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It was June like four seconds ago??

January 01, 2025

It’s January now. We hope you have survived the holiday season without accruing too much damage. It's a new year, the time for a clean slate. January is often the month where people get really invested in a goal - we hope that you are setting goals that are kind to yourself.

Shorter one this month! Join us in our newly open to all Discord to chat more as we emerge from the Holiday Stupor.

Anyway, here’s the hard shift. As always, we've also included things to watch out for in the upcoming month, and a look at what's happening on our Discord & Patreon (which you can join for ~as little as a dollar~).

it's time, let’s get to the f e e l i n g s

STELLA:

Here’s mine:

Everything sucks and my bones hurt. Happy holidays.

Ok ok I almost left that for my entire post but then I felt guilty. THE PRESSURE I CREATE IN MY HEAD IS REAL.

Honestly, I have been consuming very little outside of the lil rpg shows I’ve already gushed about a ton. I’m currently in a space where I can handle very little new content and am sticking to my tried and trues. I reread Chew (mostly holds up), reread Ninth House (absolutely holds up) and watched a single episode of Arcane (I liked it!).

The TLDWTW (too long didn’t want to write) is I’m about to start IVF and I’m full of anxiety, fear and a lot of ding dang emotions. Sure I wanna have a baby, but I’m not exactly thrilled about poking myself with a bunch of needles every day. I also am like 100% sure I’m dying of a blood clot everyday (I’ve been told by many doctors I’m not) so I’m…doing great. They say stress is good for conception right??

Most of January is going to be me navigating IVF for the first time and trying to be gentle with myself mentally (LOL GOOD LUCK) and physically (no archery BIG SADS). I theoretically will have a lot of time to watch all the stuff I’ve been missing like new Lower Decks and episode two of Arcane, but who knows? I might just stare at a wall for a while, which could be fun?

Over the next couple months I’m sure you’ll hear more about my fertility journey (fun for you!) but while I am an open book in many ways I really don’t want to be one of those women who is always crying on the internet. Truly no shade to them, it’s pretty powerful to let people in on your journey and destigmatize a lot of this, but it’s not for me!

If you have gone through IVF and have tips, tricks or like any advice HMU.

Anyways, that’s the ramble. POYO save me.

ERIN:

December sure was a month. It had a lot of really shitty lows (like, truly, so many), but it also had some bright spots! I accidentally went on a coast to coast vacation because i scheduled two family vacations back to back, and it turns out nine days of travel and amusement parks is way harder at 36! Did being 36 stop me from riding every rollercoaster? It most certainly did not! Battering myself with centripetal force will eventually cure me of my ails, i just know it.

I mentioned on the latest episode of NYD that I'm doing a dry 25 - December was an interesting time to really examine my relationship to alcohol in the last month I'll be drinking. i found myself thinking over and over how glad i was that I've made this decision and how little alcohol contributes to my life now. Time to shed all the things that don't productively and positively impact my life. It's not new year new me, it's new year better me.

Anyway, if anyone else is on the Hot Assassin train at the moment, welcome aboard! Legitimately how does this man carry divine lighting with him everywhere he goes?? How could i not be radicalized.

PRODUCER BOBBY:

As much as we created clocks and calendars just to torture ourselves (who chose this?) the new year is a good excuse as any to refresh some habits and guide ourselves towards new ones. A lot of mine have been focusing on what media I casually consume and its sources. Yes, old man yells at cloud about media literacy but if you do get sick of the sensationalism and snark American news yells at you I highly recommend setting your default browser news splash page to AP News or AJ+. Oh, and SPACENEWS for what actually matters. Other than that, I highly recommend the next time you find yourself on any social media site for longer than five minutes to go pet a cat instead. And don’t worry, that crinkling noise you hear during season 4 of X-Treks isn’t my tin foil hat... not yet at least.

Ok now for some experiences that are more fun than reading that paragraph:

Monthly recs:

Play: Of COURSE Marvel Rivals but also maybe check out Sorry We’re Closed for some queercore horror fun.

Things coming this month:

Our Discord is open to all! We realized we should listen to our own advice and expand the nerdy shit being better when it’s together idea. We have all kinds of fun stuff going on in there including feeds for each of NYD Productions’ podcasts, a book club, a wrestling chat feed, the TTRPG center, and (Erin’s favorite part) the general meme-ery feed where you can dump all the memes that didn’t quite make the group chat but aren’t really right for your main feeds either. Erin also posts a lot of weirdly positive memes in there, unexplained. Send an email to [email protected] and let us know you want in!

Illinois is selecting a new state flag! Voting for the winner of the top 10 finalists starts in January! My personal favorites are 4321, 2246, and 3754. You have to imagine it flying and emblazoned on a podium to really decide imo.

Got some extra cash and looking for a good cause? Give Sesame Street some money because the corporations don’t want us to have Elmo anymore and this cannot stand!

I dunno, it’s cold. Maybe just make yourself a nice hot cider and sink into a deep state of relaxation and meditation. You know who’s got it figured out? Bears.

Exclusive to our Patreon & Discord (for as little as a dollar!):

  • Another SFW NYD After Dark!

  • Next book club meet-up is January 19th - we’re reading Collision Course! And Star Trek comics! Come read with us, Erin comes to the meetings again, and Bobby makes a club debut!!

Janus, please, we beg.