National Potato Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

22nd of Av

It's been hovering at or close to 90 degrees since my last post. Haven't posted much because of it. Today and the last couple of days have felt somewhat cold but nice at around 70 degrees. That's closer to our 'norm' for the summer, which is mid-70s. 

Hopefully I'll get to posting more often this month, like I was doing back in June. Was going to post yesterday, but I accidentally tapped 'clear' while writing the draft, and lost it. Frustrating. I'm not going to do the 'monthly' thing today. Might not do it for the rest of the month, either. 

Haven't had my desktop on most of this summer, and might not until next month. It's just been too hot. This also has meant that I haven't been writing more of Alliance 3. I did get to brainstorming what will happen next, for a couple of days. 

The countdown deals (for ebooks) don't seem to be very successful. I kind of understand with things like sequels. The free promos have been doing pretty well. The next free one is for my memoir starting on the 6th until the 10th.  Even if I don't earn royalties during those promos, every 'bought' copy makes my ebooks and my author rankings climb. That makes them more visible to people, they're suggested more often, people notice me more, etc. So, while it might not benefit me right away, it might in the long run.

The Select terms for Alliance, Alliance: Dawn, and Sweet Endless Terror (ebooks) will be ending at the end of the month. Once that ends, I'll wait a couple of more days, then publish them on Smashwords, too. I have to mess with their manuscripts a little beforehand anyways. You can't back out of the Select term until it ends, and you have to remember to uncheck the 'renew term' option. It's exclusive to them during that time. It takes a little more time for Smashwords to approve them for their Premium Catalog. Once that happens, it'll be distributed to a lot more places. 

I won't get reports for my paperbacks from Amazon's distributors for a little while longer. It'll be interesting to see how they do. 

Something happened to Rosie the night before last. I noticed when I gave her a pat on the head before bed that night, that it felt 'crunchy'. I thought it was just my imagination. The next morning I could see something was clearly up with her fur. I have a hunch that Tasha, while up on the banister over the stairs, started throwing up, just as Rosie was walking by underneath. Gross. It was on the top of her head, one ear, behind that ear, down her back, and near the base of her tail. A chunk on her back looked especially like throw up. I dampened a towel in a warm water and tried to run it over all the areas. She kept moving around, and wouldn't let me dry her off. This made her clean the areas afterwards. So, that actually helped more. Later, I used her grooming mitt and managed to get most of what was left with it. It lifted off a lot more fur than usual and some of it was really stiff. There were still a couple of tiny patches near her tail. With her cleaning herself more and me using the mitt again today, it's practically gone. I feel bad that she went through something like that. I don't have cat/pet shampoo, so I couldn't wash it off of her. She also has claws...

I've gone back to being more strict about watching my daily calories and other nutrients. I try to shoot for 1200-1600 calories a day. Also, if possible, try to get to the recommended amount for things like protein, sodium, sugar, etc. I never make it to the recommended amount of protein, often am low on sodium, and end up close for sugar. Either a little under or a little over for sugar. 

While sticking closer to this, I usually end up with a lot of leftovers at restaurants. Restaurant portions are always so huge! I found (and bookmarked) out that most of the restaurants we frequent like Red Robin, Red Lobster, Elmer's, etc. have their nutritional info online. That makes it easier to figure out for portions. MyFitnessPal either doesn't have some of them or is usually not accurate. It's been eyeopening looking at them. Sometimes these places have so much food, I get overwhelmed. When I go, I usually guess and have half of it or I don't care how much I eat. With eating that way, I still end up overeating most of it. 

I'm tired of bringing home leftovers. Most things aren't great the next day, and it creates more clutter. To me, it's different with leftovers of things from home. With those on top of the restaurant ones, things tend to go bad (while sticking to my 'diet') before I even get to them. This creates a dilemma for me. I hate wasting food, yet if I eat everything it's very fattening (not to mention I might throw up if I could eat it all...). It's not my fault restaurants have such humongous portions, and I shouldn't have to compromise my health. 

I've decided to ask for smaller portions at restaurants. That way I can try and balance it. When I went to Elmer's for brunch recently, I ordered a pancake entree. (Specifically, cinnamon roll pancakes.) It usually comes with 4 pancakes, I asked for 1. They also left off the whipped cream without me telling them, which was a plus. It's just added calories. Normally their scrambled eggs are made from 2 eggs, I got 1. The chicken apple sausage normally comes with 2 links, I got 1. With all this, it greatly reduced the calories, and was decent with that and other nutrients for a brunch. I could eat the whole thing, too. 

