2024: Prep work
Jan. 19th, 2025 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkFanworks I have created 2024:
Various Ways to Victory, Life Series/Hermitcraft, post-Secret Life Pearl&Scar
Shiny Things For Your Bird, Hermitcraft, short Scar/Grian/Mumbo fluff (by far the most popular thing I wrote this year by hits&kudos)
Four Double Victories, Life Series, Scar&Grian, 3+1 Third Life AUs
Once More, With Fewer Secrets, Life Series, short Secret Life Cleo & Etho time travel
Claw Out Your Eyes and Devour You, Hades 2, Scylla definitely does not have a crush on Melinoe
What Needs To Be Done (To Make A Difference), Hermitcraft, Pearl-centric HotGuy Comics Zinethology missing scenes
A Farewell to Rusty, Hermitcraft, Decked Out 2 dungeon run Twine game
Approximately 18k written this year (I can't tell exactly because of the Twine game), a little less than last year. All except the first were written for exchanges: four for
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battleshipex and the last two for ficinabox. I enjoyed both of these a lot and hope to do them again. (I didn't participate in yuletide and didn't really miss it either.) Overall I'm happy with what I wrote. And especially that I made a game! I'm also very proud that I kept up the monthly rec posts, well done me.
I didn't read many books this year but some I really liked, like Some Desperate Glory and The Spear Cuts Through Water. I also watched a few TV shows I enjoyed, like Delicious in Dungeon and Castlevania Nocturne and the latest Doctor Who and the first 1.6 seasons of Arcane, though none of these I felt very fannish about. I watched a couple of movies but nothing that stands out in my memory. I played a lot of Minecraft and Hades 2, and I also some other games but not for long.
Most of what I watched was MCYT. Hermitcraft and the Life Series were still firmly my main fandoms, I watched many videos and also many streams. I also got some merch that makes me happy whenever I wear it or look at it in my room or at work (the Decked Out 2 desk mat.) I also still watched MCC, though less than before, and some other Minecraft-related videos either by Hermits or others.
The fannish highlight of the year was definitely Glasgow Worldcon. I had a fantastic time there with
dhampyresa and Lunik. I'd been looking forward to this since my first Worldcon 2019 in Dublin and this definitely lived up to my hopes.The non-fannish side of things is the reason for the title of this post. When I thought about it, many things I did in 2024 were in preparation for things I want to do in 2025: most importantly my exams, but also my tasks at work, and my apartment.
2024 started in the best possible way: having a great time with friends. (And it ended with me being sick, but that's surely just a coincidence and not an omen.)
I started a new job in January 2024 – well, same job really, but with a different company. And while I was always certain that leaving my old job had been the right decision, at times I wasn't sure if I'd made the right choice about the new one, especially early on when I missed my old colleagues and in the summer when I didn't get along that well with my colleagues on the same floor. Fortunately I eventually was moved to a different desk on the other floor and I like it better here. It's challenging but also interesting. And there's much less pressure to work overtime, which is great.
In spring and summer I did the classes for my first tax advisor exam. Originally I wanted to do it in October but, uh, I forgot to sign up in time – and in hindsight that was good because September was so stressful. My plan for 2025 is to do that exam in February, then the next one in May, and then a third one in October. It'll be a lot! And the average failure rate is around 40% (better than it used to be tbf.) At one point I only wanted to do two exams a year but I also really really want to get it over with. Fingers crossed.
This was my first full year alone in my apartment. I considered looking for another flatmate but ultimately decided that one half of the apartment was becoming too small for me. Then I considered moving, and I still do, but in the "I'll move if I happen to find something good" kind of way. At the end of the year I finally decided how to use the other room: it's my study space now, and at some point it'll get a couch too. The study space still needs the final adjustments but it already looks quite good.
One disadvantage of living alone: I find it hard to cook for myself. It's hard to get the motivation to make something even slightly more complicated when I know I could also make something very simple, or just buy lunch during the week. (There's not that many lunch menus near the office, so I ate a lot of kebap this year.)
The one big travel I went on this year was Scotland, first Worldcon and then a city tour with LB, which was great.
My TTRPG group continued with our cat campaign, though unfortunately organizing dates became even harder this year. One of us is going to Japan for a year in March, so the plan is to finish our current adventure and then do a shorter campaign for a year until she returns.
I sang in a choir again! Only for half a year, because F's old choir was singing the Carmina Burana so F, A, and I decided to join. It was a lot of fun. I'd underestimated the time and energy investment though, so after the concert I decided not to continue. Instead I've been going to karaoke occasionally, there's a nice place not far from LB's apartment and he keeps inviting a group of people which is nice.
