Well, 2024 went by quickly. I am half expecting to wake up tomorrow and find out it's sometime in the 2040s. So, hey there Dreamwidth, how are you doing?

Anyway, in no particular order some goals for 2025:
* At least 120 writing days this year (signed up for GYWO with this goal)
* Draw! Start on Draw A Box
* Pick up guitar again. For one reason or another I stopped playing guitar in the midst of the eternal spring 2020. Late last year I took my Traveler electric travel guitar and upgraded the tuners to locking tuners so I no longer have the excuse of the highly annoying stock tuners on it.
* Be more active here and blog on my own domain.
* Prepare more of my own food. Largely this means preparing more lunches and breakfasts as we have already drastically cut back on eating out for dinner.
* Do some solo RPGing. I may very well do some posts relating to this. I have a few sets of rules, including the Captains Log solo Star Trek RPG put out by the current Trek RPG license holder and have half completed the process of creating captain, main crew, and ship (A Caitian captain, with an early Miranda class that Starfleet has loaned to the Caitian government's scientific research arm with a mission to explore and study places within Federation territory that haven't been directly studied yet).

Here's hoping for new posts in less than 12 months.

Current Mood: tired

Hello again. Been a bit since my last post, not quite as long as some of the gaps but a month and change still. I'm doing well enough and I'm hoping for a decent 2023. I didn't get a huge amount done in 2022, but it was at least *mostly* trouble free. A dental uh-oh ate up most of my emergency slack in early December, but other than that... not too bad. Better than 2020 and 2021 (aka the year that started good and then my car decided to act up).

I'm not going to call these resolutions, but plans for 2023:
- Restart my static blog as a '100 days of' tracker. Starting with 100 days of basic html, css, and javascript.
- Read more. As if that needs explanation :)
- Write more. I got a teensy bit written during NaNo and I'd like to keep moving forward with that project
- Actually at least try doing the Draw A Box program this year
- Do more electronics tinkering this year. Last month I pulled out an arduino kit I got in 2021 and started going through it.
- Mi povus ŝati plenigi la Duolingo Esperanto kurso. Mi finis eta pli ol duonon la kurso.
- Two more maybes for 100 days of: Scribus and QGIS. It occurred to me that I hadn't tried making any more maps with QGIS after I replaced my former laptop back in 2021 (it was about a decade old and a low end model when new, so it was time) and this one will probably be able to handle it better. I'd managed far enough back in 2019 to make a map of Arizona that had some locations that I thought were interesting marked on it (Kitt Peak, the Musical Instrument Museum, etc).
- Get under 200 pounds. Really I'll be happy if I can get my trendline to stay under 210. I doubt I'll manage to 175 I was as a teenager, and frankly I was darn skinny then. I wouldn't mind if most of the weight over that was muscle, I just don't need fifty pounds of bonus muscle, so yeah under 210 or even if possible 200 please.
- Take up guitar again. I ended up tapering off during 2020 and basically stopped playing. I'd like to get back to where I was and then keep going.

Current Mood: contemplative

This year I wrote just over 119,000 tracked words. Nearly half of those were produced during April's Camp NaNoWriMo, in a largely seat of the pants written telling of Leslie McCormack's experiences after being tossed into another universe (I have revised and posted a little of that). Posted fiction this year included:

Knotted Handkerchief, in which a young woman inherits a family mystery.

Tonya (Tries to) Hide, in which fugitive and super powered Tonya tries hiding in a vacation cabin.

Just Purrfect, in which Nicholai and Jamsa make a return. With Jamsa seeking his roommate's help with a bit of Halloween magic.

If You Have Me, Why Do You Need Them?, wherein a young slave is confused about his owner's intentions.

Consequences, taking place on the evening of Halloween with Jamsa facing the consequences of his prior actions.

Untitled first entry of Wolf Boy, an injured young werewolf discovers he's not alone.

Cody's Dream, Cody, a character from Addergoole Year 9 has a prophetic dream.

Leslie McCormack and the Story Without A Title
- Part 1A, The R.O.B.'s Revenge or Leslie McCormack's Last Night on Earth
- Part 1B, Leslie McCormack Thinks It's All A Dream
- Part 1C, Leslie McCormack Would Like To Wake Up Now. Please?
- Part 2A, Leslie McCormack Is Stuck On Other-Earth

Additionally I started a series of webcomic reviews:

Webcomic Comments #1: Twin Dragons, which as the title suggests is about a pair of dragon twins, brother and sister Kai and Kaya. The two live in a world much like ours accept that around 16 years earlier one in a thousand births began resulting in children who were partly animal in appearance. Dog people, cat people, or in our protagonists case dragon people.

Webcomic Comments #2: Champions of the Melting Pot.Young Xero has a problem, it's finals time and his mother wants to know when he's going to get a job. Okay, Xero has two problems, finals, mom asking about a job, and utter boredom. Right, three problems. Thankfully the plot is prepared to help with two of those... The IGSF is prepared to help with the job problem when they decide Xero has the appearance of a protagonist.

