It's fair to say the 2025 has been the best year I've had in about a decade, a long run of bad events finally easing off. Things have been feeling good... and then I get access to the site beta here, and it's something to add some extra shine to the year. Partly it's the nostalgia - re-reading some of my old content just reminds me of being almost 20 years younger, and vicariously feeling a youthful burst of energy from younger me's words. Partly it's hope - the old Rooster Teeth site was probably the place I was happiest online, and was where I made a lot of IRL friends, many of whom I am still in contact with. I am left wondering what the future offers in turn. But most of all, seeing this journal space back is a huge thing. I want to get back to writing generally, but have been feeling extremely blocked in recent years. Starting is always the hardest part of the process. Back in the day, however, I'd often free-write content onto here, and the brain kept ticking over to get other creative things done afterwards. I honestly need a space like this. And the key word in that last sentence is "like", because I simply never found another space online that fitted in the way the community site did. Now it seems I don't need a site like RT, as the actual thing is back. For those of you who don't know me - which I expect is everybody in the beta at present - I'll have to write a more formal introduction soon. But for now, just know that coming back to this site I signed up to almost 19 years ago feels like an online homecoming. Addendum. Testing old site tags - [i]italics[/i]. Testing copy-paste - italics ... nope. Noted