This is my first post after my vacation. I actually wrote it yesterday (which means that everything you’ve read up to this point was written, reviewed, and scheduled before the 22nd of December), because I was so exhausted that I actually got sick for a bit there. Not with a cold or Covid or anything. Just exhausted enough that I felt terrible in a lot of ways. So, instead of taking a long weekend and making up for my days off by spending a little extra time working in the days after my break, I decided to just not do anything and then, starting the first non-holiday of 2024, write two blog posts every day for a week. It will be pretty easy, considering how much time I’ve had for reading, watching shows, playing games, and spending time with people I care about. All of which wasn’t enough to actually make a dent in my backlog of stuff to read, play, and watch even if it did provide me with plenty of stuff to write about. I did make a pretty significant dent in my gaming backlog, though, so that’s nice. It got bigger though, not long after, since I got games as gifts this holiday season. I’ve got so much to do, still. Well, that I want to do. I don’t NEED to do most of it. I just want to do a lot of it.
That’s not a bad position to be in at the start of a new year. I’ll admit I feel a little swamped by everything I’m considering doing, by all the stuff I’ve got on my personal hobbies and projects plate, but I’ve got plenty of time. It will all keep pretty well. Sure, there will be more stuff added to those plates as time passes, but I should be able to move through it faster than I have been if I can avoid getting sucked back into any of my playthroughs of Baldur’s Gate 3. That shouldn’t be too difficult, though, since I’m currently far more interested in the rest of the stuff on my list. In my to-be-read pile, I’ve got a short stack of short novels (included the Chuck Tingle horror novel from over the summer and Patrick Rothfuss’ latest from only a few months ago), the sequels to Gideon the Ninth (a book I’ll be writing about soon), and a grab bag of assorted novels from my trip to a local bookstore in November that I’ve slowly been chewing through. Also, I can’t forget that I’ll also be reading the entirety of the Animorphs series for the book club I’m in with feels like half a discord server, but those books take me maybe an hour or two to read, so I’m almost not counting them even though I’ll be reading at least one of those every week. It’s my fault the book club is happening, anyway, so it feels kind of like a responsibility at this point rather than normal reading.
On my to-watch list, I’ve got pretty much all of Dropout TV (with a special focus on Dimension20 and Game Changer), all of the Star Wars: Clone Wars stuff (initial cartoon, movie, and then longer cartoon) and various other Star Wars shows (all of which I’ll be watching as I listen to the excellent podcast A More Civilized Age), Hunter x Hunter as I listen to new episodes of Media Club Plus, and a return to the few anime I stopped keeping up with once all the other stuff that has grabbed my interest is finished. On my to-play list, I’ve got a pile of new games from the holidays, Armored Core VI (which I’ve already made great strides in, but have discovered is best consumed in smaller doses so I don’t hear the “missiles locked on” noise every waking moment of my life because I’ve played the game for too many consecutive hours), the final drips and drabs of Pokémon Violet stuff (raids, something that sounds like an epilogue in about a week, and just hanging out with my friends), and a long-delayed replay of Tears of the Kingdom so I can finally play through it in a way that stays focused on finding joy rather than grinding through collectibles and quests (also so I’ve got something fairly inattentive to play while “watching” Dimension20 or listening to podcasts). I also need to go back and finish Dragon’s Dogma at some point. I’ve enjoyed the game plenty, but I’ve just had a difficult time staying focused on it because new stuff keeps coming out whenever I wind up getting back into the game. I need to be ready for Dragon’s Dogma 2, which I know almost nothing about beyond that it will probably come out this year.
Other than all of that stuff I’ve outlined, I don’t really know of any new stuff coming up in 2024 that I’m looking forward to. I’m sure we’ll get some kind of new Pokémon thing (I think we’re due for a remake and this will bring us into the one generation I’ve never actually played at all). I know that, at some point, the rerelease of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door will come out and that will eat up my time for a bit, though the latest graphic novel in the Adventure Zone series will probably give it a run for its money since they’re both happening this summer. I bet there’ll be some kind of thing for the PlayStation that I’ll wind up wanting to play since that has happened pretty much every year since 2018. I know the early access of Hades II is coming later this year, but it remains to be seen if I’ll want to play it on my PC or wait until its out on console to dig into it. I’m also saving up for a new computer, so I hope that I’ll get to play the latest DLC for Cyberpunk: 2077 at some point (though that might be a while since I’m not even a third of the way to my goal thanks to small dips into my entertainment budget savings for extra games or books that stepped outside my monthly budget). Which isn’t a new thing, mind you, just something I’ve had to set aside for now. There wasn’t really a lot of that kind of stuff, things I wanted to play but didn’t, thanks to buying myself a PS5 last summer, but I refuse to play shooters in a format that requires me to use a controller and, as I’ve mentioned, I’m pretty much not interested in shooters anymore (with this one exception). Sure, this might seem like a lot of stuff (especially considering how frequently I turned back to this paragraph as I thought of new things to list while writing the next paragraph), but that’s pretty much it for an entire year.
So, yeah. I’m not worried about my large “to enjoy” pile right now. I’ve got plenty of time and not a whole lot on the horizon to add to it. I’m sure more stuff will come up, since we’re only a couple days into 2024 so far and the first quarter of each year usually has a decent number of release date announcements, rumors, and delay or final release announcements from the major media companies and game publishers. Plus, I’m sure I’ll get some news about books that I want to read or find something new to sink my teeth into. Regardless, I’ve got plenty on my to-do list for now and I doubt I’ll be able to work my way through it any time soon. Lots to look forward to and enjoy this year, even if most of it is rather ephemeral media.