Mood: Yay! I love chocolate!I have heard about restaurants that center around having chocolate in every course. That'd be interesting. I also like mole, and most mole sauces have chocolate in it. By itself, it's a great dessert. I like milk chocolate the most. Dark can be good if mixed in something. I don't really think of white chocolate as chocolate.Kind of in its own candy category. Maybe I'll have some hot chocolate later? The only other chocolate we have is unsweetened baking chocolate...Still, even if I don't have any, it's good to appreciate it. I'm sure I'll have some at some point in the near future. The weather is finally getting cooler.I think today was supposed to only get to 82. On Friday throughout the rest of the forecast, it's supposed to be in the high 70s. Sounds nice. Actually kind of cold compared to what we were going through. I wouldn't mind if it stayed in the mid-high 70s for the rest of the summer. I can be a lot more active and enjoy the sun more that way. I've finally gotten back to the way I used to eat. Eating within a certain range of calories. 1200-1600 split up into 5 small meals. It was a bit difficult to keep it up while I was sick, nervous, and scared. I'll try to keep this up the best I can until I'm told otherwise by my docs. Like I said before, I might have to tweak the calories a bit after talking to my doc, but this is probably good for the time being. The weight might go even faster off of me, but unless I become underweight by the time I talk to them, I'm not too worried about it.I feel much better normally while restricting my calories this way. I can eat what I want, and usually get to have it again as leftovers later. Not a bad deal. I hope to get back to my 2 2-mile walks as well. Especially since the weather is a bit more bearable. Managed to do one of them today after dinner. I don't think I'm going to do my sit-ups until I talk to my doc, too. I want to get as close to normalcy for me as possible. It'll make me feel a lot better. Brainstormed more titles for my nightmare anthology, yesterday. I was surprised I was able to come up with some. I was stuck on it last time, which was a while ago. Hopefully, I can pick one soon. The options are getting more interesting. The other stuff should fall together pretty easily. I have to put all the stories together, reformat, do the intro stuff (about the author, any dedications, contents, etc.), figure out the cover art, and then send it all off to Smashwords to get published. It feels like the title will be the hardest part out of all that. I do have ideas for the cover art. Not sure if that part will happen quickly or if it'll be like the title is right now...At least I'm back to it. Looked to see if any of the new dramas that I want to see are up yet. With the exception of one that wasn't subtitled yet, none of them were up. They made a drama out of Death Note, and I'm really curious as to how they went about it. The live-action movies weren't the best, and had low ratings. Hopefully the drama will be different. The manga and the anime adaptation of it are extremely popular. Another new one is about someone who loves ramen, is a ramen chef, and likes to sneak into other ramen shops. It's based off of a manga, too. Another one is about a hotel. The last couple of Jdrama seasons have been horrible. (Haven't actually watched a drama in a while.) Hopefully, I'll find some good ones to watch this time. Tried to watch the new anime called Chaos Dragon, but couldn't stand 5 minutes of it.The animation was a bit jerky, made me feel dizzy, the story seemed overused, the design was strange, etc. I don't usually drop an anime so fast, but I don't think I could take more of that. Hetalia's back!This season's called Hetalia: The World Twinkle. It's still only 5 minutes long. The first episode featured cat versions of the countries talking about current events. They've toned down the crazy fast talking and moving between segments, which is nice. I know they try to stuff in as much as they can in 5 minutes, but sometimes it's a little much.If the episodes were 20-25 minutes like most anime is, it would be a lot nicer. I'm starting to slowly like One Piece. Also, noticed it has a ton of episodes marked as fillers. I'm kind of glad I'm not watching it from when those episodes were current. I can skip over them. There are 100s of episodes like that. I'll be able to cruise through a lot of it and get even closer to the current stuff. The anime currently has 700 episodes. I'm also back to watching Bleach. It has a lot of fillers I can skip over, too. It's not as long as One Piece, and it's already finished. Although, it is pretty long. It's interesting so far. It definitely has its own unique 'atmosphere' or attitude.
