Today is a special day for me. It’s the 3rd year anniversary since I quit World of Warcraft. Ironically, I was playing casually last month but that whole phase seems to have gone. I’m not sick anymore and back to doing/working on things that “matter”. I wrote a similar post last year and the year before.
What I’ve done in the last year
worldofwarren.com
2012: 164 posts between Jan 7, 2012 and Jan 7, 2013. On average, roughly 13.7 posts/month. As with last year, falling in line with my hope of 150-200 posts.
2011: 187 posts between Jan 7, 2011 and Jan 7, 2012
2010: 308 posts between Jan 26, 2010 and Jan 7, 2011
warrenshea.com
Completed! Even though one year ago, I was saying this was almost done…but I only finished in May 2012. Anyways, finishing this was a great feat and led me to my next project
kotobishoujo.com
45 – retroactive blog posts
55 – pages including statues
3 – other pages (checklist, faq, contact)
Twitter
2012: 594 (totalling 3425 since Jan 10, 2010)
2011: 1486 (totalling 2831 since Jan 10, 2010)
2010: 1345
Improved development skills
- Improved quite a bit in jQuery, HTML5, CSS3, AJAX this year mostly due to warrenshea.com
- Improved a lot in PHP due to the Facebook work project I had including learning the JavaScript/PHP SDK, Facebook App Creation, Like Gates, and Facebook and Twitter Share Dialogs
- Installed/learned WAMP and Media Wiki
Note: Keep in mind that for 95% of these movies/shows/cartoons, I’m not technically just watching them. They’re just ON while I do other stuff, like dev or photography.
Movies
Show
- House S1-S7 [Rewatch], S8
- The Walking Dead S1-S3
- Gilmore Girls S1-S7
- Glee S1-S2 [Rewatch], S3
- Pushing Daisies S1-S2
- Hell’s Kitchen S9 [Rewatch]
- Breaking Bad S1-S5 [Rewatch]
- MasterChef S3 [Rewtach]
- Dawson’s Creek S1-S6
- Big Bang Theory S5 [Rewatch]
- Mistfits S3
- One Tree Hill S1-S4 [Rewatch]
- Glee S1-S2 [Rewatch]
- The Glee Project S1
Cartoon
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) S1-S9
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) S1
- Samurai Pizza Cats E1-E13
- Spectacular Spider-Man S1-S2 [Rewatch]
- Batman The Animated Series [Rewatch]
- Justice League: Doom
Anime
- Tekkaman Blade II
- Tekkaman Blade
- Steins;Gate
- X-Men Anime
- Persona
- Spirited Away
Reading
- The Art of Racing in the Rain [Novel]
- Ultimate Spider-Man 1-89 [Comic]
- Amazing Spider-Man 654-700 [Comic]
- Prince of Tennis Vol. 1-42 [Manga]
- Hikaru no Go Vol. 1-23 [Manga]
- Neon Genesis Vol. 13 [Manga]
Gaming
- Super Mario Bros. Wii U [Wii U]
- Contra III: Alien Wars [SNES][Replay]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time – Normal Mode [SNES][Replay]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time – Hard Mode [SNES][Replay]
- Kirby: Return to Dreamland [Wii]
- New Super Mario Bros [DS]
- Super Mario 3D Land [3DS]
- Zelda: A Link to the Past [SNES][Replay]
- Braid [PS3]
- Kirby: Return to Dreamland [Wii] [Replay]
- The New Super Mario Bros 2 [3DS]
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword [3DS]
- World of Warcraft – 80-85 – Annataz
- World of Warcraft – 80-83 – Aldino
- World of Warcraft – 80-83 – Sheaman
- World of Warcraft – 80-82 – Blackcanary
- World of Warcraft – 80-81 – Sudoku
- World of Warcraft – 80-81 – Grimlock
- Tiny Tower – 161 Floors
- Diablo 3 – Level 43-52 (Monk) – Normal mode, Nightmare done, Hell mode Act 1
- Diablo 3 – Level 1-20 (Demon Hunter) – Normal mode
Art
None
Photography
- Kotobishoujo: Scarlet Witch
- Kotobishoujo: Phoenix
- Kotobishoujo: Dark Phoenix
- Kotobishoujo: Batgirl Black Costume
- Kotobishoujo: Poison Ivy
- Kotobishoujo: X-23 X-Force
- Kotobishoujo: Christie Monteiro
- Kotobishoujo: Catwoman
- Kotobishoujo: Liara T’soni
- Kotobishoujo: Supergirl
- Kotobishoujo: Evil Supergirl
- Kotobishoujo: Wonder Woman
- Kotobishoujo: Batgirl Black Costume
- Kotobishoujo: Supergirl
- Canon Rebel T3i – new DSLR camera!
