How did the resolutions go?

Back in December last year, I made a series of quite large resolutions. These weren’t things I could do in a day, they were going to be year-long projects and I knew when I made them that it was highly unlikely that I would be able to complete all of them. The appeal was the challenge of it all.

So how did I do?

Resolution 1: Writing 4 books

Okay, we’re starting as we mean to go on here. I had three books that I wanted to either write or finish writing. I didn’t finish any of them – in fact, the fourth one didn’t even get touched this year, aside from when I wrote a few introductory passages that sprang into my head and just had to be written down there and then.

I’m now almost finished writing the first drafts of Curse of the Other World and Forged In Blood, while I’m about a quarter of the way into The Eagle. I simple didn’t have the time to devote to finishing these novels while doing everything else I had to do during the year. No matter, I’ll get them finished when I get them finished. My casework and other projects have to take precedence.

Resolution 2: Brush up on Japanese and Norwegian

This one I’m happy to say I was able to do. I’ve been reading through my Teach Yourself books on and off throughout the year, to brush up on both languages. I even started learning Kanji and Kana for Japanese; which I’ve been very poor with in the past. So I’m happy to say that while I’m not fluent, I’m still better at both Norwegian and Japanese now than I was last year. So that’s good.

I’d ideally like to, at some point, be able to present my website in two languages simultaneously. I have this vision in my head of the site being split into two columns on a widescreen computer. Column 1 shows whatever I’ve posted in English, while the second column shows a translation in another language. I’m not talking about a Google Translate thing, I’d like to actually be able to write blog entries, articles and so forth in English, then translate them myself into one or more other languages. To me that sounds cool, but then again I’m a colossal nerd.

One of the language options would probably be Ösklisk, my main invented language, too.

Resolution 3: Make more films

I’m really, really happy to say that I succeeded in this resolution. This year I made two short films, totalling about 15 minutes of run-time; so you can watch them in a lunch break if you feel like it. The first was To My Beloved, a romantic comedy with a twist; and the second was How To Make A Film, which I actually produced over a couple of days last week, because I felt inspired.

I’m really pleased with both short films I managed to produce this year and I’m looking forward to making more next year. I actually have the partial scripts and outlines for a couple of films on the go right now, plus the workings of either a third short film or a short web series. I’m looking forward to getting those filmed some time in 2016.

Resolution 4: Learn to program in C/C++

This one morphed into something else during the year. I had started out with the idea of learning to code a new language but I pretty quickly got sidetracked with it. In the end, I ended up learning more LSL (Linden Scripting Language) instead. That’s the language used to write programs in Second Life, a virtual world.

I wrote three fully-interactive roleplaying games inside Second Life this year; as part of an ongoing project to create a 12-part interactive story/roleplaying game. The three parts I’ve done so far have been really, really well received and I’m looking forward to being able to finish the project around the middle of 2016.

I’m really pleased with how this has turned out so far and I’ve got some great ideas stored up for how the story/game will end. I hope the players end up enjoying it as much as I have. It’s been great so far!

So, all in all, I’d say I probably completed 2 1/2 out of 4 resolutions, although an argument could possibly be made for 2 3/4 out of 4, given that I’ve made significant progress on the novels. In a year where I also got elected as a Councillor (which has been the greatest experience of my working life) and rebuilt my business, I’d say that’s not bad going at all.

I’m looking forward to seeing what next year brings!