Blog Update: 2024 in Review

 Hello, everyone! A quick update reassuring you that, no, I am not dead yet (I can dance and I can sing).

I had intended to publish the second part of my Mass Effect Astrographics series not long after the first, given the data was already compiled and all, but upon reviewing it to write a bit about the numbers, I realised the prevalence of a lot of really dense planets.

Like, really dense. Nearly Osmium-dense.

My area of 'expertise' (applying the term a bit liberally, but do indulge me) is orbital mechanics and planetary systems, which can touch upon but is different and separate to planetology itself, so I had to go reading. And hoo boy, is there stuff to read.

So while I'm still working on that, I thought it'd be interesting to do a bit of a retrospective on the year Twenty-Twenty-Fourtheth of the Common Era to justify my delays show you what I was up to, and as a way for me to keep tally of it all, as well (ever since the Pandemic time's gotten a wee bit murky).

In Sojourn Land:

This was a very busy year for The Sojourn. We released our most complex production yet, and finally got a side series that had been stuck in development hell off the ground, which was very gratifying.

• We produced and released the first volume of Season 2
• We produced and released the nearly two-hour long special, Faithless
• Started producing and releasing the youtube series The Frontier War, which we'd intended to do for YEARS and finally managed to get going.
• I've started to write more lore shorts for the youtube channel, something which I might do even more of this year – we'll see.

 Overall, a very busy year for us. 2023 might still hold the title for busiest year, maybe, but 2024 is certainly a strong contender for runner-up.

 In University Land:

University's been the same thing it has been for the last [REDACTED] years of my life, and my strongest desire in life is to grab my degree and run away from it as fast as humanly possible, but hey, it wasn't all bad! The highlight of the year was one of the classes I took, Evolution of Astronomical Thought, the closest thing we have in our curricular grid to Philosophy.

In it we have an overview of Epistemology, Gnosiology, and Ontology, followed by some exposure to the thoughts of Karl Popper, and Thomas Khun's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. For those of you more well-versed in this area of knowledge, yes, this is all very basic, but it was very exciting and a welcome change of pace from the usual subjects I take. Philosophy of Science is something I could see myself coming back to in future.

And finally, I've been talking to my Academic Advisor (who also happens to be my Research Advisor), and I might resume doing research in 2025, to have some material to write my Course Conclusion Thesis about. Based on my skillset and his interests, this will most likely involve looking into tidal evolution of moons or exoplanets using REBOUND, but we'll see.

In TRAVELLER Land:

One of the most exciting things for me this year was that 2024 marked my entry into Traveller as more than just a fan, but an actual contributor. This year:

• The new Starship Operators' Manual was published with my contributions to the Gravitics and Jump Drive chapters (and a few scattered additional blurbs), and my first Traveller writing credit!
  
• My Flea Trader article got published on the new Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, Volume 16, my very first to be accepted to JTAS
• Helped Geir Laneskog proof-read and test the new Vehicle Handbook Update manuscript and even contributed a few basic vehicles for the book
• Helped the Planet RPG folks here in Brazil translate Mongoose Traveller 2nd into Portuguese for the first time!
• Participated in a couple of podcast episodes with the Planet RPG folks talking about Traveller
  
• Got in touch with Marc W. Miller regarding an inconsistency I noticed in the Vilani Calendar, and with his approval and insight from Rob Eaglestone as well, was allowed to redesign it to try and fix/reconcile the inconsistencies. In fact, I'm writing them my final report on it this week!

Overall, very exciting for me, and I hope I can do even more things on this front in 2025. Fingers crossed!

In Blog Land:

And finally, but certainly not least, in 2024 I started my blog! This very thing you're reading right now!

Posts were a bit sparser than I had hoped but all things considered just getting it off the ground is, for me, something to celebrate. I have historically had the very nasty habit of planing things and never actually getting on to put them in motion, so I'm very pleased with myself that I got this ball rolling.

I'll do my best to be more active here this year. Lots of things darting 'round my head all the time and I do need some place to write them down, after all!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to figure out how to get ExoPlex running on my computer so I can write that second Mass Effect Atrography article...

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