2013 in Review

As 2013 winds down and I look back on it, it has turned out to be an extremely productive year. The year didn’t start off that different than the previous years other than my regular trips to the gym to work out. I had never been a fan of the gym – I don’t like crowds and I always preferred to do any workouts at home, though I don’t have any weights and was limited to bodyweight exercises. A group of friends at work play soccer on Thursdays and in the spring, we decided to add a second day of soccer on Mondays. I played both days most weeks from New Year’s to Memorial Day.

One thing I tried to do more this year was take chances and opportunities. I liken it to the movie Yes Man where Jim Carrey’s character says yes to anything that comes his way, though I was les liberal with my acceptances. In February I agreed to be team captain of our company’s Relay for Life team. We hadn’t fielded a team in 2012 and our team in 2011 was small, so I was hoping to get a good bounce-back. We rolled through several fundraisers – one a week – for two months until the night of the Relay. We ended up raising around $4500 in two months’ time with a sizable team of almost twenty walkers. It was exhausting and I swore that I would not be captaining again in 2014, though I did write up all my thoughts on the process – what worked, what didn’t, and thoughts for next year – to be given to the next captain.

On February 13^th, I took the day off work to spend the day at the movie theatre watching a Die Hard marathon before a late-night premiere of the new movie, A Good Day to Die Hard. I had never seen the first three movies on the big screen, so it was worth the admission just for that experience, as Die Hard is my favorite movie. The new movie was pretty bad – it made an okay action movie, mostly forgettable, but it was a horrible Die Hard movie. I wouldn’t see any other Hollywood movies in theatres this year, but I did see Mile… Mile and a Half at the Athen’s Theatre in Deland, where I would also see All Shook Up and The King is Back, and I also saw Appalachian Impressions.

Also in February and March, a coworker asked if I wanted to canoe down Rock Springs Run, which we did four times over about five or six weeks, culminating in an overnight camping trip at the Otter Campsite along the run. This led to many weekends hanging out and many new experiences throughout the year.

In early February, I had gotten an email about the Space Coast Marathon and how they were planning to do a five-year event with medals celebrating the space shuttles. I immediately signed up for the marathon, figuring I had a whole year to get ready for it. I had always wanted to do a marathon and a flat Florida course seemed like a good start. I wouldn’t actually start training for several months though.

In late April I started running shorter races, the Healthy Heart 10K, the Run for the Trees 5K, the Seminole High School Spirit 5K, the Rescue Run 5K, the Lake Mary 5K, and The Nude Run 5K. A friend had told me about the Healthy Heart 10K, happening just down the street from where I live and I had only run one 10K previously, so I jumped on it. The Run for the Trees 5K was one I had run before, but you get a tree for completing it, so I had specifically looked it up online in order to run it again. It also runs through private communities that have very nice scenery. The Rescue Run 5K is one that happens in the park next to where I work and our company sponsors a team every year, so I competed in it for the third or fourth time. The Seminole High School Spirit 5K runs through my old high school and the parking lot of my old middle school, so it was a nostalgic race for me and also culminated in my fastest 5K ever. The Lake Mary 5K was another race close by that took place near the library I go to, so it was a familiar area. I decided to do the Nude Run 5K while looking for races with something exciting to offer, as opposed to the mundane show up and run 5K.

Post 100!

I’ve actually hit 100 posts! It’s amazing, though I did have a lot of short posts thrown in there. I try to do one post a day every morning at 7:00AM Eastern Time. That post I try to do at least 500 words for, but sometimes a topic just doesn’t have that much to write about. In the evening, if I have time, I’ll try to post something quick and short – like a video of the day. I’ve decided for my 100^th post to go back and look at some of my older posts. And since I do a lot of Top 7 posts, I figured I might as well list out some Top 7s here!

Top 7 My Favorite Posts:

These are my personal favorite posts that I’ve made for one reason or another. I’ll try to avoid any repeat topics.

Runner-Up: Vogel State Park

I liked this post for a couple reasons. The first was that I had such a great time at this park that I enjoyed writing about it and I enjoy thinking back on it. It’s definitely my favorite hike that I’ve done so far. The second reason is because I had that great vertical panorama of the waterfall and WordPress actually let me just sit it off to the side of the post, which I thought looked pretty cool.

