PonPonPon

Mood:

Sung by the Len Kagamine vocaloid. The original was sung by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. I didn't like the original as much as I liked this cover.It's supposed to be cute and weird. (According to the original artist.) The original video with Kyary is pretty trippy. It kind of creeped me out. I think it's a fun song, though. There isn't that much sense to it. Pon can be onomatopoeia in Japanese for the sound of clapping. (Sometimes it's the sound for something that's popping.) Although, I've also seen it as 'pan', which is also the word for bread...Some people translate it as the clapping song. Somehow his voice sounds better to me for it. With the vid I found, I don't particularly like the pics they use. But, they are based off of what Kyary wore in the original. Kind of odd to see him in a similar get-up, I guess. It has the Japanese, Romaji, and English lyrics which is kind of nice. Be warned, it will get stuck in your head...

Found out that our friends are having their seder on the 2nd night of Passover, so we're having ours on the first night. (Feels like a more important one considering it's the first night. It starts it off. Also, it starts the night of April 14th.) I invited the 3 people I was going to for our seder. They said they'll be there. Yay!I told them to bring either a salad or fruit. They seem like they'd be easy for people to bring. I didn't want them to bring something too different than that, since it runs the risk of them bringing something that we can't have on Passover.I told them if they bring a salad to obviously not put in or bring croutons. That's a big one. One person asked if corn was ok, and since I'm Ashkenazic it's not. (It's also best if they don't bring dressing, and we just provide it.) I think fruit would be the easiest, and I love fruit. You don't have to mess with it. One of them said they tend to bring desserts to these sort of things (according to her she's been to many different kinds of cultural 'feasts', never to a seder though). I told her fruit's a dessert, why not bring that? 

In addition to them we might have people from the support group coming. I'm not sure if they'd even be interested in it, but we'll bring it up at the meeting tomorrow. (Or on the fb group page, not sure.) If we do have people from it, it's going to be a pretty packed house.I suppose we could get the extra picnic/card tables out or something...We have quite a bit of chairs, too. We'll have to prepare the food and such for more, too. I like to have people over for it, but hope there aren't too many people coming. Plus, there might be a ton of salad and fruit if we have a lot. That'd be kind of funny, yet awesome. 

I wasn't sure if even those 3 people would be interested. So, the seder is becoming more 'real', I suppose.It's different when it's just the immediate family. It doesn't feel as formal, I guess. I'm telling people to dress casually, by the way. I will too like usual, but the rest of the stuff feels more of a 'to do'. It's kind of motivating though.I haven't really hosted at home before. (I did host a few times while I was living in the dorms in college. Those were fun, but not quite the same.) Dad's usually a great help with the seder. It's usually been Mom who hosts it. There's a lot of cleaning that has to be done before people come...I'll do a little at a time, though. It won't feel as overwhelming then. (Plus, traditionally part of preparing for Passover is cleaning. So, I'd be following some of it.) Also, one of the people I invited said that if I needed help with anything, including cleaning, she's there for me. That was incredibly nice of her.

I also started a list of things we'll need for the seder, and another one for the rest of the holiday. (It is 8 days long.) After my therapy appointment on Friday, we're going to the QFC that has a ton of Passover stuff. It'll hopefully be early enough that there's still quite a bit of stuff there. People tend to start getting their holiday stuff roughly a month before the actual holiday to make sure they have it in time. The stuff goes by quickly that way.They always have something new each year, so that should be interesting to see, too. I find it fascinating to see what can be done for Passover with these things. Some of it tastes better than the stuff we have the rest of the year. I still have to look through our cookbooks beforehand for the recipes we usually use for the holiday before we go to QFC. I'm kind of getting excited about the whole thing!I thought I'd be too nervous. 

Oh, I also think I should look online for better recordings of Passover songs. The ones we have on tape and that Mom would use during the seder, are kind of too hokey for me.I might be the only one singing (Dad at least might be singing with me too, but there may not be any Jews coming who know the words), so it'd be nice if I could sing along with something. I want to hear the songs this time, too. Last year I don't think we sang too much. It makes it more 'festive' and entertaining. 

