1. Own a climbing gym. No fucking around with ambiguity this year, I want a piece of a gym. Last year it was very close to being a thing but ended up not working out, I was subsequently asked to set up and run a gym by the people who sort of fucked me out of being an owner of said gym. That also didn’t work out, but that’s a whole different story/post and legally I’m not sure what I can and can’t say at this point. Anyway, the big multi-million dollar gym has been in the works for some time and now that there are no potential conflicts of interest, I can straight up say that it’s a thing. Most of the plan is set and pieces are in place, it’s just getting together the totality of investment now. Not impossible to wrangle up a few million bucks, but not an easy task either. So while this relies heavily on my busting my ass and hustling, as a final decision it’s totally out of my hands too. Fingers crossed!

2. Send 5.13a. Ratings are of course subjective, but I hit my goal of sending 12a last year, time to up the ante! 13a is really a whole lot more difficult than 12a though, so this is knowingly a bit of  a stretch. Either way, upping my own climbing ability is something I need to continually focus on.

3. Get AMGA Single Pitch Instructor certification. Pretty straight forward, I have some knowledge gaps that need filling, but the biggest barrier is paying for it right now. Hopefully I can get it in order this year.

4. USA Climbing Level 2 routesetter certification. Hopefully one of the two they run this year is close enough and has room for me. I set well enough/often enough to do it, just need to make it happen.

5. Stay involved in USA Climbing. Pretty easy since I’m the new regional coordinator for our area, but not being tied to a gym or a team right now does make it a bit more of a challenge to keep on top of.

6. Center my life around more than just climbing. This last year I focused pretty hard on climbing, especially the last half of the year. It’s great to have a prime focus and climbing will still be it (as evidenced by my first 5 goals this year…) but I need to remember to stay on top of the other things I love in life be they more professional or just personal.

7. Take the New Haven Firefighter’s test. They are recruiting this year and it’s something I’ve thought about for a while. Dunno what will come of it, but I can see it working great with my other life goals. Especially if I’m able to get into search & rescue and specialty training type stuff.

8. Fight more! Always a thing, I love it and haven’t done it as much as I’d like to for a few years now.

9. Travel at least once a month on average. Even if it’s just to NYC for a night of drinking or up to Mass for a certification clinic, I want to lay my head under strange roofs with regularity.

10. See far away friends more. Goes well with traveling more; way too many of my friends don’t live close and I want to make efforts to make sure I get to hug them with regularity.

11. Read 12 fiction books this year. Well on my way already! I love reading, but it’s easy to fall out of the habit with so many things battling for my time. I dunno why reading is seen as a more noble goal than play 12 video games or play 12 new-to-me board games, so I guess I’ll add those too! 36 things?

12. Travel with Trish a lot. Last year I resolved to do more epic things with Trish as my partner in crime and it worked out well. Hopefully this next year we can get up to even more far away fun together.

13. Paint a bunch of minis. Thanks Reaper, I now have a few hundred minis in need of painting. Hopefully I can keep up painting with some regularity.

14. Deadlift 450 pounds. Always need to deadlift more.

15. Finish all the house projects I have that don’t rely on money. We have lots of plans for the house, many of them are out of reach for the time being as money is too tight, but plenty of them just take a few bucks and a lot of time. I should finish everything I had in the works at the end of 2012 by the end of 2013.

16. Keep perspective on what’s important in life. I try to as it is, but it’s far too easy to go off the rails with this and get caught up with the everyday bullshit drama of life. Friends, family and making the most of the short time we have is what matters.

17. Be creative. Music, art, writing, whatever. I’m a creative dude by nature but it’s easy to make excuses to not sit down and do the work. I’m always so happy when I have something meaningful that I did with my time but I need to get over my inertia problems and make shit happen. I have a few outlets as it is, but I’d love to explore new ones as well.

18. Be able to play a whole song on guitar. And sing it at the same time. I got close last year but then stopped playing. Maybe I can make Chino help me and then not only do I get to make music, I have a good excuse to see my BFF more.

