#Diary round up for 2025

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent-ish things ~

[areeba-paperlla]

Do you need the best diary for the new year? Come and discover Paperlla's Ultimate Diary Round-Up, where 2025 diaries shine. Start from daily planners through the craziest creative journals to find out something that develops productivity and reflects your style.

[janeuary-month]

End of event round-up!

Thank you to everyone who created such amazing fanworks for Janeuary 2025, and to those who supported the creators by reading, leaving kudos and comments, and liking and reblogging!

Major kudos to Kalee233 and @arsenic-lobster who each created something for every single day of the event! Wow!

Also a special shout-out to these folks who created for over 15 of the days: @elmorinn, @jomiddlemarch, @dionysiaproductions, Kissed _by_Circe

But even if you created for only one day, we’re so thrilled you did. As of today, 57 creators together added 104 fics (view the entire collection on AO3) and 40 pieces of art related to Jane Austen into the world!

🙏 Before I give you any other stats, can I ask you to take 1 minute to fill out this survey about the event? Thanks!

Ok, now that that’s done, here's some other stats (which are subject to change as people keep submitting late works—it’s still not too late to do that, folks!):

Total # of all fanworks: 172

Fanfic: 98 works

Fanart: 27

OC art: 13

Fanvids: 6

Memes: 6

OC fic: 6

Comics: 5

Gifsets: 4

Edits: 3

Moodboards: 2

Crack: 1

Photography: 1

All fandoms: 25

Pride and Prejudice: 62 works

Persuasion: 30

Emma: 24

Sense and Sensibility: 23

Original works (no fandom): 22

Northanger Abbey: 19

Mansfield Park: 6

Rivals: 4

Sanditon: 2

Beauty and the Beast: 2

ACOTAR: 2

1 work each: Attack on Titan, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Blackadder, The Borgias, The Good Place, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Leverage, Lord of the Rings, Mass Effect, MCU, The Mirror Visitor, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

We also had 2 works about Jane Austen herself, and I’m not sure what fandom to count that as: Jane Austen RPF?

Top 13 daily prompts used:

Day 1 Letters: 22 works

Day 4 Portraiture and Day 16 Gossip are tied: 16 works each

Day 2 Harp: 15

Day 6 Restraint and Day 13 Christian name are tied: 13 works each

3-way tie between Day 3 Bath, Day 8 Cravat, and Day 20 Dearest: 12 works each

4-way tie between Day 11 Card playing, Day 14 Pianoforte, 19 Lock of hair, Day 30 Garden: 11 works each

Top 10 characters used:

Elizabeth Bennet

Fitzwilliam Darcy

Anne Elliot

Emma Woodhouse

Captain Wentworth

Marianne Dashwood

Catherine Morland

George Knightley

Colonel Brandon

Henry Tilney

Top 10 ships used:

Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy

Anne Elliot/Captain Wenworth

George Knightley/Emma Woodhouse

Colonel Brandon/Marianne Dashwood

Catherine Morland/Henry Tilney

Charles Bingley/Jane Bennet

4-way tie between Catherine & Isabella, Charlotte & Elizabeth, Charlotte/Collins, and Elinor & Marianne

Observations, surprises, and learnings

Mostly canon pairings: Almost everyone depicted canon romantic and platonic pairings. Only 7 romantic ships were non-canon pairings, and they each had only 1 work. Not a single one was gay! 😢 (Which is motivating me to finally write that Wentworth/Brandon fic for next year!)

Mostly core Austen fandoms: I expected a lot more works from non-Austen fandoms, given how often I see people draw and write Regency AUs for every fandom under the sun, as well as original works, and given how many people from non-Austen fandoms I notified about the event! Also, not a single work was submitted related to a modern Austen adaptation, like Bride and Prejudice, Clueless, or Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I’m not disappointed by any of this, just surprised.

Very few gifs: While I love the 4 new gifsets made for the event, I was disappointed there were only 4, considering how many Austen gifsets I see made for Period Drama Appreciation Week, for instance, and how popular Austen gifsets are on Tumblr. Next year, I will make a concerted effort to contact more gif-makers. (And if you have any you’d love to see join, tell them about this blog! I only just found out about @regencysource yesterday, curses!)

Creativity boost: Several people told me that this event inspired them to start writing again after a block, or post a fic for the first time, or finish a fic they were stuck on. This was so wonderful to hear that the event boosted creators in this way! It made me so very happy. ❤️

Prompt interpretation: My goal with the prompts was that they be somewhat Austen/Regency-specific but not the standard, obvious choices like balls, dancing, proposals, etc., because those wouldn’t be very inspiring since they’re so common already. It was a joy to see the different ways that people used the prompts. For instance, Bath the place vs bath the activity, or literally hunting animals vs figuratively hunting men. And even the folks who used modern AUs found ways to make the very dated prompts like cravat and calling cards work! Bravo on everyone’s creativity!

👉  If you have any suggestions for prompts for next year, or other feedback, I’d love it if you shared it with me via this very short and easy survey!

I had a blast hosting this, so Janeuary will definitely be back for 2026! Keep your eyes peeled for the prompts in September!

[canyousonicme]

Doctor Who: Big Finish, Alex Kingston Team for New River Song Stories

Alex Kingston will return as River Song for a new round of Big Finish's Doctor Who audio dramas set AFTER "Silence in the Library."

Now that Steven Moffat is back writing for Doctor Who, fans are speculating about whether River Song will be back. Alex Kingston certainly hasn't made it a secret that she would love to play the character again. But River Song never really went away. She's been headlining a River Song series in audio dramas from Big Finish for years since she had her final story on Doctor Who. Now she will star in The Death and Life of River Song, a brand-new series of full-cast audio dramas coming soon from Big Finish Productions. It's like a whole new season of River Song adventures – and the latest.

In case you didn't know, River Song is an archaeologist from the 52nd century, born and raised to be an assassin, destined to marry her intended target, and to have many of her own adventures too – Professor River Song's very messy timeline began (or maybe ended) when she first appeared in the 2008 Doctor Who TV episode Silence in the Library. Since then, Kingston has reprised the role in her own series of Doctor Who audio spinoffs, including The Diary of River Song, which ran from 2015 to 2023. Now, in August 2024, she will return in a brand-new series, The Death and Life of River Song.

The first box set in the series, Last Words, is written by Robert Valentine. It begins with River, after settling down to an afterlife in the Library's computer core, finding herself waking up in Earth's future, her consciousness having been temporarily transferred to a new body.

