22nd of Iyar

My mom's yahrzeit (Jewish anniversary of her death) was on the 9th of Iyar or May 14th this year. I forgot until it was the late afternoon, so didn't light a yahrzeit candle this year. I think she'd understand. We did 'visit' her and went to places she liked on May 1st, the regular calendar's anniversary. I had hoped to keep up my blogging more often again, but that hasn't worked out so well this month. 

Agender Pride Day was on the 19th. Again, an agender person is someone who doesn't have a gender. I didn't see many people putting it out there. Even in some of the LGBTQ+ pages I follow. Saw it briefly mentioned in an enby group on fb. It needs more visibility next year. There actually aren't many pages or groups on fb that are specifically centered on agender people. It feels like there aren't that many agender people in the enby group I'm in. They're mainly genderfluid.  

I wanted to join agender forums too, but there really aren't any. The neutrois forum I saw not long ago (which helped me realize) isn't active and is primarily archived. Good for looking up info, but no actual community on there. Neutrois is different, but they also had an agender side to that forum. It was a mix. Neutrois is a neutral gender. It does not mean they are without a gender, just that they are 'neutral'. 

Agender is aka genderless, genderfree, gendervoid, gendernull, and more. Agender seems to be the newest term. There are agender people that are slightly masculine or feminine. Of the small amount of agender people in that group, most seem to be like that. I'm neither. Absolutely no masculine or feminine sides to me. To me, those are more like styles, I guess? 

It was World IBD Day that same day. Their theme this year was making the invisible visible. IBD is considered an invisible illness, since most of it is internal or people are good at hiding the extraintestinal manifestations. Extraintestinal manifestations like arthritis, rashes, swelling, mouth sores, eye inflammation (multiple types), bone thinning, kidney stones, liver issues, anemia, and more. I've had malabsorption issues that contributed to things like my nails becoming more brittle, hair thinning, ankles swelling, and weird rash spots on my legs. We can look perfectly fine, but inside it's a completely different story. We're also more likely to develop colon cancer. 

Patients are often discriminated against, too. Some use handicap parking spots, and since they look 'fine' people hassle them. There are those that are denied restroom access, which can turn into a humiliating and frankly unsanitary event. Some avoid going out because they're worried they won't find or be able to use a restroom. Some are chastised for using a disabled (or I think some call it family) stall. Some patients need that extra space to empty their stoma bags and clean up. People have resorted to getting cards that have info on why they need to use an employee restroom (if there aren't regular ones), disabled stall, and those parking spots. Basically to prove it, which is kind of disgusting that they'd have to go that far. If people ignore the card, and they can't get access, they could sue them. 

Had my first rheumatology appointment last Tuesday, which also happened to be what would have been my mom's birthday. I was really nervous. I wanted to go through all my symptoms, making sure to correctly describe them, and remember to ask about certain things. I didn't get through all of the symptoms, since he asked a few questions on each one I brought up. 

Here are most of my symptoms: My muscles and joints are sore/stiff and weak, there are rashes on my eyelids and forehead (can't tell as much, but suspect that my scalp, part of my nose, and parts of my ears have them too), really itchy scalp that feels like it's on fire (burns more when I scratch it, so it's an endless cycle), hair loss (starting to see very small bald patches), lightheaded, jaw pain, earache, dysphagia (trouble swallowing), tongue pain, feeling really full despite not eating, less of an appetite, crook of elbows both have a weird bruised/cold/partially numb feeling that is especially painful at night, losing flexibility in a couple of fingers (surprisingly annoying when it was a pinky finger at first), weird hard bumps on some finger joints, nausea, occasionally hard to breathe, cough a lot at night, both knees feel painful and partially numb, spitting up very thick balls of bloody phlegm. It's a lot. 