Also, found a Passover seder 'planner' on top of our Hagaddot (plural for Haggadah. Lit. means 'telling') books. We go through/read the Haggadah during the service, it lays out the 'order' of the seder. It's a mitzvah (commandment) for every Jew to retell the story of the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt. It also explains the symbolism that's laid out, like what's the roasted egg for? Or, the shank bone? There are prayers, songs, times we drink (we don't drink alcohol, so we'll have grape juice), etc. It's basically the foundation of the seder. 

Anyways, the 'planner' was very interesting. I didn't think we had something like that. It lists things to get for the seder, ideas, what's permitted and what isn't, etc. Apparently, you're not supposed to change too much of your family's own service/traditions from year to year. You can add a few things to make it more interesting, though. I'm thinking of adding an empty chair to it. It's supposed to symbolize people who aren't able to attend a seder because they may still be enslaved or oppressed in some way. I like that. Kind of like they're there in spirit.We'll probably put out an orange like we have the last few years. It symbolizes the LGBT community, women in general, and people who just feel like they don't belong or are 'punished' by society because they are different. Someone said that a woman belongs on the bima like an orange belongs on a seder plate. This was in opposition to the first female rabbi. It stuck, and many people have related to it. It was supposed to be an insult, but it was turned around to empower people. We also have Miriam's cup that's full of water, in addition to the traditional Elijah's cup. Kind of cool and interesting things. Went through the actual Haggadah we might use, and there's quite a lot of stuff. We only have 5 of them, though. I think there may be 2 more, but they're from a different edition. If we have a lot of people, I guess we can double up. Although, Mom might have made some copies of them under the Haggadot pile. (We have a few different Haggadot, but we seem to use one in particular more often and there aren't that many of the others.) I guess I'll have to see.

I'm doing 55 sit-ups twice a day this week. My morning ones today seemed easier than last week's. Yay! I'll definitely do both of my 2-mile walks tomorrow. 

I tried to fill out the application for the state healthcare insurance program, but ran into a few snags. I submitted it anyways, and got a response the next day saying it wasn't finished. But, they gave me an extension to have it done by April 10th. I called them and talked a bit about it with someone who seemed to understand, but she said she can't do anything but will patch me through to an enrollment officer who could. She told me that it may be a bit of a wait. I was put on hold, and the automated message system said that the estimated wait time was 111 minutes.I don't have that many minutes on my phone, so I ended the call. Later, I got another email saying that since I have an extension, it'd be advisable for me not to call until after the 31st. Kind of funny. I might try them again tomorrow, then. I kind of need the dental/vision insurance plans. They're supposed to be separate from the regular health insurance plans. I'm covered by a regular one, they just don't cover dental and vision.

Watched a teaser for the anime Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei. I thought it was the actual first episode. But, it doesn't start until next week. The main characters were drawn in a chibi style for it. They aren't usually. They explained parts of it. From the explanation, it sounded interesting. Still unsure about it, though. I guess I'll see when it actually comes out.