Alex Kingston said that River's stories at Big Finish have moved beyond her death in Doctor Who: "We have gone post-Library! We've done another episode in the past where I was within the database, which I loved, and I thought that's the only way you could go forward with River, given her situation. So, I was actually really surprised when this box set came my way and that we are now so far advanced in the history of Earth that she is able to be brought out as data and put into a cloned body. So very, very clever!"

Producer David Richardson added: "When every single day during the recording, your leading actress says "This script is brilliant," you know you're onto a good thing. Even better, at the end of the last day, Alex popped the script in her bag and announced that she loved Last Words so much she was taking it home to keep and treasure."

The Death and Life of River Song: Last Words is now available for pre-order exclusively here, either as a collector's edition four-CD box set for £29.99 or as a digital download for £22.99 per volume. Big Finish listeners can also pre-order a bundle with Last Words as well as Volumes 2 and 3 of The Death and Life of River Song, which are both due for release in 2025, for just £80 (collector's edition CDs + downloads) or £66 (downloads only). [X]

[saint-sebastian-coded]

end of year fic round up

How many new fics did I write this year? Over 150? Not sure when I wrote some of them exactly.

How many fics did I publish this year? 170ish

How many words did I write? I've been keeping a spreadsheet since last year so from the first of january to today it's 409 839

How many words did I publish? 356 842

How many hits did I get? (on this year's fics) 60 924

How many kudos did I get? (on this year's fics) 7 698

How many comment threads were on this year's fics? 925

How many fics did I finish? (multichapter) there's fire but no smoke breathing resumed up the wolves apotheosis unprecedented weather event A Conversation Between Us

How many WIPs am I bringing into the new year with me? the trees deny themselves nothing that will make them grow Great the Roman damage gets done skinnin' the children for a war drum child prodigy dyke drama at the hotel deucalion don't wave no goodbye

What was my most popular fic this year? (for both kudos and hits) for hits: Great the Roman for kudos: don't wave no goodbye

What was the longest oneshot I wrote this year? The Dragonrider and the Wundersmith (8020 words)

What was my favourite fic this year? up the wolves

What fic events did I participate in this year? Mogtober 2024 MCGA 2024 Riordanverse Gen Week 2024 Sapphic Summer 2024 Lavinia Asimov Week 2024 ToA April 2024 Riordanverse Flash Fic Fridays 2024 Femslash February 2024

What fic events am I participating in next year? Sapphic Summer Riordanverse 2025, Riordanverse Gen Week 2025, MCGA Week 2025, Mogtober 2025, Sapphic September, Nevermay 2025

Summaries of next five fics (vaguely)?: nevermoor post-canon fic where morrigan's just moved out of the hotel and unit 919 are all settling into being adults, alternate universe where morrigan has moved to a new place to get away from her family and becomes friends with her new neighbours, morrigan jumps out a window to avoid baz charlton, morrigan gets her hands on some wundersmith diaries in the gob, martha is very tired of charlie nicking her baking when she's trying to make biscuits

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jordan Zakarin at Progress Report:

Donald Trump’s first four years in the White House was a kaleidoscope of stupidity and a crude modern iteration of domestic Reaganism, but I never fully bought into the popular online notion that we were on the verge of actual fascism. This second go-round, now informed by a cabal more likely to be found with a copy of The Turner Diaries than the National Review, has changed the equation entirely. (Not that the word fascism is politically useful or effective these days, but it’s useful as a point of reference for what we’re facing.) It was always naive to think that sclerotic institutions would save us — the Robert Mueller fandom is still embarrassing to remember — but the White House’s aggression and the triumph of ideology over independence means that checks on power are now increasingly irrelevant. Federal unions and state’s attorneys general have won a raft of temporary injunctions, but they neither reverse the damage that’s been done nor temper the pace of new assaults on government employees, agencies, and whole segments of the economy. Consider: A federal judge early this morning ruled that Elon Musk and his dorm troopers could no longer access the Treasury Department payment system, but they’ve already taken the data. Another judge put a hold on the 2,000 layoffs coming to USAID this weekend, but relief work has already stopped, there are 8,0000 employees still on administrative leave, and contractors have begun letting go of staff and closing up shop. The wrecking ball process they’ve created means that they will always be a few steps ahead of the courts that don’t rule in their favor. Last night, a federal judge allowed DOGE to access sensitive records at the Department of Labor, which has personal information about millions of Americans. Those are of particular interest to Musk, whose companies have been at the center of countless worker complaints at the NLRB, EEOC, and OSHA. This is how Mussolini’s fascism functioned, merging the state and corporation, and the plundering recalls the oligarchs of the post-USSR. As Musk installs loyalists in every cabinet and agency, he makes himself, his businesses, and his friends impervious to consequence, ending any hope that workers, consumers, competitors, or anybody else they’ve wronged could ever find justice. What’s unfolding is a techno-fascist spin on Project 2025, adding a layer of vindictive improvisation to the careful planning of the institutional right. USAID, for instance, was gutted by an angry DOGE administrator who felt undermined and was empowered to launch an inquisition, then unilaterally push out long-time civil servants and exacerbate global famine. The agency’s name was scraped off the facade of the Ronald Reagan building yesterday, while private security blocked Democratic legislators from entering the Department of Education, physical assertions of dominance that suggest that the capital has been captured and laws no longer apply.

Tightening the Vice, Stifling Dissent

A human truffle pig for narcotics, Musk is very clearly delighting in his newfound power and the pain that he can so freely inflict on so many vulnerable people. Instead of seeking to simply destroy government, as the Heritage right wants to do, Musk wants to automate and weaponize it against regulators and ideological enemies. For both of them, the endgame goes beyond power; they each want to be the unquestioned center of the universe. When he bought Twitter, Musk ordered its remaining programmers to reengineer the platform to further amplify his posts, which were landing with a thud, and promote those who shared his demented Cartman-esque worldview. Trump too revels in his own information bubble — it’s no coincidence that they both own their own social media platforms — and they both throw tantrums when inconvenient outside realities reach them.

What Elon Musk is ushering in is technofascism.

