At least I had better be because the first ~4 months of the new year are going to be VERY busy!
2023 ended up being a challenging year in a number of respects, particularly with my health (nothing ever too serious, just annoying). A lot of it really started at the winter solstice in 2022, beginning with a frigid cold snap that caused an outside (thankfully) pipe to burst, but of course getting a plumber to fix it on Christmas Eve was $$$$! And then, we plugged in one too many space heaters downstairs and blew a circuit that knocked out power to half of the kitchen on Christmas. So then we had to get that fixed a day or two later... and then the refrigerator died on New Years Eve, so 2023 started out with buying a new fridge. Not the best way to start out the year, even if I really like the new fridge!
January also brought the first head cold I've had in about 3 or 4 years, followed by me getting a bad case of rashes and hives shortly after (possibly from poison ivy), which caused me to go on steroids. (Which I was delayed in getting by a few days thanks to a terrible ice storm.) All while working way too much thanks to way too many things coming at one time at work... and then interacting with ~20 people who had been on airplanes. Which was the perfect set-up for me to finally catch Covid in late February and miss my first winter board meeting since I started working them in 1996. Thankfully I had received the updated Covid jab just a few months before so I didn't have it too bad, although the lingering brain fog ("Swiss-cheese brain" as I nicknamed it) was very annoying. I also got my shingles vaccines this year and had a pretty rough time after the second shot, but as I point out to my coworkers approaching 50 - get the shot regardless since it's better than getting shingles!
The biggest health thing for me this year though was dealing with my eyes. I hit the genetic jackpot of early-onset AND fast-growing cataracts, at least in my right eye. It had become so obviously worse between my summer 2022 and summer 2023 eye appointments that I was pretty sure my optomitrist was going to say that it was time for cataract surgery - which she did! And I just had that surgery a couple of weeks ago, which was fantastic. A few things I immediately noticed was that dark (especially black) colors were actually dark again, and that my left eye was further along with its cataract than I had realized. My right eye was so bad that my left eye was pretty good in comparison, but now that my right eye is clear again, I can really tell the state of the cataract in my left eye. I think it's still a couple of years away from needing surgery, but not as far as I originally thought. And, to be honest, there's really not much to the surgery other than the cost (even with insurance, it's going to be about $2500 out of pocket - thankfully I had been saving for it) so I'm looking forward to getting my left eye fixed too!
But 2023 wasn't all bad! One definite highlight was that we managed to pull off a pretty good public viewing of the October 14 annular eclipse (most of the props for that go to the amazing CNS events team) and we had absolutely perfect weather in Austin - now I just hope we have the same on April 8, 2024.
So, keeping all of these things in mind when I check on how I did with my 2023 goals, I need to give myself a little grace when I realize how many I didn't manage to accomplish. (More about 2023 stitching and 2024 plans are over at Lara's Loose Threads)
For health goals, I did do Dry January (as usual) and my bloodwork numbers in early 2023 were improved over 2022, but I didn't manage to lose any weight this year and I've been eating pretty poorly over the past couple of months, so I'm not sure how good they will be when I go in for my physical in a few weeks. I really need to keep in mind that, at nearly 52 years old, I can't eat and drink like I did in college. :P
I did a fair amount of yard work early in the year, but once I got the rashes and hives - most likely from poison ivy - I kind of stalled. Plus it started to get too hot, or was too wet, to do much. I was hoping that the awful summer we had would kill off more stuff than it did, but no luck. I did grow a few tomatoes and bell peppers in containers, but no start on a real veggie garden yet. I did plant some oregano and thyme in a little mini-plot, and they are still going good. And I planted some flowers and put a potted rosemary plant in a weird little square in the front of the house. But there is still a lot left to do!
I did do a "new to me" movie a week this year, but I didn't make it on my Goodreads goal in 2023. Blame the podcasts for that! I ended up listening to more podcasts in the car than audiobooks, so that kept me from reading as many books as I normally would. I also continued going through my YouTube channels, but I did in fact subscribe to some more with large backlogs, so I think I kind of came out even on that one. Same with podcasts - I've started keeping a list of shows that I want to subscribe to, but not until I've caught up on the back catalogs of more of my current ones. I also didn't get as far on catching up with TV shows as I would have liked, but I think that's because I was spending too much time with other entertainment options. I did start sorting through my comic book backlog - I was somewhat forced into it when Amazon finaly killed the Comixology app and brought everything into the Kindle app, which I'm not a huge fan of since I liked keeping my comics and digital book libraries separate. But at least I did start hacking through that particular jungle!
