New Year's Resolutions 2020

So now I've got 2019's resolution recap out of the way - my film recap will come after this post - I can do the post with this year's resolutions so:

1. Get at least one piercing
2. Get at least one tattoo
3. Get fitter
4. Sort out my health
5. Draw or write something every day
6. Get a new car
7. Learn to drive
8. Get a new puppy
9. Watch 100 films
10. Read 100 books
11. Go to the cinema at least 8 times
12. Go to Longleat
13. See a show on stage
14. Start to save more money
15. Learn to knit
16. Learn to crochet
17. Learn embroidery
18. Write 20,000 words for NaNoWriMo
19. Get up to date with book reviews
20. Start to grow my hair out

So rather a long list this year... Still doable in theory but we'll see how it goes. I actually got books for embroidery and crochet for my birthday last year but thanks to the bought of depression mentioned in the last post I lacked the motivation to do anything with them. I've also seen a knitting book on Amazon that I'd like to get to help with that one. 9 days into January and the draw every day is working well since I picked up a 365 Days of Art book at work.

This year I decided to change my normal 'lose weight' goal to something more meaningful. I want to feel less out of breath when I'm running around work and I need to sort out various health stuff. For a start this dizziness thing I have. I can't turn on the spot without going wobbly and looking a certain patterns makes my eyes go all fuzzy and I can't focus. I'm also type 2 diabetic and while at my last appointment my sugars had gone down to a better range (it was bad enough that I was on 3 month review but now I'm back on 6 month review) I obviously do want to improve it. If I could come off the injectible medication would be great.

Last year I watched 7 films at the cinema so I thought I'd stretch it to 8 for this year and 1 is already done. Cats on New Year's Day, despite the bad reviews I really enjoyed it.

Anyway that's enough for this post.

Stef Out xx

Long Time No See... 2019 Resolutions Progress.

Hello. So the resolution for keeping up with this blog and reviews didn't exactly happen. 2019 was a bit of a crap year. It seems a bit of depression snuck in somewhere and life circumstances around April meant it really dug it's claws in. It still hasn't let go yet. I suppose some people might see a doctor about that sort of thing but I don't have time to wait around. Appointments at my doctor's surgery regularly run half an hour late although recently my mum was waiting about an hour so... I end up avoiding it when there's a small list of things I could do with talking to them about.

Another thing that hasn't helped in more recent months (mid October onwards) is that I got a new job. I'm now Assistant Manager for a local charity shop. It's fun but busy It's - currently - four days a week working 9 til 5, well half-5 by the time you've cashed up and gotten out of there. It's been a massive learning curve and it doesn't leave a lot of computer time. I am typing this on my laptop which is an option but it's big and heavy and awkward so I'd like to get a little Chromebook or something soon. Something light and fast! A Macbook would be the dream but considering they cost more than my monthly wage that's all it'll be, a dream. Even if I had the money an iPad Pro would be higher priority, mostly for Procreate, the drawing app, I follow artists online who use it and it looks epic!

Anyway resolutions. These were last years:

1. Lose at least two stone
2. Get at least one piercing
3. Get at least one tattoo
4. Learn to drive
5. Read 100 books
6. Watch 100 films
7. See at least 5 films at the cinema
8. Write at least 30,000 words for NaNoWriMo
9. Buy a tablet
10. Get a second dog
11. Find a new job
12. Draw more and improve my art

As you can see I did not do very well at all last year. If I recall I lost a bit of weight but not as much as I wanted to, one of those things that depression affected, like my concentration which is why I failed my reading goal. I thought I consistently read above 100 a year but checking back I've failed a few times, 2014 I read 97, 2017 was only 84, 2018 was 91 and last year, 2019, was 92. My best year overall since I started the challenge on Goodreads in 2012 was 2013 when I read 207 but that was due to re-reading my Animal Ark books before re-homing them. Concentration also affected NaNoWriMo, also with that one time was a factor, having only recently started my new job.

