National Potato Day!

This holiday was yesterday. I absolutely love potatoes! Could probably eat them all day and not get tired of them. There are so many different ways to eat or cook them. I don't think I had any potatoes yesterday, sadly. I should have...

The weather hasn't been great today. It'll be more of the same tomorrow. It's hot and smoky. So smoky, that right now the air quality index is at 165 and in the red. That's unhealthy territory for everyone. Particularly bad for the elderly, kids, people with respiratory issues, and people with other health issues (even difficult for people like me who have IBD). At least the sunlight coming inside is pretty. Again, the smoke is coming from wildfires in Canada, Washington (the state I'm from), Oregon, California, Idaho, and Montana. Wahoo! In the forecast, it seems that Thursday and on will be much cooler and less smoky. (Not sure if they expect the smoke to completely lift by then.) That's a positive light, at least. 

I've still been sticking to my 'diet' plan. Although I wanted Saturday and Sunday to be my treat days, I didn't reach my 'goal' for calories those days. I got to the high end of my 'normal' days at least. It amazes me how long some things last while eating this way. Like the muesli I got from Ikea seems only half empty. I've been having it for breakfast during the week, and switching to my normal cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch) during the weekend. Still have quite a bit of my regular cereal too, and that box is older. The bag of honey mustard and onion pretzel pieces seems endless, too. I've had that one for a while, and have had it for most of my afternoon snacks. Fruit lasts quite a while, as well. (Going by portion sizes/calories.) The only problem with that is that fruit goes bad pretty quickly. The other stuff can be fine for a while. 

I decided to do stair climbing at home inside, because of the awful air and heat outside. We have a full flight of stairs, so that's handy. I did 3 'sets' of running up and down those stairs 3 times yesterday. It got my heart racing. Quite a workout with just that. According to MyFitnessPal, I burned 163 calories with this. More than I thought. I also didn't realize that stair climbing is apparently a thing. Some people swear that it's the best exercise. Interesting reading about it. Maybe I'll keep it up even when I get back to walking. 

I've also been keeping track of my 'exercise' today on MyFitnessPal. Today's a bit different than usual, considering it's a big laundry day. (Plus, styling my hair...) So far I've burned 704 calories. More than I thought I would be at this point. Just playing my clarinet for an hour burned 145 calories. Cooking/prepping food, light cleaning, running up/down stairs, etc. are all possible entries on there and counted towards it. 

Studied more Chinese today. The training game today was on listening. They featured some traditional Chinese opera masks. That was cool to see. I think it was the first time I played this one. They say a word, and you choose the correct answer then drag it onto the other half of the mask. I didn't miss any of them. I stopped at the 2nd lesson in the In the Office unit. I only have 4 more units after this one. There's still some other parts of it that I haven't finished. I might study Russian after I finish this course. I loved studying it in college. I'm interested in so many more languages. Hopefully, Duolingo will be better with Russian. 

Played my clarinet for a full hour today. I'm happy I can do it for that long now. I played better than I thought I would. Still made some mistakes, but that's to be expected. Also, realized that I had been playing something incorrectly in the past. Maybe the time away from it made it more 'fresh' for me so I could see it. Today I played more Duke Ellington, Gershwin, and an advanced solo classical music book. The Gershwin one is also rather advanced. I was frustrated at times, but got through them. Rosie sat super close to me on the bed. I normally put my chair flush to the bed. It's not like I actually play it on it. She loved listening to me so much, she fell asleep and started drooling. As soon as I stopped, she looked at me as if to say: "Why did you stop? Keep up the music!" I was pretty loud at times and played high notes, and she still stayed so close...

I don't think I mentioned this, but I finished watching the anime Juuni Taisen or Zodiac Wars. Even though the winner was predictable, there were a lot of twists to it. Since they killed off the zodiac animals in reverse order, my sign won. He had an interesting power. He can live through 99 possible scenarios for every situation. Learning what worked more each time. He ended up being killed 98 times, and we were watching the 99th try. It was no wonder he was so tired. Even after he won the tournament, he died 98 more times while meeting with the one who organized the whole thing. If you refuse to answer his questions, you die either while still in front of him, or just outside of the building. The one who won was just a high school kid. He said he was forced into the tournament. I think he was the only one that wasn't really an assassin or warrior. After surviving and answering the organizer's questions, he was only given a few days to decide on a wish. They can grant any wish. The organizer even said that wish can be for more wishes. Going through 98 different possible wishes, he felt like he was going crazy. Eventually, he just wished that he'd forget about the whole thing. So, they erased his memories. I have a feeling that he may have dreamt the whole thing up. His 'world' seemed different compared to the others. I like that it was a very psychological one. It messed with the audience quite a bit. There are a lot of mixed reviews of it. Most people either love it or hate it. I liked it. Not the best, but it was good. Some people commented that it should have had more episodes. Well, they stuck to the zodiac theme and there were 12 of them. It wouldn't make sense that way to make it longer. I had hoped that they would have done more of a background on the rabbit and ox. There wasn't anything on the rabbit really, and he was the biggest and most ruthless killer. We only knew he was 'crazy' and a necromancer. Oh, and he really wanted friends. That's not much to go on. There was a little on the ox when they went through the tiger's background, but not much.

