National Peanut Butter Day!

I love peanut butter! A little goes a long way, though. It goes with a lot of things. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are great. Peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches are even better. It's good in savory dishes, too. I can only have the smooth kind, because the bits in the crunchy one upsets my gut. I liked that one a lot more...Felt like there was more substance to it. At least, I don't have issues with it in this form. I have to stay away from whole or chunks of nuts, too. Although, I occasionally break this by having a tiny amount to try something new, and regret it later. It's nice that I can have smooth butter versions of them. 

Felt so weird today. Most of the day, I've felt like throwing up and passing out simultaneously. Not a good combo. I don't know what's going on with me. Plus, both sides of my abdomen have been cramping up since I went to bed last night. Made it super hard to sleep. I couldn't find a comfortable position. I usually get that weird crampy thing only one side at night. Usually, I can find one position to sleep relatively comfortably in. It doesn't normally last for the entire next day, either. My primary still hasn't gotten back to me with a new referral to see a GI closer to where I live that's out-of-network. Doesn't sound good to me. 

Finished Duolingo's Italian course. The last unit was on politics, which was interesting. I might, in the far future, go back through and max out the levels. However, I still don't see the point in that. For the next language, I'll probably use a different language learning app. Duolingo's pretty limited still with what languages they offer, and other apps might actually be better. HelloChinese was on another level compared to Duo. They went into a lot more detail with the grammar, pronunciation, speaking, etc. Also, had fun games in addition to the regular course. They have a podcast discussing the language and culture, as well. They're fb page's pretty active, and they've given me a Top Fan badge. I don't know why they gave me that...I've only liked their stuff. Haven't commented or shared anything from it. The Mango app has an extensive amount of languages. I was surprised that they have Yiddish, and both Irish and Scots Gaelic. Hard to find those. They seem to get more detailed and have notes on cultural stuff, too. There's also LingoDeer for Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. I might use that for Korean, if I do it next. Might look up other apps to get a range of choices. These look promising, though. Since I started learning new languages every 3 to 4 months, I've gone through German, Chinese, and Italian now. Tried a little bit with Russian, but Duolingo's course was awful. Might go back to that in a different app in the future. So many already! Yay! I still remember a lot of the German and Chinese courses, too.

There wasn't much progression with Helck. However, it was interesting to see the 'extras' on the story of piuy (aka piwi) and the witch that found him. He's always saying he's not a bird, yet he looks like one. When the witch taught him to say hello when greeting someone, he said it to everyone he saw. He was terrified of people before. He also screams everything. He must be older than he seems, since he was with the witch long before joining Helck and Vamirio. I think he might be one of the legendary creatures, but hasn't 'evolved' yet. That'd be cool. I think he'll have more of a role towards the end. 

I might be finished with drawing Shadow's feet. I'm not too confident about them. Although, they're at a weird angle. Next, will be his clothes. Edited a couple more pages of Alliance, again. More errors than last time.

Played the last piece in the Mozart book on my clarinet. It's the only piece that Mozart made specifically for the clarinet. He finished it just before he died. I like when they have info notes on the pieces. It's also one of the most difficult pieces in the book. Fun to start off with. I also did some of the Clarinet Solos book. That one's interesting, because they mix difficult pieces with really easy ones. 

Finished watching Gab-Dong. It was really well done. The actor who played the copycat, Lee Joon, was great! The copycat's name is Tae Oh Ryu. He seemed to really get into his role. It'd be interesting to see him in something else. There were so many twists and turns. The only issues I had were using the aro psychopath serial killer trope, the staring..., and the way Detective Ha treated Dr. Oh at some point. I knew why Ha acted that way, but it still seemed unnecessary and rude. It had a surprising ending. They made you really feel for Tae Oh, which was interesting. They brought up some moral dilemmas, and debated whether psychopaths should be treated as human. Interesting psychological elements to it. The music was very fitting. Also, the cinematography was amazing! My new computer has a quality picture itself, but the cinematography added to it. You could see the pores on the actors' faces, stubble, veins in their eyes (had a hard time looking at some of them, because they were particularly veiny), dust, and so many other minute details. Felt more 'real' that way. The only weird part with that was they censored things like book titles, knives, posters, and shirts by blurring them out. I think some of the other Korean shows I've seen so far have censored things like that, too. 

