Personal Digest Saturday: January 18 – January 24

Life news this week:

• Saturday Meg and I had breakfast and coffee before going out to get our nails done. I was happy with mine--I picked a pretty blue color with sparkles. Afterwards we ate at Ahi, stopped at Michael's, and went home. Meg stayed a short while and then went off to Adam's, leaving me with the rest of my weekend to do whatever. I took a nap, updated my blog, messed around on Tumblr, chatted with Jeaux, and wrote some of my novel.
  
  
• Sunday I slept late, got laundry started, and vegged a while before exercising and working on the photo project. I paid all my bills and recorded an audition. Sent a Polo to Steve, took some weird naps, and practiced my ukulele.
  
  
• Monday I did have to work since I don't get MLK Day off. Nothing happened. I read through some new projects at work. Later, I worked on my novel, practiced ukulele, and ate cake. I prepared some interview questions and talked to Steve and Patricia on Polo.
  
  
• Tuesday I worked on a letter at work and found out we got shortlisted on another one. Attended a virtual interview for a new opportunity. Played DDR, sent a Polo to Meg, sent out some queries, and worked on my novel.
  
  
• Wednesday I got up a little late because I stayed up late the night before working on writing. Worked on tasks for our shortlisted project and some upcoming projects. Sent a Polo to Steve. Jeaux came and we ate at Moe's, did our grocery shopping, took a walk, and had ice cream together. After he left I practiced ukulele and reformatted my projects calendar.
  
  
• Thursday I did more work on the shortlisted project, including finishing a transcript. Recorded a karaoke song, wrote my webcomic, exercised, sent a Polo to Steve, submitted some short stories, and went to Game Night with my friends. Drew a little bit of my comic. After games, I watched a Polo from my sister and did a little playing and reading.
  
  
• Friday I had internet troubles at work and then COINCIDENTALLY later started having internet troubles at home! Service was still out when I went to bed and it made getting my work done annoying. I did my timesheets and reports at work, completed my comic, took a walk and sent Polos to Meg, and practiced music while putting laundry away. Edited my short story.

Words Written: 4,418.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• A new themed edition of After Dinner Conversation will be released in May 2025 which will include my short story "Everyone's Gay in Space." This story was previously published by After Dinner Conversation in 2020. Here is the placeholder page for the collection.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: All week long I just got the high numbers I thought were long gone! I know it's only a couple pounds' difference but it's a little weird. (I did eat out a few more times than usual, but I feel like that shouldn't make that big of a difference, especially since I eat pretty reasonably at restaurants.) I guess I've been feeling a little snacky lately though, so maybe that explains it. I recorded a high of 118.7 and a low of 117.4.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Looks like I need to focus on my protein a little bit more. I had a low-protein day five out of the last seven days. I did mostly get fruits and veggies in (one day I was short) but the balance was a little wack if I'm honest. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to play my dance game twice a week and doing an exercise video with weights twice a week (so far). And I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Saturday at 10,362 steps, and my high day was Tuesday at 11,697 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dream to Me by Megan Paasch. I'm on page 278.
  

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera.

 

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

 

#1028: adele #252: misfired.

Videos Made: 

None. 

New photos:

My first professional manicure

Birdle's fluffy butt is back on my porch

An enormous cardinal on my bird feeder!

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,479 for swankivy (no change), 681 for JulieSondra (1 new), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 210 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 794 for swankivy (lost 4), 3,583 for JulieSondra (lost 46). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 642 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 251 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,424 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 280 (no change). Threads followers: 77 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 299 (4 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: January 11 – January 17

Life news this week:

• Saturday I reviewed my voice over recordings and tweaked a couple of them before turning them in to the producers. It's all wrapped up and now I just wait for any additional pickups or for the first episode to come out! Neat. Then I did an exercise video, did some music practice and some reading, and updated some stuff. Wrote another chapter on my novel, wrote my webcomic script ahead of time, and got a bag packed for a busy day the next day.
  
