It seems these are monthly now…

Posted on July 1, 2025 by isikyus

Over the past two fortnights, I have:

Got to sleep around 1:40 AM on average, for about 7 hours, 3 minutes of sleep a night. My work hours have shifted earlier. I think this will be better in the long run, but it’s causing some teething problems currently.
Made 16 or 17 things (at least 8 a fortnight):
- Four scenes of writing …
- … including one post on my other blog, which also counts as a thing shared!
- Three evenings of D&D prep,
- Three of work on my budget,
- Two poems,
- Two evenings’ worth of mending,
- Some organising for one family thing,
- And some for much-needed maintenance on my house.
Finished one book, The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang. This was more fun than I’d expected in the first third, darker in the rest (though I had been warned by the cover), and overall came together in a very satisfying way.

And the Dungeons and Dragons game is continuing well. The PCs have now twice tested the strength of their enemies, and and assembled most of their preparations. Much hangs in the balance for their next strike.

Turning around, but not yet moving

Posted on May 31, 2025 by isikyus

Another month, another fortnightly post missed. But, while the stats don’t show it yet, I am getting closer to some of these goals. I’m also coming out of a period of higher-than-usual stress at work, which should bring some improvement.

In the past two fortnights, I have:

Got to Sleep at about 1:25 on average, for about 7 hours, 5 minutes’ worth of sleep a night.
Made ten things:
- Three scenes of writing, on three different topics,
- Two evenings of work on my budget (one of then things that’s been making good progress),
- Two evenings of D&D prep
- Organising an overdue appointment for my car,
- Indexing a notebook,
- And some work on a project for a forum I’m in.
And I again finished two books:
- The Electric State, by Simon Stålenhag, which was pleasantly creepy and gave me plenty to think about,
- and Wrong Answers Only, by Tobias Madden. This had a solid ending, but it took me far longer than I expected to get into it — though that may just be because I’m far away from the target demographic.

Again, only one D&D session this month. That game saw the party fleeing in the face of the monster. When they return, though, they will be better prepared…

Sleeping Furiously is Not Very Effective

Posted on May 9, 2025 by isikyus

A mock-up of a fake Magic The Gathering card, titled "Furious Sleep". The card is an Enchantment - Aura, with cost 1 generic and 1 Green mana. It has five lines of rules text: * Enchant creature you control. * Devoid. Armies you control are colourless. * When Furious Sleep enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature. * Whenever enchanted creature is untapped, tap it. If you do, amass Eldrazi Spawn 1. * Sacrifice Furious Sleep and an Army: untap enchanted creature. — A colourless green idea

The past five weeks have been a busy time at work, and in various other ways as well. The public holidays, unfortunately, don’t seem to have helped.

In the past two full fortnights (i.e. the remainder of April), I have:

Got to sleep at 1:30 on average, for 7 hours, 10 minutes’ worth of sleep. I’m struggling furiously, but it’s not very effective …
Maybe I shouldn’t have brought a Magic card to a game of Pokemon.
Made only twelve things (6 per fortnight):
- Five scenes of writing, on my main WIP and various smaller distractions.
- Three evenings of budget work. The data entry is done; now comes the hard part.
- Two evenings of D&D prep.
- One chunk of an epic poem,
- And one idea for a Magic card, shown above.
And I finished two books:
- Wharfies: The History of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, by Margo Beasley. This was interesting reading, both for details of how the industry worked early on, and for being a broader overview of Australian history than I’d previously had. It’s also the second thing I’ve read recently that mentioned Billy Hughes, whom I probably need to read up on further.
- The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon. This was fantastic — I’d forgotten how much I enjoy high fantasy — but I really wish I could have spent longer in the world. I will probably need to track down the sequel.

D&D continues, but slowly; we’ve only played one session in the past month. That was a daring raid on the villain’s lair, and ended on a cliffhanger. A monster, woken furious from sleep, now challenges the party…

A Low Ebb

Posted on April 7, 2025 by isikyus

In the past fortnight, I have:

Got to sleep at 1:36 AM on average, for 7 hours, 3 minutes’ worth of sleep. This is distinctly worse than it was in my last goals post.
Made nine things:
- Four evenings of D&D prep,
- Three of tax- and buget-related work,
- One evening setting up a cheaper phone plan (to go with the ISP I switched to last fortnight),
- And one blog post.
And I didn’t finish reading or watching anything. I am reading a book but it’s slow going.

The D&D game also was at a low ebb this fortnight. We were a player short, and the group focused on levelling up and planning their next move.

A (Facetious) Guide to Australian Political Parties

Posted on March 29, 2025 by isikyus

The Australian federal election has been called for May 3rd. If you’re not from Australia, you may have some questions about what’s going on. These are not the answers you’re looking for.

We have many political parties in Australia. You can recognise the big ones by their distinctive colours:

Red is for Labor, who would like a republic.
Blue is for the Liberals, who are like Republicans.
Green is for the Nationals, who stand for the bush.
Green is for the Greens, who stand for the environment.
Do not confuse Green and Green.
- The Greens and Nationals disagree on most things
- Except greengrocers
- Which they are against.
Teal is not a party.
Yellow. We don’t talk about Yellow.

Other parties are also available. But be aware that:

The Sex Party has been merged with the Voluntary Euthanasia Party.
The Pirate Party has experienced Fusion.
The No Self Government Party has received self-government.
The “Keep the B*st*rds Honest” party has been voted out.

And remember: on May 3rd, most of us must turn up. Unless you have already turned out, in which case you may turn in. If you turn up despite having already turned out, you may be turned away.

