Jessica’s Status Log

I don't think much of these regular thunderclaps we've been getting which are so strong all the windows are rattling in their frames...

Happy New Year everyone! We had a pretty low-key celebration for it here (last night) and went to bed shortly afterwards. Hoping 2024 is a better year.

Managed to pull a muscle on the left side of my back by… I think sitting awkwardly? It really hurts!

Poor Gidget has got too good with this food-dispensing ball… she keeps rolling it around even once it's empty now!

I did it! After ten months and 20 days, I've finished my watch-through of modern Doctor Who 🥳

Have actually had a productive novel-writing day, for the first time in a LONG time! About 1,300 words added.

Starting the annual "try to fix up the yard after all the wintertime neglect" project. After just an hour of weeding, my body is wrecked. It's gonna take a long time at this rate

Gidget is upset that her regular breakfast-dispensing human didn't do his duty today, and Mummy had to feed her three hours later. Said breakfast-dispensing human is very unwell in bed, but Gidget doesn't care about that!

It was Viv's birthday today, so we had a nice family dinner at his mum's house. Think I'm about ready to collapse into a food coma now 😵‍💫

Thoroughly enjoyed reading up this morning about how the first Ashes Test finished up overnight! What a thriller.

It was one minute to midnight and Gidget somehow figured out how to unplug the router and thereby disconnect our internet. Damn cat. Fine then, I'll take the hint and go to bed…

Applying insulation film to the bedroom windows (after cleaning them thoroughly etc.). Ridiculously finnicky job but if it helps keep the winter chill out of the room, it'll be worth it.

Giving my cat chin scritchies, and she just unleashes a stream of drool on my hand! What are you, a dog?!

Reached a 365 day streak in Duolingo! It is admittedly a fake streak because of a few "streak freezes" used over the year. Unlike my real 280-something day streak back in 2018. Still, it's an accomplishment nonetheless 😂

Got my flu vaccination! No flu for me this year, please and thank you.

Tonight I watched Doctor Who 7x05 "The Angels Take Manhattan". Standout of this season so far, I thought. The bonus scene P.S. (written but never filmed; a version is on YouTube if you haven't seen it) would've made a great ending, too.

So annoying when Spotify stops auto-scrobbling tracks to Last.fm. Here I am now, with clearly no choice but to use the Open Scrobbler to post them all manually...

Busy busy day today and now I am exhausted. It's not even 9pm!

Watched "Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" at the Astor tonight. Confronting movie… 😬

Up to 7x01 "Asylum of the Daleks" in my Doctor Who watch-through... and turning it on now 🙂

Caught up with Daily Dracula, after having been about a week behind.

Trying to update my blog but "git push" isn't working! No error message either, it just starts then hangs forever. Ughhhh

Shout out to the person in charge of the playlist at my local Woolies, who's decided to just play "Come Said the Boy" over and over again 🤣

You know it was a good party when you write a 2,600-word journal entry the next morning about how the party went 😆

Haven't been updating you guys about my Doctor Who watch-through but today it was the turn of 3x11 ‘Utopia’. Man, the back half of this season is good (and I liked everything in the first half except ‘The Shakespeare Code’).

Another action-packed day trying to debug my Indiekit install. At least I admitted defeat before 4:30pm today, so I might be able to focus on other things this Valentine's Evening 😆

Having a really frustrating day trying to get Indiekit back up and working.

Watched Doctor Who 3x02 "The Shakespeare's Code". Not good, tbh. Martha got done dirty 😤

Intermission between the movies. Went to use the loo. The lights were not on, AND there were NO light switches? 🥴 Thank God for torches on phones...

Viv and I are going to the movies. We are running late. Apparently we were so frantic trying to get ready to go, that Gidget decided we were clearly preparing to take her to the vet and hid 😔

Watched Doctor Who 3x01 "Smith and Jones", which I'm not convinced I've ever watched before. IT WAS SO GOOD, MAN! Wrote up some more giddy thoughts 😝

The magpies brought Junior along to request walnuts today 🥲

Wrote another few hundred words today, and spent sunset at the beach with Viv 😊

Update: Cat has been moved, because eventually I had to get up and use the loo. She is DEEPLY affronted, and insists the only thing that can soothe her feelings of hurt is early lunch.

