abrad45.com

I wrote some "New Year's Resolutions" of sorts back in January and have yet to revisit. Because, of course I haven't. I did have a tech recruiter reach out to me and tell me that my list looked great and good luck with it, which was interesting...

Let's take a look, shall we?

Blog more.

Yeah. No.

0/10 progress made.

Instagram more.

I've already posted as much in 2017 as I did in 2016, and I've got a few more months to go. I'm at 27 posts in each year as of this writing, which is about once every 13.5 days. I probably could afford to post once every 5-10 days and not piss anyone off, so maybe I should do this more.

7/10 progress made.

Double 2016's charitable donations.

This one was... pretty bold, considering how much I donated in 2016. When I wrote it, I had a much cloudier picture of my financial picture / retirement savings and have since reallocated funds I would likely have donated to things like that. So, I'm not making it rain, so to speak, with that cash, but I'm not giving it away either. As it looks, I'll donate about as much as I did last year, perhaps a bit more. I'm content with this, but would like to do better.

6/10 progress made.

Play more video games. Complete more video games.

A new Nintendo Switch will help with this, especially with Breath of the Wild. I don't think ARMS or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are games one can "beat" without getting really into competitive online play or slaving away at repetitive single player modes, but I did beat the solo missions in Splatoon and have played that a ton online. Super Mario Odyssey comes out this Friday (!!) and I should bury 100 hours or so into that, too. I did well here.

8/10 progress made.

Give more thoughtful gifts.

This is a tricky one to assess. I've been prouder of some and less proud of others. I've been giving less gifts overall, but trying to do so when I had something good to give. My mom, in particular, continues to be difficult to shop for :/

I've also had some decent gift ideas fall through for random reasons like literally not being able to find the item described or knowing a friend in a bind would have preferred cash to a thoughtful birthday gift.

I'm going to try to knock Christmas out of the park.

?/10 progress made. 4? 5?

Contribute to at least one OSS project.

I've asked some constructive questions on a few github projects I use at work, but "donating my time to the community" is not how I'd describe this in any way. Coding has not been something I've made time for this year, which is disappointing.

2/10 progress made.

Donate time, not just money, to others.

I don't want to make excuses here, but I do have a standing offer out to help a friend's nonprofit make a website that I haven't been taken up on. Womp.

When I wrote this, I wasn't sure what it would mean. Going to soup kitchens or something? I think I assumed it would be more digital or OSS related. I will give myself a slight amount of credit for trying (and in some cases, even succeeding!) to be a good listener this year, which has involved (at points) large time commitments.

3/10 progress made.

Learn to juggle.

Ha. I still have the balls and scarves. They are shoved in a snack drawer (don't ask) which I barely ever go into.

0/10 progress made.

Be kinder.

Another one that's hard to assess. I like to think I think about what I am about to say more. I have taken to repeating a statement often made by a friend, who frequently asks "is that unkind?" but I won't give myself a ton of credit for that.

?/10 progress made, which is probably a cop-out.

Care less about every little thing.

This is proving to me quite difficult! I am no less observant than I've ever been, and no less particular, either. I think this one will require a lot more work and time, but I have been trying to do this a bit, and am more aware of it than I've ever been.