First of all, I would like to thank Amjam, tiaiscool, Aeries, JinxCade, KoolyAid, Mexican_man, Weeeheeep, Danl135, BenTen, jax_xds, Wesley388, MattTheTekie, jscarleteyes, Peanut1999, danny72, Cool33, Nuggie, Skyyy, binayy, CoryDory, Olivia987, rdfcguy, noobishpro, MarioGamer98629, ROSEBLOODSTONE, i123456, FoxiiFoxii, Twoinfinite, theanonymousone, GalacticGam3r37, CdogYEET, and bluekirby64, for all supporting Amjam's effort to get me and/or Comrade UwUQueen promoted to Overlord. Although Comrade UwUQueen has (unfortunately) not yet been promoted to Overlord like I was—in spite of y'all's overwhelming support for this in Amjam's letter—I think I speak for both of us here when I say that all of your continued love and support for us both means the world to us, and that we will both continue to do as much as we can as admins (and in my case, Overlord) to serve y'all.
(Because as far as we're concerned, that's our job.)

Secondly, I'd like to thank all of the others who have supported me and/or Comrade UwUQueen. This would include Comrade Landon (DCTheGamr) and Atquil (who liked Amjam's blog but forgot to sign it), but also those who supported me becoming an admin 3 years ago, including (in addition to many of the same names already listed above) UwUQueen, royal-rawr, banjo2, Rlad116, cdog3789, crocodile, and of course, my brother in Christ Siling-La.
(And if anyone else here supported me and/or UwUQueen back then, please let me know so that I can add you to this list, too!)

Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, let's see how many of my goals from last year's anniversary blog I was able to achieve over the course of this past year.

[Spoiler=Joashu's Goals for their 6th Year on Paint]

1. Successfully make 4 seasonal SDK Quilts with squares contributed by community members throughout the year.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, this was an all but impossible goal. I mean, the Spring SDK Quilt was a HUGE success, but it ultimately undermined the annual SDK Quilt, and there just weren't.
(I'm still trying to salvage things as best as I can, but I can't count this as a success.)

2. Make MoDBC into a fully playable tabletop/chatroom battling game.

I mean, I could've done this easily enough, but after what had happened last April I had lost my focus and got caught up in a bunch of other things here on Paint related to that, and although I did go back and worked on a few things (such as Dracoforms and passive abilities), I never finished the final piece of the puzzle that would be required to actually make MoDBC playable: activated abilities.
(Which are basically the equivalent of moves in Pokémon.)

3. Begin rewriting MoD Chapter II, similar to how I rewrote MoD Chapter I last year.

Never even started to work on this. Another failure.

4. Bring back a number of former Paint member Tora-Kokoro's old groups (which used to be quite popular back in 2020-2021) from the dead.

This one is sort of interesting, as the only reason I hadn't done it is because all of the necessary CSS is on my old tablet I was using before. Still, a failure is a failure, I suppose.

5. Finish my trans rights blog in time for Pride Month this year.

This one certainly wasn't easy, and I even had to fight with the danged admins (no offense intended) just to get it featured, but there was NO WAY IN HECK I was gonna not get this done this year, and I did it!
(And it is by far one of the things that I am most proud to have done last year, BTW.)

6. Successfully hold another Pokémon Showdown tournament this year, ideally with more participants than the last one.

IDK why exactly this one never happened. I think I was trying too hard to ensure it wasn't just me, DCTheGamr and Peanut1999 like last time, and because of all of the complications on other people's ends, it just didn't work out.

7. Work on reviving all of my groups here on Paint, as well as a number of other inactive groups that I am a member of, such as Siling-La's Bible Group.

I did actually accomplish this at a certain point last year, even though I had to go as far as to make a new Bible group here to revive that one, and in the months since all of my groups but my main Ryuusei no Tami group have all basically died again. Still, I'm counting this one as a success.

8. Update my strength-based Pokémon tiering system to include all of the new Pokémon added in Gen 9, and make it far easier for other Pokémon players interested in using it to actually be able to do so, both on Pokémon Showdown or in the actual handheld and console games.

I never got around to this. Another failure.

9. Achieve a very high ranking in the NatDex Doubles format on Pokémon Showdown.

OK, I would've done this in the new NatDex Doubles Ubers format, but for whatever reason Pokémon Showdown removed it as a format for battling random opponents. As a result, I did get a fairly high score in the format early on—which doesn't mean nearly as much since everyone starts out the same rank, and people hadn't yet gotten the chance to achieve really high ranks yet—so I'm going to count this one as a success.
(It ain't my fault that they removed my favorite format after all, lol!)

