sleeplesspotato

My sense of time hasn't fully caught up with reality yet -- all of a sudden it's September while my mind is still somewhere in mid to late August. ^^;; Turns out enough things have happened in the meantime for me to write a post.

Eyesight. I got a new pair of glasses after 3 years of using the old ones; I thought the numbers for my astigmatism and both my eyes would have changed by now, but apparently they haven't? So I can use the old pair as a spare, just in case. Nevertheless, I've been having a hard time with staring at a laptop screen for hours -- I can't do that any more -- so I have to take breaks every so often to rest my eyes. (For some reason this apparently doesn't apply to smaller screens, like a phone or a tablet, and I can't tell why.) I also can't handle white backgrounds all that well any more, so I've changed my journal's theme as well as the defaults of whatever apps allow it.

Beta reading. About a couple months ago I finished beta-reading a short erotic novel for one of my NaNo buddies. When I offered I thought it wouldn't be hard for me to do this -- I have a natural tendency to proofread and analyze text, so it seemed like a good idea to do it at the time. Once I'd gotten started, however, I realized that I was *too* invested in the proofreading; I'd get fixated on word choice and whatever issues I found in the text, and overall it wasn't good for my mental health. ^^;; It took me longer than I thought it would to finish it, but anyway I managed to wrap it up and send it off at around the time my buddy started to ask if I was done. Recently they reached out to ask if I'd like to be included in the acknowledgements, and what name I wanted to go by; they said I'd been their most thorough beta reader, which made me feel better about having overcommitted myself lol. I said I didn't mind going unnamed, or if they wanted they could use a silly alias I came up with. (I used to wonder why voice actors and other staff who contribute to ero games and media use silly aliases; I think I kinda get it now.)

Gardening. The ginger had been doing well for months until the rainy season started; curiously it seemed to be wilting more, so I thought I ought to water it more often. That was apparently a bad idea -- based on the symptoms, the ginger had had a case of bacterial wilt, and there wasn't much I could do about it. :( I've been keeping an eye on it for the past several days, though the stalks have just been wilting slowly every day. I'll probably wait until everything's wilted before digging it up and seeing what's happened to it.

The final kale seedling finally wilted; partly due to the previously hot weather, partly because I wasn't able to find a bigger pot to move it to (or at least, I think these are the reasons). I probably should have eaten it days ago, but I didn't have the heart to for some reason.

The leek also wilted after hanging on for several weeks; I'm surprised it survived this long, especially after a somewhat disastrous re-potting. I'm not sure if I'll try to regrow more leek from what we have in the kitchen, since so far the root ends I've tried to regrow in little jars with water haven't been surviving. Maybe I've had them for too long, maybe they're just unable to grow roots again. ^^;;

It's been raining this past couple of days, which apparently led to fuzzy white mold growing in the dill and ginger pots. After looking it up online, I wound up throwing out the moldy top layer of the potting mix and sprinkling cinnamon over what was underneath to discourage further mold growth; I also moved the pots to a sunnier spot. I'm hoping this will be enough to stop the mold from coming back, especially for the ginger's sake -- it's been doing so well.

I hit my 15k goal yesterday, which means that I'm around halfway through my 30k estimate for the Castlevania OT3 fic. I managed to hit 500+ words a day every day except for that time I was writing before midnight and finished less than 400 words. (I made up for it after midnight, though that means I won't be getting the daily par badge.) This is the most words I've written with this much consistency; I ought to be happier about having gotten this far, except I know I have to keep this up for at least another month. (And then there's the editing...)

Initially I thought I could write and edit each chapter as I went along; maybe if my plot were shorter I could do that, but it's relatively long and complicated. I've also been surprising myself with how certain scenes have turned out -- though the plot points I've mapped out are still holding up, the scenes that fleshed them out have thrown me for a loop enough times that I'll have some significant retconning to do in previous chapters. For what it's worth, I'm enjoying the shape my villains have taken and will hopefully get back to writing more action-adventure after all these introspective scenes (which I apparently fall back on when it's hard to figure out what to write).

---

So far there are only 5 dill seedlings; there would have been 6, except the initial 5th one was unable to grow its leaves because they were still stuck in its seed. For a while I thought it was growing upside-down, then it died. :( The current 5th one was able to grow its leaves long enough that it survived even after I plucked off the seed stuck to the tips of those leaves. Earlier I cut off a few of the topmost leaves of the bigger seedlings since they looked like they were yellowing -- I hope it's okay to cut them already, they're only around 3 inches long. ^^;;

The kale are down to the last 2 seedlings; one is clearly doing better than the other, so I'll probably keep that one. I'll have to find a bigger (at least 30cm in diameter) pot for it.

The ginger has finally put out a tiny green shoot after almost a month of me watering it and wondering if it hadn't yet died. Now I just have to wait another 9 months or so before harvesting it, though I've read that I can start slicing off bits of it after around 2-3 months.

I'm not sure if I can post regularly, but anyway it's good to be back, at least for now. ^^;;

Some things I've been doing:

- Revived my sketching habit: mostly figure drawing practice and studies, occasionally trying to relearn watercolors. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed this even if I repeatedly run into the limitations of my current level of skill.

- Got back to the Castlevania OT3 fanfic: I got stuck around halfway through chapter 3 and was blocked for a long time; recently I was able to pick it up again and filled out a beat sheet with most of the plot. I've signed up for Camp NaNo and will try my best not to fixate on scenes (which is why I usually get stuck) and hit my word count. Fingers crossed that I've prepared enough material to finally get me through this first draft. (The full plot might exceed the word count I set for Camp NaNo, but either way I'd just be happy to hit that word count.)

- Started growing some vegetables: I've been meaning to do this for a while; I finally got around to it, though most of the time I don't really know what I'm doing apart from following whatever guides I can find online. ^^;; Currently I have a tiny village of seedlings (and a weathered but ruggedly determined green onion grown from a root end) in pots.

- Got into Tarot: I wasn't a big fan of Tarot in the past; I've just always been aware of it thanks to my mother, who has been doing readings for years. Recently I found a couple of decks that I liked (one featuring watercolor cats, another inspired by Santa Muerte) and was able to get them relatively cheaply, so I started doing simple 3-card readings. So far it's been quite helpful -- my readings tend to surface what's on my mind, or what I'm aware of but am not paying enough attention to (or ignoring because of various reasons). I'm glad I got both decks. <3