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[Year in Review] Tell me about your 2013 D&D.
3lwap0
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
D&D,
The New Year is upon us (if you follow a Roman calendar), and despite my best efforts not too, I've done a bit of personal reflection on 2013. It was without question, the craziest year of my life. And that got me to thinkin' - I wonder if anyone else had a year similar to mine?
Like it or not, you're not the same person you were 12 months ago.
So spill the beans - what's happened to you this year? I want to hear about your 2013. What happened to you, notable or otherwise, that you're comfortable sharing with us fine PA folks. Did you get married/divorced? Graduate? Drop out? Invent something? Discover new depths to your laziness? Did you discover any new bands or albums? Fall in love? Make a really rad work of art? Write some bitchin' prose? Play some awesome games? Participate in some great threads?
In the spirit of co-operation, i'll go first. I'll even give the tl;dr version, as I could write a novel on the past 12 months.
The Bad Stuff: I was bushwhacked by some very bad people, and lost the contract I had worked for nearly 6 years. I ended up at a new place to work, only to be crushed by the government shutdown, and have to find another new job. I lost a lot of nights of sleep, and a hole in my stomach, wondering how I would pay bills, keep my home, and make it to 2014. I'm still grieving over my previous job, and the family of folks I was pulled away from.
The Good stuff: I finally landed on my feet in November. I'm now responsible for the cyber security of a major utility and 1.3 million people who need power. I bought a brand new home, and it is very nice. I discovered how great friends can be when you're at the lowest points in your life. I saw an awesome D&D community come together during the Boston bombings. I got to play The Last of Us, and Red Dead Redemption. I painted a bunch of toy mans. Was totally rocked by Game of Thrones. Made some really good friends.
I also discovered E.O.D. means Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Who knew, right?
Tap three mana, and tell us about your year.
The New Year is upon us (if you follow a Roman calendar), and despite my best efforts not too, I've done a bit of personal reflection on 2013. It was without question, the craziest year of my life. And that got me to thinkin' - I wonder if anyone else had a year similar to mine?
Like it or not, you're not the same person you were 12 months ago.
So spill the beans - what's happened to you this year? I want to hear about your 2013. What happened to you, notable or otherwise, that you're comfortable sharing with us fine PA folks. Did you get married/divorced? Graduate? Drop out? Invent something? Discover new depths to your laziness? Did you discover any new bands or albums? Fall in love? Make a really rad work of art? Write some bitchin' prose? Play some awesome games? Participate in some great threads?
In the spirit of co-operation, i'll go first. I'll even give the tl;dr version, as I could write a novel on the past 12 months.
The Bad Stuff: I was bushwhacked by some very bad people, and lost the contract I had worked for nearly 6 years. I ended up at a new place to work, only to be crushed by the government shutdown, and have to find another new job. I lost a lot of nights of sleep, and a hole in my stomach, wondering how I would pay bills, keep my home, and make it to 2014. I'm still grieving over my previous job, and the family of folks I was pulled away from.
The Good stuff: I finally landed on my feet in November. I'm now responsible for the cyber security of a major utility and 1.3 million people who need power. I bought a brand new home, and it is very nice. I discovered how great friends can be when you're at the lowest points in your life. I saw an awesome D&D community come together during the Boston bombings. I got to play The Last of Us, and Red Dead Redemption. I painted a bunch of toy mans. Was totally rocked by Game of Thrones. Made some really good friends.
I also discovered E.O.D. means Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Who knew, right?
Tap three mana, and tell us about your year.
+2
Posts
In April, I finally got out of the Army after 12 years.
Graduated finally in May.
Got a place to myself in May.
Got a German Shepherd puppy in May.
Started a new job this past November.
Continued the fine tradition of hunting in November and bagged a deer, my first buck.
The Bad:
In April I found out I was single again, on the same night I got out of the Army.
Bouts of my illness returning almost ended up in the ER again.
Helped my parents through the shutdown, which was depressing as all get out.
The Ugly:
Family lost homes in the Philippines.
Like in thinking back I keep missing life-altering events because there have been too many of them.
The bad:
Parents are getting divorced after like twenty five years
Therefore, they're selling the house I grew up in
The neutral:
Girlfriend of three or so years broke up with me
I moved across the country
The good:
I moved across the country to enter a PhD program
I transitioned
So all told, my life doesn't even come close to resembling what it did a year ago. I started the year working a job I disliked and had been at for too long, with a long term girlfriend and not a lot of confidence, and ended it a very confident single woman working on her PhD. Pretty crazy, really.
