Update: #1. Propose a written text for publication

Completed additional proposals of graphic novel memoir to:

- Iron Circus Comics

- Verso Books

I appreciated completing these ones, as they had specific questions that allowed me to reflect on such ideas as chapter outcomes and themes.

Still more to follow when different specs are met.

Original goal list posted here

Completed: 1. Propose a written text for publication

Well, it's taken almost six years (this goal was an incomplete carry over from my 2015 - 2018 list), but I completed and proposed the first 17 pages of my graphic novel memoir to:

- Top Shelf Productions

- Drawn and Quarterly

- Avatar Press

- Soaring Penguin Press

- Nobrow Ltd.

- Blank Slate Books

More to follow when different specs are met.

Original goal list posted here

Completed: #9. Clean up / transfer files from my old Mac to my new one

As my new Mac contains mostly Cloud storage, I stored all pertinent files on an external hard drive, which I checked to ensure could be opened on my new Mac.

The unfortunate thing is that my CS3 version of Photoshop is no longer considered relevant and cannot be loaded on to my new Mac, even though I have the discs, serial numbers, and an external disc drive.

Regardless, I was motivated to accomplish this goal mostly by the possibility of selling my old Mac for casual use or parts. However, the process of guaranteeing security on a computer so old proved to be more difficult than I anticipated.

I learned the following in the wee hours: This computer is too old for an internal factory reset function. I then attempted to manually delete all files before realizing that, even if I were to wipe it clean and do a 35-step secure deleted safe function, the computer would still be inaccessible to a new user without reprogramming. As a result of the aforementioned complication, in order to do this, I would require the original load discs from my 2007 purchase. I spent an hour or two looking for them in any possible location in my place (nevermind that I've moved four times since 2007), but no cigar.

I also learned that, before they were so ancient, Apple used to mail you replacement discs. No longer. I also couldn't find any for this version on eBay. 

I stored the computer away in a box for now, incase I should happen to find such a disc in the future. For now, the goal as listed has been accomplished.

Original goal list posted here

#15. Read and write more poetry

Crashing the Third Wave

As a feminist, I'm not supposed to like
Ernest Hemingway,
Neil DeGrasse Tyson,
Sherman Alexie,
or the song Going to Georgia.

----

Sister

With you, I'm always trying to mend a bridge
I'm not sure how I burned.

Original goal list posted here

Completed: #15. Read and write more poetry

I've been doing both, the past few days. Here's mine:


Precious Little
(Pregnancy in the time of Corona)

I grew you in quarantine,
while the sick burned
and the healthy misplaced their minds
somewhere outside that they were no longer allowed to go,
while I lost my confidants to their living rooms
and my family - maybe temporarily - to disagreements 
over whether or not I should go to my appointments alone
(a precursor, I worry, to months of your father and I raising you blindly on the island of our backsplit home).

I grew you in quarantine
and you kicked like a fighter,
(like the baby I worried would never arrive,
as if to say: I'm here.)
(like a person who will face the world with the fire of her mother's convictions, and the strength of her father's certainty.)
(like the child I imagine, long-limbed and sharp-elbowed, with brow furrows that communicate everything.)

I grew you in quarantine,
where I tried to build a world for you from precious little,
in a home we do not own
in a city that does not hold you unless you have the money to make it yours.
I drew you crude birds of beads and woodburn,
and imagined one Spring we'd camp out in the backyard to watch their vibrant colours and songs come to life,
that the dark would close in and we'd count the stars,
and I'd hold you close, like when your home was my body.

Original goal list posted here

Completed: #34. Try 10 different beading projects

10/10: Tiny Flower Bracelet

I used this tutorial.

Original goal list posted here

Progress #34. Try 10 different beading projects

9/10: Medicine Pouch for my Daughter

Been busy gestating a tiny human for the past five months, but this COVID-19 social distancing is leaving me with little else to do but reading and crafts.

I made this medicine pouch for my to-be daughter, Joni. I put the four sacred medicines and a piece of beach glass from Gaspé inside. The rest of its special contents, I will tell her, are up to her.

It is an Eastern Bluebird. They extend their range to Southern Ontario only during breeding season, so I've yet to see one in person, but I hope to, someday. I hope to raise Joni to love birds and the outdoors. We'll see.

I like that I have received most of my beading materials - fabric scraps, beads, threads - as gifts or in trades. It feels traditional. Authentic.

Original goal list posted here