Mental Disorder Series - Focus Disorders

Weird title, huh? Inability to focus is technically not a classified mental disorder. ADD is, but according to my psychologist I might not have that because of some of my scores on the IQ test were too high. However, no test could rule out my high level of inability to concentrate and my general distractability.

This being the definite on all levels, it's what I'm going to focus on in my story, but I will call this and everything in this post Focus Disorders. So this post is about and for everyone that exhibits one or more ADD/Focus Disorder like symptoms to a level that effects their daily life.

What are focus disorders?

Focus Disorders are a type of mental issue that involves the inability to focus or concentrate, as well as the higher distractibility rate. (Yes, those are all different things.)

The most common, and therefore named, disorders are ADD/ADHD and Concentration Deficit Disorder or CDD. (I just learned about CDD today and am probably going to bring it up to my psychologist on a later date.)

I'm not going to go into the differences of the two disorders, because that is NOT what this post is about. This post is about the general qualities involved in focus disorders and how they effect people.

What are these general qualities?

• Inability to focus.
• Staring blankly/zoning out frequently.
• Lack of concentration. 
• Heightened levels of distraction. 
• Anxiety.
• Sleep Problems.
• Fatigue/Drowsiness
• "Bored Easily"
• Memory Problems
• Impulsivity

Obviously not every person with every focus disorder is going to have all of these, but they're in a lot of people and a lot of the disorders.

It's important to realize that people with these disorders are not purposely forgetting things, allowing themselves to be distracted, or not just working hard enough. This is a real disorder that causes a lot of real problems and has nothing to do with laziness or apathy. Speaking of these things, let's move on to:

Things you shouldn't say to someone with a focus related disorder.

1. Try harder - Trust us, we're trying.
2. You're just being lazy. - No, we're really not. In fact, it takes a lot of extra effort just to do the same things you can do.
3. Stop letting yourself get distracted. - Honey, I could get distracted even if I was locked in a white walled room with nothing around but the project I'm supposed to be working on.
4. ADD/CDD/Etc isn't a 'real' disorder. - Actually it is and it effects many, many people. By perpetuating the idea that they aren't real, you're taking away valuable resources from people who need them. We can't just "Woman/Man Up" and just suddenly be able to focus, that's not how this works.
5. Woman/Man Up - You'll see this again in the anxiety section because it's literally been said to me for that reason but SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. We aren't faking and it's really affecting us terribly when you act like we can just change on a whim. TRUST ME I'VE TRIED.
6. I get distracted sometimes too. - Okay, while I understand and appreciate the attempt at empathy, your problem could probably be solved by organization, lists, and other methods. And while these things will also help people with focus disorders (see next section,) it won't take away all of our problems. The reason it's a disorder is because no matter what we do, it's still going to get in our way.
7. Medication is evil, etc. etc. etc. - Alright, this is where debates normally start. Some people have focus disorders because of their brain chemistry. Brain chemistry isn't changed through willpower and organizational strategies. Brain chemistry needs things that effect brain chemistry. Medication. While some people can get by without medication and live mostly normal lives, other people can't.

How are Focus Disorders Treated or Managed?

Well, most people use a combination of methods. While I don't think you can completely treat a focus disorder, they're relatively simple to manage. Note, simple does not mean easy.

There are three main components here: Medication, therapy, and life style changes.

Medication, the ever increasing controversy, is used by many, many an afflicted person. There are both stimulant and nonstimulant versions, each prescribed for their various reasons. Most people get the stimulant medication (such as adderall) whereas people with high irritability or other factors use the nonstimulants (like Strattera.) These medications help the user concentrate.

Therapy, especially behavioral therapy, is another common method of dealing with focus disorders. Most of the time therapy used in conjunction with medication leads to some pretty good results. Besides behavior, therapy is good for all the issues that come with focus disorders, most notably anxiety and depression. Self-worth has a habit of getting damaged when you find yourself falling behind things.

The third common focus disorder management? Life style changes! This is the one that everything thinks will work all the time. I'm on the "hey medication is helpful" side of the debate because I've seen what it can do for people but I'm against ONLY using it. Life style changes? They are amazing. Organization, lists, planning, routines, even diet changes can mean the world! No matter what you do, doing this third thing will boost your ability to do things that much more. Figure out what you need to do and get it done.

How Can You Help Someone with a Focus Disorder?

