Here is my once yearly blog post, coming to you for another year. This has been going on for the last 7 years without fail. This is the last day of 2014, so I’m glad that I didn’t miss it. It’s been a busy year, like all of the past years have been. Life never seems to slow down or get easier. Knowing this, it is exciting to face life this way. There’s always a response required to a challenge. Do I meet the challenge head on, or do I run away? From my experience, it’s definitely worth it to face challenge head on. In my life, the challenges have always been different.
Since last writing, I moved in with 8 roommates in Voltron home church, my friend got married, and I have been fortunate enough to help mentor people in robotics and in knowledge of the Bible. I’m incredibly grateful for all of the wonderful relationships that I now have with people. I’ve grown substantially as a person by learning how to rest in God. All action flows from what a person ultimately believes. I’ve had the great privilege of learning a lot about the Bible this year, and it’s been really exciting to critically think about what it says instead of simply having “blind faith”.
The Tri-Pacer is still flying, and I’ve kept my instrument rating current. Now I need more excuses to go flying! One highlight of flying this year was going to Wolf Run State Park to go camping at their “Fly-in Camp Ground”. It was so fun to fly in and camp. Scott even made a fishing pole, and we caught a fish with it! It was so much fun to enjoy nature and relax. I made it to Oshkosh this year in a Cessna 2010 and camped next to the airplane for most of the week. The Thunderbirds performed this year and put on a pretty cool show. I hope to get to Sun N Fun this upcoming year.
Another wonderful highlight of my year was going to San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference. It was so much fun to go to sessions and see the exhibit hall (and acquire tons of free stuff!). We stayed in a hostel a mile or so away, but it only cost us $70 for the whole week we were there! I definitely want to go back there. There was a restaurant called TBD that we went to that was fantastic. Everything there was cooked on a wood fire. I specifically remember eating this marshmallow “smore” dessert that blew my mind. A lot happens in a year, and I think it’s interesting that a food experience even makes a mention in this post. It was seriously delicious though!
The real bummer of the year is putting Soulfire on hold due to funding issues. I really hope we’ll have the opportunity to revisit it at some point to finish what we started. The games were fun, but making the games with the people we had was the most fun. Work is still going well, and I’m having the opportunity to work on such a variety of things that I never would have imagined two years ago when I started. A lot of things have happened over this past year that have legitimately allowed me to experience great joy in my soul. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Cheers to another year!