Personal Digest Saturday - May 23 – May 29

Life news this week:

• Saturday I had some issues with my eye tearing up (which had been going on for a few days). Just tried to push through. I did some work on band music and figured out a piano part for a song I'll be supplementing, and I got a submission ready for a publisher for my short story. Also worked on my novel and got a bunch edited. Did some business card updates for the band. And got my DDR out of the way.
  
  
• Sunday my eye was still bothering me. I wore glasses instead of contacts to my band practice. He showed me a cool magazine my aunt was in! We got through ALL our songs during the practice. Some were better than others. We ate at Yard House and Dad took me home, and I did laundry and took an unsatisfying nap. I sent a Polo to Meg and did some reading and practiced some music and edited In Bloom.
  
  
• Monday I had the day off from work but I didn't get much done. I realized early in the morning that my eye problem was really similar to something that happened in 2024, so I made an online appointment with the doctor who fixed that for me last time. (Ingrown eyelashes were the culprit last time.) I worked on story editing and wrote the storyboard for So You Write. I hung out with Kari and we meant to watch a show but it was not cooperating.
  
  
• Tuesday I hadn't slept well because of issues with my eye. I called the doctor now that they were open and got my appointment moved to earlier, but still had to wait another day. I had to go to a meeting for a proposal we were suddenly submitting on but I got my part done quickly. Also knocked out some timesheet edits and entries, and found a list of project managers for my co-workers. I drew So You Write sketches and shared news about the newly released Being Aro. I watched a panel about the book with some of the other authors. After the presentation, I made a cheesecake for Jeaux's birthday. It looked really good for my first baked cheesecake. Worked on my novel editing.
  
  
• Wednesday I submitted the proposal at work and then had to go to the doctor. I had to wait a LONG time (the entire appointment took over two and a half hours because of all the waiting) and didn't have a very good experience with the doctor, but she found a couple stray ingrown eyelashes and plucked them out. Last time I had the issue they also gave me eyedrops to help with the irritation but she didn't prescribe anything and just let me go home. I did. I did my exercise and then attended the Being Aro panel with some other authors--this time as a speaker. I was pretty low energy because the doctor took a lot out of my and I couldn't see well but I made it through. Then started developing a headache. (I do not like having lights shined in my eyes.) Still soldiered on through Jeaux Day--we ate at SoFresh and dropped by the bookstore to see the shelf copies of Being Aro, and at home we sampled the cheesecake and shared silly things with each other. I was expecting my eye to feel better almost immediately because in 2024 when I had the same issue it cleared up like an hour after I left, but this time I continued to struggle with the same issues and had trouble sleeping anyway.
  
  
• Thursday I was frustrated by the continued eye problem that was supposed to be solved so I called for another appointment, and got them to send me to a different location. I managed to get a same-day appointment and saw a gentler doctor and didn't have to wait, but I did have to go much farther away. Worth it! The doctor saw no missed stray eyelashes but he prescribed me a steroid to help with the irritation. Live-texted some of the doctor stuff with my sister. I went to the pharmacy to get it and picked up some treats as well. Then went home and worked. Took a nap in the evening and wrote my comic storyboard. Talked to my nerds at game night and sketched a couple frames of the comic. Also sent a Polo to my sister about the appointments.
  
  
• Friday my eye was a little better but still not really better. Went to a meeting and updated timesheet stuff and did my reports. I worked on my comic and got done really early. And took one nap. I did my DDR and walked until I got my steps, wrote up some points for a planned video, and reread my novella.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• The Being Aro book panel at Tubby and Coo's featured four authors discussing their contributions to the anthology. I got to be on this panel. It had a live audience but you can still see it on replay.

Health Plan Update:

• Nutrition stuff: I got my three servings of fruits and veggies every day this week, and met my protein goals only three out of seven days. I had some weird eating habits this week because of band practice and buying myself treats to be nice to myself over all the eye stuff. I am still taking my vitamins.
  
  
• Activity stuff: I'm continuing to do DDR every other day. I made my 10,000-step walking goal every day this week. Based on my phone's app, my low day was Sunday at 10,049 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 12,127 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: The Legacy of Yangchen by F.C. Yee. I'm on page 76.

New singing performances:

Nothing this week.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:

   

#1098: adele #266: facing it.

Videos Made: 

None.

New photos:

Being Aro is in stores

Cheesecake in pan

Cheesecake out of pan

Slice of cheesecake

Remainder of cake

Jeaux and me eating the cake

A cool rainbow I saw over the golf course

Social media counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,431 for swankivy (lost 1), 675 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 215 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 67 for Tides of Time Band (no change) 8 for Vinyl Impact Band (2 new). Twitter followers: 739 for swankivy (no change), 3,348 for JulieSondra (lost 4). Facebook: 285 friends for swankivy (no change), 622 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 78 followers for Negative One (no change), 241 followers for So You Write (no change), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,409 (no change). Instagram followers: 310 (1 new). Threads followers: 89 (no change). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 467 (3 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: March 4 – March 10

Life news this week:

• Saturday I had plans with my mom but she canceled so I didn't have anything pressing to do. I worked on my podcast and planned my next webcomic way ahead of schedule because with a vacation coming up I'm going to have to be a week ahead in order to post it on time while I'm out of town. I did my blogging and practiced ukulele. I took a walk outside and found a downed cable looping down on the street that looked super dangerous. So I stood in the road waving people around it until I could get the utility people to come look at it. The truck got there in only a few minutes and was able to pull the line away from the road. Whew. Then I talked to Meg on Polo.
  