He kept saying sorry every time I winced in pain while he was doing a physical and checking how my joints and muscles were. I'm going to be in pain whether I saw him or not. He told me that muscle pain and tenderness isn't common with dermatomyositis (dm). Yet, all the articles I've read so far say it's very common. It makes sense that it would since their muscles are being broken down. Reminds me of when I was told by one of the GIs that patients with IBD don't usually feel pain. One of the main symptoms is abdominal pain...In the many IBD groups I'm in on fb, everyone has said they were in pain. Even while in remission, which is true for me. The scarring of my colon causes more pain than I thought it would.

He's not sure about the rash. The eyelid rash he showed me seemed like an extreme case. The main pic that pops up in a search looks an awful lot like mine. I even showed him the pics I took last month. He was surprised by them. He tried to look at my scalp, but I still had so much hair that he had a hard time seeing anything. He didn't say anything about it, either. 

He briefly said that lupus might be a possibility, but spent most of the time bringing up fibromyalgia. Even gave me a 15-page info pamphlet on it. I noticed after reading some of it that they do that to prepare patients for the possibility that all the blood tests will come back normal. I don't think it's lupus or fibro. Neither would make sense to me. Plus, not all my results have been normal. The C-reactive Protein (for inflammation) was high, and ANA screen (for autoimmune diseases) was a strong positive and had an unusual pattern. 

He did order a bunch more blood tests. Many testing for certain protein enzymes, antibodies, Sjorgren's, a myositis panel (there are other types of muscle diseases), and a rheumatoid factor. So far, they've been negative or normal. There are still a few more. These tests are mainly used to narrow down the possibilities. They may need to do imaging like an MRI, ultrasound, electromyogram (like an electrocardiogram, but for muscles where they measure their electrical activity, as well as the nerves), or biopsies. 

He referred me to their Speech, Language, and Learning department for a modified barium swallow exam to look more into my dysphagia. I made an appointment for it next month. It sounds like an interesting test. I don't have to fast beforehand, and there won't be a copay. A speech pathologist will be observing while the radiologist runs it. I have a feeling I might have to see her for a follow-up. They gave me her name. I think he mentioned it'd be good to see one since they can help me with my dysphagia. They have you stand for 10 minutes for the first part. During that they give you drinks and food infused with barium, tell you to eat/drink them, and they take images (not sure if there's video...That would be cool) at the same time. The barium makes it visible in the images and easier to see what goes on while you swallow. There are a lot of muscles in the throat and any one of them could be involved. They watch each stage of the swallowing process. I've read that treatment for dysphagia often depends on what part is not working correctly. For the 2nd part, you lay on a table on your belly. They ask you to do the same thing. That's going to be uncomfortable. I could see why they'd want imaging with different positions, though. 

He also referred me to their Dermatology department. I tried to make an appointment, but they didn't have anything until October. He wants me to be seen sooner and that seems like a long time to wait. So, they gave me the names of 2 clinics they contract out-of-network with and their phone numbers. If they have something sooner, I need to call Dermatology again and have them send a referral. He wanted a dermatologist to check out my rashes, hair loss, and scalp issues. I might call Dermatology again and ask about appointments for other locations. They had me call the Silverdale location before, but maybe the other ones will have openings sooner. 

I made sure to ask him about prescribing something for the pain. This is difficult. I've been told to avoid NSAIDs, because they can trigger a colitis flare. Opioids have a similar affect. Sometimes they prescribe antidepressants for pain. I take Lamotrigine, which keeps me well balanced and stable. It's technically an anticonvulsant, but it can have negative interactions with antidepressants. I really don't want to mess with that. So, he left it up to me to decide. I went with an NSAID. I'd rather have a colitis flare than mess with my mental health. 

I was prescribed Celebrex. It's an arthritis painkiller. He put me on the lowest dose possible: 1 50mg capsule twice a day. (They're so tiny!) Understandable. The site for it suggests you start out at that lowest dose, plus I think he wants to see how it affects me. If I flare, maybe it won't be as bad with such a low dose. They say I won't get the full benefit of it until around the 2 week mark. So, I still have to wait and see. I think it's helping a little. 