The anime Shiyan Pin Jiating's ending was disappointing. It was pretty good and very interesting. I watched most of it with the Chinese dub. It's actually based on a Chinese comic or manhua, and the anime is a collab between China and Japan. That in itself is interesting. I didn't like that each episode was only about 15 minutes, which is close to half of a regular anime episode. Since I heard the Chinese dub, it was handy while learning the language. The last episode ended way too soon. It seemed to allude to a 2nd season, but the ending was so abrupt...I don't know. They were finally agreeing to tell the person that was taking care of them about their family. That essentially all but Tannis (or Dennis depending on which version) are lab experiments. One is part spider, her identical twin is part plant (the spider's hair changed color and texture after transforming, so she looks different), one of them is part dog, and the last one is a psychic. Tannis is considered to be a genius. Most of the last episode was about Tannis convincing the others to go back home with him and try to learn how to live with other humans. The others wanted to live without him at the abandoned lab that was once their home, before their parents abandoned them. They didn't want to be a burden to Tannis anymore. They felt like they were monsters and deserved to fade into the shadows. Anyways, just as they were about to spill the family secret, it cut away. The psychic was overwhelmed with their caretaker's thoughts, and a name popped up that she recognized. Someone that hadn't been mentioned before. Why end it right there? 

Hataraku Saibou (Cells at Work) and Satsuriku no Tenshi (Angels of Slaughter) have both been great. Hataraku Saibou is surprisingly violent, yet very accurate. Accurate for anthropomorphizing cells and their functions. The white blood cells look pretty much like what I'd imagine them being. The most recent episode was on a cancer cell. They actually made us feel sorry for them. Especially when he said things like: "Why was I born?" They made him look kind of cool, but scary. Satsuriku no Tenshi is a horror escape game. All the characters are pretty twisted. Rachel may be the most. I feel bad for Zack. Yes, he's a serial killer, but he had an awful past. Rachel's the one that thinks through clues and such, and Zack protects her, attacks people and things, and does the more physical stuff. They have an agreement that he needs Rachel in order to make it out; and she wants to die but can't do it herself (she thinks it'll go against G-d if she suicides), so Zack promised to kill her once they make it out. She has amnesia, and the only thing she remembers is witnessing a murder, a short therapy session, and her name. I'm not sure why she wants to die so badly. I'm wondering if when her memories come back that'll change. I do remember, at the beginning, she was terrified of dying. What changed that? The more I think about the story so far, the more intrigued I am. 

26th of Tammuz

This is my wallpaper for July. It's another Dear manga wallpaper I made a while ago. I didn't actually create the art. I just stretched the image big enough to make a wallpaper out of it. There's another manga named Dear that's sports related. This one's by Cocoa Fujiwara, and is fantasy-based. Quite different. These are all the main characters. Subaru is so tall! (Compared to the others.) Taller than I remembered when I was reading it. Hopefully, someday I'll finish reading it. I only stopped because the rest of the chapters weren't available. I liked it a lot. The story was unique, and each character was interesting. This seemed like a nice summery one. 

The weather calendar's main pic's of a shelf cloud in Kansas with a storm behind it during a sunset. They captured a bolt of lightning from the storm. It's cool looking. The smaller pics are of tornado-producing supercell clouds, that were also in Kansas. They seem pretty hung up on tornadoes. There are plenty of other weather-related phenomena they could capture. 

The month-long holidays for July are: National Grilling Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Ice Cream Month, National Blueberries Month, and National Honey Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Lots of good food ones. Also, locally, it's like we have another Pride month. 2 months is a bit much...

