State of the Skeletons Jan ’26 - My Dad! (Patreon)

Hello Skele-Friends!

Quick update - I've been taking care of my dad for the last week. Check it out, that’s what I’m gonna look like in another 30 years! A lot of his doctors are still in Seattle and he's not able to fly by himself anymore. He's getting on and he can mostly live independently, but I had to fly up to Alaska and travel down with him. I also needed to be up in Alaska earlier than I originally wanted to because of another minor family emergency.

Luckily, my current place in Seattle is really close to his hospital! And this apartment is plenty big for the two of us. But I've had to be there to help him talk with his doctors, I've been having to cook for two, and also do extra grocery shopping. Not to mention having to plan for this whole thing. Yesterday I took him to a rec center that had a shallow pool for some easy resistance walking and a hot tub for soaking. He’s been really stiff and having trouble with his leg, on top of everything else I don’t need him to also throw his back out or something. He’s been sleeping on my bed and I’ve been sleeping on a twin mattress that I’m planning on returning to Costco once he leaves. And you know what? It’s not been the best rest I’ve ever had. It’s been a busy 10-ish days and today is the first day I really had the time and energy to open my laptop (Oh and it rained in Alaska right before I came, and there was ice all outside my dad’s front door, his gutters were completely frozen over. I was very carefully standing on a ladder and chipping through it with a hammer! Got my workout that day). We have one more appointment next week and then he'll be going back home before the weekend. I think I’ll be able to get back to work.

Another annoying update is I needed to apply for new medical insurance after new years. I’m thankful that Washington state even has the option anymore, even if none of the plans available are fantastic. What’s worse is wont start until the 1st of February, which leaves me SOL for the rest of the month for health stuff. I’ve been getting by with less of my ADHD meds than I typically have. But because there’s been shortages for years, I’ve built up a little stock pile, so I’m not totally off my ADHD meds. But I had to cancel a few appointments and buy other things out-of-pocket. Thankfully stuff that was surprisingly inexpensive to begin with but still frustrating to be in this situation. As I’ve watched myself getting older and witnessed a lot of various illness in my family, I’ve really started taking my health more seriously. Or try to, at least. So while I’m not missing out on anything immediately necessary I guess, these are things I feel are important to maintaining a level of health and wellness. And yes, my premiums did in fact increase substantially, but I feel that health is always worth spending the extra dollars on.

Feels like every year I try and take January easy. I’d actually planned on working this year! But dammit if something doesn't always come up haha. But most of the major stuff with my Dad has wrapped up, just one more appointment and he’ll hopefully just be chilling out and relaxing for the rest of his trip. He’s out in the living room right now watching that big Beatles documentary that Peter Jackson made a few years ago. I feel a bit like an iPad parent, “here, just sit still and watch this 3 hour movie so I can do other things!"

Here are the project I currently have cooking• UDUG was exceptionally close this month! Weird Game Cameos was the winner and it has been super fun to research! That’ll drop next week.• I got back to the Konami Rebirth trilogy of WiiWare games for an episode of DELISTED. Yeesh that Gradius game is hard, ugh. I need to properly beat Castlvania and play a lot more of the Contra game still.• Touch HLE, the iOS emulator, had a big new update on new years and the list of old iPhone games that have been preserved and are now playable as been quietly growing since this all busted open almost exactly 3 years ago! I started downloading every iOS game I could find but haven’t started playing much yet. But if I can find any bangers, I’ll let you know!!• I got in touch with RetroDotCards, an indie dev making brand new eReader GBA games, complete with cards! I bought their Series One pack late last year and they plan on dropping a new game in February and depending on how all that goes I’ll have a video for that!• Also Zari, my faceball buddy, gifted me this monstrosity and it’s been a while since I’ve done a weird controller video! She gave it to me right before my trip, so as I write this I still haven’t even tested it myself yet!!

So that’s January and a look ahead to February. Thanks as always for your support, I’m working to navigate a changing world and private life just like everyone else out there. You all give me something to occupy my brain and I hope I can give you a couple of minutes away from the heaviness of the world with some fun, stupid videos.

They need you hopeless, taking time to be kind to yourself and to have a bit of fun is defiance. Stay powerful, -da