Year of Yesterdays

Today is a fantastic day. I am feeling awesome, proud and confident. Because today, my dear reader is the day . . .
The 12^th of the December, 2013. On this day, exactly one year ago (12/12/12) I wrote my very first post for this blog! That's right, today is my blogoversary . . . although, I dislike that portmanteau, so I'm gonna stick to "blogging anniversary" alright?
But yes, today is my one year anniversary. I am so happy! Although I've already done my 100th blog post milestone, so today I'm not going to be talking about 'anniversaries' and what they mean or anything like that. No, today I'm going to take a look back at everything I've done and achieved, and linking to my past articles wherever possible. It's time for a look back at my blogging, to see where we've been and where we're going from here. The Word of the Day is: 'REVOLUTION'

Revolution /revə'lūshən/ n. 1. The complete overthrowing of an established government or political system. 2. A complete or marked change in something. 3. Mechanics a. A turning round or rotating on an axis, such as in a motor car engine. b. A single cycle in such a course. 4. Astronomy a. (of a heavenly body) the action or fact of going around in an orbit: The earth's revolution around the sun. b. A single course of such movement.

So, let's begin with the past. One of the reasons why the Word of the Day is REVOLUTION, is as a callback to an earlier post I did, titled: A Year is a Day Away where the word of the day was RESOLUTION. In that post, I had three New Years Resolutions:

- I am going to write more (stories)

- I am going to write better (blog posts)

- I will try to find a partner (girlfriend)

Something that I am shocked to learn is that I achieved all three of those things. I have definitely written more stories. Over the past year, I have written 9 original stories for this blog:

• iRobot
• Furby, Herbie & Kirby in the Starlight Derby
• A Day in the Death of . . .
• Killing Time
• 11:34
• Dictionary is Missing
• Blackwater Casefile 'Three' - No. 1: The Toll of the Tumbulgum Troll
• Blackwater Casefile 'Three' - No. 2: Circles in the Sugar Cane Field
• Blackwater Casefile 'Three' - No. 3: The Mark of the Mysterious Mist

Stories like The Lonely King, The Peacemaker, Battle Report: The Trials of Unit I-109 & The Cursed Cat of Cecil Street don't get included in the count because they weren't original to the blog. I had written them previously, for school or family. Oh, and of course I started writing my Duke Forever blogserial! That doesn't count because it's not finished yet, but I have definitely written more stories this year than I have in previous years. If you haven't read any of these, I recommend that you check them out. I put a lot of effort into them (except maybe "A Day in the Death of . . .") so, they're definitely worth reading.

My second goal was to write better. I believe I've achieved that; practice does, indeed, make perfect. I'm still not as good as I want to be, but a lot of people have enjoyed my writing none the less. The reason I know I write better is because of the positive feedback I've recieved in comments on this blog, comments on Google+ & my increased traffic.
Where once I expected an average of 5 views per post, then 12? These days, I recieve an average of 50 pageviews per post!
So, thank all of you, you make blogging worthwhile.

Then, finally, the third one. I thought maybe I'd lose a little weight and start exercising more; I thought I'd start going to bars and making myself available to some of the single girls out there - that's all I expected from my "look for a girlfriend" resolution. I just wanted to be a better man.
So, I am over the moon ecstatic that I've not only found a girlfriend; a girl that I love deeply and passionately, who loves me back just as much. But that girl is the most beautiful girl I know, and the most caring sweet and intelligent. She's everything I dreamed of - and more since she's a writer just like me! - and, miraculously, I'm everything she's dreamed of. I am happier than I've ever been before.
Because of my Beloved, I really am a better man I wanted to be.

(I love you, sweetheart)

†

The second reason the Word of the Day is REVOLUTION is because that's exactly what this is - as in Defintion 2: a marked change.
You've probably noticed by now, since it's rather obvious, that I've changed my blog's template around . . .
I haven't done something like this since early March with my blog post, The More Things Change . . ., but in that very post I implied that I might change the blog in the future. Now don't worry, this version isn't too different, my blog archive is still on the left (although it's now a "stacked" menu with no thumbnails) and the words are still centred and formatted the way I like. But as similar as it is, I really had to change it because my last template was stifling my creativity.


