Obligatory “best of times/worst of times” post

Favorite things about 2011:

• Another year with Dakota. 
• Another Penny Arcade Expo and trip to Seattle, this time with Dakota.
• Bastion was my favorite game of the year. Its themes on inequality and racism, combined with its brilliant soundtrack, visionary voice acting and tight combat have left me thinking about the game almost every day. This was a huge year of wins for indie games and the little guys.
• Kickstarter gave me an opportunity to become a consultant on an indie game, and being a part of an upcoming release (you’ll hear more about it later, I assure you) has been very cool and something I’ve always wanted to do.
• I found a lot of solace and peace in words from Richard Dawkins, Penn Jillette, and the late Christopher Hitchens. I got very comfortable with my understanding that there are no gods, or devils, or heavens or hells. 
• Jerry Holkins wrote what became my favorite quote of the year.
• Probably largely to do with the above quote, I embraced my inner child this year… a lot. I bought too many toys, got shoes with wheels in them, and basically enjoyed a lot of silly things.
• Joined a D&D group and have had a lot of fun with the guys. Played lots of 4th Edition, and also some Pathfinder. 
• A lot of public figures came out of the closet, and it was cool: Zachary Quinto, Don Lemon, Evan Rachel Wood, lots of athletes (David Testo, etc.), Jonathan Knight, Sean Maher…
• I was successful and productive at my job, and more financially responsible this year than I ever have been before.
• The Harry Potter movies came to an end, and it was very good.
• Booked an upcoming vacation to Orlando for Dakota and I to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park!
• Took a bunch of pictures, although not nearly as many as I thought I would get done. I really like a few of them.
• I went to Vegas for CES and saw the Penn & Teller show while I was there. Also got this.
• Dakota and I adopted Carrie Fisher the Cat.

Worst things about 2011:

• My dad died. And it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, and I still want to call him every morning, and this is about as much as I can stand to write about it.
• Lots of bad things happened after my dad died. My uncle also passed away.
• Sam Brownback, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, etc.
• Natural disasters on a huge scale, and I’m not talking about that earthquake we had in Kansas.

I suppose the fact that I can’t think of any more “bad things” to put on my list is a good sign. This was undoubtedly the worst year of my life, but in a lot of ways it was also the best. Cliche, but true.

I’m looking forward to ringing in the new year. I know it’s going to be another rough one - I still have months and months of stressful things to sort out in the wake of my father’s death. But I know that it also has the potential to be another best year ever. And so to you, internet friends, I wish a happy New Year. Have fun, and don’t forget to treat yo self.

Sometimes I judge our current financial status by how much cheese we have in the refrigerator

And at first I’m embarrassed, but then I remember that we have brie, and American, and parmesan, and cheddar, and munster, and mozzorella, and I am glad.

Facebook leads to anger. Anger leads to hate.

I don’t like Facebook. I never have. But about once a month or so, I spend some time on it, reading status updates and checking in on whoever I’m curious about. It’s mostly a pruning process, and I accepted way too many friend requests in high school and even a few years after, so I’ve been whittling down the ol’ friends list for a while. If you use the fa- word or call something “gay” (as in stupid), that’s pretty much an auto-unfollow. I have no patience or tolerance for that these days. 

It’s no secret that a huge majority of gay people, at least from my “generation” (by which I mean graduating classes between around 2000 and 2010) end up coming out of the closet right after high school. There are lots of reasons why, but I’m sure you can figure them out on your own. For me, I stayed in the closet (publicly) through high school for a guy who wasn’t ready yet. Talk about decisions you’ll regret forever, right? But I digress.

I did time at two high schools. One, a private Christian Bible-thumping cave of bigotry. The other, a small town Bible-thumping public high school that was only marginally better. 

Out of those two high schools, I know of a decent number of kids who came out after the fact. Some of them came out as gay quite a while after school. And as happy as I am for those people, there’s definitely some closet monsters in the mix. Meaning some of those newly out folk gave me hell in high school. And that’s just annoying. Really, truly annoying. 

One of these people I’m talking about has a bunch of photos posted of himself involved in recent Pride Month activities. Wearing a sleeveless shirt and neon pink hot-pants, he’s about as gay as they come, and all I can think about is how badly I want to time-travel that photo back to 2005 and hang it up around the school. How terrible is that?

CFH.

While on the phone with an end-user and teaching them how to minimize a window (really), they told me they were going to put me on speakerphone so that they could “use both hands.” The user then accidentially hung up on me.

At least it’s National Donut Day.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?”

Last night I finished re-reading the Harry Potter books. I started in December, blazed through the first 5, and drew out the last two because I just didn’t want them to end all over again.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in a story and in characters that you grew up with. Just look at the three generations of Star Wars fans. But I think that Harry Potter was something different - maybe something even better than Star Wars. They’re a series of books that grew up with their characters and, most importantly, their readers. And then there’s the films, which - while they vary in quality - are wonderful compliments to the books.

I know I’m biased, but I can’t think of anything like Harry Potter. I can’t think of anything as epic. I can’t think of characters as noble or as positively influential. It makes me weepy to think of kids going through school right now who don’t have a Harry Potter to grow up with. 

Again, I know I’m biased. And that I sound a little crazy. But I guess this is a post about how much I love Harry Potter, so what did you expect? I hope that there are teachers out there who are able to have their classes read Harry Potter. I hope that the ignorant, Harry Potter-hating religious bigots don’t stop new generations from reading such an inspirational story. There are too many valuable lessons there, and it’s unfair of people to hold their kids back from that. Kids should know that it’s okay to be different - to be strange, even. They should know that no matter how small and humble their origins are, they’re capable of becoming anything. And they should know the values of friendship, compassion, loyalty, endurance, and love.

So if you haven’t read Harry Potter, I think you should start doing so immediately if not sooner. You won’t be disappointed. In the meantime, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the July 15th release date of The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in theaters. And after that, probably just crying for a long, long time. 

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” 
-Albus Dumbledore 

Come take my badge away

After an incredibly long period of time devoid of any computer building, I set about last night to gut a salvaged computer case and fill it back up with a mix of new and gently used parts. 

I need a new computer, you see, and I’m partial to the desktop variety.

After four hours of this, most of which was spent meticulously following the step-by-step instructions in the motherboard’s manual, I connected the last fan and attempted to turn the thing on. I was greeted with an orange light and absolutely nothing else.

Nerd fail.