Speaking of the job as you know I was originally at Sainsbury's. I'd not been happy for a while but then a bunch of stuff went down in April which led to my mum losing her job which then left me feeling awkward and stressed and extra unhappy. I was planning on looking for something new soon anyway but then I was in the charity shop talking to the manager there who I used to work with at Sainsbury's and she said they had an Assistant Manager vacancy and I should apply, so I did and I ended up getting it!

Now... the dog... That was not great. We'd been looking into adopting a Greyhound since March and had filled out forms with Hounds First and Forever Hounds Trust, it was taking so long for anything to happen we later filled out one with Bath Cats and Dogs Home but later all they could offer was a Yorkshire Terrier, not going to work. We had a meet with a Greyhound from Hounds First but he was an older, slower chap so we didn't feel like it would work. Forever Hounds Trust kept on giving us the runaround but eventually we got told about Stacey, a Greyhound x Whippet. We went and saw her mid August and despite reservations we decided we'd take her home (not helped by the distance and horrible country roads to get to the centre) and renamed her Breeze. Things were difficult from the start. We had to buy her a slow feeder and stand between her and Forest to give him a chance to eat his food. She didn't understand toys, she blocked him from getting on either bed and he ended up sleeping in the kitchen which he'd never done before in his life! She was also a chewer, ate a pair of my shoes and put a hole in my towel. Her training was also non-existent, pulling strongly, barking at other dogs, couldn't walk in a straight line, she also had several accidents inside. Of course this was mostly stuff we could have worked with (except maybe the beds) but then she quickly started to get quite nippy with him and caused a couple of small injuries and so we decided after a few weeks that she needed to go back for his safety and hers if Forest decided to retaliate - being so much bigger and all). We have now decided if we're going to get another dog then another puppy is going to be the best plan for us personally. We need to know a dog's background, Breeze was a former stray so was always going to be a mystery.

The other goals as normal suffered from lack of money. Same old, same old.

Anyway this post is long enough that I will sign off and do 2020's goals in a new post.

Stef Out xx

Film Review: The Incredible Journey vs Homeward Bound

I just watched Disney's The Incredible Journey for the first time. I feel like I've read the book but it was so long ago that I can't remember it and I've been a fan of the remake for years so I thought a watch of the original was in order.

The Incredible Journey tells the story of young Labrador Retriever Luath, elderly Bull Terrier Bodger and talkative Siamese cat Tao. The animals are living with a family friend as their own humans have gone to England temporarily for the father to complete a visiting fellowship at Oxford.

One day their foster owner leaves for the open of the duck hunting season on the understanding that the housekeeper will keep an eye on the animals. This is not to be as Luath spots some geese flying home overhead which awakens his own instincts to return home. With some persuasion the others follow - getting into several scrapes along the way including bears, porcupines, a deadly river and a lynx. Bodger being elderly struggles along the way and nearly doesn't make it but eventually all three animals make it home after more than three weeks of travel.

The human acting and scriptwork left a lot to be desired but the narrator Rex Allen had a wonderful, smooth voice that was easy to understand and listen to. The animal actors on the other hand were fantastic, so well-trained and none of them appeared unhappy. There was just one thing they forgot to keep an eye on... Bodger is referred to as a male dog but for 80% of the film at a rough estimate he was portrayed by a female dog.

Overall 3/5 stars for The Incredible Journey.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is the flashier remake also by Disney following Chance the rambunctious American Bulldog, elderly Shadow the Golden Retriever and Sassy the Himalayan cat. Their story begins when the family temporarily relocate to San Francisco and leave the pets at a ranch. Shadow, the old, wise one misses his boy Peter and thinks something must be wrong which sets of a strong homing instinct and he persuades the others to leave with him.

From there the base plot is much the same as the original but the action is livened up with the animals being given voices and Chance narrating the overall action. The general acting quality is much improved as well. The switch to having the leader being the eldest was a wise decision because it was always stretching believability in my opinion having the eldest being a follower, would that pack loyalty go far enough to follow without question? Whereas Shadow being the old leader he has the mindset to push through the pain. I also really loved the scene where Shadow falls in the hole because it does put everything in jeopardy and you don't know the definite outcome until the very last minute.

