Reflections on 2018 - Drawing

While drawing featured heavily in a few of my goals for 2018, I barely drew anything during the year. I'm sure I can come up with a variety of reasons why I didn't draw, but there's no point in that. Near the end of the year, I did make my drawing area (the couch in front of the TV) more cozy and that did inspire me to start drawing again. I hope to keep it up.

One thing that might help me keep drawing is how incredibly adorable Mr. Stabbity is now.

As a comparison, here is the result of the previous time I drew Mr. Stabbity, well over a year ago, along with Sparkles, Meh, and Shivers. (The file date is 9.12.17, if you were wondering.)
[I have no idea why this image is appearing so pixelated... so click on it to view it in a more smooth way.]

So yes... slight improvement there. 

Reflections on 2018 - Reading Goal

I very just barely accomplished my reading goal for 2018. I finished reading the 36th book with a little over an hour to spare. I did not accomplish the subgoal of reading 12 nonfiction books; I only read 10 of those. I did discover some new (to me) authors this year, which I feel is a much better accomplishment. Before this year, I had never read anything by Jim Butcher, Shirley Jackson, Agatha Christie, or Terry Pratchett. 

Out of all the books I've read, I think my favorite was The Slow Regard of Silent Things, which might not count since that was a second (or third?) reading. So I think I'll have to pick the Dresden Files series as my favorite of the year. (My favorite nonfiction was The Subversive Copyeditor.)

My least favorite was one of the books I gave up on reading (The Happiness Project), but I'll not count that since it's not listed below. Instead, I'll go with The Lathe of Heaven. It wasn't awful in any way, but I didn't really like it. Similar feelings go with my reread of Brave New World. 

Here's the list:

Title	Author	Month finished
The Slow Regard of Silent Things	Patrick Rothfuss	January
Good Leaders Ask Great Questions	John C Maxwell	February
As You Wish	Cary Elwes	February
Train Your Dog Positively	Victoria Stillwell	March
Thanks for the Feedback	Douglas Stone	March
Coraline	Neil Gaiman	February
Stardust	Neil Gaiman	February
Dune	Frank Herbert	April
Spark Joy	Marie Kondo	March
The Martian	Andy Weir	April
QBQ! The Question Behind the Question	John G. Miller	April
Postcards from the Edge	Carrie Fisher	April
The Mysterious Affair at Styles	Agatha Christie	April
Let's Pretend This Never Happened	Jenny Lawson	May
The Ghost Brigades	John Scalzi	June
The Last Colony	John Scalzi	June
Brave New World	Aldous Huxley	July
Storm Front	Jim Butcher	July
Fool Moon	Jim Butcher	August
Yes Please	Amy Poehler	August
Dead Trees Give No Shelter	Wil Wheaton	August
The Subversive Copyeditor	Carol Fisher Saller	October
The Historian	Elizabeth Kostova	August
We Have Always Lived in the Castle	Shirley Jackson	September
Grave Peril	Jim Butcher	September
Summer Knight	Jim Butcher	October
Wizard of Earthsea	Ursula K. Le Guin	October
Death Masks	Jim Butcher	October
Guards! Guards!	Terry Pratchett	November
Neverwhere	Neil Gaiman	November
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life	Eric Idle	December
And Another Thing...	Eoin Colfer	December
Mostly Harmless	Douglas Adams	November
The Lathe of Heaven	Ursula K. Le Guin	December
Going Postal: Discworld #29	Terry Pratchett	December
To Be or Not to Be	Ryan North	December

2018 Goals: Reading - Update

I have about a month left to accomplish my goal of reading (or listening to) three books per month. I figured I'd post an update since I just finished a book (which I started reading because I realized, while reading the summary presented at the beginning of And Another Thing..., that it had been skipped in the order of books; this oversight has been remedied and I can now return to my previously scheduled reading).

I think I'm on track to accomplish my goal. The highlighted entries are the newly-ish added completions to the reading list (since the last post back in June). Any book without an entry in the "month finished" column is in progress. I don't think I'll finish reading the Covey book by the end of the year...

Title	Author	Month finished
The Slow Regard of Silent Things	Patrick Rothfuss	January
Good Leaders Ask Great Questions	John C Maxwell	February
As You Wish	Cary Elwes	February
Train Your Dog Positively	Victoria Stillwell	March
Thanks for the Feedback	Douglas Stone	March
Coraline	Neil Gaiman	February
Stardust	Neil Gaiman	February
Dune	Frank Herbert	April
Spark Joy	Marie Kondo	March
The Martian	Andy Weir	April
QBQ! The Question Behind the Question	John G. Miller	April
Postcards from the Edge	Carrie Fisher	April
The Mysterious Affair at Styles	Agatha Christie	April
Let's Pretend This Never Happened	Jenny Lawson	May
The Ghost Brigades	John Scalzi	June
7 Habits of Highly Effective People	Covey
The Last Colony	John Scalzi	June
Brave New World	Aldous Huxley	July
Storm Front	Jim Butcher	July
Fool Moon	Jim Butcher	August
Yes Please	Amy Poehler	August
Dead Trees Give No Shelter	Wil Wheaton	August
The Subversive Copyeditor	Carol Fisher Saller	October
The Historian	Elizabeth Kostova	August
We Have Always Lived in the Castle	Shirley Jackson	September
Grave Peril	Jim Butcher	September
Summer Knight	Jim Butcher	October
Wizard of Earthsea	Ursula K. Le Guin	October
Death Masks	Jim Butcher	October
Guards! Guards!	Terry Pratchet	November
Neverwhere	Neil Gaiman	November
On Writing	Stephen King
Always Look on the Bright Side of LIfe	Eric Idle
And Another Thing...	Eoin Colfer
Mostly Harmless	Douglas Adams	November

If you didn't notice, I discovered the Dresden Files. The audiobooks are amazing and I highly recommend the series. 

If you were interested in a summary that doesn't involve you counting entries, there are 35 books listed, 4 books in progress, and 10 12 nonfiction books. If I don't finish the one mentioned above, I'll need to add 1 nonfiction and 1 other book to the list to meet both the goal and the subgoal. 

Good luck, me.