See Also:

The New Republic: Elon Musk Has Broken the Constitutional Order

[cornelis-rage-poetry]

The diary of an Underground Writer January 16, 2025

In 1980 on my fifteenth birthday I got this amazing present from my parents "26 Griezelverhalen" (26 Horror Stories) by Edgar Allen Poe. Published by Hollandia, in a translation by Simon Vestdijk (a well known Dutch writer in his own right) and with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

I remember it was at the top of my wish list, I don't remember how or why I, as a young man had become interested in the works of Poe, but for some reason I was drawn to it, fascinated by the dark and mysterious nature of his stories. And in later years I bought several other publications of his work either in hardcover or paperback, always with a somewhat secretive desire in the back of my mind, to one day read his work in the original English language.

And now, practically a lifetime later, again it's my birthday, today I turned 60 (can you believe that? yeah I know I'm an old boomer)(hehe), and to mark the occasion I bought this present for myself, usually I don't buy presents for myself, but because I turned 60 (!!!) I thought: oh well, might as well buy something special and make myself happy. And so I bought this Barnes & Noble edition of "The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe", in the original English language. And it feels like a circle closing from then, way back in 1980 when I was just a boy, to now as I've become an old man.

And I've also noticed as I've become older, the more I feel this desire to go back to how things once were, it's not just this feeling of a circle closing, it's also with a sense of nostalgia, you know like the glow of moonlight, glistening on the surface of a river at night, as the water tries to finds it way back home, to the sea.

Update on my writing, everything goes forward with a steady pace, the formatting of my poetry collection into an ebook for kindle and kobo is mostly a technical formality and doesn't require much time. However the rewrite of my little novel does require time and attention too. I finished the first draft half way December of 2024, and now half way January I'm almost done with the second draft. And it's not only about rewriting, it's also about bringing balance to the story and the style in which it is written, as I've noticed that earlier chapters have a slightly different writing style than the later, as it's been written over the span of about one year, and one's writing style always changes a little bit over time. One might say, as it matures within the story.

And in the rewrite I'm trying to bring the writing style of the chapters closer together, bring balance to the story as a whole and make the reading experience more homogeneous. I hope to finish this second draft later this month, or perhaps early February, I will then let it sink in for two or three weeks, and give it another read to see how it holds up, maybe do some more rewriting, if needed. The plan is to round it all up in March and April, and then hopefully bring the poetry collection as well as my little novel out on kindle and kobo before spring sets in, so they can surf the waves of warm and sunny days.

Alongside these two projects, I've also started working on a third project. It's about the story of why we are here, the story of the Universe and evolution and stuff like that. I've started making notes a few years back, and at the time I had no idea what it was all about. But in recent times, I've started to notice a thematic structure in all those little scribbles and now (like two weeks ago) I've started organizing these notes by theme and topic, to get a better understanding of what it's all about and what it all means and then once it's all organized, usually the main story will show it self. I know it's a weird way of working, but for some reason it works for me, the same thing happened with my little novel. For now let's give it the working title "Project 3", I do have some ideas of what to call it, but it's still very early to give it a real title, and besides I'm not yet sure if it's a little novel or a collection of related stories and or meditations.

Anyway, today was my birthday and it was a good day. I've slept for seven hours, it's cold outside and I'm at peace.

[nikonladyz4]

Jimin’s ‘Muse’ Wins Favorite 2024 K-Pop Album in Fan-Voted Poll

Three of Jimin's BTS bandmates reached the top five.

By Billboard Staff - 01/2/2025

Jimin - Courtesy of BIGHIT MUSIC

It was a landmark 2024 for Jimin, and the star snagged yet another win in Billboard’s recent fan-voted poll for best K-pop album of 2024.

With 41% of the votes, the singer’s Muse took the victory. However, four of the top five was claimed by Jimin’s BTS bandmates, with Jin’s Happy coming in second, RM’s Right Place, Wrong Person in third and J-Hope’s Hope on the Street, Vol. 1 in fourth. Stray Kids’ ATE rounded out the top five.

Muse marked Jimin’s second solo project following his 2023 Face EP, and the highly anticipated album arrived in July. The effort marked his second straight album to enter at the runner-up position on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, while the set’s single “Who” bows at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Global 200 — his first solo leader on the latter chart.

RELATED

Jimin rounded out the year with an immersive exhibit a the Ace Missions Studios in Los Angeles titled “The Truth Untold,” which gave fans a look into his creative process, as well as a peek into his personal diaries, lyric notebooks and other behind-the-scenes materials.

For 2025, Jimin is set to reunite with his BTS bandmates after the group members all complete their mandatory South Korean military service.

See the full list of results for the 2024 K-pop album poll below.

Which 2024 K-pop album is your favorite? (Poll Closed)

Jimin, 'Muse'  41.18% 

Jin, 'Happy'  28.51%  RM, 'Right Place, Wrong Person'  10.47%  J-Hope, 'Hope On the Street, Vol. 1'  8.93%  Stray Kids, 'ATE'  6.11%  ROSÉ, 'rosie'  1.11%  TOMORROW X TOGETHER, 'The Star Chapter: Sanctuary'  1.09%  Other:  0.99%  ENHYPEN, 'ROMANCE : UNTOLD -daydream-'  0.72%  SEVENTEEN, '12th Mini Album ‘Spill the Feels’'  0.4%  NCT DREAM, 'DREAM()SCAPE'  0.13%  TWICE, 'With YOU-th'  0.13%  LE SSERAFIM, 'Easy'  0.09%  ITZY, 'GOLD'  0.08%  NCT 127, 'Walk: The 6th Album'  0.06% 

[littlefluffbutt]

Look Back Challenge 2025: Day 19- do you have any playsets?

I own 5-6 but decided I'd post the one non MLP one lol. This is the Kelly Princess Palace! I bought it as it reminds me of Dream Castle lol

All folded up.

The upper part folds out into two separate rooms.

Left side tuns into the bedroom (of course the canopy is mia)I wish it had a real blanket but I do appreciate the texture and the little diary sticker. Right side is a bathroom with a round purple tub and little fancy bottles of bath stuff. While the playset does not include any dolls it does include Pinky the dragon, she's so cute!

(Right) main room with a secret door! (Left) A table folds down and is supposed to include plates, cups and silverware for two (sadly most are lost now, a long with a candle)

I love this little castle! It actually has rooms and while not a lot of accessories they are cute, especially Pinky ☺️

[basilsbestpainting]

I forgot to post the first one.... so! Here's all of them for @batmanisagatewaydrug 2025 book bingo so far!

