Why, hello there, friend!

What's that, ol' pal? My review of 2020? Well sure. Just take a seat there...

Several people I know have already done their 2020 reviews, so I figured I'd give my account into how this unique year turned out for me. Unfortunately I keep forgetting how terrible I am at remembering the past; I'm usually focused on future endeavors rather than past ones, and it takes me a bit of time to really remember certain things. So I'm going to try and list off the major points of 2020 for me, but if I've forgotten anything, please spam me and let me know.

So, without further ado, here are...

LITTLBOX'S SUPER DOOPER (and very long)

MOMENTS OF 2020

[warning: very long]

• My friend @GoodL and I ended our podcast A Couple of Crickets at episode 50 with a showstopping interview with @TomFulp.

I never really talked about why we started that podcast in the first place. For that, we'll have to go back to late 2018...

@FlowDownStream was in full steam, and I had collaborated with GoodL on a couple of musical tracks as well. I was feeling like I needed something to put out on a more constant basis, and GoodL was going through a bit of a creative block. So a podcast that we could go back to and upload new episodes weekly seemed like the best cure for this.

At first, we didn't have much to go on. Keep in mind, I hadn't really talked to GoodL before doing the show, so the first few episodes were really us throwing conversation topics at the wall and seeing what stuck, inviting several fellow FDSers onto the show as guests. It wasn't until later that we realized what really united us - Newgrounds.

It was around this time that I finally found a community of people on NG to talk to, and these were people we invited onto the show as guests - @ninjamuffin99, @NickConter, @RGPAnims, @dogl, @irri, @Snackers, @LoganPhresh, @TheDyingSun. The show started a Discord server, Tom started frontpaging our podcasts, we had a rival podcast with @GroundsPatrol, we got guests like @Aaron-Long, @ChutneyGlaze, @Eggy, @Cyberdevil, @meatcanyon, @KawaiSprite, @mrjoeyprosser...our audience grew and grew, and our show evolved appropriately.

Doing this podcast was honestly a lot of fun. I loved playing the part of the almost insane showrunner to counter GoodL's more organized demeanor. My favorite part was probably doing the Community Talks and ad hoc talking to fans over the Discord call.

I wish I had put more effort into the show. Ultimately the death of the show came from a lack of interest in maintaining it. But I'm glad we ended it the way we did, and I think it stands as a document into an interesting point in both our lives.

• Uploaded LIP HEADS - FLOWER MAN

I'm not much of an animator, but I do love tracing over my lips and putting them over stick figure bodies.

Unfortunately, this was a point where I was doing LIP HEADS for the wrong reason. I detested animating this episode, and when it didn't get much of a response upon release, I felt as if I had wasted my time with it. That's why I haven't done a Lip Heads episode since this one.

However, more on that later...

• (kind of, sort of, maybe) Helped with @TheNewgroundsPodcast

GoodL did a good job summarizing the beginnings of NGP in his 2020 review.

Basically, NGP was originally concepted as a show hosted by GoodL and myself and produced by @Will, which sounded perfect. We didn't have to worry about editing and producing by ourselves anymore; we could just sit and talk, and Will would make sure it would sound much more polished. A perfect concoction of ACOCk and GroundsPatrol.

But the COCk proved overwhelming, and after a test run, we realized it wasn't going to work.

I decided to step down from the show. This was partially from the decision that we made from the test run, but mostly because of my next point...

• I Worked (a lot)

I was living in an apartment for the first time, and I had bills to pay. Working 32-40 hours a week at a grocery store job covered all the costs and gave me a little bit more to save up, but this took up a lot of my time and energy. I wasn't enough of a long-term planner to utilize the time I had off as well as I could've, but I did my best with what I had a that point.

As a result, I really had to prioritize with the time I did have off, and helping run a podcast about Newgrounds was not one of those. I helped host a couple of episodes, but in August, just before school started, I stepped down from the podcast.

It's been running smoothly without me, and I'm very happy about that. Will, @PsychoGoldfish, @Xinxinx, and everyone else involved have been doing a great job with it. I'd just rather focus on other ventures. Speaking of which...

• Raised funds for the Logan Whitehurst documentary

On January 30, I launched a Kickstarter to raise funds for a project that's only been a dream until the last couple of years - a documentary on a late hero of mine, Logan Whitehurst. By the end of the fundraiser in the end of February, we raised nearly $17,000 for the film! Thank you so much to everybody who contributed where they could to help see this through.

After the Kickstarter, we were all set to hit the road in May and start interviews. Until we...

