Here's my "year in review" article for 2010, shoddily slapped together from memory on my final vacation day. If I forgot to name a name, please don't take it personally . . . my memory is a year worse than it was last year!
Breaking News
Late in 2010, I learned that my father, Terrence M. Punch, was named a Member of the Order of Canada. I announced this news here. It suffices to say that this is my biggest personal news item of 2010. If you stopped reading right now, then you would still come away with an excellent idea of what I'll be talking about in 2011!
Milestones
I turned 43 in July 2010. That was no big deal – 43 isn't a very interesting age. However, last July also marked my 15th year with SJ Games, which was a somewhat bigger deal, given the industry and the state of the economy.
In November, Bonnie turned 20 for the 23rd consecutive year. That's her story and she's sticking to it.
But the big personal milestone of 2010 was that Bonnie and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in May! That plus being over 40 means that we're "old marrieds" for real. Of course, what's more important to us is that we'll have been a couple for 25 years come November 2011 . . .
There was also one sad event for us this year. Our old parrot, Circe, passed away in October. All told, she had a good, long life for a parrot of her size. Still, losing family is never easy.
Social
Bonnie and I saw a lot of friends this year! We probably did the most stuff with E., D., and their daughter Z. This involved numerous tasty meals, because we all love good food and drink. It also included a nifty trip to the Beauharnois Hydroelectric Power Station – our region's answer to Big Mad Science (in Art Deco style, no less).
We got to see a lot of M., Y., and their daughter S., too. However, we saw less of them than we did last year because – sadly for us but happily for M.'s career – they moved to Ohio in July, at least for the medium term (they're still there). Our times together included several visits to our favorite Ethiopian resto, Nil Bleu. Here's hoping that we get to resume that tradition in 2011, at least briefly.
We also saw A., J.-A., and their son D. a couple of times, as well as B., T., and their son D. What A. and B. have in common is that I met both of them while a grad student at McGill Physics. Physicists proved to be a recurring theme in 2010: We saw my old physics chums Jason B., Graham C., and Martin K., too. This afforded me many opportunities to try new cocktail recipes!
Indeed, the McGill connection was strong this year. In addition to all those physicists, we saw our old friend Narly G., whom we hadn't seen since 2003. She looked great, and we met her husband and child for the first time.
Not all the socializing was with pals from grad school, however. I also had a summer visit from former SJ Games colleagues Gene Seabolt and Jack Elmy. I still feel like a nebbish for discovering only then that Jack had been living in Montréal for some time . . . mere blocks from me, no less. D'oh!
Not all the socializing was dinners and small parties, either. We caught some live music, including various gypsy acts, Omar Souleyman, and M.I.A. (that was an awesome show!). Bonnie's baladi troupe had four engagements – one of them fairly high-profile, the others more modest – which formed the nucleus of much going out and hanging about.
And I'll remind my friends that I'm on Facebook, if you like live news of this kind. I'm positive that all kinds of stuff I forgot here is lingering there, if you're patient enough to click through a year of status updates.
Hobbies
My modern-day spy campaign, The Company, saw 44 sessions in 2010. I'm surprised at how engaging this one has proved to be! The real world offers ample storylines which the players care about personally. For me, the fun comes from forcing myself to view the world globally rather than as a Westerner, and realizing that sometimes, the West's "good guys" aren't.
Meanwhile, Torsten B. kicked off a space-based campaign, The Steel Hummingbird, in which I am a player. We played 10 sessions in 2010. I'm not much of a fan of space fiction, much less of stories about space-based trade (we're couriers), but I'm having serious fun with this! Kudos to Torsten and my fellow players (Alice M., Cesar B., and Martin B.) for that.
In the world of computer games, Bonnie and I continue to play lots of Left 4 Dead 2 and Borderlands together. I also played quite a bit of Alien Swarm for a while there, although that has tapered off. My newest new game is Civilization V, which is a righteous heir to the franchise throne. But over the winter vacation, I played Half-Life 2 for the first time (I know, I know) and really loved it – thanks, Mark!
My other major hobby is, of course, wine. This year, for my 43rd birthday, I tried something that I'll probably never have again: Aszú Essencia. Specifically, the Royal Tokaji Wine Company's 1995 vintage. Wow – just, wow,
Health
As always, a mixed year. I'll open with the positive, which is that my weight stabilized at 30 lbs. below my peak. This represents more like 40-45 lbs. of fat loss and 10-15 lbs. of added muscle since 2008, mainly in my legs but to some extent across my abs. My doc told me that my blood pressure is no longer so high that it needs monitoring. All of this is a result of my daily cardio regimen.
On the grumpy side, I pulled something in my right arm in August and it still hurts. I've added stretches to deal with it . . . we'll see. And it looks as if my eyesight is acting up. I have an appointment with the optometrist coming up, and I fear what it's going to cost me. Bah.
But positivity is good for longevity, so here are two more positive things: First, I had my first professional massage in 2010, thanks to E. & D. giving Bonnie and me a gift certificate for a couples massage. This did wonders for general aches and pains! Second, I remembered to get my flu shot, which has worked so far . . . nothing but a sniffle over the holidays.
Travel
For me, none. Nada. Zip. Bonnie got down to Nova Scotia to visit her brother, Rob, and his girlfriend, Koo (both of whom actually live in London). She also went to Sarasota to see her parents.
Work
This was the Year of Editing but Very Little Writing. I wrote GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 11: Power-Ups and my half of the as-yet-unpublished GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 (with Peter Dell'Orto). That's a mere 43,393 words of my own, or less than half of what I turned out in 2009.
I edited like crazy, though, which is why I didn't get to write very much. In the realm of i-dotting, t-crossing, honest-to-goodness editing, I finished up GURPS Low-Tech; GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1, 2, and 3; GURPS Psis; and GURPS Horror. However, I also reviewed, commented on, and ultimately approved hordes of items. I'll simply direct you to my year-in-review article for SJ Games, right here, for a list of everything that got some of my time.
Economics
This was a dreadful year for the old bank account. First, due to an accounting glitch and tax changes, I was hosed by the taxman. Which is to say, hung out to dry. I honestly have no idea whether I'll be solvent in 2011. I'm not panicking . . . yet. If I can't manage a large RSP contribution this year to shelter some income, though, and if my huge installment payments don't come back to me as a refund, then I might be panicking come April or May.
This is an insult of sorts. One customarily pays big taxes on big income. However, my income has diminished to a small fraction of what it was a few years back thanks to the greenback's weakness against the loonie. For most of the past 15 years, my budget has been balanced assuming – correctly, I hasten to add – that I'd get somewhere between $1.15 and $1.40 Canadian on each U.S. dollar. The historical average for the period is $1.21. This year was just rotten, with the rate staying near parity. The upshot is that I paid huge taxes on a crummy income.
To add actual injury to the insult, my hard drive died and had to be replaced. To make sure that I don't lose data if it happens again, I had to shell out for a NAS (which is not perfect but definitely working). This necessitated rebuilding my LAN, which of course wasn't free. And I was plagued with less-serious hardware failures, including the demise of my beloved mouse and headset, both of which had to be replaced as well.
Here's wishing everybody a great (and solvent) 2011!
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