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I'm sitting in an office, wearing a comedy Christmas tie and drinking a comically oversized skinny latte, and despite appearing like Edward Norton at the start of Fight Club, I'm greatly enjoying it.

Let's clip show, shall we? Except without the pictures. OK maybe with pictures. I'll see if I can find pictures.

You know, Cyprien did a much better year in recap, probably because he had more interesting things to talk about, but who cares, this one's all about my year. Yeah I know I say every year I don't like doing these but nevertheless I still do them and you know what? This has actually been an interesting year, filled with odd little moments and meeting fun people.

So let's begin. (Chances are, I'll only end up doing this until about June-July, and carry on another day, but it depends how much downtime I have at the office today. It's Christmas eve, so there isn't a great deal of work I haven't done yet).

The year began, technically, awesomely. See, I'd quit my shitty job working in a newsagent back in December, awaiting an animation gig over at a studio, who were going to do a youtube series where people talk in front of a green screen and needed me to do some background animation. Seemed decent enough. Went to their studios and got set up.



And then they told me they didn't feel ready to actually begin production, despite having begun production. What was funny - in retrospect, that is - was when we were interviewing, I asked them if they had enough video content for me to work on, if they wanted this to be an ongoing series, and they had assured me they had. Oh well, I also had an interview for a Maya Generalist position at another company the following day, at a much nicer salary. I got the job, and then some higher-ups decided they no longer needed a Maya generalist and the two jobs I, only a couple of days before, had, were now no longer.

Well at least I was still working Jake Bexx's Bilderberg Project, which while being simple in style, was a lot of fun.



Cut to a montage of me trying out different jobs over the following months and (usually) failing miserably.

Fundraiser! Article writer! [I was going to link the site but it's down. Good sign] Freelancer! Hell, I even had a day where I was pushing tea. Not like in a West Side Story way, but actually literally, tea. In Camden Market. That was a weird day.



But then I had to rush off because I had to go and see Dichen Lachman at the premiere of the film whose name and plot I've completely forgotten (but she was delightful), which Wilson somehow managed to swipe tickets for.

Hell, here's an earlier one. Yes. They're meant to be regular. Yes, it's been ten months since we've done one. However, we've gotten quite a lot done in this despite our lack of video evidence. I've planned out many character arcs and shaped the way the first season will go (and thought about at least three more after that. What, who says I'm getting ahead of myself?), while Wilson has done some incredible concepts for it. There's also an official Weird Gods blog dedicated to the show but it's kind of sort of on the backburner for the moment.


It's on the backburner because we're currently writing a comic, which won't be going on the backburner. We're looking at starting production first thing next year and releasing pages once a week, once we have enough backlogged.




In May I wrote a short film.



And then we made it. Production was great fun, if a bit all over the place - most of the people working on it were graduates and we did it on a shoestring budget but none of that was really up to me. I wrote it and made sure it looked good (also I had to act in it because an actor dropped out at the last minute)








And during those months I got to hang out with some French nobs, drunk with the Visual Effects Society - of which I am not even remotely close to being a member of - and saw Interstellar on an IMAX projector and Big Hero 6 (all of this thanks to frequent collaborator Wilson), and saw Jackie freakin' Chan (he is the nicest guy in the world and sung everybody Happy Birthday).

 




So this was all happening while I was looking for a job. And then i got a job: after a brief and predictably disastrous stint as a fundraiser, I applied for an admin job at the same charity - the National Deaf Children's Society - and got the job. It's been a good job, it's comfortable, I'm at a desk and it's not tiring enough that it dampens my creativity, although once in a blue moon I have to dress in a giant bear suit

Gotta keep them fundraisers happy. But yeah it gives me the freedom to not worry about a steady paycheque while not being so creatively stifling that I can't go home and do some freelance, or do some writing.

Recently I worked on another short film, The Blue Balloon, where I had to remove colours and keep other colours, a la Schindler's List (with less Holocaust)









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A brand new year has begun. The first in a brand new decade of what was, not too long ago a new millennium (and needless to say, century). Everything's pretty new, and is the usual pathos in this, it represents brand new beginnings and hope and all that. But, of course, it doesn't. It's another day which will be followed by another day the day after it, until we reach the end of the year which is full of reminiscence and then the eventual new beginning.       Everything ends, and everything begins again, but only if you choose to see it. That's not to say that the end of the year isn't something worth celebrating. 

There's a lot of things I want to get right this year, which I didn't quite seem to get last year. I'm not going to write up any resolutions, mainly because I haven't thought of any. It's going to be the usual mix of things, though: get that Wanderer comic off the ground, finish writing things, write new things, draw more, and, hell, why not even start a film or an animated piece while I'm at it. 

Remember way back when in my eager stages of planning for bits of life that wouldn't happen for years and years and years? It's all still happening. Nothing's ended, nor begun. I'm still running around in circles trying to find decent plots for these three stories. If life in Sheffield proves to be as excellent as it's been lately, I'm pretty sure I can see a really good year ahead of me. 

I wonder if Fool Face Reilly got my New Year's text

I'm listening to my "sounds of 2009" playlist which I just created, which instead of being good music from 2009, it's music I listened to a shitload in 2009, which includes undoubtedly, the musical genius and lyrical mastery of Amanda Palmer and Dresden Dolls. Mr Children's Home album and their B-Sides compilation album have certainly awarded themselves a place in this (as well as all their other songs I have), as have AC Newman, Coeur de Pirate, and Regina Spektor.     It's a pretty good playlist.

I'm going to end this entry with this benediction from my author idol, Neil Gaiman, because everything I've tried to write has sounded really forced and unbelievably cheesy:

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. May your coming year be a wonderful thing in which you dream both dangerously and outrageously.

"I hope it'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and you will be liked and you will have people to love and to like in return. And most importantly, because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now - I hope that you will, when you need to be, be wise and that you will always be kind. And I hope that somewhere in the next year you surprise yourself."

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope it's a great one.