  
• Sunday was busy and I got up early! Dad picked me up for band practice. I updated him on All The Happenings during the car ride. We had a good practice even though our keyboard player was sick and couldn't make it. After practice (and pizza!) I got picked up by Ben who took me to a party at his house. I got to meet his daughter and eat his cooking for the first time. We had some yummy rice and mushrooms and I helped by frying tofu. And then he took me home. I threw in laundry and took out the trash and took a badly needed nap. Got up and sent a Polo to Meg while getting my steps in. Finally went to bed for real after that.
  
  
• Monday I handled timesheets at work and then took a quick nap during a break! I was very tired for some reason. Then when I got back in I did some editing on a letter and submitted it, and updated our resumes for the new year. Later I played DDR and wrote more of my novel.
  
  
• Tuesday I did some data entry for our timesheets and invited team members to our next effort. And we found out we won a big contract, finally! (It's the one that I had to go to the interview for in December. Exciting! Finally our hard work paid off!) I worked on writing after that and finished writing another chapter on my novel, caught up on news, talked to Tony outside, and got my steps in listening to a Polo from Steve and sending a Polo to Meg. Also finally put away folded laundry and did dishes.
  
  
• Wednesday I did some project research at work, drew some comics, and did an exercise video. Wrote some e-mails. Jeaux came over and took me to Vallarta's for my birthday meal. Then we grocery shopped and went back to my place where he gave me a cake he had baked--a homemade Oreo cake! He did a great job and it was yummy too. And he gave me a blender for my birthday. Cool.
  
  
• Thursday I had a bunch of follow-up work to do at work. I had cake for lunch and drew the rest of my webcomic so I wouldn't have to deal with it Friday. Updated my journal, went to Game Night, and posted my webcomic after the clock rolled past midnight.
  
  
• Friday was MY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY 47TH BIRTHDAY TO ME! I got up early and played DDR in the morning after coffee! Got dressed for the day and did some reports at work. Meg rolled in to visit me in the afternoon and we chilled together, then went out to eat at Carrabba's with my dad and Connie for my birthday. When we got back I finished my reports for the office, took an unsatisfying nap, and hung out with Meghan for the rest of the evening. We had cake together (the one Jeaux baked). We did nothing special besides chatting, but that's all I need.

Words Written: 7,408.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Nope, I'm seeing weird highs again! Seems weird. Though there has been some cake and birthday celebrations in my life so I guess I should expect it. I dunno. I recorded a high of 117.9 and a low of 115.2.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I had good nutrition this week (fruits and veggies every day!) but there were a couple low protein days and a couple higher fat days when I had cake. But what am I gonna do, NOT have cake on my birthday? LOL. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to play my dance game twice a week and doing an exercise video with weights twice a week (so far). And I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Tuesday at 10,040 steps, and my high day was Sunday at 11,690 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dream to Me by Megan Paasch. I'm on page 278.
  

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Ice Cream" by Sarah McLachlan.

 

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

 

#1027: weaver #161: our spot.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

Ben cooking at his party!

Jeaux's Oreo cake made for my 47th birthday

My birthday outfit

Hanging with Meggie and cake

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,479 for swankivy (2 new), 680 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 210 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 798 for swankivy (lost 3), 3,629 for JulieSondra (lost 15). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 643 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 251 followers for So You Write (lost 1), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,425 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 280 (no change). Threads followers: 77 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 295 (17 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: January 4 – January 10

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got my blogging done early and dove into some writing a little later. I got distracted by browsing through some other voice acting opportunities and sent another audition in. Then I got my highlighted scripts for the voice-over role I'm doing and read through the first episode. It got too late to make pot pies like I had planned. Oh well! I managed to get another thousand or so words out on my novel, practiced ukulele, and did some queries.
  
  
• Sunday I knocked out a bunch of chores early and played DDR. I spent most of the day working on the photo album project because that album I picked turned out to be a lot of work--photos with the vaguest dates that I had to do a bunch of research to track down, and some stuff that wasn't photos jammed in the photo book that I had to organize. I also did another audition for a project. It takes a long time for them to decide things and it's like writing projects where there's a lot of waiting, so I figure it's good to get a few out there.
  
  
• Monday I edited a letter that was due at work. I also walked to the post office to send another one of Meg's eBay sales. It was super windy. I came home and worked on my short story editing (trying to get the word count down as well as firm the story up). I spent some time relearning some songs on ukulele. And I recorded some more of my voice-over lines. I'm trying to take my time with it so I can really pay attention to the performance. I finally got around to making my pot pies and that took a lot of time. That's a really involved recipe. At the end I had two dirty pots, three dirty bowls, and eight full ramekins. Well, that's food for a week! Got to work on my novel late in the evening.
  
