10/29 NaNo-ing and other life adventures

I've participated in NaNoWriMo for the (almost) last 6 years. 2009 I didn't really know what it was but I wrote a ton that year, 2010 - 2013 I actually used the site and participated, 2014 I updated my profile and told myself I was going to make it happen and apparently never did (I can't even find a file saved anywhere that indicates I started to write). 2015 brought a new life and a new house and a new boyfriend and I definitely didn't have time even though I thought about it most of the year. And now we're into 2016 and I'm telling myself I'm going to make that attempt again. However instead of novel-ing, I'm going to make an attempt at blogging. Even just writing that out terrifies me a little. Heh. Great.

I will apparently never learn that November is the WORST month for me to try to do anything at all outside of work. November means Thanksgiving, which means Black Friday, which means the start of the crazy holiday season at work, which also means that even though I only clock 40 hours on the work week I might actually spend about 55 in the store, which means WHY DO I TRY TO WRITE IN NOVEMBER. It's still October and I'm already stressed about work. This can't be a good idea.

But It's still going to be an attempt. That's why I figured it was a good idea to dust off ye olde blog that hasn't seen the light of day in 4 years and dive in headfirst. That's also why there's been a few updates in the last few days. Stretching out the writing fingers, and getting used to putting "creative content" out on a semi-regular basis. I'm making the possibly naive assumption that by just blogging instead of creating a novel it can be a slightly more relaxing process since there won't have to be too much planning that goes into it, but again: we'll see. I'm already mentally prepared for the lapse that comes at the 20,000 word mark when I want to give up but then remember that we're only just over a third of the way through and giving up that early is embarrassing.

After abandoning this post for a good 10 minutes I've discovered that I need to find a way to count my words in whatever I end up using to write for the month. For what I can find, neither Blogger or the word documents on my computer have a word count feature and that's a bummer. The software I used to use on my laptop was great, but apparently it's only for OS X and not anything I can get for Windows which is a double bummer. I guess that'll be tomorrow's project. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. As always.

Edit: Google Docs it is. That should have been an obvious choice.
Double Edit: Before this edits, my word count was only 488. HA. I forgot what 1667 words a day looks like. What have I done to myself.

10/28 Fire alarms and 3D printers

Thankfully those two subjects are not actually related. Although if we're trying to go in chronological order the 3D printer technically came first, but for the sake of making a semi-decent story to follow the fire alarms can be the first topic. Lets be real, there's not much I can elaborate on having to be at work at 5am to have the fire alarms tested, and then listen to the piercing shrieks for the next 3 hours at 6 minute intervals, all while trying to crunch business numbers and make a schedule. My Wednesday morning was not the best.

Monday, however, brought the arrival of a new-to-us 3D printer which has been by far one of the coolest purchases the boyfriend has made. Monday was Day 2 of my recovery from last Saturday night's shenanigans (There were copious amounts of beer and whiskey consumed, picking up a pizza on a 4x4, starting a bonfire with a leaf blower.....I needed 2 days to recover), and the boy also decided to take the day off just because. I'm still convinced the "just because" was actually because he knew the printer was coming, but that's another story.

We quickly blew through the basics of 1) downloading patterns/blueprints from the interwebs, and 2) creating basic shapes and designs with the construction elements provided in the programs we downloaded, and I now have a tiny fox mascot perched atop a cube-in-a-cube sitting next to a slightly asymmetrical B adorning my desk. My next project has been to make a coaster, a few festive decorations, and possibly dive into a few tiny gift ideas for Christmas. Actually, my next project will be ordering new materials from Amazon because (as expected), you fly through things much faster than originally anticipated. Also I can't be the jerk that constantly uses up the materials that the boy bought for himself even though he's kind enough to let me overtake the printer.

The designing and researching and printing has pushed ideas into my head though of things I've been contemplating for quite a while but haven't necessarily had the means to do. First being tossing around the idea of opening some kind of online shop on Etsy. Yes, there are a million and a half shops that sell crudely manufactured 3D printed trinkets, but it's still a thought.

Second being finally going back to school. I've been putting it off and putting it off for so long because "I can't afford it" and "it would interfere with my work schedule too much" but I'm kind of sick of giving myself the same excuses. I'm past the age that I have to rely on my parents, and also now that I'm out of the house I have the ability to file for my own financial aid which would be a huge factor in making that thought a possibility. The work schedule I suppose I could get around. I know I wouldn't be able to be in school full time while working full time, and I definitely can't afford to go back to part time work just to be in school full time. I don't know what I could manage, but I'm sure I could manage to work something out with the right conversations.

I've always had a half-minded interest in graphic design elements, ever since high school. For the "required" computer class elective I took a basic graphic design class (and by basic I mean the only one that was offered), and the teacher I had for that class kept encouraging me to take it further but I didn't want to listen and never did. The very short college stint that I had I took another basic/intro design class that I flew through and the professor there did the same thing but once again I didn't want to listen and thought I didn't have much interest in the matter. Turns out, after 10 years of working in an unrelated retail field I've discovered that not only do I love visual design elements, but I love anything that involves using a computer to design and create things as well. Except most software programs. Don't ask me to design a program, just give me a running and well working program to create new things with.

Who knows. We'll see, it's just a matter of time to figure things out the way I need them to go.

I'm not quite sure yet if this is a good idea or not.

Since I moved out of my parent's house last summer and in with my boyfriend, I haven't had any place that I can call "mine". Yes, we technically share the house (his house, I have minimal financial responsibility there), but there's no where in the house that I can retreat to and just have "my spot". We changed that this weekend, and it's possibly the smallest change ever, but I'm thrilled. I bought a new desk, lamp, and monitor, and he threw together a working PC for me from old bits he had laying around the house from previous technological endeavors. And now I have a mini "office" in the loft outside of the bedroom. Maybe I'll stop using quotes "eventually."

But of course, now that I have said office for whatever reason I needed it, I feel like I have to do something with it. I've had the thought itching in the back of my mind for a while now that I want to make a dive back into an online presence rather than just lurking like I tend to do, so I suppose this is the right way to go about it. We'll see. If anything, it's a nice change from just sitting on the couch in silence together scrolling the internet separately. Now we're just sitting in separate rooms (not that the loft really counts as a room, but close enough), silently scrolling the internet with the occasional Facebook message/sticker being sent just to remind the other that we're still here. 

I always feel like I get stuck in a rut of trying to produce content online for everyone else's enjoyment rather than just a creative outlet for myself, so at the moment I don't actually know what I'm going to try to do with this still other than just a digital journal really. I might throw up a recipe or two occasionally, or chronicle our camping trips during the summer but for now I think it's going to be a dumping ground at the end of the day for whatever I need to get out of my head.

If you're still here, even if it's just because you forgot to unfollow this blog, thanks for sticking around. Hopefully someone out there gets some enjoyment out of the weird things that go on in my head.