In the Habit of Questing

Another one shared from my new blog. Thought it might be relevant to a few of you cool people here too! Hope you’re having a good one, whatever it may be!

Pen and Game

Hello friendly peoples! Happy Tuesday, probably!

Yesterday, I figured out my Twitch streaming schedule and then proceeded to stream on and off all day to try and get used to it. Thanks for stopping by if you happened to catch me online!

Today I thought I’d share a tool that I’ve been using to help keep me on track and motivated to better myself. And that tool is a little website known as Habitica.

Now this is not a new website; in fact, I’ve used it on and off for the past several years, but I mention it now because I’ve got a blog now and I can, so why not? Habitica is a habit-tracking website that tracks your habits as if you’re a questing adventurer in an RPG world. You start out as a Warrior-class noobie, and as you level up, you can pick between four different classes…

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Of other blogs and months long past…

Hey everybody! Hope it’s going great for you! Once again, I find myself being absent from the internet for long periods of time for random, vague reasons. *le sigh*

But I posted on my other blog about it, and instead of writing up a separate post here, I’m just going to link to it. I do believe that I’m going to transition to that blog soon, but I’ll make it gradual-like, because I’m indecisive and might change my mind about everything soon, lol. So I might be posting links over there for awhile until I have my schedule decided. Consider yourself warned?

Anyways, here ya go! Again, hope you had a great weekend and an even greater day!

Link to my other, more secret blog:

Excuses, Excuses

What is this blog anyway?

*wakes up*
*rubs eyes*
*squints blurrily in your direction*

Oh…hello there…is this..a blog? Is that where I am? Wait…I’m starting to get some sort of recollection of this place…Faint memories in the back of my mind of putting together posts, writing, editing…Oh yeah! I have a blog! Hello, hello! Well, I suppose I should get myself sorted and write up a real-type blog post, yes? One moment please.

*hurriedly preps a post, feeling like a kindergartener at her first day of school*

Okay! There we go! So sorry for the, er, delay. Hope you like it!

*runs off to hide in a ball of comforters and quilts while you read*

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Hello there, everyone! So it’s been…a while…and I figured I should update you on what I’ve been doing. Since this is a blog for that sort of thing anyway. It is, right? It’s been so long, I’m not even sure what this blog is anymore, whoops. But I’ll address that in a bit.
First off, how are you? Seriously, how have you all been? Are you all still out there, hanging out in your own internet grottos? Feel free to stop reading right this second and let me know in the comments. Because as soon as I got back on WordPress and started browsing through my reader, I was instantly filled with some sort of strange regret over all the things I’ve missed while I’ve been away. I hope you are all happy and healthy and one step closer to your goals 🙂

Okay, done updating me on your life since last fall? Good good. I suppose I should ask myself the same question: How have *I* been?

The answer to that is…good? I’ve been good? At least, I think I’ve been good the past few months. I’ve definitely been different. I sure don’t keep a schedule like I used to. Part of that is because my daughter now goes to school 3 days a week, so that’s weird and makes me feel old. And part of it is because I’ve used the last few months to really dive into my other passionate hobby, gaming.

Since starting a fanfiction with my friend last spring, I’ve really been head-over-heels in love with gaming. I’ve been a gamer for years, but this last year was the first time that I really delved into an MMO, and boy, is that sure different. I feel like even if I logged in every single day, I’d still have things left to do in the game. And for awhile, that’s exactly what I did…and my writing time suffered because of it. Not that I wasn’t having fun, mind you, but I did miss the writing aspect of my life. And thus, The Fanfiction was born.
Turns out that it doesn’t matter how much gaming I do, I will still always be a writer at heart. I’ve found in the last few months that no matter what game I am playing, I will usually have a notebook next to me so that I can take notes on the story as I go along (whether that game has an actual storyline or if I’m just making one up myself). That’s just how I like to play games. I say this all casual-like, but in reality I’ve only recently come to terms with this.

