Vinylless

2026...The Year of the Hermit!

So, here we are, a third of the way through 2026, and I am coming forward with my yearly goals. Seeing as my blog post about my 2025 goals didn't get released until June of that year, my track record is improving, actually!

The less said about how my 2025 goals fared, the better. But after lots of reflection, I came up with a yearly theme for 2026 that can incorporate my aspirations for last year into a fresh new perspective, with hopefully more motivation to get things done. Read on to hear how I'd like to go about that!

The Year of the Hermit

"The Hermit" from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck

I had a major problem in 2025, and that was: I was having too much fun. Basically at every opportunity that presented itself to go out in the world and have new experiences, I took it. In the span of a year I watched over 100 movies (more than 50% of those were in theaters), tried at least 35 new-to-me restaurants, and even took an impulse weekend trip to New York City to see Broadway shows around Christmastime. My out-of-town partner visited me for the month of April and of course we had to do lots of activities together. I made several new groups of friends, all with their own times to regularly meet up and socialize.

Some people might read this and think: so having fun is problematic now? No, I don't mean that, but a lifestyle of constantly going out and partying has its drawbacks. The first is that it costs money. I'm fortunate that I live in a city that is full of great free amenities like parks, libraries, art museums, and even our city zoo! But right now that's counterbalanced by the rising cost of...everything else.

The second drawback is that the more time spent partying is less time spent on my own personal projects. And even though my movie count went up, the amount of books I read and video games I played tanked. After getting some annoying health news last summer, I also made a pathetic attempt to insert more excercise into my life, but that continues to be spotty.

All in all, I lack discipline in my life. And what better way to strive for more discipline than to: Become Hermit.

Go Out Less

In 2026 I want to make a conscious effort to be more of a homebody, and in turn focus more on getting personal stuff done. This doesn't mean that I'll be totally cutting myself off from the outside world - I'd like to keep good relationships with my friends and family - but getting into a habit of saying "no" to more things, and making less decisions to go out on impulse. Recalling that "2026 is the Year of the Hermit" whenever I'm faced with choices will hopefully keep everything aligned and lead to more time spent at home.

I've also given myself some specific challenges to curb the worst of my impulses:

The No-Buy List

I'm jumping on a very popular trend on the internet right now and giving myself some categories of which I am banned from buying for the whole year. It includes several things that I tend to be very impulsive about purchasing:

The 100 Movies List

Notably the biggest contributor to my going out last year was seeing a whole bunch of movies, continuing with my newly-found love for going to cinemas that sprung up in 2024. My movie count for 2025 was a little bit over 100, with 66 of those being visits to theaters. That's insane! This year I'll be happy if my total is anywhere below that, and in order to see a movie in a theater, I've come up with a little gamified process...

Enter the 100 movies for 2026 list, which I published on my letterboxd at the beginning of the year. At its core, it's a list of 100 films picked from my watchlist that I'd like to prioritize seeing this year. But it's also a list of the only movies I am allowing myself to see in theaters! I can only go see a movie if it is a rep screening of one of these on the list.

There was a little bit of a guessing game in putting The List together, trying to predict what's likely to be shown at local theaters. But I didn't attempt to min-max too hard. The prevailing question I asked myself when choosing movies was, "What would I be the most excited to see if it came back in theaters?"

I am also being quite nice and giving myself a handful of freebies: in addition to The List, I am allowed to see up to three new releases that interest me, attend up to three "Drinkolas Cage"s (monthly Nic Cage movie + drinking game event), and attend up to three Mystery Movie Mondays (monthly event where you see a surprise movie for only $3), the latter two being events held at my favorite indie cinema in town, Arkadin. I also am not going to put any limits on myself when the St. Louis International Film Fesitval comes around again in November, seeing that my absolute favorite movies from both 2024 AND 2025 I found through screenings at the festival.

