2nd Day of Passover!

Mood:

It's the 2nd day of Passover, already. Feels like it's about to start still...The 1st night we had our own seder at home. With just Dad and I. It was nice, but I ended up having to prepare, and cook a lot. Haven't had a seder at home in a long time. 

I made Passover granola for breakfasts during the holiday. It turned out awesome!Tastes kind of like candy. Just has matzah farfel (matzah broken into pieces), honey, a little oil, walnuts, and raisins. Also, made the charoset. Charoset is a chopped up apple, walnut, wine, and cinnamon mixture. At least, that's what our family does. Sephardic Jews (from Spain, and the Mediterranean) have a different version. Usually with things like dates, raisins, nuts, more spices, etc. Seems more complex. But, our family version is an Ashkenazic one. (Ashkenazic Jews come from Germany, France, Eastern Europe.) But, every family does it differently, too. I find it interesting that way.

Hard-boiled a ton of eggs. Both to have a couple at our seder, and to make egg salad for lunches during the week. We seem to use a lot of eggs for cooking during the holiday.Also, made some potato kugel from a boxed mix. Basically, the only type of traditional 'kugel' I like. It's like a potato casserole. 

Made an 'Apple Crumble' cake, as well, to have as dessert at our seder. It was from a mix too, but surprisingly good for a Passover cake. Made some Passover popovers as well. Those are always a hit. A friend of the family always asks for them for their seder. 

Dad made the matzah ball soup, and a pot roast. The soup came out awesome!The roast was ok. Also had a mixed greens salad, gefilte fish, and some 'double dipped' chocolate matzah with our seder. I was really stuffed, and exhausted afterwards. Dad was so stuffed, she didn't stick around to finish the seder.There's just a little more of it after the dinner part. 

For last night's, we went to our friend's seder. Just had to bring the popovers and charoset. The only thing that was a bit...weird, was one of the people there had just had brain damage from a car crash (I think). So, she had a very hard time remembering what we just went over, asking odd questions, etc. She wasn't Jewish, so it was a bit entertaining to hear some of her questions. Just made things interesting, I guess. Our friend, and many families, like to invite people who aren't Jewish to seders. It's a good custom, because people get more of an understanding of what we're about. It's also fascinating to me to hear what they think about it all.Met a couple of new people, too. One was pretty close to my age, so it was cool to chat with him a bit. It was a really nice one. We had matzah ball soup (their kind I'm not too fond of), hard-boiled eggs, gefilte fish, brisket, green beans, mixed greens salad, beets, the popovers, a fruit mix, fruit (jelly) slices, Passover peppermint patties, mandel cuts, chocolate covered matzah, chocolate covered raisins, Passover chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate candies (don't remember what they were called). By the end of the night, I was extremely stuffed, yet again. 

They practically begged me to take stuff back home with us. Decided to take what was left of the chocolate matzah. Now, we have a ton of leftovers. I was thinking about making the meat pie, that I wanted to do for one of the nights. But, we have so many leftovers, I think we should finish those first. The meat pie sounds like it'll be tasty.

Watched the finale of Cuticle Tantei Inaba. It did not feel like a finale!I've grown to love it, and they say that's the end? Kind of weird. Leaves it wide open for a second season. They didn't even get to introduce a new character that randomly showed up at the end. Finished Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun. It was a very good series, and I think they could easily make a second season. Oh, and I'm trying to get back into my regular sit-up 'routine' this week. Starting at 10 twice a day this time. I think if I started with the 65 (how many I was at when they told me I should lay off on it, because of the 'wound' where the cyst was on my back) it'd be way too much. Might walk later, too. 

The Force of Gravity

Mood:

By Nakata Yasutaka from the Liar Game soundtrack. I love the music from the Japanese drama, Liar Game.All of the tracks really set the tone of the series. I think this was when someone lost during a round, or was kicked out of the game. Like the realization was too much for them. Like, most of the tracks, it sounds powerful and emotional. 

