Hi everyone!
It’s been half a quarter since the previous update, so it’s time for a new Currently on my art post. This time, there’s not much to be said aside from the now finished FFM and what’s in store for the autumn semester.
So, first things first. FFM 2024 came and went without major issues. I had a much better year headspace-wise, which I’m sure showed in my work, although I did struggle with muses quite a lot and was quite all over the place with where my stories were set. I also ended up writing three whopping pieces of Persona 5 Royal fanfiction, haha! The two longer ones of those are definitely some of my best works from this FFM. In any case, I’d say it was a success, especially considering the fact that my statistics are saying that wordcount-wise it was the best year since 2015, surpassing 2021 with a mere hundreds of words in the total wordcount. Viva!
Have a look at the statistics:
As for other things that happened in July, I got to attend Finncon. I had a lot of fun and I also managed to find the person who sold Out of Fucks and Acetronaut pins at a previous Finncon, so I got to replace the Out of Fucks pin I lost during the pandemic. That was absolutely the highlight of the con – and that day was lucky otherwise too, as on the same day I was able to score a Japanese comic magazine issue I’d been looking for on Zenmarket since early 2024. It was bundled with lots of other special issues from the same magazine so the weight of the package forced me to take the slow, cheap shipping (a 1-2-week shipping would’ve cost triple) so it’ll be some more time before I’ll get them. I don’t know how I’m going to get the 10+-kilogram package to my apartment, though; I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
I also wound up switching operating systems again; Garuda froze the entire computer mid-update one day in July, forcing me to shut the computer down since I wasn’t able to get any response, which broke the kernel, which in turn meant that it wouldn’t boot anymore. I ended up grabbing the little important data I had on the partition – as I was able to access the data from my Ubuntu – and installed EndeavourOS on top of it as I was already planning to do after FFM (fortunately, I did happen to have the foresight to bring the USB drive I had been using to boot to Linux ISOs with me when left to visit my parents). I’ve been far more satisfied with it, honestly; much less hassle with getting the UI to look the way I like it (admittedly the fact that I had already done the work with selecting the widgets helped a bit, but even the starting point was much better) and less bloat. I actually tried a different desktop, Cinnamon, at first but the lack of widgets got me to switch back to Plasma. Honestly, under normal circumstances I would’ve been fuming about Garuda breaking like that since fixing the kernel would’ve probably been a huge hassle, but since I had already written it off as to-be-replaced, I mainly just laughed at the incident.
In other news, I took a break from my master’s thesis in July and now I’m back in action. I’ve been doing some heavy editing based on the comments I got at the end of June, with hopes I’ll be able to finish them all by the end of the month and send it out to my supervisors so they’ll have enough time to check it out before the meeting in mid-September. Here’s to hoping that I won’t get that huge of a list of comments next time! Aside from that, I don’t have plans for the semester; there are some things I need to take care of but they’re either in progress or on the backburner for now, so there’s nothing to say about those.
So yeah, all that happened. That’s all I have to tell about, so let’s see how things are going with my projects, as per my project widget:
- The Fate’s Way: Chapter 85 is in writing, although it’s very much in progress. I’ve been having very severe writer’s block with this project for a while, as these posts have most likely shown. I still need to redraw the regular Alyssa and also Alyssa’s friends and family and the other important people, like Matti, someday. I haven’t found the time to revise any more chapters.
- Off-DA projects: My master’s thesis is progressing well; finalization is ongoing as I address the comments I’ve got.
- Lyokostar: The second part of story 7 is still waiting for alphareading, but that’s a thing for once its indefinite hiatus ends. This story is in need of massive reworking, so it’s going to take a long time to finish when I do find the time and energy to resume it. References need to be done.
- A Wandering Aura: On indefinite hiatus.
- I’ll Draw The Stars: I’m reworking to add a considerably big plot bunny into the fic and lots of smaller plot bunnies in the form of the background characters I’ve been researching for my master’s thesis. I’m currently working on chapter 22 out of 81. I’ve written 14729 words in this quarter.
- Gaming: Habitica and Pokémon Masters EX keep on going. I’ve also played some other games: I completed Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne and Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S and tried some demos.
- Other stuff: FFM 2024 came and went. I’ve been mainly reading FFM fics but also The Gods Themselves. I also read Helen Scheuerer’s An Alchemist’s Vow.
- Personal life: Just master’s thesis -related stuff, switching operating systems again and FFM 2024. This half of the quarter has been quite uneventful.
That’s for all this update. Thanks for reading and take care!
WindySilver 