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+ I took some time to read fanfiction this weekend. It's not something that I normally have time to do. On the one hand, I probably could have done something else - there are Tasks that went unfinished - but on the other hand... I'm feeling weirdly inspired to work on my own projects after experiencing someone else's enthusiasm about something they enjoy. That's always nice.

+ Speaking of which, it only just occurred to me, after reading the aforementioned fic, that Project Hail Mary is a good fandom for gen. And this makes me think I should go poking around in it more. Though my own fic output is the exact opposite, I really do appreciate a well-executed genfic. Will have to put this on the to-do list. Among many other things.

+ My fic for FTH is coming along. And considering everything, I think I might do my best to work on it in the evenings in the upcoming months. With the summer weather coming - it was +25C the other day - it's getting to that unpleasant point where electronics are throwing too much heat. Better for me to limit that, and spend time working with pen and paper instead. We'll see. Depends on whether I can get my brain in the right mode, I guess.

+ Been super busy lately! Not with anything in particular, mind you, just odds and ends.

+ Took Friday off. Very glad I did. It's nice to have a 4-day weekend (Monday is a stat).

+ Managed to finish the draft for the fic I'm working on for Crack the WIP! ...Still need to do a lot of work mind you, but The End Is In Sight. For a while there I was totally hating this fic, but after putting it away for a month I'm at the "huh, it's not that bad" stage.

+ Worked on my FTH fic today. Not sure when it'll get finished but it's moving along. I'm starting to hope that Pru is becoming easier for me to write. If this story works out (which, well, it has to, because FTH) then I might, at some point, be able to finish the other fics I started with him and never finished. Until this point, he has always defeated me, that obnoxious bastard.

+ Went to Tim Horton's at lunch. I wanted to try the churro iced cap, but they were out of the ingredients. Got a double double and a custard tart instead. Pretty solid choice. The tart was sweeter than the ones at Extra Foods, but it was still good.

+ Had Pride group tonight. It was so-so. Nothing to write home about. Glad I went anyway.

+ I'm so glad that I bought a full bottle of Paco Rabanne's "Invictus Victory". Really should wear this cologne more often. I put it on after work and I've been smelling myself all night.

+ Found a notebook I was using last year as an exercise log. I think I might try to take it up again. It would be useful for me to get an idea of what I am actually doing. I flipped through it and noticed that at one point I was skipping rope, which was interesting. I don't remember doing that.

+ Received a postcard from Melu yesterday. Will have to write a reply this weekend, probably.

+ Everything feels very blah lately. I keep trying to get excited about things, but it's like everything feels muted. I'm really annoyed about it actually. I wish it was easier to have fun and enjoy things, and latch on to something that I can use as a creative outlet. I wish I could get excited about things again.

+ Next month fics are due for Crack the WIP. I haven't worked on my WIP in ages and I don't know if I'll be able to finish it for this event. Though to be fair I have been working on my FTH fic instead. I guess I should put aside some time to try on the WIP, but honestly I'm so bored with the sex scene. Or at least I was the last time I worked on it. Maybe I should take another look though; I might have just been staring at it for too long.

+ The weather recently has been kind of awful. We had a ton of snow dumped on us on Friday and Saturday; a lot of people were stranded out on Highway 63, with blizzard conditions. The highway had to be shut down and everything. For those not familiar with my area, this is the long highway on the 5-hour drive between Edmonton and Fort McMurray. There is a 200-km stretch without any services at all, nothing but wilderness. So it's a pretty bad place to be stuck. ...Anyway, the weather in town has been fine, but the overall vibe has been kind of intense. Also, I think maybe people are on-edge because the 10-year anniversary of the Beast is coming up.

+ Went to a yoga class on Saturday; this was one in collaboration with the local Pride group. It's the second event I've gone to in two weeks where I was the only participant who showed up. On the one hand, by basically having a private class I can target my own goals. On the other, well... part of the reason I even go to pride stuff is so I can make an attempt at interacting with people socially. So, very mixed feelings. Hopefully once it gets warmer more people will be in the mood to go to things.

