# 2026.06.04
─ Mood:
Energised
♪ Listening:
"Honeythief" by Halou
┐ Playing:
Final Fantasy XIV
☆ Tarot:
Ace of Swords & The Devil
┼ Weather:
Rainy, rainy day
## OKAY, Bloggy GO!!!
In line with this diary's ethos, I'm not overthinking anything. I'm just letting the words flow... So here's a bit about everything I've been up to! I'm proud to say that I've rekindled most all of my creative hobbies. Though I've yet to regain 100% daily consistency, I am writing, drawing, coding, and making music more than before!
I picked up my ukulele again because I wanted to sing Halou's "Honeythief," but the original key is too high for me. I've been slowly working through the chords. I aim to capture the dynamism of the original song by swapping between low and high versions of the same chords...
It's been so long since I've worked on a song like this! Many years ago, when ukulele was my favourite hobby, I did stuff like this all the time. I learnt to play on "hard mode," too. I had no physical capo, so I had to manually transpose the music up and down to suit my voice and fretting ability. I learnt to play many different chords that way, and my fingers got so strong from all the barres I learned to love...! Now my hands are weak and I lost all my callouses, so it's almost like I'm starting from scratch. At least physically, I am. My breath control has faded over the years, too.
Thankfully I've still got my powerful voice and my deep love for music. The best part of singing is filling each song with emotion. It's just cathartic... It's so freeing and feels so good. While I'm still wrangling my instrument, I have less energy for the emotional aspect, but I know that as I handle my ukulele with increasing competency it'll flow out just the way it used to.
Anyways, here's a clip of me singing "Sienna" from way back in October.
The chords on this one are soooooo fucking easy and so satisfying! For about a week, performing it was part of my morning routine. I should pick it back up, I know I can do way better than this!!!
Right now I'm learning "Dragonsong" from Final Fantasy XIV. As you can see, the [chords](https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/misc-computer-games/final-fantasy-xiv-dragonsong-chords-2987237) are brutal lmao. For people who don't play music, most modern songs have 4-6 chords. This one has 35. I'm still learning to differentiate between the ones with very similar names. It's so easy to get tripped up as the song progresses and deviates in structure. Trying to find fingerings that are easy to hold down *and* switch between *and* in the right octave for the song... Whew! It's easier said than done! I may just have to, as they say, "git gud" and play most of the chords in their most basic, and often most difficult, way.
It's rewarding work, though, because I get to think about FFXIV while I do it! That game has quickly taken over my brain hahaha. I dream about it several times a week and I'm constantly taking little notes on my Warrior of Light OC. Last week I started writing legit, legit fanfiction about her and all the suffering she endures. Honestly it is my best prose ever. I'm so proud of myself!!! One day I'd love to make a website dedicated to her, my other OCs, and my favourite canon characters, perhaps with a miniblog about whatever I'm up to in-game... But that's a project for another time!!!
There's tons to do for Vivarism first. You may have noticed I added some breadcrumb navigation to the footer. I've been meaning to do that for ages!!!! It was much easier than I thought it'd be, too. All I needed was a snippet of [Javascript](https://www.greggriffiths.org/webdev/clientside/javascript/breadcrumbs/index.html) with some light edits. It doesn't do *exactly* what I want it to do, not all the time, at least... But it's good enough! I'd rather have that than "unfinished."
The rest of my to do list is something like...
- new about page
- manifesto
- artchives (2016-2021)
- yume questionnaire
- update goki art gifts
- ot3 page
- au timelines page
- yume resources
- check explore links
- redirect old links to archive
- guestbook reply
Probably I'll do that last one immediately after publishing this. I also want to update the poll for June, and I'm thinking I'll ask all of you what kind of content to focus on first. It's not that I feel scattered or unsure, I just want to give back to the people who have been faithfully checking in on me all this time.
Ummm what else is there to say??? I guess some more about writing and drawing and stuff, but I'll save that for next time! And next time is sooner than any of us expect!!!!!