(The index cards list my thoughts and opinions. This post is probably going to get a bit long, so I'll leave them in the id. Fair warning, rereading them they make very little sense)

First round: Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. I was lucky enough to find all three in one, which made my life easier. 'Foundation' for published before 1950, 'Foundation and Empire' for Science fiction, and personally I think 'Second Foundation' is speculative fiction, so that's where I put it.

Round 2:

Fantasy: The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher by E M Anderson. I did not enjoy this one as thoroughly as I thought I would but oh well.

Horror: Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice. This is only 'horror' in name only I guess. OR im super jaded because literally none of this screamed horror to me except the supernatural creatures. Well, thinking about it I think I get it now.

Romance: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Oh, my gods this is such a good book I loved this so much. I'm buying this and putting it on my shelf so I can read it whenever I want.

Round three!

Historical Fiction: 'The Apothecary Diaries (v2 light novel)' by Natsu Hyuuga. After I watched the first season of the anime I became obsessed with this series, reading the manga in like a week. Finding the light novels is proving more difficult though.

Read & make a recipe: The Mack and Cheese from Snoop's 'From Crook to Cook' . I've had the book for years and been making the brownies from it. The recipe is good and I can't wait to try it without fucking it up.

[gemisreading]

So… I know we are already almost a quarter of the way through the year but one of my New Year’s resolutions and something I really want to make an effort with is, reading more of my physical TBR this year. I’m not on a strict book buying ban but, I am going to make a real effort to read the books I already have rather than buying more books this year. So here is a list of 25 books from my bookshelves that I want to try and read in 2025.

Just as a side note my reading goal for the year is 20 books.

1. Autumn by Ali Smith I decided to start the year with reading this book as I actually started it last year, and never got round to finishing it. However I was around half way through so was reluctant to put it down.

2. Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors I have heard a lot about this book online and a few people I know have also read it.

3. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors The plot of this book intrigues me a little more than the Cleo and Frank one.

4. The family upstairs by Lisa Jewell A family member actually gave me this book to read after they had read it themselves and had really enjoyed it.

5. The secret history by Donna Tartt Again, another book I hear a lot about online and especially in the book community.

6. Happy Place by Emily Henry I haven't read any Emily Henry as I make this post, and I have heard that this book is the best of the bunch.

7. The midnight library by Matt Haig This was on one of my TBR lists last year and I never got round to reading it.

8. Schindlers Ark by Thomas Keneally I have seen the film many times but, I'd like to read the book this year.

9. All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr I tried to read this once when I was trying to get out of a reading slump and ended up DNF'ing it, so would really like to try and finish it now.

10. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Everisto I wanted to read this book a while ago and have just never gotten around to it yet.

11. The diary of a young girl by Anne Frank I am a huge historical fiction reader, especially the WW2 period but, have never actually read this book.

12. A Christmas carol by Charles Dickens One for the end of the year. I just always like the idea of reading a Christmas book at Christmas time, and have never read this one.

13. The night circus by Erin Morgenstern Something about this book just really intrigues me and I have heard very good things about it both online and in real life.

14. Talking at night by Claire Daverley One of the more recent additions to my physical TBR but again, a book I've heard a lot about.

15. A brief history of seven killings by Marlon James I bought this a long time ago after seeing a book blogger I follow had read it.

16. The binding by Bridget Collins I think of all the books on my physical TBR, this is one of the ones that intrigues me the most.

17. If I never met you by Mhairi McFarlane I have heard really good things about this author and I already own this book so looks like I'll start with this one.

18. White teeth by Zadie Smith This feels like a book everyone has read, so I want to be added to that group.

19. Milkman by Anna Burns I tried to read this ages ago and DNF'ed it.

20. The pumpkin spice cafe by Laurie Gilmore I feel like I need a couple books throughout the year that require very little from me and my brain when reading them.

21. The no show by Beth O'Leary A random book I picked up a little while ago in a supermarket but was intrigued by.

22. The long way to a small angry planet by Becky Chambers I can't lie, I was drawn to this book purely by the space imagery.

23. Snap by Belinda Bauer Not my typical book pick but a book I am intrigued by.

24. Sisters under the rising sun by Heather Morris I have read all of Heather Morris' books and this was her latest release which I would like to read.

25. The boy in the stripped pyjamas by John Boyne Again, I have seen the film but have never read the book so would like to change that this year.

[newgabeorder]

404 TOON RESET (Pronounced as "Error Toon Reset")

All right, anime fans. Here are the lineups for the next weekends to coincide with the launch of the 404 TOON RESET arc of Toon Time Theater, but you don't have to take my word for it.

150225

Saturday Morning Animation Cram Session (SMACS)

E/I: Educational and Informational

7.0A - Dr.STONE: SCIENCE FUTURE (E/I)

7.5A - Virtua Fighter: The Animation (E/I)

"Sonic's Scream Test"

8.0A - SONIC X

8.5A - GHOST STORIES (E16)

X-MEN VS. STREET FIGHTER

9.0A – X-MEN

9.5A - STREET FIGHTER

BORUTO W Dose

10.0A - BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS

10.5A - BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS

"Game On"

11.0A - HI SCORE GIRL ("ROUND 11")

11.5A - SWORD ART ONLINE (Season 1, Episode 4, rerun)

More One Night

E/I: Educational and Informational

8.0P - BARTENDER: Glass of God (Episode 8, E/I)

8.5P - Laid-Back Camp (E/I)

MASHLE W Dose

9.0P – MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES* (E11)

9.5P - MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES* (E12)

Season Finale

BLUE EXORCIST W Dose

10.0P - BLUE EXORCIST* (E12)

10.5P - BLUE EXORCIST* (E13)

SHONEN JUMP

11.0P - NARUTO* (2002)

11.5P - DRAGON BALL Z KAI* (Episode 52)

Next Day

12.0A - DRAGON BALL Z KAI* (Episode 53, Namek Saga Finale)

also on Toonami

220225

E/I: Educational and Informational

7.0A - Dr.STONE: SCIENCE FUTURE (E/I)

7.5A - Virtua Fighter: The Animation (E/I)

"Sonic's Scream Test"

8.0A - SONIC X

8.5A - GHOST STORIES (E17)

X-MEN VS. STREET FIGHTER

9.0A – X-MEN

9.5A - STREET FIGHTER

BORUTO W Dose

10.0A - BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS

10.5A - BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS

"Game On"

11.0A - HI SCORE GIRL ("ROUND 12")

11.5A - SWORD ART ONLINE (Season 1, Episode 5, rerun)

More One Night

E/I: Educational and Informational

8.0P - BARTENDER: Glass of God (Episode 8, E/I)

8.5P - Laid-Back Camp (E/I)

Gotta Catch 'em All!