4/5 stars for Homeward Bound.

Stef Out x

Happy Birthday Forest!

So my Borzoi puppy Forest (Ryazan Fingal) turned 1 today! 31.4kg (69lbs) at last weigh in at 11 months. No idea how to measure the height of something that won't stand still but definitely over 30 inches tall. Hard to imagine he's gone from the sad eyed little thing with the wiggly tail below...

Smol pup!

We thought he was getting big here LOL! And so little fur. But his tail was touching the floor :D and his butt spot was basically invisible.

I has a stick! Tiny bit more fluff...

POOF! I'm fluffy now! And actually big!

Proud in the park, all curly fluff!

Can I haz biscuit? Hint: Yes he can LOL! The other day.

And now here we are, a whole year old! He's lucky to have survived really. It's surprising how small he can curl himself up, the bed was actually an Aldi find and he's lying on two pillows. Typical mind, give him a duvet and he'll destroy it in days, the pillows he's had for a while now and they're still intact, probably need a wash though... He's booked in for his big op next month. Some might reckon it's too early but one of mum's conditions of getting a male dog was that he'd have the snip ASAP. She thought that was 6 months but they've changed it to a year plus. We want to prevent any humping before it happens and we're hoping it'll dampen his hyper-focus on other dogs. Fingers crossed!

Here's to many more years!

Stef Out x

(Not so) Small Update-y Post

So just a little post between reviews to so a mini update. Work has been busy, I've been doing overtime almost every week, things have been starting to change staff-wise and routine-wise and not necessarily for the better. It sounds like things might get worse before they get better as well. I'd like to do something else but I haven't a clue what. I'm hoping to learn to drive over the summer so maybe that'll open things up a little bit more.

Things with the dog are busy as well, we ended up ordering him a crate this payday because he keeps eating the furniture while we're out, especially in the day, so it's now trying to get him used to that. I bought a new training book online last payday so we'll have to see how that goes, I just need to finish reading it first.

Photo of Forest to break things up :D

Onto the blog itself. As you may have noticed there's been a bit of a name change. With all the recent gun violence in the US 'bulletproof' felt a bit insensitive even if I did originally get it from a My Chemical Romance song. I did ask Twitter but no-one responded but it didn't matter because the new name came to me just as I was trying to go to sleep. Things are looking a bit bland at the moment because I need to make a new banner, I'm hoping to draw a little owl graphic for it when I get a chance. I haven't drawn anything since before Christmas so my drawing hand is a little rusty.

Now as for blog content as you may or may not have noticed that I've kind of abandoned my 'Song of the Week' feature. I must admit I didn't really think it through and I kind of ran out of ideas so I am going to drop it in that format. BUT I will still be doing a music feature, just not for a little while yet. I suddenly remembered the 100 Day Song Challenge, it was originally conceived on Facebook and apparently moved to it's own website here at some stage where it's up to 381 days. What I plan to do is write it out in a notebook and plot out what songs I'm going to do as far in advance as I can and then I will create the posts and then schedule them, probably for a Friday because I work all day Friday and don't go on the computer so nothing else will get in their way.

So that is my plan because I still want music to have some kind of feature on here. I will hopefully create a few wishlist posts here and there as well, not necessarily on a Wednesday though which seems to have become the norm.

