World Baking Day!

Mood:

I would love to get more into baking, and this reminded me.I'm usually kind of nervous about it. Like, I'll screw it up somehow. But, whenever I have baked things, they came out pretty tasty. Baking also kind of fascinates me for some reason.You can make so many different things with it. It's also Victoria Day for people who live in Canada. 

Yesterday was Lag B'Omer. It's a minor holiday during the 33rd day of counting the Omer. The Counting of the Omer starts during Passover and goes until Shavuot. Specifically for 49 days. An omer is an old type of measurement. When people sacrificed things like barley, they used an 'omer' amount. During Lag B'Omer people light bonfires, have weddings, parties, haircuts (some refrain from having a haircut or a wedding during the rest of the days of counting the Omer. Or, even refrain from listening to music. It's a semi-mourning time during the rest of it), some kids have their first haircut (usually when their 3), do archery (especially the youth), parades, and other traditions. It's kind of fun.I haven't really celebrated it for a while, though. The bonfire and archery are probably the best known ones. 

Last week was a lot warmer than usual. The weekend was a little on the cool side, but nice still. This week isn't expected to get as warm, but it'll be up there.I guess the warmer than usual weather will help me prepare for going to Scottsdale, AZ at the end of July. I'll explain a bit more as to why I'm going there soon. As it gets closer to when we leave. Probably not the best time to be there though...

I'm going to do 70 sit-ups twice a day this week. It's starting to feel like a workout each time, again. Hopefully I can get both walks in everyday, too. If I keep up with the way I'm eating, I might lose it even quicker with all this again. Although, it's also more for just getting healthier in general. Even though I'm the healthiest I've been in a long time. I think I'm close to dropping another size. Yay!I've also noticed that I'm getting a bit more loose skin. But, I think as I keep losing, it'll bounce back. 

Started watching Smoking Gun a week ago. It's been very interesting so far. I was a little reluctant about it going from the summary that's online. But, it also has one of my fave actors playing the lead. The other actors have been really good, too. (And, there's also an actress I like that's in a supporting role.) Researchers at a private CSI lab solve cases using their scientific techniques. A lot like a Japanese version of CSI. Right down to everyone being at least somewhat quirky. But, it somehow feels like it's done better. And, the researchers don't have really fancy looking labs, offices, etc. Enishi Nagareta is one of the researchers, and tries to solve cases that the police may have overlooked. He has a thing for eating donuts. Especially while at a crime scene. (Which can't be good around evidence...) He proposed to a woman at the beginning, which was a few months ago. She seemed to be turning him down, so he walked away from her. The next thing he knows is he wakes up on the floor near her, and she's covered in blood. She was murdered, but he can't remember anything from when he left her until then. Which is a pretty good chunk of time. When not at work, he's constantly trying to remember. He even has a notebook with the times he can't remember, which he tries to backtrack with. Some detectives are still looking into him as being a suspect. And, he doesn't know himself if something like that happened. Kind of sad. The other researchers have their own 'problems'. One refers to her husband (I think) as a cactus and her only family. Her husband seems to be in a coma at a hospital. She also put a cactus near him there. One's a retired cop. A newer member basically deals with the more 'human' aspect with getting to know the victims. The boss is a rather eccentric, but awesome, woman. I loved that she says things like she's allergic to shady men. She also makes a huge feast for everyone every Wednesday. If you finish everything on your plate or say 'this is delicious', she'll just give you more. She's taking care of her late sister's kid. The kid helps sometimes, too. Very interesting group of people. Another seems 'normal', but he takes care of his siblings. I think they mentioned him having like 10 little siblings. 

I might have finished writing the 8th short story of my nightmare anthology yesterday. I still have to go through and edit it one last time. Kind of turned the original nightmare into something totally different, but still kind of disturbing. It's oddly fun to write, though.

Played my clarinet yesterday. Did a lot of klezmer tunes. Wasn't too bad. Only a few mistakes. Some songs sounded particularly good. But, I think those are the ones I like the most. Got to get the others like that, as well.

Spent a while yesterday on JapaneseClass' site. Mainly doing the practice section. For attendance each day, you have to do 20 of them. But, you can continue doing them after that. It has a mix of kanji and vocab, new words/phrases, oblivion kanji/vocab, and weak kanji/vocab. It's a pretty good practice tool, like it suggests. You can do long combos of things you get correct, too. I think I beat my personal record this time with getting an 83 combo before I got one that was incorrect. Pretty good.I've seen some people have chains of 200 word/kanji combos. I want to do that! I probably will at some point. I made it to the 412th rank on the site. There are about 30,000 people registered on there. (A lot of them are active.) That's pretty good. I was in the top 20 for the day yesterday. (Although, I have been on it quite often when I go on that site.) Yay! I'm getting up there.

