#clockworkgoals

[clockworksteel]

Well, quarter of the way through the year. Might as well review how the goals are doing.

Overall, despite the lack of any notable bad events, it was kinda a rough start. Too many appointments, perhaps. There's my housemate's ongoing medical issues (probably some sort of appointment every 1-2 weeks on average so far this year, plus trips to the pharmacy), my vehicle safety inspection came due in February, did taxes, had my own doctor appointment, there were dentist appointments that didn't actually happen, plus of course the worse end of daylight savings happens in the first quarter.

Anyway, the goals:

1: Have some sort of exercise habit again

Honestly, nothing to comment on here. I haven't even made plans.

2: Take care of at least one longstanding thing in the house

I put the auto-closer on the back door, although without the chain that it kinda also needs to deal with the wind. Still, reasonable progress on an unambitious goal. Should've probably made it, like, 2-3 tasks. I'd like to get the water heater replaced in the next few months.

3: Clear the stacks of papers from my desk

I've done a couple sessions of cleaning the papers a little, just looking through for anything that was an obvious trash/shred. Mail has come in too, but I think the stacks are overall lower. Still, need to step it up.

4: Make some more progress on gender stuff

Not much concrete progress here. I haven't really sat down and just thought about things at all. (Also there's been a thing that's been bothering me about my parents and religion since my last visit on Christmas break which has kinda consumed my idle thoughts a bit. May need to try to put it all into words at some point.)

Still, I've made notes of various stray thoughts, events, and dreams as relevant. That's resulted in 15 distinct notes so far this year. I won't be sharing all of them in detail.

I think the most meaningful one is that, after earning the Challenge Enthusiasts goal "Void Given Focus" I thought that would be really cool as a gender. And you know what? When I'm gaming, that's what I am. I don't think it applies when not gaming though. So I guess that's just the "Clyceer" gender. They/them pronouns for that still.

The other ones are some variation on "sure wish I was trans", notes about dreams, and also I have another dress now.

5: Earn at least 100 more Challenge Enthusiasts points

I thought this was going to be a whole-year goal, I already have earned 110 points. Perhaps my neglect of other things hasn't entirely been due to exhaustion, but also a lot of these were just done on my weekly Saturday streams.

I'll probably keep going for more points, but may slow down the off-camera stuff. My full notes also include the start times, but here's just the points.

Jan 23: Ittle Dew got a 5 point objective that I'd already completed (won't count for goal, but is a point gain, technically noticed on Jan 29)

Feb 4: Achieved Lone Fungus "Spores and Spells" objective (10 points)

Feb 5: Achieved the Blasphemous' Miracle of Penance (10 points)

Feb 7: Achieved FTL's Federation Victory (15 points)

Feb 10: Achieved Hollow Knight's Void Given Focus (30 points)

Mar 2: Achieved Patch Quest's Monster Hunter (5 points)

Mar 9: Achieved Haiku, the Robot's Anti-Corruption Protocol (15 points)

Mar 23: Achieved ZeroRanger Grapefruit Smasher (15 points)

Mar 23: Cyber Hook's Retrowave Traceur (10 points, and my first First Person points) Full Challenge Enthusiasts profile: https://cedb.me/user/9f1f4644-b3d3-40b7-a348-fb9ce59222c4

6: Finish Factorio and at least one other game that I haven't played in over 4 months

Yeah, the other video game-related goal is done already too. Should probably throw in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair sometime this year. It's a Challenge Enthusiasts goal, and all I need to do is beat the titular Impossible Lair with the completed bee shield.

Jan 18: Finished Hue, which hadn't been played since May 27 2023

Jan 25: Finished Factorio

Feb 18: Started Psychonauts 2: I'd never started it, but bought it long ago enough that I'm writing it. Probably will take a while because it's a video playthrough, but is basically guaranteed to finish now.

Unrelated to any start of year goal, I've also taken up interest in the Super Mario Maker Team 0%, and have started helping out with Super Mario Maker 2. I've beaten 13 levels from 2020 so far this year. Not any that were particularly impressive, but cleaning up the mere Expert levels and kinda garbage Super Expert levels frees up time for the good players to grind the truly tough ones.

[clockworksteel]

End of the year evaluation/new goals

Well, it's the end of the year again. Honestly, it's been a rough one. There was work stress associated with being trained on a software framework that was new to me (React) in a language I've done little in (Javascript), there was a Return to Office policy at work, and my housemate's health issues resulted in a number of emergency trips, some of which required either pickup or dropoff at 1 AM. Much vacation time was burned either recovering or actually making trips to doctors and the ER. Plus there were all the things that I already mentioned happened in January like needing to maintain my water heater and get a warranty repair done on a recliner.

