2016 Retrospective
They say 2016 was a bad year. And in terms of politics and celebrities, it was.
But for me personally, 2016 was a good year. There was a Vegas trip, an amazing California road trip, and a whirlwind 2-week romance with a Canadian girl. I’ll be looking back fondly on it as we send off 2016 tonight.
More after the cut.
2016 Resolutions
Resolution #1 – Re-organize the house. I’m really bad at this. Let’s break it down.
- 1a, clean my bedroom at least once every quarter – I’m very good at cleaning the rest of my house on a monthly basis, because that’s what visitors see. But I always get lazy about my own bedroom. No one other than me ever sees it. Not even my cats. First three quarters went by fine. In December? I knew I was supposed to. But I didn’t. There was no reason for it.
- 1b, make a process for filing mail – Didn’t happen. My mail still piles up on the dining room table, and I just sort through it when the pile gets big enough.
- 1c, organize my game collection and sell off what I don’t need – Sort of. I spent a few months sorting through Magic cards and earning about $800 in store credit at Card Kingdom. But the rest of my game collection? Not so much.
- 1d, re-organize my kitchen – Well, I did this. There was a clause about magneic spice jars. I bought the jars but still haven’t actually used them yet. Oops.
Three subparts that are partly done and one that’s not done at all. I’m gonna round up and call this Result: PARTIAL SUCCESS
Resolution #2 – Make progress on Everything I Know About Cookies. I did in fact finish all my experiments by June. I also got most of my recipes and photography done by November. However, in December, I realized there were a few pictures of ingredients that I really wanted in my book. I’ll call it Result: MOSTLY SUCCESS
Resolution #3 – Diet, exercise, and sleep. The one I’m good at. The one I put on my list every year to keep myself honest. Result: SUCCESS
Not a home run, but still better than last year!
2017 Resolutions
Monthly Goals – Let’s try something new. I liked the idea of setting monthly milestones last year, so this year, let’s kick it up a notch. Every month, there will be a specific goal or task that I need to accomplish.
There are three overall themes here. First, piano goals. I’ve sort of neglected the piano, for a variety of reasons. Plus, I have 92 subscribers now. I should show them something.
Second, Everything I Know About Cookies. My book is almost complete. If I don’t release it this year, that will be a personal failure on my part.
Third, re-organize the house. Yeah, justs because I suck at it doesn’t mean I should give up on it. In fact, for something as important as re-organizing the house, I should probably keep trying until I get it.
- January: Post piano video (1/4)
- February: First draft of Cookies
- March: Clean my room (1/4), magnetic spice jars
- April: Final draft of Cookies
- May: Post piano video (2/4)
- June: Clean my room (2/4), give away my stuff
- July: Release Cookies
- August: Post piano video (3/4)
- September: Clean my room (3/4), organize and sell my game collection
- October: outline of macarons book
- November: Post piano video (4/4)
- December: Clean my room (4/4), (something else related to the house)
Resolution #2 – Reading. I haven’t really read anything since I don’t remember. And my ability to write is directly correlated with my ability to read. (Not that I have any aspirations to write any time soon.) So really, I should get back to reading. I’ve decided, one book a quarter, so four books. Those books are:
- House of Leaves (recommended by (I don’t remember))
- Snow Crash (recommended by Charles E)
- Ready Player One (recommended by Connie)
- Worm, Chapters 1-3 (recommended by James) – It’s a web series. Online estimates say it’s about 6000pp, and it’s 30 chapters, so I’m thinking of breaking it into 10 chunks. Yes, I know this means it’ll take me forever to finish reading it…
Thanks to everyone else for all the other recommendations. So many recommendations, I can’t wrap my brain around them all.
Resolution #3 – Diet, exercise, and sleep. Same as last year. a. No more than 10 cheat meals per month (even when I’m on vacation). b. At least 10 exercise days per month (pro-rated for when I’m on vacation. c. Don’t miss my bed time or wakeup time by more than 4 hr cumulative per month. (Again, pro-rated for when I’m on vacation.) Note that this is bumped down from 6 to 4 hours. This is because my median month was about 4 hours. And the months where I went over, sometimes I went over because I knew I had spare “minutes”.
Wish me luck!