15 of Tevet

It’s been so long since I’ve actually cooked something. I think the cancer has made it hard to motivate myself to do it. Before my fall back in March 2020 (a month before I was diagnosed with cancer), I was getting back into it. It was fun. I thought I’d try to cook again this year. I might cook on Saturdays. I made Enchilada Pasta from a pin I found on Pinterest this last Saturday. I bought pre-diced white onions, so I didn’t have to do it myself. It really helped. I hate onions, but will eat them if cooked a certain way. The recipe called for yellow onion, but it probably doesn’t matter much. The onions basically disappeared, which was a plus. Good to just have the taste. It has ground beef. It really reminds me of Hamburger Helper that way. I’m not used to using taco seasoning and enchilada sauce. Both were interesting. There’s also low sodium beef broth, pasta, and cheese. The cheese is a blend of monterey jack and cheddar. The cheese was like magic. It thickened up a lot when I added it. The pasta was perfectly cooked. I thought it would be too long. You cook it in the enchilada sauce and beef broth (and the rest of the stuff except cheese) for 15-20 minutes. No extra pot that way. It was really good. Very zesty. It’s made quite a few more dinners during the week. They say it’s 6 servings, but I don’t measure them out. I just go by what I want. I gave myself a little too much Monday night. Felt really full, but I still have a lot left.

Didn’t go to the markets on Sunday, but went to Central on Monday. I’m running really low on what SSI was paying me, so my parent was nice enough to help me with it. I still haven’t heard from Social Security. Anyways, I got a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner. To have a little break from the pasta thing. I also got a slice of cherry pie. I had that as my last snack. I got more instant beef pho. Used one of the instant pho’s on Monday, so I replaced it with this. The bananas looked horrible. It must be bad weather or something, since they’ve looked bad the last few times. I forgot to get milk, so I’ve had cereal without it again. Got one of my fave Amy’s frozen meals: broccoli cheddar bake. Also, got their Country Cheddar one. It’s been a while since I’ve had it, but it sounds good.

I got my first box of Universal Yums. It’s on the UK. I think they do a lot more interactive things than Treats did. One of their emails beforehand had a list of British comedy shows. Each one has a youtube link (I think to playlists), so you can watch some of it. Another email had recipes. It comes with a map of the country with some highlights. On the back you can write how you felt about each snack. There’s a booklet. Much more in depth than Treats on this. They have more recipes, sayings, a music playlist, descriptions of each snack, tips on what to do and not do at a tea party or afternoon tea, and even nutrition info on each snack. There are also stickers. The snacks have been interesting, and I don’t think Treats had any of them before. There’s also a little Yum Bag, which is apparently full of 2 types of little things they found. They’re fudge and a caramel filled with liquid chocolate. (They actually highlight them in the booklet as well.) This one seems more interesting to me. I've tried everything except the rhubarb candy and toffee. The pickled onion potato chips (or crisps) were better than the cheddar potato chips. The candies were softer than I expected. The Millions Iron Brew flavor were awful. Worst thing so far. Reminded me of Nerds, but stickier. Not really chewy. Stuck to my teeth too much and I only had a few pieces. (Gave it 1 or 0 hearts, if I could.) Tried it today, and had the chocolate chip and coconut soft cookies instead. They were good, but had just a little too much coconut. I also got an email from them a couple of nights ago. They featured books from or about the UK. A couple of them sounded interesting and I might add them to my wishlist on Amazon (if they’re on there). They really seem to get into it. Oh, and they asked if I wanted to opt out of Valentine’s Day related stuff next month. I happily did that. I don’t really like the holiday. They said I’ll still get the country related emails.

Monday I did 5 or 6 lessons in Duolingo’s Spanish course. I wanted to finish all the quests and use the xp multipliers I got from finishing them. I did 3 lessons each yesterday and today. Finished 2 quests pretty quickly. Only had 1 mistake today. I’m 4th in the league. That’s pretty good considering how competitive they are in this one.

Watched Flow and finished Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Flow was really trippy. They got the cat movement/mannerisms correct. It seems like it was a metaphor for death. It was a world where humans had certainly been there, but they disappeared. Interesting how the animals interacted with each other. At times they almost seemed human.

The New Empire was kind of cool. Lots of big ‘monsters’. I like how Kong knows the humans are trying to help him. They fixed his tooth for one thing. (There was another thing the humans gave him, but that might be giving too much away.) Godzilla just seemed angry with everyone but Mothra. I like where he decided to sleep a couple of times. I think he didn’t even know why he was trying to supercharge himself with radiation until Mothra came out.

Went to Silver City last night for dinner. We (my parent and I) shared their pretzel appetizer. It comes with 2 pretzels, so we could each have 1. I ate half of mine. I got their Top Notch burger with coleslaw. It was pretty good. Had half of both of them. Those and the pretzel made a nice lunch today. I had their brownie for dessert. It had ice cream on top, hot fudge, caramel sauce, and a ton of whipped cream. Some chocolate puffs/chunks were on top of the whipped cream. It looked like a huge ice cream sundae. I didn’t have the whole thing.

Had a horrible leg cramp early yesterday morning. I was still in bed. It was so bad that it was spasming for a long time afterwards. I’ve been getting little ones lately, but this was the biggest one in a long time. Maybe I need my cyclobenzaprine dose increased. It’s a muscle relaxer, which has helped a lot. I’ll bring it up with my primary care doctor. Another thing is I’ve been occasionally bleeding from my nose. I don’t know if it’s just dryness or something more.

