Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

17th of Shevat

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

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

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

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

Thursday, November 14, 2019

16th of Cheshvan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, October 18, 2019

19th of Tishri

The dishwasher stopped working on Tuesday. I tried to press the buttons to start a cycle, but the lights weren't coming on. It seemed to be totally disconnected from power. Sometimes it's a little fussy where we have to slam the door a few times to get it to work. That wasn't the case this time. Sometimes it just works itself out. It hasn't. This happened the day before my parent left for a conference in Spokane. I thought it was best to wait until she's back to have it repaired. I ended up hand washing all of the dishes that were in there (it was completely full), and have been washing the ones I've used throughout the day each day. It's a bit difficult with feeling so much pain this week (it's been worse) and my hands have been a little shaky. So far, so good with that, at least. I think hand washing gets things cleaner, but can be a hassle.

I decided I didn't like the new speaker, and set up my old speakers again. That new one was getting annoying, especially with it saying "connecting to..." or "ready to connect" so often. Not being able to control the volume was a deal-breaker for me. Couldn't actually turn it off unless it was low on battery power, either. The old speakers aren't great, but at least I can control the volume and there's no voice to them. I didn't put the floor sub-woofer back. Never really needed it. Hopefully, I can find decent speakers in the future. I probably won't get the bluetooth ones. 

Rosie been sick the last couple of days. She was sick just a couple of weeks ago, too. She's throwing up frequently throughout the day. She doesn't usually do it often. Constantly cleaning it up is tiring. I'm starting to get worried about it. She's also been hiding under my bed a lot. I half-thought it might be this 'new' batch of cat food. The bag was over-packed and smelled weird. However, she didn't start throwing up until a little over a week after she started eating it. I don't think that's the cause. Plus, Tasha's been fine. She sometimes takes food from the same bowls Rosie eats from. Maybe she's gotten into plastic again somehow? 

I also cleaned out some drawers in my room that were full of health documents, stuff I got from past Pride events, things from places I've visited, etc. I was searching for something, but didn't find it. It wasn't a waste, considering I got rid of a lot of things. I have more space now. 

Finished reading Hell's Kitchen. Technically, they didn't have the last 3 chapters available online. However, that covers a side-story. Even the last chapter I read said it was the end. It didn't feel like an ending. It was like they were about to start a new story arc. Something that sounded like it would be really interesting. It seemed like the creator had to end it earlier than they wanted to. I had this on-hold for a few years before finally being able to continue it recently. There were only around 30 chapters up for so long. It's 50 chapters long (53 if you count that side story). I'm glad I got the opportunity to finally finish it. It's one of my fave manga. 

I've technically finished Elder Scrolls: Blades. Finished all of the main quest and most of the side ones. I've even finished the special Halloween ones that came with the most recent update. The only things left now are the daily jobs and the Abyss. I can be rewarded through challenges based on either of those. I still haven't completely rebuilt the town yet. It's kind of lost its spark for me, now. I'll still play it, just not often. There's talk that they might add more to the main quest in the future, and there might be more holiday related ones. I like that they've decorated the town in Halloween decorations, turned it into night mode, and the music is different. That music is also holiday themed, of course. It seems like a giant spider threw up or exploded its webbing all over the place. There's snow, lots of jack-o-lanterns at shops, houses have candlelight glows coming from the windows, and there are thorny vines at the entrance gate. Interesting touches. 

Started watching Beastars yesterday. It's better than I expected. Really dark (darker than expected) and psychological. It's set in a world of anthropomorphic animals, with the herbivores and carnivores coexisting. The main character, Legosi, is a wolf who looks menacing, but has a very gentle heart. He's a student at Cherryton Academy and a member of the drama club. Many students fear and hate him because of his looks. During the first episode, one of his classmates is murdered by a carnivore. Some of the herbivores suspect him. I'm surprised that the use of CGI didn't look awful. There have been many lately that have tried to use it, but are really difficult on the eyes. Kimetsu no Yaiba was one of the few that used it well. Gave off more of a 3D feel. It wasn't throughout the whole thing, either. This one, I think, is using it in a similar way.  

Went through more of Duolingo's Dutch course. Made it through the Society unit today. Next is Business. Managed to edit more of Alliance. Finished chapter 13, and halfway through chapter 14. I've gone through 22 pages of the ebook and 32 pages of the print version this week. 

Youtube:

Gintama:

One Piece:

Naruto:

Kimetsu no Yaiba:

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

27th of Av

Managed to get everything on my to-do list done yesterday. That's rare, and feels good. Even if some of it was just for fun. I won't go through all of it on here, though.

Played some of Elder Scrolls: Blades yesterday. The game has only been released for the iPhone. I've been playing it for about a month. I love rpg's. I also loved Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, which I played over a decade ago. It was pretty amazing. This hasn't been on the same level, but really awesome for an app. Maybe they'll expand on it in the future? My character is already up to level 33. 

You also get to build/customize your own town. The higher the level of the town, the more higher leveled things (weapons, armor, potions, ingredients, etc.) will be available. Mine's up to level 7. That's been much slower to level up. Decorations help, but building houses, smithies, workshops, etc. get more prestige which is basically exp used for leveling it up. All that costs both in coins and materials. So, I'm constantly saving stuff for it as well as for weapons and armor. I like how complex it can be. 

The quests are ranked by skulls. The more skulls next to it, the more difficult. There are also daily challenges. I think they have it set up where you can't play it all day, making it less addicting which is good. I don't particularly like that opening chests takes time. It's ok with wooden ones taking only 5 seconds, but gold ones, for instance, take 6 hours to open. If you want it opened sooner, you have to pay with gems. Until recently people couldn't get many of those in a day without paying real money for them. Now, they've opened up many ways to get them for free. Like, quests that have gems as a reward every few hours. Gaining a lot of them when leveling up, too. Some enemies drop them when they're defeated. They're really handy. 