Still, despite the quality of the year, some progress was made on some things. Looking at last year's post on goals there were 5 things I mentioned, although one was just "Skincare?". To briefly summarize, the others were:

Continue considering gender

Learn to cook

Add physical therapy exercises to my exercise

Improve my Youtube audio

In terms of gender stuff, this the year I first tried on a dress (no image in that post, and also I now own two), and also the year I started getting permanent hair removal done (although electrolysis is a slow process and in 4 months of sessions we're still just on the lower part of the neck). I've also had a number of dreams in which I'm transfem which is interesting. They seem to come in bursts. I had 3 in the first two weeks of this month, actually. I haven't made as much progress as I'd like, but this certainly wasn't neglected, despite never feeling like I reclaimed the spirit of possibility like I had near the end of 2022.

As far as cooking, we actually did Hello Fresh for the full duration of a discout code, with me being the primary thing-doer once a week. I certainly relied a lot on my housemate's expertise even though the days were theoretically "mine", but I feel like even just practicing some knife skills was valuable for cooking confidence. Plus I cooked chicken without poisoning anyone. There are currently plans for me to continue cooking on Saturdays (as in actually cooking at least one thing: I also handle the Friday and Sunday meals but it's all frozen stuff). Since my housemate is on a lower sodium diet (probably good for me too), actually cooking things sort of has to be a habit for at least some of the days.

Regarding exercise, this is probably the one area I got worse. I am at least making sure to do some of my old physical therapy exercises just enough that it feels like my shoulder isn't getting worse, but the entire rest of my exercise routine dropped off. It's been an exhausting year, and the way the electrolysis appointments routinely wipe out a few hours every Saturday isn't helping with finding time for things.

On the subject of my Youtube videos' audio I didn't do much, but it wasn't that much of a problem. I think my volume levels between the game sound and the microphone sound have been generally better balanced this year than in the past. That's pretty much all I wanted.

For skincare… well, I do more than last year, but don't have much of a routine. An area that could be improved but honestly I just don't think I care that much and this will not be a goal for next year.

Besides the goals I wrote out last year, some other accomplishments of varying sizes: -Actually got my heating system inspected like I should have been doing routinely -Fixed the slow-draining issue in the shower drain -Got back into Challenge Enthusiasts and earned a little over 200 challenge points, putting me not only in the C ranking but well on my way to B -Beat New Game Plus 100 in Rogue Legacy 2 as well as earned a gold trophy in its True Rogue mode

For next year, let's call these the goals:

Have some sort of exercise habit again, ideally with at least one cardio day and at least one physical therapy stuff day

Take care of at least one longstanding thing in the house: the porch needs painted, the attic could use some blinds to keep the sun out in the summer (probably more effective than insulating, and I already bought the blinds), and the back door could use a new auto-closer (again, already bought)

Clear the stacks of papers from my desk without simply increasing the amount of papers in my room (that is, things should be filed in the cabinet or disposed of)

Make some more progress on gender stuff, like try a couple more new things or at least spend some time seriously considering things

Earn at least 100 more Challenge Enthusiasts points

Finish Factorio and at least one other game that I haven't played in over 4 months

A longer numbered list than last year but two of them are "play video games" goals. It's more like both this list and last year's had a length of 4.

At any rate, hopefully we all have better luck next year.

[clockworksteel]

I keep feeling like we're already several weeks into the year and I haven't made any progress on my goals and like... that's both reasonable given the circumstances and not completely true. I just haven't cooked anything yet or had any notable gender-related insights.

As far as circumstances that may have made it harder to make progress on goals:

I was super exhausted for around the first week of the year from both sleeping poorly and being constantly hanging out while at my parents' house for Christmas

Got health insurance for my housemate, which is a sort of progress that just wasn't in my written goals

I had to deal with getting a recliner repaired under warranty which both resulted in being on hold for 2 hours one day and in an appointment with a 4-hour window that basically ate a Saturday afternoon

Low hot water pressure at the kitchen sink had been making dishes more bothersome for weeks, and also due to my housemate experimenting with the crock pot there were increased dishes

Efforts to fix the hot water pressure took time and also resulted in two calls to a plumber eventually (one because a valve started spraying water in my basement, the other to have the actual issue diagnosed and fixed: I just needed the faucet replaced in the end, although I can’t say I regret flushing the water heater)

And then as far as actual progress:

In terms of gender, I made this new nonbinary-recolored profile picture on Monday the 9th. Also when I started OlliOlli World a week ago I customized my character with a pink/white/blue color scheme since I'm still trying that out. I also started trying to make feminine and masculine characters sound different while reading out text boxes while recording, just a little, which might be nice for making it less sudden to introduce an actual feminine voice if I pick up voice training again. Also I bought some different soap, although I'm still using my current soap until it runs out. Also on a discord server I joined where a lot of people had pronouns in their display names I put he/they so that's a thing in another place now.