Goals for 2024
If I'm being perfectly honest, for the first quarter (plus a few days) of 2024, my main goal is just to survive it without getting sick or too burned out since we have a very busy time at work - with prep for a total solar eclipse on top of it. But I'll do Dry January and I'm going to really try to not depend too much on quick fast food dinners when I get very busy. What I really need to do is get back to doing batch cooking on the weekends so I have healthier, quick options during the work week.
I've optimistically set my Goodreads goal for 25 this year, which I think I can do if I get back to listening to more audiobooks in the car and continue trying to read a little in the evenings before going to sleep. I'll also try to get back to some comics collections, which I count as read books if they are volumes of 6+ issues. That probably means I'm going to have to be a bit more realistic about how many podcasts I can keep up with, even listening at 1.2X speed. And I'm going to take another stab at finishing up a number of TV shows that are completed but I still have a season or two left to watch. I'll also keep chugging along on the YouTube channels that I follow. Finally, I'm going to do a "new to me" movie a week again, but this time I'm going to add in (and count towards the goal) some things that I know I have seen but not since I was a kid. I'm thinking primarily of old Disney animated features, many of which I haven't seen in 40+ years, since that will also help me work on a longer-term goal of watching/re-watching all of the Disney animated features. I missed a bunch of them in the 1990s and 2000s so I have a lot to catch up on.
I definitely want to get back to working on the yard, but finding the time and energy while the weather is mild is going to be a challenge. But I'm going to try to do at least a few hours each weekend (weather permitting) to tidying things up. The veggie garden is still TBD, but maybe I can get some of the junk hauled off this year so I can at least start planning out the spaces. Maybe I can even get started on the herb garden I'm planning to put next to the patio, something I've really wanted to do since moving back to the house.
That's it for now - I might take a look at things at the middle of the year and add in some more goals or reevaluate the ones I have after I see how the first half of 2024 goes. Happy New Year!
It's All Just a Bunch of Rhubarb
OED DEFINITION: RHUBARB - 4. a. The word ‘rhubarb’ as repeated by actors to give the impression of murmurous hubbub or conversation. 4. d. slang. Nonsense, worthless stuff.
Hello 2023!
Yes, it's that time again - my annual blog post since I can't be bothered to update more frequently. But honestly, my life isn't all that interesting enough to warrant it.
Well, this past year was kind of all over the place - better than 2020 (that wasn't too hard) and an improvement on 2021, but still had its challenges. Even just personally it was up and down... in about a 24 hour period, my uncle died, I found out I got a promotion and very nice raise, and Russia invaded Ukraine. And a week later I turned 50. That last point wasn't necessarily good or bad - just a milestone that probably should have felt more significant than it ended up being given everything else going on.
Let's check in with my 2022 goals! I did Dry January. Well, errr, technically I had a couple of mimosas on the last day of the month, but I'm still counting it as a success. I haven't actually made it into the doctor for my annual check up yet, so I don't know how my numbers are going to compare to late 2021, but I think I managed to be a little more healthy this year. I moved in the middle of the year and it's not quite as easy to stop for takeout now, so I think that's helping! After the move, I haven't been able to get back into an exercise routine, but at least I'm climbing more stairs now.
And because of the move, I was able to declutter a little, at least the physical items... I could still stand to do some more digital organizing (but I'm managing some progress on that - it's just going to take more than one year). On my entertainment goals, I did hit my Goodreads goal, but I still have quite the backlog on podcasts. I actually unsubbed from some of the new ones I had picked up, but then others took their place. And I still have quite the comic book backlog, but I started making a little progress on that too.
And even though I didn't put it down as an official goal, I always play the License Plate Game and I won this year! I was trying to get a Delaware as the last one I needed for ages and then I came out of Central Market one day and lo and behold, there was a minivan from Delaware next to me!
Goals for 2023
I think it's time to get back to some more quantitative goals, although some of those will have to wait until after I go to the doctor in a couple of weeks. But regardless of how my cholesterol, etc. come out, I know I'd like to lose some weight - at least 10 pounds - so my clothes get back to fitting more comfortably. I'm actually going in to 2023 a few pounds down from where I started 2022, so that's a good start. And I anticipate that I'll be doing a lot more work in the yard and finally get some gardening going, so I think I'll get more exercise through that. Although once the peak of the summer heat hits, that will probably go on pause, so I should try to work in some at-home exercise too! And I'll do Dry January again since that's pretty much a given for me now.
