wheel of fortune / new month energy
I love the first day of the month, other than the money flowing out of my accounts. I struggle to get the same fresh start feeling later in the month when I might really need it. I know the adage in a lot of spaces is that you can start over any day, but today feels special and I'm happy to move with that energy.
I am also moving between quarters as an art teacher in a totally new job, city, state, and grade level. In two days I'll get totally new students in totally different classes. I made some small mistakes in my classroom management systems in the first quarter before I knew the kids, this grade band, and their ability to work through frustration (much lower than when I taught younger kids). I get a chance to start completely new.
I am also closing out a big project and shipping it out. I finished a commission for a pretty big name author for a book promo illustration, but I can't share that here for a number of reasons - mostly that this blog and site are for exploring my non-art, non-business self. Shipping this project means less inbox stress and now I can focus on winterizing my studio, which means checking out power tools from the library, lots of fun with insulation, and probably working with an electrician since that's outside of my scope.
November Goals & Systems:
I figured out heatmaps in Notion! I started a little bit in October to get the habit going but these are my four near-daily activities I want to track.
- Excercise: to get my re-started since the big move, this will be just 10 minute yoga, weights, or brisk walking/hiking
- Eat Healthy: we were doing so good as a household with avoiding tons of processed food, and we need to get back to it. I have some immune/inflammation issues left over from long covid and I work in a school so I really need to dial it in.
- Journal: so this is a two-parter: I do my own version of morning pages, which also involves a two-card tarot pull I've been doing for 5 years pretty faithfully. I also want to do an evening recap/doodle/short entry about my days, just for my own record and memory and to play around with stickers, markers, and colors in a low-stakes way.
- Good Web: sticking to my own guardrails for internet use that supports me not losing my mind to doomscrolling on Mastodon or Reddit. I do this through a series of blocking software and browser extensions, and I also just look at the news in the morning when I have the emotional capacity to handle the horrors™.
Concepts I am thinking about with this month:
- Consumption communities: I posted this very long but pleasant video about the stationery world as a consumption community. As a person that keeps fish and now reptiles (as in, one rescued leopard gecko) I see those communities as consumption based in some ways as well, especially with reptiles. I have a lot to save for (see below lol) so watching how I covet or spend on things is important to me so I can meet my bigger goals.
- Planted tanks: While some fish people get tons of tanks and collect species, the planted tank community is more about slow progress, time, and getting water/light/nutrient conditions correct with community input. The costs to the hobby have gone up dramatically from tariffs, but there's a lot to be gained from trading plants and fish and seeing tank journals from users over the the Planted Tank forum. I am on the lookout got a 90g or 120g for my basement - I will winter my outdoor goldfish in it and then turn it into a tropical scape in the spring.
- IRL friend time: I need to make the effort to make plans. I feel lucky to be invited to things a lot, but that's labor for other people in planning and organizing that I should start doing myself. People keep saying that knowing your community is key for surviving this slow collapse, but acting on it is harder. Pragmatically - it's also just the best way to help people be more aware of what's going on in digital rights. Last night I talked about big tech and switching email providers with an fed employee engineer friend who was lamenting the past internet and worried about surveillance from this administration. I got to share some of the things I've been learning from my online friends with real people who want to hear about this stuff. I also just want more dance parties in my life all the time.
And that's it! Time to head to the post office and move through this list.