I don’t actually know if my mom liked cooking, but she did it a lot and was good at it. Her Yummy Bars were always the best thing at any party, and everything she made was always full of flavor and the literal definition of comfort food. I know my dad loved to cook; he was the grill master, the one who made rigatoni or pancakes, and the one who did the most experimenting with spices when Mom was away.

But me? I hated cooking growing up.

I don’t know why, but cooking was never something that I latched on to when I was a kid. The only things I would “cook” were frozen pizzas, ramen noodles (the 10¢ packs), and later on, some boxed Kraft Mac & Cheese. A far cry from making Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family.

I can actually pinpoint the key moments throughout my life that instilled a love of cooking within me. Moving to college and discovering the Food Network during Thanksgiving break. Moving into an apartment and getting sick of frozen dinners (and being grotesquely overweight). Making some pizza rollups¹ or frying eggs at 3am with college friends. Moving to a new city and going to a massive farmer’s market that next day. Meeting a really amazing woman & deciding to make her stuffed peppers, death-by-chocolate cake, and hundreds of other delicious things as a way of convincing that I’d make good husband material.

(It worked.)

But now here I am, years later, trying to figure out how to best catalog all of my recipes. I’ve been using an application called Evernote for years, but a variety of things are making that not a great solution for me. I’ve had a few people suggest Google Drive, and storing the recipes in separate notes with links, change management, and search functions. I think if I go back to a technology-rooted solution, this might be the one.

Instead, I think I’m going to go analog for 2020.

I’m always a huge fan of nice notebooks. Not the 39¢ versions you get while back-to-school shopping, but the really nice ones like Decomposition Books or Moleskine notebooks. My handwriting generally sucks, but I always get satisfaction from writing things down when there’s a purpose to it. I’m also not a sentimental person, but the idea of a functional log of handwritten information that I can share with others holds strong appeal to me.

To that end, I think my solution is going to be this: using a Moleskine notebook (or series of notebooks) to keep track of all of the recipes I cook in 2020. And I think I’ve already figured out a system for this:

• Write down the recipe on the left-side page.
• Keep a “made it” log on the right, complete w/ dates, notes, and revisions.
• At the end of the year, anything that was made >= 3x gets added to the Evernote archive (or wherever my recipes are living at that point in time).

That’d actually provide me with a few key things:

1. Intentionality. Anything I make gets written down.
2. Journaling. I’m a big fan of journaling or blogging or whatever it is people do to talk about what they’re thinking, so this gives me a quasi-way of doing that.
3. Reducing clutter. Right now, EVERY recipe I have resides in Evernote; there’s a couple dozen that have never been made in the 7+ years I’ve been cataloging them. Pruning or purging is hard, because “well what if I want to make this someday?” This would help me eliminate clutter.

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? You have a better suggestion? You should hit me up on Twitter and let me know!

Every year around mid-November, I find myself pouring over blogs, articles, and all of my saved recipes in order to find the perfect dishes for Thanksgiving. I’m telling you that so that you understand what the true purpose of this post is: not a put-down of your beloved recipes, but a storehouse for mine¹.

Note: My Thanksgiving dinner is no more perfect than yours; I’m just super happy about how everything turned out this year, and wanted to share the recipes with all of you.

I’ve been making Thanksgiving dinner for my family for about 4 or 5 years now, back when my wife and I were dating/engaged. It’s routinely us, her parents, and my dad at the dinner table, though one year it also included my wife’s sister, her husband, and their three children. Some of us are somewhat adventurous eaters, but I distinctly remember my mother-in-law telling me one year “I just want a plain turkey with salt and pepper. Don’t do anything fancy.” So I’ve known that whatever I make not only has to be great, but it has to appeal to the masses.

(One quick tip before we begin: are you someone that panics and wonders “oh no, when is {thing} supposed to go into the oven?” Use a spreadsheet and plan it all out like I did.)

So, without further ado, here are the recipes that I made this year (plus some commentary, because what’s a blog without commentary):

Gordon Ramsay’s Christmas Turkey + Gravy

(For those that like to read, here is a link to the turkey recipe)

I love Gordon Ramsay. His energy is a combination of a kid in a candy store plus a Wall Street day trader strung out on coke, but that kind of energy is infectious, you know?