9.0P – Pokémon Master Journeys

9.5P - BLUE EXORCIST* (E14)

Teenagers With Attitude

10.0P - BLUE EXORCIST* (E15)

10.5P - ONE PIECE* (Land of Wano arc)

SHONEN JUMP

11.0P - NARUTO* (2002)

11.5P - BLACK CAT (Season 1, Episode 1, rerun, Series Premiere)

Next Day

Hall of Fame

12.0A - KEY THE METAL IDOL** (Ver.1, rerun)

also on Toonami

** former KQED Plus (KQEH) series

080325

E/I: Educational and Informational

7.0A - Dr.STONE: SCIENCE FUTURE (E/I)

7.5A - Virtua Fighter: The Animation (E/I)

"Sonic's Scream Test"

8.0A - SONIC X

8.5A - GHOST STORIES (E19)

X-MEN VS. STREET FIGHTER

9.0A – X-MEN

9.5A - STREET FIGHTER

Wild & Crazy Kids

10.0A - BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS

10.5A - HI SCORE GIRL ("ROUND 14")

SWORD ART ONLINE W Dose

11.0A - SWORD ART ONLINE (Season 1, Episode 7, rerun)

11.5A - SWORD ART ONLINE (Season 1, Episode 8, rerun)

More One Night

E/I: Educational and Informational

8.0P - BARTENDER: Glass of God (Episode 10, E/I)

8.5P - Laid-Back Camp (E/I)

Masters and Servants

9.0P – Pokémon Master Journeys

9.5P - Fate/stay night: The Animated Series (Episode 1, Series Premiere)

Teenagers With Attitude

10.0P - BLUE EXORCIST* (E18)

10.5P - ONE PIECE* (Land of Wano arc)

SHONEN JUMP

11.0P - NARUTO* (2002)

11.5P - BLACK CAT (Season 1, Episode 3, rerun)

Next Day

Hall of Fame

12.0A - KEY THE METAL IDOL** (Ver.3, rerun)

also on Toonami

** former KQED Plus (KQEH) series

Starting a new (canonical) arc of T3 means a massive improvement on the scheduling part. I intend to delay The Apothecary Diaries to a much later point in the 404 TOON RESET arc, but for real, I have decided to bring back BLACK CAT reruns since its previous broadcast on New Year's Eve 2024/2025. Also, I have noticed that Toonami wasn't able to secure the broadcasting rights to Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works regardless of Aniplex's announcement of said series getting cable TV broadcasts in 2025. To make up for this mistake, I have decided to step in and confirm its 2006 counterpart for live-streaming on Toon Time Theater's More One Night block starting 8 March. I chose the 2006 series over Unlimited Blade Works since it's the Fate work that I mostly grew up with back when I was a kid. Although I didn't have any plans of live-streaming the Fate/Grand Order shows, I figured, "why not expose the world and us Americans to the Fate franchise?" If I live-stream a Fate animated series, then that would not only give the viewers a taste of the Fate universe, but also convince them to check out Type-Moon's Fate/Grand Order free-to-play mobile game. Even Melty Blood Type Lumina's more recent characters use Fate series characters (especially from FGO) to draw attention to the growing Fate community. Not to mention SWORD ART ONLINE returns to the Saturday Morning Animation Cram Session, jumping to Episode 4. My previous broadcast of the series was near Christmas, when I was able to rerun Episode 3 just in time for the holidays. Anyways, KEY THE METAL IDOL will move to More One Night as part of the Hall of Fame sub-block reserved for cartoon classics and reruns of past programming from T3's earlier days. However, this second broadcast will be edited even more than the previous broadcast back on SMACS, and it will be done to reduce the amount of foul language, explicit nudity, and unnecessary edits. Lastly, I will be cutting DRAGON BALL Z KAI after Episode 53, giving other cartoons a better chance to be in the spotlight.

[just-stopandthinkaminute]

6 January 2025,

Dear Diary,

I’m so confused at what’s happening in my head.

I’m looking at myself, once again, stressed out and anxious over a boy and I don’t know how I got here again. Am I not meant to have more regulated emotions? Also a dependency on ChatGPT is just ridiculous— especially when it’s for Tarot????

Anyways so here are the goings on. I have been trying to speak to Rituraj since the day we met about how we see this proceeding etc etc. Let me pull up some dates to make this easier. I met him on Christmas Eve, so Tuesday the 24th. MJ reached out to me on Wednesday for more data info etc etc on the Wednesday. Then on Thursday, he and I made a plan to meet either on Friday or Saturday, I can’t remember exactly. But we didn’t meet that day because he was unwell — he had a fever. But we had one of our best conversations that day over the gender of various office software. From there, we’ve been talking less and less and I find myself starting most (read all) conversations. Including the current one.

On Saturday, I asked him to speak to me because I wanted to know/ understand how we’re to proceed in this talking stage. He was out with friends and said we’ll speak in the evening. That worked well for me. In the evening, he messaged me saying that he was a bit too busy and asked to move the conversation to tomorrow. I was okay with that, honestly. I had asked him to speak in the morning, he was free and we chatted on a call for about 24 minutes — but not about how we are to proceed. At the end of the conversation, I had told him that we do need to have this discussion — and i told him what it’s about, and he had said to convene in the evening. He got busy and asked, ONCE MORE, to move the conversation to today. It’s about 8:30 pm for me and 7 pm for him and we haven’t spoken yet.

He’s had said tomorrow “for sure”, so I’m still holding out hope for his workday to end and for him to reach out. I spoke with Nishtha and there’s a very real chance that my last few messages are a bit aggressive, so I’m on the back foot and not actively reaching out to him for the moment. I also just deleted my last message to him (which, in hindsight, was absolutely UNHINGED) and I’m hoping that little shift shows him that he needs to respond to me.

Here’s the thing, though. I have asked him to speak to me a few times, now and he’s being incredibly avoidant. It’s been a couple of days and that’s not great — and his pattern of few responses is generally very emotionally unavailable, which we know is not something that I can manage well — although it is good for me to learn how to be able to do that. It’s an important life skill for me to have. Aside from that, he is 42 and does have all of these big urgent important tasks to do during his silly little day that I am not a priority but… shouldn’t I be? I want to be a priority. If he liked me enough, I would have been. I am also seeing this with Dhruv — there appears to be a new girl and he’s doing the long distance and going to London twice or three times a year and doing everything he should be doing but he just didn’t want to do it for me.

