Video Games Day!

I love video games! Although, I don’t have too many. I still have my Sega Genesis, and it works great. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was my first one. I found Ecco the Dolphin one of the most challenging games for it. Never finished that one. Came close. For my PC, I often play Fate and the Sims 2. Fate is an interesting rpg/dungeon game. The Sims 2 fascinates me still. You can custom build houses, design it, decorate it, mess with how a sim looks, see what they do, etc. I got the Seasons expansion pack a couple of years ago, and it adds even more stuff to it. My fave games are actually Morrowind and Fable. I love rpg’s. Neither of them are compatible with my computer. The graphics are amazing for both, and they put a lot into the stories. You really can delve into these worlds. Hopefully, I can try more rpg’s for the PC in the future. I also liked one of the detective/escape games I played a while ago, which I can’t seem to find. I think it was Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None. I love the mystery/detective genre for pretty much anything. 

I went to Central Synagogue’s (in NYC) Rosh Hashanah services Sunday night and Monday morning online. I love how interactive it is for online members, too. They really try to make you feel like you’re actually there. Although, if you don’t watch it live, it’s not as much. There’s an fb thread for each broadcast where you can participate in it. For example, you can mention a name of someone you’re either saying the healing prayer for or a yahrzeit. You can ask questions, too. I like how with the night one they started with a greeting from people all over the world that follow it online. Some from India, Brazil, Belgium, Mexico, various places in the US, and more. Really cool. Some use it because there isn’t a synagogue near them, some are disabled, some are traveling, some are hospitalized, some have autoimmune diseases, some can’t afford tickets to their local synagogue’s, etc. Many reasons. It seems to really help people. I’ve mentioned it before, but the reasons why I go to their online HHD services are because my immune system isn’t great (since I have an autoimmune disease, the meds slow it way down), tickets are expensive, it gets super crowded, really warm because of how many people are there, it’s expected that you dress up, I don’t want to interact with certain people in either local congregation, I can decide when it starts, and it’s cozier at home. Their main rabbi made a very powerful sermon (aka drash). One of the few sermons I felt that way with. They do post her sermons afterwards in their archives. That one’s not up there yet. When it’s out, I’m thinking of sharing it on fb, and maybe even on here. It was on antisemitism, and what we need to do to combat it. I think even people who aren’t Jewish would find it interesting, at least. 

I started doing 10 sit-ups 2x a day (when I wake up and go to bed) on Monday. Last week, I managed to do 5 of them 2x a day. I didn’t miss a single one. Yay! I’m starting to feel it in my gut. It’s a tightening/stretchy type feeling. Next week, I’ll do 15 of them 2x a day. Last week amounted to 70 sit-ups altogether, this week will be 140. It seems like it’s not much at a time, but it adds up. I still hope I can get back to my 2-mile walks, even if it’s raining.  At some point, I think I’ll get a pedometer app. I’ve never really used one. Would be interesting to see how many steps I take during the day, even when I don’t do my walks. I’ll have to have my phone with me all the time. 

Got back to learning Russian today. I came close to getting the 2nd crown (level 2) for the Basics 2’s unit. Finished the Plurals unit and started the Where one. Their plurals are weird. Tripped me up a bit. After Where, there’s Animals 1. That one sounds like it’d be more interesting. 

There was finally an update up for Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler). I think there’s just too much drama at the moment. Ciel’s (the one we’ve known) identical twin (who’s a zombie...) is framing him. By the way, the Ciel we’ve known took the name from his brother. The author has been very good at not actually telling us his real name, which has pissed off some fans. The real Ciel managed to get Lizzie (his fiancee) on his side, he told everyone in the mansion that his brother has been lying to them, the police suddenly showed up, Bravat was found in their cellar with blood packs (‘evidence’ that he was behind the music hall murders), he might be arrested, the servants doubt him, the Undertaker is there (he pretty much orchestrated this whole thing), a couple of the other shinigami are there, and all the main characters from town seem to have just shown up. Stuff’s going down. They’re not letting him say anything, and Sebastian was about to attack the Undertaker. Now, he seems to be suggesting that they should escape. This is hard to read with everyone going after him. He’s already had it rough without his brother/the Undertaker doing this to him. I hope Sebastian’s not the only one on his side. It also feels like the manga might end soon. Like this is the big climax before the end. However, there hasn’t been any word about it ending and it’s popular. Maybe after this ordeal, there will be something more. I know he still hasn’t gotten his revenge. 

