Charlie Custer

2019 was an interesting year, and one in which we made some big changes, including buying a used Tesla Model 3 and getting a large solar power array for our home. It was also a year that marked a sharp leftward turn in my political thinking, driven primarily by concerns about climate change.

2019 Books

I didn’t have an explicit book-related goal in 2019, but I’m adding a books section to this post as I think it’s valuable. Here’s what I read this year:

• The Years of Rice and Salt (Kim Stanley Robinson)
• The Three-Body Problem (Liu Cixin)
• Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order (Noam Chomsky)
• The Dark Forest (Liu Cixin)
• Death’s End (Liu Cixin)
• Radical Candor (Kim Scott)
• Exhalation: Stories (Ted Chiang)
• House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
• Aurora (Kim Stanley Robinson)
• The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell)

There’s something good to be said for all of these books (that’s why I finished them; they’re not the only books I started in 2019). But particular standouts include: the Three-Body trilogy, as original and ambitious a work of science fiction as I’ve come across; House of Leaves, an insane work of art unlike anything I’ve ever read; and Aurora, which strikes me as one of the more believable and realistic stories about the idea of a “generation ship”.

I plan to do more reading in 2020, but we’ll cover that in the 2020 goals section. First, a look at what I did and didn’t do in 2019.

2019 Review

I’ll continue with my tradition from last year of offering a letter grade for each goal after some details about how close I came.

Remain valued at Dataquest.

Over 2019 I received two raises and a promotion, so although this is not an area where I want to take my foot off the gas, it seems fair to say that I met this goal in 2019. A.

Get up and exercise early.

I certainly haven’t made a habit of this, but it’s worth pointing out that the reason for setting this goal was to work exercise into my schedule. In late 2019 I had a streak of running five miles a day that lasted over 70 days before finally being ended by a death-cold on Christmas (which I’m still grappling with), so I think it’s fair to say that although I haven’t made getting up early a part of my routine, regular runs did become one, so I’ll give this a D rather than an F.

Get a new winter summit.

I simply didn’t do it, so there’s no way around an F here. There are reasons, of course: mountaineering alone is dangerous, even in New England, and my regular partner Rick has moved further away and is putting more time into his guiding business. But even so, this was an accomplish-able goal that I failed to accomplish.

Cover 750 miles running/hiking.

Although I covered almost zero miles hiking, I easily surpassed this goal with runs. According to Strava, I ran a total of 873.2 miles this year, spending 148 hours total across 207 separate runs. My longest streak was a 72-day series of 5 mile runs that ran from October through late December. A.

Create some mograph pieces I’m proud of.

I haven’t produced as much as I would like to, but I did produce some mograph work that I liked in 2019, much of it in gif form. For example, this looping promo graphic for a Dataquest sale is pretty cool, and I think this hype video came out pretty well. But I wouldn’t say that I added a lot to my skills in this area or created anything new and mind-blowing for a reel, so I think this one gets a C.

Get at least 75% of the way through Dataquest’s Data Analyst path.

I didn’t do this, although I did get through all of the Python and pandas basics stuff, as well as some data viz. D.

Complete at least two motion-design-related courses.

I didn’t do this at all. I did work through some Conversion XL marketing courses on psychology and neuromarketing, so it’s not as though I didn’t learn anything this year, but in the realm of mograph, I really didn’t expand my skills much. F.

Add survival/homestead skills.

This one was a bit vague to begin with, so it’s difficult to assess. I have, out of necessity, learned some really basic small engine repair stuff, as well as how to change the headlights in a car (well, at least in a 2010 Toyota Rav4). Through volunteering for the fire department and joining a couple of local political groups, I’ve also started building a bit of community, which is arguably an important skill. There’s still much to be done here, but I’ll give this a C, since the conditions for meeting this goal weren’t really clear in last year’s post anyway.

2020 Goals

I’ll continue with the why/how structure that I used in last year’s goals.

Become a licensed EMT in Maine.

Why: I would like to be a useful member of the Pownal Fire Department (I’m currently a useless one), and this seems like a good way to do that while also adding medical skills that could have value in a lot of contexts, and that can be further built upon.

How: I’ve already signed up for an EMT training program in Lewiston; if I can stick with it and stay on schedule I should be ready to take the test sometime in May or June.

Run or hike 800 miles this year.

Why: Health and fitness is important. This is only slightly increased from last year’s goal, but it still averages out to more than two miles a day, which is decent.

How: Establish a regular running cadence six days a week. I’d like to aim for about 35 miles per week in weeks when I’m healthy.

Read at least 20 books.

Why: I think reading is a healthier habit for the brain than most other forms of media consumption, and there’s a lot of interesting stuff out there that’s really only available in books.

How: Primarily via the next goal on this list: changing my pre-sleep habits.

Improve my “sleep hygiene.”

Why: I’m currently falling asleep with a headphone in one ear, listening to mostly The Office or Best of the Worst episodes. When I wake up, the first thing I do is check my phone. I don’t think either of these habits are particularly healthy.

How: Move my phone into the bathroom; acquire an alarm clock for the morning and a reading light so that I can read instead of listening to TV at night.

Spend significantly less money on Amazon.

Why: It’s a terrible company that treats workers poorly and pays nothing in taxes, and I’d like to stop rewarding that. I also suspect that this might reduce our overall household spending, since buying things on Amazon is so convenient.

How: Initially, just by trying to buy the things we need from other sites or brick-and-mortar stores, particularly independent ones. Longer-term, I’d like to cancel our Prime account and switch to a different credit card. The data says we spent $5,151 on Amazon in 2019 (not counting gift cards and reward points); I’d like to spend less than half that in 2020.

Remain valued at Dataquest.

Why: Same reasons as last year, really, but I’d like to have a more easy-to-quantify impact on the company’s bottom line in 2020.

How: Keep working hard and learn some new skills.

Learn enough SQL to build Mode reports.

Why: This would be tremendously useful for analyzing marketing data at Dataquest, and probably also of general use.

How: Complete at least the first two of the three Dataquest Python/SQL courses.

Run a marathon.

Why: This is a general life goal and something I had planned to do in 2019 before I got sidelined with a knee injury.

How: Train for and subsequently run in either a summer or fall marathon.

Complete a significant personal creative project.

Why: I think about this often but never find the time to follow through. I’d like to this year, perhaps by writing a draft of a novel idea I’ve been kicking around.

How: Set aside some weekend time for creative work after the EMT course is over.