1. Reminders. Reminders. Reminders. Please, all the reminders. Not like every second of every day, and as with ODD wording is everything, but reminders are really helpful. "Hey, I asked you to take out the trash earlier, could you take a break and do that now? It's a little full and I'm cleaning." "Just to remind you, we have guests coming over tomorrow." "Hey, how are you doing on ___?"
2. Don't act like we're super weird for not being able to focus. A lot of people do, which I find very strange. 
3. Help us organize! Being organized is going to make things that much easier for a person unable to focus. We'll be able to find things and do things and be less distracted!
4. Suggest we go to therapy. Most disorders of any kind are going to be better through therapy. Why? Because a professional who has studied our disorder can probably give us some pretty good suggestions on what we can do, will help us get past our insecurities AND won't hate us for talking about how much we get distracted all the time!
5. Encourage the use of lists and other productivity related things. One thing about this productivity movement that has been amazing is the amount of resources it provides for people with focus disorders! Timers, schedules, lists, all optimized to be the best they can are all available at our fingertips. And we should really use them.
6. Become a part of our routines. Even if we don't have a routine, setting something up at a specific time each week or day like going for a run or meeting for coffee can make our lives that much easier. It's harder to forget something that happens regularly, and it provides a reference point in our lives so we know when something is. (For example, a doctor's appointment after my weekly run with my friend is a lot easier to remember than 9am on Sunday the 5th.)

My Struggle with Focus!

Oh boy, where do I begin? How about at the part where I totally just zoned out for like ten minutes before writing this part? Kidding. (About starting there, not zoning out...)

So when I was a little kid in 1st or 2nd grade I was passing notes between my parents and teacher for a couple days. Later on in life I find what was being said. Apparently they wanted to get me tested for ADD. Why? Well because I couldn't pay attention and I was always very fidgety and prone to daydreams.

This continued. I went to a church where I participated in some of the plays. Other kids were terribly annoyed by me. I wouldn't shut up half the time and I would always fidget. Always. I wouldn't notice until I was shown the recording. I still fidget.

Classes were hard because I couldn't pay attention. 3rd grade I was told I could sit anywhere and work on the math book by myself since I could understand it and could learn from a book pretty easily. Soon enough I fell behind because I could not concentrate on the work. I would find a tiny red spider and follow it on the floor with my pen. I would look out the window. I would daydream. I would create worlds in my mind... And then I would be abruptly brought back to earth when I realized I hadn't completed a single page. I fell a little behind and lost the privilege to self-learn.

Fast forward to any school year in the future. I can't concentrate, I forget my homework, I zone out during important discussions. Somehow I manage to keep decent grades in most of my classes. By some miracle. The higher the grade level the harder it was to maintain that grade's level. I was lucky to graduate. I'm intelligent and I work hard, but I was just plain lucky to graduate.

And why? 

Because of my focus disorder.

See tomorrow for my next mental disorder spotlight!

Also, after reviewing all the research and links that I did, I have found a couple niches that need to be filled. Calling all people to do research and write articles about Productivity Tools for people with Focus Disorders. Also, calling all people for articles on general non-cleaning organization. And on focus disorder life-style changes. Oi. You'd think there would be articles but no, only a few books that briefly touch on such things.

Oh, and for those of you interested in helping out with the car situation, here is the paypal button and a fancy progress bar! :)

New Car Downpayment

$19$2,500

Want to donate some Shinies?

Because you're cool $1.00 USD  Pi $3.14 USD  Because you're sweet $5.00 USD  Because you're amazing $10.00 USD  Because you're awesome $15.00 USD  Because you're fantastic $20.00 USD  Because you're terrific $25.00 USD  The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything $42.00 USD  Because you're crazy and supreme! $50.00 USD  Because you're uber generous $100.00 USD

Who is this rad giver?

Note:

 
Note: I heard there was trouble with this donation box thingy, so much as I'm going to regret putting my email address out on the net, you can send me paypal monies using the email address bbnewgo @ yahoo . com

In other news, my brain hurts because this post took a long time to research.

Anyone that knows about my food experiment, here's an update for you. The four foods: Onion, Potatoes, Dairy, and Meat are not the only potential problems. After my week last week where I cut them out completely I still experienced digestive issues, though less intense. Because of this I am adding sugar and fried foods to my list of things to try to see if they are causing issues.