I'm in the process of going from having nothing to having an upper middle class job, and the climb sucks the whole way up.
(But I had christmas off, and I have put 200 hours into video games in 3 weeks...)
The Good:
- increased friendships started in late 2012. Actually being social for the first time in years.
- Played and learned a lot of awesome games.
- Helped out with my towns first comic/gaming convention
- Got to see my youngest brother for the first time in a couple of years
- Figured out what I want to do for a living at long last.
- Most recently made a *very* good friend, who in turn helped me make more friends and do some fun stuff.
The neutral:
- Fell for the aforementioned friend, which turned into a weird shared-like-but-never-going-to-happen (I haven't put myself in.a position to be rejected vet often but this one was *weird*). Going to stay good friends, which is important.
- Learned a lot about myself due to the above.
The bad:
- All the other bad feelings and anxiety that has returned to the above. Trying to channel that into something positive.
- Applied and interviewed for promotion more than 7 times without success.
- Increasing stress and anxiety with current job, which has also had a lot of negative changes
I'm working on coming up with a few easy, but big goals for 2014. I'm in an unusually self-reflective mood lately.
- Moved back to Québec. Moving back home had an immediate positive impact on my mental health. I gave up a lot of coins but the tradeoff was definitively worth it.
- I ended my adventure in Alberta on a good note.
- Stopped drinking alcohol altogether since November. Booze had been a very important part of my life for way too long, I'm glad it's finally behind me. I only regret not doing it sooner.
- Strongly considering going back to university for a bussiness degree.
- I made 2 awesome roadtrips, one in Atlantic Canada and another one in the upper US midwest.
- Zelda : link beetween worlds. Best Zelda ever IMHO.
The bad
-Inexistant love life
-Very unsatisfied with my new job
TL;DR In 2013 I got poorer but happier.
Good: Got the stick out of my ass and started transition. That went much better than expected! Mom is...somewhat better, after being much worse. Actually in Seattle now and not bumfuck, which probably helped the first part!
-Finished grad school.
-Still find my job, which I started in late 2012, to be very enjoyable.
-Started dancing. This is seriously one of the best moves I've ever made. I love it. It is extremely rewarding and has greatly enhanced my social life. I could go on and on, but the gist is it's good.
Bad:
-Love life is, while not non-existent, certainly lacking. 2013, much like 2012, was filled with many dates and some flings, but nothing serious. Maybe 2014 will be better.
-Job situation, because it's a government job, is sort of unstable. The budget sword is always overhead and it is somewhat worrying.
Overall: A very good year. Best one in awhile, now that I think about it.
The Bad: I got fired from a shitty part-time job at golf course this summer, but that was actually a net benefit cuz it stressed me the fuck out. I guess the worst part of this year was when my girlfriend and I broke up over the summer because she was too busy with other stuff / moved away. But now she's moving back? I guess the worst part of this year is that I'm technically not much further along then where I was at the beginning, aside from moving closer to graduation.
Overall, it's been a bunch of little things that made this year pretty good. But also some not-so-awesome stuff. I am being really vague.
WOO 2014
The good:
Family is healthy for the most part. Learning more about how to manage a chronic disease is good.
Still in my house, avoided a ton of financial pitfalls
I have a job that is safe and steady
My youngest son is no longer threatening suicide and is making great progress
The bad:
The financial axe is still hanging over us.
I hate my safe, steady job. It doesn't pay enough and never will.
No one is calling me back in response to the dozens and dozens of applications I'm filling out.
Overall this has been a year of grief, with 5 family members or close friends dying before February (including my stepmother, grandmother, and father-in-law). It would have to be a pretty terrible 2014 to get worse than 2013 was.
Fuck you, 2013, I'll be glad t' see the back o' ye!
Nothing as good as the nearly full 9 months of my wife's successful pregnancy, after all the trouble we've had trying to get to this point.
Unless she goes into labor tonight or tomorrow, which isn't out of the question but unlikely yet!
I took a full load of online classes this fall, and got all A's somehow.
The bad:
My brother's health seems to be declining.
My mother's health seems to be declining.
My health seems to be declining.
Sounds like I need a kick ass new year's resolution involving eating healthy and exercising regularly.
