Take A Bow
Nov. 30th, 2023 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebeI did some work on the commission I've taken on yesterday and it felt good to get back in the habit. Most of it was more administration work than creative, just trying to wrap my head around the project scope. When I lay it all out, it's an ambitious project -- it'll require me to write two 6,000 word stories in a pretty short amount of time, with live updates comprising roughly 1,000 words per day. The first short story should drop the Wednesday after FC, with live updates starting on the following Monday. A week after the end of the game, we'll have a wrap-up story to close things out. By the end of January, I'll have made $570 on my writing if everything goes smoothly.
I'm not going to lie. I'm very worried about my capability of pulling this off. But I'm hoping that focusing on the act of doing it will help me "get out of my own way", there. If I can get into the spirit of the thing I'll be less anxious about how well I'm doing and focus more on getting it done.
I'm also hoping that a lot of pre-work this month will give me the ability to just write through things in January. I can have the first short story ready to go ASAP, of course, but the more pre-writing I do the easier things will be during the live/random portion of the project AND the easier it will be to wrap things up with the end-story.
The whole conceit is a little weird, but I like it. Basically, in a furry world much like our own there's a game show where six contestants vie for the chance to "win" the bodies of their dreams -- and even become a deity like Marie, a 100-foot-tall husky who is, quite simply, the most powerful person in the world. The game show is fairly randomized, so contestants don't really have any choice in what happens to them. As far as I understand it, the entertainment comes from watching them deal with the consequences of their changes. There's a twist brewing beneath that and the commissioner seems to be really keen on it, but I'm having trouble finding an emotional connection to the story with it.
Anyway, this project might end up taking more time than anticipated, so I may have to back off on a plan or two. I thought that I would be able to bounce between two or three different projects on a regular schedule, but I'm finding that I tend to deep-dive into things while they're working -- then need a bailout project when I get stuck on that. So it might be a good idea to narrow my focus down to two projects, with one flexing a different muscle (or training a different skill) so I'm productive no matter what.
I had my weekly 1:1 with my manager yesterday, and it turns out I've fallen far short of the goal I've set for myself. Basically, I was aiming for 200 certificates done by the end of the month and so far I'm at...75. BUT I've also been working on QC Support Tickets and Lab Results, neither of which count for certificate work. We talked about that a bit, and how there aren't very good ways to track the other two "buckets" of work we tend to do -- at least, not in a way that feels as meaningful as the certificates. I've been writing down my daily work, for better or worse, to keep track of what I've done. But I'm still not tracking the time spent studying -- learning about clean rooms, clean benches, biological safety cabinets, and familiarizing myself with how the documentation tends to be organized. That eats up time, too, but it's harder to qualify.
We're back at the gym this week; K. didn't join us yesterday because he was seeing off a work friend with a goodbye party, so we did a back workout on our own. I definitely feel more stable, and it's really fun to feel how these exercises target different muscle groups, or to play around with form until it "feels" right. Again, anything that anchors you in your body is a good thing!
We also played a Curse of Strahd session last night, achieving a major milestone -- saving our ward Irina from the diabolical clutches of Issac Strozny, toy-maker and Strahd ally. Only one member in our party was taken out, but R.'s Grave Domain Cleric helped put her back on her feet. After fighting a hag and...whatever Strozny was in quick succession, however, we were gassed. My Paladin went through all of his spell slots, his Channel Divinity power, all 20 pts. of his Lay On Hands healing, and spent one charge of his breath weapon.
For our efforts, Strahd himself came out of a painting our druid tried to burn immediately and gave us a personal invitation to Castle Ravenloft. Given that each one of us has sworn to kill him and end his reign of terror, it was a fairly charged moment. He also said that he will no longer attempt any claim on Irina, so presumably she is free to live in peace.
