Personal Digest Saturday: July 12 – July 18

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got up early so I could go see the new Superman movie with Jeaux. We did a work-related errand and then saw the movie. It was OK. Then we ate at the nearby Vallarta's (again, yes!) and that was great as always but I had to take some of my food home. I got a headache during the movie and wasn't feeling well so after Jeaux and I watched the last episode of Murderbot after our movie outing and lunch, I took a long nap. Then I got up, did my exercise, blogged, and worked on my book and photo sorting.
  
  
• Sunday was a catch-up day. I worked on the introduction I'm writing for an upcoming aromantic stories book and read some of the stories for it. I did some laundry, recorded a karaoke song, balanced my budget record, updated my calendars, and practiced the ukulele a lot. Got invited to the Discord of a project I'm doing voice over for and read through some of their very active conversations and plans. It's a very silly place.
  
  
• Monday at work I cleaned up some requests, worked on a letter, sent a Polo to Meg, practiced ukulele trying to get some supplemental songs learned, and finished a transcript. Played DDR, worked on the aromantic anthology intro again, and made an outline of the content I've deleted from my book in its first edit.
  
  
• Tuesday I had meetings and correspondence with co-workers. Had to send out some e-mails and do research for upcoming projects. I took a nap and then got my steps in afterwards while doing Polos, worked on my book edit outline again and finished it, and did some photo sorting. Did a short recording for a voice-over project I'm on and practiced ukulele.
  
  
• Wednesday we had a weird letter to go out in the middle of the week. (They're usually on Mondays, but this one had to be different.) Also did some project research on two projects. After work I played DDR, and then Jeaux took me out to eat at So Fresh and we went shopping too. We took a walk and showed each other silly things on the internet. After he left I submitted a short story, practiced ukulele, and had some Discord chats.
  
  
• Thursday involved project research at the office. Also worked on my Negative One storyboard, practiced those silly extra songs on ukulele plus some other ones I need to master, and did a Polo for Steve before Game Night. We enjoyed our time together, and then I sent more Polos to Steve. Then I did a query and chatted with weirdos on Discord again.
  
  
• Friday I just had to do reports and arrange meetings. Then I worked on my comic, played DDR, and sent in a voice-over audition. Then I checked in with some songs on ukulele that I haven't practiced in a while.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: High weight was 115.8. Low weight was 115.0. I got nothin' to say about this really.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Missed my protein goals quite a few times this week. I'll try to do better next week. I did get in all my intended fruits and veggies for the week, but avocados sometimes throw the balance out of whack (they're high in fat) and I had two restaurant stops this week instead of the usual one. 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 Saturday at 10,065 steps, and my high day was Wednesday at 12,229 steps.

New Reviews:

Skye26 (beereadsff) gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads (in French).

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page. I'm on page 104.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Cloudbusting" by Kate Bush.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1053: ivy #332: the whole wide world.

Videos Made: 

None this week.

New photos:

None.

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,460 for swankivy (no change), 683 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 217 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 769 for swankivy (no change), 3,484 for JulieSondra (lost 3). Facebook: 291 friends for swankivy (lost 1--I unfriended someone, just didn't want to be connected with a friend's ex anymore), 630 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 81 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: 2,417 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 281 (1 new). Threads followers: 77 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 382 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: July 5 – July 11

Life news this week:

• Saturday was two years since my mom died. Sister chat had some chatter about it. It's nice to talk to them about it. Other than chatting off and on, I recorded my lines for the next Dracula audio drama episode, did my blogging, and practiced ukulele even though that's usually not on my agenda for Saturdays. (Sometimes you JUST GOTTA LIVE LIFE ON THE EDGE, right??) Ahem. Then I worked on my book and chopped a bunch of words. Wrote some messages to people who messaged me. And sent in some new auditions.
  
  
• Sunday I got to sleep late. Started working on my epic cleaning again after getting my DDR exercise out of the way. I got more of the living room done but I'm still not done with it. Then I did some photo sorting, which made a big mess, and I can't get back to cleaning until I'm done with that. I did my chores (trash, laundry) and some ukulele practice. Also updated some song lists.
  
