Review - 2022

1st January 2023 (Sunday)

Year In Review:
2022 Review

This Year Was… … :

The Year of Furtive & Cautiously Optimistic Hope. We saw many quarantining and masking policies being repealed, schools becoming raucous & rambunctious once again, new leaders rising up on the tide of unpopular opinion over their predecessors, throngs thronging international concerts / conferences / sporting events, holidaymakers are holidaymaking and perhaps most cautiously optimistic of them all, the newly unemployed by reason of not wanting to return to office.

Perhaps this is somewhat harsh, but the pragmatic, risk averse and the suffering from logic induced paranoia part of me wants to be judgmental on people who quit without another job waiting

Even as vaccination numbers continue to climb to almost double the world’s population, the war however continues unabated and the tentacles of its consequences have begun to creep around the globe and squeeze very, very tightly. A little Economics 101, when production stops, shortages occur, resulting in either prices rising or even worse, disruptions to service such as scheduled black outs which more often than not are actually unscheduled. Regardless of the conspiracy theories behind the true purpose of this war, I doubt if the war is benefitting anyone at this point.

The silver lining might be those who finally have time to play boardgames during load shedding, but everyone plays Betrayal At The House On The Hill

And as predicted in last year’s review, Malaysia now has its 4th Prime Minister in 4 years. To an outsider, this might indicate a country in turmoil and confusion, trying to find its way out of a long history of a morally, politically and financially corrupt administration. An analogy using the Star Wars universe would perhaps be more apt… Lando Calrissian is voted Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Senate, promises to hand over the role to Han Solo at an undetermined future date, Lando betrays Han Solo and resigns in favour of General Grevious. Grevious is eventually overthrown by the Trade Federation. However, the Trade Federation’s rule doesn’t last long due to depleted resources and infighting and thus Han Solo forms a tenuous alliance with the Trade Federation to fend of the separatist army led by General Grevious and finally claim his place as Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Senate. In hindsight, this analogy is still fairly confusing, especially if you are not a Star Wars fan.

As a final note, I find it a shame that the political confusion has caused voter disillusionment on the power of their vote, just like how these three bad movies are worse when watched one after the other

And now we narrow our focus down to the idyllic and serene Jedi Training Facility located on the planet Terra. Except that the normal peace and quiet is often punctuated with incessant fights between the initiates as well as construction of the competing facility next door. Padawan Minigeek is now ten earth years old, but the inner thirteen year old often manifests itself – “What?!?!”, “Coming” but not really, “Why do I have to?” are more common responses on top of sneakily watching YouTube until wee hours and watching content outside the Jedi order’s prescribed syllabus. The Jedi Masters suspect that the root cause to all this is that Padawan Minigeek has befriended the daughter of a Sith Lord but then again, that is the stereotypical response of all Jedi Masters when their younglings go astray. Padawan Minigeek continues to consume books like a hungry Sarlacc, her palate seems to prefer tales with head strong and smart female characters, something even Jedi Masters find difficult to source but we certainly do our best. Generally, Padawan Minigeek is doing well in school and has made new friends that has led to two play dates this year. The facility next door also has a similarly aged Padawan who comes and goes and yet they have become firm friends somehow. This was also the year Padawan Minigeek discovered her love for raw fish, the start of her training in gymnastics by an outsourced Jedi Master and perhaps most important of all (according to me), the beginning of her appreciation for good anime.

Padawan Minigeek still likes to win, win, win. I have certainly taught her well.

Padawan Babygeek had a tumultuous first year in school: complaints from other Jedi Masters, landing in the Jedi Grandmaster’s office for misdemeanours, making regular visits to the Jedi Healer and of course, making friends of all rankings from the younglings up to the Jedi Knights. Padawan Babygeek’s levels of irresponsibility achieved even greater heights this year. More often than not you can actually follow a trail of his scattered belongings throughout the school that will always lead you back to the foosball table. Padawan Babygeek is somewhat of a legend now, regularly challenging the Jedi Knights at foosball and actually winning many of his matches. Winning and being the oldest in his class does lead to arrogance and attitude, his growth spurts also mean he is going to give as good as he gets, leading to the incessant brawling with Padawan Minigeek. It is true that pride is the most difficult sin in a Padawan. Padawan Babygeek continues to squeeze out every ounce of fun from each new day, makes satisfied sounds when consuming tea and still can never find anything that he just put down five minutes ago.

