National Hamburger Day!

This holiday was actually yesterday. Hamburgers are great! There are so many different kinds. Cheeseburgers are still one of my faves, even though it's not kosher. Lamb burgers are interesting, too. Today's Memorial Day.

It's been really warm lately. I didn't want to make it warmer in my room than it already was, so I didn't turn my computer on. My room ends up being the hottest in the house regardless of if my computer is on. I didn't post on here mainly because of that.

I did manage to write more of the memoir on my phone today. That was interesting. I think I managed to write more than I usually do. I started the 2nd chapter, and that topic is Judaism. The aro ace one ended up long, but not as long as I expected. 

I finished a drawing today. It basically personifies colitis. Kind of like if the colon were a person, how would their symptoms show on the outside. It's a bit more gory than I like to draw, but I think I like the results. Colitis is a nasty painful thing, so it'd make sense that it's gory. There are some really large ulcers, small ulcers, scarring, lots of blood on the floor as well as coming through a hospital gown they're wearing, the skin is semi-bright orangey red, they're wearing hospital slippers, and they have a hospital plastic bracelet on. I chose the skin color based on my first colonoscopy. When I looked at the images, the colon itself looked like an angry red color. The ulcers were a bright red color. It was similar to looking at a starry red sky. Pretty, but not good. I actually haven't had very much blood come out that's visible. It still bleeds internally during flares because of the ulcers. I tried to get the anatomy right, but their hands ended up a little too small, and their limbs don't quite look right. The more time I spent on those areas, the worse it looked. So, I just gave up on that. At least the anatomy was better than the last time I drew a full body of a character. I'm unsure what gender they really are. They are after all representing a colon. I suppose it depends on whose colon it is. I might get back into drawing more in the future. 

日本語

Managed to go through more kanji today. 唱 or しょう (shou) generally means chant, recite, call upon. 唱える or と.なえ (to.nae): to recite, chant; to cry, yell, shout; to advocate, advance, preach, insist. 合唱団 or がっしょうだん (gasshoudan): chorus group, choir. 焼 or しょう (shou) generally means bake, burning. 焼き or や.き: cooking (especially frying or stir-frying), heating; tempering; (suf) -ware. 焼く or や.く (ya.ku): to burn; to roast, broil, grill, bake, toast, barbecue; to heat, heat up; to make (charcoal, pottery, bricks, etc.), bake, fire, burn; to tan; to be jealous of, be envious. 焼ける or や.ける (ya.keru): to burn, be roasted, be heated, be sunburnt, fade (in the sun), glow red (i.e. of the sky at sunset); to be jealous. 手を焼く or てをやく (teoyaku): (expression) not know what to do with, to be at a loss with, to have difficulty with, to be put out.

I also recently read an article on Sora News 24 about Duolingo's language learning app adding Japanese. By the way, apparently the English version of Rocket News 24 has recently changed to that. Sora means sky. Duolingo has been known to be great to learn from with other languages. I was kind of half thinking about trying their Hebrew one a while back. The reporter said it was surprisingly good with just a few bugs. 

So, I decided download it. I like it a lot so far. I've already ran into a couple of bugs that I knew enough to catch. It's set up like a game. I think it's easier to learn that way. They go through matching flash cards (kanji to one of it's hiragana readings, katagana to hiragana, etc.), flash cards with pics and words to match what's said, translating sentences into English with 'cards', translating sentences from English into Japanese with cards, translating a Japanese sentence to English by typing it out, etc. There are chapters with several parts to them. There are check points. You have to keep the bars full for each chapter you go through. If you don't and don't make it to the next check point, you have to go back through everything from the last check point on. They keep track of words that you might need to practice more. I like that it goes over grammar and sentence structure. Most of the other stuff I've tried doesn't have that. Also, at a certain point you can apparently talk to their bot in Japanese. They'll keep a record and score how well you did on that. A little further in, you can actually speak to native speakers through it. That's really handy. It's already taught me quite a bit more than the stuff I was using before. Although, I did take a placement test beforehand and was able to skip some chapters. Why didn't they make this sooner? I still might try their Hebrew course in the future. They also have French, so maybe I can get back to that. They have Greek and Russian, too. One thing at a time, though. Oh, and this is far better than that JapaneseClass site I was using for a while. That's also set up like game, but it's much more limited. I spent about a year away from studying Japanese because of the pain I've been in. That app makes things easier, even with the pain. I still will try to get back to learning/writing out kanji on a regular basis.

