Posts Tagged travel

2021 Retrospective

Another year passes, and it’s time for one of my annual year-in-review posts. Unfortunately this will be the 2nd year in a row that isn’t particularly cheerful!

It was a year that held hope that we would emerge from the pandemic, and life would return to normal. The bright spots were resuming our previously cancelled travel plans, and the addition of two energetic kitten brothers to the family. Unfortunately it was also a pretty grim year that hit our family pretty hard, with the loss of two family members within the space of 6 weeks. A beloved uncle in Australia lost his long struggle with multiple illnesses, and my father-in-law passed away suddenly the following month. Neither were COVID-related, but these losses still hit hard just the same.

On the work front, I finally returned to the office one day per week starting in October. It was a bit strange resuming the commute and having to wear a mask all day, but it was good to catch up with coworkers I hadn’t seen in well over a year. Despite working from home most of the year, it was still very challenging dealing with projects across multiple timezones with tight deadlines. What made it even more challenging was coping with the aftermath of the resignations of several key coworkers both locally and overseas.

As with 2020, my personal fitness last year was still pretty abyssmal. We walked around the block when the weather was nice and did some hiking on vacation, but that was about the extent of my exercise. This year we either need to get our old treadmill fixed or buy a new one!

I’m still enjoying collecting and playing Magic: The Gathering (card game) in paper form and on MTG Arena (on PC), but haven’t played any tournaments in a game store since earlier 2020. I still visit my local game stores when new sets are released, but it’s tough when COVID is still affecting organized play. On a related note, my Magic card unboxing / gameplay YouTube channel continues to grow, reaching 18.2K subscribers in 2021 with almost 5 million total views. It’s sometimes a tricky juggling act to keep it going, but that’s all part of the fun of YouTube! Between some modest ad revenue, card sales, and support from patrons (via Patreon), I’m mostly able to cover the costs of running the channel.

There’s nothing new to report about my fiction writing efforts. I had neither the time nor inclination last year!

I participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge again last year. I didn’t read much, but it was more than 2020, so I’m calling that a win! Here’s the list for 2021:

Saint Death by Mark Dawson
The Sierra Adventure: The Story of Sierra On-Line by Shawn Mills
Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings: The Rise and Fall of Sierra On-Line by Ken Williams
The YouTube Formula by Derral Eves

Now for some stats:

2021 Stats:

New apps released: 0
App updates released: 4 (includes Lite and Paid versions)
YouTube videos released: 776
YouTube channel subscribers: 6,465
Books read: 4

Sales for my iOS, Mac, and PC apps continued to decrease in 2021. I was able to release some long-awaited iOS updates for Orchid Album and Artwork Tracker, however this had zero affect on sales. Development expenses were thankfully pretty low in 2021, aside from time. I still need to complete some major updates for two other iOS apps (Plant Album and Cactus Album), but ran out of time last year.

I’m still keeping my remaining tropical bonsai trees alive, but haven’t accumulated any new ones in many years. We were able to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden a few times in 2021, and it was good to see their collection of trees alive and well, along with visiting the rest of the garden. We were also able to visit the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford for the first time in over a decade.

I grew veggies in our garden as usual, including tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, and zucchini. We had a ridiculous crop of cucumbers and zucchini, and even found a pumpkin and a gourd growing early in the season! The pumpkin grew pretty huge, and it was suspiciously similar to one we let rot in the garden from the previous year. I grew some giant sunflowers in the veggie garden and self-watering pots, which the local wildlife loved when the seeds started drying out.

We were thankfully able to resume all our travel plans that were set aside in 2020. During summer we visited Isle Royale National Park in Michigan, along with some sights along the way to Grand Portage, Minnesota (where the ferry departed from). That was a fantastic place to visit, with plenty of hiking through some incredible scenery. On the way back we spent some time at a beach house in Door County Wisconsin, relaxing on the beach and doing some kayaking and geocaching. The previous month my wife and son went on an epic RV trip out west with the inlaws, but unfortunately I had to stay home and work. I had to be satisified with their fun tales and awesome photos. Over Christmas we were also able go on our repeatedly-cancelled cruise to the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao), but were sad my father-in-law wasn’t there with us.

