Behold 2018, Long May Be Dead

I haven't written here in a while.

The last two posts were an attempt to get back in the habit again.  I fell off the "creative" horse.  While the idea for a post looking back came to me, I avoided it as being too easy a subject to dwell on.  But, before we get deep into 2019, I guess I should gaze a bit backward.

2018, 2018, 2018

One of the recurring things I heard of 2018 had been that people tended to feel like the year could not yet end.  I never experienced that particular feeling.  2018 felt like 2017, to me, a dark despair sort of lingering, waiting to hit the wall still.  When the dark comes, sometimes you drown in it and can't tell how much time has passed.

I fell off of some of my larger creative efforts.  Although friends and Inktober definitely reignited my own efforts.  I felt like 2018 was less productive. than prior years for my art and stories.  Almost all Inktober 2018 of mine was a comic.  This marked the first time I wrangled a whole tale through all my inktober arts.  So at least one achievement achieved.

2018 marked the second in two long years where I did not have any tabletop RPG campaigns going on.  I marked the start of 2018 by deep diving into Critical Role, and finally picked up some 5e D&D books.  My thoughts on 5e aren't coherent enough to blog post about.  I digested a good chunk of it.  But roleplaying game rules are kinda like sunlight or wine.   It's what you pair it with that matters, not what you take with it.

I did see some of the bigger films, but largely I have not been keeping up on a lot of TV or film.  I know there are sci-fi or fantasy media all over nowadays.  But I've found myself less in a hurry to consume TV or film.  Infinity War did what I expected, but I saw it at home long after it had left our local theatre.  I let my Netflix account go since I can't remember when I last watched something on it.

The Bullet Journal

The other thing I started in 2018 that marked a change I've still kept is my bullet journaling.  In February will mark my first full year of the habit, which I thought I would fail to maintain.  It stuck, and my "paperbrain" has shifted from experiment to an object that helped me.  Various things I need to do, or would rely on digital artifice for, it's supplanted.  The goal was for something to free up brain space.  Hence my term for them, "Paperbrains."

Bullet Journaling is a best called an Operating System for journaling. I'd recommend googling up material on it if you're interested in the how to do of it.  In my case, I used it more in a therapeutic methodology.  Daily thoughts go into it, as well as things to do, and now, despite my surprise, good spending habits.

If you look up Bullet Journals you often find many beautiful page spreads.  It can look more like scrapbooking than anything else.  That's more a side effect of social media than the actual use case of my own.  I do engage in some pretty things in it, but that's because I'm a crazy arts person who likes making pretty things.  It isn't a necessity to start one.  Better to think of it as a tool, and if you can't, I'd say don't expect more from it than paper addition to your brain's hard drive.

Art, Social Media and Me 

I did do Inktober again.  But I produced less art and things in 2018.  Nothing major, but here are a few of my faves from the year:

  
 

I had been trying Instagraming a bit during 2018.  But I had to stop.  I've never wanted to post political things on this blog- it's meant to be a writerly dumping off spot.  But I can't use Instagram or Facebook anymore.  The reports that came out about them made me feel less than trusting of their platforms.  Facebook's response especially put me off.

But also?  Facebook and all social media have never helped any of my projects get noticed.  I've never found my efforts in social media to reward me.  The game of it is tiring, and disappointing.  It is aimed at helping someone else's platform remain important.

Add in the very real, very risky abuses of Facebook.  After that, I don't see how anyone can use it, but I'm not one for telling people what to do.  I'd rather do what I think should be done.  Words aren't as important as putting your feet where you mean to be.

The real goal it seems is for me to try and build up my own platform.  Something for my creative... madness, I guess, to go.  Even if it doesn't get noticed, at least it'd be mine.  Not some material helping some technocratic corporation look okay to trust.  It isn't that people didn't notice my work, but that my works could make Facebook look superficially ok.  Safe.  Interesting.

Here's to more works in 2019.  Be they dreams, or accomplishments wrought real from nothingness.

Watch this space.  More to come.