Padawan Babygeek cries when he loses, I too have taught him well

With the Movement Control Order rescinded, the UNO craze in the Jedi Training Facility came to a screeching and sudden halting end. With the beginning of her gymnastics classes, Padawan Minigeek’s interest in boardgaming has also waned significantly, with only 25 plays of 10 different boardgames, Sushi Go Party! still being her favourite boardgame of the year, likely reinforced by the change in her favourite foods as well. Padawan Babygeek on the other hand appears to be growing exponentially, with 50 plays of 19 different boardgames, including heavyweight titles like Titan and Dwellings of Eldervale. His latest favourite is The Quacks of Quedlinburg which combines mathematics and excitement borne of risk taking each turn. At this time, Padawan Minigeek seems unlikely to return to this hobby. Her penchant for winning has perhaps caused too much disappointment from which she will need time to recover. Some say Jedi Masters should let their Padawans beat them once in a while. Those Padawans? Still Padawans.

Victories must be earned whereas losses must be learnt

Returning readers would be aware that I now ply my trade in an educational institution. In the past year, I taught, disciplined, counselled, suspended, planned, proposed, executed, supervised, managed, repaired, transported, cleaned, fed, directed, played, assessed, marked, listened, learnt and perhaps most of all, observed. No one appears to be certain of my job title, least of all me, but that is actually helpful from my psychological standpoint, it just means that things need to get done. Work wise, I believe it has been a good year. The school is in a good place in the endemic stage and a solid, stable year amongst the world’s madness is something to be grateful for. Nonetheless, I do miss my career in accounting, it was something I was not only proficient at but had to pay a heavy price for. Now to find out if Robert Frost was a philosophical genius or a gobbledygooker.

Now Green Day ARE philosophical geniuses

With all that out of the way let's talk about some boardgame statistics for 2022 using the very handy Board Game Stats app, with a side by side comparison to 2021:

2022 v 2021

Throughout 2022 I was on track to cross 300 again for the second year running, except this year I achieved it without the 121 games of Uno from 2021. The plays are also more evenly distributed with 11 dimes and 13 fives compared to 7 dimes and fives from the year before. This can largely be attributed to my weekly Tuesday night BGA group, where we don’t play the same boardgames two weeks running and keep our pool of boardgames small, totalling at 235 games played in 2022, compared to the 117 games I played at home.

It is amazing that the BGA group has lasted as long as it has, given that weekly futsal nights have also resumed, resulting in a two nightly commitment per week for some of us. Kyle and I alternated winning the season title held throughout each quarter and I managed to snag grand champion for the year in our internal league. There were many, many thrilling weeks but ultimately, I believe it came down to consistency as I actually scored the second lowest in PPG rating but came second in games missed this year. We will be losing one of our number as he migrates to the land of the euros and will live 30 mins away from boardgame holy land (so jealous). So, the future of our little BGA group seems uncertain at the moment. If you are available between 2130 and 2330 UTC +8 and have proficiency and immunity at trolling, we would gladly have you interview for our fifth seat at the digital table.

You can impress us now

Turning towards the boardgame collection, this was the year of acquisitions. In total I added five new boardgames to the collection, two of which came with expansions as part of the purchase. I have not really added anything to the sell list, thinking I would keep it in the school library to see if it garners any interest there. I also backed zero kickstarters this year, although I am looking forward to one launching in early 2023. So let’s see what has changed in the collection:

A beautiful collection organized by colour and owned by @Paratroopa

Boardgames From Last Year's Wishlist:

Two boardgames on the wishlist from 2021 made it into our collection:

Ark Nova made it into the collection on a simple premise – ANIMAL TERRAFORMING MARS! Enough said.

A used kickstarter copy of Vindication that came with the Leaders & Alliances expansion was put up for sale and I grabbed it without a second thought. A solid fantasy themed base game that comes with enough modes and modules that I don’t have to worry about replayability.

Wishlists – keeping your FOMO at bay

Boardgames Added / Dropped / Staying on This Year's Wishlist:

A Feast For Odin with Norwegians expansion

And another year comes and goes with A Feast For Odin staying on the list. It would appear that the boardgame is actually not in print at the moment, making it available only on the secondary markets and even then, no one is selling. I am secretly hoping that they release an anniversary edition like what they did with Agricola so I can throw my hard earned money at it.

