11th of Av

It's been really warm lately. I've felt less motivated to post because of it. We only had 2 or 3 days of relief. Thank goodness we had them! This week seems like it'll be the hottest. Possibly the low 90s for most of it. Today's high was 90. It was supposed to be the coolest day of the week. It'll cool down again this weekend. Anything above 75 degrees feels too warm to me. This sort of weather isn't the norm for the area, too. Last year was more brutal, though. At least we don't have heavy smoke at the same time. We're also going through a drought now. (It looks like it'll get worse for the next couple of weeks.) Yay! Droughts are rare here, too. 

Went to Kitsap Pride, and helped out at the local trans group's booth. At most we had 5 people show up to help. At times, I was the only one there. We had info brochures, hi-chew candy, and a clothing exchange behind the booth. It probably would have been better if the clothes were in front of it. Made it a little more difficult to get to, and some people didn't even notice it. I made sure to tell them when I was there. Despite that, people still managed to take some things. Also, it didn't help much that we didn't have a banner. People didn't know who we were at first.

There were a couple of people that asked: "So, does that mean a man wanting to be a woman, and a woman wanting to be a man?" This was gross. No, trans women are women, and trans men are men. They are not 'wanting' to be something they already are. Not to mention, they kept up the binary stuff. They didn't even think about non-binary people. We tried to explain a little, but mainly directed them to the info brochures. Some people seemed confused by it. There were quite a few people that seemed interested in the group. That was great to see.

I felt a little uneasy that there were so many church groups there. It's great that they're supportive, and Christian LGBTQ+ people know that they have options with congregations. However...it almost seemed like they were trying to coerce people to become members or convert them. I'm a little paranoid of churches anyways. They haven't been kind to any of my communities (Jews, LGBTQ+, etc.) in the past. Many of them are very ignorant of other religions and people. Cool that things are changing, but it doesn't change that feeling I get. Even meeting with a group (unrelated to a religion) at a church is difficult for me. 

I was wearing my aro ace pride shirt. There were a surprising amount of other aros and/or aces. When they saw my shirt, the reactions were great. Some loved it and wanted it, and asked where I got it. Others were so emotional and happy. Yay! Last year there were hardly any of us there. This year I also saw a lot of the big ace flags worn as capes. There were a lot of non-binary and non-binary specific identity flags, too. So many more trans flags than usual. Amazing to see. 

I had a cheeseburger with chips for lunch. I like that that food booth seasons their burgers well. A lot of places make the patty plain. I went back a little later and got their Dutch apple pie. That was really good, too. It was a thick slice. 

I looked at all the booths, saw some of the headliner's performance on the main stage, and a little of the drag stuff at a stage in front of our booth. The booths were interesting. That creepy flag guy's booth was there again. He actually had a huge aro flag hanging on the outside of his booth. That was good to see, but I wasn't going to get one from him. Good for other people. There are about 5 different designs for the aro flag, and he had the newest one. I would like the first design. It doesn't seem very popular, though. The symbolism makes the most sense and looks better to me. For instance, the yellow stripe is for yellow roses which symbolize friendship, but also other forms of love besides the romantic kind. They turned that stripe white in the current one, and kept the meaning for it. But, it loses it if it's not yellow...The current one seems more based on the ace flag, and yet we're trying to separate from that community. Doesn't make sense that way, and probably makes aro allosexuals feel left out. Most aros are actually allosexual. Allosexual or allo is what aces call someone who isn't ace. Aros use alloromantic or allo for those who aren't aro, too. The flag should be different. Anyways, I mostly had fun there. 

A little while ago, Dad and I went to the dump. She had rented a U-Haul truck this time. The dump is pretty far from where we are, and we made 2 trips there. Most of it was stuff from the garage. A little of it was from outdoor stuff. I added up how much it weighed from the receipts. 1,040 pounds! So much! I didn't realize there was that much junk in the garage. 

