So, it’s the beginning of a new year, so it’s that time of year to say that I’ll be writing more in my blog. Seriously. 😉 . As with previous years, time will tell if I actually do it – though, I actually did write a number of things that were never published in 2017 (that I’ll publish later in 2017 – more on that later), along with the tail end of the abusive relationship stuff. Here’s to vowing to write more.
But, for now, here’s a look back at 2017, and a look forward at some new projects.
The End of Selfie a Day
For two years straight I’ve done #SelfieADay – a picture of me, me with cats, me with Kelly, me with friends, me with customers, etc., on a nearly every day basis (I broke 300 both years, but didn’t actually accomplish 365 postings.) Just like the year before, I took A TON more than 365 pictures, though a lot of them are alternates, getting the right lighting, things like that. Plus, when I finish stitching them together for my year end wrap videos, the way I did it will add quite a bit of “stop motion” style of effect to it.
The biggest thing that comes with doing SelfieADay is the question: “Why?” I’ve answered a ton of variants of that question.
There isn’t really an answer to that beyond “Because I can.” There’s a lot of reasons I kept doing it, along with the idea of accomplishing a goal:
- It showed where I was, on multiple levels
- It showed off some of the cool things I did or worked on
- It showed off my friends and family
- It showed off the cool things that other people did
- It gave other people a moment in my social media feed, to show the products or services they sell
Did I learn anything after two years of it? Well… maybe? I learned that I smile a lot more easily around one person in particular (Kelly). I learned that even outgoing kids can be camera shy. I learned that if I frame the question right, people are suddenly excited to be in a selfie with me. But, there’s no real major life lesson here, except possibly have fun with that camera that’s attached to your phone.
Gotta admit: I’m glad to be done with it for now. There’s still going to be plenty of selfies in 2018, and I won’t say that I’ll never do it again – I probably will. But for now, it’s a good time for it to take a rest.
Blog of the Week
What takes place of selfie a day? Two things – the first one is a blog a week project. Yep, I’m going to crank out a blog entry every week. In theory. We’ll see if it actually happens 🙂
Some of them, well, I’m gonna cheat – I’ll finish off some of the stuff that I wrote from 2017, and get them published on here. Some of them are just travel log stuff, but even those are interesting; one of them, for instance, is about the clothing optional hot springs we visited near Crestone, Colorado. Hot stuff. 😉
Does that mean I’m back to being a writer? Not really. I’ll do the blogging stuff, but it’s not quite time for me to get back to writing. Yes, I have an unpublished novel that needs rewrites, just sitting here waiting for me to do it. And, I’ve got multiple partial books just laying around, waiting for me to find the time. For now, though, they’ll just have to wait until I’m ready again.
Video of the Week
The other weekly activity (yes, replacing a daily thing with two weekly things) is going to be a video every week. It’s been about three years since I’ve done the video blog thing, and I’m bringing it back, but with a new format.
There’s a couple of reasons for doing this. It’s been a while since I’ve done the “on camera” thing (there’s like 200 hours of me in various areas of YouTube thanks to the old video blog and First Geek, along with the old stuff from the Gamer Zone era) so getting some practice again wouldn’t be bad. Video is a great way of showing off some of the projects I’m working on, particularly the video game stuff when I get back to it.
The third reason for it will sound pretty weird, though: my ASL isn’t good enough for my tastes. I dislike feeling incompetent at anything, and I’m having the hardest time getting comfortable with sign language. Kelly and I sign a little bit from time to time (sometimes as supplemental sign, but signing a word and speaking it at the same time, or finger spelling the first letter of the word when she’s having a hard time catching what I say.)
I know myself well enough that I’m going to have a hard time getting “over the hump” talking to someone else directly while signing, so I’ll use video instead – and, the world can correct my ASL grammar and words if they so desire. On top of that, given have absolute shit YouTube’s auto-generated subtitles can be at times, this is an opportunity to communicate (in theory) clearly to people who have hearing impairments, getting them excited about my projects (also in theory).
This one is gonna fall into the category of “grand experiment”, cause I have no damned idea what way it’s really gonna go.
Quick 2017 Recap
What happened in 2017? The quickest sum-up would be that I became happy. Probably happier than I’ve ever been.
There will be at least a couple of people who’ll go for the joke and say something like “Yeah, and we know what her name is… ;-)” . It’s not that. Well, it’s not JUST that – she is a factor, though probably in some ways you wouldn’t expect.
At the end of 2016, beginning of 2017 I was dealing with some stuff. So, part of this year was just recovering from that. Along the way, I opened up to Kelly, and started talking to her about it in depth. Writing was good therapy, but so was talking to someone. Even with what I wrote, there was plenty more that I didn’t want written down. That was even harder to deal with.