So that was my 2021: a year of mingled hope, adventure, and terrible sadness. In my 2020 recap I said I’d like to lose the excess pandemic weight, read more, and travel more. Two out of three isn’t bad! For 2022 I’ll be thankful to have a safe and healthy family, and hope I don’t have to learn too many more letters of the Greek alphabet.

I hope you had a better year, and have a great 2022 and beyond. Happy New Year!

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2020 Retrospective

Congratulations! If you’re reading this, you survived 2020! I’ve been doing these annual year-in-review posts every year for over a decade, and I think this is the first one that’s not especially cheerful. I thought about not bothering this year, but decided I might as well keep the habit going as a record of my year that was.

While the year got off to a reasonable start, things went way off the rails in mid-March when it became clear COVID-19 was going to run out of control unless urgent measures were taken. Around that time I started working from home, and our son had to move to remote-learning. My wife is in the healthcare field, so she had no such option. While we dealt with sky-high anxiety for much of the year, along with some scares, I’m still extremely thankful my family is safe and healthy!

I had hoped that not having a daily commute would give me more free time, but what ended up happening was I had to work more, including many late nights and weekends. I noticed the same thing happening with co-workers as well. This was not always by choice, since we were under tremendous pressure to deliver for multiple projects. I suspect there was an expectation that since everyone was working from home, they could easily handle the extra workload. I was definitely noticing signs of burnout by the end of the year, so I hope everyone was able to take some restful time off at the end of the year!

I complained about my fitness last year, and this year wasn’t much better. Like most people, I gained a bunch of weight and didn’t get much exercise. The treadmill still isn’t fixed either. Maybe 2021? On the plus side, we probably walked around the neighborhood more times in 2020 than we had since moving into our house 16 years ago. That minimal exercise is better than nothing!

I still enjoy playing the Magic: The Gathering card game now and then on MTG Arena (on PC), but haven’t played any tournaments in a game store since earlier in the year (before in-store play was totally shutdown) when I participated in a prerelease event for a new set. This event was at the new store started by one of the regulars at my old game stores. In a surprising turn of events, my old game store that closed last year actually sprang back to life during the Summer. I’m pleased that both stores have managed to stay afloat, and I do what I can to support them.

In 2020 I also dabbled in a new hobby: building and painting Warhammer miniatures! I didn’t spend as much time as I would have liked on this, but the time I did spend was relaxing and fun. On the subject of painting, we also attended an acrylic painting class for my wife’s birthday. All three of us painted a Christmas scene on canvas, and they all turned out pretty well.

My Magic card unboxing / gameplay YouTube channel is still going strong. It reached 11.7K subscribers in 2020 and racked up another 1.4 million views. I’m honestly surprised I was able to keep it going, but I think working on that and some of my other personal projects kept me from turning into a complete nervous wreck. The ad revenue is pretty low, but with support from patrons (via Patreon) I’m able to mostly cover the costs of running the channel. That became a little more challenging by the fourth quarter, so I had to make some changes that will hopefully keep things on solid footing for 2021 and beyond.

My second YouTube channel (Funko Pop-themed, started in May 2018) is pretty much dead at this point. I put together a few videos in 2020, but didn’t have the time or motivation to do much more than that. That channel reached 1.3K subscribers, which will probably end up being its peak.

I could pretty much cut and paste my comments about my fiction writing efforts for 2020 from the previous year. Nothing new on this front. I didn’t have the time or motivation!

Last year I again took part in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I had grand plans, but then the pandemic happened and my attention span for leisure-reading promptly vanished. Here’s the sorry list for 2020:

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
The Cleaner by Mark Dawson

At the moment I have a couple of fun reads I need to get back to. I’m reading a history of the Sierra game company (The Sierra Adventure: The Story of Sierra On-Line by Shawn Mills) and the second John Milton thriller by Mark Dawson (Saint Death). I should wrap those up in the next month or two.

