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Happy New Year! I did really badly on my resolutions last year lol, let’s see how I did.
The big one that I’m hoping to achieve is to lose a bunch of weight. Ideally, if I could snap my fingers and make sure that by the end of the year I was a specific weight, I’d be around 160 or 170.
I didn’t come anywhere near to 200lbs haha
But, to start small and manageable, I want to get below 210. The last time I weighed, which was a few days ago, I was 227.5, so it’s around 20lbs to lose. By the end of the year, this should be manageable.
Manageable for some people, but I did not do that. I’m a little heavier in fact.
If I only lost a pound a week I could get to around my dream goal weight, but that’s incredibly consistent progress. I’m not saying it couldn’t or won’t happen, but I doubt I’ll make that happen. Under 220 should be fine though.
I haven’t weighed myself yet, but I’m positive I’m still somewhere between 230 and 240.
I don’t think this year was a total waste as far as health is concerned though. I’ve started taking my sleep a little more seriously by taking supplements before bed and trying to get a little more sleep. I sleep talk pretty regularly and sometimes have night terrors, but they seem to have slowed a little bit. I try to limit my caffeine intake a little more. I did a bunch of walking, not as much as I should, but I got a smart watch and am more aware of the amount of steps I take in a day.
I think maybe if I plan out things I want to read or watch, in the order I want to watch them, I am more able/likely to do that. So here’s a few things I want to consume this year, in the approximate order I plan to watch/read them.
Oh boy. I don’t even remember writing this so let’s see what all I wanted consume.
Books
- Believe In Yourself: The Lee Priest Story - Lee Priest (I’m pretty far into this one already since it was a Christmas present. Hoping to finish it in January.)
- Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu (This is for PewDiePie’s book club that he’s doing. I’m closing into halfway done with it, but I’m not understanding a lot.)
- Notes From Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Tremendous: The Life of a Comedy Savage - Joey Diaz
- Demons - Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Sherlock Holmes Collection - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Greatest Beer Run Ever - John “Chick” Donohue
- Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
- The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Poor Folk - Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
I didn’t read anywhere near as much as I thought I was going to. This probably would’ve taken some people like 6 months to do. I don’t make time for this like I should.
I did read the Lee Priest book, and I think I did finish it in late January. It was pretty good, I like him and I was bored at a cubing competition one day so I got it done pretty easy. I kind of got it on a whim, because I didn’t know THAT much about Lee, but I did get to learn a lot about what he’d been through. I hadn’t even heard about his racing career or his time in rehab (not that it’s something you really go around proud about). I liked hearing about the late 90’s and early 00’s bodybuilding stories.
I don’t think I ever finished the Tao Te Ching. I may have, but I don’t remember it if I did. If you haven’t seen, there’s a bunch of monks who are walking as a form of prayer up the east coast (they’re actually by me about a week ago) and I got to thinking about this book, but I cannot remember a single lesson from it. I did not do well with the PewDiePie book club lol, I failed on the first book.
I’ve tried reading Notes From Underground a hundred times and I just struggle so much with the first part. It’s not that it’s boring, it’s just so rambly and I can’t keep up with what he’s trying to say. I get that’s part of the point he’s rambling to us to try to justify his behavior, but I don’t think I’m keeping up with it like I should be able to. I may try this one again soon, I got a couple pages in on a hard cover and it was making a little more sense. I really want to get to the 2nd part where I think there’s more characters than just the underground man rambling. I even went so far as to try the audiobook to see if that would help, but I’ve almost Pavlov trained myself into falling asleep to it as soon as it starts because I would listen to it when I was going to sleep. I didn’t even attempt Demons, The Brothers Karamazov, or Poor Folk (I’ve started this one a few times though). I like Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and White Nights, and I think about them often, these others are just really tough for some reason.
The Joey Diaz book would probably be an easy one to knock out. I’ll listen to whatever Joey Diaz has to say so if I imagine he’s the one talking I might be able to get through it quicker.
I re-watched the “Knives Out” movies around the time that the new “Wake Up Dead Man” came out and that got interested in more mysteries, so I did get through the “Study in Scarlet” Sherlock Holmes story. It was pretty good. It wasn’t really what I expected though. It was less mystery than what I had wanted. The facts of the case were presented to me, but it wasn’t something that I think you could solve yourself. Especially not the motive. Slight spoilers, but when it swapped to talking about the Mormons in Utah halfway through I had to check to make sure I didn’t get a bad printing and started reading a different book. Very dramatic shift. I got through half of the next story. I don’t think I really stopped for any reason, I just stopped and haven’t picked it back up. This wasn’t really the kind of mystery I was hoping for. Knives-Out is more my style, you see exactly what happens it just gets re-contextualized later, so you have most things you need to solve the case. Sherlock feels like you’re doing 1 thing, but then in the back of your mind you know that he’s just going to go out and check something and come up with his own solution that you never would’ve been able to because of extra clues or something. I guess there’s a lot of shows and media that do this though. I’m not sure which is easier or harder to write. If you have all the clues at the beginning, it might be too obvious, but then if you wait to show the killer later then you’ll need to do something else to make it interesting.
Anime
- Sakamoto Days- Season 1 Part 1 (Fun so far. Not as enjoyable as DanDaDan or Ranma 1/2 yet but I like it.)
- Wotakoi - Season 1 (The romance animes finally got me. Already started season 1, just have to find time to finish it. It’s fine so far, but not as grabbing as MDD or Horimiya.)
- DanDaDan - Season 2 (I’m so excited for DanDaDan Thursdays again.)
- Ranma 1/2 - Season 2
The only thing out of this list that I finished was Wotakoi, and apparently I might’ve missed a big event in an OVA or something.