There's also an abyss. It's set up with different levels to a dungeon that's made up of caves and castles. Each level is harder, there is no food which replenishes health, there are no chests unless you earn them through exp, you earn other things that way there too, and still can earn coins from enemies. Each time you enter another level, you earn a lot more coins and exp. I think the furthest I've gone is to level 25. It'll be interesting to play a different game every day.

Finished the Future and Recreation units in Duolingo's Dutch course. Only had 2 wrong answers for the questions/sentences. Next, will be the Comparison one. Made it into the 'promotion' zone of the Gold League. It'll be interesting to get into the Sapphire (or was it Ruby?) League again. It looks like they may have added higher leagues. Don't know what those would be. 

I don't think I mentioned this before, but I went back to reading Hell's Kitchen roughly a month ago. There were no available updates for a few years. I'm so happy I can come close or actually finish it. I don't think the last couple of chapters are up yet. Might be by the time I get to them. It's a good manga. Plus, it's mostly centered on food, which I love. All the characters are quirky and interesting. It would be a great anime. 

I drew Junko's shoulders and neck. It was a little tough to figure how wide her shoulders should be for some reason. I like how they turned out. I also planned how her arms will be positioned and where her waist will be. I'm using many diagrams and pics for reference. The old artist's anatomy book that used to be my grandma's isn't the best. It did help some in the past, though. I also am trying to find my own style for it, but still be semi-close to being anatomically correct. It's a balancing act. 

Edited more of Alliance. Made it to chapter 3. Did one more page each of both the ebook and print than yesterday. 5 pages for one, and 7 pages for the other. I'm surprised I got to so much. 

Monday, August 12, 2019

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. 

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

7th of Tammuz

Been mostly keeping up with my walks and sit-ups. This is the 2nd week of doing the sit-ups, so I'm doing 10 of them 2x a day. It's starting to feel more substantial. I'm getting more used to the roughly 2-mile walks. I just have to plan when to go each day, because of the weather. On really warm/hot days it'll be a bit late in the day. If it's going to rain, I try to look at the forecast for when it's either dry or lightly raining. If it's going to rain all day, I do have a nice new umbrella, just would be nice to not need it. I've been meeting more of the neighbors this way, too. That's been nice. One of them recently got a smoker and has been smoking meats almost every day since around the 4th of July. It smells so good walking by it. On the 4th, as my parent and I walked past, they told us about it. They were smoking chicken that day. I almost thought he was offering it to us when it was done. That would have been awesome! 

I've decided to make at least 1 or 2 recipes from Pinterest a week. I keep finding great sounding ones. I didn't have the motivation to do them mainly because of my health stuff. Sometimes it was because I thought they might be too difficult. Despite searching for single serving recipes, most of the ones I've collected are for multiple servings. Although, maybe I should separate those from the others to see how many there actually are. 

Some pins have multiple recipes. Those have themes like casseroles, single serving dinners and/or desserts, slow cooker meals, etc. As it is right now, I've crammed everything into either my Mouthwatering Fare, Cheesy Goodness, Sweet Endings, and Refreshing Drinks collections. Probably need to split them further. Apparently, you can create collections within collections. That might be handy. I can have the main ones, then split them up. The Mouthwatering Fare is more for things that aren't cheese-based. Some of them might have a little, but it's not central. Some of the ones completely without it I might be able to share with my parent. (There are a lot.) She hates cheese. I love cheese. Thus the Cheesy Goodness collection. It'd be fun to create my own desserts, too. 

I'm surprised I found any non-alcoholic drink recipes. They sound really good. Some are Starbucks copycats, special tea lattes, milk drinks, different flavored hot chocolate, homemade root beer, ideas for making your own lemonades, and non-alcoholic versions of alcoholic drinks. The ideas for lemonades one has things like watermelon lemonade, strawberry lemonade, pomegranate lemonade, blackberry lemonade, lavender lemonade, etc. Sounds fun and perfect for summer. There are also lots of other pins that are similar that have ideas on making your own version of things like soups, ramen, butters, and flavored salt. I could put those in their own thing. They're like templates. I did the ramen one once, and it felt more 'real' or authentic, but it also felt personalized. I like that sort of thing.

I decided to start with the most recent one I pinned in my Cheesy Goodness collection, which is Spinach Tomato Tortellini. I'm also going to print each recipe out that I try so I can keep track. It's easier to read than on my phone, and I might want to make it again. If it's not a good one, I can toss it and maybe drop the pin from my collections. 

This one called for plain tortellini. I got a spinach and cheese bag of them. It really seemed to fit. It was nice to have herbs in it. (It had basil, oregano, and thyme.) Not used to using thyme, though. There was 3 cups of spinach, and they wanted me to chop it up. It's pretty easy to do, but it was a lot. It was the only thing I needed to cut, so that was a plus. I didn't know there was a petite version of canned diced tomatoes. Another interesting thing. I can see why it called for it. I wasn't sure if it needed the juice or not, since they didn't say. I added it and it seems it was perfect that way. The heavy cream and flour were whisked together on the side, then eventually poured in with grated parmesan (used the real stuff) after cooking the other stuff a little while. With the heat still on and whisking it all, it thickened it up. More than I expected. Used quite a bit of garlic, but might have been even better with a little more. After the sauce thickened, they have you add the cooked tortellini and toss it in the sauce. I wasn't sure if the pan I was using was big enough at first. It was just right, though. 

It makes a lot. They say 4 servings, but those are way too huge for me. It's more like 8. The good thing about the ones that make so many servings is I can have them for my dinners and/or lunches for the week. Makes it so I don't have to make something more. I think it's healthier this way, too. A lot of homemade stuff can be packed with more nutrients than something from a box, can, or bag. Putting this in My Fitness Pal, it showed that it has a ton of protein, vitamins like vitamin A, calcium, iron, and more. The only downsides are it's slightly high in calories and fat. Another way to look at it is that they're not empty calories, at least. I was able to figure out the portions by putting it all in an empty tupperware container that was on a scale, weighing it at the same time, then dividing it. It was really heavy. Made it easy to figure out. I tried to give myself a full serving the 1st night, but realized it would have overfilled the bowl. I had a little less. Filling up half the bowl I was using with anything is usually a lot for me. Half a serving is plenty. Measured that out for lunch today, and it was enough to feel really satisfying. Also, it tastes better the longer it sits. Becomes more garlicky and I can taste the herbs more today. Seems like a complex and interesting dish.

