As per usual, November flew out from under my feet. While I'd like to be the Debbie-Downer and say that I was no closer to winning NaNo than I have been in previous years, that's actually quite a lie. Despite major setbacks, I managed to wrangle 20,000 words together in the end. 30K shy of my goal, yes, but far, far better than I've done since my first mangled attempt at NaNoWriMo wordsmithing.
December has not been idle, either. Despite the serious lack of writing, I have been nothing if not productive. November and December saw a whirlwind of events, including the first time I totaled my car, the introduction of new acquaintances, and of course, a slew of new recipes:
As with every Christmas, I've been baking up a storm. This year's fare was chocolate brownies with a white chocolate ganache and a peppermint finish. Easy and good fun to make, I crushed the mints with a hammer on a cutting board.
It is surprisingly loud. I'm pretty sure my upstairs neighbor hated me. Well, that's what you get for snoring so loudly that I can hear you through my ceiling at 2 AM.
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| Gone in 60 minutes or your money back. |
Aside from the usual culinary mess, I also decided to try my hand again at clay work:
For the uninitiated (to like... the Internet), that is a Companion Cube from the game, Portal. This one won't help you solve puzzles or weigh down tricky switches, but it will make for a nice tree ornament:
What's that you see inside? A dead Aperture Laboratories test subject, you say? No, just something delicious and moist:
My friend, KK, or as my coworkers know him, "Princeton", used to receive Christmas ornaments that opened up to a scene inside. I decided to try my hand at something similar, using balsa wood, polymer clay, and a few other items here and there as necessary. I will probably post a tutorial at some point, but for now, enjoy the mystery.
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| Read in GLaDOS' voice: "Aperture Labs wishing you a Happy Nondenominational Holiday" |
So, 2013 came and went like a storm. Highlights of the year: I...
- Survived my second year as a real-person-engineer
- Lived to see a quarter of a century
- Suffered through two months of straight writing (BEDIS and NaNoWriMo, respectively)
- Had my first major vehicular accident and had to deal with the consequences of that (Hit a deer - the details to come, eventually... probably)
And most shockingly...
- WENT HOME WITH RED HAIR AND DIDN'T GET YELLED AT BY MY PARENTS. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!!!!!!!!!!!
- Blogging twice monthly: Mmm. It was moderately successful. I didn't really start blogging again until March, where I was pretty good about posting at least once. Then again, I posted for 29 days straight in September, so that should count for something.
- Learn a new skill: I can actually kind of juggle now! Not very well, but well enough that I get a wow from folks for a few seconds. Aside from that, though, I think I learned something more important - how to handle catastrophe.
- Start a health regimen: This one was a little less than successful. I saw a personal trainer for a few months and was doing pretty well. But as October hit, it really slid downhill.
- Read more: Hah. Hah. Hah.
The latter half of the year saw a lot of drastic changes in my life. SJH recently remarked that I'd become more proactive about making myself happier, or at least, not letting myself just be miserable all the time. My parents mentioned to my sister that they found that I'd matured some this year, which I think is remarkable (and also wrong, but I won't tell them that.) Who knows. I certainly don't feel any different, but people rarely do.
Sometimes life gives you lemons. And sometimes your parents are too lazy to set up the Christmas tree, so you wrap lights and ball ornaments around your dad's papaya tree instead.
Happy Holidays, and Best Wishes for the New Year. Here's to 2014, folks. And as always, thanks for reading along.
Until the next.
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