I made a flyer for the local ace group. Made a post in the group sharing the doc. Maybe people will help with distributing them. It's not really fancy, but it's short and has semi-large font. People will see it easily. It has an ace flag at the top with a shading effect, the name of the group, description, meeting times, and mentions joining the facebook group for the location and more info. Basically all the important stuff. Should be interesting to see what happens next with that. I know for sure I'll put one up at the cafe we're meeting at this coming Saturday. I think someone mentioned a while back that they'd put some up at the local college.

Youtube:

Gintama:

Sakamoto desu ga:

Naruto Shippuden:

Bleach:

Kuroshitsuji:

Kekkai Sensen:

One Punch Man:

Hamatora:

Haikyuu:

Mob Psycho 100:

Head in the Clouds

Mood:

This is from Bleach's first OST. I featured it on here quite a ways back. I still like it. So, why not feature some old ones again?I might go through more of Bleach's OSTs, now that I'm pretty far into it. I think I'm just over the halfway mark. (I've been skipping filler episodes/arcs, and that's quite a lot of it.) If I remember correctly this is in the background when characters are indecisive, eating large amounts of food and ignoring others, one of them does something stupid, etc. Kind of a fun one. The story arc I'm currently on has been the most interesting and suspenseful one so far. They went to save Inoue from the Espada, and defeat Aizen. They found Inoue, and are still battling a couple of the top Espada. I find it interesting that the mangaka (manga creator) uses different languages with different types of characters. Like the Espada have Spanish names and attacks. Even their 'world' and creatures have Spanish words/names. Another group of characters has German, the Shinigami use Japanese, another group uses Latin (I think), etc. I know he mentioned in an interview that Spanish to him sounded mysterious, and wanted the Espada to have a similar vibe. I find languages interesting, so it kind of enhances it a bit for me.

Went shopping on Saturday. Saw a gorgeous view of Mount Rainier on our way to Tacoma for it. It's usually not so clear. I managed to snap a shot of it. Yay!I managed to find a lamp at their Target. (Their Target is huge!) My old lamp that I used for my night stand burned a hole into its shade and the lamp itself. The bulb glued itself to the shade, too.It was a bit scary and weird. I got that one at a gift swap. Mom thought it looked ugly, but I liked it. It was a little too short, though. This new one is quite a bit bigger. Its got kind of a gold speckling pattern across 2 glass globes. So, it's see-through and reflective in parts of it. The rest of it looks like silver steel. The shade came separately. Like a mix and match thing. It's kind of a beige color. I'm not very used to lampshades, but it went on in an odd way. A low ring goes under the bulb, and stays secure after the bulb is screwed in. I thought you just put it over the bulb.Oh well, it's on at least. I'm starting to really like it. It also uses a normal light bulb, which is a big plus. Makes almost as much light as my main one. That's good, because the way my main light is situated on the ceiling, half of the room is much darker than the other half.It's really close to my closet towards a corner. So, having this on the other side of the room will help with lighting overall, too.

Also, got a nice looking 'bouffant' shower cap.It's the only kind that fits with my long hair.They had the same design I got last time, but I wanted something different. This one has a blue and white checkered design. The bottom elastic-like part has semi-frilly white lace around it. I usually don't like lacy stuff, but it's toned down and goes pretty well with the 'look', I suppose. My old shower cap had some major tears in the plastic on the inside. Especially with where I end up tucking my hair in...It also smelled and seemed slightly discolored. It was definitely time. I use it for when I'm going to have a regular shower (when I'm not washing my hair), cleaning, and while cooking. Keeps me from shedding everywhere for those last 2.And, puts it out of my face.