Finished reading Hiiro Ouji or Scarlet Prince. I really enjoyed this manga, and it's sad that it's over. Kind of felt short. Only 3 volumes. But, then again I'm used to ones like 666 Satan (also called O-Parts Hunter), Tripeace, and Hitman Reborn. Those are all pretty long. Awesome, but long. It would have been cool if they had continued this one. Still don't know much about the rest of Akira's family, or even much about Mana's past. But, at least Akira (he's the furthest to the right in the pic) confessed that he loved Mana (second from the left in pic, she's an exorcist). Mana feels something for him too, but is still in the denial/starting to realize stage. They were about to have a sad ending. Mana thought since the church told her she doesn't have to observe and research Akira anymore (he's a vampire who gets his blood through an IV transfusion that he carries around with him most of the time. The hospital donates the blood for him and his wealthy family), that they'd transfer her to a different school. So, they all said their heartfelt goodbyes and Akira confessed. The next day she shows up at school saying the church can't afford the money for her to transfer, so she's stuck with them.Wataru (at the far left in the pic, he's also an exorcist) told them that he'll transfer in so he can protect Mana. If I remember correctly, he's passed high school age. Plus, not only was he forbidden from the school, but the church doesn't have enough money. Seemed fishy. I want to know more about Mamoru (he's an incubus, and is second from the right in the pic), he's an interesting character and it kind of feels like he was pushed to the side. I like how this manga made the 'monsters' people are afraid of into seemingly normal people. They don't want to hurt anyone, and aren't at all like what's in folklore. Although, Akira's brother Kazuya sucked Mana's blood to keep her quiet. He was the only one that forced his victim into something. He hated her blood though since she's an exorcist, but felt that if she didn't keep quiet and he didn't erase her memories he'd be in big trouble. His regular victims willingly give their blood to him. Although, he's a bit of a player, and they're all young girls. I know the least about the 3 humans in the middle of the pic. They were kind of like ghosts, and rarely popped up. You knew they were apart of the group and were friends, but didn't have much of a role. I'll miss this one! 

Wrote more of the 7th short story from my nightmare anthology. I was stuck for a bit, but managed to come up with some interesting ideas for it. It might be turning out to be trippier than the nightmare it's based on.Not sure where it's going, but I kind of felt like that while the original nightmare was happening. I had no idea what was going on and woke up confused. 

Played my clarinet. Did some Irish tunes and lots of Klezmer tunes. Sounded pretty good with the Klezmer ones. Better than I expected. Maybe I'm getting used to the new reeds. Although, I haven't been playing with them for very long and there have been long intervals between those. Oh well, it was a nice feeling.

日本語

Studied 2 kanji today. 福 or ふく (fuku) means: luck, blessing, fortune, wealth. 幸福 or こうふく (koufuku): (mainly literary) happiness, blessedness, joy, well-being. The other one was 物. I knew about this one already, but haven't gone over it with the method I'm using now with writing it, hearing the pronunciations and compounds, finding all the common readings, common compounds, the other meanings that I hadn't gone over (tend to look for as many meanings as I can), etc. (This method has really helped me so far.) When pronounced as ぶつ (butsu): stock, products; (usually in katakana) (slang) stolen goods, loot, spoils. Pronounced as もの (mono): thing, object, article, stuff, substance; (as ~のもの [~nomono]) one's things, possessions, property, belongings; things, something, anything, everything, nothing; quality; reason, the way of the things; (formal noun often used as ~ものだ [~monoda]) used to emphasize emotion, judgement, etc., used to indicate a common occurrence in the past (after a verb in past tense), used to indicate a general tendency, used to indicate something that should happen; (suf) item classified as..., item related to..., work of...; (pref) somehow, somewhat, for some reason; really, truly. In some compounds it's pronounced as もつ (motsu). (This is obviously a very common kanji.) Next time I'll study a few of its compounds, and maybe the next kanji on the list. I really thought this one was a grade 1 one, not grade 3. Interesting. After that, I practiced, took quizzes, and went over my weak kanji on JapaneseClass' website. I'm at a high B+ now for my overall grade. Yay!Hopefully I can get that up into the upper A range. I'm learning a lot through them too. I hope to go over more grammar stuff and sentence structure soon, too. Started to go over translating part of a You Maga article. This one's on inner ear inflammation. It's a short paragraph. So far, it's been interesting. Read a few articles in Japanese on Asahi's website. Apparently I can't read too many of Mainichi's without having to pay. Sad.Most of Asahi is free on their site. Plus they have a video section where they have the news, cultural programs, sports, etc. It's fun.

