I'm a little late with my 2022 reflection, whoops! I usually try to get at least something out, even if It's just a general list of what I want to get done for the year. Hopefully, this doesn't get too needlessly wordy.

General

2022 was a year of many ups and downs, honestly, I have such a hard time remembering the things that happened early on (Some of the most notable events this year is having my tires go flat TWICE in one year because I'm the world's most unlucky lizard.)

One of the biggest struggles in 2022 was my health. Last year it was constantly in flux. Part of it was simply not sticking with routines as well as I should have, another part has been straight-up not bothering to take care of myself to the point that I had several issues pop up with my feet, hands, and even chest (I won't go into details, but it was and still is very concerning.)

Putting a little more effort into my health is going to be difficult for many reasons, but it would be nice to be able to do more things without any physical issues popping up as much.

Aside from my health, 2022 also made me start reflecting on the types of friends I keep close to me. I don't know if it's age or if I've simply hit my limit about what I let slide, but nearing the end of the year I found myself disappointed with the different social circles I was in. There will always be disagreements between friends and there will always be things a group of people won't 100% be on the same page about, but there were lines crossed this year that I simply no longer have the patience to ignore or deal with anymore.

Going into 2023 I want to be more conscious of the sorts of people I interact with, even if it makes me seem a little more unapproachable. It feels like a decent trade-off for more peace of mind.

Video Games

I have such a hard time writing about video games I've played during the year, I should start actively writing down my thoughts on the games I play as I go through them. Luckily that's something I'm kind of already planning for this blog, so that's something to look forward to I guess?

Moving on to the games I've played for the year, I think it will be easier to write a little bit about the new (mostly to me) games I tried out this year!
I put in an effort this time around to play more games other than FFXIV (because during the pandemic, that's all I played, and I kind of regret it now.)

Strangers of Paradise: Oh man, this was one of those games that I want to write more about in its own post. I had so much fun playing this, especially considering I don't think I was even the intended audience for this game, I've only ever played one other Final Fantasy game before this, and I'm almost certain I missed things in the game that were meant to be appreciated by longtime fans. Regardless, I had so much fun, I normally don't play more action-ey games, and I am Not Good at them. At all. But Strangers of Paradise, with all its awkward dialogue and in-game models that were not at all optimized well for slower computers now, has a special place in my heart.

Transistor: Why. Didn't. I. Play. This. Sooner. I've always heard good things about Supergiant Games and had this game for years on my steam library. But I wasn't prepared for how invested I would get in the characters and the world they lived in. I was also very much not prepared for the emotional wave that hit me after I finished the game and reflected on it. This might be another game I write more about once I find the time to but oh my god. I have to play more games by this company.

Unpacking: A short and sweet game about life. It's a simple game but hit me with feelings of melancholy and joy about growing up. It's a good mixture of puzzle and visual storytelling. Most things in the game aren't told to you with words, you can see exactly what's happening. I don't have much else to say because I feel like the simplicity of the game and the feelings it conveys more than speak for it.

Aside from these three games I played, I went back and played other multiplayer games with friends on stream. I don't want this section to get too much longer but after a year of playing nothing but FFXIV it felt like such a breath of fresh air.

I still played FFXIV a lot in 2022, especially at the beginning of the year. but it has definitely fallen out of my favorite games category this year. I even went back to playing WoW again in the latter half of 2022, but I kind of feel like I'll write more about how I feel about WoW and FFXIV another day.

Social media

I mean.... at least it got me to start this blog?

Honestly, everything regarding Twitter has started to make me look into using social media a little less if I can help it. I already heavily curate what I see with excessive use of blocking and limiting how many people I follow and being more mindful about what I decide to engage with, but even then, I think I can benefit from continuing to cut my time spent online.

That's easier said than done, however, but it's an endeavor worth making.

I guess then it's also a little silly that I decided to choose other places to try and post on, but If I've learned anything from the last few months, it's that one should not keep all their eggs in one basket.

Aside from general social media feelings, there's also Twitch and streaming. I guess this technically should go under video games, but I feel like this is more of a general social media thing.

I hit several goals this year with streaming! which made me incredibly happy, even if most people would consider them very small goals. I still honestly can't believe I have followers outside of my friend group at all!

I'm truly grateful for every single lurker, follower, subscriber, or person that tuned in just once. I want to make more of an effort to try and stream as consistently as I can while also improving the quality of streams.
I'm still not sure how to go about it yet, but I'm going to try!

Art

I touched upon this a little in health, but my art output was affected greatly by my lack of care for my body. Constant pain in my wrists and the back of my hand was only made worse the more I tried to ignore it. I finally did make the effort to try and minimize the damage I kept receiving to my hands by finally purchasing a vertical mouse and making changes to my workspace and workflow.

The only downside to changing my workflow has been that I've had trouble with the speed of my drawings.

I hate to admit it, but a big source of my anxiety has been the speed and quality of my artwork. It's difficult to find a good in-between for both. I can only hope that the changes I've started to make start to help.

Aside from the mentioned health problems, I did a lot of experimenting with painting. Some of it hasn't yielded the results I wanted, but I feel a lot closer to knowing what works and what doesn't work a lot faster. I can't call that a loss in the long run.

For 2023 I just simply want to make more art. It's what I want every year, but I'm really feeling it now with how much I had been struggling this year.

Future Goals! (or the tl;dr version of this post)

To sum it up, here are things I want to do/work on for 2023!

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• I want to actively work on my health again.
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• I want to work on my relationships with others.
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• I want to play more games outside of the two MMOs I like!
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• I want to change how I interact with online spaces
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• I want to improve my streams and online content!
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• I want to be better about my workflow in my art
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• I want to make more art!
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• And I want to write more!
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I already cut so much out of this otherwise I'll never get around to hitting "publish" on this thing.

So, here's to a happy New Year!