2016 has been a weird sort of year. On the one hand, nothing much has happened in my small portion of the universe, but looking outside that bubble you can see the hurricane of events.
Thankfully this post is focusing on my bubble, even if it seems very small and very unimportant in the face of the storm. *rolls up sleeves*
I actually thought I wasn’t going to have anything for these lists at first look, but after a trip down memory lane with the Archives and Google Photos… and I did a lot more than I thought. So welcome to my little corner of sunshine! 🙂
(Actually I’m pretty sure no one reads these posts but me, but I love looking back on them over the years!)
2016 Highlights Reel
- I wrote stories, made art, hung out with friends and family, and tried to bring a little Assassin’ing into my life.
And lo, So Did 2016 Go…
Real Life Stuffs
- I turned 40! How the heck did that happen??
- I finished rebuilding the new version of my treadmill gaming system
- 14 Year Wedding Anniversary, WOOT! 😀
- I competed in almost every Nerd Fitness 4 week challenge and kicked some serious tush in some of them!
- Went to my hubby’s first graduation! (This year for the bachelors, next year for the masters)
- Two years in the current position, four years in
IT department, and seven years at the current company. *happy dance* - Learned basic knife skills and how to cook a bunch of new recipes thanks to a Nerd Fitness Assassin‘s Mini Challenge
- I had a lot of fun playing on Habitica… I need to start that up again! 🙂
- Took Rocko to the vet for eye surgery
- I hit level 4 in Virgin Pulse all four times and got
max payout (Ca-ching!)
- I can cook! Maybe
!I started playing Pokemon Go and I’m looking forward to warmer weather to try out the new changes. (Go Team Instinct!) - I started playing WoW again… but only for a short while.
- Started playing Final Fantasy again with my coworkers and have almost gotten my White Mage up to max level so I can tank or heal as needed. Now I just need to grind all the other classes… bleh. :p
- Helped build the box for the blueberries at the new house and setup the mini orchard (6′ fruit trees are a thing!)
- Finally settled on a name for the cat: President Taft
- Volunteered at my company’s first ever Hackathon
- Dealt with a not-a-hurricane that flooded out our basement (just a bit) and then dealing with that repair
- Had the toilet flood down a wall in the basement (just a bit) and dealt with the cleanup from that
- Volunteered in
a avery sideways manner at Katuscon, but signed on to volunteer for real next year. - Our housemate/boarder finished college and is out and about in the world! 😀
- We’re
soooo close to getting the old house fixed up to rent out! *crosses fingers*
Writing and Art Related
- Did both Camp NaNoWriMos and NaNoWriMo proper this year.
- I won April Camp with assorted projects, lost July Camp, and then won November with [Placeholder]
- I actually managed a post a day for all of November with [Placeholder]! 😀
- I started a gallery for the non-model horse artwork
- Wrote up a nice How-to on making Stablemate scale
cavaletti and ground poles
- Made a Star Trek Science Officer Penguin, a Hello Kitty Borg, and
an Star Wars Imperial Guard Penguin magnets for friends. - I got an account on Scribophile and got some great feedback on In Peace and Inheritance
- Sculpted 21 fat animal magnets for Christmas and got 46 of them done in time to give away
- Finished 10 model horses: Solskin, Escape Velocity, Rumtumtugger, Jane of Aces, Partial Eclipse, Evangelina, portrait horse, dark bay
peruvian paso , dark bay splash overo thoroughbred, silver bay thoroughbred - Started tracking my art supply addiction by posting photos of each new purchase to a Facebook album
- Finished a
whoooooole truckload of plaster magnets! - Finished adding the cardboard shelving to my homemade photography table
- Figured out how to paint a faux-turquoise rock pattern
- I decided not to try and make a profit from my art anymore and spent a lot of time calculating how much each piece actually costs me to make so that I could adjust my prices on Etsy.
- I took another stab at making 100% Silicone Caulk and Cornstarch molds… and it worked! 😀
- I tried relaunching my webcomic Camera Angles, but got sidetracked (whoops!)
- Started my adventures in learning how to bind books
- Did a post on How to Prep a Breyer Mini Whinnie since I couldn’t find any when I needed one
- I started reposting all of my old fan fiction to the archives here and organizing it on Google Docs
- I started being very careful about what paint colors and brands I am using for each piece of art so folks can play along at home if they like
- I started the Wordwar Z! writing thread over on NerdFitness and made badges!
- Gave in and started paying for a proper Google Docs/Photos account so I could back up ALL the things!
Blog Related
- Had 22,277+ visits in 2016 (vs 15,469 in 2015, up 44.01%) ((vs 831 in 2010!))
- The Molds and Casting posts are still dominating the leaderboards, but the Saturday Story Prompts aren’t far behind
- I added AdSense adds in March… and have been making roughly $3 a month since.
- I changed templates from Twenty Fourteen to Iconic One
- There were 246 posts this year… but really at least another hundred more when you count all of the fan fiction that was backdated.
And on that note, it’s time to put 2016 to bed and start looking forward to what I’m going to accomplish next year! 😀
Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017!
