Things I wanna do in 2026
This post is maybe derivative or a repetition of what I wrote 2 weeks ago but it's what's on my mind.
Weight loss & healthy habits
What's not changing: the gym. My wife and I continue to see a personal trainer and will continue for the foreseeable future. We find the sessions really helpful and I've mentioned this before, but I notice a difference in my ability to play softball (the parts of me that don't work are not really repairable by our sessions).
What needs to change: According to my most recent blood work, my cholesterol is considered high and increased since the last time I had blood work completed. The official recommendation is "treat this with diet modification and increased exercise (both cardio and weight training)." I'm already doing weight training, but diet and cardio need work. I haven't logged any food since October and have neglected recording my daily weight (though I have been monitoring the scale daily until up to the holidays).
What I've done: I started tracking my calories again yesterday (Monday). I haven't set any specific targets other than making sure my calorie target is set to reflect a goal weight of 245 lbs (as of Monday morning I weighed in at 250 lbs). The first step is to go through the entire week logging every day, and then I'll look into specifics like diet changes to reduce added cholesterol. I may need to purchase a "Gold" membership for Cronometer.
Blogging
I'm already blogging! Mission accomplished! Jokes aside, I have some specific goals for blogging in mind.
Photos by Stephen Gower: I'm going to approach this blog on a quarterly basis, which means 13 week intervals. In a perfect world I'd have 13 posts, or once a week, but I don't always have photos I deem "worthy" of posting. However, I think it's fair to say I can find at least 4 photos within the first 13 weeks of the year to share. 4 posts in 13 weeks is just over a 30% "success rate", but any number above 0 is welcome. I shared a photo last week so there's only 3 to go!
Alternative Airwaves: I'm not a music writer, and it's been a long time since I've gone searching for new music to share with people. I don't talk about music or listen to music the same way enthusiasts do, but I still enjoy telling people, "Hey I liked this album!". Perhaps there will be some further blog posts here. The last post that was about music was a brief review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Original Motion Picture Score - Ultimate Edition. There's another one before that, reviewing an album from Vulture Feather. So there is some magic left for that blog. More on that note later...
The Slow Reader: I'd like to write about books some more. I had fun writing my 2025 wrap-up, so I'd like to do more of that kind of thing.
Other: I've had various ideas for starting something new but I don't want to spread myself too thin. The solution might be write things in a notebook for myself and figure it out later.
Podcasts
I brought up Alternative Airwaves & The Slow Reader - I want to get back into recording podcasts. I think I can count on one hand how many times I recorded something in 2025, which is a little sad. I've got a great basement studio set up and I'm not using it, and I miss it. As far as Alternative Airwaves goes, I think my renewed interest in recording something for this show comes from re-listening to the CBC Radio 3 podcast - I'm caught up to January 20061. This is the podcast that inspired me to start my own after all...
I don't know what I'll do in the podcast scene for 2026. I don't have any set goals, just desires. I think I'm going to take the first quarter to mull it over; I'll get back to this in April.
Writing
I'm not sure why this is separate from blogging, but whatever. I'd really like my personal website to do two things:
- Act as a "gateway" to who I am and all the things I make online. It's my online presence, somewhere I can point someone to if they want to know what I do.
- Showcase my best writing.
For #2, I define "best writing" as long-form, polished work separate from blog posts2. Things that could one day be collected into a short book or something. I don't think there will be an RSS feed anywhere. It's a simple website with links to what I do, and pieces of writing that I can feel freer to share with people I know (I'm not the only person that thinks this way - it can be weird to think about people whom you know are reading your blog).
That's all I got from my mind today. Now that everything and everyone is "back to routine" I think this will be the last of this kind of post for a while.