Went to Elmer's for dessert tonight. They apparently only have 2 things available for dessert: apple pie and sundaes. Not much, but they do have crepes and French toast on their regular menu. That was too breakfast-y for me though.I got the apple pie. It came with a huge scoop of ice cream on top. Our waitress asked if we wanted cheese on it beforehand. Why would you put cheese on it? It kind of feels like it desecrates the cheese and the pie.I also got a hot chocolate. It was really good. Especially towards the end where all the chocolate concentrates and the whipped cream mixes with it. It was good overall, too.

Oatmeal Cookie Day!

Mood:

This was actually yesterday, but I love oatmeal cookies! They're great with chocolate chips, raisins, or just plain. I've had cowboy cookies which have a lot more stuff packed in. They're good too. But, sometimes the basic ones are the best.

Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day. It's more of a cultural day for me. I played some Irish tunes on my clarinet. Then, made corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes for dinner. Got some soda bread to accompany it. I boiled the corned beef and vegetables for 4 hours. The smell was awesome!It was a big chunk of meat. Although, when I took it out, there was a huge layer of fat on the underside. Made it difficult to cut, and a bit gross to look at. (Kind of looked like a jelly by then, and it was tough.) But, there was still plenty of meat left. The whole thing might be good for at least 2 more meals. I love soda bread, and kind of wish it was sold year-round. It has kind of a unique flavor, and not everyone likes it.

I've been sick for a week.It didn't get bad until around Friday. Before that I just had a really scratchy throat and my sinuses were on fire. It progressed to a very runny nose, scratchy throat at times, coughing (one night I couldn't stop the coughing fits, even with cough drops), being lightheaded, nauseous at times, achy all over my body (like I had been run over by a truck), sleepy, etc. (I still can't seem to breathe very well, and occasionally cough.) It was so bad on Sunday, I decided not to go to the Purim party I was hoping to go to.It sounded like it would have been really fun, too. I didn't even dress up in a costume or something 'festive' at home. Just wore my pajamas. 

The next day, I decided to wear what I would've worn for Purim. Just to make myself feel better. I wore tights for the first time in a very long time. (I don't even remember the last time I wore them.Maybe in my early teens?) These were black, and looked nice and sleek. Felt great. Kind of silky smooth.I had forgotten how they felt. I thought for a long time that I was too 'big' for them. Well, I have lost a lot of weight, but I probably could have still worn them. My legs are very muscular (which I love), so no matter how much I'll lose, they will still probably be somewhat 'balky'. I also wore my old black skirt with the white trim, my new-ish gold thread/taupe colored sweater, a necklace that has my first and middle name in Hebrew (the letters are in black and on wooden looking cubes with a couple of gold/brassy looking beads in between, all on a black thick string), and my gold and purple earrings. Wore my fluffy red slippers with the whole thing. So, at least I was comfortable, and looked nice.Didn't have any green on, though. Oh well...

I decided to start a support thread on Gaia. It's for KoTs/AKoTs or Kids of Trans/Adult Kids of Trans. I actually called it People Who Have Trans Parents Support Thread, since I didn't want people to be confused. Had a few trolls pop in. I tried to combat them at first, but they became nastier towards me.Eventually, one of the posters told me about a way to ban them from it. If you put someone on your ignore list, their posts disappear from your threads. They also can't see them or your posts. I tried to report some of their posts, but you can only report so many posts on a page, and even then it's iffy that a mod would take care of it. Wish you can actually ban them from the site or something. I've seen these people in various other threads. And, a lot of the time the next time I look at those threads, their posts are gone. So, they go away for everyone in that thread. I'm noticing that those same trolls are trying to make their own threads now. Probably because they can't see, and/or post in most of them. Hopefully, one of the mods will find them and do something about it. But, in the meantime, they won't bother my thread anymore. We don't need hate, especially in a support thread. 

There was one person who seemed close to being a troll, but I felt he was really just ignorant. He didn't say anything particularly hateful. Although, it was somewhat insulting. Another person tried to correct him, but he never came back to the thread. Found someone whose partner is a trans man. She said they have a 9 month old, and are planning for another baby. She was curious about my situation, since it'll be different than their children's. So, that was interesting. Another person said that her brother is trans, and couldn't imagine what it'd be like to have a parent who is. That was interesting, too. So far, no one who has a trans parent has posted. (Maybe I really am a 'unicorn'...) After I 'ignored' the trolls, the thread has become somewhat quiet. Maybe it'll become active again during the weekend. 

