The collective mood towards the end of 2016 has been somber. Just about everyone couldn’t wait for the year to end and wrote it off as a year that can burn in the fiery pits of hell where it belongs. In many ways, people aren’t wrong. Our world seems to grow increasingly uncertain and scary based on what you hear and see on the news. I always try to be hopeful in the new year. I may not be able to control what’s going on around me, but I can control how I live my life. The best approach? Live your life on your own terms and make sure you’re surrounded by people who will continue to help you along the way. If something or someone drags you down, then it’s time to subtract or remove yourself from what hinders you. We’re only a few days into 2017, but there’s a number of things I’m looking forward to.
As you can see, my blog is still going strong and not going anywhere. The balancing act between doing this while also achieving other goals is still hard. Despite that, I manage any way I can. On a personal level, I’m going through a bit of a job/career overhaul. There’s a lot I need to sort out in my professional life and I’m at an age where I want to feel like I’m finally where I belong. I don’t feel like I’m doing the job I want just yet, but I’m hoping this year will help me finally gain the clarity I need.
The pursuit of writing and finishing a draft of my novel continues this year as well. I’m splitting my time between writing for my blog and creating the fictional world and characters I want to see on the page. I’ve made some progress last year, but I know I can take it to the next level by seriously pushing myself to write every day and maybe start figuring out writing goals. Whether it’s going to be word or time goals with a reward system in place (play a video game, watch a TV show, or read a book) is something I still have to figure out. Ideally, I want to have a full novel done by the end of the year but that’s too much pressure for someone who is slowly finding her character’s voice and letting that voice drive the story in the direction it needs to go. I’m going to take things one step at a time.
There are still plenty of games to be played and a lot of anime to watch. Some time this spring should (hopefully) be the release of Bioware’s Mass Effect: Andromeda. While I am going to keep doing my video game challenges for the blog, Andromeda will take over any and all video game posts until I beat the game. Readers can expect a special and ongoing video game challenge report for Andromeda when it releases. As for anime there are new series I’d like to watch, such as the Ace Attorney anime and Yuri!!! On Ice. While I’ve heard mediocre reviews for Ace Attorney, especially if you’ve played the games, I still want to watch it and judge it for myself. Maybe if it’s as bad as everyone kinda says it is, then I’ll drop it. I always like giving most things a chance at least once. Yuri!!! On Ice is an entirely different story. I’ve heard many great things about the show, mainly because it has been discussed plenty on At the Buzzer, and Michaela of ATB has already written about the show a few times for the site. I trust her judgement on anime whenever I read her articles about the shows she has seen and I’m confident I’ll end up liking this show too.
There’s going to be plenty more posts to watch out for on my blog, like a PAX East article later in March, which means there should be enough to keep my readers entertained for a whole year. Thank you for reading and continue to follow me in my geeky and life pursuits. Happy 2017!
simpleek 
Here’s to the new year 🎉 Hopefully it will be a good year for you. I love the things you are planning for your blog, especially Mass Effect. Although my own gaming days are behind me, I have very fond memories of that trilogy. It has been and always will be, my absolute alltime favorite game 😀 It is in fact the only game that I would consider restarting gaming for. I wish you good luck with all the things you have lined up for this year, and hope it will all work out 😀
Thank you so much! 😀 Yeah, I really hope everything works out too. It gets hard making time to game when there’s other things going on I want to do, but I’m fitting as much time as I can to do a little bit of everything. I think the bigger challenge is not spending too much time on one thing and neglecting the other stuff. Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you’ll find my future posts enjoyable!
Good luck on your goals this year! I wish you the best with your career, it’s exciting to know what you want to do and get closer to doing it. I also want to finish my novel and make a habit of writing every day. I have a personal challenge to write 500 words a day for the month of January, hopefully that will be a good start. Aaaand obviously I’m super excited about Mass Effect! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the game, we’ll have to compare notes hehe.
Thanks! I hope we both achieve the goals we have for the new year. 🙂 That sounds like a great goal you set up for yourself with your writing. I haven’t figured out how I want to approach my writing goals. Maybe I’ll start with the time one, something small like 10 minutes a day. I think if I go too big early I’m more likely to fail quicker. If I don’t put too much pressure on myself, I may get more accomplished and feel comfortable enough to make my goals bigger. Haha, and yeah Mass Effect! So excited we have an actual date! We can definitely trade stories or write about our own experiences on our blogs. March will be an exciting month for all Mass Effect fans.
A happy New Year for you too!
I like the way you write down such clear goals, such ambition! I bet you sometimes wish for more hours in the day, just like I do! But good luck 👍🏻
Thank you so much! 😀 Yeah, I like to have clear goals of what I want to do or accomplish. It pushes me to work hard and not to slack off too much. Time is certainly the enemy, but we just have to be wise in how we use it. That’s why starting now on anything is always a great idea. Why wait, right?