This week is onion week and so far I am agreeing with myself that onion plays a role in my digestive problems, though cooked onion is not as bad. So far my verdict is that I'll only buy frozen pre-cut onion to avoid contact with raw and use said onion sparingly. Of course, the week is not up yet. (Oh, and if you have issues cutting onions, throw them in the freezer until they're a little more firm. Cuts down on the onion spray)

I would also like to mention that I'll probably be submitting an essay to Stigma Fighters when I have a chance to create one. I'll have to ask about specific requirements, but it sounds like a blast and is for a great cause.

Also, shoutout to ADDitude for having so many insane resources on their website.

As always, Charmed
-Alexandria

Mental Disorder Introduction - ODD

Yesterday I mentioned my anxiety in my post and I realized a lot of my friends, readers, and even some family don't know all that much about me and my struggle with mental health. After realizing this I decided I should create a mental disorder spotlight and use the next five days to bring up my own mental illnesses, struggles, and information about the diseases in general.

To give this series an interesting spin, I thought I'd start it off with ODD. No, that doesn't mean odd as in weird. ODD stands for oppositional defiance disorder.

What is Oppositional Defiance Disorder?

Oppositional Defiance Disorder is a mental disorder relating to behavior and thought processes. As the name suggests, ODD is about opposition and defiance. The disorder part comes because it gets in the way of everyday life.

It is a pattern. It isn't just someone being irritable one day and okay the next. It's about a frequent pattern of irritability, argumenativeness, and disregard for authority. The DSM-5 states that the pattern occurs for at least 6 months.

People with ODD often annoy people for the sake of annoying them, disobey signs because of their wording, find loopholes or flaws in orders in order to go against them, and have issues with authority figures like teachers, parents, law enforcement, and managers.

Severe ODD can hamper the ability to get or keep a job, as well as cause the individual to land in jail for seemingly dumb reasons.

To imagine what ODD feels like to an individual, imagine yourself in the shoes of Ella, from Ella Enchanted. She was under a curse where she must be obedient at all times and as such, she would find ways to not be quite so obedient. If someone told her to "come here" she would take her own sweet time in doing so. Of course, people with ODD are obviously not under such a curse but it feels as though any demands are unreasonable, even if common sense dictates they're perfectly normal.

According to WebMD, 2%-16% of children and teens suffer from ODD. It usually starts at about age 8 and can stay with someone for life, depending on different factors.

ODD is different from conduct disorder because they are not aggressive towards people or animals in general and don't show patterns of committing crimes like vandalism or theft. (Which is a sad misconception. People with ODD are defiant, not dangerous.)

What you shouldn't say to someone with Oppositional Defiance Disorder.

So, having this disorder comes with a lot of misconceptions and ignorant commentaries. Please never say any of the following to (OR ABOUT) someone with ODD.

• So just don't do things in defiance.
• We can't. I mean, some of us can a little bit, but it's hard to control those urges to just do something about all these orders. It's not that simple, and we have to learn how to change, we can't just do it on a whim.
• That's just an excuse to get away with things.
• Oh man, do I wish it was!
• Suck it up.
• Typically said in regards to situations regarding authority, we can't just "suck it up." We'll blow and then we'll end up in trouble. 
• Also, this kind of statement is usually from someone with no understanding of mental disorders whatsoever and how they work.
• It's all about self-control.
• Not really. Sure it plays a part in the actions aspect of ODD, self control does nothing for the things we feel inside.
• You're just being stubborn.
• Nope! We're experiencing a feeling of discontent combined with almost a bit of rage and given a sudden impulsivity. We don't just "choose not to do things," we strain our hardest to attempt them... correctly.
• Why can't you do things the normal way?
• Just like people with anxiety "can't do things the normal way" because of the possibility of anxiety attacks or other problems, people with ODD "can't do things the normal way" because it bottles up rage and discontentedness which leads to bad behavior down the road.
• It's okay, I like when you're being feisty.
• Not cool. Feisty and defiant are two different things. The idea that we're "just being feisty" belittles the problems we face. Nothing against feisty people here. We're just not them. While feisty people simply act feisty, we foster resentment whenever people play with our defiance.
• (Yes, someone has literally told me this before... I don't talk to them anymore.)

How ODD is treated.

The NLM isn't too optimistic or informative about this disorder with phrases such as "some children respond well to treatment, while others do not" and "In many cases, children with oppositional defiance disorder grow up to have conduct disorder as teenagers or adults."