I got my meds last Wednesday. I feel a lot better now. I did get a response from the pharmacy, but it was I think on Friday or Saturday. They basically told me: "Well, that's what your doctor ordered." I looked at who ok'd the refill, and it's not my current doctor or even the psychiatrist I had before (she moved back to Hawaii). It was someone unknown to me.I was only given a month's worth, but it said on the label that they have ok'd me for 1 more refill. Well, I'll bring this up with my new doctor. Hopefully, I can get them to talk to her if there's a problem, and get my refills through her. I also have to get my IUD replaced. Which I'm sooo excited about...Last time I was knocked out, but I think I can at least try it this way. It keeps me from hemorrhaging every month, and regulates my 'friend'. It's been out of whack lately. I also need my annual check up. So, there's quite a lot I need to go over with her. I need to make that appointment...

Last night, I went to the support group meeting. There was a pretty good turn out. There's a new ally, which is great. So, now there's a handful of us. Had an interesting discussion. Went to Shari's afterwards. I got some scrambled eggs with cheese, and their fruit plate. The eggs were good, although the cheese wasn't melted all the way. They added oranges to their fruit plate. So, now it's slices of honeydew melon, grapes, and the oranges. It was pretty good, too. 

The new ally that was there apparently thought I was much younger than I am. While we were at Shari's, he asked my dad, "So, how old is your little one?" Then, pointed towards me. Little one?That was kind of funny. I told him how old I was, and he was surprised because I'm 3 years older than him. He said it was my voice and face. Now, mind you, I'm still trying to get over this cold, so my voice sounds a bit weird right now. I'm not sure if my face really looks that young.Almost everyone I talk to is surprised by my age. I still get some people who think I look 14.It's almost on the verge of insulting now. Some people don't take me as seriously because of how much younger I look. And, being called 'little one' seemed slightly insulting. Not entirely, but getting there. I know some people who would love to look younger, they feel like they haven't aged well, and then they say they're envious of me. I would just like to look at least closer to my age.Although, it might be because I don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, don't have very much caffeine, don't wear makeup all that often, and try to keep myself generally healthy. Oh, and someone made me feel kind of bad, but I know they were slightly upset about something. So, I shouldn't let it get to me. 

Started watching D.Gray-man on Saturday. I think I remember trying it a long time ago, but only got through 1 or 2 episodes. I think those were actually shown at our anime club in college. It was kind of like a teaser to see if anybody wanted to watch it. I was into other shows at the time, so I didn't continue it. Towards the end of the 19th century, Allen Walker officially joins the organization of exorcists, Black Order, that destroy the beings known as Akuma; mechanical weapons made by the Millennium Earl with the suffering souls of the dead. (Akuma literally means devil, evil spirit, or demon.) Allen has both a cursed eye and an anti-Akuma weapon as an arm, bearing the ancient power of 'Innocence'. Allen, along with his fellow exorcists must put a stop to the Millennium Earl's plan to destroy humanity. The manga began in 2004, and is apparently still ongoing. The anime began in 2006, and ended in 2008. It has about as many episodes as Hitman Reborn did, which is quite a lot. (103 episodes.) Not sure if it'll keep my interest for that long, but we'll see.

Started watching Watashi no Kirai na Tantei on Monday. It loosely translates to I Hate My Detective. Akemi Ninomiya is a hardcore mystery fan. Although she's only a college student, she's very wealthy and owns a building. Private detective Morio Ukai prefers tracking down lost pets and solving adultery cases for wealthy clients, rather than murder cases which usually bring in little money. Akemi rents out an apartment at a cheap price to Morio, and with a little more bribing, he's 'persuaded' into solving cases with her. It's based on a novel. The main characters are played by actors I really like, so that's a plus already. The last memorable one I saw with Hiroshi Tamaki (who plays Morio) as a main character was Nodame Cantabile. That was a while ago. He was awesome in it. Now he looks quite a bit older. A slightly different character, too, which is good. Ayame Gouriki (who plays Akemi) played one of the main characters in Mirai Nikki or Future Diary, and was in Asuko March. I think she's better in this show so far.

