My 2020 New Year's Blog Resolutions!

Another year, another round of blog resolutions!  I ended up doing quite well on my 2019 Resolutions (see my recap that I posted a couple of days ago).  Let's hope I can do equally well in 2020!

2020 Blog Resolutions:

1.  Barry Larkin Collection
My Barry Larkin Collection currently sits at 715 different cards that I've scanned and written about.  I have another 65 or so cards that I've scanned but not yet written about.  My method of collecting Larkin is to scan the cards and then file them away in my binders which means I'm a bit shy of 800 unique Larkin cards in my binder.  Thus, this year my Barry Larkin resolution will have three parts:

• First, I want to have at least 775 Barry Larkin cards written about by the end of the year.
• Second, I want to have at least 800 Barry Larkin cards tucked away in my binders (and therefore scanned and ready to be written about in 2021).
• Third, in order to accomplish the second goal I need to sort through and then start scanning the new cards that are sitting in my "Larkin pile" on my table (I have more to say about that table in a moment).  I'm guessing I have another 100 or so brand new (to me) Larkins sitting on my table but they are mixed in with plenty of duplicate Larkin cards.  Lots of sorting and scanning to get done!

2.  Blog Trading
I wouldn't still be blogging like I am today if it weren't for blog trading.  Unfortunately, life on the blogs isn't nearly as active as it was a few years ago but I'm hoping to at least be close to what I was able to do in 2019 which was 60 trades.  Therefore, my goal is to send out at least 50 trade packages in 2020.  I've got three packages ready to go out in the mail today (more from my Season of Giving program) so I'm on the right track already!

3.  The Want List
In 2019, I made the ambitious goal to whittle my want list down to under 100 sets total.  That took a rather Herculean effort on my part (both in terms of trading but also buying cards specifically for sets that I could complete easily).  Without nearly as much "low hanging fruit" on my want list now, I know that further whittling down of the want list is going to be more challenging.  Therefore, my goal for this year is to get my want list down to under 90 sets by the end of the year.  Once again, that will limit the number of sets that I can choose to collect since right now I'm sitting at 99 sets on the want list!

4.  The Great Reorganization
Reorganizing my collection has been an ongoing goal of mine for a number of years now.  I did make some fairly decent progress in 2019 but this is the year where I (hopefully) complete the task.  In particular, here are the things I hope to accomplish:

• First, I want to finish my non-Reds Frankenset.
• Second, I want to get my table cleared off.
• Third, I want to construct a list of every set that I've completed to date.

That should keep me plenty busy for the new year!

5.  The LEGO Blog
Last year, I set a goal of 50 posts for my LEGO blog which proved to be way too ambitious.  I'm going to tone it down for this year but still try and improve on last year's final numbers.  Therefore, I'm setting a goal of at least 36 posts on my LEGO blog in 2020.  I think three posts per month is a doable average if I really put my mind to it!

6.  Reading
Like last year, I'm going to set a reading goal of 12 books by the end of the year.  In fact, I've already started my first book of 2020.

7.  Teaching
Right now, it looks like I might be teaching a brand new course on Robotics in the fall of 2020.  If that ends up being the case, my teaching resolution will be for me to have the course at least 75% completed prior to the start of the fall semester.  This includes all assignments, exams, projects, etc.

8.  Woodworking
I've enjoyed dabbling in woodworking over the past number of years including last year in which I built a large toy box/bookshelf combo for my son as well as a wooden bulldozer for him and a Christmas ornament.  I'm not planning to go crazy with the woodworking but I will set two sub-goals here.

• First, I'd like to continue my tradition of a homemade Christmas ornament for my son each year.
• Second, I'd like to build my son another wooden toy.  Perhaps another truck or even better, a wooden train.  This will be a summer project for sure since my "wood shop" resides in the back of my (unheated) garage.

I think that's a fairly comprehensive list for blog related resolutions.  I suppose I could add in a few other things (like lose a bit of weight) but those aren't nearly as much fun to blog about!  Eight goals for the new year seems like quite a few anyhow.  My initial hope is to do the bi-monthly check-ins once again in an effort to keep myself on track.  That seemed to work well for 2019 at least.

Now it's your turn?  What are your resolutions for 2020?  Feel free to leave a comment (or a link to your own blog if you wrote something similar to what I've done here).  Happy 2020 everyone!