ISS Vanguard is a sweet looking boardgame

ISS Vanguard has been dropped off the wishlist in favour of Frosthaven. If I am going to sink time into an epic campaign boardgame, it might as well be one that I have already backed. I seriously doubt that I would be able to find two groups to play two separate campaign boardgames. ISS Vanguard will be postponed until either retail or a used copy turns up.

Unfortunately, Boonlake had reviews that kept reiterating the game overstaying its welcome and that it was not going to be one of Pfister’s greatest hits. Thus Boonlake sadly drops off the wishlist for me as I wait for a reasonably priced, used copy of Great Western Trail to show up.

Let’s travel to the edge

Andromeda’s Edge pairs Luke Laurie and Peter Vaughan once again, the same pair that brought the wonderful & marvellous Dwellings of Eldervale into my collection. I have only ever been reduced to rabid fanboy levels for two kickstarters: Gloomhaven, Dwellings of Eldervale and now Andromeda’s Edge. I’m following updates, completing puzzles and just salivating at the possibility of a boardgame that is better than its predecessor and set IN SPACE

So here is the updated wishlist as at the end of 2022. Based on past predictions, I have decided that the wiser course is not to make them as none of them have come true so far.

It appears the wishlist is getting smaller. I wonder what this is indicative of

Boardgames Added To THE SHELF:

So apart from Ark Nova & Vindication, what else did I acquire in 2022?

Creature Comforts

Creature Comforts
I honestly don’t remember the one thing that drew me to purchase Creature Comforts. I remember the kickstarter being intriguing, a high production dice placement euro designed to be playable by kids and with sufficient depth for adults. However, I decided against it mainly because this was from a relatively new publisher trying to kickstart a boardgame in the Covid pandemic. For such kickstarters, I try and wait until boardgames start shipping before looking to see if any retailers have extra copies coming in. I guess this was one of those situations.

Before talking about the next addition, a little bit of back story. So the purchase of Lost Ruins of Arnak and The Quacks of Quedlinburg are actually related. I received a voucher from a local FLGS for answering a survey of theirs (shoutout to Kohii), my first choice for the voucher would have been A Feast For Odin but the boardgame is just not available at the moment. Next on my list was either Dune Imperium or Lost Ruins Of Arnak, I was leaning towards Lost Ruins Of Arnak but Kohii did not have any stock of it either. Then someone put up a brand new copy of Lost Ruins Of Arnak plus its expansion on the secondary market but I missed it by minutes, MINUTES!!!. Anyway, thankfully the guy before me pulled out so I picked up Lost Ruins Of Arnak for my birthday.

Lost Ruins Of Arnak

Lost Ruins Of Arnak
One of the rare boardgames that I have played online before actually purchasing a copy. I have enjoyed each of my plays and have continued to do so. Such a brilliant merging of worker placement and deck building achieved with only TWO workers per Player. The theme is both fun and immersive, making us wish that the game would go on just a little bit longer. I have not played with anyone who has managed to get the highest temple tile yet so I am definitely looking forward to seeing this achievement in future plays.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg

The Quacks of Quedlinburg
So yes, this was the boardgame that I used my voucher on. The boardgame has always been on my radar but I have been trying to avoid randomness in my collection. Redoing my due diligence, I realize The Quacks Of Quedlinburg is not about randomness, but rather calculated probabilities. As it turns out, this was a great purchase, with a lot of tense excitement for a short play time of 45-60 minutes.

Cartographers Heroes

Cartographers Heroes
A last week of the year sort of purchase, I managed to grab a hardly used copy on the secondary market for an absolute steal. 30% off an expansion to my one and only flip and write boardgame in the collection seemed like a no-brainer.

Boardgames NEW to me in 2022:

Online boardgaming continues to introduce me to more new boardgames than ever before with a total of 32 boardgames new to me and only 5 of them were actually new to the physical table. As with last year, I will try to be as brief and concise about my experience as I possibly can.

Go Nuts For Donuts:
What a gem. This has become my BGA group’s most loved / loathed boardgame because of how much it makes us laugh and how much it makes us cry. Somehow the boardgame manages to balance setup so that you get the same experience whether you are playing with 3 Players or 5 Players. Standard BGA night closer.