  
• Monday I had one meeting, some data entry, and some reports to do. Very busy. Got some steps in sending Polos, read some more of a book, worked on editing my book, did more photo sorting, and practiced the ukulele. Dad invited my sisters and me to a vacation in August so we're planning that now. Should be fun.
  
  
• Tuesday I woke up after accidentally falling asleep with my contacts in. Whoops. Went to work and did some updates and project research, and went to a meeting. Did my DDR exercise and more ukulele practice (and learned a new song!). Sorted more photos, did some laundry, and did more editing. Almost done with first edit!
  
  
• Wednesday I had a bunch of letters to edit and turn in. We were done with all three in the early afternoon. After work I did my Polo videos to friends, did some photo sorting, and went out with Jeaux. We ate at the Wesley Chapel Vallarta's and it was great. After grocery shopping, we watched Murderbot's latest episode and read stuff to each other. Then after he left I submitted a query and practiced ukulele.
  
  
• Thursday I had a morning meeting and then did some project research, some proposal outlining, and some data updates. Did my DDR exercise, wrote my storyboard for the comic, and went to Game Night with my friends. I fell asleep early.
  
  
• Friday I got up early and went to work. Very busy day--had to deal with timesheets, teaming invitations, upcoming project reports, and a transcript. After work I alternated between working on the transcript, drawing my comic, and practicing ukulele. I got it all done in time for the comic to go up by deadline, and then I just spent the evening submitting a short story and practicing ukulele. I learned a new song again and updated some song lists, looking up chords to some more obscure songs and having to puzzle them out myself when nobody had chords online.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Nothing to report here, no huge changes either way. High weight was 115.4. Low weight was 114.9.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Low on protein a few days, which is weird. (Usually I only have that issue on restaurant days.) I'm getting my three servings of fruits and vegetables every day but also seem to be gravitating toward my ice cream. :) (Which is not a bad thing I'm trying to stop; it's just also not something I'm considering part of my nutrition "goals" or anything. I think treats are nice to have.) 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 Thursday at 10,027 steps, and my high day was A TIE between Sunday and Wednesday, both having 12,165 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page. I'm on page 104.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1052: meri lin #144: fluke.

Videos Made: 

None this week.

New photos:

Tilted pineapple getting bigger!

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,460 for swankivy (lost 3), 683 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 217 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 769 for swankivy (lost 1), 3,487 for JulieSondra (lost 1). Facebook: 292 friends for swankivy (no change), 630 likes for JulieSondra (lost 3), 81 followers for Negative One (lost 1), 249 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,418 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 280 (no change). Threads followers: 77 (1 new). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 380 (1 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: June 28 – July 4

Life news this week:

• Saturday my blogging got done relatively early and then I spent a bunch of time processing the video I recorded last week. (It's very long.) I got my walking in while listening to Polos and I did my DDR exercise. Got some editing done on my book--quite a lot actually. Watched a reaction and ate too many Lemonheads. (They were buy one get one free at the store.)
  
  
• Sunday I slept 'til the afternoon so that was fun. Worked on the transcript for the video I processed on Saturday. Got the news that the first thing I ever auditioned for in voice work (and, incidentally, got offered the role) is going forward after all, even though I hadn't heard from the showrunner in months. Hooray! It's gonna be cool. I got to listen to a privately sent, not-quite-complete version of Episode 1. It's about what I expected and sounds good. Exciting! So then I worked on my chores (laundry and trash), drew a So You Write comic, coordinated a sale of some pins through Tumblr, and sent a Polo. Also learned a new ukulele song and recorded dialogue for the next Sleepy Hollow episode.
  
  
• Monday, following posting my video the day before, I got a small influx of transphobic comments on YouTube. Deleted and blocked. Who needs that? (One of them opened with "there's no such thing as transphobia" and then proceeded to caterwaul about single-sex spaces and the erosion of the definition of womanhood. Thanks for the nice example of transphobia!) At work I edited a letter, prepared for a meeting, and went to an interview practice. We turned in our package for the interview, organized future teams, and did some additional practices for the interview. After work I processed my comic and posted it. Then I played DDR, Polo'd Meg, and worked on my novel edit.
  