Figured out another way to organize my pills. It might make it easier. After each day, organize yesterday’s pills. So, I end up refilling it over time. Sunday I’ll end up doing 2 days worth. Once during the day, and once after I have my last batch of pills that day. That’s better than doing all of them at once. It takes time with each one. It won’t take nearly as long. (It also means I won’t need to refill one on Mondays.) I’ll just still go over my pills on Sunday to see what I need to order or get at CVS/Safeway. That doesn’t take much time. 

I got a billing statement today online from Kaiser Permanente. It was more than I expected. They're still using the insurance I get as a dependent, not the Medicaid version. If it were the Medicaid version, I don't think it would even cost me anything. The biggest thing was the CT scan. I kind of think they used my Medicaid for the meds I got earlier this month. They were still at no cost. Normally, if I haven't met the deductible yet, most are $10. Except for Ibrance and Symproic, being $50 each a month. I'd be happy if they are using it for my meds. Wish it was for the rest of it, though. I'm a little nervous about my Xgeva again. I don't know if it'll be covered by Medicaid, or they'll charge me. It's not a cheap med, even when covered normally. If I don't get it, I can easily break more bones. I don't know if I can put a pause on it anyways. I might just go through with it, see how much it is and use their monthly bill pay thing for it and the CT scan stuff. The benefits card will help for now. Hopefully they can switch me to the Medicaid one soon.

Pinterest (I did not make these. Just sharing.):

Youtube:

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. 

National Banana Lovers Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14th of Av

Tonight's the start of Tu B'Av, or lit. 15th of Av. It's like a Jewish Valentine's Day, in that it celebrates romantic love. It's a minor one. It would be great if they promoted any type of love on it. Otherwise, it makes aros like me feel either left out or another excuse for amatonormativity to be rubbed in our faces. Amatonormativity can be toxic for everyone not just aro people. It's the idea that romantic love is above all others, you must be attracted to someone romantically, your friends aren't as important as your romantic partner (throwing them aside), you must strive for a romantic relationship, if you don't you're considered a failure, there's a certain strict view of what that love should look like (straight, cis, and monogamous), etc. Like I mentioned, if it was celebrating many other types of love in addition to romantic, as in: platonic, queerplatonic, family, country, for pets, for neighbors, etc. I'm all for it. I should think it's like that instead. Some observe it by setting their weddings for that day. There's really not any other modern observances/customs. In the past, unmarried women would dance in vineyards dressed in white. Unmarried men would follow them and choose one to marry. 

On Tuesday, we went to my parent's wig appointment in Federal Way. It's pretty far from home. We left in the morning. Got an iced mocha and iced lemon cake from Starbucks for breakfast beforehand. It's been a very long time since I've had a mocha. I hardly ever feel like having something coffee related. Mochas are a little different, though. I used to get it as a kid at cafes, because I thought it made me look more mature. I also liked it because it didn't have a strong coffee flavor. It has a lot more chocolate, sugar, and cream to mask that. It's kind of like a fancy hot (or iced) chocolate. Anyways, I think it was the first time I had it from Starbucks. The coffee part was a bit stronger than I'd like, but it was really good. 

It had been 2 years since my parent last got a wig, so it was time. She found one she liked, but it was too dark in color. She'll have to come in again after they order it in that color and it arrives. I wanted to briefly look around, because I'm still losing quite a bit of hair. Had a lot to begin with. I don't know if it'll all fall out, but I just wanted to see in case. However, there were just too many to look at, and I only remembered at the very end of it. Maybe in the future. 

After that, we went to Azteca for lunch. I tried their chile relleno. It was a little spicier than some, but still tolerable for my gut. Had white rice and rancho beans as my sides. I thought the rice would be plain, but it was full of herbs. That was a nice surprise. Everything was good. 

Since it was still hot out, we went to a movie theater and saw Yesterday. It was better than expected. I just really could have done without the romance stuff. It added more tension to it than it needed, also. Ellie, love interest of Jack who's the main character, annoyed me at times. Kate McKinnon's character was great! She must have had fun with it. I like her on Saturday Night Live already, but this was even better. She's Jack's agent/manager. Her reaction to the 'reveal' towards the end was perfect. 

Yesterday, we went to the dump. Got rid of the parts of the entertainment center. That was originally a kit that my parent put together with the help of my mom a long time ago. It was interesting to watch some of it being dismantled. It turned into just a bunch of wooden boards, nails, and handles. Last time the haul to the dump with electronics and such weighed about 80 pounds. This time it was 140 pounds. Most of it was those pieces of the entertainment center. There were a couple of other things that were rather light. Like a very old small humidifier. That piece of furniture was heavy...There's more stuff to take, but that was a good chunk of it.

We went to Mora's afterwards. I got one of my faves from there: Cheesecake with Brownie ice cream. The ice cream is actually made from cheesecake, so it's stiffer than most and richer in taste. Makes it amazing! I was happy that they gave me a scoop like I asked for, instead of 2 scoops. Disappointed that there weren't very many big chunks of brownie. The brownie part is more like a heavy fudge. 

Had an early dinner at Taco Time, because it was still hot out. We don't have ac at home, and my room tends to get the hottest. There's basically only one room that's livable at the end of a hot day. I don't go to Taco Time too often. Got my fave: soft bean burrito combo. That includes mexi-fries and a soda. That burrito is full of greatness. Packed with protein and not bad in calories. There's the beans, shredded cheddar, and enchilada sauce in a flour tortilla. Simple. 

We went grocery shopping afterwards. Found a cinnamon roll with icing mug cake mix. It has 4 individual packets/servings of both the mix and icing. I'm used to seeing mug cake recipes on Pinterest. It's interesting to see it in a 'kit' like this. All the ingredients, except water or milk, are right there already prepared. Sounds like a fun thing to try. 

