Life Update
Mon, May. 6th, 2024 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annarti
Every time I say I'll update more frequently here, and every time a month goes by, two months, and suddenly it's a year XP See if it sticks this time.
Work and associated has had some significant personnel changes: one, the other graphic designer, moved to another business where he could be even more in the coding side of things; the other, who worked in finishing and dispatch, passed away of a heart issue which remarkably had nothing to do with, but probably wasn't helped by, copious drinking and smoking. This has meant I've now taken on 100% of the graphic design for the business, most notably Wendy's. Zero relation to American Wendy's, to the point where American Wendy's is trying to figure out how to launch in Australia while our Wendy's is saying, 'yeah, nah.' Anyway. I'm in charge of all the design for their promos, which happen every two months or so. It's SO much fun. Every one looks so different, I get to work on the typography/'logo' for each new campaign, the colours are bright and happy, I get to be creative and problem-solvy when they give me a brief with a dozen messages to go on one poster and I've gotta make it flow and read well... This is the sort of shit I signed up to be a graphic designer for, honestly. And, to top it all off, I got the biggest pay rise of my career at the beginning of last year because of it. Oh, AND, I got the graphic design award for my company for 2022 :D
Personnel changes have also meant, though, that we got a new finisher. This took the better part of a year to finally find someone. He's terrible. No attention to detail, frequently stuffs up Thirsty Camel (y'know, the client who pays my entire salary every two months, that one), sends stuff to the wrong place, doesn't read instructions and doesn't ask when the instructions don't necessarily make sense. Also, if he turns up every day for work in any given week, it's noteworthy. There's always something going on in his life, and it's never his fault 9.9 Kids getting in fights at school or being caught shoplifting (but they're good kids!), health problems (all self-inflicted, like how he was trying to lose weight by drinking 40L of water a day and flusing out all the nutrients from his body then collapsing in the bathroom and giving himself concussion), train strikes (which we'd all known were happening for a couple of days prior and for which there are always substitute buses, but no, gotta stay home). God he's frustrating.
So yeah, we're a workplace of 3.5 people now. I love all the design I'm getting with Wendy's, but there's really nowhere to go in a business of basically three people, so idk. Might see about updating my portfolio next year and throwing it around at job ads again, see if I get any bites.
I have a girlfriend now! Her name is Amanda, we met last autumn on Her and she moved in, like, spring-ish? We finally finished moving all her stuff up to mine/to the storage unit in the week before Easter. She's a lab tech at a wool company, has many a creative hobby but all very different from mine, more of the textile variety, like knitting, crocheting, sewing, bit of watercolour and pen stuff, though I think she loves the science of those more than the creativity as I've not seen her paint anything but colour swatches X3 Passionate about DnD, cooking (though ADHD means energy levels aren't always there to do cooking frequently) annnnnd me :3 Trying to fit all her stuff into my little unit, when all her creative hobbies require a lot of space, has been a challenge, but we're getting there. Kinda working on a box every two days, so everything should be sorted in a month or two.
I had a proper falling out with Dad last year, right around the time I started dating Amanda. I don't talk about it much cos I just don't like to, not because it's private or anything, I just don't like it. But he likes to get angry and explode for no discernable reason. This has been going on since I reckon I was 20-ish? I've tried everything in my power to stop it, from 'ignore it, maybe it'll go away' to asking politely, to asking forcefully, to yelling, to swearing, to leaving because of said anger, to threatening an ultimatum. I've tried avoiding controversial topics, tried shutting up as soon as I see the warning signs, I've tried warning before it happens, because I have a hair-trigger for what it looks like now, tried asking to please, stop, before you get mad. Last year, when he flew off the handle over a spoon (I'm not exaggerating but I can't be arsed going into it), I asked him why he does this. 'Because it's easy, riling you up.' But why would you want to? Wouldn't you prefer to see me happy? 'Oh, because it's fun.'
He got mad over a spoon because it's FUN. I have literally no tools to deal with that. There is no topic that's safe when a fucking SPOON can set him off, no safe frame of mind because it's FUN.
