HIVVER|W1NTER|XEIΜΏΝ

  • EWTO — GYM RAT

    EWTO stands for (Excuses We Tell Ourselves) maybe I’ll make this into a thing maybe not we’ll find out.

    Starting off the new year fresh talking about the GYM as I return home from the GYM. I’m going to use this time to speak to an older version of myself… that I’m sure a lot of artists can relate to. This is important advice. So listen up.

    Or don’t, what do I care? I’m not your dad.

    YOU NEED TO EXERCISE

    No, I’m not being hyperbolic, I’m not trying to give you an identity crisis. This isn’t about weight, this isn’t trying to FLEX (though if you want me to ;> I will).

    • You spend a LOT of time sitting. Like a LOT a LOT.
    • You spend a LOT of time creating a repetitive motion with your arm.
    • You spend a lot of time bent over your work, I’m sure your lower back is crying for attention.
    • You maybe even spend a good chunk of time Actually Lifting (for conventions… for travel to these conventions… unless you make someone else do it… then it’s just embarrassing)*

    *Look don’t try to read bullshit into this, you can choose to read this disingenuously and argue with a fake version of what’s going on here or you can keep reading.

    LETS START WITH THE EXCUSES YOU ALREADY STARTED CONJURING IN YOUR HEAD WHILE YOU WERE READING THIS BEFORE YOU EVEN DECIDED TO GIVE ME A SHOT IN EXPLAINING THINGS–

    But, I get headaches, won’t this make those worse?
    Fun fact, sometimes this helps reduce migraines and it actually HAS done so in my case, I used to get 2-3 migraines a week on bad weeks, now I get maybe 1-2 headaches a month on bad months (notice the uh drop from migraine to headache–CANDIDLY– other factors HAVE influenced the decrease too, but this is one of the major ones).

    But, I’m, like, really busy with doing Real Work.
    Haha, that’s so funny. Is your work immediately life-threatening? No? Then you can Make Time to exercise. Block it out 2-3 times a week. Half an hour. You’ll notice a difference sooner than you think.

    But I Don’t Like The Gym.
    Okay, I sympathise here, the Gym as a workout space is not for everyone (honestly the fear of being somewhere New and Different stopped me a LOT at the beginning, especially–OHGOD–with gym bros around–(these guys are a lot less scary than you are making them out to be, I promise)). That doesn’t change the fact that you still have to exercise. But there ARE alternatives. We’ll talk about it later.

    But the Gym is too far/too expensive.
    Again, I sympathise, and, as mentioned above, there ARE alternatives to going to the gym & I have tried them myself. We’ll talk more in-depth about those later (or in another post… this one’s getting long-winded).

    This exercise thing… it’s non-negotiable, friend. This is keeping your body from deteriorating, and allowing yourself to live more comfortably in the future when you’re in you’re 30s (and above) and can’t just take your rubber-bounce-back-youth for granted.

    Okay, now that we’re done with that and we’re ready to read and take things in without making big excuses, let’s actually talk about what all of this means.

    OK, SO I NEED TO EXERCISE, WHERE DO I EVEN START?

    YES. OK.

    We don’t want to start off hitting the ground running. We don’t want to start off hurting ourselves, friends, this is a new habit we’re cultivating into longevity.

    You’re a shrimp. Literally. Figuratively. You need to start balancing yourself out. You need to start working your:

    • Shoulders (watch your traps, those are the migraine bastards–for me anyway) focus on Deltoids.
    • Upper Back (honestly your back is gonna be your main focus because a lot of your repetitive motion is in your front/pectorals)
    • Abs & Lower Back (heehee we LOVE these guys–this is the one you’ll have to be careful about, start small with these guys & work Up)
    • Arms (you’ll want to focus on strengthening your biceps & triceps & wrists to avoid putting strain on elbows)
    • CARDIO. (this is really important, frankly, also doubles as leg-day because I just put my elliptical on high and muscle through it for a few minutes before ending on easier shit)

    Well that’s nice, HIVVER, I have a lot of notes but what things should I be starting with?

    IF YOU ARE GOING TO START WITH ANYTHING START WITH CARDIO.

