Penultimate Happiness

This is my 999th post on Critically Correct - just one more to go before I call it a wrap.

It has been a slow march to 1,000 posts over these past two months. 2013 has unquestionably become the best year of my life. With so many new things picking up steam, I have found old standbys like writing (and blogging) falling to the wayside. New professional opportunities, new friends, new relationships, and amazing new experiences (I'm looking at you, booze cruises) have come together at just the right time for me. Above all else, I have discovered that great opportunities provide amazing benefits; that risk is definitely worth the reward.

But before I draw the curtain on this crazy train and look forward to the future, I want to take one last opportunity to look back on the best of Critically Correct. What articles, rants, and missives became my personal favorites over the years or influenced Critically Correct the most?

Let's jump back to 2010 and look at my last CC review: The Best of Critically Correct. This article looks at my favorite posts from 2005 to 2010, including my all-time favorite, "The Decade In Review: Ten Years of B3."

Since 2010, however, I have put out a few more gems, so in chronological order, here are my favorite posts through the end of Critically Correct.

7 Days, 7 Games
Day 6, Day 5, Day 4, Day 3, Day 2, Day 1
April 2010

This week-long countdown began as writing exercise to get me back into regular blogging, but ended up becoming a fun retrospective and study on my top seven all-time favorite video games. I love this series of posts because like all things not set in time, my tastes have changed since 2010. Would I still rank these seven games in the same order today? Actually... yes.

Double Review: Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario Bros. X
June 2010

I'm a long-time fan of the Super Mario Bros. series, but quite honestly, most Mario games released in the 2000's were hit-or-miss. So it was a pleasant surprise to play two excellent games back to back in 2010. even more surprising, the fan-made Super Mario Bros. X is one of my all-time favorite Mario games. With so much Mario greatness withing weeks of each other, I just had to gush.

XBox 360: I Should Have Done This a Long Time Ago
September 2010

I have naturally been a Nintendo fanboy most of my life (see above), so it was quite a jump for me to pick up my first non-Nintendo console: an XBox 360. This was a purchase driven by just one game: Red Dead Redemption, easily one of the best interactive experiences to come along in a long time. Today my XBox 360 is still at the center of my living room thanks to a ton of solid games (GTA V, anyone?).

A Moment Sixteen Years In the Making
January 2012

In twenty years I may look back on my photography career and be able to point its beginning right here. With plenty of cash and time, I took the plunge into serious pro photography with the purchase of my Canon EOS Rebel T3i.

My Mobile Future Part I
My Mobile Future Part II
July 2012

I basically hate all mobile phone companies (with Verizon being the most-loathed), so I spent some time musing about what my options were in the middle of 2012. While I mulled all kinds of WiFi-based options and rambled quite a bit about over-priced phone service, it wouldn't be until the middle of 2013 that I finally switched to the fantastic Page Plus Cellular to find respectably cheap phone service.

Well there you have it, a few of my latest favorite posts over the years. My final post on Critically Correct is coming before the end of the year, so stay tuned.

B3 out.

Twenty-Nine

"When I grow up" happened about five years ago, but here I am still thinking I am a young adult trying to start my life up. No, I'm way past that point: I am 29 years old today, and I am well into adulthood. So this weekend I made sure to celebrate like I am not a day over 23. And it felt so good.

I had big plans for the weekend, and no one part of the weekend really worked out quite right. Friday night I saw a movie (my new favorite space film, Gravity), Saturday became a shopping day and an unexpected night out for my birthday. Sunday was a day to relax with video games, friends, and family. My 29th birthday was everything I needed it to be: calm, collected, varied, and most importantly, fun. That must sound like the lamest description ever for a birthday weekend, but it is all I need nowadays to be happy.

B3 out.

Promise That Forever We Will Never Get Better at Growing Up and Learning to Lie

Sometimes I get so lost in the big picture that I forget about the details.

The world is a messed up place lately. The US Government spies on its citizens, shit's still expensive, and jobs are sporadic. Even though I chose a field that will allow me to be relatively well-off, there is still quite a crowd of competition for me out there. Many of my friends aren't as lucky. "College will get you a good job," is what my generation was raised on. Through a combination of laziness, confusion, and a lack of foresight, that isn't entirely true. College will get some of us good jobs; for others it will be an expensive reminder that pursuing an art degree to "follow your dreams" is utter bullshit. I hope everyone lands on their feet eventually. I hope I stay on mine.

