Happy 2026 (a month in)! Yeah, yeah, a bit late…By this time, I had wanted to release a new Astro blog site, and had good headway in the last few months customizing my own, but hit too many roadblocks and rethinking the design and structure. I found a couple minimalist themes to tinker with and will going that route instead. This redesign is hindering getting back to my side projects work, and would like to get back to them sooner than later
I began plotting my annual goals during the winter break, adjusted through January, and now I’m not quite sure what state they are in but I have a rough outline below. It still seems like a lot but there are some items I foresee will change throughout the year, and that is totally okay with me.
CODE
- Build in Public: continued work on side projects and post more about them on BlueSky! Cafe Quest, Eventter (placeholder title for CS50 Web final), Average Reads, and my watchlist data visualization are overdue for some tweaks.
- Reconnect with local in person code meetups: Code and Coffee, PDXWIT just came back??, Python User group, and others are possible.
- freeCodeCamp certificates: ideally review the Python and Relational Databases. The curriculum had another overhaul I’d like to check out. These two will fuel some future project work.
FITNESS
- Even MORE consistent fitness schedule: At least not dropping jogging fully in the summer and acclimate to it a bit more. It’ll be tough, but hopefully doable 🤞 I’ve restarted the None To Run intervals plan to build a base post-foot-strain and shin splints last fall and doing pretty well!
- Join a social run group: there are quite a few in my area! Like most, I get worried about speed, mileage, and losing folks.. also, why are so many in the evening! I’m more of morning/ lunch jog person… the one most likely to join is indeed a morning one.
- More races: I’ve outlined prospective races this year, hopefully more 5ks and maybe even a quarter marathon in July 👀
- pie in the sky goal: Can I PR my best 5k time?? I got down to around 27min in like 2014 😅
- Hiking: I carried over some hikes from last years “hit list” and want to do more Washington-side Gorge and Coastal trails.
READING
- Total books set is 40, and I’m not surprised if I pass it (again). This year I’m focusing more on diverse locations, series completions, and reading off my existing shelf.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
- Carry over from 2025: I didn’t set the time to sit down with this one. This is primarily sitting down to understand some specific terminology my brain doesn’t want to latch onto. I also want to keep up with entering my personal spending in a budget tracker to analyze.
So, that’s where I’m at currently, and we’ll see how this year shakes up! It’s good to be realistic with these goals too. I like to have a general guide and outline so I’m moving forward somewhere, some get done, and some don’t! Next, I’ll put them in a more structured system like SMART goals and maybe test out a new project management system too.
Here’s to 2026!