  
• Tuesday I went to meetings and compiled some documents for my boss. I gathered some voice samples and wokred on some new material for my novel. Played my uke, sent a Polo to Meg, and exercised. I got distracted a little too much.
  
  
• Wednesday I had to deal with meeting schedule stuff. I cleaned up the disaster in the kitchen and did the dishes finally. Got two more episodes of the voice over recorded. Worked on my short story again. Picked out my birthday cake so Jeaux can make me one. Jeaux came and we ate at Saki, grocery shopped, and read each other silly things. After he left I submitted some stories (including a reprint for the first time??), practiced ukulele, and sorted some photos.
  
  
• Thursday wasn't very busy at work so I just did background stuff. Worked on my short story editing, did some more voice over lines, recorded a karaoke song, wrote my webcomic, sorted some photos, and played Dance Dance Revolution. Then it was game night so I hung out with my friends for two hours, and then went back to playing ukulele and sorting photos. (There's a huge folder I'm sorting.) Did a Polo for Steve and drew some of my comic. Briefly talked to Jeaux on the phone because he slept through game night like a dork.
  
  
• Friday I had a morning meeting, timesheets, and reports to do. Then I recorded a giant voice over episode (I had no idea I had so many lines in this script, damn). I got my comic drawn and posted it, did some walking while reading, and went back in and knocked out the last voice over lines for the last episode. I think I need to listen to all of it one more time before I send it in, though.

Words Written: 5,379.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• A research article cited my book. “Much like skydiving, I would really rather avoid it if I can”: asexual and allosexual adults’ motives for not having sexual experiences.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Yep, last week's weird highs were just the result of being full of cookies I guess? I recorded a high of 116.3 and a low of 114.7. Nice to see that this week's high is lower than last week's low. That's what I was hoping for. And it's a good reminder to not be misled by numbers, also; fluctuations are normal and especially common at times of disrupted routine!
  
• Nutrition stuff: My diet this week was unusually high in fat--probably because almost every day I'm eating the pot pies I made and even though they're full of vegetables they're also pretty fatty. That is also OK sometimes! You need fat in your diet to absorb nutrients. But I do want the balance back when I'm done eating these things, so we'll see what happens next week. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: At the start of the year I declared that I wanted to try to introduce some aerobic activity into my schedule once a week, in addition to walking. Well, that seems to have mutated into trying to do it every other day. I'm playing my dance game twice a week and doing an exercise video with weights twice a week (so far). Don't know if I'm going to be able to keep that up considering all the other projects I'm doing, but maybe! I like it so far. I also met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Saturday at 10,186 steps, and my high day was Monday at 12,359 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dream to Me by Megan Paasch. I'm on page 242.
  

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Fields of Gold" by Sting.

 

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

 

#1026: dax #152: toxic.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

Birdle returns!

The last leftover cookies

Pink coffee (using peppermint whipped cream left over from holidays)

My pot pies!

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,477 for swankivy (1 new), 681 for JulieSondra (1 new), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 210 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 801 for swankivy (lost 1), 3,644 for JulieSondra (lost 7). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 643 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 252 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,426 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 280 (lost 1). Threads followers: 77 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 278 (14 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: December 28 – January 3

Life news this week:

• Saturday was MY COOKIE PARTY! I had a bunch of friends over to help me dispose of the cookies (six cookie types plus cheesecake). And they were very glad to do it, haha. But I had to spend the morning and early afternoon preparing for it, so I wrapped some small presents, did some laundry, made some drink labels, put away some dishes, cut cheese and fruit, figured out how to use my cool whipped cream frother, and made cider and hot chocolate and put it all out before the friends got here. My friends Ben, Avery, Scott, Meghan, Adam, Jeaux, Dare, Yasmin, and Arthur attended. We played Joking Hazard and ate a bunch of food. Some of the folks left earlyish but some stayed until after midnight just chilling and talking. It was great and I loved seeing everyone! After they left I cleaned up a little but I was too tired to do very much.
  