Now for some stats:

2020 Stats:

New apps released: 0
App updates released: 11 (includes Lite and Paid versions)
YouTube videos released: 621
YouTube channel subscribers: 4,766
Books read: 2

Sales for my iOS, Mac, and PC apps were pretty similar to 2019 (i.e. low). However, I did much better with working on updates, releasing 3 for the Lite and paid iOS versions of Bonsai Album, 2 for Story Tracker iOS, and 1 for Story Tracker Mac. These were all a significant amount of work, but what I learned can be used when I work on some long-awaited updates for my remaining apps. Development expenses were thankfully not significant in 2020, other than time. As I’ve found with previous years, my app sales are typically seasonal. There’s usually a burst around the first quarter followed by a gradual decline for the remainder of the year. To attempt to reverse this trend, I temporarily reduced prices of my iOS apps and permanently reduced the price of the Mac and PC versions. The result? I sold more units, but made about the same amount of revenue. So much for that idea!

My bonsai hobby was a bit miserable in 2020. I thought I was all set with my remaining trees, which are all tropical and typically the easiest to maintain and keep alive. I kept them going throughout the year, only to have a few die near the end of the year. I’m not sure if it was the early cold snap that did it, or briefly neglecting them during a particularly busy time, but the end result is the same. We didn’t visit any botanic gardens in 2020, though perhaps we should have?

I grew a bunch of vegetables in the garden, including tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, and zucchini. Despite planting them late, we still got a decent crop. The peppers were the only veggies that didn’t do that well. I’ve also continued to plant giant sunflowers in the veggie garden, and also in some self-watering pots. Those are always fun to look at.

All our well-laid travel plans were pretty much a shambles by March. We were supposed to go on a Spring Break cruise, and visit Isle Royale National Park in Michigan during Summer, but both trips were cancelled. Instead, we spent a cautious week in Door County, Wisconsin, and spent some time at the beachside hotel in Illinois Beach State Park. While we wore our masks and dined outdoors, we were shocked by the behaviour of so many people who roamed around and dined indoors as if it was just like any other Summer. This behaviour was the worst in Wisconsin. No wonder hospitals around the country are at capacity and the infection rate and death toll continue to climb exponentially!

So that was 2020. It wasn’t great for us, but could’ve been far worse. While I have a bunch of goals I’d like to accomplish in 2021 (lose the excess pandemic weight, read more, and travel more), I’ll just be enormously thankful to have a safe and healthy family, and hope that the U.S. and world at large finally puts an end to this nightmarish pandemic.

I hope you and yours made it through the year, and I wish you the best for 2021 and beyond. Happy New Year!

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2019 Retrospective

It’s hard to believe, but it’s now 2020! And just as I’ve done every year for the past decade, it’s time to take a look back at 2019 with my annual year-in-review post.

Overall, 2019 was a decent year for me, even with its challenging times (the day job, especially!).

Fitness-wise I regressed terribly, due to not making the time to exercise enough, and not getting our treadmill fixed. That’s on my to-do list for 2020 😉 Despite that, I’m still reasonably healthy, albeit with the usual aches and pains of age.

Last year we lost another beloved family pet. Our old cat (15 years) had been kicking around for several years now with poor eyesight, no purr, some strange nerve issues, and at least 3 close brushes with death, one of which we think might have been a stroke. The latter event finally put an end to his outdoor adventures, since he had no further desire to go outside. In his final few weeks he seemed to be more affectionate than usual, right up until his last moments. My wife and son witnessed the end and knew he was gone before they even took him to the vet. He leaves behind a family who will greatly miss him, along with two other cats that occasionally seem to wonder where he went. Hopefully they will stick around for a good many years yet!

I still enjoy my Magic: The Gathering card game hobby, though I haven’t played in any tournaments since last summer when my local game store closed down. That was a tough blow, especially since there are no closer stores that I enjoy visiting. It’s the 2nd store that’s closed since I’ve started playing! I still play online via MTG Arena (on PC), but it’s not quite the same as playing face-to-face. Recently a new game store has opened further afield, started by one of the guys I used to play against in tournaments over the years. I’m hoping to at least be able to attend prerelease events there in the coming year.

