Physical Comics to Read: 7 (120/127)
Digital Comics to Read: 0 (435/435)
Trades/Graphic Novels to Read: 8 (4/12)
Books to Read: 4 (95/99)
Movies to Watch: 4 (196/200)
TV Shows to Watch: 0 (45/45)
TV Seasons to Watch: 0 (78/78)
Podcast Episodes to Listen to: 87

Well, I guess my intention to blog more has stumbled a little. I had meant to go through everything I’ve been reading or watching this month, but as usual, it fell by the wayside. Granted, I did an episode of Pop Culture Affidavit about Hoarders, but many times, the energy wasn’t there.

Late December and early January can be fun times in the “Uncollecting” realm. On the one hand, you’ve got all of the stuff you got for Christmas; on the other, you want to clean.

I made my way through a pile of trades and graphic novels, some of which were worth keeping and others of which went right into the donation pile. Book-wise, I got through two of the several books I got for Christmas. Movies didn’t really fall along those lines because I only got one movie for Christmas–Superman–and watched Weapons on HBO Max along with the first two movies int he DC Animated Universe because I’d like to work through the whole story on my way up to Crisis on Infinite Earths. But now we’re deep into the Winter Olympics.

As far as podcasts go, I could have been better with that, but I keep falling down the rabbit hole of shitty Reddit stories on YouTube (many of which are AI-written). I can’t explain why other than they’re and addictive dopamine hit. But i have worked my way through a backlog of Mountain Comics along with Once Upon a Geek and Batgirl to Oracle. In fact, the BtO Infinite Crisis episode with Shagg was my favorite podcast episode this month.

A big win was the huge donation I made to both the library and Goodwill, bags of stuff that got some books off the shelves and clothes out of the dressers. I even rearranged a couple of the junk drawers.

I realize that all sounds riveting, but it did feel liberating, even though there’s definitely more to do (then again, there is always more to do).

It at least helped me pass the time when I was stuck at home for a week because of the snow and ice storm that hit us at the very end of the month. Because there’s only so much grading and planning one person can do.

The other benefit of this is that by cutting off some of my avenues to overspend, I have more money to save and pay down debt. Now you can say, “Well, duh,” but where you need impulse control issues include spending and overspending, being able to save and pay down debt winds up being a novelty and then an achievement. And it’s “proof,” in a way, that something can work.

One piece of advice I’ve been trying to follow and put into practice is to stop qualifying or apologizing for what I accomplish. For a very long time, I have underplayed and minimized things i have completed or am proud of. Because, you know, it’s only a small step, or someone else ran the race faster. But really … who cares?

Again, it’s simple, but I spent so many of my formative years around people who constantly compared me to other s or put me down for their amusement. I’ve kept my distance or walked away from them completely since they’re not worth my mental energy; however, I have been like this for so long that making myself smaller is a hard habit to break. And the pull of the “Yeah, but …” is still strong.

I suppose I should say something inspirational to close this out, but that never works for me. Such things always seem too attached to the product or the accomplishments. What I am looking at is a process and a practice, and that’s way more nuanced than what can fit onto a poster.