9th of Av

 It’s been a while. I had hoped to blog more often. Maybe I can now. I guess I’ll go over my most recent things.

I started going back to my ‘diet’. It’s where I try to have a certain range of calories for each meal. That being 240-320 calories. It was a bit hard at first, but I’ve been getting the hang of it. For the whole day, the range is 1200 calories to 1600 calories. I have 5 ‘meals’. 5 small meals, I was told when I was diagnosed with IBD, is better on my gut than having 3 big meals a day. Plus, most of the time you don’t feel as hungry in between meals. I have already noticed small changes. I think it’ll work to help me feel healthier and lose weight. Last time I did it for a while, it really helped. I’ve also noticed how big things are again. I’ve noticed how little I can have for a meal. Having a full serving of my cereal and a little milk ends up being like 230 calories. I can’t really have a banana anymore with breakfast. (If I have the cereal. Might have it as part of a snack instead.) Can’t have the sausage patties or turkey bacon with it either. Having plain frozen pancakes and a little syrup is about in the middle of my range. It’s interesting. I also thought of it as like a game. Like you can only ‘pay’ with 1200-1600 calories. However, the weekend is usually my ‘splurge’ days. Especially for dinners. For those days, I might try to have 1800 calories or just a little more. I’m trying to look at other things like protein, carbs, sugar, and fat. I’m usually low on protein, sodium, fiber, and fat. Occasionally sugar, too. I use My Fitness Pal for it. It’s interesting that they now have a separate thing for water. I drink quite a lot according to that.

I’m still walking on top of the diet thing. I try to walk 3 times a day inside. Right now, each one is 10 minutes. I plan to increase each one. Last time I didn’t do it evenly, and my last walk was longer. That being 40 minutes. I’m thinking it might be better to add more to each one. I’ll have the last walk for 15 minutes. Then, eventually have the second walk as 15 minutes as well. Just keep going with each one like that. I might try doing outdoor ones when the weather gets better. Maybe once I get even healthier, I can try to do sit-ups again. They (my health team) were worried that I might break a bone again.

I splurged a bit and went out for dinner on Wednesday. I feel like I kind of broke it that way. We went to Burrata Bistro/Paella Bar. It’s like 2 restaurants in one. We shared some of their focaccia. It’s always so much. The rest are good for snacks. Had a little of the Marcona almonds. I got their penne alla puttanesca. It was much spicier than I expected. There wasn’t any spicy ingredient listed on the menu. The olives were weird. They had like little pieces of hard things inside. I mostly just had the pasta. I got their key lime tart. It was decent. I liked the crust. I wished they had their nutrition info somewhere, or even just the calories next to things, like some other restaurants do. I tried to add similar things to My Fitness Pal. Turns out, if it’s like what I found on there, that I actually ended up under the 1600 calories all together. I didn’t have my 5th meal. Well other than just having pills and water.

Getting my meds through CVS has been a headache. They say they sent things to my doctors, and yet they don’t get them. (I think they have the wrong address, at least for my primary care doctor.) My primary care doctor had to have one of her nurses call Molina about the ‘prior authorization’. They faxed the forms to them, my primary doctor filled them out and sent it. I had to call Molina in order for them to approve it. Might have to do that every time. I have a lot of meds. I tried to get something from my palliative care doctor as well. I called him about the whole thing. I’m still waiting on it to be approved. Hopefully all of them will go through with the way my primary care doctor had to do it.

I recently figured out a schedule for myself. This way I can try to get done what I want to do. Most days except the weekend, I figured out how to add playing my clarinet into it. I’ve been playing it for the first time in years. I think the last time I played was either in 2021 or 2020. It was close to when I was diagnosed with cancer. I also figured out when to blog, like what I’m now doing. Added my bed bath, and what I can do around it. Also, a little bit of doing my coloring books. It’s fun. Added Shabbat services to it, as well. I’ve figured out a pretty easy and accurate schedule with it all.

We (parent and I) recently went on vacation to Bellingham, Washington. I think it was the first time I was there. I haven’t traveled much since the cancer diagnosis. I got to a lot of things that were on my list. Some of those were restaurants. Those were some fun and good tasting food. We saw deer near one of the restaurants. That was cool.

