I’m going to start off this week’s post by telling you that less than a minute ago, when I was attempting to load up the image above that is in every one of these posts, my computer had a digital aneurysm. I honestly have no idea what happened, but for just a couple of seconds the screen went dead, then turned into Matrix-esque green-lined nonsense, and then just…came back precisely where it had been. Believe me when I told you that I had a mild heart attack. Not because I currently had anything open that I would risk losing, but simply because I cannot be in Fort McMurray without a laptop. I’m not joking, you guys. I’d be hauling my ass into town at the first possible convenience because I need my laptop to survive out here. I need to be able to write digitally, I need my art program, and these things are genuinely necessary for the continued gluing together of my mental health.
Okay, I just needed to get that out of the way, because my brain was shrieking there for a few moments.
Okay, moving on.
SO, this is the first time I’ve done this in ages, but I am actually writing this post on Sunday night before going to bed! That’s right, I’m actually getting ahead on something! Gasp, right?! This was my weekend off, and I spent the better part of today making sure that tomorrow’s A Touch of Heaven chapter was ready to go up. As a result I’m currently in “omfg I’m getting things done, keep going while the motivation is there!” mode, thus, I’m seeing if I can get this post out of the way so that I’m already basically done with my writing stuff for tomorrow. Let’s see if I can get through it all before my brain decides that it’s very much time for bed. XD
Goal Set #1: Creative Fulfilment
Coming right out of the gates with ART!
I actually wasn’t expecting to get much in the way of art done this week, partly because of the 12-hour shifts I’ve been working, and partly because I had other stuff that needed doing this weekend so I wasn’t expecting to have a huge amount of sit-down-and-focus-visually time.
AND YET.
I started playing around a bit with the striptease series while I was on the phone with my family the other day, and I ended up completing not only piece #3, but also piece #4! That completes the series and means that I’m ready to start posting it! I’m hoping to do so tomorrow, so keep an eye on my Twitter account if you’re interested in that.
Obviously I won’t be sharing the two pieces I finished this weekend here and now, but as with the other two pieces, I’ll give you the face thumbnails. :3
Interested yet? ^_~
Moving on to writing, I do have to admit that my momentum slowed down a bit last week, mainly because of the 12-hour shifts, but also because I had a wee bit of writer’s block going on in, well…all of my stories. If that seems improbable, believe me when I tell you that I’ve honestly been at difficult spots in literally all of the individual stories that I’ve been working on. lol
Despite that, though, I still managed to work through my weekly goal. Pacemaker.press wanted me to write 8541 words, and I pulled off a very respectable 9854 words. Those words were spread across numerous different fanfics, with – unfortunately – none of those words making their way into The Other World: Book Three. The good news, however, is that my desperation to get ahead on my two currently-posting fanfics is finally starting to pay off. If I keep pressing on a daily basis I think I might actually manage to get some damn Book Three written this week.
On a sidenote that falls under the creativity umbrella, I had plans to record a podfic this weekend that, as you may have guessed before the end of this sentence, did not happen. I played around a bit with my microphone and Audacity, but things just weren’t working out. For one thing, it’s difficult to get enough quiet in a place like a work camp. Even when I’m on days off and almost everyone else is at work, there’s always cleaners and other workers wandering about making random noises. For another thing, my voice was not cooperating with me. The playbacks just weren’t sounding great. So in the end I decided to set it aside for the time being and hope for another chance in the hopefully-near future.
Goal Set #2: Physical Focus
Firstly, let’s get the exercise side of things out of the way, because I just finished my second run of the fifth week of 10 Rounds, which is pretty fantastic. Tomorrow (or, uh…today, by the time you’re reading this) I’ll be starting week six, which is the final week of the program, and that’s pretty sweet because I don’t think I’ve ever done a program completely twice through before. I’m seriously considering moving into a third run as well, since I still have a few weeks of work left here before I go home. I suppose we’ll see how I feel when I get to the end of this week. :3
Considering diet, that has been going pretty well too, despite more than a few hiccups along the way. And this is where I get to tell you that I have, officially, lost 20 lbs! 😀
That number is a bit skewed because I technically gained before I started properly losing, but I’m going based on the highest number the scale hit before it started moving back in the right direction again.
I do also have to admit that I had a bit of A DAY today, and definitely overindulged in a bid to keep myself glued to my laptop and getting shit done. But it’s only one day, right? There’s no way one day could possibly throw me that far out of whack, right? RIGHT?