I got to watch the movie I worked on for the last 18 months come out in theaters and it was really great to see my name on the big screen.
The Bad: Got laid off shortly before the movie came out
Got my heart broken after 18 months
Had two surgeries and one ER bout for kidney stones
I am really out of shape
Let's hope 2014 puts a few more things in the plus column.
Yeah, I have no idea how any of you people manage to have normal lives with experiences in them but I am very envious.
The good - I started and finished a series of IT certifications - A+, Network+, Security+ - which was just in time for...
The bad - Losing my job (admittedly a dead-end sales/retail job that paid and treated me like shit), having to pay for a transmission repair the week after losing said job, and despite efforts since then...
The ugly - I'm going on month four of unemployment, still living with my parents, with the last of my local friends successfully moving on with their lives.
I'm not sure I can adequately describe how drained the job left me. It was just a bank teller in the end, but it was pitching an unceasing stream of bullshit to every client that walked in and getting yelled at when I didn't pitch it sincerely enough, with a big enough smile, along very specific guidelines, while still making sure everyone's papers were in order. Picture Papers, Please with fewer armed guards (quite a few robberies in our area) and you'll get the idea. Feels like I spent the last six years in a coma that left me conscious enough to feel frustration, and too tired for anything else but looking (unsuccessfully, of course) for a better job.
Anyhow, my 2013 wasn't *terrible* - I'm very aware it could be worse, as my neighbors' kid being talked down from the roof back in summer can attest - but I'm quite eager to put it behind me. Here's to 2014 being better on all fronts.
This, right here, so very much.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
I'm willing to bet a lot of people feel the same way. Possibly most people.
Every New Year's Eve for the last three years, I've said "At least X+1 year can't possibly be any worse than X year was (where X is the current year)." Each subsequent year has managed to be appreciably worse. So I have learned TO NOT TEMPT FATE, and am going to keep a low profile this New Year's Eve.
- I have a much closer friendship with two of my friends/coworkers. They took me out , to pubs for socializing with other coworkers , apple picking , hockey , shopping, even a trip to the 1000 islands when I was recovering from a LOT of grief this year.
- My new team is much more fun , and my job is much more rewarding , and interesting. I do not dread going to work in the morning. Also, working on Sundays means amazing parking and super low key , uninterrupted time to focus on my work. Plus I have a cubicle with a lot of storage and a huge wall for decorations and hanging up calendars (thanks again Santa Shaz)
- I played a ton of League of Legends , despite some hiatus periods and had a lot of fun doing it.
- PAX EAST was a huge highlight of my year. I Miss the D&D people.
- I had an amazing birthday party with Chinese takeout and video games. Also my BFF and her sister came to visit me at my favorite brunch place.
- I played through "To the Moon" yesterday. Touched my heart. I love the soundtrack and listen to it at work. I played and beat Final Fantasy IX finally after all these years. I look forward to trying out all these new games I got!
- I lost like 15 lbs , this is huge for me. I also started to cook for myself a lot more often and eat out less.
- I watched a lot of really good shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Downton Abbey sticks out in my mind. So good.
-@mim @sarksus and @loserforhirex and I got together for a thanksgiving meal. It was delicious.
-I gifted other people games and got gifted a lot of games as well.
The BAD:
-I was struck by grief heavily two times this year by two really shitty events. I felt depressed, lonely, confused, sad, and cried a lot. Some days I really felt like I was going insane. I wanted to be around people and then I didn't. Thankfully I have really good friends. There was drinking to be had; lots of it. And I had the time of my life. After these events I also got some big ticket item purchases , none that I regret since I've been using the crap out of them: iPad mini, coach bag, and ps3. Apparently shopping makes me happy, who knew?
- I don't see my friends from college as much. A lot of them got married, moved, or both. I feel like I have a lot of "friends" but not a lot of close friends from college that I still talk to. I am always really happy to hear from them though.
- My grandparents aren't doing great. Their health is deteriorating and every time I call them they sound like they are on the verge of crying.
I AM NOT the same person I was in January. I'm stronger, more confident, independent, and couldn't be happier. I can't wait to make 2014 my year! I'm gonna set some goals and really aim to achieve them.
