14th of Shevat

It’s been a while. This whole past week was weird. I was supposed to get my hospital bed last Monday (on 2/3), and they were also supposed to ‘pick up’ my old hospital bed that day. The weather was really awful. We had gotten some snow and ice. It was so bad, my parent said the schools she works for were closed. The Apria driver did call me about postponing it, considering it was so bad out. He said he’d call me on Tuesday at around 9am or 9:30am. I never heard from him after that. The weather was bad for most of the week. Schools were closed most of week, except for Friday. That was a 2 hour delay. I have a feeling they didn’t call because of the weather. It was forecast to be really cold out this week. Not much snow in the forecast. It was ridiculous to be waiting so long. Especially with no word from them.

On Monday, they called me at around 12:30pm. I was going to call them after I had lunch. So, perfect timing. They had apparently called my parent just before me. I have her as my emergency contact. They have my info, but for some reason they’ve contacted my parent instead. It’s weird. It was like that with the previous bed. Anyways, they finally did it. They attached some of the old bed parts to the new one, which was interesting. The new one’s fully electric. Different than last time. Just a press of a button to have the whole thing go up and down. There was a crank with the old one. The family room looks really empty downstairs now. My bedroom looks more ‘busy’. I managed to get the hospital table where I wanted it. Parent helped a lot with bringing it upstairs. I almost had to throw it in my room. I can still get to the closet with it. Should be interesting to see what it’s like for bed baths. The bed itself is pretty comfy. 

I still need to dust more in my room. I wasn’t really using it as my room for close to 5 years. A little weird to get back to. I’ll vacuum it more and go through my clothes and other things. Hopefully I'll have the energy to do stuff like that. 

I ordered calendars last night. The previous calendars were stuck on December 2020. I got the Jewish calendar this afternoon. That’s pretty fast. It’s from the same museum that did my previous Jewish calendars. They showcase a different artifact (sometimes 2) a month. I don’t like the new packaging. They went without plastic with a slight overhang. I had to cut that off. They still have the Torah portions or parsha, phases of the moon, Shabbos lighting times, National and Jewish holidays (I think they even have things like Ramadan as well), and more. It’s usually a nice calendar. Last night, I also searched for a secular calendar. I was planning to get a chemical element one, like I had last time. That was a really cool one. Apparently they stopped making them in 2023. I looked for an herbs/spices one, which I had before. Nothing. Then I did a generalized search. They had a Pusheen calendar. I had one in the past and liked it. The problem was it wouldn’t get here until March, and I want it sooner. I was surprised with the sample that they even had Shavuot on there. That’s kind of rare for secular calendars. I found one that was called Passport to the World. It has pics of places from around the world. I think I had a calendar in the past with the same company. They’re French. They have French, Spanish, and English for everything. It might have pretty pics. I think that’s supposed to be delivered on Friday.

I also might look into getting a clock for my room. I already have an idea of where I’ll put it. I’d like it to not tick. I’m a little nervous about how to put it up on the wall. Maybe my parent can help me. I just want a simple one. I’m going to have to get rid of my stereo at some point. It doesn’t really work anymore.

My little TV is old (I think I got it just before I went to college in 2003), and it only plays my old Sega Genesis games. All the other channels don’t work. I want a new nice and small TV. I’ll take down my ace flag, and put it up there. Maybe have a sound bar underneath it. Maybe eventually get a game console with games. I think my parent got a Playstation for us, but it would be interesting to have something like that in my room as well. She can play with me, too. I have some ideas for the future in my room. It seems fun that way.

The Saturday before that Monday (the day I was supposed to get the bed) the Got Junk people came by. They were supposed to be here at 11am, but they came at like 10:30am. They took my bed, the headboard, and the stuff that was under the bed. I was nervous to know what was under there. I thought there would be like a ton of spiders, mice, or Rosie’s poop. None of that craziness. I found my certificate from when I ‘graduated’ from swimming lessons as a kid. Found a few of Rosie’s toys. She must have brought them there. I saved her fave big yellow ball and ladybug plush toy. It’s kind of an angry looking ladybug. I saw my old posters. There was a wooden slab. My desk used to be made of 2 short blue bookcases and a wooden slab/plank over it. I have a real one now. I think what I have now was my mom’s. I certainly didn’t need that huge piece of wood anymore. I’m glad they took most of it away. My parent, on Friday (I think), vacuumed the area that was underneath. There were a lot of dust bunnies and small pieces of debris. Now it’s even better. I didn’t have the energy by then to vacuum it myself. We had it ready for a while this way.

Last Saturday I also had a haircut appointment. I was worried the Got Junk people would take so long that I’d have to cancel it. Luckily, they were quick. They were done before around 11am. I got another buzzcut. A little cold for right now, but it’s so easy to take care of. I had a lot of grey or white hairs. Kind of surprised me. Yet again, she didn’t charge me. She does it because she feels that’s what she can do to help me. When she found out I had cancer, that’s how she felt about it. I feel guilty about it sometimes.

Afterwards, we went to Isla Bonita for lunch. I got their burrito blanco. One of my faves at other Mexican places, so I wanted to see what theirs was like. It was very good. Leftovers made for another great lunch.

After that we went to Starbucks. (I think we went home in between.) Apparently my parent had lost her wallet. The Apple Pay wasn’t working, so I paid for everything. A little difficult for me, considering I don’t get much through ssi.

After that we went to Walmart. I needed a surge protector and my parent needed Tums. I bought both of them, since Apple Pay didn’t work there. I needed the surge protector for my new all electric hospital bed, iPhone charger, and watch charger. The other outlet is for my lamp on my nightstand. So, it was another thing to prepare for the new bed. I’m surprised the iPhone charger works as well. It’s pretty old, but I haven’t used it in a long time. Hopefully it’ll work for a while. I think we might have gone to Petco, too. Rosie needed more cat litter. Apple Pay did eventually work there.

I tried to take a cramp med that my parent gave me during the week. Did it for 3 nights, and didn’t have any cramps those nights. It might interact with my other meds, so I decided to have it when I have cramps at night. That hasn’t happened yet. I’m unsure if it’s safe for me to take on a regular basis.

We decided to go out on Thursday. Kind of felt stir crazy. We went to Starbucks again, which I think I paid for it again. (We tried the Apple Pay again, and it didn’t work.) I tried one of their new sandwiches: pesto egg and mozzarella. It was really hot at first. It was good. The gingerbread latte wasn’t as great as I expected.

We went to Safeway for dinner stuff, and Central Market that night for dessert stuff. I think I got broccoli chicken Alfredo. I got a fruit tart for dessert from their new bakery area. My parent was able to use Apple Pay at both places. Thank goodness. I went through the self checkout and I had to tilt the fruit tart at a weird angle. It made some of the fruit pieces slide off.

