(no subject)

[kittydesade]

And that, your Honor, was when I realized I had about 26 days left before Camp Nanowrimo started up again and that I should really get my ass moving on prep. Oops. Okay, no, let's make a list of things I have to do, just the things I have to do for the rest of the month and not the things I do daily because if I try to think of that I really will collapse into a heap.

Finish the BACA story
Finish Alex's story (or, heh, write it at all)
Finish The Bedlam
Write the Faery Mead short story at all.
Write the supplemental documents for White Lightning
Outline PS
Write at least 20 thousand words of prep for PS, mostly character noodling
Sketch more kinship charts for PS and related works
Sketch more alliance charts for PS and related works
Make an index of fae houses
Put all of that into a binder for future reference
(And assign a day to regularly update it with fresh printouts, probably Friday again)

And that's just the writing stuff, that's not even touching the mending and knitting I'm working on. Or the stuff I do daily, which, see also not thinking about it or I will fall face forward onto the ground. It's like the story about the caterpillar when someone asked it how it moved all those legs at once. You can't stop to think about it, or you will fall over. If I stop to think about what I'm doing all at once I will fall over, so I'm not thinking about it, keeping many lists, and working on the next thing. I still swear the best thing Courtesan School taught me was freaking time management.

Since there are people now on my feed who may be interested in this sort of thing: So! Every month around the beginning of the month I do a tarot spread to get my head prepared for, here is the coming month, here is stuff to be mindful of, here is stuff to look out for. Now, what you have to understand about me and tarot cards is, well, normally I have many decks. I haven't actually worked with my old Crow's Magick deck recently, so I'm not sure if this was always a thing, but since I switched over to this other deck? Suddenly EVERYTHING IS DRAMA. I'm not even kidding, I'm averaging 2-3 non-Court, non-Major Arcana cards per Celtic Cross spread. If anyone feels like crunching statistics, 7 cards out of 10 are being pulled out of 38 cards of a 78 card deck. This is not statistically likely. Just with rough eyeballing it should be around 4/10 maybe? No. My tarot readings are drama llamas. My favorite so far this year was the one where the first two cards were The Fool and The World, in that order. The outcome card for this month is The High Priestess. So nobody start making me smack you with my Elder cup because I will do it and then it will break and I will be sad.

Anyway. No, I do not know why that deck is So! Damned! Dramatic! I swear to god it throws spreads like I'm a heroine in Charmed or Witches of East End or The Craft or one of those other things.

Oof. I also remembered I need to read the Hugo novels damn quick, and I'm not sure when I'm going to start that. Maybe this weekend? Probably Monday. The good thing is I read really fast. But it's one more thing I need to remember to prioritize, and I haven't been. Must stop that. Still, I did get a bunch of stuff written today. All of my languages are studied. My nails are going to be newly pretty by the end of the evening despite fucking up the application of two stamps. Three stamps if you count the first attempt at lace. That one's difficult and possibly requires the rectangular stamp. Or the softer stamp. I'm still learning though, and I'm doing a pretty damn good job I think.

Time to wrap this up I guess before I get any more distracted and don't go to bed on time. Oh, but for all the new friends (hi new friends! You guys are so sweet and friendly and it's lovely to meet you.) if you want to ask me a question, any question, I don't promise to answer but I'll probably answer most and I won't get upset at a question. Feel free! I may do some get to know me memes later if I find them.

Comments

[kikibug13]

No breaking the Cup. :P

You can do it. You can do it.

[kittydesade]

Bit. By bit. By bit.

Though on another note entirely, are you still coming to Dragon*Con? I'm still not sure of my logistics, but I'm going to try to go, if only to speak on the panels.

[kikibug13]

Unless something big and bad happens, yes, we're coming! Visas are okay, we have the con passes purchased, and that only leaves the plane tickets. And that's in the air because we have vague ideas of maybe not flying JUST for it, maybe take a day or three more, but since we haven't decided WHERE, it's... up in the air.

But the Con is definitely on. :)

[kittydesade]

Excellent. XD I'll have a better idea of when I'm coming when I know what the stupid panel schedule is, which of course they haven't published. Grr.

