aloe plant

my mom helped me repot this aloe plant. I took it from the first house I lived in when I moved to Charlottesville. It's got drainage in the pot now and we removed some of the leaves/plants and Mom is gonna plant them separately. The plant just didn't look very happy so I think having new soil and a better pot will help it.

I like how hardy this little plant is and how it's something I've taken care of and kept with me since moving here. It makes me happy to see it and I've also used the leaves when I've been sunburned! 

I think I'll make more posts about more plants in and around the house.

I enjoy making things and on days when I do nothing but run and make art or write I feel really good. Sometimes self-management is tricky. If there's nothing I have to do then it can be harder to do anything and then I don't feel as good. But overall it's all good.

Focus Mode

Used this mode on my phone to block apps that I check too much but can't justify deleting altogether. Mostly Instagram. I didn't think it would work too well because I've tried things like that before and they're too easy to cheat.

But it ended up being good! I kept it on until 8pm and it was good. Now I have it back on. I always like Thursdays at camp because we worked all day and there's no service out there. So I was completely unable to check my phone. It felt way better than when I can check constantly. That's a yucky feeling.

Good day today. Got outside and worked on my big drawing more. I'm excited about it. Used up all the ink in the King-sized sharpie so gotta go buy a new one now.

running is going great.

What is My Plan

 I've been thinking a lot about this time where I'm not really working. I'm not too upset about it. It's not really my fault and I did have a job lined up and I still might have a job in the near future so I'm trying to make the most of this time and remind myself that financially it's not too big of an ask.

My Main Priorities:

-illustrate a camp book. this is my most legitimate occupation at the moment. I'm gonna start soon I imagine and we'll see where this leads. I'm not sure for how long I'll be doing this but I imagine it could take a while!

-put art into the community. I've been putting stuff on craigslist free stuff for a while now and it's surprised me how meaningful an enterprise it's been. It's put me in touch with a lot of cool people and I'm curious to see what can happen if I invest more time in it. I also just like the idea of people having my art in their homes and stuff. I think that's so cool. I want to make things and just get them out there.

    -side note: it was really fun to do art in public today. I'd like to keep doing that as well. Maybe I could go to IX art park and do things there as well. It was nice to be outside, drawing, listening to music, see all the people going by, getting occasional compliments. Very much satisfied my need for attention, interaction, drawing, and being outside. 10/10. What am I gonna do when it gets cold? Be cold? Who knows. What's anyone gonna do when it gets cold. It's about to be a wild time. 

-work on a game. For the past, I don't know, 4 years, I've been working on some kind of game. They've reached various stages of completeness but this one I think could be really good. I'm excited about it. 

-get really fit! I can be off my feet for large amounts of the day and that's really great for running and climbing and having energy for those activities. If I don't get in the best shape of my life now, gosh, I don't know. Pretty disgraceful. 

For the most part, I really like having a job. I like having a place to be at a certain time and making a regular paycheck and working with kids. I wish I could be doing that. I imagine babysitting gigs are super easy to find right now but, I'm not at that point. It's not joblessness. It's an investment in self-actualization. Yeah.

Some Moments Of Joy Part One

 I woke up this morning and wanted to find my radio/mp3 speaker so I could have music while I drew outside. Couldn't find it.

Drove out to Camp Albemarle, where I was for the last day of camp about a week and a half ago. I thought, there's no way I left it there and if I did, there's no way it's still there.

IT WAS THERE! Pretty amazing. Someone had arranged it nicely on a porch railing and it still worked!

As I was driving back home, jamming to my music, a girl rolled up next to me to use the right turn lane and she was also rocking out. I moved up a little so she would notice that I was also car dancing and we both pointed at each other and said, "YEAH!"

Then MaMa and Mom liked my picture/started following me on Instagram. THANKS :D

I took my big piece of plywood, it's probably like 2'x6' and drew on a little field in UVA. Some nice people walked by and said nice things to me. That felt good.

I went to goodwill to get some clothes to paint on and found the best fitting pair of jeans I have ever worn. I'm gonna paint pizza on the butt pockets.

My run was good. I ran way too hard and way too fast but that's okay. Better than too hard and too slow!

Oh! My friend Chris is in Richmond for a few days so I'm gonna go visit here tomorrow. That will be fun!

Good Day.

9/13

Spent a little too much time on my phone today. I've been listening to audiobooks and short stories while I draw. It's a lot of Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E Howard.

Smith was a big inspiration for Lovecraft and Howard wrote Conan the Barbarian which had a huge influence on Gary Gygax and Dungeons and Dragons. Conan is kinda unreadable because Howard can't seem to get out of the way of his misogyny and racism. He really goes out of his way to jam it in there. Smith is less glaring, he focuses more on creepy old wizards and magic and stuff.

But anyway I'm drawing a lot and making stuff but also just checking Instagram TOO MUCH. So I'm gonna make an effort to do less of that tomorrow and only check it after like 8pm. 

I have a large plywood board that I've started drawing on and I plan to go outside and work on it tomorrow. Should be a nice day!

Don't Have Much to Say

 Yesterday I went to Michael's and bought some stuff and when I go to places and pay with cash I bring along this little change purse thing so I can give exact change because I think the change shortage is still going on. Anyway the total is 14.29 so I pay with a 20 and I intended to give 30 cents so she would only have to give me a 5 and a penny. I guess I forgot to give her a nickel because she started giving me back 96 cents in change. And I said, "oh no! that's not what I wanted to do." Now I was basically the most amount of change a person could receive. The cashier was really nice and I apologized a couple times and she said it was fine. Then, for some reason, as I was walking to my car I kept repeating to myself, "Well, if I'm gonna mess up this badly I might have to stop smoking so much crack." 

I said it, like, a bunch of times to myself. And found it really funny. So. Here ya go.

Adventures in Independent Work

 It's weird adjusting to different kinds of productivity. Like, for the past 13 weeks I've gotten very used to a specific kind of productivity which involved getting out of bed at a certain time, preparing breakfast and lunch, and then getting out the door to be at camp all day. Where I would do a lot of stuff. And then when I got home I would just run, make dinner, maybe write/answer an email, and go to bed. I did about as little as possible at home. Now I'm getting the feel for making up tasks for myself at home and finding reasons to get out of the door and do stuff. 

I'm not complaining. I've felt pretty productive today. I was slow to get out of bed and dragging my feet over some pretty simple tasks. But, like I said, I think that's a function of adjusting to a different type of productivity. 

I have some ideas for projects I want to work on. I feel weird saying them before I've officially done anything but I plan to track progress on this blog. 

(* o *) ~~~~~~