somewes - 2020 Speedrunning Goals

For the year of 2020, I plan to complete several goals I was unable to spend time on in 2019. View the 2019 goals here https://pastebin.com/cCACLvLr

The last few months have been quite a struggle and there hasn't been much free time to dedicate to speedrunning. Most people who frequent my stream are aware that I have severe spine problems as well as other related health issues. I've been spending hours a day doing various types of physical therapy (continued from last year) in addition to new physical therapy this year - sometimes investing 3 hours or more daily just to hopefully not feel miserable. To say the least, it is exhausting, and even when I have extra time, I don't always have the energy for speedrunning practice or streaming.

15 years ago I was told by doctors that I need surgery to fix the issues I have, but I held off as long as possible doing everything I could to avoid surgery and medicine. As the symptoms became significantly worse in the last couple months, I decided it was time to revisit a spine doctor and get a new MRI. The scan results were just as expected and I was told I need to plan for surgery very soon. It isn't something I am ready for because the procedure comes with many risks - risks that I wasn't willing to take 15 years ago. After living all these years in constant pain and now dealing with nerve related issues, I don't really have a choice to wait longer.

There are several more doctor appointments I have to go to and I have to get a new CT scan of the region before the surgery, but my best guess right now is that the surgery will happen in February or March. After the surgery, the recovery period is going to take months. During this time, I have no idea if I will be able to speedrun or what my health will be like in general. Due to the unknown nature of this, I am definitely not going to AGDQ 2020 because I don't want to miss more work than I have to.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me over the years, and I plan to continue to speedrun throughout 2020 as well as continue all kinds of speedrunning related projects.

Now with that out of the way, here are some things to look forward to in 2020.

Lost Levels 7:56
Marble Madness 2:47
Super Mario Bros. Warpless
Super Mario Bros. Any%
Extra Mario Bros. (rom hack)
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario World
Super Metroid

These could happen in any order and goal times are just whatever I decide at the time. Any items on the 2019 list are still an interest of mine, but they are secondary to the ones listed above.

As far as coding projects go, I have been working on some new things for somewes.com. My plans for the site go back 6 years and I am still just as excited to implement my ideas. I'll also be revisiting the lua code for all of those other ideas (8-2 despawn, 8-2 bbgs, 8-4 patterns, etc)

- somewes