Beyond work, there is marriage and family. I'm going on 29 this year and I am relatively single. This is by choice of course, but I can't help but feel a little pressure to get a move on towards starting a family. I'm not too keen on deep-diving into my personal matters on Critically Correct, but I'll say this: I'm on the exact path I want to be on for romance, no matter how big or small that path may be.

My personal well-being rounds out the big picture. Thanks to a new long-term diet and consistent exercise, I have found myself falling into a great place with my health. All though my 20's I kept telling myself "I'll get in shape and be healthy as an adult." Never mind that I've been an "adult" for ten years already. I think the place I've put myself in 2013 is a great start to an active, healthy lifestyle.

But...

All of this is moot for now. The "big picture" sometimes brings more stress than it's worth. Work, romance, and a pristine diet are all well and good, but these are things that I find bothering me too much. With summer slowly winding down, the next few weeks are about the little things: waking up without an alarm, fun bike rides, my vacation (camping and Kalahari can't be wrong!), river walking with Elli, my favorite video games, Friday Beer Night, and countless other things that I have been missing all summer (I swear I'm going to go canoeing, right?).

Growing up is okay - and quite frankly hard to ignore at 29 - but the big things all-too-easily drown out the little things that keep me feeling young. And I'll be damned if I ever get better and growing up.

B3 out.

The Fall Preview: 2013 Mixes It Up

Well I'm not completely writing this summer off yet, but I'm getting close. With a wet start and a hotter-than-hell middle, the last half of this summer has a lot of sunny-and-80 days to make up to us. My biking goals are out the window, my hiking for 2014 is off my calendar, and I have accomplished 1 out of 6 goals I set for the first half of the year.

Adversity can sometimes be relative, and in my case, I am still doing pretty well despite nothing going according to plan. If nothing else, a few unexpected pleasantries have come out of 2013 - and a few unexpected "holy shit" moments, kind of like this: the Wood County Fair is in less than a week as I write this. This summer just moved by too damn fast.

So with the fall season in the back of my mind, it's time for my usual look at what's ahead for the eventual Big Cooldown of 2013.

July 26: Chevelle

This was unexpected. Chevelle is a solid rock band, no doubt, and they are playing a show at Hollywood Casino Toledo. A small opening band, good food, a nice venue, a casino, and hopefully great weather will make this show the kickoff to a long weekend that leads right into...

July 29 - Aug 5: Wood County Fair

The Wood County Fair is typically my "oh shit, fall is here" moment, but this year things will have to go a little differently. I've had too short of a summer to consider it over quite yet, so fair week will simply be a fantastically busy mix of work, friends, fair, and food.

Sometime in August: Sandusky Trip

I was pleasantly surprised earlier this summer to have stepped onto a party boat and set out in Lake Erie with some friends from Sandusky. It looks like we will get round two of that experience, or at the very least, a trip out to Cedar Point Amusement Park. I don't get to see these great people very often, so it's a treat to make the drive every so often.

Aug 30 - Sept 5: Fulton County Fair

Well, shit, I'm going to be on vacation for this one. Okay, next.

Aug 20 - Sept 5: Vacation in Gatlinburg

I've been taking a week-long vacation every year since I began working in 2001, and most of those vacations have been quiet and relaxing - and at the least, not very adventurous. Last year's trip to Kalahari in September taught me that getting away from home is a better use of vacation than video games and Reddit. This September I am venturing off to Gatlinburg, Tennessee by my lonesome to enjoy the sights and sounds of Appalachia. I'm hoping to squeeze in some photography practice and spend time on the Appalachian Trail itself to field-test some of my gear.

Sept 21: "The Wedding"

This September I will get a very special role in a major wedding: chair warmer. That's right, I will be keeping a chair warm for several hours while a good friend participates in her brother's wedding. But in all seriousness, this should be a pleasant day overall. I don't get to many weddings, so this will be a nice change of pace for me.

Oct 19: The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess

A treat to myself for my 29th birthday: a trip up to Grand Rapids, Michigan to see Nintendo's Symphony of the Goddesses, the second official symphony tour of Koji Kondo's masterfully-written music from the Legend of Zelda series. This is a perfect blend of culture, gaming, and nostalgia. This is easily worth the hundreds of dollars that I am spending to attend.

A Few Indians Games

Cleveland Indians baseball became one of my favorite new weekend summer getaways, and I have at least a game or two left in me before the regular season is up. A probable August game and a definite September game are in the mix.