  
• Sunday I had plans with my mom starting at noon, so of course they didn't actually start until 3 PM. Until then I just worked on comics and ukulele practice. When my mom did finally pick me up, I helped her put down a carpet, climbed all around putting knickknacks back up on ledges after her paint job, got some stuff down from cabinets for her, put up a picture on the wall, hung her shower curtain, and cleaned her kitchen floor. Also got a few photos to use in my sister's upcoming birthday card. After I got home I did my Sunday chores (laundry, trash) and later practiced ukulele some more.
  
  
• Monday I had just one letter to send out and spent the rest of the day working on data stuff. I finished reading Cody's book I Am Ace just a little while before hopping on the book panel with him and another ace content creator. The three of us had a really nice time talking asexuality activism and answering people's questions. Over 130 people attended live. After the panel I put the link up in all the places where people care about that. Then I did more uke practice and comics.
  
  
• Tuesday I spent the day going to like 8 billion meetings (okay, it was four). I did a bunch of research on Department designees to help my engineers tailor their letters to the right people. After work I drew comics, practiced uke, and put away laundry while recording Polos. We delivered our birthday card to my sister a day early because she was going on a cruise.
  
  
• Wednesday was my sister Lindsay's birthday. Sister Patricia put together a very cute presentation using the photos I found and some of my ideas, and the family pooled money to buy her a bunch of gift cards. (It's a milestone birthday so we made a big deal.) I spent the day at work analyzing crash data, downloading straight line diagrams, collecting info sheets, and researching utilities for projects we're responding to a month or so from now. Jeaux came over after work and we got food from Burger 21, ate it while watching Colbert, took a walk, and watched a few more episodes of Heartstopper, which I am loving. After he left I practiced uke and drew.
  
  
• Thursday I had three meetings and dug up data for several more projects (now working on the ones to keep us a month ahead during my week that I will be on vacation). I also took a walk to the post office to mail my friend Paul a present. Then I did drawings and Polos, played games in the evening with my friends, and fell asleep early like a butt.
  
  
• Friday I did all my upcoming project reports and project manager reports and collected timesheets. Also had to edit and send out a letter which is due Monday (but I won't be there). Worked on my podcast, talked to my sister on Polo, and did some preparations for my upcoming vacation.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• I AM ACE Book Panel is where you can watch the Crowdcast featuring Cody Daigle-Orians and Ashabi Owagboriaye with me on a panel. It's a very chill, positive panel with some funny moments and some heartwarming stories, plus questions answered from the audience.
  

powered by Crowdcast

• Spoon Knife 7 has opened for preorder. I sold a story and it will appear in this book. It comes out next month.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: This week I continued to make good food choices and just keep eating to times when I'm actually hungry. Even better results this week. High weight: 120.3. Low weight: 118.4.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I was again very close to the balance of recommended carb/fat/protein amounts this week. I'm having vegetables and fruit every day. I have been big on cereal for breakfast, veggie burger for lunch, and potato with vegetables for dinner, plus yogurt and grapes for snack. I ran out of my spinach and bananas early this week and didn't get more because I'm about to go on vacation and didn't want highly perishable produce in my fridge. Still consistently taking the vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Monday at 10,012 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 15,311 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: I Am Ace by Cody Daigle-Orians. Five-star review.
  
  
• Currently Reading: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. I'm on page 145.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Everything I Do, I Do It For You" by Bryan Adams.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0930: "Warm Enough." 

Videos Made:

Not-So-Giant Women #57b: Season 2 Shorts is out! Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about the Season 2 shorts and cover such topics as Gem "biology," Steven not knowing what an essay is, the idea of "baby" Gems, headcanons on what extra body parts Stevonnie might have hidden (two hearts??), hot dog length standards, speculation on the Slinker, Steven being routinely asked to help in battles these days, what Amethyst would feed cats, cat habits, speculation on Steven's age when he moved in with the Gems, why Greg doesn't live in the house with Steven, Steven's perception of fulfilling the legacy of Rose Quartz, and speculation about the mysterious character in the extended opening.

New photos:

None.

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,417 for swankivy (8 new), 679 for JulieSondra (1 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 170 for Not-So-Giant Women (lost 2), 69 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 876 for swankivy (no change), 3,724 for JulieSondra (23 new). Facebook: 297 friends for swankivy (no change), 638 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 241 likes for So You Write (no change), 94 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,437 (2 new). Instagram followers: 257 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: January 30 – February 5

Life news this week:

• Saturday I had a good strawberry smoothie. Finally opened a bunch of packages that had been sitting around. And I got a big box of giant Crystal Gems toys! This was a size I didn't know existed and I was super thrilled. :) I almost got hit by a golf ball during one of my walks and I got it on video! Texted with Jeaux, talked to Meg on the phone, got some blogging done, and worked on a recipe book.
  
