A New Year, Another Pause

Remember like a million years ago when 2016 was the terrible year we couldn’t wait to see the end of? Like John Oliver did a video where he blew up a huge 2016 sign? Then every year after tried to contend for worst year in recent memory? Sigh.

I try not to put too much stock into digits flipping over, but we somehow made it out of 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic is still going on and in many ways worse, Joe Biden isn’t making anyone happy, and Twitter is still the premiere place to go to get mad about stuff. I published Back to the Rifter, and I messed around a lot with pasta (homemade amatiricana sauce is just The Best), 3D printing, and mechanical keyboards. I poked and prodded at some creative projects here and there, but on the whole I had a really hard time getting anything done. The 3D-printed Christmas gifts went over well, and I got a Japanese-style Christmas cake for my family’s Christmas dinner. It was a sponge cake with light cream frosting and a bunch of decorations, including a Santa that turned out to be sugar rather than plastic when I went to lick the frosting off.

I don’t want to get too much into detail, but after a pleasant Christmas my family is now going through a difficult time, with my mother having issues and my father taking it hard, and not a lot anyone can do. It’s another reminder that I have some amazing friends who are quick to offer to help however they can at least. (Also, an awesome roommate and some pretty cool neighbors who I should really try to hang out with more than once in a blue moon.)

Under these circumstances it’s hard to come up with much in the way of resolutions for 2022, and a lot of what I want or need to do are things that I wasn’t able to get done last year. I need to take better care of my health, look for a better day job, get some writing done, and get in some gaming. In the short term I need to finish up the tables I’m doing for Tide Breaker ASAP, since it’s one of the few things left before the game can launch. Thankfully Nick has been patient and supportive, though that makes me want to get it done for him that much more.

I have a long list of projects that I want to get into, but working on Memes of the Prophets is currently at the top of the list. That’s partly because it’s one of the few projects I have in the pipeline that doesn’t require playtesting (and thus the difficult feat of getting people together to game), but it’s also something I’m generally really excited about, something I have a lot of fun with when I can work up the motivation to actually write. At the moment the game project I’m most excited about is definitely Kageshima Declassified, the Kagegami High supplement I started on a while back. I’ve come up with enough stuff that it’s well on its way to being longer than the original book, and at this point I’m wondering if I should split it up, or maybe just fold most of it into a second edition of the game.

Anyway, right now I’m going to put my Patreon on pause while I try to get I act together and catch up on tables and such. As always, thank you for your support!