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  <id>tag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-05:2867713</id>
  <title>Drunken Owls and Other Delights</title>
  <subtitle>Who am I, and what have I done with me?</subtitle>
  <author>
    <name>jon_chaisson</name>
  </author>
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  <updated>2021-09-05T00:36:09Z</updated>
  <dw:journal username="jon_chaisson" type="personal"/>
  <entry>
    <id>tag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-05:2867713:994871</id>
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    <title>Early Weekend Update</title>
    <published>2021-09-05T00:36:09Z</published>
    <updated>2021-09-05T00:36:09Z</updated>
    <category term="novel writing"/>
    <category term="doing all the things"/>
    <category term="art"/>
    <category term="drawing"/>
    <category term="750 words"/>
    <category term="photography"/>
    <category term="writing"/>
    <category term="creativity"/>
    <dw:mood>determined</dw:mood>
    <dw:security>public</dw:security>
    <dw:reply-count>0</dw:reply-count>
    <content type="html">It's the long holiday weekend (and A's birthday on Tuesday so it's especially longer than usual), so we are doing All Sort of Fun Things! We went walking in the Presidio today, we'll be going to the Disney Family Museum tomorrow (they have a really neat exhibition going on regarding their animation work during WWII), Monday we may finally go to Grandview Park in the Sunset -- how long have we lived on this side of town and not gone there..??? -- and Tuesday we go to the De Young Museum AND go see &lt;em&gt;Shang-Chi&lt;/em&gt; at Stonestown! :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Which means I've been sliding some of my normal weekend things here and there throughout the day today. Just finished the laundry, and now working on my Shutterstock Project in which I share some of my most recent pictures on my Dropbox so I can upload to the site both here and on my laptop. I was hoping to get some uploads done today, but I think this is a good start at any rate. I updated all my blogs, and I'll sneak even sneak in my Daily Doodle later on. I've been tempted to get some words done today too, but if I don't get to it I'm okay with that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Speaking daily words, I've said over at &lt;em&gt;Welcome to Bridgetown&lt;/em&gt; that I've Ramped Things Up. I am now working on THREE novel projects, averaging about 800 or so words a day for each (I could easily do more but I'm easing myself into that instead), plus trying to hit other daily goals such as the aforementioned daily drawing -- I'm using last year's Inktober prompts for that -- as well as journal entries, poetry and other things that pop up. And very soon this will also include finding temporary outlets that could make us some pocket change.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So how am I doing this, you ask? Well, funny thing -- apparently when I close down social media browsers and other distractions for a few hours, I get a lot done! Yes, I have in fact implemented a long-game plan or two here!&amp;nbsp;Seriously, as soon as they're cleared away, I get myself geared up to be creative and just run with it as far as I can. Some days I get a lot of words down, other days I don't, but as long as I'm dedicating time and brain space to it, I'm getting it done to my liking. My idea is that if I'm going to finally dive headlong into this writing career full-time, I'm gonna have to commit to it to the level that I know I can work at to achieve as much as I can.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm extremely curious to see where this leads me...!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=jon_chaisson&amp;ditemid=994871" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/&gt; comments</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>tag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-05:2867713:984511</id>
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    <title>Where was I...?</title>
    <published>2020-11-16T16:37:47Z</published>
    <updated>2020-11-16T16:37:47Z</updated>
    <category term="blog"/>
    <category term="weekend"/>
    <category term="diwa and kaffi"/>
    <category term="personal"/>
    <category term="writing"/>
    <category term="drawing"/>
    <category term="art"/>
    <category term="computer"/>
    <category term="wtbt"/>
    <dw:music>KEXP online</dw:music>
    <dw:mood>nervous</dw:mood>
    <dw:security>public</dw:security>
    <dw:reply-count>0</dw:reply-count>
