I saw the Tiny Stills live last week! Yay! A definite bright spot in the last couple weeks.
Okay, so I might have fallen off the once a week blog post thing. Whomp.
Hopefully I can get the average back there by the end of the year.
Things have been overwhelming lately in a lot of ways. Some good, some bad, some just…a lot.
An actually quick (at least per point) summary, I swear:
- Got a (temporary) job! Working as the IT help desk at a local nonprofit part-time through about the first week of August. Wish it had more hours or a higher hourly rate. The job has a lot of system administrator-level duties. I’m really liking the challenge, it’s so far a good work environment, and after a slightly-rocky start as my permissions got worked out it’s been good. I’d love to do it permanently, assuming it could be full-time or pay more, but given I’m just covering for someone on long-term leave that’s not super likely. It feels good to be back at work, though.
- I do still need another job for the afternoons/evenings. Or freelance work. I’m not sure how I’m going to do that, but I need to get back to fully supporting myself again. It’s wearing me down not to, on top of the usual not wanting to presume I can keep leaning on people for help forever.
- I also need to make myself properly get back into budgeting and money tracking. I’ve been avoiding it, but I really do need to get a handle again on exactly where my money’s going to help myself be more responsible and to get a better idea of just how lucrative that second job/gig needs to (ideally) be.
- Jabberwocky’s sick. :\ Pretty much the same situation as last time. On antibiotics, and I’m pushing hard to keep her hydrated. Hopefully she perks up and pulls through. Also, vet bills are expensive as shit.
- I’ve been dealing with some Medical Stuff ™. Nothing life-threatening, and nothing I want to get into the details about, but it’s been demoralizing. I’m hoping to have it sorted soon, or at least progressing forward on a plan.
- Writing’s been happening more in fits and starts. Starting to get a (new) handle on the sci-fi novel I’m working on. It’s currently the candidate for that new year goal of having a book out on sub by the end of the year. I think I can still pull that off. It’s proving a complicated book to put together, but I feel like I’m probably leveling up my writing by taking on the challenge, so it’s worth it. I just have to remember that draft zeroes are allowed to suck. And that I can and will edit this in a timely fashion afterwards, and that most i fnot all problems I might run into can be sorted out with edits and rewrites. I’m just not historically good at following through on a multiple-passes style of project. This time will hopefully be different. I gotta master the skill at some point.
- I saw the Tiny Stills in concert last week! They’re one of my favorite bands, I was super-excited to see them and it was a wonderful experience. They played songs off their new album, which apparently came out the week before the show, along with songs I was already familiar with. A lovely mix of discovering new stuff and getting pumped for the songs I already loved. One of my best friends went with me, too! I even bought their new album. Which is a literal record, because they didn’t have CDs. Do I have a record player? Only technically yes, aka not really XD. I’ll be buying the MP3 album pretty soon here, and I’ll give the vinyl a spin once I get my record player a needle and get the speaker pots cleaned.
- My Fitbit watch died yesterday. I use its workout tracking all the time, so it’s a pretty big loss. I’ll see how it feels to go without for the next couple weeks. I am happy to wear my analog watch again, though, whose aesthetics I like much better.
- Working out’s going well. I’m working my way back up to the weights I was lifting before my injury. Figured out how to fix my form to prevent it from happening again. (Hint: I thought I was engaging my core enough and I was wrong.) I found some good cardio workouts, though I’m not doing them as consistently as I’d like. Walking to and from the light rail station each weekday is adding some good activity. I’m also looking at doing ab-focused workouts, because my core is weak as hell. Relatedly, I’m trying to fix my posture generally.
- I don’t remember when/if I wrote about this before, but I’m close to having one of my two bikes fixed. Riding it would shave my commute time down, plus: bikes whee.
- Father’s day happened. Uh, yeah. My day didn’t go very well, though not for Dad-related reasons. So I didn’t really get a chance to play or stream Red Baron 3D, one of his favorite games, on the day proper as I’d planned. I did play it the day before to get it up and running, though. I’m really bad at it, but it was nice to reconnect with it.
- I started streaming! And then stopped, because I got the job and I’d been streaming in the mornings. Working out a schedule to return to it, I really do want to give it a proper shot. I’d link to the channel, but the VODs have fallen off so there’s nothing to see right now. Will re-link once i’m back to doing it semi-regularly. I’m also going to upload the VODs to Youtube. I’ve been playing Fallout 4, I’m looking forward to getting back to it and getting out of the parts of the game I’m as familiar with. I may also try other stuff at some point, but I”m trying to stay focused and not bounce around for now.
I’m sure there’s more to talk about, but at least for the moment I’ll leave it there. I’m hoping things settle out soon and generally improve. Fingers crossed. But it’s not nearly as bad as it could be. There’s even some hopefully bits. That’s not nothing.
I hope your last couple months have gone well. Maybe tell me about it in the comments, if you like. Talk to you soon. 🙂