Vivienne's Adventures

This week we're talking progress, and I feel like I've made some myself, in terms of mental health. Depression sucks, but it hasn't been pulling me into a black hole as much lately. I think it definitely helps that I have the Little One to watch and play with, as well as several DnD games, and! A writing project. I've noticed I do better, overall, when I have a story to throw myself into. (Speaking of, I've hit 50k in my current WIP, and I'm not done yet!) I've also started taking meds to help with the depression, and I know it's been helping, not just with what I've noticed, but I saw a friend the other day, and he could tell in under a minute that I was doing so much better than last time we hung out. It was pretty cool to hear that.  Another sign of progress for me is that fact that a few weeks ago, I got a cartilage piercing! This was something I have thought about maybe doing for the last two years. My sister got a couple of piercings somewhat r...

  On the topic of progress, I can't not talk about my adorable nephew! I love this kid so much! Every time I watch him, he's more into things, walking all over the place, and playing with things. We had him over the other day, and my sister put him in the pack 'n 'play in the living room so we could play a board game without him trying to eat the pieces. At one point I gave him this large board book we found a couple weeks ago, with all these fun pop buttons that you can pop in, turn the page, and pop back out.  He kept himself happy with that book for at least twenty minutes, if not longer. I said something to him at one point and got a very funny look from him. "Don't interrupt my reading, auntie!" lol! To be fair, he comes from a family of readers and bookworms, so it's not a surprise he's taking to books already. I'm excited to help teach him the magic of stories when he gets a bit older.

  It's time to roll the dice and see what happens! Lol. I've been running two DnD games of my own, and in my Wed game, we are moving past the module we started with, and moving into my own storyline. I'm so excited! ...and a bit nervous. To be fair, my Fri game has been almost all my own storyline, but now it's an interesting challenge to try and keep both games separate in my head. They're both based in Wildemount. And both are in the Menagerie Coast, but they happen during different times.  I'm finding some fun resources, though! There's a book based on a blog called "The Monsters Know What They're Doing" which has been giving me lots of fun ideas and insight for both games, and then of course DnDBeyond.com has lots of sourcebooks, lots of encounter ideas, lots of adventures, and gives me a place to quickly look things up. ^_^ I'm a happy DM. But really, my main goal is to make an interesting and fun adventure for my friends to run around...

  I love stories, and I love my grandparents! I always look forward to hanging out with them, especially because my Grandpa (sadly no pictured here) is also a writer! But anyway, progress is this week's theme! I have been working hard on book 2, Ziggy, and I'm now at over 42k words! And I've been tormenting my poor MC. But, I'm really pleased with how this version of the story is coming along. I had to replot the whole thing, and I'm rewriting it from scratch, so some days, it's hard to get going, and get words written, and then some days the stories almost write themselves.  I've really been entertained as I write, because some characters have a life of their own and keep throwing me sideways. I know I'm the writer, I'm technically in charge of the story, but my characters are so interesting and unique. And then there's Vela. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, I Love my Vela, but she's so funny. She keeps surprising me by showing up weird places...

Progress update time! Woo! So, this picture was taken four days after my first attempt to climb this course. When I first tried to climb this one, I couldn't get further than maybe five or six feet up and I kept falling. Four days later, I managed to reach the top! I was actually kind of amazed. I had a lot of fun, but dang! It was tough! My hands kept slipping, my arms were getting tired, and I nearly fell a few times, but! I made it! We have at this point, I think, tried all of the auto-belays (All the courses where you strap into a rope that automatically catches and lowers you safely, as opposed to top rope, where you're tied into a rope with someone belaying you, or securing the other end of the rope. Both are fun!), and we've been practicing belying each other. Now all I need to do is get myself some shoes and my own harness, and I'll be unstoppable!

  So we all now by this point, that I am a nerd. I love all kinds of geeky stuff and learning new ways to stay connected with my friends, like through DnD! Some of my friends, when I first started playing, suggested I watch this thing on Twitch called Critical Role, where people played DnD. I didn't watch it until I got snowed in one year, and told myself I'd watch an hour, see what I thought.  Cut to a little over a month later. I have fallen down this rabbit hole of nerdy voice actors playing DnD, and caught up on 54 episodes just in time to meet some of the cast at Emerald City Comicon. (Each episode ranges from 3 and a half to sometimes 5 hours.) I Love the show, I love the cast, and it's actually helped me learn how to better play DnD with my friends and really get into role-play.  Then the pandemic happened and everything got shut down. When CR had to stop playing, everyone was sad. Eventually, the cast couldn't take it, so they made a new show that was social-dis...

