Personal Digest Saturday: June 14 – June 20

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got up a bit late but that doesn't matter on the weekends! I finished my ukulele practice and started working on my voice-over work for the fourth Dracula episode but I'd thought there wouldn't be much more to do and it turned out there was still a lot more. I got it done. (It was hard work, too--some high-intensity scenes with high emotions and screaming.) Then I made muffins for Dad to give him for Father's Day and washed dishes. Did a Polo for Meg, did my DDR exercise, did my blogging, and continued some of the cleaning I was in the middle of. I got some cleaning done in the bathroom, entryway, and living room, but I still have a lot of living room stuff to do. Finally I got to settle down and work on my book, but I didn't get many words cut.
  
  
• Sunday was a great day! Got up early enough and had time to laze around in the morning. Dad came over right on time and we hung out and had a muffin, played a bunch of music together, and went out to eat at Queen of Sheba. We had a shared vegetable plate and enjoyed the coffee ceremony afterwards. Then he dropped me off at home, and I took out the trash, sent a Polo to Meg, did laundry, practiced ukulele, scanned some photos, and took a nap. I also prepared some packages to go out because some people bought trinkets off a blog post I made.
  
  
• Monday I dragged out of bed and went to meetings. Got the news that our firm was shortlisted in our home District so we dealt with some administrative stuff associated with that. I will be going to the interview. Sent out some teaming invitations and edited a letter. Did some data entry too. And processed the timesheets. After work I napped, did DDR exercise, practiced ukulele, and edited my book.
  
  
• Tuesday I mostly worked on a transcript to help with the upcoming interview. Took a walk to the Post Office to drop off the packages people had bought. Then took a nap in the afternoon. I sent in a voice-over audition and the creator commented on it saying it was super good, which made me think I might get the role. I practiced ukulele, edited my book some more, and did the dishes.
  
  
• Wednesday I sent in my transcript and went to meetings. Also did some forms and support documents for the upcoming shortlisted package. I played DDR after work and had to notarize some stuff for my boss. Then Jeaux came over and we ate dinner at Little Greek, went grocery shopping, took a walk, watched the latest Murderbot, and watched/read silly things. After he left I submitted a query, learned a new ukulele song, and scanned photos.
  
  
• Thursday I did project research and forms at work. Got notified that I got the role I'd auditioned for. Yay! Wrote Negative One's storyboard, did some reading, watched some reactions, and played games with my friends. Sent out a short story. Practiced ukulele. Looked through more voice-over auditions but didn't find any I liked.
  
  
• Friday I worked on project reports and sending reminders to people. After work I played DDR, drew comics, played ukulele, scanned photos, and did some reading. The creator of the new project I was cast in saw on one of my profiles that I like Steven Universe and asked if I could make a recording of me singing the higher part in the song "Found." I did, and the same night they mixed it with another character's voice and have us singing the cover in harmony. Hooray! It sounded nice.

New Reviews:

• Amanda gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Numbers stayed around last week's low. High weight was 115.2. Low weight was 114.1.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Got all my fruits and veggies every day. A couple low protein days and a couple high ones. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to play my dance game every other day. I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Monday at 10,148 steps, and my high day was Sunday at 13,734 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page. I'm on page 52.

New singing performances:

None this week.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1049: adele #257: simplified.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

Father's Day at Queen of Sheba! Dad and I ate Ethiopian food and had coffee.

Dad's honey drink

Coffee ceremony

Coffee ceremony

Coffee ceremony

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,466 for swankivy (lost 3), 682 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 217 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 770 for swankivy (no change), 3,495 for JulieSondra (lost 1). Facebook: 292 friends for swankivy (no change), 633 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 249 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,419 (no change). Instagram followers: 281 (no change). Threads followers: 75 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 377 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: June 7 – June 13

Life news this week:

• Saturday began a damn busy and exciting week! I started the day chatting with my dad about getting a set list ready for upcoming band practices. I prepared a list based on our discussion and he sent it to the band, and then I also sent some suggestions for songs that could use harmony from backup singers if anyone wants to learn the parts. After band stuff, I worked on my blog, sent a Polo to my sister about plants, and started cleaning the kitchen. (I've been wanting to do an obsessive deep clean of the whole house for a long time now, but I told myself I'd wait until after I finished writing my novel. Now we're here!) I got halfway done with my epic cleaning before I got too tired. I did a little bit of editing and went to bed.
  
