moonvoice (ravenari)

1. Our internet is experiencing some major issues which could either be a line fault, or a router fault, but Telstra has to monitor the line first just to be sure (if it's the former, they'll send out a technician, if it's the latter, we get a new router. I suspect it may actually be some sadistic combination of both). The problem with FTTN connections, I swear. But in the meantime, I can't access Tumblr or DeviantArt (too slow-loading), I can't upload artwork and I don't expect to be around on the internet a great deal until it's fixed. I don't know if this will post. Oh, Telstra Velocity Network, if only we weren't locked into your service because you're the only one with the technicians to deal with this stupid fibre optic technology.

2. Still working on totems. Another eight, this week. Very busy. If I don't respond to posts promptly, or at all, it's likely because of how hard I'm working. That, plus dealing with some intense emotional stuff, just means I don't have the energy to connect as much as I used to / want to.

3. Also working on writing. Fanfic (the Sherlock) fic is on pause (but not diapause) while I work on some original fiction instead (a novel and a short story). Not having very successful internet is frustrating in the research department, since I like to research as I go.

4. It's starting to cool down (finally!), really looking forward to cooler weather and shedding the last of this Summer SAD. It's hit me unusually hard in the tail end of this season, possibly because of the record-breaking number of heatwaves Western Australia has had in the past 3 months, and the fact that I had to be out in the heat for some of them. Bah. *kicks Summer SAD in the head.*

5. We are going to see Rachmaninov's 3rd Concerto performed by Garrik Ohlssen and the WASO in November. I don't recall if I've already said this, but if I have, it's worth saying again. *excitement*

6. We now have a pot of aloe vera, and are soon to have an extremely healthy and large pot of lemongrass coming our way. The beginnings of our potted herb garden. :) This makes me very happy. The idea was to always have a potted herb garden. One we could take with us. But primarily so that the nutrients that the herbs required didn't interfere with the lack of nutrients that Australian natives required. I do not fancy killing off my beautiful Verticordias with phosphorus, thanks. I can't wait to start getting things like parsley and rosemary and so on. Eventually I want a meyer lemon tree, or a lime tree, since I cook with a lot of acids, and citrus grows so well here.

7. I keep thinking I'm going to come back and start posting regularly in this journal again, but I don't know if I ever am, at this point. While I appreciate being able to keep up with the others who are still allowing me access, and commenting where I can, I'm not missing spooling off reams of information to a lot of people multiple times a day. At some point, I went from 'let's talk about a lot of things,' to 'I think I'm becoming a rather private person.' Well, as private as I ever get. You know, still relatively open book in the stuff I'm willing to publically talk about.

8. Writer's Group is going so well. I think our next 'official' meeting is at the end of the month. Can't come soon enough. Something about the four of us in the same room, and there's always this alchemical need to write, write, write afterwards. Glen has been asking me to start writing poetry again, so I've sort of started taking around the small notebooks that I used to write poetry in with me, wherever I go. It's not very good.

9. On an aside, since growing my nails for the first time ever - consistently - over the past three months (I've been a chronic nail-biter since a child and hadn't ever stopped until now), can I just say how disgusting nails are? Even if you clean them multiple times a day. They're just gross. I keep them filed really short as a result (i.e. I might as well be biting them still, lol). I've decided I don't find anything 'aesthetic' about long nails anymore, knowing that even with scrubbing a few times a day, they're just dirt-traps for skin cells and whole amounts of other crap (and graphite and pastel and bits of paper and eraser; being a 2D artist with long nails is feral). Yuck.

10. I have a very exciting project coming up (an art project) which I can't tell anyone about yet. But it's really wonderful and a step in the right direction in my career as an artist. *bounces*