16th of Cheshvan

My birthday was on the 7th. Went to a Thai place for dinner that night. Managed to get the last order of tofu spring rolls. They run out of those really quickly. Often there aren't any left by the time we get there for dinner. Got the most mild chicken pad Thai without the 'garnish'. A lot of the garnish is tough on my gut, especially when it's not cooked. I have issues with nuts, too. They throw quite a bit of peanuts on it usually. Understandable, but not good for me. It was pretty good. Felt like I got the 'meat' of it without the 'fluff' this way. Got their grilled banana rice cake for dessert. It normally comes with coconut ice cream, but they were out. They tried to give me mango sorbet instead. Definitely not the same. They had to take it back. I love the banana thing. They wrap a banana in a rice cake, grill it, and then drizzle coconut syrup on top. Looks nasty (bug-like), but is amazing! 

During the day, I had my own laid-back celebration. Played Fate, which is an old rpg. Made it to a level deeper in the dungeon. I think I'm the furthest I've ever been, at level 42 of it. My character level is probably the highest so far, too. My reputation is Famous at the moment. There are apparently more levels to that. I like that they have pets. You can choose either a cat or dog at the beginning. Then, at some point you can find fish that will turn your pet permanently into some sort of monster. Normally, if your pet eats a fish they turn into a monster for a certain amount of time. So, technically, there are more pet options. I still have a cat. Named her Rosie, so it's like the real Rosie is with me. She's really strong now, too. There's the option of male or female characters, however they both wear the same things and there's really no advantage to being either. With all the armor and such on mine, you can't tell what gender they are. I like that aspect.  

After that I watched some of my fave youtube vids on the big TV. That was fun. It was nice that AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network) made a thread wishing me a happy birthday. Hung around the forums there for a while. 

Saturday, I went to the Oak Table for brunch. That's one of the places I really wanted to go to for my birthday. To me, it's a great place to celebrate things like birthdays. Really good food and they have some spectacular signature things. Some of it is really worthy of taking pics of, like their apple pancake. It's like a huge souffle with apples inside and caramel/cinnamon pieces or crust on the outside. There was a long wait. (One of the few things I hate about going there.) I got their smoked salmon eggs Benedict. I can't have regular eggs Benedict, since it usually has ham. This had an English muffin, smoked salmon, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. Came with 4 small pancakes. It was delicious. The eggs Benedict itself was probably the perfect size for a breakfast. Very filling, too. 

After that, we went to the Naval Undersea Museum. Hadn't been there since my teens. For planning my birthday, I wanted to visit things like museums that I hadn't been to in a while, and some things I never have. That list ended up much longer than I expected. That's ok. Gives me ideas to go to places in the future. There's a lot of stuff at the NUM. Some of it seemed too cramped with things. 

Saw Doctor Sleep at a local movie theater after that. It's a sequel to the Shining. Basically about what happened to Dan after the events that took place there. It was better than expected. Despite her being a villain, I liked Rose the Hat. The actress has an interesting background. I also liked Abra. She seemed stronger than Dan is as an adult (she's a teenager), and sometimes smarter. The actress who plays her was really good. I liked the nods to the Shining movie throughout. For example, the music played when they were heading to the hotel. Ghosts from the previous one. I read even the Overlook Hotel set had to be entirely redone to look like the original, since the original had burned down. 

Monday, my parent and I went to the Seattle Aquarium and Pacific Science Center. The aquarium was smaller than I remembered. I think it's been 7 years since I was last there. Didn't have my iphone at the time. (Didn't have a smart phone at all.) They had all gender restrooms. That was cool to see. Had a turkey sandwich with potato chips at their cafe. It had an everything bagel (had seeds, so not the best for me), artichoke aioli, roasted turkey, spinach, tomatoes, and olive tapenade. Really good. 

The PSC seemed to have dropped in quality. Hadn't been there in probably a longer time than the NUM. I remember the dinosaur exhibit was in a larger room and had more things. I especially remember that because when my Girl Scout troop (I think it was actually with troops from around the region, there were a lot of us) slept over there, they put us in the dino room. (This was in the 90s.) It was big enough to hold so many people. What I saw on Monday wouldn't have been big enough. That was an amazing trip back then. It was a little scary to sleep next to the animatronic dinos at the time. I'm glad some of them still move. We also went to a laser light show, the planetarium, and watched movies at the theater, as well as had free reign of the rest of it. It was an awesome experience back then. Anyways, the nutrition/health area wasn't the same either. I was disappointed with the naked mole rats' enclosure. I think we saw them the first year they had them. They were in a deep table filled with dirt, and you could look at the sides into their chambers. I think there were things poking out of the dirt on top to get a better look. It was cool and interesting to see. Now, they're in something that looked like it was for hamsters, gerbils, domestic rats, etc. It looked sad. They weren't kicking up and digging in dirt anymore either. It was like pieces of paper. Didn't seem right. The butterfly exhibit was nice. The butterflies kept resting on the path, which made it difficult to walk along. One of them landed on top of my head. My colorfully dyed hair probably made me look like a plant. I would have liked them to land on my hand or something instead. A place I can actually see them. I don't regret going, despite the quality decreasing. 

Another thing that was on my list was the MoPop (Museum of Pop Culture), which is right next to the PSC. I remember it as the EMP (Experience Music Project). It's apparently been renamed a few times. I've never been there. My parents did once. Sounds like it has more than just music related exhibits. I read that they have a horror exhibit, a new one on Minecraft, a fantasy/sci-fi one, etc. They still have music ones like one on Kurt Cobain's influence on music, Jimi Hendrix, punk, rock, and more. Sounds like it's really packed in there. Maybe sometime in the distant future I'll go there.

With being in such crowded areas, I seem to have come down with something. It's not like it's really horrible (although worse than yesterday), but I keep sneezing, coughing, have a stuffy nose, sore throat, and am dizzy. That's kind of a risk of doing stuff like that, since my meds work similarly as an immunosepressant would. Adds a bit more stuff to what I'm already dealing with. Feels like a punishment for having fun...

I decided yesterday to try a new 'schedule' with eating. Eat every 1 1/2 hours, splitting my meals in half. So, for instance, having cereal with milk for a 'first' breakfast, then a banana 1 1/2 hours later. Basically the main part, then my usual fruit later. For dinner, the main part, then dessert later. With the 'extra' times, I added having water. I'd end up getting more fluids this way. I've heard it's easier to digest things if they're a little at a time and frequent. Many people with colitis do a similar thing. This way I get the same amount of food, too. I don't really get hungry, either. Half the time, I don't feel hunger (even after not eating most of the day), but this helps even more with those other times. It really is like snacking all day. Getting up late and days where I eat out at restaurants or spend it mostly out somewhere will be different. I'm not sure why I didn't think about it this way when I was first told to eat smaller and more frequent meals. Might help with my dysphagia (trouble/painful swallowing), too. Less food to worry about at a time. This respiratory thing has been messing with my dysphagia. It's hard enough. Having a hard time even taking my pills.

