Probably the same things I hope to achieve every year.

Go to the gym more often, eat better, and lose weight. Keep writing and maybe finish a novel or two.

Something I’ll try to do a little differently from the last couple of years is read more. I don’t read as many books as I used to, on account of the hours upon hours of games I choose to play instead. This means I’m going to be a lot more selective of the games I choose to play this year, which may be difficult with the Nintendo Switch 2 supposedly releasing in the relatively near future.

I suppose one other thing I’ll put more effort into is finding a place of my own and moving out of my roommates house (finally.)

Who knows, though, where the year will take us!

Growing up in Colorado, kids usually have a solid sense of direction as long as they can see the mountains. The sun always sets in the western skyline, obscured by the peaks, and to find North all you had to do was use your eyes to follow the range as far to your right as you could. You never needed a compass! (Unless you were hiking in the mountains, because duh.)

Well, this particular thing I believed (briefly) is from one of my earliest memories of traveling to see family who lived in Washington. I’m not sure exactly how my brain made these connections, but it involves something my older brother said some time before the trip. He said something along the lines of “once we get over the mountains they’ll be in the East instead of West” and my brain translated this to mean “on the other side of the mountains, East and West switch places, because the mountains are always to our West” right before filing it away.

So, little kid me, for a long while, just had this piece of directional misinformation tucked away in my brain. The mountains were somehow a magical dividing line for compasses and directions.

Skip to my family flying from Denver to Seattle, and I got the window seat on the right side of the plane. It was one of the rare times in the Pacific Northwest where the sun is peeking through the clouds and lighting up the western slopes of the Cascade Range. I saw the mountains and excitedly pointed them out to my brother. It was then that I thought to regurgitate what he had told me previously, probably in an effort to impress him, and said something to the effect of “look, the mountains are to our West still because like you said, once we get over them East and West switch places!”

He looked very confused and tried to re-explain what he said before, and after it all clicked it left me feeling a little deflated and defeated for the rest of the flight.

I didn’t have to believe it for long, but it’s something I’ll never forget having thought was true about our world.

First thing I’d like to cover quickly, this prompt is actually for January 16th, and I ended up having what I call a “nap-cident” because I went to have a nap after work but instead slept clear until midnight. So, unless backdating the publish date of this post counts, another writing streak is ruined. Oops.

Unfortunately, in the case of my wish to host others for things like dinner and game nights, I have roommates who have a toddler and multiple pets. This makes hosting any kind of get together nearly impossible.

The day I get my own place again, hopefully a house, I’ll likely be hosting game nights for friends and co-workers. Fingers crossed that day is sooner rather than later!

Easy! Trading cards. Magic: The Gathering cards, specifically.

My roommate and I did some rough math right before my recent vacation, and realized that there have been so many Commander decks released in just 2024 that the total cost, if averaged out across all of them, would be around $1,000!

Done deal.

Last night I went to a hockey game with some friends. I had thought about getting something to eat there for dinner, but ended up just waiting until after the game. On my way home, I stopped at one of my favorite Mexican restaurant’s here and as I was completing my order is when it happened.

The person at the register asked if I wanted anything else right as I was looking to my right at the case with the desserts. I’m a sucker for Tres Leches, and that’s what caught my eye and made me hesitate. I was super tempted to get some, I paused for a solid few seconds, looking between the order preview screen and the dessert case. The temptation was definitely real in that moment, but I held strong and didn’t give in.

I honestly have no idea what I should put down for this writing prompt. I’m sure given enough time to focus on the question, I could figure out an appropriate response, but I’m just not up for it and it’s been a long day already.

Instead, I’ll give a bit of a twist.

I wouldn’t buy excessively/disgustingly expensive Magic: The Gathering cards for myself, but only on the grounds that I can’t afford them. I definitely wouldn’t mind receiving them as a present, though. If someone wants to buy me a few thousand dollars of cards off the Reserve List that have market values in the range of several hundred dollars or more, I won’t say no.

This is a tough question, I think, because as I’ve gotten older I’m realizing there are so many places to live and explore just here in the United States. When I was younger I might have said something like Paris or Rome, because of the history and some kind of weird “prestige” I could lord over my friends. These days, though, I’m not as concerned with that, I just want to explore and experience the sights, try all the foods, and so on.

Spending a week in Savannah gave me a taste of what life would be like if I lived somewhere with decent public transportation and plenty of things to do within walking distance. This gives me the idea that maybe I could step it up and try living somewhere where the people heavily rely on that kind of lifestyle, like New York City. Although, I wouldn’t mind trying to live in Austin, Texas for a couple years, either. One of them gets snow, which I already live with so that’s not a problem, and the other gets plenty of warm weather almost year round, which could elevate the experience of getting around on foot.

I think I’d probably try my luck in NYC, if only because it’s older and has so much more to offer. I could pack a lot of activities into two years there.

The whole trip I took just a few short weeks ago. The good and the bad of it all makes for a fun little story (when told right) and I’d like to think I’ll remember all the important details so I can reminisce with my friends about it.

Like Billy the cryptid cockroach from the Airbnb. That sneaky shit. Shows up the night I arrive in Savannah, but then doesn’t show up again the rest of the time we’re there. Which, I mean, that’s actually a GOOD thing for the experience of being there visiting friends and such, but there’s a certain lack of satisfaction that comes with the inability to say “see, I told you there was one!”

Good times, though.