_Not in the mood for Tourette's Guy. Been working overtime shifts the past four weeks. Bad head fog, worse sleep. Fucking cat ran away. [Proj_01] has been stagnating, nothing to report. [Proj_00] has some drive when I develop the stories it's intended for. Until my next day off rolls around after a week, nothing special I can do besides soldier on and make results. To anyone going into blue-collar work, I got one word: Unionize.

Your boss is not your friend.

_Progress:

>Learned the first two fingering positions on the E Minor Pentatonic scale.

>Started a drawing course w/ the GF, happy to share what I learn if it may help another beginner artist like me.

_Another thing I wanted to share, childhood inspiration. I once read on the back of a bottle cap that originality consists of returning to the origin. The meat of it didn't occur to me until a few days ago but reminding yourself of what joys you had when you were younger can go a long way in reviving yourself as an adult. Back when your sense of wonder was at its strongest and you were allowed to be optimistic. Shit happens, bring napkins.

But the moments that become nostalgic later in life can happen at any point, more so when doing something for the first time. Rose-tinted glasses, one of those few and important instances when humans lose their negativity bias and focus on the good. For me, it's playing Dead Space 2 on the 360. Cool early mornings in the desert, my brother and I playing 7th gen classics on split-screen, and long drives to San Diego with the grandparents. I like to think we get our most fascinating ideas when we're kids as a means of anchoring ourselves as adults. Doomerism is unproductive and a waste of time.

_Moving Forward: Work continues as normal. Likely more overtime shifts. I'm still adjusting the personal schedule but if I can wake up early enough, there's time before clocking in that I can sit at the café and work on a drawing or story. Tiredness is the main challenge, not the full-time job, it's the tiredness. But everyone has to ask themselves, sometime or later, what are we willing to let be in the way of our goals?

I'm on a slow, steady climb upwards. Very slow, progress is incremental. But I'm not dead yet.

_Quote of the Week: "Find what you love and let it kill you"-Charles Bukowski

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