By now, some of you may have noticed that this blog hasn’t been updated since way back in April. There’s a very good reason for that. The beginning of April was when I started a new job at Gameloft in Toronto, which threw my life into upheaval and started a tidal wave of change around me. As a result, the rest of the year has been a blur.
Three of the most stressful things you can do in life include starting a new job, relocating to a new city, and having a child. Alicia and I did all three in the span of 8 months, and I can now confirm that they are indeed stressful. I think it has been a lot harder on her, but I am proud to say that we managed to come out the other end relatively unscathed… with a new addition to our family, no less.
There were a few months where I was working 12 hour days and commuting another 4 hours on top of that while we were also frantically trying to find a house in the GTA and I couldn’t help but wonder if we made the right decision. Eventually the big layoffs happened at Silicon Knights and I realized that I really had no choice anyway. Throughout it all, somehow we also managed to keep Film Junk going, which is just as much a result of Jay, Greg and Frank’s dedication and the help of our other writers as well. We lost about half of our traffic from the beginning of the year, but the hardcore fans stuck around, which means a lot. The site has been the one constant that kept me sane through all of this.
Looking ahead to 2012, I am optimistic and energized. Being a parent is going to bring a whole new set of challenges, but I am looking forward to tackling them together with Alicia. We might even do some traveling with the little guy this summer if we can figure out the logistics. Film Junk is forging ahead with premium podcasts and so far our listeners have actually been kind enough to support these efforts with actual cash money. The game industry in Toronto continues to grow and it’s an exciting place to be right now.
My other goal for next year, as lame it might sound, is to find time to do a little bit more personal writing. I have been thinking about setting a challenge for myself to write a new personal blog post every day… I just don’t know if that is actually feasible or pure idiocy. Rest assured, you will read more about that when the time comes. Until then, I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing holiday. Personally, I’m looking forward to doing nothing but playing video games and changing diapers over the next 10 days.
Might come off the wrong way, but in terms of Filmjunk the site and podcast, it hasn’t felt like anything was off. Waiting a day or two for episodes is the only thing I can remember… Pretty impressive.
Looking forward to 2012! Especially if you’re going to write more on this, I always loved this blog.
Yep, agree with Henrik. The site, while there has been fewer news posts, hasn’t felt off at all when it comes to the podcast - and none of your stress has come through at all on air. Very impressive all in all.
Thanks guys. It becomes harder to justify doing a movie blog and podcast for fun when more important things are going on, but as long as it doesn’t feel like a chore I want to keep it going.
Writing on this site is a lot more fun and a lot easier but I’m still not sure what I want to accomplish with it.
Like Henrik and Kasper said, there was no way of knowing anything out of the ordinary was going on in your life, except when you briefly mentioned those events.
Everything else was top-notch, as usual.
GREAT great job, and best wishes to you and yours for 2012!
My suggestion for a 2012 resolution, is cleaning the links on the bloglist
My link is dead, and jaycheel.com leads to jewelry sales 
Good point. I guess I’ll need to find some new compadres.
Congrats and thank you for keeping the podcasts up. I don’t visit the site too often (the discussions are sometimes too heated, and I do aggravation for a living) but I absolutely look forward to the podcasts. Thanks again Sean.