With No Love In Her Heart
Oct. 11th, 2023 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebeInstead of going to the gym yesterday, I convinced R. to stay home, play video games and watch TV with me. It was our last night together for a little bit and I wanted him (mostly) to myself. I made our last Blue Apron meal while he read "City of Blades" to me, the second book in a trilogy about what happens to a world when someone kills the gods who were partially-responsible for its make-up. I fell in love with the world immediately, and it expands well here. I'm most impressed with the character work, and how it feels like each person who contacts one of the divine remnants is the only person who can thread the needle of a resolution. Just really solid fantasy all around.
Yellowstone continues to be pretty fun, though S1E5 feels like a relatively slow episode. The youngest son was arrested by Reservation authorities after they dug up the bodies of the child predators he killed, but he nearly talked his way out of it when the middle son burst in and...well, saved the day, but a lot more aggressively than was needed. What's really interesting to me is how both brothers deal with the inexorable pull of their family; one has gone all-in on being a loyal soldier even if he isn't rewarded for it, while the other wants nothing to do with the toxicity of their power. Who could blame him?
Even still, it looks like he won't have a choice about joining the family at some point. Like a Native elder told him in the pilot, he's going to have to join his people -- and that's likely going to put him on opposite sides of the community he's come to care about.
I finished the Manderville quest in Final Fantasy XIV! Well, the first set anyway. It was a hoot, of course, and I'm very much looking forward to continuing his adventures once I'm through the Heavensward plot. I'd like to devote some serious time to moving forward with the game, but I already have the feeling there are going to be competing priorities for this time.
Which is why I'm going to have to really lean in to building a system that ensures I'm doing everything I'd like to be. At the very least I'd like to spruce up the kitchen, home office, and bedroom while R.'s away; I can do a little downsizing while I clean and maybe even organize things a little better. I did straighten up my computer desk before settling in to the day job, but I've let things get messy again. It's surprising to me how quickly clutter piles up if you don't stay on top of it!
The goal is to make sure I spend at least 30 minutes a day on each of my six habits -- which honestly shouldn't be too hard. At least, a lack of time is no excuse. I know that my willpower will likely diminish pretty rapidly after 5 PM, so it would be nice to have everything done before then. That might not be possible during the work week, but that doesn't mean I can't give it the good old college try.
Writing is definitely going to be the hardest thing. I'll always look for a reason to procrastinate if I let myself, but at this point I really want to put in the time while I can. I honestly think this might be a good opportunity to practice that "self-parenting" thing I've heard so much about. Maybe it'll be easier to do the right thing if I imagine a friendly giant rabbit-dad encouraging me every step of the way. After all, I have to find a way to motivate myself.
Most of my creative energy is going to the D&D game by default, as I'm still "stuck" on the world map. In fact, I've regressed a bit. I tried to add a bit more land to the polar regions since, you know, ice caps -- but that's thrown off the land-water balance in a major way. Everything I try to balance it out makes me hate it a little more, and I'm finally thinking about just scrapping the land masses altogether so I can start over. But that's a fool's errand and will take me that much further from my goal; when I sit down to work on it, I'll do myself a real favor by accepting what I have and making the best of it. This is my very first world map, so it won't be professional quality or anything -- especially if I never finish it to begin with!
After the world map is done, it's on to digging into the PC backstories for seeds I can use in planning the rest of the campaign. This is the part I'm most looking forward to; it's a combination of world-building and story planning that I really dig. And, now that I have a bit more experience as a DM under my belt, it'd be nice to put what I've learned to good use at last.
Of course, this all depends on my grit. I've been spending a couple months cruising now that I've landed a job, pushing myself in notable but incremental ways. This week I'd like to make something of a "discipline retreat".
Yellowstone continues to be pretty fun, though S1E5 feels like a relatively slow episode. The youngest son was arrested by Reservation authorities after they dug up the bodies of the child predators he killed, but he nearly talked his way out of it when the middle son burst in and...well, saved the day, but a lot more aggressively than was needed. What's really interesting to me is how both brothers deal with the inexorable pull of their family; one has gone all-in on being a loyal soldier even if he isn't rewarded for it, while the other wants nothing to do with the toxicity of their power. Who could blame him?
Even still, it looks like he won't have a choice about joining the family at some point. Like a Native elder told him in the pilot, he's going to have to join his people -- and that's likely going to put him on opposite sides of the community he's come to care about.
I finished the Manderville quest in Final Fantasy XIV! Well, the first set anyway. It was a hoot, of course, and I'm very much looking forward to continuing his adventures once I'm through the Heavensward plot. I'd like to devote some serious time to moving forward with the game, but I already have the feeling there are going to be competing priorities for this time.
Which is why I'm going to have to really lean in to building a system that ensures I'm doing everything I'd like to be. At the very least I'd like to spruce up the kitchen, home office, and bedroom while R.'s away; I can do a little downsizing while I clean and maybe even organize things a little better. I did straighten up my computer desk before settling in to the day job, but I've let things get messy again. It's surprising to me how quickly clutter piles up if you don't stay on top of it!
The goal is to make sure I spend at least 30 minutes a day on each of my six habits -- which honestly shouldn't be too hard. At least, a lack of time is no excuse. I know that my willpower will likely diminish pretty rapidly after 5 PM, so it would be nice to have everything done before then. That might not be possible during the work week, but that doesn't mean I can't give it the good old college try.
Writing is definitely going to be the hardest thing. I'll always look for a reason to procrastinate if I let myself, but at this point I really want to put in the time while I can. I honestly think this might be a good opportunity to practice that "self-parenting" thing I've heard so much about. Maybe it'll be easier to do the right thing if I imagine a friendly giant rabbit-dad encouraging me every step of the way. After all, I have to find a way to motivate myself.
Most of my creative energy is going to the D&D game by default, as I'm still "stuck" on the world map. In fact, I've regressed a bit. I tried to add a bit more land to the polar regions since, you know, ice caps -- but that's thrown off the land-water balance in a major way. Everything I try to balance it out makes me hate it a little more, and I'm finally thinking about just scrapping the land masses altogether so I can start over. But that's a fool's errand and will take me that much further from my goal; when I sit down to work on it, I'll do myself a real favor by accepting what I have and making the best of it. This is my very first world map, so it won't be professional quality or anything -- especially if I never finish it to begin with!
After the world map is done, it's on to digging into the PC backstories for seeds I can use in planning the rest of the campaign. This is the part I'm most looking forward to; it's a combination of world-building and story planning that I really dig. And, now that I have a bit more experience as a DM under my belt, it'd be nice to put what I've learned to good use at last.
Of course, this all depends on my grit. I've been spending a couple months cruising now that I've landed a job, pushing myself in notable but incremental ways. This week I'd like to make something of a "discipline retreat".
