Twelve for 2018

Okay, so I’m a bit late to the party, but: rather than try to create a bunch of resolutions, I’ve decided that I’d prefer to take on twelve projects this year. Why twelve? Well, largely because it breaks down to one project per month (not that I intend these to be month-long projects, it just works out that way).

In no particular order of importance, they are:

1. Learn a new language: My wife and I have been talking about doing this together. We don’t expect to develop fluency in a language by year end, but at the very least some conversational level where, if we were in some country, we’d be able to chat with local folks in their own language. Right now, we’re trying to decide on the language.
2. Ship Per 2.0: The last update to Per was in September of 2015. The app generally works fine, and we use it all the time when out shopping for groceries, but I have ideas for features (and am aware that the UI could really use an overhaul).
3. Run five kilometres: In a row. In one session. I’ve never been an active person, and that’s going to bite me in my later years. So I’m going to tackle a couch-to-5k program and aim to be able to run a solid 5km by year end.
4. Read one book a month: I really stink at getting through my reading list. I aim to read one book a month to try to ramp that back up (and take advantage of the cool Books on Micro.blog collection implementation to discuss them). 📚
5. Build one Manuscript integration: Basing myself on this article, I’m going to build a (relatively simple) Manuscript integration that pulls App Store reviews into Manuscript.
6. Build a micro.blog sample app in Glitch: I think that there’s a lot of value in micro.blog, but right now the barrier to entry (compared to signing up for a free Twitter account) is high enough that it won’t appeal beyond the folks who already blog (or who are able to pay US$5 per month for a hosted microblog) — a diminishingly small portion of the potential member base. Creating a free, remixable sample app in Glitch might help with accessibility.
7. Pay off my credit card debt: I used to be really bad with my spending. I’m significantly better now, but I’ve got some lingering credit-card debt that really needs to go.
8. De-clutter my belongings: I have a lot of stuff. A good chunk of that stuff is stuff that I don’t need and never use. It’s time to let go of a lot of that.
9. Write more often: I mean, I can’t really do much worse than my one-post-per-year low from last year. Technically, this is my second post for 2018, so I’m already winning this one. I aim to write about my progress on this list of projects over the course of the year, so at least I already have some topics lined up.
10. Rework my personal website and blogs: My stuff is scattered across this blog, the (new) microblog, my mostly-ignored Tumblr, and my personal site. Time to think about how to bring all that together.
11. Back-squat 225 lbs: Similar to the 5K goal, I aim to focus on some strength training at the gym. I’d started on a 5×5 lifting program last year and, despite some fits and starts, went from squatting just the bar to 155lbs in six months — a 240% improvement. Those are the easy percents, though, and I’m hoping to be able to get up to two plates by the end of the year, despite starting from (nearly) scratch after a 6-month hiatus.
12. Start playing piano again: I haven’t seriously played piano in over 20 years. I’ve set up a keyboard in my home office to inspire me to do that again, but I’ve yet to actually start tickling the ivories, as they say. But, I mean, I did make this web-audio synthesizer in Glitch to learn some JavaScript, so that kinda counts. Right?

So, here’s to 2018. I hope you make great progress on your projects and goals this year, too.