Report on 2024 Goals

Reaching Out to People/Staying Connected to People:

        In my drafts for this goal, I had a much more structured version lined out. Although I didn't follow that exact path, I definitely feel I hit the idea behind my goal, which I'm happy about. Definitely felt like I did a good job of reaching out to old friends, keeping connected etc.

Bread and Butter Work-out Goal:

        Did not fulfill this goal. The goal was to just do a few minutes of push-ups/sit-ups before showering each day. I felt like overall I stayed active enough (lots of walking to class/work), but besides that, really no exercise besides a good stint of Beat Saber and a couple other stints that lasted a couple-few weeks each.

        This is definitely something I want to improve upon after reading chunks of Spark for my family's book club. It's generally difficult for me to motivate myself to exercise as the physical benefits currently don't hold much appeal to me. But the other benefits outlined in Spark very much do, so I just need to consistently remind myself of those in order to build up a habit.

Reevaluation Goal:

        I didn't do a particularly great job at this goal. I think I did better at the general concept compared to other years, though, so I do think I'm improving in this aspect. It just wasn't as consistent or concrete as my original planned outlined it to be. But overall give myself a passing grade in this department.

2024 Campaign Related Goals:

        The 2024 Campaign will be concluded tomorrow! 8 sessions (including session 0) of wonderful fun. Of course, some sessions went smoother, had better moments, more interesting combat, more impactful sequences etc. than others, but regardless of the individual quality of each session, I'm just grateful for the time I got to spend with my family and the memories we all got to create together.

Reading:

        I read a lot! And it was great. I got around to all the major books I had plotted out for myself, I believe. There were many several small books that I never got around to, but that's okay. The Conglomeration exists, but I suppose I'll write what I read here as well:

        Most of Skyward Novellas + Last Book, Books 2-5 of the Stormlight Archive + Novellas, Book Club books (Boundaries, Ella Minnow Pea, Spark, Moby Dick, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Endurance (some more thoroughly than others)), Giver 1 and 2, The Hobbit, Alcatraz 1-6, Warbreaker.

        I have much more reading to do in the future! Which is wonderful.

Spiritual Goals:

        I never posted any of these on my blog in any form, but I thought I'd report that these have been going well. My scripture study specifically has improved a lot this year compared to the year prior.

Blogging:

        Decided to dedicate most of next week's post talking about this alongside stuff moving forward, so feel free to check out that next week:)

Thoughts After Watching the First 6 Star Wars Episodes For the First Time

How I managed to make it this far in life without seeing the Star Wars films, who knows. Especially considering how much I love fantasy/sci-fi as a genre on the whole. Not only that, but there were actually several key spoilers that I managed to somehow miss until I watched the movies.

Pretty Important Spoiler Things That I Didn't Know Until I Watched the Films with my Roommate:

1. The clones are actually clones?? 

        Okay, yes, I feel kind of silly for this one. It makes sense that they're actually clones. I just thought they were called that because they all wore identical armor and such, haha.

2. Related to #1: What Code 66 is. 

        Did not know about the whole 'activate brain chip thing in the clones, kill all the peeps, take over the universe' thing.

3. Darth Vader is Luke's Father

        Jk, jk, I definitely knew this, haha. Just thought it'd be funny.

4. Darth Vader gets a mini-redemption at the end

        Didn't know this until watching Episode 4 or 5 when I sad something related to me being so sad about how far Anakin has fallen and I said, "Darth Vader redemption arc when?" And then my roommate and Ben said something like, "I mean, he gets his 5 second redemption at the end of Episode 6." 🙃 Really wish I didn't know that when I watched episode 6, can't believe I got spoiled right before it, haha. It's okay though, it was still sweet.

Some other general thoughts:

It was really good! I do plan on watching episodes 7, 8, and 9 at some point. We'll see how far into the Star Wars universe I get into after that. Wouldn't surprise me if I end up watching the Clone Wars because 1. It's been highly highly recommended to me by two individuals and 2. It apparently builds up extremely well into Episode III, which is my favorite episode.

I love Episode III. It's so tragic, and it hit me in the feels. Also the lightsaber scenes were phenomenal. I love Anakin as a character, so Episode III was so sad:(:( Anakin appear as a force ghost at the end of Episode VI made me so happy. 

I think my rankings of the episodes would go something like this: 3, 6, 1, 5, 2, 4. Lots of hot takes in there, but that's how I feel right now without thinking about it all too much. I don't know why I'm such an episode 4 hater either.

Twenty One Pilots Tier List (The Line Update)

Happy Birthday (yesterday) Mom!

Previous Tier List can be found here.

I didn't do any huge revamp since my most recent update was only six months ago. I made some minor adjustments to other songs, and knew I could make some bigger adjustments, but didn't want to go super crazy with it. The biggest changes were to all the songs on Clancy.

Next Semester (goated song) appearing in the top 10! Vignette overtaking Level of Concern to make top 3. Snapback climbing up. Navigating lowering. At the Risk of Feeling Dumb lowering. Those were the biggest shifts I believe.

Oh, yeah, and The Line being added, of course. With a debut in S- tier. Fantastic song.

Half Alive Tier List (Persona Update)

Happy Birthday Hannah!!

Link to my previous tier list here.

This rendition doesn't feel very final in any way. For some reason, it was really hard to pin things down. But, alas, here it is. At the very least, I feel fairly decent about the tiers themselves. But within the tiers: chaos. I don't know, there are a few songs though that might be in a weird tier because sometimes I listen to them I just feel like it's an easy S tier. Other times, I'm just not vibing. It's weird.

Upcoming Tier Lists/Holidays/Book, and Tournaments

For my post this week, I was originally planning on revamping my Half Alive tier list because they just came out with an album just over a week ago, but I decided I wanted more time for the songs to marinate before I do that. So for this week, I'm just going to write about stuff and such.

Twenty One Pilots also just released a new song, "The Line" for the Arcane 2nd Season Soundtrack. New Twenty One Pilots music of course always makes me happy. So I plan to take another look at my most recent Twenty One Pilots tier list, shift things around as I feel fit, and add The Line in. So two music tier lists coming probably back to back.

Been having a ton of fun at Smash Tournaments this semester. A lot of great competition entered into the scene this semester, so it's been a blast. Haven't been keeping on top of updating my results on my SSBU Tourney Results list, but I just updated it, so 👍 My Keepnote of stuff to add to The Record has also been piling up. Updated that as well.

Went to a sealed event for the new set of Lorcana with Ben on Thursday. I took 1st and he took 2nd, yessir! It was a lot of fun. Sealed and drafts are so much fun.

Thanksgiving and Christmas is almost here! Which means my internship is coming to a close, which is kind of wild. Internships been great. Very excited to spend time with family over the holidays.

Wind and Truth is almost here! So so so excited.