World Chocolate Day!

I love chocolate! Great to have a day to celebrate it around the world. The most chocolatey thing I had lately was a mocha cookie crumble frappuccino yesterday. It was one of their new seasonal ones. Even the cookie part was chocolate based. It was like a shot of different types of it. Good stuff. I've been getting iced mochas when I go there through their drive-thrus for the past few months. Hasn't been that often. I've noticed it helps with some of my headaches and weird skull cracking. My old go-to was iced chai or iced matcha green tea when it was seasonal. I'm not a big fan of coffee, but the bit that I do get plus the chocolate, is apparently helping me health-wise. Maybe I need to start drinking coffee on a regular basis? I know I'd have to doctor it a bit, though. Like, add creamer, sweetener, possibly chocolate, etc. 

This is my wallpaper for July. As it says, it's Law from One Piece. Another one of my fave characters. I like his look, too. Cool design. He's the captain of the Heart Pirates, and their Jolly Roger is in the background and on his coat. He's an exceptional surgeon and was a Shichibukai. The Shichibukai are 7 of the most powerful pirates that are allied with the World Government. They basically get immunity from the government. Some translate it as pirate emperors.  

The month-long holidays for July are: National Grilling Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Ice Cream Month, National Blueberries Month, National Picnic Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. 

Managed to finally get the back brace a few days ago. It's for my fractured vertebrae. Specifically, the T8 one. That's just a little lower than halfway down the spine. I'm at risk of breaking another vertebrae, having more pain, and/or being paralyzed if I don't wear the brace. Also, at risk because of the bone lesions, but with the brace it cuts it down a bit. Went to the 1st place I was referred to through my insurance, and they couldn't give me one or fit me that day. They felt it was an emergency, and then called another place I went to for my sling previously, for me. That place called Master's was able to see me, fit it for me, and give me it. The doctor that prescribed the brace didn't put her name on the paper, so I had to search for it. I've seen her before, but she's an Urgent Care doc. Not like I see her on a regular basis. Managed to find it through looking at the antibiotic she ordered that same day. With that, my insurance was able to cover it. I think it was free to us. 

It's a bit to maneuver. Every time I sit or stand, I have to adjust the area near my sternum (collar bone). When I sit, I then have to let out a button and push down a certain amount, then click the hole in place. When I want up, I have to first let out the button, pull up, then click the right hole into place, get up, and push it into place. That hole's actually marked so I know how high I really need it. I have a hard time seeing it sometimes, though. Then, I also have to adjust to make sure the rest of the brace is even. There's a pulley system in the back. When I get into it, I have to pull back on something far while inhaling and then wrapping it around me to a certain point. I thought I wouldn't be able to put it on myself, but I can. It's a little awkward. Feels like a mix of things while on. A giant hug, restricts my movements, a bit more protected, and more. After a while, my spine does feel a bit sore. My chest feels fuller, too. It's a bit difficult to eat with sometimes, since it's so stiff. I have a feeling it's not going to last very long. The person who helped with my fitting said most of the time it lasts around a month. 2 months is stretching it. Not sure how long it takes to heal vertebrae or how long I'm supposed to have something for it. Hopefully, it's for long enough. 

On July 4th, we went to Elmer's for brunch. I haven't been there for brunch since March. It's a brunch-type place. We did go not long before that for dinner for the first time since then, too. It was nice to be there again, and to have the stuff they're more known for. I got their fresh fruit waffle special, which seemed appropriate for the 4th of July. It had blueberries actually inside the waffle along with on top, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, powdered sugar, and cream cheese icing. Got their hash browns and a biscuit instead of eggs and a choice of meat. The waffle was messy, and I was worried I'd get it on the brace, but I didn't. Yay! No one asked or stared at the brace, either. That was great. 

Went to World Market after that. I had wanted to go since March, and they just reopened. I love looking at their international foods. Got some of my faves: roasted garlic cheddar, tuna and potatoes in olive oil and rosemary, dill pickle mustard, and red cabbage and apple salad. Feel a bit more normal with getting these. Went to Barnes and Noble right next store, since they just reopened as well. They're both connected to the mall, but only B and N has an opening to it. At least, they did. That's closed off now. You have to go through the main mall entrance if you want in. Apparently, 80% of the mall is now open. I was curious about that while we were there, but was starting to get really tired and sweaty. So, decided to go home instead. I also read that many of the restaurants around the mall are now open for dine-in, too. Good to know for the future. I'm happy, yet hesitant about so many places that are reopening now. 

On Sunday, I placed #2 in the Amethyst League on Duolingo. I got a hefty amount of gems from a reward chest for making it there. I don't make it in the top 3 that often. I'm now in the Pearl League. #4 last time I checked. It seems they're a little more competitive in this one. I'm still not used to being that high up on it, though. I'm breezing through their Welsh course. Hardly getting things wrong. A lot of it just makes sense so far. 

I've gotten back into my author instagram account lately. Hopefully, I can keep it up. The only way people will get to know me is through something like that. I've already had some more follows the last couple of days. Sometimes it's hard to decide on content to post, but there's always something. 

I recently went to Costco. I haven't had an eye exam in roughly a year and a half. Not good when you have contacts and your eyes are getting worse. So, I finally made an appointment at Costco for it. I actually have vision insurance now, so it should be covered. Hopefully, the prescription will be updated and better. It'll be the first time I've used Costco for the eye exam part. I've ordered contacts through them before. By the way, I'm only down to one more pair of contacts. I've been using my current ones for a couple of months. It's recommended to use them for 2 weeks. Not good. The soonest appointment they had was for the end of August. Kind of a ways away. At least, it's happening. At some point, I should look into seeing a dentist since I'm covered now. I haven't seen one in around 14 years. 

I've been reading the shortest of the 2 books I got through the My Thrill Club, called Shadow of the Lions. Going through it faster than expected. Not reading it as often as I'd like, though. It's been interesting. It's about a missing boy from a prep school. Been missing for roughly a decade. No one's found a body. I like mysteries like that, and there's quite a bit of suspense. 

For the last couple of days, I've been trying to read a little of Daf Yomi (lit. page of the day) a day. It's learning a page of Talmud every day. The Talmud is so big that it takes 7 1/2 years to read a page a day. That 'cycle' restarted not long ago (I think it was back in February), and I've wanted to join it occasionally. So, why not? Right now it's on what you can move on Shabbat. There are a lot of prohibitions on Shabbat or our Day of Rest. They go into a lot of detail and argue on seemingly minuscule things at times. It's still interesting to read their reasoning for things. Some have stories behind it. 

Yesterday, I almost didn't have a shower. With only getting 2 showers a week normally, it's not much. I don't feel as clean during the week as I used to be. Anyways, my home aide had the day off, so another one took over for her. She called me twice before 9am. I was asleep. At the end of the last voicemail, she said since she called twice, she's cancelling for the day. That made me panic a bit. I called the Home Care hotline and was able to get in contact with the person filling in for my home aide. They were able to reschedule for that day. Thank goodness. She did more than my regular one did. She even asked me if I needed anything more than just the shower. I think she felt bad about that morning. I was just happy it worked out. 

