Just over a year ago, I launched redditbooru to the world, rolling together a bunch of ideas spawned by the awwnime repost checker into a single place. In addition to that, I added the ability for users to host content in addition to being able to index multiple subreddits. To say that it became a wild success would almost be selling it short. At launch, it was indexing maybe 5 subs, now it's 16, my server went from averaging ~23/Kbps per month to over 10/Mbps, and am nearing 100k pageviews for a rolling 30 day period. Despite exponential growth in traffic, the site has experienced almost no traffic related issues proving that my code is able to handle scale. What started off as a fun little afternoon of experimenting has become quite a success.

However, things are not without their flaws. On the technical side, the cron that does the indexing has some issues; items hosted through redditbooru can't be posted to more than one sub and indexed in both places and sometimes, in an attempt to pick up on items removed by mods, posts will be incorrectly marked as hidden. On the front end, the user experience is a bit of a mess as I kept bolting on features. In typical Matt Hackmann fashion, I decided that I would rework the entire thing mostly from the ground up with all of my learnings in mind while adding in some user requests. But, I was going to eschew the tried and true PHP/MySQL setup for nodejs/MySQL/mongodb in an attempt to learn something new and bring myself up to speed with the current development fad.

Two weeks into development, I am questioning that decision.

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We're leisurely sauntering towards the finish line this year. Will we make it to the end? Maybe. But, as for today, here are the best/worst characters of 2013.

Best Characters

Chris - Yutaka Hasebe (Servant x Service) When I first started watching Servant x Service, I honestly expected the characters to be set in stone in the first episode, staying as largely unchanged archetypes as the show progressed. This largely holds true for most of the characters, but there is an exception - Yutaka Hasebe.

His character starts out relatively one-dimensional, seemingly just a persistently happy, lazy bum with a penchant for collecting girls phone numbers. A pleasant enough bloke, as it stands. However, during the show's progression, you see that there is more to him than meets the eye, especially as you see him attempt to open up to Lucy about his feelings for her.

This blew my mind, as here we had a really fun, likable character with believable development, something that's almost unheard of in these sorts of slice of life shows. It really makes me want a second season just so I can see how he continues to develop as a character.

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As is per normal for me, it's time again to reexamine myself and birth a new Matt Hackmann with the new year. It's funny how this has become a thing because I used to be vehemently against "New Year's Resolutions", taking that stance that a person should be able enact change at any time of the year. But, moreso than that, it's a barometer to measure how well those changes actually went. Anybody who knows a little bit about statistics knows that you need to monitor trends over time to get the most accurate data. All that said, let's see how I did against last year's list.

Health - To be fair, I actually started out the year pretty well. I all but ceased fast food and was even getting in my daily walking. However, the move to California but a big fat wrench into all that. I write this have just downed half of a Papa John's pizza. There were some upsides, though, such as the fact that work is within a bikeable distance. Negating anything gained from that, though, was the big uptick in alcohol consumption. It's amazing how easy it is to drink when there are other people to drink with.

Finances - Again, the job change had a unique impact on this category. The hard goals I had set out for myself were to reduce superfluous spending and eliminate my LASIK, credit card, and car debts. The middle two I actually accomplished and the car is within reach. However, if anything, the amount of money I dropped on a whim definitely increased, but because of the salary adjustment, I wasn't hurting as much for it.

Learn Japanese - I bought the stuff and made absolutely no progress on this at all.

Japan Trip - Mission accomplished with a repeat trip tentatively planned for 2015.

Drawing - Pfffffft!

The 2014 Version

I'm going to shoot for simplicity this year, so here's the plan (that I will not follow):

Eat Better - Again, fast food moratorium (as soon as my Taco Bell gift card is gone and the aforementioned pizza). It's easy enough to eat healthy at work (portion control being the most difficult part), but this needs to be carried over when I'm not there. Going to have to compile a list of not-terrible-for-me-but-good-for-my-tastebuds recipes.

Bike 150 miles every month - Once over the initial "three week to develop a habit" hump, this will actually be easy. My round trip work commute is twelve miles, so if I did that five days a week, that'd actually be 200+ miles per month. I'm giving a little bit of slack though. Start slow and all that.

The Girlfriend Factor - I've been single long enough. Time to push past my shyness and make that shit happen.

All in all, I'd say two of those three things is attainable. We'll see what things are looking like when I write this post again next year.

Back again with a mishmash of categories.

Biggest Surprise

Chris - Flowers of Evil

This was a weird one. Initially, I made an attempt to watch the first episode because I wanted to see what was up with the art style. I was pretty revolted and didn’t get much farther than a few minutes in, determining then that I would never pick the series back up. However, as the season progressed, and good reviews for the series - at least from American outlets - began rolling in, I gave the show a second shot. And so it was that I marathoned the show over the course of two days. Fuck me, man.

What I didn't realize on my first attempt was how good the story was, as I hadn't seen enough due to the art style turning me off. But as I progressed through the series, even the visuals began to grow on me, and not because I found them attractive, per se, but because they work so goddamn well for the story being told. They provide a perfect, unsettling feel that works with the story, music, and direction to make you uncomfortable, and that’s how the show ended up being so effective.

Unfortunately, chances of a second season are pretty much non-existent, which saddens me given the open ending and the tease in the last episode showing moments from farther along in the manga. But in any case, I’m glad I gave this show a chance.

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2013 marked my first foray into the joys of international travel, doing it not once but twice. In an interesting twist of fate, both of those countries started with the letters "JA" (the only two in the world, even). They are worlds apart, however, both in physical distance and atmosphere/culture. Let's do a pros/cons.

Japan

Pros

• Everybody is very respectful of others and mostly keep to themselves. The introvert in me loves this.
• It's clean. Though some places may look a little run down, the overall level of cleanliness is pretty high
• Shit is organized. There were a couple of times when the road to Asakusa was blocked for utility work or something and they had cones marking precisely how traffic was now being directed... and also a friendly guy there to point you in the right direction.
• Conversion rate is essentially 1JPY = 0.01USD. Makes for easy conversions.

Cons

• Probably contrary to the cleanliness bit, there was a constant smell of old garbage/water mold lingering around. It was only in certain spots, but it was a trifle off putting.
• Cramped. The trains, the layout of the buildings, etc is designed to pack the most stuff into the smallest space. Not great for my introversion and large body.
• Language barrier. They really don't speak English well when they do at all.

Jamaica

Pros

• The resorts are such that you really never need to leave; all your whims are attended to
• The beach
• The exchange rate for the Jamaican dollar is about 1JMD = 0.01USD. Granted, you may as well just use American money because it's less likely to depreciate in value and everybody takes it anyways.

Cons

• It may seem like everybody is super friendly, but it's that kind of friend that stops paying attention to you when they find out you're not popular/don't have money/etc. Money gets you everywhere.
• The food will make you shit... a lot and explosively. If you're wise, you'll pull a Steven Spielberg and bring your own food.
• The Jamaicans running the tourist stuff are essentially parodies of the stereotype. So much "mon", Bob Marley, and general "no shits given" (the above shits excepting) were way, way overused. Also, my brand of "fun" and theirs are very different, but they'll try to force it on you anyways. Granted, I've had friends try to get me involved in such activities as well. Looking at you, dancing...
• Jamaica is a third world country. Outside the fancy resorts and tourist spots, it's really fucking run down and the people are super poor.

So, in the battle of J countries, Japan is the obvious victor (though, my opinion is certainly heavily biased).