Daily Post 0125: [Insert Title Here]

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Today has been pretty awesome. I got through two to-do lists. : D

I woke up and turned my alarm off with every intention to actually get up and make breakfast. Of course that meant I fell back asleep. Luckily I actually woke up with enough time to shower and get to school. I had a slightly rushed cup of coffee with heated leftovers rather than eggs, but hey. Food is food.

While I was at school I got around to actually posting my blog from last night. I got caught up on emails and blogs. I wrote a prompt post which I haven’t done in forever. I proof read a letter for Zane. I looked up the cost of a U-haul van verses a truck. I’m going to be moving my furniture on Sunday before the Pathfinder game so I want to be prepared for that.

I looked at classes again for LA Fitiness. With my new goals I’m going to be running Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, along with doing a yoga flow from yogadownload.com for stretching and strength.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are aikido fundamentals. Which leaves Saturday and Sunday open.

Well, on Saturdays the only classes are during times when I’m at work. So Saturdays are my new rest days, and Sundays I will be going to the gym for a yoga class. I think that will be a nice way to ease into the gym classes, and still meets my goal of doing an hour workout everyday with one rest day.

Once the lab was over I came home. Zane was still asleep which was fine. I woke him up to let him know I was back, and to see if he really wanted to sleep more. He did, which left me free to work on schoolwork.

I got through all of the reading and got a 100 on the quiz. I completed the discussion post, and went ahead and took a look at the exercise assignment. We have to make an event ticket this week, along with a book cover. Fun stuff.

Nicole wanted me to critique a rig she has been working on, so that took a bit of time. She’s working on an adorable dragon character, so she had a pretty nifty wing system, along with little head fins, and super expressive eyes.

There were a handful of things I told her to be careful about and to take a look at, long with some suggestions from my stance as an animator. Overall I think she’s on the right track with it.

I boiled eggs for tuna, and had lunch at some point. Zane woke up around 4, which is when I was tired enough to take a nap of my own. XD

I got up around 6:30, just in time to make it to aikido. Sensei Jan was there with Sensei Beata. I enjoyed the class today. I got there a little early so I was able to practice my rolls alone, and we focused mainly on the movements for the 6 kyu test. I may add practicing for my test into my run day routines. I’m not sure yet.

Zane started cooking dinner when I left. We had about two pounds of tripe in the freezer from when Nic was visiting a few weeks ago. We found a recipe online for Ginger Scallion Tripe Dim Sum Style. It was amazing flavor wise, but the tripe has an odd texture to it.

Both Zane and I agreed that more veggies would be awesome. And I think I would like it more if it had chicken or flank steak rather than the tripe. It was a really filling and tasty meal, though.

We served the broth over rice noodles. There’s plenty of leftovers, so we should be good until Friday when I can go grocery shopping. Not that we were going to starve or anything, but I like knowing there is food already made.

I didn’t get around to making the tuna, but that’s super easy to make and something I can do quickly tomorrow for lunch.

I got to cross stitch for a little bit after getting back from the dojo. Zane was watching Kingsmen, and I was sitting listening to it, sort of.

Right now I’m sitting at the kitchen table, alone, while he finishes the movie. The kitchen is cleaned, the dish washer is running. I’m showered and ready for a few hours of sleep before going to work.

I feel accomplished. The apartment is clean, I got most everything done today. I went to the gym, I stitched, I wrote, I worked on school work. I’ve done a little bit of everything that’s important to me, and I feel balanced and fulfilled as a result.

I think that I’m going to change my sleep routine a bit. Instead of trying to get all of my sleep before work it seems to be working better for me to take a nap, wake up for work, then come home and go back to sleep.

So, that’s the game plan right now. I’ll only be getting about 3 to 4 hours of sleep right now, but I’ll be able to survive knowing that when I get home I can sleep more. It will be like a power nap hopefully.

I plan to brainstorm and block out the ticket assignment while in lab, and possibly work on it more after I wake up. Tomorrow is a run / core / yoga day. But other than lab and the gym I don’t have much else planned.

Zane and I are going to watch The Holy Grail tomorrow while we have dinner, and I believe he wants to brainstorm a bit more about the game he and Trevor are making, so I have things to look forward to in my evening.

We’ll see how things go.

Daily Post 0118: An Amazing Day Off

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Today has been an amazingly, blissfully lazy day.

