February 29 is a date. A date that, unlike others, only occur every 4 calendar years, also known as leap years. The leap day on leap years. It's purpose is to make sure the calendar stays aligned with the seasons as we've come to expect them: Snow in winter, heat in summer. Despite its rare occurence in nature, it is treated like any other day. No special holiday, no hype whatsoever. People born on this day likely celebrate their birthday every year, just not on their actual birthday as it isn't possible for three quarters of their life. It is a day like any other, except it only occurs once every four years.
What do I want to say with that? Nothing, really. Is February 29 special to me in any way? No, not really. So what's the point of this post? Don't know, I just want to talk a bit about the day. You see, as it only occurs every four years, I've decided to try to release SOMETHING each time it happens, just so I can say I've released something on that day. So far I've released four videos, one each year since 2012, and when this post is published I'll have released that as well. I just think it's funny to have something released that day as it isn't often things are.
With that said, the rest of the post will be the things I've released on any February 29. As of 2024, this consists of this post, as well as four YouTube videos. The videos can all be found in this playlist. Without further ado, here's a list of my released things.
2012 - "February 29th Lollipop" was made not even a year into my YouTube "career". That first year was filled with a bunch of random videos as I either learned video editing software or was influenced by the channels I followed (many GMOD/SFM video makers). As I made this video, I'd started dabbling with stop-motion animations in GMOD. Some were good, some not so good. I'd put this into not so good, as there really isn't much to it. Purple sniper teleports spookily, then opens his mouth. The animation is pretty smooth, I'll give it that. In any case, it was the start of a new tradition, and a relic of my past, I suppose.
2016 - "DJ Khaled Helps Mario Do 'The Mario' On This, The 29th of February" is one of few "YouTube Poop"-style videos I've made. Mixing "Do The Mario" from Super Mario Bros. Super Show with DJ Khaled's "another one" clip that was popular at the time. Not much to this either, just a humorous exchange between the characters, and the continuation of the new tradition.
2020"The February 29 Problem" is one of the most involved videos I've ever made, no joke. A roughly 100 second long animated video done by myself, featuring voice acting and an actual storyline. Impressive, considering I'd never really animated anything prior to it aside from the GMOD/SFM videos I've made, but those involved 3D models, not drawings. I'm a bit miffed that it's only accumulated 7 views in 4 years considering it's fully animated, but I don't even have 100 subscribers so I'm not surprised.
2024 - "Homer's Dream Date - A February 29th Special" is again pretty involved, considering it's fully voice acted by me. Originally I planned to try and get Nonogos ready for this date, but I haven't been able to get myself to work on it in a while, so this is what was made instead. I was gifted the bootleg Homer and Marge plushies seen in the first half of the video and they were too funny to not do something with. As of writing - 2 hours after the video released - it has already accumulated over 60 views somehow, which is funny to me. Apologies to anyone who clicked on it expecting an official clip from The Simpsons. The title is of course a pun on romantic dates, where Homer dreams of an "imaginary" calendar date, and the joke in the latter half is that Marge says it's Smarch, a month from a Treehouse of Horror episode. Fun fact: This was shot in reverse order for some reason (starting with Homer & Bart running out of the house and ending with Homart waking up), which is why my impressions worsen as the video goes on.
This year I also released this post. Nothing to say about that, but worth including here maybe.
I'll see you on this post again next (leap) year, when I might return to this post to update it.