Yesterday, I decided to see who some of the contestants were for the Eurovision contest. None of them really impressed me.I don't think they did last year, either. I really didn't care for the top 5 or so. The first place one didn't sound that great, and seemed to be more into that person's looks and message, but not of the actual music. There was one that seemed kind of catchy, but didn't draw me in. I think it was Switzerland's entry. A couple of years ago there were a lot more interesting ones. I kind of feel like they have a bias towards songs that use primarily English, and not their original language. Which is sad. I love hearing songs from other countries that are in that country's language.It seems a whole lot more interesting, and you get a wider view of what the rest of the world sounds like. Also, decided to listen to some of the Pandora Hearts OST. It wasn't as exciting as I remember in the anime. (Although, a couple of tracks from the 2nd one sounded interesting.) The manga got me thinking about it again. Might look into Ranma 1/2's and Rurouni Kenshin's OSTs, too. For both, the background music seems to be interesting. Kenshin seems to have a cool fighting sound in a lot of it. Some of the ones from Ranma sound like they're enduring something big, and interesting fighting ones, too. I'll probably look at those next week. Kind of fun to look at, and I might be able to find some that I like...

Drew more of Vincent's clothes in my new drawing project. This was what he wears currently, as his vampire self. I did the other one for when he was human already. He was human around the mid 1800's, so he had to have changed his style to 'fit in'. It makes it fun, though. Next will be Gun's outfit. He wears clothes that are based on traditional Chinese clothing. He is a Chinese dragon after all. (He's in his human form in the story.) Should be a bit more of a challenge, but fun nonetheless.

L'Amore È Femmina

Mood:

Or, Out of Love. By Nina Zilli. This was Italy's entry for Eurovision 2012. I think the song should have placed a bit higher. Ended up being at 9th place. But, then again, I hated the song that placed 1st. -_- I read somewhere that, if it didn't have a little English in the song, it didn't place very high. It's sad that the results are influenced by politics, too. Doesn't seem fair for some. Anyways, the singer is amazing!Very powerful voice. Sounds slightly like Amy Winehouse. Could just be her style, though. The song has a mixture of Italian and English. 

Last night, I started brainstorming ideas for chapter 18. They just kept flowing out. Almost couldn't get them down fast enough.Today, I started working on making up a word for the zoo they'll be going to. 

Also, managed to play a little of my clarinet last night. I thought it wasn't too late (so I wouldn't wake the neighbors), and no one else was home. So, why not? Played some more today, as well. Did a lot of Irish tunes, and a little klezmer. 

Posted 2 pics to both FB and dA. They were of the front, and then back end of a horse from the fair. It was a beautiful horse, and I wanted to show as much of the animal as I could.It's already got 2 faves on dA. 

In Hana Yori Dango, they figured out that Sakurako was behind everything. Paying a guy to drug Makino, taking a pic of said guy and Makino while she was passed out, putting the pics on 'display' in the cafeteria, and telling everyone how horrible Makino is. She pretended to be friends with her, because she wanted to take her revenge out on Domyouji. While they were in kindergarten, he called her ugly over and over again. She had a crush on him before. After going through extensive facial surgery, he still didn't pay attention to her. So, she tried to hurt the one closest to him. She kidnapped and held Makino at the cafeteria, and waited for Domyouji to save her. He came, and protected Makino from getting hurt. Sakurako didn't understand, and gave up. After that, Domyouji finally confessed his love for Makino. They were getting along fine, until the end of the episode when Rui came back from France, and appeared suddenly at school.

Naruto Shippuden was actually interesting this time. I like how they've been keeping the story line up lately. Instead of those flashbacks, and character back stories. Someone was targeting the medical ninja. They figured out that 'white' Zetsu was behind it. Once he sucks out a victim's chakra, he can transform into that person. A clone that has the same abilities, and is hard to detect if they're the real person or not. After they apprehended the white Zetsu at one of the medical ninja sites, they started getting reports of other areas being targeted as well. Shikaku became almost overwhelmed with the info coming in about the war. He's their strategist (Shikamaru's father). He kept saying at the end: keep cool, but think fast. Feel kind of sorry for him.

