2015 Resolutions

I never much saw the point in New Year's resolutions until two years ago, when a Cracked article changed my perspective on resolutions completely. Rather than setting vague, wishy-washy goals for self-improvement, I could set clear, actionable goals for myself for the next year, and self-improvement would be a byproduct.

It's worked out pretty well these past two years, so it's time to set a few more goals for 2015.

Best of 2014

Everybody likes looking back on the year and comparing their experiences to see what stood out most for them in their field. I don't really have a field in which to determine such things, but I'll see what I can do with what I've experienced: video games, hikes, movies, blog posts, podcasts, and TV shows. Alas, I didn't really read many books this year.

On that note, I'm judging things that I experienced this year, not things that were made this year. There are too many things that were made this year that I didn't experience, and too many things I experienced that weren't made this year. Also, this list is limited to things I experienced for the first time this year, so things like my Final Fantasy 7 play-through don't count. Given that, here we go:

Movie Review #52: The Wolf of Wall Street

The end of the year kinda snuck up on me, so in a panic I turned to Netflix for my final new movie of the year. The result: The Wolf of Wall Street, which appeared on Netflix a surprisingly short time after being released in theaters.

Short review: definitely interesting and engaging, and perhaps at times even inspiring. It's not a feel-good movie or a funny movie, and there isn't some moral lesson to be learned from the movie--not really. It depicts a fascinating thing that happened, and you can take from it what you will.

Presidential Approach

Last time I explained what a president can actually do. Next I want to talk about my own approach.

Presidential Powers

On my drives to and from Louisiana I spent a lot of time thinking about three things: my D&D campaign, my game idea, and my presidential campaign in 2020. I won't be posting my D&D notes here since some of my players might read this blog, but I may write about the other two things so I can record my thoughts while they're still relatively fresh.

I'll start with the presidential stuff.

The "Conservative" View

The silence in my house is deafening after two whole days of riding in my car listening to music and podcasts. I'd enjoy the silence more, but in the final few miles into Tucson I decided to explore a few radio stations rather than fumble around with my phone again. I stumbled into the middle of a radio talk show, which I listened to for a few minutes to kind of wrap my head around it.

The show consisted of the host basically going on about how Obama is a dictator, how the Republicans are enabling him, and how the president is systematically destroying the country. He then took a caller who basically agreed with the host, then went on to say he knew from the beginning that Obama was Satan (literally, Satan in disguise) ever since some fiasco about when Obama didn't hold the Bible the right way or something when he was inaugurated.

Now I'm just thinking about conservatism in general, so I figured I'd write something about it.

Movie Review #51: The Interview

I honestly wasn't interested in watching this movie, but given the hype and controversy around it my parents were kind of interested. Since it was available to watch via the Internet fairly cheaply, we all sat down in my parents' living room and watched it last night.

Short review: it's certainly what you'd expect from a Seth Rogan movie. Goofy, kinda smart sometimes, but mostly just a bunch of friends having a good time. Comedies like this aren't really my thing, though.