So, a new year. How about that?

Most places will be running articles about how to change your life in just 10 easy steps, or 29 things that will be the same and/or different for this trip around the sun. As ridiculous and sentimental as these types of things can get, who am I to jump off a bandwagon? I’d like to take a moment to look back at the year past, and maybe the year to come.

What changed during 2013? Well for one, my girlfriend and I moved. Due to mismatched lease terms, I had moved into her place back in September of 2012, but March marked the time when we “moved in together,” finding a space that would work for both of us. It’s been an interesting experience, living with someone else, and one I’ve gotten used to surprisingly quickly. I guess it really hit me when she went out of town to visit her parents over the holidays. I was shocked by how big and empty our four-square townhouse (with finished basement) felt, just by the absence of one person. I’ve lived in smaller places on my own, but never one this large.

My job situation has also improved slightly. True, I’m still working a retail job well outside any field I have actual skills in, but I’m no longer pushing carts in the sweltering heat and/or freezing cold. I’ve since moved inside, stocking shelves in the early morning (ugh) and helping people on the sales floor after opening (closer to yay). At least this way I get to use some of my tech savvy. I think some of the management is trying to groom me to become one of them, but I’d rather not make a career out of it.

I’ve also tried to become more cognizant of my mental state when it comes to SCA fighting and fencing. The head game seems to be the next plateau I need to break through; I just need to stop being so darn nice all the time.

I’ve started leading drills at fighter practice, filling a gap that’s been present for far too long.

I’m becoming more conscious of my depressive tendencies, trying to recognize and mitigate the Funks I tend to fall into. While not formally diagnosed, I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that my state of mind might be something other than my fault, and I should feel about as bad about falling into a Funk as I do about not being able to focus thanks to ADD (read: not at all).

I got a shiny new (big) TV. I started watching Doctor Who. I started experimenting with multiplayer Minecraft. My Steam library expanded (as did my backlog), and I even got around to completing some games and reading some books I’ve been meaning to.

And the biggest change, in case you couldn’t tell, is that I started blogging. I’ve toyed with the idea of writing regularly (mostly fiction) for years, but finally buckled down back in July and did something about it. I’ve been posting daily (for the most part) since. The writing has not always taken the direction I thought it would, in terms of format or subject, but I’ve stuck with it. Even if it feels like I’ve just been vomiting words onto a blank page to fill some arbitrary, self-imposed quota, I like to think that writing is still doing me some good.

And of course, with that, thank you for sticking with me and my writing. I know readers come and go, but I thank all of you who have come, stayed, even moved on. I hope you find my writing interesting enough, as I can’t always be the best judge of that. To those who have commented, thanks. To those lurkers who read and move on, maybe clicking “like” somewhere, I thank you too; I’m a lurker by nature as well. I wish you all a happy new year.