Personal Digest Saturday: November 20 – November 26

Life news this week:

• Saturday I was all messed up because I went to bed early. I went and talked to Tony because he was mowing the lawn on a weird day to get stuff done before the holidays, and then I got my stuff ready to do a podcast with Daria. I put away some of my SU display and I made a yummy tofu and mushrooms dish with a peanut and soy sauce combo. In the evening I recorded the first two episodes of Season 3 with Daria ("Super Watermelon Island" and "Gem Drill"), and then I spent too much time on Reddit replying to comments on the merch post.
  
  
• Sunday was supposed to be band practice but there was a potential Covid risk (turned out: not Covid, but we were being safe), so instead of meeting my dad came to my place and I made him waffles. He got to see my partially put away SU display which still looked like a museum. We did some piano/voice duets and had a good time. After he left I did Sunday chores, did karaoke, finished my blogging late, and caught up with Polos.
  
  
• Monday I was up early for work. It was a relatively slow day even though we had a letter due. I worked on an upcoming proposal. I responded to some old YouTube comments and put away some laundry, and I played games with my friends in the evening and posted merch on Amino.
  
  
• Tuesday work was a little busier because I got a bunch of info to go on putting the package together for our proposal. After work I made Polos for Meg and P and put more SU stuff away. I answered more YouTube messages and posted silly things about recipes on Reddit. I got a lot of people trying to stump me and no one could. :)
  
  
• Wednesday work was pretty slow as you'd expect, but I was busy working on my proposal stuff. Also got to work with another office's admin to do some Thanksgiving mail-outs. I responded to more recipe suggestions and still no one came up with a recipe I have not done. I finally finished putting away my SU merch collection in the evening and got my living room back to normal (which involved moving furniture and putting two bookshelves' worth of books back on the shelves).
  
  
• Thursday we had the day off for Thanksgiving. I spent the morning just chilling and drinking coffee. Then later Jeaux came over and made some food--we didn't have a Jeaux Day on Wednesday because we did not want to go to the grocery store on the day before Thanksgiving. Jeaux made a Tofurky dish, potatoes, two vegetable bags, his first tray of biscuits ever, and some gravy. My mom came over and ate a teeny bit like she usually does, but she actually ate more than usual and ended up resting on the couch for a long time. Jeaux also showed me some funny videos, and I had to fix some stuff on my mom's phone, but that was it.
  
  
• Friday I had the day off and struggled to get anything done. I ate some leftovers and worked on my comic and that was it. I had a nice nap. :)

New Reviews:

• Kelcii gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Asexuality deserves recognition; content creators: all sexual identities: I was interviewed with a couple other aces in SJSUNews. Our interviewer was also asexual, which always makes a difference!
  
• Embracing the Ace has a post mentioning my book which talks about the struggle to come out as asexual to parents.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: A little better this week with the more intentional choices, though I had some waffles lying around that made their mark. High weight: 115.1. Low weight: 114.6.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I did a little better with protein this week than last week, and am keeping up with vegetables, though not as well as last week. Thanksgiving was calorie-heavy but also helped with vegetables because I had a lot of them (corn, mushrooms, broccoli, and carrots!).
  
• Activity stuff: I made my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Wednesday at 10,021 steps, and my high day was Sunday at 20,278 steps.

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm on page 82.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin.

Stuff drawn:

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0863: "Minor Inconvenience." 

New videos:

None.

New photos:

Jeaux's first biscuits

Carving the Tofurky

The food Jeaux made

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,327 for swankivy (2 new), 672 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 133 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 922 for swankivy (no change), 2,324 for JulieSondra (4 new). Facebook: 298 friends for swankivy (no change), 634 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 231 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,461 (1 new). Instagram followers: 243 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday (but posted on Sunday!): November 13 – November 19

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got some texts from my boss asking me to help with some stuff so I ended up doing a little work. Other than that Mom was supposed to come by but she postponed it to the next day. I did my blogging and decided to begin the Merchstravaganza--I rearranged a bunch of furniture to set up for my Steven Universe display and I got nice and sweaty doing it. I also did an interview about asexuality with a student paper, and enjoyed my refrigerated food.
  