Finished Duolingo's Korean course yesterday. Also, made it to the sapphire league, which is the 2nd to highest league. Yay! It goes bronze, silver, gold, sapphire, and I don't know the highest. You get 'promoted' to the next league if you're in the top 10 at the end of a week. It's based on xp you've earned. Every lesson is 10xp. I barely squeaked by at #10 yesterday. 

Their Korean course was awful, but not awful enough to drop it like I did with Russian. The 'correct' translations of sentences had very poor English grammar, which made it harder to answer correctly. Made it very awkward. There were no speaking exercises. That's important to have. Sometimes the recording of the speaker wasn't clear. I did learn quite a bit. I can read the alphabet now, too. 

Since I started learning a new language every 3-4 months, I've studied German, Chinese, Italian, and now Korean. Chinese was the only one that wasn't through Duolingo. It was through HelloChinese. They had a really amazing course, which would have been great for other languages, too. Duolingo should take lessons from them. I'm thinking of starting Dutch today. I've had ancestors that came from the Netherlands, so that would be interesting. Of the Germanic languages, Dutch is considered the closest to English. It's a lot like German, which I also liked. They're more likely to have speaking exercises.

Managed to start coloring in the full body drawing of Shadow last week. It's a bit difficult figuring out exactly what colors I want in Photoshop. I might shade it a bit, too. Also, managed to edit up to chapter 17 of Alliance last week. I think there are 20 chapters, so I'm close to the end.

Dropped Perfume on Netflix. It's a German detective show based on a novel. It had way too many sex scenes. That's saying a lot. I normally can just look away and wait. I don't particularly like those scenes. It's like some of these shows couldn't come up with anything, so they just threw in those scenes to fill up time. The story was interesting.

Black Summer on Netflix was surprisingly good. It's a zombie show. Hope they make another season, because it really didn't have an end. 

Dramaworld on Netflix was very interesting. The main character is played by the same actor that played Abby, Sheila and Joel's daughter, from Santa Clarita Diet. They recently came out as non-binary, which is cool. Nice to see them in something else. Anyways, this was basically a Korean drama within a Korean drama. The main character, who's American (the actual actor is Australian) and doesn't understand Korean, gets sucked into Dramaworld. It's where all the K-dramas come from. She's a huge K-drama fan. She has to save their world. She can understand the other characters because they're subtitled for her, and they can understand her since she's subtitled for them. Although, the 'leading' man knows English and mostly talks to her in it. The person who introduces her to their world, is also from the 'real' world. He hands her a book of rules and tells her that they facilitate characters. They make sure things go smoothly. He speaks both English and Korean. He played a really good villain. It basically mocked (in a fun and lighthearted way) K-drama cliches. I don't know too many of them, since I haven't seen many K-dramas. Especially, romantic ones. A lot of them were similar to ones in J-dramas, though. In their world, every time a woman's about to fall, a man is there to catch her. Although, that rule was broken once. There's an obligatory shower scene of the leading man. If a woman saves a man, the man falls in love with her. Same with the other way around. Random drunk women jump on the backs of men they don't know, and the men carry them home. It partially reminded me of Westworld, too. The only thing I didn't like was how short the episodes were. They left it wide open at the end, too. They should make a 2nd season. It was a collab between American (plus that one Australian, who acts in American shows) and Korean actors. They also shot most of it in South Korea. Seems more authentic that way. 

