25th of Sivan

Head-wise, I'm feeling slightly better. Gut-wise, worse. It's like I'm being stabbed by knives in my abdomen on top of everything else. Maybe whatever I have has travelled. I hope it's just that I'm sick and not something more. 

The cookbook's paperback is live now. However, things aren't settled quite yet. It isn't connected to the ebook at the moment, for one thing. Read that it might take up to 48 hours to get everything 'set' after it went live. The ebook isn't quite there yet, either. Might be ready for me to tell/share the link with people tomorrow. That should be interesting. 

Figured out a better way to deal with my student loans. I think I was out of forbearances, or at least couldn't apply for another one for a while. Navient has been hounding me through emails the last couple of months. Anyways, through seeing what plans I'm eligible for, I found an income-based plan. As long as my 'income' is below a certain amount I won't have to pay. Once a year I'll have to 'recertify' for it and they'll give me a reminder. That sounds like it'll be a load off my mind for a while. I just have to wait for Social Security to check that I am who I say I am, then apply for it. I think it's actually a government-based plan. So, it's through both them and Navient. Good that there's something like this.

On Sunday, there's the local Pride picnic. That was nice last year. It's at a retreat and camping center in the middle of the woods. There's a lake nearby. They have a labyrinth meditation area near it, too. I haven't seen that yet, but might this time. The local Pride organization has a huge rainbow flag they hang from the main cabin area. I think it was originally a piece of a much bigger flag. It's impressive. There are usually things like hot dogs and hamburgers, outdoor games, speakers, and music. I'm thinking of going to another local Pride picnic in a couple of weeks. That one I haven't been to, and it seems it's only its 2nd year. It'd be great to go to Seattle Trans Pride, too. It was cool to see the amount of people marching, flags, people out in support watching, and going through the booths after the march. I can wave my little genderqueer flag this time. I'm not sure about marching in the Seattle Pride and July 4th parades. It's usually hot out for both of them. It's tiring, too. The Seattle Aces are marching this year, though. It's their first year doing it. So, both them and our local Pride org have spots in it. The Seattle Non-Binary Collective might, too. Might be interesting to watch instead. 

I've realized that most ace activists focus mainly on erasure. That's a big thing, but it isn't the only thing we face. There tends to be an attitude that our issues should be downplayed, because there are other groups that have it worse. Probably the mentality that comes from people playing the Oppression Olympics on Tumblr. It stifles our voices, I think. Another really big issue is 'corrective' rape. Not many people want to talk about it. Aces (as well as aros) go through conversion therapy along with the other parts of the greater LGBTQ+ community. There was a recent study that aces are less likely to be offered housing than gay people. (Gay people were less likely than straight people. That should be noted, too.) That might stem from erasure and being 'invisible', but it seems like an added layer to it. This stuff needs to be talked about more. I'm all for visibility, too. 

Finished watching Glitch. It had way too much drama. I never finished the first season, because it was being drawn out and slow. I apparently didn't miss much after starting this season. They must have realized that they were drawing it out too much, and thought adding more drama would help. There were too many side things, too. I don't think I'll watch another season if they have it. I'm going to watch The Break next. According to Netflix, I've only seen the first episode. I thought I saw more...

Hopefully next week will be much better. The cookbook might catch on. I know people who knew her would be interested (that'd be a lot), and maybe they'll tell their friends and family. 

National Gingerbread Day!

Gingerbread's great! Went to the Gingerbread Factory in Leavenworth not too long ago. It was good, but not the best gingerbread I've had. I think it takes more skill to get it just right. Good combo of things that go into it, too. I think it's an even bigger thing in Europe than here.

I've been feeling really crummy today. I was coughing all day yesterday, and today my throat feels swollen. Nose has been runny, stuffed up, and hurts to breathe through it. Have felt so nauseous, that every time I try to eat I feel like I'll throw up immediately. Feels like I've got another cold or something. Oh, fun fun. 

I think I ended up sleeping in because of a combo of things. My bed had just been laundered before I went to sleep, and therefore was still warm. Also my clean pillow was at a perfect position and not very lumpy. (That's rare for me.) I had just had some really good ice cream. Before that I helped Dad with moving old rusted barbecues from the backyard to the driveway in the front. (There were about 5 or 6 barbecues altogether.) That was a bit tiring and slightly dangerous, although she did one of the most dangerous parts. Getting on the falling apart deck, throwing the newest barbecue off of it, and getting herself off the deck. Thrilling to watch, too. Someone that picks up scrap came and took it all away today. Another thing was that I was starting to feel sicker. Perfect storm for sleep. I haven't slept so soundly in a long time, so that was a plus. 

I finally finished the print version of the cookbook's cover. Took me a little while. With this, I also figured out the description. Yay! It's still not as short as I'd like, but it's close. The spine looks pretty thin. They say if the print version is less than 100 pages, not to put any text on it. It's 160, so it's close, but over enough there should be something. 

Watched another episode of Glitch on Netflix last night. Had a really surprising and sad ending. Not sure where it's going with the story. Especially after this episode. 