Oriflamme:
We have yet to really unravel the depths of strategy with this boardgame. Chaotic fun at the full 5 Player count, every game is won because someone did something clever, or “someone” forgot to do the right thing and took out the “wrong person”.

Colt Express:
Contemplated getting the physical boardgame at some point because you get an actual train! Glad I didn’t, we still don’t mind playing the boardgame but the action programming with 5 Players can hurt your head a fair bit. Hilarious when one Player keeps getting shot all the time though.

Colt Express - A very different kind of boardgame board

Ark Nova:
What sets it apart from Terraforming Mars is its action selection mechanic, keeping the game both simple and exciting at the same time by having actions become more powerful the less you use them. There are enough strategy archetypes in the base game to keep things interesting and at the same time whet the appetite for more in future expansions.

Ark Nova - Even boardgame designers can smell money nowadays

Trekking The World:
It is very colourful and, on the surface, it is actually quite a simple game of two simultaneous set collection systems, but the route blocking becomes more apparent at higher Player counts and the game ends significantly faster as well since the world doesn’t grow any larger with the increased Player numbers.

Trekking The World - It teaches geography AND plans your next holiday

Uptown:
One of those themeless, tile laying boardgames that plays like tactical chess. Each Player starts with the same number and type of tiles but draws them randomly in an attempt to create one single contiguous city block, whilst taking over other Players’ tiles. Very good at 5 Players.

Kingdom Builder:
I finally got to try this 2012 SdJ winner this year. I can certainly understand the appeal and simplicity in the design but we have had some games where the terrain card draw was particularly bad for one particular Player or the randomly generated map made crossing the map sectors nigh impossible.

Creature Comforts:
I like that there is an adjustable complexity to the game to cater to different Player ages. The worker placement rules are not restrictive so you don’t block others and there is plenty of variety. There is a bit of unusual sequencing where you place the workers first then roll dice to determine if you can take the action, it just takes getting used to.

Creature Comforts - It also has some of the best wooden resources

The Quacks Of Quedlinburg:
As I mentioned earlier, this is Padawan Babygeek’s new favourite. This 2018 title also continues to be a firm favourite of many others despite the continuous influx of new boardgames each year. The formula is deceptively simple, continuously pushing your luck and hoping you don’t bust as the odds increase with each draw.

7 Wonders: Architects:
7 Wonders has spawned many expansions and even a 2 Player only variant. This “simpler” variant where Players usually select between two choices each turn, is a bit too simple for our group’s tastes. “Not bloodthirsty enough” is the general comment.

Point Salad:
We love this filler, such a clever boardgame that uses only cards but with both the front & back. We were rather dismayed when BGA had to take it back into alpha mode due to some undisclosed legal issues but thankfully those had played the boardgame before could continue enjoying it.

Can’t Stop:
A random dice fest to pass the time and generate screams of frustration when one rolls the statistically improbable.

Spot It!:
I love the BGA version of the boardgame. It is basically an illustrated version of the card game Snap but the digital implementation means you don’t destroy your boardgame in the process. We don’t play this much anymore because lag is a major factor towards winning.

Spot It! - Spot the similar image on two cards

Almadi:
I really wanted this to be the Alhambra replacement for our group, but the game is slow and has way too many scoring calculations for our group to handle.

Celestia:
Not too sure which crowd this boardgame is catered to. There are situations where it is just impossible to move forward and it is not within the control of any of the Players.

L.L.A.M.A.:
I gave this 2019 SdJ nominee a fair shake and sadly it didn’t really appeal to us due to the luck factor and also the fact that it can really outstay its welcome sometimes.

L.L.A.M.A. - To qualify for the SdJ award you need colour, lots of colour

Encyclopedia:
I played this on TTS when Encyclopedia was on Kickstarter. It has a few appealing to me ingredients: animals, dice placement and economy, and yet somehow, I was not taken by my first play of the boardgame. Players stealing my dice didn’t feel as rewarding as it was in Troyes, another dice placement boardgame that allows using other Players’ dice. Despite the numerous different ways to score points, set collection is still the ultimate key here and there is a certain amount of luck in being able to snag the sets that you are looking for when they come up. I passed on this as my interest levels were not peaked through my first play.

