what are we doing right now?

last updated: august 7th, 2025!

life is tough, but we're surviving! we recently moved house and also went through a mental and physical health episode (which we are still recovering from, to be honest), so it's been pretty hard lately. however, we managed to get involved in this arts program where our group will be leading a series of workshops where the work created will contribute to an exhibition. we also just landed this zero-hours contract type thing focused on building a community in our city. so, still unemployed, but less unemployed than before.

also, we are still overjoyed about getting engaged to our partner system in march! we're going to visit them in september, which is so exciting for us!

we are part of an artists' collective in our city, and a lot of exciting opportunities come from that! for example, we just took part in three exhibitions! there will definitely be another exhibition in november, too!

we try to perform our poetry often, and go to several different open mic nights a month - though sometimes the dates clash with other responsibilities. (and on account of our recent poor health, we've been missing a lot of dates.) we are also trying to develop a collaborative performance piece with a friend who's a dancer!

since we are often performing, we are constantly generating new material. this is to say that we write pretty often. lately, the muse ariadne writing club has been a source of a lot of the inspiration, though we got behind on the prompts again!

we make lots of art all the time, and recently got really into making abstract pieces with markers again. our favourite kind of art to make may be abstract palette knife paintings with acrylics, but the new room is a bit smaller and we still need to optimise the space to be able to paint.

we also go to a photography group for young lgbt+ people every tuesday! (though, again, due to our recent poor health, we haven't gone as regularly as we would like).

in general, when it comes to creativity, we're making an effort to make cool stuff as much as possible, but also to focus on direction and intent as much as quantity! we have a lot of ideas and a lot of directions we could take things, so we can't let the wealth of choice give us decision paralysis as we work towards actualising the plans we have in mind. there's always so much to do, because living in the world is so inspiring.

to be honest, a lot of what we do is stuff we consider "work-related" and "productive", and we have an unhealthy complex about staying on that grindset. so we've been trying to allow ourselves to unwind sometimes, and just enjoy life. we do genuinely enjoy working, but there needs to be a balance, and when we find ourselves getting extremely stressed out about the idea of not working, we know we should be kinder to ourselves.

we recently had a new alter show up, and their name is melit. they are pretty nice and cute, and are still figuring themself out, but we are happy to have them! a few months ago, we had a different "new" alter surface - their name is erato and they've been here for ages but didn't feel safe enough to explore being alive. so, as challenging as it is to have significant system updates, it's also proof that the threads are untangling and we're becoming more and more able to recover from our traumas.

this year, we are determined to eat healthier and exercise more to improve our physical health. this year has been a bit crazy so far, so it's been hard to prioritise this - it's pretty challenging, but all we can do is our best.

okay, but what about media and hobbies? well, we really like to read books, and once again we have set a goal to ready 36 books this year (and currently have 13/36). we mostly read translated (usually japanese) contemporary fiction. our goal to watch 24 new movies this year is doing much better than last year: we have 15 so far!

in conclusion, things are equally wonderful, beautiful, stressful, inspiring, and difficult. life is a mixed bag, but we'll be damned if we don't enjoy the lovely parts!

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