Year in review 2023
Jan. 5th, 2024 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liv2023 was a year of two halves, really. First six months I worked at the best job I've ever had (or probably ever will): decent money, worthwhile work, great working environment with awesome colleagues. But having made the decision to walk away from it, I was somewhat detached. Then at the end of June I dedicated myself seriously to preparing for and then joining my rabbinic training course.
I have surprisingly few regrets about the Best Job Ever. Normally when I do a new thing it takes me a long time to escape from the tangle of regret and nostalgia for my previous existence, even when it's something completely expected like progressing to the next stage of my education. And I still follow Old Job on social media and still really want them to succeed; they're doing amazing things about decolonizing scientific training. But I basically never think about the other leg of the time-trousers, or what if I'd stayed? Like, trying to live in London with no money kind of sucks, and the course is over-timetabled and over-assessed but I fundamentally just love being a student again. I love my cohort more than I can describe, and the more senior students and the faculty are awesome too.
Significant events:hatam_soferet, I should really give it back rather than vaguely intending to get back to it, sorry J!
So six books total, plus a fair amount of course reading. Also I learned Gemara from Shabbat 20b to 22a plus a little bit of 23a and associated commentaries on all of that. All of them from the traditional text with no vowels, punctuation, or translation, I'm really proud of that. I got a Kindle for my birthday so I'm wondering if that will lead me to form new habits where I do more reading in casual downtime, but we'll see.
Games I got a new computer that can actually run games without overheating. And then didn't take much advantage of it; I've been playing a little Epistory and for a few months I was into Cook, serve, delicious which is a parody of Diner Dash type games, and it isn't really funny but it's surprisingly playable in its own right. Over the break I've started Spiritfarer which I'm enjoying; it's a really gorgeous game with a good balance of story and resource gathering. It will probably appeal to players of things like Stardew valley. Nothing of note in terms of mobile games, which I'm basically using as a kind of digital fidget.
Tabletop, our biggest new game has been Expeditions, a sort of sequel to Scythe. The game-play is similar but distinct; in some ways I like it less than the original, but it's also considerably lighter and I'm more likely to have time and brain for it. We also got Spirit Island and Innovation for gifting season, and I expect both of them to see a lot of play in 2024, though for different reasons. Spirit Island is a huge, complex co-op game, which has some kind of vaguely anti-colonial flavour but is basically a classic Eurogame. A good one, at that, and its heart is in the right place, but I'm not totally impressed with representing the indigenous people who resist the evil colonizers as a combination of huts (!) and non-human spirits. Innovation has been on my wishlist for a while, you basically compete to work through the tech tree from the classic computer game Civilization.
Mediajack's mum, and jack and I managed a non-work holiday near Buxton, including a lovely stalagtite cave and a moderately challenging by my standards hillwalk.
Plague I did not catch Covid at any point in 2023, though one of our polycule did get it while travelling, recovered fairly quickly and succeeded in not infecting anyone else. I have come to a reasonably sustainable level of precautions, basically I mask whenever I'm indoors with others including public transport, and try to avoid eating indoors (this is usually possible, if inconvenient, from about February to November, but I have done pretty badly in the past couple of months, and thankfully got away with it.) I've more or less given up house parties, which I miss somewhat, but I always preferred specific one-on-one time with individuals. But apart from that I accept, grudgingly, most risks, because I can't usefully study to be a rabbi without travelling and some unmasked, including food-based, events.
As of this autumn I did manage to get vaccinated, despite the completely unreasonable restrictions on the autumn boosters, because clergy count as front-line social care, and first year students count as clergy. If I can manage boosters twice a year, I'll feel a lot more comfortable personally, though still extremely angry about society's failure to protect most of the population. I am capable of keeping this lifestyle going until we get a competent public health response and forever if that never happens, but it's not perfect because I am still getting colds (so many bloody colds) so it's only a matter of time before I lose this cursed roulette. Also it's not enough precautions to make me safe to socialize with people who are properly Covid cautious.