Youtube: Found some awesome Kekkai Sensen amv's:
A couple of cool Hitman Reborn amv's:
An awesome Haikyuu amv. The song really goes well with it:
Mood: By Rip Slyme. They harmonize amazingly in this one. Although, they're usually pretty good about it. They sound better and better with every song I hear from them.Their songs and vids always have a comedic flair. And, they seem to sound like they're always having fun. Usually their songs have a positive message. (From the lyrics of this one though, it seems like it's after a break up. But, he's slowly moving on. So, that's a positive thing.) One of my fave bands.
Went to bed pretty late last night, so I slept in. I didn't want to, but only having a few hours sleep is not good.I am feeling much better than I have been at least. Went to group last night. Had a really good turnout. Interesting discussions. At the end, a group that helped set up ours wanted to shoot a commercial for all the branches of it. (Ours being included.) It was a bit awkward.We started with the whole group together, with the shorter people in the front, and the tall in the back. Almost like we were doing a pic together. But, it was video, and we had to say something. I didn't realize how short I was compared to the other people...I must be either the 2nd or 3rd shortest. Funny, because normally I'm just a touch above average height. I'm technically 5'5" and a half, but doctors have told me to round up to 5'6" when I tell people. That isn't short...I used to be the tallest in elementary school. People started to catch up to me towards the end of junior high. So, it's weird to me. And, I kind of felt like one of the taller people behind me, was teasing me a bit. Anyways, after the group 'shot', they asked people to volunteer to say a phrase while looking at the camera. I didn't go up there, but there was one phrase that may have fit me the most. That was 'to be with family'. I'm a bit weary around cameras.Whether their taking a pic or it's a video. Even if I know I look ok, I still feel weird. After group Dad and I went to Applebee's. Normally we go to Shari's with the rest of the group, but we didn't feel like it.We were going to go to Red Robin, but they were closing just as we walked in. (I swear we've been there later during a week night...) So, we decided to go to Applebee's instead. I've just noticed that they're adding more and more bacon-based entrees.Even adding it to things that didn't used to have it. Heck, their mac and cheese has bacon in the sauce...And, most of those things are like that, since it's in the sauce you can't tell them to leave it out. Its already been made. It's sad, because I remember not too long ago that there were more options for me. It's turning out to be worse options-wise than Red Lobster...I mentioned this to our waitress and she felt the same way. She doesn't eat bacon, either. Anyways, I ended up getting their 4 cheese grilled sandwich with tomato basil soup. The soup had chunks of tomato in it, and 3 big croutons on top. The bread was nice and crunchy with a buttery taste, like it's suppose to. It was all very good.The sandwich was a bit heavy and rich, but good comfort food. Could only eat half of everything. So, even if I wasn't doing the eat a certain amount (half or third of) of every meal thing, I would have had a hard time finishing it. Made for a good brunch. Someone found my Hetalia Heritage Meme on deviantART, and decided to leave comments. (It's been up for a while now.) We ended up talking a lot about our families and where they came from. Surprisingly, we may be related. Kind of creepy in a way, actually.But, she also has a very interesting background with her family coming from many different places. I'm just surprised anybody wanted to really talk about that stuff on that site. Yeah, I know I basically illustrated where my family comes from Hetalia style, but didn't think people would go further other than saying 'cool', 'interesting', or 'that's not what we say!'. Had one person tell me that one of them wasn't saying a traditional greeting, and yet everywhere I look it up, it says what I put up. Maybe they were a troll.Each 'mochi' version of the countries says a greeting, and has at least one symbol. Either from the anime, or like a national flower, or sport. Thought it'd be fun for people that way. I made myself up as a mochi with a symbol, my clarinet, and a greeting, Shalom, at the bottom of all the others. Kind of like saying this is the product of all these countries... I managed to do a few things the last couple of days, but sleeping in kind of cuts down on my time. Also, the motivation isn't up to par when you're feeling like crap. Or, just lethargic.Like I mentioned before, I'm doing much better now. So, tomorrow should be much better. I now know why I felt the way I did, and it had to do with a 'natural' thing. (Which has been far from natural lately.) Later, I'll make an appointment to see my new doctor about it. Hopefully, she can help me. Don't want to go through this every time. Maybe my IUD is malfunctioning, too. Great. I'm supposed to replace it soon, but have been putting it off. It keeps me from hemorrhaging out.