But, since then I have started exercising and eating healthy. Getting into shape as I slowly put some weight back on. I went 90 days not drinking, starting for reasons other then myself. It was difficult at times, and then it wasn't, and it was for myself. I learned a lot about myself through it all, and don't need alcohol as a crutch like I used to think I did. And don't go running to it when my day's been shitty and things are not going my way. I refound my passion in guitar, and am looking at rebuilding them and restoring them as a hobby.
The ex seems to be messing with my new years plans, telling a mutual friend they had to choose between us so now I'm winging it, but it's going to be the last time I let her interfere with my life. I've already been trying to get out, meet new people, and do stuff. But my goal for this year is to continue doing that but find people and things that I want to do, and that I enjoy doing, and then meet people and branch off from that. The holiday forums reminded me how much I love board and card games in that thread, and that adults do this kind of stuff. I'm sure there are groups in my area that meet up and play. What about video games? There used to be fight nights and rockband nights all over the place when SF4 and RB were hot.
2013 was a very shitty year, and a continuation of things that happend in 2012. But it also made me realize a lot about myself, and I feel really positive going into the new year. It's funny, I've been down all day because of the new years eve plans and stuff. We put so much expectation on New Year's Eve that it always ends up sucking. But really, the year is ending on a positive note for me, and finally an upslope after such a rocky downhill experience. I am really looking forward to the new year, and what it'll hold.
The Bad:
Switched positions at work twice, my third in two years. New positions has a huge learning curve and I feel like I'm just getting busy work. This is adding to the general frustration about my career.
Remained single. It's becoming more frustrating each year. I do everything in paper that should help me find someone (Stay extremely social, active, etc) and have a good number of female friends, but I'm just look as bf material I guess.
I got injured a month before running my first marathon..one that ended up getting cancelled because of weather anyways.
The Good
My friends. I'm constantly, constantly amazed by how many friends I developed over the past two years and how tight our friendship are. They shown me multiple times how much I mean to them, and my life would be very different without them. Having 40+ people show up for my birthday celebration was a wonderful new experience.
I also become much closer with a couple of friends.
I got a chance to travel way more this year than before, with the highlight being a week long trip to Portland.
After 30 years I went camping for the first time and loved it, and gone multiple times. Got into backpacking as well.
My climbing and running have stayed steady, and I got a chance to climb outdoors for the first time
Got the hell out of my PhD program with a Masters, which is better then my alternative by that stage which was dropping out and giving up all my dreams.
Made the hard decision that I'm going to get another degree in something I can be enthusiastic about, and has way better job prospects.
Still dating Bulgarian girl.
The Bad:
There was a lot of stress this year on the inflexible scale of human experience.
Did not get a PhD after 5 years.
Discovered I have the same knee problem as my brothers after all by slipping the meniscus while doing plumbing.
Really my year was pretty good, just not what I wanted it to be all up but 2014 promises to be a lot better.
Last year I was deep in my cups, and made an ominous facebook post "It may be the bottom shelf whisky and the anti-depressants talking, but I think 2013 will be a good year."
Christ, was I wrong. Your advice is spot on.
So, I live in a house for people too crazy to be part of society, but not quite crazy enough to be committed. At the end of 2012 a few of my housemates, with whom I got along fine, moved out. They were replaced with people who constantly jump up and down my every last nerve. 2013 was a haze of annoyance, rage and sleepless nights whenever one of the new housemates decided that just because he's awake after midnight that means he's allowed to play his music loudly.
Fortunately, one of them is planning to move on in about half a year or so. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm going to be stuck with the other one who's so incompetent and forgetful I frequently think he needs more help than he's getting.
The Good:
-Got a new job and am on track to become a fully licensed buildy guy by next year
-Moved into a kickass new apartment with my wife
-picked up a few new hobbies completing a few of my resolutions along the way: archery, surfing, backpacking, and ran a marathon
-started making a bit better money at my new job
-finally started knocking off that godforsaken backlog from all the holiday sails
-wrote a novel and defeated the demon known as nanowrimo
-took two flash trips, one to San Francisco, one to Portland, for the hell of it. Gotta do more of those next year.
The Bad:
-Lost one of my really good friends to tragedy this year. You're missed buddy.
-Lost a lot of my friends to the below:
-Got divorced. Wasn't as ugly as it could've been, but wasn't happy with how it went down.
-Nearly got bitten in half by a shark while surfing.
-Got mugged and got a gun shoved in my face for the fifth time in my life. Luckily just made off with my phone.