Stef Out x

New Years Resolutions 2018

So I thought last year's resolution list of 22 was more manageable but I still only achieved 6 and a bit. The bit was to read 'A Song of Ice and Fire' and I did start it but I'm on book 3 part 1 so I've put on this year's list to finish the series. The one thing I failed that shocked me was that I didn't read my 100 books! That's something I do every year without fail. I guess puppies take up more time than you realise... So here goes:

1. Lose at least two stone.
2. Get at least one piercing.
3. Get at least one tattoo.
4. Refine my clothing style, focus more on quality pieces.
5. Learn to drive.
6. Buy a new car.
7. See at least one stage show.
8. Got to Longleat Safari Park.
9. Get a second dog.
10. Read 100 books.
11. Finish 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series.
12. Watch 100 films.
13. Watch at least 5 films at the cinema.
14. Complete NaNoWriMo.
15. Finish the first draft of a novel.
16. Learn to draw dogs.
17. Improve my equine anatomy.
18. Buy a tablet.
19. Buy an iPod Classic.
20. Find a new career.

The trickiest things are going to be seeing a stage show, that depends on if there's anything decent on. The annoying thing is Wicked is on from pretty much now until March but we don't have the money for tickets at the moment and if we get the money then they'll probably have sold out so we'll see what happens. Shrek is on later in the year so that's a possible, as is the Take That one they did the TV show for.

NaNo is always tricky (this time I burned out and only wrote about 9,000 words) but I have a different plan in mind for 2018. Google docs or something similar on a tablet with a keyboard case. Hopefully that combination will fix the problems I have with speed and portability/ease. I can type faster than hand-writing but my laptop is a bit big and clunky to be bothered with and slower to start up whereas tablets are pretty much instant.

The other troublesome one is likely to be finding a new career. The thing is I'm starting to hate my job more and more. Retail is killing my soul and I don't know how much longer I can stick it. I'm 27 for Christ's sake this is not where I saw my life being, the thing is I've never had any clear idea of what I want to do. The only possible thing I did think of recently was dog grooming but I don't know if the market is too saturated where I live, are there too many? Are there any jobs? I need to research what's available locally in general - next town over is also possible once I learn to drive - and then see if there's anything that will suit me aka not retail, cleaning, office or reception (I struggle with telephones and 'perky face') that doesn't require masses of expensive training.

I'm shocked that I haven't already learned to draw dogs anyway but this year an idea for a project came to me themed around dogs, and then my brain literally just spoke and said why not do a series and include cats and horses too so that'll keep me busy for a few years hypothetically. Equine anatomy always needs improving in my art, I want dynamic, realistic poses!

I know an iPod Classic is an odd thing to want especially as Apple don't even make them any more but the storage size has always appealed to me. I debated just putting a super large SD card in my phone since my Nano died but the music app on my HTC phone is crap and some songs that I know are on the SD card just won't show up in my library which is weird. I even downloaded a music player thing from the app store and even that's not showing them. I don't get it.

I've already lost some weight but recent health crap at the doctors means that losing some more would be a good idea, also I want more freedom of clothing. I don't want to cross-examine a top or dress and debate whether or not it's going to fit me. I also want to buy more things that suit my rainbow goth style. As for piercings and tattoos they're a constant that keep getting pushed each year. Although saying that I did get a tattoo last year, even if it was only because a friend of mine is an apprentice and was doing them for free, I still love it anyway. It's a mandala style moon on my right shin.

Oh something I didn't put on my resolutions list but want to do is figure out a direction for this here blog. I'm thinking maybe more of a book/film review type thing with occasional writing bits thrown in. I originally started it with the intentions of it being a fashion blog but most of the time I'm in a t-shirt and skinny jeans or jogging bottoms because of walking the dog. I did try and take an outfit photo with my new camera a while back but I couldn't get everything in focus so I'm not sure how people who do it solo manage...

Anyway I've written enough for one day so I will leave it there for now.

Stef Out x

Would You Rather: Christmas Edition

Just a mini post as I saw this on a few blogs and fancied doing it. I will try and do a proper post shortly...

Eat brussel sprouts or cauliflower cheese?

Both! Although if I had to choose it would be the sprouts honestly.

Have twinkling lights or still lights?

Still but we do have some that go over the window that do flash gently. I don't mind if they aren't too manic but even though they can the tree ones must not flash.

Eat gingerbread or Ferrero Rocher?

Neither but gingerbread if I was forced to choose.