  
• Sunday I spent the day catching up on the day before's undone work--organizing some photos and doing my blogging since I didn't get to on Saturday. Then I did more laundry and cleaned up the house. BIRDLE CAME BACK! I was so excited. I sent a Polo to my sister about the holiday festivities and ate too many cookies.
  
  
• Monday was back to work, and it was uneventful. I collected timesheets and bothered teaming partners. Also had to take a walk to the post office because people bought a couple of Meg's items. I ate cookies for breakfast! That's fun. Then I made a video for my asexuality channel and wrote my monthly webcomic. I read some of the script for the voice acting part I got. Then washed dishes and charged my Birdle Cam but Birdle did not come back. Sad!
  
  
• Tuesday I had to work, so I bothered people for documents and processed some timesheet stuff. Did some drawing for my webcomic and got it done. Sent Meg an epic Polo. Talked to Tony outside when he came to do my yard. Then started working on my really big end-of-year post which always takes me several hours every year. I really enjoy seeing the accomplishments (and where I fell short). I hadn't already decided what my next resolutions would be so I had to spend some time thinking about it. After I was done with my posts I ate a lot of crap and watched silly videos.
  
  
• Wednesday I had the day off for New Year's Day. I slept in a little, then cleaned up the kitchen and put away stuff from the party and cleaned up a mess I'd made packing up Meg's eBay items. I played DDR and wrote up some goal progress for December. Jeaux came over and took me grocery shopping, and then we ate at Tijuana Flats, came home, and hid from the cold while I read him silly things. Then I practiced my ukulele.
  
  
• Thursday I went back to work and did some backed up work collecting contact info for one of the districts. I also went to a follow-up dentist appointment where they had made me a mouth guard to wear while I sleep so I can avoid grinding my teeth. (I've never had any issues with this to my knowledge, but the dentist said they could see evidence of it, so I believe them.) I tried on the guard and after some adjustments they let me go home. I wrote my webcomic and scanned some photos from an album. Then went to game night with my friends and got about half my drawings done.
  
  
• Friday at work I did my upcoming project reports and some more contact database stuff. Then I did the remainder of my comic drawings and posted it, walked while reading, did a little 20-minute workout, practiced my ukulele, and looked around to see if there were any more voice acting roles I was interested in trying. (Nothing yet.)

New Reviews:

• Meghan Chiasson gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I started getting back on the scale at the start of the year and I gotta say I do not really understand how I can have a GAIN of SEVEN AND A HALF POUNDS within A WEEK?? That's like six percent of my entire body weight. How. Holiday food will do that to ya I guess?? I'm gonna guess actually both the high and the low were kind of a fluke, but I'm sure I did legit go up a bit because of holiday food and I'm honestly not worried about it. I just do want to do better going forward. I recorded a high of 118.0 and a low of 116.8. I don't have a bunch of extra junk food or leftovers lying around this week so I'm expecting I've seen the last of those numbers (even the low one), because jeez.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I've continued to be low on protein because this past week I ate a lot of cookies. I have still managed to have three servings of fruits and vegetables most days, and have felt pretty good about it. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Friday at 10,117 steps, and my high day was Tuesday at 10,439 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dream to Me by Megan Paasch. I'm on page 178.
  

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "True Blue" by Madonna.

 

Stuff drawn:

My monthly writing webcomic, So You Write:

 

#163: misread.

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

 

#1025: ivy #320: princess hair.

Videos Made: 

Letters to an Asexual #121 ("there's no reason for aces to come out; it's personal!") is out. In this video, I share an anonymous person's request for advice on how to handle another queer person telling them that there's no reason to EVER come out since sexuality is personal. I share some reflections on why we need to talk about our orientation and what the alternative is.

New photos:

The Christmas Album for 2024 now contains cookie party images too, but here are my favorites:

Cookie party Ben

Cookie party Meg and Adam

Me with hot chocolate at my party

Yasmin's famous plating skills

Dare and Yasmin hangin' out

Friends playing Joking Hazard

My cozy hot chocolate

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,476 for swankivy (8 new), 680 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 210 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 802 for swankivy (no change), 3,651 for JulieSondra (lost 7). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 643 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 252 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,427 (no change). Instagram followers: 281 (no change). Threads followers: 77 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 264 (2 new).