In terms of exercise, I have actually integrated the old physical therapy exercises into my weekly exercise routine. Just need to keep at it, which isn't exactly something I can do any faster than taking the entire year.

In terms of Youtube video audio, I found that in OBS it's actually possible to go above 0.0 dB for volume even though the slider stops with that as the maximum. I also started bringing the microphone slightly closer. I'll still want to look into more stuff but it's a start.

So just no progress at all on the cooking idea. I’m realizing I’ve set up my schedule in such a way that it’s difficult to find an appropriate time.

Also, as far as my thoughts on sporting nonbinary colors rather than trans colors for the profile picture, while I recognize that anybody who isn't cis can identify as trans, I feel like identifying as trans sets up certain expectations I don't presently meet. Also, like, the last time I tried guessing what gender I'd settle on I did say nonbinary. I'm not entirely sure at this time what it means to me, but I figure the only way to figure that out is the commit to the bit, so to speak.

[clockworksteel]

Well, in the spirit of New Year’s, some things to try in the year.

1. Continue considering gender. I don’t think it’s reasonable to make any specific goal here, but... well, hopefully I make some progress.

2. Learn to cook a few meals that aren’t just putting a frozen thing in an oven or putting noodles in a pot. Ideally this should include something to do with eggs besides hard boiling them (probably scrambled), some things to put on rice (like fish, shrimp, or a curry), something to do with the crock pot I was given for Christmas (maybe combine with another idea), and maybe something vegan more interesting than salad (in case I need to cook for one someday). Maybe a couple other things, but it would be better for me at this point to try a small number of recipes multiple times rather than going wide on the list, I think.

3. Put my shoulder physical therapy exercises back in my exercise routine. I’ve been pretty happy with my exercise habits the past few months, but I shouldn’t have stopped those specific exercises as soon as I did.

4. Focus on audio a little more in my Youtube videos. I often start new series with things balanced pretty badly, largely because my microphone audio is usually kinda quiet and I forget to do a test sometimes. One issue is that I keep the microphone a little farther from myself than ideal, I think, but it might also help to look more into OBS' settings.

5. Skincare?

[clockworksteel]

Happy New Year.

Haven’t come up with anything I really consider a resolution yet, but here are some things I aspire to do:

Really examine my spending to make sure there’s little waste. Might do periodic spending reports like the one I posted last month: putting it together was actually kinda fun.

Actually exercise regularly. Going to try Habitica. Will probably want to figure out some other tasks to put into it. Flossing, maybe?

Learn to cook some of the recipes Azure buys ingredients for so I can pick up cooking duty if needed.

Maybe start actually making food for myself sometimes on Monday evening instead of relying on instant stuff. I’m considering this one simple chili recipe I brought home from a scout camp years ago. I could save the leftovers for lunches throughout the week.

Review more games.

Get my vision tested. I’ve had a vision plan for years but haven’t gone in for my yearly appointment and new glasses even once. Both are included in the cost of the plan.

[clockworksteel]

Reflections on Goals

This year I had been planning on quarterly posts on goals rather than monthly, since I'm always hesitant to post to social media for fear of wasting people's time, but I sort of let the first one slip and never caught up. So... I'm just doing this now. Overall, although my listed goals went rather poorly, I feel pretty good about the year. Having the goals at least occasionally reminded me to be better and what can you really ask for?

So, a quick rundown on how each goal went:

Reviewing more games: Reviewed 3 games, out of a target of 12-24.

Supporting indie games: supported 2 games on Kickstarter and did some LPs of indie games, out of having no specific target.

Exercise: Only exercised a little. I stopped tracking it in June with more missed days than completed days (judged on the idea of 3 days of exercise per week), partially due to having breathing problems for a month and having a hot summer. In the first 6 months I had 30 days exercised and 46 missed (39%) and I basically stopped after I stopped tracking. I think part of the issue is that I had underestimated how much energy jogging home uphill takes after work, even though it's just 4 minutes (I actually don't quite jog the whole way unless I really pace myself well).