We went to a 3-level bookstore. That was apparently famous. They had 2 cafes. One that was like a restaurant, and the other had a limited amount of things. It was a nice place. Wished there was more than one bathroom. We couldn’t stay very long, either.

The Marine Life Center was really small and cramped. Not much there. There were a lot of people, mainly kids.

We went to a Serbian/Russian market. We got hazelnut caramels, plum jam, cherry jam, pretzels, kvass, and cherry filled chocolate. I’ve had a caramel and some of the plum jam. They were very good. I was surprised there wasn’t much sugar in the plum jam.

We went to the Spark Museum. It started with electricity info, then things like telegrams or morse code or other earlier ways of communicating, telephones, TVs, radio, and more. It was quite packed with stuff.

One of the nights, there were police vehicles circling the hotel. We had to park near the hotel, because they were blocking the way to it. I’m almost afraid to find out what happened. We just hunkered down in the room once they cleared the way.

I’ve also gotten into reading. I made a top 100 list of classic books. I’m going through it. I got a Kindle that I’m reading books on. That’s been interesting. The first one was Pride and Prejudice. It was kind of boring except for the last 30 pages. It got intense. My 2nd book was going to be 1984. I didn’t want to read it, so I changed it. I tried to get into Crime and Punishment. It's a long book, too. I decided to drop that one. I started reading Hamlet, which was next. It's surprisingly short. It probably won't take me very long. 

It’s been hot lately. It’s affected my health, too. I seem to always be sweating. We don’t have ac, and the house stays warm for a while even when it’s cool outside. It’s been interesting watching the temperature in my room. My parent gave me a thing that shows the temperature and humidity. It’s humid in my room apparently. It also shows the lowest temperature and highest temperature in the last 24 hours, along with the humidity.

I was wearing one of my Jewish Pride shirts on yesterday. It has a big star of David in rainbow colors. It says B’tzelem Elohim. Meaning in the image of G-d. It also lists the congregation that was selling them at one of the local Prides. I went to Central, and someone saw it. They quickly said shalom. It was kind of cool. I don’t get a reaction to it very often.

Pinterest (I didn't make these. Just sharing):

Youtube:

3rd of Cheshvan

I forgot to mention that I have a new passport. It was a busy summer with getting that done, too. It was different compared to the last time I got it. I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. They even said that my pic might not be good enough, and I might have to take it again somewhere else. It all came together, and I’m happy I have it now. I can travel. Yay! I also got my state ID. That one was easier, but good to have.

Today Daylight Savings Time ended early in the morning. I was hoping to sleep that extra hour. Got up at 6:24am to go to the bathroom. Took a while to go back to sleep. I normally get up at 7:30am. That’s to take my steroid on time. According to my watch (yes, I have an Apple watch now), it said I had 1 hr 3 min of deep sleep. A lot more than my usual.

Started watching You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment today. It was weird. Some of it didn’t seem right. I’ll see how it goes. I’m skeptical about it.

Had a great chicken sandwich for lunch. It had a breaded chicken patty (hadn’t had this brand’s before), Colby Jack cheese, bread and butter pickles, a whole type of sweet red pepper (don’t remember the name of it), and some Subway garlic aioli on a sesame seed bun. Had a mandarin orange gel fruit cup with it.

Still doing Spanish with Duolingo. I hit an 1100 day learning streak today. I had a lot of streak freezes for a while, so those days don’t count in between. (So, it’s been much longer than that.) For the last 7 weeks I haven’t used a freeze yet. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. Did 3 lessons. Didn’t miss any. Did all 3 quests for the day. I’m 8th in the league.

Went grocery shopping. I was going to get a Chomps bag, but they only had the singles. So I got 4 of them. Tonight’s dinner was a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich. That was pretty good. I just don’t like how much butter they put on it sometimes. It was ok this time with that. Dessert is going to be caramel apple pie. One of my faves. I'll have that as my last snack. I've been doing that often. Having the dessert as my last snack, not right after dinner. I don't know if that helps or not. Sometimes if it's a smaller meal that's not on my splurge days, I will have dessert right after. Then, I'll have a smaller last snack.

I found Amy’s frozen Chili Mac! I hadn’t seen it in a long time. My parent is thinking of making chili for Election Day dinner. We’ll have tortilla chips with it. If I don’t like it, I might have the chili mac instead.