[kikibug13]

... of course they haven't. I'm pretty sure we'll be there from Thursday until Monday, i.e. all four nights, so you shouldn't worry about place to stay, etc. THIIINGS AND STUFF!

[kittydesade]

I'm pretty sure I'll only find out a month before. Bleh. But. Yes! It should be fun. :)

[kikibug13]

I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Hellix and Haven panels again?

[kittydesade]

That would require more knowledge of the programming than I have. :/

[kikibug13]

-SNORTS- noted. I thought the scheduling wasn't clear, but it's also the content, and that's more fun.

And by fun I mean PEOPLE GIVE YOUR PEOPLE INFORMATION!

[kittydesade]

EVERYTHING on their stupid website is from last year. Everything. Unless Caity Lotz and Paul Blackthorne confirmed again for this year when I wasn't looking.

[kikibug13]

I believe they did. Since I've been checking periodically and seeing people getting added.

... actually, I'm not sure PB was confirmed last time I looked. So yeah. (Considering Caity is in new spinoff show, etc... yeah, they definitely want to showcase their actors again.)

[kittydesade]

I'm not seeing her on the list either on the site or on Facebook? Definitely not Paul Blackthorne, I'd remember that. Jim Butcher is coming again, though! Oh god the lines for that one.

[kikibug13]

Hmm. She's been on the other list for a while. IDEK. But the list definitely had been updating, unless they did something to it since the last time I looked. -flappy hands-

[kittydesade]

.... which other list? On their official web page or on their Facebook, or...?

[kikibug13]

... the non-Facebook one. The one on their site. Hello, it's Friday, words are hard.

[switterbeet]

Courtesan school?

Hahah, that's funny about the drama-tastic tarot deck. Do you find it to be matching up with your life of late?

I really, really need to get back into doing monthly spreads for myself.

Which languages do you study?

[kittydesade]

Simple ones first: I finally remembered what the formal name of the deck is, and it's called Gateway to the Divine tarot, so I guess that matches up with the Drama. I'm... not entirely sure it does in scale, but in perspective it lines up well enough.

No, the question of what languages I study is only second simplest. XD I am currently learning for the first time: Arabic and Hindi, using textbooks and assistance from internet friends and various videos and sites for listening. I am currently reviewing/learning for the second time: Japanese and Latin. I took Latin in middle school (age 13-15 roughly) and Japanese in college, so it's mostly review and refreshing but also some learning, or at least, trying to embed it more deeply. I am currently maintaining, which is to say running simple grammar exercises and reading in the language: Spanish, French, German, and Russian. And Irish, though it's more grammar and less reading since Irish is much much less widely spread. And I'm able to do this because of Courtesan School, and because of mad starting bonuses (in RPG terms), which is to say I grew up going to a bilingual primary school and in a bilingual household. English-Spanish. As far as I can tell from articles, this means my brain has more... plasticity? I multitask easier and make connections easier, I certainly learn languages easier. Plus it's also just plain fun for me.

Courtesan School! Oh boy, it's been seven ... seven and a half years, almost, I feel old. It started out on Christmas, I think Christmas Day, when I was unhappy with where I was in life and my friends were also unhappy with where we were in life and we were all groaning on chat, and I dragged us into a group chat so we could groan together. And we decided to all try and improve our lives together. We had the usual things, lose weight, dress better. We had some less usual things, I wanted to learn German and Russian, another friend wanted to learn Spanish. We wanted to pick up old hobbies, etc. I had off and on been enamored with The Book of the Courtesans, so that was what we called ourselves, because courtesans historically have been women (and sometimes men) who took power from their strengths, for themselves, without a pre-determined place in society or socially acceptable path to acquire power. We started with some pretty simple goals, and we set ourselves to check in once a week to see how we were doing.

And after that we sort of because it was best practices, sort of organically fell into an approach of, every check-in we looked at what we were doing. Was it working? If not, why not? If we could identify why not, what could we change about it? And doing that every week forced us to look more closely not just at what we were doing but also why that approach, what were the differences between theory and practice, why were those different. What were our strengths and our weaknesses, and how could we make both work for us.