  
• Sunday I picked up where I'd left off on the kitchen and got the other half done. (The oven took a long time.) Also did laundry, took out recycling, and had to sneak my trash into someone else's bin (you're really not supposed to do this) because the City still hasn't replaced my trash bin. Working on it. I got to reorganize my cabinets and everything! Also did DDR (against my better judgment), and closed out the evening learning a new song on ukulele and scanning photos from the box.
  
  
• Monday I had some aches and pains because I worked too hard. That'll teach me! Anyway, I went to work and did some project research, and talked to my pest control guy who is super nice, and then after relaxing a bit I started my ukulele practice, did more cleaning, and did some editing on the book. The cleaning in the living room involved five bookshelves and the music book shelf. I'm doing the kind of cleaning where I take all the stuff off the shelves, dust everything, pull the furniture out from the wall and clean the baseboards and everything, and put it all back fresh. I've only done this intense of a cleaning one other time since I've lived here.
  
  
• Tuesday I edited a letter and took a nap in the middle of the day. Then I finished out the work day normally. I did some ukulele practice, recorded my (very few) lines for the next episode of Sleepy Hollow which were due, and did some exercise with a new aerobics video I'd never done before, and then I went back to cleaning. This time I did one more bookshelf and my epic entertainment center, which made a gigantic mess because there's so much media on it (CDs, VHS tapes, magazines, DVDs, audio tapes, etc.). Finally after I was done I got some editing done.
  
  
• Wednesday I woke up to the news that Steven Universe is getting a spin-off show. MIND BLOWN. (I'd heard the rumors, but there have been rumors for years.) I am very, very excited for Lars of the Stars and I'll be waiting for more news! (I did cry just a little.) It was honestly hard to concentrate on anything after I heard about it! But I got some work done making some lists for a utilities project and dealing with the usual follow-ups and research at work. I did some more laundry and met Jeaux for Mandola's, and we shopped at Target and Publix. We watched the latest Murderbot (arrgh! They're too short!) and he made me watch The Amazing Digital Circus which I absolutely hated so thanks a lot Jeaux. (Haha.) Then we read silly shit to each other and after he left I tried to learn another new ukulele song but figuring out the chords for the song "Change" were giving me trouble for some reason. Rrrgh. I also sent out a query and scanned some more box photos.
  
  
• Thursday I dealt with some utilities stuff at work and after the work day I was going to knock out some more projects but I got distracted by a publisher request for one of my short stories. (I'm pitching a couple longer stories to book publishers as novellas to see if I can get somewhere. This one, after reading a sample, wrote back and asked for the rest. We'll see what happens.) I had to prepare the rest of the story and send it to them. I wrote my webcomic storyboard, went to Game Night with my friends, played DDR nice and late after games, walked around while playing ukulele, recorded a karaoke song, and sent out another short story submission.
  
  
• Friday I worked on timesheets and reports at the office. George the pest control person stopped by again because he messed up his phone and wanted me to send him something I'd sent him before he messed it up, haha. (I did.) He hung out a little and then left and I went back to work. Then I worked on my webcomic, posted it, got my steps in while listening to a music playlist of piano/vocal songs my dad and I are working on, and did some more photo box scanning. Then I worked on ukulele practice in between recording some voice over for a webcomic commercial and doing the first half of the voice over for the next Dracula episode. It was a LOT of lines (I hadn't previewed the script) so I got too tired and went to bed in the middle of it.

