2022 Year In Review
Long time no write. I maybe should more… or at least channel that narcissism into YouTube or something like that.
So, news: I stopped posting Noah’s Archipelago here because it’s been a semi-daily for months now and it has its own website, but here’s the latest one because it’s relevant to New Year’s:
And I’m up to 489 followers on Noah’s Facebook page. So, not a bad start.
I eventually limped out another The Nick White Show episode after having to take the summer off when I couldn’t do the voices for 2 months after getting sick, then getting sidetracked due to working more on Noah than Nick.
I intended to do a Christmas episode, too, but suddenly it was December 21 and there was no way in Hell.
I’ll try to get back on track in 2023 putting out at least one per month, and will start back with the interview with Jason — I’ve already done Nick’s and Pádraig’s but I have every main character doing an interview with Ginger and there’s kinda a storyline to be put together amongst them all. Not a hard plot per se, but still.
And I have several episodes written that I couldn’t do this summer, including a 4th of July episode.
What else… I guess it’s proper to do a best of/worst of, bearing in mind I’m doing this on the fly and probably am forgetting a ton.
Best:
1. Noah’s Archipelago: what started as an idea to be a chickenshit hiding behind a puppet to do a snarky entertainment news YT thing then mutated to a regular puppet show, then the scope expanded far beyond what I could do as a novice puppeteer in my living room so I decided to make it a cartoon… and now it’s a daily that I post on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I still need to start posting it on Webtoon and Tumblr and elsewhere, but I have plans in the works.
And Noah got his start as an absolute ass, but I deleted that initial 16 page series everywhere and he’s evolved into a kinder, gentler, more fun-loving… well, he’s still a bit of an ass, but a more loveable ass.
2. MISSA: I already wrote a bit about the monotypes I did at a workshop at MISSA, and in and of itself the workshop was really fun, but it makes the best-of list for another reason: this is where Noah really asserted his “loveable ass” self rather than his “absolute ass” original concept.
I alluded a bit to Noah’s character development in that blog, but basically it was because of the looser method of working on the monotypes and lift prints and not having a plan for what I was doing so that I was drawing Noah more from my subconscious… then shutting up and seeing how my classmates reacted to him based on those more subconscious drawings, basically letting him reveal himself rather than trying to impose traits on him. If that makes sense.
3. The Nick White Show: Finally started making the episodes this year after more than a year in planning and writing.
4. The Northman: I’m not much of a movie watcher but this one got me into the theatre. Highly recommended, and I should get around to buying it on DVD.
With so much garbage being released of late, it was refreshing to hear of a brilliant no-bullshit film trying to be as close to the source material and its world as possible.
5. Assorted U2 Funko Pops now added to my collection:
But also….
Worst:
1. Assorted U2 Funko Pops now added to my collection:
Because of the process.
See, rumors started circulating on the U2 fan groups on Facebook that there would be a set of U2 Funko Pops. I believe it was June one fine morning when I was up to the bathroom at 5:05am, and I know this because it was 5 minutes after Pop In A Box sent out the email that preorders were now open on the site and I quickly went and grabbed my laptop and ordered all 5: individual Funkos of each member of U2, plus Bono in his little car.
(I’d also preordered the 2 Oasis Funko Pops the previous week.)
Then I didn’t think about it again until October when the release date loomed but I got emails from PIAB saying the U2 and Oasis pops were being delayed until January 2023.
I was annoyed but OK… until a lady in onf of the U2 fan groups on Facebook posted all excited a week or two later because her kid works at a Hot Topic and had just texted her saying he’d just finished stocking the shelves with the U2 Funko Pops and they were for sale on Hot Topic’s website as of midnight that night.
Um… what?
And I heard from folks in England who also ordered via PIAB who also got the same emails.
And I remembered that last year I pre-ordered 5 Star Wars Christmas pops and first I got the delayed email… then I got an email that one of my orders was cancelled as they were out of stock… then two more… then the 2 remaining pops eventually showed up in my mailbox in late August this year.
And so I didn’t trust PIAB and while most Funkos I’m not that bothered about either way, I wanted my goddamned U2 Funkos.
And so I ordered the set of 5 off of Hot Topic… but because I had to do it in 3 batches because of stock issues, I got to pay $60 in shipping.
But whatever, I could relax that I had them.
And then I heard about the big Walmart exclusive set that has the stage set and that the figures are actually different than the others, but the US site doesn’t ship to Canada and the Canadian site didn’t have it… some fans were ordering through US mail-forwarding services but I found one on eBay from a new seller who was asking a reasonable price instead of some of the crazy inflated prices.
Then I got these emails:
Here we go… And based on the Star Wars debacle of 2021, I figured I was soon to get another 5 of those for the rest of the U2 ones and the two Oasis ones.
And also I was kinda sick of having the really cute Funkos like my Duran Duran ones and the U2 ones in the boxes… so I was eyeing that smaller Walmart exclusive of all 4 of the regular Funkos in one box, and ordered it, figuring I’d unbox my Hot Topic ones and leave the 4-in-1 boxed up.
And then the unexpected happened:
Huh?
They emailed me to say they cancelled my Larry and Edge because they weren’t going to have enough stock.
And then they emailed me again to tell me the other 3 were also en route.
I hadn’t bothered to cancel the PIAB order as I figured they’d cancel the rest for me, lol…
So… I have entirely too many U2 Funko Pops, but I’m not complaining about that, just the whole process. And all for what amounts to Current Decade Beanie Babies.
Well, it’s a minor complaint.
I could whine about a few other things, too, but meh… never mind.
Now, do I wanna wrap up with listing some goals and plans for 2023? Naw… I’ll just shill things as they happen.
But hey, let’s have a look at my Spotify Wrapped stuff (bearing in mind that I only got an account in August and listen sporadically and in binges):
BTW, if ever you wanted an example of the Pareto principle: 763 minutes is less than 200 songs played through or about 50 per month since getting a Spotify account. Yet that launches me into the top 1%? And I saw people posting 3000+ minutes putting them in the top 0.01%.
Also, if memory serves from when I used to get royalties from Spotify plays back in the day, the pay rate is half a penny per song stream, so U2 has made a buck off me via Spotify this year. Remind me again how the money “gets to scale”, Bono? LOL…
I find it hilarious that I’ve got that particular Combichrist song sandwiched between the two U2 songs.
And “Just a Gigolo” was the original theme song for Noah when I was first developing him.
Some day one of my old pals from CiTR Radio will stumble on this blog, see this image, and scream in horror, although they might take comfort in Nickelback not gracing the list.
(We won’t tell them that Nickelback is usually #6 or 7 when I check my profile on Spotify.)
