2017 - Highs & Lows & Goals for 2018!

[DYM]

As per the Szklarz tradition, here's the healthy High & Lows thread! In case you're new or aren't aware, this is where you reflect upon 2017 personally and list down some of the successful and unsuccessful things that have happened to you during 2017. Can be anything, GE, PD, RL, etc!

Feel free to list your goals as well this time. Then you can look back a year later and see how many you had achieved.

Post away, mates! I will post my list soon.

[Retrix]

I didn't even see this topic.
GE: finally started playing despite knowing about the site since like 2005. Got to be in setrack's fantasy league.
PD: figured out defection glitch from ParagonX9's original walkthrough. Got sub-20. Actually played PD other than multiplayer. It was long overdue.
Other games: picked up a Switch so airplanes would be less boring. Played Axiom Verge, BotW, Odyssey, Sonic Mania - all super amazing games. In 1080 I finally beat the last of Daniel Rajotte's scores, bringing my WR count up to seven. Made some improvements to other courses that took advantage of OOB glitches to move my records beyond the limits of N64HS 2007.
Real life:

Spoiler

finally, finally got out of retail. Took a gamble on a temp-to-hire factory position in alternative energy. It's been a truly kick-ass job. In September I got to travel cross-country for work, and the perdium was amazing ($100/day). Then I went two more times. I even got to see my sister while I was out there! Insane one-day visit! I didn't expect work to put me 70 miles away from my sister on a last minute, poorly planned trip! By year's end, I got an offer to become permanent. Score! It was so worth sacrificing damn-near all my free time. Also MTV filmed a show while I was working in a grocery store. I signed a release and everything. The staff and cast were really cool. Also went to a concert on that same mountain. Tom Petty was there.

Lows:
GE/PD: I barely played because of work. From midleague until the end of the year, I was working six days/wk, 50-65hrs/wk. Sometimes 70-90hrs. It sucked. Wanted to be more than just the 1080 guy and everything was put on hold.
Other games: Sonic Forces was overwhelmingly average, even though the timed missions were fun. Lost a lot of time on stupid mobile games.
Real life:

Spoiler

missed my uncle's wedding because I was paranoid about keeping my job. Missed a chance to see my sister for a week for the same reason. Lots of dangerous sleep-deprived driving because I switched to third shift in June. Very scary. One night I was so tired (1.5hr of sleep after being up about 25hrs) I saw/hallucinated a dark figure standing behind me, all dark and shadowy except for bright white eyes. Scared me so much I drove maybe ten miles before I called out of work. Lots of vehicle problems to the point I considered getting a new car. Basically missed my birthday and Christmas because of work. Before I took that temp to hire job I was miserable. I was working in a store on a mountain, covering lots of menial jobs due to a lack of staff, dealing with tourists and mean customers. Then they transferred me to the middle of nowhere, out in the mountains beyond the horizon. It was so bad it was enough. I took the first job I could find. I got lucky.

2017 was weird. New job. Possibly on an MTV show. Got to cross off six states I'd never been to before. Barely played games compared to previous years and it still ended up being a great year.

Goals:
GE: work on times across the board. Steadily build skill. Fill all N/As.
PD: same as above. I'm in no rush to get points. I'd rather gain a better understanding of the levels and work on my technique so I can leave the game for months and pick right back up within an hour or so.

RL: I got a guitar for Christmas. I should probably learn it.

[Niiro Kitsune]

2017 Highs
GE: I finally started running the game "seriously" in May. I got really motivated (in a way that Irie finds hilarious) by watching antvenom get Dam 53 live while I was teaching summer school. Got 53 myself after playing on and off for several weeks during the summer. Later managed to stream a few times when going for Runway A 22 and got to interact with lots of cool people in the community (Dusky, Irie, etc.). Eventually I was the first person to achieve 22 with 1.2 in well over 3 years, even after being advised repeatedly to just switch to 2.x instead. Also managed to get some much welcome points from Cradle 00 and Runway SA.
RL: Finished teaching a great school year in May and started a new one in August. Enjoyed traveling to Alaska during the holidays at the end of the year and getting to see a unique part of the country. I finished the year with only 3 months worth of payments remaining on my vehicle.

2017 Lows
GE: Took (what seems like) an unreasonably long time to get my first wr. Lost my only wr at the time to Karl's legendary 52. Began to grind for Arch 16 far too late and failed to get the record before 15 happened, which bummed me out immensely. Unfortunately, I allowed myself to retain some of those negative/self-destructive thoughts for the entire second half of December while on vacation.
RL: Struggled with some family issues, mostly health-related. Lost my uncle to colon cancer in October and could not travel to attend the services. Had a sledding accident that injured me and should have broken my leg, but miraculously did not.

2018 Goals
GE: In a nutshell, my goal for this year is not only to get better but to get decent at the game. I still want Arch 16. I've also been playing for 17 on B1 recently and hope I get it soon (dear god I fucking hope). I also have my eyes set on the Cradle, Surface 2, and Surface 1 Agent wr's and depending on how much time I have this year, I plan to attempt each of them. Another goal I have is to stream more frequently, and I have already ordered a new webcam in order to facilitate that. My initial goal when I decided to run GE was to at least get into the top 100 and although I highly doubt I will break through this year, I plan to get as close as possible.
RL: My goal is to make myself a happier person. There are many personal things in my life that I should must deal with in order to increase my quality of life. I plan to move to a nicer apartment this summer, pay off the car I own, and in general just dedicate more time to myself. Lastly, I don't foresee myself starting a relationship this year but in all honestly it would probably be good for me (plus it would be nice to be reminded of what that's like ).