  
• Sunday I got up super late. I was supposed to hang out with Mom and she was originally going to make a quiche but she kept texting to say she had fallen asleep. That happened three times and she never came to get me and then it got too late so we didn't hang out. I spent the day on my usual Sunday chores--laundry and trash, plus recording Polos and doing karaoke. I also got started working on my SU merch display!
  
  
• Monday was busy with a letter and a proposal coming up. I grabbed a short nap after work and did some walking, and then I played games with my friends. Then I went back to setting up the merch display. I had some drama with toys getting knocked over and going missing. It took me so long to find them! But I did.
  
  
• Tuesday I was pretty busy trying to get a proposal together but then my boss got information that suggested we shouldn't submit the proposal so we stopped working on it. Then I went outside to talk to Tony because he was trimming some bushes on a day he usually isn't there. After work I just worked on my merch display some more and got some pictures.
  
  
• Wednesday I had to deal with some qualifications updates at work, so that took most of the day. My friend Victor unfortunately got an eviction notice and since he hadn't prepared for that ended up in last-minute mode and asked to live with me. I had to say no. I took more pictures of the collection and went grocery shopping with Jeaux, and we got Five Guys food and watched Colbert and took a walk. After he left I put my wall hangings back up while talking to my sister.
  
  
• Thursday was a pretty normal work day with my reports and writing my storyboard. Put away more of my collection stuff and talked to Mom on the phone. Then I had to deal with some exhausting drama with Victor because he had thought Jeaux was going to help him move his stuff into storage, but there was a miscommunication and Jeaux had not agreed, so I got involved and offered to help him get a professional packing and moving company to help. Packing up somebody's house in one day isn't a job for an unpaid person or a layperson, so yeah. We talked mostly about his plans and figured some stuff out and he managed to book the movers. Honestly I was just frustrated that I kept having to figure stuff out for him on what he should do.
  
  
• Friday was a normal work day, which for me involves some timesheet stuff and making reports and preparing some documents for Monday. There was some drama toward the end of the day with Victor and the movers, which I paid for, and after all that I kinda snapped when he texted and asked me to pay for something else. Not gonna talk about it in detail online of course but I just really have been feeling for a while like his problems always become my problems (and that I end up fixing them when they're huge because he didn't fix them when they were small). After all that stuff I finished my comic and went to bed.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• None that I'll link. I saw one thing that made a reference to my book but the entire tone of the article was condescending, pretentious, and constantly implied that aspects of asexuality don't make any sense (while trying really, really hard to maintain what they clearly thought was a neutral and unbiased tone), and the only place they actually attributed any content to me, they straight up misrepresented what I said. So I'll complain about it here instead of linking, haha.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Well, I haven't been super vigilant about my eating this week because I was stressed and eating irregularly in terms of time as well as type of food, but except for some hummus incidents, I did okay. High weight: 115.7. Low weight: 114.6.
  
• Nutrition stuff: The snacks were a little high because of all the crackers and hummus I ate, but I was able to eat up a decent amount of vegetables, including frozen vegetables or fresh vegetables frequently throughout the week! I finished my spinach off in smoothies and got more, and consumed a lot of green stuff as well as hitting targets with my protein intake and low caffeine. (I accidentally opened two sodas at once one day and had to drink them both, but other than that I was keeping to my one caffeinated soda per day and one caffeinated coffee a day regimen.) My water intake could be better.
  
• Activity stuff: I made my walking goal every day this week except Friday. My low day was Friday at 7,411 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 21,553 steps. (Wednesday was almost as high at 21,102. I pace a lot when I'm nervous and spending a lot of time on the phone.)

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm on page 82.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia.

Stuff drawn:

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0862: "Spared." 

New videos:

None.

New photos:

Steven Universe Collection!

There were a lot of pictures taken but you can just click through to the post to see them all if you're actually interested in this.