So I decided not to deal with it anymore. I went no-contact. Mum came over to my place on her own to watch the footy. He never once reached out, because it was 'my choice,' Mum said, and he wanted to respect my choice. After six months of even that not working, I met him at their place to find he'd learned absolutely nothing and didn't understand why I'd left at all. alsjdhkaslk. So I organised a meeting, because fuck if I'm not a stubborn, cynical optimist. I set out an agenda, emailed it to him, outlining questions that would be asked and that he would answer.
Meeting went a thousand times better than I could've expected. He had three lightbulb moments! He apologised twice! Umprompted! He's never, once apologised to me for his explosions! We had another meeting a couple of months ago (so I really should schedule a third) which didn't have quite as much progress, but I've got him thinking. If I can get him to the stage of thinking in the moment, not just when he's in the meetings with me, then I'll call that a vitory. Certainly not on going-up-weekly-for-footy terms, but baby steps are happening. I have hope, because I'm me and I don't frigging give up if I have some avenue. Still waiting for him to actively show me he's trying, but it's a start.
I have what I call the Big Book of Stuff, which is like my reference for while I'm writing Silent Harmony. It has all the character profiles and kingdom profiles and a timeline and everything, all organised in points with a chapter number next to the points. This is so I have a reference as to what I've talked about in the story already, so I know really quickly if I'm either repeating myself, or if I've forgotten and left something out. It's tricky to keep track of that, especially when my outtakes file, of stuff I've written but cut for whatever reason, is almost 17k on its own.
So, because it's me, this BBoS is also designed and has art in it. Character references, especially useful for uniforms (the number of times Nol's royal regalia's come up is ridiculous), working out how fashion works for the various kingdoms, especially for Llayad, who used to be such a mishmash of everything European from, like, middle ages through to 18th century. Maps, creatures both real and invented, gods and zodiac. I've been working more diligently on that since, like, mid-2021 I reckon? Finally got the last piece finished two weeks ago, plonked it into my InDesign file, exported everything and now it's useful and beautiful :D I'm particularly pleased with all the creatures, even wound up inventing a steed for Tsayth, so that's cool.
This has also meant I'm able to get back to actually writing the story again, which I haven't stopped this whole time, per se, but have just been writing during lunch breaks at work. I'd forgotten just how much more quickly chapters can happen when you can sit down for a solid two hours and punch some words out XD This one's feeling extremely expositiony atm but that's what first drafts are for. I'll see if I can fix it once I'm done. It's all about Llayan fortune telling, which still feels like it's a work in progress on its own, anyway, so /shrug.
Anyway. Elephant in the room of the last post, I've done a bit of soul-searching since then, trying to figure out, idk, why anything? I write for me, sure, but I also write for my friends, and for the ultimate goal of getting SH published. But if my nearest and dearest aren't reading it (and I mean it, not a single person has read past chapter nine, and I just posted 18) then that cuts my reasons for writing back to two: for myself and for publishing. But... if my nearest and dearest won't read it... what makes me so arrogant as to think anyone else will want to? Why bother publishing it? Why bother writing it at all? Is writing for myself enough? I've already got the entire story in my head, all the characters and worldbuilding, what's the point in writing it down if nobody but me will ever read it? Well, because I'm nothing if not a stubborn, optimistic cynic. Nobody's gonna read it, but I'll write it just in case. The process of writing is still fun, even if the joy of nattering about it with people is gone. Two and a half years since anyone read a chapter and I still have hope that people will.
Had a day in the garden last weekend, giving everything a really deep soak, planting a bunch of plants I bought ages ago and which have just been surviving in their pots since then but which are now in real dirt. It's so dry, omfg. We went for two literal months with no rain. Not a drop. Then there was a light nothing which had evaporated within the hour and another month before anything happened again. I think it's still only rained, like, two or three days since March? Still very much watering the garden, even into May. There was a bushfire today just south of here, too. Not a big one, but still. It's May. Half our firefighting appliances have been sent to California for their bushfire season.
More stuff is on Insta though I'm not great at updating there, either. In a nutshell, saw P!nk with Cassie back in February when it was predictably a stinker and was still 38 degrees when the concert finished after 10pm; Christmas at Renmark in the Riverland to visit Amanda's folks, where it was mostly pissing with rain and was a hell of a contrast to what 2024 has been so far; Ceramic sets numbers three and two arrived, with set four to be ordered after tax time at the end of June; Strikers won the WBBL final on the LAST BALL omfg it was amazing.
