August personal post

[meridian_rose]

Hello everyone! For newcomers, welcome! Once a month I try to make a personal post aka a BAG post, named for a Fluent Self article where you look at where you've Been, At, and are Going.
It's often more rambling than structured like that but I've been tagging BAG post for so long I'm still doing so. Also these posts are often short if I haven't got a lot to say or don't feel like going into details.


Thank you to those who sent birthday wishes :)

Not much writing this month; I'm only one third of the way through my Get Your Words Out goal despite it being two thirds through the year.
I'm trying to focus on what I have done because my goal this year is to be kinder to myself.

I have done some pc and online housekeeping, finally checking email, sorting through youtube playlists, running a backup, and beginning to file tons of things stored in various folders. It's going slowly but I'm making progress. I've posted some older things from landcomms to DW and LJ and there are probably more things to be added. I've stalled on my transfer from tumblr though.
I have also been collecting and adding to the spreadsheet where I put ideas for fanworks and original fic. There's a lot of things on there that might never get done but last year's goal was to write down more ideas.

I think I'll import comments as usual from LJ at the start of September but then try turning off comments at LJ & directing people to the DW entry. Most people have a DW if they're still interested in journalling, everyone has OpenID via LJ, and as I mentioned on a recent entry talking about icons and updates, I don't get a lot of comments on personal entries, mostly community LJ posts so it shouldn't be a big deal.

LJidol is going to run at LJ again. The DW phase was a smaller and I felt fairer run of the community, more genuine voting and less "vote for friends without reading any entries" and more of the contestant only and registered DW/LJ users only votes which I think helped. I dislike the popularity contest part of the community and I refuse to participate in writing for the community. I don't need my self-esteem lowered by getting kicked out early. And I am under no illusion that I'm not ~popular. I've been pushing out new content each week on the writing blogs and get only a handful of likes/comments/shares across the multiple sites. But I put out new content and the stress of new content for LJ idol wouldn't be helpful.
I will read and vote for entries. However I've got more cynical over the years and have a list of authors I no longer read because their previous entries pissed me off so much. This leaves me more time to read other authors who I know well, who I don't know much, and new authors. There'll probably be a promo post when the details are finalised. If you're looking to write each week or so for a prompt and are up for reading, commenting, and voting on other people's work, or just up for reading some new fic check it out. Despite my concerns with some aspects of the community I've read some great fic from some great authors.

Family stuff
Sister's younger dog Winter is sick again, she was ill in December and now she's got another gastrointestinal issue. Keeps eating things she shouldn't so could have an infection again. At the vets on IV again, blood in vomit, we're all worried about her.

Older nephew (6) has joined Beavers a sort of young scouts group and been earning badges which is nice.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I hear LJ is having issues yet again although I no longer have an account there.

[meridian_rose]

I haven't noticed any when using the communities I still belong to, but I haven't been around as much this last week so it wouldn't surprise me! Another comm is going to purely on DW this round so there's definitely a slow but gradual move here.

[under_the_silk_tree]

Being kinder to yourself is always a good goal to have. Organizing your ideas on a spreadsheet is a great idea, I have mine scattered about. I am sorry about your sister's dog hopefully soon she will feel better soon.

[meridian_rose]

I don't always keep the spreadsheet up to date but when I do gather up all the bits it's lovely to have them all in one place!
Thank you :)

[singedsun]

A spreadsheet for ideas is a good one. I have been using a free version of Microsoft's OneNote for a long time because I can access and keep it updated through the cloud. Between that and Google Keep on my phone (which is like post-its but with tagging features) which I transfer to OneNote if the idea is worth keeping, it's made it much easier for me to keep track of things.

[meridian_rose]

That's a good idea too! Whatever helps track of those ideas because you often think you'll remember it and then it's vanished from your mind!

[tinny]

i didn't even know something like lj idol exists, but it figures. The iconmaker community is notoriously self-centered and the stupid elite communities were so common back when there were more makers. I'm kinda glad the community shrunk so much that the whole elitism just died on its own.

No need to ressurrect it here. <3

[meridian_rose]

I've been a long time collector of icons but only an amateur icon maker for various communities so I never saw that side of the iconmaker community. That sucks :/ Can't people play nice?!
It does seem that smaller communities and fandoms are better than larger ones!