resolutions

Checking in on my New Year resolutions for 2024

Here’s what I wrote on December 27, 2023.

Resolutions 2024

  • Get to 150 pounds. But for real this time. Gotta go with the classics.
  • Finish my prototype game. Title to be revealed soon™.
  • Complete my blog redesign. Another classic. It could happen!
  • Revive my newsletter. I am actually working on this now, and have moved from Substack to Buttondown for the hosting.
  • Complete one of my unfinished novels. Likely either The Mean Mind or Road Closed. I’ve been itching to get back into writing again, and either of these stories will be fun to noodle around on.
  • Start a new blog or something. I kind of have something in mind, we’ll see what happens.
  • Focus on:
    • Being happy
    • Staying healthy
    • Bringing good into the world
    • Getting decent sleep, which will help with all of the above

New for 2024: I will check in at the end of each month to see how well I am doing on these things and use a letter, star, number or some other system to mark my progress or lack thereof. It’ll be fun!

Let’s see how I fared!

Resolutions 2024: The Verdict

  • Get to 150 pounds. lol no. Unless I binge donuts for the next two weeks, I will be down for the year, but nowhere near my 150 pound goal. The good news is I am probably more on track to achieve this now than at any other time in the past year, all thanks to an infection. Woo.
  • Finish my prototype game. lol no. Work came to a complete stop, for reasons.
  • Complete my blog redesign. lol yes! I actually did redesign my blog, making it much simpler and cleaner. It’s fine. I am looking to move off of WordPress thanks to the manbaby tantrums of the owner of WP that make the platform a lot less appealing, so further refinements are unlikely.
  • Revive my newsletter. lol no. I just didn’t have it in me. If I ever revive this (again) I will create something like six months of material before relaunching, to take the pressure off (for at least six months).
  • Complete one of my unfinished novels. lol no. I did painstakingly copy over Road closed into Scrivener (in Linux!), where I would work on a local copy. I’ve re-read it and have thoughts. Will they translate to actions? We’ll see!
  • Start a new blog or something. lol no. I experimented with a few blogging platforms, but never committed to one.
  • Focus on:
    • Being happy. Eh…
    • Staying healthy. I got a cold in June and an infection in December. Not great, but could have been worse? I also got that Baker’s cyst on my right knee again, but keep running pretty regularly through the year, even notching some of my best times in the past two years.
    • Bringing good into the world. I mean, I didn’t give birth to New Hitler or anything.
    • Getting decent sleep, which will help with all of the above. My sleep was overall pretty good!

New for 2024: I will check in at the end of each month to see how well I am doing on these things and use a letter, star, number or some other system to mark my progress or lack thereof. It’ll be fun! I did this once, I think. I should have set a reminder.

And now…

Resolutions 2025

None! That’s right, I am making no resolutions at all. I will still have some goals (in my head) and I still want to hit 150 pounds, but I’m making nothing official. The Culling™ now includes New Year resolutions. Onto 2025 and whatever the hell it brings!

New Year Resolutions 2024: Second month check-in

Here we go again.

First, the resolutions:

  1. Get to 150 pounds. But for real this time. Gotta go with the classics.
  2. Finish my prototype game. Title to be revealed soon™.
  3. Complete my blog redesign. Another classic. It could happen!
  4. Revive my newsletter. I am actually working on this now, and have moved from Substack to Buttondown for the hosting.
  5. Complete one of my unfinished novels. Likely either The Mean Mind or Road Closed. I’ve been itching to get back into writing again, and either of these stories will be fun to noodle around on.
  6. Start a new blog or something. I kind of have something in mind, we’ll see what happens.
  7. Focus on:
    • Being happy
    • Staying healthy
    • Bringing good into the world
    • Getting decent sleep, which will help with all of the above

And the results, after two months, by which time the average person has completely mind-wiped resolutions from their brains.

