In less than twelve hours, I will have completed my last final exam for the fall semester. Rather than study for it, I have opted to recap the progress I've made in cleaning out my backlog over the past three and a half months. All said and done, I have completed 9 books, 12 video games, and 37 DVDs (9 TV seasons and 28 films). Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.
Alas, to make healthy progress on any goal in life, one must take more steps forward than one does backward; I cannot be foolish or vain enough to measure my successes merely by the work I've done, and must also consider new work I have created for myself. In moments of weakness this semester, I obtained 2 new books, 8 new video games, and 14 DVDs (10 films and 4 TV seasons). My net gains, then, are as follows: 7 books, 4 video games, and 23 DVDs (18 films and 5 TV seasons). Allow me to comment on the triumphs and follies in each category.
Regarding books, I fared about as well as I could have hoped to. The lack of new additions is encouraging, and so is the average heft of the books I completed; three children's books came to about 230 pages each, but the other six books averaged well over 550 pages in length. There are 28 books left in my backlog, but only three exceed 500 pages; the going should get quicker.
My video game progress, or lack thereof, is far more discouraging. The 8 purchases nearly eradicate the 12 completions, especially when it's considered that many of the completions were quick and easy games; at least four of them took less than three hours to complete, and no more than four lasted for more than ten hours. I'll blame part of this on my workload as a senior electrical engineer, but it's still discouraging to see that so little progress was made. Worse still, I've spent much of finals week spending time playing multiplayer Halo 3, a very non-productive waste of valuable logging time. What can I say? Old habits are tough to break, I suppose. Still, shame on me. This mountain of video games will be a tough one to move; 66 games still remain unbeaten.
The DVD front is my finest region, but let's be honest - DVDs are the easiest of the three media to plow through. Aside from TV seasons, they average just over two hours in length. I was always finding time, then, to squeeze in a DVD here or there. An interesting caveat occurred with the DVDs as well. Ten of the purchases (all of the films) came during the month of November. Why? It's tough to say, but my theory is that I was subconsciously very pleased with my logging performance in October (11 DVD completions in that month alone, with 6 in the final 6 days), that I splurged a bit and bought far too many new ones to compensate. As of this moment, 17 DVDs (9 films and 8 TV seasons) remain; had I just not purchased any more films, I'd be completely done with that subregion of my backlog. Incredible.
Now, let's look forward. Christmas is coming, and I expect anywhere from ten to twenty new books, video games, and DVDs. That's over a month's worth of logging setback! Fortunately, with the holidays comes a holiday break from school, and my free time should increase threefold or more. My school has scaled back the length of winter break by at least a full week this year, but I will still be left with just about exactly one month to hit the backlog with everything I've got. I can make no promises, either to myself or any potential readers out there, but just for the sake of comparison, let's look back to the month of August. During that month, I completed 13 books, 11 video games, and 9 DVDs (7 films and 2 TV seasons). Sure, this was at the onset of my quest, when my passion and energy were at their peak, but mind you, this progress came in the dog days of summer - who's to say the same can't happen during the doldrums of winter?
Back-Blogged isn't about setting short term goals - there is one goal, and it is to eventually complete everything - but I suppose it'd be nice to try to counteract the Christmas gifts (and then some) by the end of my break. As of this moment, I have 28 books, 68 games, and 17 DVDs to go. Thus, I need to come back to school for my second semester with each of these numbers slightly smaller. This is reasonable, I think.
Finally, I'll crunch some numbers. In three and a half months, I was capable of netting 7 books, 4 video games, and 23 DVDs. At this pace, I will be done with my 28 books in a little over a year, my 66 games in four and a half years, and my 17 DVDs in under three months. Of course, these are the crudest and roughest of estimation models. Who knows what will really happen? Well, I do: everything will get finished! I suppose the better question to ask is, who knows when this will really happen? And that, I do not know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a final in eight and a half hours that I need to start studying for.
Alas, to make healthy progress on any goal in life, one must take more steps forward than one does backward; I cannot be foolish or vain enough to measure my successes merely by the work I've done, and must also consider new work I have created for myself. In moments of weakness this semester, I obtained 2 new books, 8 new video games, and 14 DVDs (10 films and 4 TV seasons). My net gains, then, are as follows: 7 books, 4 video games, and 23 DVDs (18 films and 5 TV seasons). Allow me to comment on the triumphs and follies in each category.
Regarding books, I fared about as well as I could have hoped to. The lack of new additions is encouraging, and so is the average heft of the books I completed; three children's books came to about 230 pages each, but the other six books averaged well over 550 pages in length. There are 28 books left in my backlog, but only three exceed 500 pages; the going should get quicker.
My video game progress, or lack thereof, is far more discouraging. The 8 purchases nearly eradicate the 12 completions, especially when it's considered that many of the completions were quick and easy games; at least four of them took less than three hours to complete, and no more than four lasted for more than ten hours. I'll blame part of this on my workload as a senior electrical engineer, but it's still discouraging to see that so little progress was made. Worse still, I've spent much of finals week spending time playing multiplayer Halo 3, a very non-productive waste of valuable logging time. What can I say? Old habits are tough to break, I suppose. Still, shame on me. This mountain of video games will be a tough one to move; 66 games still remain unbeaten.
The DVD front is my finest region, but let's be honest - DVDs are the easiest of the three media to plow through. Aside from TV seasons, they average just over two hours in length. I was always finding time, then, to squeeze in a DVD here or there. An interesting caveat occurred with the DVDs as well. Ten of the purchases (all of the films) came during the month of November. Why? It's tough to say, but my theory is that I was subconsciously very pleased with my logging performance in October (11 DVD completions in that month alone, with 6 in the final 6 days), that I splurged a bit and bought far too many new ones to compensate. As of this moment, 17 DVDs (9 films and 8 TV seasons) remain; had I just not purchased any more films, I'd be completely done with that subregion of my backlog. Incredible.
Now, let's look forward. Christmas is coming, and I expect anywhere from ten to twenty new books, video games, and DVDs. That's over a month's worth of logging setback! Fortunately, with the holidays comes a holiday break from school, and my free time should increase threefold or more. My school has scaled back the length of winter break by at least a full week this year, but I will still be left with just about exactly one month to hit the backlog with everything I've got. I can make no promises, either to myself or any potential readers out there, but just for the sake of comparison, let's look back to the month of August. During that month, I completed 13 books, 11 video games, and 9 DVDs (7 films and 2 TV seasons). Sure, this was at the onset of my quest, when my passion and energy were at their peak, but mind you, this progress came in the dog days of summer - who's to say the same can't happen during the doldrums of winter?
Back-Blogged isn't about setting short term goals - there is one goal, and it is to eventually complete everything - but I suppose it'd be nice to try to counteract the Christmas gifts (and then some) by the end of my break. As of this moment, I have 28 books, 68 games, and 17 DVDs to go. Thus, I need to come back to school for my second semester with each of these numbers slightly smaller. This is reasonable, I think.
Finally, I'll crunch some numbers. In three and a half months, I was capable of netting 7 books, 4 video games, and 23 DVDs. At this pace, I will be done with my 28 books in a little over a year, my 66 games in four and a half years, and my 17 DVDs in under three months. Of course, these are the crudest and roughest of estimation models. Who knows what will really happen? Well, I do: everything will get finished! I suppose the better question to ask is, who knows when this will really happen? And that, I do not know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a final in eight and a half hours that I need to start studying for.
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