To be honest, I never liked turkey before I tried this recipe. It was always dry and gross, no flavor, just a boring meat that nobody should cook. Now? I look forward to this every year. It’s a blast, it’s really not that hard, and the best part is that it’s just chilling on your counter while everything else bakes².

The gravy is also an excellent one, full of flavor, and you get to make it right in the roasting pan over a couple of burners, which always makes me feel like an actual chef whenever I do it. Pro tip: as soon as you put the turkey in the oven, use the giblets and start making a stock out of them. Replace the chicken broth in Gordon’s recipe with this stock. It’s delicious.

Bon Appétit’s Simple Stuffing

In previous years, I had made a sausage and herb stuffing for Thanksgiving. It always turned out delicious, but I felt that doubling up on the meats lent itself to being really dense and heavy.

Bon Appétit has been on heavy rotation for me lately; they’re one of the handful of YouTube channels that I watch every video of. Tons of inspiration, lots of laughs, and extremely educational. So when they said “oh, THIS stuffing is THE stuffing”, I knew I had to give it a shot. And wouldn’t you know, they were right. Absolutely perfect in every way, delicious, and a crowd pleaser. This was one of my 3 new recipes for this year, and one that’ll stick around for a long time.

Bon Appétit’s Ultra-Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Look, you can be as healthy as you wanna be on Thanksgiving, and I’m not going to stop you. If you want bland, boring potatoes that take forever and just kinda sit there on your plate, be my guest.

But if you wanna put in like 5 minutes of extra work to make some heavenly potatoes? These are what you should make. As the 2nd new recipe I made this year (and the 2nd from Bon Appétit), I know there are some things I’d do slightly different next year³, but they WILL be made again next year.

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

This recipe crossed my Twitter feed the Monday before Thanksgiving, and was the 3rd new one I made this year. It seems a little daunting; making soup just for a casserole?!? Where the heck do I even find dried shiitake mushrooms?

Oh. My. God. Y’all, this was SO worth it. That soup was delicious, the casserole turned out amazing, and I will definitely make this again.

(Bonus points: you can make the soup up to a week ahead of time, so you can just assemble day-of and go.)

My mother-in-law’s scalloped corn

We’re gonna end this post on the most not-good-for-you thing on the menu, and quite possibly my wife’s most favorite food in existence. This one’s not posted online, so I’m just gonna write it out here. You need:

• A pound of Oscar Meyer* thin smokey bacon
• 2 tubes of Ritz* crackers
• 2 cans of Delmonte* creamed corn
• 2 eggs

The prep is super easy too.

• Cook up the bacon in whatever way you prefer, let it cool, and then dice it up. (You can do this the day before)
• In a decently sized oven-safe bowl, combine the crackers and the corn. Whisk up the eggs, then add them & the bacon in and combine.
• Bake at 350°F for about 1 hour.

Note that most of the ingredients call for a specific brand; I’m not the expert on this one, I’ve just been specifically instructed to not f*** this up because using alternatives makes for an inferior tasting product.

And that’s it! That’s the Lake Family Thanksgiving, leaving us with full stomachs, tons of leftovers, and a happy family. Next year, I might make a cranberry sauce from scratch… anything else? Do you have a favorite recipe that you think I should add? Or is your version better than one of the ones I found? Hit me up on Twitter and let’s chat about it.

If you polled the people closest to me and asked them to rate my patience on a scale from 1 to 10, I’m confident that most of the results would come in below a 5. If not, then they clearly don’t know me well enough. Patience is something that I’ve never embodied in my life, much to my detriment at times.

For those unaware, I just started a new job on Monday. I’m now back in the software development world, using new languages (Ruby/Rails) that I’ve never used before¹. My coworker who is guiding me through a lot of the stuff has told me numerous times “don’t worry about being useful for the first month or so, just pick up what you can and learn.”

And lemme tell you, as someone with 0 patience? I take that as a challenge. “What do you mean, I won’t be useful for a month??? I can pick this stuff up quick! Look, here’s a pull request!!!” I have no desire to sit at my desk and feel useless; being bored at work is the worst.

