Update #11 - November 2019

Hello, Patrons! 

It's been two weeks since my last update. That doesn't really make this a Weekly Update, so here is just an Update! (EDIT: It's now been three weeks because I've taken a week to finish writing this! Yikes.) (EDIT: It's now been more than a month.... whoops...) 

Before I start, thank you to everyone who has continued to support me, and thank you to my newest supporters, Ange, Rebecca, Val, and Alyssa! Thank you all; it really means a lot to me!

WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO?

I'm still continuing with my two jobs, choir rehearsal, and monthly graphic novel club, and my partner, Aidan, is still continuing with their fall semester of grad school.

I also play D&D, which I forgot to mention in my last update; I play in two different campaigns, one over Discord, and one irl. In the Discord-based campaign, I play a half-elf warrior named Alvar, who is a Very Good Boy traveling the world to learn the art of swordsmanship, as is family tradition. In the other campaign, which Aidan helps DM, I play a kenku rogue named [Yawn] who is an Idiot and a Scoundrel and on the run due to Circus Crimes.

My friend from California, Bo, came to visit this past week. It was fun hanging out with him, as well as visiting Furpocalypse 2019, at which he was an official photographer! I miss him a lot and can't wait to see him again.

WHAT HAVE I BEEN WORKING ON?

I've still mostly been trying to keep up with my daily diary comics, as well as participating in Inktober. I stopped for a couple day between the visit and a slight cold a caught, but I've swung myself back up onto the horse. The drawing horse.

I've also been considering NaNoWriMo with sweaty trepidation while I around plot outlines on various Trello boards. As of writing, I'm still not sure whether I want to attempt it or not this year. 

(EDIT: As of finishing up this post, I have indeed decided to do NaNoWriMo, though I'm working on a script with 100 pages as my goal; I'm using the 1 page of script = 500 words formula. I'm currently a week in and ahead of my predicted trajectory!)

(FURTHER EDIT: I did not win NaNo; I only managed 80 pages out of my goal of 100. I'm going to continue working on it until I have a completed first draft.)

WHAT HAVE I BEEN CONSUMING?

A Visit fom the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I LOVED this audiobook! 

I'm obsessed with the way it's structured; each chapter functions as a short story, has a different main character and is written in a different tense/POV. It really opened my eyes to the different possibilities of writing in different perspectives! It was also really interesting to see the different characters from each others' perspectives, and to jump around in time to different points in their life to see how events have affected them.

I was VERY excited that there was a chapter written in second person POV (which I love), and I also adored the PowerPoint chapter, which translated surprisingly well to audio, complete with little 'click'-ing sound effects when the slides changed. I even checked a hard copy out of the library to see what the formatting was like, and I loved that as well; it was a really unique and interesting method of telling a story.

I listened to it twice over right in a row, and I'm certainly going to be thinking about it for a long time to come. It might even end up joining the ranks of my all-time favorite books!

Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

I used to listen to this audiobook all the time, and, on impulse, put a hold on it a couple weeks ago. I hadn't listened to it since I was a little kid, so it was interesting to see what I understood differently now that I'm older. I certainly have more historical context for the time period (late 1900s - early 1920s), which was neat. 

Bojack Horseman: Season 6 (Part 1) 

I'll refrain from saying anything about the latest season, but I certainly was not disappointed! I'm excited and sad for the series to end in January.

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf

This graphic novel was very intense, and dealt (obviously) with very heavy subject matter; not an easy read. Backderf's art is very distinctive. I'm not sure I can really say I enjoyed the book as a whole, but it did give me a lot to think about.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!

If you have any questions or stuff you've wanted to talk about to me, do leave a comment below! 

Hope you're doing well!

<3,

Dave