GENERAL: New Year resolutions update third quarter

It's a whole ten months since I made my 2009 New Year resolutions, so I thought I'd revisit them for the last time this year and see where I'm at.

Finish 2000 points of Blood Angels Space Marines
Done!

Paint 1000 points of my Ork army
I have built all the models but haven't painted a single one. It now looks extremely unlikely that I'll even start painting the Orks this year.

Paint a total of 100 points of models over the year (the formula is in this blog entry)
I've now fallen behind schedule with this as I'm on 61 points. If I paint all of my Aeronautica Imperialis planes in the coming weeks that will add 19 points and leave me on 80 points. In theory some Orks would push me on to the magic 100 points but I'm not sure I'll achieve this.

Completely finish publishing my old battle reports
Done!

Finish my Blood Bowl league
Still on hold, it's looking unlikely I'll get around to this.

Finish my trench board and accompanying terrain
This has been delayed while I built my 40k Ork army and started painting my AI squadrons, but I still have high hopes of finishing by the end of the year.

Restart my News and Rumour posts
I've not kept up with this in the last few weeks, largely because I've been busy with other things and I've not been keeping up with the news and rumours. Also, Games Workshop have really clamped down on leaks so there just don't seem to be the rumours out there to report back on.

Switch domains
I had forgotten about this. I'm still skint so the incentive is there for me to do this.

Buy no more Games Workshop novels
I still haven't bought any novels but I've won a total of three across the year in competitions! My reading pile has reduced, though, so I'll keep to this resolution for the time being.

Review every Games Workshop book I read and review a broader range of Games Workshop products
This isn't going to happen in 2009. My reviews will have to wait until 2010.

Spend nothing at all on models
I buckled on this resolution when I bought some models for my Ork army. I have a lot of money in my New Model Fund, though, so I'm not too upset with myself. I think I'll loosen the purse strings a bit next year and start spending some of that cash.

Have £500 in the New Model Fund by the end of year
I've done so well in this regard that I've increased my target to £750. It will mean another blitz of stuff on eBay in the coming weeks but I've already got a selection of models ready to go and I'm confident that they'll pull in that last £80 or so.

I'm happy that I've already achieved some of my big resolutions, such as finishing my Blood Angels and converting my battle reports, and that I've largely kept to my spending resolutions.

There are some that I'm just not going to be able to keep though, such as painting my Orks. This isn't due to laziness on my part - the thing I've learned is that my goals will change over the year depending on my mood, Games Workshop releasing new games and models and even how busy I am at work.

It helps to have targets to push you on but you don't want so many targets that it puts you off even starting. I think I've felt a bit overwhelmed at times in the last few months so it's something to bear in mind when it comes to making more resolutions in 2010.

Anyway, I'll be back in late December or early January with the final recap of my resolutions.

PS - It's Remembrance Sunday today so I observed my two minute silence at 11.00am. I know that the idea is you remember those who gave their lives in the first world war, but I personally gave a thought to all of the pilots who gave their lives in the second world war.

GENERAL: New Year resolutions update second quarter

It's now been six months since I blogged my New Year resolutions and one half of the year has gone so I thought I'd revisit them to see how I've done.

Finish 2000 points of Blood Angels Space Marines
I've painted about 1700 points and just have half a Land Raider Crusader and one character model to go. They should be finished by the end of July at the latest.

Paint 1000 points of my Ork army
That will begin once the Blood Angels are done in the second half of the year.

Paint a total of 100 points of models over the year (the formula is in this blog entry)
I'm sitting on 50 points exactly halfway through the year. Bang on target!

Completely finish publishing my old battle reports
I'm so close to this I can almost taste it. I have one tournament to finish off and then one campaign and that's it. Easily do-able by the end of the year.

Finish my Blood Bowl league
This is on hold at the moment as I have completely stopped playing games. I'm not sure if or when I'll start again.

Finish my trench board and accompanying terrain
I plan on taking this resolution by the scruff of the neck over the next few months. I'll drop the army painting for a few weeks and blitz the board and terrain with Planetstrike goodies. I can't wait.

Restart my News and Rumour posts
I've kept going with these despite them just being a round up of anything new or interesting I've seen elsewhere on the 'Net. Getting picked up by Bell of Lost Souls was quite amusing even if I wasn't the primary source of the rumours!

