Happy new year!

This is the eighteenth issue of my newsletter and it is dedicated to Stan Getz.

New year, same me but maybe a new way of doing things? I realised that I might run out of steam with the format of previous newsletters and I want to be more relaxed with my writing. So I might be a bit more chatty in some newsletters than others. Or I might just drop some links and keep the personal stuff to a minimum (trying to be a bit more mysterious).

How’s your head?

It’s been just over two weeks since my last newsletter so my world hasn’t changed dramatically (even thought it has for many Venezuelans and Palestinians—solidarity with them now and in the future ✊🏾🇵🇸🇻🇪).

I had a nice chill Christmas with my family, and then had a second Christmas/birthday week with my son who turned 10 out of nowhere. Really didn’t see that coming.

And then, thanks to an earlier big brain move, I took an extra week off so I didn’t have to start right after New Year’s so I’m posting this from what has felt like a second Twixmas.

I’m sad that Christmas is over as it’s my favourite time of year and I’ve even tried to cling to the festivities in my head thanks to a new revelation (a Biblical one but not that kind of revelation). I’ll get back to that one at the end.

Anyway, it’s been a relatively nice time off and I’m not ready to go back to work but I have no other skills to pay the bills so it is what it is.

What I’ve been watching

• A helluva lot of Christmas movies (mostly crap). You can check my Letterboxd review to get an idea.

• I watched The Firm again last night and it was even better than last time which was a while ago.

• f4mi’s video about gaming UIs altered my brain chemistry and I can’t stop thinking about everything in it. Must watch if you ever played games in and around the 2000s.

• I watched some of the shorts featuring characters that recently entered the public domain. Mostly cute but some didn’t age so well (or maybe they were prescient; you be the judge!)

What I’ve been listening to

• Michael Jackson (listening through my faves in his discography)

• Quadron

• George Michael

• T-SQUARE (so good and so prolific!)

• Anita Baker

• Black Eyed Peas

What I’ve been playing

Following on from my new-found love of games and actually playing them to completion, I’ve hit the ground running and already completed 5 this year. Yes, FIVE. Now I want to make it clear: these games were chosen as they could be completed quickly and quality has varied as a result.

But some of the longer plays have been great so far including Bravely Default which is basically Final Fantasy V-2 and that’s a big compliment as I liked FFV.

If you want to see what games I’m playing/have played/stopped playing, check them out on my website. I’ve spent hours making it look pretty this week.

Something that interested me

Remember that biblical thing from earlier? Well, it’s about Candlemas, “a Christian feast day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple by Joseph and Mary.” The interesting part, for me at least, is that it’s the end of the Christmas–Epiphany season and for some Christians, they keep their decorations up until Candlemas which is on 2nd February.

Now, I took my decorations down on 5th January, as is customary on my side of the world, but knowing that I could extend the festivities until Groundhog Day (wait, does that make Groundhog Day [1993] a Christmas movie???) means I could keep the Christmas cheer for another month and something about that warms my heart a little.

I want to make it clear though: I’m not a Christian. I was brought up as one but I never classed myself as practicing, even when I was dragged to church. But I love Christmas so I’ll take any excuse to cling to it. That’s why I downloaded Jingle All The Way to watch at some point in the next few days.

Something I’m proud of

A new segment that may not be a regular thing is to showcase something I’m proud of. My first entry is an article I wrote at about 1am last night/this morning about an unlikely pairing of strategy RPGs and Black Eyed Peas. It’s silly but it’s close to my heart so I’d love for you to give it a read.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe if you haven’t already and feel free to email me with comments or suggestions or whatever! And if you'd like to help out with my content creation endeavours, check out my Patreon.

Peace ✌🏽