As I write this I'm enjoying an ice-cold bottle of Hein-o-mite, while my dad, sister, her partner, my partner, and son are out in the kitchen listening to some smooth Jazz music, waiting for a few people to arrive to bring in the new year in style.
I won't be getting shit-faced tonight - not that I do anyway - but, we will be enjoying a few brewskies and having a bit of fun... The moment I get in there that Jazz crap is getting turned off.
What Has This Year Brought Me?
Well, let's start off with the most important thing. My son. He has grown into a chunk, and he's really strong for a baby. That's not a biased opinion, the little dude is a tank, and he's already in 9-12 clothes, and he's only 8 months. I don't know where he's getting it because me and his mother are pip-squeaks.
Fatherhood has been a wild ride so far. For the first few months, I was a zombie, and couldn't balance anything that well. Within 3 months though we were pros, and were well able to not only make time for ourselves individually but also for ourselves together. Which - I think - is important, because it's stressful, but also the most meaningful and fulfilling thing I've ever done.
He's a cool little guy and has made this year the best one I've ever had.
Achievements
Through it all, I stayed through to a goal I set this time last year.
I wanted to post every day of the year, and I'd like to announce that with this post here, I did it.
It was no easy feat, with work, projects, the baby, and the bands/ gigs, but hell year, I made it!
These kinds of long-term goals are important for the mind, and I really feel a weight lifted off my shoulders... Well, not a weight. It feels like a relief, but not that sort of stressed-out relief, it's different.
Hive never became a chore, it was always fun, and I loved getting onto the laptop for an hour or so to get writing, and often I'd be daydreaming about what I might write about, or how a particular story was going to go.
I do think the content creation/ article writing is for me, and Hive has allowed me to discover that.
Another Hive Based Achievement
I got to enjoy the fact that I hit another goal I set out for myself at the start of 2023. Reaching 10k HP, and I'm delighted to say that I blew past that goal. It was something that I didn't think was going to be possible, but here were are.
In fairness, neither of my Hive goals I thought would be possible, and there were days when I thought I'd fail, but a little determination allowed me to get through it.
The feeling of, not only gratitude to all the cool people on Hive I've met, who have enjoyed the stuff I write has been amazing, and with the extended HP, I'm glad I can give something back to the cool people here, and encourage others with upvotes, similar to the way I've been encouraged to continue over these last two years.
What's The Plan Stan? If That Is Your Real Name.
It isn't, thank god... No offense to any Stan's out there.
Well, my plan for 2024 is to focus on some other creative endeavors that my daily posting has kind of held me back from.
To be real, I can find maybe an hour, if I'm lucky, 2 hours a day to be alone and do something, and for this year, that time has been put solely into Hive, and if I put that time into Model Making, or something like that, I tend to document the time spent, and use it for Hive posts. Obviously, though, that hasn't happened in a while, and that's something I want to change.
I want to put more time into model making, animation/ digital art, and video production, which is what this year is going to be about.
That's not to say that I won't be on Hive, I will be checking in daily, but I won't be posting daily.
With the lack of daily posting, I think I'll be able to focus and spend more time on each post, which in turn should make them more professional and more interesting too, perhaps.
Anyway, that's the plan for 2024, and it should be good. I'm going to do HPUD tomorrow, and in that, I might think of some other New Years Resolutions, but until I do, those are my main ideas.