    I know… she’s the one we LOVE the most. //massive sarcasm

    Okay so the thing with sitting all day is that your body doesn’t get enough circulation and your heart doesn’t get enough action. That leads to a lot of [medical shit] and I’m not a doctor, I just know they’re not wrong when people tout the age-old.

    Sitting is the new smoking.

    Now, cardio doesn’t mean you have to RUN or JOG or SPRINT or even SWEAT really. You just need something that is going to get you Moving.

    I, personally, like a funky elliptical… I like a rowing bike (for like 5 minutes till I hit my 1000kms and then swap to elliptical). I do not like spinbikes… mostly bc i like the full-body push of elliptical.

    Treadmills are my enemy but I will make pleasant with one if I must. I don’t like running on them because I get vertigo & always feel like I’m gonna slip and fall. When I have No Choice (bc all the ellipticals are occupied), I push that incline up to max and do my time that way. Slow but hard. ;>

    BUT–listen I know, alternate-to-gym options include an age-old walk around your neighbourhood. Or, if you have one, a bike ride in the same vein. The point is to Move. Do anything. Go anywhere. You can do jumping jacks in your house. You can walk up and down the stairs in your building a couple times.

    If you’re REALLY busy (ie: when I used to work part-time at my bookstore job) take the walk-option. Take the stairs through public transit. Fit it in & make it count.

    THE IDEAL IS: 30 MINUTES.

    But doing ANYTHING is better than nothing even if its 10-20 minutes.

    TINY TIP: TREAT YOURSELF

    Look, I honestly, to no shock or surprise, hated cardio to start. I struggled a lot with it especially moving to the city (i used to bike a lot in the ‘burbs and loooved it). I used to get a lot of dizzy spells because I’d push too hard, wouldn’t be eating nearly enough to power through something like that. The only way I got through it to start (to the point where I actually enjoy it now) is to treat myself to some sweet jams.

    (Here’s what I’m listening to these days, in no particular order:

    • Spencer Sutherland’s THE DRAMA album
    • Kite Machine’s self-titled THE KITE MACHINE album
    • Anything Des Rocs (shh)
    • Easy – Son Lux
    • Killer – Sordid Pink
    • Supernatural – World’s First Cinema
    • Monolith – Twin Pumpkin)

    At first it was a dedicated play-list. But now I just hop around between upbeat tracks and the occasional slow ride (gotta catch your breath once in a while). Something that small can really change the way a workout rolls. I feel honestly naked without my earbuds for cardio if I don’t have them with me. Turns out Cardio & my 30 minutes of it lets me melt away from my pent up stress & anxiety. Now the weeks I DON’T get to do it I feel like a husk of a person LOL.

    But say, you don’t really care about music or that’s not a big enough draw.

    Look, I don’t know you, but I do know a lot of you could use some Time Away From The Internet. Cardio can bring you outside, experience your local communities, discover new places in your neighbourhood. Cardio can make you look at a really beautiful day and go, ‘actually a walk WOULD be nice today’.

    Disconnect. It’s fine. We’ll all still be here when you get back. Please.

    IT’S TIME TO BRING OUT THE GUNS… FOR STRENGTH TRAINING.

    [insert a sly little smirk here]

    No, you can’t get out of this one, babes.
    No, stretches are actually Not Enough to prevent carpal tunnel.
    Yes, this is actually important.

    You need to strengthen the opposite muscles you’re constantly stressing.

    This doesn’t mean picking up the biggest weight you possibly can and doing as many reps as you can with that weight (you can hurt yourself doing that… pls don’t).

    There are hundreds of exercises you can do to work out the parts of your body mentioned above. I think I’ve rambled on here enough this post is getting a bit long so maybe I’ll highlight some of my favourite exercises in a different post + at home alts I do with my partner… another time.

    If you’re impatient and want to get working now…

    You will want to prioritise weight training your upper back and AVOID pectorals until you’ve trained your back enough to compensate for your shimp-age. If you don’t want CRAZY GAINS (aesthetically speaking) you will want a lower weight setting with More Reps vs a higher weight setting with fewer reps.

