Personal Digest Saturday: June 19 – June 25

Life news this week:

• Saturday I spent the day photographing my SU apparel and setting up a cool post about it. And my friend Victor got out of the hospital and went home but had lost his keys so I had to help him with a locksmith, poor guy. But his phone wasn't turned back on yet so I didn't hear from him. Did my blogging and talked on the phone and Marco Polo to my sister, Meg, Jeaux, and Mom. Made some breadsticks to eat with Father's Day food. Got anxious over crappy interaction in a Facebook group.
  
  
• Sunday I woke up early because a health worker called about Victor trying to get a hold of him but his phone was still off. I got up after that and made some pizza dough so it could have time to rise before my dad arrived. He arrived right on time because he is one of the most punctual people on Earth. We caught up on our lives while the pizzas were finishing, and we sat down to a lovely lunch of pizza, breadsticks, and salad. Then afterwards we practiced some songs together where he played piano and I sang. It was a great Father's Day. After he left I had a lot of day left to fill so I did chores and even managed to get some karaoke in even though I'd done plenty of singing that day. Also texted with my sister L who listened to our songs and liked them.
  
  
• Monday I got up early for a work meeting but it got canceled. After some administrative organizing, I had to run a meeting for the utilities on one of the projects I'm doing. We got through it and I took notes. Then I had to read and submit a letter. Pretty eventful work day! I took a nap after that and got up to play games with my friends. Then I put away laundry and talked on Marco Polo.
  
  
• Tuesday was a chillish day. I didn't have a lot of pressing work items to address besides ordering lunch for an interview team and finalizing my meeting minutes. Did some more Polos and resting. Then I redecorated for midsummer and talked to Victor's sister on Facebook.
  
  
• Wednesday was another pretty chillish day. Did some proposal preparation and had to get my toilet fixed so the plumber came. I did some Polos for Meg and later Jeaux came over and took me to Applebee's. We did our grocery shopping after and watched Owl House and Colbert.
  
  
• Thursday I had a couple meetings and worked on a database. Wrote my comic. Did a funny drawing based on a typo I made (there is a Steven Universe character named "Pink Diamond" and I typoed her name as "Oink Diamond" so I decided to draw her as a pig). And then unexpectedly I heard from Victor! His phone was turned back on. He gave me the rundown of his crazy first week home. He's having a rough time. After I got off the phone with him I had some wine, finished the Oink Diamond drawing, and went to bed after sending some Polos.
  
  
• Friday was another chill work day--have been getting lucky with those! I did some updates on a letter and some database updates. Got my comic finished early because I wanted to have my time free for a special online event featuring Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey who made Steven Universe. I chatted with Jeaux before the event, and enjoyed watching the presentation. (I wrote up the details for the Internet.) And I sent a couple messages to my sister and Meg.

New Reviews:

• Rachael Miller gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Memistoker gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I ended up with a lot of extra pizza and breadsticks from Father's Day so uhhhh I ate a lot of pizza and breadsticks. Other than that at the beginning of the week I did pretty well eating vegetables and salads and spinach smoothies, so even though I was eating heavier than usual, I was eating good stuff mostly. High weight: 113.5 pounds. Low weight: 110.9.
  
• Nutrition stuff: This week I diversified my diet a lot! I had spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, salad, and bananas. I think I still need to eat more fruit.
  
• Activity stuff: I missed my 10K quota on Sunday and Tuesday, but I was only a few steps short on Tuesday so it doesn't count much. Coming in a little low when I was sluggish from pizza and spent a lot of time hanging out with my dad was an acceptable sacrifice. :) My low day was Sunday at 8,731 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 17,304 steps.

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 57.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Guns N' Roses.

Stuff Drawn:

Oink Diamond

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0838: "Interdimensional Carrot." 

New videos:

None this week.

New photos:

SU apparel

More SU apparel

Pride!

A musical Father's Day!

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,294 for swankivy (2 new), 670 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 126 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new). Twitter followers: 928 for swankivy (no change), 1,812 for JulieSondra (8 new). Facebook: 301 friends for swankivy (1 new--friended someone who asked from a group), 633 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 77 likes for Negative One (no change), 228 likes for So You Write (1 new), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,461 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 232 (1 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: June 12 – June 18

Life news this week:

• Saturday I had a nice sleepy day. I got my blogging done early for once and ate an avocado and Tofurky sandwich without stabbing myself in the hand. I spent the day writing tweets, processing old e-mails and saving the ones I'm eventually going to answer, reading chapters of an in-progress book, and processing comments left on my webcomic.
  
