2018 in...

based on memes by enemyofperfect and stunt_muppet

...songs on repeat

1. CharlieXCX - Boom Clap        [I can only blame thank Sam Reigel and Critical Role for this]
2. Taemin - Move        [I don't know if I was looking at something Kpop adjacent or if Youtube's engine just decided I needed to be listening to it again but this was an instant hit for me]
3. Jon Hopkins - Lost in Thought        [the most soothing thing I've ever heard in my  life???]
4. Amber Run - I Found (ft London Contemporary Voices)        [found in the recommended videos while I was looping the original version, I think]
5. DallasK - Self Control        [another one recommended by Youtube because I've been listening to a lot of chill music this year?]

...games I played for the first time

1. Uncharted 3     [finally! I got this for the PS3 but never managed to get through the first game (this was three or so years ago when I got back into gaming and it was difficult) but then I got the HD remaster on sale and finally played them all)
2. Detroit: Become Human    [I played this in one day, ended up staying up alllll night to finish this!]
3. Assassin's Creed: Origins      [birthday present from my little(r) brother before I got myself Odyssey]
4. Rise of the Tomb Raider       [finally got myself this before I went and got the third game]
5. Titanfall 2     [played a bunch of game demos on a whim and fell in love with this friend shaped battle robot]

...brave things I did

1. Took care of my big brothers three kids for four weeks in the summer holidays by myself, so he and his wife could go do religious observance, and my mum being away for the summer as usual, so it was just me looking after my dad and three kids. All told, it was stressful and rewarding. No one starved, no one got sick or injured, no one was seriously unhappy. We even managed to squeeze in a day out to the zoo.
2. Went to my ...former? best friends wedding, which required an overnight stay in a hotel on top of people stress, and I've never done that before in my life, not alone at any rate. I ended up having a really nice time and stayed until the end of the party until 1:00 in the morning, and even though the next day turned out to be a bit of a disappointment and I haven't heard from said friend in the month's since (as usual) I'm still glad I went.
3. Took my niece to London for the weekend, we went sightseeing on Saturday, and Comic Con on Sunday because CR fam would be there and she wanted to go (and I never in a million years would have had the nerve otherwise) and even though the fandom end of things ended up a little disappointing, we still managed to have a nice trip.
4. Participated in a Big Bang for the first time in... five years? On the art side of things this time! Having the kids over meant I had a lot less time to work than I would have liked, but I learned a ton, and had fun during the whole working with another person thing, and hey! I made some art!
5. I submitted some original short fiction for an anthology, which didn't get accepted and I ended up being too stressed by the process (constructive criticism ouch) to go back and rework it but...I really  liked what I ended up with, and I wouldn't have written it if I hadn't picked up the challenge so that's worth a lot on it's own.

...unexpected feelings and/or fixations

1. CRITICAL ROLE      [I watched all of campaign one between January 15th and March 19th, that 115 episodes in 64 days what the fuck]
2. Final Fantasy 15      [I played the story through again for the fourth? fifth? time and it still breaks my heart???]
3. Dungeons & Dragons     [graph paper boyfriend oh no ._.]
4. World Cup    [literally the last thing I expected to care about but then I cared about it a lot, that final was a fucking mess and I am still mad remembering it, and also the internet]
5. Dreamwidth    [while I have been on here for a while and done nothing with it, and I have been growing annoyed with Tumblr for many years...I'm actually surprised by the fact that I'm excited to be back here? And doing things? I didn't really expect that]

...books

1. La Belle Sauvage - Phillip Pullman
2. Fire Season - Phillip Connors
3. The Power of Full Engagement - Jim Loehr
4. Feed - Mira Grant
5. Deadline - Mira Grant