May 11th, 2022
Another month has gone by and I’m still going! Reflecting on this past month I have only positive thoughts flowing through me. Life has been pretty chill. Drama has been minimal and I’m actually enjoying the peace instead of feeling uncomfortable with it. Not saying I like drama, but when your life feels chaotic all the time, having a moment to breathe feels a bit odd. Maybe even suspenseful in a way? Waiting for something to go wrong because it always felt like it did. Well, what I can say about right now is that I’m still feeling hopeful. Of course there’s some minor stress that emerges, but that will come along when you don’t have an income. Grieving the loss of our pet has been something that we’ve been working through as well, but we’re also noticing less sad tears and more happy tears from the memories we have of him.
Budget wise, I have cut down on my spending by only ordering out once a month as a special date night and a thank you to Ashtonn for doing yard work in the Texas heat and mosquito infested backyard. Don’t worry, I usually find a deal to cut down that cost as well. I’ve lowered our grocery bill by ensuring that I select what we need with only one additional special meal. As of right now, those meals have been geared towards our Harry Potter date nights in which we put together the lego Hogwarts castle he bought me for my birthday; listen to the movies; and enjoy a meal from the Unofficial Harry Potter cookbook a friend bought for my birthday last year. Right now we’re on the last book of building the castle. We’ve gone through the original movies and are on the first Fantastic Beasts movie and hoping we time it where we can rent the most recent one since we stopped going to the theater when Covid came to be. I’ve also limited my Amazon purchases to project related essentials such as bras for exercising, new tips for my Apple Pencil due to the amount I’ve been drawing, and educational books for coding.
Now let’s get into the new stuff that I’ve implemented into my schedule. Oh! My schedule! If you know me, you know I’m not a morning person, but as of late I’ve been waking up between 6 am to 8:30 am and passing out around 11 pm to 2:30 am. A friend of mine introduced me to Biphasic sleep, which I just started so I’ll let you know how it goes in the next update. I tend to sleep only five to six hours so adding a nap during the day after waking up so early seems right up my alley. I do love naps and would take them during lunch time when I would work, so this isn’t too off from my normal sleeping pattern. This new schedule, although it has been nice, definitely was causing issues with my creative side as I was too exhausted by the time of the day I would usually want to write. This should now give me more energy to write more of my book when my brain is more creative.
I’ve added a few new courses into my schedule. I’m learning how to code using C# by taking a Udemy course that mixes coding with creating a video game and that has kept me engaged. The instructor speaks super fast, but thankfully there’s an option to slow the speed down. I’ve also added a guitar course for beginners and although I’m still rebuilding those calluses on my finger tips it has been really neat to learn more about music. I’m still working on the drawing course, but I’m in the later stages, just finishing up facial expressions, which I’m trying to use in my comics.
Speaking of which, I have started a daily comic to help keep myself disciplined; improve my skills by practicing every day; and also trying to provide a smile to people’s days. The comic is about the relationship between a greeble and a cat where it starts off with the introduction and moves forward with their shenanigans. If you don’t know what a greeble is check out the Greebles reddit community for examples, and for those who don’t want to use reddit, if you have seen a pet attacking thin air or staring at nothing in the corner of your house then you have a greeble in your home. It’s been really nice getting involved in the supportive comic community on Instagram and even found some people on Reddit. I’m still astonished that we’re able to interact with people all around the world and it’s definitely been a bonus for sharing my work and hearing other people’s thoughts about it. I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but even knowing how or where I can improve will help me along my journey. So if you do have thoughts please share them with me as I am trying to learn and would love to see what other’s expertise can add to my own work. Yes… I’m open to constructive feedback, but with that please try to be tactful as telling me it’s bad isn’t helpful, but instead possibly looking at why you felt it was bad. The drawing style, the inconsistencies, the humor, the grammar, the incorrect perspectives, etc. would all assist me in seeing what I can do to improve my art.
I’ve tightened up my schedule a bit. I mentioned in my previous post that I would be setting alarms to assist, but so far I haven’t needed them. My day starts off with breakfast outside with the cats while I read my book about writing and listen to the birds chirp. I am on my second book, which is The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing & Design. When I’m outside I also think about what the subject of my daily comic will be for that day. Then I practice throwing discs into the net and do squats to pick up the discs as a warm up exercise before it gets too hot.
After I come inside, I give my cats their teeth cleaning snack, turn on my TV shows (currently watching The Wilds again, This is Us, A Million Little Things, Candy, and Euphoria), and start drawing for a few hours. Once I’ve completed my drawing, I will head into my guitar practice as that’s when Ashtonn wakes up for work. I use Rocksmith to practice my dexterity and familiarity with the strings and frets while building up those calluses, and then as mentioned I am taking the course a couple of times a week for a more in-depth lessons.
Next up comes my exercising for the day. I started playing Beat Saber on the VR as it gets me moving and flailing. I also will cycle on my stationary bike while playing a game. This past month I’ve been playing Disco Elysium while cycling and eating for my next game review, which should be completed by the end of May on my Reviews & Article page. I will also use the curl bar or dumbbells to help with my arms, back, and shoulders and the dipping bar for more squats. On our days off together, I will go with Ashtonn to play disc golf and as long as it isn’t too hot we get a nice workout by not only playing disc golf but hiking the trails to go from one hole to the next. This is where I’ve been doing the majority of my photography as well.
After my exercises I will take a shower and right then it hits me how exhausted I am so I started taking a nap to wake me back up. I eat my early bird dinner and then work on my drawing and coding courses. Next comes the writing! I will try to get about 1000 words be it on my blog, game review, book, and/or other creative writing. After this point, my eyes are closing. Before I fall asleep I upload my daily comic to WordPress (which automatically sends to Twitter & Facebook), Instagram, and Reddit. I notice that I missed the whiskers on the cat again and try to repost before anyone sees it but a lot of times I don’t catch this until the next day. Sorry about that, but I do try to update it on WordPress as I’m not able to do so on the other platforms. I will pet the cats, give them a hug, and then call Ashtonn to say good night then pass out and then the next day begins. Now, not all days have been exactly this schedule, such as today, I decided to write this when I normally would be doing my daily comic, but for the most part that has been the schedule.
I believe I’ve covered the majority of what occurred this past month and am excited to go into my third month of unemployment with a stronger foundation, more purpose, and of course more goals to help keep me on task for the end goal. Having something tangible come from all of this and hopefully a career that will use what I’ve learned as well. I hope y’all are doing wonderful things with your time, be it spending more time with your family; treating yourself to relaxation; or improving/learning a new skill. Thank you for your support so much.
Until the next Scenario.
SandraScenarioS 