Uuuuggghhhh Summer sucks.

It's been far too hot and humid out for me to do pretty much anything other than lounge about and, when it's a tad more mild, some crafts.
Temperature has been anywhere between 20°C-35°C, depending on if there's a storm the day before or not. (that's 68°F-95°F for the americans). Which isn't all *that* hot, literally ranging from barely-not-cold to uncomfortably hot if there's no airconditioning, but the humidity and the storms have been *killing me*. I don't think I'd hate summer so much if it wasn't for how humid it can be, especially seeing as we've got a La Nina weather pattern right now. It's just very damp and uncomfortable right now.

And one thing about the state I live in means there are the exact perfect conditions for a little thing called Storm Asthma, which is something that I believe may be climate change related. Essentially, you need three ingredients for Storm Asthma: Dry lightning, a lot of grass pollen, and the ability to breath. It affects people regardless of if they have previously had asthma, hayfever, allergies to pollen, or any other pre-existing condition. It's affected, hospitalised, and even killed otherwise healthy people.
All that to say - yeah I've been being hit with some Storm Asthma recently. Especially bad, actually - the spot I live is near a lot of farms and fields, and is also apparently in the perfect spot for storms to travel over but rarely hit. Plus I have the regular asthma and hayfever anyway, so it's really been dumb luck keeping me out of the hospital tbh.

To make things worse, I'm also pretty badly allergic to pine trees - especially the more traditional christmas ones.
Also, whilst on topic, cold weather on Christmas does not make sense for me. I'm sorry to the northern hemisphere, but Christmas is about barbeques, watergun fights and iceypoles. Cold turkey and cold ham with salad for dinner. The sun sets at like, 10pm and also Santa wears shorts. I'm sorry but I cannot see christmas in any other way and I'm a tad sick of watching shitty christmas romcoms and it's always a smalltown american place covered in snow.

Ugh, hands are sweaty now. Til next time!

(Also, probably no Abode-Bound update til next year - I've got a busy few weeks of talking to family ahead of me)
13/12/24 05:48pm

Whew, finally got that update out!

What'd I say? the moment I took that pressure of a deadline off of myself, it got done! And really, it didn't have as much work needed as I thought it did.
There isn't much else I can really add to this blogpost, so I guess I'll just go further into what made this update so difficult!

The new character, Nate, was just kinda hard to write. Not because he's underdeveloped - trust me, if he gets any further developed you'll start hearing about his third favourite food and what colour he ate for breakfast. But because my dumbass thought he should have a thing for using 90s Aussie slang.
Do you know how hard it is to write out Aussie slang you've only ever heard spoken by someone you barely know and can't hear properly? And then, once figuring that out, trying to squeeze that shit into a sentence in a way that makes sense to non-Australians?

I am fighting so hard to not type out the Aussie accent phonetically for him, because there'd be no spaces between words. It'd be like:
"Ahgoodonyam8. G'dayowzitgoin? Yeanahm8idonwananyovit."
That's annoying to read, even if it is accurate to the accent! And when I don't remove the spaces it just reads as british! Like,
"Ah, good onya m8. G'day howzit goin? Yea nah m8 i don wan any ov it."
Well, less british than I was thinking it would, but that's because I kept the phonetic spelling methinks.

Anyway, if you were wondering why he talks like that (or any of my characters, actually) it's because he's Australian. Which I tried to make obvious anyway, but you never know what people skim over.

Til next time, I guess!
07/12/24 07:18pm

Man.

Yeah so I have absolutely 0 sense of time and also have no motivation.
I'm talking about some medical stuff in this one. Not graphically, but be careful if you're sensitive to that sorta stuff.

I forgot what I've done the past week, but it certainly wasn't much writing. Why? It's summer here in the southern hemisphere, and I live in Australia. Which, yeah, okay, I *do* live in the 2nd coldest state of Australia (Tasmania being the first). But like, I worked in 35 degree weather (95 F for the 'mericans) in a fast-food place today, where the aircon isn't fully functional. So, not fun! Definitely gonna be feeling it the next couple days.