The next show I'll go back to tonight is Cheo-Yong. It's another Korean drama. This time it's a supernatural detective one. I watched 3 episodes of it a while ago. I only stopped because I wanted to finish watching others that I had started beforehand. It'll be interesting to go back to. It has 20 episodes, like Gab-Dong does.

Tried watching Grimms Notes yesterday. Not sure if I like it. The animation seems lackluster for some reason. I like the concept. In their world, everyone's born with a book of fate. Most people have everything about themselves and what life they'll lead written in it. Everything from birth to their death. There are those that have blank books that help keep those fates the way they were meant to be. Chaos Tellers, who also have blank ones, try to rewrite those fates. Oftentimes, turning the owners of those books into creatures. This first episode was based on the story of Red Riding Hood. It makes me wonder if each episode will focus on a different story from Grimm's Fairy Tales. 

My Roommate's a Cat was really cute. This time Haru was going crazy trying to 'protect' her human and home from Subaru's parents' ghosts. It played on the idea that when cats are going crazy or suddenly stare intently at nothing, that they see ghosts. Eventually, those ghosts turned to their human forms and thanked Haru, then disappeared. (Subaru didn't see them.) Haru was flabbergasted, but proud she protected the home and her human. Subaru finally started petting her. She was wary of it at first, but then it felt warm and comforting to her. It was weird to her especially because she was originally a stray. She licked his face while he cried, because she thought he was terrified of the weird ghost wisps going around. What really happened was that he realized how much his parents actually cared about him, and he'd never be able to thank them because they're dead. His editor is a huge cat lover, and has decided to 'meet' every day with Subaru at his home to see Haru. I have a feeling it's also to check up on him. 

National Popcorn Day!

This holiday is actually on Saturday, but I won't be blogging that day. I miss having popcorn so much! It's one of my major trigger foods. It's a common one among IBD patients. If I have it, my belly bloats up with so much gas, I look either like I'm pregnant or swallowed a beach ball. Like many things, it also triggers intestinal cramps, abdominal pain, and more. It's pretty bad for me. Diet for us is mainly about managing these symptoms and trying to prevent them, or at least lessen how often they happen. It has nothing to do with the disease itself, just the byproduct of it essentially. I loved kettle corn. It's popcorn tossed in sugar, salt, and oil. It was one of my faves. So was caramel popcorn. There's a big variety out there. I never was really into eating it at a movie theater. I was more into the movie than eating things. (Tend to eat candy or something before the movie starts.) Plain popcorn is also low in calories. For other people (those who don't have IBD), it's rather healthy. 

There was just my parent, another facilitator, and I at the meeting last night. Not really a meeting. It was nice to talk casually for a bit, though. That other person gave my parent a 'half-birthday' present. She talked about making it last time. She made oatmeal mincemeat (filling for the pie, no actual meat) cookies. There was also homemade mincemeat filling (I think). One of my parent's fave pies is mincemeat pie. It was really nice of her. Pretty tasty, too. 

It was just my parent and I at Shari's afterwards this time. I had biscuits and fruit for my 'snack' part. There was a lot fruit, and even though my teeth aren't hurting as much because of that toothpaste, it was too cold for me. I had a few pieces. It was a cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and orange mix. I think it's seasonal. In the past, it's had grapes and strawberries. The biscuits were great. The raspberry jam was even better. Almost felt like drinking it...For dessert, I had carrot cake. It's super popular, and usually they've run out of it by the time I order it. So, that was a nice surprise. It has one of the lowest calorie count of their desserts. The slice is rather small, too. I was going to have something more substantial, since I wanted it to be a 'treat' meal like my weekend treat days. Didn't feel like much else, though. Maybe next time.

Finished the Subj. Per. unit for Italian on Duolingo. Only 5 more units to go. Tried to outline Shadow's hand better. Next time, I'll look closer at examples. Practiced my clarinet. Played Irish tunes. Seemed better than last time. Got to editing Alliance, too. Managed to get a walk in. This time I did the 2nd loop like yesterday, but the direction I would normally go. It was drizzling out. Not enough to bring my new umbrella. It was cold out, again. 

Read more of Helck. It kind of hurt to see Asuta being tortured so much. However, she's a spy. She acted like she couldn't stand it to get intel, and get her torturer close enough to attack him and take the keys. She's smart and tough. She's been trained in how to get out of worse. It was great to see her get to him. It shocked and terrified him so much that he passed out. 