So my last few months have been full of mostly gaming interspersed with little snippets of note-taking. I made a Twitch channel in November and tried my hand at streaming some games (quite a scary prospect for an introvert, let me tell you!). I even made a new blog, because I didn’t want to spam this one with all my video game thoughts.

But I don’t know if I have the energy to try and balance two blogs. It seems that I don’t have quite enough writing/personal articles for this site, and not quite enough video game articles for the other. So…should I combine them? Or stick to one topic? Or keep up with the two of them and hope I get better? These are the kind of questions I’ve been asking myself, and I’m still unsure as to how to proceed. But both the Writer Me and Gamer Me agree that whatever I decide to do, more actual writing should be taking place. Because it’s fun and I enjoy and why the hell not, right?

And that’s been about it. My life is a bit boring most of the time. My days are pretty much the same, the curse of a stay-at-home mom, I suppose. But I am happy right now, and the desire to improve myself is loud and demanding. I’m just going to run with it and see where it takes me for the next year. Determination, whoo!

Well, I’m off to finish typing up my next blog post like a responsible writer-person. Let me know what you think about my not-really-a-huge-problem dilemma. Would you like to see game-related content here more, if it was written in an approachable way? Would you rather I keep it separate? Should I do a trial run, or keep scheduled “gaming” and “writing” blog days? Decisions, decisions!

Have a good Monday, yeah?

Long Time Gone

Hello, everyone! How are you? Feels like it’s been such a long time since we last talked…am I running late? *checks calendar* Hmm, looks like I haven’t posted in about three months…HOLY PENCILS IT’S BEEN THREE MONTHS?!

Looking back to that time, I see that I up and left at the end of the April A-Z Challenge. Yeah…uh…sorry about that. But the reason why I left so suddenly coincides with the reason why I’m back now, so let me explain.

 
I am a writer. And while that’s probably pretty obvious, I still feel like I need to explain myself a bit because there are different kinds of writers out there. Some writers are diligent, hard-working individuals, full of self-discipline and good work ethic. I…am not one of those writers. I prefer to think of myself more as a professional daydreamer who just happens to use written words to get my thoughts out of my head. And three months ago, I started daydreaming hardcore…

 
A new story had fluttered into my head unexpectedly. It was fueled by a video game and my best friend/extension of my soul, and let me tell you, it was relentless. I’m not sure whether I mentioned it in my A-Z posts or not (and I’m too lazy to go check), but by that last week, I was seriously struggling to think about anything other than the fictional drama playing out in my head. And so, I simply stopped resisting and let it take over.
I don’t know if that was the right or best decision, but frankly, I didn’t care. The A-Z Challenge was my attempt to trick myself into writing more; did it really matter if I dropped one writing goal to start working on another? In the end, I had words on paper…but I see now that that decision wasn’t very fair to you dear readers here, and for that, I  do apologize.

 
So now, I’m back! And I have plans! I am hoping to start posting here regularly on Wednesdays to share a bit of myself with you in whatever form that happens to take. Probably ramble-y journal-type entries about the desert and my dog, given what I know about myself. But I also have some writing-related articles in the works that I would love to put out on Fridays. Those will probably be a bit more infrequent at first, but I’m going to give’em a try!

 
Oh, about that story that so rudely interrupted my A-Z Challenge…I will be posting that as well! I’m setting up another blog for it and all my other video-game related writings (they desperately need a home of their own; I’m starting to run out of headspace). I’m aiming to post a chapter a week, so if you like hopeful sci-fi adventures with odd couple main characters, it might be the story for you. And don’t worry about the whole “based on a video game thing;” I am writing it in a way that will make sense whether you’ve seen the game or not. Chapter One will be coming out next week; I’ll be sure to excitedly make an all-caps post about it when it happens.

 
And, once again, I am so, so sorry to become one of those “Are they dead?” bloggers. I promise to put in my will for some famous author to update all my blogs and social media feeds with beautiful, nonsensical poetics whenever I kick the bucket.