My posts 32 posts total. That's not a bad rate, though a lot of them are relatively trivial, the point where I'm not sure there's anything I want to call attention to again as I round up the year. You might like:
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][2022]
I have surprisingly few regrets about the Best Job Ever. Normally when I do a new thing it takes me a long time to escape from the tangle of regret and nostalgia for my previous existence, even when it's something completely expected like progressing to the next stage of my education. And I still follow Old Job on social media and still really want them to succeed; they're doing amazing things about decolonizing scientific training. But I basically never think about the other leg of the time-trousers, or what if I'd stayed? Like, trying to live in London with no money kind of sucks, and the course is over-timetabled and over-assessed but I fundamentally just love being a student again. I love my cohort more than I can describe, and the more senior students and the faculty are awesome too.
Significant events:
- I quit my job, as mentioned above!
- I combined family and community work for Pesach and Shavuot.
- I led Reform services in Hampshire, Hull, and Milton Keynes, Liberal services in Peterborough and Norwich, and Orthodox services in Stoke-on-Trent. This should possibly be a separate section of my review from now on, come to think of it.
- I got very involved in student life (which is pretty necessary when the entire student body is 15 people). I volunteered as deputy chair for the student society and ended up basically running it, because the actual chair had stuff going on and wasn't really available. I joined the team who run college services, including chanting the Torah (rather than just reading) for the first time, which was incredibly emotional.
- I put a lot of time and effort into trying to find somewhere to live in London, so far unsuccessfully, but two people, a friend of angelofthenorth and a cousin of my dad's were willing to take me in, so I haven't actually been homeless or living in terrible rentals. Really hoping to find somewhere permanent this spring!
- The starless sea by Erin Morgenstern, definitely the standout novel of 2023 for me.
- The many-colored land and The golden torc by Julian May. Very much of their era but original.
- Being seen by Elsa Sjunneson. Best non-fiction of the year, and highly recommended!
- NW by Zadie Smith. Well written but didn't wow me.
- Mr Rosenblum's list by Natasha Solomons. Long-ago gift from shreena which floated to the top of my to-read pile during the end of year break. This is a sort of comedy of manners about German-Jewish immigrants trying to adapt to the weirdness of post-war English society, which is extremely Liv catnip because that's the story of so many of the elders I grew up with. And it ends happy like a comedy should, but it's also quite dark because the back story is of course that all the protagonists' relatives who didn't make it out were murdered.
hatam_soferet, I should really give it back rather than vaguely intending to get back to it, sorry J!So six books total, plus a fair amount of course reading. Also I learned Gemara from Shabbat 20b to 22a plus a little bit of 23a and associated commentaries on all of that. All of them from the traditional text with no vowels, punctuation, or translation, I'm really proud of that. I got a Kindle for my birthday so I'm wondering if that will lead me to form new habits where I do more reading in casual downtime, but we'll see.
Games I got a new computer that can actually run games without overheating. And then didn't take much advantage of it; I've been playing a little Epistory and for a few months I was into Cook, serve, delicious which is a parody of Diner Dash type games, and it isn't really funny but it's surprisingly playable in its own right. Over the break I've started Spiritfarer which I'm enjoying; it's a really gorgeous game with a good balance of story and resource gathering. It will probably appeal to players of things like Stardew valley. Nothing of note in terms of mobile games, which I'm basically using as a kind of digital fidget.
Tabletop, our biggest new game has been Expeditions, a sort of sequel to Scythe. The game-play is similar but distinct; in some ways I like it less than the original, but it's also considerably lighter and I'm more likely to have time and brain for it. We also got Spirit Island and Innovation for gifting season, and I expect both of them to see a lot of play in 2024, though for different reasons. Spirit Island is a huge, complex co-op game, which has some kind of vaguely anti-colonial flavour but is basically a classic Eurogame. A good one, at that, and its heart is in the right place, but I'm not totally impressed with representing the indigenous people who resist the evil colonizers as a combination of huts (!) and non-human spirits. Innovation has been on my wishlist for a while, you basically compete to work through the tech tree from the classic computer game Civilization.
