alexa-alcantara

[alexa-alcantara]

NEW VERSION. :)

#this is cruel when it's all of them!! #but if you're truly holding me at gunpoint: #My friends you bow to no one #I ALWAYS tear up during this scene no matter how often I rewatch #LOTRthoughts

[alexa-alcantara]

I recently had surgery, and at the time I came home, I had both my cat and one of my grandma's cats staying with me.

- Within hours of surgery, I wake up from a nap to my cat gently sniffing at my incisions with great alarm.

- I was not allowed to shower the first day after surgery, and the cats, seeing that The Large Cat is not observing its cleaning ritual, decided I must be gravely disabled and compensated by licking all the exposed skin on my arms, face, and legs.

- I currently have to sleep with a pillow over my abdomen because my cat insists on climbing on top of me and covering my incisions with her body while I sleep (which is very sweet but not exactly comfortable without the pillow). She also lays across me facing my bedroom door, presumably on guard for attackers who may try to harm me while I'm sleeping and injured.

That's love. 🐈‍⬛🐈❤️

[alexa-alcantara]

And how do I decipher which one is which without subjecting the "not-neglect-proof" to its doom in the process?

Went with the intention to buy one plant...came back with three...

...I do not possess a green thumb.

[alexa-alcantara]

i understand the appeal of publishing "fic with the serial numbers filed off" as original work but i also feel like. what makes something a good fic is at odds with what makes something a good original story.

#thoughts travel far

[alexa-alcantara]

Went with the intention to buy one plant...came back with three...

...I do not possess a green thumb.

#let's see how long those plants stay alive

[alexa-alcantara]

due to sleep inflation 1 hour of sleep is now worth 37 minutes

[alexa-alcantara]

I never realized how seldom I take any photos until I'm desperately combing through all my photos to find a suitable portrait of grandpa to display at his funeral.

What a fool I've been. What a complete and utter fool. How come I don't have a good photo of him?!

Moral of the story, take more photos. So you don't end up like me sobbing over this ridiculous dilemma.

#I went through the stack of old photos too..they're basically all vacation photos..or group photos #I can't pick a vacation photo for a funeral 😭 #but there aren't any other! 😭 #I'll have to scan a vacation pic and crop a portrait out of it don't I? 😭 #I knew I'm photo lazy but never would I've guessed the situation is this bad #why am I the worst whyyyy

[alexa-alcantara]

me seeing a mutual's happy post: "hell yeah buddy :)" *hits like*

me seeing a mutual's sad/vent post: "aww no buddy :(" *hits like*

#this

[alexa-alcantara]

reblog to give a strawberry to the person you reblogged this from

[alexa-alcantara]

#“That’s the problem with gods; their pleasure and their wrath often look the same.” sounds like it could be a dialogue or thought #in the PJO books honestly #the books. mind you. not the show. the show could never come up with such a raw line

[alexa-alcantara]

@scleroticstatue

boop!

[alexa-alcantara]

rb and tell me what’s your most re watched movie.. and be honest

#LOTR

[alexa-alcantara]

Writing advice time. No, I’m not the one giving the advice; don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m stuck. What do you guys do when you’re stuck planning/writing the middle of a story and don’t really know where to go next?

[alexa-alcantara]

What to do when you can’t write:

All writers have those days when the words just Don’t. Flow. Where, no matter how hard we try, our pens scratch scribbles on our paper instead of letters. It’s not a fun place to be. The one thing you can’t do is let those days turn themselves into weeks and months. 

I’ve been there often enough myself to develop a number of ways to shake myself out of a writing funk and I’d like to offer them to you. Try one. Try them all. Find out what works for you and get to writing again. 

Start with a small goal and let it grow. Tell yourself you just want to write one sentence. Then one paragraph. You put the frog in lukewarm water, and then turn the burner on. 

Try using a progress tracking chart, like this one by ArtsyAndreaM on Deviant Art.

Similarly, buy a pack of stickers and place one on your calendar/planner/diary for every 500 words you write that day.

Tell a friend your writing goal and have them hold you accountable to it. If they’re interested in what you’re writing you can even send them your work at the end of each day/week. 