And Everything Else: Festivals Galore

Waterville's Roche de Boeuf festival and the almighty Grand Rapids Apple Butter Festival are among my favorite fall activities. In addition to these two regulars, I will try to make at least one trip out to a new fall festival. There is no shortage of small towns hosting weekend festivals, so a little diversity this year should be easy to come by.

B3 out.

The Death of Critically Correct

My 1,000th post on Critically Correct is coming up and it's a milestone that will have double meaning. On one hand, I never expected to keep up a blog this long since it started in 2005. On the other hand, I have reached a point that regular updates have been slow, sporadic, and difficult (for quite a while not, obviously). I'm actually at a point in my life where writing in general has finally been defeated by all the other responsibilities of work, family, friends, and personal growth.

As of my 1,000th post, Critically Correct will cease to be updated regularly.

Going forward, I will be using this space mainly for special occasions. These will mostly be special articles, rare updates, big announcements, or unique reviews. Perhaps as a sign of the times, I will be using social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) to announce these posts rather than hope my friends, family, and readers seek them out.

While I am not giving up writing entirely, I hope that when I do occasionally write, I will be most focused and energized than I have been when writing on a schedule. Time will obviously tell, but until then, I have a few more blog posts to write.

B3 out.

Blacking Out 2013

So this is what my life looks like when nothing goes according to plan.

2013 began with many promises - promises of budgeting, of hiking, of traveling, of genuine growth. I had nothing but good intentions when I planned my year out ahead of time, but here I am in July and so far my year has been nothing but unexpected change and constant surprise. Let's take a look at the highlights and low points of my 2013 thus far.

• I began the year with an incredibly painful slump. A long Christmas break and slow New Years, combined with the usual drama in my personal life, led to a very sudden withdrawal from my normal routine for almost a month. This grew to a head in January at CodeMash 2013, when I realized that I was repeating old social mistakes and jeopardizing good friendships. After a couple of stern conversations with my closest friends, coming to terms with my relationship issues was the lowest point of my year.

• The fallout from January calmed in February and trickled into March, but this grew back into a big deal when one of my long-time friends Kristin and I went our separate ways. Years of uneasy tension finally boiled over, and for the first time since 2006 I found myself at ease with letting someone go from my life, and this was the beginning of my turn around for the year.

• The Green Day concert that closed out my March was a phenomenal opportunity to get to know a whole group of great people. A genuinely fun road trip with a diverse group, the concert itself was just one great closer to a weekend of great food, sights, and insane GD fans.

• April and May brought some unexpected change at work. With another senior engineer leaving the company, my responsibilities and reach at Computol grew a bit more. Along with new iOS-based work, my comfortable year at work suddenly became filled with new challenges to overcome. The pressure to become a competent Android and/or iOS developer is huge now - there is a lot of mobile app development that is asked of us, and I feel like I am in the best position to lead one of these paths.

• June is typically my biggest month for biking, and this year's Summer of Biking has been a wash. Almost literally. With 85% of our June being rain and thunderstorms, I have missed my bike. A few important rides still happened, though, so I am making due with what I can until we get consistently great biking weather.

• On the few good days that we have had this summer, I have spent them at Indians games with Laura. She introduced me to all the fun that comes with major league games, and I can honestly say that I love making the two-hour trip to Cleveland on a Friday or Saturday night.

• In late June I set out with a friend to do my first low-carb diet, and the results have been amazing: 8 pounds down in five weeks. This will probably continue for the rest of the summer, and if nothing else, has taught me a whole new way of making health-conscious decisions. In a similar vein, I tried a robust new budgeting system this June and July that has literally fallen apart, so I am back to square one with my financial situation. Oh well, you win some and lose some.

• And here we are in July. It looks like the scorching summer heat we have all been missing is beginning to arrive, so I get to spend the next few weeks sweating at almost every turn. The particular weekend, smack-dab in the middle of July, feels like a turning point for me. This weekend was filled with drinking, friends, and traveling. In the process of having an incredible time, I also lost a huge part of my Friday night to alcohol and then followed up with an exciting trip to Cleveland that my body wasn't ready for. The Friday night shenanigans was something above and beyond my usual self. This is a part of me I am not used to: the kind of carefree, abusive, do-anything spirit that thrived in my late teens. This brings me to one question that I never thought I would have to ask this year: is my overwhelming desire to excel with money, work, and professional goals holding back something more in me? I just don't know.

• Perhaps the scariest thing about July is just how fast it's going. The Wood County Fair begins in two weeks - a sure sign that fall is encroaching faster than I want it to. Really? Two weeks. Goddamn.