Mood: Caramel is awesome!It's easy to make, and there's lots of different ways to eat it. Whether it be by itself, into a candy, in baked goods, on ice cream, popcorn, etc. Very versatile stuff. I had a horrible night.Just couldn't get to sleep, and kept tossing and turning. So, after I slept in a bit, I felt a lot better. The day was going pretty well up until I called a friend about something. Ended up talking about Mom's yahrzeit, which the actual Hebrew date is on the 19th this year. The congregation wants to put up a plaque with Mom's name, and say kaddish/mini memorial service. They want to do it the Shabbat before, so there's a minyan (10 Jews in attendance). Anyways, this wasn't really something I wanted to talk about today.So, it made me feel a bit odd after speaking with them. Finished watching Asuko March. It was a pretty good show. The actors were good, for the most part. The story was interesting. I think there could be a second season, but doubt it will happen. Watched the last 2 episodes of Hetalia: the Beautiful World. (They're only 5 minutes long.) One was about how Turkey treated Greece while he was growing up. It was funny to see the 'philosophy' side of Greece pop up as a little kid. He couldn't stop talking to Turkey about it. There was another country with them that was around Greece's age, but they didn't mention who he was. Maybe it was Crete? It's weird when they do stuff like that, and don't mention who they are. I know sometimes they have citizens from their countries talk to them, but this was different. Also, Italy visited Turkey. Turkey was talking about how strong Italy used to be, and Germany couldn't believe it. The second episode was an April Fool's one, based on the manga strip the mangaka put out, I think, last year. Really funny, and odd to see it in anime form. Taiwan and Thailand had a brief appearance. I love seeing what the designs for the countries are. They're very interesting. In Vampir, Ryou finds out what really happened to Miho. Miho was the one that committed suicide while jumping off a building. But, she landed on Ryou, and he died for a brief time. When he woke up he found out he's really one of the 'living dead'. Anyways, she caused it all, but he felt sorry for her and wanted to figure it out. It was really disturbing what happened to her, and I could see why this is a seinen. It didn't glorify it, but it still was disturbing. The people who drove her to suicide were 'punished' by one of the Vampirs, and eaten. Miho was able to happily pass on. I think the next chapter is the start of a new 'story', even though there seems to be more to this one. I guess finding this stuff out, was Ryou's purpose. I'll find out next time. Finished working on one of the last 2 panels of the drawing meme. Just have to finish the final one. I think I really like the way Shadow turned out in this last panel. I look kind of old next to him...It's funny at least.
Mood: Wow! It's halfway over! It only gets more difficult to follow the 'diet' of Passover as it gets closer to the end.Feels like it's been going forever already. Still feel a bit tired from the cooking and preparing for mainly our seder. Tried to make something nice yesterday for dinner, but it didn't turn out too well.It was a matzah meat pie that people from Rhodes, Greece, and Turkey eat traditionally during Passover. Sounds great, because that area of the world has some of the best food. I think it was just a bad recipe. The top part became extremely hard, the meat mixture seemed dry and didn't keep its 'form', and the seasonings weren't the best. I was looking forward to making it.Came from the same book that I looked at for help on roasting an egg. The egg never seemed to really look 'roasted'. It had little brown spots, so I know it was. I guess the book isn't very good...Maybe just good for reference stuff? Maybe sometime in the future, I'll find a better recipe for it. (Dad made me feel even weirder after her reaction to it. I know she was probably just tired, but it still felt weird.) So, anyways, its kind of set the tone for today as well. I felt a little better after having some of my Passover noodles for lunch. I put some ketchup, parmesan, sweet basil, dried onions, garlic, and 7-spice (or shichimi togarashi) in. It was really good.Might have put a little too much 7-spice in, but it made it zesty too. I've always been the only one who could stomach these noodles, let alone love them. But, this brand was one of the best I've had. The noodles tend to turn into glue, if you cook them a minute too long. And if they're cooked right, they still have a little hardness to them inside. A lot of people don't like the texture.The only thing I don't like about them is they sit in your stomach like lead for hours after. I finished writing the story part of Alliance yesterday! Huge thing for me!Been working on it for