Encyclopedia - A little bit of a missed opportunity

Age Of Rome:
Admittedly if I had actually checked out the Kickstarter page, I might have been persuaded to back the boardgame given its art and production. That’s because I actually had a good time playing Age Of Rome on TTS. It is one of those rare boardgames where for me, the experience outweighed winning or losing that night. In fact, I still remember bullying everyone with politics that night to gain glory.

Age Of Rome - Reviewing this project makes me feel a tinge of regret

Castles Of Mad King Ludwig: Collector’s Edition:
There’s nothing else to say about the boardgame that has not been said already. Except that in recent news, they have already released an expansion yet again which has driven the completionists up the wall. Honestly I’m very happy with the base game as it is and have not even incorporated all the new expansion content into my plays of the boardgame.

Castles Of Mad King Ludwig: Collector’s Edition - Even greater table presence than before

Vindication:
I got this at nearly half price from when it was initially launched and for the condition it was in, it was a crazy deal. There are so many great things to say about Vindication but the greatest would be that I actually experienced a journey. Getting new companions, upgrading my steed, fighting off monsters and gaining traits felt like a little adventure. The only real disconnect I felt was the area control aspect of the boardgame which can end up being quite a lot of honour at the end of the game.

Stone Age:
A worker placement game influenced by the outcome of dice. We had a blast poking fun at each other’s inefficient workers when the die rolls were low and of course cursed the luck of the Player who somehow rolls natural 6s. Great digital port on BGA.

Puerto Rico:
Now I have played this boardgame loads off times in the past, on a jav application with AI mostly. I had forgotten 90% of the rules when I decided to dive back in on BGA. I was promptly slaughtered, mostly because I had forgotten that just manning the plantation doesn’t give you crops automatically. I remember this being a tough but engaging game, will have to keep trying until I get my groove back.

Ticket To Ride:
It has taken me years to come back to Ticket To Ride after my first play at a game night years ago. As with any children’s game that our group plays, we took it far too seriously, leading to a blocking fest which would require to change lines many times to travel across the USA.

Arctic Scavengers:
Didn’t like the skirmishing and blind bidding for resources. Once I fell behind in terms of fighting power it felt like there was no catching up.

PARKS:
Beautifully designed and with a strange one directional worker placement mode, PARKS was a calm and interesting experience. Unfortunately a little lacking in excitement, the closest feeling I can relate it to is playing Tokaido.

PARKS - Has some Trekking The World vibes in its art

Century: Golem Edition:
Finding pieces for your engine seemed to be a random process, without the right pieces you are left to gradually upgrade your gems across the colors of the rainbow.

Living Forest:
I gave this push your luck makes your actions more powerful boardgame a try to see if it would be suitable for our group. I lost handily to an opponent who switched to a fire strategy when the rest of us started constantly buying cards. Intriguing enough I would want to try again.

Bandido
A random, tile laying, cooperative game about helping bandits escape through tunnels. Players lose more often than not.

Roll For The Galaxy

The dice rolling cousin to Race For The Galaxy, and also the one commentators have said that people are tempted to cheat at. I actually enjoyed Roll For The Galaxy but still find the original a more streamlined experience. Nobody from the BGA group has asked for a repeat performance but I wouldn’t say no.

Roll For The Galaxy - Dice, dice everywhere!

Cinco
I can only very vaguely remember this experience. Players are trying to place their pieces in a straight line based on some numerical order. Ultimately unmemorable.

Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition
I played this with some experienced Players whilst not entirely sure what was going on. In the end I managed to figure out that a game about railroads should be connecting the various exits via… railroads. Will definitely need to try again.

Get On Board: New York & London
I really need to start reading the rules before jumping into roll/flip and writes. No idea what was happening but it looks good as can be seen below.

Get On Board: New York & London - I think the game is much easier to play digitally though

Via Magica
Works like Bingo where chips are pulled from a bag and you can fill your cards that have that same chip slot. What makes the game interesting are of course the various cards you can purchase as they come with variable powers and scoring abilities. A good filler to introduce to the group.

Jump Drive
The younger, elementary school going sister to Race For The Galaxy, the experience was akin to playing early editions of Magic: The Gathering when most cards were vanilla power and toughness and card text was a one liner or mostly just flavour text.

Closing Thoughts On 2022:

People have come up to me asking what is it like in my new role, strangely there were even those who somehow assumed that my life would be easier now. So, I effectively exchanged ensuring a weekly event runs smoothly to operating a building daily where I am not only a coordinator of different departments but also a cell leader to approximately 300 students. My simple day-to-day goal is to see the students leave the school safely. So, time does indeed fly when you’re having fun.