On Monday, I went back to reading Hiiro Ouji or Scarlet Prince. They finally had some updates for it. I think they only have a few more chapters up, but it's better than nothing. They went to Akira Okamoto's house to check out a room they might use for the class' Christmas party. He lives in a huge mansion that's been in the family for generations. While planning the party there, Kubo was asked about what sort of games should they have. He suggested a scavenger hunt, and they agreed on it. Later, Kubo had wandered off on his own. When they found him, he had apparently lost something. So everyone considered it as a warm up for the actual scavenger hunt, and searched for it. They searched all over. The one place that hadn't been looked at was the hallway to Okamoto's older brother's room. He likes to keep the hallway dark, made his own coffin bed, and is into watching vampire-themed anime and reading vampire-themed manga. Sounds a lot more like what Mana imagines vampires to be. (Besides the watching anime and manga part. Apparently, Okamoto's entire family is into stuff like that.) A lot different than Okamoto. Still don't know if his brother gets blood donations from hospitals like he does, instead of attacking people. Mana decides to go down that hallway, and bumps into Okamoto's older brother. Should be interesting to see what he's like. 

Wrote some more of the 7th short story to my nightmare anthology. This one should be interesting, since it was an incredibly long dream, and it's a more recent one. It's also one of the trippiest.Played some Irish tunes on Monday. Very fitting for the holiday...Was pretty good this time. Also, finished up the writing meme, and posted it on dA. Here it is: Random OC Meme of Randomness Someone's faved it, and there's a lot of views. A lot people when it comes to literature on there tend to read it, and move on. They don't seem to fave lit. too often. Many writers have brought this up on dA's facebook page. And, they don't stick around much to read stuff that isn't meme related. Writer's have given ideas about how to make lit. more exciting on the site, and many times dA has said they'll look into it.Well, I'm only posting writing memes in terms of lit. now.

Practiced/quizzed myself on kanji/vocab on JapaneseClass' site. I've made it to the day's top 20 a few times in the last few days.Also, got a friend request. Maybe we can study together, challenge each other, etc. That would be cool. I seem to be getting even better on there. Started typing out the next paragraph for me to translate from an article in You Maga. This one has to do with middle ear inflammation. Oh joy!Sounds fun. But, it is interesting to read about some of this stuff. 

Oh, I finally talked with one of our neighbors that recently moved in next door. We went to the same elementary school up through high school. So, it's a bit interesting. I think her husband went to the same high school too, but I don't really remember him.Her husband had asked me about the property lines, I had asked Dad about it that night, and then decided to tell them about where it was the next day. She said it was great to know about it so quickly. They're going to put a fence up, so their dog can run around. They didn't want to accidentally do something that was really on our property. They sawed a lot of trees down in their backyard on Monday. So, it was very noisy and looked kind of messy. Apparently they have an outdoor cat that likes to travel around the neighborhood. It's already been in a fight. He looks unique because of his curved tail. He's also 15 pounds. So, he's huge.Not fat, just really long and proportions are bigger than usual. He scared Rosie the last few times I saw him in our backyard. Rosie is the usual size for a cat, maybe slightly pudgy looking. (Although, that's misleading because she's incredibly muscular.) Weighs around 10 pounds. Our neighbors also have 2 kids, who seemed to want to join in on the conversation. They were cute, but I could tell that they were a handful.So, it was a very nice chat. She said that she's usually home and if I need anything, she'd help. Cool. I'm still debating whether I should friend her on Facebook, and maybe she's doing the same thing because I haven't had a friend request from her...Kind of funny in a way.