Welcome to the Mattiverse

I've just made my favourite hand-lettered piece yet...

I still have a lot to improve on, but this was the first time I took the time to think about what I was doing as I was going along and where I could improve. This meant I was thinking more about spacing, consistency and even the style (although I think the highlights might have been a bad idea, but never mind).

You can view my other pieces here.

On we go.

I made a decision over the weekend that I wanted to become a hand-lettering artist, I don't know whether that means professionally or for fun as yet.

I've tried before and gave up after falling victim to the comparison fallacy.

So here's the first piece of my latest (and final) attempt to turn this into something.

I'm toying with the idea of starting a newsletter, I know you're not supposed to admit it, but I'd like to share some of the ideas and thoughts I've had with the potential of making some money, but I also don't want to go down the road of Substack.

My biggest concern is that if I started doing the whole 'content' thing here, I'd end up feeling very sleazy.

Perhaps I could try and test it out and see if there's any interest first.

One of the most frustrating things for me when on YouTube is when people insist on having their playlists the wrong way round...

Stop putting your most recent video at the top! Especially if it's a series, I want to go from oldest to newest, not work backwards.

I've started reading On Writing by Stephen King and I'm finding myself getting more motivated to get my ass into gear and start trying to write actual stories.

I've started coming up with some ideas for a few short stories that I can sink my teeth into and make a start with.

At least I've made a start, now keep moving.

The more I think about what I'd like to do next when it comes from a career, the more I'd love to be able to say I write for a living, obviously, my rational brain then kicks in and explains how that's a ridiculous goal of course, but ridiculous never meant impossible.

I think I'm going to get myself a couple of writing tools and see where that takes me.

I didn't know what to expect from Pokopia, I liked Animal Crossing but it always struggled to keep my attention. So far though, Pokopia is definitely a game I could sink a lot of time into as just a bit of relaxing fun.

After trying to come to terms with not using Obsidian, it has slowly crept back into my toolkit. This time, I've challenged myself not to use any community plug-ins unless I have a clear need for them.

I wanted to voice my dislike for insta-poetry.

I saw a book advertised on Amazon called 'texts I never sent' which claimed to be modern poetry about 'life, love, loss & heartbreak'.

Now, I got exciting thinking that this would be a few poems where the poet really opens up and shows vulnerability, sadly it was another quick cash grab insta-poetry book.

I know insta-poetry became the cool way to create poetry, but it would be nice if these poets at least attempted to create something worth reading.

It always amazes me how quick time seems to go, one second you're going through the 61st of January and the next you're two weeks into February.

I had a dentist appointment today (yesterday now as it’s 1:15am) and I’m currently wide awake with a swollen cheek.

I’m up for work in 5 hours and I already know it’s going to be a pain of a day.

Wonderful.

I don't know what it is about lo-fi beats, particularly the one's on YouTube that have the rain in the background, but it's so relaxing.

So I recently stumbled on some of my voxel art and I didn't realise it had been six years since I created it... Looking back, I'm disappointed with myself for not carrying it on, I could have had over half a decade of practice by now.

I do want to start getting back into voxel art, but here's a couple of my favourites from 2020, the rest can be found on my art page:

After my disappointment over the Royal Rumble, I realise now I completely missed my calling of being a wrestling booker.

I have so many ideas for storylines and match cards, WWE if you read this, give me a call.

Otherwise I'm going to have to go and play a wrestling booking game... Which actually sounds like a great idea now I think about it.

I got to watch the Royal Rumble tonight, usually it's on far too late for my old body to watch, I'm very glad that I didn't have to stay up though.

It was one of the worst Royal Rumble's I've ever seen, I've been a far of wrestling for over 25 years now and I've never known WWE to have such a lack of surprises.

They had the chance to build for the future and they let it slip.

Disappointing.

It's been a long week, with my step up to head of department, I have found myself having to learn a whole new set of skills alongside all the new processes and information.

I'm feeling good about how this is bringing along my development, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was exhausted from the effort.

I've uploaded a new piece over on my art page.

It's been a while since I've opened Procreate, but I did always enjoy making the abstract art pieces, I know abstract art is a bit polarising, but it's always been something I've enjoyed creating and viewing.

I'm buying my first house.

It's such a weird feeling when you think on it, there's so much excitement but also so much worry around it.

I used to love the thought of having a second brain, but I could never quite make it work. I'd procrastinate or find a new system and then integrate that and get more frustrated as I would still be back at square one.

This video on Youtube from JA Westenberg perfectly captured my own thoughts on the second brain.

As I am once again frustrated at work, I can't help but curse the person who invented the 'job'.

I've never been quite so close to handing in my notice, finding the cheapest place in the world to live and then try and make it as a content creator or something.

Happy birthday to me! Thirty-five and thriving...

It's just a shame my birthday is in January and everyone is still suffering with the Christmas hangover and having very little money that needs to last throughout the 9 weeks of January.

I have managed to read all 9 books of the Surgecaller series and wow, what a ride. I've really enjoyed the series and it's made me appreciate how much more I enjoy binging an excellent book series than watching Netflix.

I never gave it much thought until now, but with how I've now set up my Bearblog, I've turned it into what I wanted my Obsidian Vault to be.

It's become my own start of a Zettelkasten...

This is an interesting revelation for me, I wonder where I can go with this...

I have been trying to write all evening and all I've done is write a convoluted mess of different blog posts that will never see the light of day.

I keep seeing the saying "create more than you consume" and I can't help but think how difficult that would actually be given the sheer amount we consume.

I know it's about intention, but this feels like you're asking everyone to literally spend 24/7 doing nothing but creating.

I love creating, but that's ridiculous.

Hump day is nearly over and I'm already wanting to go on holiday. I've been to the gym the last couple of days and I. Am. Sore.

First day that I've also not finished one of the Surgecaller books, probably for the best, it's almost like I'm binging a Netflix series.

I never thought I’d be glad to be back into the routine of things and having to get up early for work, but it’s been nice.

I’m back to the gym for the first time in a few weeks and I’m already knowing it’s going to be rough.

No pain, no gain… Right?

And just like that, everything is now back to normal for the majority of us, the only thing different is the year.

I hope you've all enjoyed work, school or whatever else you've been doing today.

2026, please be a good one...

My biggest concern with how much I've now added to the site is to make it feel more like a job or a chore to keep updating.

So far, my motivation has been high because I've been learning about CSS and how I can add new pages to really build my own universe on the internet. But, I need to keep in mind that this is meant to be a fun way of me learning, building and making mistakes.

I need to keep myself in check to make sure I don't burnout.

So, I finished book two of the surgecaller book. Less than a day to read as I was completely drawn into the story.

So, I tried creating a bit of pixel art today... The result?

I created them at 16px x 16px and they're meant to be gems.

It's going to be a long road, but I intend on looking back on this next year and seeing how far I've come...

I've just finished my first book of the year; Oathbound, book one of the Surgecaller series. It reminds me of the Cradle series which is one of my favourites of all time, so I'm already looking forward to getting into the next book.

I've been reading non-fiction to try and learn, but I do enjoy reading for entertainment as well.

I find it so much more enjoyable than binging Netflix or trying to find a new series to watch on any of the other streaming sites.

So, I've been continuing my trend of editing and amending the site, I've now also updated the pages to continue the pun of 'matter' or Matt(err) as I'm calling it.

I didn't realise how many puns I could make that would apply to the different pages I have and this is making me so happy.

On separate note, I now also have an art page... Aptly named, Mixed Matt(err).

I've been looking at retro blog graphics and it's reminded me of when I used to create forum sigs and how that was one of my first entries into graphic design.

I'm tempted to start making a few again...

I've changed the URL to the blog to the mattiverse url I had, I was hesitant at first because this was just a blog, but since I've added the extra pages, it's felt like it's slowly becoming my online universe.

I'll no doubt fall out of love with this name in the next week or so, but for now, I'm enjoying being able to explore the mattiverse.

I feel like a giddy little kid now that I've started getting the site to include all sorts of different content.

While I've not done much with the customising of the site itself (I've done small bits), I'm still super happy - I've managed to sort the blog page, get an archive page for older blog posts, a library page and this thoughts page done.

So, I've now added a library page to the site where I can go through some of the books I'm reading and also create notes on what I'm reading, I'm only going to do the notes for non-fiction books.

Perhaps I'm going a bit overboard now, but we'll see if I can keep it going.

While I'm thinking on the subject of micro blog, I started reading this book talking about indie microblogging and I found myself agreeing with most of the points except the one thing that is perhaps most important.

There is no sense of getting lost on the platform, it's still so regimented to show you certain things and while it may not be algorithm based, surely the point of everyone having their own site is to be able to stumble on new and interesting people and sites?

So, one of the things I want to do for this year is to make sure I spend a little more sensibly, particularly when it comes to projects, I nearly fell into this trap again yesterday. I have been looking into micro blog and start thinking how exciting it could be to be over there.

Thankfully, I took the time to find out how I can turn Bearblog into a similar thing, so not only did I learn more about CSS but I also saved myself money.

Although I won't promise I'll never spend it on that in the future

I enjoy the thought of being able to share random thoughts and short micro-blog style posts, but I don't enjoy the experience of social media so having this thoughts page seems like the best compromise.

I've also updated my URL so it's no longer under a 'blog' sub-domain, the next thing is to get an image gallery going.

Happy new year everyone.

Wishing you all the best for 2026.

This is a test post for what will become my thoughts page. Essentially, this is like a status feed of random thoughts and bits that I don't feel warrant a full blog post.