    Here’s a bit of a low-down in case none of that made sense: because I’m strength-training for muscle gain & strength gain I’ll set my machines at 20 KG pushing the weight up off my back, 35 KG to pull the weight down towards my chest both of these repeated 7 times, take a 60 second break and repeat that 7 for 3 rounds. If I didn’t want to gain muscle mass I’d change the 7 to 13-15 and keep the 3x but at a lower weight setting (20KG –> 10KG or 35KG –> 15KG).

    For those curious I’m strength training to be able to much more easily lift 45-50KG because that’s the minimum weight requirements for a LARGE suitcase on most airlines… and I gotta drag that shit through public transit to GET to the airport so you know. Ulterior Motives and all that.

    The reason I really like the gym for strength training is that I can use machines that help not only illustrate what part of the body that machine works on, but it also usually encourages you to use proper form. Lower your weight settings, use the diagrams, focus on getting the shape of the motion right so that you aren’t hurting yourself. Free weights are wobbly for me, I also get flustered easily around other people so I’m practising with my own set at home. It’s easier now that I’ve built a muscle memory from the machines at the gym I feel like I have more control.

    RULE OF THUMB: if you ever feel a sharp pain especially in your joints doing ANY exercise, stop your set & STRETCH. If you keep going you might give yourself long-term damage (it’s a pain in the ass but better safe than sorry).*

    *This is also important with CARDIO… repetitive running motions can put a lot of strain on your knees & ankles so pay attention you’re not overdoing things… also a good time to makes sure you’re running & walking form is good.

    The point of exercise is to do it with intention. Don’t forget to activate your abs while you’re walking, running. This builds a good core that helps that poor lower back of yours from crying for help.

    Unlike cardio, there’s no work-around to strength training, really, just that it takes maybe 10 minutes on 2-3 exercises and you’re done. Do them at home, do them at the gym, but just do them. Please. It really does make a difference.

    I’m also just really tired of hearing artists complain about carpal tunnel/tennis elbow when like there’s a preventative right here.

    YOU BETTER BE STRETCHING.

    Look, stretching isn’t the end all be all but it is mandatory after working out.

    This one’s self-explanatory, before you work out you gotta warm up–(yes I… I totally do this…//okiforgetsometimes) and stretch out all the muscles you just worked out right after the big work out.

    I won’t pretend I’m perfect. This is the ideal. But really you’re only going to regret it later after resting, that you DIDN’T stretch those muscles you used… trust me.

    If you didn’t stretch right after a work out, its never too late, you can always stretch later but like, beware because all that lactic acid you just let out of your muscles from training’s gonna make them ache something fierce.

    Stretching can honestly only do so much but this is a good preventative measure, overall. I was being harsh earlier but if you CAN’T fit a work out in one day, make sure you’re stretching if you’re doing lots of desk work. You probably know this, I’m just reminding you. If you haven’t stretched today… do it now. Take a few minutes.

    OK ONE LAST THING BEFORE I’M DONE WITH MY SOAPBOX SCREED — BREAKS.

    Like everything you need these. Take them. Seriously. From work, from gym, from stress. You owe it to yourself to take an hour out of your day minimum, to do absolutely nothing, sit and listen to tunes with your eyes closed. Read a couple chapters of your book. Have a cup of tea, a little drink. Sit in a park and breathe.

    Also don’t sweat taking a week off Gym/exercise once in a while. The rest does just as much good as the exercise does, especially if you keep consistent with it.

    Okay I think that’s ENOUGH shaking you and making you listen to my rabid rant about working out. I just want you to be living your best life out there…

    Also if you got this far, could you do me a solid, especially if you’re masc-core because this is the one thing absolutely obliterating my brain when I go to the gym:

    WHAT THE FUCK DOES A DUDE WEAR TO THE GYM…to pass… as a dude pls… im begging…where do u shop for athletic apparel that isn’t leggigns… but also won’t make me fry at the gym because our gym is right by a pool so the heating is blasting all the time–also mm don’t like shorts v much unless i have to–

    OK BYEE~

    DISCLAIMER: I’m not a doctor. Just a guy whose tried some shit and its worked at making me feel better overall. Like I said, this is more of a screed scolding my past self for waiting so long to really make the leap.