Taking care of the house more: After the first couple months I forgot to look at the maintenance book regularly, but in July I caulked a crack in a window frame and stopped an ant problem, and in October I installed a new handtowel holder after the previous broke. The one thing I really wish I'd done that I didn't is schedule someone to maintain the gas furnace, but it's at least running fine still.

In the end, I didn't actually meet any of my original targets, or in the case of the goal without a target I didn't meet any criteria I think I might've chosen, but... I believe on each of those things I did more than I would have otherwise. I honestly think I would've reviewed 0 games, not even looked at Kickstarter, continued to not exercise regularly, and possibly either waited for my parents or spent money to solve the house issues that I dealt with (I considered a handtowel stand instead of a wall-mounted holder, which would've cost more, perhaps only if you ignore the tools I bought, but still). There also was actually a resurgence in exercise around mid October after I ordered some small weights to do some lifting, which can be less of a time commitment than 20 minutes straight of cardio.

In addition to that, things got done that weren't my listed goals. Azure moved in with me, which involved some adjustments (which it might be worth spending a post of its own on), I started saving money on my internet bills (already is a post of its own Comcast Post), and reading Mr. Money Mustache has inspired me to make a few changes I couldn't have guessed I'd be making at the start of the year (I'm considering a post about it as well as my own monthly spending).

So yeah, this was a great year, I'm cooler than I was last year, and I hope next year is even better.

[clockworksteel]

New Year’s Goals

This year’s goals had a final evaluation in a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAITfF-5A_k. The short version, though, is just like last month’s evaluation because I didn’t make any progress on anything in December. I gave myself a B overall for 2016. I also mention a couple ideas for my 2017 goals in the video, I think.

What I’ve thought of for next year’s goals under the cut. May not keep all of them and/or may add more. Also, in 2017 I’m gonna have grade/rank requirements set out in advance rather than trying to start judging what counts as what halfway through the year.

1. Review more games. I sure finished a lot of games last year, but hardly wrote any reviews. Contributing my own reviews is not only a way to give back to the community a tiny bit, but also will be good practice for my usual “final thoughts” I give during the credits of LPs. I’ll say that 12 reviews in the year represents a “C”, 18 for “B”, 24 for “A”. And I guess 30 would represent an S rank.

2. Support indie development more. I know kickstarter and early access doesn’t always work out, but I have the spare cash to take a few risks, and it’s a reasonable enough cause. This will be an unranked goal and will simply be tracked.

3. Exercise again. I did well in 2015, but didn’t make it a goal in 2016 and also lost my usual exercise times to times when I was supposed to be running Valdis Story (but often didn’t). I believe I can have success again if I make it a goal again, but the habit is gone. Any time I’m gone from my own home is break time and also if something disrupts my schedule I may declare the occasional cheat day, but I expect to mostly hit 3 times a week for 20 minutes each. I’ll say this can just be graded as the raw percentage of days I exercised divided by days I should have, applied to an academic scale.

4. Start taking care of the house. I received a book on maintaining the house when I bought it, but haven’t really looked into it. I kinda figured that for the first few months nothing would likely go horribly wrong, since I received it in decent condition. Also, it isn’t like I did nothing at all: my parents came by a few times and the gutters on the garage were cleaned, my heating system was fixed, we replaced a broken garage door, and a few other small things were done too. Also, by myself I patched a leaky pipe with some special tape meant for the purpose. Anyway, I’d like to at least open the book each month and decide what needs done, then actually do it. I’m going to see how the first month goes before deciding on grading.

I may also continue tracking games finished/purchased/received through gifts, but it will not be a goal again.

[clockworksteel]

November review of New Year’s Goals

Valdis Story Clears: 19 (up from 18) Runs Submitted: 5 (up from 5) More Playtime than Terraria, at 175 hours: No Playtime: 114 hours (up from 113 hours)

SMBX Levels Made: 1 (unchanged) Planned names fulfilled: 4 [Plains, Lake, Cave, Sky] (unchanged) ---Remaining names: Mountain, Forest, Ocean, Ghost House Mario Maker Levels Made: 6 (unchanged)

Obtained games: 28 (Up from 25) Money spent on games for myself: $225.17 (up from $148.20) (purchased FF XIV expansion) (FF XIV subscription fee) Shadow Complex (November 12, what I wanted from Humble Bundle) Dangerous Golf (November 12, what I didn't really want from Humble Bundle) Ittle Dew 2 (November 16)

Finished games: 51 (up from 49) Shadowverse (November 5: objective was to clear all 7 stories) FF XIV (November 6: objective was to get the credits to roll by defeating Ultima Weapon and Lahabrea)

Well, of the 3 goals I keep updating, it looks like only finishing more games than I obtain is going to be finished this year, and even then I slid back minorly this month. In the first week my Valdis Story run was interrupted by work calling me, then the week after my parents come to work on my garage and the week after was Thanksgiving. I think I also had a Sunday where I didn't do Mario Maker because of work, and the weekend events were similarly disruptive, even though when my parents came to visit me they did leave on Saturday. I just didn't feel like doing much the Sunday after.

