My 25 Favorite Posts of 2014

Looking through all of the posts I made in 2014, I tried to narrow the list down to just a dozen or so of my favorites.  Unfortunately, I wound up with 40 posts instead.  I narrowed those down a bit more and organized them.  So now I’d like to present my favorite 25 posts across five categories.

Autism, Parenting, and Life

This category contains posts about living with Autism, raising a child with Autism, parenting in general, or just the normal things that happen in life.

First up was Letting Your Child Shine (Or Fail) where NHL taught me a lesson about not imposing limitations on your child simply because they have special needs and "obviously" can’t do something.

Next, in Asperger’s, Empathy, and Butterflies, I told the tale of what happened when NHL tried to go into a butterfly house – but empathized too much with the butterflies.

I tackled a tough subject in Battling My Own Brain.  One I had wanted to write about for awhile but shied away from:  My own brain.  My brain can be amazing – giving me ideas that astound.  Unfortunately, it can also be a minefield.  One wrong move and I can get stuck worrying about something (see The Anxiety Loop later on) or I can get "bad thoughts" that try to paint everything in the worst possible light.  While I stop short of claiming that I suffer from depression (I don’t think it’s that bad and wouldn’t want to trivialize people who actually suffer from depression), it can be a challenge some days.

After my birthday, I spotted some grey hairs.  I went into full blown Aging Denial mode.  I even geeked up my denial by taking a photo of myself, using a photo of me from 2005, and morphing us together to prove once and for all that my hairline is NOT receding.  This would be told to me again a couple of months later.  "Once and for all" doesn’t last as long as it used to.

While NHL was succeeding in some respects, in others he found himself failing.  In Asperger’s and The Humor Struggle, I detailed the problems that those of us with Asperger’s have with humor.

Finally, in The Anxiety Loop, I detailed an anxiety attack that I dealt with after surgery.  In hindsight, we think this was brought on by some of the medication I was on.  I’ve had mini-attacks here and there since then (almost always at night), but nothing to the racing through the house at 2am panic attack I went through post-surgery.

Front Page News

This category is devoted to talking about the topics that made the news.

In March, Fred Phelps passed away near Fred Rogers’ birthday.  In Love and Acceptance Trumps Hate, I showed how tolerance and acceptance were more powerful than hatred and bigotry.

A month later, a baseball player named Daniel Murphy was taken to task by some sportscasters.  His crime?  Missing opening day to be with his wife as she gave birth to their son.  I posted In Defense of Paternity Leave Trumping Baseball to express just why I thought those anti-paternity leave arguments were just plain wrong.

Perhaps no news story spawned more blog posts from me than Network Neutrality.  If you’re not sure what this is, I’d recommend reading Save Our Internet, My Open Letter To The FCC Concerning Network Neutrality, and Network Neutrality Shouldn’t Be A Political Issue – my three favorite blog posts of mine on this subject.

Finally, just because a news story was on TV doesn’t mean I followed it.  Many news stories fell under my News Avoidance.  At times, there were too many sad and/or scary stories on TV and I had to tune them out lest I get overwhelmed.

Crafting

2014 saw a lot of crafting in our household.

First, we made foam lightsabers.  In Making Foam Lightsabers, I showed how to construct these extremely inexpensively.  (Only $1 per lightsaber in materials.)

Later this year, we became Addicted To Perler Beads.  In The Perler Bead Addiction Continues, I showcased some of my newest creations.  Finally, I posted about My First Perler Bead Earrings that I made for B.

Geek

This year was a banner year for my geeky side.

I delved into the world of Extreme Geekery by Printing A Hard Drive and performing a Jupiter Jump.

I also wrote my Geek Bucket List.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to check off one of these in the coming year.

In Kicking Down The Door To Munchkin Fun, I detailed our introduction to the world of Munchkin – the tabletop card game where you kick down doors, fight monsters, and take their treasure.  We still have fun alternating between stabbing each other in the back and helping each other.

In fact, we loved Munchkin so much that the boys helped me write a parody song of "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman" called Do You Wanna Play Some Munchkin?  We even made a video of us singing it in Belated Father’s Day and a Munchkin Video.

Fun

What would this list be without my favorite fun posts?  I’ve saved these for last because I like to always end on an upbeat note.

In February, while struggling to stay warm, fight exhaustion, and push back the avalanche that was Frozen, B and I began tweeting each other some Frozen song puns.  I compiled them together for posterity in What Happens When Frozen And Exhaustion Meet On Twitter.

Later, on a whim, I decided to see what people named their Wi-Fi networks.  This whim turned into B and I laughing hysterically at some of the names and scratching our heads at others.  There was definitely a lot of Wi-Fi Weirdness afoot.

Finally, on NHL’s 11th birthday, he went on a big adventure with his cousins and brother.  I documented the photographic evidence of this Green Screen Birthday Adventure complete with a trip to Disney World and the Moon.  Those kids sure get around.

 

And there you have it.  2014 is drawing to a close and 2015 is raring to go.  What adventures will we have in the new year?  What stories will we discuss?  What topics will we geek out over?  I can’t wait to find out.