Closing out 2019 with a few updates...

The last half-year has really flown by for me, although I don't have much to report on the RW project since my June update. I've kept at basic worldbuilding and plotting work in my spare time, but that's been more so "indulgent tinkering" than anything noteworthy since my imagination often strays there anyway. My current day job has kept me super busy with contract-writing and related support, and I've also been dealing with some health stuff that's been fucking with my sleep – AKA the only thing that I really can't skimp on – and creating a stress-fatigue feedback loop that worsens things further.  

Getting a solid 8ish hours of sleep every night is pretty much non-negotiable for me if I want to avoid the "shambling, zombie-Nick" phase of the day, although I fondly remember my high school and early college-age epoch of pizza-crushing "game all night, sleep all day" marathons of fun (and to any fellow gamers who are too young to have ever experienced a proper LAN party, my condolences). Unfortunately, a serious TBI from more than 15 years ago (a story for another time) means that any sleep debt I accrue now in my mid-30s hits me far harder than it should and compromises my cognitive function for days afterward. This sluggish brain-drain is further compounded if I sleep poorly for more than a few nights in a row, which is a recuperative tailspin that's hard for me to pull out of.  

Fortunately, a combination of more naps and avoiding the siren song of late-night gaming sessions is slowly turning the tide, but I find that getting back to a well-rested baseline is a weeks-to-months long process for me. I'm also tackling the peripheral health issues that have worsened things and which I have at least some control over, but again: they won't be fully sorted for a while yet. 

At any rate, even though I had hoped to be further along with prep work on the RW project by year's end, I recognize that my writing still has to take a back seat to my health and staying on top of my regular 9-to-5 responsibilities. Being not-sick and adequately housed, clothed, and fed necessarily takes priority – although it's worth emphasizing that my having a reasonably well-paying job with solid benefits in the first place is a privileged position to be in, and it's something I try not to take that for granted when waxing philosophical here in my tiny corner of the blogosphere. The longer-term goal of indulging my inner recluse by writing full-time remains unchanged, though, even if it's more of an 8-10+ year plan based on current projections. 

I've at least managed to stay on top of my recreational reading, which is both instrumental for winding down at the end of the day and for immersing myself in relevant genre fiction for the sake of professional development. On that note, one of these days I'll try and get back to doing commentary and review posts on media I've consumed, either recently or as a kind of nerdy retrospective, but at the moment I don't have the mental bandwidth to do it justice (although honorable mentions for The Power Mage trilogy and The Lightbringer pentalogy, both of which I finished since the summer and enjoyed quite a bit).

In other domestic news, PROTH and I have fully settled our new place and are really digging it. It feels like home already and is just the right size: big enough for us to relax and work in without feeling cramped, plenty of storage, and most of its usable, heavily-trafficked space is on the first floor (which my knees and our heating/cooling bill appreciate). We've also talked about a few choice renovations in the coming years that can help beat back the turbo-charged winters more effectively and really ratchet up the creature comforts, as money and time allow (if you guessed "hot tub" here, you'd be right). I even splurged on a super comfy recliner that should be here in the next month or so – we're pretty remote up here, and I didn't want the floor model without a discount – which will be an ideal long-term napping station.

I'll resist the urge to declare some kind of New Year's resolution or pledge in relation to any of the above. I'm either too self-serious or irreverent (or both, probably) to give those declarations any real weight, and my social circle is far too circumscribed for any valuable peer-pressure to come of it, either. So unless I stumble upon some otherworldly means of achieving my goals – you know, the standard ancient and forbidden magicks, Faustian bargains, or maybe even a fortuitous accident in an intrinsic field generator – my plan is to keep hammering away at the twin titans of getting my shit together and then building on as many of those gains as I can. 

Either way, I wish you all the same in 2020 and beyond.

Orbital HQ, out.