a while. I'll have to really celebrate after the holiday. Edited a lot of the last chapter today. Next time, I'll print out that chapter, and edit it again through the paper version. Sometimes I can see mistakes easier this way. After I get this chapter edited enough, I'll have to edit the entire thing. At least a couple of times. I might make a dedication page, figure out the author's info section, and the cover art after that. Then, I have to figure out if I want to self-publish. (It's looking more and more likely that I will.) Played a little of my clarinet yesterday. I felt so rusty.Did some Mozart tunes. I'll get back to the way I was before, soon. Edited more of the drawing meme I'm working on. In Asuko March, Nao's mother visited. She wants to take Nao to Singapore with her to get a better education abroad. After a lot of going back and forth, and her mom collapsing from fatigue; her mom realizes that Asuko's the best place for her. Both Aruto and Tamaki are fighting over Nao. Momo's starting to soften a bit on Nao. Since Nao saved her from a group of guys. Sad that there's only one more episode left. In Hetalia, they featured more of Belgium and the Netherlands. I really like both characters. Belgium feels like she has to become stronger, because she's surrounded by men. Netherlands is very into trade, and his finances. He's kind of sneaky the way he does things sometimes. Like buying a bunch of fish from one country, pickling them, and selling them off to another country at a higher price. I liked Belgium's facial expression when she tried a waffle that countries from around the world call a 'Belgium' waffle. She was very disgusted, and said people should try the real thing at her 'home'. Gintama was awesome! Even if it was a touching story, they always seem to make it awesome and hilarious. Sadaharu was angry at Gintoki, Kagura, and Shinpachi for not feeding him. (Gintoki was a little ticked, saying it's tough trying to take care of everyone.) So, Sadaharu ran away. While he was wandering the streets he met a little puppy. He was about to eat it, then remembered how he arrived at the Yorozuya's door step, and took pity on it. It was very frail, and soon became sick. But, Sadaharu tried to look after it. Finding fish in the river, trying to ask residents to take them in, protecting it at night, etc. Eventually, it seemed that the puppy had passed away. Sadaharu didn't look too great by then, either. Gintoki found them, and took them to the vet. Apparently, Gintoki just wanted to be a little tough on him, to show him what it's like to care for someone. The puppy survived, too. Its previous owner had died, but his grandchildren were notified by Gintoki, and they took the puppy in. Gintoki's a genius! He's always been, but its really come out with the last couple of episodes. Although, he tries to act idiotic, he's far from it.
Mood: Homemade soup is the best!It's also USO Day, and World Cancer Day. Sunday was National Carrot Cake Day. I used to hate carrot cake, but for some reason it tastes great now.
This is my wallpaper for the month. It's the female and male version of Belarus from Hetalia. The male version is only introduced briefly on the mangaka's blog as a doodle, I think. (He's coming up with several opposite gender character designs for the countries, calling them Nyo! or Nyotalia. He introduced this idea very briefly in part of the manga. Didn't show the male version of Belarus then, though.) But, ever since then, the fandom has gone crazy with it. Same with what happened with Romania...Anyways, I kind of like both of them. My spice calendar features oregano this time. It lists a lot more things you can do with it, than with garlic. Kind of weird, because garlic can be in a lot of things. My Jewish calendar has an Esther scroll, or as we call it, a megillah as the main pic. Maker is unknown, it's parchment, from Germany or Italy, from 1710. (Kind of weird that they don't know if it came from Germany or Italy...) There's another megillah made out of parchment, maker unknown, place unknown, from 1700-1800. (Wow. They really don't know much about this one.) There's a 3rd megillah, maker is unknown, made out of silver, from Jerusalem, from 1900-1985. Each scroll looks quite different. Very interesting, though. I like to see the really old stuff they feature. All of them this month are Purim related. Purim starts on the night of the 23rd. It's a crazy and fun holiday. The month-long holidays are: American Heart Month, Avocado and Banana Month, National African American History Month, National Cherry Month, Berry Fresh Month, Canned Food Month. Some are important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. I love bananas, cherries, berries, and some canned foods. The other 2 are important. Good to take care of your heart, and people need to know more about African American history.
