SC'24 Homework

It's that time of year again: the birds are singing, landscapes turn verdant, that shiny hot orb up in the bright blue sky says hello already at 3am, and faces melt like icecream (at least mine does!) ... all accompanying the sounds of frantically scritching pens and clacking keyboards.
It's summer time, it's writing time, it's summer camp time!

Here comes the butt— ... I mean, the but

I've had a rough half a year struggling with some health issues. I had to let World Ember pass without reaching the minimum word count goal and skip the reading challenge. A bit of a bummer, but you know, there's always next year!
I think the worst is past now — at least for this episode — and I've been able to slowly get back into routine, as long as I take it easy and don't stress. That's likely going to reflect on my approach to writing and my output: I'm not gone, Rosepetal isn't going anywhere, but it'll go at a leisurely pace for a while longer.

Week 1: Change

Assignment 1: Changes within Rosepetal

There's a lot going on currently in Rosepetal that I hope fits the knightglow settings alignment I'm aiming for but I haven't yet had too many opportunities to truly delve deeper into.

A major power fading under the internal and external pressure to right ancient injustices.
A worrysome silence from several worlds along the Dragon's Tail galactic arm.
The threat from beyond growing along the galactic edge.
And the ever ongoing strive to make the yet unknown known.

Assignment 2: Set My Goal

Due to the above and below mentioned reasons, I'd really like to focus the energy I do have on what feels most important to me. This means Summer Camp and other challenges will stay on the peripheral for the remaining year but I'd like to complete the homework and take part in the reading challenge at least.
If a prompt drops that catches my interest and I feel really inspired to write for, I'll probably go for it, but I'm not going to commit to reaching a goal - not even bronze. I filled out the pledge document anyway for this homework, figured it doesn't hurt and who knows? Maybe I'll get there.

by World Anvil

Assignment 3: Categories & Tags

I have several ongoing, co-current projects for substantial updates and changes to Rosepetal, and they include changes to categories and to some extent tags as well.
The category structures meant to support each planned section will receive at least it's basic content so it's clear what they're for and how to navigate between them, even if their articles aren't finished yet. Each section will get their dedicated presentation pages and a navigation hub page.

Assignment 4: Update the Meta

Sorry, I don't have a meta (not of that kind at least) to update and am not planning to make one in the near future. :o)

Week 2: Refuge

Assignment 1: Taking refuge in Rosepetal

Rosepetal has plenty of room for a lot of ideas and themes, and refuge is certainly one of them. The most obvious is returning to the Three Tails rebel group that I wrote about last summer camp, who take refuge at the Uushi Mining Station located at the remote Csetun Uushi nebula.
Something else to explore is societies on outlier worlds - habitated planets located far away from the galactic arms. Some outlier societies are founded by the lucky survivors of riftcrafts thought lost or destroyed in rifting accidents or cryo-sleep crafts that went off course due to navigation errors. Other leave to live in isolation on a faraway, unsettled world, as was the case with the followers of Llucav, whose descendants became the founders of the Llucav Technocracy.

Assignment 2: Accountability Buddy

I will participate as much as I can in the summer camp and my chapter's discord channels, but I'm not going to get an accountability buddy. I feel it'd just add more stress for me and be unfair to the other person; I don't have plans to actively commit to the event in the same way I did last year, and I can't promise I'll be able to be there to offer support in return.

Fudge by Finch App

Update 18/6

A big thank you to Rachel Bentz for introducing me to the self-care app called Finch during a discussion in the SummerCamp discord channel. I used something similar before that didn't quite work for me - but Finch is like a hug when you didn’t know you needed one.
I now have an amazing, and super cute, motivational birb named Fudge. He isn't just helping me with writing endeavors but also to manage other things in life by offering a visual way to keep up with my daily routine, break down projects into smaller, achievable goals, and reminds me to also find time to take care of myself. He asks me how I'm doing and lets me dump my thoughts if I need it, gets happy when I succeed with what I set out to do, and offers encouragement and comfort when I don't (or when I just have a bad day).

Assignment 3: Styling & Layout

You may have seen me get started on this with my latest species articles, but I am in the works of slowly replacing public domain images and art with my own. I decided to go for a less complex style and coloring digitally as it lets me finish them a little faster but still at a level of quality I can feel proud of.
I filled the empty sidebar with a showcase of my latest works for your viewing pleasure. :)
This'll likely take the longest to complete as it's very dependent on my hand tremors as well as energy levels.