7: Reverse Pythagorean Theorem

This was just some mathematical experimentation that I did several years ago, but I’m still proud of myself for figuring out this formula. Sometimes I look back on it and it takes me a while to remember how it works because I never actually use it since it only has one or two practical applications. I still get a little ego boost anyway.

6: Boston Red Sox 2013

One of my more recent posts that took over a thousand words, I didn’t even get to see the winning game, but I was right there the rest of the way from April first through the end of October. I’m just glad my team didn’t let me down this year.

5: Hang Gliding

This was one of my favorite experiences of the year. I loved hang gliding so much, I actually went back a second time and am planning to go back a third at some point. My first trip I got a GoPro video of me hang gliding and on the second trip I got my POV from a helmet mount. Probably my favorite GoPro videos thus far.

4: Final Fantasy VII

One of my first posts and it was over 3500 words. I actually wrote this all in a couple hours just reliving my childhood playing this game. I think it’s pretty obvious that I really enjoy this game as it speaks to me on multiple levels of rebellion, taking on the corrupt government and corporations which have become one entity, sacrifice, redemption, and so much more. My friend wanted me to expound more on that in another post, but so far I haven’t been able to complete that follow-up – maybe one of these days.

3: Photoshop: Vector Tattoo Ideas

I love playing with Photoshop even though I’m not that great at it. One thing I can do pretty well though is play with shapes and text to create decent minimalist creations. Fortunately, I feel black and white minimalist tattoos look the best, so I was able to create some vector graphics that I thought would make nice personal tattoos. This is my right brain coming out after being cooped up for forty hours a week.

2: Central Florida Tough Mudder 2013

I had originally started writing this post a few days ago to get a jump on it, before I had even run this year’s Tough Mudder. Then once I completed Tough Mudder, I didn’t think I’d have time to write up the post and edit the video before I got to a hundred posts. But here I am including it in the eleventh hour as one of my favorites because it has so many great memories. I loved the obstacles in the race and this year I was able to compete as part of a team, which made it so much more fun. The video came out pretty well too, considering my battery died with only a few obstacles remaining – nooooooooooo!

1: 10 Goals for Age 27

I love setting goals. I have enough goals to last me a lifetime, but I often don’t push forward with them because I figure I can do them later. This year has been a lot of pushing myself into new things. If you’ve ever watched the movie Yes Man, that’s what I feel like. Things will come up and my initial reaction will be to reject it, but I just think of that movie and will myself forward. It’s let me to many great adventures this year and hopefully will continue – as long as it doesn’t kill me first.

Top 7 Most Popular Posts:

I don’t have any form of Moneyball sabermetrics that determine a combination of view, comments, likes, and such to determine popularity, nor can I even see some of those stats on a per article basis, so I’m just going off of general reaction.

7: Jana Kramer, Easton Corbin, and Blake Shelton in Concert

This post and the one on Jason Aldean’s concert both have been trickling in small numbers of views since I wrote them, but this one seemed a little bit more popular. The concert was great and I enjoyed it, so hopefully all those viewers enjoyed my post on it.

6: Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area and GoPro Test 3

This post got a combination of view and likes that made it pretty popular. I had actually written six posts over six days covering five springs and hang gliding, but this was the one that seemed to attract everybody’s attention.

5: Top 7 Places: Countries I Want to Visit

This post generated a bit of traffic when it first was published, but recently has been buried in everything else. I’d still like to visit all these places though.

4: Video of the Day – Little Boy vs. Drill Sergeant

This post seemed to generate a lot of traffic from Facebook, as I guess the video was pretty share-worthy. I can’t take much credit for it though, since all I did was post it.

3: Panorama Photos

This post actually has the most likes of any of my posts – eight. I have a lot of new panoramas that I’ve taken since then, so I’ll probably do a revisit post on this topic soon. I also intend to go back and fix the colors and levels in the old panorama pictures because I just uploaded them as-is from my camera, so they’re a little washed out.

2: 10 Goals for Age 27

This was a post I made for myself to set some goals to last me for a year. I made some easy so that I would be able to knock them out, since many I have wanted to do for a long while but never made the time for. I also added a couple that I was already in the progress of working towards because they would take up a lot of time and I wanted to keep them in focus. Others I added because they were so out there that if I could knock out just one of them, I would be happy. This post is still attracting people today, though it may be because I keep referencing it.

1: Nudism

This one surprised me because I didn’t think it would be popular at all, and at first it wasn’t, but about a week after writing it up, it blew up and I still occasionally get visitors to it. It actually makes me want to write more on the topic. I’m not a huge nudist and rarely partake in the lifestyle, but I fully support it.