Seven years later! Oof, let's see. Just for myself I have lost and kept off about 15 pounds, which doesn't seem like much except I only needed to drop about 35 and I've managed to go down and stay down one jeans size. I've built up considerable muscle, and I generally feel better. I'd say I'm eating better but... kind of? I'm cooking for the household far more often, I'm eating a lot less processed food, we'll say that. I'm still too fond of cream sauces for my own good. >.> No, I guess I am eating better. My skin has cleared up, and I feel much healthier. I've developed an ability to do a ridiculous number of things in a day, just for starters, my day involves reviewing five languages on Duolingo and Memrise (somehow I added Italian in there, it's not a concentrated study I just learn it in very small bits and pieces for funsies), reading in 2 or 3 besides English, writing fiction, doing a day job, exercising, sometimes cooking and sometimes more like throwing pre-prepped food from the weekend together to make a meal, picking up in the house, keeping track of correspondence, reading, working on craft projects, tending the garden etc. So, time management! One of the best things I learned about CS, keeping a schedule even to the day to day things and getting much better at estimating how much time it'll take me to do a thing if it's related to stuff I do anyway. Which is a skill you don't always realize is a skill, but it's so very helpful. I've gotten much much better at adding new habits in, through that "is it working? if not why not? how best to change" process. I've gotten somewhat gentler with myself in learning things, and I think generally I'm a lot happier, more confident in myself, and wiser in ways that don't just have to do with aging seven years. Also I'm way better at communicating problems with my closest friends before they become problems, or at least, raising the issue since communication, always a two-way street.

Anyway. So that's Courtesan School in about as brief as I can make myself make it. :) Making small changes in our lives, building ourselves up to be the best whoever-we-are we can be, learning how to be in touch with ourselves such that we can identify "no this is not me" and discard it if possible, or at least discard it as far away as possible so that we can be, as the saying goes, our most authentic selves. Which in turn makes our lives easier and happier.

[switterbeet]

That's quite impressive for languages! :D HAH, you will be quite the continental courtesan! :P

I definitely do not have a head for languages beyond acquiring the basics, but am struggling to get a real handle on French (Je suis Canadienne, et le français est très important ici pour emplois certaines) , and sort of dabbling in Japanese here and there (barely maintaining, perhaps?).

That is such an amazing, practical way to address making Actual Changes in your life. And fun too. :D Thank you for taking the time to explain - it seems like a neat way of motivating/examining yourself.

I have gotten big into time-tracking lately, to find out where my hours actually go, because I have so much I want to accomplish. Time management is a thing I'm learning I'm... still needing to work on. :/ Sticking to a schedule and estimating time is tough - but I do think it is work it/helps a lot. I'm just terrible at sticking to my plans most of the time.

[kittydesade]

That's the goal! :D I love learning languages just because of all the different sounds and words and in some ways, the different senses of the words? The way some phrases make for a different mood than others in other languages even though they're used for the same purpose. It's fun. (Ici, c'est l'espagnol. Mais quand j'allais au lycee je voulais apprendre une langue nouvelle, donc, francais.) Maintaining is still good! Considering Japanese can be hard.

Y'welcome. :D I'm enjoying it more than I thought Changing My Life For The Better would be when I started. So it's at least working for me. :D

Hey, if it helps, it took me a while to get into the hang of it too. Just, keep trying, keep figuring out what works for you. Don't give up! Here's some Japanese for you.

[switterbeet]

Bahahah, love it! XD

[untonuggan]

That is a lot indeed! Wow. I am just waving over here and letting you know that I'm going to post a video shortly which you may be interested in. (It's about the meanings and uses of Sahtein, and a friend showed it to me a couple weeks ago. I had to ask her to find it because when I searched for it all I got on Youtube were...Justin Bieber videos?)

[kittydesade]

All that and the plotbunny that the BFF just handed me on Tumblr, argh. Ooh, thank you for the heads up though. I can use that for practice tonight. (Okay technically Friday night is an hour and a half of Hindi but no reason I can't do both.)