I'm almost done with watching Slasher: Solstice on Netflix. It's the 3rd season, and every season has a different story. First season is just Slasher, 2nd is Slasher: Guilty Party. It's a Canadian horror/detective series. They recycle some of the actors from other seasons, but they play different characters. This season's apparently based on real murder cases. Makes it a bit scarier that way. I think it's been even better than the other 2. Every season has had at least 2 LGBTQ+ characters. This one has a lot of them. There's even an ace character. They showed the process of her figuring it out after a bi character suggested it. They even mentioned it. This seems like a pretty big thing. Especially in a series that's popular enough to get 3 seasons. There's quite a lot of sex scenes, but not nearly as much as Perfume. I can at least ignore it in this one. It seems a little different to have mostly LGBTQ+ characters in those sort of scenes. The ace character even has sex. That shatters a stereotype, so kudos at least on that front. She also has a boyfriend she seems romantically attracted to. Often a stereotype with portraying ace people in media is that they're aro and not interested in dating or being in any close relationship with anyone. It would be cool to see an aro ace character in a qpr in main stream media, but I think that's too 'out there' for people. It tackles some tough topics like LGBTQ+ hate, racism, Islamophobia, and more. The majority of the cast are people of color. That's cool to see. The murders are really brutal. I'm still unsure who the killer is. They're hiding it a lot better than they did with the other seasons. Most of my guesses have died already or weren't around when some of the murders happened. I do think there are 2 Druids. The killer's referred to as the Druid. The first one committed the first murder a year ago. The second one's been killing a lot of people on the anniversary of it. Seemingly people that were related in some way to the first murder. They seem a lot more calculated, cruel, and planned with the second killer. That's my theory anyway. 

National Pretzel Day!

This holiday was yesterday. I love pretzels! I prefer the big soft ones, but the flavored smaller/hard ones are good, too. 

My mom's yahrzeit was on the 9th of Iyar on the Jewish calendar. It's the 12th, now. (It's a lunar calendar, so days start at sunset.) A yahrzeit is an anniversary of a death. This was her 6th one. I can't believe it has been 6 years! (The Jewish calendar year was 5772.) On the 'regular' or Gregorian calendar it's May 1st. I lit a yahrzeit candle when it started, and those go for 24 hours. I tried to think a bit more about her that day, but those memories seemed a bit hazy to me. On May 1st Dad and I might visit her grave. I'm curious if there are more rocks on it this year. It's a custom to leave a rock while visiting a grave. Kind of like how other people leave flowers. I like the idea of leaving rocks more. Flowers will whither away. Rocks are permanent. Some people try to leave nice looking ones. Others just grab what's around. There were only a few last year. Also, it was very buggy. Hope it's not like that this year. I wonder what she would have thought about me creating a cookbook out of the recipes she has collected. 

The weather has been warmer lately. For a while, it felt like winter was never going to end. It got up to around 80°F yesterday. That's really warm for this time of year. Today, it got up to just a little over 60°. Such a difference. In the next couple of days, it's expected to be in the low 50s, and then it will be in the 70s next week. So many swings in temperature...Almost like it can't decide. Although, being in the 70s for most of next week sounds really nice. 

As soon as it started getting warmer, I decided to switch to my spring/summer shirts. I noticed while going through my fall/winter shirts that I only have one shirt that doesn't have holes, isn't fraying, and isn't missing something (lost a clasp to one of them...). That's kind of sad. I'll have to get more for those seasons in the future. I have a lot more to choose from with the spring/summer stuff. Might want aro, ace, and/or agender related shirts in the future, too. That'd make it fun, and I can be out with those. I definitely need new jeans, too. I'm surprised at how quickly mine have fallen apart lately. I sometimes wear my older ones that are at least a size too big. They're still holding up well. No holes or anything. It's odd. I'm hoping that I'm still the same size, or one smaller, as my current ones are. I think I am, knowing how baggy my old ones still are. 

I finally broke the 100 page mark for Alliance 3. (A little over 200 pages altogether.) Not sure how long this one will be. I'm editing the recipes. Last time I mentioned I was just rearranging and adding new categories. There hasn't been much to edit with the actual recipes, and I'm blazing through it. Next, I'll compile a list of companies/family members to credit. Interestingly, a lot of them don't list a source. There a lot from the Austin American Statesman, as well as Bisquik, Tyson, and The Kitsap Sun. There were a lot of fish ones from an unnamed grocery store, so that's a bit difficult to credit. I think a couple of the companies (not ones I listed) are defunct. They should still be credited. 

