I was originally going to title this post “breaking radio silence”, but after a bit, “Saying Goodbye” made a bit more sense. Fin and I have been really quiet on here - because we’ve undertaken one of the largest projects of our married lives - Getting the F*#@ out of suburbia. While the move was going on, we decided to not post or discuss it in public, and there’s been very little else going on for the past year. It’s been years in the making, but we finally moved. We’re now living on the outskirts of a smaller town, just close enough to our old city for me to commute.
This post is coming a lot later than my usual list of ‘goals’ for the year. Mostly, because I’ve been giving my life and this blog a lot of thought. That said, it’s past time to get something going on 2018 plans.
1. Complete 2 graduate courses with B or better.
The masters program I’m working on requires completion of 2 courses with a B or better before one is fully admitted. If nothing else, completing a couple courses will help me get some confidence back in my abilities. Especially after seeing the new batches of interns starting that all make me feel old and out-of-date.
For years, I’ve followed the same formula of reviewing my past years goals and writing new ones. This year, I figured I’d move to a slightly different format and reflect on the past year as a whole instead of just reviewing goal failure.
2016 hit both Fin and me hard - not really much to say about ending that year except we both have been dealing with some serious depression. The holidays and new years were just not the same. We struggled to find a new normal.
Both 2016 and 2017 have represented a change in season for my life. Likely, the 2017 Halloween season was my last as a full-season haunted house actor - at least for a while. As I move on to yet another new chapter, I’m amazed at how much the haunt taught me as a person.
In no particular order, I present the 10 life lessons I learned from working in a haunted house over many Halloween seasons. Hopefully, they’ll provide some amusement and a glimpse behind the scenes others might like.
It’s that time again. Time to set some resolutions / goals. I’m averaging a roughly 25% success rate with these. Note, I’m saying Goals now. New year, new way of doing shit (from Fin).
1. Finish paying off my student loans.
It’s far past time for this one. I’ve been mostly ignoring this because it’s a small amount over a large period with low interest rates. Still, it’ll help get the ball rolling and simplify things.
I’m keeping this tradition alive, but my feelings toward this year are best summarized by a picture:
SCH. Haven Fire Dept Dumpster Fire
Fin and I have been through some rough years. This past year, though, felt like an extra special kick in the face. That said, how’d my year end goals go?
Over the past few years, I’ve made some variant of the “get back into shape” New Year’s Resolution multiple times. Talk to any regular at the Gym, and they’ll tell you all about the January - February rush before things return back to normal.
The past couple years, I’ve struggled with increased mobility issues. So much so, that I spent some time with a Doctor and Physical Therapist for my knees. The general consensus is some form of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. After 6 months of physical therapy, I felt a marginal improvement. This year, I decided I was tired of pain and would attempt to tackle my knees, as well as improve my health.
I’ve recently tried to step back from FB and Twitter and ‘social media’ in general, and return back to the blog-o-sphere. I’ve had some form of blog or another since 2000 - lately, it seems that the majority of blogger folk have jumped ship to FB and friends - or just quit altogether. I’d estimate fewer than 1:10 blogs I used to read are active. Many, like this one, go for great periods of time with no updates, then a series of updates, and then back to quiet.
A+ producing here. The individual components / performance are good to mediocre, but the combination of mixing, editing, and (shock to here me say it) tasteful digital enhancements combine to a very powerful studio effect.
Side note: anyone else thought about the resurgence of musical videos on the internet? I’m glad youtube and vimeo are around.
