Milanote

Apr. 30th, 2025 02:08 pm
vivdunstan: Art work for the IF Archive including traditional text adventure tropes like a map, lamp, compass, key, rope, books a skull, and a sigh referring to grues (interactive fiction)
Had a very disturbed night neurologically last night, but on plus spent some very useful time building up some overview boards in Milanote of my next IF game (interactive fiction, in this case parser text adventure). Here's a snippet, hopefully blurred out enough in appropriate places! This is a board showing the 7 chapters side by side, with overview info of each, helping me balance things, as well as links to more detailed boards for each individual chapter. To be honest this is all rather advanced procrastination, when I really just need to get on with writing and coding up more game sections! But it is helping me see the balance, and through structure, and also helping highlight areas where I need to develop things more deeply or in differently connected ways. Milanote has a rather costly subscription model after you've used up the free allowance. But I'm currently finding it useful for brainstorming and developing. It's like having nested digital white boards. And syncs well across web, Mac, iOS and Android. I previously created mood boards in Milanote for both Bad Beer (my previous game) and this new game. But this is my first go properly planning and overviewing with it.

vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
These have been on hold since Christmas, as I've just slept so much, and have been phenomenally wiped out as my neurological illness flares again. Then I had to focus my extremely limited awake time and energy on a time critical academic journal paper revise and resubmit. But I think I can restart these fun things next week. I enjoy doing them a lot. Initially I plan to alternate the two weekly, so a Benny audio listen and review one week, a Sherlock Holmes short story reread and review the next week, and repeat. With luck I may be able to switch both to a weekly rate again, but this initial alternating plan looks more sustainable for now. I will be resuming with the "The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk" story from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and Bernice Summerfield Big Finish season 6 story number 3 The Lost Museum.
vivdunstan: (oracle cards)
As usual the Urban Crow deck, and my loose 3-card past/present/future spread.

Scavenge / Freedom / Battle. Again some new to me cards this week.

This random draw does feel close to what I've been going through lately, and will be going through in the coming weeks and months. I very recently had my 10th Covid vaccine, which I expected to cause my 10th post Covid vaccine neurological auto immune illness flare. Which is really tough, and happens a week after each vaccine, and lasts for 3 long months. I'd spent the last few weeks before the vaccine trying desperately to sort things out that needed doing, including finishing (or nearly finishing) a couple of academic journal papers before I got too sick to work on them. At the same time I knew I was in as good a position as I was going to be for a long time, and wanted to grab the opportunities. Then when I had my vaccine it was a very strange feeling of limbo for the next week, feeling good - apart from flu like vaccine side effects (I had both flu and Covid vaccines together) - but knowing it was just a brief period. It almost felt psychologically like floating on air. And then this last weekend things crashed back down, with clear signs of my latest flare starting. Which is still currently relatively mild, but should get much more scary and difficult to deal with over the coming weeks.

So yes, a bit of desperate scrabbling around, and then a strange feeling of limbo, and tough times looming. I will cope though. At least I was forewarned, and have been able to prepare for it. That almost sounds like a Doctor Who quote!

vivdunstan: (oracle cards)
Trying a new to me oracle cards deck. Which is gorgeous. Even has shiny red gilt like edges to the cards! Just using for a bit more personal reflection. This deck is autumnal equinox themed.

Sticking with my usual 3-card past/present/future spread, in a really loose form.

The cards are Foraging / Mead and Wine / Autumn equinox.

I can also relate these roughly to where I've been / am / am going.

Re "Foraging" I've been spending the last few weeks gathering together thoughts on my personal strengths, interests and goals. All within the limited context in which I need to operate. Figuring out what I want to do in the coming 6 months or so has been productive, and rewarding, and should be able to translate into fun activities. Including things I can work on from my bed. So that's been a productive process.

As for "Mead and Wine", well we've had a lot of celebrations recently, which are ongoing! September is a double birthday month for us, and also marked our 30th wedding anniversary this year. We had to postpone our big celebration meal (takeaway, but still huge!) for erm reasons. So that is still upcoming. And this week we treated ourselves to a postal delivery of gorgeous brownies and cookies from Norfolk. Coming today ... We are going to be so plump by a week from now! But yes, that card is on point.

