Personal Digest Saturday (but posted on Sunday!): January 23 – January 29

Life news this week:

• Big news is my short story "Everyone's Gay in Space" got discussed on a podcast and is currently free to download at the time of this posting (during the promo, buying the free book counts as a purchase). Please take advantage of this, and read the story if you want to, give it a review, or give it some stars!
  
  
• Saturday I finished up my preparations for my podcast with Daria and took a break to listen to a podcast discussion of my short story "Everyone's Gay in Space". It got a little raunchy at one point but it was funny. I had the Apple Spinach Smoothie (yum). Spent the evening and into the wee hours catching up with Daria and discussing our assigned Steven Universe episodes. We had an intense time this time.
  
  
• Sunday I had a carrot juice smoothie and it was yucky. I spent the day mostly procrastinating on doing my blogging that I'd not gotten to the previous day. I did get it done, and did my laundry and chores and my singing. I also used up some glutinous rice flour making mochi cheese balls! I also made the poor choice to argue with some people about politics on the internet.
  
  
• Monday's smoothie was a chocolate cherry smoothie with avocado in it. It was pretty good. I had one of those days where I had to address a bunch of different issues with different people at work. I put out all the little fires and welcomed a new employee. I played games with my friends but Steve and Victor had to skip it. We had a lovely little time with just four of us. I found some oversized plush dolls for Steven Universe that I hadn't known existed and I bought them from a really cool eBay seller! I also took a survey on ace experiences that I encourage asexual-spectrum people to contribute to!
  
  
• Tuesday was the best smoothie yet! It was the sunflower smoothie, with sunflower butter. It tasted like drinking ice cream. The day was not as hectic as Monday but still busy--I spent most of the day checking a database and finding missing info for it. I worked late. After work I took a walk and made a sushi bowl (because I didn't have nori to wrap it in) so I could use up the cucumber I didn't like in smoothies. And I ate the other half of the avocado in sushi too, and added carrot. It was good. I also did some planning for my next Poop School.
  
  
• Wednesday at work I was overrun with more fires to put out. I worked on another database, requests for information, helping the new people, and reading a letter. My smoothie was refreshing: a ginger pear smoothie. After work I went to the store with Jeaux and we had some adventures looking for next week's weird smoothie ingredients. At home we had pot pies but made our own garlic butter for the garlic bread, which involved a lot of mincing garlic. Then we ate and loved our food and hung out watching political humor. I stayed up SUPER late texting people between naps.
  
  
• Thursday's smoothie was a "soymoothie." It had strong coffee, tofu, agave, and almond butter, among other things. Not bad--pretty close to being great. My short story "Everyone's Gay in Space" went on sale for FREE as a promo so I bugged people to check it out. Work involved more database stuff, editing a letter, and compiling information. I talked to Victor after work and drew a little bit of my comic. After he fell asleep I did some more work and chatted with friends.
  
  
• Friday I got up early to get all my work done, but I still couldn't finish everything. I was very involved with these reports I had to make to send out to the guys who help with marketing. I also had to set up utility meetings for next week on one of my projects and got bogged down with a flyer design and timesheets and a letter to edit. When I finally wrapped up, I had to scurry through my comic art and got it up at a reasonable time. I didn't have time for a smoothie earlier so I made a night smoothie and had a good time with it--a citrus smoothie with orange and banana plus protein powder and almond milk. Nom! I was super cold and had to go huddle in my bed.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• My short story "Everyone's Gay in Space" was discussed extensively on the After Dinner Conversations podcast. A group talks about the story for a while and includes some chat about what it would be like to meet your clone, whether you'd want to, and philosophy about sexual orientation.
  
• My short story "Everyone's Gay in Space" is on a FREE Amazon promotion. Please download it free during the promo and it counts as a purchase. If you are so moved, please read it, rate it, and review it.

Food Plan Update:

• Really weird situation with my scale! I got a new low weight this week (106.5) but it seemed like it was dropping sharply for no apparent reason despite that I wasn't eating differently. My scale was also acting weird--sometimes still show 0.5 or 1.0 when I got off. Then suddenly on Wednesday it said I was 112 pounds which would mean I had gained 5.5 pounds overnight. I . . . yeah, think it was my scale buggin'. I ended the week back at my goal weight anyway (110).
  
• Did better with walking this week. Made my step goal four out of seven days--I seem to be struggling on the weekends, and was so busy at work on Friday and with my comic afterwards that I couldn't make the goal that day. I'm going to see what I can do to do better with this.
  
• The smoothies are great fun but I'm still trying all new recipes to see what I like. Unfortunately the more vegetable-heavy ones are the ones I didn't like. The fruity ones are good and I like spinach in the smoothies. I haven't really analyzed whether it's helping significantly with the nutrition goals.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. I'm on page 121.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "I've Told Every Little Star" by Linda Scott.



Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0820: "In Our Nature." 

New videos: 

Nothing this week.

New photos:

Apple Spinach Smoothie (very very good):

Carrot Smoothie (this was the one I disliked most so far):

Mochi cheese balls:

Chocolate Cherry Smoothie (pretty great):

Sunflower Smoothie (delicious, my favorite yet):

Ginger Pear Smoothie (pretty good, refreshing):

A photo Jeaux took of me while I was mincing garlic:

Coffee Soymoothie (liked it a lot but wasn't in love):

Citrus Splash Smoothie (very good, super yum):

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,291 for swankivy (lost 3), 666 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 111 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 935 for swankivy (lost 2), 1,362 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (no change), 626 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 74 likes for Negative One (no change), 226 likes for So You Write (1 new), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,477 (no change). Instagram followers: 231 (lost 2).

Personal Digest Saturday (but posted on Sunday!): January 16 – January 22

Life news this week:

• Saturday I spent most of the day getting Daria's video's transcript done because I just needed to tackle it and get it taken care of. Beyond that the day was just coffee, blogging, and talking to my mom on the phone. Also started working on the Not-So-Giant Women next podcast.
  
  
• Sunday was my birthday, so I am 43! Whee! I wore a king costume and made myself funfetti pancakes, then spent a nice day not doing much. In the late evening my sisters and I got on Zoom and they watched me open presents. I got a bunch of nice stuff, including books, a mask, a Comfy wearable blanket, a blender, a funny coffee mug from my sister, a pair of slippers from my sister, and some clothes. I also got my trash, laundry, and karaoke done!
  
  
• Monday was hectic. It was Martin Luther King Day but we didn't have the day off. We rehearsed for the next day's interview. I was very happy wearing my Comfy all day. So nice to be warm. After work I played games with my friends and cooked some vegetables.
  
  
• Tuesday was Meggie's birthday! I got her a nice weighted heating pad that does massage. We had our interview at work first thing in the morning and everything went pretty well. Then we found out right afterwards that we won a contract in the same District so a lot of people think chances are low we'll get this one too. But yay for winning! I didn't have much time to chill because I had to do a letter and a proposal. Then after work Mom came over and gave me birthday brownies and hung out with me. It was a nice night.
  
  
• Wednesday I caught up on my data entry project at work. I also watched the inauguration and was pleased to see there were no hijinks. After work I went to the store with Jeaux and bought a bunch of new smoothie ingredients that I plan to use to get a lot of great nutritional goals met with my new blender! My mom had gotten some food bank food she didn't want (mostly stuff like cheesecake and taco fixings!) so Jeaux and I picked it up. We each tried a cheesecake slice. Jeaux then cooked his family's recipe for hamburger casserole for me (with fake meat in it). He is sweet and even did the dishes. We just chilled and watched funny stuff related to musicals. I fell asleep early.
  
  
• Thursday I made a gross smoothie. Oh well, you find out what you like by trying stuff. I had some work meetings and more data entry. Jeaux came over and delivered a late birthday present to me. It was a Steven Universe pillow. So cute. Victor called and I talked to him while taking walks and drawing. I ate too much cake.
  
  
• Friday I had cheesecake for breakfast again and spent all day on the data entry, finally finishing it. I made a smoothie I already knew I liked to make up for the gross one. After work I talked to my dad on the phone while working on my comic. And I did some podcast planning for the next day's podcast recording with Daria.

New reviews of my book:

• J M gave it a five-star review on Amazon.
  

Food Plan Update:

• So, weight situation is stable. Just moderately hovering right around the goal weight, sometimes a little up, sometimes a little down. I ate a lot of cake this week but it doesn't seem to have made a difference--that's a nice aspect of the ultimate goal, where it's primarily about an overall lifestyle change that you mostly stick to, so that when you do decide to deviate, it's still fine and you know how to go back to what works.
  
• I am STILL having many days where I'm not prioritizing walking and haven't made my step goal. I think this week I didn't make it more often than I did. This is probably a big problem and I need to do better with that.
  
• The smoothies are a go to get more of the type of nutrition I struggle with. The individual smoothies have been hit or miss. I'm sure I'll find the ones that work and incorporate them consistently. Making smoothies is really easy.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. I'm on page 97.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "On My Own" from Les Misérables.



Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0819: "Just Watching." 

New videos: 

Not-So-Giant Women Episode 17: Lion 2: The Movie is out.

Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Lion 2: The Movie" and cover such topics as Lion's secrets and connection to Rose, all the Easter eggs in that armory, speculation about Connie's role in the series, what Daria thinks Steven Universe would be like if it were adapted to a live-action movie, theories about what Lion eats, and whether Gem animals exist.

