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Heyyyy it's August, that means time to start thinking about Yuletide, right?
I think I'm going to go for a lesbian feminist separatist theme with my noms this year, which means: fandoms where at least 3/4 of the main characters id as female.
So far I've got Imperial Radch, Princeless, and Lumberjanes. Sadly both Steven Universe and Fury Road do not qualify. ): Anybody got any suggestions? I guess I could finally read those "Dykes to Watch Out For" collections that are sitting on my shelf.
Anyway I haven't posted because it hasn't felt like there's much to post. I've been doing stuff, but mostly just a lot of little things, or working on ongoing projects. Theoretically I am going through all the pictures from the Iceland trip last month, but that is going... slow. Theoretically I am also digging out the sewing room after the mess I made of it re: Pennsic. I think I will get that done tonight? And then maybe I will take pictures of all the half-done projects I find and post a Wall of Shame on my Tumblr.
Anyway, for lack of a better way to organize my thoughts, have some commentary on my current Habits in Habit RPG. I use this for stuff I don't need to do on any particular schedule, but also that does not really have an ending point, I just need to keep working on it.
I think that's not exactly how you're supposed to use habits - it seems to be set up for things that happen multiple times a day instead of "once a week if you're lucky" - but eh, it's working for me. (Though I still haven't managed to do all of them in one day yet.)
Negatives:
-fail out of a todo task - habitica doesn't have any built-in penalties for when you put something off so long that it becomes irrelevant or you've missed you chance. And I needed one, so I built in one. I haven't actually had to use it that often, although there's a couple that will hit it soon if I don't get moving.
-acquire new books - ahahah yeah, the main effect this has had is that I bring books home in bagfuls every couple weeks instead of a few at a time. (It's "acquire" because a significant number lately are rescues rather than purchases) But I, like, only get book if I *really* need them ok.
-start a new project - theoretically this is a +/- but I have SO MANY projects-in-progress that it doesn't get to be + for a very long time. It would be so nice to finish enough stuff, esp, craftwise, that I could feel unguilty about starting new...
-get to work less than 15 min early - the only work-related thing on here, but since it has more to do with "Stop surfing tumblr and go!" than actual work I'm ok with it. And I have been getting better, although maybe that's because I've started taking the shorter route...
Positives:
+write 333 words fanfic - I have "write anything" as a required daily, so these are bonuses. 333 words is how many you need to win CampNaNo with the minimum wordcount, and I discovered it actually works pretty well for me, it's long enough to sink my teeth in and get on a roll, but not long enough that it seems Too Hard even on bad day. (Lately fanfic-wise I have mostly been working on the silly Les Mis election AU and the one where Marius is a booby and Cosette in an ornithologist.)
+write 333 words original fic - This has been working weirdly well after a long time doing almost no original writing, my need to go down my habits in order has got me almost 9000 words of original fantasy (split between three stories.) Whether I will finish any of them is up in the air? The one that's furthest along is about public librarians vs. creatures of the elder dark, because of course it is.
+visit wranglechat - I used to be in here all the time and then I got out of the habit and it's nice to have the reminder to pop in, even if I'm usually not in there long enough to do much but say "hi".
+organize tags or files - Lately this has been mostly "Attempt to get tumblr likes and pinboard bookmarks in some kind of order, and fill the queue at![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
melsmorgue but in theory it also encompasses like, making proper backups, and tagging my old dw entries so I can find stuff, and posting old ficlets to AO3, and so.
+do staff task - this is tag wrangler staff stuff, which I should be doing at least a couple times a week. Unfortunately most staff tasks require, like, multiple hours of sustained, non-distracted effort of working on my own computer, and sh'yeah, like that happens.
+post to dw - hence this entry?
+review an er book - these are books I got via the Librarything Early Review program. I got way, way behind on reading them way back in 2009, stopped requesting any, and filed them on the "don't think about it" shelf. But then I got back into the program accidentally so I'm trying to catch up? I have four of the old ones left (one of which I can't find) and three new ones, with one more in the mail. I've at least been keeping pace, more or less; I will be delighted when the day comes I have caught up with the old ones, although you'd think in that case I'd be more motivated to read them.
+write a book review - for non-ER books, which I'm trying to get in the habit of reviewing on GR or here, with mixed results. (Also these tend to be less elaborate than the ones I do for ER books, several of them may consist of just "SLOTHS!")