Despite this commentary, ODD can actually be really well taken care of depending on the severity and of course, the individual. Treatment involves behavioral therapy and general individual or family therapy. Sometimes medication is also prescribed, although there is no kind of medication specifically for ODD. It usually helps to treat what some people think might be side causes, like depression or ADD.

There is no specific true treatment as ODD has causes in environmental factors, biological factors, and psychological factors.

How you can help someone with ODD.

Great question! Ask the individual. They have ODD, so they know what triggers it better than some random individual on the internet. They'll also appreciate the gesture of not playing with their disorder, which is actually a thing and is depressingly common with a lot of mental disorders including ODD, ADD, Aspergers, Autism, Down's Syndrome, and any other thing where you can possibly abuse or take advantage of someone due to their disorder.

Here are some general tips though:

1. Don't give them orders. No, seriously. No orders. Even if they work for you. How you word something is everything. "Take out the trash" and "could you get the trash" are two totally different things. Again, everyone's triggers are different but you're always better off without an order.
2. Don't give them tips all the time on everything. It takes the fun out of things, firstly. Secondly, it will cause them to potentially do the exact opposite of your tips even if they want to succeed at what they're doing because you're being annoying. We usually give signs about how we don't want to hear tips. Asking us if we want them first is probably you're best bet though because our warning signs are a little rude.
3. Don't bring up their ODD all the time. It gets annoying. And the more annoying you are, the more likely we are to be defiant towards you.
4. Encourage us to get help. This will be a little hard, due to the nature of the disorder, but friendly encouragement might go a long way. Just remember yet again, wording is everything.
5. Be our friends. ODD pushes a lot of people away and makes us very cynical people. A cynical person with ODD makes them less likely to improve. We need friends because they help teach us how to deal with things.
6. Don't take shit. If we're being little jerks, tell us that. Because ODD is not an excuse. If we're being unreasonable beyond the scope of how we normally are, we're just being brats (or having a shitty day.) Also, your reaction will help us keep ourselves in check, which is REALLY hard to do.
7. Use logic. If you know we can't swim and there's a sign that says no diving and we're on a dock on a nice day and you are lucky enough to hear us mention our ideas before we hit the water... Talk us out of it. Despite our unreasonable defiance, we listen to reason. We just need to get past the place or the moment. Help us out.

My personal struggle with ODD.

Well this is already a REALLY long post so I'll keep this short.
I've been defiant for a long time. When it was ODD and when it was just me being a kid, I don't know. It was pretty mild for a long time. It would be small things like crossing the road without looking both ways on an abandoned street or using my quarter I was given to buy a gumball even though I was told to hold on to it because it was my money and I wanted to spend it how I wanted.

It began to escalate when I got to my teen years, though remained a little bit repressed. My biggest problem was my dislike for authority figures. People who know me are going to be shocked by this, because I was always nice and polite. But I wouldn't feel nice or polite. I felt almost a sense of dread when they were around.

After school ended I found myself with a job. The real struggle began as I didn't want to do things in the exact way I was told they were to be done. I was already working hard to make things perfect and doing a good job and so I took every suggestion to change as a personal affront. Luckily, I've been more able to handle criticism since then.

Possibly the best example of my ODD in terms of an active (rather than passive) situation is when I worked for Arby's I was a prep person in the mornings. I was slicing meat and the district manager came in and told me I had to cover the corners of the little serving portions. They're really big on spreading out and fluffing the meat there so that it doesn't get all squished.

Well, I was having trouble doing the fluffing and spreading on this day because someone forgot to sharpen the slicer many days in a row and my meat was coming out a little too thick. So what did I do? I covered the corners all right. But I left the middle of the serving trays empty. Why? Because I have ODD.

See tomorrow for my next mental disorder spotlight!!



Also, for those of you interested in helping out with the car situation, here is the paypal button and OH LOOK I MADE A FANCY PROGRESS BAR! =D

New Car Downpayment

$19 $2,500

Want to donate some Shinies?

Because you're cool $1.00 USD Pi $3.14 USD Because you're sweet $5.00 USD Because you're amazing $10.00 USD Because you're awesome $15.00 USD Because you're fantastic $20.00 USD Because you're terrific $25.00 USD The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything $42.00 USD Because you're crazy and supreme! $50.00 USD Because you're uber generous $100.00 USD

Who is this rad giver?

