Ended up playing Minecraft with Frank until about 11:30 last night. Alarms went off but I stayed in bed until noon when my dad wanted me to help him dump apples near his trail cams. Ian’s got plans for tomorrow so we’re recording the podcast tonight at 8.
I really wish I could pack up my studio and go somewhere isolated for awhile. As it is I think I’m going to have to better communicate to others, (friends, family, even my cat) that I need more alone time.
Set my alarm for 9 this morning and listened to some podcasts before I went to sleep. I got some breakfast with my dad and then went to a thrift store to find a cheap VGA monitor. Once I got home I set the little computer up to see what shape it was in. After some fussing with my network connection I installed some modern browsers on it. Added a VNC server and removed the keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Loaded it in a window on my Mac and I’ve been tinkering with it most of the evening. I’ve been trying to install a Minecraft server to test how smoothly it runs. It’s a nice little machine given it’s age. I might update the RAM and plug in some external drives once I get all the software set up.
As for work, I’m going to try setting my alarm for 7 tomorrow. I’ll add some time to my timers so breaks are a bit longer. I’m also only going to focus on one or two things. I’ve still got comics to color/shade though I really want to get back to animating. I’ll try balancing those two, see how I feel. I need to start feeling like I’m allowed the break time as long as I work during the work time.
I wrote a long, thought out post and WordPress ate it. Spent like 10 minutes trying to enable revisions and it never saved the full post.
I’ll probably write all that out again later but for now I’m going to bed. I’m going to try to get more rest and I may end up putting projects on hiatus or taking a break from posting until I’m ready to return to them.
EDIT: Take Two
Tuesday I helped my dad haul some things out of a storage rental the previous user had left behind. One of those things was a computer I intend to tinker with. I had parts for it except my monitor only did DVI and it needed a VGA. Walmart, Best Buy, and Meijer didn’t have an adapter. Frank and Ian wanted to do a hangout and Frank wanted to play some Minecraft so I broadcast it and saved it to YouTube. Ian also let me know the feeds on the site weren’t working properly and apparently we’re not in the iTunes store anymore. (It’s be nice if they would maybe email you to say something’s wrong but then again I wish you could tell iTunes to not stop downloading podcast episodes just because I haven’t listened to any in awhile. But that’s a whole other blog post.) We finished up around midnight and I wasn’t going to fuss with my NaNoWriMo project or anything but I tried writing a WIDT. I decided to try blogging the video, too, and after making a thumbnail realized it was still processing so I couldn’t customize it. Then the site failed to connect and I got an email saying they’d moved my server. I’d had enough and went to bed.
Wednesday my dad needed me to follow him to put his car away in the storage lot. I was feeling very tired and went for dinner with my mom. I mentioned in the previous version of this post that I’d been irritable and tired, probably owing to a number of things. Lack of sleep, dealing with the time change and the underlying stress everybody carries around this time of year. I’d taken some personality tests and came back with INTJ. I don’t take too much stock in online quizzes but it can be a good way to look at how I respond to things. I know I’m introverted and I’m working on being more social. I know I need quiet time alone to recharge after seeing people and to clear my head. I also know people think I don’t have emotions sometimes but I prefer to say I’m more like Mr. Spock. When I feel things they can be overwhelming so I tend to process things in a logical way I can understand. WordPress wasn’t formatting the video in the post correctly as I wrote it and when it posted it just showed the video over and over. I spent time trying to load a previous version only to find it hadn’t saved.
Basically I’ve been trying to think more about my well being. That means getting more rest and either scaling back projects or putting them on hiatus. I could probably use some time away from trying to post things regularly online and just working on projects to build up buffers.
Remember You Can’t Do That on Television? Check out this week’s Billy Badass!
Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!
I’ve been a raw nerve all day. I went to bed at 10:30 after finishing the first bit on my NaNoWriMo project. The cat was already in my room so I let her stay, meaning she purred and walked all over me any time I stirred in the night. I’d stayed up late over the weekend but thought I’d balanced it out with sleeping in. Apparently not as all day I’ve been irritable and unable to think. I’ve been stressing as my buffer of YouTube vids has run out and I haven’t been in the proper mindset to put together new ones. I uploaded two comics to Tumblr’s queue and it ran them both today. Their scheduling system is rather annoying. I’ve been trying to find something to properly schedule all my social media stuff (the comic, the videos, and links on other sites for people to check them out) and have yet to find anything that works properly.
I’m going to type my word count for NaNoWriMo, sleep in tomorrow, and see if I feel any better. I may take something of a vacation/hiatus from regular posting for a bit.
Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!
Got in the studio this morning and started putting together a pull list of subjects to draw during sketch breaks. Wrote down the basics then expanded them into fuller categories, grabbed some names off some lists online, and aded a few that came to mind. There’s still plenty of customizing and adding I can do when I get the time but it’s a start. I just want to be able to have concepts ready where the design part of my brain can go, “Oh, I know how to make that interesting!”
Took a nap once that was done and went for lunch with my dad. Ran some errands with him and then I came home to color/shade some comics. Ian got ahold of me asking if we could record this week’s show tonight. I messaged Doug and Frank about it then did some link hunting on the topic I wanted to talk about. Managed to get two comics finished so I’m happy.
Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!
Got up to my alarm at 5 this morning. Worked in the studio inking and lettering/ballooning pages. Took breaks like I mentioned on the podcast and felt rather productive. I was taking an extended break and considering a nap around noon when my dad called to do some running around. It was good to get out of the house for a bit.
Spent some time this evening looking over the RAID options I was considering. Debating if I really need the extra processing power and if it’s worth the speed hit for NAS. I just want to figure out the ideal configuration for me. I’m also only allowing myself to fuss over it after I get work done for the day.
Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!
I was still dragging this morning when I tried to get up. Ate some sugary cereal, drank some frappuccino, and listened to metal covers of NES tunes to try and wake up. I had some baja blast and that seemed to help.
I’ve decided to invest in a NAS RAID for backup. I’ve narrowed it down to two machines. One has a better processor and more RAM but costs more. The cost impacts which size HD I use which is also going to impact the scalability should I get more drives later. I’ve spent today bargain hunting, tracking down the absolute minimum I can get things for. I’ll sleep on it tonight and decide when I don’t have all these numbers swimming in my head.
Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!
Went to bed at 8 last night, woke up at midnight. Showered, got dressed, and came down to the studio. Spent some time researching RAID solutions and went back to bed about 3:30. Woke up around 1:30, dad invited me over for pizza. Came home, napped until almost 10 to find invites from Frank to craft some mines. Just got done with that a little bit ago.
I think this cold weather is making me tired. I can’t sleep enough and when I wake up I need to do things that keep me busy. Night seems to be the only quiet time I can get, though, so I’m gonna try and make use of that.
Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!
Stayed up after recording the podcast Saturday night, first crafting mines with Frank while Ian hung out on the hangout, then I decided to finish a game I want to review. Sunday my dad wanted to do some running around and after a nap I worked in the studio until around 1:30 in the morning. Thumbnail art for the next episode of NoRights Plays…, wrote up and scheduled the blog post/made a preview image for today’s Billy Badass comic, and fiddled with some site stuff I’m not done with yet.
Today’s been kind of a blur as I slept in, started getting a headache, then had lunch with my dad. He dropped me off then needed me to drive over and do tech support for his computer that was giving him trouble. It’s been busy and I’m tired. I’m looking forward to finishing the inks on November’s pages after I get some sleep.
Watch me play Don’t Starve in my new Let’s Play series NoRights Plays…!
Frank and I were up to about midnight seeing if he could get on the modded server or if we had to go back to vanilla. He was able to do more this time, though he still has to sort out why his escape key doesn’t work in game. I left my alarms off today and woke up thinking it was around 4 in the morning because it was so dark. Turned out to be 7:30. This season does funny things to you, man.
Tried KanbanFlow today instead of TeamViz. It requires manual restarts, too, but with desktop notifications they’re easier to deal with. I had a nice rhythm going until my dad called to go for lunch. Spent the first session doing some free drawing in Mischief, letting myself draw whatever I felt like at the moment. Realized I should probably have some specific subjects to doodle. I have a short list of things – pin up girls, monsters, supernatural creatures, aliens, space ships – that sorta thing. What I need to do is jot down some character and scene descriptions to run off of. I should be spending time thinking of how to draw the thing, not figuring out what thing to draw. This is good though. It means I’m breaking things down into smaller tasks so I can handle them efficiently. It’s why I was looking for a pomodoro timer/task manager in the first place.
Speaking of figuring things out, I’m thinking more about the time I’m spending not working. It’s often reactionary to things. I’ll want to work but need to spend some quiet time first. I’m sure it comes from being an introvert. I go out with people and then I need some “me” time before I’m able to work again. I’m trying to roll drawing into that time instead of lumping it in with work. Fun drawing exercises will help with that. Having prompts so all I have to worry about when drawing is the act itself will, too.
