Maybe things will work out--might as well be optimistic. Nervous I'll lose a drawing, but I plan to save more frequently. Frustrating, though, hate being on eggshells.

Kind of on pins and needles lately, but hoping for the best, especially how helpful the assistance staff was last time. How about that correspondents' dinner, though? It wasn't as funny--or righteously mean--as I was hoping it might be, but still a good job by the President and Colin Jost. I wouldn't call it top tier, though, but solid. I was hoping they'd really let loose and tear into these more cartoonish people and forces, but alas. The closing was touching, though, the story about Colin Jost's grandpa. That was certainly one of the best moments in WHCD history. It was generally friendly, though that guy named Friend was a little much, I'm not sure it worked in that format. Still overall enjoyable. And it's always neat spotting familiar faces in the crowd.

Can't manage to sleep at a normal rate or schedule, just passed out and that tends to do the trick, but that's only when I'm so exhausted I can't not sleep, which is a bit extreme, however a winning strategy.

Well, quasi-taking it easy. Just need things to line up a little better.

Ok, well, things are looking slightly better after the visit, but it's going to take some time. The key thing is that he expects everything to get better. And then the trial continues tomorrow, and things keep looking more and more inescapable for the orange fraud. So all in all, kind of optimistic. Also gotta get some art done. Still feeling motivated, just need these random events to cool it.

Well, it seems like case closed after just today's evidence, but on with the rigamarole, I guess.

I was able to sleep a bit, but I did miss the live coverage of the first day of the (campaign finance violation) trial, but at least that meant getting to rewind to the top of the coverage and fast forward passed commercials and irrelevant chatter. Anyway, just need to get on a better sleep schedule, and we may be able to start earlier and get more stuff done. I am definitely feeling motivated and clear-minded for the most part, which are crucial. Just need to keep it all together.

Yeah, insanely tired today, body aching, but just couldn't sleep...eventually kinda buckled down and put on a marginally interesting movie and that did the trick. Still noticeably tired, but perhaps we can get back on track to make this a productive week.

So crazy tired, but can't bring myself to sleep--there's still/always stuff left to do. On the bright side, Ukraine aid passed, and those treacherous traitors trying to delay or foreclose it have failed. Hopefully the assistance can arrive in time and we can get things rolling again in the war effort. They've been scrapping by in the meantime, but they should not be in such a precarious position--just imagine if they hadn't gotten their momentum interrupted. Anyway, I started a larger illustration yesterday, and it even gave me the inkling to do a series based on a similar theme. I hope dearly I can maintain this momentum myself, and keep rolling forward with it/them. I'm optimistic that the new schedule will allow for deeper dives in art, which I haven't done in apparently years, it seems. I simply must start turning things around.

Man, just beat a guy who Emrakul'd me for my fourth win today, what a game. I bet he was like, "Well, that's game. Wait, why insn't he insta-scooping after Emrakul?" He even slammed my manland into one of his guys, but notably wiped out my Dungeon 3/3 reach legend--and even attacked right into it with his 2/3 flyer earlier! And that's WITH the obnoxious, glowing reach icon they've put in since the last update. That guys is particularly helpful to me since I use the monogreen dungeon planeswalker, so the Jesper is one of the chief accelerators for dungeon running whenever I can get him out--it's always a world of difference in games where I have him up and when I don't. Man, oh, man. Anyway, a big day all around, with the new location, and then the jury is fully ready to roll in the first--first!--criminal case, with day one scheduled for Monday! They were saying jury selection could take weeks, and here we are getting in done in three or four days. Incredible. And it's a bunch of seemingly reputable people on the jury, no apparent stealth conspirators or yokels who stupidly have submitted to this orange cartoon conman. And on top of that, the judge seems quite serious, and non-indulgent, as the others invariably tend to be. Anyway, hoping things can turn around. Hoping with the new schedule I can get back to art jamming, as I used to, without distraction. Fingers dearly crossed.

