Personal Digest Saturday: March 20 – March 26

Life news this week:

• Saturday I went on a pretty epic walk because I don't have a printer and needed to print stuff for taxes. So I walked 5.5 miles and visited a FedEx Kinko's and managed to get my stuff done. I even got a sunburn while I was out there walking! But it was a nice time listening to music and good weather. When I got home I had time for a shower, dinner, and rest before jumping into the podcast recording of two really good episodes with Daria. I still had time to finish blogging after. Great day.
  
  
• Sunday I caught up on some rest and got the trash and laundry done. Also did a karaoke song from the band list. I got some podcast editing done and practiced violin and piano lines (extremely poorly) for a silly video I'm trying to make but will probably suck. Sadly I don't know if my step count was met because my app froze and it didn't count a bunch of my steps during my chores. Oh well. Made some Polos for my sister and posted some recipes.
  
  
• Monday was very busy at work. I thought it was going to be a short letter and a long letter due but when the day was almost over my co-worker asked me to help prepare another long letter that slipped through the cracks and we barely made it. Did some Polos for my sister and hung out on game night. My mom had suggested a sleepover because she had a morning appointment with me to do taxes, but she slept until after it was already dark so she didn't come over. Had a nice chat with Jeaux while walking.
  
  
• Tuesday I had a half day off to go to the taxes appointment with Mom. She didn't show up when she said she would but she also did not make us late for the appointment so I consider that a win! Then I helped her brush her hair and went back to work after she left. I had a bunch of stuff to get done but I got through it. Then I took a long nap after work and didn't wake up in time to get all my steps in (just by a little bit, though).
  
  
• Wednesday was slow at work. I did some following up on tasks that are getting behind schedule with one of the projects, and ate three green things at breakfast and lunch (avocado, spinach smoothie, and an artichoke). Chatted to Dad for a bit on the phone and sent Polos to P. Started some pizza dough after I got off work and Jeaux and I grocery shopped while it rose. We made square pizza with mushrooms and vegetarian sausage, and we watched some new Digimon and some silly videos. Took a walk too.
  
  
• Thursday was low-key but involved a lot of bothering people to give me paper. Wrote my storyboards for the comics and practiced instruments. I found out Florida is lowering the vaccination age to 40 on Monday so I was able to finally get an appointment and it's next week for our first dose (going with Jeaux). Victor ended up calling me a lot later than usual so I got to talk to him and draw some comics. Some raccoons had a war in my back yard while I was on the phone. Later one of them made a racket out there knocking another one out of a tree or something.
  
  
• Friday I got some extra sleep in the morning and ended up getting a quick visit from my sister Lindsay and her husband Mike. Neither of us are vaccinated yet so everything was at a distance and outside at my patio table, but we had some sodas and chatted. It was really, really nice to see them. Then I had to go back to work, doing some utility stuff and reports. Afterwards I scrambled around to get my comics done and then, starting after midnight, I began to make a cake.

New Reviews of My Book:

• Dan Laubach gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Stable. High weight: 110.8 pounds. Low weight: 109.7. It really doesn't seem to be changing much at all regardless of whether I have high-calorie or low-calorie days.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Well, I've noticed that this week the calories I'm taking in from fat are higher than usual. Not sure what's causing my choices to lean in that direction, but maybe it's just that I keep putting cheese on stuff. It's not huge but it's an obvious imbalance. (And it's coming at the expense of carbs, not protein.) I dunno. I haven't been doing super great with getting the right veggies in but I've been drinking more juice for vitamin C.
  
• I missed my step goal a couple days this week (not including the day where I don't know what it was because the app froze during a long walk). Friday I wasn't able to get moving with working late and doing the comic. The trek to get my papers printed gave me a big boost in steps this week. High day was Saturday: 18,428 steps. Low day was Friday: 7,802 steps.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. I'm on page 66.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Amazing" by Aerosmith.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0828: "Not Calling Him." 

