So somewhere in my crazy mind, I’d convinced myself it’d be a good idea to write my wrap-up for The 2016 100 all as one post, because I’m always so curt with my posts, of course. A few days of working on it quickly killed that idea, and here were are with the second part of my wrap-up, covering the things I didn’t get around to in 2016, but still plan to manage this year, as well as my reasons why.
(Note: You will see these in some form in The 2017 100, so you know—don’t be too surprised.)
What I Didn’t Do, But Still Want to Do Next Year
7) Stop biting my nails—Ugh. What I probably need to do first is reduce the amount of stress in my life to get a better chance of dropping this disgusting habit. I had a good run early in the year, but hey. Maybe I’ll have better luck this time!
8) Get rid of the wedding thank you cards I never sent—I don’t think those past thank you’s are getting sent. It’s just… not something I’m doing. Instead, I think I’d love to start sending Christmas letters with some personalisation. I’m not a complete jackass, guys, but there needs to be a point where we agree to move on.
13) Sort out my old TD employee RSP—Any outstanding finances in general, really: part of being an adult is knowing how much your insurance will pay out. What your benefits cover. What’s in your stock portfolio. 2017 Casey Palmer needs a better handle on all this kind of stuff!
14) Consolidate everything down to a single notepad—I mean, you don’t see the magic happening, but my desk and dining room table are plastered with pages of notes as I draft out my posts. Will it happen? Maybe. Do I want it to? Oh heck yes ?
19) Get to 0 drafts on CaseyPalmer.com by converting everything into live posts—So there’s still… (*checks*) 120+ items in there, but I’m working on a major initiative this year that I think will rely on all my unfinished work to see it through. You can expect more news about it in late January, but I am not worried about this one!
20) Install the growth chart for my kids that we got at my office baby shower—This really shouldn’t be as hard as I imagine it to be. Some YouTubing, some tools, and a bit of effort and I should just get this done.
21) Update all the old content on CaseyPalmer.com—With nearly 850 posts published, I’m pretty sure there’re some gems buried in there that deserve to see the light of day! Even those that aren’t amazing can be made amazing—new photos, new thoughts, new SEO? You know we can rock this!
27) Hand out my remaining business “cep” cards so I can put in a new order (wait—do we still do business cards?)—So I’m working with Dez Diaz of Dezign Creative Services on a new design for Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad, and I look forward to designing a new card for 2017 that shows the best of what I’ve got! But I’ve gotta get rid of my old ones first. Time to meet new people!
30) Figure out what I ACTUALLY need to run my site and invest in THAT.—The first half of 2017? Canada’s 150th. But the second half? The second half of the year’s all about getting this site straight. It’s expensive to run a blog, but how expensive does it really have to be? That’s what I aim to find out!
32) Meet with the people who I never seemed to schedule in through 2015 (Aaron, Emma, Ria, Adrienne, Dianna)—Lawdamercy, the number of people I’ve gotta see sometime’s ridiculous. If I’m disciplined, I should be able to schedule some lunches—if I get the family calendar down. Then the work calendar. And the content calendar. And then somewhere in between? Lunches. …this is going to be one interesting year. ?
33) Get a Brookhaven Computer Cabinet — …I probably work on this content too much to keep doing it on a Canadian Tire desk that’s falling apart. (It’s not the desk’s fault—toddlers will do a number on some furniture!) I’ve had my eye on the Brookhaven for a hot minute—I think 2017’s the time to make the plunge!
35) Get Sarah a new computer to replace her quickly aging Asus—I’m thinking a Microsoft Surface Pro.—This has got to happen—I can’t take the complaints anymore ? After doing so much research I should probably run my own tech blog, I’m going the Guy Maven route and getting Sarah a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 so she can compute like it’s 2017, and not 2010, when BlackBerry was still relevant and the iPad was brand spanking new. (And now we want to go back in time and laugh at everyone for the hype….)
38) Buy a hacksaw. (I literally have no saws in my toolboxes, and that’s never a good idea!)—I mean… yes I need a hacksaw, but now is this even on the list? I’m just gonna add one to my Canadian Tire sale alerts and buy it when I’m ready.
39) Make photo books for Little Man and his little brother.—I should really just get this done so Sarah can stop guilting herself over not getting it done for so long. I mean—I literally have all the photos. Second half 2017? Second half 2017.
44) Give Sarah the mystery gift I promised her since we started dating, since she saw this list when I was writing it and demanded to know why it didn’t make the cut*. — SECOND HALF 2017. I’ll say no more about it—mystery and all—but it may be the only item that’s been on every list of resolutions. Since 2013.
47) Finish the CaseyPalmer.com upgrade.—…it’s like I didn’t even read #30. Apparently making this site as dope as possible is pretty important to me!
