Happy New Years! A Year in Review and… It’s Resolution Time!

Last year I tried to avoid making resolutions and stuck to the rather successful 30 days at a time method… except that after a month or two, I forgot to keep at it. So I attempted small changes in small increments and ended up not making that much of a change.

Accomplishments in 2014:
In 2014 I published a dead tree edition of of some of the comics on this website. I also tabled at my first con, and tabled again at a bigger con, and tabled again at another con! The result was I had fun, but really didn’t do much else. Normally at a convention I walk around (a lot) and get inspired, or made to feel guilty about how much I’m actually doing. By tabling, I’m kind of stuck in one place, and I miss out on a lot. I didn’t make that much,except selling to friends. I didn’t increase the readership of the comic that much, so I’m re thinking the whole “con” experience as a creator.

I drew a lot in 2014, not as much as I would like to, but I drew more monkeys than I care to think about. The reason was MINIons Take The States 2014. After 2012 I decided to make badges for everyone in our little group… Then I decided to have fun and draw different minion monkeys for each one. It was fun, it was challenging and I’m still doing it!

I displayed my LEGO creations at Brickworld Indy and Brickworld Chicago.  I challenged myself in 2013 to build something to show my students what I could do.  So I built a small section of the Deathstar trench from Star Wars.  The challenging part was that I don’t really have enough bricks to build it, I borrowed some from school.  THis means I can’t just build it and let it sit I have to take it apart each time… It gets a little scary as I put pieces together just before the public shows up.  I was pleased with my display, but know it could be better if I could get my act together.

I triumphantly returned to the classroom!  After 2 years serving in a different role I returned to the classroom this fall and am still working out exactly what has happened to education in two short years.  I know I’m spending a lot more of my personal time on stuff for school, I’m wishing I had taken an Accounting or Statistics class in college since a lot of time is spent going over test data.  I’m still trying new and creative things, but not as much as I’d like to.

I also joined a game group and have been playing more games which has been fun.

Resolutions for 2015:

not really resolutions just things I want to work at and focus on in my personal life throughout the year.

1. Be less of a curmudgeon.  This one comes from seeing that I’m always stressed, about school, about things I need to do, about lots of stuff.  I then come across as an old guy (yes, I’m old) yelling about people on my lawn (which is in need of care).  I used to be a fun guy, now I’m an adult- an adult who reads comic books, builds with LEGO and carries around a stuffed monkey, but still an adult.  No need to go into detail, but I need to worry less, and enjoy life more which brings up-

2. Don’t over commit.  I seem to keep making promises or taking on more and more instead of saying “no”  I need to limit what I’m doing to focus on the stuff I really like.  So I probably won’t be worrying about tabling at cons this year, but instead work on producing a good comic.  I probably, will limit some of what I’m doing with some groups so I have time for the things that are important to me.

3. Draw more.  I like to draw, it has kept me sane throughout the years, I need to draw more for fun, not because I have to, but because I want to.  I always say that when your passion becomes your work you’d think you’d be happy- but in most cases you just start hating what you were once passionate about.

4. Other stuff.  I’ve got a lot of little things that end up causing me to be miserable… I’m going to try to get rid of or address head on those things in order to be happier and less of a curmudgeon.

Projects for 2015:

MINIon Badges-  I will continue to work on this project because it will never go away…

More Comics- We are currently on Hiatus, because I’m re-examining exactly how I’m doing with My Geek Odyssey.  I’ve got a few ideas from format, to characters, to stories.  There are a number of comics I read that either are coming to an end in 2015 or you can tell the creator just isn’t into it anymore and has moved on, that is not the case here, I just feel as if I’ve gotten lost (yes, I know I have a GPS) and need to return to why I started this comic.  Over the holidays I was able to pull together three possible longer format stories. But I want them to be something I am proud of, so I will take a lot more time that what I usually do to get them right.

An Educational Game-  This is a project that I started years ago and never finished (one of those resolution #4 things)  I’d like to get it in a playable version so I can at least see if it works.

I hope 2015 brings you joy and happiness and whatever you want. Thank you for all your support and I promise Cecil will be back, better than ever, in a few months with daring adventures and ookerific fun.