New videos: 

Not-So-Giant Women Episode 20: Coach Steven is out. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Coach Steven" and cover such topics as Amethyst and Garnet's relationship (and how that influences their Fusion), how Sugilite is different from Opal, how a Fusion might exist in some capacity even when she is not fused, Amethyst's attitude toward fusing with Garnet versus fusing with Pearl, Daria's theories on the consequences of staying fused too long and whether it's healthy, Steven looking up to Sugilite, the racial coding of the Gems, whether the musical numbers are generally being sung in-universe, and why certain characters get to be Funko Pops while others don't.

New photos:

Got a cute new cup.

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,290 for swankivy (no change), 667 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 113 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new). Twitter followers: 936 for swankivy (lost 1), 1,510 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 301 friends for swankivy (1 new, but it's just a friend's new account), 625 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 74 likes for Negative One (no change), 227 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,468 (1 new). Instagram followers: 229 (lost 1).

Personal Digest Saturday: March 13 – March 19

Life news this week:

• Saturday began a mostly unremarkable week. I had a late start, put off blogging stuff while eating an artichoke, and took a walk down to the water while sending Polos to my sister. My mom came over super briefly and gave me some bigger flowerpots for my azaleas. At night I wrote an 8-page handwritten letter to someone I'd been talking to who disappeared from social media. Started trying to dig my way out of my giant e-mail box.
  
  
• Sunday I got up really late (though daylight saving had something to do with that). I repotted my plants and planted some seeds in smaller pots to grow oregano and parsley. I didn't have any soil left to do the marjoram so I ordered some. Talked to P on Polo, did laundry, talked to Mom on the phone, and did a karaoke song that's a practice run for one of the songs the rock band is doing. Answered some more messages. Gave an interview to a journalist about mythbusting on asexuality.
  
  
• Monday was much less hectic than the last two weeks, thank goodness. There were no letters due so I just handled timesheets and bothered utility people. After work I did some more e-mail cleanup and played games with my friends online. I gave someone querying advice and dug through more messages.
  
  
• Tuesday was a little busy at work--we had meetings and a meet with a potential client, and I had some back-and-forth with a utility owner I'm trying to get documents from. I finally did the prep for Mom's taxes and then had to do some homework for her because she is scheduled for cataract surgery in April. But then I tried to bounce some stuff off of her and she didn't want to talk because she was busy watching Andy Griffith. XD I talked to my sister on Polo some more and accidentally knocked down a set of shelves in my office so I had to rebuild them. Not a great day all told. Wrote up some preparation for the next podcast recording I'm doing.
  
  
• Wednesday was slow at work. Got lots done on the utilities. Finally got the eye doctor stuff and the tax stuff in place for Mom after I got to talk to her and we have a meeting with the tax guy next week. Talked to my sister on Polo. Then Jeaux came over and we grocery shopped, had an easy meal of cheeseburgers (well, "burgers") and fries, and watched some Colbert, some funny videos, and the first episode of the new Digimon. (It's okay.)
  
  
• Thursday was again a pretty slow day but I did get some stuff done on utilities and reports. Did some e-mail writing and storyboards for my comic. Victor called where he's now been moved to a nursing home. We had a longish conversation before he was ready for bed. I wish he could go home. Got the tax stuff ready and went to bed.
  
  
• Friday involved mostly doing stuff I haven't had time for for a while, and I got even more utility stuff wrapped up. In the evening I had some wine and talked to Meggie on the phone while drawing for my webcomic. After I posted it I just watched some silly videos for a while and went to bed.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Nothing really for this category this week but I'll show you my French cover for the French translation of my book which is coming out this summer!

New Reviews of My Book:

• Barbara Starr gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Audible.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Stable. High weight: 110.8 pounds. Low weight: 109.2. I was exactly 110.8 pounds for the last FIVE days. What the heck.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I've been getting hungry at night and eating stuff that's not great for me. Things like tater tots at 2 AM or digging into my baking chocolate. It's kinda silly. It means that some days the percentage of fat in my diet is higher than I want it to be. That said, I've been doing pretty well making sure I have spinach or kale chips every day to get that green leafy vegetable boost!
  
• I met my step goal every day this week. A couple days I just barely made it but most days I cleared 10,000 steps easily. High day was Thursday: 17,216 steps. Low day was Saturday: 10,043 steps.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. I'm on page 66.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0827: "More to Unlearn." 

New videos: 

None.

New photos:

None.