+go for walk - I try to walk half an hour or so on my lunch break, I manage it about three days a week, maybe. And then sometimes I manage something on my days off.
+draw something - And usually when I walk, I stop at the halfway point to each lunch, and then sketch something in the little sketchbook I keep for the purpose, although I manage that more like 1-2 times a week lately, it seems. I've also been keeping up sketching rather that photoing when I go on trips, which is fun. And I suppose once in a while I do actual art projects?
+track plants - I started this in spring and was recording all the wildflowers as they bloomed, but I lost track of things and then lost track of my Peterson's guide, so it's mostly fallen by the wayside, I need to figure out another way to practice my herbology.
+Finish a book - this only counts if I finish one, not if I start it and put it down! Because for awhile there I kept getting distracted and leaving things half-read. Scarily I have finished 158 books so far this year, which is two every three days, although a lot of them are either mostly pictures, or are me finishing ones I'd gotten halfway through years ago, so it's kind of a cheat. I got down to under 30 on the partly-read list
+get sister's mail - she rented a PO box while out of the country, and in theory I can stop by on the way home from work every day and check it, in practice I remember maybe once a week.
+wrist ball - My wrists tend to get mad at me every so often especially if I do a lot of crochet, but I have a gyroscopic wrist exerciser that is supposed to strengthen the muscles which is supposed to help the joints, plus it's just super-fun to play with, and I keep forgetting I own it, so I added this to help me remember it's a thing.
+mending - yeah there's a lot of this. And I hate and fear sewing machines so.
+practice music - basically, keep working though my teach-yourself-piano books, although harmonica also counts. Right now I am doing a lot of this because I got roped into being substitute pianist in church in two weeks. I can really tell how much semi-regular practice is helping, though; I did as well sight-reading the hymns this time as I did after a month's practice when I started two years ago. I might even be able to play them with both hands at once this time!
+throw things - by which I mean axes. And knives. Actually I'm getting consistent enough with my new throwing knives that it's starting to get boring, I'm going to have to switch something up to make it more interesting. Juggling also counts but I haven't done that much since I got the axes. I was never a kid who was expected to be good at sports, it's so weird to actually have aim all of a sudden.
+clean br - theoretically this is my chore and I do it weekly. <_<
+tend crops - usually this means going "oh right, the garden" and wandering out to make sure it's still there. Sometimes I water stuff. Or give the single surviving squash vine something new to climb on. Once I harvested potatoes!
+empty dishwasher - also theoretically my chore, in practice at least 50% of the time Mom gets tired of waiting and does it herself and then I feel guilty, but not guilty enough to be faster, you know how it is.
+code something - as in computer coding. Someday I will do this often enough to catch up? The last thing was making a web site for when I want to link people somewhere that is neither my resume nor my fanfic porn. It would be nice to actually do like, styling on it, so it's not unformatted gray-and-black, but eh, we'll see. Also I have a list of javascript toys I want to make and then don't.
+Finish an er book - see above re: ER books.
+finish a project-in-progress - for when I finish one of those ongoing things that never quite made it to the to-do list but I deserve a reward anyway.
+fix electronics - There are literally boxes of these that I just need to get around to. Sure.
+check online banking - I should to do this periodically just so I will stop forgetting my passcodes every time I actually need them. I don't, mind you, but I need to.
+give money away - I had wonderful intentions of doing this on a regular basis, but it's just so hard to decide and then it's easier to not do it than to track who to give to and who not to give to. :/
+catalog a notebook - I have a large backlog of commonplace books and sketchbooks, many of which contain snippets of stories and pictures and information I would like to be able to find later, going back to middle school, and theoretically I am indexing them. Slowly.
+cook - don't we all wish
+watch tv - I realize that most people would not have this on a list of good habits to encourage, but literally the only audiovisual I have watched in the last two week (other than occasionally being lured into a few minutes of what other people have on) is my mandated Sunday Night Movies, and there's so much good stuff out there I haven't seen. (This week is Horatio Hornblower, because I never actually got around to any of that one.)
So that's how I've been, Internet. How have you been?
I think I'm going to go for a lesbian feminist separatist theme with my noms this year, which means: fandoms where at least 3/4 of the main characters id as female.
So far I've got Imperial Radch, Princeless, and Lumberjanes. Sadly both Steven Universe and Fury Road do not qualify. ): Anybody got any suggestions? I guess I could finally read those "Dykes to Watch Out For" collections that are sitting on my shelf.