After that, we went to It's Greek To Me. It's a really good Greek fast food place. Since we don't go there that often, we usually get gyros. (Although, a lot of the other stuff on their menu looks good.) I got their 'small' combo. The combo comes with fries and a drink. Even though I got the small, the gyro was still huge!When I pick it up, the salad-like stuff always slides out. I end up just having huge wads of meat with some puddles of tzatziki sauce in the sandwich part. Then, I use their plastic forks to have the stuff that fell out. It's messy, but really good.

Found out my blood test results were normal a few days ago. I'm even at the high end of the remission range for my sed rate. Yay!I should be happy, but I'm still feeling my IBD symptoms. (Certainly not 'normal' yet.) A little frustrating still. My primary doctor said that my body might take a while to catch up. My gastroenterologist emailed me yesterday morning saying that since my results were normal, she wants me to do the blood draws once every 3 months instead of once a month. 

I'm wondering if just taking azathioprine is giving me similar symptoms?I also still have to be very careful while taking it, because it's an immunosuppressant. It's strong stuff, too. I get sick very easily now. I've thought about wearing a mask while out, but feel like it'll be isolating. Or, people will think I'm insulting them or something.Also, that masks might not help much. 

We found out a couple of nights ago that the frozen peas that were being recalled by Costco, were the same ones we had.Dad tossed them, but we already had half of a big bag of them. It was recalled for possible listeria contamination. People who are immunosuppressed are very susceptible to getting sick from it. Read that the symptoms might not become noticeable for a couple of months after ingesting it. That's scary!Not sure if it's affecting me as well. I have had a horrible headache since Sunday. I didn't know about it until Monday night. If it gets really bad, and I feel very sick, I'll tell my primary about it. Might have to go to Urgent Care beforehand if it gets to that point. 

I revived my livejournal account. The last time I posted something on there was 6 years ago. It's kind of to get more eyes on both my novels. But, I might do little updates every so often. I've also thought about joining writers' associations for free. Apparently there are a few. I need to look more into it, though. I might start another Tumblr account to promote them some more. My last account with them was deactivated because of my inactivity on it. Plus, I don't think my desktop computer likes it too much.If that's the case, I might end up using their app on my phone. 

I managed to practice my clarinet on Monday and today. Yay!That's more often than it has been. I'm slowly getting better, too. I'd be a lot better if I got to it every day. Once I play on a regular basis, I might bump my practice time from 45 minutes to 50. I can be on my way to a full hour. That used to be my norm for practice times. It'd be awesome to get back to that!I played a lot of Irish tunes today. Monday, I played some jazz, Gershwin, and some pieces from my advanced classical solo book.

日本語

Today, I studied the kanji: 司, 試. When 司 is pronounced as し (shi): director, official. As 司る or つかさど.る (tsukasado.ru): to rule, govern, administer. 司令 or しれい (shirei): command, control, commander. 司書 or ししょ (shisho): librarian. 司法 or しほう (shihou): administration of justice. 寿司 or すし (sushi): sushi. 行司 or ぎょうじ (gyouji): (sumo) referee. 司会 or しかい (shikai): chairmanship, leading a meeting, presenter, host, moderator. 試 is only pronounced as し (shi) in compounds. As 試みる or こころ.みる (kokoro.miru): to try, attempt, have a go (at something). As 試す or ため.す (tame.su): to attempt, test, try out. 試合 or しあい (shiai): match, game, bout, contest. I'll be going through more of its compounds next time. 

I finally got to translating more of that You Maga article. Also, quizzed myself on JapaneseClass' site. Read an article in Japanese on RocketNews24's original site. It was about how tourists think all there is to the food in Tokyo is their sushi. How it's highly overrated and overpriced. The journalist said they think more people should discover Tokyo's version of tonkatsu, and a certain ramen I'm blanking on. They took pics of the best places to get them. It was interesting to read and somewhat drool-worthy. Watched some of their news through ANN's Youtube channel. Interesting stories. Their main meteorologist is very enthusiastic. She's entertaining, while the guy she explains it to (during specials) is so stiff. He doesn't react much. Some sad stuff happening there, too.

