LOL, one could argue that in most of these icons the text and bold colors were not a great choice ;D glad you find it admirable though, I suppose practise really is the only way to learn those things so creating some fugliness is necessary.

And yes, definitely under a rock for so long! But maybe that's the best, cause I can't even imagine how most of these would been received in the 'big world', haha... not sure I'd talk of blasting into the stratosphere just yet, but yeah I've been really happy with my 2012, at least compared to 2011 :DD