Only managed to edit a few pages of Alliance today. I’m finding a lot more mistakes, and taking out extra descriptions of the characters’ clothes. Instead, I’m referring to styles, so readers can use more of their imagination with it. Hopefully, the rest of it doesn’t have much to edit. 

Figured out the hairstyle for that Dark Healer. Still trying to figure out a simplified version of his facial tattoos. Once I’m done with that, I’ll ink him. Then, I’ll draw a more complex ‘closeup’ of the tattoos. 

Practiced my clarinet for an hour today. Finished playing from the generalized pieces book, Duke Ellington, Gershwin, and some of the advanced clarinet classical pieces. 

For cleaning, it was all cat stuff. However, I tend to not wash their food bowls often, and I got to those. Also, got to their water bowls. I wash those a lot more often. I just forget about their food bowls most of the time, or I feel bad about dumping a mostly full food bowl. That’s a waste of food. I’m going to try to be better about it. Their food bowls looked pretty scummy. Rosie was so happy that I did it. She kept biting me as I was washing them. Probably telling me to go faster. Tasha didn’t seem too enthused about it. 

National Cheese Pizza Day!

One of my fave pizzas! Some people think it's boring, but it's really not. There are a variety of different cheeses you can use as a mix or by themselves. There are so many different sauces you can have with it. Traditional tomato-based pizza sauce, Alfredo sauce, garlic-based, pesto, bbq sauce, etc. Plus, you can have different types of seasonings for it. It's pretty versatile. 

The new barbecue arrived this morning! It was ordered not too long ago at Lowe's. They had an open space for today and we took it. It wouldn't have fit in the car, the box was really heavy, and we'd have to assemble it ourselves if we hadn't asked them to do it. It was on sale, which made it roughly $100 cheaper than normal. Seems about the right time to get it. Even with the service charge of them assembling and moving it, it was still slightly cheaper than what the barbecue itself was originally. It's pretty cool looking. It can use gas or charcoal. Good if you want something quick, and good if you want something slow cooked. Best of both worlds. I think it has an added burner on the side, too. It'd be interesting if I tried to grill something on it in the future. I've never actually used a barbecue before. I've used my indoor portable grill that you put over the stove a couple of times. That's definitely not the same, though. There are a lot of interesting Pinterest barbecue recipes. I thought it was interesting that it was already assembled on the truck, and they just wheeled it over to the concrete patio in the backyard. Took them only a few minutes. They weren't very talkative, but that's ok. As long as they weren't rude. 

Got to studying more Russian on Duolingo. I decided to do something similar to what I did with learning Chinese. Every time I study, I'll use the first half of the time on reviewing stuff. Made it to level 2 for the first unit called Alphabet (doesn't actually go over the alphabet), level 1 of Basics 1, and level 1 of Phrases. The last half of the time, I'm moving on to new stuff. Currently I'm going through Basics 2. It won't be at level 1 until I get through all the sections for it first. After that, it's Phrases 2. I'm remembering a lot of the phrases. The alphabet is getting more familiar again. I mentioned that it seems mostly unique besides the Greek letters it borrowed. That's not quite correct. Some are, but a lot of it is borrowed from Roman letters. Some of them have just been flipped over. Like the backwards R (pronounced as ya) and backwards N (it's pronounced as i). Some may look the same as in English, but are pronounced differently. Like, e is actually ye. With the two dots over e, it's yo. P is actually a rolled r, and x is like a guttural ch. (Same as the sound in Hebrew and German.) There are 36 letters. Quite a bit more than English. There are sounds that we don't use. There are even 2 letters that are silent that indicate a hard or soft sound for the letters they're next to. Those ones are unique looking. I remember we spent a while on the alphabet, and probably a good chunk of that time was on figuring out how those silent letters were used and 'pronounced' with other letters. It's fascinating to me how much I remember of it. It has been a long time after all.