Ordered more things from Amazon. A nightshirt for when the weather gets much warmer. It's unusually cool out right now. The past few years, it's been really warm this time of year. I'll be prepared, at least. An adult color-by-number coloring book that's based on cats. Thought that would be fun. Maybe more fun than the coloring book I got last month. That one's just one color and in lines. Thought it was creative, but ended up tedious. A book called 1001 Movies to See Before You Die. That might be a good one to go through. It'll be interesting to see how many I've already seen. Making somewhat of a dent in the classical recordings one. The movies one might grab my attention more now, though. The next Try Treats subscription box is on its way. Should be interesting to see which country it features this time. 

National Cherry Pie Day!

This holiday was yesterday. I love cherries, so putting them in a pie makes them even better! Haven't had it in a while, though. Finding a good cherry pie locally can be difficult. They tend to have what I call sugar or 'gel' packets. Basically large globs of sugar. Not the best. Sometimes those are good, but really shouldn't be there. They mess up pecan pie often, too. Either too few nuts, too dry, too much filling, etc. I sadly can't have that anymore, even if it's one of my faves, too. 

This week hasn't been great health-wise. Monday, I had one of the biggest migraines I've had in a very long time. The 'aura' for mine are often auditory. Usually thudding sounds. When it happens, it also feels like blood is spurting from my head. There's a lot of pressure, too. That part usually lasts a while, and gets really annoying. Not really painful. As soon as it finally stops, the massive painful headache starts. At this point, I'm also sensitive to light, certain sounds, cold (more so than usual), and certain foods. Usually this phase doesn't last long. Maybe a few hours. This time was different. The headache finally died down on Wednesday. However, the after effect was stronger than usual, too. I get sick to my stomach, feel like I'm in a fog, still sensitive to a few things, and fatigue sets in like I had been through a marathon. This phase usually lasts for an even shorter time than the headache. I was still in it when we went to the local trans support group that night. Another headache, that felt similar to the migraine one (but there was no aura beforehand), started after having the banana cream pie for dessert at Shari's after group. The bananas in it were still frozen. Might have triggered it? It was bizarre. 

It felt like I was finally starting to recover around noon yesterday. A few hours later, I decided to try a new game on the PlayStation 4 called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. A detective/horror game. Sounded fun. However, the clues had text that would light up near them. If you clicked 'inspect', what he thinks/observes comes out as text quickly and swirls around. Occasionally repeating over and over. Sometimes, it wants you to find a certain clue by clicking '???', and then those question marks swirl around wildly. They combine when you've found something. There's some jerking around of the camera, too. It eventually made me so nauseated, I came very close to throwing up several times after I stopped playing. Stomach was really upset for a while, and felt like the acid was burning through it. So, I laid down, trying to calm it down. Felt like I couldn't look at a screen (like the computer or iPhone), couldn't color in my 'adult' coloring book (it's a book based on designs of a tattoo artist, which is usually fun), or really much else; for fear that I'd throw up or start another headache. So, I just closed my eyes and sat there. Eventually, I had fallen asleep for about 2 hours. Felt better afterwards. Today's been pretty good so far, but I'm trying not to trigger anything. Trying to be kinder to myself, too. 

I'm thinking of looking into chest binders again. I don't think the one I have worked too well. I also stopped wearing it when my health issues got worse, and it was hurting more. Things don't seem as bad as they were when I was on Lialda (that's not to say things are fine. I still have awful health stuff), now. So, I thought it'd be an ok time to look into it again. Plus, they're bothering me more than usual lately. I'll go with a different brand this time. I have an Underworks one. I've heard gc2b and Shapeshifters are good, so I'll look at those, along with any other brands I find. I want something long, so it stays put and doesn't roll up or anything. Similar to my current one. I don't want the weird string feeling rubbing up and down my back, and the weird puckering it does around the neck area. Maybe something that gets me even flatter? I don't know. 

Sunday was the start of Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week. I've been posting something aro related for every morning post on my author account on Instagram. A couple of people have stopped following me during it, but I've decided not to care about that. This is a part of me, and if people don't like it or don't want to be informed, so be it. All the better, actually. I've gotten a lot of likes from fellow aros on a lot of those posts, which has been nice to see. Some have added a couple of those posts to their stories on there, tagging me as well. My evening posts are still following the pattern I'm trying to set. For normal weeks, I've 'assigned' certain topics for the days of the week. Some having 2 topics for the day. That makes it more interesting, I think. 

I also recently found out that there's an aro ace flag. It was created at the end of 2018, so it's rather new. 2 shades of blue for being aro ace and the aro ace spectrum, and our experiences. Blue was chosen because it is between the aromantic green (in that flag) and asexual purple (in that flag). White for wholeness, as well as aro aces who are aplantonic (don't experience platonic attraction), nonamorous, or not seeking a partnership of some sort. Yellow is for love and relationships that exist outside of conventional romantic and sexual relationships. Orange is for community. It's in between green and purple in the other direction on the color wheel. Much more colorful than the current aro and ace flags, which is nice. I think it looks snazzy. 

There's also an oriented aro ace flag. I saw this a while before this 'new' aro ace flag. An oriented aro ace is someone who experiences other attractions strongly. Many go by this for queerplatonic relationships. Before I heard about this, I read that people were just saying what their 'queerplatonic' attraction was. This seems to encompass more, though. There are many other types of attractions. I'm an oriented aro ace. Specifically, a pan aro ace. My strongest is platonic, although I might rephrase that as queerplatonic, since it feels like something even more (hard to describe). I have potential to be attracted to people of all genders this way. I would love to be in a queerplatonic relationship or qpr in the future. The problem is trying to figure out how to get a partner for one. It's not like dating, and that makes me cringe. I'm slightly romance-repulsed, although not as strongly as my sex-repulsion. Probably more romance-averse...I have read about some people that are trying to create a site that's based on finding queerplatonic partners, and for aro aces specifically. I don't think there truly is anything like that out yet. It's hard, especially because not many know about this sort of relationship, and it might seem...weird at first to others. It's also hard to know who actually wants to be in one. Then, there's if you're compatible, like with most relationships. I've heard that going to aro and ace group meetings has helped many people find partners for it. The closest one to me is in Seattle, and they recently changed the name from Seattle Aces to Seattle Aces & Aros. Through their facebook group, they seem to be sincerely trying to include aros, too. They're not just changing the name. It's not really local for me, though. They only have one meeting a month, but do have events throughout the rest of the month. Some of them sound fun.

Anyways, that flag is also pretty new. Created a few months before the aro ace one. Dark blue is for the shared aro ace experience, grey for the aro ace spectrum, white for orientations within the community (bi aro ace, gay aro ace, pan aro ace, etc.), and teal for non-romantic and non-sexual attractions. It's nice looking, too. Still more colorful than the current aro and ace flags. 