 Listen to inspiring speeches by authors you like, like one of these by Neil Gaiman. 

Give yourself permission to write something terrible. Something terrible is something, at least.

Print out some inspiring essays and quotes and post them on the wall above your desk. NaNoWriMo pep talks can be especially great. 

Write a scene in your head. It doesn’t count if it’s in your head, so you don’t have to worry about it being terrible. If it isn’t terrible, put it on paper. 

Go to a coffee shop or library full of other people working. It just might be enough to guilt you into working too. 

Give yourself 10 minutes on Write or Die, where there are consequences for stopping even for a few seconds. 

Use Writer’s Block and block yourself from everything on your computer except a blank page for a number of minutes or words.  

Write in a journal. Write a letter. Anything to get any words out of your head. 

Reread one of your favorite books. Remind yourself why you want to write in the first place. 

Be honest about when you’re procrastinating, like when you’re writing blog posts or tidying up your desk, and when you’re actually doing something that will help you write. 

#advice

[alexa-alcantara]

My depression fluctuates and right now I'm in a funk; too down to write while at the same time I'm down that I'm not writing. Any advice?

Damned if you do; damned if you don’t. It’s a horrible curse and I’m sorry you feel this way. 

There isn’t much advice I can give you without understanding your specific situation but I can give you that one Neil Gaiman quote that you guys have seen me type out into the response box like a million times at this point:

If you only write when you’re inspired you may be a fairly decent poet, but you’ll never be a novelist because you’re going to have to make your word count today and those words aren’t going to wait for you whether you’re inspired or not.You have to write when you’re not inspired. And you have to write the scenes that don’t inspire you. And the weird thing is that six months later, a year later, you’ll look back at them and you can’t remember which scenes you wrote when you were inspired and which scenes you just wrote because they had to be written next.The process of writing can be magical. …Mostly it’s a process of putting one word after another. 

It’s hard to write when you feel this way. I’ve put off answering this ask for months precisely because of this feeling, but sometimes it’s as simple as sitting with your computer or notebook or whatever in front of you and getting down one word at a time. Give yourself permission to write without direction - you can go back when you feel better and do the more concrete stuff. Even if you have just one really weird-sounding sentence in an hour of doing that, you’ve made progress and change begets change. 

(And about feeling bad about not writing - learn to give yourself a break.)

Good luck! I know this is a late response. I hope kindly that this feeling has passed, at least for the moment. -T

(edit: if followers have further advice please feel free to reply/reblog with some! -t)

#advice

[alexa-alcantara]

hi everyone! i’ve been dealing with depression since may 2017. though everyone here on the studyblr community seems to be well intentioned when it comes to advise on mental health, i noticed that a lot of people feel uncomfortable, knowing that a significant part of them may not have ever experienced any kind of mental illness – note that i used the term ‘uncomfortable’, not ‘angry’. sure drinking water is important, but how is that going to help me, mentally? 

you see, i got no other knowledge about the subject than my own experiences, conversations with doctors and basic research. i can’t guarantee any of this will be helpful to you, but i can share what i’ve been passing through and try to reach a more equal level to those who are also dealing with mental illness and school. here are some things to note:

settling a time for taking medicine

this one can sound just as silly as drinking water, though it’s very important to the right functioning of the medicine you’re taking. it’s simple chemistry and you’ll find better results by doing that. your doctor will advise you to do so, then listen to all of their reccomendations

ok, so you’re taking medicine and has settled a time for doing it, great! now, you should turn it into a task. write it down on your journal, programme a phone alarm, or even find an app for this, so you won’t skip the correct time for doing it

however, you’re probably going to skip time for one day or another, and it’s absolutely ok, since it doesn’t become something frequent!