We went to the Olive Garden for dinner Friday night. They actually had Apple Pay, and my parent had no problems with it. I got chicken and gnocchi soup, fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli, and tiramisu for dessert. There wasn’t enough gnocchi in the soup. I think I had like 3 in the whole thing. There was way too much broccoli in the fettuccine Alfredo. Like more than a head’s worth. The tiramisu was frozen in parts. Once I thought the cream/custard was like ice cream, it was better. Had half of the fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli and had the leftovers for lunch on Saturday. It seemed like quite a lot still.

Did weekly grocery shopping at Central Market on Saturday. Parent found some decent bananas. I got 2 dinners and 2 desserts. One being a broccoli and cheddar quiche, and the other dinner their mac and cheese. I had half of the mac and cheese Saturday night. Got a hazelnut chocolate cupcake from their new bakery area, and a cherry pie slice. The cupcake that night was a bit weird. The frosting/nuts/chocolate syrup was good, but the cake part had like an herb. I couldn’t place it. I got tired of having the oatmeal cookies, and got snickerdoodles this time. We also got hot dark chocolate. We still have small marshmallows, so why not?

Went to Safeway on Sunday. There’s a new flavor of the cereal I get. I normally get the maple pecan Honey Bunches of Oats. It’s one of the few cereals that doesn’t turn into tasting like sand. The new flavor is chocolate Honey Bunches of Oats. I thought about it. It would only be 3 more grams of sugar. I decided to get my usual, but I might try the new one soon. For a dinner, I got grilled chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes. It also has some garlic and herb butter. I added BBQ sauce to the chicken and the butter mostly on the green beans. I got tiramisu cake for dessert. There was a big one that was like 500 calories, and the one I got was 210 calories. I don’t need a lot. The chicken with BBQ sauce (it was one I haven’t had before) was really good, same with the rest of it. The cake is probably tasty, too.

Pinterest (I did not make these. I'm just sharing):

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National Oatmeal Day!

I love oatmeal! Usually I add syrup, sometimes cinnamon, raisins, salt, and a little Splenda if I'm having it as a breakfast. Oatmeal in things like cookies is also great. It can be pretty versatile. It's one of my safe and calming foods. Nutritious, too. 

National Pumpkin Day was on Saturday. I used to hate eating things with pumpkin in them. Thought it was fun carving them as a kid (with the help of my parents, and didn't do it every year for Halloween), and loved having roasted pumpkin seeds (from those same pumpkins that we roasted in the oven) with a little salt. For some reason, I had no problem eating that part. Pumpkin pie on the other hand...Would not touch it for years. I still hate most squashes, but at some point that changed with pumpkins. Maybe I got enough guts to try a really good pumpkin pie or something. Now, if it has pumpkin in it, I tend to love it. Recently got pumpkin butter, which has real pureed pumpkin. It's not outstanding, but really addicting. Funny how they call it a fruit spread, when many people categorize it as a vegetable. Technically, it is a fruit. I guess it's like how tomatoes are. It's not as sweet as many fruit spreads, which is nice to have sometimes. 

Managed to finally get my flu shot on Friday. Flu shots are even more important for me since I have at least colitis. Might have another autoimmune disease. One of my meds works in a similar way as an immunosuppressant. That means it suppresses my immune system so much my digestive system isn't bombarded by it. However, it also makes it super easy to get sick. And, when immunosuppressed patients get sick, it takes us longer to get over it. We're at risk of dying from the flu, because of this. We can't have the live version. That's the only one I've been told not to have for vaccines in general. If people I come in contact with also have the flu shot, it's an added protection. If I do end up with the flu, it won't be as dire as if I hadn't gotten the shot. When people in IBD groups say things like I'll never get the shot and list some bogus reasons (Big Pharma, it'll cause something like autism, hasn't been studied enough...), it can be harmful. Some people are banned from those groups on fb because of that. They take it extremely seriously. They also boot out people who are trying to sell something or promote some sort of health advice. I've seen many people try to sell miracle cures, say we need to find G-d, giving out misleading info, just need to think positively, etc. It's crazy. Actually a problem in many chronic illness groups. I hate actually getting the shot, though. It's quick, at least.

I got a blood draw since I was at the clinic already. I wasn't sure if my rheumatologist had ordered those 4 tests yet, since he didn't reply to my last message. Turns out he did, but put it in incorrectly. It took about 10 minutes over the phone for the lab tech to get it right. Meanwhile, I anxiously waited in the lab, not knowing if they could do it. It seemed like a lot of blood this time. I didn't get my usual reaction. It's usually an involuntary response where whenever I see/think about my blood or other medical stuff, I can pass out, or throw up, or both. Most of the time it doesn't get that bad. However, I tend to get really sweaty, my heart races, get really dizzy, nauseous, etc. It might go away once I put my head down and sip some water for a while. One of the worst times that it got to the point of passing out was while I was at WSU. I told the nurse about that feeling coming on just before the blood draw. She didn't know what to do and threw me in the bathroom. As I passed out, I hit everything around me on the way down. (Toilet lid, railing, sink, etc.) So, I woke up cut up, bruised, and out of it. Still got the blood draw done. She should have suggested a lying down position. The interesting thing about this 'response' is once it's happened, I don't get it again for a while. So, I could look at my blood all I want or other things, and nothing will happen. It gives me a calm and relaxed feeling after, too. It's so bizarre, though. I got one result back so far and it's negative. That's ok. If they're all negative/normal, then fine, I don't have scleroderma. If one or more is positive, then it needs to be looked into more. If not scleroderma, then I can move on to something else. I'll still get some form of an answer. I plan to wait until I know for sure what's going to happen with my insurance, and then I'll make an appointment to see a dermatologist. I know they'll have more things to look into. 

Saturday, I had an early brunch at Elmer's. I got their chicken-fried steak and eggs breakfast. Had it with turkey gravy instead of country gravy. (The country one has pork sausage in it, and I don't eat pork products.) Added another dimension of flavor. The eggs were scrambled and it also had hash browns and a biscuit. The biscuit came a little late. I thought our waitress had forgotten or something. Turns out they took a little longer to make and it was a fresh batch. It was a really satisfying brunch.

Went to Port Gamble after that. It was very windy outside, so I didn't have the patience to take pics of that. Most of the leaves had fallen there, so it wasn't as nice as I thought it would look anyways. Went to the General Store and the Of Sea and Shore museum upstairs. The store has a cafe, too. They pack a lot into one building. That museum has apparently one of the largest collections of shells in the world. They really cram them in there. It used to scare me as a kid, because of the huge crabs and lobsters. Sharks not as much. All of them weren't alive, of course. A lot of the crabs were found locally. Knowing such big things were lurking in the waters near me got me more. There are some things from around the world, too. I had forgotten how many crabs they had. Almost seemed like half as many as the shells. 

