fleeting thoughts from a chronic ghost

[a_flyleaf]

Something I have had to keep learning is that not everything has to be A Big Production. All-or-nothing comes naturally to me; moderation and pacing myself, not so much.

Relatedly: I am not going to make some big explanatory megapost about why I have been effectively M.I.A. forrrr -checks inbox- ~17 weeks now! Nor will I make some grandiose promise about exactly when and where and how I return! Heck it!!!

Anyway, neat things from recent, because I read this post about gratitude and noticing the little things and doing it is what prompted me to log in again today. Specifically:

Thankful — something I’m thankful for that day
Humor — anything funny from the day
Affirmation — something I did well that day, no matter how small
Noticing Care — remembering a moment of care around me (including self-care)
Knowledge — anything I learned that day

---

Thankful: I continue to be deep in RP hell, and today I woke up to a tagback on a thread I’ve been excited about but thought, apparently incorrectly, was dropped! Or, without the lingo: I have been writing little stories in which I throw my favorite characters at strangers’ favorite characters, and I thought one of the scenes I’ve been enjoying had gone inactive. The other person replied, so evidently it lives!

Explaining hobbies to an outsider is always a trip, in other news.

Humor: Technically from yesterday, but I got the end bit of this strange little video stuck in my head. Cyriak is one of those YouTube animators whose work I revisit every few months and love every time. Bizarre stuff! You’ll love it if you’re into surreal shit and/or body horror!

Affirmation: Took a quick screen break (cue drama chord) to read! Been slowly devouring Nora McIrney’s Bad Vibes Only, a memoir-essay collection that I discovered at some downtime at work. Opened a random page, read that particular installment, got floored. A lot of it is lighthearted if existential; some of it just whacks you in the face. I’m trying to slow down and digest when things I’m reading hit me in the face, instead of barreling on in some vague compulsion to Finish As Much As Possible As Soon As Possible. So that’s cool!

…I’m also aware this is not really an affirmation anymore but whatever.

Noticing care: Most of the examples coming to mind are little IRL things that I don’t feel like writing about in public; boils down to little gestures that remind me I am a presence in the house and appreciated. Online, I dragged myself out of a little no-socialization weekend brainfunk today, and friend was happy to see my return! I really have to keep reminding myself that people are generally more happy to see me than upset by the absence!!

Knowledge: Again from yesterday, but I picked up AnimeEffects yesterday, a tool that does most of what I needed out of AfterEffects. This tutorial was a huge help, and from there I did a little loop! Which I would show off if I had uploaded anywhere, but I don’t, so maybe I’ll come back to this later! There’s some wonk, as there tends to be, and I wish the program had parenting, but it’s a solid tool overall.

What I want to do eventually is figure out how to wrangle Blender for 2d, but not today. Maybe someday!

Comments

[jellyfishlover]

Writing down gratitudes is always a nice exercise to do! (One I should probably do more often myself, haha!) What a nice format to do it in too! :D

Yay for RP fun and nice on having a thread get a continuation! \o/

That video sure is the feeling I get when a program crashes right in the middle of me working on something! XD A transcendent experience for all people working with (or... against?!?) computers! Speaking of which, AnimeEffects sounds AMAZING! I hope you have a lot of fun with using it! (and it doesn't crash on you unexpectedly!) XD

[a_flyleaf]

Gratitude journaling always sounds like a good idea to me, too, and then I never remember to do it more than once in a blue moon :D"

That video is the hugest mood ever, alas XD AnimeEffects is pretty darn good! I keep meaning to look into DragonBones too, which looks like it gets updated a lot more frequently. (The AnimeEffects creator seems to be missing in action, unfortunately; there’s discussion on the GitHub about forking the project, but it doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.) Anyway, small program tangent aside, thanks for the well wishes!

(small side note, I love that every time I check in here it seems like you’ve uploaded a new icon :D They’re all so fun!)

[jellyfishlover]

Oooh DragnBones looks pretty interesting too! I'm glad AnimeEffects isn't having any trouble for you also! XD

And thank you! :D I've had fun collecting / making icons whenever I get in the mood for that! XD

[a_flyleaf]

So fun fact, if AnimeEffects strikes your interest: there actually is an active development offshoot! that just updated yesterday! https://animeeffectsdevs.github.io/ Thee seems to be one (1) dev working on it but it’s super nice to see the project hasn’t gone fully abandoned :D

Is that a giant jellyfish in that comment’s icon?! What an eggcellent specimen.

[jellyfishlover]

Aw nice, it's always so cool to see people (or, uh one person, in this case XD) working on forks of these sort of projects!

It's a fried egg jelly! Or Cotylorhiza tuberculata, I suppose, since there's two jellies with that common name. Very eggcelent indeed! :D

[vriddy]

I'd heard about gratitude journals but I like this format to pay attention to even more positive things!

Good luck with everything you have going on :)

[a_flyleaf]

Agreed! I like that this version has different categories, gives a bit more direction to the gratitude and it helps me a lot. And thank you :D