It should come as no surprise to anyone that 2021 was a hard year. The pandemic is still raging on-and-off — enough said. Personally, both Danielle and I had surgeries this year (all is well!), with lengthy recovery times and some draining post-op medications. Stack this on top of the "Great Resignation" causing massive shifts in our workplaces, the tumultuous nature of recent politics, and the mundane stresses of modern life...
I find myself very tired at the end of 2021.
Some of the goals I set at the end of 2020 fell apart in the wake of these changes, as did the time and energy I had to complete them. Even when I did have the opportunity to tinker, I felt a general apathy about doing it, often opting to turn my brain off instead. In other words, I wrote very little code for fun this year (the majority of which built this website), and ended up consuming a lot of TV, movies, and video games. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that (Auri appreciated all the lap time), but it's not what I'd set out to do.
All this lamenting doesn't mean that there weren't any positives in 2021 — far from it. Danielle and I celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary this past September, and our 10-year anniversary on New Year's Day. Despite the pandemic, I found more opportunities to visit my close inner circle, and get outside. Setting perfectionist dreams aside, I doubled-down on my hobbies and personal learning goals this year. While I didn't get them all done, I organized and made conscious decisions about how I spent my time, and I think the year was better for it.
The Content Diet
I read a lot of books. More than I've ever read in a year — 26 books, one for every other week. The reading list is summarized nicely below, mostly picked from the library pile, with a few recommended ad-hoc by friends. My favorites had to be the third novel and surrounding novellas of the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson, the Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson. Special shout-out to Eric May for recommending Walkable City by Jeff Speck, which changed the way I look at my neighborhood.
I played some of the critically-acclaimed MMORPG FFXIV, with a big gap in the fall after Danielle's surgery. MMOs are an old love of mine, starting all the way back when I was in fifth grade, and the social grind of it has felt like coming home. I also took some HTML/CSS courses in preparation for this website, which is increasingly becoming relevant for me in my professional life. At the very least, I'll have a few things to tweak when I get back to my work environment...
The Crafting Corner
I did a lot of writing this year, but not as a cohesive body of publishable work. I put over 300,000 words into the WorldAnvil wiki for my Starfinder campaign (a.k.a. The Centurion's Riddle), greatly aided by the ~90 short stories I needed to write to bridge a time skip in-game (I did it to myself...). We also completed Episode 54 this year, which I prepped, ran, and wrote the reports for.
In preparation for all that glorious DMing, I also did a lot of painting, in an effort to utilize the backlog of models I printed in 2019-2020. You can see one of my later terrain pieces above, with a sneak peek of some of the minis in the background. While tedious to setup and teardown a space for in the apartment, this was one of the few relaxing activities I had left this year, and I found myself coming back to it consistently.
Wrapping Up
And that's a wrap on 2021. Good riddance, you will not be missed. While I don't have any grand hopes for 2022, I do have grand ambitions — hopefully the world will calm down a little to suit.
I hope all is well with you and yours, and Happy New Year!