I think the next dinner thing I'll make is a beef kielbasa, hash browns, garlic, and cheddar soup thing. It's very simple and a crockpot recipe. Just have to slice up the sausage and dump everything in the crockpot (it only has 5 ingredients, 5th being evaporated milk), wait a few hours, and then eat. Makes quite a lot of servings, but again, I can make multiple meals out of it throughout the week. 

I'm thinking of making blueberry scones that week, too. However, the recipe's not on Pinterest. I have a mix that has been sitting in the pantry for a while. Why not finally make it? I think I was nervous if it'll turn out. It sounds simple, though. Just need to add an egg, butter, and milk. Then, mix it up, drop them on a cookie sheet, possibly cut them into triangles (don't need to but they tell you how on the package), and bake them. That's another tasty thing to look forward to.

Finished editing Alliance. I might go back to the very beginning. Not sure. Soon, I'll start going through the sequel, Alliance: Dawn. I've been planning out how I want to draw the full-body of Junko. It's mainly been by collecting pics for ideas on it. I'll start actually drawing her soon. 

I've finished watching Gunjou no Magmel or Magmel of the Blue Sea. It was ok. Not the best. From looking at comments and reviews about it, I think some people were confused. They were expecting something not as cerebral or complex and more action oriented. Some said there was no plot, but they forget that it was mainly about exploring the dangerous and mysterious new continent, Magmel. Not really about the characters. Although, the main characters were developed and their backgrounds were introduced. The last couple of episodes were mainly about Zero, who's Inyou's assistant. So, that was a bit different. The rest of it kind of reminded me of what Kino's Travels 'theme' was. It wasn't necessarily about Kino, but on the places she explored. Makes the main characters mysterious, too. You don't know much about them, but you still feel something towards them. Another part of GnM was how brutally violent it was when they did fight with either the creatures, plants (there were a lot of carnivorous ones, and some could move), or humans. Similar to KT, as well that way. I don't think it was nearly as good as KT, though.

Finished the 2nd season of One Punch Man. They left it wide open for another season. I hate how Saitama doesn't seem to get much credit. When he fights, most of the time, not many people see it. His fights are often over in a few seconds, and he's growing more bored of them. He should be at number 1 in the rankings. Garou is an interesting character. Reminds me a little of Stain from My Hero Academia. He wasn't really evil or good. He thought both the heroes and villains were unfair with their approaches. He was dubbed Hero Hunter, because he'd pick fights with the heroes to see if he was better than them. He never killed them. Won most of the fights. He wanted to make himself into a monster without actually becoming one. He had a couple of brief encounters with Saitama. So brief, they didn't really see each other. Saitama tends to act on impulse, and the 1st time he immediately thought that Garou was a mugger. He punched him unconscious in a split second upon seeing him. After waking up, he vowed to meet that powerful hero in the future and surpass him. 2nd time, I think Saitama thought he was some random person threatening his friend King. He never looked at the news about the Hero Hunter. Maybe he'll actually meet him next season.

Finished Kenja no Mago or Wise Man's Grandchild. There were some good points to it, but I don't think I liked it. I wanted to. There were a few really odd ecchi moments that almost made me want to drop it. I liked the idea of Merlin adopting a baby he found and training him. He ended up surpassing Merlin early. Shin, the one who was adopted, actually was from our world but he died in a car crash and was reincarnated into that world. In their world, he was found in a carriage accident where his parents died. He was all alone. He doesn't have memories from his previous life, and none of his 'parents' in their world. It was also cool that Shin would think about scientific properties and not need to do an incantation for his magic. Made his magic more potent and faster. Also, made it so he could do anything he thought of. The romance thing wasn't really needed, and I don't know why, but I didn't really like Shin's love interest. She seemed 'off' somehow. The 'villain' was interesting. I don't think I'll watch a 2nd season, if there is one. 

Finished the 3rd season of Bungou Stray Dogs. It was good. Nice to see the leaders of both the detective agency and Port Mafia fight, and to know a little about their backgrounds and friendship. Apparently, the detectives, the Port Mafia, and the government are all working together to keep the peace. Interesting to see the man that's basically the boss of all 3 factions. He's supposedly the strongest, yet they said the only ability he had was to turn into a cat. There's something more behind him. No one knows much about him, including those leaders. Most of the time, he apparently acts like he's one of the members of the detective agency's (I don't think she's actually a detective, more like a secretary) cat. She said he usually disappears just before a big calamity. The villain for this season was really cool! No one truly knows how his ability works. He sends messages to his lackeys through playing certain classical pieces, so it's nearly impossible for the detectives to trace what those messages mean. He seems to never be around the people that follow him, which was another surprise for the detectives. They made him out to be slightly smarter than Dazai. He was a few steps ahead most of the season. However, Dazai did manage to outsmart him. I still don't know how they know each other. Maybe they'll cover that in future seasons. They left it open again for one. 

Tried to start watching the 2nd season of Dark on Netflix. I remembered that it seemed too convoluted by the end of the 1st season. They tried to make it more so with the 1st episode of this season. It was too much. I normally love cerebral or complex stories, but this was too out there even for me. It seemed there were too many plot holes, too. 

