Birthday blog and evaluation of resolutions. · 8:22am Jul 8th, 2016
Well, another day, another year. 29 years now I have fought against this accursed Universe. It's been a tough struggle, but I think I'm wearing it down.
Anyway, I figured I'd review my New Year's resolutions, now that I'm over halfway the year.
1)Getting and following a detailed schedule.
Been pretty much a success. Occasional deviations because of unforeseen circumstances, but overall good.
2) Make a short animation.
Err... kinda? I have a few shots I was going to use for my last failed application, but it wasn't published. It wasn't really a character piece, though. The tutorial was started, too, but I'm still figuring out practical issues with how to animate objects in between limbs. The problem right now, in a nutshell, is that if I want a character to hug another, they both need special setting up. Maybe that's not even such a bad thing, but I can't say until I try, and I still don't have concrete plans for a bona fide attempt.
My next idea is to stop emulating pure Flash animation and instead do what MLP and its ilk do, namely Flash animation that's emulating traditional animation (so lots and lots different drawings to swap out, instead of relying on multiple moving parts). I also have the important books by Andrew Loomis in print form now, which is awesome. I might just learn how to draw before year's end.
3) Finish and publish one of my NaNoWriMo novels.
Not looking so well, but the finishing part can be done. Still fluttering from idea to idea regarding the setting, but the plot of the first story remains the same: a recently graduated foamy (in-canon term for bat-winged equine... because of the rabies. Also went through some versions of that, since I can't use rousette) is sent on a mission to reindeer lands to retrieve a book that contains spells to end the world... every spell that could end the world. Think Plague Inc. meets Harry Potter, that's the basic threat. Unfortunately, reindeer are kind of a crazy civilisation, the agent in charge of monitoring her basically blackmails her, and she has a ten-year-old boy who's her responsibility, but he's still technically a child of the state because the lady in charge hasn't settled his paperwork yet (that's the blackmail part). I've now settled on the worldbuilding element that the town she's in is infested with books like the one she's looking for, and in fact almost all the kids her ward hangs out with have one such tome.
It still needs rewriting and editing to not suck, especially since it has to establish the world without being associated with pre-existing canon or *shudder* pony canon. The names are the worst.
4)Get all my colt OC's down into art form, for cover art/promotion purposes: pretty much done.
I've published four stories this year, three of which were a series and all were featured. All had homemade cover art. Whimper has his redesign done, Rumble's done, so are the CMC (except for their cutie marks). Only one I don't have yet is Bastion, who'll have to be drawn from scratch unless a future episode features a changeling colt I can use.
Yeah, I'm not holding my breath on that one.
5) Get in shape physically and mentally.
Err... looking into meditation and self-hypnosis again, that's a start. Scheduling helps cope with procrastination issues. I've been breaking my coffee habit for two weeks, which was a real pain for a few days, but then it was 'kay.
No real progress on the physical side of things, I still look pretty healthy, previous and obvious remarks notwithstanding, but part of that may be due to getting sick the other day. Yeah, in case it was too subtle: I passed out in the middle of a walk the other day, had about ten paces worth of actual warning. Tried to sit down, ate dirt instead. Turned out my blood pressure had plummeted. But hey, then I broke a fever, so it wasn't anything too worrying. Woke up feeling just fine. All that to say that my physical form isn't quite up for objective evaluation yet, so I can't really judge that right now. It's been static since January, which isn't bad, but not the goal, either.
I may just change my plan and instead go for a combination approach. If nothing else, there's some fanfic material to be gained from the attempt (
hint, hint).
6) Get a job. With pay.
Went to do a test on Monday (I always get sick around major tests... weird), and apparently I passed. I am now officially just the right level of incompetence to work for the government. Still in the application procedure for the job I went for, but on the bright side: passing that test on Monday means I won't have to take it again for three years. I can apply for any government job and not have to get evaluated again. So that's a major step in the right direction.
All in all, I think I'm doing pretty well on my resolutions. The animation thing is still up in the air, Bastion will need his drawings at some point, and the novel is and has been wonky, and I'm less of a mess mentally and mostly the same physically, but there are still five months in the year. It's definitely not hopeless. Neither is the job... I hope.
Think I'll just relax today, maybe catch a movie. I still have six episodes of this Season to watch, but I prefer to do that when I'm alone, so I can hook up my mom's laptop to the T.V. and watch it in its proper glorious resolution. Why my mom's laptop and not mine? I'll explain that some other time.
Have a nice day, all.
Cracker out.
Happy Birthday!
Looking forward to that NaNoWriMo fic, sounds cool.
Best of luck in those resolutions, especially the getting a job with actual pay. :P
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Heheh, thankchu! For the job thing, we'll see what happens. If that one novel doesn't take off, I still have a griphon and pegasus one from two years ago, about growing up in a foreign culture and prejudice vs statistics. The more recent one will be my breakthrough: my Sixth Sense. I'll save the other one for my Last Airbender
Let's just hope they don't both turn out to be terrible
7) Don't faint...
Uh oh.
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Well... let's save that one for next year, shall we?