One of the biggest things we got rid of was the couch sitting in the garage. It had been there for about 17 years. I tried to help load it into the truck. I ended up dropping it on my upper left leg and part of my knee. It felt like I had punctured holes in my leg. I thought I had ripped my jeans, too. It badly bruised it in those areas instead. It's still there. Those bruises have changed colors and seem to look worse now. Anything that lands/sits on my left leg hurts. Not only that, but it strained my already badly strained shoulder even more. So, that couch and other junk beat me up. Great.

We also took 2 of my mom's paintings to a storage unit. One was really big and had been hanging over my head for years while I slept. I used to worry that it would fall on my head at night. She did that one in high school and it's of one of her friends. She's playing the guitar on the floor with a couch behind her. (Presumably the same one we had in the garage for a while. It was originally my grandparents', I think.) It's at a weird perspective. It's not that great a painting either. She painted my room's walls in 2 of the colors she used in the painting. One's baby blue, and the other three are 'fortune cookie'. So, it's all based on that painting. It's a little much. I have a mirror that was on the wall facing the painting, and it was creepy at night sometimes. Without the lights, it looked like someone else was in my room. Now the wall that had the painting looks too bare...I might put flags up in that area. 

The other painting was also something she did in high school. It was a match striking a matchbox. However, no one guessed it correctly. I thought as a kid that it was the moon, the smoke was actually it's face, and there was the night sky at the top. I couldn't come up with something for the strip it was striking. It just seemed odd. This one is big too, although not as big. It was on a wall in the living room. 

I was trying to get back into walking the day before I badly strained my shoulder. I was all hyped up for it. After going to Urgent Care for my shoulder, I focused more on healing it. Then, the heat hit. I can't stand walking outside in this weather. Certainly not for 2 miles. I thought of an exercise I could do inside: climbing stairs at home. Running up and down them for a few minutes, then taking a break, then going back to it for a few minutes, etc. Haven't gotten to it yet. We don't have air conditioning, so this would actually make me feel hotter. I'm trying to keep as cool as possible. I love when I brought this exercise option up with someone they were surprised I try to exercise normally. It's like they completely forgot. I think the heat had gotten to them. It just surprised me. I've talked about my walks and motivating myself to do them on here, fb, and in person with them in the past. I used to do 3 of those 2-mile walks, and would like to work my way back to that. I figure starting with one until I get used to it, then adding another, is best. I'd like to do that one right after dinner. Easy to remember, and helps with digestion. Hopefully, when it gets cooler out, I'll get back to it. It's important to get some form of exercise. I feel awful when I don't have something like that walk. I also have to be careful not to do too much, because my colitis symptoms feel worse afterwards. I also tend to walk at a 'very brisk pace' according to MyFitnessPal. Many people have come up to me during my walks telling me I walk too fast. 

Barnes & Noble now has 4 out of the 5 paperback versions of my books. All but the memoir. The memoir couldn't go into expanded distribution through Amazon, because the size might be slightly too big. Still, 4 of them isn't bad. First time I've had any paperback versions on B&N. (I've had 2 ebook versions on there in the past, but this is different.) Yay! I'm not exactly sure but it seems that in a couple of weeks they'll have it at their brick-and-mortar stores. They won't report the sales until a couple of weeks after that. Amazon, really kdp, isn't very clear on the specifics of their expanded distribution program. It's new for their kdp paperback authors. Not new for CreateSpace authors, but it might be a different way of doing it. (Amazon's slowly phasing out CS.) I've never used CS, so it's new to me. They mentioned that it's not definite that your books will be picked up by other retailers. When they do pick them, it'll take a few weeks for the shipments to come in for brick-and-mortar stores. Then, they'll report once they get them. It's weird. It'll be cool to see 4 of my books on the shelves at our local B&N. I did a search yesterday, and these are the other retailers that have picked them up so far: eBay (UK and Australia sites), Books-a-Million aka BAM, Alibris, the Book Depository (UK), AbeBooks (have 2 sellers, one from the UK the other from the US, selling just my cookbook), Valore Books, and Chegg Books. Most of these I haven't heard of. There are many sellers on Amazon and it's various international marketplaces, too. Interesting. I was worried I wouldn't get my paperback versions distributed to other places. Glad they started this recently. Sad the paperback version of my memoir won't get as much exposure, though.