I've decided to rewatch some of my fave anime and give another chance to ones I dropped. I still have some of my usual time 'slots' vacant. For instance, nothing on Mondays, and some days with just one episode of a current anime. I prefer 2 or 3 different anime, one episode each, daily. Most anime is a little under 20 minutes without the openings/endings. Really not much. I decided to go with oldest ones first. According to the date they were put out. Yesterday, I watched an episode of Cardcaptor Sakura. That came out in 1998. Really old school, and it apparently has some LGBTQ+ elements. One of the first ones that was open about it. I love CLAMP, even if their style is a little weird. It's an all-female manga creator group. I think this was one of their first projects. The characters in this one appear in other series like Tsubasa Chronicle. In fact, at least that, Cardcaptor Sakura, and xxxHolic are considered to be in the same universe. I only dropped CS before because it seemed too long. The original is 70 episodes long. The sequel was in 2018 and 22 episodes. Must have been an anniversary thing. There are a couple of movies, too. It's not as long as some of the others I've watched. 

Watched the first episode of Excel Saga. I absolutely loved it when I watched it back in college. I think that was in 2005. It came out in 1999. I think my ex-boyfriend introduced it to me. It has similar humor as Gintama, or I should say Gintama does. Since it's older. Probably got inspiration from it. It seems to have influenced a lot of other anime, too. Like, there's a common trope where a character dies by being hit by a truck. One of the first times Excel dies is by being hit by a truck. (It's in the first few minutes, so not spoiling it.) I like the Miss Universe character. She has the ability to bring characters back to life. She's constantly busy saving them. I remember the one that died the most often was Hayatt. She's an alien and apparently the atmosphere on Earth makes her sick. She's constantly coughing up blood. I remember the last episode was controversial, because there was a lot more violence, sexual jokes, and all around craziness than usual. It actually never aired on Japanese TV, and was sneaked into the DVD. I saw that and it was really outlandish, but fun in a weird way. The whole series is certainly not appropriate for kids. They parody a lot of things, like Gintama does, too. ES is short compared to CS, with only 26 episodes. Shorter than I remembered. 

In addition to CS and ES, I watched the most recent episode of Radiant 2. It's getting intense. I'm wondering about Seth's past or who he really is more now. 

I only have about 2 more units left of Duolingo's Dutch course. Not sure which language I'll do next. Cleaned up more of the drawing of Junko in Photoshop. Finished editing chapter 17 of Alliance. Only 3 more chapters. Managed to practice my clarinet yesterday. It's harder with being sick this way. Did advanced solo pieces, and some jazz. 

The most recent chapter of Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) was way too short. In fact, it felt like an abrupt ending. There was a big cliffhanger. I like that Meirin's backstory is finally being revealed. The other servants had theirs shown a while ago. So far, it's showing her childhood and eventually will get to how she met Sebastian and Ciel. She's extremely farsighted. Her parents died not long after they immigrated to England (I think they came from Ireland, although they haven't said yet), and she was forced to live on the streets as a little kid. She survived with other homeless kids by shooting pebbles from a slingshot at a long distance, and hitting earrings/jewelry of the rich women just right for them to fall. Her friends would chat up the women and steal the jewelry when it fell, then they'd exchange them for money. They were able to eat because of this. She was treated like one of the boys. Looked pretty masculine, too. I think she was forced into being an assassin, and then Ciel was just one of her targets later. She did mention she was an assassin. She prefers to be a sniper, but she fights in other ways as well. She's a cool character. 

5th of Tishri

This is my wallpaper for October. It's Gilbert or Gil, who's sometimes referred to as Raven (because of his 'chain'), from Pandora Hearts. This seemed Halloween-like. Pandora Hearts as a series fits well with the holiday. It's loosely based on Alice and Wonderland, complex, some horror, and very dark. The anime didn't really do it justice. I might switch it to something else halfway through the month. 

The month-long holidays for October are: National Apple Month, National Caramel Month, National Pasta Month, National Pretzel Month, Bat Appreciation Month, LGBTQ+ History Month, German-American Heritage Month, National Cookbook Month, Spinach Lovers Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.

Rosh Hashanah was Sunday night until Tuesday night. It was our New Year (lit. translated to Head [of] the Year), and the first month is Tishri. For RH, we eat honey and sweet things for a sweet year. We eat round challah (an egg bread), which has many meanings. One of them that I like is that it represents the life cycle. Time isn't truly linear in Judaism. Instead, it goes in cycles. We're just starting another one. There are also things like Tu B'Shevat which is the New Year for the Trees. There are technically 4 'New Years', but RH is the main one. I 'attended' the 1st night and 1st morning/afternoon services online. Central Synagogue in NYC live-streamed it all, like their Shabbat ones. It's also the start of the High Holy Days or Days of Awe. That goes for 10 days, and ends with Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement. During those 10 days, it's supposed to be a time of deep introspection, asking forgiveness, how we can better ourselves and the community, and more. The day after RH ends is a minor fast day called the Fast of Gedaliah. I've never observed it, and can't even if I wanted to. I did eat less than usual on Wednesday, though. Some people think it's a warm-up fast day for YK, but it's really remembering the assassination of Gedaliah, who was a governor of Judah. YK is considered to be the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar. It's considered the Shabbat of Shabats. (Shabbat being our day of rest.) We're supposed to fast from sunset to sunset. 25 hours. It doesn't just mean no food, but also no drinks, gum, etc. I can't fast because of my meds and colitis. They say if it'll harm your health, it'll be a sin if you do so anyways. I still feel guilty about it almost every year. Children are also exempt from fasting. 

The elements calendar features copper this time. There's a mini periodic table made out of pure copper, copper in bullion form, a weave chain made out of wired copper, and a brass, which is a copper alloy, ring. It's a very useful element. 

I looked at the test results that recently came back. The x-rays appeared normal. Even though my hands certainly don't seem normal. The lumps are soft tissue-based then, which is better than them being something like calcium deposits. My fingers look more twisted, but they said it looked fine in the x-ray...Pretty much everything but one test came back as normal or negative. The ANCA titer was a strong positive. They said the pattern may suggest 2 rare diseases, but other aspects might go along with IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease), and a couple of other autoimmune diseases. He did warn me that it might pick up on my colitis and be positive that way. The scleroderma blood test noted that getting a negative result doesn't necessarily rule it out. ~20% of patients with scleroderma have positive results for that one. That seems like a small amount. They suggested other tests to try. I'm thinking of asking about those in an email to my rheumatologist. I still haven't made a dermatology appointment, and they might order more tests. My rheum. told me depending on the results, my next office appointment with him would be in 6 months. If the scleroderma test had come back positive, he would have made a phone appointment. He also briefly mentioned lupus and how he didn't want to start treatment for that before they tested for other things. I don't think that's what it is, but at least he seems to be trying to help me. Hopefully, he'll agree to running those other tests.