I posted 3 more character heads/busts to dA and Instagram. They were of Kenta, Anzu, and Max. Kenta and Anzu are married, and Junko is their adopted daughter. All 3 are cat demons, but Junko's not 'pure'. Junko's more of a side main character and is friends with Shadow. (He's the main character.) Max is a skeleton demon. I'm not very happy with how Kenta turned out. In my head, he looks somewhat similar to a character I drew a long time ago. His face ended up too narrow, eyes too small, ears maybe a little too big. At least I attempted to draw him. Anzu wasn't bad. Max was fun to do. The next batch will have more fun ones. I've probably drawn Ravel the most out of all my characters in the past, so it should be interesting to draw him again.  

I have a lot of characters in the series. It's basically built on them. I've already drawn 12 heads so far. I think there are 18 that are described and play some role in the first book. That's not counting demons they saw on exhibit at a zoo, demons at the graveyard near the school, ones from characters' memories in their background stories. This is just the first book. More characters pop up in the 2nd and the 3rd one I'm currently writing. There are also lots of buildings, landscapes, etc. I want to get to. Eventually, I do want to draw full and colored in bodies of these characters. There are tattoos, scars, jewelry, clothes, and such you can't see with just the heads. So, I have a lot of ideas for future drawings.

I got through a big section or 'trek' for German on Duolingo. The last lesson was more difficult than usual. That was on future tense. I only have 2 more treks to go through. Then, I'll try to go through everything again and earn the full 5 crowns for each lesson. That'll take a while. Apparently with each crown there are more parts to a lesson. Normally there are 3-6 parts to them. I looked at some for the next crown, and those have roughly 15-20 parts. That's too many! I won't get through an entire lesson in one go that way. Oh well. I can't imagine how many parts the 5-crown lessons have. 

I found out that my hair curl styling mousse is discontinued. So, I looked for something new at Safeway. I wanted something that was also alcohol-free. (As well as easier to find.) I found 3 or 4 of them. I decided to try Tresemme's version. It has a level 4 out of 5 hold rating. I need something strong for my hair. The first time I used it like my previous mousse. It became fluffier/frizzier and didn't hold it for long. I know that my hair stylist told me that I need more than I used to use anyways. My hair's longer and prone to dry out more. So, today I followed more of what was on the bottle. I really worked it in, much like I do with my hair calming spray. I combed it with a wide-toothed comb after that. That's the only type of comb that I can use with my hair now. Unless I want to damage it more. Then, I styled my curls the way I would have normally done. With wrapping sections around my finger, holding it for a moment, and letting it go each time. It makes cascading ringlets this way. It seems that, with this method, this mousse works so much better than my previous one. I should have looked at others sooner. It still has a good hold and I did it this morning. 

I decided to only look at my notifications on facebook during the week. I'll share things that I found through my Google news alerts that are interesting, my blog posts, and post any personal updates. During the weekend, I'll go through my feed, but set time limits on it. I think I was spending too much time on there. I shouldn't try to catch up on everything every day. I've only followed this for a couple of days. I feel a bit better, though. I know some people who swear off fb for a while, because they were so into it. I might if I have to wait at a restaurant during the week go through some of my feed. I'm also going to try and check in to more places with it, instead of sharing my Swarm ones. 

International Museum Day!

Mood:

This holiday was actually yesterday. It's important to celebrate and raise awareness for what museums go through around the world, though.There are so many different kinds. Basically showing off humanity's arts, history, exploration, scientific discoveries, culture, etc. The holiday was started in 1977. Apparently, each year has a different theme. This year's theme was Museums and Cultural Landscapes. In 2012, 30,000 museums from 129 countries participated in hosting events for the day. World Baking Day was a couple of days ago. Hope to get more into that in the future. Baking's like a new frontier for me.