    If you were looking for someone to make that push for you, here it is <3

  • Daily Writing – January

    New year? New month? New daily writing post. I’m scribbling this up the day after the first because everyone takes the day off so why shouldn’t I?

    I was up till 4am playing board games the night before, being very responsible.

    Alright lets get this tracker started.

    RULES REMINDER:

    • 500-1000 words a day.
    • Weekends don’t count UNLESS I’m IN IT
    • Missed days do NOT need to be ‘made up’
    • But try not to miss more than 3-5 per month.

    JANUARY 2025 PROGRESS:

    • JAN 01: 2024 — A Retrospective Blog Post — 2,710
    • JAN 02: TAKE OUT — 1,059
    • JAN 03: TAKE OUT — 897
    • JAN 04: TAKE OUT — 915
    • JAN 05: TAKE OUT — 786
    • JAN 06: TAKE OUT — 712
    • JAN 07: TAKE OUT — 517
    • JAN 08: TAKE OUT — 1,599
    • JAN 09: TAKE OUT — 229
    • JAN 10: TAKE OUT — 564
    • JAN 11: TAKE OUT — 620
    • JAN 12:
    • JAN 13: TAKE OUT — 403
      >>>>>>>> PARHELIA — 119
    • JAN 14: TAKE OUT — 674
    • JAN 15: TAKE OUT — 745
    • JAN 16: TAKE OUT — 2,533 END.
    • JAN 17:
    • JAN 18:
    • JAN 19: PARHELIA — 1,072
    • JAN 20: PARHELIA — 320 END.
    • JAN 21: ~EDITING, NO WC~
    • JAN 22: ~EDITING, NO WC~
    • JAN 23: ~EDITING, NO WC~
    • JAN 24: ~EDITING, NO WC~
    • JAN 25: THE COMIC PROCESS: AUGUSTINE — 2,921
    • JAN 26:
    • JAN 27: TAKE OUT — 1,578
    • JAN 28: TAKE OUT — 423
    • JAN 29: TAKE OUT — 753
    • JAN 30: TAKE OUT — 380
    • JAN 31: TAKE OUT — 1,342

    TOTAL WC THIS MONTH: 23,551

    JANUARY 16

    I finished a DRAFT today!! Wow!!! This is so fun and exciting! Since starting this adventure (with NaNo) I’ve finished 2 drafts and I’m starting to feel really great about it.

    I always get so weird & sentimental about finishing a draft. Especially ones I have so much fun writing. I think I struggle a bit with letting go of something that didn’t take me as long as I thought it might, to finish.

    And the trouble with that is that I tend to put off ACTUALLY finishing it until I completely forget about it and it collects dust in my hard drive somewhere.

    BUT NOT THIS TIME.

    So I’m taking a short break from it (1 week….or less idk we’ll see how long the short fiction draft takes) so that I can finish up a short fiction writing challenge I started up with friends earlier this month. And then spending the last week of January finishing it up before…

    POSTING IT HERE HAHAH.

    Yeah, no I mean it. I’ll be posting it in bits and pieces up here for folks to read. The plan is to be able to doodle things along with it before I post it on a more professional sphere I guess. We’ll see. Its a project I’m doing for fun so I’m trying to Let Go a little bit more.

    Look forward to that~

    JANUARY 19

    So I’ve gotten into a new Writing Challenge with some friends from one server: PARHELIA is part of that. I’ve decided to go with some Flash Fiction/Vignette of an OC of mine based on a photo I gave to our group as inspo to draw from~ It’ll be exciting to see how everyone interprets my prompt~

    BUT ALSO–

    I’ve started doing some quick 10 minute writing sprints with another group of writer colleagues in our agency’s discord! It’s been a really fun way to toss out the bad brain demons and just get straight to work on a wordcount. I used to do this a lot way back when and finished a lot of drafts that way just plundering through & not stressing about whether or not something works.

    We can always fix it in post~

    JANUARY 25

    I ran into my first issue with this word count sprint and its: Fuck What Do I Do About Editing?