Well, I found out that I'm allergic to the antibiotics they gave me, for after they took the cyst out of my back.I was very sick on Saturday. Violently threw up a lot, had a fever, and generally ached all over. Odd thing is, every time I went to the clinic for something last week, I had a fever. They kept writing it off as nothing. Like something was wrong with their thermometers or something. I should have taken that as a hint.

Anyways, I decided to stop taking them. Not a good idea to keep taking them if they make you sick.I did feel a bit better. But, had a nasty pressure headache that started that night and continued throughout Sunday. Fever is totally gone. I'm still experiencing some neck and rib pains. I could see how my ribs would hurt after throwing up like that. My stomach is still doing somersaults, but I haven't thrown up since Saturday. It especially feels bad if I don't eat for a while. Although, sometimes it feels like I got razor blades in there just after I eat.Taking Tums and ibuprofen has helped a lot with these things, though. I'm hoping I'll 'get over' the side effects soon. I read up on it a bit, and apparently a lot of people are really allergic to sulfur-based antibiotics. Some can be so allergic they choke or suffocate from throwing up so much, and some get nasty blistery rashes. I think my symptoms sounded relatively mild compared to others who have reactions. 

Today, I plan to go through all the Passover stuff we had from last year. I glanced a little at them yesterday, and I could tell quite a bit of it isn't good anymore.I also will look at recipes for things I usually make during Passover. Like Passover granola, matzah toffee, popovers, etc. And make a list of things to replace what I tossed, and the normal stuff I have during the holiday. Like kichel (egg puffs with a little sugar on top), matzah crackers or Tam Tams, gefilte fish, chips, etc. 

I decided on not going to one of the congregations' seders. They're asking for quite a bit of money for it. I could probably 'negotiate' or something, but just the principle of the whole thing feels weird.I understand asking people for a little money, because you have to pay for renting the facility, caterers, etc. But, when you have a huge turnout every time, and ask for even more money, it doesn't feel right. You also ask people to bring a dish in addition to what the caterers make. The other congregation's seder is free, and is a potluck. We also usually go to a seder at a friend's place for one of the nights. We might have one at our place, too. If that's the case, I might make a dessert. Dad's thinking of making a lot of the meal. Which is all good.So, we'll see how this year's Passover turns out... Oh, and it doesn't seem that the Hadassah group in the area, is going to do a women's seder this year. That group seems to have fallen apart. Which is sad, but doesn't surprise me. I really liked the women's seder.

Losing an hour, because of Daylight Saving Time, throws my body off track even more. Wrote a bit more of the final chapter of Alliance. They finally subtitled the second to last episode of Monsters!I love that series, and would like to be able to finish it. There's only one more episode. Cuticle Tantei Inaba just keeps getting funnier. In the first part this time there was a lot of goat references. And, for the second part both Don Valentino and Inaba's group were lost in the woods. A woods renowned for the amount of suicides that take place there. I think there's a similar place I saw featured in one of Arashi's variety shows. (Probably D no Arashi.) The 'leader' of the band had to go there to see if it was haunted. A fan had asked them to investigate the area. Inaba had done a similar thing with tying up ropes to make sure he didn't get lost, and to use as a quick 'lifeline' to pull out of there. 

Mix Vegetable was kind of hard to read, because both of the main characters found out they had the same intentions towards dating the other person. Just for the name and a leg up in the patissier or sushi business. Hayato said that Hanayu is useless to him now. I think Hanayu had started to actually fall for him. Hayato seemed pretty tense around her afterwards, too. 

日本語

Today I went over the kanji: 歯 and 詩. 歯 is most often pronounced as は (ha), or し in mostly compounds. It means tooth or teeth. These are the common compounds from the list I use: 仮歯 or かし (kashi): false tooth. 臼歯 or きゅうし (kyuushi) or うすば (usuba): molar. 歯列 or しれつ (shiretsu): row of teeth. When 詩 is pronounced as うた (uta) it's: modern poetry. When it's pronounced as し (shi) it's: a poem, verse of poetry. The only compound was: 詩歌 or しいか (shiika): Japanese (and Chinese) poetry. 