19. Keep supporting friend’s projects. I know some amazing people who are doing amazing stuff. Gotta keep on going to see their bands, buy their books, visit their openings and everything else.

20. Make 10k from weddings. Mostly just means I’ll need to keep track of how much I make at weddings. I think this is about what I do in a year, but honestly I have no idea cause I never kept track before.

21. Go dancing. I love dancing. I should go out more than a few times a year.

22. Get the FATCast back on track. Climbing gyms and house fires kept us away from the FATCave for most of the last half of 2012. Gotta get that under control!

23. Keep making life better. 2012 was one of the best years of my life. 2013 should be even better. Positive attitude!

1. Equity & Management - Fail. In a totally unexpected way I did end up with management for a while, but that blew up pretty badly just before the close of 2012. Never had any equity.

2. Complete the Tough Mudder in May - Pass. It was actually a lot easier than I was expecting. That said, the difficulty of going up and down a mountain a bunch of times is still high, but totally boring to me. If I run another one it will only be for the coaching/teamwork aspect which was rewarding and enjoyable.

3. Fight More - Fail. “More” is sort of an ambiguous term, but outside of a few bursts of harder training, not much was done in the combat area this year so at the very least I fell far short of my goal.

4. Read at least 1 book a month for personal pleasure - Fail. Not even close. I did however read a ton more longform articles which for non-fiction I enjoy a whole lot more.

5. Play every game I own and have never played - Fail. I knew this wasn’t gonna happen but putting it on here did help keep me aware of how out of hand the game collection has gotten.

6. Be more aggressive in paring down material possessions - Pass. Got rid of a bunch of stuff either just trashing it, selling it or giving it away. While I still love stuff, and acquired plenty of new stuff, I really moved a lot of bulk out of our lives.

7. Write more personal reflective pieces - Fail. Didn’t write shit since I wrote this original list of 2012 goals.

8. Have more inspiring philosophical discussions with awesome people - Pass. I didn’t write about it as I’d hoped, but I did however do a lot more talking about deep, interesting topics with a number of interesting intellectual people.

9. Do what I want - Pass. This is a recurring goal and one I can never hope to get perfect, but this year was an absolute improvement in listening to myself and living for me.

10. Get a hot tub - Fail. No surprise here, though I do wish there was haha

11. Make the most of all the amazing people I’ve manged to surround myself with - Pass. Got a lot closer to some newer existing friends, made some new connections and generally been more social with all of the great people I know.

12. Go somewhere I’ve never been - Pass. A few places in fact. Nowhere mind blowing but we did get out there more this year.

13. Do more awesome BIG stuff with Trish - Pass. Going to Asbury Park and Silverball this summer was great.

14. Make enough money that I don’t NEED to think about how much money it’s costing us when someone forgets to turn off a light - Not sure. For some of the year this was the case, but by the last few days of 2012 money did become a thing to worry about again.

15. Find Amy a new home - Pass. Finally got her a great place where she gets all the love she can handle. I still miss her but knowing she’s better off makes it a lot easier to handle.

16. Have more fun - Pass. Overall this year ruled pretty hard.

17. Deadlift 450 pounds - Fail. Got closer than ever before, but getting sidetracked and losing control of a lifting routine killed it.

18. Don’t stress - Sort of. Clearly this as an absolute is impossible, but I do think I did a great job of stressing a whole lot less than I could have. I’m really getting into just trying to go with the flow.

19. Listen to more music - Pass. Did great with this one.

20. Do a band again - Fail. Same as it ever was.

21. More event gaming - Pass. My board gaming has developed into a situation where it’s less frequent but more quality and in depth. We had a number of weekend mini-cons where we collected people from decently far away to come hang for a few solid days of awesome gaming and hangs. I didn’t make it to any new really big cons though.