Technically I could still power out the Valdis Story runs and the Mario levels, but... I don't really want to. I'd actually be pretty okay with ending the year like this. Like, I may not have finished every goal, but I had some pretty good partial clears. Overall, it's basically like getting a B. I'll still make a little progress in December of course, but... I'm just not going to worry too much.

Also, I’ve been really enjoying FF XIV, as may be apparent from the fact that I “beat” it less than a month after I started my free trial (Oct 8).

The December goals update will happen early, before I go to my parents' house for Christmas, and will also be a video on Youtube. I'll make a post linking to it though.

[clockworksteel]

October Review of New Year’s Goals

Valdis Story Clears: 18 (up from 15) Runs Submitted: 5 (up from 4) More Playtime than Terraria, at 175 hours: No Playtime: 113 hours (up from 109 hours)

SMBX Levels Made: 1 (unchanged) Planned names fulfilled: 4 [Plains, Lake, Cave, Sky] (up from 1) ---Remaining names: Mountain, Forest, Ocean, Ghost House Mario Maker Levels Made: 6 (up from 3)

Obtained games: 25 (Up from 23) Money spent on games for myself: $148.20 (up from $123.70) Final Fantasy XIV (trial version October 8, then purchased October 15) Princess Remedy in a Heap of Trouble (October 26)

Finished games: 49 (up from 47) Pokemon Uranium (October 8) Reverse x Reverse (October 12)

Well, still looking okay. I think it was my best month as far as Mario levels go, even with all of them being Mario Maker. It's actually because I decided that in order to not allow getting FF XIV to ruin everything, I had to be more strict about actually making a level each week... although it did cause me to gravitate towards the faster choice of Mario Maker. Also, there was one weekend when my parents came to work on a bunch of stuff where I gave myself a pass.

I'm actually on pace to finish FF XIV by the end of the year, though (defined as defeating Ultima Weapon for the first time: I'll keep playing afterward, but for goal purposes that's the ending). Also, Shadowverse had its Steam release so I can play it properly now; I've got 3/7 stories finished in that. Looking like the only game I won't have finished that I got this year will be Phantom Brave, which, well, it's an LP so its pace is locked in.

And I'm gonna need a few Saturdays where I do a Valdis Story run, but that's still looking in reach.

Still, one thing I'll need to watch out is how much time I'll be losing to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[clockworksteel]

September review of New Year’s goals

Valdis Story Clears: 15 (up from 10) Runs Submitted: 4 (up from 3) More Playtime than Terraria, at 175 hours: No Playtime: 109 hours (up from 104 hours)

SMBX Levels Made: 1 (unchanged) Planned names fulfilled: 1 [Plains] (unchanged) ---The names will be Mountain, Forest, Ocean, Sky, Cave, Ghost House, Plains, Lake Mario Maker Levels Made: 3 (up from 2)

Obtained games: 23 (Up from 22) Money spent on games for myself: $123.70 (unchanged) Shadowverse (September 24)

Finished games: 47 (up from 44) Slain: Back from Hell (September 5) Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (September 10) BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien (September 25)

Well, if I keep up that pace on Valdis Story, we'll hit 30 runs, so that's good. Though I'm still tracking playtime, I have given up on that.

And... I believe I lost momentum on Mario levels. Since Mario Maker counts as half a SMBX level, as I arbitrarily decided, we're now at 2.5 levels out of the goal of 12. Technically possible since, like, I could make a level good enough to count in an afternoon, but motivation just hasn't been there. Also, I'm spending all my time when I do have motivation on Valdis Story. Prerecording stuff for Christmas break might be cutting in as well. I do have a complete run of Mystik Belle done though (6 episodes). Just need to still get some Kero Blaster recorded. I think if I could get halfway to the original goal I'd be pretty happy.

