It’s safe to say that out of the three resolutions I made last year, I only succeeded in one and barely started another. I have yet to start the search for the cassette player, but found myself on a unexpected weight loss journey1. It was also a mistake to try and read the book on learning Dutch before bed for reasons that go without saying2. Although I did learn that some of the longer words are actually two seperate ones. So I can tell you that “Kroonstad” is “Crown City”3, but I wouldn’t be able to ask for directions to the nearest coffee shop.
The above pictures is the dead giveaway, but I plan on continuing my resolutions from last year!
Another thing I’m doing is cutting down the gaming content I watch and listen to online to my proper go-to posse…
- MsMadLemon (including her gaming and music channels)
- LoadingReadyRun (Checkpoint, Chillpoint, LunarJade & TiltyHouse’s home streams)4
- BanjoGuyOllie
- Vix and Saki Endo’s Rubbish Heap
- Ashantin3
- Jan Beta
…with the result being that I spend more time catching-up with media I love instead of being strung along by whatever the YouTube algorithm and the major gaming channels are hyping up (or are raging about). I’m usually pretty good about not letting that stuff influence my opinion, but I’m still susceptible to charging into a game that would otherwise not be my cup of tea. The ninety hours I spent playing Vampire Survivors quickly come to mind—even if the game and expansions are cheap as chips—but there are a few others that I thought I’d like too when I started getting back into gaming six years ago.
I’m also trying to get some proper reading done this year after seeing one of my favorite authors in the flesh late last year…
After watching my own country turn itself into an authoritarian pile of shit5, it was nice to hear one of my personal heroes at a bookstore close to home continuing to fight the good fight. It inspired me enough that I finally read through his first book, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, back in January, which was breezy and fun while managing to paint a “death-free” future that was both beliveable and easy to comprehend. I’ve kept up the momentum this month reading through both Noraly Schoenmaker’s Free Ride, and a small book from Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds from the Dollop podcast titled, The United States of Absurdity. The former’s a travel memoir and a comfort read for the past couple of weeks, giving more behind-the-scenes insight into her first motorcycling journey as the YouTuber, ItchyBoots. It feels fast-paced, but the attention to detail manages to showcase the humanity displayed by the locals who help Noraly on her journey while fully painting the landscape around her from the towns and villages to the major land formations.
The latter book might not be as epic, it was still a funny read covering offbeat historical events with equally bizarre (but well-designed) illustrations. I got this book during a summer bus trip with a friend (and former co-worker) of mine at a gift shop in Deerfield, Massachusetts before we headed up to Robb Family Farm in Brattleboro, Vermont to see how they made their maple syrup. We met some friendly farm animals while we were there…
I’m starting out March in the midist of reading through Henk Rogers’s The Perfect Game - Tetris: From Russia With Love which is both an autobiography and an historical account detailing how Tetris made its way to the masses. It’s too early to tell as to how I feel about the writing (or translation), but the little details in the book’s design are lovely from the lenticular cover to the ongoing Tetris game between every other page.
After that, I’m tackling Adam Becker’s More Everything Forever, which I initally heard about on Leighton Night last year while en route to Philadelphia. It’s a hardcover that has seen more walks from my backpack than anything since I’ve used it as a “weight”—or more accurately, as an excuse to keep my phone and earbud case in my bag so I could exercise to the sound of CheapShow, Office Hours Live, an audiobook, or well, Leighton Night.
Between trying to get missing photos to reappear, figuring out how to incorporate comments into the Hitchens theme, and re-formatting the captions from past blog posts among other things, I do still have plenty of tweaking to do here as well. Thankfully the photos from both Boston trips made it through unscathed—I want to impress someone at work with these in particular. I also plan on expanding the “About” page so that it covers the blog’s history over time as opposed to being just the author blurb and contact hub. I’ve been more or less inspired by MsMadLemon’s “About” page which deserves your full attention. When I think about who inspired me to start blogging, I owe a lot to Stuart Ian Burns at Feeling Listless and Neil Perryman who was responsible for the blog6, Adventures with the Wife in Space, which I started reading while I was attending university.
One of my closest followers reminds me that I’m way overdue on the Philadelphia blog post, so maybe I might change up the order a bit from last time.
Until then, have a great weekend everyone!
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Nothing major, just cutting excessive snacks and stress eating while exercising a lot more ↩︎
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More or less not being able to fully practice sounding out the words and numbers. ↩︎
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Proof that I watched the Mario Kart World Direct with Dutch subtitles. I have a good feeling that the Pimsleur audiobook is properly worth around the US $80 I paid as a Libro.fm member. ↩︎
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I have a Tapestry folder dedicated to all things LoadingReadyRun whereas my YouTube subscriptions include the aforementioned home streams, LRR’s comedy channel, and their gaming hub as well. ↩︎
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Which is still an ongoing thing, unfortunately. ↩︎
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Neil’s also one of the people responsible for the 2000s satirical sci-fi podcast, Tachyon TV, among other things such as the Behind the Sofa blog covering modern Doctor Who. He currently hosts the World of Telly podcast with his long-time friend and Tachyon TV co-host, John Williams where they cover a wide swath of (mostly) British television. ↩︎