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,325 for swankivy (1 new), 672 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 133 for Not-So-Giant Women (lost 1). Twitter followers: 922 for swankivy (lost 2), 2,320 for JulieSondra (15 new). Facebook: 298 friends for swankivy (no change), 634 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 231 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,460 (3 new). Instagram followers: 243 (1 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: November 6 – November 12

Life news this week:

• Saturday I cleaned up some stuff in the house and hung out with my friend Fen starting about midday. We ate fruit and bagels from Publix and caught up on our lives, and then at night we got thai food and watched Steven Universe. We got into a bunch of the more thought-provoking episodes so we ended up talking a lot about some of them as we went into the night. They left and went back to their hotel, and then I found out my friend Victor's mom died. o_o
  
  
• Sunday I had to get up early for band practice with Dad. We drove to his place and we practiced with the band trying out some of our new songs, and it was a good time. We're optimistic about some of these songs. Then we got to have some sushi before going home. After I got back I hung out with Fen again and they asked for pizza and Steven Universe so that is what happened. ;) I love when I get people engaged with good shows! We finished Season 1 and Fen had the purest and most fun reaction to the big surprise in the season finale. We ended up talking about it for like half an hour afterwards. :D After they left I was exhausted and went to sleep early.
  
  
• Monday was a relatively easy Monday even though we had two letters going out. After work I had a longish nap and played games with my friends online. Meg had the new Jackbox game box so we got to try new games. After work I took a look at some of the ace panel questions I'd be dealing with the next day. Made some partial arrangements with Mom about taking her phone shopping.
  
  
• Tuesday I got up early and got some work done before heading out to the doctor. I had my blood taken for labs and then Mom picked me up so we could go phone shopping (but there was some delay and confusion so it took a while for her to get there and I got kind of hangry, aka hungry plus angry, because I'd been fasting and wanted to go eat a bagel). We did get her phone shopping done and then I went back to work, had coffee and breakfast finally, and got my refrigerator repaired! After work we had the Beyond Awareness ace panel and I set up a cute ace flag background to go with my appearance. Afterwards I was tired again and zonked out early.
  
  
• Wednesday I got up early to talk to Tony and pay him for yard work. Then I had to work on letters at work and helping a new employee with some stuff. I also went to an informational meeting about paycheck protection and decided to buy a couple policies. Then Jeaux warned me that he was stuck on an issue at work and might be late. He ended up not updating me for multiple hours and it turned out he just got really into work mode and forgot. When I finally asked him what was going on we ended up moving Jeaux Day to Friday and I was kinda frustrated since I really wanted to get some refrigerated food after not having any for almost two weeks, but sometimes crap happens, so I decided to just deal. :)
  
  
• Thursday I did a few work things but it was a bit on the slow side. I cleaned up the outstanding issues from one of our work orders and helped with business development. I finished making my spreadsheet detailing how much my Steven Universe merch collection is worth. Yikes. In the evening I talked to Victor and tried to finish my webcomic but I didn't get all the way through.
  
  
• Friday was another early day and I mostly just fulfilled document requests and had a meeting. After work I posted my comic and met with Jeaux for our substitute Jeaux Day. I finally got to get my refrigerated and frozen food. We then watched Colbert and some silly videos and took our walks, and ate McAlister's food. It was weird having Jeaux Day on a Friday.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• Beyond Awareness Panel is up on YouTube, with me, Yasmin Benoit, and the organizers of the UMassAmherst SpACE+ organization discussing asexual and aromantic spaces.

New Reviews:

• Betsy gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Laura Engelhardt gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads and a four-star review on Amazon.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Okay! I finally got normal refrigerated stuff and can eat more vegetables besides high-calorie canned beans again, so I'm hoping to lower this by next week. High weight: 116.5. Low weight: 114.6.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Not nearly enough vegetables because of no frozen or refrigerated foods. Just a lot of starch and a little bit of packaged fruit. I've been surviving on bread, pasta with no sauce, canned food, peanut butter, cereal, and beans. Had some oatmeal with a banana one day. I'm looking forward to eating a BUNCH of veggies next week. YES. Water goals are a little down, but I've done well with the caffeine levels.
  
• Activity stuff: I made my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Tuesday at 10,008 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 18,881 steps.

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm on page 82.

New singing performances:

No karaoke this week, I had band practice and never caught up with a recorded song.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0861: "I Could." 

New videos:

None.