...and of course I'm dominating on finished games. I did download Shadowverse on the Bluestacks emulator this month, though, which I don't expect to finish by the end of the year. I'm primarily waiting for the Steam release, especially because Bluestacks wasn't even emulating it right for me: I couldn't see any numbers on any cards. The main goal still succeeds, and on the sub goal of finishing everything I obtain this year, well, I'd be pretty okay with ignoring it. That would leave Phantom Brave and Pokemon Uranium as the only ones obtained this year that aren't already finished, and I have 4 badges in Uranium, so pretty good pace there. Turok and Slain were games from this year that I finished this month, while Runner 2 was just another game, by the way. I’ve definitely slowed down on finishing new games, but it has been focused on the current year. Also, I finished getting perfect achievements in Duelyst this month.

I'm already thinking about what overall "grade" I'll get for the year:

There are two fully completed goals (buying a house and adjusting my 401(k) allotment) which I haven't been reporting on since April.

Finishing more games than I obtain is going well enough that I'd consider awarding myself "extra credit", but let's imagine for now that I don't.

As far as learning to speedrun Valdis Story, I do run the game, I've learned some cool glitches, I've gotten much faster, and I'm even on a leaderboard with a respectable time: my glitchless time is faster than someone's Vladyn glitchless time. So... I'd say maybe a B on Valdis Story, if I get the other 15 runs in? I'd kinda wanted it to be my top game in my library (besides clicker games, which I decided before the year started not to count, which is why Terraria has always been the comparison), but, like, that was a minor part of the goal.

And... as far as making Mario levels I'm afraid I'm going to have to call it an F unless things improve dramatically, but, like, an F at 50% is much better than an F at 0%. To reiterate earlier, I think I can get halfway, at least.

So... overall, if my scores are 100, 100, 100, 85, 50, that averages to 87. I could deal with getting a B on this year's goals. Pushing that to an A would be nice, though. It really depends on the Mario stuff. We're going into the last quarter now. Can't give up now.

[clockworksteel]

August Review of New Year’s Goals

Valdis Story Clears: 10 (up from 6) Runs Submitted: 3 (up from 2) More Playtime than Terraria, at 175 hours: No Playtime: 104 hours (up from 100 hours)

SMBX Levels Made: 1 (up from 0) Planned names fulfilled: 1 [Plains] (up from 0) Mario Maker Levels Made: 2

Obtained games: 22 (Up from 20) Money spent on games for myself: $123.70 (unchanged) Pokemon Uranium (August 7) Slain: Back from Hell (August 31, gift from brother because he got a bonus copy)

Finished games: 44 (up from 41) Sweet Lily Dreams (August 2) ShellShock Live (August 12) Starbound (August 20)

Well, if every month for the rest of the year was like this one, I still wouldn't finish the Valdis Story or SMBX goals, but we're building momentum? This was the best month for both of them. Just, like, there are only 4 months left. I was out for one weekend this month, though, while in the upcoming 4 months I'll only be out for 3 further weeks due to Thanksgiving/Christmas. I'm staying at my house for Labor day, which may be a chance to catch up a little as well.

Still thinking I can do 30 Valdis Story runs and still not sure about the Mario levels goal at all. The Mario goal was 12 levels, but Mario Maker levels count as half, and I also had a list of 8 specific names. So... I'd need 10 levels in 4 months. Also still thinking 175 hours of Valdis Story is a silly goal, even if technically possible. I'd basically have to suddenly really get motivated for Goibniu mode.

As far as trying to finish every game I obtain this year, actually finishing Shellshock Live was nice, as the final level takes a fair bit of luck. I don't think Slain will take too long, although it is difficult, and... maybe I shouldn't have downloaded Pokemon Uranium. The goal as I originally wrote it is fine, since I'm just required to finish more games than I obtain and I'm clearly ahead by 22 at this point, but it is fun to try to finish everything I obtain this year as well, since then it can't even be argued that I obtained long games while finishing short ones and thus maybe my backlog still increased. Of course, I know I won't be finishing any Christmas gifts this year, but my final evaluation video for the goals will be before Christmas anyway.

Besides the games I obtained this month, it's just Phantom Brave PC and Turok that need finished, which are both current LPs I'm doing. I think I'm about 2 weeks away from finishing Turok and... I'd be fine with not finishing Phantom Brave in time. I've beat the PS2 version before and since it's an LP I'm at least going to be consistently playing it until it's done. Checking online, it seems the game has 20 parts ("Episodes") and it took me 10 LP episodes to beat the first 4 game episodes. I think I have 36 episodes of Phantom Brave left before the end of the year, so it's unlikely I'll finish if all episodes are at least as long on average as the first 4, since 36 is a smaller number than 40.