I've also been getting weird red fluid filled sacs in my mouth. They're not particularly painful, but annoying and a little off-putting. One of the most recent ones showed up right next to where the jaws hinge together in my right cheek. Really far back there. I thought it was a wad of food or something. That's kind of kept me from enjoying food, and deciding to eat less on Wednesday. Most of the time those sacs show up on my lip. The area inside that rubs against my teeth. They end up popping after a while (probably from the rubbing), letting out stuff, and leaving behind craters. I don't think the one near my jaws has popped yet. Although, it does taste weird sometimes. 

I apparently am going to be a social media and camera person for the local trans group. I'm going to create Instagram and twitter accounts for the group. They already have 2 facebook groups. 1 public page, and 1 secret group. Those are essentially covered. There are admins and mods there, and quite a few active people. We just don't have any other social media presence. Not everyone uses facebook. We can't even access the old website, for a variety of reasons. One of the facilitators is going to create a group email account, then I'll create the Instragram and twitter accounts with that. Nice I won't have to use my personal email. I'll also ask members of the secret group on fb, once I've created those other accounts, if they have other social media suggestions. I think these are the main 3 that are the most popular, but I'd still want input. I'll create an image for Instagram to share every time we have a meeting coming up, and maybe one for when the facilitators won't be available (that's rare). With twitter, I could just type that out. I'll create images for events and other announcements, too. I can take pics of the group at special events, like Pride or ones that we create, and post them to those accounts. Of course, I'll ask people before I take the pics if they're cool with being in them. That's important. We could have a record of what the group has participated in this way. I'm thinking of also posting things that are trans related, possibly memes and articles, there as well. That way those accounts can still seem active. We only have 2 or 3 meetings a month. It might be nice to see things in between. I love taking pics, and since I'll be taking them, I might not be in a lot of them. I'm happy with that. Oh and I'll mention if people want the location, they'll have to pm those accounts. It's a safety issue if the exact address is listed publicly. We might need to change to a different room anyways, since a class was meeting Wednesday night in our room at that time. We thought it was cleared up already, but they might need to be 'reminded' every quarter. It's at a college currently. 

Finished watching Kimetsu no Yaiba. The animation was amazing! Apparently, the next story arc will be a movie. They ended it with them making it on a train for their next mission. Only Zenitsu knew what a train was. It takes place during the Taisho period (1912-1926). Tanjirou grew up in the mountains and Inosuke is used to living in the forests. So, of course they aren't going to know much about it. Inosuke thought it was some sort of demon and tried to attack it as soon as he saw it. It's interesting that they sneak in some of the modernization and cultural shifts that were going on at the time. Hopefully, there will be another actual season after that. There were a lot of twists and turns. 

Finished watching the last season of Fairy Tail. It was ok. Somehow the last season didn't seem as great as the previous ones. Fairy Tail's manga started in 2006 and ended in 2017. The anime started in 2009. It's had a lot of breaks between seasons. A lot of people thought the last battle ended too soon and too easily. However, Natsu had the power of all the dragon slayers against that final villain. That was a huge power-up. Some made fun of it because the magic coming off of him at that point was rainbow colored. Saying it was too 'gay' or something. I don't mind the idea of LGBTQ+ community defeating the most powerful villain...I'm surprised they didn't say it looked more like a Power Rangers thing. People also didn't like the idea of friendship giving them boosts. Like friendship is magic. As corny as it sounds, I like that, though. I felt that they considered the guild members as family, not just friends. In fact, the series mentioned that numerous times. That's a stronger type of bond to me. Many fans were pissed off that Natsu and Lucy didn't kiss at the end. I have a feeling Natsu might be aro ace. Lucy obviously isn't. She expected him to kiss her at the end, too. Instead he said that they'll be best friends forever. That was pretty awesome in my view. Many stories that have a boy and girl as protagonists make them end up as a romantic couple. This was a good break from that. They seemed to hint at another season at the end. Even though this was supposed to be it. I don't think I'll watch it if there is.

Finished watching Darr Sabko Lagta Hai or Everybody Feels Fear on Netflix. I liked it overall. Some of it was overacted, corny, and low-budget. Some of the stories were based on Hindu mythology, and others on Indian culture in general. That was really interesting. The 'scariness' was more psychological. Each episode ended with an uneasiness and hints the story never actually ended. I thought that was a smart way of doing it. The last story was the goriest and most brutal. I didn't like that one as much as the others. 

Started watching the 2nd season of Radiant and Ascendance of a Bookworm. I still find it interesting that Radiant is an adaptation of a French manga. There are hints of French culture, history, and humor in it. Ascendance of a Bookworm is another isekai (different world) anime. This genre seems to just be getting more popular every season. It's about a librarian who absolutely loves books. She died one day, but as she was about to she begged that in her next life she'd be able to read all the books she wanted to. Reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode where a man who loves books ends up in a post-apocalyptic world with just books around him, however his glasses break. So, he can't read any of them. She woke up to find that she was reincarnated as a frail little girl. In their world, there are no book stores. Only the very rich can afford books. Each copy is made by hand. Very similar to what it was like before the printing press in our world. Most people in theirs are illiterate. The only thing they can read are numbers for things like prices. She did find one book, but the shopkeeper wouldn't let her touch it. It was too valuable and her reaction was too suspicious. She's decided to write and make her own books instead. Haven't gotten to it, but apparently she has some sort of magical powers in that world. I tried another isekai yesterday, but couldn't stand more than 5 minutes of it. 

Started watching The Truth Seekers on Netflix. It's a Singaporean detective drama, mainly in Mandarin (there's a little English and Japanese). It's aka Cold Case Investigators. Bai Qingxiong, a veteran cop, creates a detective agency that specializes in solving cold cases. He was tired of not bringing closure to the families of the victims in such cases. At the moment, they meet at a Japanese restaurant that his wife owns. Looking at the opening, it seems like they might get an actual place for it eventually. Each case might affect them personally. In this first one, one of the detectives, Huang Yuyang, was in a relationship with the main suspect briefly. That main suspect was actually the one that hired them to solve the case. I guessed right on who the real killer was. Yay! It looks like the main suspect from that case (he wasn't the killer) will join them. A couple of the actors look familiar. I haven't watched too many Singaporean dramas, but I looked up one of the actors and he was in Against the Tide. It'd make sense that I'd remember him since he played a main character.