I found a partner – yeah, same person mentioned in the two previous paragraphs. That was a bit of a tale unto it’s self, but not one for here. But, the important part of mentioning her is that some of the stuff below simply wouldn’t have happened without her in my life – even before we started actually dating.
I’ve traveled a lot in my life – 30+ states, China, Japan (for a moment), Hong Kong overnight a couple times, and Canada. But, the number of times I traveled because I wanted to go somewhere (that didn’t involve family) without there being a paycheck involved can probably be counted on one hand. Now it takes two hands. Kansas City for a bed & breakfast and showing of 1984 (along with hitting the Library and the Pompeii exhibit at the museum downtown.) Colorado for camping (roughing it, not glamping) for a week. San Diego for 10 days (along with the drive there and back). Back to Colorado again. We logged thousands of miles together, and saw vast stretches of land (some of it desert, a new experience for me.)  I got to go swimming in the ocean for the first time. I got stoned on the side of a mountain surrounded by nature. I went to a clothing optional hot springs. I could give this big long list of stuff we did on those trips – I won’t, though, because there’s just too much stuff.
In 2016 I moved into a new place with a roommate. In April 2017, something weird happened: the apartment beside Kelly’s opened up. This marks the first time I’ve lived on my own for quite a while. But, I both do and don’t live alone: there’s two cats who go back and forth between the apartments, and Kelly and I sort of live together in a very weird way. I use her fridge, she uses my fridge, we can just walk into each other’s place pretty much any time. We both have keys to each other’s space. We’re always having to swap out dishes (because she has some of mine, or I have some of hers), and keep saying at some point we need a house.
Even though there’s a lot of shared stuff there, it feels good to have gotten my feet under me, paying for my own space, and having some time to re-adjust my brain to the idea of living with someone.
As for getting my feet under me, 2/3rds of 2017 was a rough year financially. Towards the end, I landed a perfect project – one that required me to dig into a lot of old knowledge like HPGL and plotters, while at the same time requiring me to attach modern skill sets to it. That caught up the bills, and payed for some computer upgrades, things like that. In February, the project ends, though, so that’s going to be a bit of a let down.
I slowed down. I don’t mean that in any sort of a bad way – quit spending all my time working. Instead, the evenings belong to me and Kelly (or friends) most nights. We watch some TV, eat supper, play games, play with kitties, and all sorts of things. Me slowing down has been a hell of a thing. 🙂
I have two cats that I share with Kelly. That’s also a bit of a long story, but the short version: they both took a liking to me (Deuces, the young one first, then Pixie who’s a lot more picky) and accepted me as part of the family. Since I moved next door, they’ve got somewhat free reign to go back and forth (Deuces has to be carried, but Pixie goes on her own.) They are now “our” cats (or, “our children” 😉 ) This is no small thing. The cats have been a large source of happy since I moved in.
And, I started making plans. Not “next week” or “next month” sort of plans, but much longer term thinking. While I do that for business, it’s been a while since I could do that in my personal life.
I started by saying it’s not “just her” that made me happy. But, you’ll notice that my partner ended up enabling a lot of it. One of those trips was basically done out of her pocket (though the return trip was partially out of mine, and having to borrow a few dollars to make the final leg.) . Conversely, one of the trips was basically all out of my pocket – while less expensive, there’s still a balance to it. If her or I come up with an idea, we kick it around and plot it out until we come up with something that sounds awesome – and we do it. Yeah, it’s not just her that made 2017 happy, but she did a lot – just by being herself – to make a lot of things happen. Moral of 2017? Have a damned good partner.
2018 Plans Already Start
Last year there were four road trips / vacations of various sizes. So far, it looks like Kelly and I will be doing around the same amount of traveling, or at least we’ve planned about the same number of trips (who knows, it’s possible we may add another road trip or two). The first one is coming up shortly; we’re flying to Vegas! This has always been on my list of things to do someday – go to Vegas. Generally, I find being out in nature more awesome than hanging around in a city, but I’ve always wanted to experience it. While we’re there, a friend of mine is comping us some tattoos.
Then there’s a trip to Utah planned to go camping near Fish Lake, so we can go experience the quaking pines (Pando). And there’s been discussions of other possible trips, though we haven’t set them in stone.
Then there’s the living situation: while the apartment is nice, we both would like to move into a house later in the year. Someplace with a bit more room, a decent kitchen (and deep freeze), and space for the kitties to roam back and forth between the rooms (no more having to wait until someone opens to the door to change apartments.) And get away from the neighbors who love to yell at the top of their lungs at each other at least once a week. Maybe some gardening and various other things we’ve got in mind will happen.
2017 was pretty damned good. I’m excited to see what 2018 brings.