I've kept up with the way I prefer to eat this week.Haven't had a 'splurge' day yet. Last week it was on Wednesday and Saturday. (While keeping to this way of eating, I usually don't have 2 of those in a week.) One big plate of spaghetti and meatballs turned into 4 meals for me this week. That's a lot!I haven't faltered from it. I've even been eating half of a donut for dessert. (That's been the dessert this week.) I sometimes have the other half with lunch, where I might also have leftovers from a dinner. So, it's like 2 dinners in a day...Things are looking bigger and bigger as I stick much closer to this again. I'm also feeling fuller after each of these meals. Kind of cool. 

Hopefully, I can get back to my walks, too. Although, it's been pretty warm lately. Walking in that sort of weather makes you feel hotter halfway through. Kind of demotivates that way. I just have to plan it better. Like, not during the hottest part of the day. I did get one night walk in tonight. It's something! Even if I'm losing with just limiting my calorie intake, I would like to keep what little muscle I have left right now (for some reason I've lost a lot of it). Plus, it'll keep me more fit. Health can be complex, and it's more than just getting back to a 'normal' weight. I'm also keeping up with my sit-ups.

National Black Forest Cake Day!

Mood:

This holiday was yesterday. One of my fave cakes!I even had a black forest cake for my birthday back in November. What's better than having chocolate, whipped cream, and cherries all made into a cake? A few of my fave things. It also looks pretty. Last Friday was National Pecan Day. One of my fave nuts!I think it's a tie with this and walnuts, for me. 

I wore part of my Halloween cat costume during the day for Purim. Just the punk looking black ears (the ones with a bunch of silver studs), the spiky collar, and some silver cat earrings. The earrings seem to have an 'I don't care' sort of attitude. Just wore regular clothes with it. Thought it'd be fun to have something on for it.I read one of the megillot (plural for megillah. Has the story of Esther) I have, watched a couple of music vids, and watched a Purim spiel. A Purim spiel is a play based on the story. The Purim spiel I watched was actually broadcasted from a synagogue. One of the Reform ones that broadcasts their services so people can feel like they are there, when they physically can't be. Really cool for people who might be worried about getting sick when they go to a synagogue. Especially when it might draw a big crowd.I'm still a bit weary of big crowds, knowing how easily I can get sick now. Theirs was funny and cute. Basically Broadway themed. Some Cats, Phantom of the Opera, etc. parodies. They had someone imitate Donald Trump for the Haman role.Haman's the villain. The songs were hilarious, and most of the time they did great with them. The kids were slightly off, but not bad. (The adults played the main roles. Many congregations have the kids do the whole thing.) I kind of felt like I belonged there, since there were cats in the play. All in all, it was a nice Purim. 

Yesterday I watched the last episode of the 2nd 'season' of Fairy Tail. I think it should be more like a 2nd 'series', since it was just over 100 episodes. (Also, has a different look compared to the 1st season.) Same with the 1st season. The last episode seemed a bit lacking.And, kind of teased us. Acting like a new arc was just starting. I think I read that Fairy Tail will be on hiatus for a while. Not sure exactly how long. Should be interesting to see what happened to the members after Fairy Tail disbanded. We only know what happened to Lucy and Natsu. Apparently, if I really want to find out before it comes back, I can read the manga. I like the anime a bit more. But, then again, I only read the first few chapters. The designs and how things are laid out might be different at this point in the manga. 

It appears Gintama's going on hiatus after this week's episode, too. This is my top fave anime, so I'll be more upset about this one.Although, I think in order to keep up its greatness, they may need some time off to lay out and plan more stuff. These last couple of story arcs were really intense and depressing at times. They've killed off 2 major characters already. The 2nd one happened during last week's episode. It was surprising. He was painted as a villain for one of the arcs a while back up until that episode. He really wasn't. He even wanted to help the 'good guys' in the end. Actually made me feel something for him. I didn't really care for him much when he was first introduced. A lot of things about him made more sense in the end, too. Both the 'elite' police and the Shinsengumi united in order to defeat the enemy. (They normally hate each other.) Apparently, Shouyou is alive. Or, at least he seems to be. He also seemed to be the enemy's boss. But, Gintoki was forced to behead him in the past. I'm thinking maybe this 'imposter' just has his head. But, he smiles just like Shouyou did, and has the same memories. Even moves similarly. It seemed to mentally break Gintoki when he saw that his teacher was still alive. Should be interesting to see how they end it.