New Reviews:

• Milo gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Numbers went down--probably because I have literally been so active and busy, so moving more and sitting/eating less. My sleep schedule has continued to be weird. High weight was 115.7. Low weight was 114.1.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Got all my fruits and veggies every day. A couple low protein days and one high-fat day (the restaurant day, of course). My nutrient balance was really good this week--very close to goals. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to play my dance game or aerobics videos every other day. I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Thursday at 10,314 steps, and my high day was Sunday at 11,101 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page. I'm just starting.

New singing performances:

This week's song is "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1048: weaver #165: parent her.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

None.

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,469 for swankivy (lost 1), 682 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 216 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 770 for swankivy (lost 1), 3,496 for JulieSondra (lost 4). Facebook: 292 friends for swankivy (no change), 633 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 249 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,419 (no change). Instagram followers: 281 (no change). Threads followers: 75 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 375 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: May 31 – June 6

Life news this week:

• Saturday began another sleeping-in weekend. I did some processing on my comic, popped in to do some time-sensitive work for my boss, sent a Polo to Meg, posted my comic, worked on blogging, and updated my collection lists. I also played DDR and did some edits on my book.
  
  
• Sunday I slept in again. I started laundry and did dishes, finished reading a book, scanned some photos from the photo boxes I'm still processing, learned a new ukulele song, processed my May goals in my online posts, took a walk, submitted a voice-over audition, and recorded a karaoke song.
  
  
• Monday was busy at work. Had a marketing meeting, did an accounting task for my boss, went to an interview practice (I just ran the interview rehearsal; I'm not on this interview team), and found out we won the contract in District 2. (Hooray!) Sent a Polo to Meg, played ukulele, and worked on my book edit. My trash bin was mysteriously kidnapped. No one knows what happened to it and the City also won't let me order another one.
  
  
• Tuesday I edited a letter at the office and worked on a massive proposal. Had to do some minor utility coordination work. After work, I played ukulele a lot and edited my book a lot. Sent a Polo to Meg and another one to my sister. And also had one nap.
  
  
• Wednesday I was busy with a mail-out to teaming partners and some research for a project. I played DDR and cleaned up the house. My boss called me late in the day and we hashed out a plan for turning in this proposal. I finished my parts and left it in his hands. Jeaux picked me up to go to a new (to us) restaurant called Burger Vault, where I got a veggie burger and fries. We did our shopping, watched the latest Murderbot episode, and watched some videos together. After he left I finished scanning some photos from the photo box, sent out a query, and got in some ukulele practice.
  
  
• Thursday I had to get up at 6:45 AM and help with the proposal, which was due later that day. We also had THREE meetings and two of them were complex and not quick (a marketing meeting, a kick-off meeting, and a scope clarification meeting). In between it all I managed to get the proposal pieced together (even though at one point we had a setback when my boss overwrote a file!) and we turned it in without much time to spare. After work I wrote my storyboard for my webcomic, practiced ukulele, took a nap, went to Game Night with my friends, and played more ukulele. I talked to my sister on Polo, played still MORE ukulele, and submitted a short story.
  
  
• Friday I got up late and worked on my project reports at the office. I arranged some meetings too. Then I played DDR, worked on my comic, and posted it. I practiced ukulele and scanned some more photos from the box. And I relaxed with some reaction videos.

New Reviews:

• Mandi Gregory gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: This week is similar to last week! I got some chips to munch when I get snacky at night (along with carrots!). Haven't seen much of a change, but my sleep schedule has been so weird that I'm not even sure if some of this is owing to taking my scale reading too soon after my last meal. High weight was 116.3. Low weight was 114.9.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Got all my fruits and veggies every day. There's an increase in the number of days I am getting high readings for fat versus carbs and protein because I haven't paid enough attention to staggering the days I have higher-fat foods. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to play my dance game every other day. I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Sunday at 10,049 steps, and my high day was Tuesday at 10,859 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. Five-star review.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page. I'm just starting.

New singing performances:

This week's song is "Manic Monday" by the Bangles.