49) Draw more. WAY more. Use up all these art supplies cluttering my space!—Ugh. If there’s anything that keeps me up at night—and it’s a short list; I am one solid sleeper—it’s Fish ‘n’ Chimps. The comic in my head that’s utterly awesome, but none of you know it, because it’s trapped in my cranium. I should probably just tack the plotline to my wall, so every time I feel like slacking off, I’ll hustle harder so I can get back to one of my favourite pasttimes!
54) Clean out the garage.—Yes, yes, a million times yes. Thing is a death trap right now—I’m sure there’s plenty in there we don’t need, but we’ve gotta roll our sleeves up and make it happen! Coming soon in 2017!
55) EXERCISE, you dummy—you aren’t getting any younger! Drink more water while you’re at it!—You know you need to exercise—you always know this, but it doesn’t really sink in until you look at pics of yourself over the years and go, “Damn.” Yeah. Let’s get all the junk out of the house and be real about it this year!
56) Do a full wardrobe refresh!—I mean, yes: I love me some high-quality gear—I got stopped by a woman on the subway to let me know how much she loves nmy Nobis Kato jacket—but you can still look fly off the sale rack if you shop smart enough! When you’ve got no time to sew things shut, hey—get your bargain on!
59) Get new headphones to replace my Audio-Technica ATH-M50s which’re falling apart from overuse.—Can’t even deal with my headphones only working in one ear anymore. (Again—#ToddlerLife.) I already put some mean Sennheisers down on my Best Buy wishlist last year, so who knows—maybe I’ll sort this out soon enough!
62) Get your goram G licence!—I mean, it expires in the summer. I gotta book this ASAP.
63) Hang Christmas lights up for the first time!—When you’re walking your toddler around your neighbourhood and he’s mentioning all the stuff he sees on other houses that he’d like to see on his own, you know you need to stop stalling and make something happen. I’m going to have to treat my buddy who works in lighting to some beers to help me lock this down!
64) Find a new box for my cufflinks.—I mean, sure, I bought my Bombay cufflink box for myself, yeah, but anyone married knows that you rarely buy anything that’s yours and yours alone. So yeah, it mysteriously broke. ? But I need to get my hands on one ASAP—trying to find my cufflinks in a tiny box each morning? No bueño, hombres.
65) Formalize the CaseyPalmer.com business strategy—Always good to come correct with your small business game. I’m not much of a planner, but heck—sometimes you’ve gotta play by the rules to get everything that’s coming to you!
66) Solidify my social media presence, including finalizing my LinkedIn profile and getting the @CaseP Instagram account.—If I don’t get in touch with Peter Steven Joseph Case this year and get my hands on the @CaseP Instagram handle, I’ll likely lose my mind. GET AT ME, PETER!!!
68) Change my life insurance mailing address from my parents’ to mine—Is this even a serious item? It’s a phone call away! A phone call! I just gotta get this thing done.
69) Now that I’ve got my hands on a DJI Osmo, shoot more video content in 2016! But get a lapel mic and shotgun mic for the thing, first!—You know, gotta start somewhere. Just shoot. Get out there and try it out!
73) Clean out the eavestroughs—I mean, is this list even aspirational? This involves climbing a ladder and getting some leaves out of the gutter. Think this through I did not.
74) Read my candygrams from high school—I’m no hoarder, but some things you just hold on to. One thing that’s been very important to me is the box of candygrams and notes I’d collected through my high school years! In the pre-digital years, so much got lost if we didn’t document our experiences, so I find it very interesting to see life play out through the eyes of others! I’m hoping to go back and see where these mementos from the past might play a role in my life today.
75) Create more visual content (infographics, comics, etc.)—I’ve always been enamoured by data, but it’s so much more of a time investment than writing that I usually don’t get to exploring it. In 2017, I hope to use more of the graphic resources I have stored up to help tell my stories—I won’t grow if I don’t experiment!
76) Build an emergency preparedness kit for the family—It’s good to see that this one’s in Sarah’s resolutions as well, because you never know when things might go south with your family! With her on board, I feel this has a better chance of happening, and as we get the garage cleared out, hopefully space to keep it all!
77) Cook for the family more often—One of the books I’ve had sitting around is Julie van Rosendaal’s Starting Out: The Essential Guide to Cooking on Your Own, a book for those who find cooking intimidating, helping out with simple steps to help transform people from cooking scrubs to cooking studs. I look forward to overcoming this hurdle!
78) Write Christmas cards for friends, family and neighbours—Like I mentioned with #8, we get cards from family, friends, neighbours and coworkers, and it’s important that we show others we care about them as much as they do about us. This is just one way of doing that!
79) Get a photographer to work with me at events so I’m not so “invisible” on my blog—You don’t notice how few photos you take of yourself as a photographer until you start writing about yourself as a blogger. To better personalise Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad in 2017—and without the time to invest in proper self-portraiture—I’ve thought about doing some photo shoots to get the photos I need to illustrate my work. Looking forward to this one!
