Happy New Year Everypony!
Wow, I haven't updated this website in a while... feel kind of bad about that. But, when I reflect on the amount I was able to get done in under a month, it feels a little impressive so I'm glad about that. Now, at least, I can hop in and update a few things casually. I don't know if I will ever be satisfied with the layout of my website or the general feel of it... at some point I would really like to *own* all the graphics displayed on my website. We are a long way away from that point but who knows? A year is long. I have this domain for at least a year and then I can decide to renew it (which uh... I'm gonna do. Unless somehow it mysteriously shoots up in cost.)
A lot has happened in my life since I last touched base here so let me try to take this time to reflect on how to best package it for you, to explain it in a way that might make sense if you are not me (not that I think anyone except me is gonna read these things... sincerely I am sorry if you do).
Me and Ciel have been working our way through the Generation 1 My Little Pony cartoon (review to come later, hopefully). It is absolutely insane. They had different writers work on each 'arc', which ranges from five ten minute episodes to just one ten minute episode. The content in each varies signifigantly, one episode is about adopting a giant puppy who gets lost for the winter, the next episode is about an evil Donkey Micheal Jackson who is manipulated into stealing shadows for a giant cloud (before I combed through this to edit any obvious mistakes I realized I spelled this capital C Cloud because I am so used to typing his name) devil and a creep zebra. I don't know, you kind of have to expierence it. The pilot movie is genuinely good and after that it all goes off the rails it doesn't even feel like it could be called My Little Pony but it is.
But the ponies are cute...
My Christmas holidays were pretty chaotic, there were a bunch of things happening in my family and things like that and since flights ended up delayed Ciel and J were late getting home which was sad because I really missed them. We had our own Christmas after but by the time our break ended I still didn't really feel completely recharged. I had planned to do a lot of work here, on my personal art, on fanfiction in general (my longfics collecting dust.. i am so sorry) but that didn't end up happening....
The new semester started up for school and I actually am finding it a lot easier than I figured it was going to be when I was registering for these courses. The class I am finding the most frustrating isn't the one I thought I would find frustrating at first? But as always, my religion classes are wonderful and I am soaking it all in like a sponge. In my spare moments I'm doing bits and pieces of research on Cathedrals. Considering gearing into doing an honors? Since I have to wait around to get an additional certificate on top of my degree maybe I will double major. Not really sure.
The downside is school bus time eats a lot of my time. It sucks not having a car. Me and my roommates can all drive we just can't swing the cost of a car yet... ahhh how the world would open up if we could.
About two weeks ago, I started going to the gym which has been really rewarding. I want to build muscle and carve out a certain type of body. It's a lot of work and I have been very particular about counting calories so I can meet my goals. I injured my arms by going too hard with this theory called hypertrophy that a lot of people swear by in terms of really developing muscle mass and 'bulking'. It was pretty intense, I knew what to expect for muscle pain but when I messed up my arms I thought for sure I sprained something. But I was actually fine and it healed up pretty well!! My muscles are just not used to being pushed so hard. I am starting to be able to feel a little groove in my legs which is just so cool... but I have a super, super long way to go. Not only do I have to cut body fat but I also have to actually develop the muscles that will give me the 'look' that I want. Genuinely I just want to be stronger than I am right now. I want to feel like an anime character. I think that would be fun.
I was really scared to first go to the gym because 1) I'm a girl 2) overweight 3) I have no idea what I'm doing.
But everyone has been super nice or just super into doing their own thing. It's been a big challenge to myself and my anxieties about other people but I keep doing it. And that feels good. It gets a little easier the more that I do it. I keep trying to teach myself the best that I can. It is a LOT of life adjustments though, a lot of sitting and evaluating different avenues of my life. I haven't found any other women who are striving for the phsyique I am (I am sure that I will at some point, but right now I have to sort through a bunch of Guy who looks like a superhero and talks like one too youtube videos... lol).
Kind of in conjunction---I've been cooking a lot more and a lot of new recipes because I've totally cut carbs (in terms of like what is possible like breads, pasta, etc.) from my diet and sugar. I've been trying to up my protein too so it's really opened me up to trying out a bunch of new things which I feel really good about. I find myself wondering why I ever bothered buying storemade sauces and dressings because all of the ones I have made are *way* better and cheaper overall. In general, this has taught me a lot and I think I have been really changed by it. The fact that Ciel is willing to follow me along with my diet and that J and Ciel both come with me to the gym and support me all along the way has been a massive help. As much as I wanted to do this by myself, it has been really hard to pump myself up to do it. But now that the wheels are in motion I think that I am only gaining momentum.
We were all playing Danganronpa V3 but we had to stop toward the end because we realized Ciel was going to get spoiled on Danganronpa 1 + 2... yeah...
I've been playing a lot of Neopets in class... I don't hate the mobile layout when I play it on my ipad when I am supposed to be taking notes for my Shakespeare course T_T
I also have a few screenies from Modern Neopets that I have been meaning to post, as well as a few from retail Neopets. I switched gears to try and focus solely on retail Neopets because I want to raise all of my pets stats to be at least above 50 in every stat before the end of the year. I set up a giant list of resolutions (I do like a resolution checklist at the beginning of every new year) and that is slapped on there so it feels like a pretty easy one to complete. One of my Poogles that I am lab ray-ing turned robot! She's cute that way... I've kind of bonded to her that way. SO now I have two perm poogles on my main account.
Oh J helped wrangle my Simply Plural account and my Pluralkit account together so I have been using those and it is super helpful. I do need to make more of an effort to use it more but it can be a bit challenging, I find Pluralkit is easier since I spend a little more time in discord so I can kind of 'feel it out' better throughout my day.