My shoulder is a lot better than it was. The heating pad and Vicodin seemed to have helped quite a bit. It's still not 100%, though. It aches every so often throughout the day. I'll probably have to continue to use the heating pad for a little longer. Went for the entire day yesterday and today without taking Vicodin. Yay! I really didn't like how it was making me feel. My stomach was worse on it, too. Had more headaches than usual. So, I was determined to stop even if I was still in a lot of pain. I don't understand how people can get addicted to it. It just makes me feel sicker the longer I'm on it. I also was taking Benefiber for a few days while I was taking Vicodin. I might have had too much each day with it. It made my intestines hurt more than they already were. It helped with the constipation I had with the painkillers. I might try taking it once a day in the future, just to get more fiber. I'm always low on it. So, even if I didn't have colitis it might still be a good thing. I'll see how that goes. I managed to get to most things today, despite the shoulder still slightly hurting and my gut pain getting worse. 

I tried to eat lighter yesterday to help a bit. Haven't eaten much different today, I just have to figure something plain/bland for dinner again. Yesterday, I had a salmon onigiri (rice ball) and some vegetable spring rolls. They were pretty bland enough, and still really tasty. Maybe I'll have something with the rest of the spring rolls? Today, I've also gone back to being strict with tracking my calories (keeping to my 1200-1600 daily range) and such. I didn't last week, because I didn't really care and I was in a lot more pain. 

Went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond this weekend. I hadn't been to one in a very long time. I tend to forget what's actually there. There was a ton of kitchen/cooking stuff. Things that most places locally don't have. It was interesting to look at it all. My old mattress protector was ripped to shreds enough that I had to throw it out a couple of years ago. I had forgotten what it was called at the time, and kept telling myself I'll look for it online. It's difficult to sleep without it. Considering, it usually has some padding. It's felt like I've been sleeping on the floor or something ever since I threw the old one out. It even feels weird to the touch with my other linens on it. Anyways, they had them there. At first, I thought what I threw out was a mattress pad. That seemed too thick, though. I looked at the mattress protectors, and they seemed to be the right thing. I also looked at the info they had on mattress protectors and pads. They of course had the twin mattress protectors just barely within my reach. Almost had to jump for one of them. The one I picked supposedly keeps the bed cool, is hypoallergenic, and has other interesting features. When I took it out of its packaging, it felt nice and soft. I decided to wash it before I used it. Today was not only a laundry day, but also a day I usually launder my bed stuff. I do it every other week, along with my eye mask. Although, the mask has to be washed by hand. So, it worked out that way. Maybe I'll sleep better with the new mattress protector. At least, it'll be more normal.

I didn't get to writing more of Alliance 3 today. However, I did think more about the promos and my other books. I might lower the paperbacks' prices when the promos start on the 14th. That way I can have something close to a promo for them. It won't be the same as having Amazon promote the ebooks through Select, but it'll be something. Their Select program is only for the ebooks. I wish they had one for paperbacks. Maybe they will in the future. It's still kind of a new thing for them. Someone told me yesterday that they just got a copy of the cookbook and can't wait to use it. That's great! 

Went through the Adjectives and Adverbs unit for Chinese. I'm slowly getting better with the pronunciation. I get confused sometimes with the up and down tones. Had many 'perfect' sentences this time with speaking. They turn the color of the mispronounced words (sometimes parts of words) red when you get them wrong. Green is when you get them right. If they're all green, you get a quick 'perfect!'. I'm glad they highlight them this way. You know your weaknesses more. For the rest of it I've been doing really well. Even with the grammar and sentence structure. I'm getting better with quickly learning new characters, too. The next unit is Clothing. That should be interesting. 

Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler's manga had an update. It's put out monthly, although sometimes there's nothing for a couple of months. The story just keeps getting darker. I wonder what Undertaker's true relationship was to the Phantomhives. Yes, we know that he was in love with Ciel's grandmother. However, it seems much deeper than that. The Undertaker said he needed the bloodline to continue. Why? And, he seemed like bringing back 'our' Ciel's dead identical twin brother was only part of his plan. (We still don't know the true name of the one we've known as Ciel throughout the series. It's his dead brother's name.) I'm thinking he's planning to bring back Vincent. He's their father. A couple of the other shinigami showed up at the end of this chapter. After reading this one, more questions have sprung up.

I didn't much extra cleaning besides the laundry and cat stuff. I don't want to stress my shoulder too much. I did get to drawing today. Drew the assassin's head/bust from the first book of Alliance. She had no name in that book, she does have one now, but considering it's in the book I'm currently writing, I won't mention it yet. She's also like a bodyguard for one of the Dark Healers. She'll protect him, and kill anyone he tells her to. 