In Hitman Reborn, Tsuna was trying to get rid of Bianchi. He finds out that Bianchi is Gokudera's big sister from a different mother. Also, about the story behind why Gokudera feels sick to his stomach every time he sees her. She tested her first poison cooking dish on him, just before his piano recital. Everyone thought it was very artistic, even though he was slowly dying. They kept asking him to play more, but only after he ate Bianchi's cooking again. Tsuna also realized that when Lambo transforms into his older self, he looks a lot like Bianchi's deceased lover. (She killed him.) So, he makes him turn, thinking she'd run after him. It had the opposite effect. She wanted to kill him. She finally left when Reborn told her that he wanted to have her search for some eel.

日本語

Today's kanji is: 切. Or: せつ、さい、き.る、き.れる、き.り、き.れ. (Setsu, sai, ki.ru, ki.reru, ki.ri, ki.re.) It means: to cut, be sharp, eager, earnest, acute, disconnect, reduce, split, crack. There's a lot more meanings to this one. When I went over this kanji for the first time a while back, I read that by itself, it just meant to cut or slice. This greatly confused me, because it was used way too often to be just that. So, I'm glad to know the other meanings to it. Good one to go over again. Found a chicken curry recipe in Japanese. Sounded really good from briefly reading it. Went over another lesson from my Japanese book. 

Worked a little more on the last bit of this section of the drawing meme. I realized I have such a clear view of my main character in my head, that I decided to see what anime character he might look like, to get more of a reference. He's a cross between Aidou from Vampire Knight, and the Len Vocaloid, apparently. Didn't plan for him to be like that, just appeared in my head that way. Now that I narrowed it down a bit, I can look at pics of them online, to get ideas on how to draw him. 

deviantART faves: Whoosa-clever-girl-den Gorgon updated Airlines of the World I did not make these! First, an interesting painting of a dinosaur with fluffy feathers. It was done by an artist I watch. Apparently, was inspired by an article about how the dinosaurs may have actually had a covering of 'fluffy down-like feathers'. Second, a drawing of an oc from another artist I watch. Third, a really cool drawing with Hetalia characters and their major airlines. Looked like it took a long time to complete.

Youtube:

A nice Rosh Hashanah themed music vid:

Change

Mood:


By Hotel FM. This was Romania's entry for the Eurovision 2011 contest. It placed 17th. But, I think it should have placed higher.A fun, and yet again, motivating song. About making changes in your life. Even simple things like smiling more, can make a difference. The story behind the band itself's interesting too.

For most of the day, it's been dreary and cold.It was finally was starting to look like it'd be warm out, but it was late in the afternoon so that didn't last. Next few days look cold too.

I decided to start posting my Israel pics again.So, everytime I don't post a food related pic, it will be an Israel one. There will be a pic everyday this way. This is one of the first things we saw when we entered the Bedouin camp. It's a bathroom. Looked interesting. Nice to know where that is right away.This was during my 2nd day. Or, 3rd for the rest of my group. I have a ton of desert pics coming up. So look forward to that!The desert was pretty impressive.


Watched D no Arashi. This time they did a report on prosthetics. A guy lost his index finger while on the job working with machinery. He's very self conscious of it. His daughter got tired of him hiding it so often, and convinced him to get a prosthetic finger. Jun was very respectful to him and this woman who showed them a prosthetic breast. She was getting it retouched. The color apparently fades, and every few years they have to fix it. She had to have her breast removed because of breast cancer. It really was an interesting segment. Next, Aiba did a report on hijiki. Apparently, over there not many people pay attention to what it is, and where it's grown. They just use it as seasoning or a snack. We have some at home, so this was really interesting. Some people thought they came from the mountains, but they're a type of seaweed.So, that was funny. They look like long strands of hair just before they're dried. Totally different looking. Every bit of the plant's edible. Including the buds coming off of it. I'm really loving this show now. Interesting, and you get insight into people's lives.


In Letter Bee Reverse, Gauche had an encounter with Lag's mom. She sucked out his heart though, and essentially turned him into Noir. I'm getting more intrigued as to who his mom really is, and who he is as well. Why would his mom feed on people's hearts? A lot of loose ends that I hope they tie up in the last 2 episodes.


Played some Beatles and Irish tunes. For some reason, I didn't have much confidence today. Wasn't too bad, though. Still need to work a bit more on cycling my breathing. 