83) Buy a Gary Fong Collapsible Snoot—The Gary Fong Collapsible Snoot is a piece I’ve meant to get my hands on for a while to continue expanding my photography, but I’ve never bothered sorting the details out since it’s so expensive to grab north of the border! But with enough friends in the CONUS, I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it happen!
84) Read the Bible more often with Little Man—With the chaos that comes from the #ToddlerLife, it’s easy to lose track of family traditions as you work to keep all the little ones intact! In 2017, we’d love to bring our kids’ Bible stories back when we finish our dinners. Which is why I just put a daily Google Calendar reminder in to make this happen!
87) Read all the comics I have stacked on my list—I used to live in comic shops when I was younger—tons of my storytelling comes from reading great tales like Transmetropolitan, Preacher, and Lone Wolf and Cub. But save the odd webcomic, I’ve fallen out of touch with that side of my life lately, too busy adulting to let my imagination roam. That doesn’t mean I haven’t kept tabs on the great work that’s still coming out, though. In 2017, I’ll hopefully reacquaint myself with the kind of stories I loved reading best. It’s 2017: I think we’ve learned that comic books aren’t just for kids!
88) Use the Adobe Creative Cloud more effectively—You may have noticed lately that I’m looking to create visuals that really go beyond what you’d expect from your standard blogger. I’ve subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud for some time, and coming in around $80 CAD/month, I make it my mission to make sure I get my money’s worth by continually testing what I can do with all these tools! Keep your eyes peeled!
90) Actually make use of the MailChimp newsletter list I’ve put together and communicate with my email list!—One thing a lot of bloggers fail at is doing anything significant with their email lists. What I hope to do more of in 2017 is communicate regularly to the hundreds who’ve signed up for my emails already, and continue growing that list so people know when I have anything important to put out!
91) Call my grandparents a little more often… just to see how they’re doing.—Admittedly, I had some improvements as a grandson in 2016. Though our plans to visit my paternal Grandma on Christmas Day were stalled by a dead car battery and napping kids, I’ve had more conversations with both grandmothers this year than in those previous. But we can always do better, and that’s something I need to strive for in 2017.
93) Take better advantage of personal development programs at work—The problem—the only problem—with a great benefits package is that most who have them fail to fully explore everything they have to offer. This year, I hope to get a better understanding of everything available to me so I can make sure I’m doing all I should to support my work-life balance.
95) Finish up the last remaining posts I’d wanted to write in 2015.—As said with #19, this year’s major initiative for Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad should hopefully see my glut of old content done away with as I seek out great stories to fill the blog in 2017! More info coming soon!
97) Explore more of Toronto and write about the experience (I’m looking at you, Casa Loma!)—Since the boys always need new experiences (and I’ve experienced the joy of keeping a toddler at home all day), we should all discover new parts of the city and truly stake our claim as Torontonians! Let’s see where I drag these guys!
98) Support more worthwhile causes, but learn more about what they REALLY do with their resources—There’s always cause after cause asking for money, but I’d really like to understand which ones need it most, and which ones make the best use of the money they get! Data mining, anyone?
100) Visit BOTH of my brothers’ houses since I’ve never seen EITHER of them. AND my boy Jay’s. And my best bud Rami’s (once he’s all married and settled in and stuff.) VISIT ALL THE PEOPLE!!!—Now—while I got the brother in Mississauga and my main man’s places covered, and I’ll see my brother’s pad in Peterborough when we celebrate our boys’ birthdays later this month, I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to con my buddy Jay into seeing is place even though he’s only a 5-minute drive away! …but if that’s what it takes….
And there we have 46 things I didn’t do in 2016 but would still very much like to do this year! Which leaves 28 items. 28 items I’m either not even bothering with or putting on hold until some point in the future when I can make them happen!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this second instalment—look forward to our final hurrah to 2016 tomorrow!
Until the next,
Your list is a long one, my friend. I nod at a few of them (#21 – updating the old posts; #39 – I have so many photos of Mikey that need to be put into an album) because they are on my to-do list as well. I have my formal to-do list (VERY important things that need to get done – update will, financial stuff) and the informal one with the “should do when I have time but not a huge a priority right now.” The lists are long.
I like your idea #97 – exploring more of Toronto. This will happen with the boys! I anticipate exploring more with Mikey now that he’s a bit bigger. Fun times ahead.
I’m sure we’ll see posts about you accomplishing these things as 2017 progresses!
Heh — sorry Margaret, meant to reply to this earlier, but you know… life.
Yeah — these lists have gotten a bit harder as I get the important stuff dealt with (will, power of attorney, education funds, etc.), so it leaves me wondering whether there’re still 100 things in 2017 that matter enough for me to put them on the list. I mean, it’s not like anyone’s holding me to 100 items, but I suppose it’s been more tradition than anything else ?
But yes — 2017 will involve more communication — no more stretches where no one knows what’s going on with my plans. It’ll take a lot more effort, but ultimately, I think it’ll be worth it!
Chat soon ?