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,290 for swankivy (2 new), 667 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 112 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 937 for swankivy (no change), 1,509 for JulieSondra (no change). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (no change), 626 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 74 likes for Negative One (no change), 227 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,468 (1 new). Instagram followers: 230 (1 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: March 6 – March 12

Life news this week:

• Saturday was a little lazy. I posted about food and got some blogging done. I ended up chatting with my friend Yasmin for over three hours in an unplanned phone call, after which I talked to Meggie on the phone too. A very chatty day and resulted in a lot of pacing around inside the house because I like to do that while on the phone. Definitely got my steps in! Finally I did some unboxing of some toys I finally received from someone in Mexico. I got 12 out of the 20 unique toys in the set. Welp!
  
  
• Sunday I got up super late and made oatmeal. Did my usual Sunday stuff like karaoke, laundry, and trash. Also had a citrus smoothie. Made some posts online hoping to trade with people to get the toys I want for that set. Made some videos for my sister and listened to her videos. And I sent my taxes to my tax preparer.
  
  
• Monday was a slower day at work--just doing some forms for a proposal and proofreading a letter. Then I ate a burrito and played games with my friends. My sister had a birthday but we didn't hang out because she just wanted to eat food and chill. Aw. Set up some trades for toys.
  
  
• Tuesday work was a little bit hairy but the hair was spaced out so it was okay. Did some utility coordination stuff. I took a walk to the post office to mail a package to Mexico to trade toys with someone. And I finished processing a video for Not-So-Giant Women again, so I got two out very close together! Received a message saying my book is being published in French? I'll make an announcement when I know the details.
  
  
• Wednesday was very busy. Spent a bunch of time on a proposal and meetings. After work Jeaux and I ate pasta that I looked up a recipe for on a whim while we were driving to the grocery store! It was a cool sauce made with parmesan cheese, milk, garlic, cream cheese, and mushrooms. Yum. We ate it (and frozen garlic bread) and watched Colbert and John Oliver.
  
  
• Thursday was just working and working and working. (I stayed up very late into the night because I expected some proposal stuff to be very time-sensitive in the morning and I wanted to get my usual Friday work done, so I basically worked a whole second work day after the first one was over.) I also talked to Victor on the phone and got a little bit of work done on my comic.
  
  
• Friday still required a full day of work so I'm glad I stayed up the night before. I just slept a couple hours on some pillows on the floor because I wanted to be up early. We got our proposal out with a couple speed bumps and I was able to do the rest of my work. After work I had a chat with the members of the band I'm joining (my dad's band wanted a singer so I said yes!) and we talked about music we want to do. We don't have a name yet. After the call I finished my work day and then dove into finishing my comic, posted it, drank wine, and passed out on the floor because I was very tired.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Stable. High weight: 110.8 pounds. Low weight: 109.7. Continuing to stay around my goal.
• Nutrition stuff: Have been skipping a lot of meals and grabbing what's fast most of the week, so my nutrition has not been good and I've been forgetting to take my vitamin. But I've had spinach smoothies several times throughout the week so at least I'm keeping that going!
  
• I met my step goal every day this week except I missed it by less than 200 steps on Friday! I was so mad. But I was working so much that I just didn't get moving enough. High day was Saturday: 21,455 steps. Low day was Friday: 9895 steps.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. I'm on page 15.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "You Were Meant For Me" by Jewel.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0826: "Sinking In." 

New videos: 

Not-So-Giant Women #18: Beach Party is available to watch. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Beach Party" and cover such topics as characters' clothing shapeshifting, Pearl's duplicates, whether Garnet or Pearl would be the next one to eat food, the real-life inspiration for Nanefua, Estelle's voice, the trope of having every character have an important role, what the Gems might be like on social media, and whether Amethyst might poop. The probing question of the day: Gems don't eat, but does Daria think they need some kind of sustenance?

Not-So-Giant Women #19: Rose's Room is available to watch. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Rose's Room" and cover such topics as Steven's non-linear maturity, the issues associated with leaving Steven alone without guardians, why Greg was the best rendering that Rose's Room came up with and whether Greg's been inside, Onion's level of creepiness in real life versus the room, whether Gems feel pain, and Garnet wearing Greg's pants. The probing question of the day: What might the other Gems' fantasy rooms might be like?

