365 days of photography, day 365

So the inevitable has finally happened: I’ve lost my main writing client. It’s not the end of the world and I’m not going to go out and rant about the client (it would be massively unprofessional if I did) but it does make me step back and take stock of the situation. I just lost my main source of income and it happened faster than I expected, so now I’m playing catch-up while I scramble to find other revenue streams.

I’m not massively worried by this development, however. It’s not like there is no work out there. I’ll get through this, it’s just going to be a hard couple of weeks while other projects come to the forefront. That’s why I missed today’s comic update, because I was busy putting in bids for work and putting together proposals for various projects. I don’t want the comic to end because all my time is taken up with work hunting because the comic is a revenue stream as well, but sometimes it has to go on hold for a day.

Speaking of writing, those clowns over at The Sun and The Metro have been trying to put transgendered people back in their place after a transperson dared to speak out at the Leveson enquiry. Today The Sun is running a hotline for people who know where the transman who just had a baby lives, so they can hound him.

Meanwhile, The Metro (whose only redeeming feature was it running Nemi, until I realised they run it at least a month behind Dagbladet and they don’t always get the translations right either) ran a front page exposé on a five-year-old girl, including her full name and where she lives, just because she’s trans. You can’t get any lower than that.

I got so angry that today’s video both ran over time and contains a lot of swearing. Watch at work at your peril.

As you may have noticed from today’s photograph, the 365 Days of Photography project is finally over. I got through the Year of Hell, as I’m calling most of 2011, in one piece and I managed to keep snapping those pictures while I was at it. Having looked through the photographs today I can definitely say that although my life may have fallen to pieces from May to January, I still took some damn good photos – and yes I know that sounds totally without modesty but I still think some of these pictures are pretty damn good.

In other news, I finally submitted an application to join the RAF Reserves. I have been wanting to do this for a while and I’ve discussed it with Jennifer at length but it was talking with her grandfather last night that made me finally send in the form. I don’t know if I’ll get in. I don’t know if I’ll pass the fitness test. Hell, with my eyesight I don’t even know if I’ll pass the medical. All that aside, I’m glad I applied because you never know until you try.

I’ll keep you informed about how I get on.

'Paints' by me, via Flickr

It’s funny how even the smallest of things can change how good or bad a day is. I woke with difficulty this morning because my sleep has been disrupted for the last few days thanks to an illness, so I knew making today a good day was going to be a struggle.

The reason I didn’t just go back to bed was that I had to go to hospital for blood tests. I missed my appointment on Monday because at the moment, dates and scheduling are a bit of a problem for me. I’m getting better with them as I continue to recover but for the moment, I’m a little reliant on others to remind me of things I’m supposed to be doing.

So I rushed out of the house to get to my appointment because my blood has to be tested while there is still a noticeable amount of lithium in my system, which equates to it being taken around 12 hours after I took my last lithium tablet. That gives a small window of time and I was determined to meet it.

So when I got into town and realised I had left all the documentation for my blood tests behind, I got rather upset. I headed home as quickly as I could but my moods were severely shaken by the whole ordeal and I ended up sobbing to Jennifer, who called her parents and asked if they could drive me to the hospital. Looking back now, I can see why she did this. I was in no fit state to go out by myself.

So my father-in-law drove me to the hospital and waited for me while the doctors stuck needles into my arm, failed to find the vein, and then stuck me again. When they were finished making me look like a pincushion, they stuck my other arm and took blood from that. This reminded me a lot of the problems the doctors had taking blood samples when I was admitted on the 12th of January, only at least this time they could have taken a sample from my wrists if everything else failed.

After the doctors were finished, my father-in-law drove me home again and I went back to bed for three hours. That extra bit of sleep changed my moods entirely. I’m actually feeling okay now. The stresses of the day have washed away and I’m ready to get on with work again.

It’s strange how sleep changes moods, isn’t it? From now on, I’m determined to get a proper night’s sleep so I don’t end up screwing over my day and the days of those around me.

In other news, I recorded two videos yesterday but ran out of time to process them, so they are now today’s episodes of Nobmouse and ZJKR. I’ll add them below, so you can enjoy them (or not – it’s your choice).

I tried running the Nobmouse episode with Google’s computer-generated subtitles. I recommend you do, too. They are rather funny.

Speaking of videos, I’m currently putting together the guest list for a new series of The April Kohl Show. If you do anything fun online and want to talk about it, I’d love to discuss it with you. Email me or contact me within Second Life – I’m in there as April Kohl – so we can discuss getting you on the show.

'The best medicine,' by me, via Flickr

Speaking from personal experience (is there any other way?) the key to successful recovery from a life-changing problem is all down to setting up and maintaining a routine. I have yet to fully sort out my routine but because I have been working toward developing one, I am starting to get better. Life is starting to get better too and even though it has been less than two weeks since everything fell apart for me, I can now see there is a way to set things right again and move on with my life.

The bruises are still healing but time fixes everything, as they say. I’m on the road to recovery and if I maintain the routine I am developing, I will not only manage to pay the bills, get accounts in order and keep them in order but I will also manage to complete the 365 days of photography project without a missed photograph (it has been very hard to keep that going sometimes but now I’m near the end, being able to look back on the collection I’ve put together is fantastic) and I’ll also have two active YouTube channels to boot!

The routine is a fairly simple one. I get up around 7-7.30 am, read for a while in the bath while I wake up (a cup of tea helps with this), then read the Internet while I have breakfast. After that, I’ll either start on researching the articles I’m going to write or, if the light is good, I’ll record my videos. I record two videos each day; one is a topical comedy show with news and law thrown in for good measure, the other is a vlog.

Speaking of topical news shows, here is today’s. It’s both news and law but it’s mainly opinion.

If I’ve recorded, I edit the videos and set them to upload while I begin work on writing the articles. If I didn’t record yet, I write the articles. When I take a break from the articles (and I’ll need one because there’s only so much typing I can do in one sitting right now – my head is still not fully together) I either record and edit my videos then set them to upload while I finish work, or I watch videos on YouTube. At some point during all this, I have lunch with Jennifer.

This will usually take me all day to complete and I aim to finish around 6 in the evening but so far I’ve usually been finishing around 8 pm. Once I’m done, the evening is mine. I like to draw the next day’s comic in the evening while watching a film, listening to an audiobook or maybe listening to a podcast. It’s nice.

Then, once everything is done and the comic is uploaded, I settle down with Jennifer to watch a film, or maybe a couple of episodes of Doctor Who.

It’s a nice routine, and one I never thought I’d have. Routines used to bother me because I preferred to have a life where I did what I wanted, when I wanted. Now, I prefer some structure to my life because it keeps my head together. Maybe that’s the result of my life crashing down in pieces around me or maybe I just finally grew up. Who knows? I don’t.

Anyway, it’s about time I stopped writing now so I’ll leave you with today’s vlog and I’ll see you later!