I'm half way to looking like this:
Tax day 2019 marks the day where I'm officially 45 years old. It felt like not too long ago when I was 29 and staying up day and night creating Gaia. Of everything that happened, through so much great times and challenges, I'm most happy about all the friends that I made throughout the years, and I'm happy that I get to spend time with many of them during my birthday.
After staying up at nights for weeks in a row, I'm taking it easy for the past few days, getting sleep is a great thing. And I can also spend my time to recap last year...
Birthday last year started off on a great note with me picking up my Tesla Model 3. After having lined up at the store for my reservation back in 2016, I was finally able to land my paws on my dream car. Now I just need to finish paying it off then my dream will become reality.
After getting my new car it was time to conquer the seas. I love fishing and always wanted to be able to fish on a boat rather than on the shores. So when the Intex Excursion 5 went on sale, I snatched myself this inflatable raft, along with a used trolling motor and battery. Inflatable rafts are very wobbly and hard to stand on, so I put together a wooden floor and I had myself a very capable fishing boat. Sadly on my few trips I haven't caught anything. Need to up my exp on all this.
Perhaps my biggest hobby for the last 2 years is archery. I'm very lucky to live near a very nice archery range located inside a forest. You get a nice hike in a shaded forest as you practice against a dozen targets. My aim is slowly improving and I can generally hit a 10" target at 30 yards after about 40 sessions. Although after having increased my poundage, I've been getting pain in my knuckle as I type on the keyboard for days after shooting. Not sure if it's caused by the constant typing or bad form, for now I've switched to using a trigger release as my knuckles heal.
Last May was the second time I attended Kublacon. I'm still a total noob when it comes to table top RPG, but my character is finally level 4! I even hosted my first game as the GM over the summer! Been also painting more miniatures when I have the chance.
A year isn't complete unless there's another Gundam built. Had a Gundam building party with 2 friends and we all built our Gundams in 2 weeks. This year I built the Shinanju. I still have a few unopened boxes sitting patiently for my attention.
During the fall I got to take my Tesla on a road trip down to Disneyland in LA. I don't know what I enjoy more, Universal Studio, California Adventure, or driving in my Tesla. The Harry Potter section at Universal Studio was really impressive, can't wait to visit the one in Florida.
Fall season also means it's the season of cheap tickets to Japan. Found some round trip tickets to Tokyo for $600. So it's time to have sushi, ramen, and tonkatsu again! For anyone who is interested in visiting Japan, take note that it's not an expensive city to visit! Hotels cost $90 and AirBnb cost about $60 a night. The only dangerous part is the amount of cool stuff that you can buy while visiting the toy stores.
After new year the cold weather means staying home and waiting for the weather to warm up. Been listening to more podcasts and end up binging a ton of Joe Rogan Experience. Tons of interesting material, especially all the info about nutrition to talk on technologies. Though one guest that took my attention was this Chinese guy called Andrew Yang running for president. I started following this guy because A) I'm old and now I follow politics more and more, and B) this guy actually propose policies backed by research and statistics that I understand. Maybe I'm completely biased because I'm Chinese, but it's a real breath of fresh air listening to a politician that doesn't regurgitate sound bites. Can't imagine a Chinese American ever getting support but it's still fun to follow.
Another highlight from last year was watching Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. Easily my favorite animation for years. Looking forward to more great movies this year, especially Avengers: Endgame later this month!
So that's a small summary of how I spent my free time last year. Let me know if you find any of this non-sense interesting. smile