New photos:

Ace Panel Grin

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,324 for swankivy (5 new), 672 for JulieSondra (1 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 134 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 924 for swankivy (no change), 2,305 for JulieSondra (15 new). Facebook: 298 friends for swankivy (no change), 634 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 231 likes for So You Write (1 new), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (lost 1). Tumblr followers: 2,457 (1 new). Instagram followers: 242 (2 new).

Personal Digest Saturday (but published on Sunday!): October 30 – November 5

Life news this week:

• Saturday I was really feeling better from the rash of bad health I was going through last week. I did some of my blogging and was trying to get done before my mom came over but she came over right when she said she would! And she brought pasta and sauce to eat, and asked me to make garlic bread. I was supposed to go phone shopping with her and help her with her hair, but when she came over she decided she didn't want to do either of those things. She's so silly. We ate the food and she took a nap on my couch. I finished my blogging while she napped and did the dishes. After she got up and went home, I ate all the garlic bread with wine and watched more episodes of Amphibia.
  
  
• Sunday was Halloween! I decided not to be too complicated with a costume and decided to just wear my Opal dress and do my hair like Opal, so that was fun. But first I redecorated in my house to have actual Halloween decorations (if possible, I like to decorate on the first day of the new season, and Halloween marks day one of the Samhain season!). I set up for trick-or-treaters and also did laundry and trash. Then I got dressed and wrote a comic outline so I could draw while sitting in my garage waiting for trick-or-treaters. Woohoo! I got the comic drawings done and also changed my costume to my Lion onesie when it got too cold for me because I'm wimpy. I did get some trick-or-treaters and that was super nice. Then after it was too late for more visitors, I went inside and processed the So You Write comic and posted it.
  
  
• Monday I was up early for work dealing with our next letter package all day. I was still struggling with some access issues because the websites for a lot of resources I need were down. Still got through it fine. On top of that my refrigerator died and Jeaux had to come get my food and put it in his fridge so I wouldn't lose it all. Argh! I played games with friends that evening and listened to band music.
  
  
• Tuesday was much slower so I was able to catch up on outreach with other firms for business development. Distributed info from the organizers of the ace panel I'm doing about how to attend. Took some more toy photos and organized my database of toys. Practiced a song.
  
  
• Wednesday I was surprised by new data entry stuff to enter! I was glad there was new stuff to do because the deadline was approaching. I worked on that most of the day along with coordinating with some bigger firms to get us on their team. Jeaux and I ate at BurgerFi and we liked our food but had some issues with our orders. We watched Colbert and The Young Turks and the season finale of What We Do in the Shadows.
  
  
• Thursday work was very busy. I worked all day trying to get the data entry in and didn't quite make it before the database threw me out. Victor called and I continued working until the database closed, and then I got my steps in and worked on my comic.
  
  
• Friday I had a morning meeting which went fine, and then I finished up the data entry and spent the rest of the day on reports. After work I had to scurry to get the comic done on time and still get in my steps and some stuff around the house. I also took a break to do karaoke because I'd learned the song well enough. :)

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• 10 Facts About Asexuality That Help Dispel Harmful Myths: Article in SELF includes some items I contributed to. (They have a typo about me, though, referring to me as "romantic" instead of "aromantic.")
  
• People can sign up to watch me and Yasmin Benoit and the organizers of the UMassAmherst SpACE+ organization discuss asexual and aromantic spaces--this is the link.

New Reviews:

• Shadok gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.
  
• Sara gave The Invisible Orientation a two-star review on Goodreads (in Danish).

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I ended up eating very weirdly this week because my fridge broke so I ate stuff I was trying to eat before it went bad and then stuff that didn't need to be refrigerated, plus eating an entire loaf of garlic bread and eating Halloween candy--this week was basically a wash. High weight: 116.5. Low weight: 114.6.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I'm still drinking more water and lowering caffeine this week. Other than that, I don't have access to refrigeration right now so my goal has just been to eat what's manageable in this situation. Which has involved a lot of bread, pasta, and canned food. Getting my protein from peanut butter and beans.
  
• Activity stuff: I made my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Friday at 10,035 steps, and my high day was Sunday at 14,663 steps.

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm on page 58.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic So You Write Issue 125: "Plot Point #1." 

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0860: "Something Sweet to Share." 

New videos:

None.