Webcomic Comments #3: MAiZ. The adventures of Meli, a young woman who has set out on an archaeological quest and a boy named Jaz. Who she isn't certain about at first as he's wearing a mask to hide his strange appearance.

Unfortunately right about the time I was writing the third I became ludicrously sick. If you must get ill I recommend catching a cold that has no need for attached adjectives unless those adjectives are things like minor or brief. Especially don't catch anything that involves adjectives like ludicrous or lasting. After three not-at-all fun weeks the rhythm I'd started to build up was busted and I never did continue on to a fourth review. Webcomic Comments is something I plan to pick up again in the coming year.

I've been continuing to practice playing the guitar and I'm starting to actually feel comfortable with it. Sometime in this coming year I may actually feel comfortable playing something for others. I've gone from a Yamaha Acoustic to that and a used Fender Stratocaster with an amplifier and a few peddles. I've been pondering a ukulele or travel guitar for something I can take with me and practice when I'm not at home. Ukes can be had inexpensively and a used travel guitar doesn't need to cost much.

Plans for 2018:

Keep writing. I've even made a list of specific projects to keep working on or pick up again. There will undoubtedly be new things as well.

Keep up with my guitar practice. Get good enough that I don't cringe at the thought of playing where others can hear.

Let 2018 be the year I engage in some serious concalendaring. The calendar equivalent of conlanging's playing with language.

Do some Seven Days Of projects: Seven Days of Characters, Seven Days of Setting Creation, etc.

Still looking to lose some weight

Probably no conventions in 2018 unless maybe towards the end of the year. It's just not in my budget.

Pick up my camera again.

Pay down debts (glares in general direction of 2016's car accident)

Continue to give to others. Thankfully Patreon backed down on their changes so I haven't had to abandon supporting others there. But I'll be looking at other services and seeing what else is in use by people I'd be interested in helping to support the works of.

Current Mood: peaceful

What's that? Oh, hey, a new year has started!

Welcome to 2017

Looking back at 2016
- Very few posts. I don't even have to click on a "Previous 20 entries" link to see posts from 2015.
- I never even entered anything into my 2016 word count tracking spreadsheet. Oops. I did post a few short pieces so the word count is over zero.
- Oh look, among everything else about 2016 it included my first car accident. Which thankfully included my insurance agreeing the other person was 100% at fault (speeding, ran a red light, ran on foot from the scene almost instantly; a good list of things not to do and also a list of things the other person did).
- I continued the guitar lessons. I'm by no means ready to go out on stage or busk on a street corner but I am enjoying the lessons quite a bit.
Looking ahead at 2017
- Definitely continuing with guitar. In fact I'm hoping to get to the point I'm comfortable recording something and posting it somewhere.
  - Towards this I've made a list of songs I'm going to concentrate on this year. They won't be all I work on but I am going to keep them in the forefront.
  - More deliberate practice. Or in other words looking for specific things to practice. For my list of songs there are particular sections I'm working on. I'm also working on improving the use of basic strumming patterns with my right hand and switching more smoothly between chords with my left hand.
- Writing, so many things I want to write, in 2017 I'm going to knock the cobwebs off my writing and get back to it.
  - I'm pondering some sort of serial flash thing. Something which I aim at regularly adding small amounts to even if just as pump-priming and only for myself.
  - Complete a row or column on one of my writing bingo cards :)
  - I should consider doing some more "X Days of _" those can be both challenging and fun.
- Languages: I want to do more learning languages and playing with them this year.
  - I've completed the Esperanto skill tree on DuoLingo this week. This by no means fluent now but it's further than I've made it in previous attempts at a language. I intend to spend January reviewing, reading, and working on that some more and then starting back up on Spanish or German come February.
- Lose more weight. This is going to be a goal for a while and probably into 2018 but I'm going to make an effort to have progress on this goal again.
  - More physical activity! Calories burned > Calories consumed = weight loss
  - Eat better! I'm a picky eater. A very picky eater. That said I need to get more fiber into my diet, more vegetable matter in general.
- Conventions: This is a big maybe for 2017. If I do go to any they'll be local and most likely without getting a hotel room since that would put a strain on my efforts towards the next bit below
- Paying down debts: I've zeroed out one and might be able to zero out another by my birthday (hey kid version of me, look at how exciting being an adult is, paying off a debt as a present). I'm not feeling all that excited for the economy which makes getting rid of debt rather a good idea. I want to be in the position to have everything (other than the new*er* car, thank you again person who hit my car) paid off by the end of 2018. The nice thing is you can snowball this. When you get a debt paid off the money in the monthly budget that would have gone towards it can be shifted to increasing the payments on another.
  - But as mentioned on the conventions line above, this also requires keeping an eye on spending. Conventions can be expensive if you aren't careful.
- Giving: That said, when I get the next debt paid off I think I'm going to increase my Patreon budget. Either increase a few of my existing pledges or add a few more.
- Non-writing-or-guitar-arty-stuff:
  - Pondering picking up pencil again and doing some more sketching.
  - Likewise I want to fire up Inkscape again and do more vector stuff.
    - One thought is sketching ideas for possible pins and then taking the ideas I like best to Inkscape for cleaning up and coloring.
  - Also looking at the beading supplies I have and pondering...
  - I want to get back into worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is fun.
- I also wanting to get back into RPing. Either in person or more likely online.