Got the author copies of my paperback books last week. So nice to actually see them in print! They're like my babies. They had some scuff marks, which I wasn't happy about. The matte finish on the 4 that had it felt weird, but that might just be because they're new. The glossy finish for Sweet Endless Terror was nice, and really fit well with it. The only other issue I see with them is the font size. I went with what was suggested, but it's bigger than I expected. Might be good for the cookbook, but the others...I'm not so sure. The font's not incredibly large, but maybe it's just a slight size too big than what I'm used to. I think the memoir is the only one that ended up slightly smaller in font compared to the others. Maybe it's the size of the books. If I change the print's font to something smaller, I'll have to change the formatting, change the cover size, etc. It's not a simple change. I'll just stick with it for now. Seeing them all stacked up really shows how much writing I've put out there, too. It's impressive to me to see it all like that, even if they're not really huge books. Alliance is the thickest, like I expected. Alliance: Dawn comes close. Also, understandable. 

Youtube:

One Piece:


Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (Toilet-bound Hanako-kun):

Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer):



Boku no (My) Hero Academia:

Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (Assassination Classroom):

17th of Shevat

I started Duolingo's Polish course on Monday. I decided on Polish, because it may have been another language my ancestors spoke. I didn't really know some of my mom's side came from there until I did the 23andMe DNA test a year or so ago. I say might have spoken, because they were Ashkenazi. They may have only spoke Yiddish in those areas, and/or were closed off. Or, they might have assimilated and spoke Polish. I've heard some felt that Yiddish was beneath them (like they felt only the poor speak it, and they wanted to seem of higher class), and tried to blend in as much as possible. On the other hand, Yiddish was influenced by Polish. (Yiddish is really a mix of Hebrew, German, and eastern European languages.) It's complicated. It was at least spoken around them. I thought I'd choose one that related to my mom's side, since Scottish Gaelic related to my parent's side. Seems like a good way to do it. Next one might be Welsh...Anyways, I was nervous about it. So far, it's been really interesting and fun. I'm getting it more than I expected. I read, and have noticed, that a lot of languages have influenced Polish. There are some Russian elements, a lot of German, some Italian, and some French already that I can see. Makes it more fascinating. Despite not caring about getting into the next league, I've stayed in the top 10 for the week so far. They don't seem as competitive this time. It'll be interesting to make it to the next league, if I stay in the top 10 by Sunday. 

Went back to reading the manga, Shichifuku (7 Lucky Gods) Mafia. I couldn't find any updates on it for a few years. I really liked it. All of it's now available online. It's a shorter series than I thought it was, with only 12 chapters. I only had a few more chapters left when I put it on-hold. Basically, it's about a young yakuza boss, Leo, that has the 7 Gods of Fortune as his subordinates. Each is a lucky G-d of something, like music, warriors, fishing, agriculture, etc. Whenever they used their powers to protect the previous boss, Leo's mother (nicknamed Tiger Goddess), they sucked her life force out. Eventually, she died from it, and he had to take over. He wasn't even living in Japan when he was told to go back. He had to win them over. There's another yakuza family full of demons that's about to battle them. Should be interesting to see how it unfolds. 

My author Instagram account has been interesting so far. I've decided to post twice a day this week. Once in the morning, and once at night. Each day will have a theme. Today's is horror for the 1st post, and on chronic illness for the 2nd. Found something from Horror Society on Pinterest to share this morning, and I'll probably find something from my IBD board on Pinterest to post later. (Although, there are some interesting things on fb, as well.) My most liked pic's of a piece of artwork that has Proud to be Agender written on the side, with a drawing of someone holding a huge agender flag. I thought it was a powerful looking. I mentioned what the stripes on the flag represented. The only sad part is I don't know who created that art, so I mentioned that and where I found it. It has 15 likes so far. I was especially surprised by this, because no one liked the post on gender-neutral terms before that. Maybe it wasn't as eye-catching? People have been liking the posts on Judaism, too. Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week starts on Sunday, so the 1st posts that week will relate to being aro. 2nd posts could be for the other regular 'themes'. Also, the paperback versions of my books should arrive tomorrow. I'll post about that on there, and other places, when I get them. 

In searching for quotes/settings for Alliance, I've made it to chapter 16. Pretty quick. Probably will be done in a couple of days with this. Then, I'll go through Alliance: Dawn. Eventually, I'll post the quotes every so often on the Instagram account, and make trailers with them, too. I might draw some of the settings or buildings, and put those in the trailers. I might do things a little differently for the other book trailers. 

12th of Shevat

This is my wallpaper for February. It's Allen, the main character, from D.Gray-man. Kind of fits my mood for Valentine's Day. A lot of the month is set up around it, especially at places like grocery stores or in commercials. It promotes amatonormativity, which can hurt everyone, not just aromantic people. It's the assumption that everyone's striving for a romantic partner, it's central (most important relationship), exclusive, monogamous, and part of what makes us human. It ignores little known relationship types, like queerplatonic ones. I would really like to be in one in the future. Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week starts a week after the holiday, so that's something to look forward to. It's perfect timing. 

Tu B'Shevat is coming up Sunday night. That's our new year for the trees. One of my fave holidays. You get to eat a lot of fruit and nuts (not so much for me, since it's a trigger food), appreciate trees, and more. 

The month-long holidays for February are: National Canned Food Month, National Cherry Month, National Potato Lovers Month, Barley Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Cherries and potatoes are a couple of my fave foods! 

I created an author Instagram account: R C MacDonald I've been basically testing the waters this week. Wasn't sure exactly how I wanted it. It's a mix of topics from my books (fantasy, horror, LGBTQ+, Judaism, cooking, etc.), a little on my personal life, and my book stuff. I might just change the 2nd sentence of my bio to: A writer's world. Not as clunky...My book stuff will be things like a stack of my books, quotes from them, book trailers, author business card, etc. 

The things I didn't create will be from Pinterest and facebook mainly. Of course, I'm crediting them. I'm finding a lot of interesting things on Pinterest for the 'fantasy' part. Beautiful art relating to 'demons' in Alliance. Of dragons, phoenixes, griffins, wraiths, cat demons, etc. Nice eye candy, but when I post them, I'll also give info on characters from the story. For instance, info on Gun with the dragon pics. Or, on Zero with the phoenix ones. That way people get to know the series more. I have plenty of stuff for my colitis, LGBTQ+ stuff, food, some for horror, lots of animals, music/clarinet, and some quotes from other people on boards on Pinterest. Quite a lot of material. 

I've decided it might be easiest to set a theme every day. This is what I think might be best: Monday for fantasy or writing in general. Tuesday for LGBTQ+ things. Wednesday for horror or chronic illness. (They seem to go together pretty well, oddly...) Thursday for cooking. Friday for Judaism. Saturday for animals or more Judaism. Sunday for music. This will change during holidays or awareness weeks. During those, I could post about them. Like, with Tu B'Shevat, I'll post on that during it. Aro stuff during the week of Aromantic Spectrum Awareness week. It might switch up when I have something to share of my books or personal life, too. People will expect certain content most of the time, which should be a draw for some. 