The Bungy

Mood:

By Nico Touches the Walls. I just love the beat. Sounds cool. The lyrics are interesting too, but I really like the overall sound more. They sound like they had a lot of fun with it. Nico Touches the Walls is a 4-member J-rock band formed in 2004. They debuted in 2006. 

In Cartoon KAT-TUN, it was the second part of Nakamaru and Akanishi's trip to the 'coldest town in Japan'. They said the average there in February tends to be -33C or -27F. That's really cold! Most of the time it hovered around -20C (-4F) and -30C (-22F). Still freezing! The band had lost 5 times in a row with their darts' segment. So, they had to choose 2 people to do the 'punishment' for it. Nakamaru and Akanishi went because the band thought they were 'cold' while they threw their darts. Thus, they went to the coldest town in Japan. Everything was themed around doing things in the cold. Their first task was to work on a farm. One tried to chop wood, and the other had to shovel horse droppings. Notice this is still in the freezing cold. They were forced to travel in a convertible with the top down. Then they shoveled some snow away to make a path for the astronomical observatory, babysat a 2-year old boy named Yuu, and swept the outdoor ice rink the kids use. At the very end they were treated to a huge buffet. I like that they really got to know the people there. 

In Cuticle Tantei Inaba, Hiroshi finds out who his father is. He's essentially a ghost that possesses people and things so he can interact with others. He's searching for his body. He wants Hiroshi and his brother to search for it. Apparently, he has the same voice actor as Gintoki from Gintama.That guy must be really busy. Most of the characters he voices I really love. So, that just added a bonus point in my book. Yataro, one of Haruka's (Hiroshi's brother) minions, is used as a vessel for their father. When he's not possessed, he rarely speaks. I think I'm starting to really like this anime. There was an extra segment where all the 'dobermans' or people from the werewolf project were staying with Hiroshi's father. Apparently, all of them came from his DNA, so technically he's father to them all. They looked so cute as kids. They went over with their father (can't remember his name...) to the home of a family of goats. They got all the kids that were there, but there was one more and the mom missing. The mom was freaking scary! But, was easily defeated by their father. Somehow the mom reminded me of the sheep in Black Sheep. (I know that she was a goat, but looked/acted like the sheep in the movie.) Just as messed up. 

Read more of Mix Vegetable. Ashitaba's finally realizing that it's ok to go out with Hyuga. Even if she meant to use him to become a sushi chef. But, now she's going to see him for who he is, not for his family. He seems to really like her already. It's an interesting manga. Not sure if I like the character art, but the rest is nice. 

Played my clarinet. Went over the remaining tunes in my klezmer book. Apparently, there's so few, I had to go over them twice to fill up my practice time. Pretty soon I'll be done with these, and then I'll play all the tunes from the beginning again. This time just an overview, not really scrutinizing everything. That'll be nice to do. Just to see how much I've improved. After all that, I'll move on to the next book. I think it might my Duke Ellington one. Yay!

Brainstormed some more on a name for a place in my story. Edited some more of the first panel of that really long meme, in Photoshop. It's looking better than I expected. 

Started doing my 55 sit-ups twice a day for the week. It was pretty difficult this morning. But, I'll see if I can do it for the rest of the week! I'm hoping I can. Can't believe I made it that far already. (Used to think 35 of them twice a day would be impossible. I'm far passed that now!) 

日本語

The kanji for today is: 港. Its pronunciation is: こう (kou) or みなと (minato). It means: harbor, port. Kou is used in location names as a suffix, and in a lot of compounds. Minato is just harbor or port in general. Here are the compounds I went over: 漁港 or ぎょこう (gyokou): fishing harbor. 空港 or くうこう (kuukou): airport. 軍港 or ぐんこう (gunkou): naval port, naval station. 出港 or しゅっこう (shukkou): departure, clearance (of ship). 要港 or ようこう (youkou): important port. Worked on translating part of an article in an issue of Youmaga. 