Thankfully the pandemic did not affect us greatly. Of the family, only Padawan Minigeek has managed to survive the Covid pandemic unscathed thus far, the parents went into quarantine together after a family holiday and Padawan Babygeek has two notches under his belt. For our family, it is a definitive reflection of our individual levels of exposure to the public as well as our individual levels of masking and safe distancing practices. Thankfully none of us suffered severe side effects during our symptomatic periods.

Padawan Minigeek & Babygeek continue to grow and change. Padawan Minigeek won’t be the life of any party but she loves to find the loners and introverts of the party and make friends with them. She is pushing to be more adult-like, staying up later, choosing her genre of media consumption, wearing pyjamas less and will claw your eyes out if you suggest that she needs to get a haircut. On the other hand, Padawan Babygeek not only projects an aura of existence, he actually leaves evidence of his existence, like an angsty teenager graffitiing “I WUZ HERE” wherever he goes. He lives with a strong compulsion to be at the front, even against kids older than he is, often resulting in confrontation. He lives like the world is his oyster and expects others to give said oyster to him, one lemon, hold the tobasco.

I achieved an incredible milestone in 2022 as a boardgamer, in that I was finally part of a weekly boardgaming group. We have a library of about 35 boardgames that we can choose from at the moment, mainly because we have a strict criterion of: must play 5 Players, be fairly interactive, not such a luck fest, NOT cooperative and 60 minutes max at the highest Player count. I do have a list of 28 other boardgames on BGA to learn so we can add it to the library, I just need to find time to actually playtest them, which is surprisingly difficult to do with strangers on BGA who are keen to just get on with it. I am thankful for this BGA group and hope we can carry our momentum into 2023.

We hope 2022 was as good to you as it was to us

So what's next in 2023?

So what felt like madness at the end of last year in running and operating the school was eventually tamed by proper planning, foresight and sometimes, sheer grit and tenacity. There is some assurance that comes from having an understanding of the people who help you and knowing their capabilities. I am expecting to have the most Accounting students that I have ever had in the coming year, which feels a bit daunting because with every student comes a set of parents with expectations. Thankfully I have not had any negative feedback from parents thus far but am definitely bracing myself for student feedback which is something we will be implementing in 2023.

So, with Essen Spiel at its current date, the boardgaming pilgrimage can never be part of my holiday plans until after I retire. Thus I have shifted my attention to trying to attend the UK Games Expo 2024 that’s held in the June school holidays. It definitely makes more sense because the wife is keener on London than Germany, the pricing is not significantly different and is more friendly towards playing and demoing boardgames than Essen Spiel.

We are also looking forward to new neighbours who coincidentally have children the same gender and age as our Padawans. I suspect that our houses will be continuously populated with either the full set of Padawans or none at all when they are all next door. As parents, an interesting aspect of parenthood is that you kind of feel pressured to get along with your children’s friends’ parents. Things have been okay so far despite some renovation mishaps but like I said, you kind of feel that you have to get along somehow, and they do seem like a nice family.

I am hoping to continue to get boardgames to the physical table in the coming year. I did get a hundred plays in 2022 which is actually pretty good for a Covid year. Despite the Padawans being vaccinated, we are still being fairly careful and most of my boardgame plays were still at home with Padawan Babygeek, Minigeek and Suk Suk (that’s uncle in Cantonese) in that order of frequency. At the moment, I have no plans to resurrect the monthly SWAGamers meet ups at Taipan McD’s for a few reasons: I would be the only one supplying boardgames and teaching to the meet up, I do feel a bit of burn out organizing these events for the benefit of others and basically a lack of commitment by attendees. What I might try to bring back is the Gloomhaven group to either finish the campaign or start a new one in Frosthaven. Either way I am looking forward to finishing both of Isaac Childres’ epic campaigns.

And for this year’s geeky contribution to the world, I realize that I have completely ignored the otaku side of the geekdom:

I am somewhat surprised at myself that I can actually recognize 90% of the characters here

In closing, the United Nations has announced 2023 as the International Year of Millets. As such my wish to everyone for 2023 is that there will always be rice in your bowl and family at your table. Have a good one!