10. Try to be more active on my Ryuusei no Tami Discord server.

HUGE success here, although admittedly GalacticGam3r37's 3DSiPaint Discord server is more active than mine now, lol!
(Still a success IMO, though.)

11. Submit at least 12 completely new featured blogs here on Paint this year, preferably more.

I submitted a total of 20 featured blogs over the course of this past year. Another HUGE success!

12. Copy most or all of my blogs here on Paint over to Social Cu.be.

I got caught up in all of the never-ending drama here on Paint and never got around to this one. Another failure.

13. Upload at least 12 new images to E-shuushuu this year, preferably more.

I got caught up in all of the never-ending drama here on Paint and never got around to this one. Another failure.
(Didn't I say that for the last goal that I had missed, lol?)

14. Finish at least 5 new drawings and upload them here on Paint.

I mean, I could count this as a failure since I didn't really make many “drawings”, but the sheer amount of artwork I've made using image editing apps shows that I'm just better at using those than drawing. I do still want to get better at drawing too eventually, but I'm counting this one as a success.

15. Successfully hold the annual Member Appreciation Day and SDK Quilt events again, just like last year.

Well, I did successfully hold Member Appreciation Day this year, and I did successfully finish an SDK Quilt this year, even if it wasn't the annual one. I'm counting this one as a success too.

16. Continue to be more active on Social Cu.be, and try to cause at least 3 more people from here on Paint or elsewhere to also join the site, preferably more.

I mean, I was VERY active on Social Cu.be this past year, and I did get at least 1 person from Paint (BenTen) to join SC, and since it ain't my fault y'all don't wanna join SC for whatever reason(s), I'm gonna count this one as a success too, lol!

17. Join Social Neko if/when it is possible to do so (since it has apparently come back from the dead), and also join Lemmy and check it out.

Social Neko unfortunately went the way of the 3DS website dinosaur, but I did join Lemmy, so I can only count this one as a success.

18. Become a Patron of SDKPaint.

Even if it didn't turn out quite how I had planned due to my insane RL situation, I was able to actually accomplish this, and I only hope that I'll be able to donate WAY more than a measly $50 to my favorite website (meaning 3DSPaint of course) in the future.

19. Create my own website, like JinxCade, DCTheGamr, Blueturtle, and others here have.

Still working on this one, but I'll have to count it as a failure for now.

20. Get reinstated as a blogmin/pollmin here on Paint.

Seeing as how I'm an Overlord now, and that I was even able to successfully hold an admin election, saying this was a “HUGE success” like I did with a number of my previously mentioned and accomplished goals would be a MASSIVE understatement. I am counting this one as not 1, not 2, but 3 goals successfully achieved!
(I mean IK that it's kinda bending the rules or whatever, but they're my rules anyway, lol!)[/Spoiler]

So in total, 13 out of 20 of my goals for this past year have been achieved, even if 2 of those goals were things that I hadn't even considered being possible to accomplish over the course of the next year when I had come up with all of those goals last year.
(That just means it was an even bigger success than I had hoped it'd be, lol!)

Considering that I had only achieved 10/out of 20 of my goals last year, that means that I'm actually getting better at this. Of course, I couldn't have done all of this without the love and support from all of my friends here, and I owe each and every one of you a great deal.

Now, before I get to my goals for my 7th year on Paint, I had also set 10 RL goals for myself last year, so let's see how I did with those.

[Spoiler=Joashu's RL Goals for this Past Year]

1. Get a job at the AWESOME local aquarium store Aquatics and Exotics.

I got to actually visit there a few times, and spent hours talking to the AWESOME employees there about marine fishkeeping and stuff, as well as talking to some customers and teaching them some cool facts about some of the fish and other aquatic life on display, but I did not get a job there yet, although I'm certainly REALLY looking forward to someday.

2. Get some sort of a 2nd job (I don't particularly care what) for additional income.

Based on the fact that we currently don't even have running water or electricity here ATM, I'm sure y'all can guess that this one never happened either, lol!

3. Fix my Old 2DS, which hasn't worked since 2020.
(It's beginning to get ridiculous, lol!)

Rather than fixing my Old 2DS—which I still intend to do someday BTW—my good friend MattTheTekie gave me an AWESOME new 3DS instead, so I'm counting this one as a success.

