the trick is to keep breathing

So over my brief microsabbatical I decided on a list of things I want to get done by the end of the year: thus, New Year's Resolutions, in reverse, ie my resolution is to have this done before the new year. See? Get it? It's like I'm clever instead of backwards and wrong!

1. Get Healthy [metric: exercise 3+/wk; lose 10+ lb]
   Content note / Note this: being healthy and losing weight are not always the same thing! Health has a unique meaning to every individual body!
   That being said: for me getting healthy and knocking off weight go hand-in-hand at this point in time. From May-September I ate poorly, rested poorly, drank too much, drowned in stress, and had no time or motivation to work out at all. That plus medication changes has resulted in what is, for my body, unhealthy poundage.
   I miss swimming. I miss yoga. I don't miss running, fuck running, but I miss being able to run I guess? I miss punching my bag. I want to have Korra arms. And I have, quite reasonably, 10-20 lb I could lose before being even close to "danger". (Trust me, I'm a Taurus; we don't diet.)
   This is something I can make happen by 01 Jan 2016.

2. Inhabitable basement [metric: obvious]
   Right now the basement is storage, which is part of what basements are for, but mine opens up to my patio (and grill, and fire chimney) and has a nice little area by the windows where friends could sit and drink wine and grill things. I've two drum sets in my basement and my keyboard, all of which I have been missing desperately. (I miss music! I dream about pianos.) My workout area is functional, but not at all welcoming. My laundry area could use some sprucing.
   Much of the storage is related to the above, which means I just need to sort it and work through it. A good part, however, is my grandmother's stuff. She finally passed away in August (I am not sure I even mentioned it here; I was too broken by it to do so) and I do not mind storing her things forever but need to go through them and decide which way makes sense.
   This is, also, quite doable by 2016, and having those areas back in my life will please me immensely.

3. Shame room --> Craft room [metric: obvious]
   I want to turn my spare bedroom into a crafting room, to house sewing / knitting / beading / anything else I may start doing. Right now it's a shameful repository of clothes-to-be-donated and a few boxes from moving (not original boxes - these were empty boxes that were repacked with "shit i do not want to deal with rn" and hidden).

4. Plan for the greatroom [metric: having an estimate / loan]
   I have plans in my head to redo my entire greatroom, which started with my neverending desire to replace the horribly stained carpet in there and grew into a really, really epic floor plan. I need to get it from my head onto the page, then find a contractor who can give me estimates on time / cost to make it happen. Why not? Houses are investments, and my cafe-bar thing will be incredible.

5. Work-Life Balance [metric: ???]
   I need to prove to myself that I can, in fact, work the kind of job that pushes all of my success buttons without killing myself. The next 3 months will be busy, as always, but not deadly, so it's time to fucking do it. I still don't know how to make a metric for this; maybe I can use success on the other Resolution points, because they won't happen if I continue to use my energy on work.

6. Mental Peace [metric: ???]
   I went back through some journal entries and I've been in a massive depression funk since early 2014. That's too long. It has started to severely affect my health and my job. I need to attack this. I realize depressions don't "go away" but I haven't tried anything really and I at least deserve an effort.

7. Write Again [metric: get some word count] No real comments. I just miss writing.

I stopped there, since there are really only 3 months left in the year, and they will contain not only the major hols of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but also the birth of my newest niece or nephew, so I'm well aware that this is a lot to do in that time frame. (Obviously they won't need to be complete, but I work better with deadlines, even self-imposed ones. Better to not let myself cheat.)

There. Public posting makes it real, right?

So I said in a comment that I actually expect FFXIII to become a decent writing fandom for me because of the holes and confusion in said story. That's pretty true: I write more for fandoms that didn't necessarily feel complete or sensical to me (FFIV, what with the LUNAR WHALE and all; FFVIII's plot holes and weirdly focused storytelling) than I do for ones that felt more or less complete (FFVI and FFX being good examples here – I loved both games, but I don't feel as compelled to write for them as I do for other fandoms. It isn't that VI and X don't have things to explore or holes in their stories – they do! – and some of it is character draw between all of the games, sure; but I just don't feel like I have as much to add in those canons as I do for IV and VIII). I liked FFXIII enough to think about dabbling in it fannishly, at least, and since my writing has more or less dried up and been left for dead, I want to tentatively encourage anything that gets me excited about words again.

So here's what I want to do, to take my mind off of my job: I want to talk about the characters in FFXIII, and I want to talk about things that I liked, and I want to talk about things that I want to read, or want to write. And then I want you guys to talk back about characters and rec me good fics! First, rec me anything that's good from FFXIII, whether or not it matches with stuff I am into, because good fic is wanted and needed and I'm always excited about new stuff in a new fandom. But second, if you can think of anything that will fill some of those holes I'm feeling pretty keenly, please hand it over! self-reccing is totes okay too. give me fic please. Or, if you see something that looks like fun, prompt me! Or make me prompt you! FUN GAMES IN SEV'S JOURNAL: THE MUSICAL.

( FFXIII Characters – possible game spoilers I guess )

In having written all of this, I'm seeing a couple trends. In addition to FFXIII being about trust/betrayal, right/wrong, truth/lies, it's also about family, including families of choice. And I like that. But I also like the dark undercurrents in so many of these character-character relationships, because I have bad taste in everything. The Fandom Hell Bus is coming to pick me up. Get in; I'm driving

THIS GOT REALLY LONG.

SOMEBODY HELP ME OUT HERE.

So I absolutely adore Criminal Minds, and I am finally going to discuss it here! Because season 7 so far has been very interesting, in an awesome way, so yup you know what it's about time for me to talk up this show and maybe find anyone else who likes it #SHAME #NOTSORRY

First I must get this out of the way: it's a procedural crime drama. Yup. And that's fine with me. Personally, I love procedural crime shows. I think it's because I grew up watching Mystery! reruns with my mum and my gramma - Hercule Poirot, anyone? Perry frigging Mason? - and my grandmother loved all kinds of stuff like that; I think it stuck with me. Procedural crime shows are like my generation's version of Mystery!, just with more flashy intros and computers, and less canes and moustaches -- and even with the bad science, I'll take CSI over stuff like Friends any day of the goddamned year. (No offense intended to any Friends fans; that kind of sitcommy thing just isn't my personal cup of tea. I'm just saying that if I'm watching braindead TV to fill a void while I shovel dinner into my mouth, it's going to be something like CSI, or Without a Trace, or even Law and Order, before it's going to be Friends and Seinfeld and whatever.)

I actually really don't like a lot of TV, to be honest. I don't watch a lot of series and I don't see a lot of movies. But I honestly and shamelessly enjoy watching Criminal Minds, and while I'll never be one of those people who schedules their life around the evening their show's on, I'm ready to admit that I AM one of those people constantly reblogging photos of the cast members on Tumblr, and that I do try to keep up with it as well as I can. >.>

[hey, potential trigger warning - this discussion of CM talks about CM's content and material, which is some pretty bad people doing some pretty nasty stuff.]
[mostly spoiler-free, although casting decisions for S7 are mentioned]

( Wow, this got long, so I shall cut it to be polite )

Well, I've been writing this around like 4 separate meetings today, it is probably time to post it whooooooooooooops

WHO HAS SEEN THIS SEASON (REID WILL CRUSH YOU) LET'S TALK