4th of Shevat

Finished the V. Modal unit in Duolingo's Italian course. Started and almost finished with the Cond. Per. one. Only had a few mistakes this time. Oh, now every time I see my Dove body wash and shampoo/conditioner, I think of the Italian word that's spelled the same way but pronounced differently. (Pronounced: doh-vay.) It means 'where' in English. Feels like it's asking me where every time I use those... 

Read more of Helck. Haven't read it in a while. It was revealed that they're in an apocalyptic distant future. I thought it was just a fantasy world. They do occasionally mention their year. Apparently, the 'poison air' surrounding the demon empire is radiation from nuclear fallout hundreds of years ago. Both the demons and humans revere a people called the Ancients in their texts. That's us. They were trying to come up with better and more evolved humans. The experiments went horribly out of control, and they had to nuke the area. (I'm not sure if it was all of Earth.) Few survived. I think the demons are actually mutated humans. That experiment, which seems to have been some sort of virus, was passed on to the ones that call themselves humans now. They've been testing it, and the ones that survive turn into winged soldiers that never die, but eventually lose their minds. The others turn into 'monsters' and are exterminated. A lot of it makes sense now. However, I'm still not sure how the 'king' controls the soldiers with it. I didn't know they'd go so deep with this. It started off like a light-hearted comedy, but turned seriously dark quickly. There's still plenty of humor, though.

Tried to mess with Shadow's torso again. It's slowly turning out the way it should. I still have to shape it to how I want. Might take a while. They do say that it takes practice to get that stuff down.

Practiced my clarinet. Played more klezmer. Edited more of Alliance. Almost to the 11th chapter. Yay!

Started watching Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue or My Roommate is a Cat (sometimes translated lit. to: My Housemate is Sometimes on My Lap, Sometimes on My Head). It's about a mystery novelist, Subaru, and a cat, Haru, he took in. He found the cat at his parents' grave. (They both passed away at the same time, I think.) The novelist hates people, and before he met the cat, he was only interested in books. He doesn't know much about cats. Haru was a stray, and had a tough life up until then. It was interesting that they showed her perspective, too. This was better than I thought it would be. 

With the first episode, it seemed very much like my relationship with Rosie. He forgets to eat sometimes, and Haru kept trying to give him hints to eat. Putting pieces of her kibble at his bedroom/office door a few times, scratching at the door, and then dragging her food bowl to it. Eventually, after scolding her for being too distracting, he passes out. A little later, in a half conscious state, he grabbed cat food from the bowl, ate it, and went on a weird writing rampage on memos near him. She was surprised, but proud to have 'saved' him. One of my occasional symptoms with colitis is not feeling hunger. It happens even when I'm in remission. I sometimes forget to eat because of it. (I usually try to set an alarm when I feel like that.) Rosie will meow at me while I'm in my room, and sometimes scratch at the door. If I get up, she'll bite my pant leg and try to drag me with her. Once I go downstairs, she'll run to her food bowl, make like she's going to eat, stare at me, stare at the refrigerator, and then back to her bowl. She'll repeat this until I start making something. If I don't, she'll eventually grab me again. She sits patiently on the hard floor next me as I make something in the kitchen. She'll then follow me to where I eat, wait a moment to make sure I'm eating, and then walks away. If I don't finish my food, she runs back to me, and lays against me (not letting me get up) until I finish it. She does a similar thing normally, but not as demanding about it. She's very happy when I eat, too. I think she thinks she keeps me alive or something. It's cute, nice to have a creature care about me so much, yet kind of creepy at the same time. She seems to do more than what Haru did. Some people commented that what Haru did wasn't realistic. It seemed pretty real to me. The creator probably based Haru off their own cat. Maybe they're not cat owners? Also, cats aren't all the same. I was surprised by Rosie doing that, too. 

