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First of all, merry christmas and happy holidays yall! It’s been another very long year, which somehow feels really short in retrospect for me. Let’s celebrate making it to the end of another year together.

I’ve spent a lot of 2021 doing self improvement things. It has not been the greatest year for me in some ways, and yet in others it has been one of the best personally.

Around work I’ve had a bit of a flat year. Nothing really special one way or another, in part because I haven’t done anything to spur on growth. I think that part of the reason is that I don’t know what I want to do with the business next year. I’ve had the idea to try to do more creative work, but that has taken a backseat to the day to day responsibilities.

Health has been a different story. I’ve spent a lot of time at doctors this year, working on existing health issues that have plagued me for years. It’s like a dam broke in terms of making space for myself in those regards. The hard part was the pandemic of course, so things like dental work still aren’t finished, but I’ve been taking my physical and mental health much more seriously than in the past.

Relationship wise I think that things have been going well! I’ve been making more time and focus on my husband and partners. I have made some great new friends in 2021, and kept up some past friendships, albeit with less in-person contact. Last weekend we took a short trip to St. Augustine to just relax away from work and everything for two days. We had lots of fun!

This may well be the last newsletter that I send this year, and I just want to thank all of you for sticking around so long and reading. I do have plans for 2022 involving this and another soon-to-be-announced newsletter. I have other projects percolating too, but they are too early to tell if they will become anything or fizzle out.

If you have anything that you are working on that you want to share, I want to know about it! Reply and share your new projects and your 2021 wins!

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📚

For Queer Communities, Being Counted Has Downsides – Kevin Guyan, Wired

Don’t get counted, get left out. Get counted, inadvertently leave parts of yourselves and others left out. Can’t win when everything is a label and box in need of hard numbers to base resource allocation on.

The Future of Digital Assistants Is Queer – Salomé Gómez-Upegui, Wired

As someone who considers themselves somewhat agender, I welcome a recognition of the lack in robots as they harvest my data for profit.

Friendly, foul-mouthed crow befriends entire Oregon elementary school before state police are called in – Lizzy Acker, OregonLive

This bird rocks.

Pub landlord, caretaker and monarch sought for isolated Piel Island – Mark Brown, The Guardian

If it wasn’t in Britain, the potential peace of living on a semi-isolated island sounds like it could be worth it.

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📽

THE METAVERSE: A Guide to the Future of Capitalism

Tom Nicholas does a good teardown of why companies that exist to be technological middlemen are overvalued and a danger to an open society. Anyone trying to own the metaverse, whatever that ends up being, is trying to do the same.

Everything is a Remix Part 2 (2021)

Even the series is a remix! I love this dive into remix culture, and the entire series is getting remade and updated and is worth a watch.

Ryan & Shane Get the Drunkest & Read the Most Festive Ghost Stories • Too Many Spirits

End of the year, end of a season. Always a good time with the Ghoul Boys

How Baba Is You Works

Videos like this are the things that make me really want to learn to make games.

Food Theory: Can you make cookies out of your Christmas tree?

Just added this for the part where he finally has his wife taste the cookies and her betrayal when he tells her what’s in them.

Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers

They did a part two after Roblox asked them to take the first video down, which was evening more damning.

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🎧

Tom Cardy – “Naughty or Nice” (Official Music Video)

To all the elves who voted to unionize, Santa has a message.

Dark Air with Terry Carnation (trailer)

I started this show this week and am enjoying the mystery so far with some notable voices thrown in for added interest. I was expecting Welcome to Night Vale but am instead getting a more cohesive storyline.

TANGOTI CLASSIC: How The Matrix Explains a Trans Experience – There Are No Girls on the Internet

I’m hyped for Matrix Resurrections, and seeing how the series has progressed with the journey of the directory as well as my own self discovery in the past 18 years.

Does Pfizer Have Too Much Power? with Hannah Kuchler – Factually! with Adam Conover

I had no idea that Pfizer didn’t actually create a covid-19 vaccine, let alone some of the crazy terms that they have for local production.

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If you made it this far, why not share this newsletter with a friend? Or share with me some of the things that you found that you liked this week. Either way, I’m thrilled!

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