What Happened To Me?!: Volume 1, Chapter 9

 

WHAT’S ON MY MIND

Letting go of my girls. As of Tuesday night, I have cleared my home of Terri and Torrie’s things other than the random toys I kept as keepsakes. I love cats, but I’ve decided to enjoy this “empty nest” feeling for the foreseeable future.

WHAT I ATE

I couldn't obtain frozen or fresh broccoli, cauliflower and carrots at Vons on one shopping trip, and on another trip I forgot to put them on my shopping list altogether. One dinner was a Mediterranean style broccoli crust pizza, and another was fish and chips consisting of salmon and French fries. 

I’ll tell you how that affected my health later. Moving on…

WHAT I BOUGHT

I’ve decided to switch back to my ancient Samsung A7 tablet for reading manga and books. I missed its 10.4” color screen.

To protect it I bought a leather case, a stylus, and a screen protector for its surface. If the battery degrades further, I can buy a replacement kit to extend its life. Assuming I don’t damage it, of course.

WHAT I LISTENED TO

The Disgraceland podcast had a Led Zeppelin episode that discussed the infamous “Red Snapper” incident. Yeah, they went there and it’s not an urban legend.

WHAT I READ

Date A Live, Volume 11 arrived on my door step, and it covers the latter half of the third season of the anime series. It also puts me in the right mood for Season 5 when it streams in April.

I’m about 20% of the way through The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis, but I’ll discuss that later. 

WHAT I WATCHED

Real Girl, aka 3D Kanojo: Real Girl. This 2018 series is about an otaku (Hiraki) that falls for a beautiful girl (Iroha) and can’t believe it when she reciprocates his feelings. Although the first few episodes were a slog and the ending felt a little rushed, the character development makes this one worth watching.

WHAT MADE ME SMILE 

I have successfully learned not to let current events get me down. The key for me to remain in good health is to let the things I can’t control go. That includes the Supreme Court's decision to review one of Tang Satan’s legal cases, and that popularity contest called the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

You can’t stop assholes from being assholes, so why let them wreck your mental and physical health?

WHO’S IN SLAP COURT THIS WEEK

I don’t have any worthy perps, so court is adjourned for the week.

WHO DESERVES A FIST BUMP

Both the IRS and the California Franchise Tax Board extended the tax deadline for San Diego County residents to June 17th due to the flooding disaster. I don’t need the extra time to pay up, but there are others here that aren’t so fortunate.

A fist bump also goes out to Rajah Caruth, who last night became the third African-American racer to win a NASCAR race. I stumbled upon that race with 40 laps to go, and with Rajah running fifth I knew I had a chance to witness Black History Month be extended an extra day.

Ah, to be 21 and a winner in Las Vegas. I hope Rajah didn't party too hard last night, but I can't blame him if he did!

WHAT’S UP WITH MY HEALTH

Despite having to improvise without my favorite vegetables for a couple of meals, I still lost 1.4 pounds this week. I have no idea how that happened unless I burned an inordinate amount of calories doing yard work on Wednesday and Friday mornings.

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED VIA GAMING

Akeno isn’t just my daily driver. She’s a Dallara SF23 open wheel race car powered by a Honda engine in Gran Turismo 7. Before yesterday’s brief practice session at Suzuka Circuit, my best lap there with Akeno was 1:43:487. It’s now a 1:39:494, four seconds faster. 

In real life, Super Formula cars will run 1:37s in practice and 1:40s during the race. I’m pleased my lap times are now in the ballpark, and perhaps I can drop Akeno into the 1:38s before the real life cars take to the track for the Super Formula season opener next weekend.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

After reading the opening chapter of The Echo of Old Books I realized I can’t rush things when it comes to editing my manuscript. I’m thrilled that my first chapter reads similar to a published book, but I think that took a combined six to eight hours over a couple of days to edit!

I have no deadline for when I’ll finish this round of edits. Setting an arbitrary one would be foolish in my opinion.