It’s been another year, so now it’s time to set my resolutions for 2018. As I think about this a bit, I’ve always been a bit ambitious in my resolutions, and my success rate isn’t great… …But, I’m going to continue that trend anyway. Here’s what I’m going to try to accomplish in 2018.
Write a piece of (short) fiction
This is going to be my big one this year – I want to write a fiction story. Just based on my experience and time that I want to put into it, it’s likely going to be a piece of short fiction, which is totally fine. I’m shooting for at least 1,000 words here (which pulls it from the world of flash fiction into at least short fiction), and it will at least be introduced here on the blog (though it may live elsewhere).
Read 101 short stories
I like short stories, and I remembered to start reading them again at the tail end of last year. So, this is going to be a measure of how many short stories I can read in a year. In this context, I’m counting “read” as also “listen to” as I plan on listening to a lot of Escape Artists for this one.
101 stories seemed like a good start (it’s just shy of two per week), but I’m going to add a special “stretch resolution”, to see if I can’t do a bit better: If I manage to catch up (and stay caught up) with any of the Escape Artists podcasts (Escape Pod, Pseudopod, or Pod Castle), I’m going to give myself a bonus point at the end of the year (i.e. it’ll make up for one of my failed resolutions). Right now, I’m a bit under 300 stories behind on Escape Pod, so that feels like enough of an accomplishment (almost six stories a week) for a bonus.
Assembly backlog
Continuing with the tradition of assembling stuff every year, I’ve got a few things I want to get done this year:
The high priority stuff this year is my Warmachine and Hordes figures. First, I want to finish up the Grymkin that I didn’t get assembled at the tail end of the year – the Old Witch, Neigh Slayers, Mad Caps, and a pair of Gremlin Swarms. Then I’ve got a couple of Khador models to assemble – Conquest/Victor kit and a Kodiak/Grolar kit. Finally, I picked up the Storm Raptor for Circle Orboros which needs assembled. Then there’s the Geist of Christmas Yet To Come that I just got – I’ll put that together too.
For Warhammer… …I have a Cerastus Knight to put together… …And all those Tau. I think I’ll go ahead and resolve to assemble my Tau this year, but painting them will be optional. This should help motivate putting them together, even if I’m not planning on playing them.
Finally, I do want to complete my Kingdom Death: Monster named models. I got a few more this year, so I’m adding them to the group as well, namely: the Gold Smoke Knight, a pair of version 1.5 survivors, the Black Friday Ninja, and Before the Wall.
I’m not promising any new Firestorm Armada or Mercs models this year, though I do have a backlog to assemble. I’ll add them to the right bar anyway, but I’ll color code resolutions mixed with non-resolutions so it’s easier to see how I’m doing.
Finish a computer game storyline
At the beginning of 2017, I had made good progress on Grim Dawn, and I was loving it… …And I never finished it, which is a bit of a shame. So, this year, I’m resolving to finish at least one computer game story and write about it. I’ve really been wanting to write about Bastion and Transistor, so one of those might be it, but I also want to play through Grim Dawn, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, Earth 2150/The Moon Project/Lost Souls/Earth 2160, Homeworld/Cataclysm/Homeworld 2… …So I’ve got lots of choices here.
Huh, I never wrote about Trine 2 or Trine 3… …I should do that.
House Projects
This year, I’m resolving to move out all my old roommates and do some house projects. These aren’t my ambitious house projects, mostly just stuff that I’ve been meaning to do, but haven’t, not because I haven’t had time or money to, but because I haven’t made time to.
First, I want to straighten up the library and get my coffee table set set-up in there. I’d like to buy some comfy chairs if my budget allows (this is the only expense in this area), and generally make it a bit more welcoming. Once I know precisely what’s going on what shelf, I want to clear the boxes that are hanging around in there too.
Next, I want to rearrange my upstairs rooms a bit, and have a “projects room” (in the nursery) and a “game room” in my current projects/game room. I plan to look at shelving options, but I’m not promising anything here (again, budget), but ideally I’d have shelves (or shelving equivalent) on the North and South sides of the game room to hold all my games, models, and RPG books (unless they end up in the library).
I also want to get the furniture that I’ve been offered. My mom has a wonderful Curtis Mathis record player built into a very nice living room stand. I think this would be wonderful to have in the house and I’m very grateful that my mom has offered it to me. My father has also offered me a nice headboard – I’ve been looking for one of these for a while, and can’t wait to get it in the house. The only catch with all of this is that they are on the other side of the mountain, so I need to find some way to get them here (I don’t own a truck). This year, I’m going to figure that out and get them here.
Finally, I need to do some house maintenance. I want to take care of that loose siding on the South side of the house; I think this is just a matter of hiring a handyman to fasten it down, but I’m not sure. It was far less of a pain last year than it has been in the past (the last time I was up there, I got most of it at least mostly fastened), but I really don’t want to have another piece fall off. I also want to get the carpets shampooed (at least in the rooms that need it and don’t have lots of furniture). If I can get the basement and the living room done, I’ll call this one a success.
Eye Doctor
Lastly, I want to go to the eye doctor this year. It’s been a couple of years, and I’m really unhappy with the plastic lenses I got last time (the plastic part, not the correcting part). I want to get a new checkup, and see about the possibility of getting glass lenses if at all possible (ideally, I’ll just keep my same frames though).