New photos:

Funfetti pancakes:

The Comfy

SU Mask

Banana-Spinach Smoothie:

Birthday Brownies:

Jeaux's hamburger casserole:

Red Devil smoothie:

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,294 for swankivy (no change), 667 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 111 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new). Twitter followers: 937 for swankivy (2 new), 1,364 for JulieSondra (9 new). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (no change), 626 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 74 likes for Negative One (no change), 225 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,477 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 233 (lost 1).

Personal Digest Saturday: January 9 – January 15

Life news this week:

• Saturday I slept super late and it was nice. Unfortunately I felt really good for a while and then felt crappy so I had to take headache medicine. Did Polos with my sister, talked to Meggie on the phone, and got too tired to blog. I read a bunch of news and did some transcript work on Daria's video. Wrote some stuff on Tumblr too. I was distracted all day.
  
  
• Sunday I did more sister Polos, recorded a karaoke song, and did my laundry and trash. Only got a little more of the transcript done. Taking forever. I modeled my new sweater! And wrote about some more ace stuff on Tumblr. Ate some pasta. I love mushrooms. Still doing too much reading the news.
  
  
• Monday we found out we got on the shortlist for a project and the time until the interview is super short! We had to jump in to start preparing immediately, and I'm on the interview team again. I pulled together the last of the preparations I needed to send for a county proposal and left it in my boss's hands. Did some data stuff and helped out a new employee. After work I hung out on Discord with my friends but Meghan was busy with her mother-in-law so we didn't play games. Then my mom called and I talked to her and found out after that Meggie did make it in after all and I missed her. Aw!
  
  
• Tuesday I got to sleep a little later. Worked on resumes for coworkers and ate oatmeal. Made more sister Polos. I ate some zucchini and also made some cranberry muffins. They aren't that good because the cranberries are so tart. But they're okay. Argued with a dork on a friend's Facebook page. My internet went out for a short while. I tried to record a song while I waited for it to come back but my computer wasn't behaving to record ukulele. Weird.
  
  
• Wednesday I had another early meeting, and my work computer was offline but I could still attend the meeting while IT was fixing it. Very busy day--shortlist stuff, stuff for the City of Orlando, data entry, and a letter to be sent in (one of the long kind that takes forever to proofread). I also tested out a store-bought Steven Universe costume. Haha! After work Jeaux took me shopping and we made a vegetarian sausage pasta bake! Also watched Colbert and ranted about politics. We also took a nice cold walk. I ate too much pasta. Whoops.
  
  
• Thursday I got a late start because my first appointment at work wasn't 'til 11. Did a bunch of resume stuff and uneventful meeting stuff. After work I did some comic stuff and went on walks. Talked to Victor for over three hours until I wanted to go snuggle in my bed with hot chocolate.
  
  
• Friday I got up early for interview practice! Went fine. Very busy day again with reports, timesheets, and our proposal package. After work I did comics, talked to Jeaux briefly, and ate too much candy.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• My book is mentioned on the Davenport library reference blog in a spotlight for Angela Chen's book.

New reviews of my book:

• Mandie gave it a five-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Leia Rose gave it a three-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Justine gave it a four-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Catherine gave it a five-star review on Amazon.

Food Plan Update:

• No significant changes this week--have continued to stay under my weight goal (despite one very heavy eating day where I had multiple helpings of a delicious pasta bake, plus candy during the week!).
  
• Still having days where I'm not prioritizing walking and haven't made my step goal. I need to really push myself to take more frequent breaks for walks.
  
• I would like to focus more on getting more balanced nutrition--I am lacking in Vitamins A and C pretty often, and need to do better with calcium. Going to try smoothies.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. I'm on page 31.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "The Show Must Go On" by Queen.



Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0818: "Your Thing." 

New videos: 

Daria's interview video is ready! Check out Ace Interviews #8.

New photos:

Cozy sweater modeled after Steven

Very silly official SU costume

Peek-a-boo! It comes with a gem

Our Pasta Bake with vegetarian sausage

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,294 for swankivy (lost 2), 667 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 110 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 935 for swankivy (lost 2), 1,355 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (no change), 626 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 74 likes for Negative One (1 new), 225 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (1 new). Tumblr followers: 2,478 (5 new). Instagram followers: 234 (lost 1).

Personal Digest Saturday: January 2 – January 8

Life news this week:

• Saturday Mom had slept over so we got up and she made me coffee! We had our cups together and she hung out a while. I sent her home with some cheese biscuits. Got some photos up and had a lot to do for my blog, so I got to it. Also took a couple walks. I also wrote a ramble for Tumblr about wanting to try to be more present on the blog I haven't been using for a while. It's important to me. And I fell asleep on the floor just like I said I wouldn't anymore this year, haha.
  