    Because the goal here is to Finish More Stories and to use this writing challenge to encourage the finishing of said stories. I needed a little leeway when it comes to deciding I actually want to Edit and put the work into doing that too. Right now I’m editing TAKE OUT so I’m trying to chip away at 2-3 chapters per week. Thing is, once I’ve decided I’m editing for the day, its hard to switch my brain to another story and actively write that one.

    Also, like. I finished not ONE but TWO works this month so I’m giving myself a bit more flexibility this week and next~!

    Not to mention the weather’s been absolute whiplash so I’m battling more headaches than I usually do.

    TL;DR I’m still WRITING just not full-steam-ahead drafts!

    JANUARY 30

    So earlier this month I talked about potentially posting TAKE OUT up here and sure enough I DID. So far the first two episodes are up while I work on editing the third! It’s been interesting running through edits this fast but I’m glad I decided to just go for it instead of spending a bunch of time overthinking it.

    (which is ironic bc this particular main character has a habit of Overthinking hehehe)

    JANUARY 31

    AND THAT’S A WRAP! At least for the first month of the year! I’ve started adding my BIG TOTAL at the end of my big progress tracker at the top and hitting 23,000 WORDS feels like a huge win in my books (considering this ISN’T NANO and I’ve spent a good chunk of the month in editing limbo) It’s incredible how much I’ve gotten done.

    Yeah it was spread across various projects. There are a couple things I also didn’t even count up in there because it felt extra.

    But it’s incredible to see how a small goal snowballs into making MORE of something even EASIER.

    We’ll have to see if I can keep this up.
    And…. if there isn’t some way for me to translate a daily goal like this into some more personal drawing/sketching. Maybe I need a daily sketch goal this year…. hmm…

    Much to think about! ONWARD!

  • 2024 – A Retrospective

    Everyone’s making these this year but I’ve been doing them for 4 years now so I’m more hip & With It.

    I Jest, I Jest. I got into the habit of doing things like this starting 2020 because, as we all know, that year proved certainly quite interesting. So here I am, upkeeping the tradition on a NEW WEBSITE at 2AM after partying hard (playing board games) with my siblings & drinking enough coke to make my stomach absolutely pissed at me. (…oh man the demons that came out of me at 7am…. folks… i haven’t held onto life so hard since this happened to me a few years back).

    I’ll be sure to plop the retrospectives up here from the previous years & back-date them. I’m still organising things between 3 different websites and trying to head into 2025 a lot more… Collected than I have been in a while.

    So, after reading my 2023 recap earlier today, I’m happy to say, that for me, personally… 2024 was not that bad… it wasn’t GREAT but the ups and downs kind of equalled everything out to a net nothing. I feel like I did a whole lot of Nothing. Lots of Waiting…. like… LOTS of waiting… for nothing & not knowing what to DO while doing all that waiting. Let’s slap some pros & cons down why not?

    PROS

    • GOT MY NAME CHANGE OFFICIAL!!
    • License, medicare, passport sorted
    • Saw an Eclipse in totality!! Wow!!
    • Wrote a lot?
    • Finished a LOOONG running TTRPG!
    • Found a LOTTT of new music
    • Broke record for # of conventions in a year
    • LESS MIGRAINES??
    • MAINTAINED THE GYM???
    • Finally got the tatt I’ve been wanting for YEARS
    • Got into local Artist Alley Shop!

    CONS

    • It took like fucking 9 months & then some! 8)
    • I still have a LOT to update … but heyyyyy
    • Paid $4,000 in vet bills!
    • Didn’t draw too much
    • USA elections… hahaaaaa wooooowee;;;
    • Missed Des Rocs in concert (tragic)
    • Still can NOT get Hal-con???
    • Hemorrhoids [grimace]
    • …too much take-out;;
    • Missed out on a tat from an artist I rly admire ($4k rip)
    • Canada Post strike killed our sales womp

    So, like, QUITE up & down this year. The name-change wait was pretty excruciating and the process right now is still like… Ongoing. I’d like to make a post detailing it a lot more in case it would help someone else in my situation. I went a bit… unconventional about it, and maybe it’ll help others in a similar spot. Plus it’s just kind of wild documenting a process that’s so convoluted for No Reason!

    Anyway.