On Saturday, we did a lot of shopping. We were out of a lot of things. So, we went to Costco, Trader Joe's, and our local market. Costco's good for our big staples. Like, fabric softener, paper towels, huge bags of clementines, etc. With Trader Joe's, some of their stuff is much cheaper than what they are at our market. Plus, there's new things we're trying out there. (I didn't go to the bar mitzvah, because I was really tired and wanted to sleep instead.) Went to Hakata after shopping all day. I got their yakinikudon, or yakiniku (lit. grilled meat, but it's strips of beef marinated in an amazing sauce, then grilled) rice bowl. It was really good, but had way too many onions.I should have remembered, and told them to leave those off. Oh well. It was the first time I couldn't finish it. Barely got through half of the bowl, before I felt full. (Just meant an awesome lunch the next day!) But, it also comes with miso soup, and pickled bean sprouts. Like most of their entrees do. Also, had 3 small sushi rolls. I apparently still had room for dessert, and got my fave, tempura ice cream. It's ice cream encased in cake, then deep fried in a tempura batter. Tastes awesome! Yesterday, I looked around for some more music. Lastfm comes up with some interesting suggestions. Some bands sounded awesome, but were too depressing. Some were just ho-hum. Some I've fallen in love with. I found one interesting song, though. I'd like more upbeat, peppy, happy, and/or empowering songs. I've got enough 'drama' in my life. And, I certainly don't need more depressing stuff.I also want more Irish/Scottish tunes. Maybe some klezmer, too. Also, tried out Pinterest. I created an account a while back, but the images knocked out my internet connection or something. It does that if there's too many images on a page. Kind of like it's overload for it.Anyways, it seems to be handling images better now, so I tried to go back to Pinterest. I got rid of all the people I was 'following', because I had said yes to following people that my friends on FB were following. Then, I searched for things. There's interesting stuff there. Made a board featuring misc. Japanese stuff, one for tea, and one for nail art. It's a start, but nothing like how many boards some people have. Started watching Great Teacher Onizuka yesterday. Started Ouran High School Host Club. The drama follows really closely to the anime. (Almost too close.) Also, started Asuko March. It's interesting. I'll talk more about all these later. I just put some nail polish on. It's one of those ones that doesn't have a label for the color, and looks quite different on your nails than in the bottle. It's kind of a silvery light pink color. I like it a lot.It's a good confidence boost too. Also, started my 50 sit-ups twice a day for the week, today. I don't know if I can do it for the whole week.But, I'll see. I didn't think I could do the 35 ones for that whole week, but I did. And, now they don't seem that bad. Maybe that'll happen with this week's. I'm still doing my 2-mile walks. I thought I walked about that much at Costco, Trader Joe's, and the market on Saturday. So, I skipped my regular walk around the neighborhood that day. Had a nice walk with Dad yesterday, though. dA faves: Hijikata- Mayora 13Frustration I did not make these! First, a cool drawing of Hijikata from Gintama. Second, an amazing close-up pic of a pencil being stabbed into a piece of paper out of frustration. Very interesting, too.
I have heard about restaurants that center around having chocolate in every course. That'd be interesting. I also like mole, and most mole sauces have chocolate in it. By itself, it's a great dessert. I like milk chocolate the most. Dark can be good if mixed in something. I don't really think of white chocolate as chocolate.
Kind of in its own candy category. Maybe I'll have some hot chocolate later? The only other chocolate we have is unsweetened baking chocolate...Still, even if I don't have any, it's good to appreciate it. I'm sure I'll have some at some point in the near future.
I think today was supposed to only get to 82. On Friday throughout the rest of the forecast, it's supposed to be in the high 70s. Sounds nice. Actually kind of cold compared to what we were going through. I wouldn't mind if it stayed in the mid-high 70s for the rest of the summer. I can be a lot more active and enjoy the sun more that way. 
I feel much better normally while restricting my calories this way. I can eat what I want, and usually get to have it again as leftovers later. Not a bad deal.
The animation was a bit jerky, made me feel dizzy, the story seemed overused, the design was strange, etc. I don't usually drop an anime so fast, but I don't think I could take more of that. 
This season's called Hetalia: The World Twinkle. It's still only 5 minutes long. The first episode featured cat versions of the countries talking about current events. They've toned down the crazy fast talking and moving between segments, which is nice. I know they try to stuff in as much as they can in 5 minutes, but sometimes it's a little much.
If the episodes were 20-25 minutes like most anime is, it would be a lot nicer. 