The autumnal equinox card might seem to have been more appropriate a couple of weeks ago, but it's not really. It's only now that I'm really feeling autumn kicking in properly. To be fair I can't get out much to see the gorgeous changing colours around. But it's in the last week or so that I've really felt the chill kicking in, and autumn is well and truly upon us. And will be for another couple of months. I do need to get out to enjoy some of it. Will add that as an urgent goal! I am also writing a new IF game set around the changing seasons, starting with autumn. So I need to soak up as much of it as possible. Thanks to the card for the reminder.

So an interesting deck. I will continue to use it from time to time. It is especially gorgeous to handle. There are others in the same range for different times of the year. But I like autumn, so picked this one for me.

vivdunstan: (oracle cards)
Preparation / Self-Interest / Memory.

Another three cards. Which in some ways connect with where I am now.

Autumn is my favourite time of year, and I’ve been getting things in place and making plans for the coming months. Especially the next month and a half, before my inevitable latest post Covid vaccine neurological flare. I’ve already been thinking an awful lot about this, but still need to sit down, with pen and paper, properly brainstorm, and make a list. I’m also planning very soon to blog about my plans on my academic musings blog.

Self-Interest is something I can focus on too much at times. But it’s also important, given how limited I am now, to focus on things that give me joy. Which ties in with the previous paragraph.

This year sees many big anniversaries in my life. Very big ones, like 30 years since both our graduation together and wedding. But also fandom ones, including the 40th anniversaries of Robin of Sherwood, The Box of Delights and even Murder She Wrote! I’d like to dedicate some time to looking back. Including remembering my undergraduate years. Before the end of 2024! So soon.

So more to ponder. But, yes, I need to formalise my musings re plans just that bit more. Writing a formal public blog on the subject should help encourage that.

vivdunstan: Fountain pen picture (fountain pens)
I just blogged about how I use my Hobonichi Cousin paper journal. More freeform than many folks. May be of interest!

To dos

May. 1st, 2024 11:59 am
vivdunstan: Art work for the IF Archive including traditional text adventure tropes like a map, lamp, compass, key, rope, books a skull, and a sigh referring to grues (interactive fiction)
Drawing up a to do list of things remaining to code in my IFComp 2024 game. Relieved that it is just 30 items long, though a lot of the items are really multiple thing entries e.g. there's a single item in the list that just says "Fill out descriptions of objects/scenery - see individual locations comments for details". But at least with the list laid out it feels tackleable! And avoids me staring blankly at a mass of source code wondering what to do next 😜
vivdunstan: Fountain pen picture (fountain pens)
First week using my new Hobonichi A5 paper planner. Very relaxing to work with, using a dedicated extra fine nib fountain pen for the very thin Tomoe River paper. And best of all already a huge productivity aid. Tonight I was brainstorming extra ideas for my new parser text adventure game for IFComp 2024.

Note re here, I’m noting my things to do (mini goals) each week in the paper planner. I had intended to keep posting things done in the week here (my check in), but I hand wrote so many tonight in the planner, and don’t want to retype them! So they’ll probably stay offline too.

A black fountain pen resting on top of a paper planner inside a brightly coloured soft cover decorated with lots of cute designs.

Pocket 2

Apr. 30th, 2023 06:10 pm
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
I use the Pocket app to save articles (web stories, newspaper articles etc) to read later. A year ago I had 7000 unread articles saved in Pocket, after being so extremely ill for so long, unable to read stuff, but still saving interesting things I wanted to read later. Now I’ve nearly cleared my Pocket backlog. I’ve been blitzing it since just before Christmas, when it was about 6000. I only have 2 unread articles currently saved in Pocket now. One is an Ars Technica history of roguelike computer games. The other an in depth look at Infocom’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy text adventure. Good articles to have saved to last! I will keep saving new articles to Pocket in future to read later but hope to keep my unread count fairly low. And not the almost 10,000 it was once.

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vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
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