2019 certainly was a year, wasn’t it? Bunch of things happened, and I’m here to chronicle whatever I can remember of the year. So let’s begin, shall we?

I really did start 2019 with a bang, as I was hospitalised by the end of 2018 already! I had to go to the hospital to get my then-necessary tunnelled catheter – going from my chest to my jugular – as a part of the tunnel had grown painful to the touch. I went to get checked in, but the nurse there didn’t seem very impressed with my medical record and decided that it was a brilliant idea to make me sit for five hours with all the coughing people in the lobby to wait for my turn. My medical history CLEARLY shows that I’ve got three different drugs that keep me rather heavily immunosuppressed, which should really advice AGAINST making me wait in a hellhole of disease. So I waited. As the tens of minutes turned to hours, I found myself growing more and more feverish, feeling weaker. Doctors eventually got to me, apologised for the wait, and very fast came to the conclusion that the catheter had to be removed asap due to an infection of the injection site, which happened promptly. The procedure itself was no big deal, but what followed it was the kicker: some infectant at the mouth of the tubes went into the freshly made wound.

So I got hospitalised for far longer than was necessary – a month in fact. The antibiotics worked for a while until I just stopped improving – numbers-wise at least, I personally felt well – and despite multiple antibiotics being tested, none of them seemed to fit. It took them weeks before they were ready to let me go back home.

I had been bedridden for the most part of that month, and it really showed as the few dozen metres to the bus stop as me and my girlfriend left for the bus stop was exceedingly exhausting, with the bus ride itself being torment, as I could not even sit straight without lurching down to rest my neck. The extent of muscle atrophy had been something that I had not expected. I still have not recovered from it – walking to the store and back is still tough on me, carrying groceries has me aching and puffing like I had run for a mile, etc. I can sit just fine now, but there’s still so much more that I need to do to even get to whatever’s considered half-decent. Don’t you ever take your ability to sit or walk for granted lest you one day lose it. Going back to following the timeline.

I got out of the hospital and spent less than two weeks at home, recovering, until I caught some other infection. To the hospital for a week or so again. The infection was much more clear-cut this time and I was back to home to recover. It took me until the latter half of March until I even attempted to do coursework for my university courses. I had to dump several courses that I simply could no longer even attempt to salvage. I did what I could still do, which wasn’t much. I focused more on getting well and streaming.

Yes, I started streaming (now at https://www.twitch.tv/impossibrulis – wink wink, nudge, nudge) with a couple of my friends later 2018. We were, by our own standards, doing pretty well and improving bit by bit in the art (if you can call it that). Summer had us do it less, but it also brought me the idea of it being better to stream to our individual channels instead of all of us streaming to a single channel, that being what we had done until around July or so. While we’re somewhat cohesive together, alone we’re pretty different people. So we decided that we stream group sessions onto that one.

My thoughts on streaming? I enjoy it. I already mumble a bunch while I’m playing alone anyway, so why not let others hear whatever nonsense I speak out? I also appreciate the fact that I can rant to strangers on the internet after a tiring day – it energises me somewhat. Anyway, the summer came, giving me and the girlfriend time to go visit relatives up north.

June was spent just relaxing at each of our parents in turn, going sightseeing and taking pictures, also lazing around doing nothing. Most of the photos I’ve taken during that time have been looked at and some of their issues fixed a little bit, but I’ve not gotten around to actually publishing most of them. Just the bunnies. Sorry about that. I’ll try to get more picture posts out. I actually got a bit of a scare when I tried to cut them over to the PC and the camera lost power – I thought I lost the pictures. That wasn’t the case, so no worries.

August rolled in and we headed to one of the Rammstein concerts being held in Finland. It rained a little bit, but it didn’t really damper the mood or the action as the massive amounts of pyrotechnics warmed up the arena. The routine they went through was mostly familiar to those who have seen them before, but to anyone who hasn’t seen them live, do yourself a favour and go see them while you can – no video or picture does their act justice. My girlfriend described the concert as performance art, and I’d be inclined to agree. Good times.

From there on I kept on streaming, did university courses, and started my BA thesis seminars. Outside of seeing Nosferatu with a live orchestra, not all that much happened. Well, other than throwing a lot of money on things: a suit, a bunch of computer upgrades, going from a cheap USB microphone to an XLR one. Christmas we spent home. Ham was delicious.

That’s about all I’ve got to chronicle about 2019. The first three months notwithstanding, the year has been enjoyable and expensive. What do I expect out of 2020 though? More streaming, more university stuff, more expensive PC upgrades as my CPU and motherboard are both eight years old. Oh, and more pictures and posts, I hope!

Hope you’ve had lovely holidays and New Year and I guess I’ll see you in the next post – which should be soonish.