Battlenet: Judgement#1243
psn: KupoZero
The Good:
Got engaged to my partner of six years, who also moved in with me and introduced me to the adorable life of house rabbit ownership!
Got my own car again
Got a proper adult job with responsibilities and have a pretty good relationship with management and our clients (also not to toot my own horn but i'm quite good at what i do!)
Set up a repayment scheme that I can afford for my massive student loan bill, so I won't have my diplomas repossessed by the DoEd or whatever
The Bad:
So the last five months have been good, but basically everything before August 1st was terrible.
Struggled with depression and yo yo weight
Had massive self esteem issues stemming from barely being employed and having to go on welfare, combined with the health stuff
Terrible family is terrible
Before car existed, living in the middle of suburban america with no transportation and no public transit was not great
The So-So
I'm not certain I want the career that has landed on my lap, but there's no realistic way to get out of it and probably I should just buck up and make do with what I have.
But that's life, eh? You take the good with the bad and try to make it all make sense in the end.
Looking forward to 2014 I have lots of great things coming up and as I close out the first third of my life I look forward to building on successes, learning from failures, and raising a bunny with the LadyFromEarth.
Finally achieved UK citizenship goal after 6 years of working towards it (this is about as fast as legally possible), started professional requalification in England, started dating more too.
The bad:
No real career progression. Realised I'm not super good at studying
Battlenet: Judgement#1243
psn: KupoZero
Good:
-Finished my master's in International Studies with a Global Health Cert, my own research under my belt and tons of skills. I loved every minute of grad school.
-Tons of good friends both in DC and Denver. My best friend actually moved back to Denver
-"moved" to DC. This might be temporary since I had a pair of interviews in Denver after I set up to move out here. Still waiting till they let me know, which might be the end of this week/next week
-Found I don't hate programming as much anymore thanks to working on STATA
-Tons of online friends and talking and helping them and hanging out
-Getting into DoTA2, love this game.
Bad:
-Been unemployed since getting my master's. Whole reason I am in DC. Loans are coming due.
-My grandmother passed away on Halloween. She was my last grandparent and a wonderful person. She had been suffering though for the last year and it was good she is at rest hopefully with my granddad who was the love of her life.
-Still single
-Broke and I miss my dogs who are in Denver
So-so
-Tried to see if my best friend would be okay with dating, she said no but nothing bad happened and we are still super close
-Computer games have been decent, loved Tomb Raider
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
Eventually became basically functional.
Bad things: Large portion of year spent inactive.
My working year was one of transition: Migrating company software from one platform to another, and spending time trying to master the new platform. On the whole however I think I got on well at work, although I was shunted into a new desk that I like less than my old one, both in appearance and location.
I'd say my own life has been reasonably stable with a couple of exceptions. However I kinda define my year by what happens to my family, and there were ups and downs on that front.
The highlight of my family's year came in late February: I became an uncle for the first time, a lovely boy called Jack who is phenomenally good natured. Also my middle sister achieved her Masters degree, and me and my mother attended the ceremony, making a small holiday of it, visiting Manchester and the Lake District in July. 'twere lovely. The big family holiday was at the end of August: California (and Vegas). For the most part we had fun, but there was a shadow with regards to my Dad's ongoing renovation of an Alpine Chateau. He has spent 18 months basically having to be the referee between almost everyone else in the project, who has different ideas about how things should be done. The nadir was our second morning in San Francisco, where he received an email and discovered that subcontractors (not his, his client's) had wrecked the local accommodation when they left and the owner wouldn't rent it again, so for the rest of the holiday he had to organize new accommodation to return to. Dickheads.
My oldest brother had an emotional year. He started the year with a really clingy girlfriend, both of whom live in my house. She doesn't like sharing space, and the amount of clashes "we" had - I say "we", but she always sent my brother to relay her complaints, which was super passive aggressive - increased. The final straw was in June. I had a full car I was taking to the local convention, and received a text from her calling me a dickhead for not offering a lift - a thing she had made no request of on the previous days of this convention. I made a last ditch attempt at diplomacy, explaining why I didn't think to offer a lift and suggesting we communicate directly more often. She was having none of it, her feelings still hurt because she didn't think to ask. So while it could be argued the error would be more her and maybe my brother's fault, I felt like the bell-end. I had enough, so I evicted her. My brother used this opportunity to break up with her. He just wanted a temporary break, but she was all or nothing, and in this case it was nothing.
