Four Island

HAPPY NEW YEAR YAYS! :D It's me, your favorite Internet failspaz, wishing you a grand 'ol year! Hopefully it's a good one--I usually get so attached to the old year that I get angsty on New Year's Day, but it's such a weird day and all! Hopefully I actually remember to backup my server today, unlike last year. Oh god, it feels so odd saying "last year" to refer to 2010 because, well, 2010 was yesterday! OH GRAND SMACKS! Well, anyway, I thought it would be fun to start off what should hopefully be a very good year for Four Island with a bit of an old favorite/godforsaken-horror-from-the-mist: my annual goals!

GOOD LORD, STOP HER!

Wait! Before you scream and run away, just listen! Yes, I know I took my goals last year a bit too seriously and it got a bit out of hand and I eventually just had to say "stuff it" to some of them, but relax. This year's going to be different. This year, I'm going to understand my goals for what they are: guidelines, goals, destinations, not the immutable laws of physics that I was treating them as last year. Anyway, even though I know I failed most of my goals, let's see how I did, shall we? :P

• Increase RSS subscribers to 15 - No. Fail. That said, I didn't actually really do anything to achieve this goal, which is probably why it failed, but I didn't do anything in 2009 and I somehow got up to 10 subscribers then! However, it has stayed at 10 pretty much all year, so I'm going to have to think of some ways to improve my work this year. :P
• Write a post a week - This, here, was the godawful king of horrific annual goals. I took this goal SO SERIOUSLY for more than half a year and then finally decided that I couldn't take it anymore and just blew it off. Thank goodness I did, because I did so many bad things in the name of this goal. Needless to say, it will not be making another appearance this year. :P
• Update the POTW on time - Hmm, not only did I fail this once or twice last year, but I actually ended up disintegrating first the poll post (at the same time as I called off my previous goal) and then the actual poll of the week. Well. Fail. :P
• Don't post random polls - I was actually quite excited at the idea that I may have actually passed this goal, but as I looked back at last year's polls, I did find three that I deem to be pretty random: Sally Cohn (bless her), Gap Senile and Baseball Volition. And now I don't even have the chance to succeed at it this year. :P
• Average around 1 comment per post - Nope. There were 111 comments posted on blog posts last year and 72 if you don't count comments by me (which I don't). I posted 108 times last year which means that once again, this goal has failed. Darn it. Got to write more interesting posts.
• Reach 9000 posts on The Fourm - Yes! Surprisingly (and perhaps attributed to my oft-quoted "annual four month popularity spike"), The Fourm passed 9000 posts pretty early in the year--perhaps some time in February or March (I can't remember and I was sure that I had written a post or something about it on The Fourm but I can't find it now...).
• Write 10 articles on Fouripedia - Not even close. There were in actuality only two new articles posted on Fouripedia last year: Student and Pumpkin. Both articles are actually quite awesome and I invite you to read them if you haven't done so yet. :P
• Write 2 True Falsities a month - This one has a big fat "N. O." stamped on it. True Falsities really flopped around like a dead fish last year. Out of the 24 new stories I promised, I wrote but one, "New Year? Not Yet!" Then, in March, I went on a save-true-falsities kick and pledged to write a True Falsity a day for an entire work week. Once again, I wrote but one: "Happy Birthday Pyro!" Huge fail. I don't really know what's going to happen to True Falsities, to tell the truth. I really think it may be time to archive it. I really think it may be time to actually make that archive. Hmmm...
• Release 2 seasons of Pillowcase - Sadly, no, not even this goal was fulfilled. I did create and publish one successful season back in March which ran until June, but I never got around to making another one. I guess I can't do anything right.

Wow, look at that! A whole year of failure for me! Mix that in with my inability to do anything for the holidays on Four Island and we've got a loser! :P Out of my 9 goals last year, I passed 1. Yeah. Not so very good. This year's going to be better. 2011 is going to be a shining year of glory for Four Island, aye? :P Let's enumerate those goals:

• Write at least four posts a month. It may seem like a low number, but remember, previous years' months were padded out with poll posts. This year, I mean real, solid posts. Also remember that this is a guideline. I may post more, and I hope I post more. If I don't meet my goal one month, well, that's just too bad. Nothing to exploit loopholes over. :P
• COMMENT! For the third year in a row, I'm going for an average of one (1) comment per post. Every year, I've gotten closer to achieving this goal and if I write nice, substantial posts, well, I could actually get people interested and wanting to comment! I mean, look at Annetenna! Nearly a year later, and people are still commenting on it. Aww, how sweet. :P
• Exploit the annual spike of popularity for The Fourm! The Fourm currently has about 12,000 posts. Let's see if we can bump that up to a smooth 15,000 by the end of this year. We can do it! POPULARITY SPIKE! :P
• Continue with Pillowcase. I expect to have released (and completed) at least one season of Pillowcase by the end of the year. Let's do this.
• Get programming! When was the last time I released something? I want to release at least two things (that I actually programmed) by the end of the year. It could be a website, or another version of something already released, but it has to be something I actually programmed, which means that last year's Randomlog wouldn't have counted. Last year's Skype chatlog script wouldn't have counted either because it wasn't really a thing I released--it was just an informational and helpful blog post. Do some real work! You're awesome! Aaah!

Okay, that was getting a bit odd (I think I may still be a little tired from last night--I always write my New Years post on New Year's Day), but I certainly believe that these goals can be achieved (though I will probably be a little weirded out by the green calendars this year--they remind me of 2007 :P). This year's going to be great. Once again, I hope last year was great for you and I hope that this year will be better. Let's do this.