CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Those of you who’ve followed this blog for a while will have seen it go through seasons – and most of you will know how torn I have been about the future. Will I write? Will I follow my love of languages? Should I continue to study, now I no longer have the job that inspired the study? And so on and so forth. It has been a battle, let me tell you, but I think I have a direction to go in, now. So, some of you will have noticed I’ve altered the blog description. I did this on Thursday, August 25 – yes, today. And I did this, because I’m ready to admit to my degrees, and all the rest of it. I’ve done this, because I have been inspired to try for something I think might actually be impossible, and to do that I have to accept where I've been. And all this is all because I went to a conference at the ANU (Australian National University). This conference was about Russia. It. Was. AWESOME!!! There were so many people who were as interested in Russia as I am, who didn’t think lear...

And here they are. I have to admit that it got to a point where I didn't have time to take pictures of each one, as I hurried for a bus after class, or to catch the next little critter I'd seen nearby... and then there were the swans. Swans are not pokemon, but they are cute, and cygnets are fluffy. These ones were on the Australian National University grounds, possibly touring for their little ones' future education. I was sick for Friday, and then wrote an essay most of Saturday and Sunday. Monday, I had an impromptu class to make up for one I wouldn't make later on due to a conference. Anyhow, here we go with the pokebits. On Saturday, August 20, 2016, this little guy came to say goodnight...    On Sunday, August 21, I went for a quick walk in the morning - there's an Ingress badge that requires you to hack a portal every day for 360 days - and our local portal is also a pokestop, so, of course, I had to catch these two before heading back ...

I didn’t talk about this challenge, because, well, my record of completing challenges is pretty bad, but this challenge is part of my goal to find my feet and to learn to balance my study commitments, with my family commitments, with my writing commitments, while the university semester is on. For this challenge, I wanted to try and write a story a week, hence the title, but then I got ambitious; I wanted to complete the stories I’d started for last July’s Story Match challenge . If I could complete one story a week, why not two? So, I merrily made the goal to write a brand new story each week, AS WELL AS completing an older short story, starting with the Story Match Challenge tales. I know, I know. You can sit down, now. So, for the first week, it was so far, though, so good—although, I will admit that it has been tough. Fingers crossed I can keep this up AND still get the grades I need to do what I’d like to do next… while writing. The second week was also okay. Aa...

Long week, short on writing, but lots of catching up. This whole sick child thing, followed by being sick thing… waaay overrated. I also added the walking back in; it fit where it should, up until I got sick, but I had to fit my catch-up study in where I would normally put my writing, so… results as follows: Overview New words produced: 0 Old words revised: 0 Outlines and Notes: 0 Works completed: 0 Works revised: 0 Covers created: 0 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 0 Bloggery: 715 University Prep and Assignments: 6,993 Story-A-Week Catch-Up Challenge Update Nil Progress Publishing Tasks Created 3 blog posts for this blog; Created 0 blog post for the C.M. Simpson Publishing blog ; Created 0 blog post for the C.M. Simpson Art and Photography blog ; New Arrivals Nil this week.

Sorry, no pictures, today, folks. I haven't been well, so I'll make it brief. Two missions completed: one at the National Museum of Australia, and one at the National Botanic Gardens... and then I caught the flu. The next mission will be a lovely jaunt up Black Mountain, and I'm still tossing up whether I'll make it a walk or a drive. No new badges to report, but I should have some news on that front, soon. I have four platinum, heading for black at a rapid rate of knots, two golds, seven silver, four bronze, and the usual two that may never get off the starting mark. It's not spectacular, but sometimes I have to let Ingress take a back seat. Other stuff: I think I'll just let events guide what goes on in the Ingress space. If I level a badge, I might talk about that, or - if I remember to take photos - I'll post about the missions, once they're done. If they're a picture series, I'll post up the completed set, because there are some real...

Last December, I undertook two challenges: The Story-A-Week and Holiday Extension Challenges . The criteria for these Challenges were as follows: The Story-A-Week Challenge: Write and submit one short story (of between 1,500 and 12,000 words), each week for the next twelve months (the 55 weeks from December 13, 2015 through December 31, 2016). (55 short stories) The Holiday Extension Challenge: During the summer break, and the mid-semester break next year, write one Carlie Simonsen chapter book each week, and have it uploaded for pre-ordering within six weeks from completion. The periods for this challenge were as follows: Summer Holidays (7 weeks from December 13, 2015 through February 15, 2016); the Mid-Semester Holidays (7 weeks from May 28, 2016 through July 16, 2016); and the End-of-Year Holidays (6 weeks from November 20, 2016 through December 31, 2016). (20 chapter books) An Untimely End and Results In February, when university kicked in, again, I re...