Years for Fears

Happy New Year, everybody who uses the Gregorian calendar! Since our calendar is set up for the purposes of record-keeping and doesn't control what happens, I can't say 2020 ending has any particular symbolic meaning for me. It is kind of disappointing, though, as the number just sounds so cool. I can't say the year has been especially bad for me, personally, just inconvenient. There were events I wanted to attend and couldn't. On the other hand, I had an excuse for not leaving home much. I started working from home in April, which means I don't have to get ready in the mornings, or do laundry nearly as often. It looks like I might have to start going back to the office in mid-January, but not all the time. They say they're taking safety precautions, but does that mean I'll have to wear a mask for the entire work day, and not be able to eat at my desk? I suppose we'll have to see. Beth and I both had coronavirus for a while, despite rarely going out, but it was a minor case. But I won't pretend the year wasn't horrible for a lot of people. Unfortunately, I don't know that much can change. There are vaccines that are effective against the virus, and we'll have a President who likely won't constantly try to undermine the health experts. But will any of the systemic problems be addressed? Part of why COVID was so devastating, aside from Trump entirely ignoring the precautions Obama tried to put in place, was that people were basically left on their own. Some of us were allowed to work from home, but for those whose jobs wouldn't allow that, only very minor assistance was given. Restaurants were required to close, probably the right decision, but the people who worked there weren't given enough to support themselves in the meantime. Instead, we got politicians insisting that the best way to handle things would just be to reopen everything and let people get sick. But that's not new with the pandemic, but standard Republican philosophy.

I had considered going to Pennsylvania this weekend to visit my family, but I eventually decided against it, due both to health concerns with travel and just not wanting to drive all that way. That means I'll have to come up with another time to do that, though. Last night, we mostly watched The Brady Bunch, then after midnight I played Dragon Quest XI for a while. I finally beat that damned Arboreal Serpent, but with only two or three surviving party members. I've been doing some of the optional quests as well, although the ones that involve defeating a particular monster with a particular pep power are kind of difficult to set up. At this point, a lot of the rewards are pretty useless, but I can see wanting to complete the list.

Speaking of DQ, I've been watching the new Dai no Daibouken anime. I've also started on The Clone Wars, the animated series. I am a little confused, though, because apparently there was an earlier 2D animated series that was deemed non-canonical and doesn't appear to be on Disney+, as well as a movie. There are a lot of episodes of this show, too. I've only watched the first six so far, and I like the newsreel-style openings for each one. Yoda just doesn't look particularly cute in this style, however.