Finished watching The Ancient Magus' Bride. I liked some of it, but there was a lot that was problematic. Plus, it seemed...pretentious. There was a lot of hype when it came out. I waited to watch it, because there was way too many other anime that I wanted to watch that season. They tried to make everything whimsical and magical. It fell a bit flat and seemed forced on that front. People were praising the music, but I found it too overdone. The art was great. The main problematic part came at the very beginning. A suicidal 15 year old girl, Chise, being sold to an emotionally stunted 500 year old male demon, Elias. Then, telling her to be his apprentice and that she's his bride. He doesn't understand the concept behind what a bride is. A lot of people felt uneasy about this. They even tried to explain it away in the show. Then, proceeded to romanticize it. Some people were defending it and saying it's a fantasy world and things are done differently. That's weak to me. It sends a creepy message. Not to mention a lot of the 'good' characters either tried to kill Chise or kidnapped her. They brought up a lot of Celtic folklore, but it seemed like they didn't do much with it. Kind of like spewing it out and having it there just because it seemed cool. Some of it they actually did incorporate, but not much. I really liked Ruth and Silky (aka Silver), though. Silky was once a banshee. She cried out so long, she lost her voice. So, she did a lot of grunts and such. She takes care of the house. Ruth is Chise's familiar who's a black grim. He has dog and human forms. The last episode seemed forced, rushed, and somewhat gag-inducing. I'm not regretting watching the whole thing, but it left a weird aftertaste. I really wanted to like it more than I did. I won't watch a 2nd season if there is one. 

15th of Tammuz

I decided I'll try something a little different with my books. I'm taking 3 of the ebook versions out of Amazon's Select program. It's a program only for the ebooks that helps promote them. You get 2 different promo 'tools' to use on them for each 3-month term. It also puts them in their 'library', which people can borrow and with each page read the author gets something from it. (Not much, though.) They also suggest them more. The thing is...if you enroll them in that it has to be exclusive to Amazon. You can't have it at any other retailer. It cuts the audience down. I also don't think it's working much. Although, I think they're keeping me from seeing how much I'm selling because I haven't switched to direct deposit into a bank account. It's set to checks, but they don't use checks in the US anymore. I probably should change that soon to make sure. 

Anyways, those 3 will be: Alliance, Alliance: Dawn, and Sweet Endless Terror. They're the oldest. I'm keeping them on Amazon (just not with Select). Both versions will be there. I'll publish them to Smashwords. They'll most likely be approved for their Premium Catalog, so it can be distributed to a lot of other retailers. Retailers like Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. They have a lot more than when I published last through them. They also will promote a series more. I'll have both the first book and sequel to Alliance on there this way. That'll help. Some retailers have higher royalties, too. I can't put them up on Smashwords until their terms are up. That'll be in August. 

I'll keep the memoir and cookbook in Select for now. When I'm done with Alliance 3 and it's published, I'll take the memoir off of Select. Eventually, that'll go to Smashwords, too. I think with every new book, I'll take an old one off of Select and publish it to Smashwords as well. It could be a nice little system this way. I could still use Amazon's promo tools this way. I could technically only do this after writing so many books. I'm going to take advantage of them. I just have to keep track of what's in Select and how long their terms are. 

Wrote more of Alliance 3 today. I would have gotten more done, but I was blanking a lot. The weird thing is I have so many more ideas for later in the story. Word wasn't acting up, either. Yay!

Went through the Measure unit for Chinese. They use different measure words for things like people, animals, food, drinks, etc. Also, they seem to not use digits like 1, 2, 3. Instead, they use the characters for those: 一 (yī), 二 (èr), 三 (sān). They use liang for 2 people instead of er. Kind of like we use 'couple' sometimes. It looks a bit weird with phone numbers just in those characters. Interesting, though. Next, it's the Money unit. I was ok with pronunciation this time. Had a few perfect sentences, and the rest were very close. They've added speaking back what you've heard without it written out. As well as answering a question with saying the correct choice given. A little more difficult, but seems like a good way to learn it, too. 

Yesterday I started reading the manga, Choujin Gakuen or Supernatural Academy. It's been interesting so far. I might go into it more next time. Read more of Helck today. Not much went on other than quite a bit of dialog. Asuta's fine, at least. She's still imprisoned. 

Managed to get to cleaning my bathroom today. Yay! Finished cleaning the toilet. Next will be the tub/shower area. 

I've kept up grooming Rosie with the mitt. Her lumps are all slowly coming to the surface. I clipped off one of the biggest clumps a couple of weeks ago with scissors, because it was so close to just falling off. Some of the others are getting to that point now. Her fur is so nice, soft, and shiny. It's really helped her, and I think she knows it. I think she thinks of it like some humans might think of going to the spa for a massage. She loves it and becomes very relaxed afterwards. I also inked Doina's head from Alliance. I'll edit the 3 newest heads in Photoshop and post them soon.