New photos:

Garlic bread night:

Garlic Bread

Wine, Garlic Bread, and Cartoons

Halloween photos:

Opal costume

Opal closeup

Lion closeup

Lion onesie

Some toy photos:

All Plushies

All Figures

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,319 for swankivy (4 new), 671 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 134 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 924 for swankivy (lost 2), 2,290 for JulieSondra (18 new). Facebook: 298 friends for swankivy (no change), 633 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 230 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,456 (1 new). Instagram followers: 240 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday: October 23 – October 29

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got up reasonably early to finish planning my podcast recording and work on blogging. I got everything done faster and more efficiently than I expected to! I guess time was just on my side. I took some toy photos for my photo series and did dishes. Then I got with Daria and we recorded episodes 77 and 78 of our podcast ("Message Received" and "Log Date 7 15 2"). After, I organized some files and slept.
  
  
• Sunday I slept late and I deserve it. Did some laundry, talked to Meg, and wrote up some notes to announce a livestream event for Ace Week (to happen on Friday). Did my karaoke, did more laundry, took out trash and recycling, and took some more toy photos. Then I decided to start watching Amphibia! So I saw some episodes of that. I'm not in love with it, but I'm entertained enough to watch more.
  
  
• Monday I went to work and found out a co-worker is leaving, so that's going to create some waves we'll have to ride. We turned in a letter and dealt with timesheets. Mom randomly came over (which I didn't want her to do because I was still in quarantine, so I wore a mask and stayed away from her), but she had bought me a neck massager thing I'd been wanting. Nice! I gave her a present too. She also gave me some jewelry and . . . a bag of my own teeth from when I was a kid. Mom gonna mom. I did some more toy post stuff and played games with my friends. I felt sad that my friend Steve lost his cat to a blood clot unexpectedly. After games I watched more Amphibia and drank wine.
  
  
• Tuesday I had difficulty concentrating on work because of weirdness happening in my personal life. And I was doing some good tweeting for Ace Week so I kept getting replies. (I didn't get harassed though! This time!) I had a lot on my plate at the office--a transcript to do, a utility letter to write, accounting stuff to calculate, a drainage report to review, and a package to proofread. Whew! I did all of it except the transcript. After work I watched more Amphibia while consuming pasta. After, I drew some comic images early because my livestream was scheduled for Friday and I didn't want to overbook.
  
  
• Wednesday was another difficult day with work because I was having some issues feeling crappy. My heart rate has been up lately for no apparent reason and it's gotten significantly worse, to the point that it's affecting my sleeping and my daily comfort. Not great. I worked on the transcript for most of the day. Mom dropped by AGAIN and gave me a bunch of food she wasn't going to eat from her food bank. DONUTS!!! After work I got a lovely long Polo from my sister to listen to, and then Jeaux and I went shopping and got pizza. (The delivery is messed up so we ended up going to pick it up instead.) We ate and caught up and talked, and watched our Colbert and What We Do in the Shadows shows. And we took a walk too.
  
  
• Thursday I was still feeling super crappy, so I didn't actually start working until after noon, and just mostly tried to relax and talked to my friends in the morning. I scheduled a doctor's appointment (and it's time for my yearly thing anyway). Then when I got to work finally I worked on the transcript and it was super long. When it was done it was 34 pages. Yikes. I didn't know there was that much to say about drainage and gopher tortoises. After work I listened to more Polos and Victor called to tell me about his many adventures. After the call (and getting some comics done) I had a REALLY bad night with the heartbeat thing and I couldn't sleep. Ended up awake in the wee hours finishing comics and watching news, and then I tried sleeping while sitting up because that seems to help. Finally got some rest.
  
  
• Friday I woke up sitting up on the couch and felt somewhat better. Throughout the day it seemed like I was feeling less and less crappy. I was able to do my usual workday and did some letter package preparation, sent some reminders, did some utility stuff, and kept trying to get stuff done that got interrupted because of broken websites. After work I did some toy photos and worked on the webcomic. I did my livestream for Ace Week (which ended up lasting about 2.5 hours) and completed the comic after. I went to bed early because I was exhausted from the bad sleep, but the good news is that sleep was very restful and I seem to be feeling normal again.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• The University of Massachusetts's Asexual Panel featuring me and Yasmin Benoit has been announced. Their panel "Beyond Awareness: Creating a Space for Asexual and Aromantic People" is Tuesday, November 9th at 6 PM, put on by their Asexual and Aromantic club (SpACE). It'll be through Zoom. Register here to see it.
  