─ Mood:
Energised
♪ Listening:
"Honeythief" by Halou
┐ Playing:
Final Fantasy XIV
☆ Tarot:
Ace of Swords & The Devil
┼ Weather:
Rainy, rainy day
## OKAY, Bloggy GO!!!
In line with this diary's ethos, I'm not overthinking anything. I'm just letting the words flow... So here's a bit about everything I've been up to! I'm proud to say that I've rekindled most all of my creative hobbies. Though I've yet to regain 100% daily consistency, I am writing, drawing, coding, and making music more than before!
I picked up my ukulele again because I wanted to sing Halou's "Honeythief," but the original key is too high for me. I've been slowly working through the chords. I aim to capture the dynamism of the original song by swapping between low and high versions of the same chords...
It's been so long since I've worked on a song like this! Many years ago, when ukulele was my favourite hobby, I did stuff like this all the time. I learnt to play on "hard mode," too. I had no physical capo, so I had to manually transpose the music up and down to suit my voice and fretting ability. I learnt to play many different chords that way, and my fingers got so strong from all the barres I learned to love...! Now my hands are weak and I lost all my callouses, so it's almost like I'm starting from scratch. At least physically, I am. My breath control has faded over the years, too.
Thankfully I've still got my powerful voice and my deep love for music. The best part of singing is filling each song with emotion. It's just cathartic... It's so freeing and feels so good. While I'm still wrangling my instrument, I have less energy for the emotional aspect, but I know that as I handle my ukulele with increasing competency it'll flow out just the way it used to.
Anyways, here's a clip of me singing "Sienna" from way back in October.
The chords on this one are soooooo fucking easy and so satisfying! For about a week, performing it was part of my morning routine. I should pick it back up, I know I can do way better than this!!!
Right now I'm learning "Dragonsong" from Final Fantasy XIV. As you can see, the [chords](https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/misc-computer-games/final-fantasy-xiv-dragonsong-chords-2987237) are brutal lmao. For people who don't play music, most modern songs have 4-6 chords. This one has 35. I'm still learning to differentiate between the ones with very similar names. It's so easy to get tripped up as the song progresses and deviates in structure. Trying to find fingerings that are easy to hold down *and* switch between *and* in the right octave for the song... Whew! It's easier said than done! I may just have to, as they say, "git gud" and play most of the chords in their most basic, and often most difficult, way.
It's rewarding work, though, because I get to think about FFXIV while I do it! That game has quickly taken over my brain hahaha. I dream about it several times a week and I'm constantly taking little notes on my Warrior of Light OC. Last week I started writing legit, legit fanfiction about her and all the suffering she endures. Honestly it is my best prose ever. I'm so proud of myself!!! One day I'd love to make a website dedicated to her, my other OCs, and my favourite canon characters, perhaps with a miniblog about whatever I'm up to in-game... But that's a project for another time!!!
There's tons to do for Vivarism first. You may have noticed I added some breadcrumb navigation to the footer. I've been meaning to do that for ages!!!! It was much easier than I thought it'd be, too. All I needed was a snippet of [Javascript](https://www.greggriffiths.org/webdev/clientside/javascript/breadcrumbs/index.html) with some light edits. It doesn't do *exactly* what I want it to do, not all the time, at least... But it's good enough! I'd rather have that than "unfinished."
The rest of my to do list is something like...
- new about page
- manifesto
- artchives (2016-2021)
- yume questionnaire
- update goki art gifts
- ot3 page
- au timelines page
- yume resources
- check explore links
- redirect old links to archive
- guestbook reply
Probably I'll do that last one immediately after publishing this. I also want to update the poll for June, and I'm thinking I'll ask all of you what kind of content to focus on first. It's not that I feel scattered or unsure, I just want to give back to the people who have been faithfully checking in on me all this time.
Ummm what else is there to say??? I guess some more about writing and drawing and stuff, but I'll save that for next time! And next time is sooner than any of us expect!!!!!