Personal Digest Saturday: May 22 – May 28

Life news this week:

• Saturday I did some blogging and caught up on Polos with my sister and had some oatmeal. Mom called me because she got a scam phone call and needed to be assured that it wasn't real. Did a quick run-through of some of the songs for the band to make sure I knew them all. Wrote some stuff on Twitter and cleaned up a couple messes around the house.
  
  
• Sunday I got picked up by my dad in the morning and we went to his place in Sarasota. There I met with the other two band mates and we practiced ten out of the twelve songs we've picked so far. It was pretty good but the microphone was kind of hard to use. After, we went to Longhorn with Connie and I had a baked potato and a salad. Then Dad drove me home. We got to chat a bunch and he looked at my plants. Then after he left I did trash and laundry and talked to people on Polo.
  
  
• Monday I got up early to hustle on a proposal but they suddenly moved the due date so we hit pause on that. Then we had a letter to send in but we got the good news that we are shortlisted on another project for the same people so we dropped that too. Dealt with some other proposal stuff and wrangled some paperwork for my mom. Gave a tour to a new employee. After work I took a nap and started writing a new short story. Then played games with my friends.
  
  
• Tuesday I mostly dealt with a proposal and my data entry assignment. After work I made Jeaux's birthday cake--he asked for a pumpkin roll. It's one of the best roll cakes I've made--came out great! Wrote back to a French journalist who wanted to interview me about asexuality. Went to bed early.
  
  
• Wednesday I dealt with another proposal that they extended the due date on the same day it was due. Dang, but we were ready! Had to unexpectedly handle utility work and then also my usual proposal work. Plus looking up design tickets for a location that didn't have a clear starting point. Then I changed into a cute dress to go out for Jeaux's birthday dinner. We ate at Cheesecake Factory. Then we went shopping and watched some funny videos where people dress up as video game characters. We had some cake and took a walk. Jeaux really liked his cake!
  
  
• Thursday a meeting was supposed to happen at 7 AM but it was canceled so I was up early with nothing to do! But I had plenty to do on my data entry project and proposals so I got working. Sent out utility letters and got in trouble with login rejections on a website I'm supposed to be able to access, so I got to deal with that on and off all day. Then I realized the data that was due the next day was unusually long in the last segment so I stayed late to do as much of it as I could before the database kicked me out. Victor called and we chatted until I got sleepy.
  
  
• Friday was another harrowing day because I was trying to beat the data entry deadline but I kept having a lot of other tasks to do for others and some additional technical glitches that took way too long to resolve. Finally I did get my data done, and helped everyone who needed help. (Plus my mom needed me to do another form for her.) After work I finished my webcomic and talked to Jeaux, and updated everyone on Polos.

New Reviews:

• Alysha DeShaé gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Not sure what's going on with this right now--seems like the scale is very different every day this week but it's just going up and down with no apparent pattern. Didn't go as high as last week though so maybe I'm mellowing a bit like I wanted to. High weight: 112.6 pounds. Low weight: 110.9.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Did a little backsliding with the attempt to do better with fruits and veggies. I still seem to be grabbing the snacks and breads. I only had a couple smoothies this week and kept eating cake because I had some from Jeaux's birthday. I wouldn't say I ate too much junk, but I ate more than I meant to.
  
• Activity stuff: I did well with my walking this week, but almost all of it was just walking around the house talking to people on Polo or listening to Polos. I only had one day I didn't make the quota and that was because I spent a bunch of time in the kitchen making Jeaux's cake and that involved standing, not walking. My low day was Tuesday at 7,835 steps, and my high day was Wednesday at 15,977 steps.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week. I didn't read at all this week.

• Currently reading: Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays by Luigi Pirandello. I'm on page 10.

New singing performances:

None this week. I did enough singing with the band!

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0837: "Sweet of Her." 

New videos: 

None.