Got chicken parmesan from a local market for dinner Saturday. Had root beer and stuffing with it. I don't drink root beer that often, so it was a treat. My parent made stuffing to go with her dinner, and suggested I have some. The chicken parmesan seemed skimpier than usual, so I thought why not? Got a pumpkin spice scone from there for dessert. It was much better than the Starbucks' version. There wasn't a super thick layer of icing on top. Just a light drizzle. Seemed to have more of the spices, too. I think there was actual pumpkin in it. Nice. 

Mairimashita! (Welcome to Demon School) Iruma-kun has been interesting so far. I'm liking it more than I thought I would. It's about a human, Iruma, who's sold to a demon. The demon always wanted a grandson to dote on. He makes a contract with him to agree to be his grandson. If Iruma hadn't agreed to it, he would have been killed. His human parents were awful towards him and he never had the opportunity to go to school before. His new 'grandpa' forces him to go to a demon school. If the demons find out he's human, he could be eaten. So far, no one suspects he is, and he's made 2 close and powerful friends. He's also managed to make one of his teachers his familiar by accident. It seems like humans have powers in their world, too. Only, he can't fly like the others. The other students think he's simply working out his leg muscles in order to get stronger. I've noticed the demon language is based on Hebrew. They tend to add circles and tiny lines to some of the letters, but it's easy to tell. Even the ranking of classes has actual clear Hebrew letters. Yod being the highest rank, which is interesting...Alef is the first letter in the alphabet (known as the alef-bet in Hebrew), and that's the lowest rank. I can read some of the words that they flash briefly, but from what I can tell, a lot of it seems to be gibberish. It's only shown for a few seconds at a time, though. In order to read and understand the language, Iruma's grandpa puts a spell over him where he hears and reads Japanese instead. Except for that ranking system. He seems to see it the way they do. When he speaks, demons hear their language. So, it works out that way. Iruma reminds me of a mix of Deku from Boku no (My) Hero Academia and Tsuna from Hitman Reborn. 

The 4th season of Boku no Hero Academia has been good, too. Seems more intense than other seasons. Especially with the new villain, Overhaul. He appeared at the end of season 3. He seems more powerful than Shigaraki, who's the head of the League of Villains and the main antagonist of the series. Deku became an intern for Sir Nighteye, who was All Might's sidekick. (Getting an internship is another step to becoming a full-fledged pro hero.) He's also Mirio's mentor. Mirio looks a lot like Tintin from the Adventures of Tintin. He might be a parody of him. There's some sort of tension between Nighteye and All Might. So much so that All Might asked Mirio to introduce Deku to Nighteye. He couldn't bring himself to do it. In the most recent episode, it's revealed that Nighteye is investigating Overhaul. Deku comes face to face with him at the very end. 

Decided to drop Kabukichou Sherlock. Kabukichou is an entertainment and red-light district. They focus quite a bit on the red-light district part. It seemed to make fun of drag queens and gay people. I don't think it actually touched on trans people. The head of the detective agency is a drag queen who holds their meetings at a drag queen bar that they own. Some of the gay people they showed briefly have seemed 'real' and they didn't make fun of them, but with others it seemed like they were the punchline in some sort of joke. Mrs. Hudson, the head of the detective agency, also tends to grope one of the detectives whenever they see each other, which I'm not cool with. I do like the twists on Sherlock and Watson. Sherlock tends to perform rakugo, a form of storytelling while sitting on a stage with only a fan and cloth as props (usually comedic stories), when he solves a case. His personality totally changes as he does it. While at crime scenes, he really throws himself into it. Sniffing everywhere, lying where the victim is/was or their bed, getting down on all fours to inspect the floor, etc. More than the other detectives. The others try to beat him in solving it. Even going so far as to destroy evidence. The main case is on Jack the Ripper, but they solve side cases at the same time. Watson is a doctor, and ever since he found a transmitter in a body, it seems like someone's after him. Someone blew up the place he was staying at. He's had to stay at different hotels because of the fear that they'd be blown up, too. He only wanted the detectives to help with his case, but got roped into helping Sherlock instead. Now he lives with him along with Moriarty, who's a teenager. I think Moriarty is also a detective in this. However, in the books he was one of Sherlock's archenemies. Don't know what his connection is to Sherlock in this one. If it didn't have the more sexual or homophobic stuff, I think I would like it a lot. I can't get passed that, though.

Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit (the Japanese name is even longer...) has been a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect much from it. They live in a world that was once ruled by dragons. Once those dragons disappeared, many different types of fantasy-based beings started coexisting peacefully with humans. Like, vampires, homunculi, elves, orcs, etc. Nine is a terrorist organization that wants the powers of the dragons, create chaos, and to change the world. The police form a unit to combat Nine called Special 7. They have abilities that surpass the average human (many aren't human). The main character is Seiji who's a rookie and human. He doesn't seem entirely human to me, though. They make fun of him lightheartedly at first, then realize he has a lot of potential. The Nines seem to hardly be there, so they solve side cases in the meantime. Although, they might have been involved in the most recent case with a bomber. Especially because the bomber used magic. They never found who the bomber was, but they had to disarm 4 bombs in different buildings. They had to figure out how to do it with only one detective at each, with the same amount on the timers, had to be disarmed in a certain order, and none of them had experience with bombs. Luckily, the homunculus named Bellemer on their team, who's also a ninja, helped them from afar with watching and giving instructions from drones. She's dealt with bombs before. Most of the characters have been very likable and quirky. It reminds me a lot of Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) and Hamatora. 

Yesterday, I went through more of Duolingo's Dutch course. Finished Politics 1, and got halfway through Gerund. The politics unit was interesting. Got more of a view into their government, royalty, and some laws. Made it to #13 of the Ruby League. Hopefully, when I do it later today, I can get higher in the ranking. 

Yesterday, I scanned the drawing of Junko and started cleaning her up in Photoshop. First time I've scanned something with my new printer. It's much better than the previous one. It doesn't thicken the lines and add blue marks. It's clearer. Doesn't add more gunk to erase in Photoshop. She looks pretty much like she does on paper, but with slightly lighter lines. I'll continue to clean her up in Photoshop next time. It might not take me as long as it did in the past. 

Got to editing Alliance yesterday, too. Even though there seemed to be interruptions every time I tried. Went through 5 pages of the ebook and 7 pages of the print. Not bad. 

National Noodle Day!

This holiday was yesterday. I love noodles! The only type I don't care for are cellophane noodles. Haven't had it in a while, so that may have changed. There are so many different kinds out there. It was also National German-American Heritage Day and Mad Hatter Day yesterday. 

Did quite a bit of shopping over the weekend. I only have 2 good shirts for fall, and one semi-good one that's really old and thinning out. That last one used to be good for winter, because it was thick and fuzzy. (I think it's fleece? Not sure.) Anyways, on Saturday, I looked at Amazon for more fall/winter shirts. I never seem to find very many styles I like at local malls and such. Plus, shirts are usually short here. I like tunic-length. My torso is really long, and tunic-length usually covers me well. I also have broad shoulders, and looking mainly in the 'women's' section makes it a bit more challenging. 