• The Allusionist recommended my book in their materials.
  
• The Asexual and Aromantic Community and Education club (AACE) at Smith College recommended my book in their materials.
  
• Johns Hopkins University's Student Well-Being Blog recommended my book in their materials for Ace Week.
  
• Agnes Scott College's McCain Library recommended my book in their materials for Ace Week.

New Reviews:

• Amazonian gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Amazon.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Despite eating a huge amount of extra food this week because my mom gave me a bunch of stuff that was close to expiration, I had the exact same weight almost all week? It's weird. High weight: 115.7. Low weight: 114.6.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I drank more water all week like I wanted to! And also incorporated vegetables into my meals multiple times like I intended. But since my mom dropped off donuts, muffins, fruit, and bread on Wednesday, I ate a lot of that too and it seems to have edged out a lot of my usual foods.
  
• Activity stuff: I made my walking goal every day this week despite some days that I felt like crap. (I wasn't pushing myself through it--I felt better when I was moving.) My low day was Monday at 10,966 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 21,491 steps.

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm on page 58.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Lucky Man" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0859: "Without Telling Us." 

New videos:

Ace Week Livestream 2021 ran on Friday. This was a live interactive event with me talking about asexual and aromantic adulthood and taking Q&A from the audience. I talked about "when it's not a phase," "feelings of insecurity," "celebrating adulthood as an ace and/or aro person," and "dealing with detractors."

New photos:

Some toy photos:

Plushies!

SDCC 2017 Plush

SDCC 2018 Plush

Clip-On Plush

Funko Clip-On Plush

Funko SuperCute Plushies

Unofficial Plushies

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,315 for swankivy (no change), 671 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 134 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new). Twitter followers: 926 for swankivy (lost 1), 2,272 for JulieSondra (137 new). Facebook: 298 friends for swankivy (no change), 633 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 230 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,455 (no change). Instagram followers: 240 (1 new).

Personal Digest Saturday: October 16 – October 22

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got up at 3:45 AM to fly back to Tampa. After a $150 cab ride and two plane rides (Detroit to Baltimore, Baltimore to Tampa), I had another $50 cab ride to my place and finally was home. I took a shower and then Mom called while I was unpacking so I got to tell her about the trip. I took a nap and talked to Meg and had some food that was not snacks. Did my blogging and posted my photos from Cara's wedding. Went to sleep early after posting toys on Amino.
  
  
• Sunday I was up early not doing much, just sending Polos, doing lots of laundry, recording karaoke, messing with online photos, and arguing with weirdos about vegetarianism. Got my e-mail inbox back down to like a hundred by deleting stuff that had built up while out of town, and took stock of my budget. Talked to Dad about the next band practice and slept early.
  
  
• Monday was back to work after four days away, and it wasn't bad at all for what it was. There was a little scrambling on a letter that went out but other than that it was easy to get caught back up. After work I worked on the podcast and hung out with my friends at game night. Did another Polo for Steve and went to bed early again.
  
  
• Tuesday work was pretty slow so I caught up with my data entry. Helped my coworker with a letter and made a resume for a new person. Did some more toy posts and worked on the podcast. Ate some garbage.
  
  
• Wednesday was another pretty slow day so I devoted it to catch-up items. Got some business development stuff done and updated a database. Made a shopping list for Jeaux who so graciously went to the store for me because I am preemptively quarantining after travel and didn't want to go to the store or hang out with him. He got me a Moe's burrito and we talked on the phone instead of hanging out. Posted some more toy pictures and got laundry put away.
  
  
• Thursday was pretty low-key at work too, but I had some tasks that needed doing. Got some personal editing done and wrote a storyboard for my comic. Set up my compensation for an event I'll be doing soon. Victor called and we caught up about my travel and whatever stuff in his life. Went to bed early.
  
