Wednesday, January 01, 2020

New Years Revolutions 2020

2019 has come and gone and overall it was a great year for me.  When I look back on it I do so fondly and know that there are things I started that I will build upon and things that didn't work which I will discontinue.

That being said, it is currently the time of year to look ahead to what is in store and what I want to work on.  So, to fall in line with the social norms (this is still a social norm right?  This didn't stop being a thing did it?) I wish to present to you my New Years Revolutions!

These will be all over the place and, of note, I am also doing some daily (or weekly; or weakly) housekeeping in a journal this year which I will then translate to the written (and audio) internet form.

I bought this really cool looking Deadpool notebook and have been trying to figure out what to use it for.

New Years Revolutions
2020 Edition

Reading
Over the course of 2020 I want to read six books.  That is read with my eyes, the old fashioned way.  Whether it is a physical book or one that is on a Kindle device does not matter as long as it is old fashioned reading.
I also want to listen to 4 audio books over the course of the year.  I have a couple on my Audible account that I have not gotten to so that makes life easy.

Weight Loss
In 2019, when all of the fluctuation was done and I looked at the scale on January 1st 2020, I had lost a total of 30 pounds.  Thirty pounds was a great number and I feel that it was a great beginning.  However, I still have a lot of work to do in order to get to where I need (or more to the point, want) to be.  So in 2020 my goal is going to be to lose an additional 40 pounds.  I feel like this should be easy to do as long as I stick to my goals and eat the way I should.  So let's see how close to 200 pounds I can get as the year goes on.

One of the things we are going to be doing in order to help with this weight loss is we are buying an Elliptical for the house.  This is something that I have wanted for a long time and thanks to a generous donation from a family member we will be purchasing one very shortly.  Once it arrives you can look forward to pictures of my fat arse sweating on a regular basis

Podcasting
The end of the year had me all out of sorts.  My co-host got spooked by Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up and decided he needed to step away before his neck ended up on the chopping block and from there I lost my motivation.  However, an appearance on Megadads X rekindled my interest and while I know I have a small audience I really enjoy putting out content.
My recording goals:
Record the Backlog Confessional once a week (and based on the results from the Twitter Poll it will release on Wednesdays).
Record Fat Man In Vegas every other week (but have not determined a release schedule for that yet).
Record Backlog Busters once a month with some of my good twitter friends who have volunteered to help out.


Writing
Since the time approaching my wedding and then spitting out multiple children I have seriously neglected my writing.  Writing is something that I really enjoy doing and every time I dive into it I remember how much I love it, but I have been neglecting it a lot over the last few years.
So, with that in mind I'm not going to put an outlandish goal on my plate that I know I will not keep.  Instead, I will state that (at a minimum) I want to write one post for each of my blogs every month.  If I write more then all is right with the world but I do not want to write less.  One post is not a huge time constraint that I should be making excuses why I did not get around to it.

Plus, while I was really going hard with Fat Man in Vegas I had two different people tell me that I was a really good writer.  I can't let that kind of ego-inflation go to waste now can I?

Movies
I'm a lover of horror movies.  I grew up with A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th and then married a woman who also loves to watch horror movies.  We have seen a bunch over the last few years but, in all honesty, this is another one of my loves that I have watched fall by the way-side as I started raising small children.
Now that my boy is about to hit 5 years old I feel it is time to give him some freedom to not follow daddy around everywhere and give myself some of my hobbies back.
That, and 100% in response to Donnie from PSVG watching 100 horror movies before their Horror-Cast DLC episode, has been my inspiration to watch more.  In fact, as a complete copy cat, my goal is to get through 100 Horror Movies before the next Horror-Cast which will presumably be in October.
To end 2019 I have gone through 10 or 11 and I know I have some work to do if I will hit 100.

Gaming
My biggest hobby.  My most time consuming hobby.  The hobby that I have loved the most since I was a little boy.  2020 is the year where I attempt to focus on having fun with video games and adopt the attitude that I do not need to beat every game I am attempting to start.  If I am not having fun with it I'll move on.

Now, with that in mind, I don't plan on playing a lot of games that I'll have to abandon.  With me playing mostly games that came out previous years I have a lot of data and feed back from the #backloggers out there as to if a game was worth the time or not.  This means that every game on the list below has been vetted and I feel like I should enjoy them all.

This brings me to another thing that I stole and adapted.
I started following Shellshock Prime and his A-Z challenge where he is going through the alphabet and picking games that start with those letters.  So, being the thief I am, I present to you:

The BACKLOG BLUES Challenge
B - Batman: Telltale
A - Alien Isolation
C - Control
K - Kingdom Battle (Mario x Rabbids)
L - Luigi's Mansion 3
O - Ori and the Blind Forest
G - God of War

B - Batman: The Enemy Within
L - LOTR: Middle Earth: Shadow of War
U - Uncharted 4
E - Evil Within 2
S - Steamworld Quest

Now, there are still a host of other games out there that I really want to play and get to.  I know that I listed 12 games above and, honestly, with the length of those games it could, quite possibly, take me the entire year to play and beat them all.  So, the only section I am guaranteeing that I will beat is the BACKLOG portion.  The Blues is akin to Endgame content, optional but worth your time if you make it that far.

And here is my supplemental list of games.  Some of these I will 100% play and others are just games I really want to get to.

Fire Emblem Three Houses (I have gone through to the time skip thus far)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake (I have this game pre-ordered)
The Last of Us 2 (I have this game pre-ordered)
Resident Evil 2 Remake (I do not own this game)
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Darksiders Genesis (I do not own this game)
Travis Strikes Again
Danganronpa 2
Steins Gate Elite
Bayonetta
Bloodstained
Jedi Fallen Order

In addition to an amazing line up of games that I want to play, I want to make sure that I spread the love and give all of my systems/platforms some time.  Since the Nintendo Switch came out 99% of my gaming time has been on it.  I've played and beaten some games on the PS4 but my kids mainly dominate those consoles.
In 2020 I want to play and beat a game on the PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Google Stadia.  If I get the PS5 and/or Xbox Series X I will also add those to my list.

Finances
Finally.  Other than the houses I want my family to be debt free by the end of 2020.  The wife and I have been there before and we need to be there again.  We have some medical bills, some new house expenses and other things that we let get out of hand.

So, there you have it.  I have a whole lot of things I want to achieve in 2020.
Hopefully you will hear some variant of this in Audio form as I am trying to record with one of my favorite podcasters in the community I have become so attached to.

And, because I forgot but also because I refuse to go back and edit:

Friends.
I hope to build better friendships with a bunch of you out there.
Turkeys, Knights and Odysseys included.

Keep on #Backlogging