Adios 2010... You Kinda Sucked

Surprise, y'all! I felt the need to drop a New Year's Eve retrospective bomb into the deserted ether in here. Not sure if it "means" anything (like I'll be blogging again) or if it's just an isolated case of angst-induced overload triggering a burst of creativity...

In any case, here's my end of the year thoughts on random stuff, for the one or two of you that might have stumbled in here for some odd reason...

When last we left our humble blogger, he had hung up his blog, like an old retired football jersey, and walked off into the sunset. What has happened twixt then and now? Well, the holiday season was the usual tense roller-coaster ride, with the annual Christmas Play. Of course, if I knew better how to delegate, perhaps the tension would be less! As it is, I fleshed out the basic concept, wrote the script, cast it, produced it, directed it, arranged lighting, recorded and edited dialog, acted in it and designed/printed the program. Whew! About all I didn't have my little grubbies in was the costuming and the dance/worship choreography. So, in a way, I can't complain about the craziness of it all, since I could have delegated things elsewhere, and not worried about results. What can I say -- I'm a perfectionist.

The play went off well, and was well received.

And in the middle of it all, we had our 20th wedding anniversary. The world should have stopped. It didn't. I wanted it to be as big a deal to everyone else as it was to me. It wasn't. It was the quintessential non-event, including to my wifey. To say I was bummed is an understatement.

I sit here in my office, in front of my computer (my best friend?), alone, on New Year's Eve. Plenty of time to muse on things. And actually, a fitting end to this year. I guess I should segue into my "best of" stuff from the year. I read a few books (far fewer than last year), so my "best book of the year" won't mean much. I think I started (and left unfinished) more books than I actually completed this year. But that just means I have a shelf-full of books waiting for me, when the reading bug hits again.

Several of the books I'd read were quite good, but nothing earth-moving. I liked Warbreaker (Brandon Sanderson) quite a bit, as well as Legend (Gemmel) and The Red Wolfe Conspiracy (Reddick). The Folding Knife by KJ Parker was a nice read - I really like that author's writing style. And the best Nonfiction book I read was also the only non-fiction book I read, which was Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. Beyond that, as I said, I started a bunch of books and then left them hanging. Currently hanging out in the wind are Elantris (Sanderson) and Devices and Desires (Parker). Funny thing is, I really enjoy both of them. I'm just kind of non-committal.

Speaking of shelves full of unread books, I've also been snapping up games that I likely won't ever play as well.

Steam has been having crazy holiday sales, and I've been buying games all over the place. Mostly indy game bundles and other sub-$5 specials. I have 61 games in my Steam library alone - that's not counting the games in boxes that line my Game Shelf. Of those in my Steam library, only 24 are even installed, and of those 24 games, 17 of them I have either played only once, or not at all yet. I must have almost 100 games in my collection, in total (Steam + shelves), and really, any actual play time is spent with only a few games.

Fallout: New Vegas was a terrific game - probably Game of the Year for me. Wandering the wastelands killing things and finding goodies is always tons o' fun. I have also spent many accumulated hours killing zombies in Left 4 Dead 2. Those two games comprise the lion's share of play time for me this year.

By the way, our semi-annual LAN party is happening New Year's Day. Gonna have a half-dozen or so people here to play the day away. No more "all nighters" for me, thanks. I'm too old...

Music? Well, other than the new Eminem album, I haven't listened to much now along the lines of music. I fell woefully short this year in keeping up with the latest tunes. I guess I'm losing my sense of adventure.

I went into the year at once dreading and anticipating it. I was to turn 40, and to have my 20th anniversary - by all rights two very huge, important milestones. I had hoped it would be a seminal year for me, a turning point. But all things considered, keeping in mind that I have tons to be thankful for, the year sucked. Cascading disappointments (at home, at work, at church, in my gut) had their way with me this year. Again, lots to be grateful for, and I am. Still, it's like sitting in a stinky room, and trying to console yourself saying, "Well, at least it's warm in here! You could be out in the freezing snow."

What else?

Other than my blog dying and my fantasy novel languishing, unloved, I'm not sure what else I can say. Still plenty of work, the rug shop is doing great. Though I'm still on the truck, which isn't my first choice. Plenty of freelance graphics work as well. Best news of the year was probably when we heard Logan was going to be a dad (Congrats Logan, wherever you are). Runner up for Best News was the announcement of the next Elder Scrolls game, to come out 11/11/11. Between that game and Diablo 3, next Fall should be fun indeed.

So, here's to a new year! I hope you all are safe and have a great transition to 2011, wherever you are.

For old time's sake, here's a Jack Vale video...



And here's a couple funny pics.

For some reason, I found this endlessly amusing...

Bill Murray for President!

Awesome.

So that's that. Thanks for reading my end-of-the-year wind. Is this post an anomaly, or will I start posting again in 2011? Who knows. We shall see...