Personal Digest Saturday: December 19 – December 25

Life news this week:

• Biggest news of the week is that I lost a friend to Covid. My friend Brendon died Christmas morning. Here is a fundraiser for his family. (I'm running it.)
  
  
• Saturday I managed to get some light cleaning done in preparation of my Christmas gathering. I talked to my mom and later Meghan on the phone while doing my cleaning and made some Polos for my sister. I got a new low for my weight goal, did my blogging, and got all my holiday decorating done. I'm a champ! Oh, and I squeezed in arguing with a dork in a cartoon nerd group.
  
  
• Sunday was another good day. I finally made my weight goal of 110 pounds, so now I will essentially be switching to maintenance mode . . . whatever that turns out to be. I did my laundry, did karaoke, addressed some e-mail, and made a silly birthday video for my nephew Ash who turned seven on this day. I also took out the trash and framed my Beach City poster. And I wrote up my thoughts on the SU DVD and posted them. I started work on subtitling my video with Daria as well.
  
  
• Monday I went back to work for a short week. Had so much to do but I did it all! Made shipping labels, drafted bump letters for a utility coordination thing in Hernando County, called a utility for another project, and edited two letters, plus timesheets. After work I talked to the man who mows my lawn, Tony, for a long time. Then I played games with my friends, hung my Beach City poster, and fell asleep early.
  
  
• Tuesday work was very busy again. Had a meeting and found out my role on the next interview might be more substantial. And I worked hard on some transcripts but the recordings were terrible. Spent the day dealing with that and some spreadsheets for my co-worker. After work I did a little cleaning and then we had an early Jeaux day so we could try to avoid too many crowds at the grocery store. He and I shopped, ate frozen food again, and made peppermint cookies together. After he left I made red velvet crinkle cookies too.
  
  
• Wednesday was the last day before a four-day weekend. I did more transcript stuff and had a meeting, plus some research. After work I spent a really long time working on my comic. Not sure why I put so much attention into the drawings. At least they're really good this week. (I was finishing early because Christmas is Friday.) I also drew my nephew's latest original character in my style and sent it to him. Oh, and I received a copy of the game I helped promote and edit earlier this year; Beach-A-Palooza's final version arrived. My name is in the credits for Special Thanks! Cool! I didn't get to any cookie baking.
  
  
• Thursday I had off for Christmas Eve, though I checked in with my e-mail once. Then I got to work on baking! First I made eggnog cookies while joking around with my friend Steve in texts. I showed my sister the cookies on a Polo. Then I made snowball cookies and snickerdoodle bars. Victor still called me and we chatted while I was making the dough for my cheesy bread and my gingerbread. After we finished our call, I made the frostings for the bars and the peppermint cookies and did a little kitchen prep.
  
  
• Friday I woke up to Meghan's text that just said "Brendon died." We'd thought he'd been a little better but evidently not. So after some crying and texting and setting up a fundraiser for him, I determined that I was still having people over and went on to post my comic, run the dishwasher, bake the cheesy bread, and jump into party prep.
  
  
• I made a cauliflower bake with feta cheese, a pan of vegan scalloped potatoes, fried zucchini, and the cheese bread. I also put together a cranberry punch with really picturesque garnish. My guests were Mom, Victor, and Jeaux, who live in isolation primarily and do not work outside the home or go out. So they were safe to be around (like me). We all cared about Meghan and Brendon so the night was really difficult, but it was good to be around them. Surprisingly, ALL of the food was delicious and every single thing went right. Mom brought brisket and wine so the boys had some meat and I drank the wine. Later Mom fell asleep and we all played the Beach-A-Palooza game. I also got lots of nice presents and we all exchanged gifts. Everyone left at about 2 AM. Wow!

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Southern Equality interviewed Angela Chen about her book and she recommended my book as Ace 101 in it.

Food Plan Update:

• I made it to 110 pounds this week. I actually went a little below that and ended up at 109.5 for a few days, but I've ended the week back up so I'm still going to post this stuff until I'm feeling like this is consistent or whatever. I'm going to focus on maintenance--continue trying to do 10,000 steps per day, continue to monitor my food for now since I seem to do better when I document (for now), and working to make better choices as to what I eat and portion sizes.

• Here are this week's charts.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: I did not make time for reading anything this week.

• Currently reading: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm on page 506.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Where's the Party" by Madonna. The recorder is still going through some stuff trying to adjust to the move away from Flash so hopefully you can still see this.



Stuff Drawn:

Doodle of one of Ash's original characters, in my style

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0815: "Waiting for Ten."