That about covers it. This has been an emotionally exhausting week that I won't get into, but suffice to say things are looking up.
Work and associated has had some significant personnel changes: one, the other graphic designer, moved to another business where he could be even more in the coding side of things; the other, who worked in finishing and dispatch, passed away of a heart issue which remarkably had nothing to do with, but probably wasn't helped by, copious drinking and smoking. This has meant I've now taken on 100% of the graphic design for the business, most notably Wendy's. Zero relation to American Wendy's, to the point where American Wendy's is trying to figure out how to launch in Australia while our Wendy's is saying, 'yeah, nah.' Anyway. I'm in charge of all the design for their promos, which happen every two months or so. It's SO much fun. Every one looks so different, I get to work on the typography/'logo' for each new campaign, the colours are bright and happy, I get to be creative and problem-solvy when they give me a brief with a dozen messages to go on one poster and I've gotta make it flow and read well... This is the sort of shit I signed up to be a graphic designer for, honestly. And, to top it all off, I got the biggest pay rise of my career at the beginning of last year because of it. Oh, AND, I got the graphic design award for my company for 2022 :D
Personnel changes have also meant, though, that we got a new finisher. This took the better part of a year to finally find someone. He's terrible. No attention to detail, frequently stuffs up Thirsty Camel (y'know, the client who pays my entire salary every two months, that one), sends stuff to the wrong place, doesn't read instructions and doesn't ask when the instructions don't necessarily make sense. Also, if he turns up every day for work in any given week, it's noteworthy. There's always something going on in his life, and it's never his fault 9.9 Kids getting in fights at school or being caught shoplifting (but they're good kids!), health problems (all self-inflicted, like how he was trying to lose weight by drinking 40L of water a day and flusing out all the nutrients from his body then collapsing in the bathroom and giving himself concussion), train strikes (which we'd all known were happening for a couple of days prior and for which there are always substitute buses, but no, gotta stay home). God he's frustrating.
So yeah, we're a workplace of 3.5 people now. I love all the design I'm getting with Wendy's, but there's really nowhere to go in a business of basically three people, so idk. Might see about updating my portfolio next year and throwing it around at job ads again, see if I get any bites.
I have a girlfriend now! Her name is Amanda, we met last autumn on Her and she moved in, like, spring-ish? We finally finished moving all her stuff up to mine/to the storage unit in the week before Easter. She's a lab tech at a wool company, has many a creative hobby but all very different from mine, more of the textile variety, like knitting, crocheting, sewing, bit of watercolour and pen stuff, though I think she loves the science of those more than the creativity as I've not seen her paint anything but colour swatches X3 Passionate about DnD, cooking (though ADHD means energy levels aren't always there to do cooking frequently) annnnnd me :3 Trying to fit all her stuff into my little unit, when all her creative hobbies require a lot of space, has been a challenge, but we're getting there. Kinda working on a box every two days, so everything should be sorted in a month or two.
I had a proper falling out with Dad last year, right around the time I started dating Amanda. I don't talk about it much cos I just don't like to, not because it's private or anything, I just don't like it. But he likes to get angry and explode for no discernable reason. This has been going on since I reckon I was 20-ish? I've tried everything in my power to stop it, from 'ignore it, maybe it'll go away' to asking politely, to asking forcefully, to yelling, to swearing, to leaving because of said anger, to threatening an ultimatum. I've tried avoiding controversial topics, tried shutting up as soon as I see the warning signs, I've tried warning before it happens, because I have a hair-trigger for what it looks like now, tried asking to please, stop, before you get mad. Last year, when he flew off the handle over a spoon (I'm not exaggerating but I can't be arsed going into it), I asked him why he does this. 'Because it's easy, riling you up.' But why would you want to? Wouldn't you prefer to see me happy? 'Oh, because it's fun.'
He got mad over a spoon because it's FUN. I have literally no tools to deal with that. There is no topic that's safe when a fucking SPOON can set him off, no safe frame of mind because it's FUN.
So I decided not to deal with it anymore. I went no-contact. Mum came over to my place on her own to watch the footy. He never once reached out, because it was 'my choice,' Mum said, and he wanted to respect my choice. After six months of even that not working, I met him at their place to find he'd learned absolutely nothing and didn't understand why I'd left at all. alsjdhkaslk. So I organised a meeting, because fuck if I'm not a stubborn, cynical optimist. I set out an agenda, emailed it to him, outlining questions that would be asked and that he would answer.
