A brief (and incomplete) list of things I've learned in 2022

Things I've learned, Art edition

Sketching in my sketchbook is a powerful way to generate ideas. The last time I kept a sketchbook was in high school, and it's been a great addition to my artist toolbox

Fude brushes are so fun and satisfying to use.

I learned how to 3D model in Blender and how to print out my models. This class from Domestika is great!

How to modify brushes in Procreate including a nice outline brush and smoother, more stable brush modifications for my most-used brushes

I discovered the MoCoMade community on Twitch! This is an amazing online art/maker/gamer community.

I learned how to publish my own journals and books on the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform. So far, I've published 5 journals and a coloring book!

Related to the books I published, I learned how to create mazes including grid mazes, which are super hard.

I learned how to edit videos using Adobe Premiere Rush, so I could take my livestreams and turn them into little TikTok style videos like this one. I also learned how to create my own video overlays!

Things I've learned, Life edition

I started learning the Finnish language! I've taken a little break from it for now, but I had about a 1,000 word vocabulary and still love to listen to Suomi Rock.

Aldi has amazing cheese. Personal favorites are their balsamic onion cheddar and cranberry white cheddar.

Thanks to local executive function coach Sarah Lovell, I learned about how to understand my brain while planning my tasks.

If I need to read a long, complicated document for some reason, it's a lot easier for me to absorb the information if I use a text-to-speech reader such as this Read Aloud extension.

If I'm struggling to focus, one way to help me get unstuck is to turn off Messenger, write down my next steps, and use the Pomodoro method to do a focused 25-minute sprint of work, then give myself a 5 minute break.

When I go camping, I HATE packing. It sucks. So, on the advice of a friend, I put together a list of all of the things I need and where I've packed them together. When I run out of something, I make a note to replace it. I've adapted this concept to my travel toiletry bag, which is another pain point when traveling and otherwise doing fun stuff.

When planning a long-distance road trip, it's much more enjoyable to go slow than to try and get to your destination as quickly as possible. (This seems like a no-brainer but now having experienced this, I will not do it any other way.)

What have you learned in 2022?