I found 7 good looking sweaters/sweatshirts. All are tunic-length and long-sleeved. More than I expected. They'll really help. Only one seems to be winter-like. I'll have to look for more winter ones in the future, but this is a big step. I can probably use some of the fall stuff in the winter, if I put a heavy coat on and/or hoodie. I still need to look for a coat. My current one is really old, falling apart, doesn't have a lining anymore, etc. 

They all look really comfy. In fact, some of the reviewers said they felt so nice and soft, they didn't want to take them off. Some of them are made to be oversized. As long as I'm not swimming in them, it seems like that would be nice. I like that they all had the measurements for the sizes. Might even be more accurate this way than guessing at a brick-and-mortar store. For some things I was a medium, if I wanted them somewhat snug. (This surprised me...I used to be much bigger.) So, I ordered those as a large to have it a little looser. The others are extra-large. I tried to order the next bigger size with those, too. Just to make sure. If they don't fit, I can return them. Just have to keep that in mind. 

4 of them are coming today. Really fast! I got 2 already. Both are from Amazon Essentials. I thought it was cool that they have their own line that's pretty cheap. One's a burgundy crew-neck T-shirt. The other's a v-neck camel heather sweater. They're simple, but simple is good and basic. Something I needed. The other 2 things that are coming are both sweatshirts. Both have pockets, which wasn't what I was looking for, but I'll take it. One of them is purple, and the other is khaki with gold trim. I thought it'd be good to get a variety of colors. I'll try on those 4 shirts when I get them all.

2 more are coming tomorrow. One's a red wine with silver stripes (thick one across the chest, and 2 at the elbows) sweater. Kind of reminds me of my college's, WSU, colors: grey and crimson. That'll be cool. The 2nd's a cable crew-neck sweater in charcoal heather. 

The last one is a loose and chunky turtleneck sweater in beige. It looks the most comfy and winter-like. It apparently won't arrive until the end of the month. This makes me think that it might be handmade and they only start making it when you order, which would be interesting. 

Sunday, we mostly did grocery shopping. I want to get more into making recipes from Pinterest, and planning the week's dinners in advance. I forgot to look at recipes before we went out, but I'll look soon. Have to see what we have of whatever recipe I decide on next, then make a list of the stuff I'd need. It's actually cheaper than getting premade meals, boxed stuff, etc. A lot of them are packed with more nutrients, too. Also, have more control over what goes into it. If I make a full recipe of something with many servings, I might need to freeze some of them to keep them 'fresh'. I'm hoping to convert most recipes into 1 or 2 servings, though. Might be more difficult with crockpot-based ones. Those might keep better. We'll see. 

Finished the Suffix unit and am halfway through the University unit for Duolingo's Dutch course. I think I only did it once last week. Hopefully, It'll be better this week. Still in the Ruby League. 

Finally went back to drawing Junko. I was frustrated with how she was turning out. Looking back at it today, it didn't seem as bad as I thought. I drew her clothes and erased some extra lines this time. Next, I'll add folds in the fabric and maybe fine-tune her clothes more. 

Edited more of Alliance. Finished going through chapter 11, and well into chapter 12. Went through 7 pages of the ebook, and 11 pages of the print. A lot in such a short time. 

Practiced my clarinet. I haven't done it for probably 2 weeks. Nice to get back to it. I played Mozart this time. Almost finished the book. There's just one more piece. 

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:

3rd of Elul

This is my wallpaper for September. It's Tanjirou from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon-Slaying Blade). I've been really amazed by this anime. Wasn't expecting much. The animation has been top-notch (just looking at the water scenes, it looks so real, which is difficult to pull off), music is haunting at times, the characters are well developed, epic fight scenes, and the plot is interesting. I wasn't expecting much because it's essentially a zombie anime. There's so much more to it, though. It takes place in the Taisho period, which is 1912-1926. So, more 'modern' than some of the other anime I've watched that are historically based. I like the idea that Tanjirou only joined the Demon Slayers to cure his sister, Nezuko, of being a demon. The demons in the story more closely resemble zombies in that they eat people and were once human themselves. They still have a sense of self, intelligence, and magical abilities. Scarier this way. Nezuko seems to be one of the first demons that hasn't eaten a single human. Instead, she gathers energy by sleeping. She was kind of tricked into thinking all humans are family and to protect them at all costs. She's incredibly strong, even for a demon. She's also cute. Tanjirou is kindhearted and a huge empath. He feels for most of the demons he defeats.  

The month-long holidays for September are: National Biscuit Month, National Breakfast Month, National Honey Month, National Potato Month, National Rice Month, National Cheese Month, National Piano Month, Pain Awareness Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Quite a lot this month. 

The month of Elul ends with Rosh Hashanah or our New Year. It's also the start of the High Holy Days, which ends with Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. The HHDs last for 10 days. RH and YK are the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar. Many people 'prepare' the month before. One of the customs I follow (as did my mom) is blowing the shofar (ram's horn) every morning throughout most of the month. We refrain from it on Shabbos (which is every Friday night until Saturday night). I sometimes forget to do it until a few days into the month, like this year. Hopefully, I'll remember tomorrow and the rest of the month...It can be fun. It's supposed to wake us up spiritually. 

The elements calendar features arsenic this time. The main pic's of pure arsenic metal granules. The one next to it is of a type of arsenic treated wood. Another pic's of an old tin of arsenic. The last pic's of Paris Green, which is useful in pigments and rat poison. Scary one for this month.

Recently 2 groups on fb shared the same post. One in an ace group, and the other in a non-binary one. It was an 'adding' game where you state your age and post a selfie, then friend whoever interacts with it. I almost didn't respond to either posts, thinking it was just a popularity contest. However, it was a good way to let others know it was ok to friend them. Some people might not want to for many reasons. Also, a great way to connect with other LGBTQ+ people on there. So, I did eventually post in both of them. I gained 25 friends through that over the weekend. I think that's the most I've had in such a short time. Also, overall, I'm up to the most friends I've had on my list at once there. They all seem like cool and interesting people. 

We did our big monthly grocery shopping yesterday. We normally go to Costco, but it was closed for Labor Day. So, we went to Trader Joe's. I think I only found one thing there: olive hummus. Haven't had hummus in a very long time. I like making hummus and cheese sandwiches. They're refreshing, tasty, and full of protein. The olive one is one of the best. They also had chocolate hummus. That sounds nasty. I did read an article about it, and the author was surprised by how great it was. I don't know...

We also went to a local bakery. I love their Norwegian brown bread, and I usually get it sliced. Turns out that the ones that were available were frozen. They can't cut it until it thaws enough. Last time that happened it took like 3 hours. I didn't want to go through that again. On the other hand, it is getting harder to cut things, so it makes it even more difficult than before for me. I also got a maple doughboy. It's one of the things they're known for. It's huge! It's like a gingerbread man, only in donut form. This one had maple frosting. The other version is glazed. 