Video
- Converted 22 VHS Tapes to Digital
- Converted 12 Camcorder Tapes to Digital
What I hope to accomplish this year
worldofwarren.com
I hope to consistently update my achievements section.
I also hope to do a few figure reviews. I have a lot of toys that don’t get much spotlight and I’d like to give them some.
If this blog stays as is – a journal of my life – I plan to leave it as it. If I change the direction of this blog, I would hope to create a Facebook page for this.
warrenshea.com
This is done and I haven’t been updating/needed to update it much. At some point, I’ll have to gather any projects worth showing from May 2012 to now and add them to the Porfolio section. Otherwise, I’m pretty content with this.
kotobishoujo.com
I purchased the domain for this last year, in Oct 2011 but only started doing stuff with it in May 2012. It’s been about 7 months and while I’ve done a lot, there’s still much to do. My hope is to definitely finish this thing this year. And then I can start with other stuff…
Blogging
I’m content with my blogging. It’s not as much as I’d like but I don’t have the content to fill…so it all works out :)
Reading, Art
Don’t really care about these two things anymore…
Gaming
Here’s my Gaming TO DO list:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [Replay] – In progress already
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword [Replay]
Mega Man 1 – 5
Mega Man Zero
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (maybe)
Final Fantasy III (VI)
If I stick to this list, I should be able to get it down fairly easily.
Photography
Learn more about Photography !
Improve on my macro shots including finishing my Kotobishoujo.com pics and adding some figures to my Figure Review section
Purchase a 50mm (details pending) lens for everyday shots.
Improving development skills
Learn MVC and apply it to warrenshea.com (via backbone.js)
Improve my OOP.
ASP.NET MVC?
Become Microsoft Certified in something? SQL?
There’s a lot I could put here, but technology is always changing…it’s hard to predict what I’ll want to know in the year.
How I’ve changed professionally this last year
It’s been a critical year professionally for me. I’ve been looking at posts from the last 3 years and 2 years ago, I had a crushing experience – not getting the senior developer role despite both applying and feeling qualified for it. Oddly enough, I got the role, unofficially a few months after. And I had that role, title and responsibility, but not the pay for a year+.
After doing the role but not getting paid for it (for a year~) my work ethic changed. It got worse – I’d come in late, and I’d leave early. In a way, justifying my job and low(er) pay by working less hours, to increase my pay ratio I guess.
And 1/2 way through last year, I finally got my promotion + salary increase. But unfortunately, my work ethic stayed around the same – poor. It only becomes great when I work on an interesting project. And that’s more for personal gain/motivation than professional (well, I guess it’s both).
So basically, I’m enjoying my life now. I got my senior developer title. I got my senior developer pay. But I don’t work that hard. And I choose the jobs I want…cuz I’m a diva. Though I tend to also take shitty projects. Funny thing is, I actually downgraded my title (but not my pay) to Intermediate Developer, so I that can still develop and do less project management/overseeing. I’d still rather develop than be in meetings and talk/consult. There’s still much to gain from being in the front-lines. I got very good at being confident with my voice and critical thinking/situations – making the right call/judgement in a critical situation. It’s a skill I think will help throughout my life. To weigh my options and determine what’s best.
How I hope to change professionally this year
I’ve been casually interviewing. Talking with headhunters. I’m finding that a lot of people find me on LinkedIn, but once they go to warrenshea.com, they’re sold. They want to talk to me about job…cuz my website is so awesome :D Unfortunately, in these scenarios, most of the jobs they offer suck. Not interested in being the only developer on a site/in a company. Sigh…stop offering me that crap.
Not sure where I want to go professionally actually…but I want to improve my development skills personally and professionally. Again, I don’t always know where I’m headed but as long as I’m pointed in the right direction.
…in three years…
I’ve done a lot since I quit WoW, three years ago today. It’s funny, WoW’s not even a part of my life anymore, it seems odd to pay some kind of tribute to not playing it when I barely think about it nowadays. But I guess I must always remember the 5 years, 400 days of playtime I wasted to that game. I must always remember to keep busy to make up for that time.
Reading last year’s post, I’m in a much better place happyness-wise. And isn’t that what it’s always about? Being happy? The answer is: yes.