  1. I ended February down 3.5 pounds. A major breakthrough. Definite PROGRESS.
  2. The game has been on hold while dealing with condo stuff, which has somehow evolved into almost a full-time job.is in progress. PAUSED, but should resume in March.
  3. I have continued to tweak the blog a bit, but haven’t done much actual blogging. Still, I maintain this as IN PROGRESS.
  4. Nothing changed from what I wrote last month: I did not get out the first issue for January as promised, and I am rethinking the whole thing. STATUS TBD.
  5. I have chosen the novel to be completed (Road Closed, possibly with a new title). IN PROGRESS, though not much yet.
  6. Still mulling another month later. I am mulling both the site itself and the platform, so the mulling has become more in-depth. IN PROGRESS.
  7. I am not especially happy right now, but I am taking steps to hopefully address that. I didn’t run as much this month as I’d have liked, but am still running. I cut snacking enough to drop 3.5 pounds, so there’s that! I don’t think I’m bringing BAD into the world, so at the very least I’m kind of a carbon-neutral human. Sleep has been mostly decent, with “stress” interfering now and again. Let’s stick with this nebulous category as being IN PROGRESS.

Overall, February saw mostly minor steps forward, but with little regression. That works for me!

New Year Resolutions 2024: First month check-in

As noted in New Year resolutions for 2024 I said I would check in every month to see how I was faring. It’s time for Check-in #1!

To recap, my resolutions were (I’ve numbered them this time to make it easier to check progress, but they are not in any particular order):

  1. Get to 150 pounds. But for real this time. Gotta go with the classics.
  2. Finish my prototype game. Title to be revealed soon™.
  3. Complete my blog redesign. Another classic. It could happen!
  4. Revive my newsletter. I am actually working on this now, and have moved from Substack to Buttondown for the hosting.
  5. Complete one of my unfinished novels. Likely either The Mean Mind or Road Closed. I’ve been itching to get back into writing again, and either of these stories will be fun to noodle around on.
  6. Start a new blog or something. I kind of have something in mind, we’ll see what happens.
  7. Focus on:
    • Being happy
    • Staying healthy
    • Bringing good into the world
    • Getting decent sleep, which will help with all of the above
  1. I ended January up 2.6 pounds. Whoops. FAIL (so far).
  2. The game is in progress. I did not expect to have it done by the end of January. IN PROGRESS.
  3. I have actually been working on my blog! IN PROGRESS.
  4. I did not get out the first issue for January as promised, and I am rethinking the whole thing. STATUS TBD.
  5. I have chosen the novel to be completed. IN PROGRESS.
  6. I have not done anything on this yet, but am still mulling. IN PROGRESS.
  7. I am trying to find things that bring me joy. I am trying to reduce snacking (as always). Bringing good into the world? I am making some moves there. The sleep part is going well overall, with stress interfering here and there, but not regularly. Overall, a lot of this is IN PROGRESS but could be better.

So far…not bad, not great, mostly just starting to roll forward. We’ll see if it’s down Sleek Highway of the Future or hurtling toward a cliff. Check back in another month!

New Year resolutions for 2024

Firefly has been extensively trained on chicken scratch.

I couldn’t remember if I had made resolutions for 2023, which may give you an idea of how well I did at keeping them. Let’s find out and have a good cry together!

The 2023 resolutions were:

  • Get to 150 pounds by the end of February.
    • Verdict: Massive fail. As of today, I am 171.8 pounds, which is exactly seven pounds higher than a year ago and more than 20 pounds above my intended goal. I dreamed of being a hummingbird and ended up being a blimp.
  • Keep running.
    • Verdict: Success! Despite knee issues, I kept running regularly throughout the year.
  • Finish my Gum Gum game.
    • Verdict: Neither success nor failure, as I put the GGP game on pause to develop a different game first as a prototype.
  • Do more bird art.
    • Verdict: Success! I am working on more bird art right now.
  • Keep birding.
    • Verdict: Success! But this was a gimme.
  • Finally finish my blog redesign.
    • Verdict: Failure-ish. I did tweak the design a bit, but the big redesign still awaits.
  • Finally start doing some stretching.
    • Verdict: Success! After the issues with my knees and a couple of visits to a physiotherapist, I now stretch before I run.

