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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

looking at 2016

2017: Looking ahead

January 8, 2017

New Year’s resolutions are something many people do. They say it on New Year’s and a week or two later, they are done

I don’t believe in resolutions. I believe in setting goals and doing your best to achieve them. Though I will set/fix/change goals throughout the year as needed, setting them at the beginning of the year is more symbolic as it’s easier to keep track of.

I know there are things I need to do personally and professionally to keep moving forward, but these goals are all personal. Some are a little more serious than others, but they will be good for me to kind of see what I can do in 2017.

I went a little different with some of these this year. Some are kind of open-ended because I feel it’s easier and better to do that, rather than put a set result. You’ll see when you get to those.

Anyway, here’s looking at 2017.

Health

This is an important one for me

About a year ago, I had really taken hold of diabetes. I had gotten my blood sugars down, I was eating better, my weight was down … and then I fell off the wagon.

My A1C has gone up too much, I’ve gained weight and I started eating too many things I shouldn’t.

Being healthy isn’t a fad diet or doing anything with some of the things people see on TV (pills etc.) It’s eating better and exercising. Simple as that. Though clipping carbs out might help you drop weight, it’ll come back.

Being healthy is a life commitment, not a few weeks or months.

But with this, I’m not putting any numbers. I’m not saying where I want my A1C to be, or my normal blood checks, or my weight.

I know I need to be healthier as a whole. Take a few more walks. Get out more. Ride my bike (when it’s warmer). Maybe invest in an elliptical machine (I always liked them when I went to the gym… and I hate the gym, so that’s out).

But I also need to eat healthier. And make sure I drink enough water. And though I don’t drink a ton of it — keep pushing soda out of the diet. And try new things. In recent years, I’ve started to like several things I never used to like … so hopefully that can continue.

So this goal is simple … be much more healthy at the end of the year than I am now.

Photography

I took a lot of photos in 2016, but I want to keep that up. This might not be a trackable goal, per say, but basically, I want to continue taking photos and thinking outside the box.

That means continuing the Photo Blogging Challenge for throughout 2017, as well as just going out and taking photos. I’d love to try and aim for doing a few of the videos (like my year-end one) of photos maybe every few months, but we’ll see about that. Basically, I want to challenge myself to get better and more creative with my photography. I’d also like to learn Photoshop more in-depth than I know it now.

Blogging

Blogging in 2016 was rather interesting, obviously.

I set out on a bit of a mission and ended up going a little stir crazy by posting every single day. I’m not going to say I won’t do the same, but the odds are I don’t. Once I get past January, it’ll slow up a little as I won’t want to go every single day.

That being said, I do want to have more posts this year that are solid posts and not filler. I like challenges. I enjoy the photo aspect. I want to make sure I am putting quality (at least in my mind), and not just a post to post something.

I also truly want to visit more blogs this year. I got away from that this year because I was posting all the time and I miss it.

I am going to aim for 200 posts this year and visiting as many blogs as I can. I’d also still like to revamp my about page as much as possible!

I also might have a couple of other writing challenges in mind that I am trying to shape up and plan out.

Baseball

Ahh, the Summer of Baseball. I can’t wait to be back in the parks watching games. I will not be doing 75 games again — at least I don’t think. But I think a goal of 50 games is good and would be fun. I want to continue visiting new parks and just watching games.

 

It’s very relaxing and a lot of fun.

That being said, I also want to have a few weekends this summer that aren’t baseball dominated. As much fun as I had last year — and I did — there are times I just wanted to relax on a weekend and kick back and I was at a game. Now, I love the games. But sometimes .. it’s nice to be away, too.

So, my goal is 50 games. I’d like to see a few new stadiums. I’d like to do one — maybe two — big baseball trips during the summer where I spend a week or so pretty much all baseball. I’ll keep scorebook at every game, stamp my passport in every place where I can and I’ll enjoy it as much as I always do.

It’s a great game and I look forward to the 2017 Summer of Baseball!

Board games

I didn’t play as many games as I would have liked last year. With all the baseball traveling I did in 2016, weekends from spring until fall were pretty crowded. That meant not going to the game group too often, thus meaning I was playing far fewer games.