Went to my parent's appointment to have her car looked at today. It took longer than expected, and then it stalled. So, we had to wait a little longer. It seems like things are fine now with it. I was really hungry by the time we left, so we stopped at the market again for lunch. I tried their caprese sandwich. Had their turkey caprese sandwich recently. This one was about half the size, and not as jam packed. Those were plusses to me. It had a nice bread, tons of mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, pesto, and balsamic vinegar. Really good. Had their potato salad with it. Good combo.

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. 

International Cat Day!

This holiday was yesterday. I love cats! I love other animals as well, but cats hold a special place in my heart. Been around them since I was born. Our current cats are a Turkish Van, Natasha (Tasha for short), and a tortoiseshell (aka tortie), Rosie. Tortoiseshell isn't technically a breed. It's based on the color of their coat. They're similar to calicos this way. She's a tabby (short hair), which has stripes along with the different colors. We went through a lot of names for her, but Rosie seems to fit so well. She's glomped onto me almost since we got her. Tries to take care of me, too. She has an issue with matted fur. The vet clinic had to shave most of the mats off recently, and I've been using a grooming glove twice a day since. The mats haven't come back. Her fur is so much softer and shinier now. She seems happy about it and begs to be groomed now. She'll 'groom' me at the same time by licking my free hand. So cute! 

Turkish Vans have long fur, but it's in a single layer instead of multiple. Makes it very soft. They often have color on the head and tail and sometimes parts of their legs/feet (she has some in those areas), and white for the rest of the body. Tasha is black and white. They're prone to polydactyly, which is lit. many fingers/toes. Tasha has that. Her paws are huge because of it. Yet, she has a small slender head. A collar doesn't fit her. She'll just wiggle out of it, if you manage to get it on her. She also barks like a dog when startled. Loves water. This might be because the breed comes from near Lake Van in Turkey. Pretty unique cat. Since we got Rosie, they've fought each other. However, they seem to be mellowing out. Tasha has become braver in the last couple of years. Wanting to stick around me, sleeping on my bed during the day, going downstairs and hanging out with us, watching things out the back door, etc. Things she wouldn't do before. She's standing her ground more, too. I think this has made Rosie feel even more jealous, but she's not attacking as often. 

Tuesday marked the 10-year anniversary of this blog! Wahoo! Never thought I'd keep it up for as long as I have on here. This will be the 1,049th post. It'll be cool if I keep it up in some form for another 10 years, at least. Hopefully, I can get back to posting more often. The year I posted the most was in 2010. Did better than most years last year. I've also created 3 other blogs on here. The 2nd one was on what I'd say to my mom after she passed away. Similar to writing letters to her, I guess. I had that completely private where no one but me could see it. I deleted that one, because it was painful to see after a while. The 3rd one was supposed to be on various different topics and my point of view on them. That became inactive after a few posts. Maybe I'll get back to it in the future. It was an interesting concept. The final one was on practicing my Japanese. I even switched to the Blogger Japanese base where the comments, headings, etc. are all in the language. They even email you in Japanese if there's an alert of some sort. It was cool. Might go back to it in the future, and/or make another language learning one. As an example, since I'm studying it right now, I could make a Dutch one. I did have a few comments on the Japanese one from actual Japanese people. That was nice. I've read you can create 100 blogs through Blogger. That's way too many to keep up with. I also like the lists feature. I can keep up with things and see what I've finished at a glance. The links list is probably not completely up to date, but that's good to have as reference, too. There's a lot you can customize. I stuck with one background/configuration until just a few years ago. It looks quite different now. I think I was forced to, because they weren't able to support the old version. I like it, even if it's taken me a little while to get used to. It's pretty great to be able to link to my books (with the cover art) with a widget on here, too. Even if I'm a little embarrassed by my 1st book after editing it. I need to go over the beginning yet again. Then I'll go through the sequel, and finally resubmit both of them for publishing. Anyways, this is like my little home online. 

I've been using Pandora since college. It's really gotten to know my 'tastes' in music over the years. (Of what's in their database.) I've loved that it picks new music based on things you've liked already. I recently got Pandora Premium. I had been using the free version. They give you the 1st month free, and then start the subscription. There are no ads and I think their recommendations have been much better. I haven't looked at My Thumbprint radio yet. I've just kept listening to my Shuffle one. It shuffles the ones I've thumbed up and suggests new tunes. I'm not sure how different Thumbprint would be. I guess I can see in the future. 

Recently started watching Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu] (The Ones Within- Genome [Now Streaming]). It's been very interesting so far. A very different twist on a currently popular genre, isekai. Isekai (different world) is when people from our world are transported, reincarnated, or trapped in a parallel universe. Sometimes this works in reverse. It's usually fantasy or horror based, and a lot of them are influenced by or actually in their own video games (mostly rpg's). I think it's a fun one, but there have been a lot of them in the last few anime seasons. Some people are sick of them. This one has a group of gaming 'streamers' or video uploaders from our world transported to a place called 13th Avenue. Each player specializes in a certain type of game, like cultivation games, fighting games, puzzle games, horror games, etc. A man in an alpaca mask, called Paca, gathers them together and explains that they have to clear all the stages and collect tokens. They must reach 100 million viewers at the same time in the 'livestream'. The viewers are watching everything they do. Even when they're not participating in a stage. There are a certain number of people allowed to do each one. If you go against Paca the punishment could be deadly. They can die or be injured in the stages, too. It's really dark at times, which is my kind of thing. 