Assignment 4: CSS Updates

I'm working on yet another sprucing up of Rosepetal's theme, aiming to up the constrast a tad more on its color themes, update navigation (including a persistent sidebar), improve media queries, some more accessibility improvements, and more distinct themes for the different point of views. This will also help me on the backend by cleaning up my coding.
Here's an early WIP screenshot:

by Nimin N.

Buttons in the top navbar and side navbar will likely shift around several times until I'm satisfied, but it showcases the basic layout I had in mind. On mobile the top and side navbars will combine to a single, sticky, horizontal navb
I doubt I'll be finished in time for Summer Camp, but it's coming.

Week 3: Belief

Assignment 1: Beliefs in Rosepetal

This is an interesting theme, considering the entire worldbuilding section (the P.k.R) in Rosepetal is written from an in-universe perspective, from the viewpoints of the curators at the The Royal Atheneum of Hövnís.
On a less meta level, the Rosepetal is host to a plethora of belief systems of religious, philosopical, ideal, as well as political nature that drives it's inhabitants. One example is the slime-mold worshipping cult I wrote about last Summer Camp and another is the Bieggjan's beliefs reflected in their traditions and mythology.
But there's also a lot more planned, such as the ideology that the Ascendancy's merito-/aristocratic society rests on, the Paradigm that is central to the citizens of the Lukariat, the Church of Luslino's search for a messiah called The Orphan, the transhumanist-based ideology that gave rise to the Llucav Technocracy, and the transient state some ethnic groups now find themselves in after being released from centuries of oppression and/or enslavement.

Assignment 2-3: Inspirations

There's so many, but I don't really feel like chasing them down and making a display wall here right now. I apologize.

Assignment 3: Maps

Short-term there's no plans on making anything more than my main Astrochart of Rosepetal. Long-term I'd like to do more detailed regional astrocharts, and I also plan to keep doing planetary system charts as a part of the process of writing about new planets.

Assignment 4: Review Inspirations

So far, so good.

Week 4: Decay

Assignment 1: Decay & Rosepetal

It's a good and cool theme but I can't make myself to write and reflect on it right now for personal reasons.

Assignment 2: My Writing Space

I'm not planning to change anything significantly regarding my environment in order to prepare for Summer Camp. The plus sides of living on my own and having a loving, respectful family is that I'll generally only be disturbed when I want to - or when the cat wants some attention.
As I'm also actively working on my health and with self-care, I try to keep a decently strict daily routine to ensure I eat, sleep and exercise enough. After adding on my work hours, going away to appointments, and the time I want to set aside for quality time with family living nearby, it's rare for me nowadays to end up with unhealthily long sessions of writing, painting or plain leisure time.
Since it tends to get a bit stuffy and warm at home during summer if I have my stationary PC on, I'll likely use my laptop a lot. I have a small, foldable table that I use while sitting in the living room armchair - either listening to 80's and 90's music, podcasts or an amusing VOD of a game I'd like to see but likely won't get around to play myself.

Assignment 3: Review Homepage

The homepage has always been more a WIP than anything else, with no clear idea of how to best make use of it. I plan to finally change that by using it as a "portal hub" for the different points of views that I present Rosepetal through alongside a cleared definition of each of their purpose. This way, readers will always be able to find their way back to the section of their choice by going to the homepage.

Assignment 4: Review Profile & Pillar Articles

As a part of my ongoing update to Rosepetal, the plan is to look over and revise most meta pages. I'd like to ensure they remain relevant and useful, and don't either contain outdated or repeat info found elsewhere.

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Thank you all for reading
And have a wonderful summer!

Challenges & Events

SC 2024 Event Hub

Summer Clubs

Camp Chill (ID 4574878) by Rin Garnett

I'm joining Annie Stein's Camp Chill this year too. Competitive mode will stay off, and I'll adapt my level of participation based on the current day's level of energy and healthiness.

Camp Chill Guidelines

• Remember the prompts are suggestions, not requirements.
• Write what you're passionate about, leave what you aren't.
• Relax when you feel tired.
• Fight off any pesky brain-squitos trying to make you doubt your work.
• Don't abandon your non-summercamp goals! Write that article you're itching to write, even if it doesn't fit any prompts.

Community Interaction

I really enjoy the discord community and the reading/commenting exchanges - it's absolutely the best part of these events. But being social, both physically and digitally, also drains me very rapidly.
So, I'll simply say I'll be doing my best to poke by and chitchat, and I look forward to refilling my reading list with all the amazing stuff I know you all gonna put out this summer!

Art Showcase

by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.

Ljuuhovii Bieggjan by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.

by Nimin N.