I took Saturday and today as a break from the gym. Tomorrow begins my new work schedule. I will be going to the gym in the morning for either a spin class or a strength class. In the evenings I will go to the dojo for at least two hours. So that’s three hours of training basically. Saturdays will most likely be my rest days, and Sunday will be my run days again. A light workout before hitting the week hard again.

That’s the game plan at least, and my schedule totally supports it. I’ll have to see how my body does with the shock of getting thrown into the fray again since it’s been so long since I’ve had a workout routine that intense.

I was able to sleep in today. I woke up when Zane came into the room. I guess he fell asleep on the couch last night while he was playing his game after work. I went to bed shortly after we got home.

He said he had a bad dream, and we talked about it for a bit before falling back to sleep together. I woke up again, and I remember Zane made some comment about me getting up. I mumbled something to the affect that yeah, I was going to get up, but rolled over and slept for another three hours. Honestly I don’t know if it was three, but it felt like a couple REM cycles. It felt good.

We both got up after that. I made breakfast with coffee. <3

He went back to his game and I started a new cross stitch.

We talked to Trevor about the moving in idea. He’s fine with it. He would want something like $200 for rent, which would be $50 in savings. He’s cool with Scarlet. He is interested in the storage unit and offered to help pay for it if he does use it. Really the only thing now is to talk to John and to see if he’s ok with it, which I think he will be. We seem to get along and I’m there all the time, so I can’t see why it would be an issue for him.

So that was nice. One less thing on my mental plate.

After a little while I went back and took a nap because even though I slept, it was a hard sleep rather than a deep sleep. It was one of those sleeps where you wake up and feel like you’ve been trying to cuddle a brick wall all night. Or maybe a concrete floor would be more accurate because I was horizontal rather than vertical… I digress.

After the nap I felt way better. I went back to cross-stitching. I showered eventually. I asked Ashley about a few things that Jeremy is trying to get rid of. He has a bunch of dragon stuff, a lamp, a little chest, odds and ends type stuff for a room that Zane was interested in. Jeremy doesn’t want it any more, and since Zane thought it was cool we thought maybe we could take it for the room. I wanted to check with Ashley to make sure she didn’t want anything. Of course she does, though. In fact she only wants the things I think are cool, so that’s a little annoying, but over all it’s fine. At least that too is done and out of the way.

I talked to Joshua as well since I was supposed to get my vacuum from him today. I guess he’s still cleaning out the apartment though. I told him he could hold onto it until he was done. Since I don’t work until Wednesday and even that is at 5am, I could pick it up whenever he needed me to.

After that bit of adulting I went back to cross stitching and listening to the story line of Zane’s game. It’s pretty interesting and he doesn’t mind answering my questions when I have them. He lets the dialog play through so I can listen to the conversations and stay current with the story rather than skipping it because he can read faster than the audio and play.

Currently I’m at my house spending some time with Scarlet. The flea medication seems to be working. I brushed her really well the other day and got a lot of the iciness out of her fur.

She’s glad to see me. I missed having her curled up next to me while I was stitching. That was our thing when I lived with Joshua. I would sit on the love seat in the living room listening to my audio book and she would sit on the cushion next to me and sleep, because she’s a cat and that’s all she does…

But it was our thing, and I miss it. It would be nice to have that again.

I had to go to Walmart last night. I was planning on going to Publix, but dinner with Rhonda lasted from 6:30 until 11:30. No joke. I had no idea that she was leaving in the morning to move back to Georgia.

We talked about the moving situation. We talked about her resume. We talked about the anxiety I get when posting new content online. All sorts of stuff. It was really good, but left me completely, totally drained.

But I had said I would pick up bread, and I needed eggs and cheese, and protein shakes. So off to Walmart it was.

While I was there I got a new pair of pants and a top.

Zane had mentioned how I don’t really wear girly stuff. I wear athletic tops that show my shoulders, and I always wear the same three bottoms for work. I have a super nice pair of dress pants that I wear for graduation, but they’re not an ‘everyday’ item. Other than that I have athletic shorts that I wear when I’m at home or when I have to run errands.

It wasn’t a comment that was eating away at me, but it did make me stop and think about why I have an aversion to girly things. I think most of it had to do with when I dated Warren and some of the comments he made to me.