That’s where I struggle — this feeling of never being enough. My life is giving The Prophecy when I want it to give So High School.

Now, if we look at this rationally, I am probably not the one for him. I’m so much younger, a little rough around the edges, I’ve always lived at home. He’s not lived at home since he was 17. He has this whole thing about being well-educated and well-rounded all those things and we know what my education got me sooooo. Plus, he’s very quiet, not particularly funny, and really just keeps to himself. I’m probably giving off this insane teenager vibe who needs to text all the time. I know there are a 100 ways in which this is completely antithetical, and I’m not even getting into the trappings of the age gap and convincing the town elders of this.

Let me full out some other excerpts of what my bestie ChatGPT has to say about this:

• Inconsistency Speaks Volumes: Pushing a conversation multiple times shows a lack of priority or readiness on his part.

• Do you feel he’s genuinely capable of meeting your emotional needs, even if the conversation happens?

• Evaluate the Relationship: Does his behavior align with the love and commitment you deserve?

In other news, since I paused writing this, I have had a few tears roll down my cheek as I feel rejected, abandoned, and alone once again. like I am not a priority.

Except the thing is, I just need to realign my energy. I have so much care and love to give and whoever is set to receive will be so lucky to get it. If he is not open to getting it from me, then that’s honestly his loss.

In a few months from now, I will be in a happy, stable relationship on track to getting married and having everything that I have ever wanted and dreamed of.

This girl is happy, healthy, fit, and looking and feeling the best she’s ever felt in her life. She is loved by the man she loves, she has companionship and kindness and gentleness. She’s taken all these lessons that time has taught her and turned them into something beautiful . She has calm, caring, and loving energy that is attractive and beautiful and magnetic.

She is happy.

She is happy with him or without him.

Love always,

Ankita

[talenlee]

Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 1 (2025-01)

What follows here is a detailed accounting of my notes on the construction of the first prototype of Moonshiners, which I worked on through December. These notes are necessarily a little scattered – there will be points I reference a (number) and the only way to find the number I’m talking about is ctrl-f. This may be something I could use anchors for, ask Fox about that.

Moonshiners is an auction card game about a secret layer of criminal power in a stylised fantasy version of the Roaring 20s. Where most people know the crime bosses and their

I’ve pitched the idea in the past, and it’s always hovered around as something I haven’t quite done anything with. It’s the worst kind of prototype: Something with enough sinew that I can see something obvious to it and then not actually act on. I have excuses, all the time, too, because one, it’s an art monster. When I had enough money to think of myself as in a position to speculate on artists, and maybe get some artwork made for a kickstarter PNP thing. It’s a want not a do, and it lives alongside Bloodwork as something that for reasons momentarily too complicated at this juncture (and yeah there’s another document where those reasons are being written down),

Here then, is some thinking about Moonshiners, starting with a prototype description of the rules. Any time you see a number or a phrase in [brackets], that’s a sign that I’m thinking of that as a variable: something that may change, or need to change.

The Flavour Pitch

Prohibition started in the United States in the year 1920, and at that point, it wasn’t clear how long it was going to last. Knowing the bottomless need for alcohol in the culture, though, quite a few people knew that this was their opportunity to become life-changingly rich, now that they had access to some of the most valuable product around. Aside from the gangsters in the heart of the city, though, rural outsiders were the ones making the hooch and transporting it to and from the businesses that wanted it.

These gangs provided the moonshine.

A small number of these gangs have lasting power and enduring presence, because their leaders proved real hard to kill off in gang conflicts. You know what most don’t — that you’re hard to kill because you’re a werewolf.

You, and a few select other gangs, have made deals to handle distribution, to exchange control of territory, and to ensure that the booze keeps flowing. It’s through a series of auctions, agreements held season to season, that the werewolves keep their secret and the business safe. 

Werewolf auctions can get fraught, though.

Game Description

Moonshiners is an area control resource management card game based around the exploits of competing gangs headed up by secret werewolves during a prohibition-style roaring twenties. Each round, players auction off territory, prestige goods, and access to businesses. These auctions then determine the flow of the game across [four] rounds, whereupon prohibition has been repealed and players determine their success based on what they were able to keep in the collapse.

Complicating these auctions though is the threat that at any time, one of the gang heads may ‘wolf out’, and interrupt the auction to seize the lot, and leave. If one player does this, they get everything in the auction for themselves. If two or more players do it, those werewolves fight and get ejected from the event, resulting in them getting nothing.

Each round consists of a beginning, an auction, and an aftermath to the auction. In the beginning, players gain benefits of their territories and make choices about what to bring to the auction. The auction then happens, and after the players complete the auction, the cards purchased are distributed and set up the beginning of the next round.

Rules

Setup

Shuffle the deck of cash cards. These represent the currency players will bid with. 

Shuffle the deck of resource cards. These represent the territory control, art objects and 

Put the territory board where all the players can access it.

Each player chooses a gang, and takes the territory markers and Claw cards for that gang.

Beginning of Turn

On the first turn, players draw [3] cards and include their claw card and their tap-out card. 

At the start of other turns, players draw their three cards, add their claw and tap-out cards, then territories or goods they have change their options here.

Auction

Depending on the round and number of players, the city shows the size of the first lot (at minimum two cards from the resource deck).

Players place a face-down card in front of them for the first round of bidding. When all players have – or have opted to pass – then each player reveals their card. If two or more players want to continue bidding, the bidding continues.

If at any point, revealing cards, one player reveals a claw card, that player gets to take the lot, and the top card from each of the bidding stacks of other players, then leave the bidding.

If two or more players reveal their claw cards, all of those players are out of the bidding for the round.

After the bidding is over, the player whose bid wins puts those cards into the discard pile. The remaining cards go back to the players who put them forward (?).

When there is only one player remaining in the auction, if there are remaining lots, that player can take one of the last lots for the cost of one card.

If the round runs out of material to bid on, the round ends.

Aftermath

Based on who made successful bids on things like territory or assets, the players select what’s important to them and makes it active. 

Tracing Forebears

What are the games and mechanics I can think of that predate this game’s design and may have inspired it?