There's a smoked goods shop right next to it. They have smoked salmon, smoked nuts, smoked cheeses, jams, spices, and other snack-like things. I got smoked cheddar (one of my faves) and blueberry jam. I don't think I had their blueberry jam before. Too many seeds can be a trigger for my gut. So, I thought a jam with either very few/none or really small seeds would be best. I still like to have it. I think the blueberry one follows that. 

Went to World Market after that. Found quite a lot of things this time. Got my fave pickled red cabbage and apple salad, an artichoke pasta sauce, dill pickle mustard, pumpkin spice pancake mix (I still have a little of their banana and caramel pancake mix, and it's easy and delicious), pumpkin spice yogurt pretzels, and a few other things. 

Went to a local market for dinner yesterday. I just grabbed what I could eat at the salad bar. I'm trying to be better about avoiding trigger foods, and eating more protein. I need more protein than most healthy people, since I tend to have issues with absorbing it. It's hard for me to even get over half of what's considered the normal range for healthy people. Since I have to stay away from most raw vegetables, I steered clear of most of the greens like lettuce and spinach. Making it not really look like a 'healthy' salad. Shredded carrots seem to be ok, as well as a few cherry tomatoes. They had turkey, hard-boiled eggs, olives, and various other types of salads like potato salad and orzo salad. Didn't turn out as much as I expected, but it was ok. 

At Safeway, I found another mug cake mix thing. This time it's a chocolate chip cookie with chocolate frosting from the same company that did the cinnamon roll one. Should be interesting. Since it's so many calories and sugar, I'm saving it for my treat days. They also had a 12-pack of their rainbow chip (like M&Ms) cookies that were cheap. I got the small packs of 2 in the past. They're really good. It will last me a while. I pretty much have my desserts set for the next couple of weeks at least. Yay!

Went out to Costco today. Realized later that we got a lot of protein-packed things. I'm going to try 2 more different types of jerky. One's teriyaki beef and the other is beef steak. They actually have decent amounts to a bag there. 

I decided a couple of days ago to count the lumps I have at the moment. I've thought for a while that it was just around 5 of them and no big deal, but never counted them until then. There are over 30 of them! Most are in my hands. There's one big one in my neck, another in between my right eye and nose, another on a toe, and another in the crook of my left elbow. Some are soft, but a lot of them are hardening. Some seem to be growing so much they might burst through the surface. The hard ones in my hands feel weird when I grip things. Whatever I'm holding feels bumpy or uneven, even if it's smooth and straight. Some of the bumps are getting so big, I can see them just from looking at the sides of my fingers. I wonder if they're calcium deposits? I hope not. At least most of the time they're not painful. I see my primary in the middle of this month. Maybe she'll order imaging on at least my hands. I'll see my rheumatologist at the end of that week. He'll probably be able to help a lot more.

Both arms are still hurting a lot. I tried Tylenol PM last night, because the pain was also keeping me from sleeping, and I felt I needed to try something for it. The problem is so many sleep aids can mess with my mental health stuff, and so many can affect my colitis, possibly setting off a flare. That eliminates many right there. The only painkiller my primary will let me have is Tylenol, and I've been told by GIs that NSAIDs can cause flares or make it worse. I looked it up online, and Tylenol PM seems to be the safest for people with IBD in general. It basically has Benadryl and extra strength Tylenol. Benadryl's usually safe for the mental health part, too. I think I got a little more sleep. It was mostly calming. So, even when I was awake in bed, I was more relaxed. That's nicer than without. I guess I'll see how it goes after a few nights. 

I pinned a sausage and hash browns slow-cooker recipe a while back on Pinterest onto one of my boards. I think I mentioned it on here after I made it. I was the first to share a pic of it. I did not create the pin. However, a ton of people have been repinning it from me. Around 200! It's like every hour or so I get a notification on it. Kind of annoying. I've never had that happen before. Sure, a handful of people repin my pins normally, but this is very different. It doesn't even look that great. It tasted amazing, though!

Despite not going back to my Dutch this weekend (including Monday) on Duolingo, I was promoted to the Sapphire League today. That shocked me. How could I still be in the top 10 by the end of that week? I finished the Kitchen unit, and am close to finishing the Materials one. 

Managed to draw a rough outline of Junko's legs. Took a little while to figure how I wanted to position them. Edited more of Alliance. I'm into chapter 4 now. Went through 6 pages of the ebook, and 8 pages of the print. That's more than I was doing each day last week. Maybe I'll get to a lot more this time. It's flowing a lot better now. 

National Banana Lovers Day!

I love bananas! They're one of my 'safe' and calming foods. Not just an ok food for me. I could probably eat them all day, but that wouldn't be wise. I try to have one every morning. Good source of potassium. They're also good in pies and other desserts. There was a great Indonesian (I think) recipe from online that I made several years ago that was bananas cooked in coconut milk. It sounded gross, but was amazing! Only gross because of the idea of hot bananas. A local Thai restaurant has a dessert that's a grilled banana engulfed with rice cake, peanuts sprinkled on top, and coconut ice cream on the sides of it. I love it! Haven't had it in a while, though. Maybe if I get it in the future, they can leave off the peanuts. 

Yesterday was National Dog Day. I miss Buster, our beagle. He got into a lot of mischief, but was very sweet. He was very intelligent. Could figure out any puzzle he was given in, at most, a minute. He passed away during my 1st year of college, I think. In fact, I was on the other side of the state at school at the time. Shadow, our cat at the time, loved him. She would clean him after every walk. He was scared of that at first. All the dogs that saw him during our walks loved him, too. 

Got my hair dyed on Friday. They had to bleach and tone it first, otherwise it wouldn't have shown. It took 6 hours instead of the 4 hours they estimated. It was interesting to see my hair as blond briefly. My stylist used a violet red color for my roots, then used the colors I wanted for the rest of it: purple, green, and blue. I've already explained most of the meanings for them on here. Realized one more for purple. The IBD (as well as Crohn's and UC) awareness ribbon is purple. So, I could also raise awareness for that if people ask. The colors were for me to personally represent parts of myself. Since my hair's still falling out and I was starting to get a lot of white sprouting up, I thought it'd be a perfect time to dye it. My stylist even noticed the main growing bald spot and was surprised by not just that but the shape of it, too. It's like a large ring on the middle of my head. I feel hollowed out there. I can see it even more now, and it's becoming more visible. I can't hide all of it anymore. I like how the coloring came out, though. The first wash after shocked me at first. As soon as I put my head under the water, it was like a cascade of color. (That was just the water. No shampoo yet.) She didn't tell me much about what would happen during the first wash after. It stopped bleeding into my hands after that, which was a positive. The color stayed in my hair, but washed away from my scalp. It still has a weird residue-like texture. It's better than it was with that, at least. Interesting to see it styled my way. I still have towels wrapped around my pillows in case the color rubs off on them, like she suggested. I might do that until after one or two more washings.

