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xaq_the_aereonGood lord what a roller coaster 2020 was. I hate roller coasters.
Me having the social life of a smashed brick made life under coronavirus restrictions pretty much the same as before, with nothing more added than a bit of cloth over the face. Once I got used to it, they actually got kinda comfy. I may keep using these for a while once the pandemic has finally passed. Certainly any time I've got a cold or something.
Creativity-wise, it was definitely a hell of a year. My dive into chiptune music hit a bit of a fervor with my "Wrenesis" album project, which, while I didn't hit my goal of finishing it by the end of the year, certainly got close; the song count currently stands at 17 Sega Genesis-styled tracks, all designed to be looped for use as game music. Aquamarine Depths and Bio-Tech Lab Raid were two of the earliest tracks; BTLR's been updated a little bit since then as I got better with DefleMask, and I'm rather happy with where the whole thing's going.
Beyond music, though, my mind spent a good few months in my downtime creating something a bit larger: an entire world, one teeming with various forms of life, primarily insectoid megafauna like the Canyon Skypiercer and bioluminescent flora. Sivanris, the world in question after being merged with various other OC headcanons of mine, also became the official home world of the aereon species, giving rise to new varieties. I'll have to do a master post on what all I came up with some time.
One other project that finally got into gear was a trading card game project I've been working on the past few years: a boxing-themed game that, after switching it to a furry theme, I've titled "Fur-Riday Night Fights." The rules of the game itself have been more or less set for a while; the problem was coming up with character and ability cards for it. Once my brain ran out of steam on Sivanris' wildlife, though, this kicked into gear in its place.
My favorite thing for this is that I finally came up with an OC I've wanted to make for a long while; a shark, this time in the form of "TKO" Tessa K. O'Neil. While not the intended "face of the game" character, she has honestly become my favorite of the group I have so far.
...
As much as I want to focus on the positives, though, I can't avoid the pack of elephants in the room that was 2020 forever. The year as a whole was an absolute nightmare, and while I'm thankful for being personally spared the worst of it, I spent pretty much the whole year in a state of heartbreak for everyone who wasn't as fortunate, and rage at those who could have done so much to help with the worst of it and didn't. We had racist hatemongers treated as heroes, heroes treated as scum, and a global pandemic treated as no big deal even as it killed hundreds of thousands and left countless times more suffering unbearable agony.
The year capped off, for me at least, with my car breaking down. Same problem it gave me last year; the flexplate (a big gear that the starter turns to get the engine going) has some teeth missing, and it stopped right on that toothless spot so that the starter had nothing to grab. I knew how to fix it, I just didn't have the capability to at the time, which left New Year's Eve a day of utter frustration for me.
...
And the first thing I did in 2021 was get it working again all by myself. A good starting point for a year with some big shoes to fill. ...I speak of course of 2019's shoes, because 2020's went up in smoke along with it as per quarantine disposal standards.
(EDIT: Turns out I got it working for all of 2 trips. Come Saturday it was conked out again.)
I'll cap this off by letting John Oliver sum it up:
Good riddance to a year that never should have been.
Here's to you, 2021.
Me having the social life of a smashed brick made life under coronavirus restrictions pretty much the same as before, with nothing more added than a bit of cloth over the face. Once I got used to it, they actually got kinda comfy. I may keep using these for a while once the pandemic has finally passed. Certainly any time I've got a cold or something.
Creativity-wise, it was definitely a hell of a year. My dive into chiptune music hit a bit of a fervor with my "Wrenesis" album project, which, while I didn't hit my goal of finishing it by the end of the year, certainly got close; the song count currently stands at 17 Sega Genesis-styled tracks, all designed to be looped for use as game music. Aquamarine Depths and Bio-Tech Lab Raid were two of the earliest tracks; BTLR's been updated a little bit since then as I got better with DefleMask, and I'm rather happy with where the whole thing's going.
Beyond music, though, my mind spent a good few months in my downtime creating something a bit larger: an entire world, one teeming with various forms of life, primarily insectoid megafauna like the Canyon Skypiercer and bioluminescent flora. Sivanris, the world in question after being merged with various other OC headcanons of mine, also became the official home world of the aereon species, giving rise to new varieties. I'll have to do a master post on what all I came up with some time.
One other project that finally got into gear was a trading card game project I've been working on the past few years: a boxing-themed game that, after switching it to a furry theme, I've titled "Fur-Riday Night Fights." The rules of the game itself have been more or less set for a while; the problem was coming up with character and ability cards for it. Once my brain ran out of steam on Sivanris' wildlife, though, this kicked into gear in its place.
My favorite thing for this is that I finally came up with an OC I've wanted to make for a long while; a shark, this time in the form of "TKO" Tessa K. O'Neil. While not the intended "face of the game" character, she has honestly become my favorite of the group I have so far.
...
As much as I want to focus on the positives, though, I can't avoid the pack of elephants in the room that was 2020 forever. The year as a whole was an absolute nightmare, and while I'm thankful for being personally spared the worst of it, I spent pretty much the whole year in a state of heartbreak for everyone who wasn't as fortunate, and rage at those who could have done so much to help with the worst of it and didn't. We had racist hatemongers treated as heroes, heroes treated as scum, and a global pandemic treated as no big deal even as it killed hundreds of thousands and left countless times more suffering unbearable agony.
The year capped off, for me at least, with my car breaking down. Same problem it gave me last year; the flexplate (a big gear that the starter turns to get the engine going) has some teeth missing, and it stopped right on that toothless spot so that the starter had nothing to grab. I knew how to fix it, I just didn't have the capability to at the time, which left New Year's Eve a day of utter frustration for me.
...
And the first thing I did in 2021 was get it working again all by myself. A good starting point for a year with some big shoes to fill. ...I speak of course of 2019's shoes, because 2020's went up in smoke along with it as per quarantine disposal standards.
(EDIT: Turns out I got it working for all of 2 trips. Come Saturday it was conked out again.)
I'll cap this off by letting John Oliver sum it up:
Good riddance to a year that never should have been.
Here's to you, 2021.