  
• Sunday I got up late and made a smoothie with chia seeds and dates. It took a while to decide but I ultimately didn't like it much. I finished my blogging, got my laundry and trash done, and worked on the cookbook. Had a couple really nice walks where I did NOT get almost hit by golf balls. I even did maintenance on my water system! And I did karaoke. Oh, and I got my So You Write comic done.
  
  
• Was okay for a Monday! I had to work on a handout and a proposal. It was cold! I had a delicious smoothie made with oranges and goji berries. After work I played Monday night games with friends and as usual it was nice. I was so shivery though. I hate being cold but I'm so happy I had my Comfy wearable blanket.
  
  
• Tuesday was stressful at work with meetings and scrambling to finish a handout. My smoothie was a banana spinach repeat. After work I had some time to myself so I called Mom and caught up. Also did my redecorating for the new season while chatting on the phone with Jeaux. It was after midnight when I started cooking zucchini and mushrooms because I'm weird.
  
  
• Wednesday was pretty calm as far as work. I worked on a proposal and reports. I had a cinnamon toast smoothie! Delicious. Then I talked to Tony who mows the yard, and Jeaux came over and we went to the store for our usual weekly grocery run. We got stuff to cook baked pasta and garlic bread again. We had an excellent meal and enjoyed ourselves. I fell asleep early after he left. Probably because I was full of carbs.
  
  
• Thursday work was hectic. I had one meeting scheduled but it became three. I had to run one of the meetings! And it was all about utilities, which is a little stressful for me. But everything went way better than I expected, and I also got to spend my after-work time watching my friend Steve perform via livestream. It was a great time. And I had a pumpkin spice smoothie. I called Victor after and we chatted for a little while, and I worked on my comic.
  
  
• Friday was another late awakening day. I had the spinach smoothie again. I did my reports and some stuff on a proposal and a little marketing stuff. After work Mom came by and gave me this salad she had concocted, and I fed her leftover pasta. We hung out for a good few hours and it was nice--we listened to the podcast my story was discussed on and she said she was proud. :) I finished my comic drawings while she was there, and after she left I processed it and posted it. Went to bed relatively early.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Volume 3 of After Dinner Conversation is out--it's the volume that has my story "Everyone's Gay in Space" in it. A paperback will exist sometime soon.

New reviews of my book (and story!):

• Lisa gave The Invisible Orientation an unrated review on Goodreads.
  
• C.E. DeWit gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.
  
• S. Sanders gave "Everyone's Gay in Space" a five-star review on Amazon.
  
• Ash's Mom gave "Everyone's Gay in Space" a five-star review.

Food Plan Update:

• Well, weight is stable, finished off the week at a nice 109 pounds.
  
  
• I officially left the paid plan that helped me lose the weight I lost. It was a good time because it was trying to get another reinstatement even though the actual lessons I'm taking encourage me to move away from depending on logging and look more to intuitive eating. So I listened. :)
  
  
• The smoothies continue to be great. I think I'm going to be depending on them for the fruit and some vegetable nutrients.
  
  
• Consistently doing well on protein and saturated fat. Sometimes meeting goals for fiber. Sometimes too high on sodium. Almost always too low on Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Potassium, Calcium, and Iron. Really gotta figure that out!

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 187.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Something to Talk About" by Bonnie Raitt.

Stuff Drawn:

Webcomic So You Write Issue 0821: "Narrow." 

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0821: "How Much She Can Say." 

New videos: 

Nothing this week.

New photos:

Strawberry Smoothie: Contains frozen berries, honey, almond milk, and silken tofu. Conclusion: Yummy!

 

Me with my new ginormous Crystal Gems:

   

Me with my new reading glasses:

   

This smoothie, the Raspberry Almond Smoothie, contains chia seeds, frozen berries, almond butter, almond milk, vanilla, and dates. It was not one of my favorites but I drank most of it.

 

Sunshine Smoothie contains oranges, orange juice, goji berries, silken tofu, ice, and stevia. Really yummy, tastes like sherbet!

 

Me drinking a repeat smoothie (spinach banana, delicious):

   

This is the Cinnamon Toast Smoothie. Ingredients are chia seeds, raisins, vanilla, almond milk, ice, protein powder, and cinnamon! Very good.

 

Jeaux and I made garlic bread and a pasta bake:

 

This is the pumpkin spice smoothie! This contains quinoa, pumpkin puree, ice, maple syrup, rice milk, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves! Way yummier than I thought it was going to be--I happily drank two servings.

 

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,291 for swankivy (no change), 666 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 111 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 933 for swankivy (lost 2), 1,364 for JulieSondra (2 new). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (lost 1! who??), 627 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 74 likes for Negative One (no change), 226 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,474 (lost 3). Instagram followers: 231 (no change).

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).