I did want to post more often on here. There's still more to the month, so hopefully I will get it to more by then.I've really felt horrendous the last couple of days. It was so bad last night, that I had to leave the room halfway through a support group meeting. I apparently was gone for about 20 minutes.Really painful abdominal pain, a burning inside my stomach, and extreme nausea were and are still my main symptoms. I'm trying to relax a little more today. Although, that's easier said than done.Might make an appointment to see a dietitian at the place my primary doctor referred me to, soon. That might help me. I feel frustrated and unsure if either of my current doctors can or will do anything about what I'm going through right now.It feels like since my blood tests came back, essentially saying I'm in remission, that they won't believe me or something. I naturally have that feeling with any health related thing. Like it's all in my head, and no one will believe me. Yet, that's never been true. So, this makes that feeling worse. I've read stories where people still have inflammation, even though their blood tests indicated that they were in remission. It got so bad for them that they had to go to the hospital. I don't want that to happen to me.So, I guess I'm in a weird 'head space' with it right now. Maybe I'm lacking in certain vitamins, not getting enough calories, or something. And, after talking to a dietitian, that stuff might change for the better.

Since Sunday, I've been trying to stay as close to 1200 calories as I can. I'm starting to think that low end might actually be too low.Also, have been trying to do 3 2-mile walks a day since then. My left leg started to really hurt a couple of days into it. I still want to keep at it, but since I was feeling so horrible yesterday (and today) I decided to lay off of it a bit. I got to one walk yesterday, at least. I was doing my sit-ups, as well. I think I lost more weight this week already. A little faster than usual. We'll see what happens when I feel up to going back to doing all that again.

I decided to drop Sousei no Onmyouji or Twin Star Exorcists. It felt like it was getting stale.Not much was happening, and it was going at a snail's pace. It seemed like it'd be an interesting one, so I was a bit reluctant to drop it. Kept thinking that it'll soon change, but I got tired of waiting.

Started watching Sakamoto desu ga or Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto in Twin Star's place. It's a lot funnier than I expected. Sakamoto's supposed to be the 'coolest' student in school. Nothing seems to get to him. Even when he's bullied, he turns the situation around like nothing happened. Another student pulled out his chair before he sat down, and instead of falling, Sakamoto somehow sat in the air like the chair was still there. Another student threw his desk outside, so he decided to lay down on the window sill and open the window instead. He fought a huge wasp without batting an eye. He saved a bird, and seemed to be flying as he did so. Kind of reminds me of those commercials with the 'Most Interesting Man', and a little bit of Daily Lives of High School Boys. Same sort of humor with the latter, too. 

Started watching SPEC a couple of weeks ago. I haven't seen a Jdrama in a while. Someone suggested it on a list of Japanese dramas that people should watch when they start out. I've seen most of what was on that list. They said SPEC seemed similar to Bloody Monday. That automatically grabbed my attention.I loved that show! This seems quite different so far. It deals more with supernatural criminal cases. Bloody Monday was about a terrorist organization that had a deadly virus, and the detectives hired a hacker to help try to stop them. The acting was amazing. Especially with the 'evil' head of that organization. The acting in this one is questionable so far.I don't think it's on the same level as Bloody Monday. It also brings up the popular myth that we only use 10% of our brains, but there are few who can access it all. This is utter nonsense. If you only used 10% of your brain, you wouldn't be able to function.You'd essentially be a vegetable. Maybe worse than that. Some tasks require that you use every part of your brain. Sure, maybe at varying time intervals, but you still use it. However, I have heard people say that we don't know much about the brain, and that might be where that percentage came from. Just that we don't know much about the rest of it. So, it already has some points docked down in my book. The criminals use these special abilities they've gained through accessing those 'other' parts of their brain. Now, if they just said that they gained special powers that were somehow lying dormant, that'd be different and more interesting. There seems to be an organization that's visiting all the criminals that have been caught so far. Usually killing them off without the police knowing. (Even when they're in jail with a straight jacket, alarms around them, a lock charged with a high voltage, etc.) It's still interesting enough to keep me coming back to it. It'd be more so finding out more about that group.