22. Drink more good Scotch - Pass. Techinically. More still doesn’t mean a lot though.

23. LOVE LIFE! – Pass. Despite some bummer moments, 2012 was fucking awesome! I saw more of the people I care about, connected with them deeper and made the most of the time I have. I created a lot of lasting things be they memories, friendships or something more tangible like podcasts and gyms. I continued to grow as a person and get even more awesome too.

1. Equity & Management - purposely vague for a few reasons, but there is something pretty huge and life altering in the works. While at this point in the process I have little ability to alter the course of things, my life focus right now is on making this happen. If it does, I promise it will be impossible to not hear about it. (especially if you lurk me enough to be reading this). On the flip side, if it doesn’t work out, I need to keep perspective on life and just roll with it and onto the next thing.

2. Complete the Tough Mudder in May - 10-12 mile obstacle course up and down Mt. Snow in VT. I organized a team for it and we’ve been training together. In the next month or two things are gonna get real serious. I’m stoked to put myself to the test.

3. Fight More - I want to be doing Krav at least a couple times a week. I don’t think that will happen, but one way or the other, I need to hit stuff and get better at it.

4. Read at least 1 book a month for personal pleasure - This is a pretty low goal but thinking back on the past year, I didn’t even come close. I love reading but don’t do it near enough.

5. Play every game I own and have never played - It’s a weird state of affairs where you own games still in shrink wrap. Either you’re getting traded/sold or you’re getting played (and then likely traded or sold cause you suck).

6. Be more aggressive in paring down material possessions - I love stuff. I have shelves and shelves full of stuff and still want more and more of it. However, I also have lots of stuff that would be far better served elsewhere. Some of it is stuff that I used well but no longer have need of (books about teaching social studies!), some of it is stuff I once loved but don’t ever enjoy anymore, some of it is stuff I got aspirationally and need to accept that it won’t see use, some of it is just stuff. No matter the reason for it, there is a lot of stuff I’d much rather turn into other stuff. All the better if the new “stuff” is mostly just great memories.

7. Write more personal reflective pieces – falls into the whole “write more” plan I have for my entire adult life, but writing the last bit I realized that I have a lot I’d like to say about materialism and it’s place in my life. I have great discussions about most of these things, but I’d like to be putting it down in a less ethereal form.

8. Have more inspiring philosophical discussions with awesome people – I’m on a roll with these items, leading one into the next, but yeah, I love talking and thinking and being challenged. I should do more of it.

9. Do what I want – Such a simple idea, such a difficult practice. I’ve been making serious effort on this front but it’s a constant struggle in a culture/society where the opposite is drilled into your mind from birth.

10. Get a hot tub – shit was getting a little too heavy. If number 1 works out, opulent adult life priority #1 is getting a hot tub. I don’t actually see it happening this year, but that’s a hell of a carrot to work towards.

11. Make the most of all the amazing people I’ve manged to surround myself with – I’ve gotten to know some awesome people, the more they are in my life, the better my life is. So why the fuck aren’t these interpersonal relationships as much of a priority as they should be? See #9… Also, keep on cutting out the people that suck, I got no room for people who don’t get that my love is a two way street despite the fact that I have a limitless supply.

12. Go somewhere I’ve never been – hopefully it’s not just a gas station on a different route through Virginia

13. Do more awesome BIG stuff with Trish – Our lives with each other generally rule and really, I think it’s the little things that make a relationship; eating breakfast together every morning, going grocery shopping, pre-sleep bed chats. But thinking about the past year, most of my BIG memories are events that Trish, for a variety of perfectly fine reasons, wasn’t a part of. I’d like to change that. Mostly this means adding some new awesome activity/adventures cause my drunken gaming/nerd/convention rampages around the country aren’t something she’s too keen on being a part of anyway haha. Money makes it harder too since travel is is big thing in this regard but we can’t really afford to do much of it these days.

14. Make enough money that I don’t NEED to think about how much money it’s costing us when someone forgets to turn off a light – but just cause I can stop thinking about it, doesn’t mean I ever will!