New videos: 

Daria's interview video is processed but she hasn't approved its publication and I haven't done the subtitling, so maybe next week.

New photos:

Put up my Beach City poster

Put up my movie bonus poster

New completed game!

Kidding around pretending a baking book is sexy with a centerfold

Cheesy pull-apart bread

Ridiculous cookie platter with 5 cookie types, all homemade

Homemade gingerbread

Cranberry Christmas punch

Vegan scalloped potatoes

Baked cauliflower with feta spread

Fried zucchini

Group at Christmas dinner!

One of each dessert on my plate

Playing Beach-A-Palooza

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,288 for swankivy (no change), 668 for JulieSondra (1 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 110 for Not-So-Giant Women (lost 1). Twitter followers: 939 for swankivy (no change), 1,358 for JulieSondra (lost 3). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 629 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 73 likes for Negative One (no change), 224 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,474 (no change). Instagram followers: 235 (5 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: December 12 – December 18

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got the last of my holiday shopping done and talked to my sister. Also made a very silly comic about one of the Steven Universe characters and it was well received on Tumblr to the point that the art got stolen later in the week. Gee I love drawing popular stuff. I also posted the newest podcast for Not-So-Giant Women. Not a bad day, all things considered.
  
  
• Sunday was a pretty slow and nice day which included laundry and eating the last of my Hawaiian rolls. Did some random research on a project I want to nail down for questions and answers about Steven Universe that have been answered outside the show. I'm always having to link people to this stuff and would like a central hub for it. Took my trash out and found out it was warm enough to walk outside! Wrote some e-mails. Put up a new signing sheet that I won on eBay on my wall. Started watching special features on the DVD I received of the complete Steven Universe show!
  
  
• Monday we finally had to do interview practice, but it went really well and we were able to get our topics covered well before the clock ran out. Also had to send two letters and one expanded letter. Tough day! I did everything though, even though I had to work late. Later hung out and updated some stuff and played online games with my friends. Later enjoyed a night with my family lighting Hanukkah candles on Zoom! So nice to see everyone--Sister P and fam, Sister L, and Dad & Connie. Afterwards, I relaxed and watched more special features.
  
  
• Tuesday I got up early for more interview practice. Had to attend to some utility coordination and turn in a package for our information on this project so they know who our team is and stuff. Did some recipe planning for my holiday dinner and got excited about food. :) Did Polos with my sister while doing laundry. Then watched more DVD features.
  
  
• Wednesday I had to get up early for practice with my team. We did a run-through and then only an hour later was the real thing. (I got to grab oatmeal right before.) We did okay, though the questions weren't quite what we had prepared for. Then after that I just cleaned up some stuff and took some time off because I put in extra time this week. I watched some more features on the DVDs. Later when Jeaux came over we went grocery shopping and decided to eat frozen pizzas. We watched some of the commentary tracks on the DVD and I took notes like a nerd. (Jeaux called me a nerd.)
  
  
• Thursday I got up kinda late. I had to edit a draft of our new website for one of my co-workers. After, I did some Project Manager database updates and dealt with some utilities. Then after work I wrote my storyboard, played with video editing, and had a pretty good conversation with Victor until I got tired. Then I drew some more and listened to Polos.
  
  
• Friday I finished my Project Manager reports and did some Upcoming Project reports as well as discussing utility stuff I have to do next week. Did more Polo exchanges with my sister and worked on my timesheets. I listened to and edited my next asexuality interview and finished my webcomic drawings, posted it, and fell asleep on the floor.

New Reviews of My Book:

• laudanum at 33 gave it a four-star review on Goodreads.

Food Plan Update:

• ANOTHER new low weight--I'm almost there. Maybe next week I'll hit my goal, woohoo! Unfortunately I had some pretty uneven sleep and some unintentionally very low calorie days because I was busy and disorganized and not really eating right. Oh, but on the good side, I tried a cauliflower crust pizza and it was good!

• Here are this week's charts.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing new this week.

• Currently reading: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm on page 506.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkel. The recorder is still going through some stuff trying to adjust to the move away from Flash so hopefully you can still see this. It seems like they're getting it together--links can be shared directly from their new site this week for the first time, but they don't have an embed option now. Click through!



Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0814: "Homework."






Silly comic about Future Vision entitled "Wrong Timeline":

 

New videos: 

Not-So-Giant Women Episode 16: "Steven the Sword Fighter" is out.

Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Steven the Sword Fighter" and cover such topics as immortality, what Steven's experience with school or the doctor might be like, Pearl's new outfit, sword fighting, toys, Holo Pearl's murderous nature, Amethyst and Garnet's behavior without Pearl, weather in Beach City, and boomerangs. Today's recipe: None. Today's merchandise: A bonus Mystery Mini, and Pearl's McFarlane set with the pillar and sword.

