2023 in review
Jan. 15th, 2024 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenaySo, it's been a while since I kicked the dust off of this, right? Oops.
A whole year, in fact! And I'm even late with trying to do some kind of summary of 2023! But I do like being able to get some kind of impression of what each year was like when I look back so here we go. A slightly late review of how 2023 went for me.
Remember how 2022 started out with me going to urgent care on 2nd January because I had managed to get not just flu, but flu with a chest infection and double ear infection? And the year managed to go downhill from there to a point where I gave up on planning anything because I'd inevitably end up sick/hospitalised and have to cancel it?
Yeah. That was a year.
In just about every single respect, 2023 was a much better year. Did I still get a Covid dose in May? Yes. Did I have multiple autumn colds plus a chest infection? Absolutely.
Was the entire year way better with a lot of fabulous adventures and huge amounts of fun? Abso-fucking-lutely.
I went on three holidays. Three! I had a promotion at work that was terrifying but has ultimately been great.bookmonster and I had many weekend visits throughout the year where we got to do all sorts of things (including entire weekends where we just lazed around with dramas, books and food).
My nephew continues to be the best nephew. I can't believe how much he's a little boy now, not a baby.
So yeah, 2023 was a really good year.
I have never in my life had more than one holiday in a year. Maybe a couple of weekends away for conventions dotted around, but actually going away for a few days on a holiday more than once? Nope, never.
And in 2023, I did it three times.
In May, there was the (now annual) trip to Centre Parcs with my family (sans Dad) which was a total blast. We got a step-free lodge and hired a mobility scooter for mum, which meant that she got to join us on everything and that was so nice. I rented a tricycle so I got to join in on all of the wheeled adventures with sister, BIL, and nephew (they get a trailer on one of the bikes for nephew) and discovered how much fun a tricycle can be. I'm giving serious thought to maybe getting an electric one at some point.
We did activities, we ate good food, we had a great time. We've got the 2024 trip booked.
Then at the end of July,bookmonster and I went to Croatia for a week. We were based in Cavtat, about 10km outside Dubrovnik, which meant we could go into the city if we wanted to but our base was in a much quieter spot with an ocean view from our balcony. I'd definitely recommend that, it was perfect. We spent mornings down at the beach, ate tasty food, wandered back to the hotel and spent afternoons by the pool, and then dined at the hotel buffet. We took a couple of day trips including a boat trip to explore some of the islands. We were there during the massive European heatwave, which had an impact because we were making sure a lot of our activities were in shady or air-conditioned places, but it was such a beautiful place and such a relaxing holiday. It's the kind of holiday I've never done before and would do again in a heartbeat.
Final holiday was in autumn half term, several days in the Isle of Wight withbookmonster and her family. The big storm that came through that week and the wet weather somewhat curtailed our ability to get out and about, but we had a lot of fun and it was relaxing even though there were a lot more people and children than I'm used to.
At the moment, it looks like 2024 is going to be a three holidays minimum year - Cornwall in February withbookmonster and family, Centre Parcs in May with my family, and Worldcon in August plus a bit of Scotland exploration with bookmonster. Possibly might look at doing something in autumn half term with B just to get that late-year break, but that's very much TBD.
Late in 2022, my coworker left the business and I was offered a promotion to Head of Data as part of our long-term plan to restructure how the MI/reporting/data area functions in the company. This included recruiting a new person for the team (with all the people manager responsibilities) plus moving into the senior management team for tech.
In other words, a lot more responsibility, a lot more meetings, but also a shiny new title and pay rise so it's not totally unrewarded.
Over the course of the year, I've been a lot more involved with the decision-making in projects and it's given me the chance to make sure we're doing stuff right from a data perspective from the beginning rather than trying to retrofit everything after the fact. 2024 is already shaping up to have a lot of influence on some high profile projects, which is all going to look amazing on my CV when I eventually decide to move on.
My main fandom continues to be The Untamed, which has resulted in me writing yet another novel-length fic because apparently I cannot think in 'short' terms. Even the fic that I thought would be a 5k short thing for one funny joke ended up being a 30k+ novella that's both a funny joke and also an exploration of WWX and his relationship to his sexuality and his feelings for LWJ in a post-CQL-canon world.
Really must get that edited and posted.
It's also resulted in my apparent trend now to publish absolutely nothing all year and then yeet 100k of fic onto AO3 in December/January before disappearing for another 11 months.
