In the waining hours of 2023 I want take a look back at this year. In terms of Newgrounds, I was very active. My acitvity mostly composed of reviews. I also dipped my toes into art. I have no artistic skill what so ever so I just toyed around with the shapes tool and various brushes in MS Paint. Despit my postings being very crude and unrefined, I do have a soft sport for them. They were my first foreays into art in about 10 years and I liked how NG affored me a platform to express myself creatively. I disocvered a lot of really cool art, really cool artists, and even made some fans along they way. Granted, I think the people following me did so mainly because they thought my reviews and responses to news posts amusing rather than my artistic skill. My favorite piece was "MS Paint Robot" because I like the grays I used and the white highlight I added to the robot's eye. My least favorite was "Suprised Alien." I like the detail I put into the alien's mouth, but I made it way too small and it's off center and it just looks so weird. My entire artistic output took place from early November to ealry December, and I really haven't quite felt that drive to draw again this year.
Outside of Newgrounds, my life was the same old same old. I contiuned in my current postion I'm in at work. I became eligible to seek a new job internally this year, but nothing I'm interest in or qualified for has opened up. My personal ambitions went unfulfilled. I want to be a writer, but only wrote like two first drafts of short stories. I have a bunch of ideas and amibitons, but they aren't doing anyone any good by staying in there. I keep wanting to write, but I just waste they time and let it slip through my fingers. There was also a lot of stuff I wanted to do. I wanted to read more, listen to mire albums, watch tv shows and movies I've never watched before, etc., but all just piles up and I put it off by vegetating out on Youtube. These unfulfilled ambitions and dearth of time maangement skills lead into my New Year's Resolution.
My New Year's Resolution is to keep a weekly journal about things like writing, art, exercise, programming, media, learning music, etc. A problem with New Year's resolutions is that they are often grand things people burn out in like 2-3 weeks and abandon because there's no real accountability for them no doing it. And my issue with time is if I have a big chunk of it I waste it, because I feel as though I have time to burn. My aim with this journal is to head off both issues. Posting these jounrals as news posts to NG will make me accountable to anyone who happens to read them. Keeping it weekly will break-up the amount of time I have to do things. Setting deadlines for myself with make me realize time is not just some giant morass I can burn away, but something precious I need to use wisely if I acutally want to move on from square on as opposed to just unproductively wishing I could move on from square one. I don't know the exact format of this journal, but it will at the least have the primary goals of logging my writting progress and progress at getting promoted at work/or finding at better job with a different company along with secondary goals. I'll post in the coming days the format of how my journal will look and I'll post these journals on Saturdays, usually in the evening. I'm really looking forward to this because this journal will provide me with the accountability and motivation I need to make my dreams a reality. I'm looking forward to it. Stay golden and have a happy New Year!