As always, let’s start with the numbers.

Media consumed # (remaining/total)
Movies Watched 1 (153/155)
Books Read: 5 (130/139)
Comics Read: 25 (663/738)
Podcast Episodes Remaining: 155

Movies

While I did get to the theater to see The Lego Movie 2, I didn’t watch much of anything this month except for my blu-ray of Star Trek III.  At some point, I did catch Game Night at random on HBO and it was hilarious.  I have a feeling that since the DVDs/Blu Rays and Netflix stuff tends to be something I want to take some time with and pay attention to, this might pick up once I’m on spring break or during the summer.

Books

I’ve been trying to remember to chonicle what I’ve read over at the Required Reading blog and put it here.  The five books are down from the previous month, mainly because I only finished one trade paperback and there was at least one book that took a while to read.  Plus, I have a couple of other books I’m working on that are outside the mandate for this particular blog.  I’m re-reading Macbeth while I discuss it with my AP Lit classes (and will do the same with Romeo & Juliet in a couple of months with my freshmen) and have at least one book I’m working through for professional development at work while also working my way through a book for Required Reading.  I do like to see that I’m putting a dent here and with the exception of maybe one or two books, the ones I have read have been worth it.

Comics

I was moving along at a pretty good clip last month and my reading fell by about half.  I also have a lot of comics that have been read but are awaiting review.  I was dipping into my Marvel books for a little while and have since gone back to DC, going back to the 1980s, which probably explains the slowness of some of my output.  I’ll actually get to the reason behind that in a minute, but first I have to cover

Podcasts

So I knocked out nearly 30 podcast episodes this month.  In some cases, I went through the unlistened episodes of a show and deleted what I knew I definitely wasn’t interested in (i.e., topics on history podcasts like “The Bowery Boys” or “Back Story” and films covered on “Forgotten Filmcast” or “Film and Water” that I wasn’t that interested in), but for the most part I picked up some long-neglected shows and worked my way through what I had been missing.  I’ve got a couple of commentary episodes that I need to get through (thanks, Andy) and I also did pick up another new miniseries (“The Dropout”), but choosing to run through several of one show has been a really good way to do this, even if I do break for my weekly episode of “Keep It!”

So according to a U.S. News and World Report article, which I found when Googling, 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February.  It’s expanded upon in a Psychology Today piece that I read by Shainna Ali where she mentions for main reasons that New Year’s resolutions fail:

• Your goals aren’t clear
• You feel overwhelmed
• You feel discouraged
• You’re not ready to change

I can see where all of these except maybe the first one might happen to me.  I honestly feel that my goals for this project are pretty clear–tally up what I haven’t consumed, actually read/watch/use it, decide if I’m keeping it, and get rid of it if I decide I want to.  But the other three are typical of projects.  Sometimes, I think of what I have ahead of me to accomplish my goal and I fall back into old habits or drop the resolution altogether, especially when it’s a long-term thing that I can put off.

But I think that one of my biggest obstacles to success is everything else getting in the way.  I know for a fact that work was quite insane this month and instead of watching or reading something, I was grading papers or planning lessons.  And knowing that this is something that happens quite often, I’m keeping one eye on the amount of work I’m doing and another on this project here.

I do plan on trying to come up with a fairly regular blogging schedule.  I thought I could do just about every day, but I got a little overwhelmed by that and fell behind when other things piled up.  So I may cut the posts down to every couple of days.  I’m hoping that March, and spring, will knock more things off this list.