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State of the nerd: July 2018

It’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these, and I can’t really think about much else to post about for this week that I haven’t already rambled about recently (considering both Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Steven Universe left me going AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH for a few days with their season finales), so here we go!

I mentioned this in a few other posts recently, I think, but I GOT A NEW CAR YOU GUYS. Her name is Lapis 2.0 (or Lapis for short), she’s a 2018 Subaru Impreza, she’s actually BLUE (unlike old Lapis), and I love her dearly and I’m gonna drive her until she dies.

Here she is, all dirty after a weekend of LARPing a few months ago.

I’ve been doing a lot of fun nerdy stuff at work, involving two of my favorite things: making research posters and making videos. The big thing I’ve been tackling this week is learning how to use Adobe Character Animator a little better, and using it to make some videos for the Creating Research Posters course I’m updating. I showed off some of the stuff I’d been working on to my friend J, and he thinks I should make an animated version of my LARP character, Ëlinyr. (Challenge accepted.)

At some point I’ll make a less work-related animated video, but for now, here’s a screenshot from a video I was working on!

Speaking of Ëlinyr: she’s no longer an elf! Long story short: she decided to give up her elven-ness to anger her mother. I wrote a long rambly in-character account of how she initially dealt with being human, and if you’re interested, you can read it at Ëlinyr’s blog.

I’ve been knitting like crazy lately. I found a shawl pattern that I love so much, I’ve actually started on a second shawl with that pattern. It’s Drachenfels, and you can find it on Ravelry here. There’s also a kit on Craftsy that has the pattern as well as the yarn needed – I got the kit in the Energy colorway, and I love how it turned out.

Here’s the first Drachenfels, made from the kit I bought from Craftsy.

I had to move my sewing studio out of the garage due to the ridiculous amount of spiders in there lately. Ugh. I’m making some progress with making enough space in my craft room to actually use it for sewing, though, so hopefully I’ll have a permanent home for my sewing machine soon.

I’ve been playing a lot of Pokémon Go lately, and I’m really enjoying the new features they added to the game. Plus, it helps me get away from my desk at work and get active every so often.

I love how Pikachu and I match, haha.

So, that’s the State of the Nerd right now! Next week should bring us back to our regularly scheduled blog postings, I’ve got quite a list of ideas to write about, including a special series of posts for Gen Con!

The eternally distracted nerd

Twilight Sparkle with a book

Imagine that book is my blog, and that Twilight Sparkle is me, happily chugging out a post a week…

I was on a really good posting streak there for a while, wasn’t I?

And then my brain got in the way and decided “hey, let’s focus on everything that’s NOT the blog!”  And silly me went and followed it down a bunch of rabbit trails.  I started three craft projects, in addition to the two unfinished pairs of socks and poor neglected Sailor Moon quilt.

Oh hey there, started-but-not-finished projects.

And then Kishar started back up again, which meant I got to don my elf ears and red dress again and run around as Ëlinyr the Sun Elf for a weekend!

Ëlinyr and a newcomer to the Adventurer’s Guild.

Then there are the cosplay ideas Ross and I have been coming up with for the conventions we’re going to.  (I’m not going to post about them, because it seems that any time I post about costumes I want to do for conventions here, I never end up actually making them, like Toothless and Rose Quartz…)  And of course I get wrapped up in those and get excited for conventions, and all the fun that comes along with them.

And then I remember my poor neglected blog, and feel bad.

That happy Twilight from earlier? Now she’s buried in craft projects and books and half-started projects and unwritten blog posts. :/

Then something else distracts me, and off I go!  *sighs*

So that’s where my brain has been lately, folks.  Lost in a bunch of ridiculous distractions.  I need to actually develop a blog posting routine – set down a day and time every week to write some stuff.  Even if it’s just “hey, I’ve got nothing this week, so here, have some pictures of dogs dressed up in costumes”.

Speaking of which – yes, it’s old, but I do love seeing Pudge dressed up as the Eleventh Dogtor.

Pudge the Corgi, dressed as the 11th Doctor from Doctor Who.

Because how can you be sad when looking at a corgi dressed as the 11th Doctor?