I got some more kimchee. It’s probably good for my gut. It says it’s mild, but it’s a bit spicy to me. Might get sauerkraut instead next time.

I’ve been getting turkey bacon lately, too. This time I got a thick store brand one. I’m trying to get more protein into my diet.

Got a Korean BBQ yakisoba instant noodles. Sounded really good. I try to only have 1 instant noodle thing a week. It’s like a treat that way.

I found a maple pecan Honey Bunches of Oats. That sounded really good. Yes, I’m trying cereals again. Not many taste like cardboard now, which is a plus.

I’ve also been getting Chef Boyardee stuff. Mainly mac and cheese and beefaroni or ravioli. It’s surprisingly good, and not that bad for me. I used to think it was just for kids, and I didn’t have it much as a kid anyways. So, why not?

Monday dinner will be grilled chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes have some butter on them. It sounds pretty healthy, besides the butter. I’ll add BBQ sauce to the chicken. To jazz it up a bit. Having tiramisu cake for dessert. I like Safeway’s Chantilly cake with berries, but they didn’t have it this time. I’ll try this, though. With walking around the stores and at home, I managed to get 75 exercise minutes. Shows how much I do on grocery days.

I also got lottery tickets. Got 5 tickets. Mega Millions is up to $303 million. Half of that is still a lot. If I did win, I’d split it with my parent, and then do the annuity. I would still get quite a lot every year for 30 years. I doubt I’ll live that long, so I’d have to give it to someone else at some point. I keep thinking about what it would be like to win. I have a pinterest board dedicated to my dream home ideas. The next drawing is this Tuesday.

Just got my new sweater today. It’s a caramel-colored tunic sweater. From the same brand that did one of my other new sweaters. That one was nice and soft. Hopefully this one will be the same. I’ll wash it tomorrow. It’ll be laundry day, so perfect timing. 

I don't know how often I'll be able to post. It might just be on the weekends. I originally created this blog as an everyday thing. I don't know if I can do that. We'll see. I might post what I watch from Youtube in the future. I've seen some interesting ones. I don't really watch amv's (anime music videos) anymore. A lot of them are on history facts, science, animals, travel, etc. A lot of things. I have a lot of interests as it is, and I'd love to learn/watch more about things, so it's fun to me. 

National Oatmeal Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Strawberry Day!

Mood:


Strawberries are awesome!Too bad I don't have strawberries to help celebrate. Strawberries have always calmed me down. Maybe because the first time I had one, someone gave me it to cheer me up after I scrapped up my knee. It's also National Kahlua Day. Nice. Although, I can only have the cream pie or cake flavors of it. Too bad I don't have that either.


It was pretty cold throughout most of the weekend. Today was strange. It was cold enough to see really large snow flakes, but they didn't stick. It looked almost like hail. Most of the snow we had from before has melted. Which is nice. Especially for my parents who are coming home late tonight.Rosie has become very clingy. So, I wonder what she'll do when they're back.Tasha has come out of her basket more often, too. 


For Shabbat dinner I made the panko breaded fish, mashed potatoes (with chives and garlic), and green beans. It was all very good!Also, found like 1/3 of a loaf of a frozen challah. So, that was good. I don't need much, if it's just me. Also, had some sparkling apple cider. Kind of made it even more 'special'. The half a chocolate muffin was still really good! Saturday night I just had some of the leftover tuna casserole. Still tasty! Tonight, I had burritos. So, all in all, really good meals.


I had my own Shabbat services. Actually got to sleep in. Good, since it's our day of rest.Used an old prayer book, and read from my Tanakh. The portion this time was just about building the sanctuary (or really first temple?), how it was done, and what it looked like. A lot of things made out of gold, silver, and copper. Interesting, but not much goes on. Some people find it funny that they used dolphin skins. Funny, because there wasn't much water around them. They were in the desert after all.Rosie kept trying to eat the tzitzit on my tallit. Kind of annoying.


I also did Havdalah on my own. Used my candle from Tzfat for the first time. When lit, it's like a bonfire. Felt almost like I was going to burn the house down.I forget about Havdalah a lot of the time. It's sad.I like our homemade 'spice box'. Really more like jar. Kind of funny to try and hold the candle and grape juice by yourself. Also, to say the prayers and sing. Oh, well. I was happy to do it.