 
In the meantime, please tell me what you’ve been up to over the past three months. Did you have a nice summer? Don’t make me go internet-stalk you to find out, because I will! I will…

Day 21 – U is for Uliginous

Uliginous

 
(adj) slimy; oozy; swampy; growing in swampy places

 

 
Today’s word is a gross descriptor, but I simply couldn’t ignore the vividness of it. I don’t personally have a lot of experience with swamps, which is probably why this word called out to me. It was something new and different and fun to imagine. I’ve been on a fictional rampage with my thoughts lately and I’m sure I will thoroughly enjoy throwing my characters into a uliginous location sometime soon!

How about you? Do you have some swamp experience? Any memorable swamps that you’ve been too? Let me know in the comments!

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Also, Happy Monday! For some reason my Monday posts just seem to be getting shorter and shorter lately; sorry about that! I’ve been doing a lot of fiction writing and its been kind of hard to tear myself away from it. But we’re on the last week of this crazy challenge and I will not stop now! Yay for willpower! Or feeling obligated to finish public challenges! Woot!

Day 20 – T is for Torpor

Torpor

(noun) a state of physical or mental inactivity; lethargy.

 

 
So last night I decided to stay up late.

Well, “decided” is kind of the wrong word: my husband offered me coffee at five in the afternoon and I mistakenly drank it before realizing that I couldn’t remember the last time I had had a caffeinated beverage. Next thing I knew, it was a quarter to four in the morning and I was still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed…

Which brings us to the word “torpor.” Man, do I have a lot of torpor right now. Buckets of it. Probably wheelbarrows full of the stuff. *yawn*

But despite my huge amount of torpor, I’m still here writing away, so yay for overwhelming willpower and chocolate chip cookie dough rewards! (Yes, I do reward myself with food like a common animal, don’t worry about it.)

I also picked torpor because its in one of my “Currently Playing/Obsessed With” games right now, Ark: Survival Evolved. If you’re not familiar with it, you play as a survivor on a mysterious island that is home to DINOSAURS! And not just your basic ones like the T-rex or the Triceratops, but all sorts of prehistoric animals! My favorites are the Argentavis, which is a really big vulture/eagle that you can ride on like a boss, and the Spinosaurus (sorry T-rex, you’re just too cliche for my hipster tastes). In the game, the word “torpor” is a measurement of your consciousness, and if your torpor gets too high (like, say, due to some giant scorpion stings to the face or getting headbutted by a Pachycephalasaurus), than you are down and out for the count. Nothing is worse than getting knocked out and watching your unconsious body get swarmed by vicious carnivores…*sigh* ‘Tis the life of a dinosaur survivor.

I expect that with it being the weekend, you might be feeling a bit of torpor too! Share your *yawn* experiences in the comments and I will dutifully reply as soon as I take a little nap…

Day 19 – S is for Stelliferous

Stelliferous

 
(adj) having or abounding with stars.

 

What a gorgeous adjective! I was lucky enough to find this word early this month and forget all about it until I found it in my notes for today. Ah, the joys of not being able to remember anything…

I never tire of looking up at the night sky. I have good memories of going stargazing, whether it was to see a particular bright and shiny planet or a meteor shower. Heck, I remember watching Halley’s Comet streak across the sky all those years ago. Some of my more magical memories involved the stars: Driving across the snow-covered New Mexican deserts at four in the morning and seeing shooting stars above me. Running out of the house in my pajamas to watch the International Space Station do a fly-by. Camping out illegally at a church/school’s property to watch the Perseids. I will admit that here in the middle-of-nowhere Arizona, the stars look especially good. Hard for light pollution to get in the way when nobody lives here!

Do you have any stargazing memories to share? Any good times spent under the night sky? Let me know in the comments!

Day 18 – R is for Raconteur

Raconteur

 
(noun) a person skilled in telling anecdotes

 

This one applies to many of you fellow bloggers out there! The blogs I follow are usually written by the best of raconteurs. Those people that can take something as simple as getting breakfast in the morning and turn it into a dramatic problem-solving, life-lesson moment…you know who you are. And I am absurdly jealous of you.