sleeping

well, sleeping is a quite complicated one: apparenty, depression can make you wether sleep too much or not sleep at all, and that’s s my case. i would wake up every night and spend 40-50 min awake. it took me 5 different pills until i found the one that made my sleep enough and regenerating again

report your sleeping problems to your doctor. sleeping medicine can lead your mind to some weird dreams, as it’s done to me, and your doctor will know how to handle this

doing stuff you like

depression is well known for making people uncapable of doing all the things they once were passionate about. i know. however, you have to keep in mind that you’re now starting a new phase, the getting better phase, now that you’ve been taking medicine and seeing the doctor. in time, maybe the day you start taking medicine or maybe not so early, you’ll return to do what gives you pleasure

make sure that your hobby doesn’t feel like an obligation and happens spontaneously 

maybe you don’t have a hobby, a hobby that feels like the stereotypical ones, like drawing, singing or playing tennis, and that’s alright: find something you do without any blame and stick to it 

studying for exams

this can be a great oportunity for you to try new studying methods. depression injuries your academic productivity, and by the end of the semester the only you wish is your school year to be over; then all you want is your notes to be efective

there are tons of study tips for your here on tumblr. don’t be afraid of trying a new note taking system or doing those vocabulary things that are so popular here

i know it doesn’t feel like the correct time for experimenting; you have to make it to the next year and shouldn’t get too excited planning what you’re gonna do, and then end up in a mess bigger than before. i have this thoughts frequently. but, during my last exams seasion, i was just so tired!!! i didn’t read every book, didn’t take revision notes that covered up everything in detail, but what i did felt effective

trust me, neither you nor these people on studyblr community can study everything to their 100%, even if they are mentally healthy. that’s impossible, so don’t push yourself too hard

receiving exams results

well, you can probably guess that this is about receiving bad results. good grades need no preparation for, in contrast to bad ones… erm, but we have to cover them up: your effort may not work. you may fail some subjects. it is a possibility, and it doesn’t mean that you should’ve done more or that it’s just a big picture that represents how you were never able to develop studying skills – sorry! i have these thoughts

you can always work on prevention. prevention from failing and prevention from feeling completely helpless if you do

letting your school know

you should consider letting your school teachers and headmaster know about your condition. this way, they’ll get to understand your lack of motivation and the occurrent classes that you’ve been skipping or simply away from

you can also get the chance to take tests at home or separately from the others, if that’s how you wish to

getting a legal absence

you can get a legal absence from school, if you understand that you’ll feel better at home. i decided it was the best for me to do and had my parents, doctors and school supporting my decision. if this is something that often cross your mind, make sure you have thought it through, then you’ll have to deal with all the bureaucracy, but hopefully it won’t take too long

final considerations

keeping a journal

the day i started taking medicine, i decided i would start a journal to monitor my feelings and simply write down moments or things i’d like to remember later on. both my psychologist and psychiatrist supported my idea. maybe you could enjoy doing so, or going for the things i did well today challenge

treating yourself

it can be a hobby. we all know how life is busy. if you just can find an hour when you can enjoy your body lotions, do some skin care or simply wash your hair, then lucky you are

though depression can depravate your want to do some of the self caring, you could find a way to reanimate these habits, when you do it only in order to take care of your well-being

starting a studyblr, studygram or a studytube

i believe that this one leads to two possibilities: wether you’ll feel motivated or pressured to study and recover your loss. if, analysing the whole situation, you understand that the former suits you, then you already know what to do

however, if you think that that studying strategy will be overwhelming, maybe you should keep yourself in touch with study tips and all of this stuff through the tags: study motivation, studyblr, studyspo, study notes

and here are my favourite studyblrs: @studyquill, @birdkostudies, @studyign, @studyrose, @ploverstudies, @determinationandcaffeine, @delthenerd, @noodledesk

hobbies during bad days

i’m so glad i’ve got my hobbies to use them in my favour! they can feel pretty productive when i can’t function to the productivity patterns. my psychiatrist recommended me not to pin them to my weekly activities, so i wouldn’t have to worry about them. maybe this strategy suits you as well

i believe this is pretty much everything for now. ahhhh please let me know if any of this sounds helpful and thank you very much for reading!!! 

wishing you the very best on earth!!!

#advice

[alexa-alcantara]

Friend. Dearest mutual. Lovely follower. Random passer-by. I know we haven't shared a fandom in 5 years. I know we never talk. I know we may only barely recognize each other's icons, if that. I just want you to know...

Boop