I played a little of the Sims 2 yesterday. Still with Hong Kong and Taiwan, inspired by Hetalia. They're trying to have a baby. I wonder what it would look like? They're also advancing in their careers pretty quickly. Maybe quicker than the previous family.Taiwan's now a nurse, and Hong Kong's a business exec. Interesting. I don't think those were the careers they wanted.But, they got them. It's always fun to see what they do next. They're not always predictable. Strange 'events' happen. Soon I hope to have them earn enough money so they can move to a different looking house. That should be fun.


I got a couple more awesome songs. So, look for those on upcoming posts.Juui Dolittle had a few twists this time. Makes it kind of exciting. Asuka's  going to get serious and try to become an animal nurse. Hanabishi actually admitted on his show that he can't operate because of the trauma he suffered. I hope it doesn't totally ruin his career. I like him a lot.It ruined Domon's plans though.Tokyo Wankei has just become so complicated, intense, and angsty. Not sure if I like that.The main part, that I kind of suspected, was Ryosuke and Mika are actually siblings. Which, normally wouldn't be my thing, but their situation's so strange. It's not like they knew they were related. It was all by chance. There's only a couple more episodes, so I'll see how it turns out.


Finished typing up entries for my online travel journal. I'll probably post the link tomorrow. There's not much to it at the moment. Hope to add pics, and maybe some smilies. Looks boring without.But, I guess people can read it if they want to. 


Also, saw a list of anime coming out in the Spring season. Gintama is confirmed to continue in April! It better be good. Considering its been a year. The list had a lot of other good looking anime shows, too. More to add to the list.


deviantART faves: Sim Character Map UPDATED OC Style Meme To Live and to Dream Good Morning.. Froyo Uh Oh Influence Map Template Mind Your Sugar Levels Razzberri I did not make these! First, a map of all the characters from all the sim dating games an artist I watch has done. I think I've played every one. Her humor's awesome. The map is so intricate, though. Some characters have made appearances in more than one game. Second, a meme to practice your oc in different styles. Like, futuristic, modern steampunk, etc. Sounds like an interesting one. Third, an amazing pic of a woman wearing a dress. Her expression's interesting too. The dress is pretty. Fourth, a pic of some cake and coffee. Looks really good. Fifth, a cute drawing of frozen yogurt swirls. What happens when you try to do it for the first time. I've had that happen too. Sixth, a cool meme about what influences you as an artist. I might fill it in someday. Seventh, a funny drawing of Gintoki from Gintama. Fits his personality. Eighth, a cute drawing of someone's avatar from Gaia. Haven't seen too many good drawings from that Gaia group, so it was nice. 


Youtube:
Himitsu or Secret by Suga Shikao:

Daijoubu by Majik Monkey. A more laid back, happy sounding song from them:

Awesome shamisen performance:

A funny fan-made trailer for Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei:

A live performance of 19 Sai or 19 years old by Suga Shikao. I think this version may sound the best. I love the violins:

Pluto Day!

Mood:


Today was the day Pluto was discovered.I thought it was a very interesting 'planet' when I researched it for school. Yes, back then, it was considered a planet!It was discovered in 1930. That's pretty recent. It was disqualified as a planet in August 2006, due to new rules on planets. Planets must 'clear the neighborhood around its orbit.' Pluto's oblong orbit overlaps Neptune's. I still feel it's a planet, though.It's also Battery Day. To celebrate the birthday of the electric battery's inventor, Count Alessandro Volta. He was born in 1745. Batteries were an amazing invention! So, they should be celebrated.


It was pretty cold today. But, I saw it may be even colder this coming week. Great.Possibility of snow too. My parents are going to San Francisco this Sunday. And, won't be back until next Sunday. I hope they have fun!I'll get a week to myself, which isn't bad either. It's a win-win.


Apparently, today's Gaia's 8-year anniversary. I can't believe they've been around that long.I didn't hear about it when they first started. Saw it a couple of years into college, and hated it. It was somewhat confusing, and a little boring.I've been a user now for a couple of years. And, it's significantly better. They've really come a long way. Hopefully they'll improve even more in the future.


I finally did my nails again. It's kind of a confidence booster to me.Or, at least nice to look at. This time it's like a frosty grey with some pink mixed in. Looks a lot better than it sounds.It's one of a few polishes that I have that aren't labelled. So, you don't know what you're really going to get. So far, so good though.