  
• Friday I just had to help with typical document support things and worked on some documents for the letter we're doing next week. I got a database updated and timesheets figured out and sent a new employee his welcome stuff. Ended up stalling a lot trying to get my webcomic done, in between chatting to a new friend whom I just met in a SU group. Still posted on time but it was close. Drank some wine while talking to my sister on Polo and fell asleep on the floor.

New Reviews:

• Susan gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads.
  
  
• Gwenn Mangine gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I'm not happy with how consistently I'm significantly above my original goal weight this week. I know some of it is from eating garbage during and after vacation but I am going to need to change my habits again to get back where I wanted to be. High weight: 115.7. Low weight: 113.7.
  
• Nutrition stuff: The usual issues with too many carbohydrate-rich, greasy foods, I think. Definitely need to focus on the fruits and vegetables so I can get a more balanced diet. I do okay with protein, just need those other nutrients more consistently. I am also starting a campaign to drink more water now!
  
• Activity stuff: I missed my walking goal on Friday. I just plain didn't make proper time for walking during the day and made the wrong choices. My low day was Friday at 4,866, and my high day was Wednesday at 17,254 steps.

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm just getting started.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Song 2" by Blur.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0858: "Scarily Simple." 

New videos:

Not-So-Giant Women Episode 28 is out. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Space Race" and cover such topics as Greg taking over Pearl's role of being cautious and level-headed, Pearl's first break with reality and longing for space, thoughts about the Galaxy Warp, Greg's parental rights, Steven's legal identity, stuff about the barn, Crying Breakfast Friends (and the show's shows within a show), a digression about sapient food, Estelle getting two lines per episode, various questions about Gem weapons, the effectiveness of full emotions with simple line art, thoughts on humanized Gem fanart, the "grounded" pun, the growth of the main characters as the show goes on, and why Daria does NOT want a deep-dive Garnet episode yet.

New photos:

My trip home

Some toy photos:

Domez

McFarlane Toys

Mystery Minis

Original Minis

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,315 for swankivy (1 new), 671 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 133 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 927 for swankivy (1 new), 2,135 for JulieSondra (16 new). Facebook: 298 friends for swankivy (1 new, became friends with Hannah), 632 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 230 likes for So You Write (no change), 86 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (1 new). Tumblr followers: 2,455 (1 new). Instagram followers: 239 (lost 2).

Personal Digest Saturday: October 9 – October 15

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got up early to frost Victor's cake and it went fine. I planned everything well and went over to Victor's apartment for an early birthday celebration. We ordered in some barbecue, talked, I gave him his present, and we watched some cartoons, then had some cake. I left when he was getting drowsy watching TV after the big meal. After I got home I didn't feel like doing much else so I just did my blogging and chatted with pals.
  
  
• Sunday I managed to be lazy and get a lot done at once. (I know, right? I'm talented that way.) I did laundry, talked on Polos, listened to band music while packing my bags for my trip, and taking out the trash. I showed some outfits to Meg to ask her to help me decide what to wear to Cara's wedding. Then I did karaoke and some organizing.
  
  
• Monday I had meetings and an expanded letter package going out. Also got to do some data entry. Wrote my webcomic storyboard early. Pest control visited. Finished reading a book finally! It's been months--I'm not making time for reading. Took some silly toy pictures of my collection. Played games with my friends online, did some editing, ate crackers for dinner, and got more than halfway finished with my comic!
  
  
• Tuesday work was mostly data entry and dealing with sporadic requests from the guys, plus a new person's resume. I got my water system treated, and a handyman came and took the dangerous hanging shelf down for me in the garage. I finally fell off the wagon doing something writing-related every day--couldn't find time to edit, write, or submit--but I plan to start again after I'm not so busy from preparing to go out of town. Got my webcomic done and uploaded for posting on Friday, finalized my packing, and went to sleep on the early side.
  
  
• Wednesday I had to get up super early to check in for my flight (24 hours before, you can do that). Went back to very light sleep for a while and then got up for work. Talked to Tony outside while he was there to handle my lawn. Finished up a bunch of stuff for the guys before my travel, most of it being in the last couple hours because that's when they sent it. Finished another Not-So-Giant Women podcast and posted it. Got some walking in, talked to Meg on Polo, and Jeaux came over to get me for shopping. We grocery shopped and ate food from McAlister's, and watched our shows. Jeaux stayed over because he was taking me to the airport in the early morning.
  
