Nearing the end of January already! I'm glad for it, we've been crazy busy lately and Feb/March will both see a bit of that easing off. Hockey season is slowly coming to a close - we've got a tournament this Saturday which will have the family out and about for the lion's share of the day. They're always a good time, so while it's going to leave us all pretty tired, it's also a ton of fun.
We spent the last week or so fighting colds, which was not ideal. Because everyone was under the weather we cancelled a hangout with friends which we were all looking forward to. Thankfully it's easy enough to get that reorganized for later.
My wife's car of course decided to die in the most inopportune moment it could (Murphy's Law, right?), so we finally got it to a shop and taken care of yesterday after being down for the better part of a month. Thankfully, it wasn't too expensive to get back up and running, and should be good for a while now I am hoping!
I've still got a huge backlog of tabletop games to read, play, and talk about - the start of January was uncharacteristically intense at work which paired with our family schedules, sicknesses, and all that fun every-day stuff has left me fairly exhausted and brain-dead by the time I'm done work. Speaking of ttrpgs, I was gifted a new shelf for Christmas by my wife, and I really need to find a moment to put it together. Currently, my tabletop gaming stuff is spread out over two small shelves, a desk, and various other surfaces I can find. It really needs to be cleaned up and properly organized. If the kids sleep half decently anytime in the next couple of days I might try and organize that as it's something I can do while mostly a zombie (you don't really have to think to set up ikea furniture).
I also recently purchased the Solo But Not Alone: 5 tabletop game bundle off Itch.io. It's a yearly bundle that donates everything it makes to various mental-health organizations, and as someone who's had friends take the voluntary-forever-nap, it's something I like to support as much as I can.
As with prior years, I'll probably pick out a handful of these games and talk about them here as I get time. The bundle is available for 3 more months, so if I can get through all of the games that interest me I think that'd be fantastic as every bit of discussion around solo tabletop roleplaying games is something that means one more person might take an interest in the hobby - and it all helps drive more eyes to the bundle, so it's a big win-win in my books.
I'm about half-way through reading Fall of Hyperion, which I had been set to wait on and read later this year but I took the advice of a fellow Hiver to read it now and I'm so glad I did. It's a fantastic book so far and I'm so eager to see how it ends!
Finally, I managed to snag some HIVE through the god-awful on-ramp of purchasing a different coin on Kraken, swapping it via simpleswap, and getting it as Hive here. I noticed that Kraken yesterday gave us a shout-out with Hive Futures trading available, but until Spot is offered that doesn't provide much of an on/off ramp for easy movement into and out of Canadian dollars. The sooner we get a CEX that works in Canada that has HIVE, the easier it makes bulking up my account again. For now though, the extra steps are tolerable even if they mean a larger tax bill thanks to dumb tax nonsense in Canada.
So far I'm just sitting on it as liquid Hive, waiting very impatiently for the 1st so I can at least participate in HPUD with it. It's been tough not to just immediately power it up though! If I get a chance I'm hoping to add a bit more, but we'll see how the next day or two goes.
With that said, I think that's all the freewrite I have in me today. I hope everyone else is doing well, surviving and thriving. As always, until next time friends!
Ps: edited to show off the sky tonight in Saskatchewan.