Note:

Note: I heard there was trouble with this donation box thingy, so much as I'm going to regret putting my email address out on the net, you can send me paypal monies using the email address bbnewgo @ yahoo . com

In other news, I updated the Wings finish date to the end of April 2015 on my website. Keep me on that deadline guys! It's important! And for any one that knows anything about Hannah-Belle Jackson and her Journey... That benched project may be coming to life before you know it. I'll probably add her to a post here in the next coming days.

For those of you that follow this blog I have wonderful news. I have daily posts planned. Shocker, right!? I used to just post sporadically but I decided a blog would be nice for keeping me on track and moving forward, so daily posts it is. I have plans for the entire month. Obviously this next five days is all in the Mental Disorder series, but more subjects will arise!

As always, Charmed
-Alexandria

Look at me I'm being all transparent and stuff.

Woo. Right. So, as many of you know (or maybe you don't?) I suffer from severe anxiety. Fun, right? Not really. It causes me to worry about a bunch of things and I get all frantic and sometimes I have anxiety attacks. It's really not cool.

Except for one thing.

Dealing with anxiety has had me learn a lot of techniques for making my life a lot better. For example, I use lists like nobody's business. Lists are amazing, use them, trust me.

It's also taught me to think about my future and the like. Sometimes this leads to overanalyzing/overplanning sort of stuff but other times it leads to things like learning when something is going to become bad before it actually does.

Long story short, the car is not a happy camper and we're doing what we can to make it work, but in the meantime, we're going to try saving for a different car.

Now, I'm a little unsure how to go about asking people for potential help with this. For me, it's easy to just send my money to my savings account and go "yep I saved this much." But I really want to ask people for help (because it's going to take more than I can make to help get a new car) and it appears my only options are setting up a gofundme (which I heard takes about $85 for every thousand) or I can set up paypal buttons, but I'm not sure how those will work out.

On that note, I'll post a couple buttons at the bottom of this and maybe make a little goal thingy for a down payment style thing and people can watch the progress bar. Which is really why people use gofundme, right? Paying 8.50 on every hundred for a fancy status bar? (This will be added to whatever the next post is)

In other news, I've been joining a ton of freelance sites. I'm not excited for taxes next year, because they'll be confusing with my book and freelance funds, but it's income. As many of you know, me getting income is a pretty snazzy thing to have happen because traditional jobs and me do not go well together.

I've been making enough to take care of my bills and I'm trying to increase the amount I make each month.

On that note, I'm working on editing Wings. Yes, Wings is still an active project. I've had the beautiful cover for like ever and now it's up to editing. This is completely different than An Addictive Personality where I had the book done like a month before I got a cover for it. Maybe my next book I'll finally have things evened out and have both things done within a week of each other. (Hahaha.)

Also, I apologize for my website being behind. It's still behind, but I'm working on fixing that up for people, amongst other projects.

Figured this might be a nice update for all you awesome people.

Here is your button if you'd like to help in the getting a car aspect of things:

Shinies

Because you're cool $1.00 USD Pi $3.14 USD Because you're sweet $5.00 USD Because you're amazing $10.00 USD Because you're awesome $15.00 USD Because you're fantastic $20.00 USD Because you're terrific $25.00 USD The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything $42.00 USD Because you're crazy and supreme! $50.00 USD Because you're uber generous $100.00 USD

Who is this rad giver?

Note:

Note: I heard there was trouble with this donation box thingy, so much as I'm going to regret putting my email address out on the net, you can send me paypal monies using the email address bbnewgo @ yahoo . com

Thank you so much for everything!
-Alex

Act More Energetic

A lot of my goals are fairly passive this January. Like sleep. I don't have to actively think about sleep until the sky is dark.

Taking my morning vitamins is easy because they're on my desk; waiting for me every morning. Eating beforehand is the hard part.

Evening exercise is once a day and Tackle a Nagging Task is hard to define.

What does that leave me with? Act More Energetic. That is the mantra I aim to work on each day. Act more Energetic.

Energy. That is the thing that keeps you going. A lot of people hate the "fake it 'til you make it" mentality, but it does help. Granted, it doesn't help all the time in everything, but as for being happier, more energetic, more calm, it does help a bit. It soothes the frustration and fatigue and makes it gentler. Which is why I'm working on acting more energetic.

