Personal Digest Saturday: October 18 – October 24

Life news this week:

• Saturday I did some organizing projects in the bathroom storage and the bedroom closet--just stuff I've been meaning to get to. I listened to some lengthy reactions to entertain me while doing it. Then I redecorated for the Halloween season. I chatted with Steve and Jeaux and did some aerobics. Did my blogging. Worked on my book edit. Ear status: Bad all day.
  
  
• Sunday I spent nearly the whole day listing stuff on eBay. Some was Meghan's stuff and some was mine. I also cleaned up the house a little and did a Polo exchange with Meghan. Recorded a karaoke song as well and someone featured it on the front page again for some reason. Ear status: Bad all day.
  
  
• Monday I had a long day at work. Updated some subconsultants' documents and dealt with the administrative stuff we have to do whenever we get shortlisted (because we got shortlisted in our home district!). Walked to the Post Office to send some stuff that sold on my break. Processed a letter to go out, went to a meeting, and then after work I did my aerobics. Updated some lists, did some inventory on what ingredients I need for my party, and made my final list. Wrote my webcomic storyboard early because the end of the week would all be party prep. Edited a chapter of my book. Ear status: Bad all day.
  
  
• Tuesday I had to spend most of the work day entering credit card charges in QuickBooks. I got some to do a bunch of voice-over auditions, sent some Polos for Meg, talked to Tony, washed some dishes, and vacuumed. Kari stopped by because she is now my neighbor! In walking distance! Edited my book, watched some reactions, and finished drawing all the frames for my webcomic. Ear status: Bad all day, so I asked for a referral to an ENT because the medicine they prescribed has not resolved the issue and it's a week later. I also tried to get my referral info for the physical therapy that was recommended (for my foot) since it STILL hasn't arrived in the mail, so they sent it electronically and I tried to make an appointment but they don't even have a branch in my city, so I'm requesting a different referral.
  
  
• Wednesday I had trouble staying asleep because my ear was real bad. I had to call to reschedule my ENT appointment because it's the same day as our shortlisted interview and they ended up bumping me ANOTHER week out. I don't know if I'll make it. Ugh. At work I did some adjustments for timesheets, applied stamps to stuff, sent some reminders, updated some data, and reviewed our "go" projects. Sent Ben a Polo. Played DDR for the first time in a while because my foot had improved. Jeaux came and took me out to 4 Rivers, where I ate WAY too much and was very uncomfortable and thirsty afterwards! I think I overdid it on the salt. We grocery shopped and I got my last chunk of supplies for the party. He and I watched silly videos while I tried to recover from dinner. Then we made pie together. After he left I sent out a query. Ear status: I was expecting that by today it would wane a little because that's been the pattern, but nope, still bad all day.
  
  
• Thursday I had a bunch of prep work to do for upcoming projects, so I spent all day on that. I talked to my friends on Polo, observed some drama on Discord and had some discussions about it, and made my cookie dough for the animal cookies. Worked on the cute food labels for my party. Went to game night and the Jackbox people released a new game pack so we explored new fun games. After, I finished processing Negative One, cleaned up the kitchen, and baked all the cookies while listening to reactions. Submitted a short story before going to bed. Ear status: Mostly bad most of the day.
  
  
• Friday I had to get up early to let the pest control guy in and then I had an early meeting. After that I worked on my usual weekly reports. Made a pumpkin roll early in the day and cleaned up from it. Swept out the porch and table, straightened up the garage from where I threw boxes all over the place, and then got busy in the kitchen again. Made peanut butter candy corn fudge, two kinds of muffins, and a new recipe: Halloween brownie cookies. Got all the cleanup done and some food labels sorted before it was bedtime. Ear status: bad all day. Wow!

Interviews/Articles/Mentions:

• Asexuality 201 Special on Substack! Listen to my interview on I Don't Know If This Counts.
• University of Birmingham discussed considering the impacts of media representations of asexuality and quoted my book.
• An Instagram user named annas_sweets_and_stories said The Invisible Orientation changed their life.
• An Instagram user named omahaforus referenced me as a notable asexual awareness celebrity.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I have no data this week. :)
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: This time only 2 out of 7 days were low protein again (one, of again, was my restaurant day). I continued to monitor it more closely than earlier in the month and am pretty happy with the result. (The non-restaurant day was only just under the protein goal I wanted.) Still managing to get the three servings of fruits and veggies and still taking the vitamins!
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to do aerobics or DDR every other day. I made my 10,000-step walking goal every day this week. My low day was Friday at 10,162 steps, and my high day was Wednesday at 15,120 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I'm on page 416.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Take It on the Run" by REO Speedwagon. 

