Rev. Andy 🐺 🌿 🪱 @andy@mentalhealth.social

Some screen dumps from my in-development free #TTRPG Perihelion, laid out with Affinity Publisher and with thanks to all the lovely people who mark their amazing artwork as #CreativeCommons.

Not TOO bad for a fella with very little artistic skill, even if I do say so myself.

After eight years (albeit two of them COVID), we've finally finished our D&D 5e campaign and succeeded against Tiamat.

The finale included a hand-built scale model of her on a scale map that filled the hall we game in. Cuz that's how we roll (role?)

Next month we start playtesting my hard sci-fi #RPG starting with session zero 😎

A slow, four hour wander in the Peaks. We walked the Dragon's Back, a set of bizarre limestone "spines" the stand out and are often cited as the only true peaks in the Peak District. They're also rather steep and require a proper climber's scramble, especially if you go off piste as we did. Good fun. Exhausted. In pain. Going for a bath now. It's hard being almost-fifty. 😂

Tweaking some layout and design elements for the first 58 pages (which is basically character creation) of my #RPG Perihelion. The character sheet was pretty bland before, it feels like it works a lot better now I've tied the blue into the main document scheme. #GameDev #Design

Fuck Texas. Fuck Conservatism. Fuck Nazis. Banning books is only second to burning them in the list of things that make me fucking angry.

I've been working on an improved layout for my RPG rulebook. Just about finished with character creation, barring some placeholders and I started playtesting some of the core mechanics (and found issues!) last weekend. It's coming along well. #GameDev #RPG #Writing

The timeline is done. There are seven pages of edited and laid out text to accompany this. 😆 I think I'm going to take a well-deserved break for the rest of the day. Probably. #GameDesign #RPG #SciFi

Experimented with a longer fast this weekend as I feel I'm hitting a plateau. It wasn't too difficult and that first meal yesterday lunchtime was mindful as fuck. Next weigh in is Wednesday so we'll see if it's made much of a difference.

If it has, I'll probably include a 36-40 hour fast each week from Thursday evening to Saturday morning. With how fucking busy my work is, I doubt I'll even notice Friday. 😂

#IntermittentFasting #Health

I stumbled across artflow.ai over breakfast and that's me sorted for, well, forever, when it comes to RPG character portraits. Introducing "a stubbled space captain".

Things I never thought I'd be doing a few months ago: picking my lunch from the garden at 6.45am, as I'm popping into the office today. 😁 #gardening #soberlife

I've been playing a lot of The Ascent this weekend, and I've gotta say, janky dual stick controls aside, it's a gorgeous cyberpunk experience. So many nods to the likes of Neuromancer, and a really cool Bladerunner, Shadowrun, and SLA Industries vibe.

I'm feeling pretty good at the moment, all things considered (all things being: eldest catching COVID, isolation at home, stupidly busy at work, etc.) A few years ago, I'd be managing this by self-medicating and feeling worse as a result. Short of a few intrusive thoughts, my brain reminding me that trauma never really goes away, life is good.

Latest garden project is vermiculture, starting with a wormery I set up last night. Lots of fun + helping close the loop on recycling.

Went to see the parents today and came back with more plugs. 😂 24 leeks, 6 Brussel Sprouts, and 6 somethings (PSB I think, though according to dad might be Summer Cabbage). @Jo planted out a load of seeds yesterday, just in time for last night's downpour. And the radishes are sprouting. #gardening We're getting there!

Tomatoes, chillis, lettuce x 18 (seed), marigolds (companion plant), radishes x 96 (seed), spring onions x 128 (seed) and strawberries at the back. Knackered now.

The soil is very warm at around 7cm (still fermenting and steaming), but all of the seeds are shallow planted, 1-2cm, so I'm not worried. We'll plant more out later in the week, assuming we dodge most of the rain. Plenty more seeds in the folder... #squarefoot #gardening

Autism-friendly, square foot (-ish) #gardening raised beds...done. I'm taking next weekend off. 😂

We also have compost to spare, surprisingly. That's in the region of 5,250 litres - about 2.5 tons.

A couple of days of watering in and then we'll start planting out our plugs, seedlings, and putting some seeds straight in.

Gratuitous "finished the first raised bed" selfie. #gardening

One pallet down. It really smells like shit. This is a good thing. I also smell like shit. This is less good. 😂

First raised bed done and level. I'll finish the next one over the weekend. Seems I've also got myself a new, semi-skilled apprentice.

#gardening #birds

We're getting there with the #garden. Current task is building two 2.1m x 4.2m raised beds. Hoping to become a bit more self sufficient from this (no dig method, year round veg). As with all things, one day at a time.

A few days from now I'll be 11 months sober. I can honestly say, I'm the most balanced, centred, mindful and relaxed right now than I've ever been in my whole adult life. Life is good. I am happy.

Well, except for the price of timber. 😂

#Gardening #MentalHealth

As promised, before and after (well, current) photos of our #garden project. It was a mess. Depression, anxiety, personal problems, and my own unhealthy relationship with booze have meant what was a lawned garden a decade ago, became an overgrown mess.

Maybe it's all a giant metaphor for self improvement and the hard work we've put into life in the last few years. Or something. Whatever. It's mindful. It's present. It's nurturing and creative and life-bringing. We're enjoying it. 😁🌿