New photos:

Pumpkin roll

Jeaux and me at Cheesecake Factory

Jeaux enjoying the pumpkin roll

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,297 for swankivy (1 new), 670 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 123 for Not-So-Giant Women (lost 1). Twitter followers: 927 for swankivy (no change), 1,608 for JulieSondra (42 new). Facebook: 301 friends for swankivy (no change), 631 likes for JulieSondra (3 new), 76 likes for Negative One (no change), 227 likes for So You Write (lost 1), 87 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (2 new). Tumblr followers: 2,463 (no change). Instagram followers: 234 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday: May 15 – May 21

Life news this week:

• Saturday I woke up before Meggie did and she was shocked because she never gets to sleep late at all. We spent the day staring at each other's lovely faces. What I mean is we finally got to have some marathon chats and stuff. We took one walk and other than that just hung out. We also made banana bread and ate pizza.
  
  
• Sunday Meghan and I hung out for the morning but she left in the afternoon. After she left I did my Sunday chores and sang a karaoke song. Also caught up on my blogging.
  
  
• Monday I got up early for work. We had a letter due and I did data entry. Meggie downloaded Marco Polo because she knows I've been enjoying using it with my sister, so she sent me some videos and we got to chat each other. After work I took a walk and played games with my friends.
  
  
• Tuesday was a pretty chill day. Outlined two proposals and knocked out utility discussions with a coworker. Took a walk to the post office to send a coworker some company shirts. Talked to Mom and did Polos for P and Meg. Took a nap and then arranged my collection of Steven Universe coffee cups and drinking glasses to take an updated photo of all my kitchen items.
  
  
• Wednesday was chill, just worked on proposal stuff. Made a post about my kitchen items on the Amino site. Then Jeaux and I went to a restaurant for the first time since the start of the pandemic! We ate at Vallarta's and I really liked my food even though one of the items isn't something I'd traditionally eat. Afterwards, we got Jeaux's birthday present at GameStop, went shopping, and hung out while Jeaux ranted about a book he is not enjoying. We also took a walk and then did a walking video workout inside when he was too hot outside.
  
  
• Thursday was a somewhat busy work day. Did more work on two proposals and constructed resumes for new hires. After work, talked to Victor but he was sleepy. Talked to my sister and Meggie on Polo some more.
  
  
• Friday I did my reports, went to a meeting, did some proposal stuff, and got my timesheets done. Handled some paperwork for my mom. Worked on my comic and relaxed.

New Reviews:

• DrYuriMom gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Amazon.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Still hovering just a couple pounds above where I want to be--have had an unusual amount of snacky food in the house for various reasons and have been eating it. I'm sure it won't be difficult to get back down where I want to be again. High weight: 113.5 pounds. Low weight: 111.4.
  
• Nutrition stuff: This week I did better on the vegetables. I even made cauliflower, carrots, and mushrooms and mixed them into my pasta for two dinners, and at the restaurant I had lettuce, tomato, and beans, plus spinach smoothies and whatnot.
  
• Activity stuff: I keep catching my tracker not tracking my steps! Getting annoying. I had one low-activity day which was when Meg was here. My high day was Tuesday at 15,439 steps. My low day was Saturday at 6,352 steps, but I know the tracker didn't track one of my walks that day so I may have actually made it--my other low day was Friday again but it was 9,826 steps so it really doesn't count since it was close.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays by Luigi Pirandello. I'm on page 10.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Zombie" by the Cranberries.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0836: "Two Minutes." 

New videos: 

None.

New photos:

Meggie and me with banana muffins we made

Succulents!

My SU kitchen items!

Cups!

Jeaux and me at Vallarta's!

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,296 for swankivy (4 new), 670 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 124 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 927 for swankivy (lost 4), 1,566 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 301 friends for swankivy (no change), 628 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 76 likes for Negative One (1 new), 228 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,463 (lost 2). Instagram followers: 234 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday (but posted on Sunday!): May 8 – May 14

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got up early and prepared some fruit and eggs for my visiting friends Ben and Jodi. They brought cinnamon rolls and we sat outside at my patio table to chill and catch up while eating yummies. After they went on their way I took a nap and got up in time to sign onto a podcast I agreed to participate on, run by my friend Derek and another partner. We talked about Steven Universe in the context of queerness and society for a very long time, and they're going to feature some of my ukulele covers when the episode airs next month. I got tired before I could do any blogging stuff.
  
