Project 17: #NaFYoFuThMo - Wrap Up

Has anyone seen November? I distinctly recall there was going to be a November.

Ok. I did kinda notice November an I got a lot written for my thesis. Not as much as I'd hoped, but quite a lot, and I'm almost finished the next major chapter.

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I have to say I really enjoyed doing #NaFYoFuThMo. It was a good motivator to get me to sit down and write even when I didn't want to. It also made me feel like there was an end to the project and it was a small enough chunk that I was able to accomplish it. Finally it was fun to report back to Twitter on how I was doing and post Cowboy Bebop gifs (Also #NaFYoFuThMo is fun to say and type).

I managed to write on 13 out of 30 days in November, and in total I wrote 6356 words. That's not great, but its better than I often am, so I think #NaFYo has been good for me. I also keep a "day score" which is basically a weighted average of the last 7 days and I've managed to keep that above zero for the entire month of November, so I feel like that's a win and a step in the right direction when it comes to getting things done.

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So I dunno where to go next. #NaFYoFuThMo is really tied to the idea of #NaNoWriMo so I don't feel like I can carry it on beyond November. I also think if I do it'll loose the special feeling of a month long project. On the other hand I really did enjoy reporting back to twitter on how I'd done for the day. I'll think about it for a while and see where I get to.

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Project 15: 12 Books in 21 Weeks

Provenance doesn't stand up to Ancillary Justice, but it is still a very fun space opera through an interesting universe.

Blog: Video Games of October

I was pretty unsettled in October and jumped between games a bunch. I don't love the feeling of not having something serious to play, but for now I'm focused elsewhere and I'm pretty happy just to get a chance to play when I get a chance.

My top five games (by play time) for October were:

1. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - One beautiful thing about Breath of the Wild is just how much there is to do. It makes it simple each time I turn it on to wander off into Hyrule and find something new and fun and engaging.
   
   

   

   Quite the outcome of a side trip.

   
   
2. Pikmin 3 - I love this game. I could play it forever. There's just so much brightness and charm. The game play presents a lovely challenge of first finding a solution and then optimizing that solution. Every Nintendo Direct, I'm always hoping to see more Pikmin 3.
   
   

   

   Work to do, work to do.



3. Kingdoms and Castles - I haven't bought too much in the way of new games lately, but listening to 3 Moves Ahead discuss Kingdoms and Castles it seems like enough fun for $10 to make it worth while. I've enjoyed it so far, although it doesn't have a huge range of things to do. There's something nice about building a simple city and using it to kill dragons.
   
   

   

   A dragon in the rain.



4. FTL: Faster than Light - I suck at FTL. I've been bad at FTL since it came out. Then I watched Eurogamer play it and thanks to Jonneh, I suddenly understood a lot about how *not* to suck at FTL. Either way, even if you're bad it's still a good time.
   
   

   

   Finally.



5. Pokémon Go - Daily bonuses keep me going, other than that I haven't played too much.
   
   

   

   This ... was a bad idea.

Here's my total play time chart for October:

And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month:

Project 17: #NafYoFuthMo

It's November, so the Social Internet has turned to its habit of either doing or whining about #NaNoWriMo, in which people write a novel in a month. I don't have time to write a novel in a month and I do have a thesis to finish (related points).

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Therefore, I am going to do #NafYoFuthMo, National Finish Your F*ing Thesis Month. I'm not going to be able to finish everything this month, but I have enough stuff that I could do right now that it's a good time to give myself a big push and get closer to the line.

I have 3 big chapters I can finish, I'll consider it a win if I can have significant progress on each of the three. In the smaller scale I'm going to shoot for a new word target of 750 average each day.

I'll update on twitter regularly and occasionally here.