Sycamore Press: December 2023

Wow! It took me a while to get one of these out. Thanks for bearing with me, and for being a great friend. :^)

It's been a busy semester and most of all just a really hard year. Right now, I at least have the bandwidth to act in opposition to that ever-present loneliness. Let's catch up!

My ideal is a gorilla. Whenever I am in doubt about something, I always think of a gorilla. I think about how I would get through it if I were a gorilla. —Juichi Yamagiwa

General Life Updates

The weather has finally cooled, which is a big part of why I'm feeling up to doing something like this. I've also been working on fixing up a new (to me) bike for my eventual personal use at the local non-profit garage. It's been so much fun to learn new skills and do precise, manual work with a big, tangible payoff!

I've also been growing my hair back out (at least a little bit), and I'm committed to cutting it myself all along the way. Saving money is nice, and I like the idea of giving myself a highly personal look in a judgement-free environment while also learning yet another fun skill.

Other life updates in the works as well. More on those later, I guess. Anyway, here's something neat I saw on the ground not long ago:

Creative Corner

No music or anything like that to share just yet, but I have been feeling more inspired lately. In the meantime, here's a fun doodle I made last month.

Contact/Online Presence

Many of you will know I stepped away from Instagram for a long time this year. I still don't have the app (as I cannot live peacefully if I have an app that has a TikTok-like algorithmic video feed embedded in it), but I've started lurkin' and likin' again. We'll see what the future holds there.

More recently, I dropped off Tumblr because the experience has just kinda sucked lately. Instead, I've been enjoying Cohost, which is like Tumblr but somehow even more of a gay furry vibe. This is my page!

I'm also on Last.fm now! Check me out there too, and let's share some music recs soon! :^)

More updates to my Neocities page coming soon too. I'll let you know!

Finally, I still cherish any and all letters and written correspondence. My address will likely be changing soon, so call or text me so we can get that sorted out -- especially if your address has changed too!

Reflections

I'm still sad in many of the ways I have been for the past two years, but I'm using all of the energy that the warm fuzzies of the holiday season bring to push back against that. I'm also trying to sacrifice less of myself for other people's benefit. During 2020-2021, I felt such an intimate connection with myself and all the various facets of my identity. I lost a lot of that when I was thrust into my current environment, but I'm done grieving it. I am going to take it back, piece by piece.

I also want to cook more! I'll share some pics (but sadly, no smells) here next time with my favorite creations. Until next time! I love you!

--N