  
• Sunday I did karaoke and household chores (laundry, trash, fertilizing the plants). Mom was supposed to come over and get her car but she didn't. I did some writing business with querying and sending out short stories, which is nice to get back into. I got back to my sister and Meggie with Polos and I was wearing my new pretty Opal dress. Began to take some photos of my epic Steven Universe shirt collection.
  
  
• Monday began a week that was way chiller than last week! I did have to spend Monday morning busting it to get out a shortlist package and an instruction set for a proposal production. And then I spent the day on transcripts for an interview. Later I played games with my friends and finished the transcript after work! I laid out all my shirts and got the photo gallery completed.
  
  
• Tuesday I didn't have any deadlines but I helped my boss with a proposal and worked on project manager reports. After work I recorded an interview for a podcast that I'm going to be on, and I talked to Mom about getting her car. She planned to come the next day but ended up getting her car at night, and she picked it up without coming in or saying hi to me at all. She's a nut! Haha. (I requested a Lyft car for her and she drove home.) Her eye is doing great. I took some pictures of the shirt collection laid out together on the floor. Yowch! I have 79 shirts from the same cartoon.
  
  
• Wednesday I went out in the morning to talk to Tony about my azalea which looks weird on one side. He says he'll ask his plant nursery guy. At work I got another district's project manager reports done and began to put content into a database they're going to have me maintain. I took some photos of sweaters and jackets from my collection. Jeaux came over and took me to Five Guys and grocery shopping. We watched Colbert's first post-pandemic show back in the theater with the audience, and watched the first episode of Season 2 of Owl House which has returned to television. Woo! I was tired early.
  
  
• Thursday I had some tasks in the morning looking up utilities and helping a coworker with support documents for a teaming effort. Then I did some agenda planning for a meeting on Monday. After work I took photos of my dress collection, worked on my comic, and made Polos to my loved ones. Then Victor called and we had a good chat, and he told me he's getting out this weekend. Whoa! He's going home!
  
  
• Friday I updated my usual upcoming projects reports and dealt with timesheets and more stuff for Monday's meeting, and some insurance support documents. Then I spent some time in a new funny group I joined on Facebook making fun of annoying dudes who say things they shouldn't. I did my webcomic and posted it and made some more Polo messages to sister P and Meggie.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Book Review: The Invisible Orientation on BookNerdTV YouTube channel. Discussion of asexuality as well as the host's opinion of my book!
  
• Interview on Where's My Jetpack?! Part 2: I'm discussing Steven Universe and queerness on this podcast for Pride month.

New Reviews:

• Jessica Madden gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Amazon.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Again nothing's really changed from last week--I'm really craving chocolate for some reason and a lot of snacking at night. High weight: 112.6 pounds. Low weight: 110.9.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I have not been tracking what my nutrition situation is--still tracking what I'm eating, but haven't been analyzing whether it's balancing like I should.
  
• Activity stuff: I have missed the quota a couple days when I was really busy during the day and didn't make time for walking, but I am still making 10K steps most days. I did not make it on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. My low day was Friday at 4,846 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 12,744 steps.

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 57.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "21 Guns" by Green Day.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0838: "Not So Calm." 

New videos:

None this week.

New photos:

Opal Dress!

Opal Dress too!

79 SU shirts boyeee

My SU Dresses

Jackets and sweaters

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,292 for swankivy (lost 1), 670 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 125 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 928 for swankivy (lost 1), 1,804 for JulieSondra (100 new). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (no change), 633 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 77 likes for Negative One (1 new), 227 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,462 (1 new). Instagram followers: 231 (lost 2).

Personal Digest Saturday: June 5 – June 11

Life news this week:

• Saturday I finally got a day to sleep in! I had a pretty leisurely day. Deleted a bunch of unnecessary e-mail and listened to the first half of a podcast I was on (my friend Derek's podcast, Where's My Jetpack?!, talking about queer stuff and Steven Universe for Pride month). Then I did Polos with Meg and P, posted some tweets and Tumblr posts, and tracked some of my tweets because they were popular. Also got a feature on Amino for my old Garnet drawing and analysis. Got my steps in, got my blogging done, and got some of the work done on my podcast for "Steven and the Stevens."
  
  
• Sunday was a little more productive than the previous day but also a pretty chill day. I got up early and did trash and laundry, and dishes, and did the maintenance on my water system. Did some karaoke and bought some fun stuff on eBay. Looked over the next song list for the band and approved all the songs. Wrote a script for an upcoming video I want to do about oatmeal and poverty. (It'll make sense, I promise.) Did some walking and posted Not-So-Giant Women Episode 22. Followed my popular tweets some more and reread old Internet stuff. Updated some website stuff that had been out of date for years.
  