Edit: I regret putting off posting this for as long as I did, so yeah

[Icy]

Gaming Highs

-Polished up both of my GE LTK and PD LTK times pages pretty well!
-Hoarding was fun, but overall not my thing.
-Skipped Streets 1:13, am legend! RL-EL!
-Frigate SA 1:02 fluke job!
-Defection LTK 1:23 fluke job!
-Lots of improvements on my GE times and still a ton of potential!
-14/14 untieds in Cruis'n USA!
-Played Melee with my local scene earlier this year; still got it!
-Lots of success in other games!
-Some TASing fun!

Gaming Lows

-Depot Agent was hell, but at least 0:24 was one and done.
-Still mostly apathetic about grinding GE/PD, but occasionally get motivated to play a bit.
-Still very unsatisfied with most of my times.
-No Train or Silo DLTK, and still no intention of going for them.
-Mario Kart 64 destroyed my controller of ~5 years and had to get a new one.

Overall, I had random spurts of activity and had some decent achievements. 7.5/10

IRL Highs

-Discovered lots of new music this year!
-$$$$$$$$$$$$$
-Admitted for school in September!
-Decent amount of running this Summer, but crappier Winter weather compared to BC sucks.
-Lots of learning!

IRL Lows

-Pretty isolated out in the middle of nowhere and miss a lot of my old buddies.
-Flying solo.
-Not as much socializing as I usually like, but university later this year should fix that right up.

Nothing too exciting. Worked a ton, saved a ton, still going to grind work for a little while more. Need new social circles. 8/10

2018 Gaming Goals

-Might get some scattered PRs. Probably not going to play as much lol, so I dunno about goals.
-Going to do mostly TASing and casual gaming fun I think.
-Maintain my Cruis'n USA untieds, but I don't think they're getting touched.

More importantly...

IRL Goals

-Going to grind running hard this Summer while I be NEET for a couple months as a break.
-Brush up my math and studying skills.
-Ace school again! 4.0 or bust!
-Meet new people in university.

2017 was a solid progression year, but a little bland as I'm in between phases of planning for school and actually doing it. 2018 will be a nice, generate year. Maybe some GE and PD peppered in here and there, but I'm not going to focus on gaming as much. Should be awesome!

[AZ]

Gaming Highs

-Caverns 00A 1:37
-Escape PA 3:25
-Infiltration SA 1:39 (not a good time at all, but at least it's an untied Swedish record)
-First Investigation laser skip PR
-Crash Site PA 1:52

Gaming Lows

-Failed to get Caverns A 1:02

Overall 2017 was a rather quiet year; did only play during the summer.

2018 Gaming Goals

-Get at least one PR
-Submit video proof for Facility DLTK (my only time without a video)

Very modest goals but I don't think I will have time and/or motivation to play as much as I did in the previous years.

[flukey lukey]

- - - - - - - - will post mine this weekend - - - - - - - - -

[sweetener]

placeholder

IRL Highs
- Met Birdie!
- Had a pretty good time at AGDQ 2017
- Chicago meet with Sammy was super fun and relaxing
- Melbourne meet was fun as usual
- Went on a chill trip to the gold coast
- Went to lots of great concerts, including Ariana Grande omfg

Gaming Highs
- Kapap 3 was the best one yet, extremely proud of it
- Most GE WRs I've gotten in a year - Silo SA 1:08, Cradle SA/00A 0:34, Surface 1 A 1:02
- Cut my Star Fox 64 100% PB by over 2 minutes
- Had some really fun streaming sessions

IRL Lows
- Still no permanent job (gotten in 2018!)

Gaming Lows
- Aztec 1:25

[vitorr]

IRL Highs
- Pretty stable year work-wise, got a salary raise and have a high chance of getting a new job soon
- Went to Chile on vacations (met with Nari there too, stayed at his place for a few days), was awesome, lots of beautiful places
- Went to Finland (while working this time), my wife presented her doctorate's degree work there and it was super fun for both of us overall, quite an experience

Gaming Highs
- Played GE/PD more than anything else by far in 2017 and it was pretty cool
- Few GE WRs and some decent PRs
- b1 SA 22 skipping 23 and b1 leaderboard with 00 105
- Finally have a good streaming/recording setup with Amarec + OBS (thanks Jono)
- Got close to top 50 in points which was my main goal overall

IRL Lows
- Some family issues here and there, not that bad though, getting used to it
- Had to work overtime for a few weeks in December, and basically my Christmas + New Year's eve celebrations were non-relaxing at all, which is something I was used to.

Gaming Lows
- No Frigate A completion
- Joined the Overwatch hype again after a long break, almost made it to Diamond three times but after a while I realized how shit my online experience went with that game, even though it's my favorite type of fps (fast pace like quake or tf). Had to uninstall it and never played it again (which was good because I could just focus on GE anyway).