Musings and Ravings

The Year That Was January 1, 2024

A new year. A time for reflection. A time for memories.

Up until a few years ago, I always did a Year in Review entry about things in a lot of detail. Eight years ago, I changed it up and didn’t do that, only something along the lines of a year’s perspective. I’ve come to realise that the year is done. Life has wound its course for 2023, and there’s no point dwelling on it too much. That’s not to say that I won’t remember 2023. I am, I do, and I will. But I can’t live in the past, though I can certainly learn from what happened last year. At least I hope so.

I guess I’ll start by saying that 2023 will be remembered for the continuing COVID-19 virus and the pandemic that has not so much raged across the world, but continues to plague us (no pun intended) in an eighth (or ninth or tenth, depending on who you ask) wave as we start the new year. The sheer scale of the pandemic, the (still) staggering number of dead, the effect on the economy and on people’s lives, and the toll on mental health will all be something that we can’t and don’t forget. Even with the vaccination rate, that doesn’t mean the COVID-19 pandemic will end in 2024, though that is the hope. But the sheer rising number of cases and not-so-much rising number of deaths in this eighth (or whatever) wave (as I write this blog entry) from the current Omicron variant is a good indicator that coronavirus is not done with us yet. And I suspect the hope that the vaccines bring is making too many people complacent. Throw into the mix the current flu, which is wreaking havoc (and even death) as it surges in a nasty wave this year, and the respiratory infection (RSV) that is striking down both the very young and the older population, and it’s going to be a year that will be quite nasty over the course of January and February.

For me personally, the year was epitomized for the most part by several things. First of all, the year started with me developing a very bad diabetic ulcer on the bottom of my left foot that left me feeling pretty crippled and off my feet for much of the first half of the year, requiring me to stay off the foot and receiving home health and footcare through early September. Second, my diabetes was obviously not under good control (hence the foot ulcer), and things were not helped with the shortage in some of the medications that I take for it. Suffice to say, I did manage to bring the diabetes back under control somewhat after September. The isolation that I was going through during the months trapped in the house, unable to walk or even to go out anywhere except when necessary, didn’t help my health overall and I was wracked with deep, heavy bouts of depression and helplessness during much of the period. While I have the joy of my gaming groups during the year, this was few and far between (see the stuff on gaming below), and I struggled to stay positive for the most part. This is something that I’ll need to work on this year, especially since I don’t see myself risking my health in various social settings too often this year, and because I don’t really have a lot of friends and people I socialize with. Throw in the bowel issues I’m having, including Irritable Bowel Syndrome, the stress I’ve been under and… well, let’s just say 2023 was a year to forget health-wise.

And then there’s the situation on the world stage. I mean look at this mess: the COVID-19 pandemic and the way that various world governments and their people have continued to badly handle it; the messy situations in both Canadian and U.S. politics; the continuing discoveries of how abusive things were in Canada for the Indigenous people, and how that situation has not been handled well, let alone resolved; how Canadian relations with China and a couple of other countries continue to be a hellish handbasket; the extent to which terrorism ruled the headlines; the continuing Ukraine-Russia conflict that is making losers of both sides, but especially the Ukrainians; the terrible conflict between Israel and Hamas, and the devastating, horrifying results to this point; the rash decisions being made by North Korea; the way in which Mother Earth fought back against what we’ve done to the planet and climate change, in addition to the pandemic; the manner in which racism continues to be an issue all over the world, and the generally poor way in which people and governments have handled it; how environmentalism/climate change became key issues for people around the world because of one young girl’s bringing the matter into the spotlight; and the various deaths in both the entertainment, music and science industries, notably of individuals my own age or younger. Is it any wonder that people continue to feel depressed and hopeless, which is still being exacerbated by the not quite a pandemic?

Gaming-wise, 2023 was a pretty disastrous year for the most part. I managed to run four (4) game sessions of the Coriolis – The Third Horizon RPG at the beginning of the year and ran eight (8) sessions of the DC Heroes RPG from May to June, but then was lucky enough to be able to run twenty-five (25) sessions of the Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game RPG from late July through the end of the year. Quite a few of these were Session 0s, but there was a lot of gaming time lost to cancelled sessions (especially early in the year because of my diabetic ulcer) for various reasons. And that was pretty much my entirety of gaming for 2023. Because of the diabetic ulcer, I was unable to attend CanGames in 2023, so I didn’t get to run anything at the convention or socialize with friends and acquaintances. I’m (still) not one to play games on-line using Discord, Zoom, Roll20 or other sites, so those just aren’t an option for me. There are several games that I’m looking forward to running (and perhaps playing) this year of 2024, but we’ll see how things shake out.

And there’s also CanGames 2024 to think about…

I can’t honestly say there were a lot of highlights in 2023, but there were a lot of lowlights, none of which I really want to look back at with any angst, perverse fondness or annoyance. Or fear. I like to think that I’m a bit of a better person for what happened in 2023, but there’s (a lot of) room for improvement, and I hope to be a better person yet again in 2024.

That’s really all I have to say about 2023.

Now? It’s time to look forward. And all the good/great stuff that’s hopefully going to happen this year.

In the meantime, to everyone reading this blog entry… Stay safe, and stay healthy.