Done with 2021
Well, it’s nearly the end of the year with just a matter of hours left and I’m ready for it to be over with. It wasn’t a horrible year; I’ve had much worse. For the most part, I did fairly well this year until Dad went downhill. He’s okay and stable now, more or less. I also managed to end this year by breaking one of my front teeth (it’s the tooth the damn dentist screwed up a root canal on which compromised it leading to the break) and that really killed my self-confidence, what little I had. At least I’ll end the year with clean rooms and a happy little dog. As long as Aayla stays by my side, I’ll continue to be happy no matter what. She’s snoozing at my feet right at this moment. So, let’s look back on what I accomplished this year.
I didn’t manage to finish nearly as many artworks this year as I did last year. Last year was a huge year for artworks as I created around 54 in total that year. This year I only created around 22 artworks in total, but it has been a rough year. You can see all of my art on my official art website Dream 9 Studios. I’ll be creating my customary “My Best Art of” post for 2021 in that gallery on this blog (found here) very soon. I hope 2022 is a better year for art than this year has been both for artworks and commercial art products that I sell at Renderosity. Speaking of art products for Renderosity, I created 8 of those in 2021 along with 2 free stuff products. I hope to create more free stuff (it’s great advertising) and some tutorials in the new year as well.
I also got back to my mod making for The Sims 4 via my Simularity website. I created and kept updated countless mods for that game and had some fun doing it. I’m still amazed at the support I get from fans both people sending in translations of my mods for me to post so that people who read in different languages can enjoy my mods and support via my Patreon and direct donations. I hope to continue this work into 2022 for all the fans that mean so much to me.
Both in April/May of this year and here in December, I was able to get a LOT of cleaning and other physical work done in and around the house. I cleaned all three of my rooms up back in the spring when they looked like tornado disaster areas that hadn’t been cleaned in at least two years. Then, I did some redecorating like hanging curtains in my rooms for the first time in over a decade and hanging several new shelves for my growing Funko Pops collection. This past month I recleaned all three of my rooms again though there was far less to do in regard to cleaning. I mainly needed to rearrange furniture and reorganize things to make room for new stuff and get rid of too much clutter. I also took it upon myself to load up countless boxes packed up with all the stuff my parents want to keep from their previous place of business and then load said boxes into my car, bring them home, and load them into our garage. I had a little help from my friends but I did so much work this past week moving that shit that I am in serious pain plus I am battered, bruised, and have several cuts and scratches all over my arms and such. At least I’m up to date on my tetanus shot so I don’t have to worry too much about the cuts and scratches.
The real kicker of this past year was what happened with Dad. At the beginning of the year, he was more or less fine with just a bit of age-related memory loss. Then, in early July, he came down with meningitis and everything went to hell for nearly five months. I’m just so thankful that he’s doing okay now. Physically at least. His memory is worse than it’s ever been and it’s more than just age-related memory loss now but he’s still Dad and that’s enough for me. I also can’t forget that Mom started having some sort of mystery blood disorder this year too. For a reason that’s not completely understood yet, at least by my, she’s losing hemoglobin and has to have regular iron and other infusions plus the occasional blood transfusion if the count gets too low. I don’t know what I would do if I lost either one of them.
I think that’s about it. That’s quite a lot, I think. So now, let’s look ahead. What do I want in the new year? I really, really need to trade in my car for a newer one. My current car is going to be old enough to drink in 2022. LOL So yeah, time for something that won’t fall apart on me. I would like for 2022 to be a very productive year in terms of art projects and all other projects too. Hopefully I can keep my Funko Pop collection under control as well though I currently have about six Pops on pre-order that will ship to me in February and March of 2022. Whoops! I hope to have some big auctions on eBay of my stuff (like extra Pops, my collection of old National Geographics, Star Trek crewmembers’ autographs, etc.) and yard sells here for all the crap I just brought home from my parents’ business that we don’t need to keep but didn’t need to throw away either.
It’s now 11pm and I’m either going to go back to sleep (I took a much-needed nap earlier) or stay up a while and play Mass Effect; I haven’t decided yet. Regardless, happy new year. Let’s hope it’s a good one. See you in 2022.