It somewhat worked for Red Lobster that night. The waitor looked at me like I was talking gibberish when I asked for the salad and entree (with its sides) to all be halved. (I say somewhat because the salad wasn't really halved.) I asked for only one biscuit, too. I'm the only one who eats them, I don't usually eat more, and they make a lot of leftovers with a full basket. Dad got a reward through the app, with one of the options being a free slice of Chocolate Wave Cake. She didn't have any of it. It was almost comical looking when I only ate a 1/4 of the slice and a 1/4 of the ice cream. The whole thing was 1110 calories. That's an absurd amount. Half of it would have been too much. 1/4 of it's not bad. I had a 1/4 of a cinnamon roll at Shari's recently, too. The whole thing was even more calories than that cake. 

I've been keeping up with my Chinese most of the time. I'm surprised at how much I'm actually 'getting'. I recently realized they had a training section with games. Every day there's a new game to unlock using coins you've earned. I've done one on grammar, another on speaking, and today's was on listening. They're fun. I've scored high with them, too. I'm almost done with the current section. Just one more. They pack more into each unit as you go along. 

I finally took my clarinet to Ted Brown's to get recorked a couple of days ago. The mouthpiece cork had fallen off about 9 months ago. I played with it using dental floss in place of the cork for about another month. It was starting to do weird things by then. So, I hadn't played for 8 months. I was really itching to play again. It was also the first time a cork has fallen off from it. I've been playing it since I was 10, so it's close to 25 years old. They were surprised that it was the first time. The only issue it's really had is the keys getting bent. That's not often. They also added 3 new trill pads. They said the old ones were falling off. I did ask them to look over it to see if it needed anything more. It was ready the next day. Much faster than I expected. It seems to me they added a couple more pads than they mentioned. They only charged for the store's base charge of repairs and what they told me about. I also got cork grease. I haven't needed that in a very long time. New corks are thicker and more swelled up than the old ones. They flatten over time. The new ones need something to slick them up so they can easily be assembled. The cork grease smelled minty. Nice. My clarinet will smell good. I also need to clean it even more so now, since it wasn't touched for so long. 

I managed to practice it today. Yay! It felt good just to play. It was easier to play with the new pads and cork, too. Before, I thought it was just the muscles in my mouth weren't built up as much as they used to be. No. It was actually because of the old cork thinning down, starting to fall off, old pads not fully gripping, etc. I should have realized something was up, and that it wasn't about me practicing enough. (I had gotten close to an hour a day, that should have been a clue...) I might actually get back into it again. I'm more tempted this way. I think I should order new reeds online soon, too. I got a big box of them about 7 years ago. They warped a bit from sitting in a car that had the sun and heat directed on it the day I got it. They're really not meant to last 7 years normally. Might be even better with fresh ones. 

I've been watching the anime Juuni Taisen or Zodiac Wars. It's essentially a battle royale of anthropomorphized Chinese zodiac animals, and they're all assassins. They all have powers. They all had to swallow a poison-laced gem at the beginning. They're supposed to collect those gems from their bodies. Whoever gets the most and is the sole survivor wins. They only have 12 hours. The winner gets their wish granted and the antidote. Pretty brutal premise. They seem to be killing them off in reverse order of the zodiac. So, the boar was first. However, the snake was an exception. He died before the game even started. 

The rat's my sign, and normally it's the first animal going by the order. I like him a lot, and he seems to be the most intelligent, manipulative, can get out of 'sticky' situations, great survival instincts, has been goading people on passively, and more. Very much like how rat people are described to be. His power is called Killing All. He hasn't really used it yet. I think he's waiting for all the others to kill themselves and plans to fight the one that beats all the others. Smart. He's also very good at hiding. No one, but the rabbit, has really been trying to get him. A theory is that he's already won, but his wish was time travel. So, he's just playing it all over again. He seems bored most of the time, knows what people will do before they even move, knows them well, and the others feel like he's familiar but can't place him. Makes sense. He's more twisted than he seems. 

The rabbit's an interesting character, too. He's a necromancer. He's pyschotic and wants to make friends by turning them into zombies that work with him as a team. After they come back to 'life', they can still use their powers. The only way to 'kill' those 'friends' is to burn or freeze them. He can bring back dead birds, as well. He's very clever. I have a feeling he may not actually be alive himself. His eyes look the same as the others after they are turned into zombies. That would be interesting. Even if some of this show is predictable, there are a lot of elements that aren't. It makes you wonder how people will die, what their stories are, about their world, and more.