Current Mood: tired
Crossposts: http://lilfluff.livejournal.com/167612.html

Manually crossposting from my deviantart journal

Looking back at 2015 there were lows and highs:

I got a health wakeup call. Early in the year my doctor shared blood test results in which my numbers had generally improved in various categories. Then at my next visit my weight was up to a record high and my numbers were the worst I've had. Not good, especially considering family medical history. Since then I have been making an effort to reverse this. I have my weight back down to where it was in 2014 and I'm going to work to get it lower still.
I enjoyed what may be my last conventions for a bit. In retrospect they really weren't good for my budget, even considering that I didn't get a hotel room for Phoenix ComiCon, just going to a convention means temptations to spend money at nearly every turn. Looking forward I just can't afford that in 2016.
Which brings up money in general. 2015 was not a good year economically. I have made essentially zero economic progress this past year. While I have reduced spending in some areas that's been matched by the car payments that started in 2014 (thank you once again for dying before I was ready Malibu, it will be some time before I even consider a GM car again) and the cost of guitar lessons. At least both of those have their perks. The new(er) car is nicer than the Malibu and I'm enjoying learning guitar.
One of my primary job tasks at work has pretty much evaporated. The good news is that work is seeing this as an opportunity for me to grow into new things rather than an opportunity to reduce their payroll expenses.
I got rid of a great deal of clutter at the tail end of 2014 and early this year. I opened up boxes that hadn't been touched since moving out of my parents home and got rid of a great many things. Old computers that hadn't been booted up for years, several disk boxes of 5 1/4 inch floppies as I haven't even seen a drive for those in years, and a great many books (I now have substantial store credit at the local used books and stuff store).
We changed the arrangement of the furniture in the apartment and the new layout *works*. Combined with decluttering the apartment feels much more spacious than before.
I poked at some setting creation but did less writing than in 2014. That said some of that poking may bare fruit in 2016.
I dropped Flight Rising for various reasons. For a bit that was taken up with the Marvel Puzzle Quest app, but I haven't been doing as much of that either. I didn't do any forum RPs that I can recall in 2015.
Had encounters with mortality, coworkers lost family and just this month saw the aftermath of a fatal car/pedestrian accident. Once more I am reminded that you should tell your friends and family that you care for them because you never know when they will be taken away.
Flubbed Trope Bingo. But... I haven't yet actually closed any of my bingo cards, anyone wants to leave a prompt for one feel free to do so.
Speaking of prompts, one of them put an interesting turn of evens into the Jayce & Izzy stories. Thanks Lyn! And thank you to everyone who left a writing prompt at a call.

Looking ahead to 2016:

I managed a bit over 62K words of fiction in 2015, down from a touch over 100K words in 2014. My word count goal for 2016 will be to beat 2015's word count.
Speaking of writing goals, in addition to word count I want at least one completed novella or some linked short stories. I have a few ideas percolating away...
Do some more prompt calls. I'm looking back at prior results and really like some of the results that came out of them.
I mentioned I'm taking guitar lessons, right? I've reached the point where the sounds I make are almost musical. :) I've also reached the point where if my budget forces me to drop my lessons I should still be able to make progress on my own. That said I think the guy I'm going to for lessons is worth the money. I plan to keep going this year.
I think I really need to find a supplemental source of income. Even a modest bit would do a lot to improve my budget. Lottery tickets don't count.
Slowly making changes to my diet. For instance I'm snacking on air popped pop corn while I write this instead of chocolate. Over 2016 I need to add in some other improvements.
I want to add in some more art, both sketching and digital. On the digital end Inkscape and Scribus for art and design and learning more HTML/CSS.
I think I might do another Seven Days of RPG Characters again. I did that in 2013 and it was fun. Created seven characters and a setting at the same time.
Speaking of RPs, get into a play-by-post or email RP again. I miss doing that.
I'm going to aim to also finish the Aldersprig & KC 30 Days of Flash Fic prompts (only 14 left).
Also I want to get back to Unquiet Past and finish it as well.
Run a 5K before the year is out. An official 5K race or simply going out and doing 5K. I think my one knee will probably be happier about this goal if I knock some more pounds off first.
And speaking of exercise, build up my arm strength enough to do a chin up again. Hey, another spot where taking some pounds off will help. :)