So my homelife improved, until the early hours one November morning, where I woke to hear my brother sobbing. He had gone out and drunk heavily for Halloween, and she happened to be at the same place. A little explanation - she had said some really manipulative things to him: "I gave up everything for you." "You're lucky to have me, no one else would have you", crap like that. So he had concocted a narrative that she would have trouble setting up a life for herself. However she was happy as Larry, getting on fine. Those manipulations, and the narrative which had just shattered, drove him to a mental breakdown. We had to have a family intervention, and get him to counselling. However miraculously, he managed to pick himself up pretty quickly. I think this was helped by being friendly - albeit not necessarily romantically - with a work colleague of his, who was a third party who could help him see that he has some worth as a human being. You can always get that from family, but essentially a stranger saying it can be a real comfort. He's been in the best form I've seen from him in ages.
Which leads me to the other really troubled member of my family: The youngest sister. She's been getting tangled up with rough boys who manipulate her, however she can give it out as well. Her current relationship seems to be a game of "who can drive the other crazy with jealousy first"? She's also been really confrontational with my mother, taking advantage of my Dad's long absences in France, and of the opinion that now she's 18 she can do what she wants. My Mum's aware of this and that she can't ground her traditionally, although she does have one method of control, namely the car she drives that is still owned by my parents. She also crashed and burned in her A level exams, getting a bunch of C's and D's when her projected grades were A's. Fortunately we found a coursework-based HND at a Technical College, which may allow her entry to University in a couple of years, if she can get her head showered.
I mention her head for a reason: We've long suspected that there is something she wasn't telling us, something that happened, that is the reason for her changes. She was incredibly mature for a 14 year old, but since then she hasn't matured any further, and even regressed. This all came to a head before Christmas, where she did something truly desperate that I shan't discuss online. After this she finally admitted what had happened. It correlates with her maturity degrading at 14, and explains quite a lot about some of her lashing out. However that is also personal. With that out in the open, we can finally help her get the right sort of professional counselling she needs. It's still hard though. She and my middle sister were planning to go out on two different nights while she was home from Manchester, and the boyfriend kept trying to insist he turn up to what was supposed to be a girl's night out, and the Youngest sister eventually bailed both times rather than deal with the hassle he was raising. 2-0 to him, my Mum says.
So yeah, my life has been nice enough, especially after getting shot of a roommate I didn't need, but some of my family has gone through rough patches, but are on the road to recovery. Christmas was a great day, and New Years Eve was a nice quiet night in, although 2014 started off with a phone call leading to one of the situations I dread the most, but again shall not talk about at this time.
Personal Grade: B
Family Grade: C-
Oh, and I got a new computer, which was pretty awesome.
-My wife's father passed
-A careless worker left the back gate open leading to our dog being hit by a car
-One of our best friends had a stroke and lost sight in her left eye and a good chunk of her long term memory
The good:
-Our friend remembers us over many other friends so clearly we're great, is recovering well, and is mostly laughing about being half blind now
-Both of us were promoted in our respective jobs leading to us paying off our debt about six months early
-Finally started getting college knocked out
-Towards the end of the year we began pulling together a network of really great friends after months of being alone
-Put an end to more than two decades of being on the crappy end of bullying and started learning muay Thai
Honestly I'm looking forward to the new year. I'm on track to get in shape, outdoing a ton of my peers, will be a Big Brother soon, and will actually have enough free money to start investing rather than just hiding it away for emergencies.
Then that job started getting behind on paychecks, which led to months of stress. So much for getting shit done. All of the things I intend to do this year are things I intended to do last year but failed at. What a worthless period of existence. Good riddance to it.
This year there's nothing but success on my horizon. I can feel it! I'll start on the first! (Wait, it's the second? Maybe I'll start next week...)
In 12 months, we'll have new things to say about 2014, and I look forward to seeing them. Hopefully, everyone's year is stellar.
If nothing, take solace in that others have ups and downs as well. So chin up!
Arch,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_goGR39m2k
Battlenet: Judgement#1243
psn: KupoZero
So yeah, I'm out a hundo. I can eat it, and unfortunately I do (somewhat) remember the rolling stop. Lesson learned, though it kinda feels like 2013 just getting one last "fuck you" in.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
This is why I'm glad that my home state actually outlawed them.