At least my fics find readers even with this yearly publishing cycle 😂
I've also been continuing to watch a lot of C-dramas, K-dramas, and Thai BL. Last year,bookmonster and I watched several excellent dramas together including the "Xiao Zhan in floaty robes show", as we named Longest Promise. We had no total duds so that's better than 2022 where we ended up death marching Handsome Siblings at one point.
I read 27 books, which is more than I've read since the Before Times, and most of them were excellent!bookmonster and I had such fun discussing the book I was reading in Croatia, which she'd just finished, that we formed an informal book club that's been huge fun.
The knowledge that I "only" read 27 books needs to be tempered by knowing I read absolutely massive quantities of fanfic, approximately 95% of it for Untamed, so it's not like I'm not reading. I'm just reading a lot more fic than books, a trend that's been true since 2020.
2023 had some excellent new second seasons of shows I've loved: Good Omens 2, Strange New Worlds S2, and Wheel of Time S2. Really loved all of them.
I think Strange New Worlds has become my favourite of the new Trek series. It's so creative, something I didn't think I'd say about the show with a very defined end point in the canon, and the characters are incredible. Can't wait for S3 of all of these, we're really lucky to be getting such great telly.
And, of course, I got four entirely new Doctor Who episodes including a shiny new Doctor that I already love to pieces. My forever fandom, my beloved show, did such great stuff this year and I'm getting lots more in 2024. Woo hoo!
I did several courses through the RSN in 2023, all remotely and all really good fun. Although I do need to actually finish all the projects I started. I did a six week Jacobean crewelwork course which was fabulous. I felt like I learned so much, so many new stitches and so much about the choices I can make on them.
I've come to the conclusion that although I love how silk shading looks, it's something I'd choose to do in limited amounts because the colour blending is hard. Although that's probably a practice thing so hopefully I'll get better.
I also discovered that I love couching and the intro to goldwork course got me a lot more interested in goldwork than I expected to be.
And cross-stich is very much my go-to when I want something to stitch while watching telly (but only telly that I don't need to look at 100% of the time, so no subtitles). My preference is still for larger cross-stitch pieces that create pictures rather than text-based designs and if I can minimise the backstitching required, that's even better.
Please don't ask why this is my current project: https://www.bothythreads.com/shop/kits/stained-glass-slipper
I got lured in by the bright colours and forgot that at some point, there was going to be miles of backstitch 😂
My next project has approximately three backstitches, but it will also be my first full coverage so let's see how I feel about that.
2023 is going to go down as the year I became a gamer.
I'm going to write a separate post about this, but to summarise:
As a kid, we couldn't afford something like a game console so I did a lot of watching friends play theirs (clearly my friends would never let a girl ruin their stats by actually touching a controller, horrors). And then I could never really justify saving up for and buying a console in my 20s because there were so many other expenses and my PC was never the spec to run games on. After that, I figured I'd probably missed the boat on gaming. Buying a gaming PC was way too intimidating for a newbie gamer who doesn't understand what the hell overclocking is or why it's a thing I'd do. And also, I'd have to spend time at a desk on a computer after an entire day at a desk working on a computer. Ugh. I looked longingly at Playstations and even more longingly at Nintendo Switches because it looked so much fun, but clearly I was a sensible adult who was much too old to learn how to do gaming or spend money on a console.
Hmm.
Fuck that.
For my 45th birthday I bought myself a Nintendo Switch and I've been having a blast. Am I very much a beginner making extremely beginner mistakes in games, requiring the easy settings on Mario Wonder and looking up a lot of walkthroughs when I just can't figure out what the game wants me to do? Yes, definitely.
Do I care? Absolutely not, I'm playing in way that's fun for me and I think that's what matters. I can sit on my couch and game on my TV, which is exactly the set-up I wanted. I can also pick up my console and take it with me on trips or just settle in with a relaxing puzzle in bed if I want. Love it.
Last weekend I beat my first big boss in Zelda, which felt like a massive achievement, and I have a very long list of games I want to play, so I think it's fair to say that I wasn't actually too old and I've found (another) new thing to fill my copious (ah!) free time with.
A whole year, in fact! And I'm even late with trying to do some kind of summary of 2023! But I do like being able to get some kind of impression of what each year was like when I look back so here we go. A slightly late review of how 2023 went for me.