And that stinks as I really enjoy playing games.

One of my goals is to start playing many more solo variants or solo games. This allows me time on my own to play some fun and competitive games. I own a lot of games that have solo variants and I also have games that are solo only — so there’s no reason I can’t do this. It allows me time to relax and refresh and challenge myself. It also helps me just be able to play a hobby I truly enjoy, even when there isn’t a group of people around to play.

I’ll put down a few goals to reach, though.

  • Learn and play each game in my collection that has a solo variant
  • Unwrap/punch every game I have that I haven’t done this to yet
  • Go through collection and if there are games I will never play … sell or trade.

Geocaching

Every year, geocaching is in my goals. Last year was a very lax year for geocaching. I didn’t find many, I didn’t place many, and I kind of got away from the game.

There are a few reasons for that, such as because the game has blown up so much it’s hard to find good caches without driving for a bit. See, most of my area is cleared out and those that aren’t I like to keep around for a time that me and a couple of others might want to go find a few.

But these days, with the advent of the smartphone apps and such, hides are becoming a little tougher to deal with. I can only find so many lamp post and guardrail hides.

I do miss caching with others, going on fun hikes, and making memories with caching, though So this year I am aiming to find 200 caches. That should be highly doable. Heck, if done right, I could get half that done in a weekend.

Geowoodstock is in May this year, in North Carolina. I’m not ruling it out by any means, but it’s a longshot. I’d like to hit several other events this year, though, so we’ll see what happens.

I’m going to stick to just the 200 finds as a goal this year. I’m not going to tier it as I want to make it a little easier in hopes that I can get back into the game.

Organization

I think I am pretty organized at work. I utilize my work calendar quite well and usually have everything line up.

Personally, not as much.

I want to get more organized in 2017. That includes utilizing my personal Google calendar, as well as a life organizer I purchased. There might be a little more to this thing than I need, but I am going to give it a whirl. It will probably take me a few weeks to “set it up,” but that gives me time to think things over more — both about this year and long-term things. So, that will be cool. In the end, I want to be able to look back at 2017 and realize I followed something a bit better and didn’t feel like I was always disorganized.

Personal

Again, this isn’t measurable. But, I want 2017 to be a year of “happy.” I want to feel happy. I want to be happy. I want to improve as many things in my world that I can. It can be anything from being more active within the family to making sure my finances keep improving, both short-term and long-term.

This isn’t really something I can do anything other than at the end of the year, look back, and say “Yes, I am in a better place personally than I was at the beginning of the year.”

Hopefully I will keep improving and pushing forward. That’s all I can try and do.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2017!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Filed Under: blogging, My world, Year in Review Tagged With: 2017 goals, baseball, blog, blogging, board games, caching, diabetes, geocaching, goals, health, looking ahead, looking at 2016, moving forward, organization, personal, photo, photography, travel

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2016: Looking ahead

January 17, 2016

It’s that time of the year where I take a look ahead.

I am not a huge person for New Year’s resolutions. I think they are goofy and people tend to make them and never follow through.

Think about it — how many people do you think said they wanted to go to the gym more often? And how many do you think have already quit?

Exactly.

Instead, I try and make some goals each year and post them here. I’ve done OK with them the past few years, so we’ll see how this year goes.

Do I know I need to get into better shape, lose weight and things like that? Absolutely. My health is something I need to work on, but that’s not a resolution or a goal — that’s changing things in life and sticking with it.

Instead, these goals will focus more on things I’d like to do this year. We’ll see how it goes.

Geocaching

This goal is always on my list because it’s something I want to keep doing, but the biggest issue becomes time and finding people who are interested in going.

There's always geocaching goals!

There’s always geocaching goals!

This past year was decent, to a point. I was a few caches short of averaging a cache find per day, but I did a bunch of travels to events and such. I don’t think I’ll be doing any major caching trips (though one event is possible), but there are a few things I’d like to do.

