State of the Blog Address for January

Last year, I didn't stay on top of my goals. I didn't stay on top of posting, either. But this year I intend to be more successful with my annual goals and the easiest way to do that is to periodically review them. I even have a small piece of paper with them jotted down that I can see all the time! So, with 1/12th of the year already gone, how am I looking?
1. 65% Japanese Type Collection. I've gained about 2.5% in the past month, and at this rate I'll reach 65% in three months. But then, I went to a card show and did a lot of singles hunting over the New Year vacation. I still think this is doable - I'm working on a trade for vintage Japanese cards now that will hopefully lead to several more in the coming months - despite needing to update and correct details on sets for the past five years.

1b. Finish Calbee: I haven't made any progress. But I knew it wouldn't be easy.

2. Continue Calbee posts: I've been busy catching up on trade posts and new releases, so I haven't addressed this yet. I'm almost done with trade packages. Maybe another week or so? This is what happens when you pack a year of trades into two boxes.

2b. Start BBM posts: I'm still posting new release details, but I haven't looked at old BBM sets yet.

2c. Make a Table of Contents: It's still in-progress. I think it'll be my project one week.

3. Make new release posts on time: There haven't been any new Japanese sets lately. I'm catching up on some 2013 and "2014" sets issued late last year. (OK, so there are the Nagashima and Maeda tribute sets. They're coming, they're coming...)

3b. Preview/review 2014 MLB sets: I've done a couple previews for sets I'm looking forward to seeing. I skipped the Triple Threads preview. No Bowman preview. And despite a lack of real enthusiasm for flagship Topps, I'm expecting to go to a card store this weekend and bust a pack or two.

4. Do something with the Zoo: Nothing yet.

5. Finish the NPB Live Game Collection: I've really worked hard on this collection, and I had the list down to about 10 more cards. But, then, I realized that I had the wrong game cataloged and collected! So, now I'm in the 30s. Again, something I hope to remedy this weekend.

5b. Start the MLB Live Game Collection: This goal has been MET! Somehow, I found the time to build the checklists for all 80 games. Then, I spent several days going through all the extra cards I still have thanks to Kenny at Cervin' Up Cards, and other traders, and knocked about 22% of the cards off the list. There are 2321 cards in the complete list, and I already have 528 of them. I know the list isn't complete, though, because there are lots of games I went to in 2009 and 2010 (mostly at Turner Field) and I suspect a few 2011 games that aren't on my list. I don't want any cards for this collection yet, because I'm sure that whenever I get back to Georgia I can fill almost all of it with my existing extra cards.

6. Collect 2014 sets: With flagship Topps just hitting stores, I can't really start this, though I'll buy the complete set this summer.

6b. Collect 2014 insert sets: The only insert from Series 1 that I want at this point is the 1989 Minis. Hopefully they won't be too expensive.

7. Post more information about Japanese card shops: I should start planning how to do this...

8. Post about NPB awards: nothing yet, but once I finish my backlog of posts I'll go after this.

So, 1/14 done, several others are successful. I'd say I'm on track for now. And with this post, that's a full month of daily posts, which I haven't done in two years! Back to the trades, new arrivals, and new releases tomorrow!