2023 - a better year
Remember how 2022 started out with me going to urgent care on 2nd January because I had managed to get not just flu, but flu with a chest infection and double ear infection? And the year managed to go downhill from there to a point where I gave up on planning anything because I'd inevitably end up sick/hospitalised and have to cancel it?
Yeah. That was a year.
In just about every single respect, 2023 was a much better year. Did I still get a Covid dose in May? Yes. Did I have multiple autumn colds plus a chest infection? Absolutely.
Was the entire year way better with a lot of fabulous adventures and huge amounts of fun? Abso-fucking-lutely.
I went on three holidays. Three! I had a promotion at work that was terrifying but has ultimately been great.
bookmonster and I had many weekend visits throughout the year where we got to do all sorts of things (including entire weekends where we just lazed around with dramas, books and food).My nephew continues to be the best nephew. I can't believe how much he's a little boy now, not a baby.
So yeah, 2023 was a really good year.
Three holidays!
I have never in my life had more than one holiday in a year. Maybe a couple of weekends away for conventions dotted around, but actually going away for a few days on a holiday more than once? Nope, never.
And in 2023, I did it three times.
In May, there was the (now annual) trip to Centre Parcs with my family (sans Dad) which was a total blast. We got a step-free lodge and hired a mobility scooter for mum, which meant that she got to join us on everything and that was so nice. I rented a tricycle so I got to join in on all of the wheeled adventures with sister, BIL, and nephew (they get a trailer on one of the bikes for nephew) and discovered how much fun a tricycle can be. I'm giving serious thought to maybe getting an electric one at some point.
We did activities, we ate good food, we had a great time. We've got the 2024 trip booked.
Then at the end of July,
bookmonster and I went to Croatia for a week. We were based in Cavtat, about 10km outside Dubrovnik, which meant we could go into the city if we wanted to but our base was in a much quieter spot with an ocean view from our balcony. I'd definitely recommend that, it was perfect. We spent mornings down at the beach, ate tasty food, wandered back to the hotel and spent afternoons by the pool, and then dined at the hotel buffet. We took a couple of day trips including a boat trip to explore some of the islands. We were there during the massive European heatwave, which had an impact because we were making sure a lot of our activities were in shady or air-conditioned places, but it was such a beautiful place and such a relaxing holiday. It's the kind of holiday I've never done before and would do again in a heartbeat.Final holiday was in autumn half term, several days in the Isle of Wight with
bookmonster and her family. The big storm that came through that week and the wet weather somewhat curtailed our ability to get out and about, but we had a lot of fun and it was relaxing even though there were a lot more people and children than I'm used to.At the moment, it looks like 2024 is going to be a three holidays minimum year - Cornwall in February with
bookmonster and family, Centre Parcs in May with my family, and Worldcon in August plus a bit of Scotland exploration with bookmonster. Possibly might look at doing something in autumn half term with B just to get that late-year break, but that's very much TBD.Work stuff
Late in 2022, my coworker left the business and I was offered a promotion to Head of Data as part of our long-term plan to restructure how the MI/reporting/data area functions in the company. This included recruiting a new person for the team (with all the people manager responsibilities) plus moving into the senior management team for tech.
In other words, a lot more responsibility, a lot more meetings, but also a shiny new title and pay rise so it's not totally unrewarded.
Over the course of the year, I've been a lot more involved with the decision-making in projects and it's given me the chance to make sure we're doing stuff right from a data perspective from the beginning rather than trying to retrofit everything after the fact. 2024 is already shaping up to have a lot of influence on some high profile projects, which is all going to look amazing on my CV when I eventually decide to move on.
Fandom stuff
My main fandom continues to be The Untamed, which has resulted in me writing yet another novel-length fic because apparently I cannot think in 'short' terms. Even the fic that I thought would be a 5k short thing for one funny joke ended up being a 30k+ novella that's both a funny joke and also an exploration of WWX and his relationship to his sexuality and his feelings for LWJ in a post-CQL-canon world.
Really must get that edited and posted.
It's also resulted in my apparent trend now to publish absolutely nothing all year and then yeet 100k of fic onto AO3 in December/January before disappearing for another 11 months.
