So, 2014 is over and I thought it would be good to revisit a post from the start of last year and see if things turned out how I planned. The categories and 2014 aims are pulled straight from my January 2014 post.
Work
2014’s aims
To keep gainful employment and not have to resort to selling my rear to Mexican sailors to pay the rent.
2014 reality
I’m still employed, it’s not been the most pleasant of years but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
2015 aims
To carry on doing what I’m doing and see where that goes.
Health
2014’s aims
To continue my 35 year long streak of being STI free.
2014 reality
No STIs for me! To be fair, that wasn’t the most ambitious of aims. I had two operations due to cycling accidents (neither my fault!) but other than that it’s been a pretty good year. I’ve increased my interest in cycling and am putting in some serious miles which is doing wonders for my health (until I get to a hill).
2015 aims
To just keep on the path that I’m on. It would be good to build on what I did in 2014 so I’ve set myself some cycling targets and signed up for a 100 mile ride in August. Despite mercilessly mocking Pete for it, I no longer drink alcohol. I only drank a handful of times last year and didn’t really enjoy it so it wasn’t a massive leap to go fully t-total. One of my former work colleagues delightfully likened me to a reformed whore following that decision.
Romance
2014’s aims
To be attending sex addiction therapy sessions with my nudist, Rachel Bilson lookalike wife. A more realistic aim may be to not get RSI, Judy Finnigan’s absence from TV will surely help achieve this goal.
2014 reality
Sadly no Rachel Bilson look-a-like but also no RSI. 2014 wasn’t a complete wash but not a million miles off.
2015 aims
Honestly, at this point I just don’t care.
Friends
2014’s aims
I am rubbish at keeping in touch with people, it’s always on my list of things to do but it never seems to make it all the way to the top. This year I’m going to try and make regular contact with people that I want to keep in touch with. If you receive an email in the next few days, I do care what’s going on in your life and want to try and make the effort to find out what that is. I also want to try and get down to London at some point and play a game of something with Richi P (@doctorloxley), we seem very similar in the way we approach things so it’d be interesting to see how far that extends.
2014 reality
I was rubbish in this area, not only did I not reconnect with people, I lost contact with a load too. With a lot of my friends being, at least in part, gamers, I think a lot of that is connected to my apathy for gaming.
2015 aims
To make more effort. I know I said that last year and it didn’t go well but this year will be different (probably not).
Gaming
2014’s aims
My main aim is to play all of the games that I have already bought and start making a bit of progress through my OG Games wish list. There’s currently a couple of grand’s worth of stuff on that list and some of them I really want to get my hands on (e.g. season 2 of Zombicide and Battle Lore 2nd edition). For the most part it will be more of the same though, no need to fix what isn’t broken.
2014 reality
So this really didn’t go to plan! At the point that I wrote last year’s post, I was already really struggling to stay interested but was very much in stubborn denial. I ended up walking away from gaming shortly after that post. The exception to this is that I started developing a gaming of my own called Liberal Crime.
2015 aims
In terms of playing, I really have no aim (or desire) to return to gaming in 2015. I do have the playtest pack for Liberal Crime ready to start alpha testing however I am somewhat conflicted about what to do with it. On the one hand, I have put a lot of hours into developing a game that I truly believe is as good as anything currently out there. On the other hand, to fully complete it I will have to get hands on and drop back into the gaming world to a certain extent. I do want to release a fully completed game and don’t want it to be half arsed but I don’t want to be involved to that depth. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be looking at the future of LC, I really don’t know what the conclusion of that will be. Weirdly, this is the first time in years that I’m not planning to make an appearance at Vapnartak.
Hobby
2014’s aims
I really want to get back to enjoying my hobby, I used to chomp at the bit waiting to get home to get started and that enthusiasm hasn’t been there in recent months. I’ve really enjoyed the 40k stuff that I’ve painted so far so am hoping the replacement army that is being sent to me reignites that passion for painting.
2014 reality
I tried a lot of stuff, had a bit of interest in Empire of the Dead stuff but ultimately walked away. I had planned on Pulp City being the last chance to reignite my passion but in true Kickstarter fashion, it’s still not been delivered. I had some slight urges to paint towards the end of the year, I think I still need a creative outlet but only time will tell if that ends up being painting or not. Last year a lot of my creative juices, and some blood, went into restoring an old Raleigh Burner (that an BMX bike to you youngsters).
2015 aims
Pulp City is due to start shipping soon so I’ll take a look at them, I also have some other stuff if I get any urges. I honestly don’t know if those urges will return. I’d really like to do more restorations or something of that type, especially if it’s mechanical (I’m kind of a sucker for all things Victorian or steampunk).
Soulstone Train
2014’s aims
So many plans are swimming round my head, some are already in the works and some may or may not happen. One thing that I’m really keen on doing is giving people a little peek behind the curtain of how our recordings happen. So little of the chaos makes in into the final episodes and it could be funny to let people see how much each turd gets polished before it is released. This may well utilise our old YouTube channel, I’m not quite sure yet. Another thing I’d really like to do is collaborate with some other podcast, there are a few out there with a similar mentality that could make for interesting listening. There are also other plans in motion that we’re not going to give too much away about including a special something for Vapnartak. I can reveal what our next episode is likely to cover as we have Memoir ’44 and Dust Tactics to review. I would suggest not even waiting for the episode, just order Memoir ’44 now, you’ll be glad you did.
2014 reality
Put simply, 2014 saw the death of SST. As I arranged everything, bought most of the games we reviewed, etc, my dislike of gaming had a catastrophic effect of SST. Episodes became sporadic to the point where there were months between episodes and the quality really dipped (I blame Bennett!). As much as I enjoyed the recording sessions, it’s hard to be involved when the subject matter doesn’t interest you.
2015 reality
We had intended to do a last episode to bring things to a close and air some things that have been bottled up for a while. The Podbean account came up for renewal mid-December and I chose not to pay for another year. As of today, the renewal period has expired and all content has been deleted. I may look at archiving episodes online at some point but I don’t see that being any time soon.
Conclusion
Well, as you can see, those plans went completely tits up. You have to play the hand you’re dealt and sometimes the cards aren’t what you’re expecting. Whatever path you decide to walk in the coming year, I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2015.