I'm almost through with MAR, too. It appears that 3 main characters were killed off in 2 episodes. For some reason, I think they might have been whisked away to the real world. But, they did disintegrate in their world...I don't know. I think the king of Chess is really Ginta's father. (Ginta's been told that his father was killed in battle.) He's finally shown himself, only he's masked. A couple of the characters said the way he talked and fought was familiar. Also, I think he's the one that's suddenly bringing landmarks from the real world to theirs. They already had the Eiffel Tower fall in the middle of a field. Plus, some famous statues. The queen of Chess wants to kill all humans in both worlds. What is she then? Or, does she want to kill everyone but her and that king? She seems to be the most powerful character in the whole series. Maybe more powerful than the king. She also managed to clone the princess, Snow, and put her in the real world. Koyuki, who's from the real world, is possibly the original princess. Both of them can sense what's happening to each other in either world. That part's really interesting. Snow felt like a fake when she found out, though. 

Apparently some people think IBD is essentially just about 'bathroom problems'.I noticed this when I talked to someone who I thought had a similar thing, recently. I've also read some questions that were asked on a Crohn's forum, that were similar with the subject. I've read articles and other forum posts (from that same forum) explain that it's a lot more than that. Some blogs, too. Many of us, no matter which IBD we have (Crohn's or UC), have extraintestinal issues on top of it. Extraintestinal manifestations have to do with things outside of the intestines. So, here are some of mine. My hair's starting to fall out again, although slower than it did last time. My nails have become much softer, bend easily, crack easily (already had one of them crack straight down the middle), and grow quickly. My skin seems to be doing something weird. Hard to describe. Sometimes I feel so full, I don't want to eat. Yet, this might be before I've eaten anything for the day. There's no food in my system at that time. I know I have to eat in order to take my meds, but if I didn't have to have food to take them, it'd be a different story.I get sick a lot more often. This is mainly because of the meds I'm on, but this contributes to it anyway. I also feel a lot more tired and weak half the time. I think people should realize that there's a lot more to it. Not to pity others, but realize it's not just a 'bathroom problem'.I'm also nervous to take heavier/more potent meds than what I've already had. Maybe it'll be the opposite of what I'm thinking will happen, and they'll help with the extraintestinal issues, too. That would be awesome! 

I'll ask my gastroenterologist about referring me to a nutritionist at my next appointment with her. I'll ask her, because I'll have to have someone that knows how to deal with people who have IBD. Some have never dealt with that. My primary care doc might not know where to start. It might help to talk to one for most of these things. I already know some of them are caused by malabsorption problems. So, a nutritionist can help more with those. Like, tell me to have a certain amount of protein, which would probably be more than the average for someone who doesn't have that problem. I know some people have to have more calories than people who don't have IBD. I don't really want that. It might be hard to keep up half the time. But, I guess I'll just have to see what happens with that. My primary doc also wanted to schedule an appointment. My yearly physical is coming up, so it might partially have to do with that. It's scheduled for a week after my gastro appointment. She's also trying to keep track of what's going on with me. 

On Saturday, I went to the democratic caucus for the first time. The only other time I might have gone to a caucus was when I was little. I certainly wasn't of voting age back then, though. This was held at my old high school. I hadn't stepped foot on that campus since I graduated. It was a bit weird.Many things had changed. I know when I attended there was a lot of construction going on. So, it was interesting to see parts of the finished product. We all met in the gym. I think the gym was different, too. Like it wasn't there when I went. (I think we had a different one.) Maybe it was the layout? Our precinct seemed pretty large, and luckily started out near the entrance. I knew some of the people from it. At least, 4 neighbors and one person I went to high school with. Might have been 2 more members from the neighborhood I'm semi-acquainted with. But, I found out a lot of the neighbors I didn't know were there, too. It was nice to see. The majority were for Bernie Sanders, including me. Some people ended up switching from Hillary Clinton or undecided to Sanders after some discussion. Some people seemed to be a lot more passionate than me, so I let them speak up about Sanders. Clinton's side was interesting, too. Everything was kept civil, which was great. Sanders actually won our state, Alaska, and Hawaii by a landslide. It was close to 75% for Sanders and 25% for Clinton for our state. That's pretty good.


