Stories for the Folks Back Home

I'm pretty much the worst conversationalist. What I catch up with people, the conversation usually goes something like, "Hey! How's it been?" "Great! And you?" "It's been good." And then the conversation kind of trails off unless my partner in conversation has something interesting to say.

Normally I'd be expecting similar conversations with my friends and family back home when I'm there for Christmas, but I'm going to try to prevent that this year. With the exception of that one of you who reads this blog (Aaron), most of them don't really know what I've been up to this past year. As it turns out, I think I've done some interesting things. So, I'm going to list them here and maybe flesh them out a bit more in future blogs in order to prepare to tell my stories.

Trip to Japan. Appropriate audience: everybody. Excitement level: high.

Even people who aren't huge nerds are interested in Japan, whether for their technology or their "industrious people," as people like to say. I'll need to choose some highlights from the trip to really explore. Luckily, I wrote, like, twenty blogs about it.

Growth of the Company. Appropriate audience: parents, aunts, uncles, people concerned about my future. Excitement level: mid-to-low.

I should list some vague, basic growth numbers for those family memebrs of mine wondering about this thing that stole me from them nearly three years ago.

Hiking Trips. Appropriate audience: grandparents. Excitement level: medium

I love hiking, but it's usually better to have been there than to describe it. Notice that I've gone on many hikes lately and haven't really posted about them. Still, I've got buttloads of pictures and even a few videos, so I think my grandparents will be entertained.

Working on a Video Game. Appropriate audience: friends. Excitement level: medium.

Let me tell you about this game I'm working on.

Other Places I've Traveled To. Appropriate audience: grandparents. Excitement level: low, mostly.

Drove to Washington DC, Flagstaff, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Jose, and I flew to Boston. Short notes about these trips should satisfy their curiosity, but I never get around to eating much interesting food at any of these places, so I'm prepared to disappoint. The most interesting part is how I was very sick on the trip back from MAGfest, heh.

I think that ought to be enough conversation pieces. I'm only going to be there for a few days, so if I can flesh these things out a bit I'm sure that'll be more than enough.