• Postponed production on the Logan Whitehurst documentary

Almost immediately after the Kickstarter, COVID-19 hit America big time. We held out hope for the documentary for about a month, but in April it became obvious that this disease wasn't going away anytime soon. So we had to postpone production.

Everybody's been very understanding, and I'm very grateful. We've been spending this year focusing on getting the Kickstarter rewards out to the appropriate backers. and making plans for shooting next May. Next year will let us know whether or not this is going to be possible, but I have my fingers and toes crossed.

• Got invited to Pico Day, which got postponed. :(

This was a bit of a bummer. I was looking forward to meeting a lot of my Discord pals irl, not to mention Tom and a number of other NGers, but hopefully they'll remember me when Pico Day 2022 happens.

• Started a "punk" band with @dogl and @Carmet and released an album.

Late last year, I posted a punky track called "Special Little Snowflake". It actually did pretty well considering it never got frontpaged, and I was happy with how it turned out. This guy Dogl messaged me around that time saying that if I ever wanted to start a punk band to hit him up.

So, around February, I took him up on his offer, and we spent the next three months trading tracks back and forth. Carmet was added into the mix, and he added some truly delightful bass tracks to our very shitty songs.

Finally, at midnight on May 15, we very hastily put together the final track - "she dumped me :(" - and posted the album onto Bandcamp and slowly onto Newgrounds under the name George Washington Carver (@GWCtheband).

I'm actually pretty proud of this project. It was a lot of fun to make, and working to make each dumb little song as fun as it could be proved to be a satisfying feeling. Hopefully somebody enjoyed listened to them as well.

Check it out on Bandcamp: https://george-washington-carver.bandcamp.com/releases

• Won 1st Place at AIM 2020

I spent about a week in June working on my submission this year's AIM, and I was pretty proud of it. I hoped for an Honorable Mention, but I didn't ever think I would win.

Thank you again to @MrCarlKarlsson for an awesome art piece, and to the judges @Troisnyx, @vocaloutburst, @Seth, @Random-storykeeper.

• Got a bunch of buddies together to cover Paul McCartney's McCartney II album

Being bored at work gives you a lot of time to think. And for some reason, as the year progressed, I became more and more obsessed with the idea of hearing some of my friends cover certain songs off of Paul McCartney's magnum opus of a solo album, McCartney II.

So I asked a bunch of them to contribute, and by some miracle they did!

You can check out the result on Bandcamp here: https://littlbox.bandcamp.com/album/the-mccartney-ii-collab

Thank you again to @GWCtheband (@dogl), @GoodL, @dkdrumming, @kawaisprite, HenryEYES, @ShelbyBryant, @Aaron-Long, @harrisonwyrick, @Bitbeak, and to @LoganPhresh for the amazing artwork!

• Made a music video for Kawai Sprite

Through July and August, my biggest project was a music video for Kawai Sprite's "_burning_drug_" track. I got my friend Bryan Thomason, who has mad camera skills and equipment, and we collaborated on the final result, which you can see here:

If I could do it over again, I would make sure the lighting wasn't as dark, and I'd reconfigure the idea as to add more visual substance to the video overall. But as it stands, I'm very glad I did it, and that Kawai finally has a music video for one of his songs.

• Started college

Between August and November, I've been attending my first semester at the University of North Carolina School of the arts (UNCSA) for a major in filmmaking. Being my first time being around similarly minded people for a long time (at least irl), it took some adjusting to, but I've already made some fantastic friends there, and I'm very excited for next semester and for my future with school and filmmaking!

• CRACKEGGS

I voiced this cartoon for @Kolumbo nearly two years ago, and it finally came out! I think it's honestly pretty funny, but I'll let the art speak for itself...

• Didn't die

This is a pretty big one. I've been fortunate enough not know anyone that succumbed to the virus, and I was able to maintain my income as a grocery store worker during the pandemic, and that's a lot more than some people can say. I'm very grateful for this, and that I can say that 2020 was a good year for me. I'm sorry for all the people this year screwed over, and hope that next year turns out better for everyone.

• Summary (tl;dr)

Hiccups aside, 2020 was a really great year for me. I worked on a lot of projects that I felt were worth my time, and I'm getting ever closer to the place and person I'd like to be.

These yearly reviews are a good chance to look at everything I've done, but my biggest fear is that I'll think I'll actually have "accomplished" something, if that makes sense. I'm very proud of what I've done, but I don't want these projects to become ego fuel for me and prevent me from growing or working on new projects; I'd like for them to just sit and be what they are, let nature take it's course on them, so that I can move along to the next one.

I'm just making it up as I go along, folks.

And that's it! I hope everybody's had at least an okay 2020, and stay tuned for 2021, along with another major newspost about my plans for next year.

littlbox