I believe there can be inspiration in nearly every moment in my life. The simplest of acts can be twisted into a metaphor, or perhaps reveal a beauty of the world. For example, I live in the “Hummingbird Capital of the United States” and thus, I bought myself a hummingbird feeder as soon as I had a porch to put it on. Every single day I am given the gift of watching a ridiculously tiny bird come to my back window for a miniscule sip of water, and then flit away into the unknown. I have gone outside in the evenings and sat with one of them (a regular named Gwendolyn), me on the bench and her on the branch a few feet away. I have seen hummingbird fights, which look as cartoon-y as they sound. It’s been, frankly, magical. But when I think about it, I’m really just watching a thirsty bird get a drink and then poop all over my porch several times a day. The “magic” is in how I view them and how I choose to tell their story.

Surely you know some raconteurs in your own life? I can think of a couple of work buddies who could spin a great tale. Or perhaps a family member? (Old dads are usually the best for this in my experience) Let me know your thoughts on it!

Day 17 – Q is for Qualtagh

Qualtagh

(noun – Manx English) The first person one encounters, either after leaving one’s home or (sometimes) outside one’s home, especially on New Year’s Day.

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Spoiler Alert: This is a trash post and you should probably not read it because its extremely ramble-y and I’m really tired and I’m only posting because dang I’ve made it this far already and I can’t quit now.

Apologies in advance.

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Ah. Well. Here we are. The letter “Q,” is it? Let’s see what we got here…

Look…I’m going to be frank with you…I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM, sat down at my computer and wrote fiction for an hour. Then I took a short break to get my husband off to work. When I got back to the computer, I thought, “wow, I’m being really productive today, I should work on my blog post now so that I don’t put it off until too late.” So I promptly looked up “q” words and found this beauty and had a million lovely and interesting thoughts about it…And then my daughter woke up.

The rest of my day consisted of being a preschool teacher for a classroom of one. I did puzzles, played Candy Land, stopped tantrums caused by the result of playing Candy Land, went out for a bike ride, did some school lessons, gave out good behavior stickers, wondered where the good behavior went by lunchtime, made lunch, gave child cake so that I could finish my own lunch, and eventually got the little darlin’ into bed for a nap. Then I took a nap myself and eventually found myself back to the computer, a whole day having passed between the start of this post and the finish of it.

All the lovely thoughts I had about this word have been absorbed into the day. I briefly remember something about making a challenge to note the first person you saw outside. I suppose I just thought it was a cool idea…*shrugs* Sorry guys. Eight hours with a four-year-old and now I’ve got nothing. I can tell you all the pups in Paw Patrol though. That counts for something, right?

Maybe you have some thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments. Or just let me know how your day went. It’s cool.

Day 16 – P is for Prodigious

Prodigious

(adj) remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree.

 
I just had to pick this one, I just had to…if you’ve ever watched the show Digimon, you should already be smiling and nodding along right about now.

Being a child of the nineties, most of my weekends were spent watching silly, brightly-animated cartoons. And Digimon was one such brightly-animated mess of monsters and children and oh-god-the-puns. So many puns. My husband and I started re-watching Season One a few years back for nostalgia’s sake and the show is just dripping with awful puns that make you shake your head and groan every single time. It’s amazing. But despite it’s groan-inducing dialogue, the Digimon themselves were just the best. If I wasn’t such a die-hard Pokemon fan, Digimon would be top on my list.

The word “prodigious” was used extensively by one of the characters, an adorkable nerd named Izzy. He said it all the time. Seeing this word again instantly brought back all my lovely reminisces of the series and my childhood. *happy contented nostalgia-filled sigh*

Thing is, when I was actually watching this show as a kid, I didn’t even know what that word meant. Now that I’m sitting here staring at the definition, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, those Digimon were pretty prodigious…I just thought he was saying it because it had the word “digi” in it!

I’ll have to add this one to my personal lexicon so that I can be an adorkable nerd too! How ‘bout you? Do you have any other quirky exclamations you like to use? Or if you’d like to reminisce about Digimon in the comments, reminisce away!