My Goals for 2026

Article • 1,017 Words • Living Better, 2025 • 12/26/2025

Background

In years prior I set a word for the year to sum everything up. I enjoyed that immensely, especially because I did have more single minded focuses that lent themselves to that kind of exercise. Although I am sure I could find some kind of common thread if I thought hard about it between these goals, I am enjoying just keeping them separate from each other. They are independent kinds of goals that are representative and arise from different aspects of myself.

Goals

• Host small dinner parties (4-6 seats)
  • Have fun and be creative with table scapes
    • I have tablecloths, placemats, napkins, and napkin rings (I got them for Christmas, thanks Mom!).
    • I might need to get different plates that are more simple as well as some chargers for them in order to really step my game up. I think that its kind of like playing dress-up/house, but with your dining table. A cosplay at fine dining.
  • Be more gourmet about food
    • There is a time and place for comfort food, but I think that it would be more fun to be experimental and inventive during dinner parties.
  • Expose more people to good plant-based cuisine
    • Try to not rely too heavily on plant-based meat
      • It can be more expensive, but I think in some ways it is a crutch and not as challenging to our preconceived notions about food.
• Transform my relationship with technology
  • Use my phone less
    • Set some kind of social media time limits/boundaries
      • I scroll a lot on TikTok and Twitter. I don’t usually regret the time spent on there, but also I do not think that I need to be mindlessly scrolling to fill time.
        • I either want to only scroll when I am on the treadmill or have nothing else to do or to not really scroll at all, I still haven’t fully decided.
        • TikTok and Twitter are where the culture are and I do enjoy being in the know.
    • Look into modded iPod for listening to music
      • I have a lot of collected vinyl and associated digital albums that I could use to listen to.
      • I use Apple Music which is the lesser of the evils of streaming, but still not the best.
      • I previously bought an MP3 player with FM which is a really nice feature, but without a scroll wheel, the navigation experience for songs is not that fun.
  • Look into homelabbing/self-hosting for less reliance on hyperclouds/BigTech
    • I’ve always wanted to homelab, but I especially want to move my photos and documents off Google because they’re gonna want to start charging me for extra storage when I hit the limit soon. Google has also been training on our stuff I fear.
  • Watch more DVDs
    • I have a bunch of DVDs and I haven’t watched a single new movie from it.
      • So far I’ve just used them to play movies in the background when I host.
    • I also want the people around me to watch more DVDs.
      • I buy DVDs from things I watch and like too, more for the ability to lend it to someone. I say this but I am not sure how many people would actually borrow/watch a movie from me. I could bring a DVD player myself though.
  • Look into different watch?
    • I never wear my Apple Watch because it doesn’t like to charge but also I don’t really need all of the features.
    • The Pebble just came back so I might pick one up, or maybe I’ll just get a dumb watch.
  • RSS on E-Reader?
    • Since I have a reMarkable tablet and have to go through their cloud storage solution this would be a little hacky, but it would just be a way to read on my phone less.
• Make things with my hands
  • Candles
    • I have a lot of beer cans and old wine bottles that I could modify to be good candle vessels. I also have been into fragrance a bit recently so I think that it could be a good way to experiment with smell.
    • My partner does pottery so I asked her if she could throw something for us to make a candle in which I think would be really chic and unique.
  • Woodworking
    • My partner and I want to try to make some projects together, but I have also been interested in DIY/woodworking for a little bit but have never had the space to do it in any kind of real capacity.
      • Our first planned project would be a Spice Rack for my Lennox Spice Village since the rack has been sold out for awhile but also because it could be a chance for something a bit more custom.
  • Gifts
    • I have been making gift tags for awhile by hand, but I think I could also add some extra pizzaz by using rubber stamps on the paper bags.
    • This past year I made some postcard-like birthday cards that I might stick to because it’s cute and fun to make and give.
• Read good books and watch good movies (snob-maxxing)
  • I have two theory books about film that I may read, but I am okay with it being more of a hobby than an intellectual interest.
  • This doesn’t really require too much search work from me, more just going down my lists of what to read/watch and be on the look out from what people are buzzing about online.
• Figure out a good system to learn basic Korean
  • This is my most ambitious goal and also the one that I am the least sure about how to proceed with.
    • I don’t believe or really even maybe desire to be conversationally fluent, but at the very least I would like to express myself and be polite to my partner’s family.
  • I have a textbook that I bought for a Korean class that I didn’t end up taking in college, so I might just try to follow along cover to cover with that book, but I am not sure how effective that might be. I definitely don’t want to do Duolingo because I don’t think that it’s that effective in its pedagogy.