Category: 2018 challenges

2018 challenges, Challenges

2018 Challenges: Year in recap

ohnoitsjade

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It’s time for that tradition where I look back on my challenges and make excuses for how poorly I’ve done! Let’s go!

Watch 30 ‘First Watch’ films

1 film out of 30 is absolutely abysmal, and really sets the tone for the rest of the list, but here we are! Yes, I only watched one film from my list this year, and that was The Pianist. The plan was to also write reviews for each film I watched, but you got it, I didn’t do that either.

Watch all of Naruto

I’m especially mad at myself for this challenge, because I was really enjoying Naruto (well… both episodes I watched anyway), and then I just sort of… gave up. It’s kind of daunting knowing there are so many episodes, but you know… I will do it. I will.

Watch 30 anime series

When I look at this challenge, I’m a bit confused. All I seem to do with my life is watch anime, yet I only managed to watch 18 series. I need to up my game for next year!

Platinum 12 games

A challenge I actually managed! I really got back into the swing of trophy hunting by the end of the year, after a slow start. I ended on 14 platinums for the year, and I’m going to do better next year!

Make 3 cosplays from scratch

I didn’t manage to achieve this aim this year, as I only made one costume (Evan from Ni No Kuni 2). I’m not going to be deterred by this as I really loved it, and I learnt a lot during it. I’m not going to set a cosplay goal for next year as I want to focus on making sure I’m happy with everything I make and continuing to learn new skills.

Watch 50 films in the cinema (and write a review for each one)

This was an absolutely laughable challenge. I used to go to the cinema so much, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to see three or four films a day at weekends. This year, I’ve only managed 26 movies in the cinema. And also, totally gave up on writing reviews for them. Whoops!

2018 challenges, Challenges

2018 Challenges: August Recap

ohnoitsjade

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I’ve not updated on the 2018 Challenges since March, so you’d think I’d have a lot to update you on, right? Think again…

Watch 30 ‘First Watch’ Films

Rather pitifully, I’m still sitting at 1 on this, and I’ve not even written the review on it. One review shouldn’t be too hard for me to do (you’d think…) so I’m still going to try and get back on track and get this challenge done.

Watch all of Naruto

Oh, Naruto. I had the best of intentions to watch all of you, but uh… I’ve still only watched the 2 episodes. Realistically, am I going to get the other 218 watched by the end of the year? That’s 16 weeks, so 13ish episodes a week, which actually doesn’t sound too bad. I’m fairly optimistic about this, perhaps stupidly so, but we’ll see!

Watch 30 anime series

Now the summer season shows are wrapping up, I’m hoping to add a few more to this number, but so far I’ve watched 13 different series. I was really burning through anime when I was commuting to work by train, but now I carpool so that’s put the kibosh on any commute-anime-watching. Still, a quarter(ish) of the year to go so another doable one I think.

Platinum 12 games

I’ve never been as confident about something as I am that this challenge will be met. I’m currently sitting at 10 platinum trophies for the year (and 69 overall). I’m currently working on two games; Detroit: Become Human on the PS4 and Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds on the Vita, which will bring me up to my total.

Whilst this was originally a bit of a struggle for me, especially last year, I’ve found in the last couple of months or so that I’ve started to enjoy trophy hunting again.

I’m hoping to get platinum reviews up for the games I’ve done so far, so stay tuned!

Make 3 cosplays from scratch

Cosplay is one of the things that has sort of fallen by the wayside. I haven’t made anything since February, and I’ve not even done any costests, which should be a simple thing to do. I really want to get into cosplay properly again and continue improving the basic skills I’d learnt, but I’m not sure 3 cosplays from scratch is viable by the end of the year.

I am working on one cosplay from scratch for MCM London in October, but even that’s looking a bit dicey!

Watch 50 films in the cinema (and write a review for each film)

Now, I’m not being defeatist, but there is absolutely no way this is happening. My cinema-going habits have changed drastically, and while there is a cinema about half an hour away from my house, I’ve got no one to go with (get out your tiny violins). I don’t actually mind going to the cinema on my own, you can’t talk there anyway so it doesn’t matter to me, but it’s one of those things I never seem to be able to make time for unless someone else is accompanying me.