Or hey, let’s talk about my Kickstarter that failed miserably. I was all fired up, ready to go, ready to get back into making some great music. I got some swanky headshots taken, I figured out exactly how much I needed to raise, and I made my Kickstarter page look really nice.

My wife, who runs her own business and does her own marketing, told me numerous times “make sure you’ve got an emotional hook,” or “plan out some content to post in the coming days,” or “don’t just expect people to donate, give them a reason.” And of course, being the stubborn idiot that I am, I completely ignored her. “My music is great. People will love it! I got this,” I thought.

The result? I got a ton of people to donate on the first couple of days, and then nothing. And since I’m impatient, instead of actually following her wonderful suggestions, I got mad and frustrated and watched my plans completely crash and burn.

One more example: take a look at all of my 2019 goals I set. 6 of my 7 goals are currently not completed. Only 1 or 2 of those actually has a shot. And you know why? Because I set massive, 365-day-long goals, didn’t see enough progress early on, got impatient, and gave up.

Does this last one sound like you? Did you set some goals for this past year and give up because of a lack of early-year progress?

Then do what I’m gonna do in 2020: don’t make yearly goals. Make them quarterly, or even monthly.

One thing I learned at my last job is that when you’re working on a project, not only do you need to set realistic expectations, you also set concrete and achievable milestones. Those milestones are almost more important when it comes to accomplishing your goals or projects. If you hit them, it gives you inspiration and something to hang your hat on. If you miss them, it gives you a chance to re-assess your long-term plan. Can you get back on track & hit the original deadline? Do you need to adjust and extend that deadline out a ways?

So. 2020. I’m going to be setting some long-term goals, and they’re gonna look similar to what they looked like this year. But my goals that I’m going to track? Those will be quarterly goals. Tangible steps that I can accomplish. A way for me to not get so discouraged if life happens and I miss the mark.

Will you join me?

Did you enjoy this post? Did something I say really resonate with you? Am I just flat-out wrong? Hit me up on Twitter and let’s chat about it.

I’ve come to discover that it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to be your own hype man if you’re not used to doing it on a regular basis. I’m gonna practice it now. Y’all ready?

Some of you may know that I have previously released music under the name The Music Plays You. I recently launched a Kickstarter for my next album, “Holophrase”, and it’s currently sitting at 21% funded (thank you so much to those who have contributed so far). I’m simultaneously excited & nervous about doing this, for a variety of reasons, and I thought I’d write a little blog post to talk about it.

Side note: I genuinely wonder how many other people who have run a Kickstarter have had Mötley Crüe’s “Kickstart My Heart” stuck in their head like I have.

Who or what is The Music Plays You?

The Music Plays You is my solo music project for all of my post-rock, ambient, and instrumental creations. I’ve been writing and recording music for it off and on since 2012, and after a 6 year hiatus, I’m ready to release some more tunes.

What exactly is “post-rock”?

Wikipedia defines post-rock as “a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbres over traditional rock song structure, chords, or riffs.” Basically, take any modern guitar-based rock music, take out the vocals, and then make it interesting enough that it never needed vocals in the first place. A couple popular post-rock acts include Sigur Rós, Radiohead (especially their work on the Kid A album), and Explosions in the Sky, who gained in popularity after being featured as the soundtrack to the TV show Friday Night Lights.

Why do you need to Kickstart this? Why not just release it?

My wife and I ran into some unexpected expenses when we moved this past fall, and it necessitated me selling off a lot of my recording equipment. So, some of the funds from this Kickstarter are going towards replacing those items.

Additionally, I learned after releasing my first EP that having someone master my album or create artwork for it should be something I plan from the beginning, and not an 11th hour afterthought. I’ve already reached out to people and gotten things lined up, and the rest of the funds will go towards that.

What does “holophrase” mean?

Let’s go back to Wikipedia again! “Holophrasis is the prelinguistic use of a single word to express a complex idea. A holophrase may resemble an interjection, but whereas an interjection is linguistic, and has a specific grammatical function, a holophrase is simply a vocalization memorized by rote and used without grammatical intent.”

Here’s an example: when a toddler says “Up!”, what they’re probably saying is “pick me up so I’m not on the floor.” “Food” might really mean “I’m hungry, and I would like something to eat.” “Ball” probably means “I want that ball that you currently have.”