Switch domains
I still haven't gotten around to this yet. I usually get billed in the summer so I'm sure that will give me the momentum to sort myself out when it lands on my doormat.

Buy no more Games Workshop novels
I'm going strong on this resolution, much to my surprise. If there was one resolution I thought I would break it was this one. It has forced me to read some of my backlog of books. (Un)fortunately I won two books in a competition so I still added to my 'to read' pile!

Review every Games Workshop book I read and review a broader range of Games Workshop products
I haven't got round to this as I've been busy with other projects. I expect to start properly in a month or two, especially with the full book reviews.

Spend nothing at all on models
Kept so far. I started out strong and then wobbled a bit about six weeks ago when I bid on a load of eBay auctions. Luckily I won none of them. Afterwards I wondered what the hell I was thinking? I have also managed to resist the new Imperial Guard models which was quite a test.

Have £500 in the New Model Fund by the end of year
I'm stuck just short of my target. My time and energy for eBaying my stuff has disappeared. This is a shame because I really am broke at the moment so I could do with the cash - even if it is earmarked for my New Model Fund at a later date. Maybe I need to set some time aside to just blitz my stuff; forget the painting for a fortnight and just sell a pile of gear. Hmmm...

So overall I'm broadly happy with my progress and I hope to tackle a few of the outstanding ones before my next resolutions update.

PS - I have posted my first Gauntlet tournament game from 2005 on my battle reports blog. It was a fluffy clash between my Chaos Space Marines and Dark Angels loyalist Space Marines. Check it out here.

GENERAL: New Year resolutions update

I'm rattling through those Imperial Guard battle reports now! This particular game was versus Steve and his Death Guard.

And now on to the show...

It's been three months since I blogged my New Year resolutions so with a quarter of the year gone I thought I'd revisit them and see how I've done.

Finish 2000 points of Blood Angels Space Marines
I now have 1135 points completed and I'm still on course to hit the 2000 point target.

Paint 1000 points of my Ork army
That will begin once the Blood Angels are done in the second half of the year.

Paint a total of 100 points of models over the year (the formula is in this blog entry)
I've added my painting points to the sidebar of the blog and that now stands at 31, so I'm currently well ahead of schedule.

Completely finish publishing my old battle reports
As I keep mentioning the end is in sight on this front.

Finish my Blood Bowl league
I haven't even thought about this yet. I'm getting a bit bored by straight up 40k battles at the moment. Maybe I should switch back to Bloodbowl?

Finish my trench board and accompanying terrain
Again, this is on the back burner for now but I still plan to finish it this year.

Restart my News and Rumour posts
I've done this successfully but I'm not sure what it adds to my blog. Other blogs and forums cover this better than I ever will be able to. What I wanted was to be able to record my browsing on forums and blogs and flag this up to people reading my own blog just in case they hadn't seen it elsewhere. I think Neil Gaiman calls it 'tab closing' on his blog. What does everyone think - should I continue with these posts or not?

Switch domains
Done nothing yet but I'm still poor so this will happen at some stage.

Buy no more Games Workshop novels
I've kept to this resolution so far. It has forced me to finish the Ultramarines omnibus and I've just started on the Last Chancers trilogy.

Review every Games Workshop book I read and review a broader range of Games Workshop products
This will happen as I have taken notes on every book I have read since Christmas (and before). I've held off blogging the reviews while I've been producing my battle reports so expect a flood of reviews when they are finished. I guess it wasn't the best idea to promise to review a broader range of products at the same time as I stopped buying models and books from Games Workshop!

Spend nothing at all on models
I'm still going strong on this resolution, although I am building up quite a wish list. The new Imperial Guard codex will test my willpower to its limits, though.

Have £500 in the New Model Fund by the end of year
I've only had one private sale, and no eBay auctions at all, since Christmas but I have still got over £250 in the fund. This is largely due to carrying some money over from last year and also spending none. I want to go eBay crazy in the next couple of months and sell a tonne of stuff before the Imperial Guard codex is released.

So all in all I'm quite pleased with my progress. I'll check back in at the six month mark to see if I'm meeting my targets.