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

(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

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 1

Long time no write. Things have happened. The biggest thing is that our cat Tigger died 30th January. He was about 10 or 11 years old (potentially older as he started life as a stray. The cause was probably heart failure since my Aunt told us he had a murmur. Mum got up and was getting ready when she noticed he hadn't moved and he was gone. We called my Aunt later and she collected his body and did whatever. These are a couple of the last photos I took of him. RIP furry buddy.

Work is alright. It's work. I just got my hours increased from 16 to 20. It means I'm now working all weekend every weekend (the new shift is Saturday evening and I was already doing Sundays) but the extra money each payday is worth it. My older, female supervisor is still a bitch but you can't have it all be good. One thing that's improved is that the young guy supervisor is now doing the schedules, hence why I was able to finally get the extra hours. I'd basically been asking since not long after starting over a year ago - 16 was never really enough.

Another good change is the actual checkout manager/main supervisor. Just before Christmas I think a woman came in claiming to be permanent and it turned out she wasn't which was a good thing since she was bringing in changes that made no sense (like we had to sweep under the tills when finishing - with what brush? And claiming we'd be off the till 5 minutes before finishing so we can clean - 10 minutes late is more normal). The main thing that pissed me off was her attitude during an absence hearing I had (oh yeah where I work you can be penalised for being off ill - verbal, written, potentially final warnings), she could (and in my opinion should) have let it go but she didn't and gave me a written warning so I was in a position to potentially lose my bit of the workplace bonus if we get it - which is unfair in my opinion, and said my attendance needed to be worked on. Oh all this is about 4 absences in a year, 2 of which were basically connected and all months apart, Jan, Feb, July, Jan. So I appealed it and it was rolled back to verbal which stays on file til mid August. So I really can't be ill again. But of course it's not like you can control being ill. Heck the July one wasn't even illness, I did something to my back and could barely move, walk, anything, even when I went back to work it was a struggle for a while and there was lingering pain for ages. Mum even had to help me dress for a doctors appointment, which I was lucky I could afford the resultant prescription since it was mid month and I rarely have money left at that stage.

So after claiming to be permanent she left in February I think and a bloke took over. He's alright. Doesn't say much but that's better than interfering too much. Originally he claimed he was going to be permanent but apparently he's changed his mind and is leaving soon. Going to a store nearer where he lives I think.

I was going to do more but I think I'll leave it here and do a Part 2 in a moment to be published tomorrow - don't want to bombard you. I actually kinda forgot about this blog for a little while but then I had the urge to do a redesign the other day with a better quality background (and some hidden CSS from Google that makes it stay still). I then adjusted the widths a bit which meant I needed a new header image and then today I managed to work out finally editing the about me bit. The old one was just a bit rubbish.

Stef Out x