15. Find Amy a new home - sucks that this is still a thing but it is and it REALLY needs to change.

16. Have more fun – I have a lot of it, but I can certainly have more! Sometimes it takes some effort, but it’s pretty much always worth it in the end and I need to remember that sometimes.

17. Deadlift 450 pounds – carry over from last year. Still really want it to be a thing I do. Hopefully injuries and motivation issues stay out of the way.

18. Don’t stress - about anything on this list or anything else in general. I’m gonna die and nothing matters anyway beyond the value we each individually impart to it, might as well make the most of everything and everyone.

19. Listen to more music – I think an easy practice to fall back into is turning on the stereo whenever I’m home and not watching/listening to something else. I love music and no reason it shouldn’t be in my life even more.

20. Do a band again - maybe this year it will happen?

21. More event gaming – money is a huge factor here, but I’d like to get to even more gaming/nerdery events this year than I did last year.Might be working more big cons this year through a new connection. (I suppose it’s actually a really old connection, just new in this context)

22. Drink more good Scotch – thanks a lot Aymii, now I’m into a thing that’s for rich adults and I’m neither! Trish got me the big deal book about Scotch for Christmas and I’ve already checked off a few great ones. I’d like to see my copy getting really marked up in the coming years despite my nonexistent budget for swanky liquor.

23. LOVE LIFE!

1. Finish everything we have been talking about doing with the house since we bought it…

Accomplished (with the slight caveat that there are a couple of way too expensive things we want to do but know won’t get done any time soon) – we did a whole lot of stuff, especially this summer. There are a couple things like totally redoing the backyard/driveway situation that will have to wait till we can afford it but all the dumb little stuff from our original to-do list is crossed out!

2. Deadlift 450 pounds…

Failed – miserably. I hurt my back twice this year, once from running and once from sitting (yeah!) and lost my main lifting partner to Philly. Not that we were in any kind of proper schedule before he moved anyway. On the bright side I think I’m in better shape than I was at the same time last year, just not as much raw strength.

3. Run a marathon…

Failed - this was a stretch anyway. But on a huge silver lining tip, I organized a team for the May 5th Tough Mudder which way more serious/strenuous a challenge and we’ve been training for that. So while I’d still someday like to run the NYC marathon, I got bigger fish to fry.

4. Get official Krav instructor certification…

Failed - combination of money and time. My Krav practice has fallen off which is a huge bummer too.

5. Climb 5.12…

Failed – I did start climbing like a big boy again for a bit, peaking at 5.11  but then the gym closed and it’s cold outside so I’m falling back out of climbing shape again.

6. Finish designing a game…

Failed - I did do more playtesting and for some pretty brand name ass stuff/designers but I didn’t do any work at all on any game ideas I have.

7. Write more…

Ambiguous – Maybe a little bit? I did push a lot harder with this early in the year but then fell off as life got more complicated. It’s a lifelong goal anyway so whatever.

8. Get the F:AT podcast going…

Accomplished - with gusto! Been doing it for about 6 months now. It’s going over really well and I’m having a blast doing it. I can also blame some of my writing less on the fact that I get to do reviews on there instead of having to write them.

9. Book more weddings, especially weddings for couples in the New Haven area…

Accomplished – I’ve managed to maintain my overall volume of weddings despite NY passing same sex marriage (yay!) and taking away a huge portion of my previous market.

10. Get a real teaching job…

Accomplished – Well, that was an interesting adventure. I did mean to write about it, and still might, but yeah, I got a real deal full time NHPS teaching job which I lasted about 2 months on before quitting and deciding I don’t actually want to teach secondary social studies.

11. Spend more time seeing my friends…

Accomplished – Friend, both new and old were much more in our lives this year. Money meant we couldn’t get to those friends who are further away quite as often, but we did it. I spent a lot more time in NYC seeing people, for half a year Chino lived real close and that was great. We also got a real awesome thing going with the local climbing friends/workout crew. Also doing the podcast means I get to see some people more often than I used to even if it’s still not as much as I’d like.

