Would anyone like to sign up for my new arty newsletter? (Photography, doodles, etc). I’m hoping it will help me out with getting back on my feet, creatively.

It’s on PencilBooth and I’ll be sending out the first one this evening..

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Screenshot of On The Ropes by The Wonder Stuff playing on my phone

Holy moly what a track!

I’m sitting in my local Costa, writing for my new art project and this song1 is moving me so much2. It reminds me of younger days and the sheer joy of music I had at that time, and still have. 🎵

  1. on repeat until never ↩︎

  2. totally zero tears in my eyes I promise ↩︎

It’s been a pretty good day. I took my big camera for a walk. I was out for a couple of hours in the heat. (It suddenly got up to around 20C where I live in the last day or so.)

It felt good to go for a dedicated photo walk. To commit a chunk of my day to deliberate creating was a good move. I felt like I was getting into the zone a little bit again.

I nearly always have my darling Ricoh GRii with me everywhere I go but this time I swapped it out for the Nikon Z5. It’s a camera I’m still a little intimidated by. I’m technically proficient with cameras but I get lost in the differences between brands and models. Overwhelmed by the different systems, menus, and terminology they use.

And of course they have their strengths and idiosyncrasies. This is what I’m still learning with the Z5. It’s taking a long time to get to know it. I feel like I never really ever get there with any camera I’ve owned.

Anyway. I really enjoyed my walk and I got a few shots I like.

I would really love to get them out and published soon but will have to see.

I got super tired, not being used to the warm weather and being in the sun for so long. And I kinda zonked out after and have been feeling a bit lost and wiped out since then.

Photography feeds my soul, but I’m so sensitive I have to pace myself.

I have to admit I don’t like having to provide pronouns (or gender) in some situations. But they are definitely important to me.

I usually don’t provide them when they’re optional. Like, in impersonal situations such as signing up for a service, or a website or something.

Socially, it’s important to me that people use the right pronouns. But often, the conversation that arises after providing them can be uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s actually a loaded question.

Because. It doesn’t matter why I have particular pronouns. They’re just the ones I use.

I find it cool that it’s becoming a lot more common for people seem to be generally using They/Them for people they don’t know. Even though it still seems strange to hear.

In some ways I find this is more respectful because it seems to say “I am respecting that you might not want to be asked about pronouns”. On the other hand, I’ve met trans people who are offended by gender neutral pronouns.

I wouldn’t want to be referred to with they/them after having shared my own. But people seem to do this too.

I wonder if we are heading towards gender neutral pronouns becoming normal, usual, and polite. To politely refrain from assumptions, until personal preferences are shared.

Pronouns are weird. But important. I’m becoming more comfortable with people asking. And even sharing them sometimes when I don’t need to.

Mine are she/her.

I’ve been having a successfully productive day today and I’m about to launch my new project. It’s been years in the making!

I’m excited to have given myself a fresh way of sharing my art. Feels really good.

If you’d like to receive the first email, pop me a message. Email link below this post

I officially make the best hot cacao ever.

It’s a fact.

The Photos page plug-in for Micro.blog was just updated by @kottkrig at my request.

The update means I can now also adjust the number of columns of photos on my /photos page. The plug-in already allows for filtering by category, and the ability to show all photos in a post.

Thanks again!

Making a new intention:

I intend to spend less time consuming, and more time creating. For this is what gives me energy and feeds my soul.

It’s been a really rough week/ten days for my mental health. But I feel like I’m coming out of it a bit tonight. Fingers crossed I can keep getting back to myself again. Baby steps.

I’ve been using SiftRSS for the last few days. It’s so useful! I was subscribed to a particular YouTube channel that publishes a lot of Shorts. I’ve now unsubscribed and instead use SiftRSS to filter out those posts that contain #shorts in the title.

Soundscape by the pond: Wind in the trees; birdsong; ducks; air traffic; a train. Bliss! Here:

https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/132229/2024/20240430-1058-soundscape-abney.mp4

📷

Fallout. Wow! I watched 2 episodes last night. And the other 6 tonight. Just awesome in every way. 📺

Today, I pulled 230GB of recent Fortnite gameplay videos off my PS5 for archiving. They are precious memories of fun times with the kids.

It’s a lot of data. But worth it. Some of our games are hilarious 🎮

Screenshot of Yoga Means Union by Ambulance Ltd playing on my phone

I wish this band had made more music. I love this track. Perfect summer vibes 🎵

When Costa is selling bacon butties for half price at 2pm, and I haven’t eaten yet 1 🥓

  1. I order double ↩︎

I received a notification that my photos were ready in Hipstamatic. And it took me through this little process of opening an envelope and pulling the photos out one-by-one. Very cute!

YouTube pleasures for my soul

  • Birdsong and natural soundscapes
  • Sustainable living channels
  • Scandinavian / Nordic lifestyle
  • Artists
  • Photography (a very narrow subset of this)
  • Travel / Van life / Wilderness / Exploration
  • Scotland

Screen shot of my Hipstamatic membership page at https://hipstamatic.app/@Aeryn

Recently, the Hipstamatic X app on iOS has received a much needed upgrade. So I’ve been playing around with it today after a few years of hardly using it. I’m impressed! I grabbed a few photos today on my walk using my home made preset called Thistle, which I updated to add one of the flashes (not sure I like it but I love my base preset).

The photos are set to “develop later”. A cute idea! Apparently I’ll get a notification later when they’re ready..

Here’s my neglected membership page: https://hipsta.app/@Aeryn

I watched a little Goldcrest out of my kitchen window this morning. It was collecting moss from off a brick wall. Such a beautiful little bird!

Blog Notes and Changes to Being Me, and Art by Aeryn

I decided to split this blog up.

aeryn.me

It all began as a catch-all blog on the Micro.blog platform (previously on Blot). Just for anything I was working on.

💜💜💜

And that suited me very well. I’m a haphazard creator and just need to go with that until stuff begins to make sense.

Then Micro.blog upgraded their

Read More →

I’ll be closing my Bluesky account. It’s really not for me. I don’t think any kind of social media is. I tried. I left the main ones in the last few years and I thought maybe Bluesky would somehow be different for me.

Today has been a day