Joy to the world, those ding-dang bells are a-ringin'! It's the season of change! Winter begins to get SAD, the sun is shaggy-hairedly rolling our of bed and thinking about brushing their teeth, and the rest of us are wondering whether it's worth crossing off the last couple of days on the calendar. What a time!
Since it's nearly the end of December I think it's probably about time for me to introduce you to someone rather apt for the season. Theydies and gentlethems, I am proud to introduce you to the last of the Calendar siblings, the seasonally app-UGH *Gets pulled offstage from my neck by November's cane*
Okay, fine Nova, have your time in the spotlight why don't ya! Anywho, here's December!
Their comic is coming in the new year, aptly given its contents. Until then I'm sure they'll fill up their time with reading books, reading fanfics, corralling the other Calendars into doing absolutely anything structured, and reading.
Speaking of corralling the Calendars, we've completed our Advent Calendar of emotes! I'm still not at liberty to explain why I did this in the first place, nor indeed to show you the Christmas card design I had this year (because the postal system sometimes runs at the speed of wind erosion), but hey, they're here now!
Following the trajectory of this update I'm sure you can all predict what's coming: That's right, 'tis the season to gather round, consider the year past, and take tally on the things we're thankful for. Indeed, it's the festive thrill that is Taxes Season, baby! So yeah, I did my taxes. Nothing too thrilling, except they've changed the strata of tax bands in such a way that people who earn more more than me get a benefit for free that I, a lower-earner, have to pay for. Taxes. They suck.
Also Chrimble, that happened! Had nice quiet festive time with family this year, small-scale and chill as I like it. Nout much to say here, was chill. Here's Mogs. Unrelated.
Outside of this, other nonsense! Remember I was working on linocuts? No? That's fair. But I was! And am! I spent some time grinding down a chisel I didn't like to become a bull-nosed shape and boy is it so much nicer to clear all the chatter off of the block. All that to say, I'm back on the Ornstein print tests! At least as soon as I procure some plywood to glue the blocks to so that they don't resemble the McDonalds logo. Difficult to print a flat picture on a drystone bridge.
Strims! Can you believe that they're still going? I can, because I do them. Makes sense, when you put some semblance of thought into it.
Naturally the stream schedule's been a little up-and-down given the year's end: We concluded Hitman: Absolution (because the game sure didn't) and played a little light Dark Souls in our weekday evening streams. I'm not sure what the New Year's Eve strim will entail, something relaxed and chatty probably, but Wednesday shall ring in the new year with our traditional Tracks trundling!
Once the year gets into full swing we shall herald the long-awaited return of my desperate attempts communicate with Cheeb in our Dutch-only playthrough of Escape Simulator! Het spijt me in advance.
After some brief stop-offs in Moria to weather the season's turbulence, Saturday streams ought to return to the grim and hollow land of hollow grimness that is Grim Hollow! I even took an evening out to make some silly reactive PNGs for our characters. And, naturally, Sundays find us doodling away to our hearts' content.
Streams have also experienced a few tiny little upgrades, in the varied forms of a snazzy new !tts widget, a queue for the !locked, !heckle and !badum commands, and finally a muppet Heimdall to encourage us all in our endeavours by reminding us of all of our failings.
And that's all she wrote for the year of 2024. I may spend some time early in January going over everything I did this year and make a little 'Summary of the Year' post. If that doesn't materialise know that I either got distracted by something else or actually did summarise everything and got depressed about it.
As for the next fortnight, I'm currently working on a commission to be finished this week, and shall thence spend the rest of the week planning for the year ahead. Then, a week off! Oh yes, I know what time off is, I remember it from my childhood. I mean, I say 'time off', I'll still be working on something, just not the usual gubbins, perhaps linocuts and music and such. Maybe a little Chaos Chess if I'm feeling frisky.
But until next year, the heartiest of hearty thanks for all of your support throughout the last 12 months, in whatever shape or form it has taken. I have many plans for next year to bore you with and can't wait to actually feel productive for once in my life. Maybe.
I hope you all have some delightful new year celebrations and precisely the tone and output you desire for the new year to come. I made a period of time sound like a trombone there, didn't I? Sounds about right.
Look after yourselves,
Crispy 💜