4. Fix my DS Lite, which hasn't worked since 2022.

As great as that 3DS is, I can't count it towards both of these goals, and my DS Lite is still broken. This one's a failure.

5. Get a better device to access the internet with, whether that's a more modern tablet, a smartphone, or a laptop.

Out of all of my RL goals that I have accomplished this past year, this was the big one.

Words cannot even begin to describe how EXTREMELY grateful I am to my TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME BFF UwUQueen for sending me this AMAZING smartphone last year! Were it not for her giving me this, almost all of those other goals I achieved last year would've never been accomplished, so her helping me to achieve this goal of mine alone—let alone the countless other ways she has helped me to achieve my other goals before and since—had more of a positive impact on my life than any of the other goals listed here.

6. Get a Nintendo Switch.

It feels really weird to say “I'm working on this one”, although technically speaking, I am. Still a failure for the time being, though.

7. Begin saving up for a proper aquarium setup for a pet epaulette shark.

Did I mention that we're still completely broke here, lol?
(This one's definitely a failure.)

8. Read the entire Bible.

I actually could've done this one easily enough, thanks to my dad actually giving me an old (New King James Version) Bible of his, as well as me having the Quick Bible app UwUQueen put on this smartphone before she gave to me, AND my brother in Christ rdfcguy sending me this AWESOME (New Revised Standard Version) Bible last year. Unfortunately, I just didn't put the necessary time in, although just FINALLY having a Bible of my own now (let alone 3 of them) is a big deal in and of itself for me, so I'll count this one as a success anyway.
(Plus I did read all 4 of the Gospels in their entirety, as well as most of the rest of the New Testament.)

9. Vote for Dr. Jill Stein in the upcoming US presidential election.

OK, me not getting to do this one is stupid because it should've happened.

Without getting into the details, an uncle of mine had actually offered to help me and Dad (whose driver's licensd expired over a year ago now) to get our IDs, with the idea being that I could go vote in the election as well.

Without getting too political here, my uncle was going to vote for Donald Trump—kinda like I had wanted to in the past like an idiot—but I think based on what he had said then I had successfully convinced him to vote for Jill Stein like I was going to instead, which (if true) means that Jill Stein got at least 1 more vote here in the state of Ohio than she would've if it weren't for me.
(I assume y'all see where I'm going with this, right lol?)

Anyway, because my dad thinks that the election was going to be rigged in favor of Donald Trump (yes, you read that right), he had absolutely no desire to go and vote himself, and he unfortunately got into a bit of an argument with his little brother (my uncle) over this as well, which—in conjunction with a bunch of other crazy RL stuff that was going on at the time—caused him to not take my uncle up on his offer, basically screwing us both out of a chance to get our IDs, as well as a chance for us to eat some tasty food at a Turkish restaurant that my uncle was going to take us to afterwards.
(Which also obviously meant that I didn't get to vote,[B] even though I had REALLY wanted to.)

10. Read the entire Ω Ruby α Sapphire arc of the Pokémon Adventures manga series.

Thanks to this AWESOME smartphone that UwUQueen gave me and the AWESOME Kotatsu manga reading app on it, [B]I was FINALLY able to actually read this! [/Spoiler]

Now, here's what I had said about these RL goals last year:

It cannot be overstated how difficult achieving any of those RL goals (even reading the Bible) will be for me here under the present circumstances. Still, I am determined to try to accomplish these things, and even if I only achieve 1 or 2 of these RL goals of mine it will be a remarkable success on my part as far as I'm concerned, as they are all things that I have wanted to do for a LONG time.

As it turned out, I was able to accomplish 3 out of 10 of these goals. And since I made real progress on my goal of reading the entire Bible, and the fact that I sorta might've possibly gotten more votes for Jill Stein (both due to my uncle and due to me promoting her presidential campaign on Twitter), it is fair to say that these things turned out WAY better than I had expected!

Now, here's my goals for next year.

[Spoiler=Joashu's Goals for their 7th Year on Paint]1. Finish all of the unfinished 2024 SDK Quilts.

2. Make MoDBC into a fully playable tabletop/chatroom battling game.

3. Begin rewriting MoD Chapter II, similar to how I rewrote MoD Chapter I back in 2023.

4. Bring back a number of former Paint member Tora-Kokoro's old groups (which used to be quite popular back in 2020-2021) from the dead.