My Magic card unboxing / gameplay YouTube channel is still around, surpassing 7000 subscribers in 2019. It has had over 6 million minutes watched since I started it in July 2017, and over 1.2 million views. I still find these numbers staggering! With strong support from patrons (via Patreon) and modest ad revenue, the channel mostly covers its costs. I’m hoping it’ll continue to grow this year, despite the challenging and ever-changing landscape that is YouTube.

My second YouTube channel (started in May 2018) is another unboxing one related to Funko Pop figures. Aside from the unboxings, I also typically add some silly skits (with special effects) in each episode. That channel passed 1.2k subscribers last year, though it still has a long way to go to reach the minimum monetization thresholds. While this channel is a lot of fun, I’ve started to neglect it lately due to lack of time. Thankfully views haven’t dropped to zero yet, so the YouTube algorithm must still be promoting my older videos!

As with 2018, my fiction writing was non-existent. I simply didn’t have the time or motivation to get back into it. The only way that’s likely to change is if I wind down my YouTube channels, along with the ongoing work on my apps. I feel a bit sad about this, since I’ve spent a good many years of my life wanting to be a writer, yet making little progress.

Last year I again took part in the Goodreads Reading Challenge, but ended up miles from my goal. My reading was exclusively in eBook form. Here are my (paltry) reads for 2019:

Fire Water by Domino Finn
Death March by Domino Finn
Shadow Deal by M. L. McKnight

Can you tell I like to read Urban Fantasy?

Now for some stats:
2019 Stats:

New apps released: 0
App updates released: 3 (includes Lite and Paid versions)
YouTube videos released: 516
YouTube channel subscribers: 4,307
Books read: 3

My iOS, Mac and PC app sales continue to decline. I only released 3 app updates last year, including one for Bonsai Album PC, and updates for the Lite and paid versions of the iOS version. I’ve been struggling to update my apps since the iPhone X release, since there are now a whole slew of new iPhones and iPads with different screen variations. It didn’t help that my old Mac was no longer supported by the development tools, and I had to scrape together funds for a brand new Mac mini this year. Now that I’ve got the new Mac and have spent a bunch of time on the Bonsai Album iOS updates (released last week), I’m finally in good shape to get to work on updating my remaining apps. If only the screenshot automation tools worked and I didn’t have to manually take several hundred screenshots for each app in multiple languages! Since revenue was way down and expenses were way up (hello new Mac!), 2019 was a bad year for my apps. From past experience, updates unfortunately don’t move the needle on sales either. And people wonder why my apps don’t get updated very frequently these days!

Like 2019, my bonsai hobby pretty much just consists of keeping my remaining trees alive. I’m down to a handful of tropical trees, with the rest having perished due to harsh winters or pests. I didn’t attend any bonsai shows, though we did visit Morton Arboretum several times to see the magnificent Autumn colours.

I spent a fair bit of time in the garden this year, growing the usual selection of veggies (tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, cucumbers, and zucchini). We had some crop failures, including the peas, beans, and peppers. I suspect that was due to planting them so late. I didn’t bother with potatoes this time around either (too much work). Still, there’s nothing like veggies picked fresh from the garden!

Last year was another good year for travel. In addition to our trips back and forth to Michigan (including one work trip for training), we also went on a great American road trip with my parents! I visited Canada for the first time, driving to Niagara Falls and doing all the touristy stuff there, including visiting the town of Niagara on the Lake and the nearby fort. Back in the US, in Michigan we visited the Motown museum, Ford Piquette Avenue plant, and Frankenmuth. We also spent some time touring Niagara Falls on the US side, Old Fort Niagara, the Amanda Gish B&B in Elizabethtown PA, the chocolate museum in Hershey PA, the Civil War battleground town of Gettysburg, the Historic (and haunted!) 1757 Fairfield Inn, Harpers Ferry WV, George Washington’s estate in Mount Vernon VA, and the Frank Lloyd Wright architectural marvel that is Fallingwater, in rural Pennsylvania.

So that was my 2019. Not half bad! I’m long past setting New Year’s resolutions, but I would like to exercise a great deal more this year, and read a bunch more books than I managed last year.