I’ve seen 22 films in the cinema this year, and I’ve written reviews on THREE of those. Can you see why it’s not happening? I had every intention of going back and writing reviews, but honestly, I don’t feel like I remember the early films enough in order for me to write a decent review.

So, to save me feeling defeated at the end of the year, I think it’s best to scratch this one off now.

2018 challenges, Challenges

2018 Challenges: March Recap

ohnoitsjade

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So, I bailed on doing one of these for February. It’s not that I hadn’t achieved a lot, it’s just that I got really busy with a lot of stuff and didn’t really have time, and then before I knew it, we were well into March. So before we get too far into April, let’s have a look at where I was at the end of last month!

Watch 30 ‘First Watch’ films

I was off to a flying start on this one at the beginning of the year, but I’ve stalled somewhat since then. I will get back on track – I’m still only at 1 film watched, The Pianist, and I still haven’t written my review for it yet.

Watch all of Naruto

Oh man. I had the best of intentions when I put this challenge down. I really want to watch Naruto still, but just… it’s so time consuming. My progress with Naruto has become a bit of a running joke between me and my friends, who will just randomly ask, “How’s Naruto going?” to shut down a conversation. I’ve still only watched the two episodes, so I’m about 65-70 episodes where I need to be for this time of year. The spring anime season is so busy for me as well, so I don’t foresee this actually happening, but I might surprise myself and everyone else.

Watch 30 anime series

As of the end of March, I’d completed 2 anime series this year. This has now actually increased in the last few weeks, and I’ve made a lot of progress very quickly. I’m pretty confident on this one.

Platinum 12 games

I sprang out of the blocks on this one at the beginning of the year, and I’ve just sort of… stayed there since. I’ve been focussing on clearing my backlog (or trying to) instead of platinum hunting, so this is still at 1 platinum trophy. I’m confident I can claw this back.

Make 3 cosplays from scratch

I’m having a debate with myself about what constitutes ‘from scratch’, and how much of a costume I’ve made before it counts for this. I made a lot of my recent Sasha Braus cosplay, but not everything. I’ve not made anything else this year, apart from a skirt for Violet Evergarden. The sad thing is none of my cosplans involve me making everything for the costume, but plans change so we’ll see if this happens!

Watch 50 films in the cinema (and write a review for each film)

By the end of March I’d seen 15 films in the cinema, but only reviewed 3 of them. I’m still planning on getting at least a small review out for all of them, so stay tuned! This is pretty encouraging progress on at least the film-watching aspect of this challenge, so that’s something!

2018 challenges, Challenges

2018 Challenges: January Recap

ohnoitsjade

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For January I’ve been focusing a lot on my personal goals for the year rather than too much related to the 2018 Challenges, so progress has got off to a slow start. Having said that, I am really pleased with the small amount of progress I’ve made (and a great start to my personal goals also!), so here’s what’s been going on.

Watch 30 ‘First Watch’ films

So I’ve actually equalled my total from 2017 on this front, but I’ve watched something on my First Watch list. Celebrations all round! A review is in the pipe-line (recurring theme), but I watched The Pianist. Hooray!

Watch all of Naruto

Perhaps my weakest area, I’ve only watched 2 episodes of Naruto. I was afraid I wasn’t going to like it, but I really do, so me being behind isn’t down to lack of enjoyment, it’s mostly just a lack of time and having to prioritise my free time to other areas.

Watch 30 anime series

So for January I haven’t actually managed to complete any anime series. I’ve started a lot of ongoing shows and something from my To Watch list from MAL. I’m hoping to really turn this one around come February.

Platinum 12 games

Well and truly on schedule for this one. I platinumed Telltale’s Batman after it came free on PS+. A platinum review is forthcoming!

Make 3 cosplays from scratch

I’m having a really hard time planning my cosplays this year. My next couple aren’t going to be entirely from scratch though a lot of the elements are. My main issues are that I’ve not got a lot of conventions lined up, so I’ve not really got anything to plan for which makes things a lot harder.

