It’s another introduction post! Again! A little over two years later! Will it work this time? Will Alex follow through and actually update this blog once a week like she hopes? Only time can tell!
The Obligatory Story and Why You Should Maybe Stick Around
I’ll be honest friends, trying to start a blog while at the same time starting grad school? Not the best or most realistic idea I’ve ever had but if anything, I’ve always been a very big dreamer.
The blog ending up taking a back seat to life back in 2017, shortly before my 28th birthday. I was just starting grad school, in my third year of full-time teaching (full year evaluation including SLOs and Danielson Framework Domains 1-4), and trying to pay down a nice chunk of credit card debt while saving up money to move out of my parent’s house. Understandably, the blog wasn’t the first thing on my mind.
Instead, I focused on paying off said debt, saving up enough to buy myself a little townhome right outside Baltimore, and kicking butt at work and grad school (ya girl graduated back in December with a 4.0 GPA- which reminds me, I need to update my resume). I also got three cats.
Buddy 
Deku 
Oreo
Ten Paper Crowns withered and died in the background (literally- I dropped hosting and decided the put the money I was going to use to funding this puppy into other life matters) and a part of me withered with it.
You see, blogging (and running a website) had been a part of my daily life since I was in middle school and a friend of mine introduced me to Livejournal back in 2002. In 2004, I started my first website, Just Depends (which can now only be resurrected by the Wayback Machine- and even then only in pieces, thank god) and hosted numerous fan fictions I had written (what up my fellow Spuffy/Polar/Best Mate fans) as well as 100×100 icons, headers, and even website layouts free for public consumption. Just Depends didn’t do much in the way of attracting viewers (something I’ve never been to hard pressed to focus on) but it was a physical representation of my creative endeavors and accomplishments. I had fallen off the blogging/website bandwagon during the later course of undergrad, relying on tumblr reblogs to sustain me and had hoped in the later course of 2016 to get back into it. And then grad school happened and well- here we are.
It had always been my intention to get Ten Paper Crowns up and running- filling it with content relevant to my everyday life and perhaps imparting some new knowledge about my fields of passion (I’m hesitant to say expertise but damn am I passionate about the stuff I like) to the random view who happened by. With my goals for the year (finally working/publishing my comic Adventures with Charlie, getting into better shape/forming better/healthier eating habits, and taking more time for myself and mental/physical well being), getting this blog up and running seem like the best way to help facilitate them.
So What’s this Blog Going to Be About?
Well- like last time, I’ll be focusing on the following aspects of my life: Art (now with Comics!), Bullet Journaling, Fandom, Health & Fitness (new this go-round), and Teaching.
Art & Comics
These posts will primarily consist of my own creative processes, work I’m currently working on, and work that I’m inspired by. It’ll also be a place for me to share my experience with writing and illustrating a comic/graphic novel. Adventures with Charlie (Coming June 2020) is a four volume comic/graphic novel that follows Alice, a teenager who can see ghosts who just moved into a new house, and Charlie, the twelve-year-old ghost whose been stuck in his childhood bedroom for the last twenty-two years. I won’t get too much into it (a longer-more in depth post will be written later) but I’m excited to use this platform as a way to share behind the scenes tidbits about the process and creation of the work (some will be patreon only accessible).
Bullet Journaling
Like many creatives out there, I also use a Bullet Journal to stay productive and on top of things. From dealing with debt, to keeping track of lesson plans, to organizing my day to day life, I hope to share how I use this user-friendly system by Ryder Carroll to keep track of my hectic life. Definitely be on the look out for layouts I use and tips/tricks I’ve learned over the last three years.
Fandom
While I’m not as involved with Fandom as I used to be- I’m still a fan girl at heart and it’s been a big part of my life since 2002 (remember that Livejournal?). I love consuming as many different mediums as possible and some of the best people I’ve ever met online came from different fandoms that I dived headfirst into. It therefor makes sense to share this part of myself with my blog as well. (And if you’re lucky, I might rehash some old fan fiction for you too.)
Health and Fitness
Over the last three years, I’ve gained a lot of weight… like a lot of weight. So it’s time to buckle down and start forming healthy habits while I’m still young. These posts will focus on my journey to fixing my diet so that it’s healthy and sustainable (both for me, my pocket book, and the environment hopefully) as well as incorporating fitness into my weekly (and maybe one day daily) life.
Teaching
Finally, the last topic I’ll be focusing on is teaching! This year is my seventh year at my high school (third tenured) and I figured it’d be nice to share my experiences working with teenagers who are just as lost as I am but allowed to be more open about it (haha!). I’ll also share lesson seeds, tips and tricks for classroom management, and celebrations because some of my kids are freaking amazing and deserve the shout out.
Maybe You’ll Like It Here?
If the above holds any interest for you- please consider sticking around! My goal is to update once every other week while I get into the groove of running this blog and working on my comic on top of my normal work/social/sleep! life. I could definitely use readers to keep me on task and hold me accountable for updating this. If you’re interested, sign up for the newsletter below or follow the RSS feed. See you in the next post!
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