Gidget's having a really good morning today. Glued to my lap, making me legally unable to move

Watched Doctor Who 2x09 ‘The Satan Pit’. Awesome follow-up to the story's first instalment 🤓

600 words added to my novel today. Don't feel as great about them as I did about yesterday's, but I reached the end of the scene, so yay

Watched Doctor Who 2x08 "The Impossible Planet" 🤓

Another good writing day. ~850 fresh words, and they feel solid 😄

It's been a productive editing/outlining day! Now time for bed, but hoping I can do some good work tomorrow too 💪

Thinking of making a minor, but sweeping, change to my novel which'll require me to go back and edit lots of scattered paragraphs everywhere throughout what I've already written. I just think it'll be better the new way!

In light of the news that Twitter has broken their API for third-party clients, I've finally deleted Tweetbot from my phone. Barely used it for ages but kept it there for those rare times I did. Not any more. Thanks for your service, Tweetbot 🫡

Went on a beach walk with Viv and watched the sun set 😊

Triumphant moment! I finally used up the last of the 5kg bag of rice Vivian bought several months ago 😂

Watched Doctor Who 2x06 "The Age of Steel". Pretty average story overall, but was glad to see Mickey get the character development and well-written exit he deserved 👍

Lots and lots of outlining over the last couple of days. Thinking my story through. Writing actual PROSE is yet to happen, but the mind is buzzing with thoughts 😌

Went on to watch "Tooth and Claw". Remembered very little about it going in, but thought it was a solid "historical with supernatural/alien twist" story 👍

Watched the Doctor Who series 2 opener "New Earth". 'Twas better than I remembered (which isn't saying much, but it was actually pretty enjoyable if silly 🙃)

Watched "The Christmas Invasion". Felt like it was pretty average TBH – might've been better as a normal-length episode instead of a one-hour special? There seemed to be a lot of padding.

Gettin’ real tired of all the “feels like 6°” weather this “summer”

Now watching the Doctor Who episode "Aliens of London" 😊

Continuing my Doctor Who rewatch with "The Unquiet Dead"!

Managed to meet my NaNoWriMo word quota (1,781 for today, 43,449 in total). By this point, I really feel like I'm just writing whatever so as not to fail the challenge when I've come so close.

Weather forecast: 0% chance of rain today. Reality: it is raining. (shakes fist at clouds)

Currently 10°C in Melbourne but it “feels like” 2°C. What's late spring 🤔

Back on track again in NaNoWriMo – 1,875 words today, 33,389 in total. Forced myself to write a character introduction that was really, really difficult, but now they've been introduced, maybe the next bit'll be easier.

Too tired and headachey to write more than the ~500 words I've already done for NaNoWriMo today. Time for an early night, and hope to catch up tomorrow.

Browsing my Twitter archive that I downloaded last week. So many memories, man 😢

Up to 20,063 words, which means… I'm finally all caught up in NaNoWriMo! Now MAYBE I have enough breathing room to make some serious improvements to my outline.

Fantastic NaNoWriMo day! Wrote 3,125 words, for 18,226 in total (almost caught up!). Today's scenes have been really enjoyable to write, too. Hope to keep it up tomorrow 💪

1,230 #NaNoWriMo words today (15,101 total). Tomorrow I get to do one of the few parts I actually outlined well though, so hoping for an incredible day then!

Drove Dad home from hospital this morning! Happy day for everyone, but I think the most excited was the family dog, Gizmo 🤣

1,748 words for #NaNoWriMo so far today; 13,871 in total. Not quite on track, but on track to get on track, if I keep this pace up!

Good news! My dad's on schedule to be discharged from hospital tomorrow 🤗

Having one show-stopping issue with Orion Browser, which is that I can't stay logged into Micro.blog using it! No idea what the problem is.

Put my head down after visiting Dad (whose recovery has progressed to some more big steps, yay!) and finished today at 2,007 words (12,123 for #NaNoWriMo in total).

Seems I've been using Arc Browser as my daily driver the last 20 days; now time to try Orion 😛 I'm not convinced Arc's spaces are beneficial to me, and Orion's performance focus seems promising.