Also, I’m going to start tagging these #clockworkGoals. I’ll probably go back and tag the first 7 months sometime.

[clockworksteel]

July Review of New Year’s Goals

Valdis Story Clears: 6 (up from 4) Runs Submitted: 2 (up from 1) More Playtime than Terraria, at 175 hours: No Playtime: 100 hours (up from 94 hours)

SMBX Levels Made: 0 Planned names fulfilled: 0 Mario Maker Levels Made: 2

Obtained games: 20 (Up from 19) Money spent on games for myself: $123.70 (up from $113.71) Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (July 22)

Finished games: 41 (up from 37) Hydra Castle Labyrinth (July 9) Rabi-Ribi (July 9) Overwatch (July 22, no ending: objective was to spend 20 hours in matches) Duelyst (July 23, no ending: objective was to get all factions to level 11)

Overall... the stats still don’t look good as far as completing the Valdis Story and Mario Level goals. Finishing games is going well as usual, and every game marked “finished” this month was one from the “obtained” list in a previous month this year. Of the three games I obtained this year but have not finished, two are current LPs, so I’m working on them, and I’ve also been playing Shellshock Live fairly regularly.

Back on the parts that don’t look good though, I’m actually feeling kinda hopeful about them. This month I spent a notable amount of time watching another guy’s Valdis Story run and talking to him about speedrunning, so I’ve both gotten some helpful tips and some motivation. If I just do runs on Thursdays and Saturdays I can still make it. There would’ve been one more run this month but it died to a softlock. I may not reach 175 hours, but I think I can do 30 runs.

And as far as Mario, I did spend some time in the editor today after getting it set up and figuring out how test mode works. Just... by the time I finished all that I was burned out and didn’t want to make a level anymore. I think I can dedicate some time on Sundays for this. I’d need one level about every 2 weeks. Slightly more levels than that. But... this might be doable. I’ve just been procrastinating far too long because I didn’t want to set up and figure out the editor...

[clockworksteel]

June review of New Year’s goals

Before the cut, I’d like to mention that I did a video half year review on my Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZqsNF59eO8

Valdis Story Clears: 4 (up from 3) Runs Submitted: 1 (complete, but could go higher) More Playtime than Terraria, at 175 hours: No Playtime: 94 hours (up from 93 hours)

SMBX Levels Made: 0 Planned names fulfilled: 0 Mario Maker Levels Made: 2

Obtained games: 19 (Up from 13), games marked with -- are also in the finished list Money spent on games for myself: $113.71 (up from $68.27) Duelyst (April 11, recognized as worth tracking this month: will be sorted upward later) Hydra Castle Labyrinth (June 23) Phantom Brave PC (June 23) --Card City Nights (June 25) --Hustle Cat (June 25) --Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 2 (June 25)

Finished games: 37 (up from 27) Gone Home (June 11) The Yawhg (June 11) Mystik Belle (June 12) LIMBO (June 15) Melody's Escape (June 19) Final Fantasy IV, Steam Version (June 19) Mighty No 9 (June 23) Hustle Cat (June 25) Card City Nights (June 27) Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 2 (June 30)

Obtained games that don't count because I paid for them in a previous year: 2 (up from 1) Mighty No 9 (June 21)

I said most of what I had to say in the video, but it did take place before my Steam Sale shopping, so I’ll just point out that I’ve already beaten everything I bought that was from the Steam Sale, although there’s still more to do in a couple of them. Also, Phantom Brave PC and Hydra Castle Labyrinth were picked up for LPs, and I decided I wanted to get all factions to level 11 in Duelyst.

A lot of short games this month, but finally finishing Final Fantasy IV was a long one, and Card City Nights and Neptunia also took a good bit of time.

And like usual I’m slipping even farther behind on my Mario and Valdis Story goals. Ugh.

[clockworksteel]

May 2016 Review of New Year’s Goals

Valdis Story Clears: 3 (up from 2) Runs Submitted: 1 (up from 0) More Playtime than Terraria, at 175 hours: No Playtime: 93 hours (up from 91 hours)

SMBX Levels Made: 0 Planned names fulfilled: 0 Mario Maker Levels Made: 2 (up from 1)

Obtained games: 13 (up from 12) Money spent on games for myself: $68.27 (up from $28.28) Overwatch (May 26)

Finished games: 27 (up from 15) Half Life 2 (May 5) Element4l (May 8) Defense Grid: The Awakening (May 11) Path of Exile (May 12) NightSky (May 14) No Time To Explain Remastered (May 15) Doom (May 17) Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (May 18) Storm in a Teacup (May 21) Rogue Stormers (May 24) Greed Corp (May 28) Battleblock Theater (May 28)

Well, between playing some short games and some games I already had partially finished this was an amazing month for finishing games. I also picked up plenty of achievements, nearly reaching 60% (my spreadsheet says 59.95%).