If I act more energetic, I can get more things done. If I get more things done, I feel more accomplished. The more accomplished I feel, the happier I am. It's how I work.

If I don't have energy I can't accomplish my day's goals. I have a lot of goals in a day and some are harder than others. Blogging, for example, is hard. It's simple, but it's hard. I need energy to complete it.

Writing 1,000 words a day is something I need energy for. It's simple, but difficult. I have to come up with all that content and if I'm not energetic, than how am I to handle it all?

This is why I am working on acting more energetic, why I need to act more energetic. I honestly think more people should do it. It's been a help to me, it's pushed me forward when I needed the extra motivation.

Some people might wonder "Well how do you act energetic?" It's simple my friends! Smile more, use more hand and body motions when talking and doing things, hop or skip or jump at random times. Pretend you're a kid for a little bit. Spin when you turn. Just give life to the things you do. It'll feel so much better.

-Alex

A First Week's Look at My Happiness Project

Let's take another look at the January Resolutions:
1. Go to Sleep at a Decent Hour
2. Get Better Sleep
3. Tackle Nagging Tasks
4. Take Vitamins
5. Evening Exercise
6. Act More Energetic

So, these are the things that I've been trying to do and honestly I don't feel a whole lot different yet. I don't know if I'm happier or anything. Then again, I haven't been wholly successful at doing them. I mean, it's hard to just suddenly try to do a bunch of things at once.

First, going to sleep at a decent hour is very hard. This is the first Monday since we had winter break and we had kind of fallen on our sleep schedule. Hopefully going to sleep will get easier as soon as we get used to having to wake up really early again.

Getting better sleep is a little ambiguous. It's hard to decide when I've gotten good sleep or not, except by how I feel when I wake up.

Tackle a nagging task... I've just been having an issue with doing things in general because I have decidedly too much on my plate right now. I'm an author, right? So writing should be my priority, right? Well, if it were that simple than yes. But writing a book doesn't immediately give me funds to save and pay for things. Mturk does. It's tiny and time consuming but it's been a big help. And then we have these blogs for me to write and I'm just... This doesn't even include my daily life. So in order to be successful in tackling a nagging task, I need to do prioritize daily.

Taking Vitamins has gotten easy to do each day now. I only have 3 pills to take and I let myself use any liquid in the morning, which has been helpful. I had it with a glass of water this morning, but there's been times I'll have it with soda.

Act more energetic. That's easier said than done, right? I think so. I'm not feeling energetic right now and it's really hard to fake it when nobody is around to make me feel like I have to. Why should I be energetic around myself? Of course, that might just be my down mood talking. I'm in a bit of a down mood right now because I realized I have so much on my plate and so little time to do it all and I'm not super woman.

I wish I was super woman.

Happiness Project Introduction.

Actually, I take that back. I'll be doing this a couple times a week because I have some awesome things to share. Like my Happiness Project I'm working on.

I keep forgetting the title of this blog is too perfect for all the things I'm trying. What's more of a journey than a year-long project on improving my own happiness?

I got the inspiration from a book called "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. Obviously the book is about HER happiness project. It's also just plain motivational and inspirational. AND it shows you how to do your own.

I don't know how, but I got my fiance to join me in this endeavor. The month of January is for Energy Boosting. If we manage to boost our energy is January, then we have more energy to take care of things later on down the line.

The resolutions for January include:
1. Go to Sleep at a Decent Hour
2. Get Better Sleep
3. Tackle Nagging Tasks
4. Take Vitamins
5. Evening Exercise
6. Act More Energetic

Hopefully these things are going to help out.

In the meanwhile I also have a giant daily to-do list that includes going over all of my blogs and such. I have an intense blog schedule that I don't know yet if I can keep up with but that's the kinds of things that happen when you have such a wide array of interests and want to share things with the world.

So far as far as the resolutions go, we sucked on sleep last night. We got down one nagging task. I took my vitamins. We did not do our evening exercise but we did attempt to act more energetic.

For those of you wanting to know about my book stuff, I am still working on things... it's just hilariously hard to accomplish. Like I have all the ideas and I have some skeletons for the books. And Wings is just awaiting editing but editing is kind of dull, etc.

So we'll see how all of that goes.
-Alex

Happy New Years!

I'm not going to post all that much until February but I still want to wish you all a particularly splendid New Year!