Stuff drawn:

My monthly writing webcomic, So You Write:

#168: a better story.

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1047: ivy #330: interesting after all.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

Old and new flowers on gardenia bush!

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,470 for swankivy (lost 2), 682 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 216 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 771 for swankivy (lost 1), 3,500 for JulieSondra (lost 5). Facebook: 292 friends for swankivy (no change), 633 likes for JulieSondra (lost 2), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 249 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,419 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 281 (lost 2). Threads followers: 75 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 373 (7 new).

May 2025 Goals Update

We are on to June 2025! What a great time to review May. Goal check-in!

1. Health Goals: I resolved to continue drinking an appropriate amount of water (around 4 glasses a day), eat 3 servings of fruits and veggies a day and keep my nutrition balanced, and walk at least 10,000 steps a day plus add in an aerobic activity every other day.

2. Personal Project Goals: I resolved to keep working on getting photos sorted as the first stop on a website rebuild; resolved to work on writing three days a week and submissions when I can; resolved to relearn ukulele songs I've forgotten and learn new ones, keep creating my regular webcomic and video content, and get some small voice acting gigs.

3. Reading Goals: I resolved to read at least twice a week.

4. Relationship and Communication Goals: I resolved to document daily life stuff more, keep up with e-mails and online communication, and make time for friends and family.

5. Other Goals: Get rid of some things in my garage, paint the pillar, keep the house clean, watch some backed up TV shows, and avoid biting my nails.

Progress Update:

HEALTH GOALS:
Summary: I'm pretty impressed that I've been able to do my aerobic dancing (aka DDR) or aerobics videos (aka walking in place while lifting tiny weights) every other day for the entirety of this year, EVEN WHEN I WAS ON VACATION. I feel good, haven't been ill at all, and am eating with a very good balance. I'm disappointed that I haven't gotten the number on the scale to where I want it, but I'm also not doing much to expect to see a change. I get very snacky at night and am trying to find a good solution for it. Right now I have Sun Chips. :) Here is my Health calendar of progress:

(Click these calendars and they will expand so you can actually read them!)

PERSONAL PROJECT GOALS:

Summary: I took a nice break on the writing while I was on vacation toward the beginning of May, and after I caught up when I returned, I jumped headfirst into editing the book I finished writing in April. Once a week each, I'm working on an agent search to get my older work to a new representative and sending short stories to new markets. I do hope to get something published and make some headway with agents this year, but I also really want to pretty up the new novel and get it short enough to be a contender, then connect with a test audience for it. Sometime after I get there, I'd really like to start my other novel later this year, but we'll see how it goes.

Writing Progress:

Photo album scanning is going okay but I slowed down on it after vacation. I have two boxes of photos left to scan and I'm almost done with the first box. As I've been saying, once I get them scanned and sorted, I'll file the physical copies in albums or appropriate boxes, and then I'll try to get them processed onto my site. I've done a LOT less practice this month and I still have 11 songs left to learn to meet my goal. And for voice acting, I got one new role this month (just a bit part add-on in a project I'm already doing), recorded lines for two projects, and went to one exploratory meeting with coached performances to figure out the voices. I'll owe lines on that sometime soon. Here's the Projects Calendar:

READING GOALS: 

Summary: I did a little more consistent reading this month but this is still a little lighter than I expected. It's okay! I'm enjoying reading and reviewing the books I'm listing.

Progress:

RELATIONSHIP AND COMMUNICATION GOALS: 

Summary: Nothing too out of the ordinary except for my California trip, where I spent a week in San Francisco hanging out with my sister. I'm very happy with the social balance in my life. I have no outstanding e-mails (and even managed to process two mails that have been in my box since 2014 and 2017; stuff I e-mailed myself to deal with and never did). The documentation goals have gone unaddressed. It's just not how I process life anymore, I guess, but I'd like to go back to it because it was satisfying. We'll see.