On the yard/landscaping/gardening front - I'm going to set myself the goal of getting the back corner of the yard completely cleared out (I made a lot of progress during the break, so I've got a head start!) and deal with the weird section where a bunch of fences come together alongside the main road near our house. (We're on a strange-shaped lot because of the bend in our road and the back section is basically shaped like a slice of pizza.) My next yard goal is to clear out and break down the old garden structure my uncle had built in the middle of the backyard and finish breaking down the old deck and put in a semi-raised bed for herbs and flowers. I'd like to get a proper veggie garden going this year, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to end up doing some container tomatoes or something in the meantime since a lot of the other yard stuff needs to be a priority since it has been neglected for a few years.
My stitching plans for 2023 are over on my crafty blog - Lara's Loose Threads - so I'll move on to my reading and other entertainment goals for the new year. I have SO many comic books, audiobooks, and digital books that I'd really like to make a bigger dent in, but unfortunately I also have a backlog of podcasts, TV shows, YouTube vids, and movies I'd like to get through. And even though I can listen to some of the podcasts at work, I still have to, you know, sleep and stuff. Since there just aren't enough hours in the day to read, watch, and listen to everything I'd like to get through in the new year, let's pick some things to concentrate on!
First, I think getting through the back catalog of some of the newer YouTube channels I've picked up this year is pretty easily achievable (assuming I don't subscribe to any more with a substantial library - not necessarily a safe assumption) so that's one goal. Next, to try to catch up on some movies that I've fallen woefully behind on, I'm going to do another round of a "new to me movie" a week again. That's been a lot of fun in past years so I thought I'd do it again in 2023! And for TV shows, I've managed to end up with another batch of shows that have ended, but I haven't watched the final season of yet, so my goal is to get through those. This happened to me a few years ago and I ended up watching the final seasons of quite a few shows in a short period of time and it was pretty emotionally brutal (but mostly in a good way) so at least I'm going into it more prepared this time.
For my Goodreads Book Challenge for 2023, I'm going to scale it back to 20 this year since I've noticed that it's getting harder for me to get full-length books into my schedule in recent years. And that's probably because I've been chosing to prioritize other things over reading time, so until I can get that evened out I'll keep that goal realistic. I'm also going to continue to go through my backlog of comic books and I'm going to be a bit more brutal about deleting things that I got in the big Marvel giveaway ~10 years ago that I'm probably never going to read. It probably doesn't help that I keep re-reading some old favorites while I'm trying to catch up on other story lines. :)
And finally, the podcast "problem". I love podcasts and I'm probably subscribed to way too many of them. The real issue is that I'm a completionist and there are a number of podcasts that I came to after there were already hundreds of episodes, so I have a big back catalog for them that are going to be a multi-year project to get through. What I need to do is concentrate on some to try to listen to one or two extra episodes a week on, but that's not always easy to do when I'm subscribed to a bunch of semi-daily and weekly shows. I think my best strategy will be to tackle the shows that I have a relatively small number (under 50) back episodes for and see how many of those can get moved into my "current" folders on PocketCasts, which is my 'podcast player of choice' as all the shows like to say. I really love it, especially since I listen to podcasts on about 7 or 8 different devices and I need reliable syncing. And I listen to a lot of shows at 1.1X speed so that's helping. Maybe I'll be able to bump some of them to 1.2X (I still don't understand the people that can do 2X or 3X!)?
The nice thing about a lot of these goals is that I can do several of them at once, like gardening and listening to podcasts or stitching and watching TV shows, YouTube, etc. Efficiency!
Here's to a great 2023! I'm really hoping that it ends with a lot more peace in the world than it started with.
Well, this past year was kind of all over the place - better than 2020 (that wasn't too hard) and an improvement on 2021, but still had its challenges. Even just personally it was up and down... in about a 24 hour period, my uncle died, I found out I got a promotion and very nice raise, and Russia invaded Ukraine. And a week later I turned 50. That last point wasn't necessarily good or bad - just a milestone that probably should have felt more significant than it ended up being given everything else going on.
Let's check in with my 2022 goals! I did Dry January. Well, errr, technically I had a couple of mimosas on the last day of the month, but I'm still counting it as a success. I haven't actually made it into the doctor for my annual check up yet, so I don't know how my numbers are going to compare to late 2021, but I think I managed to be a little more healthy this year. I moved in the middle of the year and it's not quite as easy to stop for takeout now, so I think that's helping! After the move, I haven't been able to get back into an exercise routine, but at least I'm climbing more stairs now.
