December 23 update.
Hello hello. Things are going pretty well, for the most part. An annoying amount of house repair stuff has come up, especially for this time of year. Hot water went out Saturday and given the holidays this week, I think it's unlikely to be fixed promptly. Sucks, but it happens.
I've been trying to flex my creative muscles again; taking a stab at both writing and music composition. I'm working hard to keep in mind that quality is not what matters until I've gotten myself into the routine of filling the blank page. Easier said than done.
Been seeing a lot of Sonic in my day-to-day lately. The new movie dropped, so we caught that yesterday (pretty good, though the editing feels uneven), plus I'm going through the IDW comic series. That's also been good so far. I think a primary strength of Sonic is that the characters have a lot of personality, and the comic feels like it emphasizes that.
Tekken's been okay. I've lost some of my motivation for it but I'm trying to keep it fresh regardless. I still have fun when playing against others, but playing solo is kind of whatever right now. It is what it is.
I spoke to my dad recently. He's hanging in there but I think he's just been bummed out and lonely. The way he puts it, he's drinking too much, which is not a great idea when you're almost 70. An underlying issue is that he's starting to be concerned with his own mortality. Which, fair.
I tried to reassure him and encourage him to look for social and philosophical solutions. You can't stop death, right? But you can change your surroundings, you can look to have fun with the time that you do have, you can shift your mindset. Those sorts of things.
I don't know. I certainly can't say I've conquered death. I still struggle with anxiety, fear of loss, fear of injury. And I don't want to overcorrect with detachment. But you are going to die someday and you will have regrets and you will have unfinished business. None of that shit is negotiable, and all you can do is make peace with it. Otherwise you're just letting that fuck up a good thing.