I am the kind of person that get easily excited about well… everything. Of course, this is a good thing, because it means that I am very rarely bored and always find new and excited things to do. On the other hand, this is a bad thing as it means that I am always finding new and exciting things to do and never getting around to doing them.
Over the years, I have made a few checklist items that I use to gauge whether or not I need to take a new project on. Generally speaking, I like to ask these questions:
- What is the overall goal of the project?
- What do I expect to gain from the project? (aka what’s in it for me?)
- What can others gain from this project if I participate?
- Am I really the best fit for this project or do I know someone who’d be better and have interest?
- What is the logical conclusion of this project? (This one is critical, btw. Never participate in an open-ended project. Ever. There is never a ‘feel good’ way out.)
Typically, as I go through this process, the only projects that survive are either good causes, such as GiveCamps or KnoXNA, or venture endeavors such as co-authoring books, teaming with good friends to write applications for profit (someday, Gabe), or starting a new business. These are all great things and I love doing them, but sometimes they can also be very wearing.
With all this being said, I am happy to say that I am working on new project. In addition, I am more excited to say that this project completely breaks the mold of what I call my “typical endeavors”. (Which, btw, completely invalidates the previous couple paragraphs, lol ) Of course, this project is AnimeRoundup.
The whole point of this project for me is to basically enjoy sharing experiences and information about a secret passion that I have – anime. That’s it. This is just about me (and John) having fun at things that we enjoy. Of course there are more fun aspects to this beyond watching anime and hanging out with John. I get to finally mess around w/ some heavy video editing, different video recording scenarios like lighting and camera angles, and… green screens. Not sure where we will go with those, but those of you who have seen my Halloween videos know how much I like tinkering with these things. (Btw, I saw this great way to make 3D movies a while back…)
To be honest, it feels somewhat selfish to dedicate time to something that does not help others or does not have some kind of future-proofing aspect. Despite this, I feel that this project will bear a different kind of fruit for me. Also, it really fits into one of my goals this year, which is to be focused when I need to be focused but to take time to enjoy things more.
I hope you all have a chance to check out our show. We will be running it bi-weekly and posting it to our site on AnimeRoundup.com. Also, if you are an anime fan, we always welcome suggestions, questions, complaints, lewd remarks, or any other kind of feedback. I hope that this project can be as fun for you as I know it is for myself. Our first show was released yesterday and covered Evangelion 1.11!
Finally, I would be remiss to not mention a few other endeavors of those people around me. The folks at GameMarx have been great in helping John and I get some of our ducks in a row. IIRC, it was actually Mike that talked me into buying my camera in the first place. If you have any interest in XBox gaming (who doesn’t?) and, more specifically, playing indie games, you should really check out their excellent reviews of the XBox Indie Game scene.
Also, John (and I to a much lesser degree) is involved in the Chainsaw Buffet podcast. This unique type of podcast focuses on… well… I’m really not sure if we have a focus other than Conventions, interviewing different voice actors, taking on the gallon challenge, reviewing horrifically bad movies, etc. It is a ton of fun!
Fun times!
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