I hope everyone had a great year, and I wish you all the best for 2020. Happy New Year!

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2018 Retrospective

It’s 2019! And with the arrival of the New Year, it’s time to take a look back at 2018 with my annual year-in-review post.

2018 was a good year for me, even with its fair share of ups and downs.

Fitness-wise I didn’t do quite as well as 2017, thanks to our treadmill breaking down later in the year. But I’m apparently still healthy, despite some lingering issues that have persisted over the past few years. I suspect most of that is partly the joy of being in your 40s!

We lost a beloved family pet last year. We bought our son a hamster for his birthday in 2016, and even knowing their short life-spans, we’d hoped it would live at least a few years. After some odd behaviour (biting my wife!) and a middle of the night escape from its cage, our hamster’s health continued to decline. It was sad seeing a healthy, energetic animal who’d spend all night running in her wheel, decline so suddenly. I think we’ve sworn off hamsters for the foreseeable future.

I still enjoy my Magic: The Gathering hobby, frequently attending weekly tournaments at a local game store throughout the year. That tapered off toward the end of the year as I became more worn-out from work, and the existing Standard-format cards rotated out of the format, rendering all my decks obsolete. Lately I’ve been playing more Magic online, in the form of MTG Arena. This is a great improvement over the other online game client (Magic: The Gathering Online aka MTGO), and I’ve been having fun leveling-up my skills and challenging viewers of my Magic YouTube channel. I’ve been testing a new Standard deck that seems to be performing well, so I’ll likely be heading back to the game store to take a paper version of the deck for a spin.

My Magic card unboxing channel continued to grow in 2018, passing 3000 subscribers and finally gaining YouTube monetization (i.e. ads). It has also had nearly 2 million minutes watched since I started it in July 2017, and over 350,000 views. These numbers still boggle my mind, though I suppose consistent effort sometimes yield results! Together with support from patrons (via Patreon), the channel has nearly covered its costs on a monthly basis. Hopefully it will continue to grow this year!

I also started a second YouTube channel back in May related to Funko Pop figures. Besides unboxing and talking about them, I also frequently add some silly skits in each episode. I particularly enjoy the ‘special effects’ aspect of these, even if it can be time consuming. I’m not able to devote as much time to this channel as I’d like, but I look forward to growing it in 2019.

Towards the end of the year we took part in some painting classes as a family, each painting a sunset landscape scene and a whimsical snowman. This was spurred by my wife and son attending a painting event to benefit a local animal shelter. This is something I’ve wanted to get into for years (I briefly tried oil painting), so I’m glad we were able to take these classes.

My fiction writing was non-existent for 2018. I neither wrote any new stories, nor submitted any to fiction markets. I had no real goals in mind, and honestly felt a bit dispirited about the whole thing. The bulk of my spare time was spent on the two YouTube channels and working on my apps. I did have some encouragement from coworkers who discovered my fiction, so that gave my confidence a bit of a boost!

Last year I again took part in the Goodreads Reading Challenge, though I didn’t reach my goal by a long-shot! My reading was exclusively in eBook form. Here are my reads for 2018:

Arsenal by Jeffery H. Haskell
Unstoppable Arsenal by Jeffery H. Haskell
Inescapable Arsenal by Jeffery H. Haskell
Let’s Get Digital 3rd Edition by David Gaughran
Shift by Hugh Howey
Outline Your Novel by Scott King
Dust by Hugh Howey
Plot Gardening by Chris Fox
Be A Writing Machine by M. L. Ronn
Heart Strings by Domino Finn
Powder Trade by Domino Finn
How to Write Your First Novel by M. L. Ronn
Writing for Life by J. H. Haskell

Aside from listening to heavy metal on SiriusXM, I still listen to some great short fiction podcasts on my daily commute, including Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and PodCastle. All highly recommended! The podcasts are free, but please donate or subscribe if you enjoy listening.