I've been keeping up with being strict with my calories and such. (Started going back to this Monday.) I've set my daily calorie range to 1200-1600. I'm trying to shoot for the middle of it (1400) most of the time. Of course, during the weekend I'll allow myself to eat as much as I want, since they're my treat days. It's interesting to figure this stuff out beforehand through MyFitnessPal. I still can have quite a decent amount of food throughout the day. I'm always surprised by how much I can eat of certain things this way. Like, the carrot cake slice I got recently is supposed to be a single serving. It's about 800 calories, though. So, I've been having a quarter of it each time. (4 servings for something that's supposed to be one...It just amazes me.) Down to the last one, and it might be a little stale. Many things are going to make more servings than what's listed, while eating this way. I'm doing slightly better with protein lately, too. Still trying to watch the other nutrients and keep it more balanced. I'm 'documenting' a lot of this on Instagram. I've done it before in the past. I keep thinking people will think it's annoying and stop following. I've found the opposite to be true. I've been getting a lot more likes and follows. I guess people like this sort of thing. 

National Strawberry Shortcake Day!

Strawberry shortcake reminds me of summer, so it's perfect for this time of year. Also, reminds me of fair food. I don't think the big local fairs are until July and/or August. A couple of weeks ago I had a strawberry shortcake cake. It had the same elements: strawberries (in jam form), whipped cream, and cake, but put together in cake form. Normally, they're layered, and not put together like that. It was good. The best ones I had were at the fair and they used a scone for the cake layer. I think they used really thick whipped cream, too. It was amazing! 

Created a thread promoting my cookbook on AVEN's forums. (AVEN is Asexual Visibility and Education Network.) I thought it'd be best in their celebration forum. Since, I am happy about it. I think it's something to celebrate. Haven't had a reaction yet. Also, posted a status about it on there. Nothing on that yet, either. I later posted a status about it on Arocalypse. (An aro-based community. Similar to AVEN.) The forums on there aren't very active, and they have a tiny fraction of members compared to AVEN. Sometimes the statuses get a bit more attention than the actual forums. I wasn't sure which of their forums would be appropriate to create a thread for it in. They have less sections than AVEN, too.

I also sent emails to both of the local congregations. Since I copied and pasted what I wrote in Notes on my phone, the font came out bigger than usual. Not bad, but surprised me and might look weird to them. I'm not a member of either of them, but most of the members of both knew me and especially my mom. She made a huge impact with both of them. We were 'official' members of one of them for a while. She would run a Judaica shop for them, was on the board for a while, would tutor Hebrew, etc. She and I were both apart of a Rosh Chodesh group that didn't last long (but came back a few times), Hadassah (this was actually a joint group with both congregations), and I think a Kabbalah group that met a long time ago. All this in addition to going to services. Everyone knew her, and most people loved her. She was very knowledgeable about Judaism, so people sometimes went to her instead of the rabbis. I thought they'd both definitely be interested in this. A couple of the recipes are actually emails from members of those groups. So, they may see themselves in it. Plus, there's a huge Passover and Hanukkah section. In general, they might be interested in it just for that. Someone made it a point to tell me that I should email one of the congregations when I published it. (This was face to face during Thanksgiving.) Haven't gotten a response yet. We'll see what they'll do with it. 

Leveled out both Basics 1 and The for German. There are 3 types of 'the's: feminine die (dee), masculine der (dehr), and neutral das (dahs). It was good to review them. I just remembered that mädchen (mayd-chin) or girl actually uses das and not die. So, a girl is neutral and when she becomes a woman she's feminine? Woman is frau (frow), by the way. Kind (kint) or child uses das, as well. That makes more sense. Junge (yung-eh) or boy uses der along with mann (mahn) or man. Those make sense. The only one that doesn't is mädchen...Next is leveling out Basics 2. On Duolingo, I didn't realize that if you pay a certain amount of gems, you can open bonus 'units'. Idioms and proverbs, and flirting are available for those at the moment. I think they show more when you earn a certain amount of gems. I currently have the most I've had at once. I wouldn't care about the flirting one, but the other one sounds good. 