So, 2013, like the past few years, was punctuated by death for me, this time with my grandmother passing, along with two of the family cats. Also, the company I work for got devoured by a much larger corporation, which has come with a decidedly mixed set of benefits. I'm still feeling ambivalent about staying here in Montana, especially with my family here all but gone. I'm also still struggling with meeting people and dating, which is exacerbating my feelings about staying here.
* Work is going great. I got tenured, got raises that got me within spitting distance of a ridiculous salary, and got approved for a sabbatical.
* I was awarded a major personal research grant and joined a promising research team on a large project in another university.
* I picked up watercolour painting. I've never been artistic before, and discovering I had a talent for that is amazing to me.
* I went on three trips: a weekend road trip to Ottawa, Gatineau and Mirabel, a family holiday trip to Toronto, and an 18-day tour of China which has been a dream of mine for years.
* I made myself a pretty good 11th Doctor costume for a Time-Traveller's Ball, which I also got to use to teach classes on Halloween day. After that students started referring to me as "that prof who dresses like the Doctor", which is pretty awesome!
* My baking skills remain unparalleled in my group of friends.
* I formed an Agricola playing group and a Breakfast Club to go around town eating breakfast. So that covers me for two of my favourite activities.
* Me, my parents and my brother are all perfectly healthy. So my immediate family is fine.
* I became president of my local Rotary Club.
The bad:
* My ex-girlfriend, the girl that called me her last boyfriend and the only boyfriend she ever could imagine having a future with, cheated on me repeatedly and left me. She did a bunch of evil shit afterwards, like sending me pictures of herself naked in the bed of one of the guys she cheated on me with, just to twist the knife in. I was completely unprepared for that level of spitefulness, especially coming from her, and I'm still dealing with the fallout... but on the plus side now I have a much clearer idea of what the person I want to have a future with will be like (hint: it really wasn't her), and that's something I've never had before in my life.
* Two deaths. My grandmother, after years of slow painful deterioration (both painful for her as her faculties decreased, and painful for us who could do nothing about it). And a 20-something friend of mine who just suddenly dropped dead of a brain aneurysm one day.
* Relationship-wise, as is evident from my Dating Thread posts, it hasn't been a fruitful year.
* I haven't been going to the gym nearly enough.
* My brother is jobless and that's stressing my entire family out.
Watched my wife suffer in immeasurable pain for two days as she laboured / I got an awesome new baby girl
Was promoted to a middle management job at work / two days later was tasked with firing my entire staff, and taking over another manager's team (also fired) - downsizing sucks
Played some amazing footy (keeper) and helped my team to some silverware in the local league / suffered a pretty brutal concussion and lost a good 6 hours of memory
Lots of little things - but those are the ones that stand out. Hope those that have had shitty years turn it around in 2014!
-Started off 2013 in boot camp
- Spent my 25th birthday in boot camp
- Got medically discharged in April because my injury wasn't healing
- Injury is still acting up
- I work retail
- Realized I undervalue myself and am so afraid of rejection which is WHY I am working in retail (the good ol' "I'm not good at anything so I'll just take whatever" train of thought).
- Some of my sister's stuff got broken into while she went away to Spain
- My mom quit her job because the company couldn't afford to pay all of its workers after she'd been unemployed for about 2 years.
- Realized my relationship will not last beyond 2014 due to differences
- Had a massive panic attack in September
- I gained weight and my mom thought I was pregnant
The Good:
- Started dating @Sarksus in April right when I got home from boot camp
- I was happy (and sad) to be discharged. Sad because I was beginning to enjoy myself but happy because my injury and being stuck in boot camp really began to suck the soul out of me.
- Even though it IS retail, I got a job that allows me to pay my student loans, which was important
- I began rebuilding bridges with old friends
- I've made new friends and people I can confide in
- I'm glad I realized I put myself in retail because of my fear of rejection/feeling like I'm not good at anything (I have a degree, surely I must be good at something), because now this allows me to rectify my actions to get myself a better job.
- I started drawing again. Not enough by any means, but it's something at least.
- I did begin working out, but again, not enough by any means.
- My mom is now working on her second Master's
- My dad is still employed
- My sister has a job and a boyfriend (which I guess makes her happy?)
- MY DOG IS STILL AWESOME AS HELL.
- I begin putting in the transfer to move my job back to Philadelphia so I can begin to implement some other plans.