Now for some stats:

2018 Stats:

New apps released: 1
App updates released: 2 (includes Lite and Paid versions)
2018 Word count: 0
Stories written: 0
Stories published: 0
Total submissions: 0
Total acceptances: 0
Total rejections: 0
Waiting for response: 0
YouTube videos released: 599
YouTube channel subscribers: 3,782
Books read: 13

My iOS, Mac and PC app sales have declined significantly, particularly in the final quarter of 2017. I only released two app updates, having struggled for months to add support for the iPhone X screen layout and the myriad other changes in iOS 11 and iOS 12. I’d completed this process for one app, only to have Apple to release more new iPhones and iPads with even more screen variations. While I should have a good handle on making these updates, the more painful aspect is updating several hundred screenshots for all my apps in multiple languages. If only the screenshot automation tools were more reliable! Revenue was significantly lower than last year, though I did manage to keep expenses much lower also.

I released a new app in February, which was the PC version of Artwork Tracker. Despite numerous requests for this app over the years, sales so far have been abysmal. I’ve also had requests for a PC version of my iOS app, Plant Album, but I’m not planning such an app due to poor sales. At this point it seems like I’m close to saturating the market for my apps, but I’m hoping to stabilize the trend with more updates. Failing that, I’ve had a good run, having been working on my apps for over 10 years now!

As with last year, I didn’t do much with my bonsai this year except keep the remaining trees alive. There were no bonsai shows or botanic garden visits either. I still spent a fair bit of time in the garden this year, growing the usual selection of veggies (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, peas, beans, cucumbers, and zucchini). We had a nice crop this year!

Last year was another great year, travel-wise. In addition to our trips back and forth to Michigan, we also spent some time in Florida, and went on our first cruise with the in-laws. We visited Miami, Key West, Costa Maya (Mexico), the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza (Mexico), Grand Cayman, and Universal Studios. I enjoyed the cruise much more than I thought I would. The seas were pretty calm, and no one was seasick! In addition to this grand adventure, we also spent a few days at a cabin in the woods in Michigan, visited a Halloween event at Old World Wisconsin, and made a short pre-Christmas visit to Milwaukee.

The summer of 2018 was also apparently the summer of home improvement! We knew our roof and gutters were in bad shape, but we didn’t know exactly how bad until we had them inspected. We ended up with a new roof, soffit, fascia, and gutters! Now we’re having a much less stressful winter knowing the roof isn’t likely to cave-in or leak anytime soon due to snow and ice build-up. The downside is we’ll be paying for all this for a long time…

That’s pretty much it for 2018. I’m mostly done with New Year’s resolutions, since that’s an almost guaranteed way to ensure none of those goals are ever reached. Though I would like to make some time for my fiction writing again in 2019, assuming I can fit it in with all my other hobbies!

I hope everyone had a good year, and I wish you all the best for 2019. Happy New Year!

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2017 Retrospective

Now that 2018 has finally arrived, it’s time to take a look back at 2017 with my annual year-in-review post.

2017 was a tough year in many respects, as I’m sure it was for many other people. The health issues I mentioned in last year’s entry continue to linger, though all testing indicates I’m apparently as fit as a fiddle. It all no doubt comes down to the joys of ageing. Oh well!

I was pretty happy with my fitness level last year. Thanks to some goading by my Apple Watch’s New Year’s challenge, I ended up running 3-4 miles on the treadmill every day from January 1st through late April. I lost 20lbs in the process! This tapered off thereafter once the weather improved and I spent more time in the garden. Unfortunately once I’d slacked off with the exercise habit, I did very little for the rest of the year. I finished the year down 10lbs from when I started, which is quite a feat considering the gastronomic journey that was 2017!

We had some sad losses in the family during the year. Earlier in the year we lost our old cat after a long battle with various health issues. It was a sad and strange time after her passing, and even our other cat seemed to notice her absence. We have since adopted two new cats from a local animal shelter, one of which is fairly young and the other is middle-aged. They all seem to get on fairly well after their initial settling-in period. Three cats seems to be a good amount, aside from the problem of frequently tripping over cats resting in the hallway! With all of this, our vet bills were through the roof in 2017.

Later in the year we lost two grandparents on opposite sides of the world in the space of 2 weeks. This was a sad time for both sides of our family. Both grandparents lived long, full lives, and we’ll all dearly miss them.

