Good morning, Readers!

So, January has come to an end.

I'm broke AF after just having been paid. I'm stressed.  But that's nothing new.

In happier news, there's a lot I've manged to get done, so let's check in.

Writing - I have FINALLY written the words The End on my manuscript for Soldier.  I even managed to do most of the editing.  I still have a lot of that to do, but the bulk of the work is done.

Work-out - I managed to do the first month pretty much without stopping.  I missed two mornings of the cardio-only (both Mondays), but I've not missed a swim, or a weights session.  Go me!

A busy month, but a good one.

Now, I have a video to edit together.  Hopefully I can get it done before I leave for the day this time.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers.

This was not a good morning.

First, I overslept my alarm, meaning I had to rush to catch the bus.  Which, naturally, meant that I forgot my gym socks.  I had to workout in my shoes without socks.  Gross.

Then, while I was getting changed into my gear, I knocked over my water bottle.  It's one of those glass ones covered in a silicone sleeve to prevent it from smashing.  Except it smashed.  Water and glass everywhere.  Then, while cleaning up the mess, I managed to get cut by the broken glass.  It was only a small cut, but it would. not. stop. bleeding.  Blood everywhere.  Luckily, the guy at the front desk had a plaster, so I could put that one and go workout, sans water bottle.

R.I.P. water bottle.  You served me well.

Now I have to buy another water bottle, so also, fuck you, water bottle.

My run this morning did not go well.  I'm currently doing a couch to 5K, and thanks to some misunderstandings between the app and I, I'm behind a week.  The other weeks were a breeze.  Not today.  Day one of week four gave me a stitch (that awful cramp just below your ribs that you just can't get rid of. Yeah. That.), I had trouble keeping the pace.  I had issues breathing.  It was not a good run.

Then, as part of the new set of post-run workouts I'm doing because of my thingy (and by thingy I mean workout plan), turned out to be a disaster, too.  Part of the new set, which started today and will run for the next four weeks, has a medicine ball slam.  Now, unlike the medicine balls I've been working with thus far, the ones at this gym are bouncy as fuuuuuuuuuck.

So I slammed the medicine ball.  Hard.  It bounced up and slammed my face.

Look, I know I'm not the most coordinated person on the face of the planet, but I would've caught the damned thing with something other than my nose if I had known the thing would come flying back at me.

For a moment there I thought I had broken my nose.  I haven't, but I might get a pretty shiner out of it.  It hit me hard.

Ugh!

Still, I finished the workout, and then retired to the change room to sit and stew in my disappointment.

It's funny now, though.

I'm looking forward to a serious injury tonight at training to round off today.  That would be the cherry on this particular sundae.

Right, I have more editing to get through today.\

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers.

Today, I'm—wait for it—editing today.

Yay!

Ahem.  That's it.  That's all I've got.

This morning I didn't get to the gym.  I was awake, but I hadn't slept all night.  My brain was firing a mile a minute, and wouldn't let me rest.  The weird thing, though, is that it wasn't thinking about the random things it normally does; not my mistakes in life, not stories I'm working on, none of the usual things that keep me up.

Instead, my brain decided to reconstruct what life would be like if I found myself stranding on a strange ocean planet.

I may have watched a let's play of Subnautica before going to bed.

And my brain would just not shut up about it.

It was so frustrating.

Unfortunately, this means that I'm antsy today.  There's a lot of energy I've trained myself to expend first thing in the morning, and I didn't this morning.  I'll just have to swim a little faster today at lunch.

This weekend was the first filming of the next season of Nights at the Round Table.  The first episode will go up the first Monday of February.

Uh... what else?  That's it.  That's all I've got.

​What have you lot been up to?

Good morning, Readers!

So last night I streamed Assassin's Creed Origins, and a pretty cool quest came up: Gift from the Gods.

It was a puzzle, which I solved completely by accident, but we'll pretend I'm a genius.  Anyway, what resulted was the weirdest thing I've seen yet.

Essentially, you release someone, who is then stopped by a metal angel thingy shooting phantom blades, who beams that someone up and vanishes (into space presumably).  You get a pretty cool sword and shield out of it, and a camel bird (pictured above).  The whole cut scene was weird and out of place, and the weapons and shield are also really out of place.  I believe I may have accused someone of being on an acid trip during the stream.

I later tried to describe it to my flatmate as this weird Final Fantasy cut scene thing.

Little did I know that I was absolutely right.  Turns out, the guy you release is an antagonist from the Final Fantasy series, as is your sword and shield reward.  You also get a mount, which is the Egyptian version of the Final Fantasy chocobo.

So, yeah.  That's a thing that happened.

So now I have a cool sword and shield.

I still prefer my horse, Fang, though.

Anyway, it was so weird in the moment, that it took me a while to fall asleep.  I was up thinking about that weird camel bird.

And that's all I have for you today.  I'm off to do more editing on Soldier.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers.

Ursula Le Guin only came into my consciousness late in life.  I didn't read her at all growing up.  The first time I picked up a book of hers was when I read Left Hand of Darkness for Nights at the Round Table.  

It was reported last night that she had died.

While I cannot claim that she shaped my imagination, her loss is still keenly felt.  She seemed to me, from what little I knew of her, to be wise and kind.

I wish I had the chance to meet her.

What am I doing with my time these days?  Well, I'm editing Soldier.

It's slow going because I'm having the computer read it back to me a paragraph at a time.  I've picked up a number of small things, like my insistence on typing the word 'to' when I meant the word 'the.'  That's a weird quirk I've only just noticed.  I wonder why.

There are other things I've noticed to; things like unclear meanings, odd sentence structures, and sheer nonsense.

It's been good, but very slow.

Still, I'm plodding along.

And that's what I'm doing with my time.  That's it.

IT'S SO BORING!

But that's my life right now.  Well, gym-going and martial arts training (so glad it's back).  That's my life right now.  That's it.

S'pose I ought to get back to it.  Le sigh.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I have the best friends ever.

So, yesterday, in a fit of money-induced melancholy (also known as financial stress), I vented online in what I thought was a facetious post.  Turns out, there is no font for hyperbole or exaggerating-for-comedic-effect.

The exact post was:

And boy did you all respond in the most amazing ways.  Honestly, I am very touched by all the awesome ways everyone offered to help.

​I also feel very guilty.

So, first, let me apologise to everyone I scared or made stressed on my behalf.  I thought I was being clear in my facetiousness, but clearly was not.  I'm so, so sorry!  While, like most adults in this economy, stressed financially, I'm actually not starving, nor am I likely to starve.  I do have a loving family nearby who wouldn't let that happen, if I ever did get that desperate.

I'm stressed, but fine.

Thank you all so much for the flood of awesome I received last night.  Hopefully I won't have to lean on it, but it's really lovely to know that I have an amazing group out there willing to lend a hand.

You are all really wonderful people and I'm so, so grateful for you.

I promise to be more clear about my humour/mood next time I post, and I'll try not to post when I'm frustrated.  I'm sorry if I made anyone worry!