Started Ultraviolet on Netflix yesterday. It's a Polish mystery/detective show. Ultraviolet is an online forum for amateur detectives. They solve the cases that police won't touch. Very interesting. They seemed to work much faster than the police, too. In the first episode, the members never meet in person. Not sure if they will. The main character, Ola, was frustrated that the police dismissed a murder she witnessed as a suicide. She saw someone that was pushed over an overpass. So, she went online for help with the case. There's also a retired detective, Henryk, that is like a father figure to her; and a friend, Michal, who actually is a detective. They helped with the case, too. It's highly rated. I haven't watched too many Polish shows. Another interesting side to it. 

Finished reading the manga Mother Keeper a while ago. It was ok. Interesting concepts. Started reading Animal no Kuni or Animal Land yesterday. It's about a baby raised by tanuki (raccoon dogs) in a world without humans. I don't know if he was transported to that world or if he's the last surviving human. Before he was carried away by a river from his parents in a basket, they told him that he was a burden. This made him stop crying and give up on life. The tanuki found him, and managed to get him to cry and feel more alive. Their world is interesting. Looks like it'd be even better if it were an anime. The design of the tanuki's faces is really weird. Might take some getting used to.

Monday, March 18, 2019

11th of Adar II

Decided to make myself go to bed earlier than I have been. I've been tempted to stay up late lately because of the pain. Instead, I can go through the pain in bed while trying to fall asleep...It's better than doing it later, I suppose. I don't want to take the extra strength Tylenol too often, which puts me in a dilemma. Is it bad enough to need it or not? It only keeps the edge off. It's better than nothing, though. I managed to go to bed and get up at a decent time last night/this morning. Yay!

My throat's getting worse, too. More difficult when I lay down. It feels like it's squeezing more now. I've choked on my pills a few times. Not the huge ones (Lialda), but the normal-sized aspirin-shaped pills (Lamotrigine). I guess because they're wider? It tastes nasty when it gets stuck. Feels like there's more stuff in my throat. Not food, just like it's stuffed or something. Takes me a while to eat and drink, which is getting annoying. The 27th feels far away with this thing. (When my upper endoscopy/colonoscopy is.)

Almost done with the 2nd level of Verbs 1 in Duolingo's Korean course. There have been a lot of weird sentences. Like, the animal writes a message, I don't throw my friends, the men fall down together at the library, the cat and dog speak Korean to each other, etc. What's up with most things centered on the library, park, or sea? Makes it interesting, though.

Read more of MAR Omega. Nanashi made an appearance. I remember him from the anime. This takes place after the first manga series (which is what the anime was based on). He's still a thief. They also met the one that was the ref of the tournament before. He has a weird name, and pretty much everyone in his village looks the same. Except for the royalty, who look more like monsters. All their names are similar, too. To me, those creatures look like yoda. Might have been based on him. Fun to see old characters again. Apparently the 'Omega' part is based on a system of the same name. Having all of Babbo's stones will be part of the system that'll give his memories back. 

Finished cleaning up the full-body drawing of Shadow in Photoshop. I'll thin and shape the lines better next time. I already did that with his hair, which turned out interesting. Then, I'll color him in Photoshop, too. Edited more of Alliance. Getting through a lot of it. 

Had corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, spices (from the beef's package) and carrots all boiled together for St. Patrick's Day dinner. My parent made it. It was really good. I usually think of it as like an Irish Heritage Day. Celebrating St. Patrick himself would be weird for me. I'm part Irish, so it's like I get in touch with some of my roots. Even though that dinner is considered an Irish-American one (I've heard not many actual Irish people eat it like that), that also plays into my family background. It's our usual dinner for the holiday. An easily digestible meal, which is good for my gut issues. We sometimes listen to Irish music, I sometimes play them on my clarinet (that would be difficult for me right now), sometimes read Irish poems, etc. during the holiday. Didn't do any of that this year. We did have raisin soda bread for 'dessert'. I usually like the savory kind, but they had a sweet version at Safeway. So, we tried it. It was encrusted with sugar and saltier than usual. It was a bit too sweet and salty for me. Not as dense as usual either. I'll have more to help finish it, though. We do have a savory version as well. So, the good stuff after this sweet one. 

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

National Strawberry Day!

Strawberries have always been soothing to me. Nice that there's a day for them. It's an interesting fruit. The seeds can be an issue for me, but they're not bad if they're cooked in something like pie or cake. 

Finished watching Goodnight DJ on Netflix. Again, it's a Malaysian show in Mandarin. Very much like the Twilight Zone centered on radio DJ's or radio in general. The 2nd season clearly had a bigger budget and instead of a different story every episode, they were 2-episode stories. The episodes were twice as long, too. Very few characters had recurring roles, and some actors played different characters in different stories. Very interesting the way they went about it. I liked it a lot. The campiness in some of the stories might not be for everyone, but I thought they pulled it off. It ended on a positive note. Many of the stories had tragic endings, so this was nice. Each one also had some sort of moral to it. 

I might go back to watching Mind Game next. I stopped a few episodes in a while back. Added another list on the right-hand side of this blog. It's most of the shows I've finished on Netflix. Thought it would be good to keep track of, at least for myself. Some of them I found in the Watch Again section, because I couldn't remember all of them myself. I tend to watch a lot of horror, supernatural, and detective shows on there...A majority of them are from around the world, which is what I wanted. I've started a lot more of them that I'll get back to soon. Plus, there are some new ones on my list. I'm trying to watch one show at a time now, and usually one episode each night. (If they're really short, 2 a night. If long, half of one each time.) Been blazing through a lot of them this way. 

Up to the last level of the Basics 1 unit of Duolingo's Korean course. I'll probably finish that unit next time. Scanned that full body drawing of Shadow, and edited it in Photoshop. Still need to edit more of it, but I'm close to finishing that. Then, I'll decide how I want to color it. Edited more of Alliance. Managed to get through a couple more pages than usual today.