It got a bit personal for me in one of the last episodes I saw (I'm not up to date on the series yet). The main character, Akatsuki, has a similar dominant handedness as me. We're both essentially cross-dominant. We tend to prefer a certain hand for certain tasks, and this can switch at times. For instance, I mostly write with my right hand, carry an umbrella in my left, might kick a ball with either foot or catch it with either hand (depends on which is closest), eat with a fork and knife similar to a left-handed person but a little different (I've been told it's weird, but it makes the most sense to me) etc. They say he's ambidextrous, but was forced to do things like write with his right instead of left. They do suspect a lot of cross-dominants are actually ambidextrous, and it wouldn't surprise me if I was. Left-handed people weren't treated very well even when I was in elementary school. Scared me enough I tried to make sure I used my right hand for at least writing. I'm surprised they had a character like that.  

He has a stalker that's one of the gamers. She has a wall covered in pics of him, and has been 'studying' him since they met. She knew about the cross-dominant thing. I've had 3 or 4 stalkers in the past. 1 woman and 2 or 3 men. A couple of them had done a similar thing with pics of me. The 1st one I found out at a Jewish youth group camping trip. I think I was 14 or 15? He had made a shrine with pics of me, the shoe I lost that day, and candles all around in his cabin room. I accidentally found it along with a friend. Kept blowing kisses at me the rest of the trip, and followed me all the way home. Another one, a roommate at a dorm in college, had made a huge collage of pics of me sleeping and other times without my knowledge. She also wrote a 5-page letter that she gave me when I moved out. Funnily enough, I had to move because of another stalker. That one was much scarier/violent, but he never made collages of me. That I know of, anyway. The anime did bring back those memories. It was creepy enough with what she did/was doing in it. I like Akatsuki even more so now.  

Watched Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler): Book of the Atlantic. It's an anime movie based on the manga's Luxury Liner or Campania arc. Campania was the name of the ship. It was one of the best arcs in the manga. The zombies were introduced, a lot was revealed about Undertaker, and Lizzie has some major character development. A lot of people hated her before that arc. The zombies in it aren't exactly like how most are portrayed. They crave souls, not brains, and you can't be zombified if you're bitten/injured by them. There's a special way to make a zombie that only the fugitive shinigami (lit. death g-d, like the grim reaper) can do. He really was experimenting to try and bring back the dead, not necessarily make zombies. Recently, in the manga, he still hasn't truly perfected the process of making a person come back to life with their soul intact, awareness, memories, same personality, without needing blood transfusions, etc. He's come very close, though. I thought it'd be great to see. It wasn't available for roughly 2 1/2 years. I thought it was pretty well done. A lot of the animation was stunning. Lizzie's fight with the zombies really looked like a ballet, which is like how it was portrayed in the manga. It was oddly beautiful. Sebastian's 1st fight with them was portrayed as a crazy violent demonic dance. They came close. Interesting to see both animated. There's only so much the manga can do. They followed almost everything exactly the way it was in the manga, like the other 'Books'. There's a season on the Circus arc, and another on the Detective arc. I hope they adapt the other story arcs in the future. There have been several since. 

Finished Ultraviolet on Netflix. It's a Polish detective show. Ultraviolet or UV is an online amateur detective forum. They often solve cases much faster than the actual detectives, so there's usually tension between them. The main character, Ola, becomes a member after witnessing a crime. A retired cop and a detective friend help her and UV. The last case was more intense than the others. It'd be cool if another season came out. The characters were very likable. 

Started watching Deadwind, but decided to drop it. It's a Finnish detective show. There's not much humor (even dark humor), everyone looks so depressed, and the acting isn't great. 

Tried out Memories of the Alhambra last night. It's a fantasy Korean drama mostly set in Spain. It sounded really interesting and is highly rated. Dropped it after that first episode, because I couldn't get passed how much of a jerk the male lead was, and weak the female lead was. Seemed sexist. The scenery and game stuff was impressive, though. I brought up what I thought about it in my feed on MyDramaList, and people really seem mixed on it. Some said you should just ignore the female lead. It's supposed to be only about the man. Focus more on the game. Others also hated the sexism and couldn't get passed 1 or 2 episodes. Everyone agreed that there was sexism in it, yet the ones that loved it thought it wasn't a big deal. I wonder if there's a lot of sexism amongst Asian drama fans or they just ignore it? I don't watch that many romance dramas, but it seems like a theme in most of them of that genre around the world. Particularly of non-LGBTQ+ romance shows. I've watched some other types of Korean shows, usually detective ones, that didn't really have that element. In fact, the women were kickass and strong both physically and personality-wise. So, it doesn't seem like just a cultural thing to me. I'll try Possessed next. It's a Korean supernatural detective show. 

Wednesday, we went to the dump and recycled a lot of styrofoam. Got rid of the old computers (Mom's, my parent's, and mine), printers, monitors, and keyboards. There was also a cat bed that neither cat really was into, a rope I got from my horse management class, and some of my really old bedding. Felt a little sentimental about the rope, but it was ragged, pricked me every time I touched it, really old, and there really isn't anything I'd use it for. I think it was one of the ropes I used with the horse assigned to me. He was one of the most abused horses and took a while to break. After that he was glued to me. He wouldn't let anyone else touch him, and was super jealous if I took care of another horse. Was super gentle with me, and if he thought he stepped on me he was beside himself and visibly looked hurt. There were a couple of times like that, but he just would graze my shoe. I hope he found a nice home after the stables were torn down. The new electronics made a lot of styrofoam. It was nice we could find a place to recycle it. 

