2024-09-30
It's now the Monday, ten and I really should be working with my full focus. I'm sitting on my bed with three laptops in front of me: the work laptop has the dreadful matter that is the focus on my current attention (positive thoughts!); this laptop has neovim open to write this wv, and my other home laptop (that has seen little use, and which I need to figure out what I want to do with - I at some point need to reset it with Arch/Artix, and get it to be a bit better. I have my issues with it sometimes - also, it has so much accumulated on the drives over the years it's completely unmanaged. One hard drive failure and I'd have no clue what I'd lose) which is currently playing Yorushika. I love the Yorushika of old - after Tousaku (the album), the songs are not very good, but before that they are amazing. Ame to Cappuccino currently playing. Ikikata hitotsu oshiete hoshii dake.
I've decided earlier this month to repurpose the notepad that was formerly for unstructured writing as a diary, where I write each day a short description of what has happened on that day. I have been doing that, although occasionally I forget and go a couple days without writing, so have to write several days (and dreg back the memory) at once. The other notepad is for completely unstructured writing, scribbling, whatever. Then of course there is the sketchpad used for drawing (hopefully to see a lot more use next month!). But, I've been looking at, for next year, getting a Hobonichi techo. It seems like it could be really good, in terms of acting as a calendar (if I write in pencil - not pen, which I need to do more of) and also would function as my daily diary in the day notes, with ... well, I don't know what I'd do in the monthly, but basically I think it seems very good. And high quality paper etc. I am going to try it for next year and see how it goes, I think.
In terms of planning and journalling, despite doing it for so long (beginning in 2020 and consistently since 2021) I have not really figured out exactly the kind of system that I want to use. I was initially tracking everything systematically; then, the tracking for everything else fell by the wayside and what remained was "lle" - the life log entry, in essence a freeform journal. I wrote lle on the laptop until 2023, when I began to also write on paper. I have then also late last year and this year begun to track things, and am now almost thinking of deprecating the traditional lle journal, with the free-form writing instead as a part of wv (and to a lesser extent the blog), anything I would not want to publish as a part of the scratchpad, and the diary as a summary of each day. In this way then, Hobonichi would be a fairly natural transition, subsuming the responsibility of the diary, and adding to that the functionality of a calendar - I have always struggled to think of a way of managing events and plans, and have tended to just write them in the notes of the diary, which then has an additional problem that I swap out notepads as I fill them up with my sprawling writing. So a Hobonichi would really help me out in terms of this, I think.
The notepads are pricey, though... especially with shipping. That said, a lot of the price is the cover (aesthetic) which if I buy one each year will be £29 that I don't need to spend each time.
(Well, I've bought it now...)
I really think that I might want to leave the UK at some point. It's sort of a thing that needs deliberation on; I guess it's worrying, the idea that I might find myself in a foreign country and living there without people I know or the means to necessarily live there. But really, I don't see a future in the UK. The country is politically and economically in shambles; I think as a young person in the country it's easy to see that. I watched @@[this video by BritMonkey][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5aJ-57_YsQ] which sort of summarises the feeling well. The UK is a country in shambles. I know this, and of course I hear from my relatives in Germany that they feel that Germany is in a bad way as well, but I can't help but feel like we have it actually bad, whereas they just like to complain (but still have it better). I knew that UK healthcare was bad, but didn't realise until I watched the video that it was actually worse than in the US (nor did I realise that people pay for initial consultations in Europe; I know they have a sort of public-private system in Japan that works very well) and also that our public transport is worse than in the US? I knew it was bad here but I just didn't realise it was that bad.
I'll get citizenship for the EU in a couple years. I think I would like to try living in different countries - so for instance, I could try Germany and Italy (if I keep on learning the language) and spend a couple years in each. If I continue to work in insurance, there is work in both countries for that, or I could work remotely; or if I move to data or programming again there is remote work for these. So generally, I think that I could survive just about anywhere. That means that I could try a couple years in different countries and see how it is. I have this sort of idea in my head that Europe would be amazing to live in; of course, the UK has it's own appeal. There is also the appeal of doing something new, as well, though.
Tomorrow is October. I've a lot to do in this month; I will have two blog entries per week, as well as the usual wv to update, and Inktober to do (one drawing per day). I doubt the drawings will be very good, but I think it would benefit me to keep on trying, at least. One a day. I normally relent on these kinds of things, and don't find the time, etc. but I am going to try to make sure I do find the time this month. As well, I've also got the LM2 to do (exam probably November, considering also the holiday), RHS M5, as well as normal gym going and socialising, all in the time that I'm not sleeping, working, or cooking. Whew! I'll see how it goes.
Ok, well, have a good one.