The Power Word: Gold 2014 Year In Review

It's New Year's Eve and time to put some of my thoughts down about what's happened here at Power Word: Gold this year.

While there has been some fairly drastic changes in the area of gold-making itself due to the release of Warlords of Draenor this post will mainly focus on what's been going on with the blog specifically.

I normally try not to talk too much about the blog itself as I like to let the details be background to the content these end-of-the-year posts are when I allow myself to be a bit more introspective. Read on for more.

What Changed?

2014 was quite the year for big life changes for me.

This year I:

• Started a new job. 
• Relocated my family 600 miles.
• Had my first child (ok, she came in December of 2013 but close enough and technically April had her not me).

Those are quite a few huge life changes and now you might understand why I was absent from the blog for about 6 months or so.

April was when my new job started and that's when the posts slowed. By November the expansion was launching and we were settled into our new place so I was able to start playing and blogging again (although not with as much free time as before).

Some other important changes to the blog this year:

• Thanks to some knowledge of CSS and Bootstrap gained at my new job I was able to implement a fully responsive redesign of the blog. This means that Power Word: Gold now looks and works much better on smartphones and tables. I love this because these day's I spend much more time reading on my iPhone than on my desktop.
• I was able to update Grouper (our tool for creating TSM-importable lists from copied item links on webpages) to work with The Undermine Journal's redesign.

What Stayed The Same?

I thought that being away from the game for 6 months would somehow change our feelings for the game and/or blogging about but it really hasn't.

I'm just as excited about trying to figure out gold-making in Warlords of Draenor as I have been in all previous expansions.

(It feels like Blizzard has pulled some of the gold-making "rug" out from under our feet so to speak with the additions of the garrisons and related profession changes but I'm still enjoying trying to unravel this mess of a gold-making knot nonetheless.)

The blog posts are as detailed and thorough as ever. Not every post is going to be a monster but some are. I try to make every post relevant to gold-making. Granted every post might not appeal to every reader but I'm trying my best to impart what useful gold-making information I have in every post.

The podcast episodes are coming out with some regularity which I'm very happy about. Due to my somewhat more limited schedule they have been solo podcasts and while I may have guests on once and a while for now doing them alone works best for me.

 My livestreams have continued although my schedule for streams is somewhat hit-and-miss. The best way to know when I'm streaming is to subscribe to my Twitch.tv page and have email/mobile alerts turned on. In addition, you can keep an eye on my Twitter and/or Facebook page.

What Lies Ahead?

My favorite holiday of the year is New Years because I love the idea of having a chance to look back and reflect about the previous year and look forward to a whole new year.

There is so much hope, so much promise in the idea of new beginnings. Will the next year most likely be like the last? That's up to you and that's what I love about New Years.

So, what does 2015 hold for myself and for Power Word: Gold?

While the future is always uncertain here are a few things I'd like so see:

• Consistent, top-notch written blog posts on Power Word: Gold throughout all of 2015.
• Consistent, useful podcasts on a regular schedule throughout the year.
• (If I feel I can put enough solid Warlords of Draenor gold-making tips together) writing a new gold-making guide for Warlords of Draenor.
• Continuing to learn, improve, and excel at my new job throughout the year.
• Continue to learn more about designing for the web with HTML, CSS and Bootstrap.
• Start to learn how to do web programming by learning how to write Javascript and use MySQL.
• Learn how to make things with the new 3D printer I got for Winter Veil (coming in early January)! I'm really excited about this one! I've always wanted to be a product designer and this feels one step closer to that dream.
• Be a good father and husband by devoting all the time I can to my wife and daughter.

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