March in Review, April Anew
April 1, 2024
Some amount of time ago I said I would try to give periodic updates throughout the year. Here they are!
First quarter New Year Resolutions check-in:
- Lose ___ pounds/month: Yes. (mostly because of being sick, unfortunately.)
- Build skills every month: No. (also because of being sick)
- Go outside more often: No. (you can guess why :-(. Also, TBH it's kinda cold still)
March Summary:
- One doll
(I think it came out cute!)
- I got my one "finished" drawing/month done, not as much sketching as I would like though. I think I've declined in art ability, but I'm not hopeless.
- Of all things, I started reading again. I haven't read books for fun since I was a child. I think prior to this month I've read ...1.5? books in the last decade. I don't know what I like, and I'm very slow.
- On my vague abdominal issues: I've gotten medication, a series of reassuring test results, and an ever-growing self-made list of things that affect my body in various ways. I'm not 100%, I kind of feel like I never will be again. But! I've stopped panicking for the most part, and I'm "on the road to wellness."
- I got a cavity filled. I was looking forward to it because I haven't had any cavities since being a very young child, with a different dentist who did everything in his power to use as little numbing as possible. I had 4 cavities of fake "you won't feel anything!" promises. My current dentist, meanwhile, injected a gallon of whatever numbing agent with a comically large ye olde syringe into my mouth for probably a minute straight. There was a few events that, on top of this, have solidified him as a really good person in my book. He may be committing vigilante dentistry, if that's possible(???)
Ideas for April:
- I have a tendency to write extremely long "to-do" lists with everything I have ever wanted to do that I can think of before I go to bed in hopes of doing it all magically the next day. For this month, I'm going to try switching to ONE. ONE! achievable thing. I immediately tried to squeeze two tasks on one line, it's so tempting, and routine at this point lol.
- Sometime in March I made an inventory of all my personal care products, cleaned the bathroom cabinets out, and now this month I want to actually focus on using them up/getting rid of them.
- It's (hopefully) warming up, so I'd really like to get outside more; maybe do some plein air painting. Also last frost is the end of the month, I can start garden prep!
- I'm partway through redoing the diary archive (both structurally and aesthetically.) I'm kind of impressed at how ugly I can make this website sometimes LOL.
Conclusion: The last month has shown considerable improvement. This year has been whack but I'm not completely giving up. I'm forcing myself to survive to go to the ren faire again! I still need to buy Baldur's Gate!
Your Work is Loved, Just Quietly.
March 27, 2024
This will be kind of a word salad, but I want to talk about it. I spend a good amount of time looking at my toybox page, even if it's been a long time since I have added anything. I collected this art because I like it, and enjoy looking at it. Finding new details, appreciating ones I noticed before, being inspired by skills I don't have, loving the love put into them; so on. I have a folder on my computer of every piece of art ever done for me (artfight, trades, gifts, etc.) and also like to look through it periodically. This one's a little more "duh", they're for me; but still. I also love to look at others' collections. Anytime I see an update on neocities from someone I follow; say they added a couple new things to their page of creations; or even their own pixel adoptions, I'll be scrolling through the whole page again appreciating everything. I read and don't respond to so many blog posts. Sometimes because I genuinely have nothing to add, sometimes because I feel personally awkward/shy.
The point is I spend so much time looking at artists' work over and over again, and not telling them. They'll never know. I haven't even put every graphic I like ever on my own website, so there's things I enjoy with zero indication. I think it is nice and fully support everybody (myself included) complimenting things/people that inspire and teach you. Though, realistically, if I sent an artist a message every single time I was admiring their work, (especially the same piece) I think I'd get blocked/get called weird/at least clog up their notifications LOL.
I doubt this feeling is as prevalent on the personal web as it is on social media; but I know it's not uncommon in general for people to get little-to-no response to what they share with the world, and then start to doubt themselves. If you find yourself feeling like this, please refer to the title of this entry.
P.S.: My next project, along with filling out the yarn projects page; is actually make a proper diary archive. the current one is soooooooo ugly OTL.
Hey it's February!
February 24, 2024
I want a less dour entry on this page, I don't really have anything to say though. I'm very over being unwell lol. My next plan for this website is to work on a page for crochet/knitted things. I'm currently making a dice bag! I'm proud of the construction in theory but also am not that impressed with it visually lol. I want to redo the diary archive, it's too ugly even for my standards. There's a couple other pages I'd like to redo but I have nothing really set in stone.
I finished this doll recently though! I'm not going to act like it's amazing; but I've felt very inadequate at pixel art lately, and I think this is a good step in the right direction. I'm proud of the amount of detail I was able to get in it. I hope to keep improving!
