Rough Year

[magiuspendragon]

It's been a while since I've posted. Apparently almost a year. I've been thinking about posting an entry since New Year, or again on my birthday, but the words just weren't coming. There've been some high points, but for the most part it's been a pretty rough year. Let's try and talk a little bit about the good stuff first, keep this a little upbeat before I get all depressed again.


There've been some highlights over the last couple months.

• I've been spending a decent amount of time writing recently. It's not always easy, but I was really happy with the end result in November
• Speaking of November, I won NaNoWriMo this year
• I've been getting a lot more cool ideas for stories
• I'm currently rewriting the first novel I worked on. Most of you haven't read it, but the new version is looking to be 100% better plot-wise
• We've got a target graduation date. Things are moving forward in my work
• I've been doing a fair bit of Gaming. It's pretty fun, though there are some downside
• I've made a couple new friends who are really great. The fact that I'd be graduating in a year is kinda sad now.
• I went to Hawaii for my birthday. It was a pretty good trip, modulo a few things
• I've mostly made my reading challenge, and some of them have been really good. I'm a week off, but I had 2 free weeks in the year, and once some deadlines pass I may be able to catch up anyway.
  

That's about all I can think of at the moment.


But not everything has been great.

• I spent a good chunk of the first half of last year dealing with some big mistakes I made with some friends. They've mostly smoothed over, but I still feel like an idiot over most of it.
• As I mentioned before, Counseling was hard. It opened my eyes to a few things, but I don't feel like I made a lot of progress.
• My heartburn has gotten pretty bad. I was just skimming my past couple entries to see what I talked about before this
• My dad's been getting annoying about my weight, and about the pace of my work
• Work has been pretty stressful. We had to abandon the project I was working on last summer, and start a new one. It's moving forward, but it's slow going.
• The project I'm being funded under hasn't been getting a lot of attention from my advisor. I'm doing the best I can, but we've lost some funds and right now it's only me and one other person. We dont' have the support and infrastructure we need to finish this, really
• My schedule has been crazy. I feel like I can't catch a break. I was working on christmas eve. Between reading, writing, and gaming I don't have a free night to work on anything else, or just relax
• I'm going down familiar roads again. I've been feeling like one of my friends has been avoiding me. Another friend put some doubt in my head, and now I can't keep it out. I haven't heard from her since November, and I've sent her stuff every now and then.
• My sleep schedule's gotten even worse. Case in point, I started writing this draft at 3am.
• I've been trying to watch my spending, but I have a real hard time staying under budget. It's mostly food that's killing me, but my schedule's been so busy that eating at home isn't always possible
• My writing has caused some really down days. Last night for instance, I was way to stressed and depressed to get anything done, in either work or personal writing

And somethings just don't fit into either category.

• I've told some of you about my tablet project. The touchscreen has been acting up, but the company's been really good about helping with it. While I've been trying to push for a refund, they want me to send it back and they'll send a replacement. It's just been slow going because of hte above hectic schedule
• If you want to find out about the project, I've been trying to blog about it at aethercodex.tumblr.com, but it's been a while since I updated
• If you're interested in finding out more about the reading challenge, follow my goodreads under magiuspendragon
• I've also been posting reviews of the books up on my reading/writing blog magiuspendragon.blogspot.com
• A few friends of mine have persuaded me to ask this girl out. I've never successfully actually asked someone out, and I really dont' know anything about this girl, but maybe not being in the friend zone will help things. As I haven't asked her yet, I don't know which category it falls under

So that's the update on my last year or so.