lazy-cat-kohaku

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

Love the vid, it’s delightful ☺️💛

Hello Red!

I just had the pleasure of watching the newest video and your beepbeep bit delights me to no end, as it is something i do for myself when crowds are thick and unmoving and just hitting people's shins with my cane would be considered "assault" and not "effective strategy for getting to where i need to be"

I was wondering if it would be possible to have that frame signed, since just getting a screenshot works but i don't like having unsourceable piece of art in case they end up getting shared around. (If its too much trouble that's perfectly fine)

Thank you and I hope you have a delicious pastry soon

what a delightful ask! here is your signed frame as requested, may it serve you well in your shin-smacking ventures

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

Often I wish I could do drawing or animation as fanart. All I can do is write and make silly little guys out of felt. Behold, the silly little guys!

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

Hadn’t drawn in a long while and finally felt like it again ☺️

If I feel like it I’ll do more, specifically visualizing emotions… maybe I’ll film that too.

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

I sometimes talk with my sibling about writing habits, and whenever I think it’s just me being stupid, they go like “oh i also do that”.

Good, great, so other writers are also weird. Wonderful.

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

It’s hot 🫠

And tomorrow it’s supposed to get even hotter.

So we unpacked the fans today. But I can’t open my window to get the stale air out because the mosquito net is broken and not yet replaced. And we don’t have AC. That is bad for the climate and also smells bad.

Oh, we also have moths. There’s some every summer but this year it’s worse.

Anyway. My brain feels like half solidified jelly sliding around in my skull. Talking? Difficult. Thinking? Also difficult. An easy read? Dao of the Salted Fish. Because I was reminded of it today and it makes me feel peaceful.

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

a very gentle PSA that a writer is not a short-order cook, please do not try to order off the menu

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

Moka commission 🌼🐱

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

Lantanas in the afternoon.

Bsky / Tip jar

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

I feel kinda attacked but 43 pages is honestly a gross understatement. Obviously the notes are almost double as much as the story itself, if not more.

But seriously, maps help. Then you can put your story to rest for however long you like, and when you come back you can pick up where you left. No need to worry about forgetting whatever river or desert; it’s all in the notes!

worldbuilding writers will say "this isn’t ready to be written yet" and then spend 6 years drawing maps and creating a 43-page cultural hierarchy pdf

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

Hi! I remember you saying at some point (I think, on the podcast?) that just realizing you have ADHD helped you to deal with it because you found some practices and techniques to help it, even without medication - or something along these lines, do I remember correctly?

Can you tell, which techniques? I seem to be somewhat resistant to medication (tried all options we get in the country I'm in, and improvement is very minimal), so I'm interested what else can be done there just to make it manageable

Caveat that every ADHD person is different so what works for me might not work for you, but this is what I've found helpful:

Break up Executive Dysfunction and fight Time Blindness by SETTING TIMERS. I have a fitbit, and on days I can feel my brain being restless and uncooperative, I set a ten minute timer on it. When it runs out, I set another one, and so on. It buzzes on my wrist, so it's hard to ignore, but it's not gamebreakingly distracting so it doesn't ruin my mood if I'm on a work roll. A brief, tangible reminder that time is passing can help me snap out of a break period or, if I'm working, give me a feel for my rate of progress. I can also use that reminder to take stock of if I need to eat food, get up and stretch, or lie on the floor for a bit to reset.

Take SMALL, LATERAL BITES OF PROGRESS. If you're having a hard time working on something, feel out what else you might be able to make headway on. Maybe you've got some writing notes you could jot down to build on later. Maybe there's a tiny item on the day's to-do list you could cross off quickly. Maybe there's a text or an email you've been meaning to fire off, or you've got a mild itch to doodle something in a sketchbook. Any progress is better than no progress, and even if you're just on your phone on the couch, you can get a lot of good work done just jotting down thoughts in the notes app. The lateral element is also very important; if you're fixating too hard on the ONE thing you're SUPPOSED to do, you can trap yourself in a spiral of how it's what you're SUPPOSED to be working on but it feels IMPOSSIBLE. Literally let yourself do anything else. Don't trap yourself with "it's either doing your responsibility or it's NOTHING." Your work is not a plate of broccoli you're not allowed to leave the table without eating. Give yourself permission to un-imprison yourself.

Related, If there are external factors on the responsibility - like an outside deadline or a team of people you're working with waiting on your stuff - don't be afraid to let them know where you're at, or if you're uncertain you can make the deadline as stated, even if you think your "brain is not working" reason isn't good enough to justify the delay. Most people are extremely chill about it, and some of them will even offer to help or make it easier for you in some way. "Struggling with deadline" is not an ADHD-only experience. It is one of the most relatable human experiences, and basically everyone will be inclined to help you out.

ANY PROGRESS IS BETTER THAN NO PROGRESS. LARGE projects can feel extremely overwhelming because you know you can throw everything you've got at them for a day or even a week and it still won't be finished, and if you've got that shadow looming over you, you might sink into a malaise of "I can't finish it and that means I can't even bring myself to start it." The best way to fight that is to make ANY progress in ANY direction. Every large project can be broken down into bite-sized chunks. Anything feels overwhelming if you see it as an unassailable monolith. Work you do now is work you don't have to do later.

CHECKLISTS. It's hard to hold a large list of things that need your attention all in your head at once. It is unbelievable how helpful it is to just write them down somewhere obvious, and when you're done with something, CHECK IT OFF. Don't erase it, leave it visible that you FINISHED it.

