10 For 2025: 3rd Quarter Update

  1. Look, I've been saying it for years now, but this has to be the year of Book 4. It's grinding away, little by little but at minimum, I'm going to get this damn thing into a workable draft format this year. If I'm very lucky and write very well, I might be into revisions by the end of the year and beating into shape for a final draft and a release. I have no idea why this is taking so long. I have no excuses to offer. I just really, really want to get this- at a minimum- closer to the finish line this year. 

Book 4 is officially on hold for now. Doing some more reading and a lot of thinking about where to take this one, but hopefully I will have a solid plan by year's end. 

2. Let's Get Some Vinyl: I finally got another tattoo and will probably get another at some point this year, but I really want this year to be the year I expand and actually use/listen to our vinyl collection more. We need more storage for it and I'd like to make purchases from our local store and find some place other than Amazon to snag more records for our collection.

Completed! (Though I want to build my knowledge base a little more here-- what are the best needles/upkeep, once this player goes kaput, what's the next upgrade, that kind of thing.)

3. Social Connection: I want to work on being more present when I'm not at work (which has been a lot lately) and start reconnecting with old friends and making new ones with the Missus. I'm going to pull the more noxious social media off my phone so it's not constantly in my pocket. We've also got a 13 year old now, so it'd be nice if the Missus and I can sneak out to eat at some of the places around town we've often wanted to check out. 

I'd still call this a work in progress, but it's getting there. I'm not as hermit-like as I used to be, I guess, which is sort of a plus.

4. Semi-Professional Development: Some of this will just happen through the course of things at work, but I want to be more intentional and active about it. (2-3 classes/trainings) but what I really want to do this year is get into AI and more importantly, understand how to use it properly- so far, I've only nibbled around the edges of it and I have a feeling it's going to be increasingly important going forward on a variety of fronts.

Training class, check!

Thinking about what I want my Substack to be other than a content farm for whatever random shit is in my brain at any given time? Underway!

Using CHAT GPT on the regular? Check.

Doing some reading/research about professional development and thinking about what that means for me-- Underway! (I got a Simon Sinek book and I'm reading it.)

5. Financial Health: A month or two ago, we sketched out a rough financial road map for 2025. I want to stick to it as much as possible, work on finding the best budgetary practices for ourselves, and keep our communication active and frequent with it comes to the budget. (TL;DR: previously how we handled our finances could be charitably described as 'a bit slapdash'. I'm hoping planning and structure will help change that somewhat.)

Work in progress, but we're making moves on this front as well. 

6. Health: Get back on the Intermittent Fasting and stick with it, treadmill for at least 30 minutes three times a week, kettlebell/Bowflex at least two times a week, find a Yoga routine to unlock my hips and do that daily, if possible, once a week at minimum. 

I'm pushing the boat out on this one a little more-- we've got a workout area set up downstairs, and if I can honestly get myself working out 3xs a week and taking care of myself a little better by the end of the year, I'm going to call this good. 

7. House Improvement Projects: Shelf for the Kid's Room, Workout Area Downstairs, and Built-In Bookshelves, Luxury Vinyl in the Bedroom and a Bedroom Overhaul. (There will probably be other stuff too, but those are the big four I'm starting with for now.)

Shelf: Shelf, hung! Completed!

Workout Area Downstairs: Bowflex moved, completed!

Built-Ins: Still a dream, but we've got the table saw now, so it has inched a little closer.

Bedroom: New floors, new paint are coming this month!

Deck stain: Completed!

8. Duolingo: At some point last year, I decided to go all in on French and that's what I did. Medium Spawn has also started on Duolingo and since he's doing Spanish, I'm going to make 2025 My Year of Spanish and I'm hoping to get to a 1300-day streak. 

As of this writing, I am on a 1320-day streak! Completed!

9. Reading: I didn't hit 40 on my Goodreads for 2024, so I think I'm going to take another run at 40 this year. Here's the Official TBR List for 2025, if you want to follow along.

My reading for the year has fallen way off-- not sure I'm going to make this one, but we'll see.

10. The Annual Control Resolution: Have A List of New Year's Resolutions! (Thus, ensuring that I'm not a complete failure at this!)

Check! As usual, I am guaranteed at least a 10% success rate on the year!

(If I'm doing the math right-- always debatable, I am on track for a 30% success rate at minimum. It could go as high as 50% as of right now. Which isn't bad...)