Anyway I haven't posted because it hasn't felt like there's much to post. I've been doing stuff, but mostly just a lot of little things, or working on ongoing projects. Theoretically I am going through all the pictures from the Iceland trip last month, but that is going... slow. Theoretically I am also digging out the sewing room after the mess I made of it re: Pennsic. I think I will get that done tonight? And then maybe I will take pictures of all the half-done projects I find and post a Wall of Shame on my Tumblr.
Anyway, for lack of a better way to organize my thoughts, have some commentary on my current Habits in Habit RPG. I use this for stuff I don't need to do on any particular schedule, but also that does not really have an ending point, I just need to keep working on it.
I think that's not exactly how you're supposed to use habits - it seems to be set up for things that happen multiple times a day instead of "once a week if you're lucky" - but eh, it's working for me. (Though I still haven't managed to do all of them in one day yet.)
Negatives:
-fail out of a todo task - habitica doesn't have any built-in penalties for when you put something off so long that it becomes irrelevant or you've missed you chance. And I needed one, so I built in one. I haven't actually had to use it that often, although there's a couple that will hit it soon if I don't get moving.
-acquire new books - ahahah yeah, the main effect this has had is that I bring books home in bagfuls every couple weeks instead of a few at a time. (It's "acquire" because a significant number lately are rescues rather than purchases) But I, like, only get book if I *really* need them ok.
-start a new project - theoretically this is a +/- but I have SO MANY projects-in-progress that it doesn't get to be + for a very long time. It would be so nice to finish enough stuff, esp, craftwise, that I could feel unguilty about starting new...
-get to work less than 15 min early - the only work-related thing on here, but since it has more to do with "Stop surfing tumblr and go!" than actual work I'm ok with it. And I have been getting better, although maybe that's because I've started taking the shorter route...
Positives:
+write 333 words fanfic - I have "write anything" as a required daily, so these are bonuses. 333 words is how many you need to win CampNaNo with the minimum wordcount, and I discovered it actually works pretty well for me, it's long enough to sink my teeth in and get on a roll, but not long enough that it seems Too Hard even on bad day. (Lately fanfic-wise I have mostly been working on the silly Les Mis election AU and the one where Marius is a booby and Cosette in an ornithologist.)
+write 333 words original fic - This has been working weirdly well after a long time doing almost no original writing, my need to go down my habits in order has got me almost 9000 words of original fantasy (split between three stories.) Whether I will finish any of them is up in the air? The one that's furthest along is about public librarians vs. creatures of the elder dark, because of course it is.
+visit wranglechat - I used to be in here all the time and then I got out of the habit and it's nice to have the reminder to pop in, even if I'm usually not in there long enough to do much but say "hi".
+organize tags or files - Lately this has been mostly "Attempt to get tumblr likes and pinboard bookmarks in some kind of order, and fill the queue at
+do staff task - this is tag wrangler staff stuff, which I should be doing at least a couple times a week. Unfortunately most staff tasks require, like, multiple hours of sustained, non-distracted effort of working on my own computer, and sh'yeah, like that happens.
+post to dw - hence this entry?
+review an er book - these are books I got via the Librarything Early Review program. I got way, way behind on reading them way back in 2009, stopped requesting any, and filed them on the "don't think about it" shelf. But then I got back into the program accidentally so I'm trying to catch up? I have four of the old ones left (one of which I can't find) and three new ones, with one more in the mail. I've at least been keeping pace, more or less; I will be delighted when the day comes I have caught up with the old ones, although you'd think in that case I'd be more motivated to read them.
+write a book review - for non-ER books, which I'm trying to get in the habit of reviewing on GR or here, with mixed results. (Also these tend to be less elaborate than the ones I do for ER books, several of them may consist of just "SLOTHS!")
+go for walk - I try to walk half an hour or so on my lunch break, I manage it about three days a week, maybe. And then sometimes I manage something on my days off.
+draw something - And usually when I walk, I stop at the halfway point to each lunch, and then sketch something in the little sketchbook I keep for the purpose, although I manage that more like 1-2 times a week lately, it seems. I've also been keeping up sketching rather that photoing when I go on trips, which is fun. And I suppose once in a while I do actual art projects?
+track plants - I started this in spring and was recording all the wildflowers as they bloomed, but I lost track of things and then lost track of my Peterson's guide, so it's mostly fallen by the wayside, I need to figure out another way to practice my herbology.