Youtube:

One Piece:


Dr. Stone:

Kimetsu no Yaiba:

29th of Adar I

I'm nervous about my new gastroenterologist appointment on Thursday. I haven't seen anyone for my colitis in a year and a half. Just looked that up now and it's longer than I remembered. I should see someone at least every 3 months (according to the CCFA) to monitor it. That's just to check on the disease, not necessarily how the medication is affecting me. That can vary more. 

Looking back at it, I apparently stopped Azathioprine in December of 2017. It wasn't metabolizing anymore. Been on Lialda ever since. Again, since no one has been monitoring me, I don't really know how helpful it's been or if it's metabolizing. I have felt like I've been flaring since July. Lialda was supposed to be the safest temporary med. My next options are biologics like Humira and Remicade. They're taken either with self-injections or infusion. These are heavier and more potent meds. I'd prefer to stay away from the self-injection ones. I get a weird thing every time I see my own blood or other health related stuff (shots, speaking about organs, etc.). It's a syndrome I can't remember the name of, but I have passed out from it. I don't need that every time I do it. Can't control it either. With the infusions you have to wait a few hours, and it's at hospitals usually. That can be a pain in different ways. I don't seem to have a problem with IV's, as long as I don't see them put it in.

I've noticed new extrintestinal symptoms, too. Most patients get them at some point, and can be a sign that they're flaring. I thought most of these symptoms were just kinks to work out or from fatigue. However, they haven't let up and, in fact, have gotten much worse. They're starting to pile up creating a snowball-like effect, and it's scaring me a bit. 

I made sure to make a list to bring up with her so I don't forget. In July, a weird deep butt pain started. Leg muscles from my knees up started to feel sore at the time every time I laid down or stood up. (Still does.) A year ago, I started coughing up weird hard balls of bloody mucus. (Yeah, gross...) I didn't think much of it until that became more frequent not too long ago. Now, it goes up my throat without me coughing it up. Prompting me to spit it out immediately. Never feels like it all gets out. It wasn't a normal thing for me before this. 

Roughly a couple of months ago, my jaw started to ache. It's gotten worse in the last couple of weeks. Every time I try to open my mouth to eat, yawn, etc. it hurts. The joints seem to be swelling, too. About a month ago, I started having a dry sore throat. I thought I just had a little cold, and that I'd need to wait it out. It's still there. Feels worse now. It's not bad enough to make me cough all the time. However, it hurts to swallow, food feels weird going down it, feels like I need to clear my throat every time I speak, etc. 

Not long after the sore throat started, my neck was so sore and stiff I had a hard time moving it, then that suddenly went away. About a day later the joints in my hands, wrists, neck, knees, one hip, and feet were painful and stiff. They haven't eased off since. My hands have been the worst. It's harder to grip things and even wash my hands. My jaw and other areas are cracking/popping more often, too. Not only that but a couple of weeks ago muscles from other parts of my body (not the leg ones I mentioned) started to feel sore and weak. Fun combo. 

About a month ago, I started feeling a searing pain around my eye sockets or outer eyelid area. Not in my eyes, but the outer skin. It's worse around my right eye. The pain has intensified in the last few days. Realized today that there's a slight red rash on parts of both areas. So, it's somewhat visible. I'm not just imagining it. I do have my eye exam next week, which should be interesting to see what they say, as well. 

I'm wondering if the throat things are specifically related to the colitis. If I have Crohn's (most people I've seen have leaned towards this), it could be affecting it. Crohn's can happen anywhere in the digestive tract, including the throat. It can travel, too. They did notice that my stomach and duodenum were slightly affected in the first upper endoscopy in 2015. It could have traveled up. It wasn't nearly as bad as my colon at the time, so that's what they focused on. They weren't sure if the disease was affecting them or something else was going on. I'll ask my new gastro if I could have an upper endo along with my colonoscopy to check. The gastro I had when I was about to have my 2nd colonoscopy (2017) never answered me and didn't request it. Despite asking her several times. She had several issues, but knowing what they saw the first time, I would think it'd be logical. Even my 1st gastro suggested it when we were talking about future colonoscopies. 

It's been affecting me more this week. Takes even longer than usual to go to sleep, then I end up staying in bed later than I'd like. Makes it a little more difficult to get stuff done. I'm trying to be kind to myself about it, though. Also, I've felt too tired to wash my hair lately. Did it today and felt like passing out after I styled it. Made me really dizzy for a while. At least, I got that done and feel a little better. 

So far this week I've made it to the 4th level of Basics 2 in Duolingo's Korean course. Almost done with that unit. Also, started typing out some of the sentences in Korean with the translation in Notes on my phone. Noticing more patterns, might try using speech-to-text to see if I'm saying them right, and more. Might be really handy. I have been editing more of the full-body drawing of Shadow in Photoshop. Finished the back part of his hair. Edited more of Alliance.

Finished watching Radiant. It was an odd time to end the season. They mentioned at the end that there will be a 2nd one. It'll be back in October. It ended with Seth leaving Artemis for Caislean Merlin. He left Melie and Doc behind. It looked like Grimm's going to secretly follow him. 

I plan to get better about being more balanced with my nutrients and still stay within my calorie range. According to MyFitnessPal, I'm usually far below my goals for protein, fiber, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, potassium, calcium, and iron. Sugar and carbs vary a lot. Either half of where I should be for each or slightly over. Not sure about other nutrients, because that's what they show if you're not a premium member. I was surprised by some of them as I went through. I've heard many people have issues with having too much fat and cholesterol. Not making all of these goals, might have something to do with how I feel now, too. I have been told I need more protein, at least, than most healthy people because when I flare I tend to not absorb it well. It's hard to get all of them without going over the calorie range for the day...That's why I'm going to look more into foods naturally high in these, and stuff I already eat as well. Like, the tuna salad sandwich I make occasionally has a ton of protein, calcium, and iron. It's low in calories, too.

21st of Adar I

Made it to level 3 of Basics 1 in Duolingo's Korean course. Almost to 4. These levels seem shorter than with the other units. They go over sentence structure and basic words like man, woman, boy, girl, bread, dog, cat, apple, home, etc. They also go over the word for is/am/are/etc., and it's negative form. They use it at the end of almost all of the sentences so far. 

