DaveTheAnalyzer

I’ve seen Onward. It was one of the films I had on my list before COVID hit and at last, I’ve finally gotten around to seeing it. Despite some issues, I did enjoy the film. It might not reach Pixar’s “peak standards,” but there was something about the characters and story that appealed to me. It goes into family dynamics and what it’s like to have a missing parent you know a lot about but can never be in contact with. Ian is a socially anxious high schooler, rarely the type to take any chances. I like that he backed out of inviting the four classmates to his birthday party more out of a lack of confidence and not because of any malice on their part (They were friendly and interested). Barley on the other hand, takes all the chances, sometimes too much, to make up for a mistake in his past. Their mother’s supportive and acknowledges their interest bust they both feel the absence of their deceased father, for different reasons.

That’s all for now. It’s nice to be up at a proper time for once. Hopefully I can keep it up. Fingers crossed. Until February’s end, see you!

The house is thankfully a bit less crowded. The uncle who’d been sleeping in the porch for nearly two years had finally been urged to leave around Halloween. He has some…personal problems that made living with him difficult. Despite his departure containing some shouting, he doesn’t hold it against us since he later stopped by amicably two times this month, one to pick up any remaining stuff he had left. Hopefully he can find help but we aren’t equipped to deal with his issues. My parents assured there’d be no more house guests that’d have to crash out in the porch and my dad has been cleaning and refurbishing said porch, making it look more open. I’ll be seeing more of it, as the cold forces me to use the treadmill in there more often.

That’s all for now. I can’t believe it’s almost the end of 2021 and I’m going to start the next year with no more schooling. No update on the job situation. Until the end of the year, see you!

In the meantime, I’m pleasantly surprised a new Digimon series called Ghost Game will be airing within a couple days. I’ve tuned out on the Adventure reboot aside from listening to its great songs and resigned myself that Digimon would be Adventure content to the end of time, so learning about Ghost Game was cheering news. Not-so-cheering was learning Konaka from Tamers had fallen down the alt-right rabbit hole and there was concern if he was involved in Ghost Game. Fortunately, he wasn’t and I don’t have a problem still liking Tamers since as other fans pointed out a) he only fell down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole around 2010 at the earliest, around nine years after Tamers ended and b) even as Konaka himself repeatedly emphasized, a lot of beloved elements came from other production members and that it was a team effort. Ghost Game at any rate looks to be interesting with its horror angle and the potential characters dynamics. I’m also glad that Gammamon is a dinosaur Digimon but yet not another Theropod lookalike. I hope it succeeds so we can have more original Digimon stories.

That’s all for now. Onto reading the third book in my second series that I’m renting from the library and I’ll later help my parents with shopping. Until around Halloween, see you!

I had surgery on my gums Wednesday. My new dentists were concerned by the bumps on my gums, so I was referred to a periodontist. After a checkup meeting, I was going to have the surgery next Wednesday but due to scheduling conflicts, the surgery happened two days later. I wasn’t put under but had parts of my mouth numbed out. I barely noticed the removal of the gum bumps and was more discomforted by the constant scrapping of a few of my right teeth, probably from the mess made by removing the bumps. At any rate, I have a dressing covering the bottom right of my gums and teeth. It feels strange but not uncomfortable, like having extra skin or chewing gum. The specialist told me the bumps weren’t cancer but might have negatively affected my teeth down the line. He also recommended I see an orthodontist about the arrangement of a couple of my teeth but indicated that it isn’t a super immediate concern. For now, I’ll be focusing on healing from the surgery and making do with eating out of the left side of my mouth. 

That’s all for now. I’m still writing fanfic, but it might still be a while before the next chapters come up. Also I’m still struggling with my sleep schedule, so will go to bed in a hour or two after posting this. Until August’s end, see you!

Admittedly, I needed that extra time because not long after class ended, I caught a cold and my sleep schedule went belly up. I alternated between sleeping during the day and at night, when the coughing’s worse. After over two weeks where the cough didn’t go away, I called my lung doctor and he prescribed meds to help manage it. I suspected the cough would have needed med intervention, because it always did when I caught a cold before, including last year. So far, my coughing has eased but I’ll see if it’s gone for good.

Last Monday morning, we experienced a bit of a scare since the Wifi went down in the middle of the night. Since a lot of our sleep schedules were messed up, that didn’t leave us a lot to do. Since that day was also the day we were supposed to get our Wifi upgraded, I wondered if the issue was related. To occupy those long hours, I read some documents and other things I saved onto my computer, which was nostalgic and gave me some writing juices. When the wifi workers came around at mid-morning, it turns out that it was the policy to turn off the wifi before upgrading it, the group just didn’t tell. My mom and I went shopping (still wearing masks) as the wifi got upgraded and when we got back, it was all back to normal. So far, I haven’t noticed any explicit changes but I guess that was a positive sign. I wish the company had told us so we could be prepared.

That’s all for now. I’m typing away on a cold May Sunday afternoon after having vacuumed and watching a video about the universe’s age. Until the end of June, see you!

Also here’s where to learn where to donate and push against Arkansas’ horrible anti-trans youth laws: https://www.seventeen.com/life/a35978774/trans-healthcare-rights-organizations/

Edit: Deleted the part where I mistakenly thought the Arkansas governor already signed the current anti-trans bill. Apparently, he's signed another anti-trans law last week. He hasn't yet signed the latest horrible bill.

