My 2007 Review
And thus, another year ends and a new year begins. January, 2008. Geez, how time flies. Who'd have thought it, huh? :)
As is the custom for this first day of the year, one cannot help but muse and look back on the year that was.
I would have to say that, overall, it was not a very good year. For the most part, it wasn't great.
To begin with, my relationship with Stefanie fell apart, and the relationship was ended on my birthday weekend in July. I think that may have been the real low point of the year for me.
Money this past year wasn't so much tight as it was being spent on things that...well, maybe stuff that I didn't really need to get, especially the period after July 1st. Almost like I was trying to buy some happiness at that point. Which perhaps I was. Or maybe just distractions to keep my mind off things.
This was a year when I didn't go to movie theaters all that much to see films, preferring to wait for stuff on DVD. The real highlight this year, movie-wise, was The Golden Compass, based on the book by Philip Pullman. I also didn't go and see all that many concerts this year, for reasons that aren't too clear to me. I did go to the Ottawa Bluesfest, and saw some good acts, including Candye Kane (whose music I have liked for several years), I did go to see Jethro Tull at the National Arts Centre here in Ottawa, which was a marvellous show, but there weren't any other artists who came to town that I would pay to see. In my case, this year was one of listening to a lot of music CDs, buying up all the film noir DVDs that I discovered had been taken by my ex when she left, and picking up a few other CDs and DVDs as odds and ends. I still have to hope that Thea Gilmore plays Ottawa (or at least somewhere near enough to Ottawa) that I can get to the concert, and I wouldn't mind seeing a new Kate Bush album, and perhaps a tour that takes her here. Wishful thinking, I know. :)
The past year's worth of gaming, notably roleplaying was pretty good. I was able to limit myself to the number of game systems that I ran this year - Agone, Desolation, The Dying Earth, DragonQuest, The Edge of Midnight, Faery's Tale, and Hollow Earth Expedition - and the gaming was the better for it. With the new Unhallowed Metropolis on the horizon (my copy hasn't arrived yet), 2008 is looking to be a good year of gaming. Board gaming suffered somewhat this year, and I feel that I haven't got my money's worth yet from the Ticket to Ride expansions that I picked up, or from Power Grid and the two expansions for that I nabbed. The Friday night gaming group got in a ton of gaming, playing a good 40+ weeks of the year, not to mention the watching of several films noirs over the course of the last few months (given that The Edge of Midnight rpg is the noir genre, and they wanted to watch some of the genre movies to get a feel for the game), but the Sunday group, on the other hand, seems to be falling apart to some extent and I think may have only gotten in some 30 weeks of gaming at best. I ran several demos of rpgs this past year, most of them Hollow Earth Expedition, and suspect that I may have burned out on HEX to some extent. I plan, during the current year, to focus down on two or three rpgs at most, and am certainly looking forward to gaming a bit with Unhallowed Metropolis; both game groups seem gung-ho on the system.
My reading this year was actually quite good, as I managed to read a good number of books this year (almost a rate of 1 book per week), not including comics (which I started buying again this year), Locus magazine, and other stuff. I managed to read quite a few good new b0oks this year, well new for me at any rate, and some of the most enjoyable included The Family Trade and The Hidden Familyby Charles Stross, Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde, and several volumes of the S.P.Q.R. series by John Maddox Roberts. Re-read several books, none worth mentioning here, and enjoyed most of the non-fiction books I read on Egyptian myth and legend, dinosaur studies and fossils, Easter Island, Roman ruins, and several other topics that interested me this year.
One of the real highlights of the year was my trip to Paris, France. While the trip was business, I did manage with the help of several new French friends to do quite a bit of sightseeing and ate some *wonderful* French food. :)
I managed to pick up a few new friends, both in the real world and here in cyberspace, but as mentioned lost my fiancé. Just that kind of year.
When it comes to my health, well...I can't say that 2007 was all that good a year to me. Other than several injuries I sustained, I've had more basic illnesses this past year than I have in recent years. I had a pretty good first half of the year with the diabetes, but definitely lost my way after July 1st, and haven't really gotten back to a healthy lifestyle again. The diabetes setback resulted in my adding a new drug, Actos, to my regime to all intents and purposes. The dieting and the healthy lifestyle is something that begins today once more, although I know that I'm going to have to work at it. Oddly, my weight has only fluctuated all year by a couple of pounds, so this is a good thing.
So, that's the kind of year it's been for me.
