.ru): to remain, be left. I also practiced a bit on JapaneseClass' site. Next time I might do more of the chapter tests. Haven't done them in a while.

Youtube:
An interesting Pandora Hearts amv. The series has Alice and Wonderland elements, so the song fits:

Tu B'Shevat 5776

Mood:

The holiday starts tonight, and ends tomorrow night. 'Tu' stands for 2 Hebrew letters that add up to 15. (Gematria is a numerology based on Hebrew letters. Certain meanings can be derived from it.) It falls on the 15th of the month of Shevat. (That's where the 'Tu' comes from.) 5776 is the year we're in on the Jewish calendar. It's also known as the New Year of the Trees. People celebrate it by eating fruits and nuts, planting trees, and having special seders. Seder lit. means 'order', but is also a special ritual meal. You go through symbolic foods/drinks in order. Many people are familiar with the Passover seder. For this one, you go through the seasons, try at least a certain amount of fruits/nuts from certain categories, drink at least 4 cups of wine (or juice, if you're like me), etc. Basically showing appreciation of nature.This seder has its roots in Kabbalah and it's having a pretty recent revival. Many people refer to this holiday as the Jewish Arbor Day.

Started tapering down the prednisone last Thursday. I was feeling more and more antsy or jittery, and very sleepy. Sometimes at the same time. Which is a weird feeling. That's gotten a bit better since I went down a pill. My nausea is a lot better, and most of the time it doesn't pop up. I think it's mostly when I eat too fast, now. I still occasionally have joint pain. Not as bad as before, though. I still feel a strange pain in my chest. The same one since I started taking it. I don't think it's a really big thing, and maybe that will go down as I taper more off of it, too. It might have to do with my stomach. I don't know.They did say it can cause stomach pain, but I'm not used to this kind. I have felt a weird muscle pain. I'm not sure how to describe it.I thought one of the times it felt really bad, my upper right thigh was cramping up horribly. No amount of movement changed it. Lasted for a while. It didn't really have a 'piercing' sort of pain, like I would have with cramps. It felt deeper and like it was searing. I've been getting similar pain more often in my upper right arm. Not as intense. I usually notice it before going to bed. I've read that it might affect people's muscles. So, I guess I'll just have to see what happens over time. Also, as I went down a pill, I noticed that I'm getting more headaches. Took me a while to fall asleep last night, because it just wouldn't ease up.

My gastroenterologist wanted me to schedule an actual physical appointment with her for in a couple of weeks. I say physical, because all the appointments since the end of July have been over the phone. It's a trek to get over to that clinic. So, I thought I might try to make one for the beginning of next month, and called them. They said the closest available appointment would be in mid-March. She's apparently very popular.It's quite a ways out, so they said they'd confer with her nurses to see if there could be a closer date. A couple hours later I got a voicemail from them. They said they made an appointment time for me on January 25th. At least a couple of things wrong with this.First, they made my appointment for me, and told me I had to confirm it. I wasn't sure if they threw out the other appointment I had made. They could have just suggested the date, or said call us back we might have a better time. Also, this would make it earlier than even my gastro wanted it to be. So, I called back. The person on the other end was very apologetic, and switched the appointment date to the same March one again. Not sure how my gastro's going to take it. She might be used to that sort of thing anyways. Especially with how popular she seems. 

I have a few things that I might want to bring up while I'm there. It might just be easier in person with some of it. I noticed for a while after I lost so much weight, that my abdomen/belly is going down at a slower rate than everything else. This scared me at first, knowing about Mom's abdominal tumor. I know it wasn't the same, but still scared me.The sit-ups have been helping a bit. Another sign it's not what she had. I noticed about a week ago, that when I turn to the side and look in a mirror, my spine seems to do a weird 's' thing. (Or, something similar.) I never had problems with scoliosis as a kid. We were tested each year, and I was fine every time. But, right where I see the most 'belly' or thicker part, my spine seems to be a lot more concave. I'm actually getting partially defined abs, because of all the sit-ups. So, it was interesting to see. It almost seems like my spine is pushing that stuff out, and making it appear that I have more of a belly than I do. Finding this out at first, I thought it was very interesting, and almost reassuring in a way. But, once I thought about it more, it seems like it sounds a bit serious. I've heard that IBD can mess with your bones in general, possibly stripping away nutrients from it. They can become more brittle this way, too. Some meds for it can actually dissolve bone. So, this got me a bit more worried. I'll bring this up then. It might not be a big deal, but at least she might look into it. 

