May 2010 Recap

Well, I'm glad that's over with. The month of May was, by all Back-Blogged accounts, a terrible one. I don't want to throw my comrades under the bus, but then, I need to speak for the team with these recaps. The numbers are as follows. Together, we logged 35 items in the Month of May. That's not terrible. It's our lowest total since February (33 items in 28 days - better ratio, actually), but it's still not awful. Here's what is: Keith, Trevor, and Webber made just one post each. Marissa posted a personal best (but still underwhelming) four times. And Sweeney, my compatriot from the beginning of all of this, made a scant three posts. That leaves 25 items that were my own doing. I'm used to carrying this project - and I'm not complaining, as it is my own project - but guys, what happened?

But I'm not throwing stones; my own house is made out of glass so thin you could break it by blowing on it. Not just one, but both of my logging goals were shot to shit this month. Remember how I said I'd make progress in every category in every month? Yeah, that didn't happen. I did manage to read 6 books while only obtaining 5 new ones (2 were gifts). But in the DVD department, I went an unsatisfactory 5 and 8 for a negative net total of -3. Think that's bad? Consider this. I managed to beat 14 video games but still found myself extremely negative in that category; I acquired a whopping 20 new games this month. I can't even blame it on my birthday, either; just 4 were gifts. Oh, and as far as "log two for every new one" is concerned? That's shot to shit entirely.

So what happened? Life happened. I figured once I graduated college I'd be able to spend days on end in front of TV screens. That's why I bought so many games in the first place. What I didn't count on was that the mere acts of graduating and moving back home would take up nearly a week's worth of time and that once I was home I'd want to actually enjoy the beautiful weather. I'm not making excuses. I fucked up. Big time. I never should have purchased a single game this month, let alone 20. Perhaps that can be a goal for June: no new purchases.

But no! No. These monthly goals I'm convinced, have put a strain on my logging; obsessed with quantity, I've been beating my shortest games and reading my shortest books. And in doing so, I've been missing the point, the essence, the reason for this project in the first place: to discover brilliant classics already on my shelves. I mean, no wonder I reached my breaking point with the Mega Man X Collection the other day. I've got critically beloved games aplenty, and I'm spending my summer days on shovelware for the sake of some silly resolution. You know what my problem is? It's the input. I need to cut myself off at the source. I tried not allowing myself to buy new things until two other things had been finished, but that clearly didn't work at all. Maybe the key is just a concentration on not buying anything. Sweeney told me the other day that I should not buy a single game until my gaming backlog is down to 45 games or so. Currently, it stands at 71, so that'd be 26 games to beat. I'm not opposed to such a radical idea, but I lack the inner strength to accept such a challenge.

Because I'm so fucked on the two-for-one goal anyway, I'm abandoning it. That goal allowed me to "reward" myself every time I beat two games or read two books. The goal shouldn't be to buy half as many things as I beat; it should be to buy nothing. I need to treat new purchases as sins. I need to have a dozen good reasons for every new item I acquire. That's new goal number one. There is no "new goal number two." But I wouldn't mind making some monthly goals. Before, I liked the mystery aspect of Back-Blogged. But if I can set certain itemized goals, it will put the pressure on me to go for them. I'll even take suggestions from my fellow loggers.

So let's do this. We'll start with books. I'm currently in the middle of three books, but one is Moby-Dick and I don't want to promise that I can finish that one. It's been a work in progress for almost a year now and, well, I have my reasons. The other two books, however, are Joseph Heller's God Knows and the nonfictional scientific title Fearful Symmetry. If I can't finish those two books by June 30th - and hell, let's throw in the rest of Madeline L'Engle's Time Quartet as well - then please call me out for it. That's four books. Nothing huge, but I'd rather not be overambitious. In terms of movies and TV shows, the glaring obvious choices are the final two seasons of Seinfeld and the second and final season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Again, the theme here is finishing what I've started. In keeping with that theme, let me make the following vows for video games. I will complete the Mega Man X Collection. I will also beat both Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 2. And why not throw in Trauma Center: Second Opinion while we're at it? That's only six games, but I don't want to promise anymore than that. So that's six games, four books, and three DVD sets that I've specifically promised. Might as well get to work, huh? June should be a better month than May. It has to be. It will be.