I am working on a webdesign commission which has been an inspiring experience. I made the two wallpaper tiles as a sort of an afterburst after I was done with the site graphics.

Last week was an interesting trip into the workings of content management systems, and I feel very tempted to create one of my own because the open source systems I've found don't really suit my needs (and those of potential future clients.)

A slight bump on the road now is my hardware revamp project which is going to take a considerable amount of time and energy this month, what with the backing up of my monstrous photograph archive, digital art projects, obscure game save files and a scattered selection of short stories. Whew ...

My new user icon and literature icon were cropped from my best friend's drawing of a character I relate to. I thought it was time for something completely different.

I want to take on new projects and create things - my only problem right now is that I'm having difficulty picking one and sticking to it. My brain wants to take one thing and play with it until it gets bored, then move on to the next thing.

I've been getting myself in the road of thing-doing and accomplishing through reading books. Curiously, these different books on -ethics, -fun and -usability all collide together in the field of brain science. I've disregarded brain studies before, perhaps because my experience of the people in the field of psychs aren't terribly good. I might be ready to form a second opinion.

I think my most tangible problem of the moment is that I have too many ideas and it's really hard to sort out the best of the best.

Need more books to read, to find these answers and more.

Me and Jehnee went to the national museum last night. They have free admission every Tuesday night. I went there specifically to look at some of their old textiles to copy out some geometrical patterns, which I'm going to adapt in knitting.

They have a temporary exhibition of G.M. Armfelt [link] which was small, but fun.

I bought a book, I blame my low blood sugar. It's a compilation of 1700-1800s manor household recipes of the Mannerheim family. Guides for the brewing of ales, spirits and mead. There's a lemon cake recipe and a ton of interesting cough medicine recipes. I have to try wild rosemary next time I get a cold.

And my grandfather's gotten better. I'm happy.

Life continues being Interesting.

My grandfather was put in a hospital this week because of an infection. The drugs have made him strange. Today I think he believed he was 18 and in a war hospital in the eastern front in the middle of Winter War. He doesn't like hospitals at all and doesn't want to be prodded by doctors.

Dealing is hard. For him, but for me too. It's upsetting me that this had to happen just as I was writing the Penguin.

Thanks, year 2010. I knew you'd top 2009. I just wasn't aware you'd do it in January.

My Christmas has been a very pleasant, relaxing and exciting affair. I hope everyone else has/had a lovely Christmas too! My favourite gift this year was an hour in a blue bubble bath with a book.

I've knit so many presents my hand feels like it's falling off, but I'm having a knitting break and going to do something else wrist-intense instead ...

Tomorrow I'm starting a week-long intense writing marathon, looking forward to it very much. I got wonderful new books to help me.

I wrote The Longest Night [link] for Christmas, a very unrevised word-vomit I felt completely compelled to write for days while I was too busy knitting. The characters are off-stage NPCs from a story I am writing, and I am now getting to know them better.