I had some dentist work done. I still seem to be taking care of my teeth well for the most, it’s just one tooth needed a filling and that was done later the same week. Except I might have misjudged how much the filling needed to be ground down, since when I pressed my teeth together a few days later, I felt the filling tooth strain with not-quite pain and be pressed into the gums. I did wonder if the tooth was being extra sensitive but after a couple days of that discomfort, I asked for another dentist appointment which I fortunately got the same day I called for it. Barely took them fifteen minutes to grind the filling down to a more sensible level and I could chew far better without that wincing feeling. They also put fluoride on a back tooth since it felt sensitive and that might reduce the sensitivity. I had to not eat after that but fortunately the dentists confirmed I could eat two hours later, so I didn’t have the ambiguous time of judging when to eat. There’s the caveat that the tooth still gives a wincing feeling when I eat apples and I don’t know if there’s still problem I need to get checked on later or if it’s regular tooth sensitivity again.

I’ve started my last semester in Albertus Magnus on the eleventh. I’ve already started on and submitted my Writing Portfolio entry a week in advance – and it already got two comments from my fellow students. LOL. I don’t blame them, one already submitted their work this week, so they might as well get the next student’s work over with. At least my submission is done for this week. I have started on the second book for Seminar in Fiction II, the required class everyone forgot I should take that made me go another semester. Doing the math, I’m reading 24 pages a day to keep up with the reading schedule and though it’s doable, it can be a challenge to find a time in the day to do it, especially if I have other appointments or duties. I plan to switch my reading schedule a bit, which’ll disrupt my writing of other classwork and side projects but I want to make the days more manageable. I guess I’ll do some classwork in morning watches or any other free times in the day, the same with side projects. I was going to start the Seminar in Fiction II 60 page writing project last week but after finishing and sending in my Master Project, I decided to take a break, as I felt the strain of a feeling like burnout happening at the thought of starting one big project after just finishing another.

Speaking of my personal writing, I’ve only been able to have one or two days a week where I can write my fanfic We Will Hold On Forever (and weekends when I don’t have to write for Writing Portfolio). This is based on days I missed and though it’s slow, at least I’m making incremental progress. I’ve already started on the second draft of the next chapters. The first draft was surprisingly short, but I have a feeling the second draft might lengthen it to the usual 40-60 page monster chapters that have to be cut in two. Since it sounds like I’ll be writing at this slow pace the whole semester, don’t expect the next chapters to be posted any time soon.

That’s all for now. I’m editing this the day before a snow storm. Until February’s end, see you!

I finally uploaded new chapters of We Will Hold On Forever! I’ve been slowly going through the chapters each weekend and found chapters 23 and 24 were nearly complete, and after some edits, I posted them. I was originally going to have chapter 23 be longer and 24 shorter, but I wanted the chapters to be more or less of even length, so I pushed a few scenes to chapter 24. I don’t remember the exact wording but I remember coming across the advice that a fight scene should only last four pages before ending or something majorly changes, so that led me to keeping each fight scene to around four pages. I think the benefit of that is the action doesn’t overstay its welcome. I’m already getting comments and can’t wait to see more reactions to scenes and plots I’ve had percolating for a while.

That’s all for now. The end of my fall semester is in two weeks and I can’t wait to take a bit of a break from writing. I’m glad I’m doing well on the rewrite for my Master Project but constantly writing for the same story for months on end is exhausting. Until the end of the year, see you!

Of course, this means I might not be doing as much We Will Hold On Forever as I thought. I just started doing draft three of my Master Project last week but I’m going to make up days I wasn’t writing when the semester started, so I’ll be trying to make up around two days of my Master Project a week. Doubling up on days will likely be exhausting, so I might be lucky if I do one We Will Hold On Forever writing every couple of weeks. Sorry for that promise going down the drain. You don’t always know if you can handle the workload or if more work might come on the way.

My anxiety medication has gone up. I think it might be having an effect but I’m not sure. I’m trying to limit my exposure to sources of anxiety, so that’s definitely helping. But there was a day or two where I didn’t take it due to sleep schedule issues and I found myself more anxious and a day or two where I exposed myself to grim news but it didn’t bother me as much. I did experience an annoying bout of anxiety struck by indecision over a minor tweet but I guess it can’t get rid of all anxiety or I need another upgrade in dosage. I’ll continue taking it and hope these meds do come to make help make my life better.

That’s all for now. Until the day before Halloween, see you!

Speaking of school priorities for the moment, it has occurred to me that I should ask my professors if we are still doing remote learning or due to my state apparently doing a bit better with COVID-19, that we’ll be meeting in person for the few times we do. If the latter, I definitely plan to bring my mask and gloves along. I’m asthmatic, so I need to protect myself. Fortunately, this being my last semester means I won’t have to worry about it going forward. Though the graduation ceremony would be a pain – either it will keep getting delayed or I’ll need to learn if I need to protect myself there as well. I would ask to skip it but as my last leg of school, my parents want to see me doing the walk.

After many delays, I finally had my dentist appointment and was pleasantly surprised that I apparently have no new cavities to deal with. I often zone out when brushing my teeth and can’t remember if I gave the exact same attention to each tooth. I also indulge in junk food. Granted, I do drink water every time I eat and floss each side of my teeth three times. The floss three times point I only implemented last year but I’m heartened that I’ve made sure to keep my teeth safe. I hope I can keep that up the next time I have a cleaning.