1. Announcements

Welcome to Issue #3 of Rae’s Record!

2. Monthly Goal Summaries

Having this newsletter is helping me get back to working on my creative goals on the regular and this makes me so happy!

A) Arts & Crafts

A Strawberry

This is an assignment from the drawing course I’m taking that uses Procreate. Last month, I learned about shading. During August, I was learning about blending and duplicating, but my whole project got messed up and I couldn’t get the gesture for redoing to work. It was more than one accidental undo that screwed it up. I’m waiting for support to get back to me with why it isn’t working.

Honestly, this course isn’t going well for me. Half the time, I want to throw my iPad. I’m not generally a fan of Apple products. I feel like they overcomplicate basic things like undo and redo. It shouldn’t be seeing my palm as something that is drawing on the iPad. I have other goals linked to drawing, so it’s really upsetting to me that I’m having so much difficulty with the device and software.

I’m heavily considering pausing this until the winter as I have too much on the go anyway. Maybe digital art just isn’t my thing.

Fairy Cross-Stitch

I have been using a white pencil crayon to help with my counting issues. I had to take some stitches out before I could make more progress on this piece, but I did do quite well despite that.

B) Health & Fitness

ADHD

I’m in a very different place with my ADHD than I was just a short time ago. I’m currently finding enough success with having around 100 mg of caffeine each day. It’s not perfect, but I’m managing a lot better than I was.

Since diagnosis and self-treating with caffeine pills in the interim while I wait on getting a doctor, I have way less anxiety, my mind is calmer, and I’ve been making so much progress on my creative projects, my declutter efforts, and socializing is easier because I’m not stuck inside my own head as much.

I still occasionally have meltdowns, but those aren’t likely to completely disappear as they are part of trying to live in a world that isn’t made with my brain in mind. I’m still working on it anyway. Learning to take a breather when I start feeling frustrated rather than waiting until something reaches an overwhelming level is hard because I’m often either working on one of my goals or I am trying to do something that should be simple like cooking a meal.

Sjögren’s Syndrome

I had a very bad go with a recreational dose of mushrooms as part of a birthday gift. I didn’t experience much of the hallucinogenic effects. Instead, the drying effects were magnified. My body was super unhappy despite continually drinking water. And then the stomach related side effects started. I was hungry yet couldn’t eat. Because I’m petite, it lasted longer than it normally would. It took several days to fully recover from the dehydration.

Tai Chi

I was all set to go sign up and halfway there I realized, I don’t currently want to sign up for another thing that takes up my free time, costs money, and involves traveling multiple times per week. I can practice Iaido at home. I can do other meditative activities as well. The biggest reason I didn’t go ahead with this other than not feeling like it is that I realized I have been making so much progress on all my other goals lately and I didn’t want to sacrifice those for this. It was also going to prevent me from changing my streaming schedule to one that was better for me.

Softball 

Our last game was extremely rough. It was like we were doing everything we should, but we were always a second or two too late. And then we started having mishaps and one of our teammates was injured. A black lab picked up our ball and ran off with it for a bit, but that was adorable.

The regular season is pretty much over and I’m super sad about it. I don’t know if I will see the folks who don’t curl until next season, which is quite far away. We have playoffs later in September and then the banquet.

C) Home & Lifestyle

I started a major reorganization of Tiny Condo in an effort to improve my space for music, crafting, and everything else I’m passionate about. I figured out it was heading in the right direction, but was not there yet.

D) Music & Gaming

I haven’t done a lot with my music or my gaming this month, but I am setting myself up to be able to have a better streaming setup. I’m also working on making my space better for music practice.

E) The Writer's Desk

I’m doing a major reoganization of my novel and I’m excited about it. I’ve been learning to better use my novel writing software, Scrivener. One of the things I’ve learned about is the Outliner tool. I’m splitting every piece of my novel out into scenes instead of looking at whole chapters. This is letting me see which characters are in each scene. It’s letting me know where to go to make a change when an idea pops into my head. I’ll be able to analyze who I’m not using enough, which will help me figure out where I can add more to the story. Now, I haven’t come up with all of the things I want to track from the Outlining view, but there is a lot of power in just this change. I also took the advice of Oliver Evensen and changed my categories to the major characters. As you can see below, Josy is in most scenes. She is my protagonist, so that’s not unusual.

I’m not yet using the Section option. I haven’t figured out if I need it and I may change to tracking the mood of each scene. This is an idea born out of a workshop I was fortunate to experience during college. We had a day of making a Survivor episode in groups. The workshop was given by someone who worked on the show. One of the things she explained to us was that they would often construct the next episode partly based on the mood that was needed. If the last episode was very emotional, it could be better to have a more light-hearted next episode.

3. Monthly Blog Summary

For a more in depth look at how June went, head over to my blog and read the posts.

4. Playlist of the Month

This month’s playlist.

The Songs In My Head - August 2023

5. Upcoming

In softball, September includes a makeup game, the playoffs (September 15-17th), and the banquet (September 23rd) for.

Both curling leagues have events starting. On the 13th, I meet the team for my queer league and pay my outstanding balance. That league officially begins on October 1st, but the schedule isn’t available yet. The AGM for my beginner league is on the 19th and the first night is the 26th.

Hackers Day is September 15th, so I’m looking forward to that. #hacktheplanet

September 20th is the day I’m planning to return to a regular streaming schedule unless something catastophic happens to derail it.

At the end of September, I may be spending time with the only family I have in the Greater Ottawa area.

6. Meet Ups

My Twitch streaming schedule and future events live on my public calendar.