12. Write and record music…

Ambiguous – I wrote some songs, started to very poorly play the guitar and last week I did shitty Robert Goulet vocals over Christmas music recordings for my mom. But I didn’t get a real band going or do anything I’d consider “real”.

13. Play more D&D…

Accomplished – Things have gotten complicated with the holiday scheduling, but they always do, and either way, I still played A LOT more this year than I did the year before. Played in a couple of weekly games at the same time for a while even.

14. Work more gaming conventions…

Failed - I did manage to hit everything I did the year before but nothing new. I did make some connections though that mean I maybe doing a lot more this coming year. Guess we’ll see.

15. Be a better dude to Trish…

Ambiguous – I dunno. I’d like to say yes but honestly I have no idea. It’s something that’s good to think about forever and aspire to though.

16. Make more money buying and selling games…

Failed – Pretty much the same as years past. Still making moves but nothing that takes this to another level.

17. Learn more about the collecting/valuing aspect of stuff I’m into…

Failed (mostly) – I did learn a bit more about forging new swords thanks to the blacksmithing, but nothing about historical stuff really. I also started to learn a bit about Scotch but not particularly much in the way of value.

18. Learn to sail…

Failed - Same as ever; talked to a couple people about it but never actually sealed the deal to go out and learn even a little.

19. Make Turtley Awesome a place people I don’t personally know go read stuff…

Failed - much like this site, TA is mostly dead in the water. On the plus side, thanks to Fortress:AT I do have a much bigger bunch of people who read/listen to what I have to say about nerdy bullshit.

20. Write my Master’s Thesis…

N/A – I mean really it’s a fail, but I changed gears since I decided to quit teaching and now I’ve just failed to finish (or really start) writing my comps. So now I have 4 shorter papers I get to fuck off about finishing next year.

21. Get back on track for my Political Science PhD…

N/A - While I still would like to make people call me Dr. Loter and like all the prestige bullshit that goes along with having a PhD., it’s really not in the cards any time soon since in my current life plans it would be a whole lot of work and money (or at least lost income potential) so I could be a puffed up dickhead about being a Dr. I can read and learn without a piece of paper.

22. Relax about the fact that I WILL fail some, or even many, of these goals…

Accomplished – despite the fact that most of these are fails, I feel pretty good about this last year and what I’ve done and where I’m headed.

Big thanks to everyone who touched me in some way this year, especially those of you who are so indulgent that you read this far. I seriously wouldn’t have succeeded in anything without the people around me.

First person shooter/action type game.

Starts abruptly with you just waking up in a park or old building or whatever. Things look all post apocalyptic; broke down buildings, trashed everything, dead bodies. No explanation or exposition is given. After walking around a little bit you start having to fight zombies/mutants. Goes on for a while, pretty standard fare.

As the game progresses you start seeing little flashes of people screaming and dying and running away and so forth, displayed in such a way as to make you assume it’s memories of what happened slowly coming back to you. Eventually though, it starts to have more direct relevance to whatever it is you are specifically doing at the time and they begin to get longer. Finally, it slowly (or abruptly?) becomes clear that these “memory flashes” are actually reality  and you’re just out of your fucking mind going around murdering regular people because you think they are mutant zombies.

I dunno about the best way to wrap it up though. Maybe you end up getting caught and the last scene is you in a regular mental asylum with a voice over of a reporter talking about your case to make it really clear for anyone who might have missed the slightly subtle cue that you are a crazy dude and it’s not the zombie apocalypse. Maybe you end up having been brainwashed and used by terrorists or something? Maybe it stays open to interpretation and kind of ambiguous or at the least not 100% clear that that is the case?

I do like the idea of it being a really clear situation, then more ambiguous and finally clear again, only very different than the first senario. There can also be all kinds of fun really subtle clues from early on that only really show up in retrospect (all sixth sense style).

Also, I’m a terrible pitch writer. I’d like to get better, anyone know any good sources for such info?

