Year in review 2022
Dec. 29th, 2022 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liv2022 has been dominated by trying to cope with Omicron through sheer force of personal responsibility, with the government having "exited" any public health measures in March. Aside from endless pandemic grind, there have been a few moments, but it's not a year I hugely want to remember.
The biggest thing that has happened this year is something I'm still not really talking about in public, so I'm going to make an accompanying locked post after this rather bland general summary.
Significant events
Reading
Games Not much stands out this year, really. I've been doing almost no video gaming, I've hardly touched the Switch and my laptop struggles to run most games. And I've played board games on dates with various partners but usually just grabbing whatever takes our fancy rather than having something we're really into. A fair amount of Wingspan and lately Quacks of Quedlinburg, a little bit of Terraforming Mars or Scythe when we have a bit more energy.
Standout mobile game is a funny thing called Trading Legend. It's theoretically in the genre of an idle RPG, except it's ridiculously, fractally beautiful and detailed, and there's a constant flow of mini-games to make it actually fun. And it isn't even a little bit gacha based; basically everybody gets the same characters, there are some that aren't really available F2P but you have complete choice over which ones you invest resources in. So there's plenty of luck and intermittent reward mechanic around which resources you get, but not which characters. I can't quite believe how good it is; the best theory we have is that it's some kind of subtle soft power pro-Chinese propaganda, with actual state funding behind it, as it does present a very romanticized view of Chinese history.
Media
Places Still mostly at home or visiting my OSOs near Ely or my parents in Shelford. But I've ventured a bit further afield this year than earlier in the pandemic, with visiting preacher trips to the south coast, the Isle of Wight and Hull, a mini-break in Norfolk as well as the odd day trip to the coast, a couple of times in London (which didn't happen at all last year), a bar mitzvah in Birmingham. I also made it to SW Wales again to seeangelofthenorth.
People I've done quite well at seeing people who live locally and are available to meet up for outdoor coffee, and quite badly at maintaining connections with people who live a long way away or who are being more pandemic cautious than I am. I have managed some phone calls withdoseybat and reasonably regular conversations with angelofthenorth, and lovely pseudomonas made the trip out, unfortunately during a week when I was excessively busy at work and with community commitments so we only had a brief in person conversation, but it was really nice to see him. Some connection with redbird and rysmiel via Discord and email.
My posts
End of year name and pronouns update No change from last year. Rachel or Liv if you know me in person or online, Dr B if you're being formal. She/her > Neopronouns eg zie/hir > they or he. No shortenings / nicknames for my first names, no thankyou to Mrs.
Previous versions: [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007] [2008] [2009] [2010] [2011] [2012] [2013] [2014] [2017] [2018] [2019] [2020] [2021]
The biggest thing that has happened this year is something I'm still not really talking about in public, so I'm going to make an accompanying locked post after this rather bland general summary.
Significant events
- [Redacted - see locked post]
- At work, I managed a team of four and got some recognition for the outstanding achievements of my team. We have done a lot of work on major national and international training projects, including the massive one around Covid, basically training the whole world to use cutting edge scientific techniques to inform their response to Covid and other infectious diseases. The main bit of it I was directly involved in was 4 and a half (fifth launches early 2023) massive online courses which have collectively reached over 10,000 people.
- My best friend hatam_soferet moved in just round the corner with her husband and their 5yo. So we have been very much enjoying being neighbours instead of being stuck on different continents like the last couple of decades. The kid absolutely adores me and jack, which has made things extra lovely.
- I've done a lot of Jewish community teaching, several different groups of tweens and young adults, several formal adult groups, and some visiting preacher work. I've continued as a member of the synagogue board; a new chair took over in April and we have started working in quite a focused way to improve social connections within the community. Historically this was never a priority and I feel reasonably proud of what we're achieving. However the new board are also quite pro-Covid so the community is no longer taking any meaningful precautions, and this means that community stuff along with in-person work is eating my entire Covid risk budget and then some.
- I had a couple of nice holidays and smaller trips with jack. Managed to meet up with my very old friend D while she was in London, and visited angelofthenorth who also came to stay with me.
Reading
- City of Brass by SA Chakraborty
- Rashi's daughters: I Joheved and II Miriam by Maggie Anton
- The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- The Orchard by Yochi Brandeis
- The Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
- Borne by Jeff Vandermeer.
- The order of time by Carlo Rovelli
- Newton's Cannon by Greg Keyes
Games Not much stands out this year, really. I've been doing almost no video gaming, I've hardly touched the Switch and my laptop struggles to run most games. And I've played board games on dates with various partners but usually just grabbing whatever takes our fancy rather than having something we're really into. A fair amount of Wingspan and lately Quacks of Quedlinburg, a little bit of Terraforming Mars or Scythe when we have a bit more energy.
Standout mobile game is a funny thing called Trading Legend. It's theoretically in the genre of an idle RPG, except it's ridiculously, fractally beautiful and detailed, and there's a constant flow of mini-games to make it actually fun. And it isn't even a little bit gacha based; basically everybody gets the same characters, there are some that aren't really available F2P but you have complete choice over which ones you invest resources in. So there's plenty of luck and intermittent reward mechanic around which resources you get, but not which characters. I can't quite believe how good it is; the best theory we have is that it's some kind of subtle soft power pro-Chinese propaganda, with actual state funding behind it, as it does present a very romanticized view of Chinese history.
Media
- Ted Lasso S2
- Station Eleven
- The Sandman
- Extraordinary Attorney Woo
- Wednesday (eps 1-3 so far)
Places Still mostly at home or visiting my OSOs near Ely or my parents in Shelford. But I've ventured a bit further afield this year than earlier in the pandemic, with visiting preacher trips to the south coast, the Isle of Wight and Hull, a mini-break in Norfolk as well as the odd day trip to the coast, a couple of times in London (which didn't happen at all last year), a bar mitzvah in Birmingham. I also made it to SW Wales again to see
angelofthenorth. People I've done quite well at seeing people who live locally and are available to meet up for outdoor coffee, and quite badly at maintaining connections with people who live a long way away or who are being more pandemic cautious than I am. I have managed some phone calls with
doseybat and reasonably regular conversations with angelofthenorth, and lovely pseudomonas made the trip out, unfortunately during a week when I was excessively busy at work and with community commitments so we only had a brief in person conversation, but it was really nice to see him. Some connection with redbird and rysmiel via Discord and email. My posts
- Race in historical genocides [rant]
- Meta on The Sandman S1.6 [culture]
- To veer to the left or to veer to the right [politics]
- December [Jewish]
End of year name and pronouns update No change from last year. Rachel or Liv if you know me in person or online, Dr B if you're being formal. She/her > Neopronouns eg zie/hir > they or he. No shortenings / nicknames for my first names, no thankyou to Mrs.
Previous versions: [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007] [2008] [2009] [2010] [2011] [2012] [2013] [2014] [2017] [2018] [2019] [2020] [2021]
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-29 07:56 pm (UTC)How many words for 'blessing' can there be?
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-31 03:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-01 02:57 pm (UTC)