I was posting once a day this week, but I think I'll try posting twice a day next week. Probably one in the morning/early afternoon and one at night. Except, I'll only post once on Saturdays, after Shabbos ends. The 2nd post on Friday will be a little earlier than the rest of the week, too. I think I can have quite a lot of fun with this, and not have to do a lot for it. It'll be a view not only into my books, but my personality and identity. 

I'm posting the same stuff to my author fb page. That might have added things occasionally. Today, I liked many pages as my page. (Fave pages that I already liked on my personal one.) Wanted to see what that would be like. It might be a way for people to get more info on things, as well. Things like Judaism, LGBTQ+ people, IBD, etc. My page could become a resource with that. I couldn't like pages as a page on my phone, which was weird. 

I've been searching for quotes from Alliance, as well as settings/building descriptions. Found quite a lot for the descriptions, and more than I thought I would for quotes. Plan to fill out author interview questions on Smashwords at some point. Really want to start a vlog, too. That would help with more exposure. 

Ordered author copies of all 5 paperback versions of my books from Amazon. I thought it would be much more expensive. With shipping and handling, taxes, and printing/manufacturing costs together it's $26. For 5 books, that's nothing. Just with the printing part, they ranged around $3 to $4 each. I thought that part would be more. Very interesting. I should get it Tuesday at the earliest. They make them as soon as you buy them, so it takes a little time to put them together. I'm ok with that. I'm excited about actually being able to touch and hold them. They're like my babies. I do have a print out of the very 1st rough draft of Alliance. I don't think it was all of it. Having that is very different than an edited (without marks all over it) and finished actual book. 

My memoir, More Than Meets the Eye, is now on Smashwords. It won't be released until the 28th, but it is on preorder. It was approved for their Premium Catalog unusually quickly. I got the 1st approval in about the first few minutes. That's the auto vetter part, where they automatically check the formatting. The 2nd approval is manual and takes a few days for authors who've previously submitted works, and about 2 weeks for new ones. I submitted it yesterday afternoon, and was fully approved early this morning. Probably the fastest approval for one of my books. The only thing I didn't like was they only had a Gay & Lesbian category, not an LGBTQ+ one. Not even a trans one, if they were just split up. Since I'm neither gay nor lesbian, it feels really weird to put it under that. It ignores other people in the community, too. Yet, I did see some authors using it for books relating to other parts of the community. I at least tagged it as LGBTQ. Also, tagged it as agender, asexual, and aromantic. There were very few books under the agender tag, and they were fictional. Similar with aromantic. That might make it easier for people to find. I already have the most page views for its 1st day compared to my other books. There have been 4 sample downloads, too. 

Got tired of playing Oblivion. It really got boring. I don't use that word lightly. The scenery was great, though. So, I've been trying various games on PS4 Now to find something to stick to. The most interesting one so far has been G-d of War 3: Remastered. It's based on a lot of Greek mythology, which is fun to me. Your character is Kratos, and he is seeking revenge against Zeus. The cinematography is really great. Feel like it's a movie even when it's not a cut scene. There are a lot of puzzles in it, which surprised me (especially with the type of game it is), but that adds another interesting layer. First game I played where you get trophies. That's fun. Got one for killing Poseidon. That was pretty epic. Made the seas rise. Also one for incinerating Apollo. I thought they wanted me to save him, but there wasn't a way to do so. He was imprisoned in part of Hades, near the River Styx. The bramble around him made it look like a prison cell. I managed to ride Cerberus and have him spit fire balls. I thought he would only set fire to the brambles, so I could free Apollo. No...The fire immediately engulfed him, and didn't hit the brambles much. It was pretty horrific to watch him. At least, I got his bow and arrows. I can set things on fire with that. I'm trying to defeat Hades at the moment. I don't think I've actually seen him yet. Just a statue, and his wife Persephone in a casket hanging in front of it. There are also notes written by people that were sent there, people praying to seemingly nothing, and a giant in the forge area. Apparently that giant is a friend of Kratos, but is stuck there. I don't remember his name. Interesting details. At some point, I might play Red Dead Redemption 2. It's the prequel to that franchise. My parent really likes that game, and it sounds detailed and fun.

I've decided to stop the Duolingo Scottish Gaelic course. I'm really tired of it, and there's not much content. Half of the units have been leveled out completely, the other half all have the 1st level cleared. Not bad. I'm thinking of starting either Polish or Welsh on Monday. 

I've been having some bad pain days lately. The type of pain I know that's associated with colitis. It feels like part of my intestines blew up on my left side. It's somewhat hard there. Maybe it's from inflammation? My back and other areas of my abdomen feel really sore. Hopefully, it just needs to heal for now. Going to the bathroom a lot more often again, too. It's better than having a lot of that other stuff, on top of it, before I tapered off of Lialda. Still difficult, though.

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. 

World Baking Day!

This holiday was on Saturday. I wish I was more into baking. Things have to be exact, and then the end result is like magic. Hopefully, in the future I'll at least try to make challah. My mom used to make it every Friday. The house would smell so good! Muffins and cookies are pretty simple to make, but I'd rather get store-bought most of the time. Cool that there is a day for it.

It was also World IBD Day that day. I posted a status on fb with info and my story so far with it. A couple of people liked it, but I feel like not many read it. I also added a frame to my profile pic. I don't think anyone liked it...Apparently, when I took off the frame, a few people liked that one. It felt like they didn't like that I used that frame. It doesn't matter. It's my page, and I can post/change my pic however I want. It's an important awareness day, especially since I have it. Many people wear purple during it, since the awareness ribbon is a light purple. The only purple thing I wore were purple earring studs. It was something. I also posted a few other IBD related things on there. I didn't particularly like the preview image for the video I shared, but it also showed the reality that many go through. It was of a belly that had a stoma bag or J-pouch (I think that was the type shown). Some people have to have those bags if they have their colon removed. It acts like an external colon and collects waste. I'm terrified of having that sort of thing. The probability of people getting it increases the longer they have the disease. It doesn't mean it's definite, just something people should learn a little about. The video showed a lot of the other realities of it in general, and might have been too much for others to watch. People should know, though. Since it's an 'invisible' disease it's often misunderstood. I got a lot more likes on Instagram with posting my framed pic from fb there. Mostly from other people with IBD. I could tell because some were sporting their bags in their profile pics, and some openly said it on their profile. One commented that we're in this together. That was nice.

Saturday night was the start of Shavuot and ends tonight. It's a holiday to celebrate the Torah. It's also called the Feast of Weeks. (Shavuot's lit. 'Weeks'.) People study Torah, the book of Ruth, Talmud, the Mishnah, the Zohar, and more all night long. Some synagogues hold lectures and study groups all night long. It's like a massive study-in. I didn't do that last night or the night before. I don't think it would have been a good thing for me, health-wise, to stay up all night. I forgot about studying at least a little bit. I like that sort of thing. Another custom is to eat a lot of dairy food. I unknowingly followed that. Had a single serving chocolate truffle cheesecake Saturday night. I forgot it was the start of the holiday.