At least my fics find readers even with this yearly publishing cycle 😂
I've also been continuing to watch a lot of C-dramas, K-dramas, and Thai BL. Last year,
bookmonster and I watched several excellent dramas together including the "Xiao Zhan in floaty robes show", as we named Longest Promise. We had no total duds so that's better than 2022 where we ended up death marching Handsome Siblings at one point. I read 27 books, which is more than I've read since the Before Times, and most of them were excellent!
bookmonster and I had such fun discussing the book I was reading in Croatia, which she'd just finished, that we formed an informal book club that's been huge fun.The knowledge that I "only" read 27 books needs to be tempered by knowing I read absolutely massive quantities of fanfic, approximately 95% of it for Untamed, so it's not like I'm not reading. I'm just reading a lot more fic than books, a trend that's been true since 2020.
2023 had some excellent new second seasons of shows I've loved: Good Omens 2, Strange New Worlds S2, and Wheel of Time S2. Really loved all of them.
I think Strange New Worlds has become my favourite of the new Trek series. It's so creative, something I didn't think I'd say about the show with a very defined end point in the canon, and the characters are incredible. Can't wait for S3 of all of these, we're really lucky to be getting such great telly.
And, of course, I got four entirely new Doctor Who episodes including a shiny new Doctor that I already love to pieces. My forever fandom, my beloved show, did such great stuff this year and I'm getting lots more in 2024. Woo hoo!
Embroidery
I did several courses through the RSN in 2023, all remotely and all really good fun. Although I do need to actually finish all the projects I started. I did a six week Jacobean crewelwork course which was fabulous. I felt like I learned so much, so many new stitches and so much about the choices I can make on them.
I've come to the conclusion that although I love how silk shading looks, it's something I'd choose to do in limited amounts because the colour blending is hard. Although that's probably a practice thing so hopefully I'll get better.
I also discovered that I love couching and the intro to goldwork course got me a lot more interested in goldwork than I expected to be.
And cross-stich is very much my go-to when I want something to stitch while watching telly (but only telly that I don't need to look at 100% of the time, so no subtitles). My preference is still for larger cross-stitch pieces that create pictures rather than text-based designs and if I can minimise the backstitching required, that's even better.
Please don't ask why this is my current project: https://www.bothythreads.com/shop/kits/stained-glass-slipper
I got lured in by the bright colours and forgot that at some point, there was going to be miles of backstitch 😂
My next project has approximately three backstitches, but it will also be my first full coverage so let's see how I feel about that.
And the surprise discovered of 2023 is...
2023 is going to go down as the year I became a gamer.
I'm going to write a separate post about this, but to summarise:
As a kid, we couldn't afford something like a game console so I did a lot of watching friends play theirs (clearly my friends would never let a girl ruin their stats by actually touching a controller, horrors). And then I could never really justify saving up for and buying a console in my 20s because there were so many other expenses and my PC was never the spec to run games on. After that, I figured I'd probably missed the boat on gaming. Buying a gaming PC was way too intimidating for a newbie gamer who doesn't understand what the hell overclocking is or why it's a thing I'd do. And also, I'd have to spend time at a desk on a computer after an entire day at a desk working on a computer. Ugh. I looked longingly at Playstations and even more longingly at Nintendo Switches because it looked so much fun, but clearly I was a sensible adult who was much too old to learn how to do gaming or spend money on a console.
Hmm.
Fuck that.
For my 45th birthday I bought myself a Nintendo Switch and I've been having a blast. Am I very much a beginner making extremely beginner mistakes in games, requiring the easy settings on Mario Wonder and looking up a lot of walkthroughs when I just can't figure out what the game wants me to do? Yes, definitely.
Do I care? Absolutely not, I'm playing in way that's fun for me and I think that's what matters. I can sit on my couch and game on my TV, which is exactly the set-up I wanted. I can also pick up my console and take it with me on trips or just settle in with a relaxing puzzle in bed if I want. Love it.
Last weekend I beat my first big boss in Zelda, which felt like a massive achievement, and I have a very long list of games I want to play, so I think it's fair to say that I wasn't actually too old and I've found (another) new thing to fill my copious (ah!) free time with.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-16 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-18 08:55 pm (UTC)Here's to 2024 and more hols, TV and other adventures!
no subject
Date: 2024-01-21 08:09 pm (UTC)I also got a major promotion at work, meaning I'm a people manager, and wow, it's an entire different skillset. Good to be learning though!