    Let’s see if I can remember how this year went. I promised to take notes but I didn’t and I’m starting to wonder at my neuro-divergence’s lack of diagnosis. Haha. Too bad THAT also costs the magic number: $4000+ so we’re putting THAT off one more year~

    Here we go:

    THE MONTHLY BREAKDOWN…

    JANUARY — This feels like 500 years ago. Waiting Waiting, painstaking waiting. It’s been 4 months since I put my name change in. I get a notice, yay application was RECEIVED…as of [end of January] it will take… FOUR MONTHS FOR THE DECISION TO BE MADE… M-more waiting ok…;;; We take it easy bc 2023 was Insane. We also have a tiny con here to donate all our proceeds to the efforts in Palestine. It’s a really nice little show! Tas & I have been together for [redacted] years!! Exciting!!

    FEBRUARY — Wow our con-season started early tbh. Maybe that’s why this year felt so long. We had Montreal Maker’s Market’s Valentine’s show this month. Slower show than the Holiday one which makes sense. We have a calm February, start getting back into the swing of things.

    MARCH — Tas’ birthday month. We’re always spending this month cutting things down to the wire preparing for Calgary expo at the end of April. Honestly. This is all a blur. We’re also preparing for PINTOPIA 2 (Backerkit’s Enamel Pin Prompt)… this is also the month we spend scrambling for commissions… and footing Ghost’s vet bill bc the poor guy also has to get his teeth pulled… (Ghost… does NOT like to be handled… so… this was pretty much a nightmare situation for us).

    APRIL — Ghost’s recovery… poor guy. I was really proud of myself the two weeks we had to give him medication. It was such a mental turmoil. Ghost was never a nervous cat BUT– he was always really wary of us actually handling him physically and I had to give him 2 doses of antibiotics, 2 doses of one pain killer, 1 dose of another painkiller… into his mouth, the thing that hurts him. Anyway he took his cone of shame off the second day he was home (AAA) and then I was the only one who could approach him (because Tas usually works with him on the whole ‘picking up’ training so he’s always wary of them (AAAA x2)) He didn’t like me much by the end of those 2 weeks. I think I missed a couple of his shots by the end but he’s better now so I guess that’s all good?? Oh yeah– also 7 Deadly Pins launches, successfully on backerkit for PINTOPIA and I guess we dip for CALGARY EXPO (and find out that everyone’s gonna be in the BMO for 2025 so that should prove interesting this year, I think).
    ALSO WE GOT INTO OTAK BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH LETSGOOOOOOOO!!!

    MAY — The name change decision is looming, I get a call but its just bc they need Tas’ ID idk to make sure they’re a real life person who can vouch for my feelings or something (the lady on the phone was nice and said I should be getting a response abt my name change… soon… but it shouldn’t be an issue) hahaaaaa;;;;
    Oh well hey, our Dino Plushies launch and succeed pretty well but wow yikes those testing fees are insane (and totally fucking useless now, $4k (what the fuck is up with this number??) down the drain whateveritsfine) Also we do our usual Gauntlet and have TCAF (we were invited by other Hive artists to do a stamp rally which was really cute and fun ;;A;; so sorry again for forgetting our stamp ffs i promise we’re more professional than that) & MCAF which is always a blast~!

    JUNE — God that name change… my dudes… my bros… I call them up like “teehee… is there any chance I can get an update?” and the same lady who called me about Tas’ ID goes, “:) no”. So I’m waiting….. and waiting…. and waiting (and just about peeling my skin off about it lbh)

    JULY — JUST before I decide to call them again, fucking irritated at this point– what’s that… in the mail???? MYGOD????? YAHOOO!! YIPPIEEEEEE!! It’s official. ITS LEGAL. My name!! (also a list of things i gotta get working on to change–shhhh–). Happy MTL Comiccon… wow that show fucking sucked!!!! We did half our sales we made the year before!! It’s Dismal! Wow! We just spent 4k on vet bills!!!!!! aaAAAA!!!

    AUGUST — We do Otakuthon it goes well, but we definitely didn’t do as good as we did 2 years ago… but we’re in a recession and we’ll take what we can get. I also get my funky lil photos taken for my new Medicare card & my License…. oh the license, more on that in my other post about The Process, I think. Happy Birthday 2 me I’m now 3[redacted] years young :> Also we got all our pins for the 7 Deadly Pins so that means we’re shipping things out in September!

