A Look Back At…

Given the fact that this will most likely be my last post before the end of 2018, I wanted to do something that totally wasn’t inspired by the weird little “Your Year in Review” video thing that has been going around for like the past week or so on Facebook.  At the beginning of this year I published a post entitled “An Agenda” and kind of gave a vague breakdown of what I wanted to do this year.  I am going to use this post to give an update on some of the stuff I talked about in that post and a few other things that I have managed to accomplish this year.

Where do I start?  Well, let’s start with the big thing and something that has happened in the past two months.  I have mentioned in numerous posts prior to this one that I have always wanted to go to college.  I think in one post last year I may have even outlined my current plans for college at that time.  Since then those plans have changed.  “How much?”, you may wonder.  I was originally wanting to go into a Communications major but now I have changed that to Business Administration.  The other school I was looking at going to did offer a degree program in business administration, but I did a bit more searching and found one that had cheaper tuition rates.  This was a plus because it also put into consideration the fact I could start now.  After that, I began the process of applying and after doing that and waiting…and waiting…and waiting, then after calling to check on my application I found out that I was accepted.  So yes, I am going to finally accomplish one thing I have been dreaming of doing since half way through high school and will be going to college.  Where at?  Well, it is going to be through eVersity which is part of the University of Arkansas system and also part of it is through the University of Arkansas-Monticello.  I’ll be starting the first full week of January and I am ready to begin that journey.  As I mentioned above, I’ve been wanting to do this since high school and there have been times where I have thought it wouldn’t be possible for me to go.  I’m equal parts excited and nervous as one would expect, but I think the closer I get towards the start date the more the needle leans towards the excited side.  If you were using some sort of measuring device that has a needle and two equally divided sides to it that is…  I also haven’t entirely given up on the idea of doing something history/museum related.  It has been relegated to the back burner/possible dream pile, but not completely forgotten.

That does bring me to another point I wanted to touch on quickly.  The activity on here.  Not that there is much, and I know I have said this a lot before but with me starting classes next month I honestly have no idea how busy I’ll be.  I’m sure I will find some time to make a post about some cool game or happening or something similar off and on but as of right now I have no idea how often that will be.

So that was the big thing that I had wanted to do this year and actually managed to accomplish that goal.  Something else that I had mentioned in the previously linked post was the fact I wanted to see about getting into HEMA or something similar to that this year.  Add another checkmark to that list.  Thanks to me checking out my local SCA group I have managed to pick up a few things on rapier combat in the past few months.  I know I have talked about it in previous posts but it is still a bunch of fun to do.  I find learning about the techniques used really interesting even if some seem rather difficult at first.  While I haven’t participated in any tournaments this year, I do hope to hit some next year however, I have managed to help my local group with a couple of demos they had in September which was a cool experience.  Especially given the fact that the one demo was at this years Renaissance Faire in my area and at last years Faire is how I first found out about my local group; so of course it felt really cool to be helping out at that where it kind of all started for me.

Continuing on the topic of the local SCA group, I can see myself getting more involved in it in the future.  I have already inquired with a few people on something they would like to do, but I have not yet really dived into that.  The main reason being what I mentioned earlier, college.  I know, I know, I can’t let that be the only thing I do but I also don’t want to say “Yeah, sure, I can start writing a simple newsletter for you.” and then get busy and not have the time to do it continuously.  I don’t like committing to something, even for a short time, and then not being able to continue it after so long.  That all said, I’m not completely throwing out the idea either, once I have a better idea of how my schedule will play out I might start seriously considering it again.

Moving on, and while it wasn’t something I had set out to do this year, one thing I did manage to snag halfway through the year was a fancy new guitar.  Now, I’ve had my original guitar for ten years and while I do know how to play a bit it really isn’t all that much and I’m not too good at it because my practice regiment isn’t consistent either.  However, I had gotten back into playing it a little more earlier this year.  That said, buying a second guitar was not something I was imagining on doing this year…but I totally did after I did some extensive looking (read: drooling) into one.  I broke down and bought the J5 Telecaster and man I am so glad I did that.  It’s an awesome guitar and I love the way it plays and sounds.  I have also noticed a direct correlation to getting that guitar and the increase in my practicing since then.