5. Finish my anti-Sinophobia blog.

6. Finish my unfinished Pokémon Showdown tournament that I was supposed to hold last year.

7. Successfully hold another Pokémon Showdown tournament for this year, ideally with more participants than the 2023 one.

8. Update my strength-based Pokémon tiering system to include all of the new Pokémon added in Gen 9, and make it far easier for other Pokémon players interested in using it to actually be able to do so, both on Pokémon Showdown or in the actual handheld and console games.

9. Achieve a very high ranking in the NatDex Doubles OU format on Pokémon Showdown.

10. Try to revive my my Ryuusei no Tami Discord server again.

11. Submit at least 12 completely new featured blogs here on Paint this year, preferably more.

12. Copy most or all of my blogs here on Paint over to Social Cu.be.

13. Upload at least 5 new images to E-shuushuu this year, preferably more.

14. Finish at least 3 new drawings and upload them here on Paint.

15. Successfully hold the annual Member Appreciation Day and SDK Quilt events again, just like I did in 2023

16. Continue to be more active on Social Cu.be, and try to cause at least 1 more person from here on Paint or elsewhere to also join the site, preferably more.

18. Become a Patron of SDKPaint again, by donating (at least) $50 a month, starting at some point over the course of the next year.

19. Create my own website, like JinxCade, DCTheGamr, Blueturtle, and others here have.

20. Revive the 2views interviews and song trades, like I said I would last year.[/Spoiler]

Aside from the Patreon one, none of these goals are particularly ambitious this year, both because of the awkwardness of my current RL situation (no electricity and no running water) and because of the fact that I'm planning on trying hard to achieve all of my goals this time around.

Additionally, just like last year, I've set a number of RL goals for myself this year as well.

[Spoiler=Joashu's RL Goals for the Next Year]1. Get an ID.

2. Get a job, any job.

3. Regain access to running water.

4. Regain access to a reliable source of electricity.

5. Get a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2.

6. Get a PC or laptop.

7. Fix my (still broken) DS Lite and/or Old 2DS.

8. Read the entire Bible.

9. Start playing video games on a regular basis again, like I used to for most of my life.

10. Meet my BFF UwUQueen IRL. [/Spoiler]

Every single one of these RL goals is just as (if not more) ambitious as the ones that I gave myself last year, but given how well I did accomplishing those, I'm feeling pretty optimistic about my chances of achieving this year's goals as well.

Now here comes the part of the blog where I reflect upon all of the things that happened to me over the course of this past year here on Paint—the “Year of the Draconid”, as I have dubbed it—in an unnecessarily long-winded and overly sentimental way, all the while trying my best (and most likely failing) to refrain from saying anything a bit too honest that may stir up more unwanted drama here on Paint, lol!
(Y'all know what sorta stuff I'm talking about here, lol!)

Anyway, my 6th year here on Paint could actually be summed up quite simply, like how I did so in this excerpt from my Draco Solstice blog:

I was demoted in the Spring, reinstated in the Summer, promoted to Overlord in the Autumn, and now here we are at Winter...

Add to this that the admin election took place in the Winter, and now here we are in Spring 2025, the “Year of the Draconid” now being nothing more than a (mostly) pleasant memory in the rearview mirror of this car I'm still living in for some danged reason…

It would be a MASSIVE understatement to say that last year was an emotional rollercoaster ride for me, with the low points (such as my 82 day long demotion last Spring, and our electricity and water being shut down here recently) being some of the lowest points of my entire life, and the high points (such as my BFF UwUQueen giving me this AWESOME smartphone, and me becoming an Overlord here on Paint last December) being some of the highest points of my entire life.

Throughout it all, though, the love and support of my friends here is what kept me going. Not the “friends” that I had made here back in 2019, mind you—most of whom have long since left this website, and many of whom I haven't spoken to at all since 2022 or earlier—but the friends who have consistently supported me over the years.

Now, IK that the first part of thar probably came across far more harshly (and to far more people) than I had intended it to, so allow me to try to explain what I meant by that…

You see, the events of this past year have given me a chance to forced me to reflect upon what exactly “friendship” truly means. For starters, I finally realized that friendship a 2-way street. But perhaps even more importantly than that, I realized that true friendship isn't something that is tossed aside so easily.

