Doing this a little earlier than usual, totally not because of inspiration from Props. Anyway, to recount what 2023 was like for me personally, it was another pretty mid-tier year of ups and downs. 

Work this year, unlike last year, was not a slog at all early on. Unfortunately, that furlough I've talked about in the past hit me like a truck in June, lasting two months longer than I would've wanted. The middle of the year was definitely not good in regards to progress with work, especially with the struggle of trying to find a job to hold me over given the poor state of the current job market. However, once I got hired back after the furlough's end, everything was pretty much smooth sailing. My job was busier at the end of the year than last year and I ended up making the most money I've made in one year since 2020. 

I also got back in touch with the friend I had a falling out of with in 2022, I will never forget this year as the year my friendship with this person was rekindled. I will also always cherish this year as the year where I got to connect more with people on this site through Silky's server and see the awesome things that she and many of the new members on the staff have done to make this site a better place. Things were different with how I saw family for the holidays this year, no trips out of town. I did enjoy how we got to do something simple this year for Christmas and how there was no drama at all. 

One bad thing that happened this year besides the furlough that I will never forget is the destruction of my old DeviantArt account over a false DMCA claim. Obviously, real life stuff is more important, but my CloudMistDragon account was something that meant a lot to me and had a place in my heart. Regardless, I forgave the person responsible for what happened to my account for what they did when they apologized and the new account archiving all my works now has more followers than my old one did before the final work uploaded on it was posted. Unlike last year, I was actually less productive with art and getting games done, but I did do some drawings I was pretty proud of and still got seven games done. Also, as opposed to last year, I was more productive with writing, pumping out essays and releasing three stories in a single year. 

Not a particularly great year, but also not a bad one by any means. As always, I wish you all the best going into next year.