But we still have a few things to do in town. The Bergermeister is still crazy and torturing his subjects with mandatory festivals every week; the hag we killed is just one in a coven of three, so we should probably destroy the other two at the Bonegrinder Mill before too long; and there's still a couple of missing servants to find. Perhaps, by the time we clear our quest list completely, we'll be ready to take a run at the damnable vampire. :)
There's still friction in our friend group that comes from a combination of...unresolved trauma, poor socialization, and a lack of self-awareness. I'm trying to advocate for more empathy and patience, but it's been a tough year and people are pretty frazzled.
I'm not going to lie. I'm very worried about my capability of pulling this off. But I'm hoping that focusing on the act of doing it will help me "get out of my own way", there. If I can get into the spirit of the thing I'll be less anxious about how well I'm doing and focus more on getting it done.
I'm also hoping that a lot of pre-work this month will give me the ability to just write through things in January. I can have the first short story ready to go ASAP, of course, but the more pre-writing I do the easier things will be during the live/random portion of the project AND the easier it will be to wrap things up with the end-story.
The whole conceit is a little weird, but I like it. Basically, in a furry world much like our own there's a game show where six contestants vie for the chance to "win" the bodies of their dreams -- and even become a deity like Marie, a 100-foot-tall husky who is, quite simply, the most powerful person in the world. The game show is fairly randomized, so contestants don't really have any choice in what happens to them. As far as I understand it, the entertainment comes from watching them deal with the consequences of their changes. There's a twist brewing beneath that and the commissioner seems to be really keen on it, but I'm having trouble finding an emotional connection to the story with it.
Anyway, this project might end up taking more time than anticipated, so I may have to back off on a plan or two. I thought that I would be able to bounce between two or three different projects on a regular schedule, but I'm finding that I tend to deep-dive into things while they're working -- then need a bailout project when I get stuck on that. So it might be a good idea to narrow my focus down to two projects, with one flexing a different muscle (or training a different skill) so I'm productive no matter what.
I had my weekly 1:1 with my manager yesterday, and it turns out I've fallen far short of the goal I've set for myself. Basically, I was aiming for 200 certificates done by the end of the month and so far I'm at...75. BUT I've also been working on QC Support Tickets and Lab Results, neither of which count for certificate work. We talked about that a bit, and how there aren't very good ways to track the other two "buckets" of work we tend to do -- at least, not in a way that feels as meaningful as the certificates. I've been writing down my daily work, for better or worse, to keep track of what I've done. But I'm still not tracking the time spent studying -- learning about clean rooms, clean benches, biological safety cabinets, and familiarizing myself with how the documentation tends to be organized. That eats up time, too, but it's harder to qualify.
We're back at the gym this week; K. didn't join us yesterday because he was seeing off a work friend with a goodbye party, so we did a back workout on our own. I definitely feel more stable, and it's really fun to feel how these exercises target different muscle groups, or to play around with form until it "feels" right. Again, anything that anchors you in your body is a good thing!
We also played a Curse of Strahd session last night, achieving a major milestone -- saving our ward Irina from the diabolical clutches of Issac Strozny, toy-maker and Strahd ally. Only one member in our party was taken out, but R.'s Grave Domain Cleric helped put her back on her feet. After fighting a hag and...whatever Strozny was in quick succession, however, we were gassed. My Paladin went through all of his spell slots, his Channel Divinity power, all 20 pts. of his Lay On Hands healing, and spent one charge of his breath weapon.
For our efforts, Strahd himself came out of a painting our druid tried to burn immediately and gave us a personal invitation to Castle Ravenloft. Given that each one of us has sworn to kill him and end his reign of terror, it was a fairly charged moment. He also said that he will no longer attempt any claim on Irina, so presumably she is free to live in peace.
But we still have a few things to do in town. The Bergermeister is still crazy and torturing his subjects with mandatory festivals every week; the hag we killed is just one in a coven of three, so we should probably destroy the other two at the Bonegrinder Mill before too long; and there's still a couple of missing servants to find. Perhaps, by the time we clear our quest list completely, we'll be ready to take a run at the damnable vampire. :)
There's still friction in our friend group that comes from a combination of...unresolved trauma, poor socialization, and a lack of self-awareness. I'm trying to advocate for more empathy and patience, but it's been a tough year and people are pretty frazzled.
