2024 in Review

There’s no way around it: this was a particularly shit year, even when grading on a curve and factoring out the background radiation that turned this year into a shit year for all of us. It’s been a year of brain fog and stress and just being god-damn tired. I will do my best to not let it overwhelm this post, but it’s going to be rough all the same.

Previous Years: 2021, 2022, 2023 

Cat Woes

We lost Mor’du back in April, having barely had him for a year. His gum issues meant that he had to be put on steroids, which led to increased appetite, which led to a pretty sudden weight gain and a blood clot that cut off all circulation to his back half. Any surgery to fix it would be extremely high cost for bad odds at survival. This was on top of Peaches getting daily meds for FIP from January through fucking September.

We had tried for another big orange boy named Chester, drove across half the state to get him because of the good vibes. He was extremely affectionate, very snuggle-oriented, and murderously jealous of the other cats. Would actively try to sneak through the cat gate to straight-up try and kill them. So we had to drive halfway across the state to take him back three weeks later when all attempts at socialization had failed.

We adopted Peaches and Avocado a couple months ago, but that was mostly just formalizing what was already in place. They’re good cats, but they have their own weird little niche and a  vacancy remains in the clouder. Since they’re now traumatized from Chester, they want nothing to do with other cats, so the odds of getting a new one in the near future are low. We just can’t seem to catch a break.

I miss our boys.

Even More Family Deaths

Both of my partner’s grandparents died in the same six month span. They were in their late 80s / early 90s so it wasn’t a surprise, but the first one was less than a week before Mor’du died. It just fucking pours sometimes.

In a moment of an extremely small world, the priest at the second funeral was someone I knew from the home parish, way back when.

I think I have OCD

Learning early this year that at least one of my siblings has it put me on watch, and from cursory self-reflection I tick enough boxes that I think I should get a more qualified opinion. This is a neutral-positive development, honestly; identification allows me to go “oh, okay, this is the obsessive side coming through, your brain is pulling funny bullshit” and that makes dealing with those episodes of arbitrary agitation easier.

Last Dangerous Visions came out October 1 and I totally forgot

Who even knows how many of these stories are actually good, if it’s keeping the trend stable most will be mediocre or terrible but honestly who cares at this point. The impossible has happened, even in a truncated form.

Monkey Man

I think Monkey Man is one of those works that pulls off its genre trappings with such skill and elegance that it totally outclasses the works that started the genre in the first place. I don’t know if my opinion would have been any different if I had seen John Wick first, but seeing John Wick after Monkey Man really made Wick look limp and lifeless in comparison. Dev Patel can fucking cook. If you are down for some hyperviolence and grot and haven’t seen Monkey Man, go see Monkey Man.

Deadpool & Wolverine

It is a terrible, incomprehensible, trash garbage movie drowning in its own unceasing masturbatory self-referential smugness and I had a fucking blast. I ain’t made of stone. The theater bar had specialty cocktails. The Deadpool was tequila cranberry with something I can’t remember, the Wolverine was pineapple (think?) with amaretto and I really liked that one.

Caves of Qud 1.0

I have returned after several years and have barely scratched the surface, but man alive is it good to be back. Live and drink, friends.

Conlang Stuff

I have a lot of shit scribbled down in notebooks and little to show for it. Hopefully this upcoming year I’ll have something substantial to share. I’ve learned a shit ton about linguistics, though, that’s fun.

 

UFO50

Has eaten a significant portion of my life since I purchased it. Updates to follow, eventually. Favorite games: Grimstone, Vainger, Overbold, Pilot Quest. Least Favorite: Onion Delivery.

**

So yeah. Not the only stuff for this year, but honestly I am running out of both time in the year and available RAM in the ol' brainpan. I will not tempt fate with any predictions of the year to come. I will do what I can the best I can.

Ireland was a good time, though.