Watch 50 films in the cinema (and write a review for each film)

I think this challenge might potentially be the one I struggle with most this year. I’ve watched 9 films in the cinema so far but have only written reviews for two of them. I struggled enough to get those reviews out as I felt really out of practice writing a film review, it somehow feels like a totally different process to writing a game review, which I suppose it is in many ways. I do want to get them done and catch up with myself, so again, these 7 reviews are going to be hitting the site imminently.

 

As always, you can follow my progress on Twitter by following me or on #cs2018challenge.

2018 challenges, Challenges

2018 Challenges: First watch films

ohnoitsjade

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So, I’m revamping the ‘New old’ films, as that was a bit of a clumsy title. These are the films I’ll be watching for the first time, so the feature is now ‘First watch films’, inventive right?

Anyway, here is the updated list of the 30 films I’m definitely going to watch for the very first time in 2018.

  1. Planet Of The Apes
  2. Die Hard
  3. Psycho
  4. The Godfather pt. 2
  5. Silence Of The Lambs
  6. Rocky
  7. Gone With The Wind
  8. Schindler’s List
  9. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
  10. American Beauty
  11. The Princess Bride
  12. Reservoir Dogs
  13. Good Will Hunting
  14. Dead Poet’s Society
  15. The Usual Suspects
  16. LA Confidential
  17. Lost In Translation
  18. Watchmen
  19. Garden State
  20. Leon
  21. The Terminator
  22. V For Vendetta
  23. Taxi Driver
  24. The Pianist
  25. Donnie Darko
  26. The Sixth Sense
  27. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  28. The Princess and The Frog
  29. The Matrix
  30. Inglourious Basterds5
2018 challenges, Challenges

2018 Challenges: The Beginning

ohnoitsjade

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Though I rarely complete any of the challenges I set for myself, I actually quite enjoy having them there to focus on throughout the year. I also have a few personal targets I want to meet which are more standard ‘New Years resolution’ type things; get a new job, lose weight, get fitter, save money, travel more, as well as some other hobby based things which aren’t really measurable; continue to improve with photography, get better at posing for cosplay shoots, blog more. Having these challenges as a side to all of the other things I want to achieve helps me focus on things, even if I do end up never fully meeting the goals! It’s fun to try, at least. So, with that in mind, here’s what I’m aiming for this year!

Watch 30 ‘new old’ films

And come up with a better name for this feature! Yes, that’s right, I’m actually going to watch them this year. I’ve replaced the one film I actually managed to watch (and the one that made it onto the list without me realising I’ve actually seen it), and I’ll be getting all of this stuff done!

Watch all of Naruto

My anime knowledge has a lot of gaps, mostly due to the fact that I was a really late starter. I wanted to watch all of a long-running show, and after a lot of research I decided the show for me was Naruto (I will be honest, mostly due to Sasuke and Kakashi). Originally this challenge was to watch all of Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, but I’d managed to underestimate how much there was, and do some truly horrendous maths to figure out how much I’d need to watch each week, and frankly, it’s just not doable with everything else as well! So, not wanting to completely surrender my 2018 to Naruto, I’m settling for just watching Naruto.

Watch 30 anime series

Dejavu much? I know I didn’t manage to hit this last year, but as I said in my 2017 wrap-up, I was slow on the uptake and didn’t really get started until a good way through the year. I do think 30 series is probably pushing it, but hey, at least Naruto will count as one, right?

Platinum 12 games

Wow, another recycled challenge? As I mentioned in my 2017 wrap-up post, I want to get back in the platinum game. 12 platinums is only 1 a month (gr8 maths), so this is totally doable. Which is why I managed it last year. Oh, wait…

Make 3 cosplays from scratch

Last year I really enjoyed making cosplays, so this year I want to push myself more on that front. I also want to rewear a lot of stuff, which is why this isn’t a “do X cosplays” sort of target; that works out hella expensive. I think I have a vague idea of what I want to make across the course of 2018, so I’m excited to get some projects underway.

Watch 50 films in the cinema (and write a review for each film)

I hit 41 on this challenge last year, so I think 50 is pretty reachable. Sometimes cinema-going feels like a bit of a chore to me, but I do really love it still. In the spirit of trying to get myself into the habit of posting more regular blog content, I’m also going to try and post a review for each film I see.

 

Have you got any suggestions of challenges I can add in? Let me know in the comments!