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17 September, 2018

August in a Nutshell

Whoa, August 2018 was a heckuva month. And now that I’m all caught up on the June and July recaps, it’s time to dive in to what happened last month! But first, your monthly Mac photo.

A labrador dog lying down with a stuffed hedgehog toy in his arms — Good boy Mac and his soft toy hedgehog

Edited a TON this month. Finally got my various versions of Divide wrangled together into a coherent file, which was an incredible workload and waaaaayyyy more difficult that I even imagined. But I made huge progress, getting my Scrivener files in order and into one Word doc. I tried to love Scrivener, but I’ve slunk back to Word yet again.
Wrote 36,000 words!
Drove to Dundee for a charity derby event and ate some mega-fancy food. This one ended up being quite a pivotal moment in my month because it gave me the time away to think about how my year was going and make some changes for the better.

Myself and my partner by the waterside in Dundee — Myself and Dave enjoying Dundee! It’s so pretty there.

Started a 5-mins-a-day meditation habit. It’s been nice! I use the Headspace app/website for daily themed 5-min meditations.
Painted our conservatory (sunroom, for American readers). It’s looking so good!
Celebrated my 11th anniversary with Dave. We had pizza. :)

An aerial picture of a couple and a labrador. It's us, from above! — It’s us!

Joined a new gym! It was super overwhelming and terrifying but I did it! I also attended a ‘ladies who lift’ class. Had a lot of fun and managed not to get too disheartened when I failed to bench press the Olympic bar. It’s okay, I’ll get stronger!
Took some time away from roller derby. This was a sad one but I’m not giving up skating and hoping to get back to it soon.
Since I’m taking a skating break, I got back into running! Resumed my Couch 2 5K program (I’m using the BBC app because having Sarah Millican as a coach is neat) and got from week 6 to week 8.
Prepped to return to skating with increased strength training
Took part in the ‘#NoWrongPath’ hashtag which is a local Moray initiative to help teens who’re getting their exam results recognise that results aren’t the be-all-and-end-all to a career, and there are multiple paths into the workforce.

Switched from audiobooks to podcast to shake things up a bit. Current favourites: The Adventure Zone, Strange Animals Podcast, Archive 81 (Season 3 is SO good), Welcome to Night Vale.
I’m also doing a writing course in podcast form—the wonderfully-named Couch to 80k by Tim Clare. Really enjoying it so far, just finished Week 1. It’s fairly low effort with 10-mins-a-day writing exercises and a really positive, upbeat approach.

When you change the things you notice, the things you notice change.
Tim Clare, paraphrasing Dr Wayne Dwyer

Read: The Adventure Zone comic (an amazing adaptation), and uh, that was it. Not a good reading month.
Helped a few lost tourists, including the lost French couple who were 8 miles away from where they should be and the lovely South Carolina couple who wanted to see the local golf course.
Dave visited Skye! I did not get to go and was mega jealous.
Watched the Orkney Viqueens vs Inverness City roller derby game! It was Orkney’s first game and they did amazing.
LEARNED THINGS! I finished the Coursera ‘Learning How to Learn‘ course and really loved it. It’s a free course that helps people learn more effectively and tackle procrastination habits. It’s really helped me a lot with keeping writing and artistic focus.
Started the Mindshift course by the same people, which is aimed at helping people shift into learning difficult or unfamiliar-to-them subjects.
Tried to get a fancy haircut, ended up walking out because the stylist was mid-transphobic-rant and it only got worse as I sat there. August was definitely an ‘all out of fucks to give’ month, especially towards the end.
But it’s okay because the haircut I got from someone else was AMAZING. Look at these heckin’ cute curls!

Played SO MUCH DND. SO MUCH. It’s the best. My wereshark fighter became the apprentice of a grumpy soap-making hardarse old lady, and my traumatised Tiefling had a VERY BAD DAY on a boat.
Watched a bit of anime, finishing Samurai Champloo and watching a bit of Digimon Tri.
Watched a ton of TV, including: Luke Cage S2, Critical Role, Talks Machina, Voltron: Legendary Defender S7.
Didn’t do much art, but watch this space because I’ve got some new gadgets that should REALLY change that next month. I’ll sign off for today with my first sketch on my new gadget.