On Sunday, I went with my parent to the Woodland Park Zoo. Went to the Point Defiance Zoo back around my birthday in November, so why not go to another one? I hadn't been to the Woodland Park Zoo in a very long time. It's much bigger than the other one. In fact, according to the iPhone Health app, I walked close to 10,000 steps or a little over 4 miles by dinnertime. Most of that at the zoo. I still didn't get to everything. Of what I did get to, about 1/4 of the animals weren't visible. I was a little disappointed by that, but maybe the temp was too high for them, they were tired, had checkups, or something. I heard quite a few people complaining about that. I was surprised most of my pics turned out so well. Some even better than what I could see when I was there. The lighting was awful for pics outside, the bats had the worst lighting inside, some animals hid really well, and some were really far away. I could barely see the elk, but took pics of what I thought were them anyways. Turned out clear and like I was right next to them after editing them. The lion was hard to get, too. He faced away from people and glanced briefly for about a half second back at us. Managed to capture that. Then, he got up and walked around quickly. Despite being further back than so many people at the time (they rushed to the glass as soon as they saw him moving), I managed to capture 2 more pics. After editing, the last pic of him came out the best. You could see his muscle tone. 

We had a late lunch at their restaurant. I wanted a chicken Caesar wrap, but they were out. So, I got chicken strips with fries and a root beer. The strips were much better than I expected. They were crunchy, didn't have too much breading, flavorful, and the chicken was cooked just right. Fries were ok. There were too many for me to eat in one sitting, so my parent ate what I couldn't. We had a snack a little later at their cafe. Shared a big soft pretzel, and I had apple juice. I was very thirsty by then. The juice was in a tiny can. Not even a cup of liquid. Didn't quench my thirst much. Went to IHOP on our way back home. I was absolutely thirsty and hungry. Ended up downing about 3 or 4 big glasses of iced tea. Helped a lot. Got their regular buttermilk pancakes combo. The top pancake was slightly undercooked, but the bottom one was just right. I added butter pecan syrup. One of my faves there, and haven't had it in a very long time. They gave me a huge glob of butter on top of the pancakes, despite telling them to leave it off. I scraped it off and put it to the side. My sides were: scrambled eggs with cheese, turkey bacon, and hash browns. Those were all very good. Might have been the hunger, though...

On Saturday, we watched Cloverfield on the big TV. I didn't remember the party scene at the beginning being so long. I like the rest of it, though. This was probably my 4th time seeing it. It was one of the few monster movies that I thought would be great on there through Netflix. We were thinking about Jurassic Park or the sequels, but I didn't see it on there. Anyways, it was also great for testing out the new sound system. I thought the movie was even better this way. I could actually see the monster more and it felt more immersive. 

Got back to my Dutch today. It's been a few days. Yet, I stayed in the same league as last week. Finished the Buildings unit, and am almost done with the Future one. Next will be Recreation. 

Managed to figure out and draw Junko's hairstyle. I don't think it's exactly as I have it in my head, but it's not bad. I think it's close. Looks better than previous designs of it. I'll get to drawing the rest of her body next time. At least, the top half. Should be interesting. 

Edited more of Alliance. Went through 4 pages of the ebook and 6 pages of the print version. Pretty good. It's flowing more as I read it again. Still finding mistakes, so it should only get better. 

11th of Av

Managed to mostly stay away from social media during Shabbos. Yay! Really felt like I recharged that way. Been cutting down the time I spend on social media today and yesterday, too. It's been nice. 

Did the candles, blessings over the grape juice (I can't have wine) and challah, and online services for both Friday night and Saturday morning. Wahoo! Same as last week. Hopefully, I can make this a habit. They actually had that Saturday morning's service, rather than the week before like last week's had. That was good. I like how they make it feel like you're actually there.

Some of the night and morning services touched on Tisha B'Av. That was a bit difficult to sit through. It started Saturday night and went until Sunday night, and is a mourning holiday. We remember atrocities that happened to us in the past. Things like the Crusades, pogroms, expulsion from Spain/France/England, the Holocaust, and more. One of the main focuses is on the destruction of the 1st and 2nd temple in Jerusalem. It's the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. People fast, study the Book of Lamentations, most Torah study is forbidden, sit on low chairs or the floor (like with shiva or the week of mourning someone), some sleep on the floor, some people refrain from greeting each other, and more. I didn't observe it, and I don't think I ever have. I usually just notice it. The rabbi that did the drash (or sermon) Friday night tied it in with the recent mass shootings. It seemed to fit too well that that stuff happened close to the holiday. It was a powerful and emotional one. 

For close to 5 hours on Sunday, I cleaned my bathroom. It really needed to be done. It was difficult with the pain of whatever's going on with me healthwise. I'm glad I was able to get so much done, though. I swept the floor, cleaned the toilet, did all of the shower area, sink, a cup and toothbrush holder, the counter, and dusted off the things on the counter as well as a little step stool. I didn't 'mop' the floor because the way I do it might have been too much for me on top of the other stuff. Unfortunately, Tasha decided to pee near the closed door and that leaked onto the floor. It was right after I swept. I was angry for a moment, but I don't know if she actually knows she's doing it. It was similar to when she peed on my closet door not long ago. She may have an issue with that. I was able to clean that up, too. It looks so nice in there now. 

I've been having an even harder time sleeping lately. Both of my arms hurt constantly. They never really let up. They get worse when I'm lying down. It's really hard to describe the pain, but it burns and feels tight, I guess. Anyways, I decided to go to bed at a more decent time last night. I got out of bed at around 6:50am or 7am, because I couldn't stand it. I don't really like getting up earlier than 8am. So, this was weird for me. Most nights I've been in bed for even less time lately. Maybe I could look at it as being able to get more things done or something? 

Got back to Duolingo's Dutch course. It had been a while. Still remembered most of it. Finished the Nature unit and started the Traffic one. 

Read the most recent chapter of Ao no (Blue) Exorcist. A lot of surprises this time. With one of them, I was glad that it didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I'm still wondering about Shiemi's role, and when will Rin come back to their present time? 

Tried drawing more of Junko. No matter how many times I tried, her cat ears weren't coming out right. I'll try again next time. Started thinking more about her hairstyle, too. 

Edited more of Alliance. I'm surprised at the mistakes I'm finding, despite going over the beginning not that long ago. I think once I catch up to the part I know is better, I'll move on to the sequel. I don't think that one will have nearly as many mistakes. 

Watched Boku no (My) Hero Academia The Movie: Futari no Hero (Two Heroes). It supposedly was also in the manga (I haven't read it), and the anime briefly hinted at it. It seems to have taken place before the last season of the anime. It was nice to see something related to the show again. The next season starts in October. Yay, soon! This one was about All Might and his old friend Dave. They met when he was a Japanese exchange student in California. In a way, it was also about them handing the torch down to their successors, Melissa (Dave's daughter who also wants to help heroes as a scientist in the future) and Deku. The action scenes were great and fast-paced. 

