Oh boy, a blog post! Haven’t done one of these in a minute. Apologies for the radio silence, I’ve been… well, busy. Let’s get into it:

The year of doing stuff Link to heading

At the end of 2022, I dedicated myself to picking up new projects and experiencing new things, and looking back, it’s been a resounding success. This year more than any other in recent memory, I really feel like I’ve grown as a person. Of course I always had, but this year I really directed my efforts and got to watch the payoff in real time.

This blog was part of that commitment; I had originally intended to write a new piece biweekly, and I mean full essays. I started several pieces that never got very far, which I suppose is part of any writer’s process. I did manage to write some articles I was proud of, however I stopped in early June for a few reasons:

1. It turns out I don’t have that much to say in a full essay format
2. An article every two weeks is a lot of writing.

Plus, I had other commitments. Licenseathon in particular really burned me out (as it does every year), and that plus my blog resulted in me feeling extremely pressured as I prepared for SGDQ. So, I gave up on biweekly posts. But that’s fine! Part of success is failure, and I’m still glad I started writing in this blog in the first place. I put out a few good articles I was happy with, and I plan on writing in it more. It may just become a journal. My goals can change, and so can the purpose of this website¹.

What have I done this year? Link to heading

After SGDQ, I came home and basically passed out for a full day. It was a great trip (which you can read about here) but I was pretty glad to be back home.

Street Fighter 6 Link to heading

After GDQ, I got really into Street Fighter. A bunch of my friends got into it which was pretty fun. Interest has since waned as other games have come along (and I got busy again) but I’ll be picking it up again soon so I can teach my dad how to play. It’s very fun!

Tech Delights Link to heading

THis year I invested in a few unique gadgets: The Playdate and a Framework laptop. The Playdate is a delightful little handheld with a crank - an unusual control mechanism to be sure, but honestly a very cool one. It has a healthy developer community and a lot of games, something the creators were careful to secure ahead of time. I did a review stream a while back, it was a lot of fun!

A weekend of madness Link to heading

This summer, I helped put on Licenseathon, the licensed video game speedrun marathon. I’ve done it for a few years now, but this year was a little nightmarish. I tend to obsess over the event beforehand, and I decided I wanted to take time for myself and not spend all summer hyperfocusing on the details of this event. So when a friend of a friend asked me to attend a local furry convention, I thought “Sure, why not?” And booked off that weekend. Turns out that was the same weekend as Licenseathon. What’s more, another friend got married that same Saturday, so I had three separate overlapping events to handle.

Licenseathon Link to heading

Honestly, I got burned out working on marathon stuff for so long. I basically spent all spring preparing for it: constructing overlays, redoing our technical backend, training new staff, and by the end of it I was just beat. Organizing folks was very tiring and while I appreciate their help, it stressed me out anyways. This is a real issue for me every year - I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, and I like to do things myself because I know what standard of quality to expect. The problem is when I place those standards on others, especially when it results in me overstating my own abilities and discounting those of others. With that being said, I made a real effort to delegate work this year and I’m very proud of how the team did in my absence. While there were some hiccups in the event, the team did a great job of organizing themselves and it was a big success.

CanFURence Link to heading

CanFURence was a great time. I had somehow got it into my head that a furry con in person would be an awkward or uncomfortable experience for my on-the-edge-of-the-community ass. This was dumb! I went and it was just a bunch of people, extremely ordinary people, and in fact I did manage to meet some cool folks there. I feel a bit foolish for not having gone to a furcon sooner. I even ended up buying a tail! That being said, I’ve been on the edge of the community for so long that I don’t really know much about the in-person culture. As with most cons, you really get the most out of it attending with a friend and hopefully I can become more familiar with the culture in time.

Some folks with cool suits I met Link to heading

Inspiring myself Link to heading

In the summer I discovered a note-taking tool called Obsidian. I’ve mostly used Google Keep for notes, all small things like to-do lists or song names to remember. Obsidian however is more of a personal organization tool, meant for writing notes you intend to keep and maintain. What makes it particularly appealing to me is the ability to link items together to build a graph of knowledge. It’s really a user-friendly hypermedia system, like a webpage you don’t need to put work in to build². I rather like it, and I’ve been using it to document my projects and to help me learn new concepts at work.

Projects Link to heading

This year, I picked up a number of new projects:

Fursuit head Link to heading

After CanFURence I was inspired to build my own raccoon fursuit head to match the tail I bought. It was a pretty massive undertaking, and the work has really only just started. I’ve assembled some of the head using foam but work has really just started. Pretty early into the project I realized I had no idea how to create a sewing pattern or how to even use a sewing machine properly, so I set the project aside and took some lessons.

Sewing Link to heading

The sewing lessons were lots of fun! They were held at a local independent school called The Green Needle, which I would recommend to anyone interested in learning to sew. It was pretty far from my apartment, further than I’d like, but the insight and experience gained from taking the class in person was invaluable. The classes were a lot of fun too. I made pyjamas out of a wonderful raccoon-themed fabric I got from Fabricland and I’ve been wearing them for weeks now. They’re great.

So that’s been my year so far. There’s been so much more I can’t include here: Some friends of mine moved, I got back into streaming, made new friends and met new people. I went to like three separate weddings. I started a new tabletop campaign. I got back on my ADHD meds! The year has been packed and I’m really glad to have spent it driving myself towards new things. Hopefully next year brings the same and even more. Just, maybe in manageable chunks.