The year has come to an end and it is time to reflect on everything that has happened in the last 12 months. Although it may seem like only yesterday that I began this journey but in truth, a whole year has passed and a whole of memories have developed since.

 

SLEEPING GEEKS

The first of these is the start of Sleeping Geeks which begun as the New Year did. Detective Loki and I decided on starting this new project. At the time, I hadn’t thought about what direction we were going to take it in. It just developed in time into what it is today and I have to say, I am proud of what we have accomplished. You can read more about that in the 1st Anniversary Post.

 

GETTING IN SHAPE

Now I had hoped to really get going with my health and fitness at the start of this year. Unfortunately, my journey in the world of Gym was short-lived as I wasn’t motivated enough to continue.

Although I had initially failed and put on some weight, I did later lose a stone of weight through disciplining my diet. To be completely honest I have done a better job than I had expected, not having weighed so little since back when I was 18 years old. So I haven’t had a healthy BMI since 6 years ago; another accomplishment that I can be proud of. I only realised how awesome this year has been since I started reflecting on it.

 

ANIME & MANGA

I was hoping to use this year to get deeper rooted into the world of Anime and Manga. I haven’t managed to read and watch as many as I had expected but I did make a good effort and watched/read quite a few that I wanted to and a few I didn’t expect I would.

The one that I was strongly recommended was Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I cannot express how much I enjoyed this anime. If you haven’t seen it yet, I can’t recommend it enough.

Also, Hunter x Hunter was another I truly appreciated as it made my time working late nights bearable. I tried Sword Art Online Season 2 and wasn’t impressed whereas my pickup of Parasyte did not disappoint.

As for Manga, I picked up Initial D and Vagabond. I plan to pick-up a few more but for now they’ll have to suffice. Samurai’s and Speed Racing is quite the combination.

 

 

TELEVISION & MOVIES

I was planning on watching a lot of movies this past year. Unfortunately, I can’t say I accomplished that task. I did however watch quite a few TV Shows that I really enjoyed.

The most memorable one’s that come to mind are:

Suits – A drama about a genius, junkie who also happens to be a Harvard dropout manages to get involved with a large firm of lawyers after a botched drug deal. If that hasn’t caught your attention, watch the show and it will.

Vikings – This show hasn’t got the greatest plotline. It’s no Game of Thrones I have to admit but the action is great, the characters are great and there are scenes in this show that will live on in your memory for a long time.

Orange is the New Black – I don’t remember the last time a binge watched a show this bad. I just couldn’t stop watching it and it didn’t even tire me out. It’s a show about a women’s prison. I think that’s interesting enough without the lesbian drama.

 

THE KING KILLER CHRONICLES

This is the year I started listening to audio books. I know there are a lot of raised eyebrows at the word audio books as it just seems very lazy for someone to listen to a book being read rather than getting hand on paper, or tablet as is the case very often these days.

The reason behind this venture is commuting in a car. With a taxi, bus, train or plane there is an option of reading or doing other things to pass time. When you’ve got 150 minutes of travelling to get through everyday which involves driving a car, it is not a possibility. This is the alternative.

After another great recommendation in my life by Detective Loki, I started reading listening to, “In The Name Of The Wind” by Patrik Rothfus. I followed up on this immediately with “A Wise Man’s Fear”. I have to say, these books are amazing and difficult to put down, or pause as it was in my case. My daily journey to work and back was my favourite time of the day and I just cannot wait for the third instalment of this series to hit the shelves.

 

WORK

I managed to find regular work in a place I enjoyed working. I earned more money than I had initially thought I would and I couldn’t be in a better place at the moment in terms of my work-life.

Actually, that’s a lie as there are several things I would like to change that would make my quality of life a lot better. Such as the Monday morning shift I hate, the co-worker who has forced me to develop selective hearing and the road-works/speed-camera combination that has increased my journey to work by 30 minutes a day.

 

All in all, 2014 has been a great year. Nothing much has changed in terms of where I stand in life but I think I am growing as a person despite the lack of character development. I do think I have grown in confidence but my battle with procrastinating is still going as strong as ever. That is one thing that I cannot overcome.

That’ll probably be the first on my list for my challenges for the year to come.