The holidays are rarely a relaxing time for me.  There’s just so much to do and whatever time “off” I have is actually planned weeks in advance.  This year was going to be different.  Work had delivered a major milestone and after 18 months without any time off, I decided to take 3 weeks and do the stuff that mattered.

I ended up spending last week in Cuba with my family.  Great decision overall.  Read 4 books (including the entire Broken Earth series), slept in every day, lounged by the pool/beach…didn’t plan a thing.   I’ve gone to a few places down south but never over the holidays.  Much different crowd.  First, no 20 year olds on party mode.  Second, since it’s Cuba, no Americans.  An interesting thing that I didn’t really catch on to until later in the trip.  It helped that it was ~30 below (where C and F meet) that week as well.

The rest of the time has been spent just having fun with the family.  The ice rink in the yard is top notch.  Lots of games and crafts around.  A whole lot of cleaning and tidying around the place.  Went to see Star Wars (better than I had expected in that it willingly throws away the traditional SW tropes).  One hockey tourney to go and then it’s back to work.  Finally refreshed.

2017

Overall it’s been a really good year.  Family is super.  I’m in some of the best health.  Finances are good.  The job has had more progress in 1 year than should be possible in 3.

Gaming has also been kind.

• Horizon is my current game of the year.
• WarFrame is a platinum best seller on Steam and worth 5x what Destiny brings.
• XCOM 2 launched a DLC that is more than most expansions ever deliver
• Mass Effect showed great potential (and EA timelines failed to deliver)
• Dishonored 2 showed what a story driven sandbox can do.
• Shadow of War delivered a better nemesis system, but a broken end game
• Path of Exile launched two expansions this year.
• Quite a few more games that I need to eventually pick up
  • Cuphead
  • Wolfenstein 2
  • Divinity 2
  • A Nintendo Switch!
  • Nier
  • HellBlade

Aside from the slow down this holiday season, it’s been my most active posting in a long while.  There are many fewer bloggers nowdays.  Most folks have left and vbloggers have taken space instead.   It’s still quite immature, as clickbait runs the money in the first few years.  It takes a long time for quality to start showing up (as it did with blogging and online news), so my guess is we’re 2 years away from that.

2018

I rarely have any resolutions for a new year, not like there’s a difference between Dec 31 and Jan 1 in terms of goals.  Change is a gradual thing, though there are always goals that can be achieved.

Work should provide a new opportunity in the next few weeks, one that’s about 10 years earlier than I had planned a long while back.  My team has recently completed year 1 of a 3 year plan, and there’s a lot of excitement for what’s coming

I’ll keep playing hockey and working out.  I’d like to get to a baseline 200lbs bench this year and push from there.  There’s surprisingly little weight gained over the holidays and vacation considering my indulgences.  Back to my regular habits now.

The family will be heading to Florida in March, then open the cottage a few weeks later.  I think we’ll be focusing on saving money from that time forward as there’s a few long term plans that need some funding.  Still 2 months of hockey to go with the eldest, and likely some dance classes for the younger.  Both squirts are doing great in school, have a insatiable curiosity, and a solid level of autonomy.   All told the focus this year, as with last, is ensuring that I simply have more time for the family.

Of all the potential games in 2018, I’m only looking forward to Pillars of Eternity 2 and Ni No Kuni 2.  Darksiders 3, God of War and Kingdom Hearts are a maybe.  Anthem I am looking forward to seeing play out.  I won’t be buying it, but if it does launch this year (I doubt) it will be the real bellweather for how MTX work in games moving on.  I think we were spoiled rotten in 2017.

As for the blog, I’d like to have more cross posts with other awesome blogs that I read.  That means more work on Feedly, at least 3 posts a week, and maybe some more videos.  I won’t lie – blogging on a regular basis is hard work.  I am somewhat envious of both Syp and Wilhelm.

And with that, time to sign off and enjoy the rest of my vacation.