Apparently, Agender Pride Day was on Saturday. I don't think it's an 'official' day, considering there were only a few websites that mentioned it. I only found out when I stumbled upon a frame for it. I found agender related art through Pinterest, and posted it on fb and Instagram. It had the symbol, which is like a 'no' sign, but not tilted. It makes sense since we don't have a gender. There was a dragon holding up the symbol that was in the flag colors. The flag was in the background. I thought it looked cool. It's a 7-striped flag: black, grey, white, green (like a lime green), white, grey, and black. The black and white both represent the absence of gender, grey represents semi-genderless, and green represents non-binary gender. I think the semi-genderless are the demigenders. I guess they're on the spectrum, like aces and aros have spectra. I don't particularly like that type of green. It stands out a little too much. It seems close to the aro flag, too. Agender people fall under the trans, non-binary, and genderqueer umbrellas. Only one person liked it on fb, and a lot more liked it on Instagram. Most of the ones that liked it were trans (a mix of binary and enby ones). They mentioned it on their profile. That's cool. 

It's great that I'm keeping up with blogging during the weekdays. The last time I posted 11 or more times in one month was towards the beginning of 2014. That's a long time. Go back 3 more years, and it was more like my average amount. Hopefully, I can keep this momentum going. 

Rosie seems to be getting more lumps, so I went back to grooming her with the mitt again. She loves it. Last time I eventually forgot about it. It's so cute when I grab the mitt and she comes running towards me. She was eating Saturday, mid-bite noticed I was putting it on, then ran to me with a few pieces of food falling out of her mouth. She loves it more than food...This time I've decided to go over her lumps with the mitt until she starts to walk away. That way I can work more on getting rid of them. I kept thinking I was going to make her sore, but she stayed with me for a while the last couple of times. A lot of hair is being lifted, at least. Overall her coat looks and feels much nicer. I think the bumps are very slowly softening and coming out. It's going to take a long time until they're gone. Tasha has never had this problem and she's a couple of years older than Rosie. Plus, she has long fur. Rosie doesn't. She is slimmer than Rosie, but it still is weird. 

Wrote more of Alliance 3. Got more than I thought I would done. Looked more at cookbooks to get a feel for how I want the cookbook. I think I'm going to keep it the way it is. It's clean and easy to read. I also brainstormed ideas for a title. Ended up with 6 possibilities: Our Family's Classic Recipes Cookbook, Mom's Treasure Trove of Recipes Cookbook, Recipes From a Photo Album Cookbook, A Time Capsule of a Cookbook, 35 Years of Family Recipes Cookbook, Mom's Collection of Recipes Cookbook. I probably could take 'cookbook' out of the title I pick, too. I'm just unsure about them. I thought I should decide on a title before I move on. Once I do that, I'll start formatting it for the ebook and then the paperback. Things are moving quicker than I expected with this part of the process. I have plenty of pics to choose from for the cover. 

Finished a German future tense lesson, and started a sports one. I didn't miss as many as I thought I would with the future one. The sports one has been interesting. It's also about hobbies. 

Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler's manga had an update. The chapter was short, but at least it moved on from that really long flashback. The flashback was important, but seemed to go on for too long. It explained what really happened to the Ciel we know and his identical twin. The Ciel we know hasn't revealed his true name. He was just referred to as a 'spare' in the flashback. His twin was the real Ciel. They both went through hell and the real Ciel died. With his death, Sebastian showed up and 'our' Ciel entered a contract with him. They burned the place down. Yet, presently, the real one looks very much alive. Apparently, Undertaker brought him back to life. Now, we're not sure if the contract is void if the one that gave up his soul in order to summon Sebastian is alive. That's a big twist. The Undertaker said he did it because he didn't want the Phantomhive bloodline to end with 'our' Ciel. With the contract, it ends with Sebastian eating his soul once his revenge is complete. So, he's already destined to die sooner. I'd like to think he would figure out a way to get out of that, though. He's smart enough. It's unclear what Undertaker's relationship is to the family. There has been hints that he might have been a lover of Ciel's grandmother. Not much else to go on. I wish there was more revealed in this one. I just have to wait another month or 2 to see what happens next...

For cleaning, I mostly did miscellaneous stuff. Things like laundry, taking the garbage/recycling back from the curb, hand washing my eye mask and its bag, cat stuff, etc. Hopefully, tomorrow I can get to dusting more of my room. 

Since my gut hasn't been great, I'm trying to go easy on it today. Thinking about making udon with a mushroom broth. I hate whole or sliced big mushrooms, but I like the taste and sometimes can have them chopped up fine. It's a texture thing. It doesn't actually have mushrooms, just stuff to make it taste similar. Apparently, after looking at the package, they mainly use sardines for the seasoning. I don't normally use seasoning packets for any sort of instant noodles, because of the salt content. However, this seems like it's lighter on it than some. Plus, I've realized that I sometimes don't get enough salt. Those levels are usually low in blood tests for me. On MyFitnessPal, I often don't make it to the recommended amount. So, it's probably ok. Just having the udon and broth would be best on my stomach, I think. I was thinking about adding some old duck bacon, but was weary of it. There's cherry pie, too. That might be soothing. 

22nd of Iyar

On May 3rd, or 18th of Iyar, it was Lag B'Omer. People usually have bonfires, do archery, and get haircuts. A fun one. I guess we celebrated Cinco de Mayo a day before. Went to Azteca, and got their burrito blanco. It had grilled chicken, white rice, beans, peas, carrots, and jalapeno cream cheese on the inside. There was a flour tortilla with cheddar, cojita, and a cream sauce on the outside. It was amazing! Humongous, though. It was also Herb Day on the 5th. Cooking with herbs is great! A lot of the time they make the dish. It was also National Astronaut Day. That's cool that there's a day devoted to them. They go through a lot.

This is my wallpaper for May. It's the first of the Hitman Reborn manga wallpapers I made recently. I obviously didn't make the art. I just placed two chapter pages together. I like how this one turned out. However, it would have been nice if I was able to make the one on the right big enough to be a standalone wallpaper. It would have stretched the image way too much. Oh well. Tsuna, the main character, is in his Dying Will mode on the left. Xanxus is on the right. I think, with the one on the left, Tsuna was in the middle of his big fight with Xanxus. Xanxus and his family, Varia (an offshoot of Tsuna's Vongola mafia family), were villains at first. They eventually sided with Tsuna and the Vongola. Xanxus thought he was the rightful next boss of the Vongola. He fought the previous head, which resulted in those scars. He was certainly not happy that Tsuna was next in line instead. He felt even more humiliated having an 'outsider' take over. I like Xanxus and even his character design is cool. He's a complex character. He's never truly 'good'. Just like some of the other people that eventually ally themselves with Tsuna. 

