Sick Week, Pre-Thanksgiving.
Journal 108 6-19 Nov. 2023
First, I actually forgot that I didn’t do an update last week.
I still think I wrote something… and I keep looking at my files, but nothing is in there.
Second, I had to beat myself up to come down here and start typing THIS post. I still don’t know how or why I skipped last week though.
Let’s go to the title and you’ll understand why.
I’ve been sick all week. Just a common cold and head congestion thankfully, but enough to make me miserable all week. I had a doctor’s appointment on Monday and by Tuesday my throat was sore and by Wednesday I was completely ill.
Time Flies
I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is this Thursday and Christmas is following after. October started out going by a peaceful pace and then suddenly it was the middle of November.
And have I been busy?
Well… kind of… mostly.
I’ve reached a point in my notes and background that I’ve covered the bases needed to start the novel. Anything else I write in my notebooks would just be procrastination. Though I still don’t have an actual chapter by chapter outline of the book.
For those who are new to the site I don’t EVER have a full outline, I usually just have a list of chapters and key scenes. But I normally have enough data that when I start my Scrivener project I can fill a “cork board” with a complete chapter guide.
The picture at the top of the blog is what my cork boards look like. And they’re filled out completely before I start the novel.
Right now, I can not do that, and I’m debating only having a handful of chapters on the board and adding them as I go.
Start Date
I’m still debating a start date for the novel. I tend to try avoiding the start of a new book. Even though I enjoy writing it, I don’t enjoy starting it. Partially as I try to remember how to set up my scrivener project and check all my defaults. I tend to find that some settings are wrong and I then have to update my notes and compendium.
It’s a process in and of itself and I always forget how to do it. When more than a year goes by between starting novels, you tend to forget the various settings on the computer program. At least, I do.
I’m probably going to push off the start of the novel until the 3rd or 4th of January.
What else have I been up?
I finished a video game!
That’s pretty rare for me. I don’t play games a lot, I usually tend to get into a handful of games and play them a lot and ignore others. Like every game system I’ve ever owned I’ve bought maybe a dozen games for and only ever played a handful of them, and of that handful I’ve only completed a few games.
Or so I thought.
While thinking about it I listed off every game I could remember finishing. Thinking it would be less than ten games but I got a fair collection under my belt across nearly 40 years of playing video games.
Well, I added a new title to that list with Super Robo Wars T. A game I imported from Japan just so I could play through a super complicated story that combines about 12 different anime series into a cohesive story.
Every couple of days I would sit back and chip away at massive battles involving some of my favorite mecha from 70s/80s/90s anime. It rekindled my love of mecha and now I’m off, down another rabbit.
The Rabbit Hole
All the mecha rekindled my love of Go Nagai, so I looked up a bunch of his works and found some books collecting a bunch of his early works. I’ll be getting them after Christmas. This also led me to checking out a bunch of Devilman shows, including watching Devilman Crybaby. But that is digressing.
All the mecha combat rekindled my love of Gundam ad I looked up the current cartoons. Witch from Mercury looks amazing and I got to watch the first episode of that. If I didn’t already have too many streaming services, I would consider a Crunchyroll membership.
I decided to go back and try to work my way through the original Universal Century series of Gundam. I’ve worked through chronologically from the original series (and the Origin movies) up to Unicorn and am just about done with the first OVA of Unicorn.
I fully watched the original series, the 08th team, and Zeta, but I watched recaps of ZZ, Twilight Axis, and I’m forgetting a third series.
Other Hobby
All of this anime of course rekindled my love of mecha models and I’m debating pulling out the last couple Gundam kits I have in my closet and building them over the course of the remainder of the year.
I also added about twenty models back to my amazon wishlist. It’s an addiction, though this time I’m looking at buying the much cheaper HG and RG models instead of my MG lust. (Though a few sexy MGs are on the list, of course).
Hobby, the next 6 weeks, and What else?
I might start another video game. I have a handful that I really want to try I just can’t make up my mind. I have a couple beat’em ups. Including the legendary Scott Pilgrim game (speaking of which the new anime dropped on Netflix, that’s a must watch). I have the entire Persona series… well 3,4,5, 5strikers… I have a platform puzzler and a bunch of jrpgs…
There is a lot I could be doing… so maybe I should get out of this office, make some breakfast and a cup of tea, and enjoy the day as much as my cold will allow.
Thanks for reading this far… sorry it’s not much on writing.