Stuff drawn:

 

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One: #1067: ivy #341: everything has a name.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

None.

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,444 for swankivy (lost 1), 680 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 215 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 767 for swankivy (1 new), 3,464 for JulieSondra (3 new). Facebook: 290 friends for swankivy (lost 1, don't know who), 627 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 79 followers for Negative One (lost 1), 247 followers for So You Write (no change), 103 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,415 (1 new). Instagram followers: 289 (4 new). Threads followers: 81 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 405 (3 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: October 11 – October 17

Life news this week:

• Saturday my ear behaved all day, which was nice. I listened to some music and relaxed for a long time, then got my blogging done and got around to sending Polos to my friend Ben. Then I cleaned old photos off my phone to make space and read old comic pages. I submitted a short story and edited my book.
  
  
• Sunday my ear was okay when I woke up but then it got bad again ALL day so I decided to make a doctor's appointment. Listened to music and did some laundry and took out trash. Had a chat with someone doing a project that I auditioned for. Did some more voice-over auditions. Worked on my photo page and got 2009 done. Recorded a karaoke song.
  
  
• Monday I called the doctor and managed to get a same-day appointment in. I did some filing and teaming invitations at work, and then in the afternoon I saw the doctor (and asked her about my foot too). She gave me a prescription for what she thinks is wrong with my ear and referred me for an X-ray for my foot. But no slots were open so I had to make an appointment for the next day. I got my prescription from the store and listened to some music. Recorded a song cover. Recorded a reprise audition and a callback audition for voice-over stuff. Worked on my book and my photos page.
  
  
• Tuesday I got up super early to get to my X-ray appointment. They knocked it out quickly and I went home and went to work. Later the same day they said everything is normal for my foot and they're going to refer me to physical therapy. I also started my medicine for my ear. No real difference. I outlined a proposal at work and did some dishes, listened to a Polo, worked on my photo page for 2008, and did some aerobics. Then I went out to talk to Tony. While we were chilling out there a little girl who lives next door who is mentally and physically disabled came wandering out of the house and kept coming up to us, then wandering back in the house--didn't seem like any adults were there and the door was left open for this poor kid to wander into the street over and over again, so I called the non-emergency number and had a welfare check done. Hope everything was okay. I finished my photo page for 2007 and edited my book, then updated my website with some new favorite music and movies.
  
  
• Wednesday my ear was doing better. I went to work and did project research. I cleaned up around the house, went to a meeting, and did some follow-ups for communications. Jeaux came over and we ate at Little Greek, then did our grocery shopping (a big one for me since I'm getting party supplies). My foot was really acting up. Hard to make it through the trip. Argh. At home we watched Pitch Perfect 2 because Jeaux wanted to show it to me. Then after he left I watched some reactions and relaxed.
  
  
• Thursday I worked on project research all day. Ear was still mostly behaving and foot was not as bad. I did some aerobics and wrote my webcomic, then went to Game Night. Send some photos to my sister for a project her son is doing. Submitted a query. Dealt with some random drama online.
  
  
• Friday I didn't sleep well. Got up and fixed up some packages for stuff I'm selling online. Fixed my messed up OKCupid account. (They flagged me for "attempting business activities" and wouldn't tell me what they thought was business activities. I promise I have never ever tried to sell anything on OKCupid, but maybe it's misinterpreting links that used to be allowed as if they're commercial material. I recreated it with no links.) At work I did some reports and timesheets and sent reminders to people. Then I worked on my comic, got my steps talking to Steve, and submitted a short story to a place I feel good about.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I have no data this week. :)
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: This time only 2 out of 7 days were low protein (one, of course, was my restaurant day). I paid attention to it this time trying to get closer to the goals. Still managing to get the three servings of fruits and veggies and still taking the vitamins!
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to do aerobics every other day. I made my 10,000-step walking goal every day this week. My low day was Thursday at 10,077 steps, and my high day was Wednesday at 13,075 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I'm on page 416.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "One Way or Another" by Blondie. 

Stuff drawn:

 

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One: #1066: ivy #340: something in return.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

None.

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,445 for swankivy (lost 4), 680 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 215 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 766 for swankivy (1 new), 3,461 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 290 friends for swankivy (lost 1, don't know who), 626 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 247 followers for So You Write (no change), 103 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (2 new). Tumblr followers: 2,414 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 285 (no change). Threads followers: 81 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 402 (4 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: October 4 – October 10

Life news this week:

• Saturday my ear was annoying all day. I got my morning coffee and aerobics done, and then my friend Kari texted to say she was ready to come over. We made our plans and went to Best NY Pizza to get salads and a margherita pizza. Then we hung out at my place just catching up and talking. She is moving to my area so she had a lot of new updates. After she left I got my walking in talking to my friend Ben on Polo about old updates and I got my blogging done. I didn't get to my writing even though I meant to.
  