Top 7 Categories:

I’ve written about a lot of things, but what are the most popular categories I’ve written about?

6: [Tie] Games – 6 Posts

Though I don’t play games much anymore, I still have a fondness for a few. I’m sure I could change this category to Final Fantasy VII and it’d have almost as many posts. I’m not addicted, I can quit whenever I want.

6: [Tie] Space – 6 Posts

I’ve always been a huge fan of space, space travel, planets, stars, etc. so it’s no surprise that I’d have a few blog posts on the topic. I’m kind of surprised I don’t have more though.

4: [Tie] Music – 13 Posts

Between country music, concerts, and video game music, I guess I’ve racked up a few notes on this topic.

4: [Tie] Florida State Parks – 13 Posts

With all the State Parks I’ve been to, I’m surprised this isn’t higher, but then again I haven’t written about all of them yet. I have a lot of GoPro videos on these topics though.

3: About Me – 27 Posts

I’m a narcissistic egomaniac, so is it any surprise this topic is on the list? It’s probably more surprising that it isn’t number one.

2: Travel – 36 Posts

From state parks in Florida to the highest points in two states to cruising the Bahamas, this topic has racked up some pretty decent mileage.

1: Activities – 44 Posts

From hang gliding, to marathon running, to Tough Mudder, to hiking and swimming in parks, this category takes the cake.

Top 7 Upcoming Posts:

Here are seven posts or topics that I’ll be writing about in the near future that I’m looking forward to.

7: Looking back on 2013

Once the year is over, I’ll take a look back on it. I can’t wait to recollect all the things I’ve accomplished this year – it’s been so productive from a personal development standpoint.

6: Big Shoals State Park

During my last road trip, we stopped here and I got some great footage of the rapids. I haven’t gotten around to editing down that footage yet, though.

5: Revisit: Final Fantasy VII

A few months ago my friend wanted me to revisit this post with some more personal feelings on it. I started writing it a while ago, but still haven’t finished it yet. Maybe one of these days.

4: Scuba Diving

One of my 10 Goals for this year, I’ve signed up for scuba lessons the two weeks between my triathlon and marathon. I look forward to getting my feet wet – and the rest of me.

3: Florida Caverns State Park

This was a really interesting park that I hit while on my latest road trip, but I still haven’t been able to piece together all the footage I took while I was there. Hopefully I can get to that soon, though I do have quite a few events coming up.

2: Space Coast Marathon

This is still a month away, but it’s only a month away! My training will peak next Tuesday when I do twenty-plus miles before tapering off the following two weeks. This was the first goal I listed on my 10 Goals list and it’s been in the works for a long time. I’m excited to finally get to it.

1: Beat the Heat Sprint Triathlon

I’ll be running this next Sunday, so I should be able to write something up next week. I’m not sure if I’m going to use my GoPro for this or not since it won’t have much footage underwater and the biking and running probably won’t be too exciting. I might be able to whip up a short commercial-length video though. We’ll see.

Nudism

I’ve had a couple nudist experiences in my lifetime, both in the past several months. I don’t have a problem with nudity and I find it silly that people do. Some people claim that they don’t want to see ugly people naked. Well, if their face is ugly, we don’t force them to cover that up, do we? I think most people are just uncomfortable with anything out of the ordinary, while others project their lack of self-confidence by not wanting anyone to be who they are. Humans started out naked. Humans are born naked. Clothes provide protection and warmth (oh, and they’re also a status symbol – wouldn’t want people to think less of you, now would you!)

As I mentioned, I’ve had two nudist experiences and I figured I’d go into detail on both just because I can (and someone, somewhere may find it interesting.) My most recent experience is actually pretty tame. I traveled out to a beach that’s known to be clothing optional to do some swimming. I did not partake in being nude – and I was actually surprised at how many nude people there were. While this particular location is known for nudity, it’s not exactly legal, just overlooked. I figured there’d be a few people lounging nude ready to cover up at a moment’s notice, but instead I found not only a plethora of people lounging around nude, but also people walking along the beach nude, swimming in the ocean nude, and playing games nude. It was actually really interesting to see, though I tried to be polite and not focus my eyes too much on anyone.