Started watching Satsuriku no Tenshi (Angels of Death or Slaughter) a couple of days ago. It's apparently based on a horror game. I like it so far. Puts more of a spin on it personally when the main character has the same name as me. They have quite a few things written out in English on the walls, too. It seems to be some sort of survival game. Rachel had witnessed a massacre, and went to see a therapist about it. At some point, she woke up from the session and walked out of the room. It seemed very different compared to the hospital before. She heard an announcement in an elevator that she was the next sacrifice. Each floor has a killer, and she has to get through them all. She met Isaac on one of the levels. He has a huge scythe and seems to be blood thirsty. He came close to killing her. She made it to another elevator just in time. On that floor, she met her therapist again. Turned out he was another 'killer' in the game. Only he seemed more interested in ripping out her eyes. After Isaac travels to that level and kills the therapist, he's branded as a sacrifice, too. He was not supposed to travel to another level. It ended with her wanting him to kill her. So, apparently they team up. I'm unsure how that will go. I wonder if it's real or something she made up. I guess that's part of it. I like psychological/horror/survival anime. Actually, pretty much any medium that has that combo. Hopefully, they can pull it off well. 

Close to finishing Shiyan Pin Jiating (Creatures Family Days). It's only been available in Chinese dub with English subs. It's supposed to be a Chinese and Japanese collab anyways. Very interesting to hear the Chinese while learning it this way. They even have Chinese subs above the English subs. So, I can try to read along with that at the same time. Although, that gets a bit difficult and dizzying. This is a much darker anime than it seemed at first. 

Started watching Hataraku Saibou or Cells at Work on Saturday. This one's interesting. It's about the world of cells in our bodies. The main characters are a red blood cell (rbc) and a white blood cell (wbc). I don't think they have actual names, but numbers with what type of cell they are. Like, Red Blood Cell 200. I think people that don't have any previous knowledge of biology won't truly get everything. They can see how things work, though. I like that they anthropomorphized all of them, and they've made it seem like an actual world. The white blood cells are hilarious to watch when they've found an invader. They immediately swarm it and scream things like: "Die, germs, die!" Then, they attack until the invaders become nothing but a bloody mess. It's rather violent, but that goes along with what actually happens. It's fitting that the red blood cells are mail people. They're constantly delivering things. It was the first day for the main rbc, and she was having a hard time finding where to go. She needed to go to the lungs. The platelets are cute little kids. The T-cells are even more crazy about killing things than the white blood cells. The main wbc met the rbc just after attacking a bacteria. He helped her find the lungs, and saved her when one of the bacteria found its way into the rbc's package. They got rid of him by stuffing him in a rocket and setting it off as a sneeze. It's also interesting to watch this from the perspective of having an autoimmune disease.

Started watching the 2nd season of Gintama.: Shirogane no Tamashii-hen (Gintama.: Silver Soul Arc) yesterday. I didn't realize it'd be out so soon. I get notifications from MyAnimeList of anime on my 'plan to watch' list that's about to premiere. It was nice to see. Gintama is my fave, and this is it's last season. (It's the 2nd half of the last arc.) So, it's bittersweet for me. The first episode didn't disappoint. I wonder how it's all going to end. 

Finished watching Samurai Gourmet on Netflix. It was cute. He slowly realized that you should enjoy your food however way you want. Also, that you should try to be adventurous, but old favorites are good to have as well. I like how they dealt with foreigners in one of the last episodes. They were at a yakiniku place, and the chef seemed to really hate foreigners. The retiree on the other hand thought that since they traveled so far, they should be treated with utmost respect. The fact they decided to come to Japan instead of somewhere else was something to be proud of. The foreigners in this one didn't understand Japanese, and the retiree helped them with figuring out the menu. The chef lectured the foreigners in Japanese when they started sprinkling red pepper flakes on the meat. The retiree was scared to confront the chef, but another man slightly older than him stepped in. He made the chef realize that what's important is that the customer should be able to eat their food however they want. They'll enjoy it more that way. The chef apologized and the waitress told them they can have something on the house for their troubles. The retiree tried it with some red pepper flakes, and said it made the meat even better. Next, I'll watch Million Yen Women on Netflix. I watched at least the first episode a while back. It's a weird one, and I'm unsure if I'll finish it.