Read more of Mother Keeper. It's been interesting so far. Syal, who is one of Eden's cyborgs, decided to go on her own to investigate something at the biggest black market outside Eden. She was apparently a slave before she turned into a cyborg. A slave that was sold at that same black market. The 'boss' there didn't recognize her. She broke the 1st rule of the market, which they haven't mentioned yet. It's probably not to ask questions. Ricalna remembered it and will most likely have to go save her. She's strong, but their leader is a cyborg, too. 

Inked the rest of Shadow. Next, I'm thinking of scanning, editing it in Photoshop, and either coloring it in Photoshop or printing it off and doing it with colored pencils. Either way, it'll be 'cleaner'. I didn't practice my clarinet yesterday or today, because I wanted my hands to relax more. They don't hurt as much as they did a few days ago, but I don't want to aggravate them at the moment. Hopefully, I'll get back to doing it soon. Plus, I still have something respiratory-wise going on. Harder to play with that. Edited a few more pages of Alliance. Made it to chapter 14 today. There are 20. Still quite a bit more, but I'm getting there.

Mob Psycho 100 II was intense last night. Most of the episode seemed really light-hearted, and Shigeo was growing more as a character. He was getting ready for a school marathon for most of it. He wanted to be in the top 10 to impress the girl he likes, Tsubomi. He normally is in the bottom 10. I've never really liked Tsubomi. She's his childhood friend, but they don't interact much. She doesn't think of him as a love interest, either. It seems like she's pretentious. Anyways, he did his best and was doing much better than usual, then suddenly he passed out. It was too much for him. After waking up in the nurse's office, he walked home alone. When he got there, his home was on fire. He ran inside to see if his family was inside and save them. The very last scene showed charred bodies reaching out to him, and he changed to his ??? form. Ekubo tried to tell him to close his eyes, but he didn't get through to him. I have a feeling those bodies aren't his family's. They were made to look like that, though. I think the person that set it on fire kidnapped them. He suddenly showed up at their door. He was the main villain at the end of last season, but had a very short time on-screen. The main characters didn't really meet him, except for Ritsu (Shigeo's brother). 

Not much happened with Radiant. One of the inquisitors (a captain) named Dragunov, who's actually a good guy, is going to be punished for what happened in Rumble Town. His crew were starving, and they were trying to come up with a way of finding more food for most of the episode. They had given the people of Rumble Town the rest of what they had. Eventually, one of the town's they helped a while ago, felt they had to repay them and gave them a lot of food. With the knowledge that they'll be fed, he left for his 'punishment'. Not sure what that will be. Seth and his friends found out the price of coffee went up because of Rumble Town being destroyed. It's a major trading point. They tend to hang out at a cafe in Artemis. (Atemis is the only place sorcerers can live in peace.) I guess since the creator is French, coffee is a big thing in it. There's even a coffee monster that lives in the sewers that Doc's friends with. Since the cafe ran out of coffee beans and the monster was dying, Seth and Melie went crazy searching for more of them. Eventually they did find them, but it added more to their already huge debt. It seems there's only one more episode. An odd time to end it. Not much is going on and doesn't feel like it's close to ending. The number of episodes is weird, too. 21, when normally it's about 24 for something like this. 12 for seasonal ones. Looking at it again, there's going to be another season. Yay!

National Bagel Day!

Bagels are great! The only issue I have with them is a normal sized one is full of calories. If it's not a treat day, I'd only allow myself half or a quarter of it. (Depends on brand, type, and what I have with it.) They're nice every once in a while. I like pretty much all of them except poppy seed. There's plain, blueberry, cinnamon and raisin, cheese, everything, onion, dill, etc. So many different flavors to choose from! I'm one of those people that isn't too fond of lox and cream cheese on mine. Maybe the lox, but no 'schmear'. Most of the time I like them plain or with a little margarine. Rarely, I might add cheese and heat it up until it melts. Doesn't need much, if anything.

Woke up a little late today. Had a hard time falling asleep, but once I finally was, I was out cold. I've decided not to beat myself up about that sort of thing, and instead embrace it. Trying to take care of my health more, and listen to my body. Maybe I needed that extra time? Maybe it's fighting something like a cold? I have a feeling I might be coming down with something. If that's true, than it definitely needs that time. I also don't want to push myself too much. That's a good way for me to become less motivated with things again. I think that's what happened in the past. In fact, doing the calendar reminder thing not long ago, ended up feeling more like a nuisance. My current way of doing things seems a lot more flexible. I don't need to spend the same amount of time on everything every day. I shortened up a lot of it today, because of that late start. Still got quite a lot done. I'm going by a to-do list like format (in Notes on my phone) and checking off things as I go. I don't have to follow the order it's in, either. Seemingly a much better way of doing things.

I've always had very sensitive teeth. I've kept up with brushing my teeth twice a day with a sensitivity toothpaste for a little over a week. I've been pretty bad with doing it daily in the past. Sometimes I would just forget. Not good when you don't see a dentist, have had gingivitis, and have sensitive teeth (they get worse). Anyways, this one also helps strengthen enamel and whitens. The whitening part is more of a side thing. One of the active ingredients acts similar to an anesthetic. Numbing and closing up the little tubules that expose nerves. They say it takes at least 2 weeks to get the full affect. I can tell it's working well so far. Things aren't hurting nearly as much when I eat, or even when I'm just in cold weather. Just feeling that cold air on my teeth used to give me searing pain. Eating has been a nicer experience lately. I still get the pain sometimes, but it's barely there. It'd be nice to see if it completely numbs it at the end of those 2 weeks. My teeth feel stronger and look whiter already, too. Wahoo!

I mentioned this on fb recently, but Gab-Dong made the psychopath copycat serial killer aro. That's a common trope, and makes people think aros are psychopaths or killers. A nasty thing to do. Pisses me off. It's like the trope of trans people being victims or crazed killers. I'm tired of both those. The aro one (and other tropes they push for aro people) actually affected me when I was figuring out my romantic orientation. Since I'm not a psychopath, frigid, unfeeling, robotic, etc; I must not be aro. Anything but that. This is really harmful. After looking more into it, I realized I was very wrong about it. I'm about as aro as it gets, and proud of it now. I had to get over that conditioned by society internalized arophobia, though. That's such a common thing people assume about us, that the food symbol the aro community has (decided through Arocalypse) addresses it. It's ice cream. We may seem cold and unfeeling, but we're actually sweet and kind. Plus, most people like ice cream...This way I'm an ice cream cake (cake for aces). Those are awesome! Wouldn't it be nice to see a kindhearted aro detective? Interestingly, I thought no one reacted to my post about this on fb. Looking back at it, I've had quite a few reactions. Didn't get notified about them, though. I think there was another recent post that fb didn't notify me about reactions, either. It's weird. The one about aros seems to have only had reactions from people I don't know, though. (Haven't looked into how they found it, but I do have my profile/posts set to public.) However, it's not showing me who shared it. Maybe it was someone who shared it to a secret group? Again, how did they stumble upon it? The other post, someone I knew reacted. I don't know...Maybe they're being selective with those now, too. That would be sad. Maybe if you don't post that often they do that sort of thing?