Progress:

OTHER GOALS:

Summary: I still need to sand and paint the plaster pillar that is sitting outside and need to sell some garage items. I still have a TV show I want to watch. I need to catch up on photographing the updated Steven Universe collection. I hope I can dive into the documentation goals soon. Looking forward to seeing how everything lines up this year.

Personal Digest Saturday: May 24 – May 30

Life news this week:

• Saturday I slept late! Got up and spent a bunch of the day recording my lines for Episode 3 of the Dracula drama. It was hard work! I got through it, and then I did my walking while Poloing my friend Ben to get my steps. I knocked out my blogging and then finally did dishes and went to bed.
  
  
• Sunday I was up late again. Got laundry started and worked on some webcomic updates. I've been lax lately about updating the comic's character pages and character images, so I did a bunch of that. Did some editing on my newly complete book. Played DDR. Filmed a video for my ace channel. Did a little reading. Got through three loads of laundry. I saw the season's first gardenia on my bush! I didn't think it would flower this year but it finally did. Seems to be getting later every year. Haggled with a buyer on eBay.
  
  
• Monday I had the day off because of Memorial Day. I wasn't too productive but I did get more webcomic updates done and more editing on my novel. I processed the video and put it up on my channel. Did some walking while reading, replanted some plants that needed it, and put away my laundry. Wasted some time with a game. Dang it!
  
  
• Tuesday I went to work while dog tired. The meeting I'd gotten up for was canceled. Did some aerobics, sent some teaming invitations to consultants, updated some data entries, and used my lunch break to walk to the post office to deliver another one of Meg's sales. (It was super hot!) In the afternoon I attended a debrief meeting, but I was stuck not being able to log into my computer for a while because the server was offline, so I made Jeaux's birthday cake instead. (A pumpkin roll.) After I was able to get back into my work computer, I wrapped up some research. Took a nap. Edited my book some more. Started subtitling some old videos, which is a task that's been on my to-do list since 2017. (They were all originally subtitled, and then YouTube OVERWROTE them with their shitty automatic transcripts! I've been meaning to update them since.) Now that the list of those videos which I'd e-mailed to myself is gone, I have a completely empty e-mail box and it looks weird.
  
  
• Wednesday I cleaned up around the house, did a little work on my office stuff, and cleaned up more transcripts for old videos. I sent in a query letter. Jeaux came and we ate at Vallarta's, shopped for groceries, came home and took a walk, watched the next Murderbot episode (it's too short!), and then when he left I stayed up browsing more agent listings but didn't find anyone I wanted to query.
  
  
• Thursday I did some updating and maintaining at work, as well as getting some templates started for a proposal. I wrote Negative One, played DDR, dealt with my plants, and ate pumpkin cake. Then I had a live-coached voice-over session for one of the projects I'm on. It was just me and one other actor with the creator, and we got coaching on how the voices should work. (My take on it was already what they wanted for the most part.) We got our scripts and loose plans for how to submit recordings. Then I went to Game Night with my friends and had a lovely time, and got some drawing done even. Then I sent out some short stories--including one to a book publisher because it's long enough to be a novella and I decided to try something new. Here's hoping it works.
  
  
• Friday was BUSY. I had a lot to do at work--timesheets, reports, preparing for a proposal, a meeting--and preparing documents for this proposal kept me at work until after 7 PM. Then I had to hurry to finish my webcomic and get all my steps in (while reading). I barely made it. Then I chatted with one of my good friends on Facebook and worked on the drawings for So You Write. Relaxed playing games and watching a cartoon reaction.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• On Daily Kos, LGBTQIA+ Literature: Exploring asexuality, Part I by Clio2 is released. It reviews some of the earliest literature on asexuality, including my book The Invisible Orientation.
  
  
• On CampusWell, "The truth about what it means to be asexual" was released. I have a quote in the article.
  
  
• On Glycerine Queen Media, Herald Sun publishes article on asexuality by Sara Harnetty was released. It mentions my work.
  
