With the year 2017 rapidly drawing to a close, it's time for me to look back at my 2017 Blog Resolutions to see how well (or poorly) I did with the goals that I set for myself at the start of the year.
For this year, I went with a total of 9 different goals. Let's see how I did - and since I'm a teacher by trade, I'll give myself a grade for each resolution.
1. Barry Larkin Collection
In 2016, I ended the year with a total of 496 different Barry Larkin cards scanned and written about on the blog. My goal for 2017 was to up that total to 550 different Larkin cards. At the moment, I've actually written 573 different Barry Larkin Collection posts which means I blew this goal out of the water. It's nice to start with a grade of an A.
2. The Great Reorganization
At the start of 2017, I had a total of 27 stacks of cards sitting on my table that I needed to organize. Today, that same table now holds four stacks of cards that are still unorganized. From 27 down to 4 is an incredible accomplishment for me...and I'm so very close to finally having the table cleared off that maybe I can even finish those final four stacks before 2017 officially ends! Whether or not I get that far is irrelevant to the grade (since A+ isn't a thing at my college). This is my second A.
3. The Want List
At the start of 2017, I posted a huge list of sets in which I was tantalizingly close to finishing off. The goal was to knock a bunch of those off of my want list. As of now, I've acquired 45 of those cards on that very select list which is great. Good enough, in fact, for my third A grade in a row.
4. My Frankensets
Back at the start of 2017, I only mentioned the Frankensets without actually specifying what my goal was to do with them. I can report that as of now I still haven't started on a single Frankenset, though I did continue to add cards to the pile of cards that I've set aside for the Frankensets for use whenever I finally get around to working on the sets. Since I didn't set a proper goal for this one at the start of the year, I'm going to give myself an I (incomplete) for this one. It won't affect my GPA...and hopefully I'll set a proper goal for next year.
5. My LEGO Blog
I wanted to continue adding to my LEGO blog and my LEGO City that resides in my man cave. Happily, I was able to do both of those things throughout the year (40 posts to date for the year on my LEGO blog is pretty good though hopefully in the future I'll be able to up that to closer to one per week). I think this one deserves a B grade.
6. New Content at Nachos Grande
I started strong here (reviewing board games) and I finished fairly strong with my Season of Giving posts. I also had a number of posts detailing my Great Reorganization (though those weren't necessarily "new content" in the sense that I meant back at the start of the year). I did manage to write over 450 posts for the year...which sounds like a lot until you realize it's my second lowest post output since I started blogging year round here at Nachos Grande. I think I have to give myself a C on this one.
7. Teaching
I took a group of 27 students and faculty to Italy and Greece as part of my History of Mathematics course back in the spring semester. The trip (and class) went amazingly well so this one is an easy A grade for me. Even better, I'm on the schedule to teach the class and travel trip again in the year 2019.
8. Woodworking
Originally, I had wanted to build a bunch of wooden shelves for the storage room attached to my man cave. I ended up not doing that (I bought some easy-to-assemble) plastic shelves from Lowes instead. While I didn't do woodworking on the project, the plastic shelving units were much cheaper than I could have done via wood so I'm not mad about my decision. I did, however, make a wooden "cage" for one of my vegetable gardens so I it wasn't like I didn't do any woodworking at all. I'd give myself a B- for this one except that I did do a lot of electrical work around the house (for the first time in my lifetime) which sort of fits within this category. Since all of that went well, I have to give myself an A- overall.
9. Blog Trading
My goal here was to continue trading but I didn't put a specific number out there since I knew I wasn't going to be buying a ton of new product (I ended buying more than I thought I would but that's a different story). At the moment, I've sent out 55 trade packages (22 of them coming from my Season of Giving project). Had I not done the Season of Giving, I would have had the lowest trade output since I started the blog - but as it stands, if I manage to send out two more packages before the calendar turns from 2017 to 2018, I'll have surpassed my total for 2015 which would be great. I don't think I'll ever be back in the triple digits for trades again like I was from 2010 - 2012, but that's not all my fault (there seem to be fewer blog readers/traders now than there was back then as well). I'll give myself a C+ here for the goal since I made a strong push at the end of the year.
And there you have it, my resolutions all graded.
In the end, I had:
Four As, one A-, one B, one C+, and one C, plus that one incomplete. Not bad at all - in fact, probably the best I've ever done in terms of actually keeping my resolutions!
If you are interested, I took a look at my resolutions throughout the year at two different points (May and August). I think those check ins helped me stay on track on the year for sure.
For this year, I went with a total of 9 different goals. Let's see how I did - and since I'm a teacher by trade, I'll give myself a grade for each resolution.
