Summer 2017 plans
It's been a mixed bag, meeting past summer goals (2015, 2016). Lack of motivation was part of the problem. But I also set too many goals, vague ones at that, and then expected myself to meet all of them. When it was clear that I couldn't possibly do all of them, I stopped caring about any of them.
Things are going to be different this year. Well, probably not. But the way I am approaching my goals is different. What you see here are more like reminders of things I could do. If I don't get around to these things, no big deal -- the main thing is that I remember that I don't need to spend 12-16 hours a day in bed.
And another thing: don't try to do something just for the sake of doing it or finishing it. Like, don't do this again: force yourself to watch every episode of TV show like Dark Skies, even after it is clear that it is a fucking terrible show that is rightly forgotten.
Finally, a lot of these goals are pathetically passive. Read, watch, play. But one of my favorite memories of the summer of 2015 was building my standing desk. I really should find projects that involve creating in some form or another.
Games
Play some of these games:
Advance Wars 2(great)Axiom Verge(half-done; good, but not great, and kind of hard)Final Fantasy Tactics
Kentucky Route Zero
Mass Effect 3
Metal Gear Solid 2
Ori and the Blind Forest
Planescape: Torment(started playing with gemrb, but will wait until that progresses or I get the enhanced edition. Really impressive game so far though.)Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil 1 remake
Silent Hill 2 (leftover from 2016)
Technobabylon
Vandal Hearts 2
Witcher 3(finished; very good, but too long)
Books
Read at least five of the following:
Moscow Under Lenin by Alfred Rosmer
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Mieville
Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1980-1928 by S.A. Smith
The Bolsheviks Come to Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd by Alexander Rabinowitch
The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd by Alexander Rabinowitch
The Russian Communist Left by the ICC
The Russian Enigma by Ante Ciliga
The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States by Ronald Suny
Year One of the Russian Revolution by Victor Serge
Also finish Jack Vance's Cadwal Chronicles (leftover from 2016). (First book was good but not up to Vance's usual standards. Later books are apparently progressively worse, so I can't see ever finishing this series.)
Computery stuff:
Do some of this stuff:
Either read through Rosenberg's ksh book (2015 goal) or some Python books (2016 goal).
Enable SSL on sites.Try Mac OS9 in qemu.
Try Mac System 7 in MESS
Update blog script to generate RSS feed.Done, but without elegance.
TV and movies and music:
Rewatch season 1 of The Revenants, then watch season 2.(Season 1 rewatch in progress!)Finish working through the progressive rock list found elsewhere on this blog.
Fitness
- Maintain 185 pounds or 12% BF.
Hiking/travel
"Top of the World Highway" (Tok north to Chicken and Eagle along the Canadian border)
Alaska Highway south from Delta Junction down to Tok and thence the Canadian border
Denali Highway (Cantwell to Paxson; 2015 goal); see Tangle Lakes Inn (2016 goal)
Fairbanks to Circle (could be a rough road)
Road to McCarthy
Tok Cutoff (Glennallen to Tok)
Drive on all the highways I've never been on yet (2015 goal): Glennallen-Delta Junction, Kenai Peninsula roads I've never been on.
Hike Horse Tail Falls in Whittier (2016 goal).
Visit Valdez during the salmon run (2015 goal)
Walk 25 miles in a day (2015 goal)
2015 hikes I wanted to do, with numbers referring to 50 Hikes Around Anchorage and 55 Ways to the Wilderness in Southcentral Alaska, respectively:
Bird Ridge (7; 23)
Dew Mound / Dew Lake (42; n/a)
Eklutna Lakeside Trail (48; n/a)
Flattop (15; 28)
Gold Cord Lake trailHatcher Pass
Matanuska Railroad
Mt. Alyeska (1; n/a)
Mt. Baldy (36; n/a)
Near Point (23; 32)
Rendezvous Peak (33; 33)
South Fork Falls (35; n/a)
The Perch (n/a; 35)
Turnagain Arm trail (13; 27)