  • Average a cache per day (so, I’ll need 366 this year)
  • Add another state (or more) to my list
  • Place 10 new caches (not including events)
  • Host at least 5 events

I think this is a doable thing, so I’ll look forward to going at it. I only have one cache find so far in 2016, so I need to get going!

Home brewing

A total fail in 2015, I need to change this in 2016. And to do that, I already have purchased some interesting kits. I just need to get going on them and go through the process.

So my goal for 2016? Brew at least three beers. I’d like to think I could do more, but I want to make sure I at least get three done. Considering I do the smaller batches (one gallon), I should be able to pull it off.

I have some fun ideas for names and such, too, so we’ll see how it goes.

Just three beers. I’m hoping if I do those three, I’ll get the itch for it again and do several more.

Blogging

This is always on here as it makes sense, being this is a blog and all. So what king of things would I like to do this year for my blog?

  • Write a new “about” page
  • Post at least 250 times
  • Have a minimum of 12 posts every month (and avoid my “lags”)
  • Take part in or run a few other challenges, to keep things fresh.

I truly love blogging. And one thing I’d like to do is definitely get more back into the community aspect of things. I fall off on that sometimes, so I’m going to try and keep that up. That’s not a goal, per say, but part of the bigger picture of blogging. I am happy with how the blog is going and I look forward to keeping it updated for 2016 and beyond.

Board games

This is a new one to the yearly goals, and one I’m glad to have added because of how fun this hobby is.

Board gaming is becoming quite the hobby and the games are well beyond what many of us knew as kids.

Board gaming is becoming quite the hobby and the games are well beyond what many of us knew as kids.

Over the past few years, I’ve gotten into board gaming. It’s a lot of fun and the difference in games is amazing. My personal collection has grown, too, which is pretty sweet. So I need to make this part of my goals. But I can’t just say I want to play games, else that wouldn’t make sense. So in 2016, I’d like to:

  • Play 225 times (I played 181 in 2015)
  • Play 100 different games
  • Go to a game convention

The board gaming hobby is definitely a growing thing, and I’m glad to be involved in it. It’s a lot of fun, especially once one looks past things like Monopoly being the holy grail of board games. There’s a lot of amazing things out there, that’s for sure.

There are other things I’d like to accomplish, but I know might be tough this year. So I’m going to leave this new addition a little more simple to start. In future years, I’ll build it up.

 

Day Zero Project

I didn’t do much with this at all in 2015, which is really too bad. It doesn’t end until 2017, so I still have time (though the odds of me completing it are not good), but I’d like to cross off 25 items in 2016.

Obviously, I’d like to check off more than that, but I think that’s a good goal. Some of them, as I look at it, just won’t be done by the end. Those are for a variety of reasons, be it having the time, or the funds etc. But I still think, if I put my mind to it, I can get several of these done and chip away at the list.

Let’s see how 2016 goes for the Day Zero Project.

Travel

I’m going to scale back on this goal this year. By travel, it just means getting out and seeing some places. It might be day trips or overnight trips, but I want to see things.

So this could be covered in my baseball trips, or planned trips etc.

One definite part of this goal is getting out and seeing a minimum of five New York State parks. They are wonderful places and worth checking out. Hopefully, I’ll hit more. But I’ll leave it at five to start.

There are some obvious other things I’d like to do (Montreal, Maine etc.), but we’ll see how things go. The base goal here is to get out, see things, and take some photos of my travels.

****

With 2015 in the books, there are my goals for the upcoming year. We’ll see how I do with them. If I can remain focused, I’m sure I can make a good run at them all. Come next January, I’ll see how I did with these. I hope everybody else has a great 2016 and accomplishes all they would like to get done!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Filed Under: blogging, My world, Year in Review Tagged With: 2016 goals, beer, blog, blogging, board games, brewing, day zero, day zero project, geocaching, goals, home brewing, looking ahead, looking at 2016, moving forward, photography, travel

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For those who like to be outside … give a read!

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The theme for Week 3 of the 52-week video challenge was "Show your process of making something." Alas, I didn't get the time to do what I wanted to do, so I attacked something I filmed over the summer that I kept putting off. 

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