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So Keithmas (and that other holiday that ends in “mas”) has come and gone.  New Year’s Eve was a thing that we did and got drunk at and we’re 6 days into the year that will be remembered as 2015. Obviously this is a time where everybody makes unreasonable promises to themselves and calls them New Year Resolutions. They’re usually “eat better” and “don’t be a dick”. Or some sort of variation on that theme (“workout more” and “stop slapping babies” is my personal version of this). I don’t need to tell you how to live. Or maybe I do? Well, if you want to be a geek of style and sophistication like me (ha!) then maybe some of these resolutions will work for you.

Play More Board Games

I’ve got a whole thing about using boardgames as a gateway drug into geekier things, but it’s also fine to just play the games without a bigger agenda. As I mentioned back in that article, we are currently in the midst of a boom for board games. The caliber of games is on the rise and the ease of getting them is as well. Most major malls now have shops where you can pick up more interesting geared-towards-adults board games. I took this little picture of my gaming shelf in my closet the other day and realized that there are some games in here that I’ve only played once or twice. In some cases I haven’t played them even once. I (and you) should try to get a game night together from time to time. Hell, even some of the more “expensive” games only run around 50-60$. If four people chip 15$ you can go out and buy a game just for the occasion and it will cost you the same as going to the movies. Only you end up with a board game for keepsies at the end of it all. What a deal!

These aren’t even all my games! I own others!

Listen to More New Music

I know that listening to music isn’t incredibly geeky, but we’re all about balance and your board game night needs a soundtrack, right? I was pretty mad at myself at the lack of new music I listened to in 2014. I subscribed to Google Play so it was definitely available to me, however, with limitless music at my disposal I mostly ended up going and listening to some of my favorite albums from the past. In fact, two of the new albums that I actually listened to that were released in 2014 were the new Foo Fighters and the new Death From Above 1979, both bands having existed for over a decade. Wait, I also listened to the new Odesza release “In Return”. So that counts. Still, not nearly that many new albums that I listened to. Being the guy (or gal) who’s heard the cool new music always makes you cooler. If you’re not worried about being cool (and who has that kind of self confidence?) then you should probably seek out new music anyways because discovering new tunes just for the sake of it is also pretty amazing. So anyways, my plan is to occasionally swing by Album of the Year and scope out what’s new.

Play More Non AAA Video Games

There is a game being played here.

Much like the board games, thanks to digital distribution there are more and more “small” games that you should be paying attention to. If you follow 9ES you know that Jon is always playing new games (albeit mostly on PC). I’m a little jealous. 2014 had it’s share of smaller games that got my attention, Hohokum certainly comes to mind. With services like Steam, Xbox Arcade or whatever they call it and PS Plus there are plenty of ways to get small games at not insane prices. These games are often developed by only a small group of people and remind you of why you might have gotten into video games in the first place. Small scale, creative ideas that don’t need multi million dollar budgets to succeed. I hesitate to say “indie games” since even bigger studios are now indulging creators in smaller more intimate projects. Either way, these small games are the art films of video games, they are not for everybody. However, if you find the right one for you, you might find a sweet little game that doesn’t cost $70 and is still loads of fun.

Oh, how Eric and Keith are enjoying themselves.

I don’t want to make a list that is a million items long here. I mean, with these three things (and my “workout more” and “stop slapping babies”) I am pretty sure I have enough to try and pay attention to. A great big list of a million things to try and work on throughout the year is just setting yourself up for failure.

So hopefully when New Year’s Eve 2015 rolls around and you’re wearing terrible plastic hats and toasting gross tasting champagne that they gave you for free at the place you’re at you’ll be like “Hey Eric (find a guy named Eric), do you remember playing this board game, listening to that band after we played a round of that cool little video game?” Eric will be all like “You’ve sure got your finger on the pulse of cool shit Keith (you’ve also changed your name to Keith at this point).”

The whole thing will basically be the best.

Even though I know that nobody will actually answer me I’ve got to at least ask. What are your geeky resolutions? Buy more action figures? Get Platinum Rank in League of Legends? Try D&D 5e? Let me know!

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.