• Physical Comics Read: 5 (42/48)
• Digital Comics Read: 0 (418/418)
• Trades/Graphic Novels Read: 1 (3/4)
• Books Read: 2 (98/101)
• Movies Watched: 2 (217/222)
• TV Shows Watched: 0 (52/52)
• TV Seasons Watched: 0 (95/96)
• Podcast Episodes to Listen to: 90

I’m half a month late with this. Ooops.

Well, it is the beginning of the school year and so I’m swamped, or at least have very little imagery for anything beyond work and the fiction I’m writing. I keep telling myself that I’m going to get back on the ball with the blogging and podcasting.

Anyway, for all of the books I’ve read this year, the number isn’t that impressive because I keep finding stuff at the library or on Libby. Same with television. But overall, I can’t complain too much.

Let’s walk through the stated intentions that I had way back at the beginning of the year.

Buy Nothing Old. I’ve stayed pretty consistent and the “older” stuff has come via the library or streaming. I’m also working on making a big book donation and have been going through a few other things, especially the stuff that’s been left behind after the kid moved away to college and left me with a massive cleanout project.

Set a “Shortbox Limit” for my Comics. The limit is 10, which is what I have now. I did spend some time rearranging my kid’s comics and came out with an empty shortbox. By the way, I lifted a longbox for the first time and had forgotten that they had become so unwieldy. After the Baltimore Comic-Con, I’m going to do another reorganization and culling.

Focus on Experiences. Without getting too personal, being an empty nester means more date nights and doing things like that. Sometimes, it’s been going to dinner; last weekend, it was an art museum. We’re not breaking the bank of course, and at-home dates are fun, but it’s been fun all the way.

Consciously Reduce. Have I mentioned a huge cleanout project with my kids’ room? Oh yeah. And then diving into my own stauff as well as recycling what I can. I am trying to be patient with it, too.

Keep Myself Honest. This isn’t hard, of course, but I’ve been working on reducing my screen time and being more conscious about logging stats on apps like MyFitnessPal. I will recommend Opal for screen-time limits because I use it on my iPad to shut down Reddit after an hour and so far it’s been working really well.

That isn’t too much of an update, but it is an update. And now to go and read one of the billion library books I recently checked out.