  
• Thursday I got up super early (4 AM) to have a giant breakfast and fly to Detroit. I had three waffles and two latkes. Jeaux drove me to the airport with little fuss and the flight was uneventful except that I was mad at how many people wear their masks wrong (one of them was next to me on the plane, grr--she fixed it shortly after she got situated, but it especially annoyed me because she coughed sometimes on the flight! Sure hope I didn't get Covid from her). I got to the hotel after an expensive 45-minute cab ride, checked in, came back to the lobby to get some takeout restaurant food (a Greek salad and a grilled cheese kids' meal--ate the salad and fries, then saved the sandwich for dinner). Took a lovely nap, talked to people on the phone, and relaxed online.
  
  
• Friday I had to get up super early for check-in for my flight again, and just stayed up. Took a shower, went to the lobby's restaurant for breakfast (brought back to my room--a bagel sandwich and breakfast potatoes, plus hotel room coffee). It was a big enough breakfast that I just had nibbles for lunch. Chilled in the room getting my webcomic posted, talking to Meg, looking at online stuff, and getting ready for the wedding. I waited a bit too long to call a rideshare (they are in shorter supply than I'm used to), so I really almost missed the beginning of the wedding!
  
  
• I got to the church and literally as soon as I sat down the doors opened and the brides began to come in. I watched my friend Cara get married and learned a new skill of how to cry with a face mask on without messing up my eye makeup. Then I was able to share an Uber to the reception with a couple other wedding guests. We had cocktail hour and I spent some time going around to look at the adorable centerpiece photos on the tables. I hadn't made a great choice of shoes so I had to sit down after a while. The brides arrived and everyone did their speeches and dances, and we had our salads and meals. I had a delicious gnocchi meal and spinach salad! And got to share a little bit of nice conversation with some of the friends at the table. I got to talk to Cara briefly during the meal and then later she pulled me aside to just chat a little outside where we could actually hear each other, which was super great. She was such a beautiful bride in her mom's wedding dress, and I loved hearing the stories about her from her family and friends. And I got to very briefly meet her wife Beth. Got a shuttle back to the hotel and hit the hay a while after that. It was a nice night but I was bushed!

New Reviews:

• Dan the Review Guy gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Amazon.
  
  
• Austin Pierce gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Audible.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I don't have totally accurate information this week since I was traveling and couldn't weigh in a couple of days. But I generally ate pretty well the first half of the week and that devolved somewhat while just trying to get calories while traveling. High weight: 114.6. Low weight: 113.1.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I'm still relying on quick carbohydrate-heavy foods more than I should and again really need to get back to eating vegetable soups more often. I am pretty sure I came up short on nutrition goals this week though I did have a lot of spinach (which is definitely a goal of mine).
  
• Activity stuff: No missed goals this week! I seem to be getting the urge to walk more than I actually need to to meet the goals. My low day was Monday at 10,023, and my high day was Friday at 12,521 steps.

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays by Luigi Pirandello. Three-star review.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm just getting started.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Californication" by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0857: "Not For Me." 

New videos:

Not-So-Giant Women Episode 27 is out. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "House Guest" and cover such topics as theories about the Warp Whistle, what the heck the Geode is, the Gems' opinion of Greg, the mystery of how inconsistent Steven's powers are, why Greg doesn't live with the Gems, Chekhov's duct tape, the comparison of Pearl fixing Greg's van vs. Greg fixing the Gems' Geode, our desire for Pearl to have a mechanic's outfit, opinions on "Dear Old Dad," and thoughts on Greg being a flawed but authentic character we can believe in.

New photos:

Victor's birthday cake

Drinking Coke and eating broccoli at Victor's

Some toy photos:

A little desk lizard buddy!

Now some photos from Cara's wedding and my travel adventures (entire wedding album here)

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,314 for swankivy (no change), 671 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 133 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 926 for swankivy (no change), 2,119 for JulieSondra (12 new). Facebook: 297 friends for swankivy (no change), 632 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 230 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,454 (6 new). Instagram followers: 241 (2 new).