Fresh Start

Journal 138 30 Dec.- 12 Jan. 2025

I mean is it really a fresh start?

It is a new year, and I have to look back but I believe I said my goal was to write 46+ blogs this year. And I already skipped the first week of the year. So, yeah… good start.

To be honest expect more of the same, I guess.

As usual the first week of the year is my busiest with inventory. Even with some streamlined processes and pre-counting a bunch of things. It was still a lot of work that totally kicked my ass.

I worked six days in a row and an extra 14 hours over my normal load.

This is just a long way of saying that I worked and then did as little as possible while out of work.

We didn’t start gaming again until this week. I’m still weeks behind on my comic reading. Though I did read thirty comics this week to try and catch up. And I even stopped watching k-dramas for the last three weeks. Though Friday I did go back and finish a show that I had paused.

So, What do we Talk About?

Seriously?

This journal is supposed to cover two weeks. The first week was a work overload. No games, little TV, I think I watched a bunch of horror movies, and that was it.

This week we got back to gaming, started last Saturday actually. I do have three sessions in two games under my belt in that time. Not much happened in those games though. One of them we hadn’t played since 9 Nov, so I was super rusty with the character and tried to remember who things worked. By the second session (last night) I felt I had the character working properly again. Though I think we have some of the rules wrong. Since we’re playing the updated D&D rules in that game.

Second Game

The other game, my Tuesday game. That one has been super interesting and I’m playing a grizzled veteran who is disgusted with the propaganda generated by his “heroics” in the war. I’ve talked about him in previous posts if you want more details.

Our characters are playing with time travel at the moment and we’re trying to stop some idiots who are trying to assassin heroes… as children. Though to clarify, these “children” are dragons. So, they’re still dangerous and their parents are even worse.

In any case, I’m loving the character I’ve created. I think I’ll use elements of him to create my main character in the campaign. If you haven’t read the last few posts, this game is told in 11 chapters. The first 10 chapters are all events that take place across the history of a thousand-year war. We play characters for short session games.

I love and hate this.

At first, I was a little annoyed with the idea of creating so many characters.

Now, I’m starting to have fun with coming up with new characters each time. But… the chapters are so short that I don’t get to use all of the abilities or really reveal the nuances of the characters. So many hidden abilities or unused items. Combos and power plays and visual moments I wanted to employ.

My current character, Solace, is a badass swordsman and warrior, but he’s a sorcerer. It’s pretty cool to make a character who comes across as a grizzled old warrior. But he’s a full high-level caster.

I have all these cool powers and abilities, but so do all the other players. We’re all trying to take moments to show off what we built. I think I want my main character to be building toward some of the same powers and spells. I just know it will need to be different and each chapter has different rules for character creation.

I’m also sure that I will change my mind as I have 6 more characters to create and play before I get to the main story.

Other Media

In already mentioned that I finished a single k-drama. I started the show before Christmas and paused it for almost three weeks before finishing it this past Friday. Fun show. Basic romance with nothing spectacular. I just really like the female lead so I watched it.

Just solidly good with nothing outstanding. I probably rated it a little too high on MDL.

I’m going to watch a short show now. Only 7 episodes, the second season of Gyeongseong Creature. Get some action horror in for a bit.

Comics

I literally had over a month’s worth of comics piled up. I read about 30 of them on my day off this week. I need to sort my boxes and empty out my currently read box. And then I have 22 comics left to read to get to current issues.

I don’t have anything that is super outstanding to talk about. I’m a little annoyed that after the awesome Cates run on Venom they’ve really fucked up the character and then they over did Carnage and fucked him up too.  Ruined Dylan Brock, really messed up Eddie and now he’s supposed to become the new Carnage? Really? I don’t like the idea at all.

The “All New Venom” looks pretty cool with the black and gold… but I HATE the four choices of who is in the suit. Meh. I stopped reading all the venom/carnage books last year. That will continue.

Jed Mackay continues to be my current favorite Marvel writer. Even his weakest book is only because I don’t care for the team, but I still read it.

I’m looking forward to Doctor Doom being the biggest badass villain for this year. Should be fun as he’s one of my favorite villains.

Outro

I don’t have much else to talk about today, and also its Sunday breakfast, so I have to eat with the family. Thanks for reading this far, be well and next week I’ll try to do better.

Every week I’ll try to do better.