2014 is over! It has been quite the eventful year; the combination of travel abroad (including trips to England, Scotland, Washington State, and the Far East) and a consistently-busy day job has made the year feel long and dense. Parts of it still flew by pretty swiftly, but when I look back at last January, it feels like a long time has passed.
As usual, I passed the time with my hobbies. I've seen many movies over the year, including many of the latest releases, like Snowpiercer, Guardians of the Galaxy, Interstellar, and more. I've played quite a few video games; having acquired a PlayStation 4 at the beginning of the year, I became thoroughly engrossed in great new titles like inFamous: Second Son, Shadow of Mordor, Far Cry 4, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. My music collection has grown, with awesome new albums by Lacuna Coil, Alestorm, Linkin Park, PM5K, oodles of film and game soundtracks, and of course, Weird Al Yankovic. I've read about 15 books this year, which is a little more than average, and included some really challenging titles (Naked Lunch and Melancholy of Mechagirl shall stand as two books I'll be happy to never read again).
My hobby of writing, unfortunately, has stalled yet again. I made great progress for a while on a new draft of The Dark Fairy Chronicles, but after 50-something pages I stopped and never regained momentum. I do think I can get back into the groove on that, but the story has a long ways to go. For November, I also started a book called Out of the Blue, and the last couple of chapters need to be finished. I also finished my draft of Gods Among Men (after two years of sitting around), and Exodus is nearly complete (after three years of sitting around). Unfortunately, many other projects remain unfinished, including other novels and short stories, and there are many more that are in need of editing or critiquing.
Despite all I've seen and done, the year is not without its troubles. It seems like the local area has had quite a few tragic deaths. Even elsewhere, with at least three Malaysia Airline plane crashes, the Ebola outbreak, the Crimean crisis, more war in the Middle East, and the riots at Ferguson, it feels like the whole year has been a challenge and struggle for much of the world. On the plus side, we did land a probe on a moving comet.
After a while, I couldn't help but to feel that I've become a slacker yet again. Looking at last year's goals, I'm dismayed to see that I failed to accomplish them. Thus, all those same goals will carry over to this year: I will still endeavor to write more, read more, lose 25 pounds, and clean out my computer files. If there's anything to add, it would be being more social. The good news is that I've already started on most of these goals, and the last few weeks have already felt productive.
Happy New Year to all: there is much to look forward to, and with effort, I think there can be much to accomplish.
Alan, I think you are just awesome! You've accomplished a lot in 2014. We all feel like we struggle the day to day, but when we are in retrospect and reflect on what goals we've exceeded we can be proud and set new goals. Sometimes our goals can be too lofty and never met no matter how many resolutions we make for the New Year, but don't be discouraged. It's a human trait to push ourselves and strive for greatness. You are already awesome! Don't forget that. Love you, son! :o) xo
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