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by cableshaft 2303 days ago
I do read books. Nowhere near as many as my wife, who's read 16 books already so far this year, but I do read books.

I've finished three books so far this year. The 3rd and 4th books in The Expanse series, and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (which includes the short story that the Arrival movie was based on). I'm about 4 chapters into Don Quixote also, which I decided I'd finally read this year.

And that's with the following distractions:

* Letting myself enjoy and complete a 25 hour visual novel video game (AI: The Somnium Files, for anyone curious)

* 15 hours of training to be an ESL tutor

* Preparing lesson plans and meeting with my ESL Learner on a weekly basis

* Taking a 6 week travel writing course at my local library

* Polishing up 4 different board game prototypes, writing rules, filming videos and entering them into two different game design competitions

* Coding two different video games I'm hoping to release sometime this year

* Writing a first draft of a short story for an annual short story anthology that my local writing group does every year

* Hosting a monthly playtest night for local game designers

* Having a wife and two dogs that demand time and attention every day

* Working at a company that has 1-2 network outages each week (at least the past month and a half) that requires me to sit for hours after work coordinating with network and server teams to fix the issue

* Getting mentally prepared and brushing up technical knowledge for the inevitable interview gauntlet I'll need to undergo to find a new job.

I'm sure there's things I'm leaving out. This is all since January 1st this year, btw.

I also write novels off and on, I just don't have any finished yet. Lots of first drafts from participating in Nanowrimo for 10 years. It's a lot harder for me to revise and finish them, though, especially with juggling all my other interests (game design and development usually takes priority). Planning to attend a writer's retreat in two weeks to try to get one in a state that I don't mind other people reading it and giving feedback.

Also despite all this, I waste a ton of time on the internet and really need to nip it in the bud if I want to keep juggling so many balls in the air. And I do still see most Marvel movies. Not DC movies though, except Shazam!