Also Christmas prep has been happening, which for me, being disabled, means cramming a fucktonne of appointments in before new years while I still have my medicare 85% money back. My appointments aren't cheap! Rheumatologist especially at the moment, which is like $125 a session, but because I started a new med with some scary sounding potential side-effects (one just being called "week 3 syndrome" which is *terrifying*), so I'm there once every 6-ish weeks. Also means the vampires at the doctors office (Phlebotomists) are stealing my blood once a month again. Drats!
Blood tests aren't all that bad, it's just they don't trust me to sit up during them after the *ONE* time I passed out having one. And had a little seizure. But it's whatever, I just have to lay down while they steal my blood.

Medical stuffs over.

Anyway, I've been fighting the urge to make blankets for anyone I've ever known. I'm calling it blanket fever. I see a yarn that even *slightly* reminds me of someone and I'm already planning what type of blanket I'd make for them with it. As if I'm not already swamped with shit to make and things to do!

Also, next year I'm starting a course! Cert 3 in Library and Information, to be exact. And also starting next year, I'm doing a sport (Calisthenics Dance - not that I'm great at it, I'm unflexible in all areas except the ones that cause injuries) and also another sport (aqua aerobics - for my health. Also it's fun!) and yet another sport (Pilates - so I can stop being too flexible in the wrong ways.). When will I have time to be alive? No idea! That's a problem for me next year.
Most of the reason I'm doing Calisthenics Dance again (I used to do it as a kid, actually!) is that I miss being onstage. That's pretty much it.

Anyway, here's what you're likely wanting - When will the next update for Abode-Bound be? I have no idea. Soon, probably - I've just psyched myself out of writing it by placing a deadline on myself. So by removing the deadline, it'll actually get done. Eventually.
N E Way, I've been rambling a bit more than I have time for. Til next time!
05/12/24 10:47pm

Ugggghhh the passage of time has taken hold of me

Okay, melodramatic title aside, I have been *very* busy unexpectedly these past few days. Worked Thursday, which went pretty well actually! Apparently I still don't look too well, because because literally every one of my coworkers asked me how I'm doing and if I'm alright lol.
*Then*, Friday. Yesterday. WHooo boy.

I woke up at midday after 12 whole hours of sleep with a headache and a busy day ahead. I have a friend who's going through some shit right now, so he comes over for a solid 6-8 hours once a fortnight to have dinner, vent, chat, and often just hang out with a household thats more-or-less normal. Well, as normal as possible, considering the only neurotypical person in the house is my 11 year old sister.
But the last time he was supposed to come round for dinner was the week I had covid (and yes, I'm a bit sick of talking about it too. But also it affects every part of my life, sooo) so I had a squizz at the calendar, and found the only day within the next few weeks we could move it to was yesterday. So we did that.

*But then*, a long-time family friend wanted to catch up for some coffee seeing as we hadn't spoken since her kid's first birthday. The kid's coming up to his third soonish. And the only day she was available? Yesterday, also.

So, after making sure that everyone was going to be fine with eachother there (seeing as pretty much everyone except my mum and my sister was autistic, but also one of them was bringing a small child to a house with someone she hasn't met before), there ended up being a lot of people in the house. It was definitely a lot less overwhelming than your usual social situation, seeing as I could just piss off to my room whenever I needed and be sure everyone involved would be understanding of it. I didn't end up needing to, but I might've!
Also, the older family members were right when they said I've grown. The last time I saw this kid he was tiny, and now he's stringing together full sentences??? Holy shit. He's grown!

Everyone stayed longer than they expected - Not helped by the fact that the sun sets at 8:30 at the moment. So I ended up staying up later than I wanted.

Today? I went to the shops. Sounds underwhelming, but I was tired before I went, a la the late night. I'll definitely be doing some writing today, but I don't think I'll get to posting-ready before I inevitably crash.

Also, between all that I managed to get some progress done for my granny square blanket. I also have blanket fever at the moment, which is where I want to make a blanket for everyone I've ever met. Alas, I'd have no money and aquire carpal tunnel, ontop of my arthritis that I have.
Till next time!
30/11/24 4:21pm

Abode-Bound updated! Now what?

Yes, I finally uploaded that darn page I was trying to get finished. You'll also notice that the page doesn't have all that much on it, compared to previous pages at least. Why is that?

Short answer is: Because.

Long answer is: It wasn't supposed to be that short. Sort of.
*That* page was going to be that short, approximately anyway. I was aiming for a double-page update originally, but the second page is longer than my usual (mostly to make up for the other page's shortness). It got to the point that I was going to either take forever for the double page update I wanted, or I update twice in a small-ish amount of time (hopefully) and do a double-update another time. And I figured that updating more often was going to be better than taking longer.