  
• Tuesday I woke up in the middle of the night and messed around for about an hour before going back to sleep. Got up in plenty of time to be ready for the interview. My boss picked me up and we headed over to the District, did our interview, did a debriefing meeting in the car because we didn't have time to get home, and then finally came back to do another debrief meeting. After all the work stuff I walked my package to the Post Office and took a nap. Then I made a list of some project history for my boss and signed off for the day. I worked on my projects: editing my book, practicing ukulele, and recording dialogue for a voice-over project. Also got some dishes washed and talked to Meg on Polo.
  
  
• Wednesday involved pestering people to give me materials and entering some data. In the afternoon I played DDR before Jeaux came over. We ate at a Mexican restaurant we'd never been to before (El Señor de los Tacos) where I got a Beyond Meat burrito that was very salty but pretty good. Then we grocery shopped, watched the latest Murderbot episode, and installed a new bigger TV into my entertainment center. (It's a hand-me-down from Jeaux. It doesn't quite fit, but it's close enough.) Then we just shared silly internet content and chatted. Birdle visited! What a cutie. After he left I submitted a query, scanned some photos, and practiced ukulele.
  
  
• Thursday I had issues logging in at work for some reason and technical difficulties plagued some of the day. Probably has something to do with the new system they're making me use for data entry. Everything was more or less working again after two interactions with tech support. I got data entered and bothered people to give me paper. Then I took a nap and woke up in time for Game Night, which I had to run because Meg was busy. After, I wrote my Negative One storyboard, sent a Polo to Steve, submitted a short story, and learned a new song on ukulele. I also practiced some of the older songs that I have mastered to make sure I still know them. (I do.)
  
  
• Friday I had the day off work for the July 4 holiday. I slept late and was awakened by the neighbors' obnoxious music but hey, that's okay. I needed to get up anyway. I drew my comic in the daytime and posted it, played DDR, and got the rest of my steps while walking around sending a second Polo to Steve. Then I practiced ukulele, scanned photos, and found that I'm done with the second box of photos! The photo-scanning project is done! Next on the agenda: organizing them. I also dove into recording my voice-over lines for Episode 5 of Dracula. It was a shorter episode and I only had about 50 lines, so it was a lot more doable than I'd expected. And I wrote part of a draft for the foreword that I'll be writing for an upcoming anthology of aromantic stories, and I read one of the drafts of one of the stories. Jeaux also called me in the wee hours to rant about some school stuff. I love that we're both night owls.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• LGBTQAI+ Literature: Exploring Asexuality, Part 2 is up on Daily Kos. My book is one of three asexuality-related books in a list to discuss in the article.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I saw some higher numbers again at the beginning of the week but I think it stabilized? I don't have a routine down at all and have not been actively trying to lessen anything. I guess I'm just still paying attention to what the scale says in case it turns out I do see a trend I don't want to continue. High weight was 116.0. Low weight was 114.8.
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: Kind of a repeat of last week? I'm still getting three servings of fruits and veggies but the vegetable is almost always the spinach in my smoothie, and I feel a little bit trapped about that because when I buy spinach I kinda have to eat it every day until it's gone if I don't want it to go bad. Fruits are fluctuating between strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and bananas, and sometimes if I'm not worried about remaining fruit going bad I'll crack into the packaged Mandarin oranges, pears, and peaches. Balance between carbs, fats, and protein is something I did not pay attention to pretty much at all this week. Looks like I at least met my protein goal every day except Wednesday. 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 10,028 steps, and my high day was Friday at 13,943 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page. I'm on page 85.

New singing performances:

None this week.

Stuff drawn:

My monthly writing webcomic, So You Write:

#169: to begin with.

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

#1051: adele #258: higher education.