+ I've been working on my FTH fic and having a really good time with it. LT/Pru is very far outside my wheelhouse, and I kind of wonder what the recipient will actually think of this one... But I just keep telling myself that they were aware going in that I don't normally write these characters, so. I guess we'll both have to accept that I'll do my best and that'll be that. I've been using my fountain pen to write it and ngl that is great motivation to work on it. Yay purple ink.

+ Speaking of which I've decided to keep track of how many times I fill my Jinhao with the Iroshizuku ink. I've marked down the purchase date too. Basically what I want to do is figure out how long it'll take me to go through the 50ml bottle through normal use. I mean, on the one hand I do like the idea of trying a bunch of different inks, but on the other hand it's a pretty big bottle and it doesn't seem like it would be practical to have other inks if it takes forever to go through them. As for the Kaweco pen, I already know that it takes me about 2 months to go through 1 cartridge, so there's that (which means I currently own, uh, 4 years worth of cartridges, but let's not get into that).

- Did some writing today. Tried to turn my brain off. It helped a little, I think. Realized that I need to be including more information about the setting. That's something I haven't been doing as much lately.

- Went to bring some stuff over to my mom's house. My brother called me the other day and said that he's worried about her health, and he was going to talk to her about it. She didn't mention anything about the conversation they had, so I don't know how it went.

- Watched Wu Dang this evening. For the most part it's an unremarkable film, but it had some pretty cool martial arts scenes. There's this one bit that's kind of a balletic kung fu pas de deux; the execution of that scene didn't quite live up to the concept but it was still pretty neat.

- I should have done some ironing this evening. I did not do it. Somehow I keep not managing to find time to do the ironing. It's exasperating.

- I need to book my flights for the vacation I'm taking in autumn. Note to self, don't forget.

I've been getting lots of fic ideas, but I don't have a lot of time to work on them. Starting something new doesn't really seem like a good idea. And a lot of these seem more like vibes than plot.

I really miss having someone to discuss rarepair scenarios with. And also roleplaying. And just... hanging out. There are so many people from Hetalia fandom who just dropped off the face of the internet.

+ Finished reading Winter's Orbit. Hopefully will have time to write more detailed thoughts later, but the tl;dr is that I enjoyed it very much and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel. It's a romance novel but there's lots of non-romance plot, which is basically my preferred kind of romance novel.

+ Was working on fic today. Nothing special or complicated, but it still feels good to work on something. I feel very rusty, though. It's ridiculous that putting one word in front of the other is so hard. Guess the only way out is through, though!

+ Still considering signing up for FTH. One thing I'm waffling on is what to offer; Hetalia-wise my scope is narrower than it was the last time I participated in an auction. Not that I'm solid about sticking to my usual set of characters; some of the best auction fics I've written were for pairings I'd never thought about much until that moment. But there's always the chance that someone unfamiliar with my work will ask for something I'd have trouble delivering. I guess I'll just mention my usual characters in the description and see what happens. Aside from that, though, I'm not sure what other fandoms, if any. Promare, maybe? I'm due for a rewatch anyway.

+ Watched The Life of Chuck this evening. I thought it was a pretty good adaptation of King's novella. Admittedly, the first section was pretty stressful, what with the apocalyptic scenes and whatnot, even though I knew how the rest of it went. Overall I found it pretty sweet, though. I've seen it described as kind of schmaltzy, and like... yeah, I guess that's fair, it IS schmaltzy. I enjoyed it overall, though.

+ Signups for crackthewip have started! The goal for this event is to finish a work in progress; posting closes June 30. I really like this event, so I'm glad it's running again. I think I will try to finish the rarepair WIP I started a few days ago. Maybe something else too, if I have time. Though I'm at the point where I'm like, "What do I even have in the WIP folder, anyway?" Going to have to, uh, take a look through that mess and see what's what.

