A nice Christmas Day 2 with Deb on the 30th, starting with a the discovery that the Crewe Library Winter Party was in the Crewe Chronicle, a full page article:
At 8pm on the 30th, the new $19.99 version of SFXEngine was launched on Steam, so the evening had to be spent at home working but the technical parts were not difficult as I'd prepared for them. The $100 version was plagued by illegitimate buy-and-refund attacks, with a spattering genuine fraud, over $40,000 worth in November, which were incredibly dispiriting. I had aimed, in 2023, to release Argus too, but those attacks had scuppered that. I still hope to release Argus there one day and must keep aiming high.
New Year's Eve began with some awful news, Ink Pantry vanished from the net along with every other Falcoda website. She has paid for 2-years hosting and the domain but we've no idea how to gain back the site or her domain. Deb has a sole backup from May (10 year's worth, so important) but everything since might be lost. This is an ongoing situation that is affecting hundreds of people. For me, the day started with my annual computer backups, but the rest of the day was spent with Deb too. We visited a few shops and watched the film The Killers over the two days; the best scene by far is the diner scene at the start. My thoughts were constantly about the technical aspects of her site being lost.
New Year's Day was more relaxing, full of little annual jobs like updating my website for the new year. How my paintings there from the past few years make me cringe! They look far better in real life. Every time I visit I'm reminded why I spent so much of 2023 making lights for their photography, which I haven't yet used). Another job to do.
I can now barely speak or eat as my tongue spontaneously blood-blistered on the left side on the 29th. This seems to happen at random every so often, and I know that this means about 10 days of pain as this heals.
I've decided to rest a little, with more small jobs. I am a little physically under the weather. This has been one of my healthiest festive periods, with little extravagant food and only sips of alcohol, but I've barely stopped working or paused to rest and I've often felt exhausted.
2024 is a foreboding year. When I ask my instincts about the future, the year 2024 keeps appearing; good or bad who can say? I feel optimistic as I always do. The economic and political portents are not good, but lights shine best in the darkness. 2023 was one of my best years in many ways. My two album releases were my most popular, following steady learning steps of albums, each a little more popular than the former, and I performed my first live songs in years. The months October, November and December were highlights, with our first Words & Music Festival performance with Carol Ann Duffy, and the popular and enjoyable Snow Business project. And across 2023, I completed a lot of sheet music. I've now scored 15 album's worth of music, with 24 to do.
It is a time for plans. Onward we march.