In the manga, Helck, they made it to another demon castle. They finally got a chance to relax. The demon king there imprisoned a winged human. It seems that they want Helck to talk to him soon. They finally went back to Asuta. Several chapters ago, she was caught by the humans, and that was it until now. It looks like they beat her up and handcuffed her to a wall in a prison cell. Nothing more was revealed, but it looks like the next chapter will continue with her side of it. I like Asuta. She loves to wear men's clothes, and hates wearing anything feminine. She's ok with or doesn't really care when people call her a guy or a girl. She seems pretty enby to me, and cool at that. In an 'extra' or side chapter, her sister tried to get her to wear a dress. It was like pulling teeth. With the dress she ended up with, she asked if it looked weird. When she went to the event she was invited to later, people thought she looked like both a prince and princess. In the eyes of her sister, it seems like she couldn't win. 

In addition to the cat stuff, I managed to sweep up my bathroom floor. It doesn't seem like I did it that long ago, yet there was a lot of litter. They seem to go in there a lot. Tried to sweep the big bathroom rug with a brush this time. I think I was somewhat successful with it. At some point, I probably should launder it. It smells gross. I can't smell it when it's on the floor, though. 

Something's going on with the cats. Tasha has made the spot near the door jam to my room as her new spot. She huddles up to that door jam and watches me happily when I'm in my room. She's also been hanging out in a corner of my room (near a bookcase) lately, too. This isn't normal for her. She's normally too scared and thinks my room or anywhere near it is Rosie's territory. She's terrified of Rosie. However, I think that's changing, too. She's not running away when Rosie walks in. Lately, Rosie has only lightly fought back when Tasha socked her in the face. Otherwise, she seems curious about her. They've been lying down much closer to each other than normal, too. Maybe, just maybe, they're finally accepting each other? That would be great. I think Tasha is trying to get closer to me, too. That's one thing Rosie doesn't like. She's incredibly possessive and protective of me. I'm not used to having 2 cats hanging around me this often. I like it, though. 

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia

Today's International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia or IDAHOT. It's also against other 'phobias' in the community. The organization that started it said they didn't want the name to be too long, and wanted an acronym people could remember easily. It's also against acephobes and arophobes. I'm aro ace. I don't particularly like when others lump them together and call it aphobia. That's literally 'fear of a'. Doesn't make as much sense. Plus, asexual and aromantic are 2 different things (it's somewhat rare to be both), and they get lumped together too often. Often, there is arophobia within the ace community. Some by ace activists themselves, which hurts a little more. I haven't come across acephobia in specific aro spaces online, but they seem to have a quieter presence. Also, it's against enbyphobia, which is also referred to as exorsexism. I'm enby, and while we are under the trans umbrella (and also experience transphobia), there's an added layer of hate against people who aren't apart of the binary. Hopefully, someday, there will be no more haters. I changed my fb profile frame to an IDAHOT theme. Just to let people know about it. Shared that pic on Instagram, too. Some countries actually have special national activist programs going on today. Not sure if the US has any going on. World IBD is coming up soon, too. That would be another good one to raise awareness for.

If I offended anyone with yesterday's post, I apologize. I just needed to get it off my chest, so to speak. I probably won't mention that (at least the word) again. Exorsexism or enbyphobia can be disturbing, especially in your own community. I should have probably framed it more like that instead.

Not many people showed up to the local trans meeting last night. More than last time, at least. With that one there was just Dad, me, and one other person. This time we had 5. One of which hadn't been there in a while. Ze is also enby. Ze/zir are their pronouns. Hopefully, I'm getting that right. There are apparently a few ways to spell that pronoun, and I don't know which way ze spells it. I've heard it before, so it's common enough. With learning German, 'sie' is pronounced as 'zee' (some people spell this pronoun as zee), it's used for she, they, and a formal you. Makes me wonder if this is where that pronoun came from. It'd be interesting. I brought that up, and ze seemed interested in that, too. He is 'er' which is pronounced similar to saying the word 'air' in English. Found out recently that 'er' can also be used for the word 'it'. That sounds somewhat demeaning. Most of the time 'es' (like pronouncing the letter 's') is 'it'. 