Started reading Neko de Gomen (Excuse Me For Being a Cat). It's an old manga that ran from 1989 to 1990. The style reminds me of Rumiko Takahashi's. She's a legendary mangaka (manga creator) who did Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, Mermaid Forest, and many other famous works. I thought she did this one at first, but it's by Akane Nagano. Maybe it's because it was put out a couple of years after Ranma 1/2 started? It was very popular at the time. Anyways, this one is similar to the Fly. They even referenced it in the first chapter. Yayoi's father put his daughter in what was supposed to teleport her to another container. A cat walked in just as he flipped the switch. She ended up merging with the cat. So, now she has cat-like tendencies and whenever she gets excited, her cat ears and tail appear. It's funnier than I thought it would be. Her father teaches physics at her school, and his nemesis is a chemistry teacher who wants to take over the world. He came up with something that turns plants into animals. He poured it on a venus flytrap and it went out of control. It reproduced and was evolving enough to do things like ice skating and hanging out at cafes. Yayoi, with the help of all the cats in town, defeated them. It seems outlandish, but those can be fun. 

In Black Clover, they announced how many stars and rank that each squad earned, as well as who earned the most individually. Stars are given after a job is completed. Some jobs are worth more stars than others. The Black Bulls ended up 2nd. They usually have negative stars. This pissed off a lot of the other squads, especially the ones with the most royalty. Yuno had earned the most stars, but Asta was 2nd. They were ridiculed at first, since they're not royalty and both are orphans. After demonstrating their power, that changed. The king showed up for the first time. Quickly illustrating that in their world the king is a figurehead, and the real leader is the wizard king. Sad in a way, but good that the regular king doesn't do much. He's haughty and has an ego. Asta and the others were forced into training by a new captain of a different squad. They have to run and climb through a field with lava and volcanoes exploding around them. One of the volcanoes has an onsen (hot spring) at the top, which is their goal. Looks like it might be impossible to get there for Asta, considering most people can only get to the top if they have magic. He doesn't have it, however he has anti-magic power. Maybe he'll use that or call on that demon inside him.

In One Piece, everyone was finally reunited again. Luffy can barely move and was half asleep most of the time. The Sun pirates showed up to help the Straw Hats and say farewell to Jinbei. Jinbei has joined the Straw Hats. Germa 66 also showed up and were a huge help to them despite the leader, Sanji's father, trying to say how much of a failure Sanji is as they passed his ship. Luffy thought he was saying good things and just nodded, but wondered why he'd do that. In a way, I agree with Luffy, they were good attributes. Not a soldier, cares about others, loves to cook, kind-hearted, etc. Big Mom's about to eat the cake. Should be interesting to see how that goes. Seems like this arc is finally going to end soon. 

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

21st of Adar I

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, February 25, 2019

20th of Adar I

I realized a couple of days ago that I might have arthritis. I kept ignoring the pain and stiffness in my neck (for a couple of days it was hard to even move it), hands, wrists, ankles, and in one hip. It's getting worse, although today hasn't been too bad. I've had a lot of cracking sounds from those areas, too. One of the most common complications of IBD is arthritis. With some forms, it's actually connected to if the person is flaring. So, once they're in remission with their IBD, the arthritis goes into remission, too. I've been suspecting that I'm flaring lately. That would make sense, then. Yet another thing to bring up with my new gastro next month. She probably won't do much about that right now besides order blood tests. She might do more after my colonoscopy. I'll ask her about getting an upper endoscopy, too. 

Today, I got through Alphabet 3 in Duolingo's Korean course. Plus, a little more of Basics 1. Alphabet 3 is really on loan words. I didn't know Baskin-Robbins was a thing in Korea. It kept popping up, so I looked into it. Interesting. Starbucks did, too. That's to be expected, as well as Hyundai, motors, apartment, coffee, and party. Hyundai is actually spelled differently if you write out the Korean in romanized letters. Not sure why it's spelled this way for the English version. They were really pushing the 'party' thing. Ice cream was used a lot, too. Almost done with Basics 1 level 2. 

Read more of MAR Omega. I thought they were going to make Kai into another Ginta, but he has quite a different story/personality. Might even be stronger than Ginta. He thought he didn't have magical powers, but it was sealed until he found Babbo and broke the spell over him. He's apparently one of Babbo's descendants, but Babbo is an Arm or basically a weapon. I think I vaguely remember that Babbo was special in that he was once human, so I could kind of see that. He lost his memories. They didn't regain much of them in the first series. At least, not in the anime. This time it seems most of it's going to be about regaining his memories and saving Kai's hometown that vanished. 

I finished a drawing yesterday. I felt I needed to do something related to Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, but didn't come up with anything until last Friday. The idea was something around ice cream, since that's the aro food symbol. The meaning behind it is a bit cheesy, but I like it. We're thought of as cold-hearted, unfeeling, robot-like, etc. In reality, we're warm-hearted, kind, have a lot of other types of love to give, sweet, etc. Ice cream's cold but sweet and makes most people happy. I decided to have that, cake, a decorative spoon or candy all in a waffle cone. The cake is an ace symbol and the 'spoon' has the agender symbol on top. The only other symbol I know is an alien for agender people. Nothing food related. If I was more into it, I might have added a little alien holding it. The cake, ice cream, and 'spoon' are in the flag colors of each. The waffle is in the rainbow flag colors, representing the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. That can have many meanings. I went off a tutorial for the waffle cone, which came out better than expected. Actually, I like how the whole thing turned out. It's not prefect, which is ok. The colors were washed out a bit by my scanner. I'm not sure why it has issues with that. It was also probably the first time I edited something in Photoshop on my 'new' computer. I've had the computer since October, so it's still new to me. Had to get a recent edition of Photoshop, too. I was using a pretty old version on my old computer. Besides the editing, it was done in pencil, ink, and colored pencils. Other people seem to like it, which is nice to see.

