2014 in Review: Assessing Last Year’s Goals

Setting goals is a good way to focus one’s efforts.  However, goals are no good without reassessment afterwards.  We therefore need to reexamine 2014’s goals before setting new goals for the coming year.

These were my goals for 2014:

5 Things on a Friday: Age of Ultron & Other Stories

This week's reading is
The Dark Defiles.

I feel like I’ve been a little distracted this week.  I’m reading Richard K. Morgan’s new book, The Dark Defiles, third and final volume of “A Land Fit for Heroes”.  It has sucked up all the time I usually spend writing.  The whole trilogy is an elaborate deconstruction of epic fantasy, and I've enjoyed it thoroughly.  This third volume in particular has been reminiscent of Alan Moore’s Watchmen, save that it’s not nearly as pretentious, thank God.  It's compelling, though, which is why I’ve sort of let the book take over my life this week.

I’ll review the whole series when I get a chance.  In the meantime, there was a lot of movie/comic/TV-type news this week.  Since that news beats the Hell out of news of a more serious variety, let’s talk about it a bit, shall we?

Five Things: Coming Back Down to Earth

It's been a big week for my family. This is that story.

1. Annie

Watching my daughter Hannah play the lead in her school’s production of Annie Jr. this past weekend was a profoundly intense and surreal experience.  

Hannah as Annie

We worked on the play for months.  Sally took charge of props and Prop Direction while Hannah’s sister Emma ran lines with Hannah every weekend starting back in February.  The play has eleven or twelve scenes, and Hannah’s character was in almost all of them, so we encouraged all that practice.  Not only did we want to make sure Hannah wouldn’t forget what she had to do, we knew that the rest of the production needed her ready to rehearse.  Hannah also sang a half-dozen songs, with Scene Three (“Tomorrow”) essentially a solo mixed with a bit of dialogue.