The original reason why I changed my blog was because I wanted an embedded commenting system. The only template that provided that as standard was Dynamic, so I chose it. I enjoyed a lof of those features, however, the Dynamic Template was a fickle mistress.
For one thing, it was slow. It had a lot of code due to its variability - but when loading the blog, it was so slow that sometimes it would bug out and not load the header picture, the formatting or the comments section I worked so hard to include!
(I still have embedded comments now, using Google+ comments but for the time being it seems like you have to click a button to "expand" the comments. I'm working on fixing that.)
Secondly, it was unpredictable. Some of blogger's intrinsic functions disappeared, such as including certain Gadgets and if I wrote a post without the usual Illustration at the top, the thumbnail in the sidebar didn't look right, making it harder to create my blog the way I wanted.
Finally, and most importantly, with Dynamic Template I couldn't add extra pages without them linking on the front page! This is what has me excited and this is why I had to change the blog. In my Late Spring Cleaning post (the one with the sexy maid in the Illustration) I mentioned two things I wanted to do with this blog: A Webcomic & a GameBlog.
For both of these, I would have to create a seperate page (so that it wouldn't interfere with the blog itself), but I couldn't do that with the Dynamic Template.
For the GameBlog - or interactive blogfiction - I couldn't create the seperate hyperlinked pages for the story, because they would all show up within the header bar, allowing people to cheat and "find the right ending". Now, with this new, simpler template, I can finally fulfill my dream of providing free, interactive blogfiction.
The webcomic too would work better with its own pages, and I'm still working idly on the 'webcomic', but I'm working on other projects at the moment because I'm not sure if people are interested. What do you think?

Also, because I've noticed that some people are getting lost looking for Duke Forever chapters in the blog, I've created a Duke Forever Chapter Archive.
You can find the link to it near the top-left corner of the blog, the link leads to to a page with a list of all of the current chapters for Duke Forever, so you can find where you're up to, and even click on the link to read them.
Also, as a little teaser, I plan to include the title of the upcoming Duke Forever stories that I'm working on, so that can serve as a kind of "Coming Soon" teaser for the next story or two that I have yet to write.

†

The third and final reason why the word of the day is REVOLUTION is because, it is the blog's anniversary. Meaning there has been a full revolution of the Earth around the Sun, a year of fun that's gone by for this blog.
So, because I'll probably be taking my Christmas holiday sometime before New Year's Eve, I figured I'd take the time now to list my new New Year's Resolutions for the coming year of 2014!
Hey, they worked out well last year? Maybe, if I resolve to do some more amazing things, I'll achieve them as well. So, here are the ways I hope to improve my life over the coming year:

- I want a good occupation (that I enjoy doing)
I've had a few jobs before, menial little tasks. But for one of them, I spent all day cleaning footpaths with a water blaster. At the end of the day I had sore feet, sometimes to the point of bleeding toes & the deafening sound of the blaster (even with ear-plugs in) made it hard to think. So I want a job that I can enjoy doing.
Another job I had at a fast-food joint was pretty fun. I enjoyed it despite the low pay, but I was let go after only 4 months because I didn't realize my employment was only meant to be short term. So when I say an occupation I mean something that occupies my time, a job I can keep for a good, long while at the very least a whole year. With a license, that will be a lot easier, so (fingers crossed!) I'll get this one done sooner rather than later.

- I will try to make Duke Forever more popular (on tvtropes.org)
I would wish that I would write more Duke Forever, but I'm having so much fun that that's kind of a given already. But I do wish it was a little more popular and had a wider audience. Don't get me wrong! I am truly thankful for all the readers I have already and all of the kind words people have said about my blogserial. However, as I see it, the way that I'll know when I've truly made it in online writing is when people start referencing its tropes on the official tv tropes database. It might even be good enough to get its own page! . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Now, it's a bit cheeky to go telling people to do it, and I am not shameless enough to do it myself, so don't take this as a command. I don't want people to do this because I told them to. However, this is something that I really wish could happen, so if you find the opportunity to link to my blogserial, I'd be truly grateful.

- I am going to have my first kiss (with my girlfriend)
Now, since we love each other so much, and we've been together for so many months, it may seem weird that we haven't kissed one another yet. Well, the fact is, my Beloved doesn't live in Australia . . .
It's a little frustrating, but it's all worth it, as far as I'm concerned. We do things our way, nice and slow, but I really really want to kiss my girlfriend. So, I'm going to do what I can to make that happen. I'd write a little more and give more details about it, but this is my private life I'm talking about. The only reason I'm writing this at all is because I achieved all of last year's resolutions, and I want to give this dream of mine the best chance at success. So, that's definitely a goal for the coming year. It's going to happen, I don't doubt that, it's only a question of time. So, here's hoping I'll taste her lips in the next couple of months . . .

So, those are my resolutions for the next astronomical revolution. Oh, also, one little resolution thing I'm working on is not talking about my girlfriend so much. I think about her a lot, and yeah I'm excited, but I'm starting to sound like the guy from the xkcd comic who won't shut up about his girlfriend.
So, I'm working on that, but no promises!

I hope you love the new blogging template, and I'll be back soon with another post. Until then, I'm the Absurd Word Nerd, screaming: Viva la Revolución!