Open your Christmas presents with only immediate family or with all your family members?

Immediate family, so me and mum.

Cook Christmas dinner for the whole family or don't eat Christmas dinner at all?

Toughie. I am a rubbish cook but if mum couldn't I wouldn't want to go without so as long as it was small-ish hopefully I could cope if she talked me through it...

Have a real Christmas tree or a Fake Christmas Tree?

Fake every time.

Use blue, yellow, white or multi-coloured lights?

Mixture. We have multi-coloured and white on the tree, blue and white in the kitchen, pink and yellow with white in the window and yellow and multi-coloured on the display units.

Eat mince pies or Christmas cake?

Mince pies! Yum!

Wake up at 6am or 10am?

6am because I can never sleep late on Christmas morning no matter how tired.

Drink champagne or hot chocolate?

Got to be hot chocolate. I love it enough that I have it almost every day even in summer whereas I've never even tried Champagne.

Eat Heroes or Roses?

Heroes! The best tied with Celebrations.

Get a puppy for Christmas or a kitten for Christmas?

No pets for Christmas. My puppy is a lot of work even now he's 8 months, to bring that with all the mess of toilet training home in winter would have been a nightmare whereas bringing him home in the summer by now we have good routines set (his behaviour is still very questionable in a lot of ways though). Kittens are easier to cope with over the holidays but I would be wary of any person or place that let a pet go home at Christmas knowing how many get dumped after the holidays.

Watch Elf or Home Alone?

Home Alone is a classic. I've watched Elf but I wasn't a fan. Just too silly from what I remember.

Only be able to listen to Christmas songs all year round or never hear a Christmas song again?

Never hear a Christmas song again. When you hear them on repeat in your crappy retail job you kind of want to pull your eardrums out after a while. I always enjoy them at home up until the point they start at work and then that starts to ruin things.

Wake up bright and early and get all of the best boxing day sale goodies or stay warm and cosy in bed wearing your new Christmas pyjamas?

Apart from the fact that I had to work boxing day this year (and Christmas Eve) stay warm and cosy inside wearing pyjamas all day.

Long Time No Post + NaNo Questions From PaperFury

So... It's been a while. That potential dog I was talking about? 

Meet Ryazan Fingal aka 'Forest'! He is a purebred Borzoi and at the moment he's 5 and a half months old. He was born 7th May and we brought him home 12th July! It has been a whirlwind and things haven't really stopped since then. We must be mad because we're now thinking about possibly putting or names down with a couple of sighthound rescues and hope they're OK with flats and enthusiastic puppies 😆 LOL!

So now onto the main reason for this post: the yearly tradition that is National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo! I attempt most years and have yet to succeed. Last year I got to 29k words which I was pretty pleased with and that was with a fairly solid idea and lots of laptop time. This year my idea is much more vague and I'm planning on hand writing so not exactly a recipe for success... But hey I'm gonna try!

1. What inspired the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea? The base idea came to me as I was trying to get to sleep one night a couple of months ago.
2. Describe what your novel is about! It's about the truth behind family and heritage. There will be magic and faeries.
3. What is your book’s aesthetic? Use words or photos or whatever you like! 
   
4. Introduce us to each of your characters! Lindy is the main character, she has black curly hair, ice blue eyes, tanned skin. She is queer and trans and love goth/strega fashion. Her mum is Andrea, who is pale, blonde and petite and they look nothing alike (sets off story). Sadie is Lindy's supportive best friend who has red frizzy hair and loves research. Onyx is one of the first figures Lindy meets on her journey, she is not human and has very dark skin and white hair. Fennel is a pure white talking Borzoi (pictured above). Villains of the story are Mallick and Magda.
5. How do you prepare to write? (Outline,
   research, stocking up on chocolate, howling, etc.?) Come up with a vague plot and some characters, start writing, panic when things don't go to plan (I never properly plan because planned chapter 7 always ends up happening in chapter 2 and it's frustrating), drink copious amounts of tea and hot chocolate.
6. What are you most looking forward to about this novel? Seeing if I can actually tie this thing together into something that makes sense.
7. List 3 things about your novel’s setting. Forests that appear purple, crystal clear lagoons, British secondary school.
8. What’s your character’s goal and who (or what) stands in the way? To find out the truth about herself, her whole identity is tied up in knots. Her mother is a primary block in refusing to tell her the truth. Mallick is the other block in her accepting her future.
9. How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel? She has matured, accepted her differences and even embraced them. She willingly takes the role she's meant to.
10. What are your book’s themes? How do you want readers to feel when the story is over? "Choice not chance determines destiny". I want them to be able to accept their differences as a part of them and embrace themselves.