Progress Continues OK-ish

Posted on March 22, 2025 by isikyus

In the last fortnight, I have:

Got to sleep at 1:29 AM on average, for 7 hours, 14 minutes’ worth of sleep. Both these numbers are increasing slowly. I think this means I’m staying up too late and then sleeping very late on weekends to make up for it, which isn’t ideal.
Made eight things:
- Three evenings of work on my budget,
- Two evenings switching ISPs: my old one put their price up, and that motivated me to find a much better deal.
- One evening of D&D prep,
- One scene of writing,
- And one evening of tax paperwork. This and the story arc I’m writing are both close to done, which is nice.
And I finished one thing, Jill Bearup’s Just Stab Me Now. This was a welcome break from the excess of memes I’ve been consuming lately, but still a little summarised (as the format would suggest). I may have to get the book, if I can fit it into my to-be-read pile.

The D&D party finally cleared the dungeon last week, which means I need to get my act together preparing the next one.

Autumn is Looking Brighter

Posted on March 10, 2025 by isikyus

This fortnight (ending Thursday), I have:

Got to sleep at 1:22 AM on average, for 7 hours, 10 minutes’ worth of sleep. This is a good improvement, but I was also on holiday this past week (ending today), so it remains to be seen if this will last.
Made ten things:
- Three evenings of work on my budget,
- Three evenings organising the holiday,
- Two of D&D prep,
- And I wrote both a poem and a short prose scene.
Finished two things:
- I read In a Garden Burning Gold, by Rory Power. I picked this book up purely for an interesting cover, but I don’t regret the decision at all.
- And I saw Hadestown in Sydney, which was excellent. This musical just has layers upon layers! And the trombonist had a very sharp outfit, too.

D&D was last week, and saw the game get rolling again. I flubbed my attempt to re-rail the plot, but the PCs have nonetheless found a goal and are following it.

But without sleep, all else fails

Posted on February 23, 2025 by isikyus

The past fortnight, I have:

Got to sleep at 1:32 AM on average, for 7 hours, 2 minutes’ worth of sleep a night. Earlier nights than last month, but definitely not early enough. The stats show I’m still behind on sleep, and I feel exhausted.
Made only four things:
- A single scene of writing,
- A poem,
- A little bit of work organising a trip, and
- A bit of work on my budget.
And I didn’t finish anything. I had hoped to finish a playthough of a video game, but it was consuming too much time and sleep and I made the decision to uninstall it it. It’s not yet clear if this has actually helped.

D&D was last week due to a schedule shift. The players are starting to turn the tide in their current dungeon, but the latest problem is one of my own NPCs trying to derail the plot. This must be stopped …

I just need to work out how!

Improving Everything But Sleep

Posted on February 9, 2025 by isikyus

Due to my last post being a day early, these stats are for two fortnights plus one day. These saw an excess of phone-related distractions, impacting sleep. But after cancelling a few commitments from last year, I have been more relaxed and productive generally.

Twenty-nine being a prime number, I was worried the averages would be tricky, but it came out quite cleanly:

I got to sleep an average of 2 hours after midnight, for 7 hours and 9 minutes’ sleep a night (both figures to the minute!). These are typical, but feel worse, possibly because they include lost sleep from a 3-a.m. work call.
I made 17 things (8.5 per fortnight). Ten were in the past 14 days alone, so the trend is an increase:
- 4 evenings of D&D prep,
- 4 pieces of writing (3 scenes and a poem),
- it to 2 social events (the wedding, and wedding setup day),
- 2 evenings of work on my tax,
- 1 blog post (of an existing but unshared poem),
- and one evening each of budget, appointments, trip planning, and helping sort my late father’s poetry.
And I finished A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which was a nice enjoyable thriller – though of course with the dark turns you expect in a murder mystery. I didn’t read another book in the second fortnight, but I did go to see a surrealist art exhibition 🙂

The D&D game continues well, though the party have had a hard time of it lately, between escaped enemies and a couple of nasty undead fights.

Both Late and Early

Posted on January 8, 2025 by isikyus

This post is late, of course, because I should have posted a goals update on Boxing Day. It is early because I’m writing it in advance — both to catch up, and because this Thursday I shall be at a wedding.

Future data is of course missing, but I’ll include it in my next post instead 🙂

Based on the data so far, I:

Got to Sleep at 2 AM on average, for about 7 hours and 13 minutes of sleep a night. This was better in the first fortnight, so I think New Years’ Eve celebrations may hold some of the blame.
Worked on 12 things. Six each fortnight, mostly by twos:
- A pair of scenes for my writing WIP.
- A pair of poems.
- A pair of budget-focused evenings.
- A pair of tax ones — this would be basically done, but I discovered I’m missing a vital piece of paperwork.
- Two sessions of work classifying my Magic: The Gathering collection, which I rarely play and therefore organise even more rarely.
- And two unrelated things: some D&D prep, and my two annual Christmas cards (which I’m counting as one thing).
Following the pattern, I finished two books (one per fortnight):
- Inside Job, by Dr Rebecca Myers. This was a very heavy read: more than once, I had to stop reading and take a break, which is unusual for me. (Content warnings: sexual violence, children, and the intersection thereof.)
  But it is also very well written — Myers describes the details of the prison building and job very vividly (though she draws more of a veil over the heavy parts).
- And Hard Eight, by Janet Evanovich, which was much less serious (though it is still a crime novel with life-and-death — or worse — stakes). This book got me thinking about the passiveness of many of my characters — while Evanovich’s protagonist doesn’t really accomplish much, she is nothing if not proactive.

No D&D last fortnight (Christmas) nor this one (moved to board games due to scheduling issues).

Calculating Dreams

To write with numbers — code with pen and ink

Author Archives: isikyus