Well, it has been quite some time since the last time I did this, hasn’t it? I’ve been meaning to sit down another update for quite some time but between Chapters, Commentaries, various distractions, and not knowing what on earth to talk about I never really got around to it. 

Until this evening, that is. 

Gods, I don’t even know where I left off, where do I start? 

I guess by going back to find my last update- One moment please. 

Ah, yes, the one back in June. Well, the good news is that the issues I was having back then are nowhere near as prevalent now as they were back then- though you may have noticed that in the last seven months- so despite not having a second job- technically- things are fine and I’m still getting chapters out.

I’ve actually had the Patreon releases done early for the last two weeks, so things are going suspiciously smoothly on that front. 

I suppose on the topic of “how things are going” I should probably go over, well, how things are going. Pretty sure that’s the main purpose of these- after allowing me to ramble for a period of time, of course. That’s always going to be the primary function of anything I write- so let’s just jump it. 

First, we’ll talk about the website. You know, the one you’re reading this on. By now you’ve probably noticed the changes and, if you’re especially perceptive, you might realize this is the same setup I had back in March of 2019. 

This is not by accident. 

It’s not on purpose, either, on that note but it was quite inevitable. I’ve just had the plan I was on with this host downgraded- as you might have been able to tell by the sudden host branding that’s probably shown up now that I’m not on the business plan- which meant their offline team had to revert everything to back when I first added the plan to remove anything done with the extra features. 

Fun. 

Actually, they were doing that when I first started this so I was typing this up in a Google Doc rather than on the site itself. They’ve finished now but I figure I might as well finish it here and then just move it over. 

You may- or may not- be wondering why I chose to change the site to a lower plan and the answer to that is pretty simple- 

It’s a hell of a lot cheaper. 

I was paying way too much for the business plan and, let’s face it, there really aren’t a lot of you who stop by to check these out, are there? I don’t need to ask that, I have the analytics. I think there were a total of 65 visitors last month and considering the small fraction that went anywhere beyond the landing page there’s a good chance the majority of those were bots. 

With no one using the site there was little justification for spending so much so I’ve downgraded it. The posts should still be here and I can still post Commentaries – and maybe even future updates- but that’s all I really needed. Hell, I could probably do that for free if I spent an afternoon setting about learning how. 

I’ll add that to the list, actually, that’s not a bad idea. 

Back to the topic of old posts, however, they should still be there text-wise but I’ve been informed by the offline team that any of the hyperlinks including pictures won’t have survived the reversion. I’ll have to go in and fix that manually- if I can be bothered to. 

For the life of me I really can’t think of any pictures there that were desperately important besides perhaps some of the relationship graphs and maybe that Elemental Map I had been using for the story. If I do go back I’ll probably just do those, but I really should look into even cheaper- or free- options considering just how little use this site gets. 

So if you wanted to go back and see pictures of my trees or something I’m afraid you’re out of luck. 

You know, unless I post new ones, but that’s probably not too likely.

Moving on. 

Work has been…work…so that could probably be better. We have a handful of new guys for the first time in a while, it’s performance review season, and my metrics have been less than impressive as of late. All in all, it sounds like a good recipe for my ass getting let go so I’ve been just a bit stressed about that. 

What little good that’s come from that stress is that I’m looking into various certifications and licenses I can get to help increase potential job options and make myself a more attractive applicant. I have an AHA BLS course Tuesday evening and I’m going in for my travel ID Wednesday afternoon. My Level One Fingerprint Clearance card arrived yesterday, I have the info I need to apply for a Pharmacy Tech Trainee license, and if I have the spare cash- and time- I might go for at least an unarmed guard card on the twenty-sixth. We’ll see how that ends up playing out. 

Basically I’m scrambling for anything I can get my hands on to pad my resume and make me “qualified” for some of these positions. 

My Operations Manager says I shouldn’t worry but I really don’t like taking chances. I’d much rather have a backup ready to go in case things turn extra sour. 

Alright, what’s next? 

I’ve got a list of stuff I need to take care of but I don’t think there’s anything on there that would be of any real interest to any of you. I’ve made very little progress on my other writing projects, unfortunately, but I do want to be able to dedicate more time to them here soon. 

The biggest problem I keep running into is that by the time I get home I’m too tired to write and on my days off I want to do just about anything other than work. 

Well, specifically on my days off I just want to sleep for a couple days straight in hopes of actually managing to wake up energized and refreshed one of these days- fat chance of that ever happening. 

On that note, I am off an extra day this week because  Ivolunteered one of my off days last week- one of the many reasons I continue to be utterly exhausted no matter how early I go to bed or how long I let myself sleep in for- so I might be able to force myself to sleep into at least the early afternoon on one of them.

Oh, who am I kidding? I can rarely manage to sleep past 11, my body wants me up by 10 so it can complain about being tired. 

There’s probably more I should bring up but I failed to write it down first so it’s already escaped my feeble memory. 

I guess on a bit of a more positive note I bought myself a fountain pen which has proven to be terribly addictive. If you’ve never used one I’d really recommend it. I picked one up for about $20 and then grabbed a bottle of Japanese ink for $22. I foresee the purchase of far too much ink in my future and probably a few more pens so I don’t have to clean out or waste any inks. 

And with that we’ll call it an update, I suppose. I think three pages is probably plenty for now. 

Until I next have your attention, 
–Eyazahrid