+Finish a book - this only counts if I finish one, not if I start it and put it down! Because for awhile there I kept getting distracted and leaving things half-read. Scarily I have finished 158 books so far this year, which is two every three days, although a lot of them are either mostly pictures, or are me finishing ones I'd gotten halfway through years ago, so it's kind of a cheat. I got down to under 30 on the partly-read list
+get sister's mail - she rented a PO box while out of the country, and in theory I can stop by on the way home from work every day and check it, in practice I remember maybe once a week.
+wrist ball - My wrists tend to get mad at me every so often especially if I do a lot of crochet, but I have a gyroscopic wrist exerciser that is supposed to strengthen the muscles which is supposed to help the joints, plus it's just super-fun to play with, and I keep forgetting I own it, so I added this to help me remember it's a thing.
+mending - yeah there's a lot of this. And I hate and fear sewing machines so.
+practice music - basically, keep working though my teach-yourself-piano books, although harmonica also counts. Right now I am doing a lot of this because I got roped into being substitute pianist in church in two weeks. I can really tell how much semi-regular practice is helping, though; I did as well sight-reading the hymns this time as I did after a month's practice when I started two years ago. I might even be able to play them with both hands at once this time!
+throw things - by which I mean axes. And knives. Actually I'm getting consistent enough with my new throwing knives that it's starting to get boring, I'm going to have to switch something up to make it more interesting. Juggling also counts but I haven't done that much since I got the axes. I was never a kid who was expected to be good at sports, it's so weird to actually have aim all of a sudden.
+clean br - theoretically this is my chore and I do it weekly. <_<
+tend crops - usually this means going "oh right, the garden" and wandering out to make sure it's still there. Sometimes I water stuff. Or give the single surviving squash vine something new to climb on. Once I harvested potatoes!
+empty dishwasher - also theoretically my chore, in practice at least 50% of the time Mom gets tired of waiting and does it herself and then I feel guilty, but not guilty enough to be faster, you know how it is.
+code something - as in computer coding. Someday I will do this often enough to catch up? The last thing was making a web site for when I want to link people somewhere that is neither my resume nor my fanfic porn. It would be nice to actually do like, styling on it, so it's not unformatted gray-and-black, but eh, we'll see. Also I have a list of javascript toys I want to make and then don't.
+Finish an er book - see above re: ER books.
+finish a project-in-progress - for when I finish one of those ongoing things that never quite made it to the to-do list but I deserve a reward anyway.
+fix electronics - There are literally boxes of these that I just need to get around to. Sure.
+check online banking - I should to do this periodically just so I will stop forgetting my passcodes every time I actually need them. I don't, mind you, but I need to.
+give money away - I had wonderful intentions of doing this on a regular basis, but it's just so hard to decide and then it's easier to not do it than to track who to give to and who not to give to. :/
+catalog a notebook - I have a large backlog of commonplace books and sketchbooks, many of which contain snippets of stories and pictures and information I would like to be able to find later, going back to middle school, and theoretically I am indexing them. Slowly.
+cook - don't we all wish
+watch tv - I realize that most people would not have this on a list of good habits to encourage, but literally the only audiovisual I have watched in the last two week (other than occasionally being lured into a few minutes of what other people have on) is my mandated Sunday Night Movies, and there's so much good stuff out there I haven't seen. (This week is Horatio Hornblower, because I never actually got around to any of that one.)
So that's how I've been, Internet. How have you been?
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And yeah, I have a lot of stuff on habits that I would put under "weekly" or "3 times a week" if I could do that without picking a particular day. (like going for a walk, which mostly depends on the weather.) Most of my dailies are super-basic self care and chores, like yours, I think. Although there's some of it in habits that I would've put under weekly that I've started doing a lot more often than that once they went on this list, so maybe it's working out.
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Steerswoman series - you must have read this, haven't you?
Code Name Verity
Bloody Jack series
And Hornblower! I loved those movies, even if they are a bit sideways to the actual source books. I also need to watch TV at some point.
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Actually I haven't read any of those three.
There is a significant difference between "female main character w/ balanced-feeling cast" and "mostly women", though. I mean, category 1 can be really good, but I read a lot of books in the "mostly girls" category when I was in elementary school, but then they just... stopped turning up. Imperial Radch and Steven Universe made me remember that this was a thing that was possible and how much I enjoyed it! And now I am noticing how hard it is to find in genre fandoms, compared to the "all men, one girl" kind.
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