Would we not mind so much about that whole hating America and perpetrating 9/11 if Osama was the next Vince Lombardi? Would anyone give a fuck if Hitler was the Joe Montana of 1930s Germany (I mean besides the obvious historical interestingness of Hitler being a star athlete)? Charlie Manson has a hell of an arm, so while that terrible “incident” was indeed terrible, he’s sorry and really just ready to put it behind him and play some ball so lets all move on. Yeah, right, that’s totally fucking insane. Yet we get a multitude of stories this week about “The Redemption of Ben Roethlisberger” (Like this one that just drives me insane… )

So let me get this straight; dude is at the very least enough of a sexual predator that the we’ll-hire-convicted-murders NFL was willing to suspend one of their top quarterbacks for six weeks yet now he’s going to earn redemption because he wins the Superbowl. WHAT. THE. FUCK? So let’s just say for arguments sake that he was wrongly accused and isn’t a rapist piece of shit, what does his playing football well have to do with any of that? Karma dictates that because he was wrongly accused, he gets to win football? Is he getting sweet biblical revenge on all the “haterz” cause Jesus is hooking him up on the get back? Only a wrongly accused rapist gets to actually win a Superbowl. No? That’s crazy talk? Oh, well that’s pretty much what everyone is saying is the case, just more in a “he’s overcoming adversity” sort of parlance. Though I suppose getting in trouble for being a rapist is pretty fucking adverse for someone so it’s not really an out and out lie…

Even better/worse, let’s say he is in fact a sexual scumbag who at the very least is using his position of power to take advantage of women. But now he redeems himself cause he’s good at throwing a ball. He doesn’t find redemption in fully accepting culpability for his past crimes, apologizing to his victims and profoundly changing himself for the better. He get’s saved because he wins the Superbowl. I mean, shit, sorry ladies but this dude can play!

What the fuck is wrong with people that they think this is at all reasonable? You want to have rapists in your sports? Fine. You want to look up to them? Fine. These are personal decisions that people are free to make. You are a pretty fucked up asshole if you’re getting in line to support a rapist as a role model, but it’s a position one can take no matter how fucked up it may be (yay America!). However, you cross a line into totally fucking insanity land when you try and act like someone can be absolved of totally unrelated assaults against fellow humans based on their subsequent ability to do good at sports.

IT DOESN’T MATTER OF DUDE WINS THE SUPERBOWL OR NOT. If he is a rapist, HE IS STILL A RAPIST EVEN WITH THAT SWEET RING! Winning the Superbowl doesn’t somehow makes things better for his victims or do anything to show that he’s changed his attitudes about rape. It disgusts me to be a part of a society where we not only seem to embrace “redemption” only in the case of rich/successful/charismatic/famous people (cause really, fuck poor minorities who get caught with a joint three times, lock those fuckers up for life) but we try to make it such that this “redemption” is achieved not through deep soul searching and profuse heartfelt apologies for past transgressions that leads to serious personal growth, but through being successful at something totally unrelated. Nah, you don’t have to say sorry to that crazy bitch, just go out there and win slugger…

An even snottier aside… if you are going to go watch the Superbowl and back the NFL? Well guess what, you are part of the problem. You might complain about it, but you’re still supporting a culture and industry that is profiting OFF OF YOU, and perpetuating this sort of bullshit. It isn’t until people are willing to step the fuck up and say “hey, NFL, figure it the fuck out or I’m not going to watch your games and give you my money” that they will ever really change cause at the end of the day, they just care if they are getting paid or not. If you are really that nuts about sports that you can’t possibly not watch the NFL (oh Chino…), then you really need to be doing something, a lot of something, to make a loud voice from within that lets it be know that you will not just stand by while this shit is accepted and perpetuated.

