Favorite musical discovery: Postmodern Jukebox
I know that we as people like to encapsulate chunks of time into nice round denominations, like years, but I have to say that with each passing year, I feel like time just seems to fly by, and it’s harder to encapsulate everything as easily as it once may have seemed. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m not really going to try.
Perhaps the difficulty is in the fact that at least in my case, 2013 was a pretty ordinary year. By no means does that automatically imply that 2013 was a bad year by any stretch of the imagination, it just wasn’t one that particularly stands out in my opinion. Otherwise, I think I’d be in the situation of where I couldn’t wait to reflect on the year as a whole, so it would be a convenient excuse for me to get to relive and revisit thing(s) that were exceptionally good.
It’s a good and a bad thing that I’m such a dedicated and consistent brogger when it comes to being able to look back in time. It’s particularly good when I’m capable of finding anything that was particularly good that happened in a year’s time, because I’m a fairly open person, and I’m definitely sure to write about anything that’s made me happy or put me in a good mood. Contrarily, it works both ways, because I’m just as apt to write about the things that upset me or make me unhappy, to varying degrees of clarity and vagueness.
But back to the point of looking back at the year as a whole, and it wasn’t particularly bad, and it wasn’t particularly great. For anything that was good, there was something not so good, and vice versa. I’ll be frank, my parents’ impending divorce is difficult for me, as I’ve stated before, I don’t think there’s ever an age where this isn’t bothersome in some capacity. Looking back at some of my posts and photo entries throughout the year, and it turns out that I’ve done a good deal of cool things, but all it really took was one bad phone call to throw a wet blanket around my mood and state of being for a good bit of time. I know it seems silly to put so much weight on my parents’ issues, but it’s safe to say that it’s possibly one of the worst things to happen to me and my family in quite a long time.
Let’s not dwell on the negative however, because when the day is over, I still want my brog to be a place of a somewhat positive nature, even if I post occasional bullshit from time to time.
In some capacity, I think my years have become somewhat formulaic, because I tend to do the same type and/or activities on an annual basis. Go to new cities and places to watch baseball and visit ballparks, Dragon*Con, holidays, and occasional parties sprinkled here and there. Everything else is pretty much work and mundane family visits in between. As someone who enjoys some semblance of routine, this isn’t really a bad thing, but putting things in this perspective, I suppose that my years are somewhat repetitive in some capacity.
Either way, I still feel that I did a fair amount of unique and interesting things throughout the year, and I’m fairly satisfied that I put forth a good effort in branching out.
My baseball travels took me to some new parts of the country that I’d never been to before, like Detroit, Denver, Jacksonville, and many parts of Upstate New York, and I revisited places like Miami and Tampa, with the latter being a convenient excuse to go to see Hulk Hogan’s Beach Shop. My hobby of running and athletic endeavors led me to participate in events such as the Spartan Race and Cupid’s Undie Run, both of which were unique and interesting events, with me already agreeing to participate in the Spartan Run again in 2014.
San Diego Comic-Con was a new and novel experience for me this year, as in spite of the fact that San Diego is pretty much paradise, it was pretty much the most crowded place in the world; that is until Dragon*Con decided to be the most packed D*C in like ever.
But all through all aforementioned trips and experiences, despite my criticisms of the stereotypical aZn photographer, I’ve been trying and aspiring to improve as a picture-taker throughout 2013, to the point where I’ve been purchasing actual camera equipment, like upgraded lenses and an external flash, with hopes that pictures I take in the future will be vastly improved, and quite possibly some to be proud enough for others to actually be impressed.
I feel like I’ve said the same thing two or three times over, so it’s a good indication that I really didn’t have that much to say in the first place, and really wanted to just write. That being said, that’s a good indication that it’s time to wrap up the post, and to get ready to put 2013 in the rearview mirror and proceed to prepare for the dawn of 2014.
With the first stop of the year being Las Vegas, I think it’ll be off to a good start, so here’s hoping that the rest of it follow suite. To good fortune, an aversion to negativity and the pursuit of positive things, cheers to the new year.