New photos:

Creamy Pasta!

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,288 for swankivy (2 new), 667 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 112 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 937 for swankivy (lost 1), 1,509 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (1 new--one of the people trading toys with me friended me), 626 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 74 likes for Negative One (no change), 227 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,467 (no change). Instagram followers: 229 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday: February 27 – March 5

Life news this week:

• Saturday was awesome! I got some planning done on a comic and got my blogging done and straightened up the house a little, and in the early evening my friend Kari came over to eat pizza with me! We ate at the outdoor table and stayed away from each other but it was super nice to actually get to see a friend. We hung out until it was dark and took turns running around to make the motion lights come on. Haha! After she left, I left some video chats for P.
  
  
• Sunday I tried to do some work to help meet a Monday deadline at my office, but the system wouldn't let me access the database I need so I sent in a ticket. So much for that. I got my writing webcomic drawn and posted, and did some laundry, and got the subtitles done finally on Eric's video. Also answered a bunch of built-up messages on my webcomic, took a few walks, and drew some fanart for my friend.
  
  
• Monday I still couldn't get into the system so I missed my deadline. (I reported the problem and everyone was chill about it, but it was frustrating.) I had a ton of other stuff to deal with all day and spent a bunch of time just knocking out task after task. After work I played games with my friends and rambled about annoying stuff to Meggie.
  
  
• Tuesday was another long day still locked out of my system. I did some utility coordination stuff. After work I talked to Victor on the phone to catch up for like 3.5 hours. I drank some wine and got a little loopy. Then worked on the podcast episode for Not-So-Giant Women #18.
  
  
• Wednesday I was still locked out. Lovely. Work was mostly more utility stuff and database updates. I took a nap after work because Jeaux was super late due to his own work issues. We made hot dogs (his were real, mine were veggie) and steak fries for our food, and caught up on Colbert. Pretty good day though.
  
  
• Thursday no Q conspiracies came true, sorry dorks. I was STILL locked out of my database and couldn't complete the work. Spent the day on document updates. Talked to Mom on the phone. Later Victor called which was cool since he hasn't been able to call me "on schedule" the last two weeks and this time he did. He is still at the rehab place but I guess they have to move him again soon. I drew comics and walked while chatting to him.
  
  
• Friday I finally got back into the database so I spent the entire day finishing the late work. And I got it done but had to stay until 8 PM to do it. Long day! Had to scurry to finish my webcomic after that and once I was done I wrapped up editing on NSGW #18 and let it process while I was sleeping.

New reviews of my book:

• Liz gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Isabel gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Strange Weather gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Shannon N. gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Audible.

Food Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Stable. High weight: 110.8 pounds. Low weight: 110.3. Continuing to stay around my goal.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Haven't been focusing very much on this to be honest, but I've been trying to sort of alternate days where sometimes I focus on protein and sometimes I focus on fruits/vegetables more. I've been doing very well with a balance between protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
  
• Have been mostly meeting my step goal this week. I fell short on Sunday, Monday, and Friday, but on Sunday and Monday I was less than 1,000 steps away. My high day was Tuesday (20,741) because I was doing a lot of pacing while on the phone with Victor. Low day was Friday because I was so busy at work and then had to work on the comic.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh. Five-star review.

• Currently reading: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. I'm just getting started.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Sooner or Later" by Madonna.

Stuff Drawn:

Fan art of Onion stealing diamonds (drawn for Daria's birthday)

Webcomic So You Write Issue 0825: "They're All Experts." 

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0825: "Playing With Me." 

New videos: 

Ace Interviews #9 is up! Eric and Swankivy Ace Interview is available to watch. Swankivy interviews asexual-spectrum folks about their experiences being ace! Guest is Eric, who is aromantic ace from Kentucky.

New photos:

None this week!

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,286 for swankivy (lost 5), 667 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 112 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 938 for swankivy (lost 1), 1,508 for JulieSondra (17 new). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 627 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 74 likes for Negative One (lost 1), 227 likes for So You Write (lost 1), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,467 (no change). Instagram followers: 229 (no change).