  
• Sunday I got up early again and got some dishes done and some blogging done. I made oatmeal cookies with raisins and Mom came over for Mother's Day, and we ate the cookies and talked to my sister on Facebook chat because it was her birthday. My mom opened her mom's day gift from my sister while on video and it was nice. I helped my mom go through some papers she couldn't understand and let her pick some clothes from a bag of secondhand clothes my old coworker Karen gave me. After she left I got the laundry done and messaged my sister some more.
  
  
• Monday I was pretty slammed with letters and proposal preparation. It was a pretty stressful day, partly because a lot of my work was dependent on other people finishing their tasks before I could process them and deadlines were making me nervous. Managed to get some walking time in the evening and hung out with my friends to play games online, and did some karaoke.
  
  
• Tuesday I had some utility coordination and a bunch of back and forth with proposals. It was another pretty stressful day trying to get stuff done before deadlines. Besides work, I wrote my comic early and worked on it so I could have Friday free to hang with Meghan. I had to look up neurologists for my mom and made a recording of a song from Steven Universe called "Be Wherever You Are."
  
  
• Wednesday a proposal we were scrambling to get done changed its due date half an hour before we were gonna turn it in so that was bizarre. I did some other work on a proposal that was due soon and went to various meetings. It was a really eventful day! After work I went to the store with Jeaux and since I'd had such a stressful week he cooked our veggie burgers and fries for us. We just hung out and talked and took a walk.
  
  
• Thursday was less stressful than I expected because some of the work I needed to do was ready before I expected! I put together two proposals and talked to Victor in the evening.
  
  
• Friday work was a lot less stressful and I took some time away to make up for some of the extra time I put in, staying logged in to address anything that came up. I got my drawings done and posted my comic. Tended my garden stuff and got a few things ready for Meggie's arrival. She came when she said she would and we hung out, got some sushi delivered, and had a lovely time talking and sharing stories and catching up. She brought wine and we had some.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Sincerely Yours: The Aces of India: In Boloji.com, my work is mentioned.

New Reviews:

• Hanna gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Christine gave The Invisible Orientation a two-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Mystee gave "Everyone's Gay in Space" a five-star review on Amazon.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Not too happy that my numbers are staying higher than they have been lately. I think I initially thought if I was maintaining a weight about 5 pounds higher than my goal then I'd try to lose it again, but I haven't gotten up that high and I'd rather not. That said, I will eat the food I have around (some of which is a little snacky)--just in better moderation, I hope. High weight: 113.5 pounds. Low weight: 111.4.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I had a lot of fruit this week, which is great! Still need to work on getting more veggies.
  
• Activity stuff: My tracker for steps keeps doing a weird thing where it freezes, so there have been a couple days I think I did fine but have no proof of that. Still, Friday was a day I didn't make it to my 10K goal because I was hanging out with Meg and we just sat and talked for most of the evening. My high day was Wednesday at 14,245 steps. My low day was Friday at 7,433 steps.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: How Mirka Met a Meteorite by Barry Deutsch. Five-star review.

• Currently reading: Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays by Luigi Pirandello. I'm just getting started.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Desperado" by the Eagles.

My ukulele cover of "Be Wherever You Are." 

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0835: "Waiting to Fail." 

New videos: 

None.

New photos:

Mother's Day cookies

Wine girls

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,292 for swankivy (1 new), 670 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 124 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 931 for swankivy (no change), 1,565 for JulieSondra (5 new). Facebook: 301 friends for swankivy (no change), 629 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 75 likes for Negative One (no change), 228 likes for So You Write (1 new), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,465 (no change). Instagram followers: 232 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday (but posted on Sunday!): May 1 – May 7

Life news this week:

• Saturday I spent some time blogging and talking to my sister. I had left the day open in case my friend Kari could come over but she didn't. I had a lot to do to get the blog stuff together because I hadn't posted the week's book review and some of my pages weren't updated, but I got to it all. In the evening I sat down with Daria to do our podcast recording for "Onion Friend" and "Historical Friction." It was good but I drank wine and had a little drunk recording, haha.
  