A white-haired girl with a birthmark on her face. She's hiding her mouth behind a white cardigan collar. — Current Work in Progress: Birthmark Girl

Wishing you all an awesomely spooky September.

Love,

Emma

14 September, 2018

July Recap: Fine Dining, Good Dogs, and Derby

It’s been a while! I’ve been off having fun, but now that I’ve set my Spooky September goals I’m back for a JULY RECAP OF AWESOME.

July

Highlight of this month was hanging out with Lisa from Dear Geek Place and our friend Nik from all the way across the pond! Had amazing food at the Rocpool in Inverness, saw Urquhart Castle, went on a Jacobite Cruise, had an amazing DnD game, and basically had an amazing super-summery time.

Visited Cumbria in England! Lovely part of the world, beautiful coastlines.
Laid flooring in the conservatory.

A labrador lying on the floor. — Mac helped.

- - GOT A MEGA-COMFY CONSERVATORY READING CHAIR YASSS.
  - Read: Days of Blood & Starlight (loved this audiobook), Sleepless Domain (webcomic about magical girls, SO GOOD), The Golemn and the Djinni (another fantastic audiobook).

- - Was left VERY UPSET by a certain plot twist in the mega-popular Critical Role Dungeons & Dragons YouTube series. Still not over it, honestly. Long may he reign.
  - Other TV watched: Luke Cage S2, Talks Machina, The Flash, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Samurai Champloo.
  - Volunteered for STEMNET at the Highland Glider Club open day. Helped lots of kids learn more about science and tech.
  - We fought spiders in DnD. Please don’t make me fight spiders in DnD.

A Dungeons and Dragons battle with four players against five spiders.

- - Took Mac into Pets at Home for the first time, where the staff spoiled him rotten and he was a very good boy.

A labrador sitting expectantly — Mac at Pets at Home, awaiting treats

- - Attended the ‘School of ARRG Knocks’ roller derby boot camp! That was incredible fun.
  - Sat in a GINORMOUS TRACTOR.

I'm sitting in a massive yellow tractor. — There is an Emma in there!

- - In July I just did a few scrappy doodles of my traumatised Tiefling, Taro, who you might recognise from this post. She’s not developing as fast as my other campaign character, a charge-into-the-battle wereshark, but she’s getting there.

12 September, 2018

June Recap: Skating, Singing, and GLORIOUS SHORTS WEATHER

It’s been a while! I’ve been off having fun, but now that I’ve set my Spooky September goals I’m back for a JUNE RECAP OF AWESOME.

It was actually tough to think back three months for this one. My memory’s not what it used to be!

June

We had our annual family drinking day at the European Pipe Band Championships.

I had the absolute joy of meeting fellow Gaelic-speaker and choir badass Evan (author name: Emmie Mears), alongside their wonderful partner. They were also travelling with Olli, a Friend from the Internet who I got to put a face to! It was a very wonderful visit and I miss them all terribly.
WE SAW HIGHLAND COOS. IT WAS THE BEST.
My mum did absolutely amazing at the local MOD (a big Gaelic singing competition). I’m so, so proud of her successes.

It was Freshie intake day at skating, which meant meeting lots of new local faces who wanted to try on wheels.
SHORTS WEATHER. I wore shorts! In summer! In front of actual people! This is not a usual occurrence for me and was a pretty big Emma-overcomes-awkwardness milestone.
I read some books! To Kill a Kingdom, Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda and the Vox Machina Volume 1 comic were my favourites for this month. Romancing the Beat was also a solidly useful read!
London visit! I went down there for very un-glamourous reasons, but hey, London! I managed to wind up wandering in a gorgeous trail over near Essex, which was a definite highlight (alongside getting a chance to snag a box of katsu chicken from Wasabi while running around catching trains).

After the trip, I got to return to my natural habit: on the couch, with blankets and books and a dog beside me.

FROOFY SUMMER DRINKS WERE HAD. I had so many caramel crunch Frostinos from Costa. Possibly too many.
Outdoor skating with my pals!

TV watched: Voltron: Legendary Defender S6, the Sense8 series finale (I will miss this show SO MUCH).
Mac was a good boy.

I drew a little bit of art! Here’s a first attempt my Kenku Dungeons and Dragons character Snipsnip, a strange and creepy bird lady who can only speak in echoes of what others are saying around her.