After the ebook versions of Alliance, Alliance: Dawn, and Sweet Endless Terror end their Select terms, I'll publish them through Smashwords, too. They'll still be on Amazon. Once they're approved for Smashwords' Premium Catalog, they'll be distributed to many different retailers. More than their paperback versions through Amazon. Retailers like Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble (Amazon doesn't do this with their ebooks), libraries, etc. So, I'll end up boosting exposure even more. Smashwords also has a new thing with promoting a series more than a single book. I could use that as well. Once I finish and publish Alliance 3, I'll take my memoir out of Select and publish it through Smashwords, too. 

It's been difficult sticking to my daily calorie range and keeping track of certain nutrients lately, because of the heat. I'm going to do my best, though. Today's been good with that. I'll finish the day at 1423 calories. Pretty close to middle of my range. My range is 1200 to 1600. Got over the halfway mark for my recommended daily intake of protein. I never make my full amount. Usually end up barely halfway. So, yay! Did pretty well with my other nutrients. MyFitnessPal's so handy for this sort of thing. Plus, I can always go back to see what has been a trigger for my colitis symptoms. So much to it. I could record my exercise, too. 

National Pecan Pie Day!

This is one of my fave pies! One of my fave nuts, too. For some reason, it's hard to find a good slice of it locally. Usually it's too dry, too many pecans, too sweet, or runny. It's like heaven when it's just right, though. 

I posted on my personal fb and in an enby fb support group about my analogy for gender. I came up with it a while ago, but it popped in my head again when someone was telling me about a muffin one. That one wasn't very good. It's hard to find good analogies for it. 

Mine is gender as pizza toppings. Men are handed sausage pizza, and women are handed pepperoni pizza. Society encourages them to love their toppings (only those) and to never change anything like the sauce or dough. A trans woman is handed a sausage pizza, but hates it and loves pepperoni. She doesn't hate people who love what they were given, but it's not for her. If she picks off the sausage and trades toppings with someone else, suddenly society at large is in an uproar. How dare you eat pepperoni instead of sausage! This goes the other way with trans men. 

Gender non-conforming people, who still like the topping they were given, might add other sauces and dough. Non-binary people, as a whole, would have different and/or multiple toppings. Agender people specifically might not have any toppings, except for extra cheese. Genderfluid people might have different toppings depending on which gender they are at the time. Bigender gender people could have 2 toppings of any of then. 3 for trigender people. Or, some might have one totally separate gender, and they'd get a different topping entirely. Demigender people might have their pizza partially covered with a certain topping associated with a gender, and maybe another topping for the rest of it. The possibilities are endless, but society will only focus on the sausage and pepperoni pizzas. They have to be the standard for those pizzas, too. They don't want people to switch with each other. Or, even to ask for another one. 

I think this is the best one that I know. It's got many layers to it. Plus, gender expression can be mixed in there with the sauces, dough, or different types of cheese. Really, there are many ways to look at this one. I went with pizza, because it's one of the most popular foods around the world. Sausage and pepperoni are some of the most popular toppings, and considered 'classics'. Funny thing about this is I can't have those toppings in real life. So maybe that was another added subconscious thing. Also, with genders that aren't connected at all with the binary they could have things like fruit or veggies. The concept is flexible. I'm extra cheese in this. It's not boring, especially considering you could have something like a 4-cheese pizza for it. For a cheese lover, like me, that's amazing stuff. Plus, we can have any sauce, dough, etc. that we're comfortable with. 

I had a couple of loves and a share on my personal page. I'm still getting lots of likes, loves, and comments in the enby group. People really seem to like it. Someone suggested we should list what type of pizza we are, which was cool. Very interesting to see what people are in that one. This could be a 'thing' now. It'd be cool to see illustrations of the pizzas. Not sure if I'd do it. Someone recently commented in the group that it's perfect. 