Started another manga called Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge. Or, what it says in the pic, Crime Edge of Cutting and Severing. This one was highly recommended by many people on mangafox. It's really weird, funny, and yet really awesome. Kiri seems ordinary, but he has an obsession with cutting people's hair. (Really more like a fetish.) One day he meets Iwai, who inherited a curse where no one can cut her hair. She got the nickname 'Hair Queen'. Kiri finds out his scissors, called Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge are the only thing that can cut Iwai's hair. Their meeting started an old murder game to kill the 'hair queen' using the cursed 'killing goods'. Kiri's going to try his best to protect her. The owners of these 'killing goods' have sudden impulses to kill people. Each one of these owners had a relative that was a murderer, and they inherited their signatures. Like Kiri's, I think it was his father used to cut people up to pieces with those scissors. Another owner's relative used poison on hospital patients. It sounds so demented, yet interesting. Nicely told, too. 


Finished writing 2 sentences from the first article in the June issue of You Maga. It was kind of interesting. Made chili and cornbread muffins for dinner. Used a recipe from a microwave cookbook for the chili. Thought that was cool. Well, I'll talk more about it tomorrow.


deviantART fave: APH-BLACK I did not make this! It's a cool drawing of England from Hetalia. Interesting style. 

New Tomorrow

Mood:


By A Friend in London. This was Denmark's entry for the Eurovision 2011 contest. It placed 5th. Kind of a nice motivating song. It's in English, so it's kind of easy to understand what it's about. The band formed in 2005, and all 4 guys were in boarding school together. They're big in Canada, too. 

The last couple of days have been cooler than they predicted.We were expected to be in the high 70s. We ended up being low 70s/high 60s. Wahoo! Hope it warms up again.


I was going to make brownies, that were from a mix, for Friday night. But, we ended up going to the market so late, I didn't have time. So sad.But, we got some chocolate donuts, so it's not too bad.Also, had a pre-made roasted chicken, some bok choy Mom cooked up in a sauce, and a really good pre-made Asian sesame noodle salad. Good stuff.


Mom didn't feel well enough to go to services yesterday. But, we did go to the congregation's annual picnic. The only problem I really had was how noisy it was. Made it very difficult to talk to people.Most of the noise was from the kids. 


There wasn't really any main dishes. Just salads and a huge table of desserts. We had brought Mom's coleslaw. It was a huge hit. Practically gone by the time we were putting things together to leave.There was a lot of strange food. Most of the kids went for the dessert table for their 'dinner'. So, most of it was gone by the time the adults got to it.There was an interesting no sugar added apple pie, a strange looking angel food cake with goopy stuff on it, chocolate chip cookies (tasted really odd), 2 or 3 types of brownies, a weird looking blueberry and lemon curd torte, and some other things. Nice to see people, though. Oh, and we got to celebrate Havdalah with everyone, too.


Played some more of the Sims 2 yesterday as well. My sim, based on Russia from Hetalia, has reached almost all of his fitness points. Just one more left. He looks incredibly buff. To the point it's hilarious.I wonder what he'll need after he gets promoted again? More logic points maybe? Already working on that, though. When he finally is making it big, I'll allow him to marry someone and mess with his house more. I can take as much time as I want with that, as long as I have the fountain of youth. I did mess with a few things. Gave him a better refrigerator, stove, toilet, a chess board, and a couple of other things. 


Finished Majo Saiban or Witch Trial. It was pretty intense right up until the last minute. I had a suspicion that it was her who set everything up. Wasn't exactly sure, what with all the twists. Very good mystery drama.I'm still curious as to what 'Ms. White' was going to do after she found out her husband was the one who bribed/threatened the jury. And, what he was going to do. He looked pissed when he knew she found out. Also, did they do anything to Kaori while she was at the hospital at the end? They kept telling Toru that they would if he talked. A lot of loose ends. Not the best ending.So, next Saturday I'll start another drama. Looked at the new ones for the season on dramacrazy, and a lot of them look pretty good.


Went through some of the recommended manga threads on mangafox. On my own, I wasn't finding much. I'm pretty new to manga still.It's just what I've been reading, so far, has been really long on-going mangas. And, when you catch up to a manga's updates, and they only do it once every month or 2, you want something in between.So, now I have a good possible manga list. Some I've watched the anime version, but didn't know there was a manga version. Some I've heard about only through a drama, but didn't know it was also a manga. And, the rest I've never heard before, but they sound like they'd be really good. And very original. So, I can't wait to try these!


deviantART faves: Dark Scythe Cafe Cupcakes Lesson 1.1.b. Iris I did not make these! First, a really cool drawing of an oc. Second, cupcakes made to look like cafe tables. Really creative. Third, this is from one of my friends. He's learning Chinese art, and this was one of the assignments. It looks pretty cool. We're also good friends on jpopasia.