The Odds and Ends Blog Post

I have had several blog posts ideas, and I have even started some of them, but I felt kind of "blah" about all of them.  So instead I am just going to hit the high points.   So here are the things that are on my mind right now.

1.  Star Trekking Across the Universe! 
All of last year was a slow but steady increase in my interest in Star Trek.  While I was always a casual Next  Generation fan my interest in Star Trek has increased to the point where I would say it is something I officially geek out about.  My interest in Star Trek was fueled by three things.  In 2011, I got a DVD that had over 500 Star Trek comics on them.  Throughout 2012, I read these comics.   The second thing that really fueled this is Federation Commander.  As I have mentioned previously, I really love this game about starship combat, and I seriously can not play it enough.  My interest in the game has really fueled my overall interest in Star Trek.  The final thing that has really helped is the fact that all Star Trek episodes are on Netflix.  What makes this especially nice is that Abigail has started enjoying them with me.   Since October/November I have been watching Deep Space Nine.  Recently, Abigail has also gotten into the show as well.  Recently, she also watched an original series episode and she enjoyed that as well.  This will probably continue throughout 2013, because after we finish Deep Space Nine, I want to finish all of the original series which I have only been watching periodically.  I also plan on playing a lot of Federation Commander this year (I seriously, can not emphasize how much I ALWAYS want to play that game).  Finally, I have made it my tradition to run a role playing game at Gen Con.  The event that I submitted for this year, is a Star Trek RPG where the players will be an away team from the Armstrong surveying a new world, only to encounter Romulans!  

2.  Reading a lot this year
One of my plans for this year was to read more.  I took steps towards this in December by getting several books for Christmas.  I already read one of these books.  I read Red Harvest, a Star Wars Zombie book.  I still have several books to read.  This includes a steam punk book, the latest book in the Game of Throne series, a highly recommended sci-fi epic, and a Halo novel.  I hope to finish these books in the first 6 months of the year.

3.  A lot of time sitting.  . .
I have not written about this, but I recently had knee surgery.  I have a torn meniscus, and it turned out to be torn worse than thought.  As of right now I have to stay off my leg completely, and it could be that way for quite some time.  I am already a little annoyed by having to use crutches, but it will all be better eventually.

Top 10 Memories of 2012

This continues to be Abigail's favorite blog post of the year.  2012 was a bit of an odd year. There were a lot of transitions  and things never went quite as planned.   This is true from Abigail breaking her foot in May to me tearing a meniscus in December.  Now that we are in 2013, it is time to look back.  Here are the top ten things I will remember from this year.

10.  Funeral
Not every memory is a good one, and this qualifies. In February Abigail's step father passed away, and I had the honor of doing the funeral.  It was hard, probably one of the hardest things I have ever done.  It is not a memory that I want, but it will be one of thing that stick with me the most this year.

9.   Good Friday
At Good Friday in 2012 I did a monologue as John.  It went well.  Really well.  It is rare to do something that feels forth wile, and to really feel like it was done as good as it could be done (at least for me anyway).

8.  Warhammer Invasion Tournament
In April I tried to prove I am not really that old.  After an all night lock-in, I slept for a couple of hours and then spent the entire day playing in a Warhammer: Invasion regional tournament.  I was tired all day, but I also had a lot of fun, and I finished 3rd.  However, I may be getting to old to try things like that.

7.    Gen Con
I suppose as long as I make these lists and attend Gen Con, then Gen Con will be on the list.  Gen Con is always one of the highlights of my year.  Once again, Abigail accompanied to Gen Con.  Every year I have a blast but I am always left feeling like I could balance it all better next year.  This year I did not balance spending time well with Abigail at Gen Con.  A lot of my favorite things I did  this year(play Elf Ball, play a Star Wars miniatures game, play in the Warhammer: Invasion tournament, and True Dungeon) were done without her.  It is hard to find the balance, because Gen Con is my chance to do gaming that I can not do any other time of the year, but I also would like to spend it with Abigail.

6.  Chicago Trip
During the summer it is the custom here to take a "fun trip" with the youth group.  This year we went to Chicago.  It was really a great trip.  We had great weather, a lot of fun at Navy Pier, and incredible Chicago style pizza.  The Sears (Willis) tower is really expensive for what it is, but I suppose it is one of those things you have to do in the city.  Afterwards, the boys wandered around the city together while the girls shopped.  That was really a lot of fun, as was riding the train in and out of the city.  It is going to be really hard to top that trip this year!

5.  All Day Game Day
In November our game group hosted a 24 hour game marathon fundraiser to raise money for Riley's children hospital.  All told, I think we got somewhere right around $1,000(ish). We also played games for 24 straight hours from noon on Friday to noon on Saturday.  I got to play a lot of fun games that ranged from the epic Through the Ages to the goofy Star Trek: Next Generation VCR game.  It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to doing it again this year!

4.  Mission Trip
Like Gen Con, I suppose as long as I am in youth ministry I will probably always include one of these trips on the list.  In 2012 we took the Sr. High to Nashville, TN.  In Nashville we worked with children putting on a VBS like program.  It  was a great trip where the youth got to truly experience the love of Christ by sharing that love with young children.  The trip was a powerful God encounter for everyone on it.  It was so worthwhile, that we will be returning again this year.

3.  Train ride
We took Connor on a train twice this year.  Once in November and the first time in September, this entry is about the first time.  We rode a train in French Lick.  It was a diesel train (which Connor will tell you) and we went through a tunnel (which he will also tell you).  He will still talk about the train ride today, so it made quite an impression on him.   He loved it, and I think it may be the happiest I have ever seen him.  That made quite an impression, and a memory that I will remember.

2. The project
This may be cheating a little, becaue it is not a single memory.  However, 2012 will always stand out for me as the year we played all of our games.  Abigail and I set out to play through all of our games in a year AND write a blog post about them.  We did that.  We started out with 166 games, but we started trading games in the middle and ended up playing 202.  We did all of that in 10 months.  It was a lot of fun to share that together and we both really got into it.

1.  Ordination

So the single biggest life event I had this year was ordination.  This was the culmination of  a process that began with a calling in 2004 and a process that started in 2005.  There are a lot of steps in that process and a lot of work involved as well.  It felt really good to finish that process and be entrusted by the United Methodist church to serve in the office of deacon.

So that is 2012.  2013 promises to be a big year.  We already have a lot planned, and there will be some big events.  I will be having surgery for the first time this year, and this is the year that I become the father of a daughter.  2013, let's do this!