[Live] Raison d'être for "The Rumination" series, progress on blog posts

LATEST UPDATES: (1) 12 Feb 2021 - New post under "Dear Diary of Year 2020" published! (2) 7 Mar 2021 - New post under "Life Challenges" published! (3) 20 Mar 2021 - New post under "Story Creation Challenge" published! (4) 12 Apr 2021 - New post under "My Blockheads" published! 

This post is live. It will be updated in accordance to any changes to the content in this blog.

Raison d'être (reason for being)

Ever since the blog post I wrote on 9 May 2020, so many different series have popped up, each representing different ideas, concepts and my thoughts on what is happening around me. The format for this blog is inspired by the columns that magazines and newspapers use to feature content dedicated to certain topics, but I have made it a bit more messier here (so that it is more fun to surf) and grouped the series using labels. Still, it is not easy to tell what to expect for future blog posts, and whether any series will be continued or not. As such, it can be difficult for anyone who visits this site to look forward to the content they may want to see.

It has come to a point that it has been difficult to keep track of whatever is happening on this blog, so I have asked Rumia to bring order to the content that I am writing here. In honour of this, the series to unite the rest of the series will be named "The Rumination". For now, I intend to update this once every few months, so that I have enough time to fulfil whatever I have promised for this instalment of "The Rumination" and set my sights on what is coming up next. 

According to Google, the definition of the word "rumination" I am using is:

rumination

/ruːmɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/

Learn to pronounce

noun

noun: rumination; plural noun: ruminations

1. 1.

   a deep or considered thought about something.

   "philosophical ruminations about life and humanity"

It fits nicely into my intent for this series, which is to dive in deeply behind the scenes of what kind of blog posts I am crafting. Also, the first few letters of its spelling matches with Rumia's name.

Progress on blog posts

Before I continue, I will like to first give a breakdown of the whole process of writing a blog post.

STEP 0 | Ideation

Even before anything is set in motion, I am already constantly thinking of ideas that will be suitable for me to write on and use as content for my future blog posts.

STEP 1 | In production

This is the very first step, as it involves my decision on whether to write about something. At some point in time, I have come up with different ideas on what to write for this blog, but I will shoot them down if they are not interesting enough. For the series that are already established, it means that a post marked with this is already scheduled to come.

STEP 2 | Planning

This is the most painful stage, as it involves finding out sources that makes whatever I write factual and look at what kind of topics I want to write on.

STEP 3 | Drafting

At this point, I will be putting everything together and writing out the post, adding in multimedia elements on the way.

STEP 4 | Published

Asides from adding labels to the post, this step needs no explanation.

Here is what will be happening for the different series on this blog (as there are many articles that I am writing or intending to write, I apologise in advance if the lack of deadlines frustrates anyone):

• June issue: Published (16 August 2020)
• July issue: Published (will be out earliest in September)
• August issue: In production 
• Final issue about year 2020 to summarise the events of the year

There had been changes to the upcoming posts. Series title also changed to "Dear Diary of Year 2020"

Published #3: Unit Life in the Army during the Coronavirus Pandemic (25 October 2020)
Published #4: National Day Parade 2020
In production #5: Hospitalisation and Heat-related Issues

• #2: Restarting life in another world Published 
• #3: Food production Planning

Published #2: Inspirations and Aspirations (+ announcement of new blog)

Published Habitica Crossover #3 x Life Challenge #4: Gamification Challenge

Published #4: Becoming the backburner

All of the posts are In production :

• Challenge #3 
• Free Frontiers story: "Escape from Ophelia's Dreams" story arc
• Story based on the "AI Dungeon" app
• Stories based on my personal experiences

Published Life Challenge #3: Bookworm Challenge | Part 2: Progress update (19 September 2020)
Published Life Challenge #3: Bookworm Challenge | Part 3: The finale (25 October 2020)
Published Habitica Crossover #3 x Life Challenge #4: Gamification Challenge (completed posts on 7 March 2021)

Published #3: Body posture

Note: this marks the start of theme-based articles for "The Query".

New Blog Mascot!

Hello, I am Rumia the Seedling.

Rumia is the official mascot for Dear Vincent,. It is modeled after a seedling to symbolise this blog's new beginnings of building up a repertoire of content series to continually engage readers from around Singapore and the world.

The name Rumia came from the Polynesian legend of creation. In the legend, Rumia was the shell that held space for the light of the universe to be born. It can be interpreted as a cosmic egg that nurtured the origins of the universe. This name is chosen to represent this seedling as it reflects the role of the seedling as the origin of something much bigger, such as a tall tree. Here, the seedling represents the hope for growth and transformation for this blog.

The shape of the seed resembles a heart shape (tilt your head towards the left to see the shape clearly), which is a testament to how much this blog's author has poured his heart into to create quality content. Asides from the face, the young tender stem and leaves helps Rumia to provide a greater range of expressions.

Rumia enjoys listening to uplifting stories, which are its source of nutrients. It also requires a lot of sunshine (= viewership) and water (= Vincent's blog posts) to help it grow. It is a hyperactive seedling that overcame its biological limits to be able to move from place to place via bouncing on the bottom of the seed or using its stem to grab onto objects like a monkey's tail.

Rumia will make its occasional appearance in future blog posts to share some of his feelings on the subject matter of the post. It looks forward to seeing you again soon.