A bit late coming, but here is. Stuff that happened in 2014.
January started with excitement as I prepped for my move from California back to Louisiana. I would be taking over my brother's house for a few months until my sister could finish her doctorate and rent his house instead. I spent a couple weeks working directly with my boss Michael and my coworker Tyler, the sum total of the permanent Ciere Consulting staff, in person. We had a lot of business-type meetings to do before my departure across the country.
Leaving on the very last day of January, I began my 3-day trip across the southwest. The first day was spent entirely in California due to a late start finishing up packing. To make up time, I drove for 18 hours the next day, passing all the way through Arizona and New Mexico, before finally resting at a hotel in Texas.
Though, not before a border check for drugs that evening. Apparently they do border checks if you're near the border, not just when crossing the border. Anyway, the drug dogs smelled something so they had a closer check. Obviously, they didn't find anything illegal. I had almost everything I owned in the car, who knows what they were smelling.
During this time, there had been an unusual amount of snow and ice in Texas, and travel was discouraged. I didn't have much choice, however, so I proceeded on the next morning, in spite of a slight snowfall overnight. Heavy fog and almost nothing but 18-wheelers were on the interstate. Just after lunch, I came upon an overpass that had 18-wheelers parked on it. I realized that the interstate was a parking lot for as far as the eye could see. Apparently a section of the interstate had been shut down temporarily.
Not wanting to wait, I traveled down a side road and was almost to the point that I could turn back towards the interstate when I hit an unavoidable patch of ice on Highway 180 north of Sweetwater Texas and slid off the road. Suffering nothing more than a cracked side mirror, I had about a minute to try and get unstuck before a second car slid off in the same place and rammed me.
No-one was hurt. The snow and ice allowed both of us to slide. By sheer good luck, I had packed a series of metal shelves tightly into the trunk, wedged in at exactly the angle that I was hit. The trunk collapsed only a couple of inches and I suffered only about $300 in damages to my stuff, not counting my car, which was totaled.
Mom drove out that night to bring me home the next day. Funny story: I had packed my car so tightly that when unpacking it into the van, we ran out of space in the larger vehicle.
It was also fortunate that I had been recording the entire trip with a dash cam (the video still needs to be edited and posted) and I was able to prove that I was not moving when struck. I ended up getting a high settlement from the incident. I was still disappointed, however, since I liked my car and it was still going strong in spite of its age.
With my first adventure of the year finished, I embarked on a plan to do one of my resolutions for 2014 early: build a computer. Within three weeks of the car crash, I had assembled a beast of a machine. I eventually upgraded it further to have two SSDs and 10 fans (still quiet). I used it to play a bunch of games I had been wanting to for a while, including Skyrim, Dust: An Elysian Tail, and Anti-Chamber.
I was also building the computer with the intent that it would be capable of 60 fps 4K video. Perhaps not for 4K gaming, but at least 4K web development and video watching. That led me to research 4K monitors and TVs extensively. I ended up watching 4K news literally every day in 2014, if memory serves. I've watched the technology develop and reach acceptance. I haven't bought my 4K screen yet, but I know when I will: Q2 2015. At that point, the perfect storm of price, features, and cables capable of the needed bandwidth will become available.
With the move into my brother's house, I had far more space than I had ever had before. Naturally, I used the extra space to work on getting rid of possessions, beginning a massive purge of stuff I knew I wouldn't use anymore; things previously stuffed in my closet as I traveled across the country multiple times in the past nine years. It took the rest of the year for the first round, but I managed to jettison about 1/5th of my possessions.
This continued my efforts from previous years:
Scanning, then shredding almost all of my official documents
Committing to only purchase digital books from now on
I also spent time with many new members of the University Church of Christ. Most of my high school friends had grown up and moved away, so I joined in with the Young Professionals group, a small, but close group mostly made up of those serving in the military at Barksdale Airforce Base.
Without a car, I had to borrow my father's Mustang for a few months (sad violin music). I began the unenviable task of car shopping, learning how car salespeople work and actual values of vehicles.
In late April or early May, we found out one of my grandmothers, Edna House, had developed lung cancer. She was getting very weak during this time, but she held off treatment so she could see my sister graduate with her doctorate on May 15th. We enjoyed that time together, before she began her treatment. Fortunately, by the end of 2014, she's almost fully recovered, cancer long gone and rebuilding her strength!
Also during April and May, I took two weekend trips to Austin to look for apartments. The first trip I rented a 2014 Camry to make sure it was the car I wanted in a realistic driving setting. (It was.) On my second trip, I finally managed to find a small enough apartment in a good location. It was one of the smallest apartments I could find in Austin, yet it was 20% bigger than my apartment in Sacramento. I wouldn't be able to move in until June, however.
With an apartment ready and waiting, I had to pack things up again. This was a hectic time. My sister had moved into the house with all her stuff plus mine. She too was working on the get-rid-of-unused-stuff project, so there was not much space available between us. One moment I enjoyed was convincing her to play the Legend of Zelda Wind Waker. I wish I had recorded it. She is very entertaining to watch play a video game. Meanwhile, I also had to buy a car before I moved. This resulted in my purchasing a car in Dallas on one weekend and then immediately moving to Austin the next weekend. It was nuts!