  
• On All India Queer Association, Asexuality, Gender, and the Struggle for Recognition by Nashrah Tanvir was released. It just has my book in the references section.

New Reviews:

• Stephani Jahn, PhD gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Same old, same old. I've been focusing way more on nutritional balance than I have on changing this number, but to tell you the truth I haven't given up on the idea that I'd feel more comfortable if I was about 5 to 7 pounds down. So I'll just keep plugging away at it. High weight was 115.9. Low weight was 114.7.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Got all my fruits and veggies every day. I'm really into yogurt with fruit. I'm getting most of my protein from that and fake meat. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to play my dance game or do an aerobics video every other day. I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Friday at 10,022 steps, and my high day was Saturday at 11,642 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. I'm on page 242.

New singing performances:

This week's song is "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.

Stuff drawn:

 My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1046: ivy #329: be honest.

Videos Made: 

Letters to an Asexual #126 (Why argue publicly?) is out! In this video, I discuss why it's important--or at least not damaging--to counter negative messages in pursuit of asexuality awareness and education.

New photos:

First gardenia flower of the season!

More flowers!

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,472 for swankivy (2 new), 682 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 215 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 772 for swankivy (no change), 3,505 for JulieSondra (lost 3). Facebook: 292 friends for swankivy (no change), 635 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 249 followers for So You Write (lost 1), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,420 (no change). Instagram followers: 283 (no change). Threads followers: 75 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 366 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: May 17 – May 23

Life news this week:

• Saturday I cleaned the house up and had a quick breakfast, and read through the second episode of the Dracula radio drama I'm in (but I didn't have any lines, so I didn't have any voice-over work to send!). Then Jeaux came over to watch Murderbot. We got pizza as well. (He was annoyed that it was cut in squares instead of slices.) We liked Murderbot. After we hung out a little, he went home and I worked on my photo album for San Francisco and my blogging. I updated some documents and recorded some voice-over lines for auditions. Played my ukulele, did some reading, and played DDR.
  
  
• Sunday I slept late. Recorded my lines for the next Sleepy Hollow episode but I only had like four lines. Did my laundry and trash chores, recorded an audition, read a book, practiced ukulele, and updated my calendars and documents. Also did karaoke.
  
  
• Monday I went back to work. Cobbled together the package we had to turn in for our big interview. Also attended a couple practices for the interview and proofread a letter. After work, I listened to a Polo, played DDR, and did some chores. Listened to the next episode of the Dracula episode (but I'm not in that one). Wrote my next storyboard and drew a frame. Packed my bag for the interview.
  
  
• Tuesday I got up early for the interview. Boss picked me up at 5:30 AM. We chatted a little on the way to Lake City and met the rest of the team there. Had a good interview and I hope we win. Then when I got home I did some paperwork at the office and took a nice nap. Got up and walked while sending Steve a Polo. Practiced ukulele and read over my lines for Dracula episode 3--yikes, my part is huge in that one. Fell asleep early for some reason. Today, my webcomic Negative One hit TWENTY YEARS.
  
  
• Wednesday I had to work on a transcript for our next interview, coming right up. We also had a marketing meeting. After work I played DDR and wasted time on a silly game. Jeaux came over and we ate at Saki and shopped, then did our usual sharing of silly online things. After he left I wrote out some graduation cards and prepped a couple packages (one for a birthday, one for an eBay sale for Meg).
  
  
• Thursday I had a marketing meeting and a planning meeting for our interview. At lunch I walked to the post office. After that I did the rest of the transcript for work. I played games with my friends at Game Night, did some walking and reading, played ukulele, drew the rest of my comic, and submitted some short stories.
  
