So, yes. As some of you know it's been a tough week. But I need to keep moving, so I'm going to try not to dwell on it.
- My current goal is to go to the gym three times a week and to only eat out (food I have to go out that day to get from a restaurant - I'm not counting leftovers, because otherwise they'd NEVER be eaten) three times a week. This is my first full week of that, so hopefully I'll be able to stick with it. (I did get pizza out yesterday, since my boyfriend wanted to, but I'm going to the gym today, and as long as I stay on top of cooking for the rest of the week I should be able to make it.)
The main point of the goal, along with saving money and not eating as much hidden fat and sugar, is to be mindful of what I'm eating and how I'm exercising. It's helping; as long as I think about it, I do more of both. Soon I should start trying to keep track of my spending again, by the same token...
- Both FFEX and Hardmode are moving along, if not at the speed I'd like. And once again, for FFEX, I have two prompts that are competing for attention. If I can manage it, I may try to write both. (If I can write 6K in an evening, surely I can finish at least a decent draft in a week, and then have plenty of time to beta. Right? Right.)
- Another community that I've been looking at lately is![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
remix_goes_wild, which ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cypher linked from newgameplus. I enjoyed their remix challenge, so this community looks like a lot of fun. And there are a few options for fics from fandoms that I'm familiar with, although I'm having to go a bit out of my comfort zone. But that's a good thing. (Although if any of you who haven't already want to check it out and maybe offer a few of your fics to remix, that would be awesome. You don't have to sign up to actually write fics to offer them, or vice versa. I'm actually not sure I'll be able to finish the challenge, but I'm giving it a shot anyway, because I'll need a break from FF stuff with all of the other writing I'll be doing!)
- I've wished that I knew how to draw for years and years now - I don't even know how long, just that I've never been able to do it and wished that I could.
I've picked that up again now, as a sort of goal for the next few weeks, and I've been drawing one small sketch a day for the past four days now. Nothing fancy - something simple, like a flower, or a stuffed animal that we have in the house, or a picture from a magazine ad. (The last picture from a magazine ad that I drew looked very surreal out of context - it was basically a couple of fish on what looked like a popsicle-stick seesaw. Actually, it looked surreal in context.)
It looks a little bit better than I expected, although I'm still no good at shading or highlights. But then, I've only been using a pencil, and I don't exactly have the many tools that even a simple book on learning to draw suggests that people use. (My favorite that I've read so far is this one. There was another by a person named Mona that I also enjoyed but I'm having trouble finding a title.) It takes practice, though, and I'm determined to do that this time. And my boyfriend is helping keep me accountable. He's interested in keeping me at this. That makes me happy.
...I'm a long way from being able to draw anything from my imagination, though. That's one reason I want to keep at it. (I've done it before - I only recently deleted a couple of pictures on dA of an SO2 character because it wasn't going anywhere, and at some point I drew a picture of esper!Terra that I wish I could find again. It was an okay picture for a beginner, but for some reason I'd doodled it on graphing paper, so I couldn't have done anything with it anyway.) Also, if I want to stick with this I should probably pick up a scanner or a tablet somewhere, eventually.
- My current goal is to go to the gym three times a week and to only eat out (food I have to go out that day to get from a restaurant - I'm not counting leftovers, because otherwise they'd NEVER be eaten) three times a week. This is my first full week of that, so hopefully I'll be able to stick with it. (I did get pizza out yesterday, since my boyfriend wanted to, but I'm going to the gym today, and as long as I stay on top of cooking for the rest of the week I should be able to make it.)
The main point of the goal, along with saving money and not eating as much hidden fat and sugar, is to be mindful of what I'm eating and how I'm exercising. It's helping; as long as I think about it, I do more of both. Soon I should start trying to keep track of my spending again, by the same token...
- Both FFEX and Hardmode are moving along, if not at the speed I'd like. And once again, for FFEX, I have two prompts that are competing for attention. If I can manage it, I may try to write both. (If I can write 6K in an evening, surely I can finish at least a decent draft in a week, and then have plenty of time to beta. Right? Right.)
- Another community that I've been looking at lately is
remix_goes_wild, which cypher linked from newgameplus. I enjoyed their remix challenge, so this community looks like a lot of fun. And there are a few options for fics from fandoms that I'm familiar with, although I'm having to go a bit out of my comfort zone. But that's a good thing. (Although if any of you who haven't already want to check it out and maybe offer a few of your fics to remix, that would be awesome. You don't have to sign up to actually write fics to offer them, or vice versa. I'm actually not sure I'll be able to finish the challenge, but I'm giving it a shot anyway, because I'll need a break from FF stuff with all of the other writing I'll be doing!)- I've wished that I knew how to draw for years and years now - I don't even know how long, just that I've never been able to do it and wished that I could.
I've picked that up again now, as a sort of goal for the next few weeks, and I've been drawing one small sketch a day for the past four days now. Nothing fancy - something simple, like a flower, or a stuffed animal that we have in the house, or a picture from a magazine ad. (The last picture from a magazine ad that I drew looked very surreal out of context - it was basically a couple of fish on what looked like a popsicle-stick seesaw. Actually, it looked surreal in context.)
It looks a little bit better than I expected, although I'm still no good at shading or highlights. But then, I've only been using a pencil, and I don't exactly have the many tools that even a simple book on learning to draw suggests that people use. (My favorite that I've read so far is this one. There was another by a person named Mona that I also enjoyed but I'm having trouble finding a title.) It takes practice, though, and I'm determined to do that this time. And my boyfriend is helping keep me accountable. He's interested in keeping me at this. That makes me happy.
...I'm a long way from being able to draw anything from my imagination, though. That's one reason I want to keep at it. (I've done it before - I only recently deleted a couple of pictures on dA of an SO2 character because it wasn't going anywhere, and at some point I drew a picture of esper!Terra that I wish I could find again. It was an okay picture for a beginner, but for some reason I'd doodled it on graphing paper, so I couldn't have done anything with it anyway.) Also, if I want to stick with this I should probably pick up a scanner or a tablet somewhere, eventually.
