On the move

Now playing:
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows OST - Waltz for One

I've been kept quite busy as of late, with much on my mind, as is usual these days. As such, an update is long overdue, with everything that's happened.

As the title suggests, I'm moving. Again.

The good news is that I've gotten my hands on a car of my own again to make this happen, and moreover, that this relocation will be putting me in a genuinely nice area, where I'll be close to several friends and peers of mine. Fortuna willing, this'll be the last time I have to pick up and move for at least a few years.

The bad news is that this will NOT be together with my would-be partner. Rather, after us taking some time to talk things over, we've both concluded that, our respective circumstances being what they are, neither of us are really in a position to be dating, much less pushing ourselves to make some big move happen between us. Thus we've called everything off, amicably but indefinitely.

My dearly beloved friend and partner in crime, who adopted the rejection-of-a-name alias Nameless, is still missing. Indeed, at the time of this writing, she's been gone without a trace for over 3 months.

Obviously, the outlook for her reappearance has grown quite bleak.

Roughly two weeks ago, I hired a private investigation firm to help look into and resolve the situation. I should be receiving an update or report of some kind from them any day now; whatever the news may be, I'll certainly post here again about it.

While I expect things will (glacially, gradually, eventually) become easier to bear, her absence has only been affecting me more deeply as time has gone on.

Judging for Toxic Yuri VN Jam 2 has been progressing steadily. I won't make any guarantees about exactly how much longer it'll be until we're done, but suffice it to say that the other judges and I are all very motivated to finish up the judging in the near future.

It'd be almost an understatement, to say that I've been deep in thought about these jams of mine: Contemplating what I've hoped to accomplish with them, and whether this approach is still viable for it; watching the shifting tides of attitude among the participants and community at all levels, particularly as the events have ballooned in size and popularity...

Once the jam is finished, I'll be publishing a post-mortem that encapsulates not merely TYVNJ2 but the entirety of this "running VN jams" side project of mine.

I'm still losing weight. I'm still doing my strength training regimen four times a week. I'm still playing backgammon and Go. I'm still ruminating on my games and stories on a daily basis.

My only wish, for the remainder of this year, is to clear away the noise that's engulfed me so ceaselessly over the past few years, and to find at last a long, sustained moment of quiet...