Well this past year has been pretty rough and tumble for this website. I restarted everything with a goal in mind, and got a good start, but then getting a new job completely threw me off. Not just that, but I'm continually getting myself over-obligated for other things, so all my time just gets eaten up. Maybe I should make that a resolution for this year. More on those at the end.
For this, I just want to give a brief review on what was awesome about 2013, including my favorite games, movies, and books I consumed during the last year.
Awesome Events
New job - Definitely the most significant event of the year, and it's been a quick ride so far. The best parts of the job are that I can walk to work everyday, the work is incredibly varied and challenging, and the people there are all great. The huge pay increase was pretty nice too.
New apartment - The second most significant event of the year. My girlfriend and I have pretty much the best apartment in the city (at least the best one I've seen) for the price. I absolutely love it.
Lost weight - Not a huge amount, only about 15 pounds overall, and it was up and down all year. I tried a lot of different things, didn't really stick to any of them, but I think I've finally figured out the correct solution to lose weight consistently and maintain it. Now I just need to do it!
Ran my first 5K - In fact, I ran two this year. I didn't get around to any more than that because I realized that the shoes I'd bought for running were screwing up my arches. So once I get some new shoes and get back to running a couple times a week, I will sign up for some more. I'd like to be running 10Ks by the end of the year.
Got some cool new things - Mainly a Tempurpedic bed (it is so hard to sleep on anything else now) and an electronic drum set to practice on at home.
Additionally, visited my girlfriend's grandparents for the first time, went to my sixth PAX, did Bloomsday for the sixth time, played a couple great shows with my band, made a lot of great new music as well, and just had an overall fantastic year.
Favorite Games
Borderlands 2 - I finished the first one this year as well, but the second one really knocked it out of the park. Just so much fun and lots of hilarious content. Going to continue playing through this one for a while.
Saints Row The Third - I also played the fourth one this year, but it didn't satisfy nearly as well. When I played the old GTA games on PS2, I never really had that much fun going the chaotic route (unless it was in a tank), but with Saints Row, you pretty much have to go that route, and they make it feel so good. I would definitely say that I had the most overall fun with this game this year.
Rocksmith 2014 - I have been playing this almost every day since it came out a few months ago. This really is a remake rather than sequel. They took everything that needed work with the first game and completely nailed it this time around. My guitar and bass playing skills have been increasing drastically, and I cannot wait to continue to use it for months, maybe years to come.
I will also give honorable mentions to Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider. Both games were really solid and fun as well, but not enough to reach favorite status. I imagine The Last of Us would be on this list too, but I haven't finished it yet, so it doesn't qualify.
Favorite Movies/Shows
Django Unchained - I've liked/loved all of Tarantino's movies so far (yes, even Deathproof), and this definitely shot right up to my top 3 (along with Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds). It's just so good.
Serpico - Yes, this is a very old movie, but these lists are for things I see for the first time, and I really enjoyed this movie. I didn't really know what I was going in for, but I was engaged the whole time. There's just so many things about those old movies that we don't get much anymore, and it's really sad.
Breaking Bad Season 1 - I'm really late to the party on this one, but this show is popular for a reason. So much happened in just those first seven episodes, and I can't wait to continue once I have a chance.
Legend of Korra Season 1 - Seriously, the guys who created Avatar: The Last Airbender seem to do no wrong. I loved that show, and Korra is just as good. Very excited for season 2 to come out this year.
Favorite Books
Minding Tomorrow Trilogy - This is a fun little sci-fi trilogy that most people don't know about because it's self-published. And it's free, so you have to go to the guy's website to find it. But it has a great mix of the potential future of Google Glass mixed with a fantastic use of time travel and other technologies. It's a quick read, so I would recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi. You can find it here.
The Player of Games - A sci-fi classic and for good reason. I had never heard of Iain M. Banks before this, but I definitely want to go and read the rest of his stuff. It was kind of weird though because I finished reading it right around the time he passed away.
Foundation - Apparently all my favorite books were sci-fi this year, which is strange because I don't read that much of it. In any case, I had no idea what to expect here, and I loved it. Now just need to finish the trilogy.
The Contract With God Trilogy - One of the greatest comics ever written by the most famous comic writer of them all. I don't often get emotional when reading, but this one had me churning inside through a lot of it. This book has so much heart and character, I simply cannot recommend it enough.
I will also give honorable mentions to Brian K. Vaughn as I am currently working my way through both Y: The Last Man and his current work, Saga. Both of them have been great so far and I eagerly await reading the rest as they come.
Goals for the coming year
Now, just a little bit on what I hope to accomplish in the new year.
- Keep on the healthy path - I'm not going to say that I'm going to exercise a lot and eat well because I already know that I can't stick to a plan like that. But I do know the best way to drop the weight now, so I'm going to just focus on doing that to the best of my abilities, and just try to exercise when I can.
- Prioritize better - This is probably my worst sticking point, since as I said above, I have a lot of trouble with getting myself into too many things and I never have time to do any of them. So I'm going to make it a goal to be better about using my time and not stretching myself out too thin.
- Be frugal - This isn't a problem I have in general. I save money every month, though the amount varies depending on what happens. But I've gotten really bad about overspending on going out all the time, so I want to work on cutting that back. Another positive side to this is that by cutting back here, I also achieve my first goal.
- Cultivate positivity - I'm already a pretty positive guy, but one of the things I found this year is that when I force myself to be more positive about things, I tend to procrastinate less on the things I don't particularly like doing. So if I can do that more, I will have less guilt about wasting my time.
- Write more - Like anything else, writing requires mental muscle, and I've let it atrophy too much in the last couple years. It's probably the one thing I used to do a lot that I miss the most.
- Compartmentalize work - While I'm probably better at this than most people already, I used to be better about doing work at work and leaving personal stuff for out of the office. I also let my worries about work bleed into my relaxation time too much. I would like to find better separation between the two.
- Continue focusing efforts - I've started doing this in the last couple months and it's been working really well. Basically, my mind can be very scattershot at times, so I will often find myself starting up a bunch of things and trying to jump around between them is hard. They all end up taking much longer to complete than they would if I just focused on a couple at a time. As I said, I've been doing better at this lately, so I want to keep that going since it produces much more consistent results.
I think that's enough to work on. I was originally only going to put down three, but it bloomed into seven. I don't think any one of them is particularly difficult. Some of them feed into each other too, which will help getting them going.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to another awesome and productive year!