Media
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The witch from Mercury. This review / essay by rushthatspeaks explains it far better than I can, and convinced me to watch the series. It literally is a crossover between Mobile Suit Gundam and Revolutionary Girl Utena, with actual lesbians rather than hints and queerbaiting. And ooh there's a second series out, I should definitely move that to the top of my list for 2024.
- Ted Lasso S3. Meh. This just feels like not very good fanfic of the first two seasons. We watched it all the way through, and we enjoyed the actors doing their thing, but it's decidedly unimpressive.
- Yuri!!! on ice. Just one season, lovely characters. I was impressed at how it's erotic without being sexually explicit, and it maybe spent a bit too much time showing the nitty-gritty of particular skating competitions, but overall it's lovely. Fanfic recs welcome, basically any pairing except Yuuri/Yuri.
- I sort of failed to watch Good Omens S2 for annoying polycule miscommunication reasons, but hope to give it another go this year.
- Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among thieves. This I saw in the cinema with ghoti_mhic_uait. It's a D&D film, but made by someone who visibly loves D&D rather than just trying to cash in on the franchise. It's slight but very enjoyable, and worth seeing if the subject sounds even slightly interesting.
- Barbie. I'm glad I saw it, I have nothing new to say that everybody else hasn't said, but it's deservedly part of the cultural Zeitgeist.
- Everything everywhere all at once, possibly the best film I've ever seen.
- Polite society
- Nimona, which is the kids' film I wish had existed when I was a kid, and I still love it as an adult.
- Long weekend away with jack in Winchester
- A couple of visits to Hull with different partners (the community are very chill about this), and meeting up with OSOs' eldest who lives near-ish and was kind enough to attend one of my services. Once ghoti_mhic_uait, 3yo G and I went via Skegness on a glorious sunny day, so that was lovely.
- Weekend in Bristol-Newport-Cardiff with ghoti_mhic_uait
- Anniversary-ish trip to Glasgow with cjwatson including a night on the Caledonian Sleeper
- Anniversary-ish trip with ghoti_mhic_uait to Manchester where as well as the service we had afternoon tea in the Village.
jack's mum, and jack and I managed a non-work holiday near Buxton, including a lovely stalagtite cave and a moderately challenging by my standards hillwalk. Plague I did not catch Covid at any point in 2023, though one of our polycule did get it while travelling, recovered fairly quickly and succeeded in not infecting anyone else. I have come to a reasonably sustainable level of precautions, basically I mask whenever I'm indoors with others including public transport, and try to avoid eating indoors (this is usually possible, if inconvenient, from about February to November, but I have done pretty badly in the past couple of months, and thankfully got away with it.) I've more or less given up house parties, which I miss somewhat, but I always preferred specific one-on-one time with individuals. But apart from that I accept, grudgingly, most risks, because I can't usefully study to be a rabbi without travelling and some unmasked, including food-based, events.
As of this autumn I did manage to get vaccinated, despite the completely unreasonable restrictions on the autumn boosters, because clergy count as front-line social care, and first year students count as clergy. If I can manage boosters twice a year, I'll feel a lot more comfortable personally, though still extremely angry about society's failure to protect most of the population. I am capable of keeping this lifestyle going until we get a competent public health response and forever if that never happens, but it's not perfect because I am still getting colds (so many bloody colds) so it's only a matter of time before I lose this cursed roulette. Also it's not enough precautions to make me safe to socialize with people who are properly Covid cautious.
My posts 32 posts total. That's not a bad rate, though a lot of them are relatively trivial, the point where I'm not sure there's anything I want to call attention to again as I round up the year. You might like:
- Books of the heart [books, meme], though I need to get round to writing the followup with books that have grabbed me as an adult.
- How to learn Biblical Hebrew [Jewish] generated some good discussion.
- Pride [Jewish] on running a service for Pride Shabbat.
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][2022]
