How can you say “Happy New Year!” when you are looking down the barrel of something that is going to be flat-out awful? I mean, I try not to be a doomsayer; in fact, for all of the pissing and moaning I do on a regular basis, I actually try to be optimistic. Or maybe I’m naive. Either way, I want things to be better, good, or in the very least steady. I’ve even come to realize that “good” isn’t always defined by “significant” or “phenomenal” in the sense that life dow not always have to “have something to show for it.”

But.

The last couple of months have been very hard and I can’t say that I am looking forward to the circle jerk of evil that’s coming on January 20. I have honestly thought abouty how much of a future I have based on what is constantly said concerning my profession, this country, and our planet. All the while, I have all this … stuff.

I spent a good portion of 2024 paying down a lot of financial debt and by my account, paid down 41% of it. That is magnificant concerning how long i have been holding onto it and how much it actually was when I started. There were stretches of months in the past where I was just breaking even because I’d spend as much as I paid for. This past year was different because I made a more concerted effort to fix things and my hope is that by the time I am posting to look back at 2025, I will have knocked out another 40-50% of it all.

When it comes to the stuff? Well, there’s a good amount of spinning my wheels going on when it comes to Uncollecting. Here’s the totals for this year.

• Physical Comics Read: 126
• Digital Comics Read: 15
• Trades/Graphic Novels Read: 8
• Books Read: 44
• Movies Watched: 7
• TV Seasons Completed: 1
• TV Series Completed: 0
• Podcast Episodes Remaining: 102

Now, I will say the numbers are skewed toward what was on my “official” list (i.e., I actually read more books but they were for work or podcasting and not part of this venture), but they’re still pretty solid and close, if not better than last year’s numbers. I honestly don’t feel like breaking down too much data here because I already have to do that shit for work and there’s really no other thing to do but see how I fared and make sure I’m keeping accurate records. Oh, and not spin my wheels so much.

Because the thing is that when I spin my wheels, I let anxiety and depression take over and that means letting stressors overwhelm me and having that stress become the reason I disassociate every night and don’t want to do the “fun” things. Podcasting has been next to impossible since November and while I think I could take time off from doing it, I worry about being asked why I’m taking time off or it being a topic of conversation whenever I talk to one of my podcasting friends. Plus, putting a “fun” thing aside to accommodate the stress–from work and the world–feels like admitting defeat or something.

Buuuuuut …

I don’t want to let this be the note upon which I start 2025. I have been thinking a lot about how I could approach this coming year, and I came up with a couple of paths to consider (with appropriate commentary from my skeptical voice).

1. “Buy Nothing.” I really like this idea. Of course, it’s such an absolute that it could be doomed to failure.
2. “Declutter A Thing A Day” or “Declutter [x] In A Year.” Also a cool idea but how many of us are able to commit to and track it?
3. Find “Free.” I spend too much time consuming, so why not try to find things to do or places that are free to go (yes, yes, I know gas costs money). But then again, what has happened to our “third spaces …”

Now, you did hear from the skeptical voice, but I do like these ideas, so I’m customizing them and am creating five “intentions” for 2025. Before I lay those out, though, I am going to give you the new numbers for 2025 after re-doing my inventory.

• Physical Comics to Read: 89
• Digital Comics to Read: 435
• Trades/Graphic Novels to Read: 0
• Books to Read: 87
• Movies to Watch: 209
• TV Shows to Watch: 52
• TV Seasons to Watch: 96
• Podcast Episodes to Listen to: 102

I have a whole spreadsheet for everything and even indicate what books I own or are simply on my “to-read” list and whether or not they’re available at the library. Plus, I have differentiated the movies I own in physical form (VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K) and are on my streaming lists. That 209 movies number only consists of 49 physical movies, which means that 77% of them are streaming … and much “easier” to get rid of. But at least I’m accurate again.

Now, how am I going to approach this? Like I said, I laid out five “intentions”. I may have said this before, but I like using that word because it’s not as binding as a “rule” and doesn’t have the stigma of “resolution.” I also think that “intentions” provides a sense of purpose and forward momentum instead of setting a limitation. Yes, it’s all semantics. I get that. But if it helps me get in the right frame of mind, why not?

Intention #1: Buy Nothing “Old.” I’m putting a moratorium on buying back issues, older movies, and old books. When it comes to “new”, I’ll still be getting new comic books but plan on reducing my pull list. If there’s a book coming out that I want to read, I’ll wait to see if the library gets it. When it comes to movies and television, I’ll add new stuff if it’s available on a service I already pay for or if it is something I definitely want to see in a theater (i.e., the new Captain America and Superman movies). The exceptions to this rule are birthday and Christmas gifts along with five days: two “friends of the library” sales, FCBD, the Baltimore Comic-Con, and my LCS’ fall tent sale.

Intention #2: Set a “Shortbox” Limit for My Comics. Right now, I have ten shortboxes and a couple of overflow piles. A good amount of those comics aren’t worth much and can probably be given away or tossed. Plus, I have new ones coming in. I may suck it up and buy another shortbox and then keep the limit at ten plus a “currently reading” box so that there aren’t the overflow piles, especially since my back issue purchasing is going to be severely limited this year. I also think this will get me thinking about what recent comics I want to keep or offload in some way. There’s definite runs that I’m going to hold onto for a while–Tom Taylor’s Nightwing run, for instance–but do I really need all the random independent miniseries I bought because they looked good in Previews?

Intention #3: Focus on Experiences. This is something my wife and I talk about a lot when giving seasons roll around. We have so much already, so what if we made dinner reservations or got concert tickets or just made plans to do things for a weekend that didn’t involve grocery shopping? And bonus points if it’s free? We were actually talking about doing “one thing a month” in this regard and then going from there.

Intention #4: Consciously Reduce. This is both what we own and what we buy. It’s “shopping the pantry” when we make our weekly meal plan. It’s going through drawers and throwing out what’s unusable, not needed, or cannot be donated. It’s creating space that won’t get refilled so that we’re not overburdened with stuff.

Intention #5: Keep Myself Honest. I always track, but I need to make sure I am accurate, take inventory more often, and question my methods and actions from time to time. The lists need to be refined more often as well. I figure that if I can do that with my financial situation and have more success, then I can do it with all this stuff.

So there it is. The end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 with well-set intentions. Let’s hope this year won’t be as much of a shit show as it’s shaping up to be.