New photos:

Wall of SDCC Signing Sheets now that I got the 2013

Enjoying hot chocolate and quality entertainment

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,288 for swankivy (lost 2), 667 for JulieSondra (1 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 111 for Not-So-Giant Women (3 new). Twitter followers: 939 for swankivy (2 new), 1,361 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 630 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 73 likes for Negative One (no change), 224 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,474 (no change). Instagram followers: 230 (21 new--got a bunch of new followers from my stolen art post).

Personal Digest Saturday: December 5 – December 11

Life news this week:

• Saturday I spent a bunch of time preparing for my podcast because we were covering a bunch of shorts and I wanted to plan merchandise features for all of them. I worked on that and took a long walk and did some of my blogging but didn't get to finish. Then there was an annoying Christmas-music-blaring parade outside my house. Happily it just barely did not interrupt the podcast. We recorded our stuff and it was fun, but I was tired after and went to bed.
  
  
• Sunday I got up late and did all my usual stuff--cleaning the table, laundry, karaoke, trash and recycling, hanging out. Called my mom to catch up and things were fine. Also got some more letters to agents out which is nice. :) Sadly I did not get to any of my other projects. What takes all my time?
  
  
• Monday wasn't an overly busy day at the office, but I did have some meetings and did some data entry. Got some editing done on the Not-So-Giant Women podcast that Daria gave me to work on and then went into the Discord chat to play with my friends. Meghan showed up! I was thinking she'd still be too sick but she wasn't so she ran a game. Nice time with friends. I also made some Polos for my sister and warned my friends and family in the area about a boil-water advisory because there was a breach at the water treatment plant. It doesn't affect me because I am on a well. I fell asleep on the floor for some reason.
  
  
• Tuesday I tracked down some records for proposals and went to a meeting, and had to do a transcript for another question we need to cover on our interview next week. Also did some setup for future efforts on work we're applying for. After work I played DDR and cooked mushrooms and tofu. Worked more on the podcast. Had a weird conversation online that led to me blocking someone, and she made a new blog and lied about being someone else so she could still try to talk to me. I wonder why these people think I can't tell what they're doing.
  
  
• Wednesday was finally another super busy day. I had two letters to edit (one was the long kind with an info packet), plus I had some distractions with Mom dropping by to give me extra food bank food she couldn't use and dealing with some requests from a co-worker. Was almost late turning in a letter because of all of this! Mom had (weirdly) given me chicken because she doesn't like dark meat, so I cooked chicken for the first time ever so Jeaux could eat it! And he said it was good! We also made little potatoes (from the Mom haul) and some broccoli and I made my famous gravy. So good! Jeaux and I watched Colbert and talked until 1 in the morning. :)
  
  
• Thursday I was busy most of the day trying to knock out the data entry because the due date was the next day. It turned out to be more than I expected so I worked until 9 PM when the database kicked me out, with a quick break to light Hanukkah candles. Happy Hanukkah! I also got my comic written, talked to Meghan because she is worried about her husband and wanted to vent (he's still in the hospital, not really improving). After she was ready to go, I talked to Victor and drew comics.
  
  
• Friday I got my data entry done before the deadline. Good for me. My boss also had set up some interview practice but we didn't really have time to get into it so we just talked about the project and set the practice for Monday. After I got the data done I took a nice long walk. I managed to get some shopping done for the holidays and ate potatoes, made videos for my sister, drew my comic, and worked on the podcast.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• The Tempest mentions and recommends for purchase my book in this article, Asexual Erasure in Media.

New Reviews of My Book:

• Book Hobo gave it a three-star review on Goodreads.

Food Plan Update:

• Another new milestone for lowest weight I've gotten to on my diet (and that means I've officially lost 15 pounds!), and on top of that I put on a pair of pants this week that I had hidden away because they didn't fit. They fit very comfortably, even a little loose, which makes me think yeah, this is finally about at the point I was trying to get to! My goal weight is arbitrary but I'm still going to hope I can hit it by the end of the year.
  
  
• Also I did not hit my step goal on two of the seven days, which is weird because I usually make it a priority to hit that.

• Here are this week's charts.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing new this week.

• Currently reading: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm on page 428.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica. The recorder is still going through some stuff trying to adjust to the move away from Flash so hopefully you can still see this.



Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0813: "Rewrite."






New videos: 

Ace Interviews #7: Cat and Swankivy is out.