  
• Sunday I had plans to hang out with Kari and be on my friend's podcast but neither thing happened. Kari had a problem with her dog having an injury and there were some snafus with the podcast recording I was supposed to be on so basically everything I planned to do that day was scrapped. We rescheduled the podcast for next week. I did laundry and karaoke and talked to my sister.
  
  
• Monday I was busy with letters at work and had to initiate some utility work. Talked to my sister and after work I played games with my pals online like usual. Texted with Steve after, tweeted an epic thread about asexuality, and went to sleep.
  
  
• Tuesday I had some meetings that happened when they were supposed to so that was nice! I made a cool tracking spreadsheet but I still don't know if my boss likes it. Did some walks and made Polos for sister. After work I made my video for "Dear Old Dad" from Steven Universe which was not well done but oh well. Victor called me and asked me to buy him pizza. My tweet thread was very successful and I got a lot of reteweets and new followers. I went to bed early.
  
  
• Wednesday I wrote a utility letter and spent the day putting out fires and doing data entry. After work Jeaux and I went to the store and at home we made enchiladas. We took a walk and watched the first few episodes of two shows, Hilda and Infinity Train.
  
  
• Thursday I had another utility meeting but didn't have proper permissions set up to upload my documents so I had to take a weird security course to authorize me. I was super busy all day. Worked on my data entry, worked on a proposal, and wrote a comic storyboard. Talked to Victor and my sister and got some drawings done.
  
  
• Friday was SUPER BUSY. I went to a meeting with my boss and he put me on a proposal that needed to be put together on short notice, but I already had so much to do and I got stressed out. I worked on it all day long, took a break to finish drawing and posting my comic, and then went back to work to finish the proposal outline and complete my reports.

New Reviews:

• Erica gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Samcnut gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.
  
• LB gave The Invisible Orientation a review with no rating and a statement why they didn't finish it on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Kinda the same as last week--on the high side but going nowhere alarming. High weight: 112 pounds. Low weight: 110.3.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I finally got spinach again and was able to have spinach banana smoothies, and I have been eating more fruit, but definitely have consumed a lot of snacks that I don't usually get into! I could always do better but I didn't do too badly.
  
• Activity stuff: Friday was a nightmare at work so it's not surprising that I did not meet my goal, but that was the only day. It seems to be consistently Friday that I can't make it work, so maybe if I get some steps in earlier in the day I can start to get Friday under control from now on. My high day was Thursday at 17,572 steps. My low day was Friday at 7,333 steps.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: How Mirka Met a Meteorite by Barry Deutsch. I'm on page 85.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes.

My ukulele cover of "Dear Old Dad" has two of me, but it's pretty sloppy, sorry.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0834: "Our Big Picture." 

New videos: 

Not-So-Giant Women Episode 21: Joking Victim is up. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Joking Victim" and cover such topics as Daria's experience with spicy food, Sadie and Lars's relationship and history, Steven's helpfulness, whether the show made fun of Sinbad, Sadie's need to "fix" Lars, Amethyst's role as an instigator and as the youngest Gem on the team, the experience of being introduced to an adult workplace for the first time, whether Canine Court is a reference to anything, how Gem ages work, the Ink-Suit Actor trope with Mayor Dewey, oyster crackers and meat substitutes, and whether the Big Donut location is intentionally close to Steven because he's such a good customer.

New photos:

None this week.

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,291 for swankivy (5 new), 670 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 124 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 931 for swankivy (no change), 1,560 for JulieSondra (49 new). Facebook: 301 friends for swankivy (no change), 629 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 75 likes for Negative One (no change), 227 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (lost 1). Tumblr followers: 2,465 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 232 (1 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: April 24 – April 30

Life news this week:

• Saturday I didn't have time for blogging--I just basically spent the whole day hanging out with Fen. They arrived around lunchtime and we hung out chatting for a while before going to the plant sale, where I got a dwarf powderpuff and a gardenia. Then we had some snacks, hung out, took walks, and enjoyed my backyard. After it started to get dark we ordered a pizza and watched cartoons outside in the dark on a big screen TV. Lots of fun except that Fen got a bee sting and I stepped on a tack. Great day! And next time Fen comes down for work meetings, we'll be able to visit INSIDE.
  