So while I was at the store I looked around and I found a pair of pants that I really like. They are long and baggy, like gauchos. They’re more form fitting at the waist but are super loose and flowy around the ankles which I love. The material is super lightweight and thin which is perfect for Florida. They’re black so they match all of my tops that I currently own. I might actually go back and get a second pair. I tried the gray ones on, but it’s a light gray so I didn’t really care for them.

The top is lose fitting and reminds me of a gypsy top. It’s blue so it’s adding color to my wardrobe. Light weight, again. Not overly girly. More like reserved feminine. I like it, but it’s new, and a different style than what I have been wearing almost exclusively for the past months, so I’m still weary of it. We’ll see if I bond with it more.

I’m about to head back to Zane’s. On the way I’m going to be picking up pizza to avoid a delivery fee. Super lazy day. Not even going to cook dinner. And I’m totally ok with paying for that convenience.

Most likely going to stitch more when I get back. Then work on my Pathfinder character so we can finally get her sheet done. Cherru, my character, has a worg companion that we need to create a sheet for as well. I was thinking of buying a stuffed animal to represent him in the game since I’ll be talking to him… telepathically most of the time since we’re both half-fiends, but yeah. I thought it would be cute and help me be able to play both characters properly to have a prop of some sort that represented him.

I still need to think of a name…

So that’s my Sunday so far. Totally soaking up all of the laziness while I can.

Tomorrow it’s back to being a lean-mean-killer-death-machine. /flex

Daily Post 0066: Art Day Ahoy

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I woke up to a bright sunny window and the first thing I thought was that it was noon, I had wasted the day (because getting six hours of sleep is sacrilege), and that I should roll over and proceed to do nothing since everything was already ruined.

Did you know it’s only 9:30 where I’m at… That, unfortunately, means that the day is not ruined and that I have to actually get up and be an adult and stuff…

I’m still debating which situation would have been more lame. Doing stuff or doing nothing. I think part of me would have been ok with the ‘nothing’ situation. Guess I’ll have to save that for another day though.

I got home last night around 1am, which is early compared to my other days so far. I didn’t stay up much past that though. And I was ok with saving my writing until the morning because I literally have nothing on my calendar until 9pm to night.

Well… there’s aikido at 7pm which I really aught to go to. I haven’t for the past two days.

Tre and I teamed up with a handful of other people and figured out the Google Hangouts thing. I think it will work really well for our critiques once we run through the process a few times.

I want to make a short little podcast to show new people the different features we will be using, so hopefully that can help establish some digital etiquette for how we want this to go down.

After that I went to Ashley’s house to look at the room. It is smaller than the one I have right now. Bigger than what I would be moving into with Monica, and bigger than what I had when I lived at home. I could paint the room if I wanted. They said they could clear out a spot for me in the fridge and kitchen. I would be sharing a bathroom but there wasn’t much stuff in there, and I don’t really have much of anything.

Hand soap, tooth brush and stuff. Since my hair is still so short I don’t have a need for a brush. No thousands of hair product bottles here.

I’m going to be moving in at the beginning of the month. There’s furniture and stuff left from Warren, but that should be gone by then. I’ll just have to figure out how to get my bookcase and stuff over there. I have some ideas stewing in my head. As the time gets closer they will solidify.

So that was cool and a huge thing off the list.

After that I came home for a little bit so I could have some down time. I had an hour before work, which meant I had ‘time’ but not enough of it to really do much of anything. Not enough to go to the weapons class, which sucked because I really wanted to go to those.

I stitched for a little bit before going into work yesterday, and got to listen to about another hour in my audio book. That was really nice and relaxing. It’s been over a week I think since I made any progress in it.

I stitched more in lab last night. I’m almost done with the project I’m working on. Like, it’s going to be the first thing I do today, after I drink my coffee, cook breakfast, do some writing, check my email, solve world hunger….

Ok… so it’s not the ‘first’ thing… Or even the fifth thing… But it’s going to be a thing. Somewhere… soonish…

I want to get it scanned and sent off to Carol so it can be displayed for April. I find it would be fitting for April 1st specifically.

Today is an art day. I need to do my digital painting for the IF Challenge, which I promise I will actually explain and write about eventually. I also want to do the logo done for Project 2 so I can start layering those things inside of Photoshop and have a better draft for the turn in tonight.

I was able to install the Service Pack 5 for Maya so hopefully that fixes my crashing issue and I can make some serious headway on the project. Frank said he wouldn’t mind helping me out if I started running into issues. That’s super awesome because I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to do all of this on my own. I haven’t textured inside of Maya for about three years now.