I went back to the full body of Shadow drawing today. Figured out his shoes, then started inking him in. I don't know why, but eyes never turn out exactly the way I want them to, and I noticed that again while inking them. Oh well. I'll only get better with them through practice. They don't look awful, just that they're different sizes. Not sure about the folds in his clothes either, but at least I'm trying that. His overall new design is much better than it was. Should be interesting to see what it's like after inking the rest, erasing the pencil marks, and coloring him in. Also, edited a few more pages of Alliance. 

My parent's going to Atlanta tomorrow for about a week. She'll actually be leaving really late tonight or early tomorrow, depending on how you look at it. It's NASP's (National Association of School Psychologists) annual convention. It's great that she can go this time, and should be interesting to go to Atlanta. They're warmer than us right now. Hope she has fun being with her colleagues and friends, as well as explore a bit.  

Monday, February 11, 2019

National Pizza Day!

Pizza is very versatile. This holiday was actually on Saturday. It's another one of my faves. I love BBQ chicken, Greek, Mexican, Alfredo, pesto, cheese (multiple types in one), and more. There could be different types of dough, sauces, cheeses (some don't even have cheese), and toppings. There are even dessert pizzas, which feel more like giant cookies...My mom and I used to get individual pre-cooked pizza rounds (the plain base), then we'd put whatever toppings/sauces we wanted on, and heat them up in the oven. We came up with some interesting combos. There are interesting rather unique flavors at a local market called Central Market. They have a new one each month. Things like jalapeno popper, cheeseburger, baked potato, etc. 

It's been snowing a lot today. We already had about 8-10 inches from the last dump on Saturday. Schools have had 3 snow days (I think), and will be closed again tomorrow. It seems to be the most snow this area has seen. I don't think it's cool that people have been making fun of the 'snowmageddon' here. This area isn't used to much snow, and many people live in rural areas. There are so few plows, they have to designate which streets have more priority. Ours isn't a primary 'priority'. We've only seen the plows once and that was last night. They didn't do much. The terrain makes it especially difficult with this much snow and ice. It's a different experience than what people have to deal with and are used to in other parts of the country. Plus, I don't think people realized how much we were actually going to get. To be honest, the ones that went to the markets to stock up were smarter about it. Sometimes people don't keep enough food in their house for more than a couple of days, too. People are also likely to lose power when it's like this. Great to be prepared. We should encourage that, not make fun of it. It seemed kind of snobby.

We went to Safeway and Central before it really started snowing. There were a lot of bare shelves. It was interesting to see what people thought were necessities. The bananas were completely gone at both places. There were hardly any of the fruits we normally get. They were also running out of chicken, bread, tortillas, eggs, milk, flour, beer, sugar, hot chocolate, and firewood. I remember an entire section of a certain cut of chicken was out at Safeway. That surprised me. I don't remember what cut it was. Firewood's understandable. You want to be able to keep warm even if the power goes out. Hot chocolate when it snows and is cold, also makes sense. Beer? I don't know, but then again I don't drink it. There were really long lines at both places. Luckily, we weren't getting much and went through the express lines. 

We will have to go out again soon. I have a feeling it's going to stick around for a while. I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to my gender therapy appointment on Thursday. They might tell me to reschedule because they might not be open, or I might need to myself. I don't like that uncertainty. 

I've been so distracted by it...I don't think the cats like it much. There's been a lot of foot flicking from both, Rosie had a droopy ear (when it first started snowing), both have been sleeping a lot in my room, Rosie's scratched at the sliding glass back door while watching the flurries, she's meowed at it, and more. It probably looks like the sky is falling to them. I'm a little concerned, since the lights have been flickering, that our power might go out.  

I've managed to study Korean every day this past week except yesterday. I'm starting to get it more. Slowly being able to read it. It's interesting that they stick their word for be, exist, is, there, has, etc. to almost everything. It seems to always be at the end of a sentence, too. Also, interesting that girl is lit. woman child, and boy is lit. man child. They seem a lot more direct with things. Still no speaking exercises, but maybe they'll have them later on. 

Edited more of Alliance today. Didn't feel like practicing my clarinet. I have a another earache and headache. Blowing into it would have made me feel worse. It might be because of pressure changes related to the weather. I don't know, but it's awful. Tried to draw folds in Shadow's clothes, but was too distracted. At least, I saw some tutorials on it. 

Read more of MAR Omega. A familiar character from the first series showed up, Alvis. For a while, he was jerky until he got to know Ginta. He still seems to have an arrogance to him, but is nicer to people. 

Started going back to Goodnight DJ on Netflix recently. It's a Malaysian drama in Mandarin. An anthology of short stories based around radio DJ's and radio in general. It's kind of like the Twilight Zone. In fact, they refer to it in one of the stories. Most have had horror elements, but the others are just nice supernatural stories. Most are full of camp and humor. Also, some of them remind me a bit of the Scary Movie franchise, only not as raunchy. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it really grew on me. I think I was unsure because there wasn't much info on it and didn't know what to expect. I like this sort of thing, though. 

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

National Puzzle Day!

I love puzzles! Interesting that there's a day devoted to them. They're fun mental workouts. I like pretty much any type. 

I finally made an appointment to see a gender therapist yesterday. I'm even more nervous and excited about it now. Not exactly sure why I felt so hesitant. The interesting thing is I was told that this therapist, Tom Freeman, is located in Silverdale. He's actually only available at his Poulsbo location right now. Works out for me more this way. The building is really close to home. About a 5-10 minute car ride. It might be a little too convenient, since it's in the same small plaza that has Kachai Thai Kitchen. Tempting to go to the Thai place after therapy...It's a good one. This first appointment isn't until Feb 14th. I wasn't expecting it to be on Valentine's Day. It's not that long of a wait until then. This is with the one that I talked about last time that seemed the most promising. With this appointment, it feels like I'm actually starting to medically transition. Hopefully, he'll work out.