Thinking it was so nice and sunny looking out on Sunday, I decided to go for a walk. It stayed nice out until about halfway through it. It started to really downpour, and got heavier until I got home.I was absolutely soaked, but it felt good. It wasn't really cold rain, which might be why it felt good. Felt like I had a natural shower. But, my coat, which isn't made for rain, is still slightly damp. I also wanted to take a pic of the gorgeous view we get of the mountains, but the clouds rolled in. You could barely see them. So, I took a pic of the trail through a green belt I usually go through. There was a robin that made it into the pic. Didn't realize it was there until after I had taken a few shots. It was funny and cute.I tried to get a pic of a squirrel that was darting around, but it was too fast. Ended up just getting bushes with weird grey blurs under them.

Decided to try out Smashwords' self interview feature. It was interesting. They have questions already prepared, or you can add your own. You can flip through their questions, too. So, you don't have to answer all of them. I decided on: What are you going to write next? I mentioned possibly a memoir, a sequel to Alliance (my first novel), or a detective novel. Those are essentially the ideas for my next novel I have at the moment. The only thing I didn't like was after every question you answer, you have to save and then 'publish' it. Why not just have it be submitted with one click?Also, you get an email every time. Even if you just edit that one answer, you get another email with the same info. You can have up to 10 questions and answers. I only did one. Had to go back to edit it, though. Each one goes to their author's interview section. People get to see the newest first on there. So, it's like a little bit more publicity.

Got to playing my clarinet yesterday. Played for the full 45 minutes. (Hopefully in the near future, I'll get it up to an hour.) Felt good. I got to get back to playing it on a regular basis. I continued with the way I planned to do my practices, last time. Where I go over something repeatedly until I improve on the areas I always mess up on. The way I used to practice. It can be tiring, though. Did pretty well, anyways. Didn't have to stop and repeat things that often. I could tell that there was some improvement, too.

日本語

Studied a bit more of the kanji 残, and the kanji 士. When 残 is pronounced as 残す or のこ.す (noko.su): to leave (behind, over), bequeath, save, reserve. As 残り or のこ.り (noko.ri): remnant, residue, remaining, leftover. When 士 is pronounced as さむらい (samurai): warrior, samurai. As し (shi): man (esp. one who is well-respected); (suf) person (in a certain profession, esp. licensed), member. 騎士 or きし (kishi): knight. 士卒 or しそつ (shisotsu): officers and soldiers. 戦士 or せんし (senshi): soldier, combatant, warrior. 博士 or はかせ (hakase) or はくし (hakushi): (usu. はくし [hakushi]) doctorate, PhD, Dr. (as a title); (usu. はかせ [hakase]) expert, learned person. 武士 or ぶし (bushi): warrior, samurai. Interesting that there are a couple of ways of referring to samurai. Took one of the vocab chapter tests on JapaneseClass' site. Got about 93% on it. Not bad.Also, this one tested less vocab than the previous one. The one before that had about 150 words/phrases. This one had about 67. Quite a difference. It'd be great if they spaced the amount of vocab evenly for each chapter. Oh well. I didn't miss a single one from the practice part this time. Translated another line from a You Maga article.  

Read an article in Japanese on RocketNews24's original site. It was about Hanami or sakura viewing. Apparently, having lavish banquets under the sakura trees while they're in bloom is becoming popular. Normally people have casual parties. They usually drink a lot, too. The author of the article mentioned how much it sucks when you brought the alcohol to those banquets, and there isn't a bottle opener of some sort. So, there's a new ring (like you put on your finger) out that's designed to be used as one. I think there are other ways of opening it, besides getting a fancy ring...He said it looked cool, though. 

Tomorrow night should be fun.Since it's the 5th Wednesday, the support group's going to have a potluck. This time at someone's place. It's usually a nice social thing. A 5th Wednesday doesn't pop up that often. We usually bring some KFC chicken tenders. Although, one of the times we brought donut holes. I think donut holes would be better...Either way, it'd be nice.