Weird bonus resolution:

  • Record an original song in Garage Band.
    • Verdict: Failure. I think I opened Garage Band once. Fortunately, this was a silly resolution.

Overall: Eight resolutions, four successes. This is actually better than I expected. Onward to 2024!

My Fancy Resolutions for 2024

NOTE: For 2024 I am skipping the "easy" stuff that I would probably be doing anyway, like running and birding.
  • Get to 150 pounds. But for real this time. Gotta go with the classics.
  • Finish my prototype game. Title to be revealed soon™.
  • Complete my blog redesign. Another classic. It could happen!
  • Revive my newsletter. I am actually working on this now, and have moved from Substack to Buttondown for the hosting.
  • Complete one of my unfinished novels. Likely either The Mean Mind or Road Closed. I’ve been itching to get back into writing again, and either of these stories will be fun to noodle around on.
  • Start a new blog or something. I kind of have something in mind, we’ll see what happens.
  • Focus on:
    • Being happy
    • Staying healthy
    • Bringing good into the world
    • Getting decent sleep, which will help with all of the above

New for 2024: I will check in at the end of each month to see how well I am doing on these things and use a letter, star, number or some other system to mark my progress or lack thereof. It’ll be fun!

Bonus resolutions for 2023

notebooks on the table
I’m actually doing some of the things featured in this generic blog image for “resolutions”! Photo by Polina Kovaleva on Pexels.com

Here are a few more things I thought of:

  • Drink more water and conversely, drink less soda. I only drink non-sugary soda, but it’s still bad and I should feel bad. And I do, somewhat.
  • Reorganize the cabling for my computer and tidy up the desk. Somehow it’s become a complete mess again. Whoops. I also need to replace my beloved cat DJ in space mouse pad, it’s starting to curl up.
  • Renew my “draw something every day” vow because I kind of dropped that. I think the messy desk is a minor contributing factor.

That’s enough for now.

Resolutions shmesolutions 2022

This year, I am not making formal resolutions for 2022. There are things I want to do that I am doing now, I just want to do more of them, or have more specific focus on certain things.

These things include the usual self-improvement:

  • Lose weight
  • Exercise more (keep running)
  • Be generally more kind, thoughtful and generous. I’m not a horrible person now, but why not always try to improve?

They also include hobbies, some of which may help me earn an income in the future:

  • Write more (blogging, the newsletter, more fiction)
  • Draw more (my own projects, plus some daily or monthly prompts tossed in)
  • Photography, uh, more. Birds, scenery, stuff. With my camera or phone, both are good tools.

I also want to expand my knowledge in a few areas in 2022, again with generating moola as the desired endpoint, though knowledge for its own sake is good, too:

  • Programming (C#)
  • Game development, starting with Unity and C#
  • Learning my way around more apps like Affinity Designer, among others

And a few hopes that aren’t resolutions at all:

  • Not get sick, including maybe dodging the covid bullet just a little while longer
  • That the pandemic will actually end sometime in 2022, and I won’t be repeating this line in a year with 2023 written instead
  • Find contentment in small things, while always striving for more. I guess just try to be happy, no matter the circumstances. Assuming happy doesn’t mean retreating from reality. Unless they invent the Matrix, but without the killer robots. I’m up for ducking out in that.

Remember: This is not a list of resolutions for 2022, it just looks like one. Thank you.

New Year Resolutions 2021: Let’s get small

Let’s face it, I am bad at keeping my resolutions. Let’s assess my success with the ones I made for this year, and then move onto making shiny new ones for 2021.

Note that I did not anticipate 2020 being THE YEAR OF UNENDING HORRIBLENESS when I made these resolutions. I may have been a bit more modest in my goals if I’d known. Perhaps.