But the reality is that I’m already far past my “school days” and now school is just one more thing that I do. I already have one degree and am about to finish up another. I can stop whenever I want to really and there is nothing to prevent me from doing so. More importantly, being fully on my own, the bills don’t give a flying fuck how I’m doing in class or if I’m keeping up with the reading; every month things need to get paid. I still feel like an interloper in this world of adults. The idea that I pay a mortgage and can go borrow money to buy a car or charge whatever I want is utterly insane to me. I wonder if this is how it feels for everyone forever? Will I ever really feel like a serious grown up, like it’s reasonable for me to be in this world of taxes and insurance and amounts of money that are so high they feel fake?

I hope not, I’d like to stay a silly young dude forever.

I’m not even going to get into what’s so wrong about dog fighting and how the surrounding “industry” of turning out fighting dogs is magnitudes worse than just the actual fighting itself, because if you can’t get why dog fighting is a fucking abomination, then please, do us all a favor and kill yourself. But why is it that we as a society clamor so loud and hard for the heads of the Cheshire home invasion murderers but seem content to let a man who tortured, abused and murdered animals for fun come right back into high society after a couple years time?

In the particular case of Michael Vick, the worst part isn’t that he’s not rotting in jail or has yet to be beaten to death for someone else’s entertainment, but rather that he’s being allowed to move on from his past. He plead not guilty to dog fighting and did less than two years in jail and now gets to live a life that thousands upon thousands of people can only dream of. He never said “oh yeah, sorry I’m a complete fucking monster of a human being who abused and murdered defenseless creatures for entertainment, I got lots and lots of help and now I’m not such a crazy maniac, can I please be let back into normal society now?” Instead he’s making millions of dollars, being a lauded superstar and has the fucking audacity to complain about the fact that he’s not allowed to get his kids a pet dog. The president of the US fucking THANKED the Eagles for giving Vick another chance. This piece of shit gets to live large while  thousands of innocent kids are starving to death.

I don’t believe he’s paid his debt for what he did. Beyond which, even one believes he had and doesn’t think said debt should end with him in a wooden box, he belongs in treatment for a long long time, not up on some pedestal just because he can throw a ball better than most people.

1. Finish everything we have been talking about doing with the house since we bought it…

It’s been over a year and there are still projects and organization and setting up of things that hasn’t been finished. A whole lot of progress has been made but there is still plenty to be done. The idea of continually improving my living space is one that will go on forever, but finishing stuff that is only a matter of time and motivation and has been planned since we moved in needs to get the fuck finished already.

2. Deadlift 450 pounds…

It’s sort of an arbitrary number but one that I think is both challenging yet attainable. I’d love to smash past this, and think I could, but I’ll also need to keep working hard to get up there. My current highest set of five is 310, but due to student teaching and life and laziness, I’ve got a lot to do just to get back to that level.

3. Run a marathon…

Chino wants to do it, so do I. Maybe we can get it done this year? Big problems: we both wanna run the NYC marathon and that’s a pain in the ass to get into since it’s by lottery, plus I don’t think either of us are all that fond of actually running. I’d love to do one of those crazy viking obstacle course type adventure runs, but I’m not into paying a bunch of money to do so. If that happens though, I’d be satisfied.

4. Get official Krav instructor certification…

I’ve been teaching classes now for a couple years yet I still haven’t gotten my paperwork in order. As our head instructor says “Are you teaching classes? Well then you’re an instructor.” But at the same time, it would be nice to get the satisfaction and recognition of going through the official testing process and coming out on top.

5. Climb 5.12…

Might be a bit ambitious, but I could do it before. I’m tired of working at a climbing gym and climbing like a baby. No reason why I can’t be smashing 5.11 at least other than my own lack of drive to regain my climbing ability and fitness.

6. Finish designing a game…

As with any good gamer nerd, I’ve had lots of ideas for games. Some I’ve even taken so far as to write some basic rules and make a half assed playtest set. None have ever been developed to the point where I’d inflict them on anyone but my closest friends and family. I’d like to get something that I feel proud of and want to share with everyone.

7. Write more…

I like writing. I already do it with some regularity and have for years been a contributor to various publications. But I’m also very undisciplined and don’t write near as much as I’d like to. I suspect this will be a lifelong goal for me, but I’ll be happy if I just get a bit more done and finished.

