Note: Most of this post remains unchanged, just added a bit of text in the ninth paragraph. I'm still hopeful that the rest of 2021 will be better, both personal and at large.
It goes without saying that 2020 was a brutal year across the board—the ongoing pandemic being one of the major factors—and much like the rest of the world, I am thankful that it's over. I am more grateful that it ended on a good note, both at large with Joe Biden being elected as the 46th President of the United States among other things, and personally as I'm starting to write again.
Personally, the year started off on the wrong foot with the death of an uncle on the 16th of January. While I try to keep anything personal offline, with regards to family, I cannot deny how much he meant to me. Growing up, he was one of the closest relatives who always loved joking around and one who I exchanged e-mails with when I was in high school. He also enjoyed a good debate with others regarding politics—never wanting to shut down the other people, but instead asking them to see how the other side would think while remaining humble and sincere. He was also big into yard sales and loved science fiction—Star Trek and Doctor Who were some of his favorites.
He was also someone who encouraged me to write more alongside his first wife who published a poetry memoir, titled Pondicherry Square. Unfortunately, she has also passed on due to cancer.
I was sad when we got news from the hospital, but it really hit when I went to his "Celebration of Life" event on March 7th, before Connecticut officially went into a State of Emergency due to the pandemic. I remember buying the entirety of Chris Huelsbeck's SID Anthology—Volumes 1 through 4—before we headed there. Once we arrived at the venue, I remember looking at the poster boards with pictures of my uncle throughout his life and started crying.
Almost a year on, it's still hurts, but I still press forward. We had a good journey, and I try to carry some of his spirit with me in what I do.
I also felt fortunate enough to still be living with the immediate family (parents and sister) and to still have a job through all this—even if working in close proximity to the public still unnerves me. We spend most, if not all, of our holidays at home, without inviting anyone else, so I felt grateful that those routines remained unchanged.
I feel like my picture roll on Twitter sums how I spent most of the year—playing my Switch and getting in touch with my gaming side. Much of my Bandcamp Fridays were spent on albums of video game soundtracks, covers, and most of Chris Huelsbeck's back catalog—ending up in an another playlist just as huge as the one I have for Commodore SIDs and MODs, including covers and remixes. Part of the reason being was because of a Banjo Guy Ollie stream on Twitch in which he showcased covers from other artists.
I spent most of my time listening to audiobooks more than I did reading print or e-books. Most of them were audiobooks that I listened to already—Hitchhikers Guide, Differently Morphous, Doctor Who and the Krikkit War, etc. The only one that was new was J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, that I plan on listening to again later in the year. I still need to finish reading through Rachel Maddow's Blowout. It is far from a bad book, but 2020's events called for comfort listening, so much of my reading list remained stagnant.
The latter half of the year was much better than the first—much of it happening after the end of September. If you frequent the blog often, much of it goes without saying, but I decided that I would try to blog more frequently, which I initially did so on a daily basis. Then I wrote a review that was published in a zine—which I previously blogged about in more detail. Just today, the other publication that I sent a message to got back to me with a go ahead to write a review that I'll be working on this week. For a dumpster fire of a year, the trail end left me optimistic for the future. I'm ready for whatever 2021 will bring.
Thank you to those who have given me the opportunity to work my talents, those who have help me pull through the rough emotional throes, and those who have made work bearable—family, friends, co-workers, online acquaintances. You know who you are!
Happy New Year and I hope that 2021 will be a prosperous one!
