date >> 20250106
listening to >> to chrom
I'd love to do a year in review if I had better memory, but here I am struggling to remember what I actually did. 2024 was a blur, and I'm sure it wasn't just me that felt that either. That said, there were still some things that were pretty memorable, so I guess I'll just ramble about those.
Firstly - my real, earnest foray into website-making, starting with this site, technically started in 2023, but that was also in the latter half of December, so I guess it kind of counts. Of course, the earliest iteration of this site has nothing on what I have here now. It was really only in 2024 that I picked it back up after leaving it alone for a few months, and now I have my own place in the internet to call home without having to worry about some stupid billionaire trying to ruin things. I really do love how this place turned out. It's not aesthetically pleasing and seemingly more on the utilitarian side, but I've always been enamoured with hypertext sites. The simplicity in itself is what I really love about it. It's hard to fight the urge sometimes to do a whole do-over and make things here more kitschy and cute, but then I remember what had inspired me to format my site this way in the first place, and then the urge more or less goes away.
Next - Rune, oh Rune my beloved. I don't think I've ever worked so hard on an OC before, and even though Yulia had come about before Rune, I only worked on her with bits and pieces (for some reason, building her up in the setting of the Elder Scrolls feels more difficult to get into). I've also been floundering for a muse since 2022, and the lack of one took a bad hit on me creatively. My beautiful boy came to be first with FFXIV's character creation - I finally beat the main villain of A Realm Reborn, and the fantasia it gifted me basically changed my life, dramatics and all. His creation was, in many ways, a combination of self-discovery and both literal and metaphorical transition. I've been struggling with what kind of transmasc person I am since basically 2020, and to think that he helped me in figuring out a part of it was a kind of blessing. Cyberpunk 2077 helped with the rest, of course, but Rune essentially was who I needed to figure out a part of me that had been bothering me for a long, long time. Going from a female Midlander Hyur to a male Veena Viera is already pretty hilarious in its own right, since my Warrior of Light basically transitioned as well. But while the lovely Anri Mahlyn is a relic of the past, Rune Monna helped me understand and embrace who I am today.
Not only has Rune helped me figure things out for myself, but his creation fired up old creative endeavours I used to do. I began to take up writing again - something I haven't done since high school. Sure, I may be having the worst art block of my life right now, but currently my creative energy is being directed into writing instead, so in that way, I still feel fulfilled. Much of my works are works in progress, but I don't feel pressured to finish them whatsoever because my writing is for myself, first and foremost. No one else other than a close friend is reading any of my work anyways, so having this hobby once again is a nice thing to come back to.
Overall, it's no exaggerating that Rune holds an incredibly special place in my heart, no matter which iteration I'm referring to.
Now, as for resolutions - I hate doing those. I'd prefer to set them to something much more realistic. That said, I was introduced to the fun idea of Yule boasting, lovingly explained by this Tumblr post:
Yule boasting is an old Norse tradition of getting shitfaced at the winter solstice feast and standing up to proclaim all the great, infamous, and wildly improbable deeds you will perform in the coming year. can range from an unlikely but technically possible claim, like "I'm going to rob 300 banks", to something you'd have to bend the laws of the universe to actually accomplish, like "I'm going to punch a god in the dick and steal his horse". these are not plans. they're not even goals. they're the things you'd do in a self-insert superhero fanfic.
I think it's an incredibly fun idea. So, in combination of trying to come up with actually realistic resolutions for the new year, I will also list my own personal Yule boastings, as follows:
Realistically, I'm unsure what else is in store for me this year. I have done much self-reflecting about myself and my personal relationships for the past few months, so I think that will be the focus for this year. I don't know how else to close this, so I suppose I'll leave off with a fortune I pulled for Heavensturn. I hope you, whoever is reading this, also has a lovely year. May the coming days and months be kind to us.