The List has proven to curb my cinema-going so far, but I still can't believe how lucky some of my picks have been! Arkadin by pure coincidence has shown exactly one film on The List every single month this year, continuing with Red Rooms at the end of May. Alamo Drafthouse did a screening of There Will be Blood but I actually missed it because tickets sold out instantly. The Hipointe Theater has announced FOUR different movies on The List for May/early June, after offering nothing since the beginning of the year. But of course there have been even more films that have looked super interesting but I did not go see. Sob!

Hobby More

With all this time spent at home, the aim is to get more work done on hobbies that have fallen to the wayside. The following are the things I'd like to focus on:

Learn Guitar

I really want to finally learn guitar! Years ago I bought a bunch of "guitar for absolute beginners"-type books but did not have a guitar to start practicing. Last year I got an acoustic guitar on loan from my sister, so I have everything I need! I love to sing so I think it's only proper to learn how to be my own accompaniment.

Read Books & Play Video Games

With my movie intake going down, my book & video game intake can only go up! With, books, I'm still being a little conservative and giving myself a goal of 10 books to read this year. Some titles on my stack to prioritize are Dracula, The Plague Dogs, and...the complete collection of Thomas the Tank Engine stories??

For video games, there's a whole bunch of games by friends that I need to knock off my backlog. I'm determined to make my way through all of the Vextro and Lithobreakers I haven't played yet. Other than that, I also want to immerse myself in the puzzleverse. There's so many good puzzle games that have passed me by, and I will never have my fill of puzzles.

A collage of screenshots of games that I want to prioritize playing.

It would be really fun to get back into streaming on Twitch as well, but if that is to happen, I think I'm going to need to upgrade my hardware. I'm currently operating on a laptop that is nearing 10 years old, and certainly getting cantankerous. With the 10th DOMINO CLUB jam, we finally hit the milestone of a DOMINO CLUB game that refuses to run on my machine. I think it may be finally time to upgrade to a proper desktop...then I can stream to my heart's content!

Gamedev

My journey of recovery from my pandemic total creative slump has not been linear progress, and my video game output is still nothing like it was from before the pandemic. This is my main drive to spend more time being a homebody! I want to make games again! I think it would additionally be a cool mission to make an effort to make a game in a new (to me) game engine. I've got several engines I've been eyeing (no spoilers just yet); it's just a matter of finding a game idea that complements the engine.

So far in 2026, I'm proud to proclaim that I HAVE taken steps to make more games, by releasing a massive game for this most recent DOMINO CLUB Jam! I worked with Sean and Onion to create Pippin Please: Adequate Attorney - The Secret Recipe Tail, an Ace Attorney pastiche that includes furries. I've actually been working on this for a little over a year, as we had the original idea for a previous DOMINO jam but didn't get it off the ground until this time around. It is a RELIEF to finally have that weight off my chest!

Zines

Just because it's no longer The Year of BB doesn't mean I no longer have zine ideas! I've been typing up some scripts and this year I want to push myself to finally finish a couple and get to the fun part of layout design & printing! Recently I started a long-overdue listen to the OverArching Podcast, which is a comedy podcast about local St. Louis news. It's gotten me really charged up with civic pride and makes me want to write about my own opinions of my hometown. I'd love to kickstart a zine series this year specifically for local stuff. Maybe even print it under a new pen name...?

Again, I'm not gonna be too ambitious, and so my goal is to get at least one zine laid out & printed, and to contribute it to the zine collection at my local library. The St. Louis Public Library keeps an official Zine Library at their central location, but my goal is to put my work in the "Take a Zine/Leave a Zine" section they offer. Once I get more prolific I want to scatter them other places around town too!

"The Hermit" from the Tarot de Marseille deck

Honestly the post-release high from Pippin Please is making me feel really confident about my creative pursuits right now, so I am full of energy for what the rest of the year brings! Hopefully this is not the last you hear from Emma Dee in 2026, albeit from the cozy comfort of my home!