I rang in the new year the same as I’ve done the last several: By wishing people would lay off of the fireworks. But I live in America, land of the free (to explode things any time they want), home of the brave (and foolhardy and obnoxious and so on).

For the most part, I spent the first day of twenty twenty two either gaming or doing game-adjacent activities. Vyx and I worked out some plans for future Fire Emblem Three Houses play sessions, I played a bunch of different mobile games on phone & tablet, and I put in another few hours in my current Satisfactory save game.

(More on that, soon.)

Tomorrow I will get a haircut and possibly do something besides play games with the last of my holiday weekend. Possibly.

I don’t recommend holding your breath.

Good heckin’ riddance.

Okay, it wasn’t all bad. I added some good new music to the library, a few shows were worth watching, and my diabetes seems to be mostly under control.

But still. Ugh. Nobody’s going to look back on this year fondly, are they?

I almost forgot to write anything at all for the entire month of November 2021.

Whoopsie.

It was a rough month. We had a death in the family, it was another rough month of pretending like we’re making progress toward a post-COVID life, the clocks changed again, I had to drop several shows I was trying to watch, and most of what’s kept me going at all is a bit of new music and reading material and picking Satisfactory back up again (after basically burning out on Fire Emblem Three Houses, mind you).

Among other things.

I’ll probably write about the new stuff in Satisfactory (Update 5 definitely changes the game!) in the days to come. I’m just not sure how many days that’ll be, you know?

I’m looking for something to do, something to get into, something to give me a bit more purpose and energy than my current routine of Doing Almost Nothing Day After Day is providing.

General status update: Left-side shoulder (and upper arm) still hurts like hell. Blood sugar numbers aren’t great, not terrible but not great. Next doc appointment is nearly end of month. Later this week I should be able to play the Diablo II high-def remaster, which is money I kind of feel bad about spending considering the Blizzard/Activision shenanigans but dammit, I need something to look forward to and playing one of my all-time favorite games in glorious high resolution and detail counts, you know? Job’s stable (long may that continue to remain). Home life, same (and, same). Looking forward to the next season of anime, given that the summer season was almost devoid of quality material.

Hmm, maybe an anime post is in order. (Later.)

Gaming has mostly consisted of Fire Emblem: Three Houses but I’m also feeling a bit burned out now that I’m close to the finishing line on my fifth play-through. Satisfactory? I’m still waiting on that map-changing “Update 5.” Nothing else has caught my attention, except for a game on the Switch that I can’t really play because it uses my left arm so much that I end up in pain after a little while.

Getting older: It’s not for wimps.

There are some books and records coming out over the next couple months that I’m cautiously optimistic about. Maybe I’ll talk about some of that here soon.

I should… absolutely start using this site again. I know: I’ve said that so many times in the last decade. So. Many. Times.

We’ll see.

As of late May I’m officially “fully vaccinated” against COVID-19 with the Pfizer product.

For what that’s worth, given that breakthroughs are a thing and mutations like Delta are a thing and even without the variants (ha ha, Loki humor) the vaccine was never a sure thing, never mind the uncertainty about the duration of the protection overall. So now, every time I have to go out among people, especially now that so many people have simply decided that masks are “for morons,” I find myself asking: Is this the one? Is this the breath that inhales the virus and gets me killed?

Not a healthy mindset, but it’s the only way my brain knows how to operate, so here we are. I absolutely do not get out much, no. And after a year and a half or so of this, I’m breaking down faster than ever.

But what else can I do? Ignoring reality isn’t the option. Blissful ignorance isn’t my style. So, here we remain.

Hopefully.

Let’s see… I’m not playing Satisfactory lately because there’s a glitch in the drones system they introduced with Update 4 and it won’t be fixed until Update 5 (some time this fall… or later). I’m winding down on my Fire Emblem: Three Houses playing (about to finish Silver Snow, the only route I hadn’t done yet) and then I’ll be taking a break from that. I’m working on a physical therapy regimen for the shoulder that got rather ouch-y right after my 2nd Pfizer jab, so I’m in pain a lot. I’m trying to collect blood sugar readings as per my doctor’s request but the glucometer and I aren’t getting along very well so it’s more pain than gain. I’m still working from home and not going out much because the Delta variant of COVID-19 is… worry-making. The high-definition remaster of Diablo II isn’t out yet. The current anime season doesn’t have anything that’s really grabbed my attention. We’re between MCU Disney+ shows (Loki was meh, What If is coming up next month). My last few music purchases were okay-but-not-great.

I’m still here, I’m just not really doing much of anything beyond surviving.