Finished watching Erased. It had a good ending, but seemed a little too neat and tidy. The 'murderer' ended up never killing anyone, because Satoru was able to foil all of his plans since he knew the future. I predicted who it was by the 2nd or 3rd episode.The Japanese title, Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, when translated literally, makes a lot of sense. Especially, with the last episode. It's: The Town Where Only I am Missing. The murderer tried to kill Satoru while he was still his past self as a kid. Satoru was found instead, and fell into a coma for 15 years. Meanwhile, he was still growing. When he woke up, he momentarily forgot about his 'future' self, and was slightly surprised seeing himself suddenly as an adult. The murderer waited during that entire time. He contemplated killing Satoru every day, but never could do it. They finally got him for attempted murder after tricking him at the end. Satoru was able to save everyone, and his friends lived on without him during that time. Kind of sad. He created a manga about it all after a couple more years in the hospital. Later, it turned into an anime. 

Started watching Bitter Blood a couple of weeks ago. Another Jdrama. It was also on that list I mentioned. I've been reluctant to watch this one for a while.The promo pic and title are a bit misleading. It's popular, and I think it's been nominated for awards. Also, has quite a few actors I like and am familiar with. It's based on a novel by the same name. Another title for this is Partners by Blood. It's about a rookie detective named Natsuki Sawara, who's assigned to the Ginza Police Station. He's quickly partnered with his estranged father Akimura Shimao. His parents divorced when he was 13, and was raised by his grandparents. They're constantly butting heads, but are realizing they have quite a lot in common. Natsuki seems reckless at times, and his father might be overly cautious at times. They seem to be learning from each other. It has a lot of hilarious moments. Pretty good so far. Glad I finally tried it.

Also, recently started Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge, or Tanaka-kun is Always Listless. This has been interesting. Very relaxing and funny. Like the title says, Tanaka is always listless. Constantly using as little energy as possible. He sleeps half the time, or tries to. His friend Oota (sometimes written as Ohta), is constantly helping him get up and do things. Like, he picks Tanaka up and puts him over his shoulder when he wants to go somewhere, reminds him to eat, encourages him to participate more during PE, and more. Tanaka actually prays every morning at a shrine for an uneventful day. Ends it usually with threatening G-d. This one also seems a bit like Daily Lives of High School Boys. Only in a very lighthearted and semi-surreal way. Even the art is soothing. During the last episode, a short energetic female student, named Miyano, asked to be Tanaka's apprentice in becoming listless. The only time it somewhat worked was when she was daydreaming or stressing out about town mascots. She wasn't even aware of it. And, Oota thought she actually surpassed Tanaka in her listlessness at that point. She thinks that if she becomes like Tanaka, she'll look mature and her crush will like her more. Since she's short, she thinks people see her as immature. I thought she'd be annoying, but I actually liked her by the end. Interesting personalities with the characters so far. Tanaka mentioned at one point, that Oota looks more like a main character to a show than him. He helps everyone out, seems to be good at anything he does, stands out because of how tall he is, everyone seems to like him, he's quiet at times, and more.