This is my longest video ever, over three hours. They had a lot of GREAT stuff to say! You can always listen while you do something else. :)

New photos:

My first time making baked chicken (for Jeaux)

My plate (with fake chicken)

Potatoes!

2020 Menorah

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,290 for swankivy (lost 4), 666 for JulieSondra (1 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 108 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new). Twitter followers: 937 for swankivy (lost 4), 1,360 for JulieSondra (lost 3). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (lost 1, do not know who), 630 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 73 likes for Negative One (no change), 224 likes for So You Write (lost 1), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,474 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 209 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday (but posted on Sunday!): November 28 – December 4

Life news this week:

• Saturday it was hard to get motivated. I ate some more Thanksgiving leftovers and got the blogging done pretty quickly but was holding it in case I got Cat's permission to publish the video (but I didn't, so I published late). I made a funny post about the SU characters if they had cell phones. Bought some stuff online and wrote an e-mail.
  
  
• Sunday was a little more productive than Saturday. Planned out a comic, did laundry and got to have a surprise phone conversation with my sister P before she went to a drive-in movie with her family. Made another funny post about cell phones. Sent a gift card to Meg to get pizza in case the Covid situation made them want easy food. Got my letter done to my friend but I fell asleep before sending it.
  
  
• Monday was crunch time on a proposal that I basically worked on all day. I also chatted to my sister on Polo and hung out with my friends on our usual Discord meetup but of course Meg wasn't there to play games since everybody's sick, so four of us just chatted while I finished the comic I had been drawing. Barely was able to do all of that and still get the comic posted and my step quota met.
  
  
• Tuesday was a little slower at work but I had tons of meetings! And I had to do some utility stuff and did some prep work for letters going out the next day. After work I did dishes, talked to Jeaux on the phone, and got cold enough that I started using an electric blanket while working.
  
  
• Wednesday was a madhouse at the office. Four letters due and all of them required coordination. I got them all in! But I wouldn't have been able to without the great responsiveness of some of the team members and if my boss hadn't called off an interview practice. (We just talked about the project but didn't run through a practice.) Jeaux came over about an hour after he usually does to give me time to finish work. We grocery shopped, came home, and made hot dogs and fries. We used up all the frozen potatoes in my freezer and I had three kinds! So we had a feast. Then just watched Colbert and talked to each other about politics. Jeaux stayed the night in my guestroom because he is a pal and had volunteered to take me to a doctor's appointment in the morning so I wouldn't have to ride my bike in the 7 AM cold!
  
  
• Thursday I was really whiny about getting up because it was cold. Jeaux took me to my early morning sonogram appointment and took me back home after. We watched another Colbert video and then he went home. Then logged in and did some work, but it was slower. That was okay because I had extra hours from the rest of the week and was able to pull back for the day. After work I chatted to Victor and drew comics--nothing extraordinary. I wrote a quiz on Amino about an obscure Gem who's Gem of the month. :]
  
  
• Friday was another somewhat slow day mostly spent preparing reports. I did have one meeting but it was mostly stuff other people needed to deal with so I just listened. My silly quiz got put on the front page of Amino. (My 69th feature. Wow.) When work was over I sent Polos to my sister and drew the rest of my comic and posted it, and then also squeezed in some karaoke. And I went to bed early.

New Reviews of My Book:

• Indah gave it a three-star review on Goodreads.
• Aditya Sundararajan gave it a four-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Aditya S. also put a review on Audible.

Food Plan Update:

• I got a new lowest weight this week, which is cool, but I had a spike in the middle of the week that took me back up after eating all those potatoes with Jeaux. (I guess that did it?) Haven't quite gotten back down there but I'm working on it. At this point I am on track to reach my final weight goal before the end of the year. I am going to ask my coach what she recommends for transitioning to a "maintenance" kind of track versus a weight loss track once I do hit that mark. Let's hope I have that news soon.
  
  
• I am planning to stop posting tracking once I hit it, but this does help keep me accountable!

• Here are this week's charts.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing new this week.

• Currently reading: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm on page 350.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Hands Clean" by Alanis Morissette. I tried the site's new beta recorder if you notice something different.



Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0812: "Invited."






New videos: 

My video with Cat hasn't been approved by them yet, sorry, can't post it!

New photos:

Potatorama!

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,294 for swankivy (lost 1), 665 for JulieSondra (lost 2), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 107 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new). Twitter followers: 941 for swankivy (lost 2), 1,363 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (1 new--added one of John's friends), 629 likes for JulieSondra (lost 2), 73 likes for Negative One (no change), 225 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,475 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 209 (no change).