Recently, I came across a thread on AVEN about someone demanding that people enlighten her on 'gender issues'. She had a disclaimer that she may come across as offensive, but she's really trying to learn. (Supposedly...) She also wanted to confront her brother on his transphobia. She had weird ideas of what it means to be trans, gender identity, gender dysphoria, etc. People were responding with really long detailed posts about it. She had even longer posts. That seemed weird. Why not keep things shorter? She had confused gender identity with expression, and later on said she just couldn't grasp the concept of gender itself. Reading the responses on that, made me think she was either very obtuse, moving 'goal posts', or the way others were talking about it went over her head. She seemed to think gender was only cultural, and being non-binary was purposely bucking the system. Being non-binary is not a political or fashion statement. I told her it's not just cultural. There are many sides to it.  

With dysphoria, she had the idea that we're trapped in the wrong body. Many people think this, but that's not exactly it. There are things that either shouldn't be there or you're missing things; to put it more simply. It makes people feel distressed, thus the 'dysphoria' part. We're not 'trapped' in our own bodies. Someone said it's kind of like we have birth defects. She has sensory issues, and said she can understand the idea of being trapped that way. No, it's not the same...She thought in order to be trans, we had to have dysphoria. She couldn't understand why we'd want to change our bodies, especially if gender and sex are different. There was a lot more on this, and seemed like a lot to unpack. Being trans just means you have a different gender than the one that was assigned to you at birth. No mention of dysphoria or transitioning. Not everyone has dysphoria. However, I do think some of the people that say they don't have it, might not realize that's what they're experiencing. Took me a while to realize that. She didn't seem to know about social dysphoria, which is another important aspect that often can be forgotten when speaking about it in general. I told her that I have both physical and social dysphoria. I went into more detail about what it's like for me. I also said while sex and gender are different, we still use gendered labels to refer to sex: male and female. It'd probably be better to say something like uterus owner, prostate owner, etc. They're just asking about our reproductive organs when they ask what our sex is. Probably why it's inappropriate to ask unless it's relevant medically. I also brought up that most people don't know their chromosomes, so using it as 'science' to back up a claim that there are only 2 'sexes' (they often referred to it as gender), is laughable. They exclude intersex people this way, too. While I thought my post was slightly longer than my usual, it was dwarfed by how long the others were. I tried to be to the point, but using myself and my own experiences to explain it to her. No one has replied after my post. One person liked it. She's awfully quiet now. 

I started a new language yesterday: Korean or Hangul. I was thinking about Yiddish, but found out how bad Mango is. (At least, their 'free' version.) I'm using LingoDeer now for Korean. LingoDeer used to just have Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Now, it also has Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Vietnamese. A while back, I tried Duolingo's Korean course. I got about halfway through the first lesson, and realized that I had to have some sort of knowledge already in the language. They hadn't worked out the kinks in that course yet, too. I didn't look more into it and just picked a different language. LingoDeer has been great for an absolute beginner. I still feel like I don't have the alphabet down yet, but I'm slowly getting there. This is only the 2nd day. I tested out of the intro section already. That was on the alphabet. It's not counted as the first 'unit' of the course. It's like a get-your-feet-wet unit. They went into a lot of detail. Their 'letters' are really consonants and vowels put together, and there are 3 different orders those can go in. For the letter han, it's written like h-a and n on the bottom. I don't have the Korean keyboard enabled on here. (I might in the future.) Another one could be a vowel, like i, by itself. It's interesting, but seems like there are a lot of layers. Started the first 'official' unit. I'm actually doing better than I thought. It's on nationality. Hangug salam are Korean people. Migug salam are American people. It was things like that. They show you how to write it, sentence structure, record your voice to compare to the native speaker, match the letter/word with either the meaning or pronunciation, in depth grammar/pronunciation notes, and more. It's also interesting that they actually use spaces between words. That's different compared to Chinese and Japanese. The only issue I have is it doesn't correct you on pronunciation. Sure, you can check your own voice like I mentioned, but it's not the same. So, I've decided at some point, I'll switch to Duo's Korean course and use both that and Lingodeer. Duo's course should be better at this point, and it most likely has speaking exercises now. Since I had a more thorough intro to the alphabet, I'll be able to go through Duo's easier and with more of an understanding. It'll be interesting to go through both, too. I might get even more of an understanding of it than I would if it was just one or the other. It might take me longer with this language. We'll see.

Today, I started reading Mother Keeper. I think I like it so far...The art seems to be in an old style. It ran from 2005 until 2014. (Pretty long.) It's not as old as it seems, but maybe older than a lot of what I've read recently. The concept is interesting. There are 2 types of people in their world: those within Eden and those outside. It's like a domed city. Everything outside is like a wasteland. Eden makes it even worse as its massive exhaust is pumping outside. Only 1/3 of the world's population is allowed to live in Eden. Basically the rich and powerful. Meanwhile, people outside are suffering and dying sooner. Several rebel groups have formed from outside. The main character was apart of one of those. They had planned to destroy Eden's main CPU. If they had, Eden would cease as a 'paradise' to the few. He was killed (this happened early, so it's not really a spoiler), and turned into a cyborg. His appearance changed. The scientist there has complete control of him. They want him to help with the security of Eden. So, he's forced to help the enemy...The CPU is actually a cyborg that looks like a little girl. He had a hard time getting himself to kill her when he was given the option to, since she seemed so innocent. 

Scanned the drawing of Shadow so far. It's just in case to see how it was before I add his clothes. I realized his hands are smaller than they probably should be. Not sure if I'll change that. At least, I practiced drawing them. He does look better than previous full-bodied drawings of characters. Should be interesting to see it when its done. I plan to color him in, too. 

Managed to practice my clarinet today. I don't think I did yesterday or the day before. I've been feeling pretty awful again. Also, coughing up a lot of weird stuff. That's not a good combo for an instrument you blow into. Anyways, I finished playing through the Clarinet Solo book. I'll get to at least Duke Ellington next. 

Edited a couple more pages of Alliance, too. Down to 298 pages in the print version. Meaning, it's 2 pages less. Yay!

Thursday, January 24, 2019

National Peanut Butter Day!