  
• Sunday my ear was only annoying for the first part of the day and then it calmed down. I worked on my book and got through the edit, did some voice-over auditions, worked on my photos page, and listened to a guy reacting to the EPIC musical so I could hear it again. Also recorded a new karaoke song and made my invite for my upcoming Halloween party.
  
  
• Monday I worked on two letters and some utility coordination. Did some aerobics, sent another Polo to Ben, and watched someone else reacting to EPIC. Got in an edit on my book.
  
  
• Tuesday I had meetings and more utility coordination, and I updated some timesheet stuff and coordinated meetings. Watched more reactions and edited another chapter in my book. Started building up my party playlist on my newer laptop because my older one has finally decided nothing works.
  
  
• Wednesday I had a packed day at work and my ear was acting terrible. Went to two meetings, sent teaming invitations, updated some data entry stuff that needed adjustments, entered stuff into the accounting software, and tried to get my new work computer all in order. Then I did my DDR and straightened up the house before Jeaux came over. We ate at Applebee's, shopped at Target and Publix, and watched the second half of the EPIC musical (him for the first time).
  
  
• Thursday my ear was better again. I did some research and follow-ups on teaming at work. I took a nap, sent a Polo to Meg, and wrote my comic storyboard. Went to Game Night, which was fun as usual, and then afterwards stayed chatting with Steve and Jeaux for a while after everyone else left. (We usually don't do that.) I did more drawing on my comic and listened to reactions. I sent a query also.
  
  
• Friday my ear was still behaving. I got up relatively early for someone who stayed up all night. Went to a meeting, did my reports, and did some DDR and a Polo. Finished my drawings and posted the comic, did some walking and reading, and watched more reactions. I was looking around for a place to submit a short story but couldn't find one before I got tired.

New Reviews:

• anne k. gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Audible.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I have no data this week. :)
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: 3 out of 7 days were low protein, which is better than last week, but two of those days were just a hair under, so I am happy to say this was a much better balance than last week. I'm basically always listing spinach as my green food though--I should probably throw in some variety. Still taking the vitamins!
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to do aerobics or play my dance game every other day. I made my 10,000-step walking goal every day this week. My low day was Thursday at 10,108 steps, and my high day was Saturday at 16,971 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I'm on page 328.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "The Warrior" by Scandal. 

Stuff drawn:

 

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One: #1065: ivy #339: a map.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

The new Steven Universe vinyl (volume 2!) is out!

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,449 for swankivy (lost 1), 681 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 215 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 765 for swankivy (3 new), 3,463 for JulieSondra (no change). Facebook: 291 friends for swankivy (no change), 627 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 247 followers for So You Write (no change), 101 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (1 new). Tumblr followers: 2,415 (no change). Instagram followers: 285 (no change). Threads followers: 81 (1 new). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 398 (3 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: September 27 – October 3

Life news this week:

• Saturday was a bit slow while still involving me getting a lot done. I saw a giant bounce house rented next door at my neighbors' house so I knew they were planning a party and would likely be screaming and blasting music all day once the party started, so I got voice acting work done early. I practiced music, accepted a short story offer, submitted a short story, worked on my blog, got all my steps, and practiced more music. My ear was still being wack but not as bad.
  
  
• Sunday Dad came to pick me up for band practice. Had to take my coffee with me! We had our first band practice with a new group. We have to practice in his small music room. We had a good first practice, stopped for a snack, and then couldn't do a round 2 because we had an equipment failure. Sad! We ended practice and Dad drove me home. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant called Lolis where I had a great Beyond Taco and we had a nice leisurely lunch. Then at my house my dad fixed my washing machine!! I can now use cold water in it again. After he left I did laundry, took out the trash, did some aerobics, and relaxed playing computer games while listening to music. My ear was not bothering me.
  
  
• Monday work was slow and my ear got annoying again. Did some project tracking and outlined a proposal. Took a couple weird naps, sent a Polo to Meg, worked on my latest video and posted it, and worked on my So You Write comic. Did some reading, got some stuff done on my photo gallery finishing it through 2011, and edited my book.
  
  
• Tuesday I did some project research at work. Recorded my lines for the latest Sleepy Hollow episode. Did a voice-over audition and got shortlisted. My ear was annoying in the morning but then stopped bothering me later in the day. My boss told me late in the day that we were going to finish a proposal I thought we weren't going to have time for, so I set him up for the work he needed to finish and agreed to help pull it together the next day. I did some DDR, sent Meghan a Polo, edited my book, and posted my comic.
  