The concept of a holophrase caught my attention about a year ago, and I’ve been fascinated with how that can and does shape my music. I’ve been gathering words that elicit feeling and emotions out of me, and using them to craft songs and melodies. I’ve not solidified any of the tracks yet, but you can hear an example of what the word Foundation elicited out of me once upon a time.

Why has it taken you 6 years to put out new music?

Oh man, you didn’t actually think you were gonna get out of here without an emotional hook, did you?

When I was 4 years old, I went and sat down at the family piano, and asked my mom (who was a piano teacher) to teach me how to play. I spent the next 14 years honing my craft, and eventually became one of the best under-18 piano players in the state of Iowa. I also picked up drums & percussion, bass, and guitar along the way as well. I was a 2-time All-State percussionist, and entered college as a music education major. While that didn’t pan out for me (got bit by the injury bug), music has never left my blood.

In the fall of 2012, while in the midst of recording my first EP Sailing, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. I rushed to finish it, because I wanted her to be able to hear what I had done.

I had planned to release the EP on my birthday, February 13th. My mom passed away 2 days earlier, on the 11th.

I am so incredibly thankful that I was able to share the EP with her before its release, because I felt like it was a way of saying “thank you” for all that she had done for me. But for years afterwards, my desire & energy to make music has dwindled to the point where I haven’t really sought out making music.

After some conversations with a couple of people this summer, that energy has been rekindled, and I am ready to jump head-first back into the fray. Sitting and feeling sad and not using the talents & gifts my mom helped me develop doesn’t do anyone any good; I’d rather release more music and put all of this energy and emotion to good use.

So yeah. The Kickstarter is live, and will run until August 23rd. I’m so excited about this album, and I hope you all are as well. Any amount helps, even if all you can afford is $1. Thank you so much for your support, and I cannot wait to share this music with all of you.

Well, I intended to do this quarterly, but I kinda dropped the ball on it, so I guess I’ll be doing 3 updates this year on my goals progress. Mostly for me, but also for you!

Goal 1: Lose 36 lbs

I’m currently down 8.4lbs, which is great! However, I lost 8.8lbs in the first month, when I was hyper-focused on my goal (and I got the flu and a nasty cold, which sucked but also helped me shed some weight pretty fast). Also, if I wanted to be keeping pace, I should be down an extra 3.6lbs (12.4 net), so I’m a little behind there. I’m looking forward to getting back into yoga heavily, focusing hard on what I’m eating, and getting out on the bike as the weather warms up.

Goal 2: Cook 12 new recipes

I’m currently sitting at 7, with most of those coming in the first month as we got hyper-focused on eating better. The Egg Roll in a Bowl is outstanding, and we’ve made it a handful of times since. The cucumber chips are probably my wife’s favorite. Looking forward to some more stuff out on the grill!

Goal 3: Record 12 songs, and release a new album

Honestly not sure if this is going to happen or not. I’ve had a few realizations in the past few weeks that have helped me understand why I have such a hard time making music nowadays, and I’m not sure if that’s something I’m going to be able to get past or not. I have TONS of ideas ready to go, though.

Goal 4: Complete 12 video games

Bad news: I haven’t completed any yet.

Good news: I have 5 in flight, with 3 (Pokemon Let’s Go, Dark Souls 1, and Half Life) nearing the finish line.

GREAT news: Last night, I hit Gold in League of Legends on my main account. This is something I’ve been trying to do for 6 years now, and I finally accomplished my goal. I immediately uninstalled the game, as I know I have a HUGE backlog to get through. I’ll likely go back in June, but I wanted to force myself to have May to focus on other games. I don’t have League, Overwatch, WoW, or Apex installed currently, so we’ll see if that helps galvanize me.

Goal 5: Read 12 books

I’m super impressed as to how well I’ve done on this so far. 5 books down, although technically only 4 count, as I had a mini-rule that only 3 of the books I read could be repeats. The Armored Saint by Myke Cole is the only new book I’ve read so far this year (and it was great!). Up next is The Eye of the World, the first of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Goal 6: Write 36 blog posts

Not doing great here! I should be at 12, but this is #5 (although I have at least 3 more topics in the works). Once I start getting some games completed, that will help as well. If you’ve got any topics you’d like me to write about, PLEASE let me know!