As far as other goals though... I’m slipping even farther behind. I did at least make some progress, but there should’ve been more if I’m going to make it. I’d hoped to catch up some over Memorial Day weekend but it was super hot. Like, 90 degrees outside for 3 days in a row and I don’t have an air conditioner yet. A window unit should be arriving within the next 45 minutes though. Supposed to be delivered today still according to tracking and it says “by 8 PM”.

Still, I think my routine just won’t work for accomplishing my goals. I need regular time set aside for them. I’ll figure something out. I’d like to say Friday evening I run Valdis Story, but Friday evening is when one particular friend is usually available for video games. Maybe Sunday morning? I bet my parents wouldn’t approve though... perhaps I just need to put more on Saturday morning, where I already have 1.5 hours of recording for my Youtube channel, and that’s if everything goes well and I don’t need to spend extra time attempting difficult parts in footage that will be cut out or grinding for levels off camera.

I guess at least the important goals went well.

Also, I started tracking money spent on games this year last month, but forgot to include it in the stats. Also now recording my Valdis Story playtime in the report.

[clockworksteel]

April 2016 Review of New Year’s Goals

Valdis Story Clears: 2 Runs Submitted: 0 More Playtime than Terraria: No

SMBX Levels Made: 0 Planned names fulfilled: 0 Mario Maker Levels Made: 1

Obtained games: 12 (Up from 7) Doom (April 2) Shellshock Live (April 13, Birthday gift) Rabi-Ribi (April 18, Birthday gift) No Time To Explain Remastered (April 19, forcibly inserted itself in my Steam Library because I own Speedrunners from a source other than the 4-pack) Kero Blaster (April 28, Birthday gift, which somehow failed to deliver the first time)

Finished games: 15 (up from 11) Hyper Light Drifter (April 2) Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes (April 15) Sonic Generations (April 24) Kero Blaster (April 29)

Well, we’re down to game-related goals. I moved to my house this month and that went well. Didn’t get too many games for my birthday and so I’m still ahead on that goal. I just seriously need to get practicing Valdis Story and making Mario levels. 8 months to beat Valdis Story 28 times and make 12-23 more levels (since Mario Maker counts as half of SMBX). Think we’re still looking pretty good.

Fun fact: I got Sonic Generations in November of 2012. Truly, I have been reaching into the backlog and finishing games, in addition to playing what I got this year (Hyper Light Drifter was March 31). Also, Kero Blaster has a lot more content, but the credits rolled so it counts.

Also, I’ve really been focused on achievement hunting. Got my average percentage up to 58% this month, I think from 56%. It’s currently an average across 164 games, so moving it at all takes some effort, though at least starting up a new game doesn’t move it too far either. I’m wondering if I want to set a goal of 60% for the year. I'm not sure what I started the year at. Something from 52% to 55%, I think. Probably shouldn’t set the goal, since I should really be focusing on the things I’m not doing that were New Year’s goals. I’ll probably make it anyway, though.

[clockworksteel]

March 2016 Review of New Year’s Goals

Houses Purchased: 1 (Up from 0)

Valdis Story Clears: 2 Runs Submitted: 0 More Playtime than Terraria: No

SMBX Levels Made: 0 Planned names fulfilled: 0 Mario Maker Levels Made: 1

Obtained games: 7 (Up from 4) Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (Mar 4) Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 (Mar 8) Mystik Belle (Mar 19)

Finished games: 11 (up from 9) Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 (Mar 14) Mighty Switch Force: Hyper Drive Edition (Mar 28)

Obtained games that don't count because I paid for them in a previous year: 1 (up from 0) Hyper Light Drifter (Mar 31)

Another month somewhat like last month. No progress at all on game design or Valdis Story, but I bought the house. Next month will probably also be house-focused, since I haven't moved in yet. I also need to get myself at least one window unit for air conditioning sometime soon, and figure out why the smoke alarms were all beeping periodically when I went there today to drop off some stuff I don't need here at the apartment. I bet it's low batteries.

Still feeling good about my chances on all the goals. As far as finishing games I expect to end next month behind instead of ahead, though, since I'll probably get some games for my birthday.