After having a full week of break, I’d like to say that I accomplished all that I wanted.  I would be lying.  Have to remember that the holidays means my friends have off and are in the area too.  So, I need to make time for that on top of getting my other projects done.  I think we know where this is going.

Typing in the hand-edits of Darwin & the Demon Game are going slow.  I’m still in chapter 4 for a variety of reasons.  It being really cold even in the house is part of it, so I’m kind of sluggish.  I tried editing while sitting on my bed with covers around me, but my back hurt after a few minutes of being hunched off.  Another issue is that the area where my desk sits is rather shadowy, so I have trouble reading the edits.  Doesn’t help that the Lego D&D 50th Anniversary set is in a position to cast a shadow on the papers, which I have nowhere else to put.  Need to get more light in the area or see if putting the laptop in tablet mode would work better.  Either way, I have another week to figure stuff out and make progress.

The cold weather made exercising difficult as well.  I still went out to catch Pokemon and get at least 10,000 steps in.  Saturday was slated entirely for this activity, so I was surprised to get anything else done.  Don’t regret this since I made sure to put a few hours aside for editing.  Just got caught up doing errands, chores, and cooking, which took longer than expected.  All of this when I was feeling really cold and bundled up as much as possible without wearing my winter jacket.  This is probably why I dozed off at the laptop a few times too.

There was a fun surprise event though.  My friend invited me to a NY Islanders game on Monday, which was a last minute thing.  They went against the Buffalo Sabers . . . And lost horribly.  I haven’t been to an Islanders game since I was kid and they played at Nassau Coliseum.  Can’t say I enjoyed it as much as I used to and not because they lost.  There were so many pauses for music, cleaning the ice, and other reasons I couldn’t figure out that there wasn’t a steady flow of action.  Huh . . . I might have to make a post comparing this to writing in the future.  I’ll put it on the April list.  Anyway, the game was nice for socialization, meh on the food, and ugh on the score.  There’s a personal reason seeing Buffalo beat the shit out Long Island was painful too, which I won’t go into.  Definitely seemed to fit 2024 though.

That brings me to the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025.  I have posts going up about that, but I don’t even remember what I wrote.  Changed up a few things, but then gave up and left them as is.  This year has been a series of painful experiences and is in the top 3 worst years of my life if not #1.  I definitely learned that no matter what I do, my life can be upended by the actions and decisions of others.  Got pushed into survival mode so often that I still get twitchy when things are going smoothly.  Not that I experienced long periods of peace this year.  My victories were rather small with finishing Lego sets, finishing puzzles, editing books, making it to weekends, and catching special Pokemon.  Nothing grand, so it was more about bullshitting myself to keep going.

Will 2025 be better?  It isn’t like New Years Eve happens and life gets Etch-A-Sketched back to factory settings.  The stuff I was struggling with and the people I have to contend with are waiting for me next year.  They will do the same things they did in the previous year until they face consequences or go somewhere else.  Believing that things will magically change only sets me up for emotional crushing.  So, I’m really just hoping for things not to be worse and to carve out a handful of victories.  I can already tell that there will be at least one massive event in the future that will be an upheaval, so this seems like the best policy.

Well, there aren’t many things on my to-do list for next week.  What are the goals?

1. Type in more Darwin & the Demon Game hand edits.
2. Watch Sonic 3 with my son.
3. Zoo trip!
4. Catch Pokemon.
5. Start watching ‘Tacoma FD’ on New Years Eve.
6. Work on a puzzle.
7. Family latke party tomorrow.
8. Sleep well.
9. Read my end of year and start of year posts when they go live to figure out what I said.
10. Possibly do a few March posts.