Resolutions: My 2020 Results and 2021 Goals

Twenty-twenty was a messed up year, to say the very least. Nevertheless, I still had eight resolutions to complete. So, let’s dive into how that went and what I aim to accomplish in 2021.

2020 Results

I did a much better job overall of finishing my resolutions than in previous years. I’m not sure if that’s because of quarantine boredom or because I made more realistic goals this time around. Either way!

1. Participate in one Camp NaNoWriMo session: 0%

I didn’t do either Camp NaNoWriMo session. I didn’t have any new ideas, I was still hung up on my failed story, and I just didn’t feel like getting into all of that stuff.

I did write about 540 words of an anime/manga fanfic (for a series that shall remain nameless) at some point because the idea wouldn’t stop churning in my head. No, I didn’t finish it.

2. Pass one LinkedIn Assessment: 100%

I didn’t retake any of the LinkedIn Assessments that I failed last year. In fact, I failed a few new tests. I obviously have a lot more studying to do.

The good news is that I passed tests for Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat in September, which satisfies my resolution. Sure, those aren’t particularly impressive tests to have conquered, but I’m taking the win.

3. Switch to WordPress’s Block Editor full-time: 100%

I switched to the Block editor fairly early in the year. So far, I’ve been happy with the change. I haven’t missed the Classic editor at all.

Though the transition was mostly painless, it took some trial and error to work through the Markdown issues I experienced when I originally tried the Block editor. I found a good solution: write the post in the Ghostwriter app (as usual), copy the text into the online Markdown editor Dillinger, and paste its Rich Text results into the Block editor. Later I streamlined the process by migrating to Typora, a Markdown editor I heard about on the Windows Weekly podcast. Typora automatically transforms my Markdown text into Rich Text as I type. I can also view the Markdown text if I need to. I’ve been using the app ever since.

Once that was sorted out, I converted my Blog Info and Contact pages to the Block format. I’ve always had annoying formatting problems with those two. Every time I edited them in the Classic editor, I had to redo the manual breaks I added to space out the text the way I wanted it. With the Block editor, I was easily able to break the text up into blocks and make it stay that way. I’m going to convert the rest of my pages too.

4. Publish three Medium-exclusive Posts: 0%

Writing new Medium posts plummeted to the bottom of my priority list. I had a hard enough time coming up with new posts for my blog, let alone extra posts for a second site during this pandemic.

5. Fix my main laptop: 50%

I vowed to do two things to Envy: 1) upgrade to the latest version of Windows, and 2) upgrade the RAM. I only completed the first task.

Envy is finally running an up-to-date version of Windows. In August, it upgraded itself to Windows version 1903 (and later to version 1909). It was all very stealthy. First, the computer suddenly started eating up my hotspot data. Then one night the power button icon showed options involving updates. The next time I turned on the computer, Windows launched into the full upgrade process. I have no idea what changed from the many times I attempted the upgrade on my own, but I’m enormously thankful that things worked themselves out.

The second task—the memory upgrade—didn’t happen because I couldn’t afford the RAM chips. The bezel split I caused when I cleaned out of Envy permanently took the upgrade off the table anyway.

6. Try Joomla and Drupal: 50%

I successfully installed both Joomla and Drupal locally on my laptop via XAMPP in April. While I had no problems getting Joomla up and running, it took me two attempts to install Drupal because (like a dummy) I skipped a step in the installation directions. After I got both CMSs working, I clicked around a bit…then forgot about the whole thing.

Months later, I went back to play with the systems again. Guess what? I couldn’t log into either of them. I kept getting an “invalid settings” error, whatever that means. Rather than unravel that mystery, I uninstalled the whole setup.

7. Read 10 pieces of classic Black literature: 80%

I couldn’t have chosen a rougher time to read some Black lit. Between the George Floyd protests, the never-ending nightmare that was Trump, and the election drama, I was not in the mood to read anything about racism, discrimination, or slavery.

Here’s what I read:

1. The Autobiography of Malcolm X – as told to Alex Haley
2. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
4. Gather Together in My Name – Maya Angelou
5. The Heart of a Woman – Maya Angelou
6. All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes – Maya Angelou
7. A Song Flung Up to Heaven – Maya Angelou
8. The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin

As you can see, I only read eight of the ten books. I did my best to power through, but I had to take a break when things got too depressing. Library wait times held me up at times too. Still, I enjoyed everything I picked up.

8. Visit an Apple Store: 0%

I wasn’t able to visit an Apple Store because of COVID-19 and the quarantines. According to the Apple retail website, I can only go to the stores closest to my house to pick up an online order or for a Genius appointment.

Based on how badly things are going with the coronavirus situation as I write this, there’s no telling when I’ll be able to fulfill this resolution.

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2021 Resolutions

To be honest, I couldn’t think of many resolutions for 2021. Therefore, my list will be a mix of new things and resolutions that I didn’t finish in 2020.

1. Participate in at least one Camp NaNoWriMo session.

I want to work on a new contemporary romance story or finish that fanfic I started. Maybe both. I’m lowering the word count to 15,000-20,000, which is 484-500 words a day depending on the session I choose.

2. Do some personal branding maintenance.

I’ve seen a bunch of people talking on Twitter lately about how they’ve been updating their websites and such. It made me realize that I haven’t made many changes to things since I established my own online presence a few years ago. It’s probably time for me to do some updates too.

Here are a few things that I need to do:

• Archive all of my blog posts and create better records of each (with the publish date, URL, etc.).
• Find a different shade of pink (or a new color entirely) for my color scheme.
• Figure out how to make the featured images on my blog look better.

I’ll probably think of a bunch of other things to add to the list as well.

3. Write at least one Medium-exclusive post.

This is one of my goals from last year. The difference is that one post is less pressure, and thus, more doable. Baby steps. I’ve learned my lesson.

4. Learn Hangul.

I listen to so much K-Pop that it’s flat embarrassing that I don’t know any Korean. It’s also inconvenient, like when I download a song whose title is written in Hangul, letters of the Korean alphabet. I can’t even read it enough to know how to file it in my iTunes library, let alone know the English meaning.

If I’m going to keep swimming in this K-Pop ocean, I need to do better about learning the language. My first step is to learn Hangul and some Korean vocabulary. I have a stack of practice sheets that I printed out a few years ago that I can start with. I’ve also downloaded the Duolingo app. Fighting!

5. Try five new manga or anime.

Now that my love of anime and manga has reawakened, it’s time to see what I’ve missed during my extended hiatus. I keep hearing these titles tossed around that I know nothing about. I feel totally out of the loop.

To catch up, I plan to try at least one volume or four episodes of five new manga or anime series respectively. I already have a list of candidates to look for at the library.

6. Build mock Joomla and Drupal sites.

This is another repeat goal. I think it’s important for me to get familiar with these Joomla and Drupal, so I’m going to reinstall both of them on my computer. To show that I’ve learned how to use the two CMSs, I’ll create two fake sites from each system.

7. Read eight pieces of classic Black literature.

Considering how many books I typically read in a year, it doesn’t sit well with me that I wasn’t able to get through ten Black books. I want to fix that.

First, I’m going to finish the three books that I started last year but didn’t finish:

• Kindred – Octavia Butler
• The Souls of Black Folk – W.E.B. Dubois
• Sister Outsider – Audre Lorde

Then I plan to read seven new books. That brings my total to ten Black books for 2021.