I picked up a new hobby after watching lots of gaming videos while running on the treadmill. In April I bought a box of Magic: The Gathering cards, and soon thereafter found myself playing tournaments at a local card store. This was great fun, as well as being a good way to unwind, exercise the old brain cells, and socialize. That first store closed down in late July, leaving me without a good local game store. Luckily I found an even better one a further 10 minute drive away, and I’ve been heading there most weekends ever since.

Related to the new hobby, I also started a YouTube channel with card unboxings. That became a new hobby in itself! My previous YouTube channel has a single video showcasing my old iOS game, so it was quite a change going from that to a new channel that actually gets some views. I passed the 10k view mark back in late November, which in theory should make it eligible for monetization (i.e. ads). Monetization reviews are apparently severely backed-up at YouTube right now, so it’s anyone’s guess when (if?) it’ll be approved. In any case it’s a fairly small niche, so I don’t expect ads will bring in much revenue.

Surprising no one, my writing goals weren’t met last year. This seems to be an ongoing theme. I submitted a bunch of stories, but wrote very little new fiction. Most of my spare time went toward working on my apps and growing the new YouTube channel.

I entered two flash fiction competitions during the year, this time for PodCastle and Pseudopod. My Podcastle entry made it to the semi-final round, but the other one was knocked out in the first round. I wrote both stories at the last minute, and had a blast writing and reading all the other entrants in each contest.

Last year I read a decent amount, taking part again in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. My reading was exclusively in eBook form. Here are my reads for 2017:

Shadow Play by Domino Finn
Black Spark by Al K. Line
Android for iOS Developers : A Step by Step Guide by Adrian Kosmaczewski
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey
Generation Decks: The Unofficial History of Gaming Phenomenon Magic: The Gathering by Titus Chalk
Magic: The Gathering Drafting Guide for Beginners by Alexander Norland
Magic: The Gathering Rules and Getting Started, Strategy Guide, Deck Building for Beginners by Alexander Norland
Unidentified Funny Objects 5 by Alex Shvartsman
Productivity for Indie Authors: A Book about Doing Less and Making More by David Lee Martin
Relaunch your Novel: Breathe Life into your Backlist by Chris Fox
Deviant (Karma Police #4) by Sean Platt & David W. Wright
The Fall (Karma Police #5) by Sean Platt & David W. Wright
Homecoming (Karma Police #6) by Sean Platt & David W. Wright
Story Pitch: The How To Guide for Using a Pitch to Create your Story by Scott King
Destroyer by Chris Fox
Exiled By Chris Fox
Void Wraith by Chris Fox
Resist Them by Scott King
Magic Life: My Story of Becoming a Pro Player by Travis Woo
Eradication by Chris Fox

I still listen to some great short fiction podcasts on my daily commute, including Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and PodCastle. I highly recommend all of them, even to people who might not be short fiction readers. The podcasts are free, but please donate or subscribe if you enjoy listening.

Now for some stats:

2017 Stats:

New apps released: 0
App updates released: 53 (includes Lite and Paid versions)
2017 Word count: 1,037
Stories written: 2
Stories published: 0
Total submissions: 11
Total acceptances: 0
Total rejections: 11
Waiting for response: 0
YouTube videos released: 227
YouTube channel subscribers: 221
Books read: 21
Comics read: 12

My iOS, Mac and PC app sales have mostly remained flat, despite releasing a record number of updates (53!) throughout the year. The Bonsai Album updates alone took over 6 months to complete, starting in 2016. Revenue is slightly higher than last year, and I managed to keep expenses much lower. Even though sales of the new apps from 2016 improved early in the year, they still didn’t come close to meeting my low expectations. I also have a lot of work ahead of me to update all my iOS apps for the iPhone X! The simulator for this device was very clunky and I’ve had a great deal of trouble getting my apps updated to cope with the new screen requirements. I ended up purchasing one just before Christmas, so hopefully that will smooth development of these updates from now on.

