In regard to New Year's resolutions and why do them if you're going to go back or semi-back to your old ways, it's still a sense of accomplishment, something I think @libregkd mentioned in the podcast, but in different wording.

For example, I managed to do the New Year's resolution I set up for myself for 2014 and I feel so proud of myself, which was to upload at least one video a day on YouTube with two or more video uploads the majority of time (it was originally every day, too, but it didn't quite work). I also had another one, which was to record earlier in the day, but that didn't work too well, either, so I gave that up, even though I still recorded earlier in the day sometimes.

Now, though, I don't feel like I need to stress so much and worry about getting stuff uploaded ("OMG, it's 9:30 PM and I still haven't recorded anything and I'm all out of videos to upload until I record again! I gotta record a 30-minute quickie so I have enough time to process it, edit and save it on Windows Movie Maker, and uploaded it onto YouTube before the day's end!"). I've already missed January 3 and January 4 this year, for example: the former because I just didn't get around to recording and since I don't have to stress out anymore about it, it didn't bother me; the latter due to the computer problems I had for a few days.

I'm not sure, though. Misty, would this fall under the same category as the soda example you gave? Should I still upload videos every day or is going back to my old ways, beginning in late December 2010, as that's when I really became committed to my channel, okay? My old ways aren't that different and I still uploaded on a regular schedule, it's just that if I missed a day or several days in a row or I intentionally didn't upload on a day or for several days in a row (if you're curious, you can have a look at the YouTube Timeline section in my Video Game Projects and see how many times it happened, starting with late December 2010 and stopping at the end of 2013, but I personally still thought I fell under "regular updates" -- for example, I hardly uploaded anything for June 2013 and only had seven updates and 26 uploads), then I don't worry too much about it.

- I think I made a few resolutions last year, but I can't really remember them. One I do remember is that I told myself I was going to write/finish a feature length movie script, which I actually did accomplish. It still needs a lot of editing, but I actually finished writing it.
- I keep telling people that Revenge the Sith is better than what's perceived. Yes, it has problems, but it's one of the more fleshed out stories in the series, and had some really good moments. I mean...Anakin killing younglings.
- There's really no resolution for me this year, simply because I'm lazy and I rarely make resolutions to begin with.
- To answer my own question, I would go with Skillet. Their latest album, Rise, sort of has a narrative, so that would be the base, but they definitely have some really good songs that lend themselves to a narrative.
- Jayn really is such a sweet person. I can honestly say that she's one of the most talented people I've ever known and say that she's worth supporting!
- "Like to have you like that" M-m-misty-Senpai, this is so sudden...

On the topic of new years resolutions, I agree that you shouldn't wait till the new year to make them, because if you were really committed to change, wouldn't you do it straight away? But at the same time I think you can use the new year to, like you all said, look back on what has happened to you and how you responded to those events the past year. Which is why this year I'm making an effort to be a more positive and social/talkative person. (How successful I'll be... that's another story lol)

Also, the idea of recording an entire episode by doing impressions of the other podcast members sounds hilarious! You should totally do that Misty :3

I think something like this would fall under the category of forming a habit -- now that 2014 is over, you might not upload every day, but you've gotten into a routine where you're regularly updating your YouTube channel. That was, I assume, the goal of your resolution, and even though you're not holding yourself to the every day mandate this year, it's more likely that you are going to regularly update.

Congrats! Maybe I should make a resolution to write more. I have a certain Star Wars fanfiction to complete...

I mean, it still suffers from similar problems as the previous two in the prequel trilogy. The direction of actors is very, very poor, which is why we get subpar performances from otherwise capable and talented actors (Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor -- though I think he does what he can with the material). Hayden Christensen continues to be a rather terrible actor, though I do think he's improved from Clones. In his defense, though, this is his first major role and I think that, if he had been directed better and given better material, he could have pulled it off. Beyond the actors' control is the script, which is actually decent in Revenge of the Sith, save for nearly every scene with Anakin and Padmé (seriously, that love is blind scene may be one of the most ridiculous scenes committed to film history). There are ridiculous lines here and there (love can't save you, only my new powers can", "from my point of view, the Jedi are evil", "he was... killing younglings"), but that's true of the originals too; the cast of those were just better at pulling them off.

There's also the human element that's seriously lacking in all three of the prequels. Alone the overdone and aged visuals are irritating if ignorable, but I have a feeling they hurt the actors too. Most of the time the actors are talking to tennis balls in front of green screens, which removes their ability to feed off the environment and the energy of the other people in the scene. It's a weird environment, I imagine, to work in and it definitely shows.

My final gripe, which we probably all expected, is Padmé. Padmé was deeply involved in the politics of the Clone Wars, but those go largely unexplored in the movies; we see them begin in Attack of the Clones and them ending in Revenge of the Sith, but the whole of them are relegated to two animated series -- which is fine, but Padmé has a huge role in the diplomatic side of the war that we really just don't see at all. She's deeply pacifistic and shedding more light on her storyline would have not only given her something to do besides staring out the window of her apartment, but it would have given the crucial and actually clever political backbone of the prequels more substance. We would have seen more of the corruption with the Republic and understood more about how Palpatine orchestrated his seizing of power. There are also several cut scenes from Revenge of the Sith in which Padmé, Bail Organa, and Mon Mothma form the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance -- I would have gladly traded the balcony scene for those. It should come as no surprise that one of my favorite scenes from the prequels is when Padmé gives the "so this is how liberty dies" line.

