Welcome to the year 2019!

2018 has come and gone. To me personally, it was the best year of my life. I married my beautiful wife, we went on an amazing honeymoon to Italy, and we moved into a great new place. So I will always look fondly on the year. But in terms of DIYorDIE, I feel 2018 could have been better. I feel I could’ve gotten more out of the platform I have. One of the things I did was end the long running InTheMix Podcast. This was a tough decision, as I loved doing the podcast, bringing on other mixers to chat about the world of vaping, and goof off with the chat. But near its end, the world of vaping, the drama in between, and the mixing around it, seemed a bit stale. It was hard to get excited about the show, like I did previously, mainly because there wasn’t much going on other than depressing regulation. So I decided to cut it off, and kill it before the show itself turned stale. In turn, I also looked at the content I was providing, and decided to take a bit of a step back. My content, to my eyes, felt like I was creating it FOR someone. I didn’t like this. I want to create content that I want to create, and create work that I personally would watch. So I needed to take a step back and look objectively at my work. Now it’s a new year, and I want to further curate my content, tightening the screws, and focus on polish, rather than do what I’d done previously, which was add more. Sometimes less is more. So below is an outline on what to expect this year from DIYorDIE.

• FlavorBook
  • Every year, I pledge to try and “complete” portions of the FlavorBook. Because it’s a very extensive and demanding segment of the site, it often takes a bit more time. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try! So again, my aim this year is to finish the book, fully testing and cataloging every flavoring there is for us to use. Will it happen this year? Maybe, maybe not. But I’ll definitely try my hardest to get it done without sacrificing the quality you have come to love about it.
• Recipes
  • 2018 was a great year for recipes. As I write this, I’m also producing my “best of the year” awards, and I realized there were a ton of great recipes released. In 2019, I want to focus MORE on recipes, and a bit less on the development of those recipes. I’ve focused on development for the last 3 years of DIYorDIE, so there is plenty of content on the subject. Now this year, I want more “Let’s Mix’s”, more obscure and boundary pushing recipes, and more community critiques.
• Fun
  • One thing I want to add back to my content, which I think has sorta been taking a back seat the past year or so, is just…fun. I started to take my content a bit too seriously, and in turn, I think it started to push away some of you who don’t see the hobby as “life or death”.  So I just want to have more fun with this platform, do more things that are weird and goofy, and really just produce work that I find entertaining.

So these are my 2019 resolutions for the site and channel. In my personal life, I also plan on doing a few things differently. I think the wedding really put a lot of stress on myself, and this has made me a bit impatient. I started to become a bit more biting and agitated because of it. But now it’s all over. The year is behind us and a clean slate ahead, so I’m very hopeful for the future and have a very optimistic outlook on things right now. I want to keep these feelings going throughout the year, keep that momentum up, and hopefully it bleeds into my work as well. Making it more pleasing and inviting for you all. I’m curious to know if you have any resolutions this year as well! If you are trying new things for yourself this year let me know below!