Year in Review: Highs, Lows, and Change

I had aimed to write something for the holiday season, but with travel and celebrating the holiday, time got away from me. So I decided to end the year with one more post, a year in review.

As years go, this one certainly has its ups and downs, and I’ll cover those in time. But let’s start at the beginning, with January...

This year started like every year, with another birthday. Having a January birthday means I get to celebrate something right out of the gate, and this year was the 31st such occasion.

February started out great with the Arizona Balloon Classic and getting to see the Angelica Tour of Hamilton live at ASU Gammage. But sadly, February ended with the passing of my Oma, just barely a week before we were set to fly to Germany for a visit at the beginning of March. The low point of March was a funeral, but the highlight was getting to spend as much time as possible with my Opa.

And it was good we did so, as late May saw the passing of my Opa. That same weekend I was working at Phoenix ComicFest. In hindsight, I am glad it happened that weekend, it gave me the opportunity to focus on something else. June saw Mom returning to Germany for the funeral. But we also got the opportunity to visit the Pompeii Exhibit at the Arizona Science Center, which was a very interesting experience.

Our first highlight after a rough few months, was seeing my adorable niece again in July. We took Lilyan to Legoland and the Sealife Aquarium at the Arizona Mills Mall. She had a lot of fun and we greatly enjoyed spending time with her. But we also traveled to Vegas to see Steve Martin and Martin Short for their comedy tour, staying at Cesar’s Palace for the first time. Having been a fan of both gentleman for a long time, The Three Amigos being one of my favorite films. So getting to see two icons of my childhood live was a dream come true.

August came along with a concert that Mom was nice enough to indulge me on, by accompanying me while I finally got to see Weezer along with the Pixies, for an amazing concert. But then, we had the experience of a lifetime, and what I would considered the greatest vacation of my life thus far; our trip to Hawaii at the end of the month.

September was just another month, but October saw a huge life event. I had all my belongings packed into large crates, loaded up my car with everything else, and drove across the country to move in with boyfriend in Pennsylvania. It was a big step, but one I happily made, in order to see our relationship continue to grow.

After my arrival, I was able to attend a movie premier, for a movie based on a real event that took place in the Lehigh Valley area, Billboard. This was in early November. Later in the month, my mom came to visit us for Thanksgiving.

In December, I got to see Penn & Teller for the first time, for what was a really fun magic show. And before I flew home to spend Christmas with my mom and sister, I got to experience Hanukah with Jason and his parents. I flew back to Phoenix and got to work in the office with my team for a day and half, plus spend Christmas Eve with family at my grandparents’ house and Christmas Day with Mom and my sister.

Overall, the positives of this year outweigh the negatives, though the negatives were pretty heavy. With that in mind, I’m looking forward to what the New Year will bring and putting the old one behind me.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Engage Yourself in Ernest Cline's Trope Rulebreaker: A Spoiler Free Review of Armada

I recently finished reading Armada by Ernest Cline, author of the novel turned motion picture, Ready Player One. I really liked Ready Player One, but I absolutely loved Armada. It’s moved into the top spot on my list of favorite Ernest Cline novels, but to be fair, I’ve only read two. He is working on a Ready Player One sequel though, and he also wrote the screenplay for the movie Fanboys which I enjoyed.

Where Ready Player One had heavy influences from 80s culture and movies, while also being set almost entirely in a virtual world, this is not the case for Armada. Armada is set in the real world, following real people instead of virtual avatars. It is also set in a modern setting close to current day, instead of a futuristic Earth. You still get some 80s references mostly music, but there is much more 90s influence, given this is when our main character grew up. I felt myself relating more because I also grew up in the 90s, but I also remember enough of the music and pop culture of the 80s so I could relate to enough of Ready Player One as well.

What I mean by being able to relate more to Armada, aside from the pop culture, are the technology and machinery references of today. The computers, phones, cars, were all fairly similar to what we would see today, or within the last two and a half decades. But the biggest relate-able factor was that the society of Earth, the United States and beyond, could easily have been the US and Earth of today. The way the government and military worked, and the average person working at their job and living their lives.

All that sounds like it could be the life of any one of us, and then you throw in aliens, and invasion, and a secret government agency committed to saving the world. Yes, the Armada this book is named after is not an earthly one, but that of an unknown alien race set on attacking and destroying Earth. Now if you think this sounds very familiar and has easily been the plot for several Hollywood blockbusters, you wouldn’t be wrong. But Armada is so much more than that and has its own unique and clever way of going about the alien invasion trope. Don’t worry though, the book does not fail to mention those very same Hollywood blockbusters and does so in a way that is advantageous to both the plot and the reader.

From the very beginning of the book, we are introduced to our main character, Zack. From there, we spiderweb out to the rest of the characters as they relate to Zack. His mother, friends, employer, and many more people are introduced in the course of the novel as the story progresses. An important thing to mention about the plot of the book, is that there is a video game component similar to Ready Player One. So if that was something that hooked you from the other novel, you are sure to be pleased with the gaming aspect of this novel. And not just that, there is a virtual reality aspect as well. Instead of spending a lot of time in the virtual world though, you spend more time focused on the lives of the characters outside of their gameplay while also getting to see how the gameplay has affected their lives.

Without giving too much away, because I would rather you experience this book for yourself, I will say that this book does a great job of keeping the reader guessing. The story has a habit of leading you along, letting you think you have a complete grasp of what’s going on, and then throwing you a curveball. I appreciate a book that can play with common tropes but still surprise its readers.

So if you enjoy science fiction with a taste of alien threat, a side of 90s pop culture, a dash of the 80s, and a healthy serving of exciting twists and turns, then this book is for you.