Goal 7: Finish writing (and start running) my D&D campaign

This goal has hit a major speed bump. For one, I’ve not made the time to work on this since February. For another, my D&D group has not played in over a month; schedules have gotten crazy, a child has been born, and we’ve just not made it a priority for ourselves. This was last on my list for a reason, as I wanted to prioritize pretty much everything else above it, but I would like to do more with this at some point soon.

So there it is; my 4 month update. Some goals are going great, some not so great… but that’s ok! These were just guidelines to help me feel like I’m doing something with my year, and things always change in terms of life priorities and the like.

How are your goals going? Do you need some motivation? Do you have any motivation for me? Use the hashtag #GoalsUpdate when you message me on Twitter and let’s chat!

13 years ago today, I got news that completely changed the course of my life.

For those that are not aware, I entered college as a music education (percussion) major. I’d been a 2-time All-State percussionist, as well as one of the best non-collegiate piano players in the state of Iowa. I have perfect pitch. In addition to piano and percussion, I was & am an excellent guitar & bass player. Music had been in my blood since I was 4 years old, and 18 year old me had aspirations of becoming a drumline/marching band instructor at a huge high school in Texas.

Unfortunately, for years, I had dealt with tendinitis in my right arm. The leading causes of tendinitis stemmed from playing piano, drums, basketball, and baseball; I played them all. During my junior year of high school, I actually quit playing piano (much to the chagrin of my mother) in order to help manage the decrease the repetitive motion that my arm took. I was going to rehab multiple times a week, wearing wrist guards to restrict movement & those stupid tennis elbow bands to make a fashion statement¹. But still, I remained adamant; I was going into education, and I was going to play drums.

College started, and I was thrown onto the snare line for marching band. 14 hours a week (20, if it was a game week) of marching and playing, and that’s not counting practice. Percussion lessons that required me to be in the practice rooms for at least an hour a day. Wind symphony. African drum ensemble. Accompanying a variety of vocal & instrumental students. It was more than a full time job that necessitated repetitive motions in order to survive, improve, and thrive. And of course, I never talked about it with anyone, because why would I want to show weakness?

Eventually, I started having to wear that wrist guard as I played. It was a brace that had a thin aluminum plate running from my right palm down to my mid-forearm, helping to keep my wrist from bending forward, which was the cause of the most pain. It certainly helped the pain management, but it made practicing & performing more and more difficult. It was March, and I was racing to make it through my finals in order to rest for a few months.

Cue a Wind Symphony concert in mid April, 2006. My last group performance of the year. Get through that, get through my practical on snare, timpani, and marimba, and I was home free.

On the very last song, I played the chimes. Large metal pipes that I literally hit with a hammer. With about a minute to go, with the song at its peak, I played the first note with my right hand, and could HEAR a tendon in my wrist snap. Pain like I’d never felt before. I gutted it out and finished the concert, packed up my things, and sat in the little break area right by all of the percussion practice rooms for nearly an hour, trying to figure out what the fuck I was going to do.

13 years ago today, I got new that completely changed the course of my life. Surgery was required. They needed to repair the torn tendon in my wrist, and they also went in to the tendons in my elbow and poked thousands of microscopic holes in them, in order to give the inflammation room to go. I couldn’t get in until after finals, but I also could not use my arm in the meantime. I had to get a medical withdrawal from my percussion lessons, which means I couldn’t complete my Year 1 requirements, which means that I couldn’t continue on to Year 2. “Well maybe you can come do your practical at the end of the summer before classes start.” Ok, except I’m going to be in a cast until July, then doing rehab for 3-6 months, so that puts me at anywhere from September to December.

So I changed my major to computer science. And I hated it. And I ended up flunking out of college and being forced to go to community college in order to get my GPA back up. But then depression showed up and I ended up not going to my classes. Flunked out of community college. Ended up crawling back to the university and begging for help. Got a medical withdrawal from my failed semester, took 2 summer classes to claw my GPA out of the depths, switched my major AGAIN to Management Information Systems (business + computers), and dove back in. I took the 7 year road through college, finally graduating when I was 25.