I'm going to try to do better in 2008.
Anyway, time for supper.
As is the custom for this first day of the year, one cannot help but muse and look back on the year that was.
I would have to say that, overall, it was not a very good year. For the most part, it wasn't great.
To begin with, my relationship with Stefanie fell apart, and the relationship was ended on my birthday weekend in July. I think that may have been the real low point of the year for me.
Money this past year wasn't so much tight as it was being spent on things that...well, maybe stuff that I didn't really need to get, especially the period after July 1st. Almost like I was trying to buy some happiness at that point. Which perhaps I was. Or maybe just distractions to keep my mind off things.
This was a year when I didn't go to movie theaters all that much to see films, preferring to wait for stuff on DVD. The real highlight this year, movie-wise, was The Golden Compass, based on the book by Philip Pullman. I also didn't go and see all that many concerts this year, for reasons that aren't too clear to me. I did go to the Ottawa Bluesfest, and saw some good acts, including Candye Kane (whose music I have liked for several years), I did go to see Jethro Tull at the National Arts Centre here in Ottawa, which was a marvellous show, but there weren't any other artists who came to town that I would pay to see. In my case, this year was one of listening to a lot of music CDs, buying up all the film noir DVDs that I discovered had been taken by my ex when she left, and picking up a few other CDs and DVDs as odds and ends. I still have to hope that Thea Gilmore plays Ottawa (or at least somewhere near enough to Ottawa) that I can get to the concert, and I wouldn't mind seeing a new Kate Bush album, and perhaps a tour that takes her here. Wishful thinking, I know. :)
The past year's worth of gaming, notably roleplaying was pretty good. I was able to limit myself to the number of game systems that I ran this year - Agone, Desolation, The Dying Earth, DragonQuest, The Edge of Midnight, Faery's Tale, and Hollow Earth Expedition - and the gaming was the better for it. With the new Unhallowed Metropolis on the horizon (my copy hasn't arrived yet), 2008 is looking to be a good year of gaming. Board gaming suffered somewhat this year, and I feel that I haven't got my money's worth yet from the Ticket to Ride expansions that I picked up, or from Power Grid and the two expansions for that I nabbed. The Friday night gaming group got in a ton of gaming, playing a good 40+ weeks of the year, not to mention the watching of several films noirs over the course of the last few months (given that The Edge of Midnight rpg is the noir genre, and they wanted to watch some of the genre movies to get a feel for the game), but the Sunday group, on the other hand, seems to be falling apart to some extent and I think may have only gotten in some 30 weeks of gaming at best. I ran several demos of rpgs this past year, most of them Hollow Earth Expedition, and suspect that I may have burned out on HEX to some extent. I plan, during the current year, to focus down on two or three rpgs at most, and am certainly looking forward to gaming a bit with Unhallowed Metropolis; both game groups seem gung-ho on the system.
My reading this year was actually quite good, as I managed to read a good number of books this year (almost a rate of 1 book per week), not including comics (which I started buying again this year), Locus magazine, and other stuff. I managed to read quite a few good new b0oks this year, well new for me at any rate, and some of the most enjoyable included The Family Trade and The Hidden Familyby Charles Stross, Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde, and several volumes of the S.P.Q.R. series by John Maddox Roberts. Re-read several books, none worth mentioning here, and enjoyed most of the non-fiction books I read on Egyptian myth and legend, dinosaur studies and fossils, Easter Island, Roman ruins, and several other topics that interested me this year.
One of the real highlights of the year was my trip to Paris, France. While the trip was business, I did manage with the help of several new French friends to do quite a bit of sightseeing and ate some *wonderful* French food. :)
I managed to pick up a few new friends, both in the real world and here in cyberspace, but as mentioned lost my fiancé. Just that kind of year.
When it comes to my health, well...I can't say that 2007 was all that good a year to me. Other than several injuries I sustained, I've had more basic illnesses this past year than I have in recent years. I had a pretty good first half of the year with the diabetes, but definitely lost my way after July 1st, and haven't really gotten back to a healthy lifestyle again. The diabetes setback resulted in my adding a new drug, Actos, to my regime to all intents and purposes. The dieting and the healthy lifestyle is something that begins today once more, although I know that I'm going to have to work at it. Oddly, my weight has only fluctuated all year by a couple of pounds, so this is a good thing.
So, that's the kind of year it's been for me.
I'm going to try to do better in 2008.
Anyway, time for supper.