It's been really warm lately. A lot of the time when this happens I feel like not doing much. I end up trying to stay in the coolest area of the house downstairs. It'll be a little warmer the next few days. Oh joy! At a certain point, I can't have my desktop on. Unless I want to heat up the house, particularly my room, even more. My room usually is the hottest, even when my desktop's off. Makes it difficult to go to sleep. Even with my new window fan. 

This means I can't write more of Alliance 3 until it cools off again. Not sure when that will be. I did brainstorm a bit on what will happen next, today. That's something. 

Yesterday, I decided to lower the prices of all my paperbacks. I thought since my ebooks will start their promos soon, I might as well do something with their paperback counterparts. I made it so I get at or close to $2.57 in royalties for all of them. They also just started giving authors the option of Expanded Distribution for their kdp paperbacks. So, it sounds a lot like it'll be similar to Smashwords ebook distribution system. It'll be available to bookstores, libraries, etc. Unlike how it was only available on Amazon before. This will be immensely handy. If I get 3 ebooks on Smashwords' Premium Catalog, and check the box for Expanded Distribution, all 3 of those books (both versions) will be distributed to different places. Smashwords only deals with ebooks, although I think you can provide a link to other versions of them. I'll have all my bases covered for those 3. 2 of them would just have their paperbacks distributed to other retailers. (I'm keeping those 2 ebook versions on Select for now.) This sounds like it'd really work out. 

I managed to check all but 1 for Expanded Distribution. That one didn't meet their requirements. It has to be a certain trim, at least. I think it's has the largest trim for my books, so it makes sense. 4 isn't bad. The prices are required to be a little more for this option, too. I still kept the royalties at the amount I planned. 

Alliance's paperback is now $11.70. Alliance: Dawn's paperback is now $10.40. Sweet Endless Terror is now $10.80. More Than Meets the Eye is now $9.80. My Mother's Treasure Trove of Recipes is now $8.99. For some, I've lowered the prices by quite a bit. Like I planned, I'll get at or close to $2.57 royalty for them all. I think MTMtE was the one I couldn't check off for ED. Oh well. This all might help. After my ebooks are finished with their promos, I'll either set the prices back to where they were or set it to somewhere in the middle. It all depends on how they'll do. I'm pretty optimistic about this working out more. Some people (some of whom I know) who bought the paperback version of the cookbook already might get angry at me for lowering the price now. However, self-published authors mess with prices all the time. They need to find that 'sweet spot' with all their books. Maybe they'd be happy they got it either way? Hopefully. Or, they might be happy they helped me? I should look at it like that. 

Today, I went through the Colors unit for Chinese. Interesting that for colors they lit. say things like 'blue color', 'brown color', and so on. I'm doing even better with the pronunciation. Still a few mistakes here and there, but not bad. The next unit is The Attributive. 

Started the live-action version of Mob Psycho 100. It's probably the best way they could have adapted it. It's just not the same 'feel' as the anime. The anime made it seem so much more epic. They really tried to make the characters look as similar as possible. They did a pretty good job with that. Even the eyes are similar. The mangaka (creator) has a unique design for the characters, so again that makes it difficult to translate it to live-action. Ekubo, an 'evil' green spirit with red 'dimples' (also nicknamed Dimple) turned Mob's pet, was a little hokey looking. He looks better in the anime version. Not sure how different the anime is to the manga, but it's following the anime's story closely. They just left out the cool tunnel scene from the beginning, and I think when he fought Teru subconsciously it was in a different type of building. I like that in the story the 'jocks' of the weight training club are really kind and against using violence unless it's absolutely necessary. So much media has the jock high schooler stereotype of being rude or like a bully. It's refreshing to see again. Mob joined that club to become better physically and possibly get the girl he likes to notice him. He's not very good at it, but then again he just joined. The other members really care about him. When he falls down from exhaustion, they congratulate him on trying his best and encourage him to keep at it. When he faints they haul him back to the club's room to let him sleep it off. Usually alone. It's interesting that Mob is strong with his psychic abilities, but very weak physically. Saitama, the main character of One Punch Man, is superior physically. Both are 'overpowered' characters in different ways. ONE is the pen name of the mangaka for both series.