What this rambly post boils down to, I think:  I’m still here, I’m still distracted by everything, but I’m gonna try my darndest to put new blog posts out on a regular-ish basis.  There’s definitely no shortage of things I want to post about, like my idea for turning a Wingspan Shawl into a Toothless shawl.  Or how ideas for keeping track of my yarn tourism fun.  And don’t forget about how I managed to read through almost all the Dresden Files books this year – that merits a post of its own, I think.

There I go, getting distracted again!  Anyhow.  Expect some more regular posts from me – and feel free to pester me if you don’t see anything for a while.  Friendly reminders from readers are always welcome, hah.

The State of the Nerd: May 2017

I know, I’ve fallen into that pattern of not posting again.  It’s been a crazy month or so here in my little corner of the world – there have been work changes, life changes, and all sorts of other things going on.  For those curious, let me break it down for you:

  • First off, I was diagnosed with ADHD last month.  It answers a lot of questions I’ve had for many, many years about why my brain operates the way it does, and now that I’m getting help for it, things are getting better.  With the meds I’m on, my focus has improved, my anxiety is greatly reduced, and it feels like my brain is finally working properly for the first time ever.
  • Work has changed.  LOTS.  That’s all I’m going to say about that.
  • I graduated!  With TWO Masters degrees!  Yep, I finally finished my dual masters in Library and Information Science, and while I didn’t walk in graduation, I had an epic gradu-birthday party that was probably much more entertaining than sitting through a lengthy commencement ceremony.

With grad school done, and my brain finally working properly, I’ve now got the time and energy to update the blog more regularly, with more than just status updates about how crazy life is.  I’ve got so much in the works, so many half-finished blog posts that I can finally wrap up and share with you all, and I’m hoping to finally settle on a new blog layout soon that’s a little more organized and less cluttered.  So, stay tuned – there’ll definitely be more of the crafty nerdiness you’ve all come to enjoy soon!

The exhausted Crafty Nerd: rambling edition

Peridot resembles how my week went, pretty much.

I apologize in advance, folks – this week’s post isn’t going to be terribly entertaining.  I’m freaking exhausted.  I went from the craziest week ever (so much stress, so many things going on!) to the most relaxing weekend ever (Ross and I spend the weekend at the West Baden Springs Resort, a little trip we do every year around the end of January), so I didn’t really have much chance to even think about the blog.  I didn’t even do any crafting this week!  Blog-wise, I’m on a roll, though, and have been cranking out at least one post a week since the beginning of the year – and I really don’t want to lose my momentum.  So, this week will be devoted to a collection of nerdy rambles, in no particular order.

  • Remember the Rose Quartz costume I told you guys I was going to work on making in last week’s post?  Well, I have the first part, thanks to my friend Kasi – she’s loaned me her uber-poofy floor-length petticoat.  It’s going to be PERFECT for my Rose costume.
  • I got to borrow a fancy tablet monitor from work to use as a second monitor with my work laptop, and guess what – it’s a touchscreen, too!  After some fighting with drivers, I managed to get it to behave well enough to doodle in Photoshop, so I’m going to test it out for some more heavy duty drawing soon.  Plus, it’s going to be awesome to be able to have that little guy in my lap to take notes on PDFs on for work.

    You know me and technology – I always love having something new to play with.

  • I’m attempting to reduce my crocheting overwhelmedness by picking one of the myriad of in-progress projects and actually finishing it.  Right now, I’ve got a number of things in the works, including a sweater, a cowl cape, a dragonfly shawl, a hat (I’m seriously three rows away from being done with that sucker), and an awesome blanket I’m working on for a friend’s baby.  I’m currently working on said awesome blanket – that’s going to be my “work on this sucker until it’s done” project.

    I’m sure you Star Trek fans know what sweater was the inspiration for this blanket… 🙂

  • I almost dug out some cross stitch today.  I have two projects in the works that I haven’t touched in years – a Sailor Moon pattern that I made myself, and a Sherlock pattern for my friend Josie.  I hope I finish that Sherlock project before Josie’s next birthday – it’s already two birthdays late. :X

I promise there’ll be a far more entertaining post next week – if I can get my hands on my camera tripod, I’m going to attempt to record a video tutorial!  I’m excited about being able to use my video development skills on something new. 🙂