In August I announced I’d begun working on a new PC app, Artwork Tracker. This is getting close to completion, so I’ll hopefully be able to release it later this month. I hope it does well, since people have been asking for it for years!

I’ve decided to shelve development of Bonsai Album for Android. There simply wasn’t enough time in the year to learn a new platform and develop an app from scratch for it, while still updating all my other apps. I’ll re-evaluate this again once I’m done with the iPhone X app updates, but I doubt I’ll have the bandwidth to work on an Android version.

I didn’t do much with my bonsai this year, other than keep them alive. There were no bonsai shows or botanic garden visits, and thankfully I don’t think I lost any more trees in 2017. I still spent a lot of time in the garden this year, expanding the flower garden in our front yard, restoring the back garden to its former glory, and growing the usual selection of veggies (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, peas, beans, and cucumbers). We had a decent crop this year, although I was disappointed the zucchini didn’t grow.

Last year was fantastic travel-wise. In addition to the usual trips back and forth to Michigan, we went on epic road trip out west with my parents in our Dodge Charger, passing through 6 states (Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota) along the way. We visited Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and the Badlands, along with stopping at various weird and wonderful roadside attractions (giant otter, bison, Jackalopes, dinosaur, cow, and more!) and seeing the sights in South Dakota. We also spent some time in the Wisconsin Dells, and again made the pilgrimage to House on the Rock.

So that was 2017. Normally I’d spend a few paragraphs on my goals and grand plans for 2018, but since this seems to be a great way to ensure none of it ever happens, I’ll be keeping everything under my hat this year. Having said that, it’s pretty clear I definitely didn’t slack off in 2017!

I hope everyone had a good year, and best wishes for a great 2018. Happy New Year!

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Schloss Neuschwanstein und Hohenschwangau

Here’s a selection of photos from my visit to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles in Germany last month:

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As usual, much more at the Flickr photo stream here.

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Where’d January go?

It’s time to update this thing! January was insanely busy, and things are only now beginning to settle down a bit.

Writing-wise, I was off to a good start, working on some new short stories early in the New Year. Unfortunately work got busy fast, with long hours and an unexpected trip to Munich for two weeks! One weekend I did a brief tour of the city and went to the Bavarian Alps to see some castles, so I can’t complain too much. I’ll post another entry with photos soon.

Ever since getting back home I’ve been devoting most of my spare time to working on my first iPhone application, and that’s going well so far. I knew there’d be some conflict between this and the writing, but since I spent hardly any time on the app in January, I figured it was time to balance things out. With the way the economy is right now, it might be a wise idea to prioritize that above my writing for now. The ‘Thing A Week’ plan won’t be working anytime soon.

While on the trip I finished reading Samantha Henderson’s novel, Heaven’s Bones: A Novel of the Mists, blazing through it in record time. I’d had a peek at it previously and provided some comments on the early chapters, and now I wish I’d had the time to read it all back then. I hardly know how to describe it, other than to say it’s a combination gothic steampunk police procedural fantasy with substantial medical and horror elements. That’s a poor description at best, so you really have to read it for yourself. It’s fiendishly clever and has a style reminiscent of some of Sam’s other stories set in Victorian times. From what I understand there’s a bit of a shared-world Wizards of the Coast setting, but it didn’t lessen my enjoyment any without having that background. Anyway, pick it up, especially if you’re a Sam Henderson fan.

The weekend before last I put together the potting bench Carrie gave me for Christmas, so that’s sitting in the basement ready to go. She’s already used it to plant her terrarium, which turned out very nicely. I’ll need to get some veggie seeds started soon, and the bench will make the process much more comfortable than in the past. I’ll also need some new growlights, since the old ones are presently illuminating a bunch of cacti and Bonsai.

With the imminent release of the Watchmen movie, I’m finally taking it off the shelf and adding it to the reading pile. I hear this is one of the best graphic novels of all time, so I hope it doesn’t diminish everything else I read afterward. I’ve also got a stack of Wolverine back issues to catch up on, in preparation for the forthcoming movie. From what I’ve seen, it looks like that’ll be a good one, too.

What I’m Reading:
Just After Sunset, Stephen King
Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

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