National Blueberry Pancake Day!

Mood:

That's one of my fave types of pancake. They're simple to make for something so good, too. Banana chocolate pancakes are pretty good too. You can put almost anything in the batter for pancakes.

Today was cold and rainy. Perfect for a still semi-low mood. Although, towards the middle of the day I felt empowered for some reason.Hope that keeps up. I started with my 45 sit-ups 2 times a day for this week. I can't believe I did it this morning.I'll be amazed if I can manage to do it for the whole week. It feels a bit odd after that many. But, I'll keep adding sit-ups in increments of 5 for both times each week. I'll see how long I can do that for. There might be a limit to how many I can do...But, we'll see.

I have decided to stop going to the cafe on Wednesdays.Mainly because of the guilt-tripping, people only into mahj (and I'm not), older people, and all in all just not my crowd. I realized that the only thing connecting them to me is my mom. Other than that, we don't share anything and sometimes they treat me like I'm a mini version of Mom.Which I obviously am not. I'm a totally different person. (Although, we did share a few things in common. But, that's it.) So, why not stop going?I'm thinking I might go occasionally on Thursdays, since it's still a great place to study and be with people. It's more like a social hall or a pub. Plenty of others to get to know. I somehow feel really good with this decision.Now, I just have to tell the person who drove me that I'm not going. I can get pretty close to the cafe by bus, so I don't really need rides there. I can also go at a time I want to go. And, might not spend 3 hours each time I go.Again, I don't have to go every week either. 

I watched the Hana Yori Dango Final movie. I thought it was really good, and a perfect end to the series. Makino and Domyouji are about to get married. They have to find a really expensive tiara that has been handed down for generations through the family. It was stolen from them. Supposedly, the bride-to-be gets to have it. They travel around the world, and realize that something seems fishy about it. Later they find out that the tiara's a fake, and Makino's family wanted to make sure that she really loved him. So, they came up with an elaborate scheme, with the help of Domyouji's mother. Makino and Domyouji really bonded in one of their last destinations. It was a deserted island. They lived there for what they thought was at least 2 months. They hunted, scavenged, fought off wildlife, did their clothes, went swimming, etc. all on their own. Since their love only grew through this experience both of Makino's parents and Domyouji's mother approved of them. They had a really beautiful wedding put up by Rui. Towards the end of the movie, Makino tells Domyouji that she's pregnant. I don't remember the end of the anime, but I thought this was a really nice way to tie up things.

Since Monsters is still raw/not subbed yet (I still need it when they speak really fast, or use words/phrases I'm not familiar with), so I watched another episode of Cartoon KAT-TUN. This time it was with an otaku or 'anime geek' as some like to call them. They're really any type of geek. But, this person is a singer that does opening/ending themes for many anime shows. She's also a mangaka or comic artist. She was quite crazy with the wealth of info she had on anime. Particularly really old ones like Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon. Koki is apparently an otaku too, and went at it with her. It was kind of amusing to watch. They also did a quiz on anime songs. The guys almost beat her, but she got the last one. Then, one of her idols, who sang one of her fave anime's opening song showed up. She went nuts. It was the 40th anniversary of when he put it out. They also had a drawing game. Interesting results. One of the last couple of episodes I saw explained the meaning behind the band's name, KAT-TUN. Each letter stands for each members' first letter of their family name. Kazuya Kamenashi, Jin Akanishi (this was before he left the band, now they use the first 2 letters of Kazuya's last name), Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda, and Yuichi Nakamaru. Kind of cool. 

