Welcome back to the no-judgement zone.
Previously - Annual Review 2024
It's that time again.
We had a promising start to the year with lots of projects in progress and a positive outlook on all of them...
achoo
And then the flu hit, mid-January. Not the worst one we've had (we didn't end up in A&E this time, for one), but persistent through medications, including prescription nasal sprays.
And all of our energy got sucked into trying to deal with that, work, to do the remaining things we needed to do for our trip to Vancoufur [1], and to maintain what parts of our self-care routines that we could. There was also a death in the family, which did not help.
So, in one respect we haven't done much; in another respect, we may have had to put personal projects on the backburner, but the stuff that had an actual there will be consequences if this isn't hit deadline got done - with some help from some friends in some cases, but it still counts. And that's not nothing, particularly given the general state of the world right now.
looking ahead
the convention where everyone goes to bed
Q2's biggest focus is Furality Somna - which means customizing avatars (which conveniently were some of the personal projects we put down), but also it means potentially a couple of PC upgrades and experiments for what's going to provide the most reliable experience.
What this likely means is that we're going to swap back to the Index for Furality because ALVR - while incredibly impressive as a project - can sometimes be temperamental if it wants to actually connect. [2] Right now I'm not sure if that will be on Linux or Windows; we've been using Windows recently via crappy gaming laptop for ALVR just since that was getting some really weird bugs on Linux desktop with our headset, but last time I tried swapping back to the Index on Linux desktop that also didn't want to work. But I now have an extra SSD for to try dual booting the desktop to Windows.
be more visibly queer
For a long time, we didn't pay much attention to the "flesh prison"; it isn't a reflection of who we are inside and I don't think it ever really can be.
But one of the things attending Vancoufur helped remind us is that while it will never be perfect, we have the ability to nudge it, and for as plain and practical as we sometimes are, we should try that. We have no expectations of passing as femme IRL, not without going further than we'd want to go [3]... but I think we can manage passing as an experience.
For worries about family... some of the photos we gave them after the trip contained selfies with outfits they've never seen us in. No comments so far.
So. This quarter we'd like to learn more about makeup basics, and probably find a good source for some plus size skirts. It might still end up being more of a special event thing than an everyday thing (rough hometown), but at least we'll know how to do it.
I got DMed on Bluesky on Saturday with a friend swooning over my eyeshadow in a piece of art we commissioned, and it feels like an aspirational goal to have someone do that IRL at some point.
think local
Seeing the natural beauty of Capilano Suspension Bridge park (...and the amount of LED lights they'd covered some of the natural beauty with) made us think about some beautiful places a lot closer to home.
Lush green hills that we watch go by out of the train window.
Museums that we haven't been to in years that some of the coach companies are offering day trips to.
To get in touch with friends interested in showing off their local landmarks.
So yeah, plan is just to pick a weekend where we're not on call and go somewhere. Take some photos, enjoy the views. Maybe see just how far we can get with one bus ticket.
work
Work wants me to get another certification at some point so I guess we'll have to work at that too, though that might be something that ends up getting finished closer to the end of the year.
footnotes
We were masked in all public con areas, but the flu combined with the side effects of the antibiotics we were on at that point to fight it meant we were a little more distant than we would have liked in some private spaces. I can only hope we weren't con crud patient zero for friends, and that next year there's only the jetlag to deal with. Also, an article on packing for our first trip outside of Europe is in progress. ↩︎
Also we never had the spoons to go through the steps to try and get OVR Space Calibrator synced up, because it seemed like something we'd not do at 5am when getting into VR to meet US friends in their evening. In general circumstances, I can live without full body tracking, but at Furality, being able to dance is important. ↩︎
For example, there's no dysphoria from our body fluff. We only tried shaving it off once, and that was enough to never even think about doing that again. ↩︎