Sakamoto Days got a little boring, it’s less romance and slice of life and more shonen/fights. Which the fights are pretty good, especially when Sakamoto loses the weight. I don’t like secret societies/groups of people. I’m also not terribly into fighting stuff anymore.
DanDaDan I just kinda lost interest in the last 2 or 3 episodes, but I want to go back and finish the season. I like the romance between Ayase and Okarun a lot. There’s some more characters who I haven’t been introduced to either, so I know I’m missing out.
Ranma 1/2 I started the manga and already knew what was going to happen in season 2 so I lost some interest. I want to pick this back up, or maybe start the 1988 anime at some point.
Manga
- Ranma 1/2 - Rumiko Takahashi (I loved the remade anime so I decided to pick up all the 2-in-1s. I’m about 4 volumes in (2 physical books out of 19), but it’s been a bit since I’ve read any.)
- My Dress-Up Darling - Shinichi Fukuda (This is a cute story, and the first season of the anime was really fun. I watched it in a few days and I’m excited for the next season that I think is coming out this year.)
- Heavenly Delusions - Masakazu Ishiguro (The anime got me HOOKED on this story. I need to rewatch the first season, cuz there was a lot that I missed and now I’d be so tuned into what I should pay attention to. Go watch it if you haven’t seen it, it’s dark and interesting as all get out.)
- Goodnight Punpun - Inio Asano (I have this physically, but it was kind of boring and depressing so I haven’t finished it. I’ll need to re-read most of it.)
- Wotakoi - Fujita (Probably will read this, but it’s kinda low on my list.)
I think I got through maybe 3 of the 2-in-1 books of Ranma, but it’s such a long story. It’s good, it’s just incredibly long for what it is. I’ll try to finish it eventually.
I got caught up to My Dress-Up Darling exactly 1 chapter before it ended. I read the latest chapter and then I saw a tweet the following day that the next chapter would be the last. I was so sad. It was a great story, I loved all of the characters and the situations they go into. The ending was incredibly cute too. I haven’t finished the 2nd season of the anime yet, but it looks amazing and it’s animated really really well.
I thought I could maybe find the physical editions of Heavenly Delusions easily, but I couldn’t at the time. I never tried to read it online either. I want to go rewatch the anime soon. Still one that I recommend to people because of how hooked I got on it.
Goodnight Punpun is still sitting on my shelf untouched. I haven’t been in the right mood for that much depressing stuff. It’s drawn incredibly well, but it’s a downer for sure. Also the physical copies kinda give me a headache with how much ink is on the pages. It gives off a very strong smell.
I didn’t read Wotakoi either. Overall my manga reading has been way down from what it was at one point, I have so many half finished series. I still read One Piece weekly, but that’s about it. I started a new one though called “Smoking Behind The Supermarket With You” that’s good. I’m about halfway through that, and I’ll hopefully finish that soon. I’m really enjoying it.
TV
- Wayne - Season 1 (I’m 6/10 episodes in. Pretty good so far. It reminds me of “End of the Fcking World” on Netflix.)
- Squid Games - Season 3 (I just finished Season 2 yesterday, and supposedly season 3 is gonna be the last and it’s coming out later this year. Fun little thriller.)
- Stranger Things - Season 5 (If we don’t get it this year, I’ll be super pissed. I understand it’s a graphically intense show, but damn. Surely it’s not 1 editor for all the episodes.)
Wow, I actually finished everything here. I didn’t finish Stranger Things in 2025 though, I was out at a friend’s house for New Years Eve when the final episode came out so I watched it on the 2nd.
Wayne was really good. It definitely had “End of the F*cking World” vibes. Unfortunately it hasn’t been finished yet, and I don’t think that it will. It’s at a point where it’s a fine sorta ambiguous ending, but there’s some other stuff I’d like to see wrapped up. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it does get finished.
Squid Games was ok. The first season was very good. The 2nd season had some good moments and some interesting characters and dynamics. The 3rd season I remember not really liking the ending that much. It’s been a while since I watched it though to remember specific details. I liked Thanos in season 2 a good bit. I forget the actor’s name who played him but I went out and learned about him and I’m glad he’s making a comeback (long story short, he used to be in a boyband and he got caught with drugs and everyone kinda looked down on him from there I think, don’t quote me on that though I think that’s huge simplification).
Stranger Things was pretty rough. I really didn’t like the last season. Like at all. The acting, the story, the release schedule, the ending. I’ve heard people say “they had the entire story planned from the beginning” and that’s just incredibly false. There’s so many inconsistencies with that it just can’t be true. Up to season 3 it was a great show, maybe there were some inconsistencies that I can’t remember, but I think it really peaked at season 3. The dialogue has always been a little cringey, and the delivery isn’t the best, but it was incredibly bad in season 5. The more I think about characters, plot points, or details the more it’s like “wow that doesn’t make any sense” and I can almost bet that the Duffer Brothers don’t have a reason for it either.
As far as movies go, I watched over 100 this year. I really started exploring some stuff too. I watched some low hanging fruit like the Harry Potter series, I watched all of the marvel movies up until End Game except for 2 or 3. There were a number of old school Japanese movies I watched like High and Low, Ikiru and Harakiri that were fantastic to see. I watched a ton of horror movies with my friends during October too, I tried doing a 31 days of Halloween thing but it ended up only being 16 planned, and I watched a couple by myself and missed some others. I might try to mirror my letterboxd on here eventually. If you want to follow me, then my account is jtaylorxyz I think. I’m not sure if
2026 Resolutions
I don’t have any specific goals this year. I want to read more, I want to cube more, I want to lose weight. Setting specific goals hasn’t worked, so maybe having less specific goals will be better.
Gonna go ahead and wrap it up for this month. If I think of something new, I’ll post about it. Happy New Year, hope you guys reach all your goals!