The weather calendar's main pic's of a storm cloud. They describe it as a big spaceship. It looks more like a giant mushroom to me. Still, it's impressive. The two smaller images are of a lightning storm in Texas. 

The month-long holidays for May are: National Asparagus Month, National BBQ Month, National Egg Month, National Hamburger Month, National Salad Month, National Salsa (the sauce) Month, National Strawberry Month, National Vinegar Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, Mental Health Month, National Inventors Month, National Pet Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. So many this time. 

Yesterday, I decided to start keeping more of a schedule through my google calendar to be more on top of things. Things like blogging more often, if not every day. This blog was originally meant to be daily. There will be shorter posts that way. I usually make a to-do list every day, except for Shabbat. With my calendar, it seems easier to stick to. Before, sometimes I'd spend too much time on something, so it's a little nudge this way. Mainly the too much time was with my computer being too slow when I wrote, edited, with online stuff, etc. Now, I'll have set times to cut it off and move on. I might end up writing less, but at least I'll get to things. I've gotten everything from my list done so far today. Writing, editing, cleaning, etc.

Also, trying to get up and go to sleep at decent times again. I plan to get up at 8am most days, and go to sleep as close to 10pm as I can. That's really not bad. For a while I'd get hooked on my phone and stay up until about 1am, which isn't healthy. 

I'm also trying to not go through my fb feed during the week. Going through it mostly on the weekends, but with set times. That cuts quite a bit of time out. I plan to mainly look at notifications, share what I find through my google news alerts or other places I might stumble upon outside of fb, and write personal posts. Blog posts are counted as personal posts...So, in many ways I'll still be active on there, just not nearly as much as I used to be. I know a lot of my friends have gone through periods of totally swearing off fb. They'll even deactivate their accounts. They were just so addicted to it. I understand that. I'd like to still be in contact with people, get world news, see funny LGBTQ+ memes or stories, occasionally be active in the groups I'm apart of (the enby one has been helping me the most), etc. I'll just limit it more. Mainly for my sanity, trying to sleep a decent amount, time for other things, my eyes (I can tell my eyes are straining more lately), and more. 

Instagram is different to me. I mostly just post what I eat, my cats, drawings, landscapes, etc. It's not all the time. Also, I don't follow many people. I'm following 26 people currently. A much smaller percentage of those people seem to actually be active. I have a lot more people that follow me. Up to 82 right now. I'm rather surprised by that. With every few posts lately, I seem to gain at least one follower.

DeviantArt's different, too. I haven't actually been going through my deviation stack notifications. Those are the ones of art/journals of artists and groups I 'watch'. Those have been really stacking up. I mostly look at reactions to my own art/profile. When people fave, collect, give me llamas, and watch me. So, I don't spend that much time usually. At some point, it'd be great if I went through that other stuff that's just piling up...

I only managed to write a page of Alliance 3 today. My computer was super slow at the time. I gave it an hour...I normally type fast, especially when I don't have a block, so it was extremely annoying. Got a lot more editing done of the cookbook. My computer suddenly decided to speed back up to normal for that. Only have about 15 more pages to edit of that. Then, I'll make a source list. 

Today's German lesson was on language. That was interesting to go through. I only got one wrong on that. 

Finished the manga Animal Sense recently. It was much shorter than I expected. It's about a girl that can 'possess' any animal around her. She saved many people around her, including herself, with that ability. The end was interesting. She was so emotional, apparently all the animals from the forest she was in came out and helped. She didn't possess them. They just were drawn to her. They could have done more with that and continued the series...The only thing I didn't like was the main character's hair. It was bizarre. 

I'm a little disappointed that there was no update for the manga of Ao no Exorcist or Blue Exorcist today. It has been 2 months. Normally it's once a month. Maybe the next one will have an added special chapter or it'll be longer than usual? I read some of +Anima instead. That one has been pretty good so far. From where I stopped today, there's about 10 more chapters left. 

I finished drawing and inking Ravel's head today. I don't think it turned out as great as my previous designs of him. Not bad, though. I was hung up on his horns and hair for a while. Started drawing Nico, too. I'm slowly learning what my style is, what looks good, how to improve in general, etc. It's kind of fun getting back into it again. 

I hope to get a walk in after dinner. That way it's cool enough and it's still sunny out. Might do that for a while. Eventually, I'll add another walk in. I'm realizing I'll certainly have time for another one if I keep this up. If I recork my clarinet, I'll probably have some time to cram playing it in as well. 

I dropped Dances with the Dragons a couple of days ago. It was really boring. I gave it 4 episodes. It was way too into politics, dialog, and the story didn't progress much. I normally love complex shows that make you think. However, this one tried and failed horribly. They promised dragons, yet we only saw them a few times. There was Middle Eastern sounding music as a soundtrack, but it didn't seem to fit any of the scenes. The main characters had long names. I think their full names had 6 names each. None of them were catchy either, so they were hard to remember. They really tried to do something with this show, so it's sad. 

I started more food 'journeys'. I was and still am doing a cheese journey, where I try new (to me) cheeses. I'm adding journeys in bread, jams/preserves, teas, etc. I don't know why I didn't start those when I started the cheese one. I like trying new things. It takes me a while to get through stuff, especially if it's just me, but it's still fun. I started the bread one with sheepherder's bread. It's originally from the Basque region of Spain. It seems to be a mix of French and sourdough. Tough on the outside, very soft inside, and has a slightly sour aftertaste. The loaf is huge and round. Has an interesting design, too. It's good. I won't be able to try some of the really seedy breads, because they affect my gut. Should be interesting to see what I can have. Tried the lingonberry jam that my dad had. This one actually comes from Sweden. It tasted like cranberries, but stronger somehow? Very interesting. It was good with the bread.

National Potato Chip Day!

I love potato chips! There are so many different kinds out there. Some of my fave flavors are: salt and vinegar, honey dijon mustard, BBQ, and dill pickle. When I could eat spicy food, jalapeno potato chips were amazing. I miss those...I basically love potatoes in any form. Chipped, baked, roasted, mashed, etc. Good stuff.

I'm hoping to post more often on here. So far so good. I felt like I was hit by a truck when I woke up today. I was going to get up at around 8am, but I somehow fell back asleep after that. I ended up getting up later than I wanted to...A similar thing happened on Monday. However, I went to bed earlier last night. 

I'm close to 170 pages altogether for both books. Almost done with the dessert section for the cookbook. I think she had a snack section next. There aren't many recipes left. It seems I'm almost done with writing the recipes out. I'll still have to rearrange them, change the section titles a bit, maybe add pics (if I can...), etc. The cookbook seems like it'll have a lot more 'editing' than the other books. The current chapter of Alliance is intriguing so far. Not sure exactly where it's headed. 