All that said, Revenge of the Sith does genuinely make me feel for Anakin's difficult position. He's torn in several directions and a victim of the many flaws in the Jedi Order (many of which Luke would later reform in the New Jedi Order). I understand and sympathize with his fall; I know that's an unpopular statement with a lot of diehard Star Wars fans, but I think that's mostly a reaction to seeing Darth Vader humanized. Obviously Return of the Jedi does that to an extent, but to me it makes sense that Vader would have been sort of a whiny and overconfident kid. I don't think a lot of fanboys like seeing him sort of demasculinised like that, which is where a lot of the bitching about the prequels comes from imo.

I do think the threat of Padmé dying in childbirth could have been played up somewhat, as that's pretty crucial to Anakin's fall, but all the same, it's a sympathetic reason that he gives into Palpatine -- for love and for order. The Jedi clearly aren't sticking to what they preach through the movies (taking control of the Republic and basically acting like the policemen of the galaxy) and Anakin's opposition to that I think a lot of people would empathize with. That said, his transition to the dark side is way too fast -- he goes from trying to protect human life (Padmé, stopping Mace from killing Palpatine in cold blood) and being careful with his allegiances (he mistrusts the Jedi through the movie, and when Palpatine reveals himself to be a Sith Lord, Anakin pretty quickly turns him in despite their history) to killing younglings and pretty much blindly doing whatever Palpatine asks. It's ridiculous. Even considering that Anakin can be a pretty shady fellow (killing the Tusken Raiders), it's sooooo out of nowhere, and this is a problem that the originals have too -- they handle the dichotomy between the light side and the dark side really poorly. In the prequels, one jumps from being a decent enough dude to literally killing defenseless children by 'falling to the dark side' (which is an instant process); in the originals, Luke is always told he must avoid the dark side even if it is tempting and an easy path to power, but in Return of the Jedi, he momentarily gives into the dark side after the Emperor & Vader goad him with comments about Leia; Luke uses hate and anger to fight Vader and defeats him pretty damn quickly -- and then he steps back from it, saying he's a Jedi and he's not going to give in. Obviously the theme here is that the dark side isn't all-consuming, that one can be redeemed, which is crucial to Anakin's redemption; it starts to deal with this this of the morally ambiguous, gray Jedi -- one that can harness their emotions and use them to their benefit, keeping things in balance, and which we see explored more in the EU -- but the movies uphold this really basic conception of "light side = good" and "dark side = killing ****ing everyone." It's something I'm really hoping The Force Awakens explores.

The action and fight sequences in Revenge of the Sith are really good though, I love the final Anakin/Obi fight, and the Order 66 scene is suitably dark and disturbing (definitely one of the most emotional scenes in the movie).

(seriously, liara's bedroom eyes in this scene are ****ing ABSURD)

I think that's a great resolution to make! Good luck with it.

Maybe next time everyone flakes on me... B)

Kind of, I guess, yeah. Like I said, though, even before 2014 I was regularly updating because in late December 2010, I really got committed to my channel, it's just that I didn't care too much if I missed days every now and then. However, in 2014 I made a personal goal to go one whole year of updating every day. And that's something I forgot to comment on. You said something about "why wait until the new year when you can start right now?" I can't speak for others, but I wanted to go one full same-number year of updating every day, which made the feeling of accomplishment stronger.

Going back to the soda example. "I made it a year; now I can drink soda again!" You said something about "why do all that if you're just going to back to it?" Well, I guess as long as they drank it in moderation, it wouldn't be too big of a deal, I would assume?

New Year, New Choices. I can now be a real part of things now And if I do things right, I should put some fun in everyone's life both outside here and in Kh-Vids.net

I finally got around to making an account here after listening to the past 20 podcast episodes. I am also obsessed with CMYK! It's such a great combination of four colours that are already amazing by themselves, but together they're UNSTOPPABLE. I find myself using a variation of CMYK in at least half of the illustrations I make. I've also always hated the Red Power Ranger for messing up an otherwise flawless colour scheme.

I had a similar resolution in 2012! I wanted to do more illustration/drawing work and decided to start a blog where I'd upload something every weekday, and did it for over a year. Congratulations on making your resolution work for you!

I understand Misty's point about going back to your 'old ways'. It's pretty likely to happen, but I think if some part of the change you made sticks, it wasn't all for nothing. I scaled back my illustration updates to once every week, but it's helped me make a lot more work, taught me a good work ethic and gave me a lot of experience. So I'm pro-New Year's resolutions, I guess. Boooo @ that colleague who went back to soda though. I always enjoy walking past gyms and seeing the disparity of the amount of people between January and all other months.

(For quite a while, my semi-regular look was a yellow shirt, black pants and shoes with cyan and magenta laces. I wasn't lying about my love for CMYK.)

I'm glad to have a compatriot in this! I don't do graphic design much any more but the stuff I used to do usually would have cyan and yellow at least prominently featured. It's probably obvious who styles this website...

CMYK buddies!