The next thing that happened this year is both bittersweet to some extent, and yet I’m glad it did happen.  It follows along the lines of that totally-not overused phrase of “one door closes, another one opens” or whatever the actual saying is.  Some time near the beginning of the year I was informed by my friend FranticJ3 that he was pondering the idea of shutting down Frantic Talks due to personal reasons.  I told him that in the end, it was ultimately up to him and that I would support any decision he made.  Roughly around March I think, the weekly articles started to wind down and when he was here visiting towards the end of the month we recorded the last episode of the Frantic Talks podcast.  Considering it has never been published, I’m pretty sure it is safe to say it will now be known as the Lost Episode.  I have to admit that I did enjoy writing the columns and doing the podcasts for the site and was a little saddened when I found out the Frantic Talks era was coming to an end.  Fast forward a few months later and I get a message from someone in the one Destiny clan that I was just lurking on their Discord server asking if I wanted to do a quick interview as I was going to be their featured member for that month.  It was mentioned in the interview that the clan was looking for some people to do some writing for them…oh, is that so?  My interest was piqued so I inquired to the appropriate people as to what they were looking for exactly, to which I was essentially given an answer of “whatever you want to do”.  Well ok then, I’m terrible at making decisions.  That being said, I now currently help out with the monthly Member Spotlight for Dead Man’s Hand as well as co-host on their podcast they do twice a month.

If I remember correctly, some time last year I got on the board and tabletop gaming bandwagon and stated that I wanted to start playing more of them and see about starting to build my collection of said games.  This past year I have actually managed to do that.  Back in April I went to a local gaming convention and played a bunch of new board, tabletop, and even a couple of miniature based games and it was a lot of fun getting to try out some different games that I never have played before.  Plus it gave me some ideas for games to add to my collection I was wanting to start growing.  Over that time I have successfully added Catan, Mysterium, a card variant of Pandemic, and Mechs vs. Minions (which is a miniature game set in the League of Legends universe).  All of which I highly recommend because they are a ton of fun in their own ways.  As always I encourage you to give a new game a try, it could become your new favorite.  I know that Town of Salem / Mafia / Werewolf / That Game That Has Many Names has easily become one of my favorites for large groups after only playing it twice; plus it is super easy to learn and requires next to nothing to actually play.

Those were honestly the real big things that I accomplished either on purpose, or took the opportunity when it was presented to me this year.  Some of them may not seem like much to many people but sometimes the small things can mean a lot.  The only thing I didn’t manage to figure out this year, and I must admit that is does disappoint me a little, was something on a bit of a personal level.  I’m not even sure how much I want to divulge into it because this still is the internet and I still have hesitations on how much to actually share regarding my personal life.  Without going into every small detail, I will say this about it.  Like many people, I have a friend I have known for a long time (like since high school long).  While I do not know everything about this aforementioned friend, I do know that we share quite a few common interests.  I have talked often with this friend over the years I have known them.  I have also made vague references to her in past posts on here.  For those of you still paying attention to this, you most likely know the general direction in which this is heading.  Over those years of talking and getting to know her, I started to develop those things that people sometimes have for other people called feelings.  Near the end of last year/beginning of this year, I wanted to see about asking her out…well combine my lack of self-confidence at the time along with the typical shyness that happens when a guy wants to ask a girl out and the end result was that I never really asked.  I’m still unsure as to whether or not I should count the one time I asked if she wanted to hang out for a day and was greeted with an “I’d say yes, but I’m going to be out of town that day.”  Right now, even as I type this I still have those feelings but given the fact that things have changed for both of us in the past few months…I have no idea what will actually happen.  I also have no idea if she even knows any of what I have just typed out, but let’s say that subtlety is not something I am very good at most times.

Ok, I do believe that wraps up this weird post that was centered around the idea of “I want to post something but I am not entirely sure what to post about so here’s this.”  I hope everyone that reads this has a happy and safe Holiday season and go do whatever inspirational saying will be popular in about two weeks for the start of the new year.