Tag: blogging

Abandonment & Update

Yep, I have practically abandoned this poor little blog. At first I was too busy posting on on my Pathfinder Pictograph blog but lately we haven’t been gaming much and I haven’t been posting there as a direct result.

So, for the past several months I’ve been working, gaming in other games somewhat, and mostly creating art. My scribbles during the Age of Ashes run are fun and all but that has become so infrequent that it just doesn’t bleed off any of my mad urge to create anymore. In my work as a teen librarian I do a fair bit of creating as I try out potential crafts to see if they are something I can run as an outdoor workshop or a take-home craft for the teens. I have so many ideas right now and I doubt many of them will see the light of day as Covid 19 the Delta variant seems to be gaining momentum. *sigh* Take home crafts will likely be the order of the day again before long.

We did get to hold one craft outdoors in person so far, we made little fish out of felt and stuffing and such. It was fun so I got out a zombie kit someone gave me a long time ago. The zombie design was terrible just… awful. So I used the materials from the kit to make something more appealing. A cuter zombie.

The one in the middle is the first felt zombie I designed using the materials from a kit. I then made the one on the right with my own supplies and a little from the kit. Zombie # 3 on the left is a little construction worker zombie I designed and created and from that point on I went hog-wild and created 12 more zombies over the past week or 2. I’ve just been designing and sewing up a storm. I’m having an absolute blast! Each zombie is unique and as I go I have greatly expanded the kinds of feature I can add. I love this so much. I’ve also been keeping a sketchbook, current pages include a fair number of zombie or zombie-related sketches, but I’m having a lot of fun. I store my horde in a little Estee Lauder … bag/case-thing which I think is hilarious. Super fashionable zombie horde transport for the modern necromancer on the go!

Future plans obviously involve a zombie workshop or take-home craft. Yeah. It’s hot and muggy here, well, the temp has dropped to reasonable but the humidity is still murderous. Anyway, I am still alive and keeping busy. Be safe.

Accomplished

For those of us who haven’t gotten sick, or been consumed with caring for someone who did, who aren’t frontline healthcare workers pressed into crazy, heroic efforts and exhaustion in service to their fellow humans, and who have managed to stay home without undue suffering… have had a chance to do things we might normally not have the time for. I know I have at least. As strange and scary as it has all been, and as much as I care about the suffering of others, I have had time for things I’ve previously neglected.

  • I’m reading again, for real, finishing novels, reading modules for an upcoming game, etc.
  • I’m writing again, keeping a bit of a journal, blogging more regularly, etc.
  • Got the shed set up for art and, basically, glamping.
  • Gaming. I think I am currently in 3 RPGs and getting ready to run a 4th.
  • Baking, I bake again. More scones, cookies, and brownies have been made during the pandemic than in the previous year, probably, I don’t track this stuff.
  • Professional development. I am learning so much in online classes and webinars that will make me better at my job it’s crazy.
  • Set the deck up for BBQs, lunches in the fresh air, and hammock lying.

The first month of self-isolation was not very productive at all. I think the worry, stress and fear made focus impossible for me. My husband was ill and getting 3 breathing treatments a day, I had had the flu, our son was recovering from 4 impacted wisdom teeth and the surgery to remove them, the younger 2 kids were struggling to learn from home, my eldest had quit her job to protect my husband from exposure, (assuming he didn’t have the damn thing which was never confirmed because why test someone who is obviously ill and stuff?) and we were all just stressed to the max. Yeah, that month, possibly more, was pure survival mode, though we all felt the relief introverts feel when they get to turtle-up at home, and kept insisting we were fine, we had no focus and a lot of worries.

Things are mostly better these days, we have new stresses, like our bosses talking about returning to work while the number of covid-19 cases continues to climb throughout the country. I can’t tell you how reluctant I am to return to work. A friend who works at a national insurance company told us they are not being asked to consider coming back to the office until after Labor Day and that is not carved in stone. I hate how there is no real safety net and no real help so that everyone is desperate to get back to work. We all deserve better.