Another thing I want to bring up: do I really have Crohn's or do I have Ulcerative Colitis? Everything seems to point to Crohn's, including the colonoscopy/endoscopy. Except for that one IBD blood test that indicated I had UC. She told me that test can be inaccurate or produce false positives. So, I want to know for sure.I know that there can be Crohn's that just affects the colon, and UC only affects the colon. The only difference with these, really, is that one (Crohn's) affects more layers of it than the other. Also, Crohn's might be in more patches, rather than one section. If someone with UC has their colon taken out, they're a lot more likely to stay in remission for the rest of their lives. With Crohn's, it might travel, and slow the progression of the disease. This is at least what I've learned so far. According to the colonoscopy/endoscopy, my stomach and part of my duodenum were slightly affected as well. (Not nearly as much as my colon.) This would be more of an indicator of Crohn's. A lot of the treatments are the same, at least. I just would like a more definitive feel/answer for it. Might not get one, but I at least want to try and see. I might ask for a barium x-ray (I think) of my small intestines. Sometimes that helps with narrowing it down. They can't get to the small intestines with the colonoscopy/endoscopy. They can pretty much get to everywhere but that. Or, she may bring up that type of thing herself at the appointment. That might be partly why she wanted to see me in person, too.So, I don't know. 

I finished figuring out descriptions for my nightmare anthology of short stories, Sweet Endless Terror. I realized I wanted to have more of the description down before I sent it off to be published. I'm actually getting pretty excited about it. Just the idea that I'm going to publish a 2nd book is pretty cool to me!It might take a while for it to be fully approved by both review phases. The first one doesn't take long, and it converts the book into multiple ebook formats. I think they dub it the 'meat grinder'. After it passes that, it's available through the Smashwords catalog. The second phase is manual and more in depth. After it's approved through that (it usually takes a couple of weeks for new books), it goes into their 'premium' catalog and gets distributed almost everywhere. Like I mentioned before, I'm thinking of having it as a pre-order first before it goes 'live'. They go through the review processes slightly differently, but you still have to be approved by both in the end. So, I'll see how that goes.  

For Shabbat, I did the same thing I did last time. I stayed off of electronics, and started/ended it on time. It still felt good.Kind of refreshing in many ways. I read about a third of Sanctuary by Faye Kellerman, Friday night. It's a much thicker book than the last one I read from the series. I just started it that night. It's really good, and I didn't want to stop reading it, but I started to get really sleepy at a certain point.I like this one more than the last one, too. The killer's identity is a lot more hidden, and you don't know what they're thinking. With the last one, Day of Atonement, they kept going back and forth between the detectives/family's perspective, and the killer's/kidnapped kid's perspective. It was slightly annoying at times.This one's a lot more straightforward, and it feels like there's more mystery this way. So far a wealthy family of 4 went missing. The mother and father had been found, and were killed and buried in the mountains close to home. The 2 sons are still missing. Something seemed off about the home, too. Another family, don't know if they are related with the current case, decided to stay with Peter and Rina. (Peter's the main detective in the series, and Rina's his wife. She occasionally helps out. Especially when it involves the orthodox Jewish community.) It was a mom and her 5 kids. They were trying to take a vacation away from the dad, since he was acting strangely. The dad was a diamond dealer. Same as the father in the current case. He was killed near his home, and stuffed in a locker. As soon as Peter heard about this the mom and kids disappeared. The car they had rented had stopped on a freeway, and had slashed tires. There was no one inside when Peter investigated. It's interesting that it might be related. I hope they're not dead, too. 

It was also a special Shabbat called: Shabbat Shirah or Shabbat of Song. Both the Torah and Haftarah portions have songs in them. The Torah one looks really interesting in the actual scroll. It's stylized a bit more with wide spaces in between each line. This one's the song sung by the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea, and the Egyptians drowning in it. The Haftarah one has the Song of Deborah. Both of these are pretty violent. In the Passover seder, when we're going over the story, it's bittersweet when the Egyptians are defeated. Basically happy that we're free, but disturbed that anyone died. But, in this part of the Torah, there seemed to be no sorrowful response to it. Maybe the rabbis elaborated on it for the seder. Or, maybe that comes up later...The Deborah one was just very blunt. Some people observe Shabbat Shirah by singing more songs, and playing tambourines. 

Read and studied from the Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides. Maimonides is always interesting, but the type with this book is really small. Might need a magnifying glass next time...The first part was on the concept that we're made in the image of G-d. It's not that we physically look like him. I tend to refer to G-d as him, because I'm used to it. But, many refer to him as her, as well. Some have other pronouns. Just depends on how people want to refer to him. According to Maimonides, it's our intellect. We have the ability to create, think, study the world, etc. That's how we're alike. I've always liked that idea, too. 