  
• Wednesday I helped with the proposal and we turned it in. Listened to Meg's Polo. Opened some new cool pins I ordered, but I only got 2 of the 4 I wanted. Talked to Tony when he came to do my yard. Jeaux came and we ate at Burger 21, grocery shopped, took a walk, and watched some silly stuff. Then we watched half of EPIC: The Musical. After Jeaux left I updated my goals on my blog posts.
  
  
• Thursday I had to work on utility coordination at the office. Then I did some aerobics. I wrote my comic storyboard, did some singing, and met my friends for Game Night. We had a fun time and I drew a little. Then I listened to a Polo from Ben, sent in a query, and relaxed.
  
  
• Friday I did some timesheet work, then walked some packages to the Post Office, and finished my reports when I came back. Then I worked on my comic and posted it, messed around with dorks on Discord, submitted a short story, and chatted with Ben on Polo. Did some singing too.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I have no data this week. :)
  
  
• Nutrition stuff: 5 out of 7 days were low protein--worse than last week. (Most of those were just close, but still. I can do better.) I would say I made a lot of choices that I'm not super happy with this week, though I did still manage to get my fruits and veggies most days. Still taking the vitamins!
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to do aerobics or play my dance game every other day. I made my 10,000-step walking goal every day this week. My low day was Sunday at 10,021 steps, and my high day was Saturday at 15,030 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I'm on page 287.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Magic Man" by Heart. 

Stuff drawn:

My monthly writing webcomic, So You Write: #172: every leaf

.

 

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One: #1064: ivy #338: stuck.

Videos Made: 

Letters to an Asexual #129 (Young Aces!) is out. In this video, I share some community members' thoughts on coming out as asexual early in life and what older people's responsibilities are regarding supporting young aces.

New photos:

None.

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,450 for swankivy (lost 5), 682 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 215 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 762 for swankivy (lost 1), 3,463 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 291 friends for swankivy (no change), 628 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 247 followers for So You Write (lost 1), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,415 (no change). Instagram followers: 285 (no change). Threads followers: 80 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 395 (no change).

September Goals Update

October is upon us, so here are my updates for how September went with my goals.

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 don't have, like, a "weight loss" goal, just a nutrition/exercise/hydration goal, but one thing that changed this month is that I haven't gotten on the scale. I'm not sure when I will feel like looking at numbers again. It's not particularly important, and I'm comfortable, but I do think I could make some better choices. I'm still hitting the three-fruits-and-veggies-a-day goal almost every day, but the protein/fat/carbs balance hasn't been great this month. Water goals are really good this month, though, and I've continued with exercise (heavily favoring DDR) and taking vitamins. Here is my Health calendar of progress:

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

PERSONAL PROJECT GOALS:

Summary:

EDITING: The in-progress edit is still ongoing. Last month I was getting close to getting below 150,000 words; I'm now at about 145,000 and still slightly less than half the book to go. I am very pleased with the progress, and am optimistic about getting close to the goal by the end of this edit. It may need a specific goal set and another swipe through to tighten it even more, but I won't know until I get there. The outline I'm building will help with that.

SUBMISSIONS:

Still on an agent search to get my older work to a new representative and sending short stories to new markets. I'm still doing submissions consistently but I don't always get to them on the day I mean to. I finally sold a story this month, and have hopes of selling more before the end of the year, but everyone takes a long time to get back to me--more so than in the past.

Writing Progress:

PHOTO PROJECT: I have jumped back into sorting photos into their online albums and tagging the older photos. I've made it all the way back from 2025 to 2011. Years beyond 2009 are going to be both easier and harder in certain ways, but I'm ready to knock it out soon.

UKULELE PRACTICE: I don't have an active goal with this right now since I met my goal earlier this year learning all the songs I assigned myself. I did practice once just for fun, but I'm making room for other things right now.

VOICE ACTING: I won one new role this month--a one-shot that I've already completed recording on--and have been shortlisted on another project. I made a new website for my voice-over projects and to offer samples of my performances for anyone who might wanna hire me.

Here's the Projects Calendar:

READING GOALS: 

Summary: Did a little better on reading this past month, but didn't quite make the "twice a week" guideline. I'm not too concerned. Something's gotta give sometimes.

Progress:

RELATIONSHIP AND COMMUNICATION GOALS: 

Summary: A couple of shows and a band practice added to the usual social activity I had this month. I am happy with everything in that arena and I do not have any outstanding e-mails. I could probably do better with responding to social media comments but that's never critical. I haven't improved on the documentation goals I've had, which continues to be slightly annoying to me.

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 need to put some new items on eBay for Meggie. I still have a TV show I want to watch. I need to catch up on photographing the updated Steven Universe collection.