For Sale — It’s just a simple auction game that uses fixed currency resources to make the auction challenging. Addressing the fixed currency cards led to the mechanics behind the cards in Moonshiners, which ultimately led to me going ‘oh, that’s the better way of doing it.’

Yes No Banana — A real simple game of making choices based on social reads. Testing the auction mechanic started out with a prototype like Yes No Banana.

Cash n Guns — This is a game with a set collection element.

Abstraction

This is the fictional stuff, and the least developed part so far. Here, have a bulleted list:

I make games out of cards a lot. I like to use cards if I can. Because of that,  If I make an auction game [e1] where the game objects are entirely represented by cards, 

Why isn’t the money fungible? What’s the story there?

Oh wait, the fiction needs you to have things to fight over, and TURF! Turf turf turf, contracts, stuff like that, you’re not just offering up money for points.

The pun of ‘moonshiners.’ Moonshine is important to werewolves, moonshine is a term for lying, and it’s also the criminal alcohol.

This positions the players as traders, dealers, bootleggers

Enrolment

Enrolment is how the rules obscure player intention and turn it into game actions.

Getting Interested In The Auction

I’m interested in auction games. I have made some games that touch on the edges of an auction game, such as Dragon’s Favor, which is a voting game, and Dark Signs in which players have to choose to expend the value of their hands in limited opportunities. 

To simplify as an ‘auction game,’ then, I refer to a game in which players have a property of some known value, and a common resource they can choose to spend that resource on to claim the property. Players have to consider what other players offer for that and are directly competing, but only the player who wins the auction has to pay for it. 

Auctions bring to mind an auctioneer, a coordinator tracking the bids and then increasing, building tension, people being pushed to make decisions until the event resolves. This isn’t how auctions have to go though [e2], and auctions take a lot of forms, but the common representation is this style of auction used for horses and art objects in media. 

This creates a demand for tension and speed that is challenging to maintain and requires an arbiter.

oTHER TYPES OF aUCTION

In City of Heroes the system uses a Secret Bid Auction. In this, a seller puts an object up for sale in an anonymous, untimed auction where they offer a minimum price they are willing to accept. To buy things on this market, buyers place a bid, and the auction system attempts to give the player who posted their goods for the lowest valid price this bid. To facilitate purchases, players are given information about the five most recent sale 

In For Sale the game starts with players bidding one currency for the properties, then using the same properties to bid for the available markets. This mechanic works well but it breaks a little on the fictional level, as it disconnects the actual desirability of the objects from the audience paying for it.

This is a system that needs a central authority though.

aUTOMATIC wINS

What if there was some mechanical out? If you could automatically win one auction in a round of them? Is there some way to balance that? 

There’s an old joke I remember hearing in the context of golfers. A good golfer and a bad golfer have some reason to play against one another. The bad golfer negotiates with the good golfer that he doesn’t need a handicap, but he gets two ‘bingos.’ The good golfer then neglects to investigate what those bingos are, and agrees. The golfers begin, and while the good golfer is lining up a shot, the bad golfer gropes him inappropriately, saying ‘bingo.’ The joke then jumps to the end of the story where the narrator finds them coming back, where the bad golfer has won. The punchline is that the good golfer struggled to play well not because the second bingo ever happened, but in anticipation that it might happen just before every swing. This isn’t a very funny way to tell the joke but I also don’t feel like adding the panache required to deliver the proper punctuation around the phrase ‘grabbed him by the balls and squeezed.’ 

Anticipation of the claw represents the tension I want this game to build around. When one player has the chance to steal an entire lot and all the money on the table, the incentive is to risk as little as possible. But every turn that passes without a player playing the claw creates fewer opportunities for this optimal play. That means that there needs to be a meaningfully large number of opportunities for a player to choose to bid or claw.

If we assume three lots to bid on, then that means players need to place, at minimum, three bids. But if players are meant to be able to increment each other’s bids, then each round of bidding needs to include at minimum two cards. To that end, the minimum player hand needs to be six cards, to ensure that there is a meaningful choice to bid or not bid on a lot and save cards for later lots. This serves as a minimum bound on the hand players have to work with, and a maximum is best considered based on the stuffness of the cards [S?].

fIRST tEST

The first prototype for this game was nine cards from an ordinary deck of playing cards, with three sets of cards, (face, 4 and 5, with the face representing the ). This mechanical structure allowed for a rudimentary execution of the game’s play process, with the question ‘has another player played their face card’ as an element of the tension.

This prototype play experience was not concerned with winning auctions but just the question of how to properly negotiate and anticipate around players using their face cards and the potential winnings of claiming things other players had through the use of the face card. The lesson of this is that multiple rounds of bidding are necessary and it is also necessary to make later rounds necessarily more valuable than earlier rounds, to ensure that whatever winnings a player claims in an early claw is not guaranteed to outweigh the rest of the auctions.

This also suggested making the auction lots partially known. One face up card in each auction.

Stuffness

I know I am biased towards cards. Literally one of the impetus for this project was at its heart the push of getting out of the habit of designing card games after my university projects Middleware and Lily Blade. In the process of making games prior to this project, most of my games have taken the form of an entirely component-free ruleset (games like Dog Bear and The Suits or Simon’s Schism, which, again, all use a deck of playing cards), or are printed on unique cards. Some of my games like The Botch require a non-card element to track currency, to represent the diamonds in those games that the players are fighting over. Contrary to that, there are games that do not have tokens or counters where I have replaced their role with cards, such as Pie Crimes’ score tracker card. In such games, a score or point tracker could be added to the game as a currency system[1].

With all conversations about game design, any given statement about what games are like or what the market abides is befit with dozens of caveats and clarifications. Statements going forwards are about generalities, and each one can be presented with counter-examples. For example, card games are cheaper, they are smaller, they are more convenient, they are simpler and they are more accessible than larger board games; each of these declarations is contradicted by the most popular collectible card game in the world, Magic: The Gathering, but even that clarification is itself refit with caveats. 

I think that card games, by having a standardised unit price and a standardised form factor, can be cheaper. I think that players can approach a deck of cards in ways that encourage them to play: If a game fits in the pocket and contains all its components it is convenient to bring and to play. If the game is played by just shuffling up the cards in the deck and starting, it is easy to enrol players. Where a card shows art and interface it puts players immediately in the context of the fiction of the game. 

Use of Currency

Ignore the bias, though, what can I use currency for in games? 