Pride came up. We most likely will have a booth. Might have lemonade or iced tea there, as well as candy. That would be nice on a hot day. Not sure how we'll do the clothing exchange. We ended up talking about my ace group, which I didn't expect. That group online has gone quiet since last December. That's a long time. I was mostly the only one actively posting stuff for a while. At some point I got tired of being the only one. No one really showed up to the offline meetings, too. One person that I knew showed up a few times, and yes he is demi and therefore on the ace spectrum, but it felt more like a solidarity thing. I gave up on that close to a year ago. There was one person that joined the online group around November, and was really wanting to jump start the group. I let them try. They posted a few times, and then disappeared. They're still a member, but never heard from them again...We still have 17 online members, and I'm surprised they haven't dropped it. The group last night suggested I still hand out my flyers from last year. If anything, I can educate (there's info on what being ace means on it) or let another ace know that there are others here. I just remembered that I never mentioned the meeting place or time for the offline one, so it might still work. I do mention the fb group. I don't know...I think only 2 or 3 were taken last year. 

I want to get some Pride-related clothes and other merch soon. The only things I have is a 3' x 5' ace flag, a small genderqueer flag, a rainbow wristband (it was free, but it's falling apart), and maybe a rainbow colored strange looking necklace. That's it. Nothing like shirts. One of the members last night brought up that she bought some Pride gear, and that reminded me of it. It'd be cool to have something related to most of my 'labels'. Stuff that I could wear during the rest of the year, too. I can be more out and proud. I do have a list I compiled last year of online Pride-related retailers. I was thinking about it last year too, but never got to it. It'd be great if I did before Pride month this year. Those retailers sell that stuff year-round, so it's not like as soon as Pride season is over they suddenly shut down. However, it is their biggest season, and there might be more deals. 

We went to Shari's afterwards. I don't normally like carrot cake, but I thought I would try theirs. They were out of them. I got their cheesecake with strawberries instead. It was nice, dense, and rich. Smaller than I expected, but that might be a good thing. Tons of strawberries, so that was a plus.

I stayed up a little too late, so I got up later than I'd like. Today has been really cool weather wise, which is nice compared to a few days ago. I feel like I have the energy to do more when it's like this. I woke up feeling sick, though. There's something going on with my nose and throat. My nose especially hurts. I know I get sick easier and more often than I used to, but it's still annoying. The heat may have messed with me. 

Finished the section for German. There's only one more section left, which has 20 lessons. There's a lot more than it seems, because after finishing the first 'level' for those lessons, I plan to go back to the beginning and level out everything. There are 5 levels for every lesson. I somehow already finished 3 levels of the basic stuff, even though I didn't go back yet. Maybe it's because I've gotten so far? 

Read more of the manga, Helck. It's gotten really serious lately. They were going to kill all the winged mutated humans, but have decided to save them somehow instead. Vamirio realized her uneasiness around Helck was really her sensing how he felt. He didn't want to kill his old friends, but was steeling himself in order to save the demons. There does seem to be ways of breaking the king's spell. Edil broke away from it on his own for a while. When Helck hugged Alicia, in the chapter I read, she managed to hug back. She's still in there. Should be interesting to see how it turns out.

Started dusting my bedroom. Did all of my nightstand, the bed's headboard behind it, and part of the dresser under the window. I hadn't washed the shallow silver dish that I use for my earplugs in a long time. It might have caused me problems. It looked shinier after I washed it (instead of just dusting it), which was nice to see. There was a very thick layer of dust on the nightstand. Probably not healthy, considering it's near my head when I sleep. It's better now, at least. 

25th of Iyar

It has been a lot cooler today. In the mid-50s. It's raining, too. The rest of the forecast this week looks really warm. Hopefully, it won't get too warm.

Yesterday, I got to my after dinner walk finally! Yay! Not only that, but I did the whole thing, instead of stopping halfway like last time. Did it in the half hour I planned. Pretty much exactly. According to My Fitness Pal, I was going at a very brisk pace. People usually tell me I go too fast when they see me on my walks. Most of the time I want to see how fast I can go. I don't care if they think it's too fast. I go faster without a jacket and really blare my music from my mp3 player. That walk felt really good. It was the perfect temp, too. I'm hoping I can get one in today, even though it might still be raining. 

I've been mostly keeping up with my schedule this week, and I feel so much better overall. My eyes aren't straining as much, I'm getting things done, I have more of a day, feel more tired by the end (helps a little more with my sleep), and more. However, my gut's starting to act up even more. I don't think it likes this. I normally have the pain, but it has gotten worse. I'm going to try and power through it. 