Finished the manga Kuro or Black. It was cute, yet dark at the same time. Very short, too. I don't think there was a true ending.It kind of cut off abruptly, and there were 'extra' side stories after. It was about a girl living with her black cat in a huge mansion. The town has black monsters that attack people if they stray from the path. That path's lined with special paint from flowers that keep them away as a deterrent. Those flowers are used in shots so the townspeople can see those monsters. The flowers come from the mansion's greenhouse. The owners hand over a certain amount each month. The girl lives alone, besides the cat, in the mansion. The cat is named Kuro, and is half like those monsters, and the other half is still like his cat self before he was attacked. Apparently, those monsters can't fully take over something unless it's dead. At the time, Kuro was barely alive. So, he has some of the powers of those monsters, and uses them to protect the girl. The problem is they have to drain other creatures' color in order to live. So, he slowly drains her of color. Eventually, her hair turns white. The girl can't see the monsters, since she never got the shot. A lot of the townspeople hate Kuro, and attack him every once in a while. He never really hurt people, though. The doctor finally realized close to the end that Kuro is actually safe, and doesn't want to hurt anyone. Occasionally, he'll actually attack the monsters that wander near the mansion. It was a very interesting story. Just wish it explained more, and actually showed what happened after the last scene. 

Also finished reading 6 no Trigger or Trigger of 6. I ended up changing my opinion on the main character by the end. He was actually a lot more kind than I realized. He only had a certain crude attitude around one of the female characters, because I think he knew she wasn't who she said she was from the beginning. Turned out her boyfriend was possessing her, and the longer he did so, the more her body broke down. He tried to hide it from Tsubame as best he could. Apparently, the one who created the mechanical arms that Tsubame uses, named Frost, just wanted to be a mother. (Everyone apparently thought she was a guy.) She couldn't physically be one. Especially, because she had a disease and was going to die young. So, developing the personalities/souls connected to each arm was like her way, in her mind, to have children. Tsubame kind of became a father this way. She just wanted to use his body as a host body. She did care for him, but that was her main goal when she first met him. Also, her little brother came down with the same disease, and doesn't have much time left to live. Frost is already dead. Before she passed away, she put his soul in the final mechanical arm, and asked Tsubame if he could find her brother's body and return it to him. So, he's been searching for him ever since. If her brother's going to die soon, why give him back his soul just beforehand? I know that they said she wanted the soul to transcend his body, but why look for it, then? Who was that person that briefly showed up in a crowd that seemed to have another mechanical arm? (Not exactly sure if they had one, but it looked like it.) I think they can easily continue this one. It was pretty good.

My mom's yahrzeit (the Jewish anniversary of her passing away) was on the night of the 16th and went to sundown the next day. It was the 9th of Iyar on the Jewish calendar. I forgot until halfway through the day on the 17th. I was just going to plug in the electronic memorial candle. I had forgotten that we also had a huge bag of yahrzeit candles. So, we used one of those and the electronic one. The yahrzeit candles burn for 24 hours, so it went for about a half of a day longer than it would have if I had lit it when the yahrzeit actually started. I think she would be ok if it wasn't exact. Just the idea that we spent some time remembering her was more than enough. 

Rosie has found a new spot. Ever since I got the new lamp, she's been laying down, sleeping, and happily watching me in a corner next to/partially on my huge stuffed lamb with her back to my closet's door. Normally she uses that stuffed lamb as a kneading pillow. I think I got it when I was in the hospital for about a week for a 2nd time. That was in early 2008 (or late 2007), and I had 6,000 times the clotting factor compared to normal healthy people. I had a blood clot in every aveoli or air sac in my lungs. Never found out why or how.Or, it could have been a year before when I was hospitalized for pneumonia for a week. I could barely breathe, and they drained my lungs of a couple of liters of fluid. (Really painful.) Anyways, someone visited me during one of those times, and gave that lamb to me. It's about half my size. It was hilarious when I got it, and looked at it on my hospital bed. It can easily smother me. At least, when you hug it, it can hug back...It was very nice of that person, though. To give me something to try and cheer me up. It's so big, I keep it on the floor between my bed and closet. One of the few places where it's somewhat out of the way. It's really nice and soft. I'm surprised Rosie is just now discovering that it can be used for more than just a kneading pillow. Maybe it something to do with the lighting being better now with the lamp. I don't know why, but she loves to watch me. No matter what I do, she loves it.