Feeling congested and sneezy this morning so I did a Covid test even though I thought it was quite likely just hayfever. Test came back negative so hayfever it is I guess, yay

Visited my dad. He's still on an ice chip-only diet, but seems more energetic and in less pain. Hopefully the ability to eat comes soon!

Home again. It's past 9:30. Let's see how much I can write before bed!

Got in 1,603 words before we left to visit Dad in hospital. Now at my folks' house, chilling with my mum.

Off the #NaNoWriMo block today with 786 words (8,308 in total). Time for a morning tea break, then back to the grind, hopefully.

Finished the day at 2,262 words, or 7,522 for #NaNoWriMo in total. Maaaybe I can catch up tomorrow? We'll see.

Writing, writing, writing. Reached 6,713 words, so just one day behind in #NaNoWriMo now. Took a dinner break and now hoping to get more done!

Wasn't wearing my glasses for most of today because a) I forgot and b) I hate them fogging up when I wear a mask. I can tell I've strained my eyes though, they hurt now 😢

Homeward bound after visiting Dad in hospital.

Waiting for a tram, which is running 14 minutes late. The frequency is 15 minutes 🤦🏻‍♀️

5,001 words! All caught up… to where I was supposed to be this time yesterday. #NaNoWriMo

Where did the day go? I need to get in some writing!

Set my Twitter account (which I've used as 99% read-only for the last year and change) to private, and changed the bio to where peeps can find me on Mastodon (not just having a pinned tweet). Feels satisfying 😛

On my way to visit Dad in hospital. Just missed my connecting tram, so I get the joy of waiting 14mins for the next. Left my glasses at home because I cannot deal with the fogging 😤

Drinking a cup of Pu-erh tea my sister made me, and trying to get some words down for NaNoWriMo. Have a couple of hundred for the day so far…

Just visited my dad in hospital. Surprisingly alert and chatty considering he just got out of surgery a few hours ago!

Made my NaNoWriMo target for today – 1,711 words added, for a total of 3,420. Hard work, but I got there 😪

Visiting my folks. My dad's going in for surgery tomorrow, so we wanted to pop in and see him before he went. Hopefully all goes well ❤️

The rain eased off for long enough that we DID actually go on a walk. Didn't make it home in time to not get drenched on the way back!

Viv convinced me to take a walk, even though the weather's fucking horrible today. (Scratch that, actually, because he checked the radar and found out we're about to get hit by more rain.)

Wrote my first 1,709 words for NaNoWriMo this year! Tried to stay off social media until I had them done, with partial success, but now I guess I can cave in to temptation 🤣

Time to ignore social media for a bit so I can cobble together a usable outline for NaNoWriMo. Really taking it down to the wire 😬

Upgraded my laptop to macOS Ventura. Being more familiar with Linux, I’m always surprised just how long it takes 😑

Enjoying a cup of “Go Go Goa” tea, which my sister bought me for my birthday. Even as it was brewing it smelt incredible.

Gidget's in full-on smug mode this morning. Apparently she used sleep deprivation to trick Vivian into feeding her two breakfasts.

Just did 1½ hours of garden work with Viv. Continuing the project we started on last spring… hopefully we can see it through this year.

Apparently Gidget woke Viv up at 12:17am to feed her breakfast. Now she's all "shocked Pikachu face" that her next meal is still lunch at 12pm. And by "shocked Pikachu face", I mean she's scratching up EVERYTHING.

Gidget’s being an enormous pest this morning. She got me out of bed at 6am to feed her, only for Viv to tell me she’d already had breakfast! And she hasn't stopped nagging for the six hours since…

Sharing a drink with Viv. He wanted to have one in honour of Tiggy, my old cat who passed away on this day nine years ago. RIP, Tiggy ❤️

Oops. Looks like Brid.gy just ran amok crossposting a convo I had on Mastodon to the Micro.blog timeline! SMH @ you, Brid.gy.

Started reading “The Bird King”, by G. Willow Wilson.

Had my folks over for their usual Sunday visit. It was also Mum's birthday though, so she got her choice of take-away plus cake and champagne to celebrate!

Starting to read Becky Chambers’ “Record of a Spaceborn Few”.