My life now looks nothing like what I thought my life would be when I was about to graduate from high school. But that’s ok. That happens. Honestly, at this point, I’d be more concerned if my life looked EXACTLY like I hoped it would’ve. I’m sure the weather in Texas would be generally nicer than what it is here in Iowa, but I’ve got a lot of other great things that make how my life turned out just fine, thank you.

My job requires me working on computers all day. Most of my hobbies revolve around computers in one way or another. It’d make sense not to throw all of that into complete disarray, right?

It would. Which CLEARLY means I gotta screw with it somehow.

For the vast majority of people that are reading this, you are using a computer keyboard with the QWERTY layout. This has been the standard layout since the 1870s, when the typewriter was invented. Back then, the keyboard layout was dictated by mechanical limitations; pressing keys next to each other in rapid succession could cause it to jam, so keys had to be strategically placed to minimize that as much as possible. Another small (and possibly unintentional) of the QWERTY layout is that you can type the word “typewriter” on the top row, which would’ve been great for demonstrative purposes.

So why switch? Why buck the trend and intentionally make life difficult for myself?

Well, one major reason is ergonomics. As you can see in the image below, the QWERTY keyboard spreads the most-used keys all over the keyboard. The Dvorak layout attempted to solve this issue back in the 1930s, but never caught on for a variety of reasons. The layout does manage to bring most of the main keys onto the home row, but EVERYTHING seemingly gets shifted. Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste commands that you and I take for granted would have to be completely relearned. Colemak, on the other hand, manages to bring everything in line without sacrificing every shortcut you might be used to.

“But how am I supposed to switch? Wouldn’t that be confusing?” For sure. Making a direct transition is something that would probably cause a ton of headaches, and likely severely impact productivity. I wouldn’t recommend trying to learn at home while sticking with QWERTY at work; the repetition is part of what will help anchor the muscle memory.

So what’s the solution? A transition method called Tarmak. Instead of shifting all of the keys all at once, you only shift about 4 keys at a time. This gives you a chance to learn those specific locations before moving on to the next step. Some people do a step every day, others do a step per week, and some go as long as a month before moving on to the next steps. Myself, I just transitioned to Step 3 of 5 this morning, and I’ve found myself spending about 5 days with each step.

My thoughts so far are mostly positive. My typing speed is WAY down; I’m doing my best to focus on being precise with my typing, as opposed to just backspacing and fixing mistakes. I’m able to reliably hit 50+ WPM after 5 days with each step, but switching drops it back down again. I think it’s pretty cool to see how little my fingers have to move to type things, or how little the letter J is actually used, considering it lives right underneath your left pointer finger. I’m also fretting over what rebinding all of my keys for gaming is gonna be like, but that’s a mostly minor issue.

Overall, though, this has been an enjoyable exercise that I’m going to keep progressing with, if only because I’m stubborn and don’t like giving up. If you’re looking for a nerdy project to challenge yourself with, or if you deal with wrist pain and would enjoy typing being just a little easier, I highly recommend you giving Colemak a try.

• Game: Apex Legends
• Platform: PC (also on console)
• Developer: Respawn Entertainment
• Publisher: EA

Battle Royale games have taken over the gaming industry over the last few years. After The Hunger Games made its mark on the movie industry, mods for games like Minecraft and ARMA 2 (the DayZ mod) popped up fairly quickly, giving players arenas to battle it out for map supremacy. Soon, standalone games like PUBG (itself a mod of the DayZ mod) and Fortnite took over, becoming not only insanely popular, but managing to deeply integrate themselves into pop culture. The success of Fortnite was one that many thought would not be overcome for a long time; its absolute dominance over the attention spans of gamers worldwide seemed absolute.

And then EA released Apex Legends.

I’ve actively been uninstalling a lot of “time sink” games from my computer (Overwatch and League of Legends, mostly) so that I could play other smaller and/or single player games. When Apex dropped, I thought “well, it’s free, so I can give it a try at least”. It was literally overnight that this game took over most of my gaming time, as well as the time of so many other people. 2 million people downloaded the game in the first day, and over 10 million had played within 72 hours. An absolutely absurd, unheard-of adoption rate.

(Below is a clip of a recent game I played with some of my friends. Excuse the swearing.)