A Small Update Part 2

So this is the promised part 2. This is mostly about my New Year's Resolutions here.

Most of them will not get done and it's all the wardrobes fault. So January we bought the new wardrobes. They're bigger than the old ones which was fine in my room since there was nothing else in the way. But in mum's room there was a bookcase between the wardrobe and the door that would no longer fit. So that led to buying a new bookcase (it was a weird size, 30-something centimetres, so a half one was a bit small but full size wouldn't fit, eBay came up with the goods but it was white so we covered it with beech-effect sticker stuff) for there. The one that was there moved to the corner but there wasn't quite room so that led to a half size one being bought for that space (in our flat if there's a space, there's a bookcase).

With all this going on mum did some rearranging in her room and I did some tidying in mine. This somehow led to buying myself a new bed - which is shorter than average so we're going to buy me another new one and this one will replace her ancient one. Mine was getting a bit old and worn plus the new one/s are divan beds with storage which is good for thick jumpers and seasonal stuff aka Christmas jumpers. A lot of the storage in my room is made up of these plastic drawers. Two side by side in front of the window for leggings, hats, scarves etc, and two on top of each other by my wooden drawers for underwear.

As I'm getting older I'm realising they don't look brilliant so they are being replaced with wooden drawers this payday including one extra for mum. One of the plastic drawers - the colourful one - is relocating to the living room for stationery and art stuff.

So as you can gather a couple of wardrobes have snowballed into furniture in general. I've already mentioned another bed. There's also going to be a big chest of drawers for mum since here's has been crap all the years we've had it. Then there's the new sofas - the others were emergency stop-gaps 4 years ago. Plus I need a new desk and I think mum mentioned something about a sideboard. There was also going to be another bookcase but mum rescued a wardrobe our neighbour was chucking out and she's hand-making one out of that and some other wood. She collects wood. And loves DIY.

I have penciled in getting my New Rocks and a couple of other bits for September and October but otherwise for the most part each payday is taken up by furniture. I did get my new camera February or March (Sony Cybershot HX60) which is awesome. But it means things like piercings, tattoos and learning to drive are getting pushed back to next year.

As for a dog... I'll keep an eye out but who knows. We almost ended up with a puppy but we kept being given the run around about what was available between two different people so we said thanks but no thanks. One's adverts suggested that underage puppies were available straight away and the other turned out to be in an area known for puppy farming. Considering how rare Borzoi are they seem to have puppies available way too often. The decent breeders will only do a litter a year at the most, more likely every couple of years. At this stage if it happens it happens. I'm doing regular checks and I'm going to email a couple of breeders to express interest.

Also in case anyone comes by and mentions adopting. With a dog I am less experienced and unsure of one with an unknown history. Also a lot of rescue centres say no outright to flats or not having a garden whereas breeders are likely to be more willing to work with you. Plus I am supporting a rare breed, and I will know the puppies history and be able to meet possibly both parents and I really like that aspect.

However once I get a dog, rare breed or not she (or he) will be spayed or neutered. I don't support keeping dogs entire unless for very good reason. Too many dogs and breeds are being overbred (Staffies, Chihuhuas, Pugs, French Bulldogs, to name a few).

Anyway this'll do for now. I've got some posts on basic plus size Goth fashion in the works so they'll be up soon-ish.

Stef Out x