Read more of Choujin Gakuen or Supernatural Academy. Seemed like a fluff chapter. They thought Adam had fallen in love with the cyborg Yoshino. She's an enemy at the moment, and Oska is in love with him. She's extremely possessive of him. Depending on how tired she is, her eyes change. The most human-like eyes (like the 'angel' version of her in the pic) indicates that she's exhausted her powers and is weak. She's actually a demon. Her powers are based on her mood. Turned out Adam was doing something for the group to celebrate Christmas Eve. He put lights up on a big cherry tree near the school, made snowmen in the likeness of the group members, and gave them all presents. After finding out what he was doing, they all were very touched by it. It was rather sweet. After such an intense arc, it's probably good to have something like this. Now they're determined to make Yoshino join them. It's not really a school yet. Plus, Adam's vision of it seems more of a community center for the supernatural. The supernatural beings are shunned by society. A support system, a place to make friends, they can have sports groups, clubs, etc. Not really about learning things. Although, Hachi, the talking police dog (actually acts and stands up like a human), was learning how to draw katakana. They only have 5 or 6 members at the moment. 6 if you're counting the 'living' skull mask artifact that eats up a member's misery. That member, Sae, is in the pig outfit. Yoshino's behind Oska with her back turned. It's an interesting manga so far. The art style reminds me of other manga I've read. I like it since it's a bit of a different style than the mainstream ones. 

Finally got to looking at Alliance again. I had to change a couple of things in order to publish it to Smashwords. I'm also taking the time to edit the beginning. I've always thought the wording at the beginning was a bit awkward, but never seemed to make it flow better. I think I finally figured out how to do that for the first few pages. After the first 1/4 of it or so, it's good. Alliance 2 was even better, though. I'll continue editing it again next time. I might have to change the print version to reflect the changes. Then, I'll probably have to submit both versions again to Amazon, when I submit it to Smashwords. Then, it's onto A2's stuff. I'm wondering if I should actually read (and edit if needed) the entire series so far. It'd be interesting to read it back to back, and I might immerse myself more into it this way. If I do this, it's going to take longer to submit them to Smashwords. I guess that's ok. It'll be interesting to go over Sweet Endless Terror again, too. That one's like visiting multiple worlds. 

I finally got back to drawing. Started figuring out the best hairstyle for the Dark Healer. I'm basing it off of a list of drawn out hairstyle suggestions. I think there are 50 styles on it. I want the hairstyle to not hide his facial tattoos/paint. Mostly stay out of his eyes, too. Not too spiky, and preferably something different than what I have been doing for previous characters. I drew it out today and will probably tweak it a bit next time. Will probably start figuring out and draw those tattoos then as well. In the future, I also want to improve on my style for the other characters. I might try to start drawing full bodies at some point soon. 

Practiced my clarinet for an hour. Played the last doina in the Klezmer book, advanced Mozart pieces, and started the generalized (classical and folk tunes basically) solo book. Doinas can be difficult to play. There are 2 of them in that book. They're ad libbed and they have no tempo written down. They have suggestions for the time signatures, but it varies a lot. Even playing it as written is weird. There are a lot of fermatas, too. It's really however you make it. If I remember correctly, they didn't have either of those doinas on the CD it came with. They're the last pieces. They're also the longest ones in the book. I think I'm improving quite a bit.

For cleaning, I mainly just did the cat stuff. I'll try to do more of my bathroom tomorrow. There's a trans meeting tonight, so I'm going to try to take my walk before I eat dinner. We usually leave the house right afterwards. It won't feel the same, but at least I'll get it done.