I love peanut butter! A little goes a long way, though. It goes with a lot of things. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are great. Peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches are even better. It's good in savory dishes, too. I can only have the smooth kind, because the bits in the crunchy one upsets my gut. I liked that one a lot more...Felt like there was more substance to it. At least, I don't have issues with it in this form. I have to stay away from whole or chunks of nuts, too. Although, I occasionally break this by having a tiny amount to try something new, and regret it later. It's nice that I can have smooth butter versions of them. 

Felt so weird today. Most of the day, I've felt like throwing up and passing out simultaneously. Not a good combo. I don't know what's going on with me. Plus, both sides of my abdomen have been cramping up since I went to bed last night. Made it super hard to sleep. I couldn't find a comfortable position. I usually get that weird crampy thing only one side at night. Usually, I can find one position to sleep relatively comfortably in. It doesn't normally last for the entire next day, either. My primary still hasn't gotten back to me with a new referral to see a GI closer to where I live that's out-of-network. Doesn't sound good to me. 

Finished Duolingo's Italian course. The last unit was on politics, which was interesting. I might, in the far future, go back through and max out the levels. However, I still don't see the point in that. For the next language, I'll probably use a different language learning app. Duolingo's pretty limited still with what languages they offer, and other apps might actually be better. HelloChinese was on another level compared to Duo. They went into a lot more detail with the grammar, pronunciation, speaking, etc. Also, had fun games in addition to the regular course. They have a podcast discussing the language and culture, as well. They're fb page's pretty active, and they've given me a Top Fan badge. I don't know why they gave me that...I've only liked their stuff. Haven't commented or shared anything from it. The Mango app has an extensive amount of languages. I was surprised that they have Yiddish, and both Irish and Scots Gaelic. Hard to find those. They seem to get more detailed and have notes on cultural stuff, too. There's also LingoDeer for Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. I might use that for Korean, if I do it next. Might look up other apps to get a range of choices. These look promising, though. Since I started learning new languages every 3 to 4 months, I've gone through German, Chinese, and Italian now. Tried a little bit with Russian, but Duolingo's course was awful. Might go back to that in a different app in the future. So many already! Yay! I still remember a lot of the German and Chinese courses, too.

There wasn't much progression with Helck. However, it was interesting to see the 'extras' on the story of piuy (aka piwi) and the witch that found him. He's always saying he's not a bird, yet he looks like one. When the witch taught him to say hello when greeting someone, he said it to everyone he saw. He was terrified of people before. He also screams everything. He must be older than he seems, since he was with the witch long before joining Helck and Vamirio. I think he might be one of the legendary creatures, but hasn't 'evolved' yet. That'd be cool. I think he'll have more of a role towards the end. 

I might be finished with drawing Shadow's feet. I'm not too confident about them. Although, they're at a weird angle. Next, will be his clothes. Edited a couple more pages of Alliance, again. More errors than last time.

Played the last piece in the Mozart book on my clarinet. It's the only piece that Mozart made specifically for the clarinet. He finished it just before he died. I like when they have info notes on the pieces. It's also one of the most difficult pieces in the book. Fun to start off with. I also did some of the Clarinet Solos book. That one's interesting, because they mix difficult pieces with really easy ones. 

Finished watching Gab-Dong. It was really well done. The actor who played the copycat, Lee Joon, was great! The copycat's name is Tae Oh Ryu. He seemed to really get into his role. It'd be interesting to see him in something else. There were so many twists and turns. The only issues I had were using the aro psychopath serial killer trope, the staring..., and the way Detective Ha treated Dr. Oh at some point. I knew why Ha acted that way, but it still seemed unnecessary and rude. It had a surprising ending. They made you really feel for Tae Oh, which was interesting. They brought up some moral dilemmas, and debated whether psychopaths should be treated as human. Interesting psychological elements to it. The music was very fitting. Also, the cinematography was amazing! My new computer has a quality picture itself, but the cinematography added to it. You could see the pores on the actors' faces, stubble, veins in their eyes (had a hard time looking at some of them, because they were particularly veiny), dust, and so many other minute details. Felt more 'real' that way. The only weird part with that was they censored things like book titles, knives, posters, and shirts by blurring them out. I think some of the other Korean shows I've seen so far have censored things like that, too. 

The next show I'll go back to tonight is Cheo-Yong. It's another Korean drama. This time it's a supernatural detective one. I watched 3 episodes of it a while ago. I only stopped because I wanted to finish watching others that I had started beforehand. It'll be interesting to go back to. It has 20 episodes, like Gab-Dong does.

Tried watching Grimms Notes yesterday. Not sure if I like it. The animation seems lackluster for some reason. I like the concept. In their world, everyone's born with a book of fate. Most people have everything about themselves and what life they'll lead written in it. Everything from birth to their death. There are those that have blank books that help keep those fates the way they were meant to be. Chaos Tellers, who also have blank ones, try to rewrite those fates. Oftentimes, turning the owners of those books into creatures. This first episode was based on the story of Red Riding Hood. It makes me wonder if each episode will focus on a different story from Grimm's Fairy Tales. 

My Roommate's a Cat was really cute. This time Haru was going crazy trying to 'protect' her human and home from Subaru's parents' ghosts. It played on the idea that when cats are going crazy or suddenly stare intently at nothing, that they see ghosts. Eventually, those ghosts turned to their human forms and thanked Haru, then disappeared. (Subaru didn't see them.) Haru was flabbergasted, but proud she protected the home and her human. Subaru finally started petting her. She was wary of it at first, but then it felt warm and comforting to her. It was weird to her especially because she was originally a stray. She licked his face while he cried, because she thought he was terrified of the weird ghost wisps going around. What really happened was that he realized how much his parents actually cared about him, and he'd never be able to thank them because they're dead. His editor is a huge cat lover, and has decided to 'meet' every day with Subaru at his home to see Haru. I have a feeling it's also to check up on him.