For German today, I'll be going over places again. Yesterday was a 3rd predicative part for this section of the 'trek'. There was a predicative part in the section just before that I was having difficulty with. With this one, it was really easy. Maybe I just improved? I don't know. The one after places is feelings. I'm surprised they haven't gone over feelings yet. I'm pretty far into their course on Duolingo. They might not have thought feelings were as important as the rest of the stuff. Still, it seems odd. Feels like it also took forever to get to any 'numbers' parts. I'm up to 57% fluency now. I feel like I hardly know anything yet.

Ao no Exorcist or Blue Exorcist had an update yesterday. Didn't really reveal much. Everyone is starting to be able to see the demons that are coming through the forced open gate. Mephisto said he tried to tell Yukio numerous times about the truth behind their births and their mother. However, they never showed that in the manga. Since he's the demon lord of time, it hints that he has been repeatedly setting back time after each 'failure'. Eventually, he gave up on Yukio, and is going to help Rin with the truth. Rin never wanted to know about it. He even asked why help someone who doesn't want to know, and he said it was perfect that way. Rin wouldn't be too eager or desperate about it. Plus, he likes messing with the brothers. It ended with Rin about to walk into a portal to the past. They had a similar thing with Lightning traveling to the past by using a special key in any door, and opening it to a portal to a different time. I don't think Lightning could change the future with that. It was more like they could watch things happen and go through the records that were there. I think Mephisto controlled it, too. Not sure if he would with this one considering Rin's using his adoptive father's key. Might be a totally different thing. Guess we'll just have to see.

Managed to do some more cleaning yesterday. Yay, for a little more energy! I'm able to do a little bit with it at least. I got to my bathroom counter finally. I didn't realize how bad it had gotten. Had to really scrub at areas. Looks much better now. 

Posted my recent drawings to deviantART and Instagram. These were of Shadow's wings in 3 different perspectives. I had to clean them up a bit in Photoshop beforehand. (Not as much as I thought.) I'm surprised by the response. I quickly got 4 faves and a watcher on dA. People collect other people's art by faving them or putting them in specific collections. A watcher is like a follower on there. (Although, it sounds creepy to have 'watchers'.) It hasn't been seen by many people on there yet. I had to crop each drawing by itself for Instagram, so I ended up putting 3 posts up for it. If I hadn't done that, 2 would have been cut off. If I had grouped the cropped versions together, all of them would have been cut off a little. I got a couple of follows with that, and a ton of likes. I was surprised by the amount of likes I got right away. The 1st one, which I don't like as much as the other 2, got 6. The 2nd with the wings extended, and the one I like the most, got 11. The last one got 10. Most of those were almost as soon as I posted them. Got a couple of comments, too. I'm thinking I'll post future drawings on there, as well. It'd be interesting to see what another 'community' thinks of it. 

I think I'll draw all the tails of the characters in Alliance next. Maybe the horns and ears, too. Might focus on features or parts of them right now. Eventually, I want to draw both a Dark Healer and Doina, who's a Light Healer, next to each other with different perspectives. Mostly with their heads. Probably would color those. I want to draw one of the Dark Healers' face and arm tattoos. That sounds fun. Eventually, I'd want to draw all the other characters, too. Buildings, scenes, landscapes, etc. would be great. I have so many more ideas for Alliance-related stuff. Seeing the response this time, encourages me a bit. Hopefully, I can put out something each week. This also will connect me more to the story.

Finished watching Strange Calls last night. It's an Australian supernatural TV show that's on Netflix. It reminded me partially of Eureka. Some say it's similar to Haven...I don't agree with that. Everyone in Coolum seems to hate the new cop, Toby Banks. The only one that befriends him at first is an elderly and very earthy man named Gregor. Toby's duty is to stay in the police's trailer, answer calls, and act on those calls if need be. There was a chicken place where the chicken was so good, it turned someone into a chicken. Another one was about people hearing an old lawn mower ad jingle and stealing mowers, and eventually either killing themselves or becoming homicidal. Another was about a killer ghost cat. Another one was about people turning into trees. With a lot of them Gregor immediately knew what to do. He always said he was 47, but during the last episode we find out he's much older. (We all knew he was, but didn't know his exact age...) The show even made fun of itself in the last episode. They mainly had one song played throughout the whole thing. In the background and with the opening theme. I didn't realize this until they pointed out the actual band that was standing outside the trailer. It was funny. It was pretty good overall.

National Peanut Butter Day!

Most of the time, I love peanut butter. A little goes a long way. I can only have the smooth kind now, since whole and chunks of nuts can upset my gut. Sad that I have to stay away from most nuts this way. Smooth peanut butter, however, is one of my comfort or calming foods. I would think with how rich it can be, that it'd be a trigger as well. Luckily, it's not.

Last week there was a local trans meeting. It was a lot better than the meeting before that. For that one, if it had been my first time there, I wouldn't have come back. One of the members was rude to me and a few other people. She has a weird thing with enby people. I don't know what it is...It's unnerving. I think she was the one that brought up that Washington state is planning to add the 'x' option for birth certificates. X standing for non-binary genders, along with the f for female or m for male. A lot of states have either done some form (IDs and/or birth certificates) of this already or are considering it. It has stirred up 'debate', and some people are scared about it. I'd be freaking happy with that x on everything, personally. When you're neither m nor f, it puts you in a funny spot if those are the only options. Anyways, she was worried that they'll take away her f or do away with both the m and f, if they make this change. Why? Why would they take away your f? This is for enby people. We're not taking away anything. Although, no one really needs gender on their IDs. If we do have them, like now, there should be an option for others. I know there was also an argument by some nurses saying they won't know how to treat patients that have the x. That we're somehow going to destroy their system. Maybe the system needs to be updated. Maybe medical professionals should put things on forms/reminders like: those who have a vagina, penis, breasts, etc. That sort of thing. It makes it seem colder, but on the other hand it doesn't out people necessarily and everyone might feel a bit more comfortable. That's basically what the gendered stuff in health boils down to. It wouldn't be awful to make a system like that. 

She also made me feel awful about how I felt about something. It somehow didn't seem that big of a thing. At some point, it felt like she was interrogating me about it. She also seems to think being enby is a young person's thing. It isn't. Just because some people are figuring it out earlier (thanks to the internet), doesn't mean others won't find out later in life. Is being binary trans a young person's thing? No. Same with enbies. I've been surprised by the age group in the enby group I'm in on fb. There are people in their late teens, but we have a lot that are in their 50's and 60's. I think one person said they were 73, and they only realized a few years ago. I also want to learn more from the older generations and their stories/experiences. It's really cool to have that mix. 

This time the 'I' statements and not 'you' statements were stressed at the beginning. I think this helped a lot. She seemed to not talk as much...At least, she was a lot more polite and not as in your face. 