My other experience was a little more exciting, though aside from the nudity it would be considered extremely tame. On June 15^th, I drove up to Pierson, FL to run a 5K. The 5K was held at Sunny Sands Nudist Resort and was called The Nude Run 5K. The resort was nice, with homes scattered about, a campground, a small golf course, a hiking trail, a pool, and a restaurant/bar.

As I’ve mentioned before, running normal 5Ks bores me, so I look for interesting races to run. Sometimes I’ll run longer races just because it’s a challenge. Sometimes I’ll run a 5K race that my company sponsors, so I can run for free and with a lot of co-workers. I’ve run a 6K while carrying a gallon of water (or it might have been two gallons, I don’t remember). I’ve run a 5K at my old high school for nostalgia’s sake. I like to run 5Ks that are close to home, just because it’s easy and it’s a commitment. I had wondered if there were any nude 5Ks. I had never been involved in the nudist community before, but it seemed interesting. So I found a nude 5K and signed up for it thinking “what the hell.”

During the spring I had been playing Soccer twice a month and wrecked my legs, especially my right knee, so I wasn’t even sure I would run up until the morning of the race when I made my last-minute decision. I was nervous, unsure of what to expect. I made it to Sunny Sands with a lot of time to spare, but I quickly stripped down to nothing by my shoes and sunglasses. I picked up my packet and went to the restroom. It’s odd going to the restroom and not having to fiddle with clothing. Since I had a lot of time to spare, I took a walk along the hiking trail to warm up my legs. It’s a short trail, so it didn’t kill much time at all, so then I rehydrated myself and played with the idea of bringing my phone with me to listen to music, but having no clothing meant having no pockets (and I don’t have an armband), so I reversed course on that idea.

More people showed up, stripping nude to run. Once the race was about to start, we all got written on with markers to designate our numbers. We walked to the start line, were instructed of the course (three laps around the resort, then cut through a few streets to the end), and then we were off. There were less than 30 people running, which was a broad difference to almost any other race I had run, usually pulling at least 300. It was actually nice to not have a crowded field.

Not a quarter of a mile in, on a downhill, I rolled my ankle and from that point on my lower leg was cramping non-stop. I had to constantly switch between running until I couldn’t stand the pain and walking until the pain got down to a bearable level. Nearing the middle of the third lap, just as my foot had gone completely numb, releasing me from the painful steps I had been taking, an older gentleman passed me and said something along the lines of “don’t let someone with a knee replacement beat you!”

While I’m pretty good at pushing myself and enjoy doing better than I’ve done before, I’m extremely competitive and what was a friendly word of support turned into a challenge. Not only could I not lose to him, I had to end the run on a high note. So with my foot numb, thumping along as I ran, I hauled ass and passed my motivational friend. He shouted out “there you go!” as I raced away and passed a few more people. I continued my run/walk technique, now for my burning lungs, until I finished my third lap and then I sped up a little down the first road. I made a turn onto what I thought was the final road and hauled ass as fast as I could down the road until my burning lungs and legs convinced me that I would need to make one more turn. Finally on the final road, I couldn’t quite haul ass anymore, but I went as fast as I could through the finish line.

My final time was horrible, I was exhausted, but they gave me free Gatorade (yay!) and I went to my car to wipe away the sweat and chug my cold refreshment. I returned to cheer on the final runners as they passed through the finish line and then everyone headed to the bar for free beer. Except me. I can’t stand beer. I used to be able to drink it if it was there, but after busting ass on a 5K once, a celebratory beer almost made me vomit and since then beer just doesn’t do it for me. So I pulled out a good book, sat on a chair in the shade and read for an hour or two, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

The heat of the day started coming on, I didn’t bring sunscreen, and the sun was beginning to come through the trees, so I decided to get dressed and hit the road. It was an interesting experience and at the time I thought I would be satisfied with just the one outing, but looking back on it, I think I’d be willing to do it again. It was a lot of fun and I feel I have something to prove with an injury-free performance.

A third nude experience I have had would be running through the woods naked while camping out once. But there were no strangers around, so I wouldn’t really consider it to be a nudist experience. It also only lasted a minute. I also rolled my ankle during that run. I do that a lot.

That’s all of my experiences, have you ever tried anything clothing-optional? Or ever done a nude run? I’d love to hear your experiences; leave a comment! And if you haven’t tried it, would you ever? If you’re on the fence, I suggest just giving it a try – it’s never as bad as you think it is. Everyone else is naked, so it’s just as normal as when everyone’s clothed.