  
• Friday I mostly just worked on the upcoming project reports at the office. Then after work I played DDR, practiced ukulele, processed my webcomic and posted it, read a book while walking, and stayed up late screwing around.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Looks like I'm about where I usually have been these days. High weight was 116.3. Low weight was 115.8.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Got all my fruits and veggies every day except one--I fell asleep before a planned fruit snack. Happens! I've been mostly hitting the high protein/lower carb/lower fat goals but two days it didn't fall into that balance. Lately in the middle of the day I haven't wanted to eat fruits or veggies and end up eating Tofurky sandwiches or other meat substitutes, and my spinach went bad early this week so I didn't get to have smoothies as much as I wanted to. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to play my dance game every other day. I met my walking goal every day this week EXCEPT ONE DAY and I don't know how that happened becuase I CONSISTENTLY CHECK LONG BEFORE THE END OF THE DAY to see if I've met it, and I always had. Now several days later there's suddenly one day when I didn't. I'm not sure if I just spaced out FOR SEVERAL DAYS not noticing something highly unusual or if it was the weird update my health app did this week. The settings are all weird too. I'm gonna grumble about it and privately assume it was a glitch. But if it's right, my low day was Monday at 9,625 steps, and my high day was Tuesday at 10,712 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. I'm on page 87.

New singing performances:

This week's song is "Chickenman" by Indigo Girls.

Stuff drawn:

 My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1045: adele #256: match her energy.

Videos Made: 

None this week.

New photos:

My interview outfit:

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,470 for swankivy (lost 5), 682 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 214 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 772 for swankivy (no change), 3,508 for JulieSondra (lost 6). Facebook: 292 friends for swankivy (no change), 636 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 82 followers for Negative One (1 new), 250 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,420 (no change). Instagram followers: 283 (no change). Threads followers: 75 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 364 (6 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: May 10 – May 16

Life news this week:

• Saturday vacation in San Francisco continued. I enjoyed coffee with my sister in the morning and listened to a little bit of Suzanne Vega's new album. I worked on my blog periodically through the day when we had down time. When we were ready to get moving, we took the dog to a park and looked at the ocean. Yusuke picked up some donuts and we ate them, and then he went out to hang out with a friend so Patricia and Ash and I played a silly game called Poetry for Neanderthals. For dinner we had spaghetti and then I took my one solo walk to get a little extra walking in. Lots of hills to deal with! After I finished my blogging we listened to a school project recording that I had a bit part in for voice acting. (I had not heard it yet so we listened to it with no expectations. Pretty good.) After she went to bed I hung out talking to Yusuke for a long time in the kitchen, just hanging out. It was a nice day.
  
  
• Sunday we had coffee and breakfast together again and then did an aerobics video together. Patricia got Mother's Day gifts from her husband and son (flowers and chocolate!), and then we went to Golden Gate Park for a while with the doggie. He tried to get gophers. We hung out while Patricia got a PTA newsletter done and took the dog out again before dinner. Then I got to have a meatball sub with vegetarian meatballs that were great. We played the Poetry for Neanderthals game again and joined in a game of Gartic Phone. Another nice day.
  
  
• Monday we had a slow morning with coffee just chatting and waiting for P's husband to get up. Then we went to the Castro where I got to see a bunch of gay businesses (excellent!). We saw a knickknacks store and a bookstore and then stopped for expensive sandwiches. A couple we ran into said Yoshi looked like their doggie that had just passed away and they were touched by getting to see him. Later we picked up Ash from school, took him to his coding class, hung out at a café for more lattes and a cake, and went home for laundry and dinner. We got some food from a Japanese restaurant where I had excellent food and then we painted our nails and hung out until bedtime. I converted my stuff over to my new suitcase.
  
  
• Tuesday I got up early and did my aerobics video while my sister took her son to school. Then she took me to a dog park to enjoy some trees and pups. We ran into one of the ladies we'd seen in the Castro the day before who was especially baffled to see the dog that reminded her of her dog AGAIN. We didn't really get to talk much because there was a lot of dog activity and interacting with other dog owners, and Yoshi tried to hunt gophers again (hilariously). After lunch at my sister's house, we went out again and she left me at Cinderella Bakery to chill while she went to an appointment, and I got to relax and eat cake and write a storyboard. Then we walked around more with Yoshi, I found a four-leaf clover, and we hung out in a field. Later after we picked up my nephew, we had dinner (lentil soup and bread) and just did nothing. I made sure I was packed up for the morning.
  