Watched Kiina. It was very interesting. Their episodes are supposedly based on true stories and facts. This time it was about a man who thought he was being cursed. He bought a bunch of things to try to counteract it. Lots of charms, dolls, masks, etc. One of his students tried cursing him too. She used a voodoo doll and stabbed it in the head. He actually died of a bee sting to the head. He was deathly allergic to them. So, the kid kept thinking she killed him. But, it turned out the teacher had a stalker from when he was in college. She began to get serious about it after an alumni meeting. She also worked at a place that she could easily get insects. Kiina thought that maybe the added stress of thinking he was cursed took a toll on his body already. So, he wasn't in very good health. I love how they presented the facts in this episode. 


I started on a new article in You Maga to write out. I grew very tired of the one I was working on.Wasn't very interesting to me. I know what the mountains are like in this area, so I needed something a little different. So, I started an article in the New Year's edition. I'll probably do a lot more in this one, because there's so many more interesting articles. I started with one titled Fortune and Spiritual Guide. It's personalized based on the year you were born. So, it seems 'deeper' than just, like, a horoscope. I don't know. I guess I'll find out.Also, got a chance to read more of Dune. 

National Gumdrop Day!

Mood:


It was actually yesterday, but I love gumdrops!So, it's a nice day to appreciate them. I read that no one knows who invented them. But, they were invented in the 1800's. It's older than I thought.


I've been feeling even crummier the last couple of days.Hence, why I didn't post yesterday. Every morning since I came back from Israel, I feel so nauseous. It got pretty intense yesterday and today. I have a hard time eating breakfast now.Mom suggested it may be from jet lag. Makes some sense. I guess it just doesn't want to leave. Hopefully, it will soon.


Posted chapter 12 of Alliance yesterday.Here's the link: Chapter 12 If you would like to read from the beginning it's here. It's been a long time since I posted a chapter.Kind of surprised me. But, oh well. It's there at least. I still have so many ideas for it!It's like a never ending story. I kind of like that, though. It's continuing/sticking to the plot, and to me at least, seems to be getting even better. So, I guess it may turn into a series. But, I have to finish the first book first.


I played TinierMe's fishing game. Last time I tried to play, it was really weird and I couldn't catch anything. Now, it's kind of addicting. (I guess they fixed it?) Made it to Hobby Fisher. Yay!

I watched the last episode of I've Been Married to Hell! or Erai Tokoro ni Totsuide Shimatta! Kimiko and her mother-in-law finally understand each other. After, she found out how Kimiko really felt. She became depressed, but later they resolved it. And, Kimiko won the title of the best bride of the town, by the women's social group. Kind of funny, considering what she started saying in front of the everyone.There was still a lot of really hilarious moments mixed in with this semi-more serious episode. Really good series throughout. Another one I'll miss.It was really fun to watch, too. The music fit the mood perfectly every time. It was a good ending. 


Posted a pic on dA: The Knesset. It's already got a fave! The first of many on dA. I'll get ready for my next batch of my Israel pics on FB. I'm doing it slower on dA, because I don't want to bombard people who watch me, or groups I might submit them to. 


Found out one of the vids I uploaded to Youtube (with permission from the owner), was taken off because of copyright infringement. They say if they take off 3 vids for the same reason, you're account will be deleted. Yay!So, even though I have permission to use the others, I took down everything but my fountain vid. Just to be safe.I've started seeing a lot of accounts being deleted. Kind of weird that they're 'cracking down' on it all of a sudden. Probably making even more people pissed off. They already made most of the users angry when they switched to the new user homepage. They're petitioning to have an option of reverting the page to the old version. I agree with this!Since the change, it's been cluttered, and they did something weird with my recommendation section. Before, there was a link to have a whole page of suggestions. Now, it's like 10 videos shown on the same page as the rest of the stuff. Plus, the vids they come up with for it, aren't as good. So, it's a bit weird.I'm not pissed, I just would like that option to revert back. 


There's a Hadassah meeting tonight. It's a potluck, and then a Rabbi will speak. I might bring my camera to show some people pics of the trip.Found out another guy from that Anime Forum wants to see my travel journal and pics. Seems like everybody does.Interesting. I'm still in the process of writing entries for my online travel journal. I might post what I've done so far tomorrow or something. It doesn't look like much at the moment, though.