I feel like I'm studying the same cards in Anki every day because its sync is dodgy. Whichever server thinks I "haven't done" certain cards keeps syncing that "fact" back to where I have done the cards and resets their progress…

It's been such a busy day I've barely had a second to sit at a computer. Honestly, it's felt kind of relaxing…

Puratasi prayers at Viv's mum's house this morning.

Starting the new series of Derry Girls, now it's finally out here!

Still feeling mad from this morning and the rain’s moved on. Time to go on a really energetic walk.

Got sucked into an argument with that infuriating alt-right extremist in the Ido Discord channel again. I don't want to, but then the alternative is letting him talk shit unchallenged, and that feels worse…

Out of all the things I set myself the goal of doing each day, the only one I have left for today is novel work. So here goes nothing… 😮‍💨

Finished reading “Velvet Was the Night”. I feel like the fact that there was a companion playlist to this book should’ve been mentioned at the beginning, not the end!

Fell behind with the articles in my RSS reader again. Back to the routine of trying to make the “unread” count 2–5 less each day than it had been the day before, I guess 🥱

Read some more of “Velvet Was the Night”, after a few days of… not. Should be able to finish tomorrow, unless I forget to pick it up again.

Medical appointment went fine! 'Twas indeed a "just keep doing what you're doing" kind of consultation. The doctor was in a chatty mood too, so we discussed stuff like ultramarathon runners and The Young Ones 🤣

Specialist appointment this morning. Hoping he tells me my organs are doing fine and to just keep doing what I'm doing 🤣

Discovered the secret to making Gidget forget all about a magpie outside: open a drawer. Seems her boundless feline curiosity outweighs her predator instincts.

Have the folks visiting, with Gizmo! We took him on a beach walk, got some take-away burgers and now are watching the NRL Grand Final.

It's a cold, foggy morning. Got a Gidget on my lap and a cup of coffee at my side to see me through.

Wrote 700 novel words today; about to collapse into bed and see how much reading I can do before I pass out. DST starts tomorrow so I lose an hour of sleep 😴

Sharing some ice cream with Viv after a walk on the beach.

What a sunny Saturday morning it's been! Walked to and from a local café, did some weeding – now it's time to do some indoors things, though.

Being really cool this Friday night and having an early one… so tired 💤

1,042 words added to this revision of my novel – this time of a really pivotal scene! Feels good.

Started reading Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Velvet Was the Night”. So far I dislike both POV characters, so we’ll see how this goes 🤷🏻‍♀️

Gidget actually slept for the whole morning! I've now put her on a leash and taken her out for some sun-soaking time.

Was woken up this morning by a magpie singing a beautiful song for me :)

Finally did it… I've finished recreating all my Occidental flashcards from Mochi Cards in Anki. Now for bed, I think 😪

Home from an hour-long walk with Viv. Nice that the days are getting longer and milder for it!

Cut back an overly vigorous plant in our front flowerbed. Every winter/spring it gets too excited and tries to take over the whole space… it needs to be put in its place every once in a while 😮‍💨

Finished reading Octavia E. Butler’s “Fledgling”. Such a great vampire story 🧛‍♀️

We're up to the part of the day where, having meowed at me for two hours straight and finally been given lunch, Gidget meows at me for the next two hours straight because it wasn't "enough" lunch. (The vet says it IS enough lunch, cat!)

Finished my Kingdom of Loathing Dino run in 3/555. Got screwed by some horrible RNG on day 1, mais c'est la vie 😛

Another 1,223 words written today! (And the day's not over yet, either, but I need to cook.) Not a bad effort for a couple of hours :)

Did the supermarket shopping. Going to make a chicken tagine for dinner tonight :)

Gidget decided to drag her wet food out of her bowl this morning so she could pretend to be a ferocious predator butchering her own prey… sigh.

OK, one trick about glasses I clearly still need to learn: how to stop them sliding down my nose!

Read some more of Octavia E. Butler’s “Fledgling”. Really enjoying it, and I should be able to finish tomorrow!

I have my new glasses in (a bag in) my hands, haha. Now to get home and put them on "for real"!

Got a text that my new glasses have arrived at the store! Made an appointment to go pick them up in an hour.

Opened up my novel, hoping to make some progress today!

Starting a new run in Kingdom of Loathing. Path of the Dinosaurs, let's go!

Testing the status feature!