While we were out around Tacoma, we decided to go to Half Price Books. I found a cookbook called the Joy of Chinese Cooking for about $6. Thought that was really good. It's from the early 80's, so might not be the best. There's a lot of fried dishes. (Like deep-fried, not referring to stir-fried.) I'm not sure if that's really the way authentic Chinese food is. It does indicate things like what's classic, what's festival/party food, what utensils/methods to use, time, and more. That's handy. They don't always list amount of servings, which makes it a little difficult. There's also info on how the Chinese view food, philosophy of it, etiquette, cookware, history of some ingredients, etc. That stuff's always interesting to read about. We went to another HPB, but I didn't find anything else. Last time I went to HPB I found a cheese encyclopedia for around $2. It wasn't thin and was in good shape. That's been interesting. Haven't looked at it often, but it's a wealth of info just sitting there. It features cheeses from around the world, even from places most people don't think about. It'd be cool to try out more cheeses and look them up beforehand. 

Went to Krispy Kreme after all that. Needed something with my 'dinner' pills, since I knew I'd have a late dinner and I need to stick to having my pills at certain times. Have to have food with them. I've only been there once or twice, and it's been a very long time. Got their cake batter donut and chocolate milk. I didn't know they had different fillings besides custard or lemon. This was cake batter flavored frosting. It was surprisingly light and tasty. Hadn't had chocolate milk in an even longer time, so that was an experience, too.

I did manage to mostly stay away from social media last Shabbos. (Friday night until Saturday night. Shabbos is Yiddish for Shabbat, and Shabbat is our day of rest.) It felt nice. Haven't done that in a while, and it felt more like a 'rest' this way. I also got to lighting the candles, saying the blessings, and attended online services for both Friday night and Saturday morning. Did quite a lot more than what I have been doing lately. I used to try to at least do the candles/blessings. Hopefully, I can do the same things as last time this Shabbos. I was kind of disappointed by last Saturday morning online services, because they had technical difficulties and just reuploaded the service from the week before instead. Didn't realize it until about halfway through. Felt a bit off. The night one was nice, though. They seem like a much more diverse congregation than some out there. Probably because they're in NYC. It was still cool to see.  

Rosh Chodesh Shevat

It's the beginning of the month of Shevat on the Jewish calendar, aka Rosh Chodesh (lit. Head of the Month) Shevat. On the 15th of Shevat, there's Tu B'Shevat, which is our New Year for the Trees. Another new year...It's basically to celebrate nature. We eat a lot of fruit and nuts, some people plant trees, and others just go for a walk or hike. There's also a seder, which is set up similarly to a Passover one. (Seder lit. means 'order', and it's usually used for a ritual dinner that goes in a certain order.) 

Went to Gig Harbor last Friday. It was cold and wet outside. The waterfront wasn't that exciting. There weren't as many shops as I remembered. We did see an interesting one that had various olive oils, balsamic vinegars, spices, mustards, and more. You can sample all the oils and vinegar. That was fun. I got Quebec maple mustard there. I didn't realize at the time that it was a grainy kind. Might not be the best for me, but it's not like I'm going to have a lot of it. It's stronger than expected, too. Can barely taste the maple part. 

Went to an Italian restaurant called Il Lucano Ristorante Italiano for dinner. It was great and seemed authentic. The owner comes from an Italian town named Lucano. He holds cooking classes at the restaurant. He greeted everyone and seated them when we were there. He seemed very friendly (maybe a little too friendly...) and full of energy. He sang to the music occasionally, which was interesting. They serve bread and olive oil with garlic and herbs mixed in. I've heard that it's a thing for Mediterranean countries, but not many American restaurants that have that theme seem to actually serve it like that. They might have bread, but usually not much else. There were a lot of good sounding dishes on the menu. I got their veal parmagiano. Seemed quite different than what I'd get at other restaurants. The marinara had a ton of olive oil and garlic. The pasta seemed fresh and like it was made by them. The veal was done just right. It was really good parmesan and mozzarella. There was also a ton of basil. I was a little worried when I found a bunch of fresh basil leaves connected to a long stem under one of the veal cutlets. I realized that it might have purposely added to some of the flavor. I was very impressed by the food there. We might make the trek out there again. 

After that, we saw Aquaman in IMAX. I think this was only my 2nd or 3rd time watching an IMAX movie. It's huge! Felt like I was surrounded by it. Not many people were there. My parent and I were there with 2 friends. That was nice. I liked the movie until about 30 minutes towards the end. It became way too corny. Why would you have a long kiss in the midst of fighting? Plus, why do the leg up thing during it? That was weird, too. Seemed forced. The slow and dramatic poses were funny. They might have been going for that, though. 

The plaza, where the theater was, was more interesting than the waterfront. Lots of stuff to see. Seemed like other big plazas around it were interesting, too. We saw a cupcake ferris wheel display at Home Goods near the theater. It moves, and you could probably rig it up to turn the wheel on its own. The more I thought about it, the funnier it got. 

I've been keeping up with my Italian for the most part. It feels longer than the previous courses I've gone through on Duolingo. I originally planned to do a new language roughly every 3 months. I'm still on track since next week will mark 3 months. It might end up being a little over, which is ok. I've got about 10 more units until the end. I usually just go through the first level, not all 5. At the beginning, I was maxing out the levels to familiarize myself. However, later on I got the concepts right away and haven't needed to do more of the levels. Each unit builds off of the previous, too. When I started the German course, Duolingo only had 1 level for each unit. I think the 5 is overkill. Sure, 2 I can see. Especially, if something really isn't sinking in. When I did the HelloChinese course, they didn't stick too long on one unit. Maybe I'm just a fast learner with this stuff. I hardly make mistakes now with it. The only times I do is when I don't see something right away. Another thing with Duolingo is you can test out of units completely in one part. There are 4 to about 10 parts to each one. At least I don't do that. It's good that they have a few different options since not everyone learns the same way. I also found an app called Mango. It has over 70 languages. It sounds better and more in-depth than Duolingo. Duo doesn't have that many languages, either. They have cultural, grammar, and pronunciation notes. Duo doesn't have that. They have speaking parts to it, which is great that I'd be able to keep that aspect of it. I'm going to give some of the languages my family might have spoke a try. They actually have Yiddish and Gaelic (I think both an Irish and Scots version) on Mango! That was surprising to see. Hopefully, that one will work out. Not sure exactly which language on my list will be next. 

