This month was just all over the place. Getting used to this "summer schedule" my mom insists is hard because it means half of my time will be spent away from my apartment. Either by spending time at the cottage, having quick family get-togethers, or helping-out the bakery during special events

[yes, even if I have certain feeling towards how they treated me in the past. I'm still willing to work for them in very short bursts...though, I might not do these for very long either as they started doing them more frequently]

Top that up with not only the infrequent power outages, but also the super annoying 24 hour long internet outage I recently experienced and you have an almost completely unplanable month.

That doesn't mean I didn't have any fun during that time. I had lots of fun. The only problem is I have issues living with a chaotic schedule. It's hard to stay motivated and keep the momentum with my own projects when I'm out and about with family members, or when things take a sudden shift. Too much playing catch-up or pleasing family members, and not enough "me time" is all I'll say.

~~Art Stuff~~

Didn't really do much unfortunately.

Been mostly chipping away at my little birthday drawing, and my animation I last showed-off ages ago. I'm trying to experiment if warming-up with my animation will make it easier to slip into drawing my birthday art.

So far the results are that I tend to put more focus on my animation instead...may need more testing on that.

At the very least I made it past another little milestone with my animation, so I can at least show that off:

~~Photography Stuff~~

This month I decided to take a few photos of how my landlord has been "taking care" of these buildings

I took more pics, but I don't want to dox myself.

In general the landlord hasn't really taken care of any of their buildings he owns. The place practically looks abandoned with how the grass is super long, and the buildings are slowly falling apart.

Thankfully, not long afterwards the guy hired someone to quickly mow down this mini forest that's been building-up for over 6 months.

~~Phone Stuff~~

Here's something that'll throw everyone who hasn't followed me for a loop: I like keyboard phones! The reason is pretty simple: I like feeling something when I type over using the touchscreen.

So about a year or two ago I bought this Unihertz phone:

Phone runs fine, keyboard is nice, and it does everything I need. However overtime the keyboard started getting unresponsive, mainly after going on trips to the cottage. Guess the dirt keeps going into the keyboard (despite me putting away my phone whenever I go outside there).

I tried doing temporary fixes like spraying contact cleaner in the edges of the keyboard for a while which revived it for a little bit, but now its just suddenly got way worse.

At the very least Unihertz sells the individual keyboard on their site, and the phone is super easy to take apart completely. My new plan is to replace the keyboard and buy a holster for this thing to keep as much of the dust and dirt out of it.

It's just while the part are being delivered I have to take refuge on my previous daily driver: The BlackBerry Torch 9800

Yeah, to my surprise this thing still works 100% even after putting it through the same amount of abuse as the Unihertz phone.

[I think the slide mechanism helped keep the keyboard in good shape]

I'm just limited to calling, basic texting, and note taking as everything else shut-down after 2020 (and even then it was barely running). Though, that's what I normally use my phone for anyway, so it's not that big of a hit. The only thing I miss is using Discord, and doing quick research

Part of me still has a soft spot for this old BlackBerry, and I want to find ways to extend its capabilities, but I know it's a losing battle...maybe someday

[Fun fact: almost this entire section along with everything below was written entirely on my BlackBerry]

~~Conclusion~~

Last month was absolutely packed!

It's just too bad I couldn't find a way to squeeze my projects in the middle of all that. Hopefully, this month will be better...despite it being just as packed.

Gonna have to really think of something to get back on my feet to plow through all this.

Well regardless, that's all I have for now.

See you next post!