1st of Av

This is my wallpaper for August. It's Natsu from Fairy Tail. Thought it was cool and captured a lot of emotion. In recent episodes, he's had a lot going on. Almost died, realizing that he actually had blood relatives alive (he was raised by a dragon), embracing his humanity instead of becoming a demon or dragon, fighting his best friend, almost losing said friend to the main villain, etc. The war in general is getting more intense with each episode. It's the last season, so it makes sense. 

The month-long holidays for August are: National Panini Month, National Peach Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Not many this month...I love peaches! The skins upset my gut, so I end up getting the pre-cut ones. Peeling them every time can be tiring. Paninis are fun. 

For the Jewish calendar, both pics are of decorative plates. The main pic is from the '50s, and the other is from c. 1910. The main one is in blue print on white with both Dutch and Hebrew around it. The middle has a dining room scene with a table, place setting, a candle, window, and curtains. The older plate is bronze looking with an intricate design. 

The elements calendar has carbon this month. A very important element. Makes sense that it would be featured at some point. 

Rosie seems to have gone back to urging me to eat more often. I've mentioned it before on here. She thinks I'm not eating enough. It started around the time of my first colitis flare. I would (still do sometimes) forget to eat. When she does it, it's not like she's hungry or begging for food. There's plenty of food in her bowl, and she doesn't actually eat it when she wants me to have something. She's like my therapy cat. She's been guarding me often, too. Tasha seems to be becoming more protective of me. That's a little new. In a way, it's like they both think of me as their child that they have to protect and help. Maybe they can sense the health stuff I'm going through and are reacting to that? It's so cute and great to see such creatures caring about me so much. Makes me feel loved. Although, sometimes Rosie takes things to stalker level with guarding/following me around. That gets creepy. 

Recently there was the 4th anniversary of me being diagnosed with IBD or colitis. It's changed how I view food a lot and other things I may have taken for granted. The most surprising part of it, so far, has been the massive pain from my scarred colon while in remission. I was told that I wouldn't have any symptoms once in remission. In fact, that's apparently one of the signs that you are. No one told me about what happens if it causes a lot of damage before going into remission. Would have been nice to have known. It can affect so many things. Plus, there's an added risk of having another type of autoimmune disease. I don't need another one, but it looks like I do.

Went to a Kitsap Safe Schools potluck last night. They're a pretty cool organization. They've donated to the Q Center in the past. Q Center is basically an LGBTQ+ youth group. They've also helped with Pride. My parent's a member, and I've been to a couple of meetings. Came out to them as agender at the meeting before the potluck. I didn't want to be referred to as daughter and/or one of the women, since I'm not one. One of the older, somewhat leader of it, members seemed to perk up when I talked about it. They liked that I'm an author, as well. Even wrote down my pen name. Anyways, I had to remind some of them that knew, and explain to the ones that didn't. They took it in stride, which was nice. Felt I had to explain why I don't call my parent mom, since they kept referring to her that way around me. They seemed to understand. There was a lot of food I could have. Most of it was homemade. A couple of pasta salads, potato salad, salad greens, bread, and a few other things for the dinner part. My parent made cherry clafoutis for dessert. It's like cherries in a thick pancake/crepe cake thing. She made it last year. It was way too much for 2 people, so why not make it for a potluck instead? Strawberry rhubarb pie, a thick brownie, pocky, chocolates, and I think a couple of other things for dessert. Good stuff. Ended up talking a lot about Judaism. I was surprised people wanted to talk about it for as long as we did. They told me they were very fascinated by it. I try to educate people if it comes up. Some people really don't know much about it. We also talked about politics towards the end, which was fun in a way. 

Youtube:

One Piece:

One Punch Man:

Charlotte:

Black Clover:

Fairy Tail:

Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer):

Juuni Taisen (Zodiac War):

Gunjou no Magmel (Magmel of the Blue Sea):

30th of Sivan

This is my wallpaper for July. It's the Heart Pirate's Jolly Roger from One Piece. It's very similar to the Donquixote Pirates', but there isn't a slash through the smiley. The other one doesn't have the 6 things coming out of it in different directions. The captain of the Heart Pirates (and their doctor) is Trafalgar D. Water Law. He was once a member of the Donquixote Pirates, so that's probably why it's similar. It's also a smiley because Corazon, who was like a mentor to him and brother to Doflamingo, wanted to always be remembered as smiling. Doflamingo hated him, so it'd make sense that he'd put a slash through his. Law is one of my fave characters. He's considered as one of the 12 pirates of the 'Worst Generation' along with Luffy. He's known as the Surgeon of Death. He ate the Op-Op Devil Fruit which gives him the ability to 'operate' on people/things.

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

For the Jewish calendar, there are a couple of pairs of Torah finials. Ones from around the 1920s, and the other's from the late 19th century. The older one still looks somewhat new. Must have been well taken care of. The elements calendar features iodine this month. The main pic's of it being gently heated to slightly melt. It gives off a purplish liquid as it's melted. They mentioned a few of it's uses. 

Recently started taking a non-gendered gummy vitamin. My previous one was Women's One-A-Day Vitacraves. I got tired of misgendering myself everyday. I like the gummy version of vitamins. They're kind of fun and I don't have to swallow another pill. The gummy versions of their multivitamins are for men, women, and adults. Like many brands. I find it funny that it seems to imply that men and women aren't adults...Or, that adult is a gender. Anyways, their 'adult' version is much more expensive than the others. So, I looked at another brand's. Plus, I was tired of their flavors. Got VitaFusion's adult version. All 3 (men, women, and adult) are the same price. Seemed more balanced with the vitamins than my previous one, too. I'm glad I now have vitamins that aren't gendered. I know it's a small thing, but it does feel a little better.

I've been using Selsun Blue, and I'm surprised at how well it's working. I don't have as many flakes and they're drier/much smaller now. The scalp oil stuff arrived in the mail on the 1st. It's aka Derma-Smoothe Scalp/FS or Fluocinolone Acetonide. Scalp oil just sounds funnier and darker to me. It's an oil-based steroid that helps with seborrheic dermatitis and other skin conditions. It's supposed to help with the 'scale', redness, itchiness, possibly with hair loss, etc. 

