I hope you all NET a very Merry Christmas and that your New Years Party bounces like a TRAMPOLINE!

I hope you all NET a very Merry Christmas and that your New Years Party bounces like a TRAMPOLINE!

I might be a bit nutty - after failing to string this net 3x across 3 different days on my own, together with my fantastic crew of Max and Kaiwen we got this done in a day! (Took the active use of four different lines on winches, pliers, a screwdriver and smashing with a big crescent wrench).

Anyways.

A very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all of you!

The politics have been crappy for all of us (except for some excellent surprise special elections!). The hurricanes have delivered their wrath and sad stuff happens all the time. But at the same time Elon Musk is continuing to kick ass at light speed!

Just adding crypto and/or deep AI to your business plan will net you a few extra million! But more seriously, I do love the idea that smart contracts and blockchain will help us scale creative and collaborative projects and enterprises to mass scale. Soon, none of us will need to work because of AI and blockchain will ensure that everyones gets a nice cut of the pie!

As for us on Ad Astra, we are sailing, diving and coding - and having a fantastic time! As a family milestone we did all the maintenance ourselves on Ad Astra for 2017 - sail repair, diesel mechanics, fiberglass chip filling, electrical, hypalon leak repair, electronics, and plumbing!

We have visited Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, St. Eustacia, St. Barts, St. Martin, Anguilla, Los Roques, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, Jamaica and now Grand Cayman.

In 2017, I obtained my US Coast Guard 100-ton Master (sailing license), made over 120 dives and obtained my SDI Scuba instructor certification.

Most fun, the game project we are working on as a family is coming along quite playable and we are all having so much fun working on it together. Life is really awesome and I am very grateful.

I am very grateful to Kaiwen Bethke for being my partner and willing to go for it with all of these adventures, and I am grateful for Max Bethke and Kyle Bethke being such awesome sons and crew - they are both amazing.

I am grateful for all of my work colleagues and friends over the years. The guys back at the Dreamers Guild that got me started on I Have No Mouth and Must Scream, to Interplay with Starfleet Command, to Trish Wright and Brian Fargo trusting us to take SFC forward with SFC2 with our too early Dynaverse private server/persistent world for SFC, to South Korea where we created GoPets, and then back to SF where we joined Zynga, and then Austin to create Bee Cave Games.

All of these amazing people taught me so many skills and we created so many kick ass games together - you are all a huge part of what I am.

Thank you to the killer dojo of Elite Martial Arts and the Austin Area Homeschoolers that both grew our extended family and helped my whole family learn so much and share so many good times together.

And thank you to dozen of people that helped us get our house sold - especially Brian Talley and Michael J Steele ! who was absolutely instrumental in shipping that house!

You are all the team that has enabled me to live free upon the ocean with my family to explore and dream.

Thank you all!

Warmest possible holiday cheers from me, Max, Kyle and Kaiwen!

Originally posted on Facebook on December 24, 2017.