2024
I'm writing this as I go through the back half of being sick: the part where your head no longer wants to burst like an over-boiling pot. I feel better, even if I sound like death. I've been morose not simply because I've been sick but because I've been sick during my Christmas holiday - the first real break I've had since this same time last year. The arc of history does not bend towards justice.
But feeling well, in any amount, has me feeling optimistic, even after a year that I can easily, conclusively, definitively say was one of the worst of my life: a year of broken promises and lost opportunities and final farewells. But. But! There is nothing productive in recounting the woes and uncertainties that surround me. Let us instead consider what made 2024 worth living, and what I can look back on with warmth and pride.
- I got a new job. I still have yet to take a deep breath and do something with the data of my long job hunt, but it did eventually result in the desired outcome: a job doing what I'm good at, on a project I'm excited for, with people I like working with. Here's hoping it goes the distance.
- I did a lot of podcasting. I've gotten pretty good at recording an episode and making it sound good for people to listen to.
- We released 46 episodes of Oathsworn this year, including some of the best that the show has ever been. We're within sight of the finale now, but there's still so much more to share. It's been a truly incredible ride.
- Meanwhile, Matthew and I launched The Prisoner's Dilemma, a look at one of our favorite shows. Deconstructing this weird show with my friend has been a huge amount of fun: I look forward to recording each and every week.
- I'm already working on what my third show will probably be! Look forward to that sometime early next year.
- I've spent a ton of time with my family. I don't expect to settle permanently in Florida, and I would have rather come here in better circumstances than I did, but: I have spent half a year with the people I love after living away from them for an extended period, and that's been refreshing and revitalizing. It's been a hard year but it would have been far, far harder if not for the love and support my family has given me.
- I wrapped up some truly excellent role-playing campaigns.
- The first (which features the characters from the above artwork) I can't talk a whole lot about yet, because it's a game that's still under playtesting. But it was good enough that I got art commissioned of all three player characters, so, take from that what you will. My character is the forlorn-looking skull-paint lady, whose name is Anchor Wilde.
- The second was CALAZCON, which you can listen to as an ongoing show right now! My character, the oddball legislator Red Philodendron, was a real rascal.
- The third was a West Marches-style game of Wolves Upon The Coast which was so good and so memorable that some other players and I are working on a zine to commemorate the campaign. Look forward to that sometime in the future.
- I watched The Sopranos for the first time. It's good. I get all the references now.
- I made a lot of good friends this year. Maybe it's because I had the spare time and empathy, or maybe it's because I really needed the breadth and depth of human connection, but the bonds I made this year really matter to me, and I hope will strengthen me in the new year.