Tried it that night. It comes with 2 clear plastic shower caps. (Pretty flimsy looking ones.) There are 2 options of caps for the bottle, too. You're supposed to wet your hair, apply a 'thin film' on the scalp, massage it in well, put a shower cap over it/your hair, sleep with it on, and wash it out with shampoo in the morning. It says it should be every night until it clears up or a certain amount of time. I was going to take a shower anyway, so instead of covering it up with my regular shower cap I went in without it and let the water soak in. I normally wash my hair once every 3 days in the morning, and shower every other night. My hair gets in the way while taking showers, and I normally can't do my hair that often. I coudn't really do a thin film of it. I poured some into my hand, took some in the other, and rubbed it in. Tried to cover as much of it as I could. Hard when I still have such long hair. It did feel a little greasy, but not bad. The shower cap seemed way too loose. Luckily, I managed to get most of my hair to stay in. It stung a little in some patches for a short time. Wasn't too bad with that. I can't tell if it did anything more yet. I've decided to not do it every night. Only the night before I wash my hair. That way I'll already be washing it the next day, and I won't dry my hair out too much. I think she mentioned that it'd be best to not do it every night, yet her instructions for it are different...

I've managed to keep up with doing one of my 2-mile walks a day, and 5 sit-ups twice a day this week. Yay! Hopefully, I can keep it up. With the sit-ups, my plan is like it was when I did them regularly: adding 5 to both times each week. So, next week it'll be 10 twice a day, in 2 weeks: 15 twice a day, and so on. If I don't do it for a day, I'll either start at the beginning with the 5s or go back to however many I was doing the previous week. Just like before, I'm also doing them when I wake up and when I go to bed. It's a good way to remember. 5 of them both times feels more like a little warm up for the 'real' ones. If I keep up that walk every day for a month, I'll add another one in. I think that'll be a wise way to do it. Have to get used to it again first before that. If I skip a day, I'll start that month over. It seems strict, but it might be a way to motivate me, too. 

I've also been walking with my iPhone, which I didn't do last time I did this on a regular basis. Interesting to see how many steps it takes me. Also, I've been trying to have it on me during the rest of the day just to see how many steps I've taken in general. I think I've actually been doing that more this past month. I normally just leave it charging most of the day or sometimes forget. Anyways, it was interesting how many steps and flights of stairs I got in yesterday according to it. That was just over 9,000 steps and 6 floors. On Monday, I did 13 floors, but 6,318 steps. I'm not trying to shoot for a number of steps, like some try for 10,000 a day. Some medical professionals say for some people that might be too much. A better one is 5,000 a day at the very least to start with. Everyone's different. 9,000 steps was one of the highest it's recorded for me. I didn't have it track me well during trips and such where I most likely walked more. (Like Montana.) I go up a lot of flights on Mondays and almost as much on Fridays. It's mainly because those are my laundry days. I'm going down and up a flight of stairs constantly those days. (I use them a lot regularly, too.) I think the most it had for flights on there was actually 16. 

I've been trying protein bars. Just recently finished a box of Special K chocolate chip protein bars. Felt like I was eating a candy bar every time. I noticed it had a little too much sugar for me, so I wanted to try something else once I finished it. Started eating Power Crunch French vanilla protein bars last night. One bar is humongous! It's coated with what looks like white icing and that easily melts. There are wafers with a vanilla cream in between the layers. It feels like a giant iced cookie. It only has 5g of sugar, which was really surprising. There isn't any nut products in it, either. The protein mostly comes from whey. The other bars had nut powders. That's ok, but I do have to stay away from whole or pieces of nuts. That can make it difficult when looking at protein bars in general. Most of them rely on nut protein. I'm glad this new one doesn't have any. The only downsides I see are the messiness with it melting easily and how big they are. It has 14g of protein, while the other had 12g. Another plus. 

Yesterday, I got breakfast chicken sausages from Costco. The same ones I used to get a long time ago. They're handy and add another boost of protein. I don't normally get much protein with my breakfast. They're not bad in calories, too. They're a savory maple flavor. I think the only reason I stopped getting them was because I was tired of them. With this and the protein bars, I should be pretty set with getting enough protein. At least, closer to what the average healthy person's supposed to have. Having 2 conditions that make me need more than that makes it difficult. I don't think I can stomach more, and this is a very big step in the right direction. I still get it from my normal stuff like lunch meat, meat and/or pasta meals, a little from cheese, a little from certain breads, some from beans, etc. Another one I might need to focus on more is potassium. I'm usually very low on that.

Went to World Market yesterday, too. Found more cool things to try. My parent and I will share a pack of Indonesian stir-fry noodles called Mi Goreng. I think there are 4 or 5 single serving packages inside it. It sounds good. They have another one that's labeled hot and spicy. I'm glad they give an option. Despite eating quite a bit of sodium normally, I'm usually low in it with blood test results. (Still within normal range, but very close to the minimum every time.) I've heard many people have a hard time with eating too much of it, but I never have. So, things full of sodium aren't that bad for me. A lot of instant Asian food is like that. The noodles don't seem too high in sodium, though. I also got a type of instant udon that has bonito and sardines. It sounded great. The sodium is a little higher, but not too bad. I have to remember that it doesn't really matter for me personally. Although, I should still not go too overboard with it. It looks like the container has a huge amount. I expected a serving to be half of it. It's actually the whole thing and it's pretty good with the amount calories, too. 

I plan to try one of Central Market's quiches for a small dinner before the local trans meeting. It's a single serving mini goat cheese and onion quiche. Sounds amazing! I think there's one other flavor I can try there: spinach and cheese. The others have pork products and/or mushrooms. I don't usually think about things like quiches. They're another way to have some protein, since it's egg and some of them cheese based. 

Finished the Imperative, Demonstr., and Geo units in Duolingo's Dutch course yesterday. I'm breezing through it. The Geo unit was the most interesting to me. A lot of the terms were similar to what they are in English. Rivier is river, kanaal is canal, zee (actually pronounced as zay) is sea, etc. I made it to the top 15 of the Ruby League. 

Edited more of Alliance yesterday. With the ebook, there are only 8 pages left. With the print version, 10 pages. Not much. I might still go over the beginning stuff again after that. Then, I'll start editing Alliance: Dawn. I want to put out both revised versions at the same time. Smashwords has a 'new' thing with highlighting a series of books that I want to try. Amazon will also have the revised versions. I can't decide if I want to edit what I have of the 3rd book (I don't think it has a title yet) in the series then continue writing it, or edit/go through Sweet Endless Terror after that. 

I'm going to draw a full body of Junko next. Decided to plan and get ideas first. She's the 2nd character introduced in the series. I could go in order of appearances for the others, too. She's a cat demon, so there will be cat elements. With Shadow being human, there wasn't much 'extra' to figure. Plus, I'd like to draw what her previous (non-humanoid) cat form was next to her. The demon-type characters sound like they might be more fun/detailed to do. 

Finished watching High Seas on Netflix. The cinematography was stunning and definitely gave off that 40's feel. It seemed that they really tried to be true to the time period with lots of things right down to hairstyles. I didn't expect the World War 2 angle, although it makes sense. It was overacted at times, but that seemed more like a Spanish cultural thing. I liked it for the most part. The ending left it on a huge cliffhanger. It didn't seem like there would be a possibility of a 2nd season until the last few minutes. I suppose they could continue it until the boat makes it to Brazil. I'll start the 2nd season of Dark next. It's a pretty complex German show.