There are a few major reasons why I think the game is so successful:

• A smaller game. Most battle royale games give you a massive map with up to 100 people, and give you a ton of options on how to play (solo, duos, squads, first person or third person, etc.). Apex doesn’t do this; 60 players, 20 teams of 3, on a map that still feels large, and yet encourages you moving around pretty quickly using…

• The great mobility options. Slide down hills. Climb over walls (commonplace now, but not a default in the early stages of some of these games). Use balloons to launch yourself back into the air. Getting around the map is refreshing and fun; while there are a few instances that you might have to cover long distances in open space, there are usually a couple of loot boxes for you and your team to pick up.

• The communication options. While I often am playing with friends, I’ll still fly solo with 2 random teammates. I know there are many players out there that would rather not have to speak to their teammates for various reasons, and in Apex, you don’t have to. The pinging system works incredibly well, allowing you to give nearly complete context of what you’re doing or what is on the map to the rest of your team without a microphone. I anticipate this being a fixture in any future battle royale games that hit the market.

• The speed of the game. I was big into Call of Duty back in college, and the pace of Apex is right on the cusp of that series. While there are definitely moments of tranquility as you traverse across the aforementioned open areas or loot a tucked away zone, the fights are routinely fast and furious. And yet… even with all the blitz and blam, there is still enough time to make calculated decisions, to use abilities for disengaging or repositioning. The guns are strong but not TOO strong, the clips are big enough except oh crap reload reLoAd RELOAD!!!, and the ability to have your teammates bring you back after being knocked down makes this game have absolute perfect pacing.

(Another clip of a win from last night.)

The biggest complaints I’ve seen about this game so far are somewhat dumb; that being “all the paid content is too expensive!!!” Well, Dave, the game is COMPLETELY FREE. They need to recover the money from somewhere, yeah? Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever make a single purchase with actual money in this game, but that’s just me.

My praise for Apex honestly could not be any higher. They’ve already given us a new gun (which is great), and there are enough other guns, gadgets, and settings from the Titanfall universe that they can expand with in the future. The servers are getting better every day. The devs and community managers are out in front, actively engaging on Reddit and Twitter about both the good and the less good with the game, and it sounds like Respawn has plans to continue churning out content and improvements over the coming weeks & months.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve been typing for too long, and I need to go drop in.

Did you enjoy this review? Did I skip anything important? Do you want to tell me how wrong I am? Use the hashtag #ApexReview when you message me on Twitter and let’s chat!

(Not So) Fun fact: on Wednesday, Jan 30, 2019, the projected temperature in Des Moines (with wind chill) will be 122 degrees colder than it will be inside my house.

It’s anticipated that cars left outside will have extreme difficulty starting in those conditions. Buses won’t operate because the diesel will gum up. These finely crafted & tuned machines¹ still have trouble functioning in every climate.

The same can be said for human beings. This is literally Death Weather. The update going around right now is “hey, if your skin starts to blister from the cold (because that’s normal behavior, right?), seek medical attention immediately”. As I type this, I literally got a Groupon in my inbox for a cryotherapy session. Come to Iowa, we have that for free!

Automobiles can’t be expected to function in every climate. Human bodies definitely don’t function well in this kind of weather. So why do we have an expectation that our minds work well all the time?

There are certain circumstances where we just cannot be the best versions of ourselves. Sometimes it’s when you have a high-stress project at work. Maybe you’ve had something preventing you from participating in your normal self-care routines, like a lack of free time or an injury. Or maybe it’s LITERALLY colder than Antarctica outside, and you haven’t seen the sun in weeks, and you’d rather stay in bed with your partner and your cats than do anything even remotely resembling “being an adult”.

This doesn’t have to be allocated to the winter months either, but it feels especially relevant now. Seasonal Affective Disorder (or SAD) is definitely a thing, and my wife and I both suffer hard from this. This week is going to be a tough one, and I know it. There’s not an easy “fix”, as it were, but there is a simple way to try and stave it off.

And that is to start.

Whatever it is you need to or want to be doing. Just start.

When your car is cold, there’s really only so much you can do but cross your fingers and hope that it turns over. Once it starts, then it’s just a matter of getting warmed up; the hardest part is already out of the way.