Videos Made: 

Ace Activist Response to Rowling is posted! This is an epic reading of an essay I wrote and published five years ago addressing, point by point, some thoughts J.K. Rowling shared on her blog. It is primarily a rebuttal to the "we must protect women and girls" narrative that Rowling claims is her motivation for limiting trans people's rights and spreading lies about the reality of their experience. As an asexual activist, I see many parallels between the way she misrepresents trans people and sows mistrust about them and the way people mistrust and dismiss asexual people. In this essay, I also show some evidence for why Rowling misrepresented her position many times, and I give voice to some nuanced explorations on diverse experiences of female identity.

New photos:

None.

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,463 for swankivy (lost 3; maybe some transphobes were following me ;) ), 683 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 217 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 770 for swankivy (no change), 3,488 for JulieSondra (lost 6). 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 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 280 (no change). Threads followers: 76 (1 new). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 379 (1 new).

June 2025 Goals Update

Now that it's July, I gotta look back at how goals progressed in June. Check-in time!

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: Still doing my aerobic dancing (aka DDR) or aerobics videos (aka walking in place while lifting tiny weights) every other day for this year so far, consistently. I do the DDR more than the aerobics; it's just more interesting. Nutrition goals are good and I'm eating a weird amount of yogurt because I like it with fruit. Sometimes when I run out of spinach (or it goes bad early) I struggle to get a green vegetable before the next grocery day. Water goals are good, vitamin-taking is still happening, etc. 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've been SUPER regular and consistent with my writing goals this month because I planned them. I'm exclusively into editing now--which is essentially about UN-writing the book I just wrote--and the only thing I'm regularly writing is the webcomic once a week.

Still 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 a short work published and hopefully sign with a new agent this year. I've been changing direction with where to send my longer short stories (the ones long enough to be novellas) and approaching small book publishers with them. Hoping I get somewhere with that! I did have a full manuscript request for my latest long short story this month, but it turned into a pass. The full manuscript is currently out to more than one interested party, though.

If I can get to my word count goal--which isn't firm, but it needs to be much shorter--I'd like to send the recently completed book to its first test audience, so comment or message privately if you'd like to beta for me. (It's a Sapphic science fiction romantic coming-of-age story.) The book started at about 197,000 words and it's down to 165,000 now, but I have yet to get through my first-draft read-and-cut. We'll see if I can jump back into my other in-progress novel later this year.

And I have been tapped to write the introduction to an upcoming anthology of aromantic stories, and that piece is due this month, so I'll have to buckle down and do that soon.

Writing Progress:

Photo album scanning is almost done now. The second of my two boxes is almost empty and I have to figure out the next step. I want to organize and file the physical copies in albums or boxes first, with photos from around the same time grouped together at least, and then I'll try to get them processed onto my site. Ukulele practice is going great--I don't have too many songs left on the "rusty" list (though the ones that are still there are pretty difficult), and I only have THREE new songs to learn before this goal is complete. (I want to have all the Steven Universe songs memorized and in some sense ready to play when I go to a convention at the end of July.) And for voice acting, I got another new role this month (a small comic project), recorded lines for four projects, and found out the FIRST project I ever auditioned for and got cast is getting close to release. I'm continuing to send in auditions regularly so I always have news to look forward to, and I'm going to try a pro opportunity that's happening at the convention I'll be attending (which is a long shot, but I might as well go for it). Here's the Projects Calendar:

READING GOALS: 

Summary: The other goals look so good and so something's gotta give, and it's usually this. I did not make time for reading very much this month--largely because I usually do my reading while I'm getting some indoor walking done, and I've had fewer situations this month where I needed to catch up on steps because I've already been so active. But I'm into this book I'm currently reading and looking forward to finishing it; I finished one book this month and am 85 pages in on the current one.

Progress:

RELATIONSHIP AND COMMUNICATION GOALS: 

Summary: It was a quiet month socially, with nothing but my typical planned Jeaux Days and Game Nights (and one band practice, plus seeing my dad for Father's Day). I have one outstanding e-mail. The documentation goals have STILL gone unaddressed. Like I said last month, 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 shakes out this year.