New Year’s Resolutions 2019

I guess this is a thing I do now. So, here are a few things I thought about working on in 2019:

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General Resolutions

1. Be Slower - I don’t know that I would describe myself as hastey (especially because that’s not a word anybody uses), but I’ve found myself several times over the last year reacting in a way that wasn’t that helpful and that could have been avoided if I’d just slowed down. That way I can get more information, or I can react in a way that actually makes sense based on how I’d really like to react.
   
   Similarly, I think this extends my monotasking goal of last year. I want to slow down and do a thing until the thing is done (or done enough) and not keep jumping to something else every time I don’t want to do the thing.
   
   So the goal for 2019 is to go slower, think more deeply and keep in mind that whatever it is will still be there when I get to it.
2. Finish Things - In addition to going slower, I need to get stuff done. For a long time I was really bad at even starting things (and I’m still not *very* good at it), but I’m also really bad at finishing things.
   
   For 2019 I’d like to get better at finishing things in two ways. One if a job can be finished, I want to finish it as quickly as I can. For another, as an aspect of being slower, if a job can’t be finished I want to focus my energy on moving it forward so it can get done.
3. Be Comfortable - I think this is a bit of an aspect of being slower as well. I’ve found, in this last year especially that I allow myself to get very stressed, and so instead of being slow, I freeze. Instead of that this year, I want to relax in my own skin. So that even if things aren’t the way I want, I can keep moving.

Specific Resolutions

1. Finish The Thesis - Goddamnit.
2. Make Something Everyday - Partly freezing from stress, partly freezing from not wanting to distract myself from the thesis, but I haven't made nearly as much as I want to in 2018. In 2019 I want set myself a don’t break the chain challenge of making something cool and/or creative every day. It should be a tiny thing, but it should be a little bit of creative practice.
3. Finish A Project Each Month - As a concrete instance of finishing stuff, I want to give myself a goal of finishing a project every month.
4. Enjoy Good Stuff - Read more books, watch more movies, watch more tv, play more games, seem more art, listen to more music, look at more trees (and mountains and stuff). I want to push myself when I’m making a decision about my time, to lean towards enjoying something good.
5. See More Things - As with 2018, I have a lot of flexibility and I really ought to be putting it to good use. So I want to try at least once a week to do something unusual, so that I get to see more things.

And with that I hope we all have a wonderful 2019 in which we all get ourselves to the places we want to be.

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Blog: Games of 2018

This year I’ve played 2 games that were released in 2018. Into the Breach and Graveyard Keeper. I usually divide these posts into categories, but instead I’ll say I thought Into the Breach was good and Graveyard Keeper was okay.

For the record, my low number of 2018 games played is not a comment on the state of games in 2018, but a comment on the state of me in 2018. I will wrap up my thesis in 2019 and I’m hoping to be able to play a more of 2019’s games when they come out and to catch up on all the cool things I’ve missed in 2018.

The Okay

Graveyard Keeper

Graveyard Keeper is okay. I think it has good mechanics, but I just don’t like the world building or the style. Some of that is the bit where it leans into the gross and disturbing. (I’m okay with cutting people’s brains out, but less so with burning witches).

I also found outside of that it’s a little bland. I think that’s to do with the structure of the quests (each can only really be accomplished on one day a week, so if you miss it then you have to wait another week to move the plot ahead). If you’re just in it for the woodworking then this game is great, if you want a little more, then I’m not sure it has it. At least for me.

I did play a little bit recently when I turn it on to get the screenshot for this post. It looks like it has some more stuff added to it which should be fun.

The Good

Into the Breach

Into the Breach is good. As a puzzle strategy game it takes a lot of the guesswork and RNG out of playing and replaces it with your own damned decisions. I like how the missions are structured and how each one lasts just the right amount of time. The style is nice but the “meta-narrative” of the roguelike aspects (Into the Breach is made by Subset Games, who’s other claim to fame is FTL: Faster than Light) is a little light.

The game is always fun to play and there’s enough challenge to keep playing. I especially enjoyed that it lets you adjust the difficulty level without punishment which makes it fun to play however ambitious you’re feeling.

Blog: Books Read in 2018

Squirrels!

Good Reads

Looking Back at 2018 New Year’s Resolutions

Doing a resolutions post was a new thing for me, and I think the exercise was generally a good idea. I thought I’d take a moment to look back at my resolutions for this year.

