personal

Topical Tuesday: A Change of Plans

Howdy guys! I’m back to my blogging, but there’s going to be some changes. You won’t see them as much here, but if you’ve been following my Alien Irony: Redux Blog…. Well, that’s going to be taking a back burner for a while. You see, I’ve come to realize a couple things after my just-over-a-week-vacation. I’m starting to burn out from blogging… And there’s one way to fix that: cutting down.

Now, I won’t be cutting down my posts here. Three posts a week is one thing, but the six I was doing is another. And to add to that, I haven’t been doing nearly as much work on Alien Irony: Redux as I’d like to be doing for that blog to have purpose, so while I’m not deleting it, it’ll only get a post maybe once a month for a while, until I’m back on track with that project.

However, I won’t be bothering you guys much with my writing. I will certainly talk about my writing life, but this is going to be a more personal blog from now on. I’ll be continuing my Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday posts as I’d been doing them, and occasionally you’ll see me talk about my writing in general, but it won’t be a focus of this blog for a while. I’ll be making a new blog for that, as I’ve come to determine blending personal and business (and for me, writing isn’t just my life- it’s my job, alongside editing)… Well, it’s not the best way to blog. So, I’m separating them. I’ll update you on what day I’ll be posting on that blog once I’ve set it up.

Another change is that, while I’ll try to be consistent in posting every week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I won’t be forcing myself quite as much as I have been from time to time. Since this is a ‘personal’ blog, it means I can adjust things as I need them- even if that means taking a day off. I’ll try not to, mind you, but if I feel too close to burning out, I might just have to. I apologize in advance for any time this may happen in the future.

And… That’s about it for today. I’m not sure what Thursday’s topic will be yet, but I plan to share some details of my trip on Saturday, so be prepared for a long one! But until then… I hope everyone’s been well while I was gone!

Take care, guys! 🙂

Topical Tuesday: Bullet Journal

Hi everyone! Welcome to a new week here on my blog! Today’s Topical Tuesday, I’m going to return to a recent topic I covered. I’m returning to the concept of journaling, because I ended up caving in to the pressure I gave myself watching all those videos about bullet journals.

That’s right, everyone. I now have a bullet journal. I walked to the dollar store on Friday of last week and ended up buying a tiny, cute journal to work with. “Why did you write about this now and not on Saturday?” I hear you asking. Well, to be honest… I did start on Friday, but I like to write my blog posts a day early, and I wrote Saturday’s post before my walk that afternoon. Thus, I hadn’t started it until I already had a post written- one that’s very important to me, no less.

I’ve noticed that my blog has been less and less related to my writing, and that made Saturday’s post extra important to me to write about: because my life is writing, yet all I’ve been writing is my life. And I write way more than that! That’s why, that day, I wanted a change of pace. A return to my roots, so to speak.

And that may also explain why I decided to try bullet journaling. It works as a reminder that I’m a creative spirit, one that needs a lot of help keeping track of things. I’m very unorganized as a person- the fact that someone showed admiration for the fact I can keep a general schedule on two blogs made me remember why I decided to take on the challenge: because I was amazed at how organized those people were.

So far, I’m still learning the ropes. I haven’t done a ‘daily’ page as of writing this post- but I found a lot of interesting pages to work on, and it’s also been a great help in trying to make my handwriting better (though it’s still pretty bad, if I’m being honest!). I even found inspiration to make pages listing my coping skills for my mental health, a page with ideas for future topics with you guys in mind, and plenty more. I don’t have much artistic flair in it yet- my gel pens refuse to work efficiently, so I could only draw on one or two pages with color… But I did doodle on a spread that’s meant to remind you who you are and what makes you you!

Here, have a couple pictures of my journal so far:

Do any of you guys journal in any sense of the word? Are there any bullet journalers in the house? I’d love to hear all of your experiences and advice on the matter- because while it’s meant to be personal, isn’t it good to share personal things sometimes?

Soulful Saturday: Socializing

Good morning, my friends! Welcome to another Soulful Saturday, where I tell you more deep, personal things about myself. That said, I’m not always the best at thinking up topics… So, I often turn to other bloggers, challenges and friends. Today’s post was inspired by a few things: a listing to discuss social media, my friends who blog always helping me when I’m stuck… Honestly I could ramble about how I get my ideas plenty more, but I wanna step right into this post now.

I’ve always considered myself an introvert. It’s easy to do that when, at age six, you went to a small party and had to go home because the crowd before you made you vomit. Yep, that’s right- I was six when I had my first anxiety attack. Actually, I think that coincides more with panic- but that doesn’t really matter right now.

I’m always getting people telling me I need to get out in the world more and make ‘real friends’. The thing is, they usually imply ‘friends you can physically hang out with’ more than ‘friends that are truly good for you’. I tend to be a hermit crab, leaving myself sheltered in my home and only going out for doctors and stuff.

And that’s actually where the confusion arises offline: I’m so nervous around large groups, I sit to the back and occasionally talk to people I don’t know. When I talk to these people, I’m always told by them that I’m quite friendly and good with people, which leads to me laughing. To be honest, I talk because I’m nervous. I can’t handle loud noises, but silence in the air doesn’t help me either.

That said, I’m not actually fond of most people offline enough to spend time with them. I have some close friends I’d love to see more often, but I’m just as happy to just text back and forth. It’s this sense of invisibility that makes me love to talk to people on the internet. I’m on five or six forums, I have many friends on discord… And to me, they’re all precious friends, even some that I’d trust with my life, somehow or another.

It’s as if offline I’m introverted by far, but online I’m a clear extrovert. That, or maybe I’m just lonely. All I know is the internet is the only way I managed to find romance most of my life. Even my boyfriend, who I’ve since met offline, was originally just a friend on a forum I roleplayed on. I fell for him steadily in time, and the depth of that love is a whole other topic. But this is just what I mean by my being truly happy with my online friends- they’re as dear as offline, and I couldn’t be more thankful to all of them.

Before I finish up, since I think I wrote enough about the quandary I have of whether I’m an introvert or extrovert. Really quick, I’d like to ask you to really look at the Sites to See page. You’ll notice many things, such as friends’ forums and blogs, as well as my own. Yep, I have a forum! I try to give each link on the page a little blurb based on how I know them- so you shouldn’t find it hard to decide if they might interest you to look at.

Also, I know some people aren’t always comfortable talking to me in comments. (I at least know I can feel awkward commenting on things, for some reason). If you’d like to chat, I’m always open either by email (juneberrychan@gmail.com) or Twitter (JuneberryChan). So don’t be afraid to contact me, okay? I love all of you! Take care, my precious, precious friends.