The biggest change in 2013 actually rolls over to 2014: I won't be hiking the Appalachian Trail next year. I simply have not been able to dedicate the time I need to training and preparing, so for now that trip is a 2015 venture at the earliest. This means other priorities now take precedent - first and foremost, surviving the rest of the year without any more major surprises. Then again, this year has been a fantastic demonstration for one of my most personal beliefs:

Change is inevitable - it's how you handle that change that defines you as a person.

B3 out.

I Got the Led Out

This past Saturday night was an unexpectedly fantastic surprise.

A few weeks ago my dad invited me to a Led Zeppelin tribute band called "Get the Led Out" at Centennial Terrace in Sylvania. While I was raised to partly resent cover bands, this tribute band went overboard and nailed the Zeppelin sound like no other I have ever heard. Every song was note-for-note perfect, the stage presence over-the-top, and "Stairway to Heaven" exceeded the album version by a long shot.

I will certainly never get to see the real Led Zeppelin live, but Get the Led Out is a fine substitute that I plan to see again - and they are definitely worth front-row seats.

B3 out.

My First Week with An iPhone 4S: Quick Notes

The simple elegance of "it just works" is brilliant; my old Android phone was buggy as hell. However, the battery life of the iPhone is atrocious by comparison, and Android is years ahead with innovative ideas and customization.

I think Android will be the platform I eventually return to, but for now, the simple beauty and constraints of Apple's ecosystem is all I need for my mobile phone needs.

B3 out.

The Internet Is Destroying Me

1998 was the year that my family came into the Internet age. Carried by a Pentium II 450 Gateway computer, WCNet dial-up service, and Internet Explorer, I became immediately familiar with the primitive Internet of the day. In 2002 I moved up to high-speed DSL, and in 2010 I surrounded myself with online access in the palm of my hand. Between work, laptops, desktops, tablets, game consoles, and my mobile phone, every aspect of my life now provides access to the Internet.

And it is destroying me. I am losing who I was, am, and want to be. The Internet has meant different things to me over the years, so let us see how I got here.

In 1998 the Internet was a new frontier. I was definitely a tech-head at the time, but mainly because of video games. My experience with real computers was limited, so I was overwhelmed at first by the possibilities presented to me by a powerful new computer and huge amounts of information. Yahoo! was my first stop online and I saw the world through it's purple-tinted glasses for quite a while. I found a few favorite websites, dabbled with HTML for the first time, and eventually found a small online presence thanks to the awesome 10MB of online storage WCNet provided us.

By the end of 1999, I found my first "must have" app of the Internet: AOL Instant Messenger. While it was initially close friends that brought me to AIM, it was the promise of talking to my high school crush that kept me on the service. I had AIM before I had my first phone, and 15-year-old me got to experience something my parents never did: asking a girl for her screen name, not her phone number. My routine was obvious: flirt with girls all day at school, then run home to continue the conversation for as long as possible all night long.

2000 saw the melding of two worlds: gaming and online socializing. EverQuest entered my life, a subscription-based massively multiplayer online game that let me explore a virtual world with friends and strangers. EverQuest laid the groundwork for the addictive nature of MMO games, and I was sucked into its world for almost three years before moving on. The persistent nature of the game meant that fights over how long I tied up the phone line were a weekly occurrence.

In 2001 I took to AIM with another high school crush (this one should be easy to figure out), and kept in constant contact with her. This was an amazing time for me - the constant nightly chats helped me grow closer to her than I ever expected, and I completely thank my growing Internet obsession for that. With more communication and more friends came more drama, however, as constant chatting to multiple people led to a game of "he said, she said" quite often. Thankfully I was not always glued to AIM, as the Half-Life universe of games led me to online gems like Team Fortress and Day of Defeat. These games consumed immense amount of my gaming life, and it was around then that I decided I was a PC gamer first and foremost.

My time at BGSU began in 2003, and with it, mobile computing. My first laptop, a Dell Inspiron 5150, was a heavy burden on my shoulders but a necessary tool for my roaming college habits. I kept close to the laptop - in class and during breaks - thanks to BGSU's high-speed wireless access. I was able to keep up with my favorite news sites, play games, and chat with friends from wherever I wanted to be on campus. In hindsight, this always-available connected access was the beginning of my painful Internet obsession.

Two of my biggest online obsessions began in 2005. First was my introduction to World of Warcraft, my first online game experience since EverQuest. I immediately recognized the addictive nature of the game, and chose to limit my time with WoW to summer breaks. But man, what awesome summer breaks they were. This new thing called "Facebook" also reared its head at BGSU, and I joined the social network, mostly out of curiosity. At first it was a little awkward - and barren - but I was quickly addicted to updating my status. As more friends joined, I found a new obsession, which would later be known as "Facebook stalking." Whoops.