I've really liked Gab-Dong besides that. Now the copycat killer is furious. Everything seems to be ruined for him. He's on his way to Switzerland, so he'll be away from everything, too. He can't act out the rest of the murders because he doesn't know the details, anyways. The detectives, forensic psychiatrist, and copycat, all thought the original Gab-Dong was someone at the mental institution. Turns out that person was just a pawn of the original. He had moments where he thought for sure he was the original, but it was due to his mental illness. He knew the details about the first 5 murders because he worked with someone that was working the case 20 years ago, after being falsely accused. He wanted to catch him himself. Being accused ruined his life. They've accused thousands of people in the past, and ruined most of their lives. Some even committed suicide. This makes sense thinking about the real life case. Like I mentioned before, they accused over 20,000 people. They probably were all used by the real one. He's smart. It'd be interesting to see what happens next. There's a lot of episodes left. Maybe the original one will come back and finish the murders? Or, will it just be about finding him now? 

Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken or That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime has been good so far. They went over what Rimuru's possible gender could be as a slime a while ago. In his past life he was a man. In this one, he seems to be agender. He was trying to figure it out when he finally was able to shapeshift into human form. (He still uses he/him.) He tried thinking about being a man, but it didn't feel right. Being a woman felt even worse. He seems to have gone with a non-gendered body look (maybe androgynous, but that implies little aspects of both...) as well as not feeling either. An absolutely flat chest, no visible muscular build, average height, long hair that could go for either men or women, etc. As an agender person, this has been interesting to see so far. He seems to be growing fond of the computer like being inside him, too. It tells him if someone's a foe, info on people and places, what skills he'll gain if he eats something, and more. That computer apparently also has a function of auto-combat, where she takes over his body and fights. Rimuru can just sit back and assess the situation. He's extremely powerful in this world. He just defeated the Orc Lord in the most current episode. That orc had the ability to gain powers from people he ate. Similar to Rimuru's predator ability. Except this makes him always ravenous. He ate his own kind. It seems like the rest of the thousands of orcs might make an alliance with Rimuru. He's getting quite a lot of different beings on his side. He's keeping a dragon in him, he became leader of a goblin village, ogres joined that village, dwarves have as well, the lizardmen are now allied with him, a handful of humans are on his side, and the guardians of the forest are allied too.

With the current episodes in Radiant, it's been much more 'French' than the beginning was. It is an adaptation of a French comic that's in a manga-like style. Konrad, who's the leader in Rumble Town, reminds me of a Neo-nazi. He wants to exterminate all the immigrants and sorcerers there. He doesn't just hate them, he wants to 'purify' the town of them. This reminds me more of how some of the people of France and other places are against the Syrian (and other) immigrants 'invading' their country. There's also a huge increase of antisemitism in France, which might be the 'sorcerers' in the story. (I just realized that they probably do represent Jews...) Sorcerers are despised and discriminated against everywhere, except one place, in that world. They even have an inquisition hunting down and torturing sorcerers in that world. They feel sorcery is heresy. Yet, they sometimes ask them to take care of the Nemesis that invade. Interesting that the creator's covering these themes. 

Did just enough Italian to be counted for the day on Duolingo. With the current unit, that took about 10 minutes. Not much time at all, but I still felt like I did it. Didn't read manga, because I finished what I normally read last week. I would have wanted to start another one, but with more time. Drew only for a few minutes, but outlined one of Shadow's hands. Felt like it was something. Practiced my clarinet for 15 minutes instead of an hour. About enough to feel like a warm-up, but got through quite a bit of my jazz book. Edited more of Alliance. Managed to get through more than I thought in the time I gave myself. 

Did a shorter walk, too. Although, not as short as I had planned. It was essentially the last part of my walk walking the other direction. I do 2 loops usually. One big one that loops back towards the house. Then, a shorter one that covers the other part of the neighborhood (the longer one actually covers more than our neighborhood), wraps around the tennis courts, and goes straight back home. I haven't been doing the shorter loop lately, honestly. I was thinking of just walking straight to the tennis courts and back, not that entire loop. I guess it's good that I did more. There was a car that slowed down next to me and came close to stopping. I thought maybe they lived there or something. After I walked passed them, they suddenly turned around and followed me again. It was creepy. They stopped at some point, though. I looked in to see if I knew them, but didn't. That made it weirder. I thought maybe I had something on me, but didn't. Hope that doesn't happen again. It was cold out there again, but I'm happy I managed to get out there. 

Asexual Awareness Week!

AAW started this past Sunday. I'm not sure if I'll do much more for it besides mentioning it in this post. I've already changed my profile frame and cover photo on fb, mentioned it on Instagram, and I normally share ace stuff on fb (not much to change there). Last year, I created ace-related art. It was the flag in the background, heart over that with the aro flag, and the agender symbol on top. I drew it in pencil, inked it with a pen, and colored it all in with both colored pencils and markers. People seemed to like it. I haven't touched that ace media list I was compiling in several months. Maybe I'll look into that again. If I don't want to add to it, maybe I'll just share what I have with everyone. 

I feel a little odd that most ace advocacy stuff (at least that's shared and through memes) is focused on the nasty comments we get. Sure, that needs to be highlighted, but we face a lot more issues. I think we try to tone it down for others, because for so long people have brought up the Oppression Olympics. We're told that we don't face oppression/discrimination, or if we do it's nothing like 'real' members of the LGBTQ+ community. That's really twisted. The funny thing is every letter experiences something different, and yet we all experience similar issues, too. Even the L experiences different issues than the G. Some people from our own community want to kick us out...Mainly because of ignorance. Many have the idea that it just means celibate straight people, or a stepping stone for their romantic orientation. If you're aro ace, they don't know where to put you. 

All asexuality means is you aren't sexually attracted to anyone. The spectrum has varying degrees of sexual attraction. Some are conditional, some people rarely feel it, and others may have sexual attraction until certain conditions are met. This doesn't say anything about how people view sex. That can range, like with any group of people. People can be repulsed by it, love it, favorable, positive, indifferent, etc. Some aces can have lots of sex, while others avoid it like the plague. I'm sex-repulsed, sex-positive, and very curious about it. A weird combo. Sex-positive is when people are for sex ed, talking about it (not necessarily in graphic detail), joking about it, people having as much or as little as they want with consensual partners, etc. My stomach churns when it's directed towards me, yet I'm curious. 