  • Drop to 150 pounds. Grade: D. I am currently tracking on being up for the year. Massive failure, though with some hope for doing better in the future.
  • Be creative. Grade: B. I didn’t really write fiction (I committed to NaNoWriMo then failed to produce a single word), but I did Inktober again, took lots of photos, kept up fairly well on blog posts (don’t count the number of cat pictures). I feel I could have done more if I had been disciplined, so I only give myself a B.
  • Exercise at least three times a week. Grade: C+. I actually did not too bad here, but the wheels came off when the days started getting shorter, and the year ended with me being saddled with Plantar Fasciitis.
  • Read at least 26 books. Grade: B. I will likely end the year with 20 books read and a few more close to completion. This is one where the pandemic completely disrupted a routine (reading on my daily commute) and I never found a good way to adapt. I actually ended up doing most of my reading this year in the bathtub, which turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant way to read. But I do not have baths ten times a week, so I did not hit 26.
  • Eat better. Grade: C+. Maybe I ate marginally better, but there is still work to do.
  • Start stretching. Grade: D. I just didn’t start. But now I have orders to, with my foot injury, so there may be hope for 2021.
  • Investigate other careers. Grade: C+. I started on this, then the pandemic happened and while I haven’t stopped entirely, my pace in terms of investigation has slowed down.
  • Just generally improve. Grade: B-. Considering how awful this year was, I’m happy with a B-.

A pretty middling year. Goodbye, 2020, and good riddance!

My resolutions for 2021 are perhaps the most modest I’ve ever had. We’ll see if I can meet them.

  • Drop to 160 pounds. Maybe by setting my sights lower I will achieve more!
  • Be creative. Keeping this one from 2020:
    • Do one of the following every day (more than one is even better):
      • Write a blog post (Note: Jogging/treadmill workouts do not count)
      • Write some fiction
      • Draw something (maybe Inktober52 would be a good start)
      • Take a photo
      • Write a song (new for 20201)
  • Read at least 20 books. Down from 26. With COVID-19 likely to be a big factor for most of 2021, I think this more modest number is achievable.
  • Exercise at least once a week. Down from three times. Again, setting my sights low to see if I can do more.
  • Stretch. Any stretching at all.
  • Be kinder to everyone, including myself

New Year Resolutions 2020: More cat, less fat

First, a review of how I fared for my resolutions for 2019. I deliberately made the goals broader and easier to attain after more or less bombing on nearly everything in 2017. Here they are, graded as if by a mean grade school teacher:

  • Drop to 150 pounds. As of today I am 170.1 pounds, which any mathematician will tell you is more than 150 pounds. A lot more. Alas. Looking at the year overall, my weight held pretty steady for the first six months. In July I finally started shedding pounds (I was also running more) and this continued until September, when the weight not only started creeping back up, it climbed even higher. The only good news after this is that by some miracle (and a treadmill) I managed to actually reverse the weight gain in the last two weeks of December, when it would normally be spiraling ever-higher. Still, short of shedding a lot of water weight tomorrow (the 31st) I am going to end up a bit heavier at the end of the year than at the start. Grade: D
  • Write something every day. Technically, I achieved this, between blog posts, journal entries, posts to social media and other miscellaneous stuff. But I wrote almost no fiction, so that still knocks a grade or so off. Grade: B+
  • Run at least once per week. According to the Activity app, I did 58 runs in 2019 as of today (I may do one tomorrow to top off the year. That means I did in fact run at least once per week! Grade: A
  • Read at least 52 books. I revised this goal partway through the year when it became obvious I would not read near 52. The new goal was 26, which I achieved. There’s a chance I might finish Book 27 before the year ends. For some reason I had a lot more gaps between books, possibly because I read a few too many bargain novels that may have been bargain-priced for obvious reasons. Grade: B
  • Eat better. A mild improvement at best. Grade: C+
  • Learn and practice meditation. I thought about this. I did not actually do it. Grade: D
  • Stretch. See the above. Grade: D
  • Redo the Complaint Free World 21-day challenge. I’m wearing the band again, but haven’t yet started the formal challenge. Still, just wearing the band has helped me to stay more positive. Grade: B

