Let’s start with how I feel last year went. 2024 was not a good year for me. My resolution last year was simply “be happier,” and I managed to fail at that. Though I blame this failure fully on my job and nothing else. Outside of work I feel alright. Alright enough that several times, during my worst days at work, I thought I could go back to being a full time freelance artist. As great as I thought that would be, I know it would not work out well for me, and I could do nothing but deal with the god awful conditions at work.

To give a somewhat brief overview of what I went through: I was in a part time position in retail, but my hours were close to a full time. I decided to cut my hours to help fight burnout, and while that worked, I started to struggle with money. I did the responsible thing and went full time in a different department of the store. I was eager for a change, and I thought it would help with the burnout. Being a whole new department, there was a lot of new stuff to learn. However, everything fell apart within the first month. Five of the other people in the department quit, leaving me as the only full time person. I was suddenly the most experienced person with only 2 weeks of video learnings and 2 hours of job shadowing, and now I was opening the department by myself and expected to do the work of 3 people.

Because I was the only one with my availability, I was often by myself all day. No lunch breaks, no time to even sit down and breathe, and all I could do was watch as work piled up around me. My manager and another coworker were going on week long vacations, seemingly every other week, and then getting upset when the department looked like a hoarder house when they returned. The troubles continued as new employees were brought in. I had to figure out most stuff on my own, and training on new staff was incomplete. Mistakes were rampant, along with angry customers, but any attempts to call managers over to help fell on deaf ears. I was alone to fend for myself and absolutely miserable.

It feels like things are finally getting better. By December things felt more in order, though there are still problems here and there. The delicate machine breaks down if someone doesn’t show up to work, or leaves early. I’m hoping things keep going in the right direction, maybe I’ll be able to relax a bit this next year.

Outside of work, things are more solid, and I think the building blocks are there for a good year of art. My problem in the art space is I feel I have too much on my plate. I have a number of big projects and commissions that have piled up, and I feel stretched thin. As part of my 2025 resolution, I want to actually finish projects before starting new ones. I think I can accomplish this if I stick to a better schedule. Right now I work on the projects that I want to work on, and while that helps prevent burnout, it means some projects are left on the back burner for far too long.

So yeah, my resolution for 2025 is to figure out a work schedule, something that lets me work on my various projects, from vore art to games to 3D printing, and still get things done in a reasonable amount of time. I would also like to be a bit more active community wise. I’m socially awkward and shy, so I struggle with interacting in places like Discord or social media. I would like to change that somehow. One thing that sounds like fun is VR chat. I’d like to make myself an avatar for Dravec and interact with others, especially in those vore meets I hear so much about. I just need a new headset; my current WMR headset is showing its age. I’ve been considering the new Quest 3S. If you have comments on that headset or have recommendations, let me know. I kinda wanna start cheap because I don’t use VR as much as I thought I would, but I would still like a good experience.

All and all, I feel like although the last year went miserably bad, I feel like I'm starting the year on the right foot. I just need to maintain the momentum and figure out a schedule that works for me.