I began my search for a new church home here in Austin. I visited 6 or 7 churches before finally choosing the relatively large Westover Church of Christ. I picked it because it was large. Though I'm not particularly comfortable with large churches, I felt that doing so would force me to be more sociable than I normally would be. So far, that's been true.
With my stuff still yet to be unpacked, I traveled to Everfree NW, the Seattle Brony Convention for my third year. I cosplayed as Dr. Caballeron, a very minor character that was relatively easy to do. Though I nailed the details, very few people recognized the character, much to my disappointment. On a positive note, the voice actor for my character was one of the special guests at the convention. He was far more famous for his voice work for another character: Bulk Biceps. I ended up being the only person to get him to sign artwork associated with his other character. The trip was great and I enjoyed spending time there, visiting with my Seattle friends at 4th of July parties and church.
Another notable feature of the character I cosplayed was that he wore a scruffy beard. I grew mine out to match, and friends and family liked the look so much, I decided to keep it. I still wear a short beard today.
My former coworker at KlickNation, Nathanael Ness, had moved to Austin a year before me. We got back together and began work on our own game (very slowly). We both had other issues come up and didn't get very far working on it in 2014, but it's a start. In September, Nathanael, his wife, my family, and I all went to an LSU game together. Much fun was had.
Also in September, I drove back to Louisiana to visit family and attend my cousin Michael's wedding in Arkansas. Once we arrived, an hour before the ceremony, I was informed, to my surprise, that I would be part of it. Fortunately, it was just reading a Bible verse. I was happy to be of use to them during their special day.
In September, Ciere Consulting needed me on-hand in California. As soon as I arrived, we all attended two conferences back to back in a 4 day marathon of learning. Michael taught one of the conferences. After that, it was serious discussions on the next major aspect of our software, which was Shipping. The Shipping feature is more or less done as of last week, just to give you an idea how long it takes to go from drawing board to finished product.
As soon as I got back from THAT trip, Nathanael and I headed for Dallas (during the height of the Ebola outbreak there) for the very important task of attending another brony con: Nightmare Nights. It was Nathanael's first brony convention and we both had a lot of fun at the slightly smaller venue. Smash Bros. 3DS had just released, so we spent a lot of time competing at that, attending panels, and pleasantly playing a particular pony playing card game. I didn't cosplay for this one, but I did check out the talented works of others. The winner of the show was a girl who dressed as Nightmare Moon featuring mechanical, POWERED wings. I spent over an hour discussing with her and her father (the suit's creator) on technicalities of complex suit making. There's a pipe-dream costume I'd like to make one day due to it's difficulty of doing well. I learned a lot of things there that would help make that dream a reality.
During 2014, I had been trying to get myself in better shape for my eventual goal of being able to do parkour and other feats of practical strength. My apartment complex has a full-size gym and free strength training classes. I attended those twice a week for a while until one day I noticed a bruise on my foot, even though I hadn't injured it. After going to a podiatrist and finding nothing, I went to a vein specialist, who determined that the veins in my legs were operating well below normal levels. Blood had been leaking back down and pooling in my feet, tiring them prematurely. I would later schedule surgery to fix the worse leg (left) in January 2015.
Thanksgiving was spent in Louisiana with family. I still had to work remotely, so there was not much time for other things besides family events and work. Still, we managed to find time to play the newly released Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
Before traveling back to Louisiana again in December for Christmas celebrations, I was invited to a Tacky Christmas Hat party with the Young Professionals group at Westover. As soon as I heard about the contest, the following idea emerged fully formed in my mind.
I made it happen. What a fun build! One of these days I'll make a video explaining how it was made. Christmas itself with family was wonderful, though busy. Just like with Thanksgiving, I only had a couple days off, so time not spent with family was completely consumed with work. Like two years ago, I managed to get a cold and infection that hit right on Christmas Eve. That part wasn't fun.
I ended up working from my parent's house until the beginning of 2015 so I would get a chance to visit with my brother Reuben and his wife Elizabeth. They had spent Christmas day proper with her family so I had to wait around to see them. Thanks a lot, Bro!
Just kidding! You know I love you, Brody.
But how well did I do with my 2014 New Year's Resolutions? Let's have a look.
Build a Computer - ✓ Yep! February 2014
Move to Texas - ✓ Yep! June 2014
Unify Digital Life - (´ー`) Some, but not done.
H̶͈͌i̶͂ͅd̷̦͌e̸͇̅ ̸̓͜f̸̤̂ŗ̸͝o̸̘͛m̴͜͝ ̸̗̅ṫ̸͙h̶̘͌e̷̠̐ ̴̹̅N̵̛͜S̴̲͝A̵̺̅ - REDACTED
Beat at Least 5 Video Games - ಠ_ಠ Nope!
That last one deserves some explanation.
In 2014, I started and beat:
My Little Investigations (Episode 1)
I also started, but didn't finish:
Advance Wars - 30% complete
Skyrim - maybe 10% complete
Mario Kart 8 - a few friendly rounds
Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Wii U - a few friendly rounds
Super Mario 3D World - all the way to the last world
Even when my New Year's Resolution was to play more games, I still didn't manage my goals. What is wrong with me?!
Stay tuned to the next post for my plans for 2015.
2087
prguitarman
amandla
gummygunk
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner