Spring is here!
Mar. 27th, 2026 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
awanderingbardHello all! I hope Spring has sprung for you. We had a false Spring here, some beautiful weather followed by a massive snowstorm, but are back to nicer weather again. It was a loooong winter. Every time we had to leave the house felt like an Expedition.
I'm recovering from a cold. A weird one that was just in my sinuses. I thought it was allergies at first, but it was definitely a cold of some kind. Mum caught a mild version and Dad didn't get it at all, not sure why I got the brunt of it. It was unpleasant, but I'm feeling better now and it gave me an excuse to rest without feeling guilty about it. I'm just so tired all the time. It doesn't seem to matter how much I sleep, I'm still tired. I do wonder if I have some form of Chronic Fatigue syndrome. I've been chronically ill since I was 14, so it would not surprise me if somewhere along the way my body overreacted to some bug and went into CFS mode. I do think I'm doing a little better, though. I'm getting things accomplished.
I've also started meditating in the mornings. I've been trying to learn how to work with my (suspected) neurodivergent brain, and meditation kept coming up as a way to deal with that 'internal hyperactivity' feeling. Like, I want to do all the things and nothing at the same time, and my brain is jumping from topic to topic like there's a crowd of people talking in my head, all of them trying to get my attention at the same time. I've been using an app called 'Insight Timer', which is free with no ads (aside from them frequently asking if you want to upgrade to their premium service). It has a bunch of guided meditations on it, plus a timer that just plays bells or whatever in the background if you'd rather do it on your own. Not sure if it uses AI, it might with its search function, but otherwise, I've been enjoying it. It tracks your mood and keeps streak tally for you, and there is a journal option and stuff. I've been finding it useful and I've been sleeping really well since I started doing it.
I've also made a drawing breakthrough. I've been following a series of lessons from a guy named Angel Ganev on youtube. His style might not be for everyone, he's a Gen Z fellow from Bulgaria and his humour falls into the edgy/grumpy territory of constant insults and dick jokes, but the fundamentals have been really helpful. How he breaks it down makes a lot of sense and I've seen progress in my sketches following his method. Shading is next, and that's proving difficult, but I keep reminding myself sketching was hard, too, and I have to learn this part of things now.
Otherwise, I've been writing and chilling. I've somehow wound up on the 'Bridgerton fandom drama' algorithm on Instagram. I don't watch the show (I don't have Netflix) but I have read some of the books, and I like watching clips that pop up on my feed, and now suddenly I am flooded with people complaining about other people complaining about the new leads for season five, without actually seeing anybody complain about the new leads for season five. Instagram is funny in that way. It's like walking by your neighbours having argument. I get a lot of Deaf community stuff, too, and it's hilarious how one post will be like 'I don't understand why people think they can't approach us to have a conversation, we're not snobby or unpleasant or insular' followed immediately by 'don't you ever tap my shoulder to get my attention, I don't care what your ASL teacher told you, I do NOT want you to touching me!'. And 'everyone should learn ASL, we love it when you try' followed by 'only X people can teach ASL and everyone else sucks and here all the things you're doing that are incredibly offensive and you should never even try to assume you can be welcomed into the community'. And, like, I get both sides of that, it's perfectly normal for there to be a variety of opinions and experiences, but it's just whiplash to go from one extreme to the next. Thus is the Internet, I suppose. I try to stay in my happy places.
Hope everyone is managing well and finding their happy places! Talk to you soon!
v
I'm recovering from a cold. A weird one that was just in my sinuses. I thought it was allergies at first, but it was definitely a cold of some kind. Mum caught a mild version and Dad didn't get it at all, not sure why I got the brunt of it. It was unpleasant, but I'm feeling better now and it gave me an excuse to rest without feeling guilty about it. I'm just so tired all the time. It doesn't seem to matter how much I sleep, I'm still tired. I do wonder if I have some form of Chronic Fatigue syndrome. I've been chronically ill since I was 14, so it would not surprise me if somewhere along the way my body overreacted to some bug and went into CFS mode. I do think I'm doing a little better, though. I'm getting things accomplished.
I've also started meditating in the mornings. I've been trying to learn how to work with my (suspected) neurodivergent brain, and meditation kept coming up as a way to deal with that 'internal hyperactivity' feeling. Like, I want to do all the things and nothing at the same time, and my brain is jumping from topic to topic like there's a crowd of people talking in my head, all of them trying to get my attention at the same time. I've been using an app called 'Insight Timer', which is free with no ads (aside from them frequently asking if you want to upgrade to their premium service). It has a bunch of guided meditations on it, plus a timer that just plays bells or whatever in the background if you'd rather do it on your own. Not sure if it uses AI, it might with its search function, but otherwise, I've been enjoying it. It tracks your mood and keeps streak tally for you, and there is a journal option and stuff. I've been finding it useful and I've been sleeping really well since I started doing it.
I've also made a drawing breakthrough. I've been following a series of lessons from a guy named Angel Ganev on youtube. His style might not be for everyone, he's a Gen Z fellow from Bulgaria and his humour falls into the edgy/grumpy territory of constant insults and dick jokes, but the fundamentals have been really helpful. How he breaks it down makes a lot of sense and I've seen progress in my sketches following his method. Shading is next, and that's proving difficult, but I keep reminding myself sketching was hard, too, and I have to learn this part of things now.
Otherwise, I've been writing and chilling. I've somehow wound up on the 'Bridgerton fandom drama' algorithm on Instagram. I don't watch the show (I don't have Netflix) but I have read some of the books, and I like watching clips that pop up on my feed, and now suddenly I am flooded with people complaining about other people complaining about the new leads for season five, without actually seeing anybody complain about the new leads for season five. Instagram is funny in that way. It's like walking by your neighbours having argument. I get a lot of Deaf community stuff, too, and it's hilarious how one post will be like 'I don't understand why people think they can't approach us to have a conversation, we're not snobby or unpleasant or insular' followed immediately by 'don't you ever tap my shoulder to get my attention, I don't care what your ASL teacher told you, I do NOT want you to touching me!'. And 'everyone should learn ASL, we love it when you try' followed by 'only X people can teach ASL and everyone else sucks and here all the things you're doing that are incredibly offensive and you should never even try to assume you can be welcomed into the community'. And, like, I get both sides of that, it's perfectly normal for there to be a variety of opinions and experiences, but it's just whiplash to go from one extreme to the next. Thus is the Internet, I suppose. I try to stay in my happy places.
Hope everyone is managing well and finding their happy places! Talk to you soon!
v
no subject
Date: 2026-03-29 10:53 pm (UTC)We're now in a drought so severe that we still have our one-day-a-week watering restriction, in which we can use sprinklers but only before 8 am or after 6 pm—and they've added that hand watering of trees, shrubs, and other plants must follow the same restricted hours. I usually water our few young trees and my amaryllis by hand twice a week after a run or a walk, and I am not back by 8 am; I usually don't leave before 8 am!
I have seen some of the people complaining about people complaining about Bridgerton casting without seeing anyone directly complaining, so it's probably pretty pervasive. I see it on Bluesky (a Twitter alternative). I don't do Instagram; I can barely keep up with DreamWidth, Facebook, and Bluesky! I'm most active on the last.
It's so cool that you've made a breakthrough in your drawing! Might you share some photos of some of your work at some future point?
no subject
Date: 2026-03-30 12:49 am (UTC)I didn't know the Bridgerton shenanigans had breached containment. I'm only on Dreamwidth, tumblr, and Instagram, and I never post on the last two, only lurk. I've never had a Facebook and nowadays, I am grateful for it.
I will definitely post some photos! I'm still figuring out shading, but I might post some sketches at least.
no subject
Date: 2026-03-30 04:23 pm (UTC)We're very much hoping we'll have more rain when the rainy season starts, but I don't know if it will ever be what it was before the climate changed so much.
The freeze was on top of citrus greening, which is caused by a bacterium, so it has gotten really bad.
no subject
Date: 2026-03-30 07:20 pm (UTC)It's amazing how much the climate has changed just in my lifetime. The winter we just had would have been normal for when I was a kid and seemed brutal now because they've been so mild for the last several years.