This year was an interesting one. While I can certainly say that a lot happened, only one thing really stands out. That would, of course, be getting married. Everything else just doesn't seem to matter nearly as much. I suppose that is kind of the intent with a wedding. It should be one of the most memorable days of your life. But I feel like I shouldn't have to rack my brain thinking of all the other things that happened.
In any case, I will do my usual thing of recapping the big events and accomplishments, followed by my favorite pieces of media in the past year, and finish with last year's goals and this year's. Let's go!
2015 in Summary
Looking back at last year's review, I said that 2014 felt like setup for 2015. While I do agree with that, I don't think I fully capitalized on that preparation. In a lot of ways, I still feel like I'm getting ready for something. I know that from a financial standpoint, all of my extra money went into the wedding and honeymoon, so I'm kind of starting from zero again, building up for the next big things to come. But even outside that, I feel like everything else is not quite where I want to be yet.
Lots of big things happened this year. The first one was switching teams at work, twice. One was not planned so much as a forced transition, but shortly afterward I was presented with an opportunity to work on a team closer to my ultimate goals, so I jumped on that and have been there most of the year. That transition was soon followed by another unexpected, and rather unwelcome, event. Our apartment landlord basically kicked us out so that he could renovate the building, and we had to scramble to find somewhere else to live. That, coupled with the weird transitions at work, and the looming costs of the wedding and honeymoon made the first half and then some of the year a lot more stressful than I'd hoped.
As such, my great plans for the year got thrown about a bit and I got more into a holding pattern. My health has largely stayed the same, though my weight has gone up since the move. I did succeed in my goal of running my first half-marathon. In fact, I did two this year. My finances have been on a roller coaster all year, with the end result being back at the loading bay with not much left and waiting for the next set of passengers. So no real growth there, but no losses either.
The second half of the year was much better as things got settled again. I got married and had another fantastic vacation in Europe. I don't feel like I need to recap this one as it was largely similar to the last one, just with Berlin added in. As you can tell from the last post being almost a year ago, I haven't been doing much in the way of documenting or writing this year. I aim to do better about that this year again.
So in the end, it was a good year in some ways, but a bit rough in most. It certainly wasn't bad by any means. I know a lot of friends who have told last year to go F itself, but I'm not in that camp. All things considered, this year turned out well. I already know that this coming year is going to bring more challenges, but I feel like I will be more prepared this time around.
Favorite Games
Rogue Legacy - In terms of pure fun, I think this game wins the year for me. It didn't come out this year, obviously, and I only played it because it was free with PS+. But boy am I glad I did play it. No other game this year made me want to play just one more time from start to finish. I'm pretty sure I ended up beating it five times or so before I finally moved on to other games. I would definitely say this was my favorite game I played this year.
Transistor - Another free game from PS+, my favorite thing about this game was the aesthetic. While I liked the gameplay for the most part, I was much more into the art and the music. Oh man the music. I can't even count the number of times I've listened to the soundtrack. It was a good experience from start to finish (well, aside from the last boss, that wasn't very fun), though not likely one I would do again in the game. I will continue to rock that music though for a long time to come.
Counterspy - There's a bit of a theme here. All three of my favorite games this year were PS+ games. I played four big studio games this year, and none of them matched these three games by small studios. Anyway, this game was a lot of fun too, though frustrating a lot of times. Yeah most of the times I screwed up it was my own fault, but I do feel like there are some situations you get in where you can't really get out of it in a good way. And that's not fun. But on the whole I liked playing this one. Another one with a great theme and bite-size chunks of play that is good for a busy person like me.
Favorite Movies/TV Shows
Top Gear - I'm pretty sure I would be a fool to not put this at the top of my list. My wife and I went through 14 seasons of this show during the year, we just couldn't get enough of it. We still have several more to go, and we just started watching it again after a few months off. I've never been much of a car guy, but this show makes me want to be one. I know I still never will get that into cars, but it doesn't matter. The show is entertaining as hell and I will go to the end just for that.
Legend of Korra Seasons 3 and 4 - The second season was on last year's list, and the rest of the show makes it to this year's. Season 3 is the best one of the bunch in my mind, and probably one of the best seasons of any show I've ever seen. I already cannot wait to revisit this show again in a few years.
Song of the Sea - From start to finish this movie is unique and adorable. The people who made this movie may very well become the next Studio Ghibli if they can continue to make movies like this. Their first movie, Secret of the Kells, was alright, but Song of the Sea does everything to perfection, and I would recommend it to anyone (and I have to many people).
Inside Out - Even knowing that this was Pixar, I did not expect to like this as much as I did. The movie did have its ups and downs, but when it got to the third act, it was rolling and I was in it. When it comes to the movie that made me the most emotional this year, this movie wins hands down.
Favorite Books
12 Years a Slave - I actually started this before the year started and finished it very soon into the year. And despite that, it is still very much in my mind. The story is just so powerful. It never ceases to amaze me just how horrible people can be, but also how kind and enduring. I feel like this should be standard reading for kids (it probably is, I just never heard of it when I was in school).
The Martian - Yep, I jumped on this hype train, though it was well before the movie came out. I haven't actually seen the movie version, but the book was fantastic. The way it is told through mostly diary entries and communications is what really does it for me. Plus the text is smartly written and doesn't seem to care if you don't understand it. I can respect that.
Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained - I'm going to combine these because it's all one story. I do have several issues with these books, namely the ridiculously slow burn to get going and the sheer number of people that you have to juggle in your head, but once it did get going I was hooked. Especially in the second book, there were several times when I literally pumped my fist when something cool happened. I think that's pretty good praise.
Game Programming Patterns - As far as learning books goes (of the 10 I read this year), I think this one left the biggest impression. Making games has always been my passion (I didn't mention it above, but I did actually make a full game this year, though it was just a port of one I'd already made to Unity), and this book was full of great stuff. I am currently making my way through another book about the same topic (it's around 1000 pages, so it's taking a while), and it is just as interesting, so I suspect that will be on the next year in review.
Goals
Looking back at last year, I only mentioned two goals that weren't just carry overs from the previous year. I will go over them briefly.
Spend time working on personal projects every day - While I can't say I did this every day, I did do a pretty good job of it. I mentioned making a song and a game a year ago, neither of which I did (at least, the game I did end up making wasn't the one planned at that time). However, I did do a bit of fiction writing, the aforementioned game, and I also worked on another application that I plan to finish up soon. Both of the programming projects were more as learning things than intending to make something worth putting out there. Maybe this year that will change.
Get better at cooking - I suppose I did this to some degree. A lot of my time this year has been devoted to figuring out ways to make cooking easier to do, some of which have been very effective. So if I were going to continue on this track, I would say the better goal is to reduce restaurant visits as much as possible, and just doing that will improve everything else.
Now, some new ones for this year:
Post things more often - As I've already lamented, I barely wrote anything here this year, despite getting a snazzy new domain and layout and everything. I intend to do more, as well as using social media the way it was intended. If I really want to be better about being social, I need to stop being a lurker and contribute more often.
Run a marathon - I've already signed up for it, so it's going to happen whether I like it or not. I guess the real goal is just to make the experience as painless as possible. I have a few half-marathons leading up to it, so hopefully those will get me in good enough shape to take on the full thing.
Get back on the healthy food track - Yeah, this one seems to be a perpetual problem, but that is largely because I still have yet to find a diet that I can really maintain. It really is just too easy to eat things that are bad for you, even though I know in my mind that doing so leaves me feeling awful. It makes workouts harder to do and I literally feel pain in my back and neck, and sometimes head, when I eat poorly. So my goal this year is to not eat better in order to lose weight. I honestly don't think I have all that much left to lose as is. No, I'm going to focus on eating better just so that I feel better every day instead of having the constant ups and downs. To this end, I am going to try another new food cycling program and see how well that works out. It's going to be from January 1 until January 21 (three week challenge), so I will post again once I've done that.
Have more fun at home - For the last several years, I've berated myself for not being more productive. I have so many things I want to do with my life. I want to make games. I want to tell stories. I want to experience all the great media that life has to offer. I want to do the most with the time I have on this planet. Well, that is good and all, but it doesn't necessarily lead to fun and happiness. During the second half of the year I devoted more time to working on projects, and it was quite successful actually. However, it's still not the kind of balance I want (not that true balance is achievable). I feel like I work enough at work, I don't need to work so much at home too. So this year I'm going to stop feeling guilty for not doing work at home and just do things that I enjoy and have more fun. If I really feel the need to do some extra work, that is fine too, but it should be when I want to rather than a requirement. Yes, I accept that this means I probably won't get as much done as I'd like, but that's okay. I already put in my 40 hours or more at work, and I have a lot to show for it. If I also manage to write a couple stories in between work and enjoying myself, that should just be icing on the cake, not the filling.
12 for 12 FF Challenge - I will have another post about this shortly after this one, but late in December I started getting an itch to get back into RPGs again, Final Fantasy specifically. In the last three years I've only played one RPG, the South Park one, and I liked it, but it didn't fully scratch that itch. But I know the games that will do so: the Final Fantasy series. I have played most of the ones in the main numbered series, but not all of them. And there are several that I haven't played in many years and would like to revisit. So this year, I'm going to play 12 Final Fantasy games in 12 months, or at least attempt to. Again, I will have a longer post about this later and I intend to give weekly updates, plus final thoughts about each game once I complete it. It does kind of seem like adding work to something that should just be fun, but I'm hoping it will have other benefits. Having discussions about the games plus giving me more opportunities to write among them.
I think those are the big ones. Work will continue on as usual, and I continue to learn and grow in that space. Maybe by the end of the year I will make a transition to something even more aligned with my end goals, but I'm not going to count on that as a goal. I suspect that it will be largely unplanned as I have no idea what the coming year will bring with my team. So my focus this year is going to largely be on getting my body to its highest level ever and enjoy myself more.
As far as big events this year go, I already mentioned the marathon, which will be a big deal. There is also going to be another move around the middle of the year, but at least I know that one is coming. And maybe a child coming? We haven't decided on that one yet, but it's certainly on the table.
Here's to a great 2016!
P.S. On the note of posting more often, I have decided that I'm going to actually use my Twitter account for something this year. Mostly I intend to use it for mini-reviews of things I've seen or done, but it will be used for other things too. I'm going to play it a bit by ear. Between that, Facebook, and this site, there will be a lot more of me this year than in the past. That's my goal anyway.