Part of the reason it's been so tricky is the character change - something about writing the next character is a bit more difficult, and I'm not sure if it's just a case of needing to get into the brain of this character, or spending so much time in Tina's brain that it's leaking into the rest of my character writing. Or something along those lines.

I will say, though, the whole "Tarot cards tell me what to write" schtick has actually been making it a lot easier to get through the story. My usual writing pitfalls would be things like; Not being entirely sure what should happen next and losing motivation because I already knew what was going to happen, mostly. You'd wonder how I'd write anything at all.
Using Tarot cards fixed both issues for me. I never fully know what's happening next, but I can also have the next part decided for me if needed.

Do I believe in Tarot as a form of divination? I dunno.
27/11/24 8:39pm

Woah, unexpected busy-ness!

So you know how I was, naively, talking about how I was going to update Abode-Bound in "a day or two"? Well, I've jinxed myself.
I've been having a real busy couple of days, on top of the part where I'm still in recovery from Covid. Long story short, I'm starting a new medication, I've been trying to get that blanket delivered to my friend, clean the house, *and* write the update for Abode-Bound. Between all that, I've also been trying to rest enough to not burn myself out. It's all been a mess, lol.

All this to say, new update is a little more delayed than I wanted it to be. It should still be out within the next week, knock on wood. So, See you then! :3
24/11/24 11:23pm

Hello! First post :3

SO! I have very little plans for this, other than an excuse to update the site more often, so you'll have to bare with me for this.

I'll start with some life updates, I guess! I'm currently recovering from having covid, which is especially bad for me with my disabilities. I'm actually really lucky I only took a half-dosage of my immune suppresant that week, or I might've needed a trip to the hospy again.

I was also really lucky that I got on antivirals so fast (which were a pain in the ass to take [8 pills a day!!], but was still better than having them as an IV drip.) and also that I have had 5, maybe six doses of the vaccine. I'm definitely recovering faster than I did the first time I got covid, 2 years ago, despite being on higher dosage of immune suppressants. But I'm also going to have to work on building my stamina back up again - I'm getting puffed out walking up my (admittedly rather steep) driveway! I was trying to build myself up to go on a proper bushwalk and now I'll have to start over again :(

Moving on from that grim stuff, lets get into my non-website related hobbies!
I've been playing MiiTopia a lot recently, which has been really fun! HUGE source of nostalia for me, which is always great when you're sick.

I also finally finished a crochet baby blankey I was making for a friend! I guess it was *technically* commissioned, but also I'd be making it for them if I was paid nothing, they just refuse to not pay me. The blanket's not for my friend, it's for her friend who is having a baby. And my Dumb Ass used 5ply yarn, when I'm used to working with 10-14ply yarns. So it took *forever* to finish. My friend doesn't care when it's finished, which was great for me. I've literally just gotta wash it and deliver it to her now.

Other projects I've been working on are; Crochet grannysquare blanket for my little sister, Crochet grannysquare blanket for me, a sparkly blue beanie for me; and a test piece using scrap yarn and some beads. Phew!

Alright, now onto the stuff you're *probably* here for - the website stuffs.
I've been working on the story, just not linearly like I hoped I would. I went back and edited some parts I didn't like, and also for some reason decided I'd be making images for some pages now.
Okay, I was *already* using images for the captchalogues, but still. I recently realised that my abilities to imagine visually are limited, and therefore other people arent going to see the things I'm writing exactly as I'm intending. That, and I'm really not good at remembering to describe. So while I've figured out a rigorous editing routine to make sure I am, in fact, describing things, I also figured that adding in an image in spots I didn't feel I confidently described wouldn't hurt.

It feels weird that I have to do all this just to have things more-or-less visualisable, but between my limited ability to visualise, my limited ability to recognise my senses at any given point, *and* the skill regression I did during a particularly bad burnout I did at 16. I think it sucks that I *could* do all this before that, but my life is seemingly a cycle of relearning things, so it's not exactly unexpected.

Well, that was a lot! Summer is officially here soon, and it's already rearing it's ugly head. My non-existant balls are sweaty. I don't particularly like summer, but I do like that summer means Christmas. I love giving presents!
N E Way, pretty sure the next page of Abode-Bound will be out in the next day or two, depending on me and if I do any writing. Toodaloo til then!
22/11/24 3:12pm