I'll try to get to learning German later today. Tomorrow night there will be a local trans group meeting. Hopefully, I can get up when I plan to and get more stuff done beforehand. 

National Cheese Day!

I love cheese! Just a day devoted to it isn't enough...I guess I celebrated with having garlic and herb Jack cheese spread on sourdough. Recently got Italian 5-cheese blend slices for sandwiches. That sounds really good. 

This is my wallpaper for June. It's another Hitman Reborn manga wallpaper I made a few months ago. I didn't create the art; just put 2 chapter pages together and resized them. The half-siblings (they have the same father), Bianchi and Gokudera, are on the left. Bianchi, aka Poison Scorpion Bianchi in the mafia, specializes in poison cooking. Gokudera is Tsuna's Guardian of the Storm Ring, and has sworn to become Tsuna's right hand man. He's aka Smokin' Bomb Hayato, and he specializes in explosives. Despite his looks and attitude (seemingly like a delinquent), he's a genius and excels at academics. His sister used to test out her cooking on him as a little kid, particularly right after piano recitals. She's immune to her own cooking. So, every time he sees her, he gets physically sick. It was so traumatic, he also swore off playing the piano. They eventually do make up (not entirely though...), but for most of the series there's that tension between them. Tsuna and Reborn are on the right. I thought the summer like one with Tsuna seemed appropriate for this month. 

The weather calendar's main pic's of a rainbow at sunset over cliffs at a Utah national park. The dark clouds around it look really ominous. It's a cool shot. The other 3 smaller pics are of tornadoes in Dodge City, Kansas. It seems like most of the pics are tornado themed...

The month-long holidays for June are: National Candy Month, National Dairy Month, National Iced Tea Month, Pride Month, National Camping Month, National Zoo and Aquarium Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Yay, for Pride Month! I haven't gone camping in a very long time, but I remember liking it. 

Apparently, there's a calendar going around where there are specific Pride days for different sexual orientations and genders every day for June. The whole month is supposed to be for everyone in the community, but it is interesting. I have 5 days on it. The 10th for ace pride, 15th for agender pride, 20th for genderqueer pride, 25th for non-binary pride, and 30th for aro pride. All my LGBTQ+ 'identities' seem to be represented. Not many of the lesser known ones were listed, but interesting they came up with 30 of them. I also found it interesting that my 'days' are every 5 days after the 10th. 

I started looking for Pride shirts yesterday. A little late, but I'd also like something to be 'out' with for the rest of the year. So far, there are 2 cool aro ace ones. Made me happy to see at least 2 that were for aro aces specifically. I'm leaning more towards one that has animal skulls, arrows, flowers in the ace flag colors, spades, says aro ace off to the side, and banners. Arrows are an aro symbol. It looks really badass, and like a tattoo design. The other one's of a spade splattered with the ace flag colors. The ace of spades in cards represents aro aces in the community. For that one, unless they know the flag and know about the spade, the meaning's more hidden. Haven't looked much for agender stuff. I'll narrow it down when I'm done looking around online. I wouldn't mind getting one shirt representing 1 or 2 identities, and some sort of accessory like wristbands or earrings for the others. That way I can be 'out' with everything at once, and that seems cheaper. 

I thought about a description for the cookbook. I'm not 100% happy with it yet. Seems too long. I want to mention some highlights so others can get a feel for it. I was going to start putting the print version's cover together, but can't really do that without a description for the back. I'll probably get to the cover tomorrow. Might even finish it. Then, it'll be figuring out pricing for both versions and filling out the publishing forms. That's all that's left. Not much.

For German, I finished the Present 4 lesson. There were 6 parts, and I completed them all in one sitting. It was a lot. Missed about 3 or 4. Not bad, considering. Next is their Fantasy lesson. That only has about 3 parts, so I'll probably at least start the next one after that, too. 

Managed to draw a little today. Haven't done it in a while. Finished drawing Antonio's (from Alliance) head, and I'll ink him next time. I think Antonio's head has a better shape than my previous ones. I'm slowly improving on it. He doesn't quite look like what's in my head, but he's not bad. The next head will be Doina's. She sounds like she'd be cool to draw.

Finished watching Chosen. It was intense and had a good ending, for the most part. I like how they got revenge against the people behind the game. Started watching the 2nd season of Glitch a couple of days ago. Saw most of the 1st season a while ago. I like the idea behind it and where they've taken it. 

Made a list about a week ago of the shows I have on my Netflix list. I put them in order of length. So, Chosen was only 3 episodes and that was the first on the 'list'. Glitch is 2nd since I'm just watching the 2nd season. It's good I made this new ordered list, because I can finally finish most of the ones I started previously this way. There will be a 'schedule' of sorts. I never went back to them because there were other new interesting shows. I decided that if I want to add more shows, I can add them to the list once I get to the really lengthy shows. Shows like Filinta are 100s of episodes long, and if I just watch that I'll never see anything new. Also, made a list for shows to watch during the weekend. Things like nature docs, food, comedy, travel, etc. That way I get to the 'extra' ones, too. Kind of fun to see what I'll see next on the list, as well.