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| A Larkin card that I've scanned but NOT yet written about for my ongoing Barry Larkin Collection. You'll see this one (probably) in 2018. |
1. Barry Larkin Collection
In 2016, I ended the year with a total of 496 different Barry Larkin cards scanned and written about on the blog. My goal for 2017 was to up that total to 550 different Larkin cards. At the moment, I've actually written 573 different Barry Larkin Collection posts which means I blew this goal out of the water. It's nice to start with a grade of an A.
2. The Great Reorganization
At the start of 2017, I had a total of 27 stacks of cards sitting on my table that I needed to organize. Today, that same table now holds four stacks of cards that are still unorganized. From 27 down to 4 is an incredible accomplishment for me...and I'm so very close to finally having the table cleared off that maybe I can even finish those final four stacks before 2017 officially ends! Whether or not I get that far is irrelevant to the grade (since A+ isn't a thing at my college). This is my second A.
3. The Want List
At the start of 2017, I posted a huge list of sets in which I was tantalizingly close to finishing off. The goal was to knock a bunch of those off of my want list. As of now, I've acquired 45 of those cards on that very select list which is great. Good enough, in fact, for my third A grade in a row.
4. My Frankensets
Back at the start of 2017, I only mentioned the Frankensets without actually specifying what my goal was to do with them. I can report that as of now I still haven't started on a single Frankenset, though I did continue to add cards to the pile of cards that I've set aside for the Frankensets for use whenever I finally get around to working on the sets. Since I didn't set a proper goal for this one at the start of the year, I'm going to give myself an I (incomplete) for this one. It won't affect my GPA...and hopefully I'll set a proper goal for next year.
5. My LEGO Blog
I wanted to continue adding to my LEGO blog and my LEGO City that resides in my man cave. Happily, I was able to do both of those things throughout the year (40 posts to date for the year on my LEGO blog is pretty good though hopefully in the future I'll be able to up that to closer to one per week). I think this one deserves a B grade.
6. New Content at Nachos Grande
I started strong here (reviewing board games) and I finished fairly strong with my Season of Giving posts. I also had a number of posts detailing my Great Reorganization (though those weren't necessarily "new content" in the sense that I meant back at the start of the year). I did manage to write over 450 posts for the year...which sounds like a lot until you realize it's my second lowest post output since I started blogging year round here at Nachos Grande. I think I have to give myself a C on this one.
7. Teaching
I took a group of 27 students and faculty to Italy and Greece as part of my History of Mathematics course back in the spring semester. The trip (and class) went amazingly well so this one is an easy A grade for me. Even better, I'm on the schedule to teach the class and travel trip again in the year 2019.
8. Woodworking
Originally, I had wanted to build a bunch of wooden shelves for the storage room attached to my man cave. I ended up not doing that (I bought some easy-to-assemble) plastic shelves from Lowes instead. While I didn't do woodworking on the project, the plastic shelving units were much cheaper than I could have done via wood so I'm not mad about my decision. I did, however, make a wooden "cage" for one of my vegetable gardens so I it wasn't like I didn't do any woodworking at all. I'd give myself a B- for this one except that I did do a lot of electrical work around the house (for the first time in my lifetime) which sort of fits within this category. Since all of that went well, I have to give myself an A- overall.
9. Blog Trading
My goal here was to continue trading but I didn't put a specific number out there since I knew I wasn't going to be buying a ton of new product (I ended buying more than I thought I would but that's a different story). At the moment, I've sent out 55 trade packages (22 of them coming from my Season of Giving project). Had I not done the Season of Giving, I would have had the lowest trade output since I started the blog - but as it stands, if I manage to send out two more packages before the calendar turns from 2017 to 2018, I'll have surpassed my total for 2015 which would be great. I don't think I'll ever be back in the triple digits for trades again like I was from 2010 - 2012, but that's not all my fault (there seem to be fewer blog readers/traders now than there was back then as well). I'll give myself a C+ here for the goal since I made a strong push at the end of the year.
And there you have it, my resolutions all graded.
In the end, I had:
Four As, one A-, one B, one C+, and one C, plus that one incomplete. Not bad at all - in fact, probably the best I've ever done in terms of actually keeping my resolutions!
If you are interested, I took a look at my resolutions throughout the year at two different points (May and August). I think those check ins helped me stay on track on the year for sure.
Solid grades and no D's or F's... I'd say you did pretty well for yourself this year.
ReplyDeleteWell done from all that I've seen here. Looking forward to another year.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a fantastic year-on and off the blog. I haven't set any blog resolutions for myself, but you've given me something to consider for 2018.
ReplyDelete