I know that tomorrow night, I’m not going to want to record a new song. For whatever reason, beginning that process is just something I have a hard time with. But once I get going, it’s easy for the juices to flow.

I know that thinking about writing a blog post is easy, but there’s a reason that this is only my 2nd one of the year… because up until right now, I haven’t taken the time to really start. And as soon as I did, it’s like the words jumped from my brain and onto this post.

So here’s your motivation for today. Think of that thing that you know needs to be done, whether for work or for pleasure. Ignore all the reasons why you shouldn’t.

Get to the place you need to be.

Silence your mind.

And start.

Congratulations, everyone. We made it¹ to the end of 2018.

It’s been an absolutely crazy year for me. A new job started. A ton of fun games released. A new kitten acquired. A house purchased. 2018 was definitely a blast, and yet I feel like some things have been lacking from it.

I think I narrowed down the cause; beyond these huge, major milestones, I feel like I didn’t accomplish a whole lot this year. I used to give myself some goals back in the day, and while I wouldn’t always achieve them, I felt like they gave me some guidance and organization to my life. When I transitioned to a business analyst this spring, I realized that I thrive on structure and having clear-cut goals to accomplish.

So! For the first time since 2013, I’m going to set some goals for my upcoming year. I routinely post my goals to my blog a) in order to have access everywhere, and b) to have public accountability.

So without further ado, here are my goals:

Lose 36 lbs

The obvious weight loss goal. I’ve been wanting to get under 160 lbs for years, and 2019 seems like the perfect year to finally achieve this.

Cook 12 new recipes

The food that we’ve been making and eating at home has become a little boring, so I’m gonna spice things up and try out some brand new recipes. Entrees, appitizers, sides, or baking; anything is fair game here.

Record 12 songs, and release a new album

It’s time. My first release is nearly 6 years old at this point.

Complete 12 video games

I talk about my list of games all the time, and it’s finally time to start cracking away at some of these. I’m setting this goal with the intention of getting away from the same ol’ games I play all the time (League, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, mostly). I’ve already earmarked Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us (which I will definitely be streaming), and Bloodborne as games to beat this year; if you’ve got ideas for others, let me know.

Read 12 books

Anyone else notice a pattern here? Everything is in 12s (or at least multiples of 12). I figure it’s SO MUCH EASIER to say “oh yeah let’s read 1 book this month” than it is to say “yeah I wanna read 30 books this year” like I did in 2013 (spoiler: I only read 7). I used to read all the time (see #15 on this list), and I’ve lost the habit since graduating from college. (Side note: I’m only allowed to count a maximum of 3 books that I’ve read before on this list. Gotta have some new variety.)

UPDATE: I created a spreadsheet (because of course I did) with some books that I want to read. If you’d like to add to it, you should tweet me your recommendations.

Write 36 blog posts

I have this post up for a few reasons. If I know I have to make posts, it’ll motivate me to finish more games, since I can use my game reviews as part of this. I’ll also likely write about my weight loss journey, food I’ve made, books I’ve read, or stuff about the songwriting process. I’m also attempting to be on Facebook less, and since I’m going to try to not post as much, I figure I can use this blog as a nice way to keep interested parties updated as to what’s going on in my life.

Finish writing (and start running) my D&D campaign

I have been in the midst of writing a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for a few years now. Progress is… slow? Kinda steady, but mostly slow. I have so many people that have expressed interest in playing that I’ll likely have to run a couple of campaigns simultaneously, which is intimidating, but also flattering and exciting. We’ve got a coffee shop really close to our house, so I’m gonna try and start going in there some mornings and flesh out the remaining framework of the world so this can begin.

So that’s it. 7 goals. Some easier than others, but all of them definitely achieveable if I put some effort into them. I’ll be coming back to this post frequently and updating it with my progress (mostly for me, but in case you feel like helping me hold myself accountable too). Hopefully next Christmas, I’ll be able to post about how I achieved every single one of these, and be able to push myself to even more challenging goals for 2020.

If you feel like encouraging me, harrassing me, or just want to say hello, you should stop by my Twitter page and tweet at me. Tell me about all of your goals for the coming year, and what you’re doing to help yourself stay accountable!