2019 was a pretty even split between triumph and not-triumph. It was a difficult year in many ways for me, so the result is not unexpected. For 2020 I am going with a slightly revised set of goals:

  • Drop to 150 pounds. I actually think I have a better shot at this than in the past few years. Really!
  • Be creative. Do one of the following every day (more than one is even better):
    • Write a blog post (Note: Jogging/treadmill workouts do not count)
    • Write some fiction
    • Draw something (not to be confused with the app)
    • Take a photo
  • Exercise at least three times a week. One of the exercises should be a run, the others can be treadmill walks or something similar. I can no longer use the weather as an excuse to be lazy and fat.
  • Read at least 26 books. I think a book every two weeks is fine and I can probably do better that that with a wee bit of effort. Maybe I’ll start counting comic books or something.
  • Eat better. I went cold turkey with my diet once before (this did not involve actual turkey), I can do it again. I think.
  • Start stretching. If I can do this, I’ll move on to meditation. Maybe it’ll be easier that way. Stretch the body, then stretch the mind. Pretty deep, man.
  • Investigate other careers. I like tech and I like helping people. I am less convinced now that I like both together.
  • Just generally improve. Try to be kinder, more thoughtful and helpful. Lead by example.

New Year Resolutions 2018: This time for real

First, a review of the resolutions I made for this year and my grade on how well I did on each. First, a review of the resolutions I made for this year and my grade on how well I did on each.

  • Drop to 150 pounds. Grade: D. I ended the year at 168.1 pounds.
  • 100% donut-free. Grade: A. I stayed donut-free, though it didn’t help much, weight-wise. Alas.
  • No farmers tan. Grade: C+. I didn’t run as much, so not as much of a farmers tan. Kind of a dumb resolution.
  • Write 250 words of fiction per day. Grade: D. Total fail, unless you split the 22,222 words of NaNoWriMo into 250 word chunks and spread them out over the year (and I’d still be way off the 91,250 total).
  • Run at least three times a week. Grade: C. Knee problems slowed my running in the first half of the year and weather/laziness took over in the second half. My worst year for running since I started in 2009.
  • Read at least 32 books. Grade: A. I read 40 books, woo!
  • One drawing per week. Grade: D. I did a few drawings the entire year.
  • Win the lottery. Grade: B. I won $10.
  • Eat better. Grade: D. Not a good year for self-control when it came to (comfort) food.
  • Curb my web surfing and put my WoW sub on hold. Grade: C and A. The C is for web surfing, which I have not really reined in much, though I think the quality of the content I read is higher now. I dropped my WoW sub.

Not exactly a banner year. For 2019 I am slimming down the list:

  • Drop to 150 pounds. Third (or whatever) time is the charm?
  • Write something every day. No minimum limits should make this possible.
  • Run at least once per week. Again, lowering the bar, but it could lead to more.
  • Read at least 52 books. Yes, a book a week. I think this might be possible if I cheat with some really short books.
  • Eat better. For real this time.
  • Learn and practice meditation. I think this will help a lot if I can take it seriously.
  • Stretch. I am stiff as a board and it’s not good. I need to get more flexible.
  • Redo the Complaint Free World 21-day challenge. I’ve regressed on the no-complaining thing and need to do better.

We’ll see how things look in just 12 short, zany months.

 New Year Resolutions for 2017 (assuming the world is still here by 2018)

It is time to make resolutions because tradition demands we make silly promises, break them, express regret, then do the whole thing over again a year later, which is just enough time to convince ourselves that this time will be different.

That said, my goal to get to 150 pounds this year was going quite well until mid-October. By then I was at 153 pounds and was still running regularly, having recovered nicely from an injury in the early spring (and having escaped battered but without any broken bits in my Great Tripping Incident in August). Then two things happened:

  1. I caught a very nasty cold. It laid me out for a couple of weeks and I missed a bunch of runs.
  2. Simultaneously, the sun began setting early enough that by the time I was healthy again I could no longer run my usual routes after work because it was now dark and I’d be attacked and carried away by vampire bats.