8. Get the F:AT podcast going…

It’s been talked about, I’ve thought about it a TON and now I just need to get that boulder rolling. Inertia is a motherfucker when it comes time to start an ambitions project.

9. Book more weddings, especially weddings for couples in the New Haven area…

I love doing weddings. I love that I’m able to do so many out of state same sex weddings. I don’t love that 90% of my weddings are something that I will hopefully not be doing in the future once some other states, or GASP! the feds, figure out that two dudes getting married is a basic human right.

10. Get a real teaching job…

I dunno if it will be a lifelong career, right now I think it’s pretty doubtful, but I still really want to get in there and teach. My certification is just a matter of other people processing my paperwork at this point so that’s pretty awesome. Getting a real job that pays full on adult money for the first time will also be a refreshing change of pace.

11. Spend more time seeing my friends…

As we grow older it’s way too easy to turn into hermits. I wish to actively combat this. We improved a lot last year, and I hope to continue that trend this year. The only hang up at this point is being able to afford it when it involves traveling. That just means we’ll have to have people come visit us more I guess.

12. Write and record music…

I miss it too much. Even if it’s just me warbling off key to a Casio, I need to be making the sweet sweet jams. Much better goal would be to get a real band going again, but I think that relies too much on other people. I’d still really like that to happen though.

13. Play more D&D…

Since we moved to New Haven it’s been tough on my role playing seeing as how the people I played most with are now over an hour away. Getting a regular group going again needs to happen.

14. Work more gaming conventions…

Every one I did this past year was a highlight, there are plenty more out there that I should try to be at. List for last year: PAX East, ConnCon, WBC and NYCC. This year I’d really like to add Origins, ConnectiCon and AnonyCon at the least. All of these are within driving distance which makes them easily done. I was set to work both ConnectiCon and AnonyCon but had other obligations those weekends. I’d like to eventually lay the groundwork such that I am able to get paid to fly out to things like PAX Prime and Winter Fantasy but I don’t see that happening this year.

15. Be a better dude to Trish…

Lifelong aspiration. We all slip up and have room for improvement, in our relationships even if we are the nicest dudes in the world. Hopefully I can drop the ball less and pick up the slack more as time goes on.

16. Make more money buying and selling games…

I’ve been doing pretty good this year with selling/trading stuff. I’d like to make my game acquisitions, at the very least, a zero sum financial activity. Even better would be to make some decent bonus money from hunting out hidden treasures at tag sales and flea markets. I’d also like to get into this with more than just games, which leads to…

17. Learn more about the collecting/valuing aspect of stuff I’m into…

Watching shows like Pawn Stars, I wanna be one of those dudes who knows about things like the value of different bayonets or how to spot a fake coin. The two areas I find most interesting (besides games of course) are old weapons and old money.

18. Learn to sail…

It’s been a goal for a while now. Last summer I sailed a boat for the first time and it ruled. It was a little baby boat and I did a meh job of it, but it made my desire for sailor skills that much higher.

19. Make Turtley Awesome a place people I don’t personally know go read stuff…

Basically revolves around me writing more and telling people to go look at it. It happens a little bit already, but student teaching really killed all my momentum.

20. Write my Master’s Thesis…

I should be finishing the last of my course work in finishing the History MA this spring semester. All that’s left then is to write my thesis. Hopefully it’s awesome enough to help me…

21. Get back on track for my Political Science PhD…

I would really like to do this at Yale, which means that I need to bust my ass and get myself accepted there. Otherwise, I’m going back to UCONN. Either way, I really want to get that fully in motion. Timing wise, this might not really be able to start until next year, but no matter what, there is a lot to do now to make that happen.

22. Relax about the fact that I WILL fail some, or even many, of these goals…

At the very least I’m sure to fall short of what I’d like. But I need to remember that it doesn’t matter. Life is only what I make it and I wanna make it awesome.