Merry Christmas

Tarbosaurus with some unspecified ankylosaurs as depicted by Konstantin Konstantinovich Flyorov, a hint to what is coming.

Season’s greetings! My Christmas presents are yet to arrive, as I’ve only settled on them at the last minute of Eve, after many gruelling weeks of trying to brainstorm a perfect combination of perfect presents, plus my house does not have a chimney. I will say for now though that they include some good old classic prehistoric-themed books, figures and activities. 2024 wasn’t the best year for my mental health, mostly threatened by a dread I have never had before, led by a combination of cautiously growing realisation of alliance between things I like and the sources of annoying sounds I rationally don’t like (e.g; popular news of fire engines and forest fires, dinosaurs being CT-scanned at hospitals), inhospitable change of surroundings that left only me like a fish out of water feeling like he’s travelled into the future (especially looking at youngsters more-or-less than my age which are unbelievably now around their twenties yet still act uninvitingly) toxic communities and reintroductions to people I’ve had horrible experiences with (especially in the new poisonous Gen Z palaeontology community), the popular urban fearmonger of the future (the idea that climate change and other environmental problems inevitably leading us to doom), and very little analogy to follow for help, to the point I even had to use ChatGPT for advice on the matter. I had almost lost my trust and self-confidence with even my favourite subjects, feeling like a species going extinct, again left like a fish out of water to the loss of its special environment, not knowing where to go, and even now the damaging memories done of the dread haven’t faded away from my expansive brain. It’s worse in a place like here in Birmingham, an unpredictable, civilised, infamous, relatively warm location in the UK where only the winters (which scarcely here get any snow) at least I find comfortable, and every day is not uncommon with the same old dodgy ambulance siren in the background. Currently, in the cozier season of winter, I like to relax and have some classic fun, watch good old flicks, and have a beautiful time out in the dusk-lit countryside. Whatever’s to come from 2025 I hope will be better than what has happened this year, though it’s been an unbelievable ten years from what I’ve formerly been used to as the "modern day," and turning sixteen then will open the door to new change that I might find hard to cope with, especially in the terrible summers here. Only time will really tell though, so I wish you all and I a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!