In this context currency refers to a non-card, fungible game piece that is provided in sufficient abundance and not differentiated from one another. Currency can be used in graduated values, such that players can see (for example) a 10, a 5 and a 1, and not think of them discretely but instead a total of 16. Currency systems in games are common, showing up as paper money in Monopoly and Startups which is by no means comprehensive but those are the examples I am going to use.

The currency in monopoly plays into its fiction and also presents room for interface. The money in Monopoly is famous enough to be its own idiom for nonsense currency, and it has the face of trying to replicate real-world cash bills. Monopoly money is also cheap, colour coded, and lacks for accessibility tools in the name of being easy to produce. The Oink games game Startups uses small, white discs for their ‘points,’ which are worth 1 point on one face. When a player successfully manoeuvres another player into giving one of these discs to another player, at the end of the game, they flip it over, and it becomes worth 3 points. You only do this at the last stage of the game, meaning you don’t have to keep these values distinct from one another, you can’t accidentally mishandle them while handing them to one another in the bulk of the game experience.

Fungible Currency Vs Awkward Currency

Cards as currency represent the ability to make a version of currency that I will refer to as ‘awkward,’ where cards are limited in volume, and their values are fixed and not necessarily readily converted like real currency. In the real world, currency is immensely redundant. If I pay for a $7 purchase with a $10, there is no outfitted storefront that cannot handle returning me the change, because there are not only many ways to make $3 in change, but there are numerous redundant components that present each way. In the context of a game, though, I cannot just provide a player with a million game pieces in a box of infinite variation.

What’s more, truly fungible currency exchanges reduce the ability of the individual game pieces to be interesting or different; if you bid on something, it needs to be unclear how much more that you’ve bid.

There are routes around this! For example, the game could use a numbered tracker, where people draw on whiteboards and determine their bidding that way. Or there could be a central authority that the players trust to ‘run’ the auction, which also opens up the venue to that player being potentially bribed or benefitting from what a product sells at. That however changes the player count dynamics. In that situation, you have a minimum player count increased by one, meaning that a three player game now has a minimum of two players. Such a design seems less likely to be attainable when an instead, zero-trust, decentralised system could be designed instead.

For game play reasons then, to make it so that bids can be anonymised, then the currency cards need to be fixed values. This isn’t all bad: It can mean that drawing a handful of cards can represent a variable quantity of business — and that means that while drawing more cards can get you more money, it doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily guarantee drawing cards pulling you wildly ahead.

Alright, that’s the notes, formatted as best can be reasonably read. Hopefully this is interesting.

(01/52)

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[areeba-paperlla]

Ultimate Diary Round-Up For 2025

If you're looking to get organized in 2025, whether you're experienced or just starting, a diary can be a valuable tool. Modern diaries go beyond appointment tracking, serving as creative outlets, goal-setting companions, and personal reflection spaces. Paperlla’s Ultimate Diary Round-Up for 2025 presents a curated selection tailored to various needs and lifestyles, making it easy to find a diary that aligns with your personal or professional goals for the year.

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With the new year bringing fresh opportunities, having a well-suited diary can help you make the most of it. Diaries offer structured organization for both personal and work goals, while also providing space for creativity and reflection. In an increasingly digital world, writing on paper offers a grounding experience, slowing down time to help you reflect and stay balanced amid a busy life.

Key Features to Consider in a 2025 Diary

When selecting a diary, keep these factors in mind:

Layout: Choose from weekly, daily, monthly, or undated styles to fit your planning needs.

Size: Choose a compact option for easy carrying or go with a larger size for more detailed notes.

Extras: Look for features like habit trackers, goal pages, and motivational quotes for added functionality.

Paperlla's 2025 Diary Selection

Here are some top options from the Ultimate Diary Round-Up:

Classic 2025 Planner: Ideal for traditional planners, offering structured daily and monthly layouts with durable covers for daily use.

Goal-Setter's Diary: Designed for ambitious individuals, with sections for long-term goals, monthly reviews, and habit tracking.

Creative Mind’s Journal: Perfect for artists and writers, with blank pages for free-form ideas alongside weekly planning.

Wellness & Mindfulness Diary: Combines goal setting with wellness features, offering prompts for mindfulness and gratitude tracking.

Undated Flexibility Diary: Ideal for those seeking freedom, allowing you to start anytime and plan only on selected days.

Eco-Friendly Diary: Made from recycled materials for the environmentally conscious planner.

Professional's Planner: Tailored for work, with sections for project planning, meeting notes, and contact lists.

Travel Enthusiast's Journal: A journal for travel lovers, with sections for itineraries, memories, and keepsakes.

Student's Planner: Helps students track assignments, exams, and goals, with motivational study tips.

Family Organizer Diary: An organizer for busy families, complete with meal planning, grocery lists, and individual schedules for family members.

Paperlla’s Ultimate Diary Round-Up offers something for everyone, ensuring 2025 will be your most organized year yet. From setting new goals to building habits or reflecting on personal growth, there's a diary here to enhance your life daily.

[awakeningambition]

Hey everyone!

I’ve decided to use this space as a bit of a diary to track my journey and (hopefully) stay motivated to follow through! Starting Monday, 10/7/2024, I’m kicking off the 3-day military diet, aiming to stick with it for at least four weeks. That means by 10/31, I’ll have completed four rounds of the diet. I’m doing the classic 3-day plan, followed by four days of healthy eating, and repeating the cycle.

In addition to that, I’ll be committing to working out five days a week and getting back on track with my vitamins, which I’ve totally slacked on lately.

This is all part of my bigger plan to level up my life before 2025 hits. I want to kickstart a whole life reset and be completely unrecognizable by my birthday on 5/30/2025. My short-term goal is to lose 15-20 lbs by November 1, and if things are going well, I’ll continue with this plan through New Year’s. Ideally, I’d love to be down 30-40 lbs by then. Since I’m starting as someone who doesn’t work out much (I sit a lot and snack even more), I feel like this is a realistic goal.

Today was all about prepping! I did my grocery shopping, sorted out my vitamins, and dug up some of the workout gear I’ve bought over the years. I also took my starting photos, measurements, and weight, and put together a workout playlist to help get me pumped.

I’ve thought about vlogging the whole experience on YouTube as a way to stay accountable and motivated. Has anyone else done that? Did it help? I like the idea of sharing my progress, goals, and wins with someone besides my husband, but I’m still unsure. Let me know what you think!

Here’s to the start of something new!