Erasure is a big thing. Many LGBTQ+ groups either leave us out completely, or they have that A for ally. Ally doesn't belong in it. If you're an ally, you're helping that community on the sidelines. It's much needed, and they have an important role to play. However, they are not in the actual community. There's an analogy that has them as soccer moms. Those soccer moms do a lot for the team, but they are not actually playing the game. When the A is used for them, it takes away the chance for players who hardly get called out onto the field from 'playing'. The A is for aros and aces. Some people say it should also be for agender people. As an agender person, I disagree. We're already under the trans umbrella. We're also covered by the non-binary and genderqueer umbrellas, which are under the trans one. We're covered enough. Aromantics are not the same as asexuals, and they've been trying to separate from the ace community for a long time. I'm both, but those are 2 different parts of me. 

Another huge issue is 'corrective' rape. This affects aces of any gender. When some people hear that someone's ace, they view it as a challenge. They think that they can 'fix' them that way. This isn't talked about much, but it needs to be out there. 

There's also a serious issue that ace men specifically deal with. Men are taught that being hypersexual is manly, and if you're not, you're masculinity is questioned. It's not talked about much, because some people are scared to talk about it. When I read an article about it they mentioned that ace men challenge people's assumption of what makes a man. It's kind of sad if that's what people reduce men to. Ace women get flak too, but some think that women aren't supposed to be sexual in the first place. 

Another one is conversion therapy. Pretty much all of the letters in the LGBTQ+ community experience this. Not everyone in those groups goes through it, but many do. Some allos (short for allosexual[s] or people who aren't ace) seem to think it needs to be 'fixed' this way. Especially if an ace has absolutely no interest in sex. It's pretty horrid. Asexuality was regarded as a mental disorder up until very recently. A couple of years ago, I remember hearing people were running test trials on a pill that could 'cure' aces. That company didn't last long, thank goodness. It shows that it's still an issue, though.

Another one was about a study that came out a few years ago. People are the least likely to offer housing to aces. Gay people were turned down housing more so than straight people, but not as much as aces. Like most letters, youth get kicked out of homes because of being ace. It's just too much of an unknown and they're full of ignorance about it. It's more rare, but some aces are killed because of it, too. The reason it might seem rare is it's not reported often that way. So, we don't really know. That's another problem with it, we're so under-reported about this stuff. (Same with many other parts of the LGBTQ+ community.)

We don't have much representation in media. Some people say stories with aces and/or aro aces would be boring. However, not too long ago the creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, said that Luffy is aro ace. He didn't use those words specifically (probably because he didn't know there were labels for it), but he said that Luffy's not sexually/romantically attracted to anyone. One Piece is the most popular manga/anime. In fact, it won a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author. It's the best-selling manga series in history. (Based on copies sold worldwide.) Luffy is the main character. That says something right there. He's anything but boring. This kind of came through during the Amazon Lily arc. Luffy had fallen into Boa Hancock's bath house while she was bathing. She was obviously butt naked. He didn't flinch. Acted like it was normal. Everyone (no matter the gender) seemed attracted to Boa, but he was the only one who didn't have that reaction. When they imprisoned him, naked, and stared at him, he just seemed really irritated. He didn't care much. Most of the Amazonian women had never seen a man before. The creator said the only things Luffy is attracted to are adventure and food. 

He also said that there will never be actual romance in the series. He's really unique about it. So many series have romance as an element, it's crazy! That promotes amatonormativity, which is an issue aros face. Amatonormativity is the idea that everyone needs romance, has romantic attraction, and promotes monogamous relationships. Some people sum it up as a One True Love Complex. It's like what aces face with how people say sex is a need, right up there with food/water, and that everyone is attracted to someone sexually. I think that's called compulsory sexuality. Both are extremely harmful and pushed on us like crazy. Same with heteronormativity. This stuff actually hurts allo/straight people, too. This is another positive and more creative aspect to One Piece. I'm tired of romance being shoved into stories all the time. (Some of it is good and is part of the story, but not much.) It's like filler to me.

Another good thing about this series is that it's rather mature. Some people infantilize aces (another issue) and think what makes a story mature is romance and sex. Glad he didn't do that. Instead it touches on topics of slavery, genocide, grief, assault, arranged marriage, poverty, corruption, racism, abuse, gender inequality, and more. Heavy stuff. Yet, there's a lot of humor. The only thing that might be an issue for people is the way he draws some of the women. However, it's not all women, and he said he was pressured to make some of them like that at one point. I don't think they look bad, though. His style is very unique, and there are a lot of different types of body shapes for both men and women in that world. Even their heights vary wildly. 

There's also Jughead from Archie's Comics who's aro ace. Although, the live-action show, Riverdale, turned him allo. (Straight at that.) Even the actor that portrays him was pushing for him to stay aro ace. Todd from Bojack Horseman is also ace. He actually came out and said it. There was apparently several episodes where he explained it, learned more about himself, and met other ace people. I think he's alloromantic (not aro, or experiences romantic attraction), which is good to have a variety out there. I don't watch the show, but people said that it was one of the best portrayals they've seen in any show. It's rare that the character said it themselves, too. 

It looks like this is my 1000th post on here. Wow! That's a lot! Seems like a milestone.

I joined 2 trans-related forums: Susan's Place and TransPulse. TransPulse is set up similar to AVEN. I didn't get much of a response for my intro thread on Susan's Place, and felt a little down about it. I had quite a few responses to the one I started on TransPulse. I decided to post in more threads to get more of a feel of Susan's Place. Maybe people on there just don't look at the intros. I know a lot of other forums where regular members didn't really care about that section. Found a thread about what 'flavor' of non-binary person we are. Basically, asking what enby gender we are (if we know), how we feel about masculine and feminine, introduce ourselves, when we knew we were 'different', if we have dysphoria, etc. Lots of stuff. Had rather long posts in there. People actually responded to what I wrote pretty quickly. Someone said they felt exactly like me about all this stuff. That was interesting. Other people welcomed me, and said that I came to the right place. In the TransPulse intro thread, some were recommending resources for me, which was nice. I didn't post in other threads on there. 

I decided to make time for the stuff I didn't feel I had time for before, during the weekend. So, learning more science and history stuff on Saturdays. (In addition to more Jewish stuff.) Music and art stuff on Sundays. Reading (an actual book) and forums on both days. As well as, movies on Saturdays and games on Sundays. I split them up mainly because of Shabbat. I'm technically not supposed to 'create' things, thus art and games would be on Sundays. I feel like forums don't really count for this...I don't know. But, learning is a big thing in Judaism, so science and history would be great for it. I managed to touch on everything this past weekend, so it's doable. Might not be as much when I do things like shopping those days. That's ok.