  
• Monday I had to get up early for a meeting. Did a bunch of work on my Pasco County proposal. Plus some timesheet stuff and small fires to put out. I had a utility meeting scheduled but the lady I was meeting with was having computer issues so we postponed. After work I took a walk and then played Jackbox games with my friends. Did some more walking and more work on my oatmeal script.
  
  
• Tuesday I got up early for a meeting that didn't happen. Spent most of the day on the Pasco proposal again and also had the utility meeting. We got a lot of stuff talked about and I needed to make a bunch of revisions to documents I'd prepared so we scheduled to meet up on Thursday. Had to work until 7 to get everything done. Didn't get enough walking done. Mom came over shortly before dark and I fixed some whole wheat linguine with mushrooms and fake ground beef and we ate together. I stayed up late talking to her and put away my laundry after she fell asleep on my couch.
  
  
• Wednesday we had to get up super early because it was the day of Mom's cataract surgery! We got a Lyft car to take us to Tarpon Springs and everything went smoothly, and we were on time. (I'm sure she doesn't hear that phrase often!) I had to leave her when they took her back because they're only letting patients in still. I had brought some drawing supplies so I got a couple frames drawn while sitting on a weird concrete pedestal I found outside some nearby community. Then I trekked back to the eye place to use the restroom and embarked on a two-mile walk to a cool 50s diner. I had some breakfast there and then walked two miles back. I got sunburned! But then by the time I got back she was still in pre-op! What the heck. Eventually they called me back and had me help her understand the instructions for post-op care. She was her usual self and was just grumpy that she'd been without a smoke for a while. We were released, went outside to have her smoke, and got a Lyft back to Tampa, where our driver tried to get us to take our masks off and lectured us on the dangers of vaccines. Wow. When we got home I had a shower and a nap and Mom just chilled for a while until Jeaux showed up. He took her home and we went out to Beef O'Brady's before going to grocery shop. After, we watched some Colbert and he left early so I could sleep. But then I ended up signing on to my work computer and did 2 hours of work before going to bed at 1:30 AM.
  
  
• Thursday I had a slow morning until my utility meeting, where we went over my documents and everything was fine. We had to upload to the utility system and it took a while but it was all smooth. I took some breaks to do Polos and after work I read mail and played games to wind down. Victor called and we talked while I took walks and drew comics.
  
  
• Friday work was pretty chill and I spent the day on Pasco County proposal editing again. Did some transcription and some meetings and utility stuff too. After work I did some Polos for Meggie and drew the rest of the comic. Victor randomly called me and it turned out he wanted me to buy him a pizza again. I took a walk and talked to Jeaux. And that was it!

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Redditors recommend my book to a questioning person.
  
• Interview on Where's My Jetpack?! Part 1: I'm discussing Steven Universe and queerness on this podcast for Pride month.

New Reviews:

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

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Nothing's really changed from last week. I'd like to just get so I'm not going above 110 anymore so maybe I just need to avoid snacking at night as much. High weight: 112.6 pounds. Low weight: 110.4.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Am again really not doing a great job with fruits and vegetables. I really should be able to get this up!
  
• Activity stuff: Regularly making my walking quota unless there's some weird circumstances, like when my mom came over after a busy work day so I couldn't make time to walk before she got there. I made my quota every day except Tuesday. My low day was Tuesday at 5,861 steps, and my high day was Wednesday at 15,332 steps.

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 49.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "When I Come Around" by Green Day.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0838: "Like Braiding." 

New videos:

Not-So-Giant Women #22: Steven and the Stevens is out. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Steven and the Stevens" and cover such topics as Daria's thoughts on Doctor Who time travel versus Steven Universe time travel, comparisons to the pilot episode, Steven dying onscreen 60 times, whether Ivy should make meanie zucchini with linguine, the annoyingness of spoilers, Ivy's cosplay to cover songs, comparisons to Indiana Jones, discussions of "girl" TV shows, the fat boat, Amethyst being "down for whatever," the Gems' instruments, and whether all these shrines, temples, and spires might have religious significance.