With Facebook officially a thing with all my friends, 2006 was the year that the Internet brought me pain. While I was meeting new friends thanks to college, things like AIM and Facebook meant I was always up-to-date with my friends even when I should not have been. Did I need to know about all the fun my friends were having when I was laying in bed for work the next morning? What was my ex-girlfriend up to that weekend? How many new friends did she connect with on Facebook? Oh, they were all guys? Someone else I may like just found a boyfriend. Work sucks, and now my bosses all know it. The communication flood turned a puddle into a lake into an ocean within a year, and guess what: I cannot swim. For the first time in eight years, the Internet brought me more pain than pleasure.

In 2009 I was a year into my first "big boy" job in Findlay, Ohio. Three monitors surrounded my desk. Two laptops at home glowed all day, one of which (a Dell Mini 9) went everywhere with me and connected to every available Wi-Fi network I could find. My desktop at home was a beastly machine designed to tear through modern games without breaking a sweat. Its most-used application? Firefox. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Calendar, GMail, Engadget - the list goes on, but I was using all my computing muscle and time to browse the Internet, click links, and look at pictures of cats. How did I feel about all this? Amazing. I had access to tons of information and plenty of distractions to keep me busy during the most boring days of work.

The mobile web entered my life near the end of 2010, and all hell broke loose. My first mobile phone with an unlimited data plan meant I had the whole Internet experience in my pocket. I used and abused this awesome power. Facebook was more social than ever. RunKeeper was my new favorite app. I read my favorite sites in those small pockets of downtime at family functions. I checked my email obsessively. Streaming music was awesome. Mobile YouTube. I came to rely on my phone as my calculator, clock, to-do list, Internet browser, Facebook companion, and ultimately, my enemy.

Never in my life have I hated something so much. Over three years, after seeing more and more people around me glued to their mobile screens, I have learned that the always-connected, always-available distractions of the mobile Internet are dangerous. Countless dinners with friends and family have turned into phone-fests. I cannot tell you how many times I hear "huh?" from my friends as they miss what I say because they are scanning Twitter, Instagram, or checking scores. Not only is it obnoxious, it is rude. I am certainly guilty of all these things over the past few years too, but I am at a a turning point now.

2013 began with a painful realization: I am addicted to the Internet. This is not an obvious admission. I have clearly been sucked into the Internet for well over ten years now. But for the first time ever, I have had a moment to step back from my constantly-connected world and take in the bigger picture of what I am missing in my life. Conversation with friends. Honest emotion. Downtime. Rest.

Information overload has been taking its toll on me, and along with all the other changes in my life this year, I am making a new pledge: to put my phone away on a regular basis. Out with friends and family? Phone away. Unwinding after a long day? Phone away. Trying to focus or working on one of my projects? Phone away. Addiction is not easy to break, and my move away from the always-connected world will be slow-but-steady.

The constant glow of the portable, mobile Internet is one of the biggest revolutions of my generation, and it is eating me alive. I love the Internet, I really do. Is there a place for it constantly in front of my face? Not anymore. Focusing on my writing, photography, and biking is so much easier without the anxiety of checking my notifications, checking my work email, or wondering if so-and-so messaged me back.

Over the remainder of 2013, I am weaning myself off the need for an expensive phone and expensive data plan. By the end of the year, I plan to use my iPad and a cheap data plan for the occasional mobile internet, and my phone be reduced to a no-texting and no-data dumbphone that does one thing very well: make calls.

B3 out.

Summer of Biking 2013

Things have been changing rapidly in my life over the past few months (definitely for the better), but the thing I look forward to the most this year is a constant: my Summer of Biking. I am starting a bit later than usual this year, but only barely.

This past weekend I tore my bike apart and rebuilt it. Today I took my first test ride on the new build, and it rides like the day I brought it home (all the way back in 2011 for those keeping score). Suffice to say, this weekend will be the kickoff to the Summer of Biking 2013 season. Highlights of this year include a heavy schedule (4-5 days per week) and endurance training. Cardio-heavy rides and strength training are in my future this summer.

While 2011 was a leisurely kickback for me and 2012 was a test of variety, 2013 is all about my health. This amazing three-day holiday weekend cannot come soon enough. My first ride? Almost certainly The Towpath to Grand Rapids.

B3 out.