I managed to practice my clarinet today. I hope to get back into the habit of playing every day, except Shabbos (Saturday). It's been a while since I last played. Might have been in October...Anyways, if I can keep playing every day, I might add more to it slowly over time. Like, going over things with a metronome that have odd time signatures. I think I've been speeding up on certain things, and slowing down with others. Then, I'll listen to recordings of what I play. I did this a few years ago, and it really helped even though not everything can be found online. Eventually, play with the recording. Then, record myself and post the audio to Youtube. That way I can hear myself and others will hopefully give me some constructive criticism. I most likely will get trolls, but at least I'll be able to hear myself. It'll take me a while to feel confident enough to do that. Didn't sound too bad today. In fact, it was better than expected. I also noticed something that I had a bad habit of doing in the past. I tried to break it down and play it the way it should be slowly. It'll be hard to break that habit, but with practice I know I can. I figured out a different one last time I played, and improved on that. It was better. Now that I'm more aware, it should get easier. I also finally used a new reed. I play a size 3, which is rather thick. It goes from 1 to 5 with thickness. (There are 1/2 sizes.) Most people don't play 5s. I think most of them play a 2 or 2 1/2. (It doesn't mean I'm better than them for playing a 3...) I might be able to play a 4 now, but that seems intimidating. Highly doubt I could ever play a 5. It gets harder to play, but the sound can be deeper and more full. 

I also got a walk in today. I hope to get back into doing those every day. Probably with my usual 2-mile one for a month, than adding another one. It was cold out there. By the end, I somehow felt both freezing and sweltering. Despite that, it was still nice to be out there. 

Started reading MAR Omega. It's the sequel to the manga version of MAR. I watched the anime, so I at least know most if not all of the story. I liked the anime. It's interesting to see it in a different light. It seems Kai is Ginta's successor. We don't know much about him, and he's an orphan. I have a feeling he was born in our world, and thrown into theirs right after (since he doesn't remember anything before being adopted). He has somewhat of a similar personality as Ginta. Ginta's his hero and he hopes to be like him someday. Should be interesting to see how this one turns out. It's much shorter than the prequel. 

Got back to editing Alliance today, too. There were a lot of errors. Hopefully, I can get back to doing this on a regular basis as well. I want to finish it so I can read/edit the sequel, read/edit Sweet Endless Terror, publish all those to Smashwords, and then finish writing the most current sequel of Alliance. Hopefully, get to writing new stuff, too. That's a lot, but if I do this almost every day, it'll be quicker than it has been. 

Went back to drawing today. Mainly just got to planning how I want Shadow to pose and looking at things like arm proportions. At least, I'm looking into it more. I want to do better with drawing a character's full body. I already came up with a much better head (hair, face, etc.) design for him. I'm much happier with that. It took some messing around, though. His neck and top shoulder area looks pretty good, too. I'm making progress with it. I think another drawing project I might do is a meme that has you drawing something new every day for a month. Drawing your portrait, a still life, pets, something in certain colors, food, etc. That sounds fun. I might need another drawing pad before then. I think I'm on my second to last page of the big one, and the small one is already filled out. 

18th of Kislev

Got through all of Adject. 2 in Duolingo's Italian course. There were a lot of lessons to this one. I only missed a couple of questions. One was because I couldn't see one of the translated words in a word bank. For some questions, they give you an Italian sentence to translate using that word bank. I noticed it a second after I pressed 'continue'...The next unit is Infinit. 1. That one is slightly longer with 10 lessons.

For drawing, I tried to fix Shadow's hair. For some reason I usually have a hard time with the left side of hairstyles. Even the left eye gets a little weird. (Left side is technically the character's right side considering it's head on...) I'll try going over it again tomorrow, and then move on. 

Got through a lot of editing of Alliance. I'm close to halfway through. Still surprised at how many mistakes I've found so far. At least it'll be better in the long run. 

Didn't make it to a full hour for practicing my clarinet. I was really close, though. Finished the generalized clarinet solo book, Duke Ellington, and made it through most of the Gershwin book. Quite a lot. For a couple of the tunes, I actually played much better than usual. However, there were a lot that sounded worse...I haven't played on a regular basis in a while. So, it's understandable. 

One thing that has bothered me, with a lot of the Jewish news pages I follow on fb, has been them not saying that 'Messianic Jews' aren't Jews. They say they're a 'controversial' topic. That it's widely debated. No, no it's not. This has come up again because of the 'Messianic rabbi' that was asked to say something about the Pittsburgh shooting a while ago. It angered a lot of Jews. Recently, one rabbi on fb explained why that was so offensive, who 'Messianic Jews' are, and the history behind it. He clearly said, in all caps, at the beginning: Why there is no such thing as a 'Messianic Jew'. It was a lengthy post, but it said what needed to be said. They're essentially a Christian group that have been trying to convert Jews. They sometimes call themselves 'Jews for Jesus'. There's a counter group called Jews for Jews that try to educate other Jews about them. The thing is, and the rabbi referred to this often, you can't be Jewish and believe in Jesus. If you do, you are a Christian. Simple as that. I remember when they would wait right outside our Hillel (campus Jewish youth group) meeting at WSU and confront us as we left. They're pushy. I think one even followed me back to my dorm once. I closed the door in their face.

