Nayu's News #136 End of Ramdan, Eid & a catch up!

This is a wonderful take on the slice of life genre (pretty much daily life, these friends are school girls,) comedy anime Azumanga Daioh, with the artist ditching the short skirts & giving them all colourful, modest clothing.

Eid Mubarak! Happy Eid! This is a day late...although technically still true because in Islamic countries Eid can last at least 3 days and is a national holiday. The coming of Eid means the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. I had meant to fit in a 4th Ramadan post, but I was ill all of last week with a minor flu. 

Being ill makes it harder to feel happy most of the time. Reading a lot helped ^o^ As did watching anime.

I had to be off work from Tuesday until Monday. I went out for the first time for a few hours on Sunday, including travel time, and by the time I came back I was seriously exhausted. Because of that recovery weakness I've had today and yesterday afternoon off as leave. Well, I leave at 11.30am, so pretty much afternoon by the time I get home. I felt that I couldn't face a whole day (9am-2pm), and the half day has worked out well. I'm not feeling too shattered, which is a plus. 

I'm getting better at resting now.

 Yes, I am making sure I rest lots! No fears there. I'm watching heaps of all the anime I gave up for Ramadan, where I focused on ones which focused on good character like A Little Princess,

Such a heart-warming anime

 My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, 

All the key characters (except Spike the dragon) are girls!

not much singing (which usually entails short skirts/dresses which isn't exactly modest), no romantic relationships (like Winx which is about character but boys feature sort of strongly)

Group hug! Here are some of the Winx sharing the joys of friendship

  - you get the picture. A month away from most of my favourite anime has made them even shinier than ever, and has me attempting to watch as many of them as I can. 

Did you know anime is awesome?

 Whereas I try to just watch a few shows at a time, I'm watching way more than a few which is fun for now and gives me good variety. Sometimes with shows I watch heaps, because I know them so well it's easier to watch an episode a day than several episodes, because that way I don't get fed up with being able to predict what happens. It's all good! 

Uh-oh, Muse is getting annoyed that I'm not paying her attention...

*Ahem* I got a bit distracted. Before I get even more distracted here are my links to this year's Ramadan posts, so they are all in one place (& can be searched using the keyword Ramadan)

  

It's coming in another 11 months or so!

Ramadan preparation post - what I'll be doing during the most Holy month in Islam. Each year I seem to get very ambitious with all the anime I'll watch, forgetting that I spend most of my time listening to the Quran with an English translation after the Arabic. 

Ramadan, a time to concentrate on God, the reward of good deeds being multiplied an unimaginable amount

Ramadan post 1 -  yet again what my Ramadan plans are + inspiration which is vital for each day

Growing things is fun - & possible even if you have a history of killing plants!

Ramadan post 2 - had a nature focus, since nature is God's creation. It includes my plants!!

Melty brain makes me smile!

Ramadan post 3 - I had a melty brain, so I chatted about what I was doing, and included the link for last year's 3rd Ramadan post which was about tying your camel & being like a bird - it's not as crazy as it sounds, promise!!

...for reading these posts!

I hope you've enjoyed my Ramadan posts this year, please do check out last year's posts (links in this year's posts) which are a bit more informative about the month in general. Hopefully I'll be able to write more Ramadan posts next year! 

Tick. Tock.

One thing to come from Ramadan was being aware of how I use my time. Because I was trying to put most of my daily focus on God, I only really ventured on Twitter to post links to my reviews, which in itself saves quite a bit of time. I was having yet another think about my reviewing, purely because I need to focus on my writing at the moment. I'm not quitting reviewing! I refuse to. I am being stricter on which books I say yes to - I've found it really hard to say no to books which I'm interested in, but not super interested in, if that makes sense. I'm no longer giving books which sound ok-ish a go. There will still be plenty of reviews because I always have lots to read, so no fears there. 

Once a book addict, always a book addict!

A way to make sure I'm strict on how much time I spend on blog work is to have do a maximum of 30 minutes blog work each day. Because I like to have Mondays and Friday's free from blog work, I simply add the 30 minutes onto the weekend 30 minutes, so I have 1 hour when I'm not at work. This has made a huge difference, I've found that I'm really focused in my posts. It means I don't spend hours & hours at the weekend blogging - for fellow bloggers, you'll appreciate when I say there's always something to be done, which is how I spent so much time blogging. But blog work is rarely essential so leaving it for another day isn't going to ruin the world. 

Yes, I've taken a bit more than 30 minutes writing this post up, however I was home earlier today and will simply only spend 10mins on blogging tomorrow. Simple! 

Ok, there is a part of me which is freaking out at the time limit and the fact tomorrow will probably not have a post up, but I'm having to get over it. I'm  not compromising much more on blogging!

Now it's time to let my Muse loose - she doesn't need to throw a tantrum any more, as I am having playtime with her. She will still suck though. 

Moody Muse

Never mind, at the end of the day we're best friends! 

I know Muse loves me really, so I'm used to her being a grumpy-grump. She pulls out all the stops when she has to, and is really fun to be around (often more so if she's in a mood as my characters can suffer for it!)