{"id":1106,"date":"2011-12-16T14:34:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T18:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2011-12-16T14:34:04","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T18:34:04","slug":"my-2011-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1106","title":{"rendered":"My 2011 in review"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the most part, this was The Year of Animation Mentor<\/em>. Between going to work and doing Animation Mentor work, I had very little time for much else. But I did take a leave of absence in the spring to prevent myself from going completely crazy, and used that time to finish creating my Melody Generator for Android<\/em>, which is the best melody generator in the world.<\/p>\n

Every December I write out my goals for the year ahead. I’m still not very good at keeping things realistic, and I tend to change my mind about my desires. Anyway, let’s look back on my 2011 goals and see how badly I did. A lot of the goals I knew were unrealistic anyway.<\/p>\n

1. Do good work for Animation Mentor \u2013 and graduate!<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I didn’t graduate since I took the leave of absence, but I’m prepared for my final semester when the new year begins. I should finish in March 2012, leaving the rest of the year for a much more interesting job search than my previous boring Computer Science degree allowed.<\/p>\n

2. Learn to model an environment in Blender<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah, I kinda lost interest in Blender. I’m still interested in it, really, I’m just interested in other things more. I’ll keep my books on it, though. I might use it yet.<\/p>\n

3. Learn to model and animate a character in Blender<\/em><\/p>\n

Same as above.<\/p>\n

4. Continue trying to sell screenplay The Melody Box<\/em><\/p>\n

I did for a little while. I think I will try turning the story into a novel in 2012.<\/p>\n

5. Write a \u201clistening guide\u201d companion to my album<\/em><\/p>\n

Never did that. Might in 2012, but probably won’t. I’m not sure there’s any interest, and I’m too interested in other stuff.<\/p>\n

6. Finish writing a novel \u2013 and finish planning another<\/em><\/p>\n

Still haven’t achieved this one. But I’m continuing to work on it.<\/p>\n

7. Finish writing 15 short stories<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah right.<\/p>\n

8. Listen to the complete works of Mozart<\/em><\/p>\n

Too busy doing other stuff.<\/p>\n

9. Listen to 100 other pieces of classical music<\/em><\/p>\n

I wish.<\/p>\n

10. Read 25 fiction books, 25 non-fiction books, and 300 short stories<\/em><\/p>\n

Ha! I’ve gotten so little reading done this year, it’s terrible. Only 2 or 3 books I think. But I did buy a bunch of books when Borders went out of business. I should have more time in 2012 as I finish up with Animation Mentor.<\/p>\n

11. Practice drawing for 100 hours<\/em><\/p>\n

I got a few hours of practice in, but nowhere near 100. That’ll never happen.<\/p>\n

12. Play video games for 100 hours (I can dream, yes?)<\/em><\/p>\n

Dream dream dream…<\/p>\n

13. Watch lots of movies and TV shows\u2026 to study story structure (\u201cSave the Cat\u201d style)<\/em><\/p>\n

Define “lots”…<\/p>\n

14. Spend as little money as possible\u2026 save it for a 2012 vacation!<\/em><\/p>\n

Animation Mentor took most of my money (which I’m happy to pay; getting professional advice and critiques from such top-notch working animators from the big studios is worth it). Fortunately I just recently paid tuition for the last Animation Mentor semester, so until my California trip, or until I move out (what?), my savings should only go up.<\/p>\n

2011 was also the year of family deaths, unfortunately. We lost two grandparents and the family dog. That was not so fun. Seems a lot of people I know also lost relatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the most part, this was The Year of Animation Mentor. Between going to work and doing Animation Mentor work, I had very little time for much else. But I did take a leave of absence in the spring to prevent myself from going completely crazy, and used that time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[87],"tags":[122],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-hQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}