    SEPTEMBER — Oh hey we actually made it back to Ottawa Comiccon this year! It was nice! We did better than we expected but we already had an …. extremely low bar for it this year. So we decided to book a table for 2025 and see if we can get an upward trend going! This is our last big con b4 the

    OCTOBER — Prism Knights!! Plushies!! OC-Tobers!! A tiny break to do some spooky shit!! I swear we blinked and this month was over. I think I only managed a few OC-tobers before quitting because I just couldn’t focus long enough and none of them ‘felt right’ (looking back on them I really like how a bunch of them turned out so maybe I was just overwhelmed/frazzled and couldn’t really focus). I spent a lot of time with friends this month… but it’s been a rough year for them and my mental capacity is just so fucking angry at the state of things for them. UGH. Things are getting better though, we’re all getting through it one day at a time.

    NOVEMBER — The longest month ever!!! I don’t know this month stretched on and on. It was pretty nice. I actually beat NANO this year! I reformatted Prism Knights One Last Time for its anthology. We didn’t get the hardcover (I’m still bummed but maybe one more time… in the future…) Canada Post goes on strike… honestly good for them. I was really rooting for them this holiday season. Disturb that peace, fight for those rights! We end the month off with 2 back-to-back weekend events.

    DECEMBER — And start this month off with 2 back-to-back weekend events. I’m exhausted. But I’m also missing my writing routine so I start up a new routine to write 500-1000 words a day. You can read about it on it’s landing page (or start post). I scramble to pick up gifts bc the post is still on strike (unfortunately they’re sent back to work before demands are met…. way too late to make up holiday sales so like honestly it feels like salt in the wound for small businesses who were in support of the strike, watching CEOs & the Government take their rights away. I’m angry!! I’m so mad at this!! And I’m also mad at every Canadian Shithead who went on screeds about how Canpost sucks!! You suck!! ARGH). Christmas was quiet this year, half the fam’s on vacation in the sun. I’m happy to stay home and rest and recoup… except we spent the last week overhauling the W&W website……….. that’s not REAL work is it??

    As I was writing this, my year of seemingly Nothing sure starts looking like a year of actually A Lot Of Things because there’s 365 days to do shit. I just know I didn’t entirely succeed at all of the things I set out to do.

    2024’S GOALS…

    Okay lets see, my Resolutions or GOALS from last year included:

    • Pick a writing project & finish it. It wasn’t the draft I was EXPECTING to finish but I DID progress on that one during NaNo AND I did FINISH a draft (and am almost done a SECOND draft on a different story) so I’d say, mission success!
    • Finish one whole sketchbook. That’s right we’re going back to traditional baby (at least for fun). Haha … haaaa ohhhhhhhhhhhh noooooo past me is always so funny when i make goals like this… they just never wind up working out but the thought… was thereeee…;;;
    • Try a new art medium: lino-cutting, screen-printing, wood burning, puppet making. Something you spend time making for fun. turns out all of this Costs Money which we’ve been trying to save this year and we got scrapped of $8k this year in misc overshot expenses so I also didn’t really get to do this, this year… I actually miss doing photography which I lapsed entirely this year. Egh.
    • Read More. WE MADE EFFORTS. I’m in the middle of reading a couple things right now. Nothing finished. God I love doing it though. I might give myself a more concrete goal for next year.
    • Pitch Something. I didn’t FINISH the pitch but I’m working on a pitch I’m hoping to finalise this year forreal.
    • BONUS — Make a very short solo-comic. Nope…;;;

    Half & Half….. honestly this pretty much sums up my year quite well. Lots of Trying not much Finishing as I’d like but it’s all steps towards a better 2025?

    2025’s Goals

    This year I’m splitting these up into concrete & personal I think.