+ I made bread for the first time! The recipe I used was Classic White Sandwich Bread by King Arthur Flour. It turned out pretty okay! Not perfect, but like, it's definitely edible bread. Turned out more heavy and dense than my liking, but I am going to assume that's to do with my exceptionally Beginner kneading. The instant yeast came in a package of 3, so I am definitely going to try to make bread 2 more times before deciding whether I enjoy making bread or not. Jury is currently out on that front, but I do feel pretty pleased with myself for actually trying it.

+ The set of Beam Paints watercolours I received the other day is just as nice as I'd hoped it would be! They're very vibrant and pigmented. Because the tin doesn't have a mixing surface, I have to be careful and mix directly on the paper - which is not bad, just a technique that I typically do not use. And just as I expected, the travel brush that came with the set is very, very good - perfect size for the postcard-sized sheets I prefer to work with. I'm so happy I decided to buy it; I mean, yeah, my tubes are nice, but this was a wonderful little treat and the quality is amazing.

+ Livejournal: A reminder to back up your LJ and/or import it to DW if you haven't already. Recent dust-ups in the RU side of LJ have led to speculation about the site's future. There is a thread about it by Rahaeli on Bluesky over here. I think I backed up everything the last time stuff looked shaky, but I'm going to have to check to see if I downloaded fics by my friends who didn't make the import. (I think I did, but where the heck did I save them? Who knows.)

+ I love the start of a new year. It feels so good to put together my annual to-do list and figure out all the new things I want to try, plus the stuff I already enjoy that I want to do more of. Happy 2026!

+ I did a shitload of chores this weekend and I STILL haven't wrapped the Christmas presents. Guess I'll have to figure out some moment to do that in between, well, everything else.

+ Mom brought me a ~chocolate wine~ the other day. Supposedly it's a digestif made up of chocolate and red wine, but it doesn't taste like wine at all. It tastes kind of like chocolate milk mixed with rum or something like that. Very interesting drink; probably not something I'd pick up myself mind you, as it's a little gimmicky (and was probably expensive), but interesting.

+ [Event] beagoldfish is a fandom event taking place from Jan 01 to Feb 28. It's centred around short works - there's a 1k maximum. It sounds fun! I think I might try to whip up a short work for it, or finish off a draft (if I can find something suitable). It's been a while. I like that it's a fest rather than an exchange - I don't have enough fandoms these days to do multifandom exchanges like Candy Hearts, but a fest is definitely something I can participate in.

+ I didn't set a wordcount goal for myself for 2025. On the one hand, I found it much easier to work around my schedule than previous years, which is good. On the other hand, I didn't get much writing done (though I did do some!). I'm wondering what I should do this year... Like, should I set a (low, manageable) wordcount goal, or should I set a goal to finish a handful of specific fics? Hard to say! I'm going to have to take a look at my WIPs before I make any decisions.

+ I really miss Hetalia roleplaying. ;~; I was thinking back on some of the threads I've done over the years, and feeling very nostalgic. Playing Nor was a total blast - but it's also very important that I had some really awesome partners. ;~; Folie, Wald, Chi, Jay... They were all so good at their characters. (And all seem to have dropped out of my orbit and/or fandom in general in some cases, unfortunately). Sometimes I feel like seeking out new people to play with, but the thought of trying is so daunting, I wouldn't even know where to start. Plus, I doubt I'd be able to commit.

+ And also I think in general I miss having random places to braindump Hetalia thoughts. Finding a good fit for me is hard. Probably too nostalgic for the LJ/DW era.

Me, thinking about writing while working out: Haha, what if I wrote something super artsy and pretentious just to take the piss.

Me, still thinking about writing while showering off: But what if you did it earnestly, though? What if.

To be fair, the last few times I did something artsy and pretentious and earnest I was very pleased with the results.

Hmm.

Hmm.