Tell your anxiety to CALL YOU BACK. This one's weird, but when I'm stuck stressing over something, I've found it legitimately works to pull up my schedule and pencil in "worry about <thing>" for a specific date and time. My brain registers that SOMETHING has been resolved and nothing has been outright dismissed or ignored, so it settles down. When the time rolls around, the source of the anxiety is still there, but the feeling of anxiety itself has been drained out of it.

On a related note, this might not be an ADHD thing, but I've found it's very useful to Avoid Anxiety And Guilt Spirals by HOLDING COMPULSIONS AT ARMS' LENGTH. I picked this up from some readings on OCD, which is in the category of "I don't seem to HAVE this to a diagnosable degree, but some of the structures were at one point familiar to me." It's good to be aware that, if your brain keeps circling back to any given thought that distresses you, that is structurally an obsession, and if in reflexive response you have a desire to do a specific thing to mitigate that feeling, that is structurally a compulsion. This includes things like "I bet my friends think I'm annoying - I should message them something fun and casual to see if they still like me." Or "I'm worried about the state of the world - I should check the news so no new horribleness blindsides me." The compulsion might contain a sensible thing to do; checking in on your friends is good, keeping up with world events is smart. But done AS a compulsion, it reinforces the anxiety cycle. Even when it results in something neutral or positive, it only confirms that this innocuous thing is your only lifeline over a yawning abyss of terror and stress, because if this time it was fine, it must be because THIS time your vigilance Saved You. So you'd better do it next time, too, because there WILL be a next time, and you might not be so lucky twice, right? The way to stop this cycle is to weaken it over time by, when the obsession pops up (a random reminder of a stressor, an old fear) and the compulsion is prompted, do not do it, no matter how reasonable it seems. Hold the compulsion at arms' length, becoming aware of what the obsession wants you to do and why. Similarly, sit with the awareness of the obsession. You are having an unpleasant thought, but having a thought does not make it inherently meaningful in any way. It doesn't mean you're actually in any danger, any more than you were before you had the thought. It's discomfiting because it removes the salve of the compulsion from the sting of the obsession, but in the medium to long term, it withers the cycle at the root and makes the entire process loosen its grip. Then you can do things like talk to your friends and check the news without it being underlaid with the sting of panic and desperation; they are, after all, neutral activities with typically beneficial consequences, not lifelines over the abyss. It might startle you when, months later, an intrusive thought pops up that used to send you spiralling into misery for hours or days, but now it feels irrelevant - even absurd - and easy to disregard. It really does work, and it's surprising how many things you can untangle this way.

Avoid boredom time prison by HARNESSING HYPERFIXATIONS. My most controversial take, but I think if your brain is desperately hungry to do This One Cool Thing Today, it's a good idea to let it. Even if that means you spend the whole day drawing fanart or bingewatching a show or baking croissants instead of Getting Work Done, the benefits you reap from just letting your brain tap into the rare Infinite Dopamine Opportunity usually outweigh any and all work slowdowns that result from taking the impromptu day off. When your brain works in the ADHD way, your enthusiasm is a vital fuel to keep it running. You need to have energy and joy in your life, energy and joy to spare and spend on things that may not be inherently energizing. If you have the option to spend a day doing something ridiculously fun, fill up that tank and reap the productivity benefits for the next week straight.

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

💛

things you DO NOT need to be a man

a dick

he/him pronouns

XY chromosomes

things you DO need to be a man

the swiftness of a coursing river

the force of a great typhoon

the strength of a raging fire

the mysteriousness of the dark side of the moon

^this post was brought to you by LGBT^

Let's

Get down to

Business

To defeat the huns

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

Better late than never — Happy Pride! 💛

Long live Pride 🏳️‍🌈🫶

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

Mog is a good friend. Always there to offer words of advice, and sit uncomfortably close to you.

part 1 part 2

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

For those who missed it, Koi lanterns are 20% OFF on my Etsy right now! Sale ends on May 7th!

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

13th Hour

This one truly took so long to paint ;_; I've always loved paintings with lots of tiny hidden details but couldn't work on those very often because of my hand injury. But I decided to really indulge this time. Most of my paintings take 1-3 recording sessions but this one took 10 ahahaha

The character is Dante, a painter from my work in progress novel about artists titled 1000 Words Unframed. He's an eccentric one and likes to paint trompe l'oeil, aka illusions. Here he's painting a bunch of clocks onto his wall, but none of the clocks are accurate, some having 13 hours, one clock is a spiral, another is made of eyeballs lol. He is also a lover of cats, hence all the cat portraits and kitties hanging out. Here are some close ups of all the details!

Here's a timelapse of how I painted it. The bottles and table in the foreground started as 3D models in SketchUp. The rest is painted in Paint Tool SAI. The full HD image, 10 art videos, and PSD file will be DMed on Patreon.com/Yuumei on April 5th.

[lazy-cat-kohaku]

I am so distracted by lanky robot cutie Einar! He has such a nice way of speaking and — before being told off for it — I also collected pebbles!

Look at how happy he is! So cute~ 😍💛

And the yellow flower on his hat? Ah

Maybe draw Einar with his favorite Gil or holding a pile of his favorite pebbles? I just wanna see my boy happy

Happy about his little collection of pebbles!