You guys…you guys…you guys… How is it nearly April? Just…how? I am genuinely flabbergasted by this turn of events. We are nearly a quarter of the way through 2021! Just…just fucking amazing. That is all.
Also, that whole thing with the boat being stuck in the Suez Canal? It’s strangely heartwarming to me that the entire planet just took that and ran with it. Like, genuinely fucking ran with it.
Anyway…
The past week has been…I mean, it existed, that’s for sure. It most certainly did exist. I’m just not entirely sure that I existed within it. I suppose the only way I’ll know for sure is to look back and try to ascertain as to whether anything actually occurred during those seven days. Come along with me, will you?
Health
Okay, so right off the bat, I’m going to give myself at least a small modicum of props, because I managed to survive the first full week of the official ‘Morning Meltdown 100’ videos. I’m not going to lie: a few of them were hard. I most definitely had to resort to easier options here and there. But I also tried my hardest to not make adjustments, and I think the results have been fairly decent so far. I’m not looking specifically at weight or other body measurements yet, because I know that my body is currently in that weird state of trying to burn fat and also trying to build muscle, while also trying to understand why I’m putting it through this fresh new wave of hell. But looking past that, I do feel like things are going well so far. Here’s hoping that by the time I hit the end of April (which will put me close to halfway through the program) I’ll be properly seeing some results.
Of course, that’s going to partially depend on my ability to stay the fuck out of the junk food, and that is a whole other story. Don’t judge me.
In all seriousness, I am trying to be good; I’m drinking lots of water, and doing my best to incorporate lots of fruits and veggies. It’s just also difficult to avoid baked goods and the occasional giant bag of chips while watching the hockey game.
No, really, don’t judge me.
Creativity
On the artistic side of things, I didn’t do much last week because I was more focused on other things. I did, however, throw together one piece while we were watching the hockey game on Saturday, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I had meant to draw something cute and fluffy, but, uh…somehow it ended up becoming this instead:
What can I say? I’m an enormous sucker for Crowley in a collar. And my followers seem to be lapping it up, so I don’t think I’ll try too hard to stop any time soon. 😛
On the writing side of things, I’ve been rather eclectic with my word counts of late. My numbers have been good, at least as far as my Pacemaker.press goals are concerned. Pacemaker wanted me to write 8086 words last week, and I hit a total of 8993 by the end. Where those numbers have been going is what’s a little messy…four different fanfics, plus ‘The Other World: Book Three’…so five different pieces at once. Yeah…is it any wonder it takes me so long to finish anything?
I’ve been having a really hard time focusing recently though. I’ll write a couple of paragraphs of something, and then my mind will wander, but I’ll manage to scribble a few paragraphs of something else, before I get distracted again, and…well, you get the idea. I suppose the important thing is that I’m writing. And I am 22% of the way through my word count goal for 2021, so that’s nice!
Productivity
What is productivity, really? 😛
If you look at the world of adulting, I can’t really say a whole lot. Most of my time in that category is spent looking for work, cooking, or shopping for food with which to cook.
From a self-promotion standpoint I’m a bit…meh? I seem to have an easier time promoting things like my Ko-Fi and Patreon than I do promoting my books, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to more success. 
I’ve been trying to get a focus back on to the YouTube channel, but that’s been strained for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the basement is still colder than a witch’s tit in the dead of winter.
So, as usual, the only thing I really have left to look at is the social media stuff, which has been…*shrug*…okay? I guess? The YouTube Twitter gained six followers last week, which was a pleasant surprise, but the Instagram lost one. Meanwhile the Author Twitter lost two followers, which was was an annoying surprise, but the Instagram gained three, so…okay?
Honestly, it’s a bit exhausting looking at those numbers all the time and seeing no real growth. I may just chop this entire section out of my weekly posts before long.
Down-Time
And then there is the precious, precious downtime.
I believe I may have mentioned last week that I’ve begun reading the first of the “Witcher” series: “Blood of Elves”. I haven’t gotten very far yet, but that’s partially because the first chapter of the first book is about 80 bloody pages long. lol I think I’m going to enjoy it though. That said, I’m very curious as to why, when the books were translated, someone felt the need to change Jaskier’s name to ‘Dandelion’. Like…just…why? It’s not as though there aren’t tons of other interesting and foreign-sounding names in the book…and yet ‘Jaskier’ was picked on for some reason. I’m bewildered by this.
We haven’t been watching a whole lot recently, though we did just start the final season of ‘Attack on Titan’ the other day. We were totally lost for the first few episodes. A lot of it comes together as the season goes on, but damned if I didn’t feel like my head was going to explode at first, given the sudden delving into the lives of previously completely unknown characters. Once we’ve finished binging the series I’m going to go through all the manga and see if I can make some sense of some of the stuff that’s just…not.
And then there are video games! Easy report here: I’ve been playing ‘Borderlands 3’ whenever I can kick Jason off the Playstation. I had honestly thought that I was approaching end game early last week, and then all of a sudden I was on a new planet with a buttload of stuff on it, so at this point I have no idea how much is actually left. I’m having a blast murdering the universe though, so it’s all good!
And there we have it! Having now gone through all the categories, I feel confident that I did, in fact, exist last week. That’s not to say that I really accomplished anything major, but hey, I existed! Go me!
Yeah, my standards are getting lower and lower with each passing week. Join me at the bottom, my friends!
Feel free to let me know how your year is going so far! Do you have any big goals? Specific plans? Anything awesome on the horizon? Share what’s going on with you! ❤
Tracey Tobin 