Health-wise it was an up and down year, both regarding physical and mental health. In spring I started having issues with my knee(s) after running; my doctor recommended not running on asphalt, but that's not that easy nearby, so I basically stopped running. In the summer I managed to go swimming quite regularly, which I was happy with. Then I went on vacation and then it took a while for my bruises to fade after I had a bad fall, and even though I'd had plans to go biking regularly instead (I got my grandmother's old bike), that never happened. I at least tried to go for walks semi-regularly. It's hard to get into an outdoors exercise routine in fall/winter.
I also had some digestion issues which thankfully seem to have mostly cleared up atm, fingers crossed.
Mentally, I'm mostly doing well, though I've had some periods of very low energy/increased executive dysfunction issues and also high anxiety (the latter related to world events, mostly.) I made some progress catching up on administrative things that I should have addressed years ago, though less than I'd hoped for and there is still a lot left to do.
I went on several dates this year, which was nice. Nothing that led to actual dating, but we'll see how the next year goes. [Almost three weeks in: very well so far.] I also had a brief crush on a good friend of mine and I talked to her about it and nothing came of it and it was fine. I felt very accomplished for actual communication, though considering how anxious I was about it, in retrospect I feel in the past I judged characters in friends-to-lovers stories that took a long time to address their feelings too harshly ;)
My family also did well this year. My dad settled into his retirement, and LB finished his doctorate and found a new job. My grandparents became great-grandparents thanks to my cousin, they are very excited. (It's the part of the family on the other side of the country so I still haven't met him.)
The wider world… well. Several bad things happened and/or continued to happen. At times I struggled with pessimism and anxiety and feeling both powerless and selfish and cowardly.
I remembered something I'd read somewhere: that one person is more likely to make an impact when focusing all their energy on one thing, than ineffectually spreading it out over a dozen different things. That makes sense to me.
But I don't have a lot of spare energy right now. So I decided to finish on focusing my education quickly, e.g. doing three exams next year instead of two, because once I'm done with that I'll finally have the time and energy to pick a battle and fight in it.
Will that actually happen? I don't know, but I hope so. I'll do my best. There is, of course, a certain degree of selfishness involved as well in that decision, but I do think it's how I'll manage to make the most impact in the long term.
2025 will be a very busy year. Ngl I'm already nervous, especially about the exams. I think I can do it, though.
Goals for next year:
Non-fandom-related:
- Write – and ideally pass! – all three planned exams: business management, law, and financial reporting. Study enough for all of them that I feel like I did what I could.
- Work on my anxiety. I feel like it got worse recently, to the point of actually stopping me from doing important things, and I would like that to not happen please.
- Continue going on dates.
- Getting back into doing some kind of regular physical exercise. It'd be good for me both physically and mentally.
- Cook more.
Fandom-related:
- Keep up the monthly rec posts.
- I want to play more different games again. I'll almost certainly play more Hades 2, I'll play Rune Fencer Illyia when it comes out since I backed it on Kickstarter, and there's a few others I want to try.
- I want to read more books, too. Maybe two a month, that's doable.
- I want to write more silly things, especially AUs, especially short snippets. Maybe I could try a bingo challenge or something like that? We'll see.
That, uh, looks like a lot like this. I'll do my best.
Thank you all for being here. I hope you and your loved ones have a great year.
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Date: 2025-01-19 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-24 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-20 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-24 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-20 02:16 am (UTC)Definitely hear you on the occasional "At times I struggled with pessimism and anxiety and feeling both powerless and selfish and cowardly" feelings - you are not alone there. Picking a thing to make better and doing that, and then a next right thing, etc. does help.
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Date: 2025-01-24 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-20 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-24 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-21 04:12 am (UTC)Re: cooking for one. Do you mean that you like cooking, and miss having some motivation to make more complex dishes? I definitely find I have more motivation to be more creative when I'm cooking for / with someone else! One of my friends recently told me she has a monthly call with a good friend where they are on the phone together while they both make the same recipe -- I thought this was such a neat way to stay connected and to also have the opportunity to cook something different!
I also relate to struggling with pessimism and anxiety and powerlessness. *hugs* Recognizing how paralyzing those spirals are and working to get yourself out of them is hard, but it sounds like you are taking material steps to break those patterns for yourself.
Best of luck for all of your 2025 goals!
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Date: 2025-01-24 07:51 pm (UTC)Not sure if I'd go so far that I like cooking, but I don't mind it generally. Cooking together with someone on the same call is a good idea, I might try that :)
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Date: 2025-01-21 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-24 07:52 pm (UTC)Thanks :)
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Date: 2025-04-06 12:04 pm (UTC)