I started Cuticle Tantei Inaba (or Cuticle Detective Inaba) a while ago. At first, I wasn't quite sure of it. They could royally screw this up with the type of rhythm and humor it has, or it could be hilarious and awesome. After a few episodes into it, it has already grown on me. So, it's definitely not horrible. No one seems to die in this anime, despite being mauled by dogs, multiple gunshots to the head, having a refrigerator fall on you, etc. I like those type of anime shows. Each character is eccentric, and has many quirks. They also seem to be superhumanly strong. It's about Hiroshi Inaba who's an artificially created being. Formed by splicing the genes of both a human and a wolf. (He's a werewolf, essentially.) He gains info by tasting and examining people's hair. And has a huge hair fetish. With the help of his assistant/secretary, Yuta (who cross-dresses and is extremely sadistic, he's mistaken for a girl constantly), he can become more wolf-like, and gain special powers and perform different attacks depending on the type or color of hair he eats. Formally employed by the police and partnered with a police officer, he now runs his own private detective agency. With the help of Yuta and Kei. (Kei seems really normal compared to the others.) Kei actually has a big thing for cats. He's allergic, but is fanatic about them. Hiroshi's previous partner, Kuniharu Ogino, also helps out with many of the cases. (He's obsessed with his daughter.) His archenemy is Don Valentino, an evil goat who eats money. His henchman are really bizarre.

Started reading Mix Vegetable a little while ago, too. The art is a bit different, and I'm not usually into such shoujo-ish type art. But, its oddly grown on me. Hanayu Ashitaba is the daughter of a celebrated patisserie, but all she wants to do is become a sushi chef. Hayato Hyuga is the son of a prestigious sushi chef, and all he wants to do is become a patisserie. Both are chefs in training at Oiwaka High School. Ashitaba believes if she marries Hyuga, her parents will understand her wanting to be a sushi chef and she'd get a reputation. So, she tries to appeal to Hyuga, but usually ends up becoming angry and yells at him. The last chapter that I read he asks her out, but she thinks it's like he lost a bet or is a punishment game. She finds out that he does have some feelings for her. I like the cooking stuff they refer to. So, it's not all about 'romance'. I'll see how long I'll continue with this. It's surprisingly entertaining, and interesting.

Played my clarinet today. Did some klezmer tunes. Managed to add some new ones to my practice list, because I felt I perfected those other ones enough to move on. These 'newer' songs are even tougher. So, that'll be a nice challenge.I'll go over them a lot of times, like I did with the previous ones. Tomorrow, I'll probably listen to them on youtube, if they have them. I don't know where the CD to my book went...So, youtube is my avenue for it. It's good to get a sense of how others play it. I learn better after hearing it, and reading the notes/rhythm as they go along. It's like all the pieces come together that way. There are some songs where I get them easily if I just look at them on the page. But, the tougher ones I get a much better feeling for it this way. Plus, it's nice to hear how others embellish the tunes. Klezmer can be very much up to the musician, but it has to follow a certain base melody. So, you have to have some grounding in it first.

Edited a bit of chapter 19 of Alliance. Kind of let my mind wander a bit with it, too. Now I have some really interesting ideas for it. Went over the kanji for blood which is: 血. Pronounced as ち or chi, けつ or ketsu. I already knew this one, but needed to go over writing it. Apparently, I had been writing it incorrectly before.Went over some compounds for it, too. Things like blood transfusion, blood vessel/vein, etc. Those were interesting. This kanji is supposed to look like blood going into a container. Kind of creepy, yet interesting to me. Translated more of a You Manga article I'm working on. Scanned some of my drawings for panels of another original character meme. This is a really long meme, but there are parts you can post in sections as you fill them out. I'll edit these few drawings tomorrow in Photoshop. I think most of my drawings (including the ones I haven't scanned yet) for it turned out pretty well. So, this showed be fun.

Tomorrow, the support group is having a potluck and a movie showing. That should be great. Dad made some of her red beans and rice. It's slightly different than usual, but it looks and smells good.