alltoseek

The bullet journal thing once again fell apart halfway through the month, but I was pretty good about exercise for much of December. Eliyahu wanted to walk pretty much every day, and there were only a few times that we skipped anyway. I don't know exactly how many times I exercised this month, but it was over 20.

As is traditional for the season, I ate tons of junk food. But I ate some vegetables at the end of the month! So that should count for something. 

Dailies

I have been so bad at these in 2025 that I feel like I should stop trying in 2026. Except that the check boxes are still satisfying to click. So I went ahead and made a new bullet journal for 2026. It's day 3 and I'm still keeping up on it! It helps that i've been doing most of the items on it, so there's stuff to check off.

Writing

A Dragon's Secret is at 53,200, for about 1000 words in December. Unsurprising. My personal journal was ~70,000. Still doing an excessive amount of writing about my own life. Processing.

Art

I finished the picture of Olive & Dahlia making out that I'd started in November. The main version of it had them in lingerie; I made an alternate version where their clothing was more concealing so I could share it on the Time Princess official Discord without feeling like I was being overly risque. For me, the most suggestive thing about the picture is not their clothing or pose, but their expressions. And yet no one would say 'you have to censor that expression'. Heehee.

I didn't do any other art in December, but I made a 2025 Art Retrospective. Woohoo! I've done an art retrospective for every year since 2020, which kind of amazes me, because the first one was for 2015 and I didn't have enough art in a year to do another until 2020.

I used a template with predefined sizes for each piece, where I had to crop the art to fit, which I've never done before. Using a template was so much easier. Although I only just now realized that the template didn't have a specific place for my name, so I didn't put my name on it. I should probably add my name to it.

It's half Olive fan art. That amuses me, too.

Reading

I finished the main story of Please Marry Me Again!, a romantasy manwha. I read most of the epilogue entries, but I'd lost much of my enthusiasm for the story by the time I reached the end. Romantasy manwha are often like this for me. I'll love the early relationship but by the time they reach the end, it'll have turned its attention away from the relationship and towards some boring political or action plot I don't care about.

I'm almost done with For My Derelict Favorite, which did a good job with its political plot so I enjoyed it all the way through, and The Greatest Estate Developer, a comedy/action-fantasy that's been a terrific ride. Tuftears recommended both to me and they're great. They'll probably have epilogues running for a month or three, but I expect the main story to resolve in January.

I almost finished the two chapters of "Coming Calamities" released by Time Princess in December -- I'll finish the rest in January.

Social

I saw Envoy, Sophrani and Kage most weeks in December. Eliyahu came to visit on December 14 and is staying through January 12, so that's fantastic. My brother M came down early in December and K and C visited at the end of the month. It's been a busy month for social activities, even with me staying home on Christmas because I was worried my mother might pass away that day.

December Goal Scorecard

• Provide care for parents: Done!
• Pay December bills: Done!
• Send The Jewel-Strewn Night to first readers: Took until halfway through the month, which was surprising given that I'd finished edits on it 7 months ago. But I sent it off!
• Brainstorm/work on a new outline: I actually did this! I didn't finish it, but I made meaningful progress on a new idea, and I like the idea.
• Post journal entries within 48-ish hours of finishing them: I kinda whiffed this near the end of the month -- I posted the 25th-29th together on the 31st, and I'm pretty sure I finished the 25th's entry by, like, the 28th? I was running behind for that time period, but not quite that far behind. Still, I'm counting this as 'basically done' because I did well most of the month, and that period was a particularly crowded one.

Stretch Goal Scorecard

• Exercise: Thanks to Eliyahu's determination to walk, I made it well over 15 times this month.
• Do some art: Done!
• Track what I read: Done!
• Visit friends: Did that!
• Spend some time with Eliyahu while they're visiting: Yessssss

January Goals

• Provide care for parents
• Pay December bills
• Remind first readers that I'll edit book in mid-February: I don't usually jog readers' elbows -- they can finish or not, it's up to them -- but since I sent it out just before the holidays, I feel like I ought to send a reminder about it once the holidays are past and folks have had a chance to recover.
• Do some creative things: Look this is gonna be another tough month. I will do some creative stuff because I want to do some creative things, but no pressure about what those things are. 

Stretch Goals

• Write more of A Dragon's Secret
• Edit A Game to You
• Work on outline/notes for next book
• Play more of romance soloRPG
• Exercise 15+ times
• Track what I read, including Time Princess
• Keep up on my Dreamwidth feed
• Ask Bookbub for a Featured Deal and run another ad campaign for a book
• Get backmatter updated for whatever book I promote
• Pick an old picture to redraw
• Do some art
• Visit friends
• Spend some time with Eliyahu while they're visiting