#6: 2024 Wrapped
2024 is wrapping up! It’s been a busy year. In numbers: 74 books read, 21 flights taken, 6 newsletters sent, 5 musical artists discovered, 3 new hobbies explored, 2 new constellations memorized, and 1 drastic change in hairstyle undertaken in my bathroom. In intangibles: adventure, getting lost in cities, burnout, stargazing, friendship, road trips, the pursuit of coziness.
I no longer set New Year’s resolutions. Instead, drawing inspiration from this CGP Grey video, I set a New Year’s theme: an intention that lingers in the back of my mind and helps guide my priorities. 2023 was the Year of Creativity, where I prioritized filling my creative well. 2024 was the Year of Dumb Joy, where I sought to bring teeny tiny joys into my life whenever possible, whether through cozy movie nights or lighting candles or starting a personal newsletter with like 5 subscribers because I wanted an excuse to use InDesign regularly.
“You should be trying to build a life you want to live, and themes are a fuzzy, high-level, longer-term way to navigate your brain at a broad level of change.”
-CGP Grey on how he thinks about themes
I haven’t chosen a theme for 2025 yet—I’m still noodling on what feels appropriately resonant. I find myself wanting to interact with New York City more: see the performances, eat the food, meet the people. So maybe I’ll go for a Year of Going Outside, or a Year of New York. What would you choose, if you were trying to set a broad intention for the next year? What theme resonates with you?
What I’ve been reading:
The Will Darling Adventures
by KJ Charles
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
It’s been a good year for books: Natasha Pulley’s The Half Life of Valery K comprehensively wrecked my shit in February; in March I found a hidden gem in It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken, which I fished out of a bargain bin; spring was spent tearing through Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Alexandra Rowland’s Mahisti Dynasty books stole my heart in October, and immediately after that I discovered Pulley had released The Mars House and got my shit wrecked all over again.
And then I entered a 2-month reading slump, panicked about ending 2024 without another good read, and did what I always do when struggling to find a story to sink into: I turned to KJ Charles.
KJ Charles is a M/M historical romance writer who enjoys a permanent place on my to-read list. She’s perfected the art of writing cozy yet heartwrenching romances between characters who must learn that vulnerability is the first step to trust, which is itself the first step to healing.
The Will Darling Adventures were like a warm cup of tea after a long, restless night: comforting, familiar, easy to tear through. These books have it all, from espionage to sapphic (minor) characters to the rebuilding of trust in the aftermath of unthinkable betrayal. I went into Slippery Creatures exhausted and came out of Subtle Blood 48 hours later fully revitalized with tears in my eyes. God bless KJ Charles.
What I’ve been listening to:
This month’s music feature doubles as a gaming feature, since it’s a game OST!
Boyfriend Dungeon is a dungeon crawler dating sim where the weapons you use to clear the dungeon also turn into people you can date. The premise sounds gimmicky, in the vein of Hatoful Boyfriend or that dating sim from 2013 where you date a tiramisu, but Boyfriend Dungeon is sincere to its core. The game features beautiful art, talented voice actors, surprisingly enjoyable combat, and an addictive electropop soundtrack replete with weapon puns.
Look, the soundtrack for this game has no business going as hard as it does. A good 10% of my playtime for this game comprises moments where I’d hang out mid-conversation or after clearing a dungeon just so I could listen to the soundtrack a little longer. Boyfriend Dungeon’s songs hold up even divorced from the context of the game. If you enjoy electropop or lo-fi, this OST will be right up your alley! And if you’d like to be unwell about 2D weapon-people, then this is the game for you.
Listen to the soundtrack on YouTube | Get the game on Steam
What I’ve been watching:
I finally got on the same page as every other person on the planet and binged Arcane season 2! Suffice it to say, this show has made me utterly unwell. It’s going to take weeks to recover emotionally.
The criticism first: I don’t think it’s controversial to say that S2 could have benefited from additional time or budget or both to finetune the pacing, particularly of the final arc. I wish we’d gotten more of Mel’s storyline; I wish Cait and Vi’s reunion had received as much of a spotlight as their explosive falling out.
But it’s easy to forgive that in light of everything there is to praise about the show. The lighting, the soundtrack, the new characters (Isha, my beloved…), the gritty tragedy and the underlying insistence that love rests and rots at the core of it all: every minute of this show was perfectly calculated to tear me, specifically, to shreds.
Arcane has handily earned a place as one of my top 5 shows of all time. I didn’t think they were making them like this anymore; I’m thrilled to be proven wrong.
Other things I’ve been up to:
I recently ended up in Bridgeport, CT, for a Big Time Rush concert. I arrived at the arena at 2:30pm, saw a scant 6 people lined up at the gate, and discovered that I’d somehow set the event time 6 hours early when I’d entered it into my calendar.
What do you do when you have 6 hours to kill in Bridgeport, CT? Google says “Leave. Why are you in Bridgeport? There is nothing for you in Bridgeport.” But I am a creature molded by spite and stubbornness, so I set off to wander around town in hopes of stumbling across a hidden gem.
And stumble I did! My first stop was a lighthouse called The Bug, purported to be a miniscule 30’ tall but nonetheless still functional and accessible. I set off eagerly in its direction—only to discover that it’s on the grounds of a manufacturing facility, and you have to cross 500’ of breakwater to get there, and also it’s not functional.
So I turned back north and headed to downtown Bridgeport. Downtown Bridgeport is about 4 square blocks and contains: a cafe that is also an art gallery; a theater that, on that, was showing zero movies but did have an event featuring one Beatles cover band; too many thrift stores; a public library; 4 bars; and a small strip mall that, to my utter delight, was hosting a very cute queer craft fair.
This craft fair was infinitely cooler and more fun than the Big Time Rush concert itself. There were artists selling resin jewelry, ceramics, line art prints, antique jewelry, and more, plus a nonprofit that was giving away free Plan B and condoms and zines about reproductive rights.
Also, Krampus was there. Big Time Rush could never.