I decided to unsubscribe from Hadassah's magazine. I was given a lifetime membership from a local chapter I was a part of for a while. In fact, I was there from its inception until it dissolved. (I don't know if it was revived later.) I was also secretary for a while. Hadassah is a Jewish women's group. I somewhat liked what it stood for, but felt left out somehow...Now that I know I'm agender, I know what that weird feeling was. Anyways, the membership feels especially odd right now. I'll keep it, since I don't know if I'll want to join another chapter in the future. There might be other enby members, too. The magazine is very female-oriented, which is understandable. I just didn't get much from it. With a lifetime membership, you get a subscription for life to that magazine as well. I did like the little Hebrew lessons at the end of most issues. Some of the recipes looked interesting, but too elaborate for me. It'll be less paper out there, at least. The person I emailed was kind of snippy about it. They also didn't answer my question about if I unsubscribe from the magazine, do I get to keep my lifetime Hadassah membership? Hopefully they didn't just drop me completely. 

I've decided to try and go to bed earlier than I have been. I was slipping into the old habit of going to sleep too late. I put a reminder on my calendar for me to get ready for bed at certain times. (Different for the week and weekend.) It'll be like a little nudge. 

I also am planning to make Sunday afternoon kind of like a spa time for myself. Clipping nails (fingers and toes), filing them, using a filing block on my feet, massage feet with a foot remedy cream, clean my ears with a kit, and shave. I did mostly everything yesterday. Felt really good. The filing block really smoothed out my feet. It was gross seeing so much come off of them. Probably the more I do that, the less stuff will come off. Felt like I was grating my feet, though. The cream has tea tree oil and menthol, so it's tingly. It softens, deodorizes, and heals feet. Nifty, except that it's very old. I'm not sure when or if something like that expires? Or, if it is expired, maybe it's just not as effective anymore? Either way, it felt nice. 

I have to clean my ears with a special kit at least once a month. Much more often if they're bad. I have a feeling it might be best to do it every Sunday. Especially, because I have not been keeping up with it, and it's been difficult to hear things at times. I have to do it because essentially the Eustachian tubes in my ears are upside down. Makes for a host of issues. Changes in air pressure hurts (I've actually thrown up because of this), they plug up with too much 'stuff' and fluid, balance is affected, etc. Cleaning them can be painful. I didn't get them clear this time, which means they're pretty bad right now. At least they're better than they were. 

I got to shaving my facial hair, but not my legs. That's ok. I could get to it next time. I try to shave the facial stuff every day, but forget. So, if I set a for sure day like Sunday, it might be easier. I'll at least have it done then. 

Also, decided to cut down on time spent on my phone. Specifically, on fb. I've been on it a little too much lately. It was mainly because a lot of stuff has been happening. I'll try not to look at my phone while I eat. That'll help a bit. A few months ago I tried to cut fb out almost completely for the week, and catch up with some things during the weekend. I would only look at notifications, and possibly respond during the week. Not sure if that'll be the best way now...We'll see.

I was pleasantly surprised to see positive trans representation in Zombieland Saga. With the most current episode, that I watched last night, they revealed that Lily is a trans girl. The show is about a zombie idol girl group. It's not really like an idol anime, though. It's really off-beat and they've thrown a lot of interesting surprises out there so far. This one is the biggest one yet. The girls are different ages and come from different times. Lily is the youngest and most recently died (I think). She was a very successful child actress. I didn't quite get that she was trans until Saki said it didn't matter what 'junk' she has, she's still Lily and one of the girls. It was vague before that. Apparently, when Lily was first talking about her past with Sakura, there was a little trans flag. I didn't even see it, but a reviewer showed a snapshot of it. It was something Sakura was wearing, but it was right there. That's saying something. The way Lily died seemed comical at first. She died right after finding a hair on her chin. She had been complaining to her father about getting hair on her legs just before. She didn't want to go through puberty. She was overworked as an actress. So, the immense amount of stress with that, wanting to not age, and being very dysphoric about her body hair all mixed together was too much for her. Her father was very supportive and accepting of who she was, and she wasn't bullied for it. They treated deadnaming well, too. The producer of the group acted like it wasn't a big thing and that she's just like them. He was very supportive of her, which was surprising considering how much he yells at all of them. They all treated her with respect, too. I don't see such positivity around it in anime often. So, now we know how 4 of the girls died. Sakura was ran over by a truck, Ai was struck by lightning, Junko's plane crashed, and Lily died from stress. It seems they'll go over Saki's next. It looks like she might have died in a motorcycle accident, but they've been known to twist things. I wonder if Tae will ever 'awaken'. She's the only one left that hasn't yet. She's the one that's the most zombie-like. Although, she seems to be aware enough to learn dance moves, and is getting better about not biting people and things. I like her, but I want to know what she's like when she's more aware. 

Watched the Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry movie yesterday. It was ok. Not the best or worst. I remember seeing something about how some new things will be introduced in the movie that only manga fans knew about. Stuff that would carry over to this current final season. Like, Gray being able to control his 'demon' side, Lucy being able to equip new outfits and weapons based on the zodiac spirit she summons, possibly hinting at who or what Natsu really is, Acnologia and Zeref being enemies, etc. However, it seemed like that stuff was just thrown out there and made it a bit chaotic. 

