11/02/25 – written & posted

The avalanche has finally settled. I felt a fair amount of relief and catharsis after getting to dump everything (mostly) last weekend. Getting it off my chest also allowed me to settle my mind down a little. Unfortunately, that means I also relapsed a bit with some of my bad habits this week. But thankfully, nothing major and not like in the past where a relapse like that would have caused me to spiral into a depression. Instead, I’ve recognized this lapse, corrected it, and didn’t allow it to ruin my entire week. Because, overall, this was still a positive week for me.

One of the aspects this week that bothered me is that I didn’t put as much time into my website as I had the past few weeks. I had this feeling of disappointment that I didn’t progress much. For the first time in a decade, I actually have interest and hobbies that I’m interested in and want to learn. Not exploring them as much as previously caused a small sense of failure. As I’ve discussed all this with my family and now that I’ve begun, I’m realizing I’m sticking quite a few proverbial irons in the fire here and I can’t always juggle them equally. These irons I’m exploring are; Web Design (this site), Photoshop (image editing), DaVinci Resolve (video editing), Photography, Game Design, and just generally being more social. There are others I’d like to explore in the future but these are the few I can begin to explore now.

While I didn’t make massive strides in those hobbies. I did still make progress; it doesn’t matter how big or small. I began taking pictures on my morning walks and posting them to social media. There’s quite a bit or learning just within that. My brother re-gifted me a camera I had given him years ago. So, this morning I took pictures with that camera instead of my phone for the first time. I was up at 5:30am to walk and try to get some sunrise pictures. The camera was on auto mode so the pictures came out alright, but I’m going to learn how to appropriately use the manual mode to achieve better results.

Then on Friday I went alone to a pre-release event at a local game store for a newly released Trading Card Game (TCG) – Riftbound. Riftbound is a card game from Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends (LoL). I know LoL players generally have a negative reputation online, hopefully you’ll continue reading after finding out I’m a LoL fan. Take my word for it that I don’t play the game anymore and am now primarily invested in the professional scene and the worldbuilding lore they’ve created around their IP. It’s an IP I’ve enjoyed for 13+ years and getting in at the ground floor of a new TCG set within their world is very appealing to me. All that to provide a bit of backstory for why I’m investing in this game and viewing it as a good kick-start for my new social excursions. Going to an event like this might seem small or like nothing at all. But attending something like that, alone with total strangers, just wouldn’t have happened even months ago or I would’ve backed out at the last minute due to some internal anxieties. Of course, it was a positive and fun experience. There were only a handful of people and they were all friendly enough. So, I’m viewing that event as good progress for me.

I don’t need to mention every little positive or negative thing that’s happened this week. Just trying to provide a little context an explanation during my journey. Although not a perfect week, I’m not dwelling on that, instead I’m proud of what I did accomplish. My goals and plans haven’t changed at all, they’re moving forward. My parents kindly and generously agreed to let me move back in, so that’ll be an ongoing situation until my lease is up at the end of the year.

Even though the avalanche has settled there’s still a lot to sift through. I’m used to literally wanting to do nothing. Now that I have a several things I want to do, it’s hard to focus it all. I’ve moved my Excel sheet to a OneNote so I can better track my thoughts and notes. It’s fine to move forward slowly, I have a lot to learn and I’m enjoying seeing my personal progress.

Be well, be intentional, and make something,

Uncle Dump