Looking back at 2014

Now that 2014 is pretty much in the books, it’s time for the annual year-in-review thingee.

1. What did you do in 2014 that you‘d never done before?

Joined the Society of American Baseball Research. Toured an abandoned ballpark. Toured a brand new stadium. Went to a rose show. Visited Mt. Tamalpais. Experienced an earthquake. Had a photo published in a major magazine. Produced a promotional video with a real crew and not just me doing everything. Had an MRI. Created an entire brand platform from scratch. Been the parent of a middle schooler. Won my fantasy baseball league. Took a cross-country red eye flight. Got caught in a race riot. And probably another hundred little things that I can’t think of right now.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn’t make any resolutions for 2014, so INVALID CHECKSUM.

I’m not really much for making new year’s resolutions, but I guess there are at least three easy no-brainers I can put out there:

• Blog more. Duh. Shouldn’t be hard to do giving the extremely low bar I set this year.
• Lose weight. Duh. Isn’t this on everyone’s list?
• Continue bugging Anderson Cooper until he agrees to get matching tattoos of Wolf Blitzer with me.¹Duh.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No one in the family. Some friends did though, and I congratulate them heartily. I also laugh at them as I get eight hours of interrupted sleep every night.²Older kids are great.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Fortunately, no. We did seem to lose a lot of people at work this year, but no one that I knew personally.

5. What countries did you visit?

Uh, none other than our own I guess. I did spend a considerable amount of time back in Texas, which television advertisements tell me is like a whole other country.

6. What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014?

Infinite cash flow. A little more free time during the work week would be nice too.

7. What dates from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

No one day really stood out in particular. People got really geeked out over 12/13/14, but I’m more of a palindrome guy so 4/1/14 was a bigger deal for me personally.³I, man, am regal. A German am I.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

2014 was the year I finally went electronic with my calendar and contacts. I had been meaning to make the transition for years, but the paper copies always managed to hang around somehow. Now it’s all zeroes and ones stored in the cloud so Kim Jong-Un can wipe it all out whenever he wants to.

Also, I totally rebuilt my employer’s website in a system I had zero prior experience with and with no support staff whatsoever. That was pretty neat.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I failed yet again to get Anderson Cooper on board with the tattoo idea.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I discovered that I am now mostly deaf in my right ear and will probably have to get a hearing aid in the next few years. Otherwise, I’m as fine as I ever was.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

New shoes for work. I didn’t realize how much my feet hurt every day until I finally bought some new work shoes. It’s like night and day. And I got a crazy long shoehorn with which to put on my new shoes. Who knew getting old could be so exciting?

Also, my SABR membership has provided me with benefits far beyond its modest cost. I’ve been able to connect with a great group of local baseball enthusiasts and satiate my need to get all nerdy about the glorious game without dragging my family to ballparks against their will. Mostly.

12. Where did most of your money go?

To my landlord, various airlines, and the Walt Disney empire.

13. What did you get really excited about?

Visiting family this past summer and over the holidays. We also took a trip to Washington DC with the kids that went really well. And The Wife and I had a very nice weekend in Tahoe. I like going places and seeing things.

14. What song will always remind you of 2014?

In a year full of terrible pop music, John Legend’s “All of Me” takes the cake as the one I’ll remember as the worst. God, I hate that song. It’s banned in the car when I’m driving.

And that “Why you gotta be so rude?” song. I really hate that one too. I totally understand why he wouldn’t want that guy to marry his daughter.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

• Happier or sadder? Happier. As one of my high school history teachers used to say, every day is like Christmas and every night is the Fourth of July.
• Thinner or fatter? About the same.
• Richer or poorer? Richer. At least until the holiday credit card bills hit.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

• Exploring. We got out and about and saw a lot of really cool things around Northern California this year, but I’m always wanting to go see more.
• Reading. I started off the year really well, then lost steam somewhere during the summer. I find reading to be relaxing and rejuvenating. It just fell off the radar when work spiraled out of control in the fall.
• Working out. Same as above, except with an exercise bike instead of a book.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

• Waiting in line/at the bus stop. There are many great things about city life. Having so many other people around trying to use the same services as you is not always one of them.
• Waking up right before the alarm clock goes off. There are few things more aggravating than this. You only lose like five minutes of sleep, but it feels like you’ve been cheated out of hours. You might as well as not even gone to bed at all. And it happens every damn morning.

18. How did you spend Christmas?

This year, we went to Walt Disney World for Christmas (as well as for The Girl’s seventh birthday). Memories were made. Dollars were spent. I might blog about it at some point.

19. What was your favorite TV program?

TV and I are kind of in a weird relationship right now. I know I watch things on TV, and I watch a lot of it, but I’m not really attached to any particular programs. If we’re going to gauge this by quantity, I think The Simpsons won pretty easily. I recorded most of the FXX marathon and have been watching it faithfully 5 nights a week ever since.

Other than that, the only things I’ve regularly watched have been the local news,⁴Hello, Hot TV Weather Lady!, Jeopardy!, and Doctor Who. And I guess The Wife has sucked me into watching Hawaii Five-0,⁵(Marginally) fun fact: The original series used the letter O in its title and the reboot uses a zero. I don’t know why, but it means something. and NCIS, although I’ll never admit to watching either of those shows if you and I should ever meet on the street.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?

I ‘m currently two-thirds of the way through the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which of course is excellent. I also discovered Brian Freemantle and his Charlie Muffin spy novels,⁶Yes, the name is dumb. of which I quickly devoured and enjoyed the Red Star trilogy. Christopher Bennett’s The Buried Age was also pretty high on my list this year.

I did very little non-fiction reading this year, which is astonishing because I rarely read anything but non-fiction. Bill Bryson’s One Summer: America, 1927 was simply outstanding from beginning to end. Other than that, nothing really grabbed me. I’ve got a lot on the shelf for 2015 that looks promising though.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

Nothing. All this noise you kids listen to these days is crap.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?

As usual, I haven’t actually seen many films that came out this year. Of what I did see, I liked Guardians of the Galaxy, The LEGO Movie, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Over the holidays, I saw The Imitation Game and absolutely loved it. I guess that’s my pick for the best movie I saw in 2014.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 36 and was diagnosed with tinnitus and irreversible hearing loss by an audiologist. Later that day, I went to work. I think we ordered Chinese food too.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

I’m not really sure. I’m pretty happy with how the year turned out personally. In a global sense though, it was a big mess. World peace, maybe?

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2014?

Permanent press.

26. What kept you sane?

This question assumes that I retained my sanity. I’m not sure anyone who lives in San Francisco is truly sane.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014.

Never get paté on a sandwich. Seriously.⁷I did not order paté on my sandwich—it was put there as a terrible, terrible surprise.

• 1
  Duh.
• 2
  Older kids are great.
• 3
  I, man, am regal. A German am I.
• 4
  Hello, Hot TV Weather Lady!,
• 5
  (Marginally) fun fact: The original series used the letter O in its title and the reboot uses a zero. I don’t know why, but it means something.
• 6
  Yes, the name is dumb.
• 7
  I did not order paté on my sandwich—it was put there as a terrible, terrible surprise.