And because of the move, I was able to declutter a little, at least the physical items... I could still stand to do some more digital organizing (but I'm managing some progress on that - it's just going to take more than one year). On my entertainment goals, I did hit my Goodreads goal, but I still have quite the backlog on podcasts. I actually unsubbed from some of the new ones I had picked up, but then others took their place. And I still have quite the comic book backlog, but I started making a little progress on that too.
And even though I didn't put it down as an official goal, I always play the License Plate Game and I won this year! I was trying to get a Delaware as the last one I needed for ages and then I came out of Central Market one day and lo and behold, there was a minivan from Delaware next to me!
Goals for 2023
I think it's time to get back to some more quantitative goals, although some of those will have to wait until after I go to the doctor in a couple of weeks. But regardless of how my cholesterol, etc. come out, I know I'd like to lose some weight - at least 10 pounds - so my clothes get back to fitting more comfortably. I'm actually going in to 2023 a few pounds down from where I started 2022, so that's a good start. And I anticipate that I'll be doing a lot more work in the yard and finally get some gardening going, so I think I'll get more exercise through that. Although once the peak of the summer heat hits, that will probably go on pause, so I should try to work in some at-home exercise too! And I'll do Dry January again since that's pretty much a given for me now.
On the yard/landscaping/gardening front - I'm going to set myself the goal of getting the back corner of the yard completely cleared out (I made a lot of progress during the break, so I've got a head start!) and deal with the weird section where a bunch of fences come together alongside the main road near our house. (We're on a strange-shaped lot because of the bend in our road and the back section is basically shaped like a slice of pizza.) My next yard goal is to clear out and break down the old garden structure my uncle had built in the middle of the backyard and finish breaking down the old deck and put in a semi-raised bed for herbs and flowers. I'd like to get a proper veggie garden going this year, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to end up doing some container tomatoes or something in the meantime since a lot of the other yard stuff needs to be a priority since it has been neglected for a few years.
My stitching plans for 2023 are over on my crafty blog - Lara's Loose Threads - so I'll move on to my reading and other entertainment goals for the new year. I have SO many comic books, audiobooks, and digital books that I'd really like to make a bigger dent in, but unfortunately I also have a backlog of podcasts, TV shows, YouTube vids, and movies I'd like to get through. And even though I can listen to some of the podcasts at work, I still have to, you know, sleep and stuff. Since there just aren't enough hours in the day to read, watch, and listen to everything I'd like to get through in the new year, let's pick some things to concentrate on!
First, I think getting through the back catalog of some of the newer YouTube channels I've picked up this year is pretty easily achievable (assuming I don't subscribe to any more with a substantial library - not necessarily a safe assumption) so that's one goal. Next, to try to catch up on some movies that I've fallen woefully behind on, I'm going to do another round of a "new to me movie" a week again. That's been a lot of fun in past years so I thought I'd do it again in 2023! And for TV shows, I've managed to end up with another batch of shows that have ended, but I haven't watched the final season of yet, so my goal is to get through those. This happened to me a few years ago and I ended up watching the final seasons of quite a few shows in a short period of time and it was pretty emotionally brutal (but mostly in a good way) so at least I'm going into it more prepared this time.
For my Goodreads Book Challenge for 2023, I'm going to scale it back to 20 this year since I've noticed that it's getting harder for me to get full-length books into my schedule in recent years. And that's probably because I've been chosing to prioritize other things over reading time, so until I can get that evened out I'll keep that goal realistic. I'm also going to continue to go through my backlog of comic books and I'm going to be a bit more brutal about deleting things that I got in the big Marvel giveaway ~10 years ago that I'm probably never going to read. It probably doesn't help that I keep re-reading some old favorites while I'm trying to catch up on other story lines. :)
And finally, the podcast "problem". I love podcasts and I'm probably subscribed to way too many of them. The real issue is that I'm a completionist and there are a number of podcasts that I came to after there were already hundreds of episodes, so I have a big back catalog for them that are going to be a multi-year project to get through. What I need to do is concentrate on some to try to listen to one or two extra episodes a week on, but that's not always easy to do when I'm subscribed to a bunch of semi-daily and weekly shows. I think my best strategy will be to tackle the shows that I have a relatively small number (under 50) back episodes for and see how many of those can get moved into my "current" folders on PocketCasts, which is my 'podcast player of choice' as all the shows like to say. I really love it, especially since I listen to podcasts on about 7 or 8 different devices and I need reliable syncing. And I listen to a lot of shows at 1.1X speed so that's helping. Maybe I'll be able to bump some of them to 1.2X (I still don't understand the people that can do 2X or 3X!)?
