Long Time No Blog

It sure has been quite a while since I last blogged. It appears it has been well over a month. Most of my posts last month were vlogs. I’ve been missing the blog style writing. I keep doing my short daily journal. My daily journal has been mostly a chore lately. I do a small brain dump early in the morning. My goal was to journal daily this year. After nearly 10 months of that, I’m getting close to giving that up…LOL I ran into something similar last year with my daily photo. I did end up continuing the photos through to the last day, though. I just like that I had something that I was doing daily regardless of where I was. That’s what the journal was supposed to be this year. Oh well, I’ll keep doing it for as long as I feel like it and I’ll be okay if I do end up stopping it before the end of the year. But my point in bring it up is that I think that my daily journal may have contributed to my decline in blogging this year.

I went to Disney World last week and into the weekend. I stayed in an Airbnb near Disney World. I loved the location as it made it easy to get in and out of the Disney bubble. I spent 4 days total. Actually just 1 hour shy of a full 4 days if I count when I left home and when I get back. Wednesday night was at Disney Springs. The other times were at the four parks. Wednesday night through Friday night was with my sister and her husband. Saturday, I spent with a pair of friends. Yesterday, I was back to being solo. I vlogged quite a bit of the experience. I’ll try to put all of that together this week as I have time. I may need to cut it up into multiple entries. I haven’t reviewed any of the footage yet, though. So, we shall see!

It was a much needed vacation. It feels like sort of a reset. I’m glad I decided to turn it into a full vacation. I’m also glad to be back home now. My social battery is depleted…LOL Being away from my routine was nice, though. It gave me an opportunity to step out of the normal and do some retrospection and introspection. I’m still processing some of my thoughts, though. I’m not quite ready to truly talk it out or anything. I did some speaking on it in the vlog. But nothing too profound or anything like that. I have a feeling some changes are coming to my life. I have been in need of changing for a while now. Having this time away from things for a long weekend gave me an opportunity to be inspired…hehehe

Notesprout has evolved into something so much more than a note taking app. It has now grown into something I call Sproutscape and is a collection of apps instead. The main Sproutscape host is sort of like an operating system for my Supernote devices. It has basically replaced the software the manufacturer provides. It even replaces the main side menu they have. Besides the main interface, it also has Notesprout, Docsprout, Sketchsprout, Calsprout, and Biblesprout. In the menu, I just call them Note, Document, Sketch, Calendar, and Bible. The file library is called the Garden…hehehe That’s where all of the files live and the Sproutscape host manages all of the data. Everything can be exported into various formats as well. And everything is interconnected in various ways. There’s also a “Scratch Pad” that allows me to make quick notes that I can either discard or reuse later in the various apps without dedicating a specific notebook or file. I hope to do a vlog on it soon so I can show off all of the neat features that work together. I have no idea yet if I’ll ever release it as a viable solution for others. I don’t mind if others use it someday. I just have to decide if I’ll support it as a product in some form. I definitely do not have plans to sell anything. I just have to decide how or if I would support users in some way through feature enhancements and bug fixes. As for me, I love it and I’m glad I created it. It works very well for me with the features I make for myself.

I’ve been sketching more lately. I’m really enjoying it! It helps that I created Sketchsprout…hehehe I designed it to mimic real pencil/pen and paper sketching instead of as a digital art app. And I designed the file to be a sketchbook so that I can easily flip the page to start over as needed. There is a non-paper like feature where I can copy and paste a page if I want. But most of the experience is just like physical medium. Pen strokes cannot be erased and the pencil takes a multi-pass rubber rub to actually erase. A simple pass of the eraser barely does anything. You have to go over and over to fully erase…hehehe And I implemented a smudge feature that feels like the real thing too. I can use my finger to smudge the pencil marks like you can do with real pencil and paper…LOL I’ve calibrated the on-screen and export looks to be very close. I still need to work on a paper texture background for the export, though. Currently, it is just white. But it still looks pretty good. I have done some random sketching. And I’m also doing a weekend sketch tutorial from someone I follow on Instagram. I have her book as well and have started doing some of those sketches too.

I’m bummed the Dodgers are out of the running for this year’s World Series. Even more so because the Brewers swept them in the NLCS. It has been an amazing run since I started following them a few years ago. Now that I’m back to watching baseball, I’ll continue watching through the World Series. When I was young, I was a baseball fan in general. I was a Cubs and Braves fan mostly. But I enjoyed it regardless of who was playing. And I enjoyed playing myself. Tonight, the Rays are playing and may clinch the ALCS to play against the Brewers in the World Series. I think my brother will root on the Brewers because he’s a National League guy. I’ll be one who is happy for whoever wins. But I’ll probably be happier with the Rays winning because they are my local team…hehehe Since the Dodgers aren’t in it anymore, it really doesn’t matter…LOL

I’ve recently passed on several opportunities that seemed like they would be good things for me. Yet, by deciding to pass on those opportunities, I was led to some amazing moments. So, good choices do bring me to great moments. Others may look at my choices as not being good. Or at least the lessor choice…hehehe But I need to follow my heart. I don’t always know where things will lead. But I know that when I make the choice others want me to make, or what I think they want me to make, I’ve been lead to bad things for me. The more I’ve learned and accepted about myself, the better I’ve been able to decide what works best for my life.