To address #2 I kept running on the weekends, but once a week is not enough to keep in shape. I pondered running during lunch at work but did not commit to it for various reasons. I thought about using the treadmill at the Canada Games Pool but my partner kept offering to go and then not really wanting to, which made it easy for me to decide that yes, it was easier to just sit at home and eat bags of Bugles instead.

This is all to say that about two months later I am up to 164 pounds, an impressive backslide. Gaining weight is very easy. If I made that a resolution I’d have 51 weeks left to work on any and all other resolutions.

My first resolution, therefore, will not be a huge surprise.

My Resolutions for 2017 Assuming Donald Trump
Doesn’t Destroy the World

  • drop to 145 pounds. Yes, I’m actually making the goal tougher for 2017. Secretly this was always my goal and 150 pounds was a soft target. I’ve been as low as 143 pounds and it’s definitely not too skinny on my frame. Though I am kind of skinny, anyway.
  • run at least three times a week barring injury or other extraordinary circumstance. I would previously include “the entire city covered in snow” being an extraordinary circumstance but really, there are gyms and treadmills, so this doesn’t qualify. It’s also the minimum needed to keep in decent shape.
  • no farmers tan. I wear t-shirts when running and as a result when I remove my shirt I a) blind anyone nearby with my ultra-white untanned body and b) get mocked for having conspicuously tanned arms right up to where the sleeves of my t-shirts sit. My solution this year will be to wear sleeveless shirts (I already have a few) and maybe a few stints working on a wee bit of a tan for my upper body. I might entertain the thought of running without a shirt when the weather is warmer but I’m not sure I should subject the world to that.
  • killer abs. Yes, the time has come to work on my upper body, especially if I’m not going to have an unseemly farmers tan. I haven’t decided how to do this yet. I have dumbbells but I tried them before and didn’t like them much. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure I won’t like anything I try to achieve this goal. It will be an interesting challenge.
  • eat better. This means fewer Bugles and saying no when offered candy. Currently, I tend to say yes except you can’t hear the actual word because I’m already shoving the candy into my mouth.
  • learn to swim. Haha, no. I’m not trying that again! Well, maybe. But only if I can learn with people who really can’t swim, not the bunch of cheaters I was grouped with when I took lessons in 2009.

That covers my health-oriented goals. Now onto being a better person in various ways.

  • write 1,000 words a day. No exceptions except under extraordinary circumstances like every keyboard, pen, pencil and other writing instrument in the world suddenly disappear and even then I could scratch out words in the dirt with a sturdy twig. These 1,000 words are to be fiction, so blog posts don’t count.
  • read at least 32 books. I’d love to bump this to 52 and do a book a week but I simply can’t read that fast. Maybe I could make speed reading a 2018 goal.
  • be a positive influence to others. I have no specifics on this. I’ll just try to think before I post, be nice and smile (but not in a creepy sort of way).
  • win the lottery. I’d spend the money wisely, I promise!

That’s good for now. If I think of more I’ll add them and I’ll try to re-visit the list periodically to see how I’m doing. I expect tears.

My New Year Resolutions for 2012

As mentioned on the Martian Cartel forum:

  • Keep fit.
  • Keep slim.
  • Keep together.
  • Keep working.
  • Keep writing.

In 2011 I feel I managed to:

  • Keep together.

Keep fit? I spent the last three months of the year pretty much not exercising thanks to my stupid body.

Keep slim? See above. I gained weight.

Keep working? I ended the year out of work.

Keep writing? I utterly failed at National Novel Writing Month and wrote little in general otherwise. Apart from being with my wonderful partner, 2011 was a bust for resolutions (I use pretty much the same set every year).

I aim to do better in 2012, Mayan predictions of doom notwithstanding.