Life Updates & Invisalign!

November 10, 2023

It only took me two weeks to realize I forgot to post on my actual blog that I’ve started using Invisalign. What can I say? Making videos and sharing them on different platforms is apparently where my brain drew the line on this one!

This is probably a good time to remind any readers that I’m trying to do all the things all the time because hashtag-ADHD. (Sigh.) But I’ve been creating video content lately, and that’s been a fun, challenging adventure! I’d prefer to use fewer platforms, but it’s tricky to do so when some have specific content requirements. If you’re curious to know what I’m up to, subscribing to my YouTube channel will make sure any vlogs (video blogs!) come to your attention. I’m trying to share things to my Facebook Page as well. Short videos are on Instagram or TikTok (I’m @jme_cannon on both) but they have wildly different length restrictions, so it’s never going to be consistent. (Sigh.)

Enough about that!

I started using Invisalign at the end of October, and I knew it would be something I wanted to vlog about. Video blogging specifically lets me be upfront about the experience and how it may affect my speech at times. It’s not a good idea to take them out every time I record — I’d just end up not wearing them enough each day, thereby ruining the entire process — so I figured, why not use this as an opportunity to embrace my imperfections? It’s not like I have amazing speech skills without them (I do not aspire to narrate my own audiobooks), but making videos has helped me come to terms with that.

After all, people seem to like talking to me, so it must not be unbearable, even if it makes me cringe a bit. Editing videos of myself has started to lessen the cringe, and I’m realizing this creative experiment is also teaching me some serious lessons about loving myself. (Also, I say “so” and “quick” as verbal tics that only exist when I’m on camera, whee!)

As of this writing, there are two vlogs up about Invisalign, and I’ll be putting all random vlog-type-stuff into this playlist on YouTube.

I titled this life updates simply to give a… no, don’t say “quick” recap! Ugh, brain. Ugh.

Writing

When I left my software engineering job, it was to pursue the publication of my debut novel, which I had rewritten completely a few months prior. (This was a huge milestone for me at the time, and I’m still so proud of this.)

After weeks of working on agent queries (and recovering from the job I’d left, which definitely took much more of a toll than I had realized), I decided: I’m going to take my book and split it into two. This was no lighthearted whim of a choice, believe me, but I don’t want to go into all the gory details here and now. Later, I’m sure I’ll be able to reflect on the whole experience more coherently.

Presently, I’ve finally settled on the answer to “What is a new ending that takes the first arc of the book to a satisfying conclusion without totally stomping all over the second half, which will need to stand alone” — you know, just simple little decisions — and am working on the last chapters. My first group of test readers have received a chunk of this rewrite.

Once I’ve completed this draft of the new ending, I will go back over the first part of the book and make sure I’m still in love with the opening chapters. Since those are what I send to agents, it’s especially critical, but in light of updating the ending, I’ve got a new opportunity to set the stage for a satisfying story to unfold.

I do have a second short story written that I meant to post on Ko-fi, but I kinda forgot! That will show up sooner or later, I promise. I’ll probably not write too many shorts until I get back to the query stage of my book, but you never know.

Creative Stuff

The spiderweb mitts pattern really dominated my brain for most of October, which was not planned and became kind of stressful as a result. There are forthcoming notes on sizing that I haven’t yet finished writing up, and I’m making a few pairs for sale.

I have some other crocheted items I’d like to list, but I’m challenged to take reasonably good photos of them first, which is not my strong suit. More learning is needed for me to progress on this. Yay, learning! Keeping myself from going stale like an old loaf of bread.

Designing and creating these items is honestly pretty enjoyable and relaxing, though, so whenever I get them posted in my ko-fi shop, I’ll be happy to have a system set up so I can share them more easily across the umpteen channels we use in this corporate hellscape year 2023.

Gaming Too?

Based on my content for months, you’d never know I actually went to college to make video games and considered myself quite the Gamer Nerd for many years. I’m a billion games behind now, of course. But I do love them! I can still jump into many different versions of Mario Kart and feel the muscle memory return. Valheim, I miss you…

I’ve played precious few video games for a few months, but there’s an upcoming title next week that really has my attention: the remake of Super Mario RPG, one of my all-time-favorite games.

I mean, I know people say all-time-favorite, but. Literally. Legitimately. Believe me. I all-caps LOVE this game. The remake is getting great early reviews, and I am SO HYPED TO PLAY IT. I have the mini-SNES console that released a few years ago (2018?) and that was the last time I played Mario RPG, but I had countless hours logged as a child. Music from this game comes into my head almost daily. Random dialogue quotes have become jokes with my sister for literal decades. I. Love. This. Game.

This seemed like a pretty good time to dust off my streaming setup and inaugurate my gaming content. That will also be on YouTube and will include me gushing like the fangirl that I am. I even have the original game’s strategy guide here in my house (slightly yellowed by the cigarette smoke of my grandma), so I plan on being a Really Big Nerd about it.

Mario RPG is also one of the few games I have played to completion — and multiple times! I’m really promising myself this playthrough as a reward, so I’ll make it happen no matter what. The schedule of the streams may be irregular (I am sure you are quite shocked by this statement), but I intend to let myself really enjoy the experience, especially as we’re in the dark time of year here in Colorado, and I often get depressed in the evenings until the days start lengthening again.

I’ll definitely post about this on Facebook, and hopefully will remember to mention it on all the other places, too!

Anything else?

I mean, probably, but I can only get so many thoughts onto a blog post. Whee!

The rest of my 3-part series regarding the Anima Mundi tarot deck will be coming up next; the video review is on the cutting room floor. But it is coming soon!