    <content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Ah yes. I was distracted yesterday (a pleasant walk in GGP's botanical garden, a drive to the garden center, laundry and so on) and completely forgot to post something here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also slightly nervous and distracted due to the fact that I'm running a scan on my external hard drive that contains my entire mp3 library in hopes that I can figure out why it decides to randomly go into sleep mode even when I'm in the middle of using it. I'm not *too* nervous, as I have it all (I hope!!) backed up on another external, but I'd rather not lose it just the same, thankyouverymuch.&amp;nbsp;It's taking forever to finish because there's a LOT of mp3s to scan for issues and/or corruption. I had it running overnight and it's *just* nearing the finish of the initial scan as we speak. [Edit: it's now doing a slightly different deep scan of empty sectors and I'm not entirely sure how long *that* will take...]&amp;nbsp;In the meantime it's made the entire drive inaccessible so it can do its thing. Hopefully there aren't any major issues... *fret fret*&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Meanwhile, last week I began a slightly different approach with my writing (I go into it a bit more &lt;a href="https://welcometobridgetown.com/2020/11/13/on-focusing-smaller/"&gt;here at Welcome to Bridgetown&lt;/a&gt;) and it seems to be working, so I'm going to continue with this process and see how it plays out. I'm doing the work in smaller manageable chunks and narrowing the focus of the work in front of me in the hopes that I can process it all a lot easier. It seems to have cleared the view a bit, which is good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh -- I should probably add that I've been having far too much fun sketching out a storyboard for &lt;em&gt;Diwa &amp;amp; Kaffi&lt;/em&gt;!!&amp;nbsp; They're rough thumbnails for the most part, but they're helping me get better at my art, which was the main goal in the first place! One of these days I'll post them up on the WTBT blog.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What else...we got a new Christmas tree? That was my doing, really. Our old one is fine but kind of looking a bit threadbare. The new one is a four-footer (the old one is a much shorter one made for a tabletop) so I'll have to plan out where to put it. The plus side is that I can hang a lot more stuff on it! Yay! Maybe I should revive my old habit of putting on a Christmas album while decorating....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hope everyone has a good week!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br type="_moz" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=jon_chaisson&amp;ditemid=984511" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/&gt; comments</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>tag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-05:2867713:982667</id>
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    <title>Weekend Updatery</title>
    <published>2020-09-28T01:26:40Z</published>
    <updated>2020-09-28T01:26:40Z</updated>
    <category term="theadia"/>
    <category term="wis"/>
    <category term="wtbt"/>
    <category term="new project"/>
    <category term="drawing"/>
    <category term="guitars"/>
    <category term="art"/>
    <category term="blogging"/>
    <category term="music"/>
    <category term="future plans"/>
    <category term="diwa and kaffi"/>
    <category term="writing"/>
    <dw:mood>determined</dw:mood>
    <dw:security>public</dw:security>
    <dw:reply-count>0</dw:reply-count>
    <content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Well! Here I am, posting on another Sunday evening, pleasantly surprised that I've kept to my new whiteboard schedule for the most part! &lt;em&gt;Welcome to Bridgetown&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Walk in Silence&lt;/em&gt; are both getting updated, I've been getting some practice on my guitars, and I've even been getting some drawing done! (I missed one day on the art, but that's okay, it was Friday and I was distracted by all the New Music Releases. Heh.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The best part is that I've successfully kicked off the prep work for the New Project, which I've codenamed &lt;em&gt;Theadia&lt;/em&gt;. It's the waystation story that I've mentioned in the past, and I've been spending the week writing out some world building ideas and rules using my daily words over at 750. I'm of course a little nervous because I don't want to mess it up, especially considering how successful the process of writing &lt;em&gt;Diwa &amp;amp; Kaffi &lt;/em&gt;was once I figured it all out. I just want to make sure this one is just as successful, because I really love the idea. Especially considering I'd unexpectedly come up with a fantastic plot idea to run with!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My long term plan is to heighten the focus on my creativity. I don't know where it will lead me, but I've got the time and the drive to do it, and I have absolutely no reason not to follow through now. I know I've been my own worst enemy in the past -- y'know, Best Laid Plans versus Follow-Through and all that -- but this time I want to prove to myself that I can make this happen. I did it before to some degree when I prepped and self-pubbed the trilogy, doing everything on my own, so it's really a matter of self-belief and self-confidence. And now that I've let myself have more of that lately, there's no reason I can't do it again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's to hoping...!&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=jon_chaisson&amp;ditemid=982667" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/&gt; comments</content>
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