I'm glad I started watching this season before watching Dragon Cry. It makes more sense this way, I think. Also, recently they named Erza as the new Fairy Tail guild master. They were told about why Makarov disbanded FT, and plan to save him. I'm glad they also went over Zeref's story more. He's supposedly the biggest 'villain' in the series, and almost everything revolves around him. He's not really evil. In fact, they make you feel sorry for him throughout most of the series. If he thinks about life, he kills everything around him. He's immortal and has been trying to find a way to kill himself. Another big revelation about him and Natsu makes a lot of sense. Also, makes sense why his book is titled E.N.D. Part of it probably does stand for an 'end' to his life. It's a book of demons he created to kill himself. (The majority of them failed.) However, it actually stands for Etherious Natsu Dragneel. Etherious are the type of demons in Zeref's book. Zeref's last name is Dragneel. I didn't realize this until he final said it recently. Before Zeref was 'cursed' he was trying to find ways to bring his deceased brother back. It seems Natsu is his brother brought back to life, but he might be a demon, too? Very interesting. This also probably means that he expects Natsu to kill him in the future.

27th of Tammuz

Managed to get back to writing Alliance 3. Wrote quite a bit this time. Yay! Still feels like there's a lot more to this one. Not sure how long it'll be. 

Went through the Clothing unit for Chinese. There were more measure words for clothing. This time the ones for usually thin clothing (like skirts) and the others (like coats) were different. I find it interesting that when they say something is good/beautiful/tasty, the ending corresponds to what they're referring to. It's like they're lit. saying good food, good clothes, good drinks, etc. So, it's very specific to certain things. The pic for the Chinese word for long had a woman with impressive super long hair blowing in the wind. It seemed a funny and exaggerated one. The speaking exercises weren't too bad. I was surprised that I pronounced the new words correctly most of the time. Some seemed a bit difficult. The sentences are getting longer, too. The next unit is Appearance.

Read more of the manga, Alive. They ended up being captured by the military, but Taisuke managed to free them with his powers. Technically, his power isn't just based on burning things, but destroying and regenerating cells. Interesting how much thought the creator put into their powers. They destroyed the truck that was carrying the rock or 'Heart of Akuro'. That also has Hiro inside it. Taisuke awakened it somehow and it started shooting and killing the soldiers around it. Taisuke and his group managed to escape by car. However, the military was able to transport it anyways to a ship. The captain thinks none of the power users will attack in the middle of the ocean and that it's safe. Turns out at least one of them, this time on Katsumata's side, made it on. 

For cleaning, I did it for half the time that I normally plan for. Just did the cat stuff and a little more of the laundry. Again, I still have some pain in my shoulder and didn't want to stress it too much. It might end up being like that for the rest of the week. It is getting better, though. The new mattress protector felt nice last night. It's really soft. Felt like an actual bed this way. I think I slept a little better. Still not as well as it should be, but it's a huge plus. 

For drawing, I inked the assassin. Then, started drawing the Dark Healer that Shadow talked to. Again, he had no name in the first book. Still doesn't, but he's a very important character. Also, if I remember correctly, he has a face tattoo/decoration. That'll be cool and something different to draw. He has tattoos on the rest of his body, too. That won't be visible, though. 

Watched 2 episodes of Million Yen Women on Netflix last night. (They're only about 20 minutes each.) I remember why I was turned off of this one after watching the first episode a while back. The ones I watched this time were better, but not good enough for me to keep going with it. Too much sex and referring to it. The main character has no self confidence. While I understand the women might be there to help him with that, he just looks pathetic. The women are strong willed and really tough, and I give them credit for that. They're very interesting characters and it does keep you guessing on who they actually are. The premise is that someone made an arrangement where 6 women will stay with a writer for a certain amount of time. He'll get a million yen each month, I think. The women also get paid a certain amount. It's more than he gets. He can't ask them questions or the deal's off. Another 'rule' is that everyone has to eat dinner together with no distractions like smart phones. One of them is a high schooler, another is a movie star, another has some sort of incurable disease that she'll die from soon (she hasn't told anyone yet), another is a nudist at home and runs a brothel, and I can't remember much of the others. The nudist is very open with things and kickass. She doesn't care what anyone thinks. She's pretty cool. Although, she tends to be very sexual at times. The writer's father killed his mother, her lover, and a policeman who walked in on the scene. The only one he's regretful for is the policeman's murder. After his father went to jail, the writer has refused to kill off any of his characters in his books. He's constantly getting death threats, too. I have a feeling the person who set up everything is trying to spark some creativity with the writer. He could write about his experiences with the women. He seems too dense to get that, though. 

The next Netflix one I might try tonight is Mob Psycho 100. They apparently made a live-action show of the anime of the same name. I love Mob Psycho. I don't know how that would carry over to a live-action. A lot of it was very artsy and trippy. The animation style, especially during fight scenes, is unique. Very difficult to get the same effect this way. There will be a 2nd season of the anime in the future, too. There's just no start date yet for that. Same thing with One Punch Man, which comes from the same mangaka (creator). I think I like that one a little more. They both have a similar type of humor.

Watched the first One Piece movie last night. It was short for a movie. Roughly a little more than 2 episodes. I had forgotten how much the animation has changed. I like it more now, but on the other hand I think they put more work into it in the past. This movie came out in 2000. They only had Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and Usopp at the time. Their crew has grown quite a bit since then. I might watch more of their movies in the future. I just didn't have anything 'scheduled' yet for yesterday. I might start watching the other things on my 'plan to watch' list for those empty slots in my 'schedule'. There's also one more anime coming out this season that I want to watch. I like to watch something different each day of the week with anime. Plus, the new stuff only comes out once a week. I tend to watch only an hour's worth, which is about 3 episodes. For instance, today I'll watch this week's episode of Black Clover, One Piece, and the finale of the 2nd season of Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan (The Disastrous Life of Kusuo Saiki). I don't want Saiki to end. Maybe they'll be back. 

Youtube:

Since I've caught up with One Piece, I decided to look at amv's related to it. These will give people a taste of what the series is like. It's a lot darker than it seems. In fact, I think it's one of the darkest anime I've watched. Every character has had a traumatic past. There's a lot of humor and goofiness, too.