  
• Sunday I did a lot of relaxing. I caught up on my blogging, did my laundry, and sang karaoke, but other than I just took it easy. I looked up information on how to care for my new plants and took a walk down to the water while talking to my sister. Then in the evening I dealt with a broken website form issue because the system I was using got more than 50 comments this month and apparently that is now too many for the plan I have. Had to spend some time changing it over and upgrading.
  
  
• Monday involved a letter to prepare and edit and some timesheet stuff. Later took a walk before games with friends. Instead of our usual games we played Cards Against Humanity for some reason. Afterwards, talked to Jeaux and put away laundry.
  
  
• Tuesday was a weird day of meetings that didn't happen and e-mails that didn't get to the people they were supposed to. Afterwards I answered some website messages and got an asexuality video recorded but didn't get to finish the subtitles. Also enjoyed my plants.
  
  
• Wednesday I managed to finish my subtitles and publish my video. Also wrote the scripts to both of my webcomics. I did some work errands and had to leave early to go to my vaccine appointment with Jeaux. We got our shots and now we have both doses! We did our grocery shopping and picked up sandwiches, and went home to eat them while watching the movie I'm Thinking of Ending Things. We had ice cream sandwiches and went to bed kinda early--Jeaux stayed over in case either of us had side effects. I felt a little tired but nothing too bad.
  
  
• Thursday we woke up and had some morning beverages, and Jeaux didn't feel well so he just set himself up on the couch and watched YouTube all day (or slept). I felt pretty good, just a little on the tired side, so I worked all day. Mom came over because she had some food from the food bank that she didn't want, so she gave it to me. When Jeaux woke up he ate some of it and went home. It was nice to get to visit with Mom a bit and show her my garage. After Jeaux went home I took a nap myself. Then Victor called and we chatted while I drew.
  
  
• Friday I had a few meetings and loose ends at work. After work I repotted my plants and drew comics, managing to get both comics that were due today up before midnight. Hooray! Spent a little time working on preparations for podcasts before going to bed.

New Reviews:

• Tara L. Campbell gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Aili gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Kinda the same as last week--on the high side but going nowhere alarming. High weight: 112 pounds. Low weight: 110.8.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Since I had a friend visiting for two days and then got delivered a literal bag of bakery items, I've been kinda eating like crap, or at least eating inconsistently. Hoping to change that soon with some more vegetables.
  
• Activity stuff: I know I just barely missed my goal on Friday by a couple hundred steps, but I don't know what happened on Sunday because my step counter didn't record anything I did. It was probably my low day but I will never know, so I'll just say it was Friday only that I missed my 10K goal. My high day was Thursday at 16,543 steps. My low day was Friday at 9,660 steps.

Reading progress:

• Finished Reading: What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera. Five-star review.

• Currently reading: How Mirka Met a Meteorite by Barry Deutsch. I'm just getting started.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic So You Write Issue 119: "Competition." 

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0833: "How to Run." 

New videos: 

Letters to an Asexual #79 is up. It's about projection--how people who don't understand asexual people's needs and desires sometimes try to tell us what they must be.

New photos:

Day 2 of hanging out with Fen

New plants!

Gardenia and dwarf powderpuff!

A couple days post vaccine I have a little red blotch! (It's common.)

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,286 for swankivy (no change), 670 for JulieSondra (1 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 124 for Not-So-Giant Women (3 new). Twitter followers: 931 for swankivy (no change), 1,511 for JulieSondra (3 new). Facebook: 301 friends for swankivy (1 new, an old friend re-friended me after his account got deleted, which makes me think maybe last week's lost friend was just him losing his account), 629 likes for JulieSondra (2 new), 75 likes for Negative One (no change), 227 likes for So You Write (1 new), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (lost 1). Tumblr followers: 2,466 (lost 2). Instagram followers: 231 (no change).