Gregory Short

So, I discovered that I simply cannot use fountain pens--or any other permanent or semi-permanent marking devices--in my planner. It's no fault of the planner. It's me. I make too many mistakes. Using Wite-Out to cover up a mistake, which was covering up a previous mistake, makes for one hell of an ugly planner. And my writing is ugly enough. I don't need anything else to add to the ugly.

Fortunately, I had another blank notebook waiting in the wings. I took the opportunity to rethink my planner. My monthly and weekly layouts were surprisingly similar, one of the few differences being the amount of space allotted for each day. The monthly had my main to-do's while the weekly included the little to-do's required to complete the main to-do's. The flaw in the weekly layout was that a two-page spread covered just six days; I couldn't even see a whole week at a glance. Not to mention, the days weren't labeled with days of the week. I'm sure if I had kept at it, I would have been utterly confused.

I was going for a minimalist, linear design--rather than using lines laboriously drawn with a ruler, I simply used dots at what would be the beginnings and ends of lines. This led to my downfall. When dating the sections, I mistook the bottom-left dot as the start of another day. No, sir, that was the bottom of the page. I'll spare you the details of correcting my mistake, which then led to another mistake, which then led me to throwing my hands up.

I wasn't down for the count. What if I started again skipping a monthly section to focus on weekly layouts? What if I used "crop marks" to better define the sections without resorting to a ruler? What if I abandoned my beloved fountain pens for the pile of Pilot Frixion pens, markers, fineliners, and highlighters, all easily erasable?

With a new, more traditional two-page weekly spread, my new planner is marvelous. And the two or three mistakes I already made have been erased into oblivion. Yet, somehow, my math went all wobbly and the notebook will only house half a year. Luckily, I have one more identical notebook on hand, so I'm covered.

This is my first year taking a deep dive into planning. I'm not really the planning type. But sometimes we have to leave our old ways behind so we can grow and learn. And grow and learn shall be the way in 2025.

Can I just repost the last post? I think I was writing about forgetting to blog. And that's exactly what I've done.

I'm trying to get back on track with virtually everything, so here are some highlights:

• Blog again? Blog again!
• Bullet journaling: I never got into it because I thought you had to do fancy setups, including the use of rulers, lines, and praying you don't make an ugly thing. Discovered a minimalist setup and it is really working so far!
• Daily writings: I've been mostly good about my daily writings, motivated by my love for fountain pens and inks. I was forced to switching from my beloved Hobonichi to Midori. It's a new love! (Link is an Amazon Affiliate link which shows me some love with a small commission from your purchase. Thank you!)
• Back to school: I'm gonna finally get my Bachelor's in Business Management if it's the last thing I do. I start my Biology lab on Monday. Pray for me.
• This is the year I kill my inner hoarder. I have too much stuff. It needs to go.
• My fountain pen channel on YouTube, Pensane, is back in full swing, and I have a great idea for a new channel that fills a niche in the oversaturated coffee topic.
• I need to get back to volunteering at Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center. I miss those cats! (The dogs, too, but I need to get official training on dog walking.)
• I need to seriously get back on track with my weight, exercise, and overall health. A food dehydrator received for Christmas will be one effective tool for making healthy snacks.
• I need to dive deep into audiobooks. I mean, let's be real. Physical books lull me to sleep. In a good way. But it's not good for reaching even the humblest reading goals.
• Learning Spanish: I felt like I was hitting a wall with Duolingo, so I have switched to Babbel. So far, so good.
• I may need to revisit this list. I know I'm forgetting to mention something.

I am looking forward to making 2025 a much better year than 2024, which, quite frankly, was an expletive year.

Oh, yeah. I have this blog. Sitting here. Waiting.

I often forget to blog. Probably (partly) because I have a JIRL. Yeah, the world needed another acronym, so I created one. Just now. Journal In Real Life. As in: a paper journal you write in with a pen. Or a pencil, preferably 6B. Of course, Gran would say I'm hoity-toity by using a fountain pen. I would say she was hoity-toity for not only using the term hoity-toity, but teaching it to her grandchildren. Someday, I'll write down all the Gran-isms. There were a lot of them.

It's right that I'm thinking of her at the moment. Today would have been her birthday. She was an obliviously happy person, not afraid to sit on the floor to play board games with her grandchildren. She was a good cook, and made a chocolate malt to die for. Her red cinnamon apple dumplings were a treasure, the recipe for which is tragically lost forever.

What started as a blog post about forgetting to blog turned into a small tribute to my grandma. Happy birthday, Gran!

This was my first attempt at a poured acrylic painting. It was made using an inexpensive set found at a discount store. The "canvas" is more like a textured piece of cardboard. But it came out suprisingly well. The colors aren't captured correctly by the scanner, but the spirit of the painting is intact. I suspect this won't be my last.

Side note: it's difficult giving abstract art a title, but "What Happens in the Dark" popped in my head. So there it is.