Meeting went a thousand times better than I could've expected. He had three lightbulb moments! He apologised twice! Umprompted! He's never, once apologised to me for his explosions! We had another meeting a couple of months ago (so I really should schedule a third) which didn't have quite as much progress, but I've got him thinking. If I can get him to the stage of thinking in the moment, not just when he's in the meetings with me, then I'll call that a vitory. Certainly not on going-up-weekly-for-footy terms, but baby steps are happening. I have hope, because I'm me and I don't frigging give up if I have some avenue. Still waiting for him to actively show me he's trying, but it's a start.
I have what I call the Big Book of Stuff, which is like my reference for while I'm writing Silent Harmony. It has all the character profiles and kingdom profiles and a timeline and everything, all organised in points with a chapter number next to the points. This is so I have a reference as to what I've talked about in the story already, so I know really quickly if I'm either repeating myself, or if I've forgotten and left something out. It's tricky to keep track of that, especially when my outtakes file, of stuff I've written but cut for whatever reason, is almost 17k on its own.
So, because it's me, this BBoS is also designed and has art in it. Character references, especially useful for uniforms (the number of times Nol's royal regalia's come up is ridiculous), working out how fashion works for the various kingdoms, especially for Llayad, who used to be such a mishmash of everything European from, like, middle ages through to 18th century. Maps, creatures both real and invented, gods and zodiac. I've been working more diligently on that since, like, mid-2021 I reckon? Finally got the last piece finished two weeks ago, plonked it into my InDesign file, exported everything and now it's useful and beautiful :D I'm particularly pleased with all the creatures, even wound up inventing a steed for Tsayth, so that's cool.
This has also meant I'm able to get back to actually writing the story again, which I haven't stopped this whole time, per se, but have just been writing during lunch breaks at work. I'd forgotten just how much more quickly chapters can happen when you can sit down for a solid two hours and punch some words out XD This one's feeling extremely expositiony atm but that's what first drafts are for. I'll see if I can fix it once I'm done. It's all about Llayan fortune telling, which still feels like it's a work in progress on its own, anyway, so /shrug.
Anyway. Elephant in the room of the last post, I've done a bit of soul-searching since then, trying to figure out, idk, why anything? I write for me, sure, but I also write for my friends, and for the ultimate goal of getting SH published. But if my nearest and dearest aren't reading it (and I mean it, not a single person has read past chapter nine, and I just posted 18) then that cuts my reasons for writing back to two: for myself and for publishing. But... if my nearest and dearest won't read it... what makes me so arrogant as to think anyone else will want to? Why bother publishing it? Why bother writing it at all? Is writing for myself enough? I've already got the entire story in my head, all the characters and worldbuilding, what's the point in writing it down if nobody but me will ever read it? Well, because I'm nothing if not a stubborn, optimistic cynic. Nobody's gonna read it, but I'll write it just in case. The process of writing is still fun, even if the joy of nattering about it with people is gone. Two and a half years since anyone read a chapter and I still have hope that people will.
Had a day in the garden last weekend, giving everything a really deep soak, planting a bunch of plants I bought ages ago and which have just been surviving in their pots since then but which are now in real dirt. It's so dry, omfg. We went for two literal months with no rain. Not a drop. Then there was a light nothing which had evaporated within the hour and another month before anything happened again. I think it's still only rained, like, two or three days since March? Still very much watering the garden, even into May. There was a bushfire today just south of here, too. Not a big one, but still. It's May. Half our firefighting appliances have been sent to California for their bushfire season.
More stuff is on Insta though I'm not great at updating there, either. In a nutshell, saw P!nk with Cassie back in February when it was predictably a stinker and was still 38 degrees when the concert finished after 10pm; Christmas at Renmark in the Riverland to visit Amanda's folks, where it was mostly pissing with rain and was a hell of a contrast to what 2024 has been so far; Ceramic sets numbers three and two arrived, with set four to be ordered after tax time at the end of June; Strikers won the WBBL final on the LAST BALL omfg it was amazing.
That about covers it. This has been an emotionally exhausting week that I won't get into, but suffice to say things are looking up.