December Goals Update

We've made it to 2025. Yay! So let's review how I finished out 2024 and how the resolutions shook out.

1. Health Goals: I resolved to drink more water, eat more fruits and veggies, and walk at least 10,000 steps a day.

2. Personal Project Goals: I resolved to get digital photos sorted and collect memorable bits from Facebook for my essays; resolved to work on writing or editing at least one day a week; resolved to relearn ukulele songs I've forgotten and learn new ones, and keep creating my regular webcomic and video content.

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: I wanted to prepare and sell my mom's house, watch some TV shows I'd dropped, and not play time-wasting tames.

Progress Update:

HEALTH GOALS:

Summary: Obviously the last week of December involved a lot of TREATS and heavy eating! And during that whole week of celebrating with family and friends and getting through the leftovers, I definitely fell off on having my recommended amount of protein that week. Everything else was pretty good and I got a reading on the scale that was the lowest of the entire year! And I immediately blew it away with tons of cookies, haha. (I do not regret this. I think it's really important to not see food as "decadent" or "indulgent." We need to be able to have treats without weird guilt around it, even though I am trying to make sure I give my body what it needs.) I did manage to get at least three servings of fruits and veggies almost every day, and most days I met or exceeded my water goal. This is my calendar of progress:

PERSONAL PROJECT GOALS:

Summary: The photos project wrapped in 2024 with me successfully getting through all the photos I inherited from Mom's house. I did get them scanned and sorted and to some extent I've got piles started for how to store some loose photos. I found an empty photo album in with my mom's stuff, so I'll use it, and I bought a new photo box to give some miscellaneous ones a home. I still have a bunch of personal photo albums to leaf through to get this last little pocket of pre-digital photos into my inventory (from about 1993 to 1996), and I have some loose photos in the closet that need to be given the same treatment I gave to the loose photos my mom had. I think I got a lot of these when my dad's parents died and I never did anything with them, so now I am motivated. Soon after I finish that, my goal is to incorporate them all into the sorting system I have digitally--but though I had aspirations of being DONE with this by the end of 2024, I did not make as much progress as I wanted to. Sometimes that happens.

Writing goals–wise, I feel like I did okay with both submissions and writing new content--though almost all of it was on short stories and I did not come back to my novel this month. That will change soon! I finished a new short story (which was hella long) and toward the beginning of the month I got more submissions out. I am looking for a literary agent for my fiction again (I still have an agent for my existing work), so I'll continue doing that, and I want to get the short story cleaned up and through beta reading before I start sending it out. I might also start sending out another short story that I finished a while back but it hasn't ever been shown to anyone.

I did not pick up the ukulele goals. I will see what I can do with that next year.

Progress:

READING GOALS: 

Summary: I was only able to carve out time for reading toward the beginning of the month. The hubbub of the holidays took over halfway through the month and I was buckling down on other projects and activities, so that fell off a bit. I think this will fluctuate sometimes and I am okay with this being a medium priority, not a top priority.

Progress:

RELATIONSHIP AND COMMUNICATION GOALS: 

Summary: I have successfully kept my e-mail box clear. Very proud of that. What I have NOT done--pretty catastrophically--is keep up with the documentation I really wanted to do. We'll see if I can do it better in the new year. I have a very small backlog to get through and then I really want to start writing about everyday life again--and though I think a lot of people develop New Year's goals to stop wasting time on social media, I actually want to spend a little MORE time there (just to share updates and be more present in the various places where I have a presence), if only to post fun photos and musings. Nothing too intense.

Progress:

OTHER GOALS:

Summary: I no longer have any dangling obligations for my mother's estate beyond selling a few things I wasn't able to place with new owners. I'll keep trying to do that, and next month I have to figure out taxes and give the right information to my sisters about how we are to claim anything relevant on our forms.

I still need to sand and paint the plaster pillar that is sitting outside.

I made and kept all my health appointments this year. Go me.

I still have a TV show I want to watch but honestly even though it's on the "to-do" list, it is never going to be a priority to watch TV!

I have liked doing this so I am going to continue this method (with some slight changes to the calendars) and continue posting these monthly.