New photos:

Lion dress

Lion dress

Breakfast at 1950s diner

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,293 for swankivy (1 new), 671 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 125 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 929 for swankivy (2 new), 1,704 for JulieSondra (75 new). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (no change), 632 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 76 likes for Negative One (no change), 227 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (1 new). Tumblr followers: 2,461 (lost 2). Instagram followers: 233 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday: May 29 – June 4

Life news this week:

• Saturday I talked to my mommy and did some blogging, and got my podcast stuff figured out so I could be ready for the recording session with Daria. Also did some Polos for Meg and Patricia and finally got to talk to Steve on the phone for the first time in a really long time! Daria and I recorded the episodes "Friend Ship" and "Nightmare Hospital," and chatted with her until I was tired after.
  
  
• Sunday was a nice chill day. More Polos and walks. Did laundry, trash, and karaoke. I did some drawings for my So You Write comic and posted a new Letters to an Asexual video. And I did a little work on my proposals at work even though it was Sunday. Then I got a little bit tipsy on wine and had to go to bed.
  
  
• Monday was Memorial Day and I took it easy but I still checked in at work and got some preparation done for some proposals, so I didn't take the whole day off. I finished the comic drawings and posted So You Write like I generally do on the last day of the month, and then I played games with my friends online like usual. And I recorded my version of "On the Run" from Steven Universe, with a duet, in cosplay. Haha!
  
  
• Tuesday was a little hectic because of getting two proposals ready and a few of us exhausted ourselves. But hey, we did our best. I still got to chill out for some of the day. I got a bunch of stuff done that I didn't want to do, and did some Polos for pals and also made a loaf of cheddar cheese bread. Managed to also put away laundry, worked on the next Not-So-Giant Women podcast episode, and ignored my dishes.
  
  
• Wednesday I woke up early so I went to work early. Worked on a bunch of projects: utilities, a proposal, data entry markups, and messy administrative stuff for coworkers. After work Jeaux took me to Saki and I got sushi. Then we watched a Death Battle video because it included Steven Universe fighting another character. We also watched another video from the same channel and he showed me some more of his silly video game videos as well. They're great.
  
  
• Thursday I woke up too early again. Went to work and had way more work to do than I expected! Spent the day just trying to churn through everything, and I did a reasonable job getting through it, but I had to stay late. Also managed to get some of Mom's paperwork in order to finish some refinancing stuff she's doing. I accidentally stabbed myself with a fork while trying to eat an avocado. Smooth. I talked to my mom on the phone and later talked to Victor on the phone.
  
  
• Friday I had ANOTHER early awakening! What is this! I had a ton to do still and spent the day knocking it out--reports, utilities, data entry, proposal stuff, stamping people's documents, organizing, timesheets, you name it. Also called my mom to tell her I have arranged the transportation for her cataract surgery. Yay! Then I stayed late to work on a database, but after it got late I had to stop so I could work on my comic. I did that while talking to Jeaux on the phone. I posted on time and also shared a fun post on Amino about some thoughts I had on one of the early episodes.

New Reviews:

• Fitzherbert Farnsworth gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Amazon.
  
• Douglas Berry gave "Everyone's Gay in Space" a five-star review on Amazon, but for some reason titled it "Yuck" and said it would be upsetting to have a gay child. ???
  
• Alysha Terry gave The Invisible Orientation is a five-star review on Audible.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Let's see, so I still feel like my weight is going higher than I expect and want it to, but it's still better than last week and last week was better than the previous week, so I think I'm stabilizing this. High weight: 112.6 pounds. Low weight: 110.4.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Well, I made delicious bread so I ate a lot of delicious bread. I had a lot of avocado and cucumber this week but I've been picking snacky foods and even cereal for late-night snacks lately. Really need to diversify. It's always a work in progress.
  
• Activity stuff: I did well with my walking again this week, though again I'm doing it mostly inside--it's hot, and this week it rained a few times. I made my quota every day except Monday--just couldn't get moving that day. My low day was Monday at 8,572 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 18,585 steps.

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 27.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "L.A. Song" by Beth Hart.

Also posted is my ukulele cover of "On the Run" from Steven Universe:

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic So You Write Issue 0838: "No One Reads That." 

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0838: "Strange Balance." 

New videos:

Letters to an Asexual #80 is out. This video covers what I think about asexual people identifying as queer, being in queer activism, and dealing with LGBTQ+ groups that are not ace inclusive.

New photos:

Pumpkin smoothie ingredients

About to mix

Yum!

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,292 for swankivy (lost 5), 672 for JulieSondra (2 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 125 for Not-So-Giant Women (2 new). Twitter followers: 927 for swankivy (no change), 1,629 for JulieSondra (21 new). Facebook: 300 friends for swankivy (lost 1, not sure who), 631 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 76 likes for Negative One (no change), 227 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (lost 2). Tumblr followers: 2,463 (no change). Instagram followers: 233 (lost 1).