*cough cough*
I’ll be fine. It’ll be fine.
On a related note: you guys, I’ve never been so goddamn hydrated in all my life. Partially that’s me attempting to keep cool at work because it can get really stifling under those coveralls, but partially I’ve been guzzling water to keep my appetite under control and Christ… So you know how you’re supposed to take your weight in pounds, cut it in half, and that number in ounces is how much water you should be drinking in a day? Well that means that I should be drinking roughly between 80 and 90 oz of water per day. I’ve been drinking a minimum of 125 oz per day. MINIMUM.
Pure insanity.
Goal Set #3: Self-Promotion/Branding
For the most part I have just as little to report as usual. A few numbers wriggled up, a few others tripped a step down. Nothing really worth nothing.
There is one thing that I want to point out though, because it caught me off guard.
I logged in to YouTube studio to see the numbers for the two channels, neither of which are actually active at the moment and thus don’t have much in the way of anything for me to look at from week to week. However.
The other day I did a quick TikTok video using the She-Hulk filter that is currently trending on there. There was nothing special about the vid…it’s just, like, twelve seconds of me looking cute with green skin and pretending to punch my phone screen. It’s not what you’d call fine art. Certainly nothing I put even the smallest effort into.
I uploaded that video as a YouTube short, and in 4 days it amassed approximately 1348 views. I am bewildered by this. I’ll fuckin’ take it, but I’m bewildered.
Goal Set #4: Mental Well-Being
Inevitably-teetering mental stamina aside, I have to admit that I haven’t been giving much of my energy toward media consumption recently. I’ve been more focused on either writing or sleeping. I think you’ll forgive me for that.
That said…
Looking at games, not much has changed past previous weeks, but I actually did spend a good two hours this weekend playing a rhythm game with my daughter online. It’s called ‘Colorful Stage’, and is based around some of Japan’s anime ‘idol’ singers. It has the same feel as games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but you use your fingers to tap, flick, or hold the notes as they come. All the songs are Japanese in origin, and some of them are PSYCHOTICALLY difficult. I wanted to scream most of the time we were playing, but I was also enjoying it thoroughly. All in all, it was good fun for me and the kid while we’re still so far away from one another.
Looking at watching stuff, I just really haven’t been able to convince myself to sit down and watch things lately, because it means less time that I’m spending getting shit done. I know that’s a dumb, stressful concept, but I just can’t help it. :3
That said, I did manage to wrangle my brain enough to watch Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Saturday night, and I’m so glad that I did because it was ridiculously cute and I was giggling like a fool the entire time. I don’t know if it’s necessarily better than the first one was, but I adored Tails and Knuckles, and I’d totally watch it again sometime.
Lastly, we have reading, and you guys will be impressed to hear that I’ve continued delving through my Audible library! Firstly, I listened to a short story called The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe, which was written by Arvind Ethan David, and is about a man waking in a spaceship in deep space, all alone just with the ship’s computer, with no memory of how he got there. All he knows is that the ship calls him “Neil” and that his personal reader-computer is packed full of books, comics, and short stories written by a prolific writer – Neil Gaiman – who is 200 years gone. The story is cute and hilarious in places, and the best part about is that Neil Gaiman actually narrated it as “himself”. I barked with laughter several times throughout it, and it’s a super-quick “read” at only about 30 minutes.
After that I moved on to Wolf’s Bane by Kelley Armstrong. I can’t remember why I had this book downloaded – I suspect it may have been a free offer at some point? – but I was in the mood for something supernatural and decided to give it a try. It’s a very…teen book, if you know what I mean, but that’s not a bad thing. It took me a little bit of getting used to, but it’s an amusing story with interesting characters. The Audible version is dual-narrated since the chapters move between twin characters Kate and Logan, and I really grew to like both of them. What kinda pissed me off is that after roughly 8.5 hours of listening to this story…it ended in a cliffhanger and it was only at that point that I discovered that it’s a two-part story. -_- Luckily the second part, Wolf’s Curse was already available, so I grabbed that with one of my credits and am listening to it now. I need to know how the mystery turns out!
And would you look at that?! I am just coming up on my usual bedtime now, and I’ve managed to finish this post! All I have to do tomorrow morning is hit “Publish”! Fuck yeah, you guys, it’s gonna be a good week. I’ve got a feeling. ^_~
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 