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General Goals

1. Monotask - Mixed results on this one. It’s something I’m going to have to keep working on. I find especially as I get tired and overwhelmed by the stuff that needs to be done that it’s easy to lose focus and so I do more stuff, less well. I keep a pocket moleskin and write out my todos each day and as often as not I tend to fill a whole page with stuff that needs doing. Ideally I think i’d do fewer things but focus on them to get them done. (Also I’m editing two posts right now, so clearly Monotasking hasn’t quite taken yet.) 
2. Hold Fewer Opinions - I … think I succeeded? This feels like a thing that I’m going to work on for the rest of my life. 
3. Act more - Again I feel like this is a bit of a lifetime project. Generally I don’t think I did as well as I did at holding fewer opinions, but I have been trying to break stuff down into smaller pieces so that it’s easier to get them done. 

Specific Goals

1. Finish my Thesis - Goddamint. I am closer though. 
2. Be More Engaged on Twitter - This didn’t really take. I still stand by my feelings last year, that the only way to actually improve Twitter is be be good on Twitter (or whichever social network). I found it hard to engage partly due to stress about all the other stuff I hadn’t got done and I think a bit because the community I want isn’t really there any more. 
3. Read More - I did that. 
4. Make More Stuff - I didn’t do that. 
5. See More Stuff - Another mixed result. I certainly didn’t take advantage of my flexibility as much as I’d hoped, but I did do a little. I also feel like I’ve managed to organize myself so that in the future I will be able to see more stuff.

My 2018 wasn't great, I wanted my thesis done, but teaching got in the way (sort of) and I got in my own way. That being said, I'm pretty close to being done, and, more importantly, I think I'm getting more comfortable being a person who has things to do.

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I have no idea who this cat is, but lets dance anyway.

Blog: Games of November 2018

I'm not super happy with how I spent my play time this month, especially because I found myself playing more out of frustration / burnout than relaxation or fun.

My top five games (by play time) for November were:

1. Civilization VI - Well, this is the game I play when I'm avoiding getting the stuff that needs to get done, done. I'm feeling behind on practically everything, and, embarrassingly, it's been much easier to pick this up "for a minute" rather than work. The problem is, that minute often expands out to be a lot more than a minute.  So my goal for December is to, a) relax, b) focus, c) get stuff done, and d) feel good when I do play.
   
   

   

   It has been created. Next Turn!

   
   On the not of the actual game, side I actually feel like I'm finally figuring the game out a little. I even caved and picked up the Rise and Fall Expansion. I'm not sure I'm actually getting good, but I have learned. Further I've accepted that not every game is going to be a game I enjoy playing until the end and it's okay to go back to the early game part where I was having fun. I also really the aesthetic of the game, the same thing I thought the first time I played is that it still calls back the things I loved from Civ I and II.
   


2. Ogre Battle 64 - While I'm accepting things, I'm accepting that I can love this game for the feeling it gives me even when a huge portion of it makes no sense.
   
   

   

   Happy Place.

   
   


3. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I still haven't beaten the Master Sword challenge. I have been trying to pick up some better techniques and skills and I feel like, except for the part I can't do, I'm getting good.
   
   

   

   Little Silver Jerks. 

   
   


4. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - As part of a routine of relaxing this game just keeps giving. It also has an incredibly slow reward system - costumes for the amiibo characters - which might just keep us playing for another year. Animal Crossing for life!
   
   

   

   Animal Crossing is mostly Animal Capitalism.

   
   


5. Pokémon Go - Between being behind and it being colder out, I've been playing a little bit less the last month.
   
   

   

   We're slow and that's ok.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for November:

And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month:

Blog: Books Read in 2018

Endings

Good Reads

Project 17: The Revenge of #NaFYoFuThMo - Update

Well, that was a bit of a bust. National Finish Your (by which I mean my) Fucking Thesis Month, only netted me about 3000 words. Suffice to say I haven’t actually finished my thesis. I wasn’t exactly planning to, but still I’d have like to have had more progress.

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I knew I had some other stuff to do that would hang up the writing, but still had high hopes of magically getting ahead. I’ve rewritten why and how several times now, but at the end of the day, the thing I need to put here is I can get to the end if I just keep stepping forward.

Beyond that, #nafyofuthmo is fun to say (say it out loud if you haven’t NAFF-yo-FUTH-mo). It’s also time I finished this thesis. I am going to wrap up the writing by end of January and to keep myself entertained, so I’m going to keep #nafyoing until I get done. I'm going to shoot for a daily(ish) update on twitter. Sometimes that will be new words, and sometimes it will be the other work and sometimes I'll have to do some other stuff, but I'll try to keep myself positive and on track.

I've got everybody and the stuff together. 3-2-1 Let's Jam.

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