I survived and managed to find a job that helps me help a few other humans survive.

Brother's family moved to my city, leading to lots of time with the niblings

Got a job that I really like and is very lenient when I come in. I have some medical condition that makes a job and life nearly impossible, some days I feel debilitatingly horrible at complete random. It feels like there's 200 pounds strapped to my back, and I have done that before so I know it really feels like that. Thankfully my boss is very lenient when I come in so if I feel like crap I can take the day off. If I suddenly feel like crap 2 hours into the day, no biggie I can go home early.

Granted it's minimum wage and I'm arguably being underpaid for my level of expertise but the flexibility of my workplace is priceless.

Won conference championships in indoor and outdoor collegiate track and field. Ran a half marathon after years of chronic knee problems. Won a piano competition and performed with a full orchestra. Wrote a 48 page honors thesis and presented it. Formed a jazz trio. Graduated college. It's been a cool 365 days, I'm grateful to not know how to pick the best thing.

My ability to do math and predict my monthly budget costs is bad enough that it finally worked out in my favor... I'm still curious how that's happening, but I'm not inclined to look to deeply else I tip the balance of the universe out of my favor sooner that is bound to happen.

It's a split between two things:

Firstly, I finally got my degree. People in my immediate surroundings got tired of the confirmed bachelor jokes after the first week of me making them.

And secondly, after a year and a half of waiting I got to talk to a gender service doctor back in February. Now I'm well on the way to get the bureaucracy part of my transition out of the way. And I'll be getting my hormones soon.

That it’s almost over. My spouse had two unexpected surgeries (successful and all seems well so that’s also good), and my work has turned to shit. Here’s hoping for a better 2024!

i think i took about 500 shits

Through circumstances I’m not going to describe because I’d sound like a crazy person, I discovered that I am immortal. Being unable to escape life has given me a new commitment to living well, and I’ve been pushing every day without hesitation since that happened.

Probably that I met a bunch of other decently-high-level fighting game players that have similar demeanor about the games we all play. Hanging out with them gave me an entire new community to feel at home in, and got me back into content creation. Plus, they collectively made it not feel impossible to go to my local tournaments on occasion, at which I'm at least not the weakest player in the room by a good margin.

Oh yeah, I completely quit drinking as well, after overdoing it one night and teleporting to the bathroom to vomit. I'm not counting days or anything, just kinda neat that I dropped it cold turkey, had plenty of opportunities to drink again, and just haven't wanted to.

Union almost struck, and we got a nice fat contract.

Unionize people. It's the only way to fight back and have a living wage.

First winter in a long while that hasn't been hell, the new anti-depressants stopped my winter depression. And even helped a bit against my year round depression.

I've started a weekly swimming session too. Haven't been good at following it after the snow came, but its still progress.