As I mentioned before, there are plenty of my old friends from 2019-2021 who I haven't spoken to in years, and every now and then one of them comes back here (or contacts me over on Discord) and we exchange pleasantries, and both act more or less as though nothing at all has changed between us during the long time that we had been apart, because (as far as I'm concerned at least) nothing has. But what about those who consistently don't even respond to me when I send them a message here on Paint or over on Discord? Would it be appropriate for me to still call them “friends” when there are other people who I talk to almost every single day, and who I know care about me as much as I do them?

I'm obviously not going to name names here, not only because I'm not looking to start any more unnecessary conflicts here, but also because I understand that at least some of my friends who have done these sorts of things may simply be too busy with other things going on in their lives to respond to my messages, and may not mean anything personal by doing this. Still, it would be naïve of me to assume that some of my more controversial actions here haven't had consequences in this area, but true friendship—like the sort of friendships that I have with UwUQueen, DCTheGamr, and JinxCade, among many, many others here—don't end because of such things. They can (and will) be tested from time to time, yes, but they always prevail in the end.

A true friend—like my BFF UwUQueen, who I care about more than anyone else in this world—won't hesitate to correct you when they feel that you have made a mistake, but they won't toss aside their friendship over a mere disagreement, even if it is a disagreement about something of great importance to the both of you, because ultimately, your friendship is more important to both of you than anything else in the world.

On that note, I distinctly recall one of my so-called “friends” from back in 2019 trying to emotionally manipulate me into agreeing with them about some things by threatening to end our friendship over our disagreement, and this particular individual did this to me not once, but TWICE!
(Some “friend”, huh?)

When I wrote last year's anniversary blog, I was still struggling with the sudden and unexpected loss of my admin powers at the time, and the sadness that I felt at that point in time is (unfortunately) evident throughout the blog. Anyway, here is one particularly noteworthy excerpt from that blog, that directly relates to these realizations of mine over the course of this past year:

…It has become apparent to me that my lack of socialization during my childhood and early adulthood has had a lasting impact on me, but also that it is a core part of who I am as a person, and that there are those who will accept me for who I am, and also those who (unfortunately) will not.
(And I simply need to avoid the latter group as much as is reasonably possible.)

Regarding this, it is impossible for me to be friends with people who cannot accept me for being who I am. You obviously don't have to agree with me on everything, nor do you have to agree with everything that I do. But you still have to respect me as a fellow human being, and also be willing to overlook our differences, however great or small they may be.
(Otherwise, how can you rightly call our relationship a “friendship”?)

Over the course of this past year a lot of bad things had happened to me, and my real friends who were here at the time supported me, and those who weren't here at that time expressed their sympathies towards me whenever they had returned here, as would be expected. Later on, when good things started happening to me (such as the restoration of my admin powers, and my promotion to Overlord), my real friends who were here at the time congratulated me, and those who returned afterwards did so as soon as I told them about this as well.

IG my point here is that true friends will support you no matter what. Not everything that you think, not everything that you do, but they will support you as a person, and they will want you to be happy and successful in pursuing your goals in life.
(Such as becoming an Overlord here on Paint, in my case.)

IG that's why I started off this blog by thanking everyone who supported me becoming an Overlord and everyone who supported me becoming an admin back in 2022. IK for a fact that a number of those people I thanked disagree with me on all sorts of things, and a few of them I've probably argued with as many times as my worst “enemies” here on the site, but all of that is completely irrelevant. Because at the end of the day they supported me when I needed them to the most, and it is that above all else that friendship is truly about.

Lastly, I wanted to repeat and expand upon a positive message that I had included at the end of last year's anniversary blog, since (unfortunately) things haven't really improved here at all with regards to the conflict between the so-called “n00bs” (newer Paint members like myself) and the “OG” Paint members, that has been ongoing since (at least) 2022, following DCTheGamr's banning from one of the many unofficial Paint Discord servers under questionable circumstances.

I think that the answer to resolving all of these divisions and conflicts (both here on Paint and in life in general) is mutual respect and acceptance. Unity is far more powerful than division, and love is far more powerful than hate, and by accepting one another's differences and looking for common ground, we can be united in our shared love of Paint rather than divided by our hatred for one another based on our perceived flaws.

Unfortunately, as most of you here are already well aware, these same “divisions and conflicts” have now spread onto the admin team. I'm not going to get into the whos or whys of it here, but I will simply state that I still believe that mutual respect and acceptance is the answer here.
(We all just have to sincerely try and give it a chance, that's all.)

Anyway, I think that's all for this year's anniversary blog. And remember kids:

PAINT RULES! DISCORD DROOLS!
(What the heck is wrong with me, lol?)