  
• Wednesday I had to get up at 3 AM and my sister helped me make sure I was ready to get in my Lyft. Everything went fine and I didn't forget anything. I had a quiet ride to the airport and got a little frustrated with some of the annoying signage at the airport. I was actually able to sleep on the plane for most of the ride even though I did have a seatmate who was kinda annoying. Then on the connecting flight from Atlanta I had the worst coffee of my life. Jeaux picked me up in Tampa and we had a meal at IHOP. At home, I put my suitcase in the house before going grocery shopping and found out ants had invaded one of my plants so I had to put it outside. Then we shopped and came home. I was gonna nap but I got distracted by the urge to unpack so I did that instead. I also updated some online stuff.
  
  
• Thursday I came back to work after not checking in during the vacation at all. Not too much chaos but I had a few things to organize, and found out that in my absence we got shortlisted again (so now we have two interviews to prepare for). I did some data entry updates and went to a couple meetings. Then after work I did some walking and updating Meg on Polo about my San Francisco trip. We had Game Night and I got to see my friends, and I worked on my comic. I got it half done before I stopped to do late-night aerobics and went to bed.
  
  
• Friday I got up early for work and had more data entry updates, timesheet wrangling, report generating, and meetings. Took my time on everything and didn't even finish too late. After work I drew the rest of my comic, posted it, sent a Polo to Meg again, and did a karaoke recording before relaxing with some silly videos.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• I'm quoted in this blog post by Jessica Leibe called "Asexual Perspective: The Blood is the Life." (Interesting, just when I'm involved with a production of Dracula, this post uses a lot of Dracula references. It is unrelated, I promise.)

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I didn't get any data on this during my vacation and will start checking it out next week.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Despite being on vacation, I was still able to get my three servings of fruits/veggies--pretty easy when you're visiting someone who does keep those things in the house! But I definitely had some big meals and some sweets that were outside the usual. The seven days for the nutrition balance:
  
  

  	Days High	Days On-Target	Days Low
  Carbs	3	0	4
  Fats	5	2	0
  Protein	1	0	6

  
  I consistently did not get enough protein while I was on vacation, and there was probably a high fat percentage because of donuts and cake. Oh well! Guess I should try to make an effort to get more protein in while out and about in the future. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to play my dance game or do aerobics every other day. I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Friday at 10,009 steps, and my high day was Wednesday at 13,838 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. I'm just starting.

New singing performances:

This week's song is "Light My Fire" by the Doors.

Stuff drawn:

 My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1044: ivy #328: in a bad way.

Videos Made: 

None this week.

New photos:

The San Francisco Photo Album 2025 is up for all photos! Here are the ones since Saturday.

Yoshi hunting gophers

Selfie with the Pacific Ocean

View from the park

Family in the park

Sister finally got her cinnamon roll

Selfie I took on a walk to the ocean

Yoshi finally started eating his food

Family horsing around

Ash gets the "no" stick

Our feet in Golden Gate park

Sister cookie selfie

Yusuke hanging with Yoshi

Yoshi in the shade

Yusuke and Ash walking ahead

Yoshi tries to get gophers again

Sisters at the Castro

In front of the Castro theater

Patricia's lunch

My lunch

Lattes at Blue Danube again

My sister's family has a Japanese copy of my book

Takeout for the family

Bird's Milk Cake and Latte at Cinderella Bakery

Cinderella Bakery Cake

Yoshi hunting gophers AGAIN

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,475 for swankivy (lost 2), 682 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 214 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 772 for swankivy (lost 2), 3,513 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 292 friends for swankivy (lost 1--I defriended someone for doing something I had repeatedly asked him not to do), 637 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 81 followers for Negative One (no change), 250 followers for So You Write (1 new), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,420 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 283 (no change). Threads followers: 75 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 358 (2 new).