For science, I'm following the list of disciplines I found on wikipedia, and only skipping ones that don't interest me. Those mainly being things like the study of mites. That would just make my skin crawl. There are also some that don't seem to have much to them. I'm starting with acoustics or the science of sound. It's a branch of physics. I have very superficial knowledge of it to begin with. Many musicians learn a little about it, but it's the very basic stuff. So, this one will be very interesting. It's useful for many different things, too. Music, physics, electronics, speech, ultrasound, marine science, aeronautics, etc. I found the Acoustical Society of America's site. They have free articles on there. Their journal, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America or JASA, has an fb page. They post news as well as free copies of the journal. Found a couple of channels on Youtube based on it. Lots of info sources available out there. It doesn't seem like a very popular area of study, though. Seems sad that way. I think I'll focus on it for about a month, then move on to the next thing. That'll be aerobiology or the study of airborne organisms. 

For history, I'm using another alphabetical list. Starting with art history. I took art history in college. It's a very interesting subject, and there's a lot to it. I remember the textbook for it was one of the biggest and most expensive. It's really vast. I found an app on art history. They cover a piece of art every day. They go over the elements of it, the artist, style, time period, and more. They go into a lot of detail, which is cool. I also found a couple of fb pages on it. There's lots of stuff on other sites online, too. There's probably a lot that we didn't cover in that class. Actually, I remember we only used about half that textbook. I'll spend a month on this, too. Next one for this is chronology. Although, I'm not sure if there's much to it. If not, I'll move on to cultural history. Some of these topics in the history list share things from the science one, which is fine. 

I went back to reading Stone Kiss by Faye Kellerman. It had been a couple of years since I stopped reading it. I only finished the first chapter before. Got through a lot of it this weekend. It's a detective series with a Jewish side to it. A really good series. Maybe I can finally finish what I have of it soon.

For music, I tried to look for clarinet-based apps and fb pages. There weren't very many, and none of them were good enough to like or download. I did find some music history-based pages on fb. I plan to go over some music history in the future. I've taken a couple of classes on different periods in college, and it would be interesting to go over that stuff again or learn new stuff about it. Maybe I'll go chronologically through those historical periods. I also want to hear more music from around the world, and download some of it. Maybe look into music theory, too. Or, even look into music specifically from countries that I'm learning the main language of. (Many countries have multiple languages.) Like, Italian music for now. I can go in many directions with this.

For art, I might do things like fill out memes that are made to help improve drawing/character development. I went through my 'collection' on deviantART, and found quite a few blank ones that I downloaded to fill out in the future. There are things that focus on reactions/expressions, drawing the oldest (or first) and newest character, some on the artist themselves (like how would you draw yourself in your style), outfits for characters, drawing in different styles, etc. All good for practice and getting more 'in touch' with my characters. I might go through all of my inbox on there, too. It's really backlogged, because I don't go on there nearly as much as I used to. I have several 'stacks' of deviations (art pieces) in there from artists I follow and groups. Each stack from the groups has around 200 deviations. That's a lot to go through. There a lot of journals and some on faves/llamas. I'm surprised I'm still getting so many faves and llamas. Llamas can be given by other members, and the more you get, the more the llama on your profile changes. I think mine's still an albino llama. At some point, it has sunglasses, a hat, outfits, and more. I might post to my journal on there. It's been a while. I can look at more art on there, fb, Instagram, and other places. Another thing that might be good is drawing buildings and scenery from Alliance, as well. All this will help me improve, and I can be more active on dA which is full of other far better artists to learn from.

I started watching Tensei Shitara Slime Datte Ken, or That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. I wasn't sure about this one at first. It's from this current season, and I'm not far behind. It's better than I expected. It's about a 37 year old human, Satoru, who was stabbed to death by a robber. He was reincarnated as a slime named Rimuru, in basically a video-game like fantasy world. I have a feeling he is in a video game somehow. Slimes in video games (particularly rpg's) are often very weak. They're usually the first thing gamers have to attack. Even Fate has them as 'gels' that only inhabit the first couple of levels of the dungeon. However, it seems the opposite with him. He's a very powerful being. He can absorb almost anything. He gains knowledge of whatever he 'eats', can mimic those skills/spells, can make and store an unlimited amount of health potions from eating herbs, and more. He had to 'eat' a bat in order to talk, and eat something in order to see. They really are detailed about it. The animation is top-notch, and changed a few times. There was even a 3D scene. In the opening, it seems he can transform into a humanoid. Does that mean he eats someone? There's a lot of comedy, too.

Started Zombieland Saga. It's also one from this current season, and I'm not far behind. When I first read the description of it, it didn't interest me. Then, Crunchyroll shared a clip on fb of it, and I was intrigued. I thought it was a typical pop idol-type anime. Pop idols in general are not really my thing. It's far from that, though. 7 girls are brought back to life as zombies by a 'mysterious' producer. The lead was killed 10 years ago by a truck just as she walked out the door, starting her walk to high school. She seemed so happy and was going to audition to be in an idol group. This all happened in the first couple of minutes, so it's not like I'm spoiling that. She was the first to 'awaken' as a zombie. The other girls were mindlessly stumbling about and terrified her. They're all different ages and from different time periods. The producer wants to boost tourism for Saga prefecture by creating a zombie idol band. So far, there's only one girl that hasn't woken up yet, and she keeps biting everyone. The producer is a pro at applying makeup that makes them appear 'normal'. Also, it seems like each episode has a music theme. The first one they performed a heavy metal concert. Again, the lead or Number 1 was the only one 'aware'. It was hilarious. The 2nd episode was on hip hop. The rapping was actually pretty good, and they added a little of traditional Japanese music to the background as well as some modern music flare. It's a hilarious series so far. 

Started watching Radiant, too. It's also from this current season. It's an adaptation of a French comic. Apparently, one of the first anime adaptations of a series from France. From what I read, they cut a lot of the distinctly French-type humor for the first few episodes. They also made Seth, the main character, less reckless. Alma, his teacher and guardian, changed a bit, too. Kind of sounds like they watered it down a bit for the beginning. It's a mage/sorcerer based series. People who get near or touch a demonic-like being, called Nemesis, either die or become sorcerers. The sorcerers are looked down upon until regular humans ask for their assistance against the Nemesis. Sorcerers are the only ones who can kill them. Seth is an orphan with horns. I'm assuming that when people come into contact with a Nemesis (and live), they gain something like horns, bat wings, or really big hair. There's a lot of unknowns with this one. It's interesting, but seemed a lot like other series like D.Gray-man, Black Clover, and Fairy Tail. Doesn't seem very 'French' at all yet.