Here we are, the year having slipped by with such rapidity it has left me dumbstruck. I don’t know if it had something to do with spending two years in hibernation due to Covid, and then getting back out into the world, or if it is just an aspect of getting older, but damn if the year didn’t feel like it moved at supersonic speed. So here is a 2022 end of the year wrap up, a summary of what happened with this blog, and a hopeful forecast for 2023.
On Writing
When I started this blog at the end of 2021, my hope was to share at least one post a month. I figured this was a reasonable writing goal as I hadn’t written with any consistency in close to a decade. I far surpassed that goal having written a total of 32 posts. This included some fairly long posts as well, posts that I spent a considerable amount of energy re-writing and proofing over the course of a number of weeks.
One of the things I encountered after not writing for so long was a sense that I had lost my writing voice, or writing style. The feeling of ease, of being in a fluid zone, has completely alluded me. Losing this feeling caused a considerable amount of frustration. Thankfully I have kept at it, trying different approaches. One approach was to focus more on craft. I spent more time re-writing sentences and trying to get out of bad writing habits then I ever did in the past. I feel I was mildly successful. Some of the writing had its moments. Much of it didn’t.
In the coming year I hope to continue with these efforts. Once again, my goal is to post at least once a month. My hope is that it will be much more. My hope is that with consistency and effort the writing will continue to improve, bringing me back to that feeling of connection, of being in a zone. I have two large posts in progress that will be coming in the weeks or months ahead, and then we’ll see where everything else goes.
Art
I failed miserably to reach my goals when it came to artistic creation. I had hoped to create more images, digital paintings, etc. I have one image that has languished since August, and I worked for a time on the Elvis Presley drawing. Elvis languishes as well. Time and energy are always culprits. There is also the constant tug-of-war between wanting to do more than is probably reasonable. My hope for the coming year is that I will find the time and energy to put more effort in digital drawing and painting. I’d be happy with six to eight new images for the year if possible.
Music
It wasn’t a bad year for music. I put a pretty good amount of effort into music discovery and came away with some new bands I’ve been enjoying. Many of the bands I already enjoy had some solid releases. I’d say my biggest disappointment was Andrew Bird’s latest release. While I like a number of the songs on the album, it was a fairly tame release.
Concerts were in relatively short supply. I did get to see The Black Angels at the Knitting Factory, a wish list fav that delivered. I also had a blast hanging with Juniper for the Nirvana cover band “Smells Like Nirvana”. There is at least one show on the horizon that I would like to see, “The Suuns” at the Neurolux on Valentines Day. That’s up in the air due to it being that Hallmark Holiday.
I put a decent effort into my love of music and the sharing of that with the Heavy Rotation posts. I should have another of those coming up soon. I will continue to post those bi-monthly throughout the coming year so long as I keep listening to music.
This Blog
At some point during the year I started re-organizing and re-designing this blog with the hope of making it more arty, or zine-like. I shifted everything around, grabbed some grungy fonts, and then it waited for some artwork that has yet to materialize. Along the way the load times for this site became abysmal. At times I’d have to wait thirty to forty seconds for pages to load. After optimizing everything I could I finally threw my hands up in frustration and decided to scrap the WordPress install.
This site sits on a shared server, on a sub-domain, and the hosting isn’t good enough for much outside static sites. I began looking for a flat-file CMS alternative and decided on Pico. I’ve fleshed out most of the site structure and functionality, and am almost finished bringing over the posts. Once that is complete all I have to do is style it out and take it live. It’s lightning fast and a huge improvement on the load time.
The design is being stripped down. I don’t have the time to make an arty zine-like blog. I wish I did, but I’m being practical. So, there will be more visual changes, but that’s okay. I hope to have that live in about two weeks. So, this may be the last post I make on WordPress for this blog. The post notification update will be going away, but that only effects like…two people? Hahahah, yes, my reach is far and long.
Life in General
My job at Thrive changed in so many ways in July, and has transformed since. There has been a lot of change and a lot of stress. One thing I’d like to do in the coming year is to work on better managing job-related stress when it comes. I had some very bad moments this year that I don’t want to repeat. It doesn’t do me any good to bring that shit home.
I will continue working out. That is something that is always helpful for me when it comes to stress management. I had a few bad weeks the past two months, where I went every other week. This was a bit distressing as it was the first faltering I’ve had in four years of consistent effort and dedication. I blame the extreme cold-spell we had, and work related stress, but I don’t want to embrace those excuses. But damn was it hard to get myself out to the garage.
I am also looking to start some counseling. I need to work on some of the issues I have with regard to my past and how it effects me still. Unfortunately my insurance is shit when it comes to mental health care, but this is America, so no surprise.
After having the house painted this year, Erin and I plan continuing with some home improvements. We will be xeriscaping the front yard and doing a kitchen remodel this coming year. That should be exciting. I’m looking forward to minimizing the water usage for the front yard as well as the time and effort to maintain it. It’s a huge time-suck of time and resources. As to the kitchen remodel: that will be nice just for the change and having slide out cabinets will be a godsend to both my and Erin’s lower back.
There should be a vacation or two in there somewhere as well. We didn’t do anything as a family this year, so we’ve batted around the possibility of visiting Seattle, maybe somewhere else. Now that we have two parasitic dogs to constantly worry about, it makes the planning and execution more difficult, but we’ll be doing something. I’m not getting any younger and I’d like to do things before I’m too old to enjoy it. We’ve been talking about going overseas for years, but so far all that has been is talk. Sometimes I worry it’s never going to happen, or not until I’m old, flabby, grey, and incapable of more than a twenty minute hike. Hopefully that will not be the case.
So here’s to the end of the year, and to the year to come. Cheers!
Author: Jason Jacobs
Jason Jacobs is an artist, project manager, and frontend web designer living and working in Boise, Idaho. Beyond work he spends his time with family, as well as reading, writing articles for Uhmm, and working on his art. All words and opinions, etc., are his and do not reflect the positions or beliefs of anyone other than himself.