Personal Digest Saturday: December 27 – January 2

Life news this week: 

• Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

• Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

• I spent Saturday hanging out at my mom's with my visiting family, including the always adorable baby Ash. :) Did nothing special--just chilled and ate things

• Monday was a very long work day--for me, a nine-hour shift is pretty epic. I had to make a bunch of reports in time for a meeting. But I got through it! And even went home to be semi-productive and hit short story submissions!

• Tuesday I randomly took the day off--my boss said I could!--to go to Sarasota. I went with Patricia, Yusuke, and Ash to go visit my family there. We saw Grandma in the home where she stays now, and met up with my dad, his partner Connie, and my grandpa. We hung out eating cookies and trying to avoid letting old ladies kidnap my nephew. :D Then we ate buffet food, went to my dad's for playtime and presents, and went home. 

• I got interviewed by a radio show in Canada--Newstalk 1010, the Jerry Agar Show--and it was a kind of tense, almost confrontational at times interview, but you guys know me, and I sailed through it. It hasn't been put on their podcast website yet.

• I also had a print interview come out in a Spanish magazine called Yorokobu. It's for the Spain readership and most of my readers probably are not Spanish-speakers, but my friend Claudia read it and translated it here.

• I DID NOT have Jeaux Day this week! Because I was spending New Year's Eve at my mom's with my family and he had to work. He sent me an e-mail about how he was crying into his Cheerios. At mom's we ate a nice dinner of tempeh bacon, mushroom gravy, zucchini, and two kinds of biscuits, and later we made s'mores by the fire. Ash was incredibly lovable and adorable as always and he let me pet his cheeks. I slept over and had some biscuits and coffee with them in the morning, and then my sister drove me home. And back to California they went! Sad.

• I got presents from my dad, Meg's family, and Kari, and I found out that the mystery book gift with no tag was from Whitney. Sneaky rat! 

• New Year's Resolutions are to write more, finish writing two books in 2015, and sell two more short stories this year.

New reviews of my book:

• Insightful and informative: Steve B "SMB" on Amazon gave me five stars.

Places featured:

• "Los asexuales reivindican su hueco": Interview in Yorokobu. Translation into English here.
• The Asexual Agenda promoted the links to my Yorokobu article and my Maclean's article.
• Dan Koboldt mentions meeting me through Pitch Wars and credited his writer friends for keeping him centered and motivated.
• Dahlia Adler has resolved to read two nonfiction book this year and mine is one of them.
• Mentee Megan Paasch wrote about her 2014 and mentioned getting picked by me in Pitch Wars as a highlight.
• Asexuality blog Books Are Better Than Sex recommended my book to a reader, saying they haven't personally read it but heard it's decent.

Reading progress:

• Completed reading: Hurricane Punch by Tim Dorsey. Two-star review.
• Currently reading: Eyeshield 21 Volume 23 by Riichiro Inagaki and Yusuke Murata.

New singing performances:

Here I'm singing "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin.



Also, bonus: Some guy on the karaoke site found my "One Week" recording from a few weeks ago and decided to make a duet with me. You can see his video, with both of us in it, below.


 
New drawings:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0503: "A Chance for Peace."

New videos:

Nope. 

New photos:  

Since I had visiting family, I had a lot of special moments again. Here are some of the best!

Kid loves gadgets.

Oh Ash? Coming to your aunt to get your cheeks budged? Yes you are.

High fives for Grandpa!

Visiting Grandma--four generations!

Ash all tuckered out with Daddy Yusuke.

Playing peek-a-boo with Connie at Dad's.

Musical child!

Mommy and Sister P roasting vegan marshmallows on New Year's Eve.

Rolling baby. Precious face.

Why don't you just clonk your mommy in the face, Ash?

Yes, we DO need this many baby selfies.

Social media counts:YouTube subscribers: 4,211 for swankivy (24 new this week), 424 for JulieSondra (3 new). Twitter followers: 598 for swankivy (1 new), 807 for JulieSondra (4 new). Facebook: 273 friends (no change, but I lost one and gained one) and 156 followers (1 new) for swankivy, 509 likes for JulieSondra (5 new), 54 likes for Negative One (no change), 90 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 1,775 (6 new).