Probably not going to draft today, as I haven't slept since yesterday, so it's almost certainly flushing gold down the toilet. I'm just worried I'd miss an important appointment, so, just as I learned in college, it's safer simply not to sleep rather than risk blowing a certain target time you can't miss. It's always easier to stay awake than try to wake up in time--and then you also have to deal with the grogginess of waking up on cue, not to mention all the trashing you take while sleeping, like gunk in your eyes and everything. Plus I hate sleeping as it is, so this was a nice opportunity to catch up on a few things, and I'm also in the process of streamlining and reorganizing my CSP setup, while also bringing on some new, interesting brushes, so that's also been a nice way to pass the time. Maybe Midweek Magic's Jump In event will still be up after the meeting--I expect I'll be able to collapse asleep after that, but I'm not sure when MWM closes...

Man, my wrist and hand have been feeling it--I worry it was from painting or even drawing a little more intensely than usual--I feel so weakened, as I haven't hit monster drawing numbers in a long while. I used to draw and paint for like 14 hours a day or so. But I'm pretty atrophied, I'd say, if I'm getting strained at just an hour or two. I hate how my body is falling apart. Younger me would probably be furious at me now, how weak and deteriorated I am now.

With the rare day-one draft, what an infuriating experience. I believe one of the Spree cards was bugged--I was trying to max it out and after confirming all modes, it just roped me and then the spell didn't resolve on a crucial counter. Supremely frustrating, landing me at an 0-3. But the format itself felt kinda dull. One notable game was against a fellow UW player and we just stared at each other, and my wincon was just waiting for him to deck himself with his UW signpost 3/3 vigilance who draws on non-spell turns. I woulda won if I had remembered to block his 2/2 with my 2/3 on the ground after I destroyed his mythic cloner equipment that had made him feel like he could safely attack. I thought the creature stayed cloned for the rest of the turn, not as long as it was equipped, and that free 2 damage was enough to cost me one turn, the turn he would have decked. But on top of that, if I hadn't fully kicked my spree trick, I woulda been able to pay the 2 on his conditional counter, which also would have saved me some damage. So over all an excruciating draft, filled with a ton of just-don't-have-it moments. The deck wasn't great, but it was not an 0-3, and the stupid misplays just absolutely destroyed me. But nothing felt terribly interesting otherwise, unfortunately. Plotting felt a little mixed, too, since, unlike foretell, your opponent can see what's coming, which is kinda of anti-climactic. And then Spree is a little stressful in that you often have crucial plays and you're terrified you're gonna misclick. One game even wound up costing me an attack as I got roped out. Annoying.

All right, another riveting Pack day. I got a good chunk of my surveil lands, just nine copies shy, so I have basically everything I could want and I can just craft here and there if I ever need a playset for like a Standard deck or something, but outside of that, I'm pretty well set. And then the rest of my MKM collection is pretty solid, too, as even without the prize packs from my Artifact remix drafts, I still had over 100 MKM packs to work with, on top of my already decent collection I'd accumulated just from drafting itself. As a bonus, I crafted a couple of Special Guests whose art I like, and then got Timeless 100% singleton uncommons! And at long last, we're back at 100% Explorer singleton common/uncommon complete. So now we've got just a few commons left and we'll be complete on low rarity cards.

Still tough to sleep on a reasonable schedule, but hopefully we can get things in order. Feeling more capable as an artists, but just need to sit down and get it done--so many great ideas for some illustrations on deck, just gotta do it.

Got carried away exploring some old and new brushes on CSP and couldn't/didn't get to sleep until super late, so I ended up just getting my four Arena wins before going to sleep, and man, Magic is really a different experience when you're exhausted. Like, I had to calculate and tap for XGG for the hydra that ETBs and fights, and I couldn't compute it out correctly, wasting a mana even after multiple attempts at getting it right. So simple math was just about impossible in that mush-mind state. But at least we got the four wins in relatively short order. An interesting experience, though still frustrating being unable to operate at normal capacity.

Just taking it easy today, in cat news, I unblocked the space under my bed, and after an initial dash under the bed, as is her custom, she's happily snoozing on the bed now, and has been all day, so maybe she's finally happier not running for cover.