One of the members said I should try the Binder Reminder app, especially if I'm thinking of getting a chest binder. It reminds you when you need to take it off, do special exercises, etc. I think it also lists resources. The down side...it's an Android app. I have an iPhone. There is no iPhone alternative. Sadness. I could create my own reminders, though. Maybe using alarms on my phone based on what's recommended. It's a makeshift solution, at least. I'm glad that he brought it up to me. He didn't know about it until a few days before, because someone on Tumblr mentioned it. Tumblr seems to be the go-to place for a lot of LGBTQ+ stuff, but also for the haters/gatekeepers...I've stayed away from it for a while now because of those haters. I don't need that. 

I also liked that someone came back from some sort of LGBTQ+ retreat, had wanted to do one of the exercises they brought up. She asked us for trans positivity terms. At the workshop she was in all that people were coming up with were negative for the trans section. Absolutely nothing positive. We came up with a long list in just a few minutes. It was cool to see. Some were very creative and moving. I brought up diversity. The community is extremely diverse, and that's a very positive thing to me. There was also sassy, divine, wise, spiritual, weird (in a good way), and many more. 

Oh, recently trolls have been raiding trans groups on fb. Specifically making it a point to target enby groups. (One of the admins in the enby group I'm in mentioned it a few days ago.) Apparently, they think if we're bombarded by bigotry and the 'truth', that we'll somehow realize we were really cis all along. It's weird. Also, that we're too 'confused' and are 'mentally ill', so we again need to be set straight. Raiding is when they flood a group with their members and suddenly start trolling/spewing hate, then they'll report their own posts repeatedly. I'm not exactly sure how this works, but eventually that group will have too many reports and will be shut down. They've managed to shut down several groups in the past. Apparently they do this during certain times of the year, so it's dubbed raiding season. Often, in order to stop it, groups will go secret during that time. They'll scrutinize each post more, too. It makes it extremely hard to join during those times, but they need more of a safeguard. It's kind of sick to think about people raiding on a regular basis, or even ever. Maybe this is why when I started looking for enby groups, not many were showing up? How do you stop people like this? 

We got Rosie and Tasha 2 new toys. One looks like a sci-fi bony caterpillar. It's a 'wobbly bug'. If it's on the linoleum and is turned on, it vibrates and moves in circles. It doesn't move on carpet, and most of the house is carpeted...Rosie was terrified by it, and doesn't seem to like it even when it's off. I don't know how Tasha feels about that one. The other is 'Winged Chase', and it has a butterfly that whips around quickly when turned on. It actually looked cool that way, but again Rosie was scared of it while it was on. She loves it when it's off, though. She can bat and gnaw at it still. I don't know how Tasha feels about it when it's on. Dad told me that Tasha was playing with it a couple of mornings ago. So, maybe she likes it when it's off, too. 

I've been feeling like a cold or something is coming on really slowly the last few days. Runny nose, slight cough, sore throat at times, getting hot flashes in the morning, etc. I don't want to be sick. It can intensify symptoms of colitis. Even when the patient is in remission. (I oddly still get symptoms, although I feel I really have been in a strange flare most of this month.) So, it appears a little differently usually. If anything, I hope it's not the flu. I already got my shot, so I should be a little more protected. Still...it's scary.

I only missed a couple of days of writing so far. Not too bad. It's mainly been because of feeling 'sick'. I'm a few pages into chapter 3 of Alliance 3. This part has been fun to write. I won't say much, because it might spoil it. 

I started writing out the seafood section of the cookbook today. Got 6 of them done. That's good, I think. One of them was dated as 1966, which I think is the oldest. Maybe she found the recipe much later, but it came from that year? She would have been about 11 years old. I don't think she would have started this so early... (If she did, that's really impressive.) She tends to not give too many details about things. Her handwriting is difficult to read at times. I'm perfectly fine with reading cursive, but she wrote it in a very loopy and bubbly way. I know she was mainly writing them for herself, but it's still a slight pain. I found a few recipes she wrote down of Dad's. They're interesting. I stopped at the fish recipes that she got from a grocery store a long time ago somewhere. It doesn't say where. So, I'm crediting it as just 'from a grocery store'.

German has been interesting. Today, among a lot of other things, I learned the word for gender: Geschlecht. (I thought there was an r between the e and s, but the wiki has it like this.) The sentence example Duolingo had translated to: Is gender important? Very interesting. I also looked into enby terms in German, and there's a wikipedia article on it. Apparently actually saying 'gender' is also used in German sometimes. So is 'agender'. However, another way they say agender is: Geschlechtslos. That seems harder to say. I'm glad there's an actual German equivalent, though. Gender identity is: Geschlechtsidentitat. The a has the 2 dots over it. I should probably try getting the German keyboard on my desktop, like I did for Japanese. The community over there has come up with several gender-neutral pronouns, too. It is a gendered language so to read about how they navigate it is interesting. They have several words for non-binary as well as for the shortened form, enby. Nichtbinar (a has the 2 dots again) seems to be the most 'formal'. It's literally 'not binary'. There's also nibi for enby. I find it a little frustrating still that their 's', 'ch', 'z', 'v', 'd', and probably a few others; change their sound depending on a certain order. I'm still trying to figure some of that out, because they don't actually go over that. I'm at least seeing some sort of pattern. Sometimes the 'ie' and 'ei' slip me up a bit. Ie is pronounced as 'ee' and ei as 'ai'. I knew before about the ei thing, but just seeing them together, sometimes in the same word, is tricky. My brain tells me it only makes sense to switch them, but that's obviously not true. Their words are getting longer with each lesson. I know they do that, but it still seems scary at first. I like how the lit. translation for I'm hungry is: I have the hunger. (They do this with thirsty, too.) It's a different way of thinking again. I'm noticing that they apparently capitalize their nouns, too. That freaked me out at first. When my throat started having issues, even now, they haven't been picking up on my voice well. 

I've been posting the same pics I post on Instagram to deviantART. Most of the time, I don't share them in groups on there anymore. They're still managing to attract people. One person faved over 50 of my food pics or 'deviations'. Most were from before I had a long inactive spell. I was really surprised. That's a lot, and that never happens with me. They later added me to their 'watch' list. Those are like artists they're following on there. They said they just really love my food pics. I've also gotten more llamas on there lately. Llamas can be given by other members as basically a way to say they like your art. It's an in thing. Depending on how many llamas you get, your page's llama gets upgrades. Mine made it to white super llama recently. It's a fun little thing. I've also gotten more follows than I expected on Instagram. That's made it to a little over 60. I'm only following 26 people myself. Also, getting more and more likes with each thing I post. People especially like the food stuff.

Youtube:

Most of these are from before I found those Boku no (My) Hero Academia amv's that I shared last time. Also, I decided to try Blogger's youtube vid search/insert instead this time. Not all of them showed up in the search. Oh well. Youtube's actual site is weird on my desktop, so this was easier. (I can't embed/add video through the app I have.) Not sure why the other ones weren't there:

Fairy Tail:

Pandora Hearts (This one seems to change the meaning of the song, and it surprisingly fits):

Servamp:

Bungou (Literary) Stray Dogs: