Last time I posted here is was February of 2023. On a good note, the steps I took to prevent hacking of my sites appears to have worked as they didn’t get hacked again. On the other hand… I protected it from hacking so that I could essentially do nothing with it. Will that change in 2024? Probably not. But maybe…
I missed posting my usual January 1st post because I was on a boat in the gulf waters just off the shores of Mexico. It was a lovely cruise. The COVID I brought home from it less so. It’s hitting me like a bad cold, so not too bad, but still a pretty shit way to end my vacation before returning to work.
Work. I still like my job. Three years in and I don’t see myself leaving soon. The works is fulfilling, and the pay is good, and the people are nice. Not a whole lot more you could ask for. I mean, you could, I guess, but there are a lot of people who have it a whole lot worse. I went to work on a lot of Tuesdays, and quite a few Thursdays too once they started their “Return To Office” which was basically asking everyone within 50 miles of the office to come in twice a week. Sadly, they only provide lunch on Tuesdays, not Thursdays. But it is nice to occasionally share space with people – though this recent bout of COVID has me questioning that a little.
Reading. I read 36 books in 2023. I would have read a couple more, but slowed down at the end of the year. I read my way though all of Grady Hendrix’s books, Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series, some romance, and finished up the Iron Druid series. I really loved the Iron Druid. Especially the way that it wrapped up the story. Just superb. I’ve set my goal for 2024 to 24 books again, just to keep myself from setting a goal too high.
Writing. As far as actual writing goes, pretty shit. But I did so a lot more planning and research on stories I’ve thought up. Character sketches and world rules and bits and bobs. I really do want to focus more on writing this year.
Exercise. Went really well for most of the year. And then we (being my wife and I) just fell off at the end of the year. There was a month where we really burned ourselves out, and then we just didn’t get back on again. In 2024 I’m going to focus more on sustained exercise regimen, with more variation, and a bit of going outside.
More… another year passed without much guitar practice, maybe 2024 will be the year. I will probably try the Making Art Everyday thing again this year, but on my own pace, which will be very achievable since they decided to release the prompt a month at a time instead of weekly or daily.
Looking back at last year’s post I wanted 2023 to be a more “calm” year before the 2024 election cycle shit show, and it absolutely was not that, but also it kind of was. The Biden administration has been pretty “regular”, doing normal government stuff, and as with all the Democrat administrations since Reagan they’ve been good for jobs and the economy and for people in general. Of course, the country still has it’s Red-run hell-holes bent of stripping people of their liberties in the name of protecting “freedom”. And when they GOP retook control of the House at the beginning of last year, they predictably have don’t absolutely nothing but try to generate soundbites and animosity for future elections and fundraising grifts. They don’t have any solutions that actually help people. But they will happily claim credit for any benefits people have seen from the administration they are actively fighting. Anyway, I don’t want to get off on too much of a rant, maybe I’ll do that in another post, but 2024 looks like it is going to be a full year of a fight to save democracy… with one side trying to save it, and other side saying the only way to save it is to destroy it and elect and authoritarian regime.
Well, that was a downer way to end this post. So let’s all promise to vote for saving democracy and also to enjoy some books, some board games, some video games, some outdoor sports, some food, some drinks, and the company of others.
Happy New Year, everyone.