I wrote a post when I came home for a blog. The people at Occupy Daily Prompt have taken up the cause of creating new daily prompts for us Wordies.

Apparently there’s a huge thing going on between WordPress and the community. WordPress has stated that they are no longer going to be actively running the Daily Post, and that old prompts are going to be recycled. As a newer member to the community, this doesn’t phase me as much because for me the old prompts are still ‘new’. I haven’t written for them yet.

As a community member though, I share in the outrage. I feel it shows apathy on WordPress’ part. They are walking away from something that they started. In my mind they are walking away from a commitment, and giving the community no alternative. We just have to deal with it. Suck it up and accept the change of direction.

That doesn’t show any loyalty to us as WordPress users, especially when there is so much being said about how the change isn’t what the community wants. WordPress isn’t listening to their users, and I don’t think that’s fair. We’re telling you what will make us happy and keep us coming back to your product. Why are you so blatantly sabotaging yourself?

Maybe this new direction will be better. I honestly don’t know because I don’t care to keep up with politics. I just want to do my own thing and make ripples in my own little sphere. Small ripples that turn into tsunamis…

To combat the lake of support from WordPress, the fantastic people at Occupy Daily Post have set up a ‘new’ prompt writing opportunity.

This first prompt was about employment, which was actually pretty nifty. I’ve never really stopped and explained my work history to anyone before, so that was nice to reflect on. Lots of warm, fuzzy memories before calling it a day.

So yeah, today is going to be super chill. At least it had better be. Tomorrow should be much the same. Tomorrow is actually a day off for me. No labs at all. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. I’ll have so much time…

John said that he tried to wire the money to me for my laptop. Last week actually, but I never received anything, so I guess he’s going to check into that.

Ari was in the break room yesterday while I was testing out the Hangout thing. It wasn’t all that awkward since I was so hardcore focused on what I was doing. And I had to leave immediately afterwards so I couldn’t stick around for the possibility of something to happen.

I went running yesterday, too. It was a 19 minute mile, but any run is better than no run. My muscles are a little sore today. So maybe yoga? As a break from all of the art stuff I’m going to have to do.

Low, slow day. Yes please.

Weekly Saga 0001: Slacker McSlackerson

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Wow….

I haven’t done a weekly saga in three weeks…

How did I let that slip for so long?

The last recap I did was when I had just gotten back from Vegas.

In-between the last recap and this one, post 99 and post 132, I:

  • Turned 26
  • Reevaluated my relationship with Warren #1
  • Had Christmas
  • Finished the Hunger Games / Started Inheritance
  • Met James
  • Suffered through the most aggravating car ride home
  • Rang in 2015
  • Had another run in with Ari
  • Dealt with frustration with Jarrett
  • Finished paying off the credit card with Warren #2
  • Listed my goals for the next six months
  • Began a new class – Design and Art Theory
  • Started back at work
  • Started work on a rig
  • Revamped RigBox Reborn – Layout Tool
  • Hosted PCC Critiques
  • Had a heart to heart with Joshua about the apartment
  • Looked at the room Monica wants to rent out
  • Continued kicking ass and taking names at the gym
  • Signed a contract with Fredenator

These past weeks have been awesome. It was something my mom and I actually talked about this evening; how things feel like they are going so much better. How there isn’t a cloud of depression and sadness, apathy, hanging over me, and because of that I have the energy to actually ‘do’ things.

I’ve basically doubled my writing by becoming interested in the daily prompts. I don’t do all of them, but I do enough to keep me busy. I also was able to complete several of my cross stitch projects while on holiday break, which also added to my post count.

I’m really happy with my progress in everything, though. Work, life, school, the gym.

I don’t get on the scale much, but I did earlier this week and I’m actually down five pounds. So it’s not just pant sizes, the scale is reflecting the change, too.

Lots of positive vibes.

And on that high note I’m going to go cuddle with Scarlet and cross stitch before getting some much deserved sleep.

Daily Prompts


The Language of Things     Getting Seasonal     Mystery Box

Cliché     Hindsight     All Grown Up     Happy Happy Joy Joy

New Skin     Be the Change     First!     Daring Do    For Posterity

Oasis     I Got Skills     In Good Faith     Call me Ishmael


Images


Gemstone Dragon – January     Gemstone Dragon – September

Summer of 2014   2014 Year of the Unicorn   Still Life Warm Ups