It's almost the weekend where I plan to sleep more and my schedule will be a lot more lax/flexible. I can 'recover' then. I planned out what I could do on Shabbat. Sometimes I refrain from so many things that I don't know what to do or get easily bored. I figured out how to get around that, but still go easy on myself. I can do more things than I thought. I'll try to have my own services, and that includes Havdalah. I normally skip that. I'll also go over the parsha or Torah portion and look up commentary on it. 

I've kept up with blogging this week, too. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to. The stronger internet connection certainly helps. It'll be interesting to see if I could really do it every day but Shabbat.

Wrote more of Alliance 3. Rewrote the dedication/preface for the cookbook. It's a lot better now. Oddly, the updated version came to me last night, as I was trying to sleep. It was annoying, but I'm glad I wrote it down. I also started putting the sources in alphabetical order in another Word document. (I had just jotted them down in Notepad earlier.) I almost forgot to put my mom as one...That would have been sad to leave her name out of it. After I finish putting them in order, I'll look at other templates. I'm going through this stuff faster than I thought I would. I think a lot of people will want it when it's published. Especially the many people that knew her. No pressure, right? 

Finished the German animal lesson on Duolingo last night. Got through about half of another present tense lesson. It's a longer one than the animal lesson. So, it's not bad. I didn't miss one until the last part I went through today. That was good, too. I'll finish that tomorrow. 

It has been a while since I last read the manga, Helck. It's getting really intense at the moment. I keep thinking I'm close to the end, but there are 45 more chapters and they usually have extra half chapters thrown in. There must be another big arc or something. This manga was lighthearted and full of humor towards the beginning, but it has become darker and more serious. Occasionally, the humor's still there but it seems to be less and less frequent. Reminds me of what happened to Gintama in many ways. It's still good, just different. It'd be cool if they made an anime adaptation of Helck. I think it's the type of series that would be enhanced by seeing it in motion. It probably would be popular, too. 

I dusted the wood in my bathroom this time. Ran out of Endust, but luckily the towel I was using had enough of it soaked in that I got to everything in there. Even if it hadn't, I would have continued to wipe things down. At least, I would have gotten the dust off either way. Maybe not as well and clean as with Endust, but close. Managed to start dusting the walls and windows in my bedroom. It was really gross. It has been a very long time. It was so much dust that when I opened my window, I could see it coming out in plumes. Similar to smoke coming off of the Swiffer wand. I didn't realize there was that much. I haven't made it very far into that room, either. Probably not very healthy.

Finished drawing and inking Rakesh. I'm not exactly happy with it, but I think if I had continued to mess with it, it would have gotten worse. I drew a better design of him in the past. Same with Nico. Oh well. I'll post Ravel, Nico, and Rakesh on dA and Instagram either later or tomorrow. With them, I've drawn 15 characters so far. It's interesting to see them all together on one page. I might post the whole page to dA when it's completely filled. That'd be interesting to see. Not sure about Instagram, since it's weird about pics that are a certain size. I have roughly 4 more spaces for heads. So many! I might color the heads in when I'm done with all of the ones I can remember.

Watched another couple of episodes of Mystic Whispers on Netflix last night. This time it was about a ghost that was addicted to his smartphone. It seemed sadder than the previous one. 

Watched a few more episodes of One Piece last night. Since I skip the opening and recap of most episodes (I'll only watch the opening once if it's new), each one is roughly 18 minutes. Not long. Plus, there hasn't been that many anime shows that have interested me this season. Why not catch up some more on this one in the meantime? They teased the viewers with the idea of killing off Law. I hated that, but I knew he must have figured out a way to survive. Bellamy is apparently dead now. He begged Luffy to fight him, and with a single punch, Luffy defeated him. That whole fight pissed off Luffy even more. They're close to beating Doflamingo now. Yay! He wants to kill everyone by slowly shrinking the wire 'birdcage' he set up over the entire island nation of Dressrosa. The wires are slicing through the outskirts of the country as they close in. People who are in the way of it, would be sliced instantly. It hasn't sliced people up yet, though. Hopefully, it won't. That's pretty evil and ruthless. He seems to be the biggest and baddest villain so far. Makes me wonder what the next one will be like.