  So, I know I've shared this pic before, but I didn't have a better one for today's topic: The Mandalorian! I love this show! I find it absolutely fascinating that of the two main characters, you have one with an adorable face who doesn't talk, and one with a mask who barely talks. It makes for a really interesting form of storytelling.  I don't often do fanart, but this was definitely something I wanted to make art of, because I love the show. I've seen a lot of fanart on Pinterest, and there are some really fun pieces out there. It also gives me a new world of Star Wars to explore, with the Mandalorian, and adds to my list of TV shows to geek out over with my friends. Now...when do we get season 3? ^_^

  These are a few of my friends ^_^ I love them very much! We've started a trend of watching shows together, one of which is The Clone Wars! One of my friends is in charge of the order we watch it in, so that it's all chronological, and everything makes sense (mostly haha). It's been nice to have something we can do online together, even when we can't physically see each other. There's another show we watch together called RWBY, that's an animated series currently in season 8, and we've been watching together when the new episodes come out. It's been fun to have a group of friends who I know are into the same thing, so that we can all react to things happening and enjoy a good show while hanging out. (We're also about to start a role-playing game based on RWBY together, too, so I'm excited!!)

  Since I don't have a picture of me cosplaying from today's mentioned show, back to the fun senior pictures! Continuing the theme of things I love, we're talking about shows, and one that I've been really enjoying is Carmen Sandiego! Netflix has a new show, if you haven't seen it, about Carmen and it's really good! I love heists and watching people infiltrate places and pulling one over the bad guys, and this show is amazing for that. I found out a few months ago that the newest season came out, but instead of hitting play, I went back to the beginning and rewatched the whole show. Of course, that made the fact that this was the show's last season that much sadder, but that last season was Good! Lots of twists and turns and things going badly for the good guys, which is great for tension! And all kinds of things. ^_^ What's a show you've been enjoying lately?

  I'm fond of many things, one of them being Doctor Who. ^_^ When the show started up again in 2005, my parents were like, here, watch this! And we've been hooked ever since. In fact, I was so into Doctor Who that for a college speaking class, one of my speeches was entirely about Doctor Who, what the show was, and why I loved it. (I aced that speech!)  In the pic above, I'm wearing my Tardis dress, but I was talking to Brandon Sanderson, fantasy writer. (It was the best pic I could find of me wearing this haha.) I love Doctor Who as a whole, and it's given me a fun conversational topic when talking to strangers and making friends. It's fun to watch a show explore all kinds of interesting questions and show you lots of interesting aliens.

  When it comes to books, I have the hardest time picking my favorites. I love so many different stories! My heart is solidly in the fantasy genre, but I also adore manga. I have really enjoyed reading a bunch of different series, but in terms of manga, it's not hard to pick my top four: Dragon Knights, Skip Beat!, Trigun, and Rurouni Kenshin. I randomly found Dragon Knights at the library, and I have since bought the entire series so I can reread it whenever I want without worrying of the library still has copies. (They don't keep absolutely everything, there isn't quiet enough room for that.) Skip Beat! was an anime my mom got me hooked on, and since we loved it so much, I hunted down the manga and we have followed the story ever since. (There are times that we race to read it before the other person haha!) This series is about a girl who gets jilted and tries to get revenge by going into show business. Thing is, she takes to it like a duck to water and falls in love with...

  Obviously, I love books. And stories. And I love libraries! My grandma was the one who first introduced me to the magic of a building filled with books that you could borrow for free. Oh my gosh. I've been reading since I was three, so this was the coolest thing ever! Working in a library later on, I stumbled upon all kinds of fun reads I wouldn't have found. One book that I ended up buying and collecting the series for, was "A Madness of Angels, or the Resurrection of Matthew Swift." I actually found book 2, was so enchanted that I found and borrowed book 1. (Madness of Angels is book 1.)  I took it with me on vacation, and not even five pages in, I was glued to the pages. Basically, urban sorcerer wakes up in the house that's no longer his, four or five years after he was murdered. And the first thing that caught my attention was how, even in 1st person pov, he kept switching between I and we. It was a really well-written story, fascinating detail, and the plo...

  Let's talk Sherlock! Sherlock Holmes was something that when I was little, my mom didn't want me to read. So I didn't get sucked into the Sherlock fandom till I was high school, I think it was. Anyway, I procured a massive book that had nearly every original Sherlock Holmes story written by Doyle. (insert huge heart eyes) I have always loved mysteries, and Sherlock is such a fascinating collection. After watching BBC's Sherlock, and becoming slightly obsessed, I stumbled across a library book called Warlock Holmes. It's hilarious and amazing! This story takes and flips things around. Watson is the one doing the work, but Holmes is still renowned and all the stranger. He is, essentially, a warlock, and that's all I'll say. If you need a good read and a good laugh, there you go! I could talk about books all day! But I'll spare you. ^_^ What's been something you've enjoyed recently?

  Not gonna lie, I am obsessed with stories. I haven't done a ton of reading lately, but growing up, I always had my nose stuck in a book. (Even at my own birthday party once, cause I was so excited to read my new Nancy Drew's!) I have acquired so many favorites that it's impossible to only pick a few, so this week, I'll talk about the ones that come to mind.  "The Blue Sword" by Robin McKinley is such a good book! Oh man. The first time we heard the story, my mom read it as a bedtime story. Being pretty young, I didn't quite get it, but I thought the main character was pretty awesome. Then, years later, I read it myself on a train ride and fell in love with it. I've read it since then, but every time, it gets me! The mysteries, the magic, the world building, the cool things that the MC does after getting snatched from the place she's staying, and then getting adopted into a society that actually cares and is interested in her gives me all the happ...

  So, I decided to start off this Monday with a throwback! I'm not going to tell you how long ago this was, but this is one of my senior photos! I was such a nerd I had to have my senior pics done at the library. I adore the library! We got special permission to use the library before they opened for the day, and I had the best time!  My photographer took such amazing pics, and I'll share some later this week. But this week's topic on Things I Love, is books! In this pic, I'm reading a novel by Sara Douglass called "Beyond the Hanging Wall." It's such a fascinating book that I borrowed it from the library three times before just buying it. It's a light fantasy, meaning there's not a huge focus on magic, but there IS magic, and the characters are amazing and interesting, and I need to go reread it now...ok, bye! (lol what's a book that you love to reread a million times?)

  Writing has been one of my favorite things to do since...well, when did I start writing, actually? I started writing short stories in high school, and then in college, really discovered how much I loved creating stories. Then I decided to try Nanowrimo and write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. I don't know why I thought that would be a good idea while taking four classes at a new university, but I managed to get 50k written! And ever since, my aunt has nagged me about publishing my story. But guess what? Over the last nine or so years, I have taken that rough gem and polished and chipped away, and worked on that and finally have it looking more like an actual, publishable novel. I sent that story to my editor last week, and I'm excited to polish it up even further! So then I turned my attention to book 2. My word. I have the first 4 books in various stages of manuscripts, but book 2 needs so much help. I was cringing so hard and face palming at my own writing. (Just ...

  Watching the Little One is always fun--even when I'm running on only a few hours of sleep. He's playful, definitely has my sister's sass, and curious about everything! And he's so silly! He's been really talkative lately, so it's been entertaining to copy him and make him giggle. He's so precious ^_^ He's gotten really good at walking, too, and he's made a game of going around a corner and waiting for me to follow after. He's a smart little one, and really into climbing into or onto anything he can. He hasn't quite figured out how to get up onto the couch...but that's only a matter of time. I get such a kick out of his antics, and enjoy every moment he cuddles with me, because I know he won't wanna cuddle forever. Being an auntie is fun!

  As I know I've talked about before, I love DnD! It's so fun to see what chaos comes of any given situation. Recently, in one game we took over a town on a small island and took out the kraken-worshippers who we've been hunting for a good long time. Our characters all had different responses to the end of the issue. Our cleric made all the pirates who surrendered take an oath not to follow krakens anymore, and to be better people. The rogue talked with the new mayor about how things would go from here. Our triton fighter/carpenter started fixing broken things and made new furniture, while my  paladin took a bunch of the pirates and set them to work, cleaning up and fixing the town square and then finding ways to help the townspeople, gleefully fixing everything she possible could with her new minions. Cause apparently that's what she does in a position of power.  Tabletop RPG's are fun, but so are video games! I've recently found a new video game that I've ...

  I know I've talked a lot about archery on this blog, but it really is one of my favorite activities. I thought wielding a bow and arrows instead of swords was the coolest thing, in the books that I read as a kid--and no, not just because of Legolas haha. There's actually a book series, The Ranger's Apprentice, where the main characters focus on longbows, and that alone caught my attention. I love the books for so many reasons!--but that's another blog post. In the stories I create, I have at least one character who's an expert with the bow, named Cara, and I have used it to influence my pirate character, Vela Longbow. I haven't really had the opportunity to portray Vela at ren faires as a proper archer, but it's there, lurking, in her backstory. I think it's fun to visit the range and adopt the shooting confidence of one of these characters. What about you, ever tried using a bow and shooting arrows at a target bale?

  Continuing the theme of my favorite things, we're moving on to activities! I like hiking! It's best when you go with friends or family. Some of my favorite hikes have been weird experiences with my cousin, like when we wandered onto one trail that took us up a different mountain, in a totally different park!...still not sure how we managed that. And obviously, we found our way back and had a good time. (even though one section was totally creepy!) Last summer, I was able to go on several hikes with my aunt, and this was a lovely hidden waterfall from one hike! Even though my endurance is crap, I love adventuring through the woods, pretending I'm someone else, and going on an explorative mission! My mind comes alive and I get so many fun story ideas ^_^ What about you, got some favorite hiking trails?