Havdalah was a bit easier this time.Might be because I'm getting more used to doing it on my own. I'm noticing that the candle burns up pretty quickly. Not exactly surprising, considering it has multiple wicks. A bit sad, because I got it in Israel.At least it's being used now. 

I started the 2nd season of Haikyuu on Friday. Interesting start so far. Also, the 2nd season of Ansatsu Kyoushitsu or Assassination Classroom started recently. It was really good during its first season. Started watching a brand new anime a couple of weeks ago called Divine Gate. It looks promising. A bit much all at once right now, though. (Kind of similar to Kekkai Sensen that way. They hit you with a bunch of things, and then you understand more as you go along.) Fairy Tail started a new arc called Fairy Tail Zero. It's about the beginning of the guild, Fairy Tail. I like the founder, Mavis, a lot. She's very intelligent, unique, positive, had a horrible childhood, believes in fairies, tends to not wear shoes, looks ethereal, tough, and more. She spent a good chunk of her life virtually alone, except for one friend, on in island. So far this arc has been interesting, too. The current Shogun arc in Gintama has been amazing!Really high quality, awesome fights, nice and short flashbacks, very touching, the humor is still there (although toned down a bit), lots of surprises, and more. It seems to be one of their best arcs so far. I think it'll end during the next episode. Should be interesting to see what happens with it afterwards.

Started a manga called 6 no Trigger, or Trigger of 6 on Monday. (Some translate it to 6 Trigger.) It has a very interesting concept behind it, but has been violent, too. Some of the violent ones can be good. As long as there's a reason behind it. This one's about an assassin, named Tsubame, who shares his body with 3 other people. They switch control of him by switching to different mechanical arms. His appearance changes with each one, too. One of them is a quiet little kid named Penguin, who has amazing sniper skills. Another one's named Washi, and he has a huge gattling gun crafted to his shoulder to mow down his enemies. And, the last one's a woman named Suzume who wields dual pistols. Tsubame prefers rifles and martial arts. Should be interesting to find out how Tsubame got that way. It's a relatively short manga, but should still be interesting. 

Started the manga, Asklepios on Friday. It seems interesting, too. An order has been sent out to hunt down the existence of an Asklepios, a Greek demon G-d of medicine, whom the Church believes is practicing unorthodox methods. Buzz is the head of a family of doctors (I think he's the last one), and the Church believes his family are those demons. So, he's gone into hiding, and has helped people silently along the way. Every time he helps people they sing his praises, and he immediately runs away. He thinks the Church is always out to get him, so he wants to keep a very low profile. He's terrified of the officers that are sent by them to the towns he's stayed at. He also refused to do surgery until someone showed up to protect him, and got shot. She wants him to become more visible, and boldly help as many people as he can. Apparently his family has interesting medical abilities. They can monitor people's vital signs just by looking at them. Buzz seems very skittish, but that's to be expected. This one also seems to be short. 

Also, went to a town hall meeting about the trees that were being torn done in the greenbelt behind us. It was more like a demonstration/q and a thing. A few charts displayed with people to explain, a huge layout of the roads for the neighborhood and area, many officials around those explaining things, and people asked them questions and voiced their concerns. Interesting to see the house blown up like it was, to have a better view of what's behind us, and to see what they plan to do. The mayor was there and talked a bit to us. She had similar concerns. She couldn't be apart of the project, because she lived within the area. But, she can relay concerns, suggest things, etc. now. They do plan to tear down all of the greenbelt behind us. There's going to be a straight long road behind it. The mayor said she'll suggest that they put a fence up on the side that faces the new road. Beyond that road, in the future, there's going to be a new development. They said it'll take a few years for the project to finish. A lot of people seemed concerned about it. Many thought it was inevitable, but still find something wrong with it. Some are concerned they'll end up being flooded. The wood piles that I thought they were going to burn last week, are being turned into mulch instead. That's a lot better for everyone. I wonder if they'd be giving some of it away to the neighborhood? There were also about 4 different kinds of cookies, and water bottles at the meeting. So, yay! Calm people down with cookies and water. 

I got to playing my clarinet this past week, too. Felt good to get back to it. I'm getting closer to finishing the original character expression meme of Junko, from my first novel. Studied a couple more kanji and their compounds. Translated more of the You Maga article. This time it's about what parents should make for school lunches, if anything.