    LETS START WITH CONCRETE.
    • READ 30 BOOKS THIS YEAR
    • UPKEEP DAILY WRITING GOAL (500-1000 WORDS/DAY)
    • FINISH DAILY PHOTOS PROJECT
    • FINISH A SMALL SKETCHBOOK
    • FINISH THAT PITCH
    AND THEN THE PERSONAL/VAGUERIES
    • GET OUT THERE MORE/BE MORE PERSONABLE
    • TRY SOMETHING NEW THIS YEAR
    • GET YOUR HEALTH CHECKED (IMPORTANT, DUDE)
    • LESS… TAKE-OUT.
    • BUILD BETTER HABITS

    These make sense to me, anyway. I don’t have any of my work goals up here because that’s work and those promises are scattered and fluctuate… also this is my personal space, whatever. I don’t gotta answer to yOU– (sorry I’m feeling really funny this mor–afternoon as I wrap up this post at almost 2pm.

    But we still have One More Order Of Business.

    THINGS THAT STUCK OUT TO ME THIS YEAR…

    READ

    The V*mpire – P H LEE
    Become Of Me – Veronica Roth
    I’m Not Disappointed Just Mad AKA The Heaviest Couch in the Known Universe – Daryl Gregory
    Sacred Bodies – Ver
    In Fair Verona – Val Wise
    We Live Here Too – Kiku Hughes

    WATCHED

    Love Lies Bleeding
    Saltburn
    The Green Knight
    Suzume
    Drifting Home
    Wolf Walkers
    Sonic 3
    Delicious In Dungeon
    Pokemon Concierge
    The Terror
    Close To You (Elliot Page)
    Midnight Mass

    PLAYED

    Dredge
    Night In The Woods
    The Pale Beyond
    Cult Of The Lamb (2 Player DLC)
    Caravan SandWitch
    Planet of Lana
    Superfight
    Age of Ashes
    Fly Free or Die
    Heart of the Driftlands
    Pokemon Mystery Dungeon TTRPG (homebrew)

    A lot of my reading list is Shorts because I didn’t do MUCH reading but SHORTBOX always comes in clutch and I’ve been devouring TOR’s library of short stories lately. I’ll make a post on that later as I really start making my way through the library because reading short fiction has been REALLY fun lately!

    Movies…. and TV… just haha HMM wowee. I love film LOL.
    And Games… I really thought we did more but all these titles really just sat wiggling in my guts.
    I would add a list of shit I listened to but you could also just READ THIS POST about that instead.

    SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THINGS

    They might be Hot Takes, they might be Not Takes At all but here’s some thoughts about things I interacted with this year:

    • Short fiction good actually.
    • PAPER MARIO 64 is a better game than THOUSAND YEAR DOOR.
    • AGE OF ASHES — we’ve been playing this game for about 5 years and wowee am I still emotional about it! our GM did a fantastic job with the closing scenes I still get misty-eyed thinking about all our characters from this game ;A;
    • LOVE LIES BLEEDING its the best movie ever. I’ve watched it I think 7 times this year. Just thinking about it makes me wanna watch it again. Its OST pretty much wrote my pitch script for me.
    • DES ROCS i love… my beloved. My music. God I found so much shit For Me this year.
    • SPENCER SUTHERLAND a friend showed me their THE DRAMA album, it didnt hit my 2024 Tunes post this year because I only listened to it in DEC but its been on repeat since.
    • TEXT RP IS EVERYTHING TO ME its something I don’t talk a lot about but so much is going on in our little adventures every evening. We spend hours playing out our own scenarios. Its just fun! Organic reading and writing just for entertainment’s sake.
    • THE PALE BEYOND someone else PLEASE play this game I am DYING to talk about it and I’m still SHATTERED and EMOTIONAL about it.
    • NIGHT IN THE WOODS kinda meh, kinda overrated. Its ok. Didn’t age as well I think.
    • DREDGE hmmm haha wow. i really need to play it again. The new DLC is out……… maaaaybe….. its time.
    • SONIC 3 MY GOOOOOOOODDDD SHADOWWWW– fuck this movie was just stupid fun.

    Okay that’s enough reacting. I’m sleepy. It’s time for me to go take a fat nap with my son. I’m wishing myself, my partner, our cats, and YOU, reading this, with a much better 2025 (yeah even if 2024 was Okay or even Good to you, you deserve it).

    Let’s kick it in the ass. Onward & Upward.

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