  
• Sunday I had left my phone on the floor next to me with an alarm but the battery ran out COMPLETELY so that's why I didn't wake up. I let it charge and also grabbed another hour of sleep during that. Had some coffee while on the phone with Dad. I ate a lot of cookies, although I had a healthy broccoli dinner. Also drank a bunch of wine while reading the terrible transcript of Trump's call to Georgia. It really is what the media says it is, so I'm glad I had wine to get through it. Talked to Meg later. Did some laundry, trash, and karaoke--usual Sunday stuff. I only got a little bit of transcripting done, and I wrote a piece about cartoons.
  
  
• Monday I was kinda worried about work stuff because I was going to have to prepare for interview practice and I wasn't really all the way ready. But the meeting moved to later anyway so I had time. It turned out I was plenty prepared and we had a good rehearsal. I worked on the packet we needed to turn in the next day. Also I got a feature on Amino for the piece about leadership I wrote. Then after work my friends and I played games, and after I sent Polo videos to my sister.
  
  
• Tuesday I got up early to do interview practice again. And we turned in our package. Practice was again successful. After work I washed dishes, took a walk, and found like six golf balls. I spent a bunch of energy looking at the Georgia runoff results, and I reviewed a new trade paperback for Steven Universe. It's the last volume because they aren't making them anymore! :(
  
  
• Wednesday we had one more early rehearsal and then we had our real team interview. Everything seemed fine and we were prepared for everything. I wanted to kinda relax after that but I had too much work to do so I worked on proposals. Then I made pizza dough so it'd have time to rise while Jeaux and I shopped. While I was outside talking to my lawn guy (and paying him) my mom called and said she'd had weird test results and was advised to go to the hospital, so she went and then didn't update me at all on what was going on so I was kinda worried. Jeaux and I made calzones from the pizza dough and they were delicious. And of course, while all this was going on . . . violent insurrectionists were breaking into the Capitol of the United States and having violent conflicts with police. Welp. What a night.
  
  
• Thursday was Brendon's viewing. I obviously was not there but I tried to support Meg by being there for her and also I sent her family some cookies. Did more work on a city proposal, took a break to talk to my sis on the phone, and told her what I knew about Mom's situation. (Still nothing.) I finished my work on the proposal and shared it with the team. Then after work I talked to Victor and ended up kinda giving up when he fell asleep. He tried to call back but I just figured if he's that tired every week he should just sleep if he's dozing off. Ended up chatting with Meg about the viewing and then later Jeaux talked to me about politics. We finally found out Mom didn't get admitted to the hospital--she just got another test and some magnesium and potassium (which were really super low at her last checkup and that can be bad news). She needs to eat more.
  
  
• Friday I did some data entry and some edit work on the proposal after receiving feedback, and I also got to do some formatting on the next letter we're sending out. After work I worked on my comic and got very cold. I took a hot shower and was very happy being all squeaky clean and warm. I fell asleep on the floor for a little while but got up and went to bed like I'm supposed to. Today was Brendon's funeral. Again I didn't go obviously but sent munchies for the fam.

New reviews of my book:

• Stronglysaltystudent gave it a five-star review on Goodreads.
• Kathi gave it a three-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Alexis Hall gave it an unrated review on Goodreads.
  
• Leslie gave it a three-star review on Goodreads.

Food Plan Update:

• Not a whole lot to report. I've been eating breakfast and lunch really late and snacking at night when I get a weird hunger whammy. I'm sure it's from stress. But it doesn't seem to be disrupting the overall diet situation or maintenance mode. I had a new low weight this week (108 lbs) but it's just kinda bobbing up and down just under 110 (which was my goal).
  
• I'm a little concerned that I seem to be having trouble meeting my step goal because I've been so busy at work and reluctant to take breaks because I'm cold. I'm going to try to do better at this.
  
• I won't post charts anymore because I got to my goal and stabilized, but if I keep having trouble with the step goals I'll maybe start posting those counts.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Cherished Memories by Taylor Robin and S.M. Mara. Five-star review.

• Currently reading: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. I'm on page 23.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi.



Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0817: "One of the Bros." 

New videos: 

Daria's interview video is processed and approved, but I haven't finished the transcript so it'll be a bit longer before I can publish.

New photos:

A little wine with that transcript

All the ongoing trades - it's over now!

New "Let Us Adore You" shirt

Making calzones

Calzone baked

Ready to eat!

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,296 for swankivy (2 new), 668 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 110 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 937 for swankivy (lost 1), 1,357 for JulieSondra (no change). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (no change), 626 likes for JulieSondra (lost 3), 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: 2,473 (lost 3). Instagram followers: 235 (no change).