The nice thing about a lot of these goals is that I can do several of them at once, like gardening and listening to podcasts or stitching and watching TV shows, YouTube, etc. Efficiency!
Here's to a great 2023! I'm really hoping that it ends with a lot more peace in the world than it started with.
Another year over... a new one just begun
Let's hope it's a good one! We need a break. (And I hope anyone who reads this doesn't mind having that song stuck in their head.)
2021 was definitely a very mixed bag of highs and lows for the world and me personally. The winter storm in February was definitely a low point, although I came out of it alive and without property damage, so I fared a lot better than many. But on the upside - I finally bought a new car! And that leads me into a re-cap of how I did on the 2021 goals.
I did okay on my health goals for the most part and did keep up with walking and blood pressure measurements until I started going back into the office 4 days a week (I kept working from home on Friday - which I love!) and then I lost some of the exercise routine, but then I was getting in a fair amount of walking by going in to work. I went in for my regular physical and my numbers are not all that different from the year before, so I'll take it. I even managed to lose some weight - until the holidays hit. Same story as always.
On the financial front, I actually managed to accomplish everything I had hoped to. I had a rough plan that once I had a loan and credit card paid off by the late spring, I would apply for one last consolidation loan and get all of my remaining revolving credit card debt off the cards, which I was able to do. Since I now, finally, understand more about how these things work, I knew that getting rid of that revolving debt would give me a stellar credit score, so I knew I would be able to get a good deal on a car loan and finally get a new wehicle. And the plan actually worked! While I still have the personal loan for a few years, and now a car payment, no longer having that weight of the credit card debt that I've been hauling around for so long feels pretty amazing. Not to mention the peace of mind of not having any surprise expensive car repairs in the next few years!
For the various entertainment goals, I did pretty well there too! I did manage to watch a 'new to me' movie every week, including finally getting back into the Alamo Drafthouse (thank you vaccine science!!) and I hit my Goodreads goal for the year. I didn't read as many comics as I would have liked, but I did clear out my YouTube backlog. And I did have a couple of in-person happy hours again, which was great! I ended up not getting out to McDonald Observatory since they moved the summer board meeting to October and it was scaled back, so I just monitored the virtual portion from home. And I was able to keep doing quite a bit of stitchy and crafty things, although that fell off a bit once I was back in the office regularly.
Goals for 2022!
Trying to decide what my goals are for 2022 is interesting, because I also have A Major Birthday coming this year, so that does give me pause a bit. Mostly on the health goals, at least. For that arena, I'm going to do Dry January, since I think this year I do need a break from the wine and cider. (I really got into cider in 2021.) And I want to get back into walking on the days that I'm not physically going into the office since I kind of fell off on that in the latter half of 2021. Although the record heat in the fall and early winter didn't help. And I want to generically say "eat healthier" since I often focus on weight loss, but really I just need to cut back on the pizza. Once I started going back into the office 4 days a week, I started getting take-out more often, which isn't all that bad in and of itself - I just need to be a bit better about making healthier choices more often. But not always, since we all need to treat ourselves from time to time. :)
For my entertainment goals - I set my Goodreads goal just a little lower this year since I now have a big podcast backlog to tackle because I went a little nuts with subscribing to them last year. Part of it were all the lists of "podcasts not to miss" that came out near the end of the year that turned me on to some that looked interesting. And part of it was finding a bunch of new "word nerd" shows that sounded like fun. Thankfully a number of these are limited and not on-going, but some are long-running and have a big back catalog - and I'm a completionist! And I could say basically the exact same thing with TV shows, although I don't have as many long-running things to watch back seasons of - mostly just things to keep up with or to binge the latest seasons of. And I could kind of say the same for comics as well, but that is almost all 'back catalog' of and not many new things to keep up with. But I'm really going to try to tackle some of those old runs in my stash, even though it will probably prompt me to pick up new things in the process. A few years ago I realized the brilliance of Marvel giving away all of those #1 issues on Comixology many years ago - if you like the first issue of a 4 or 6 issue series (or arc), you're likely to go buy the rest or subscribe to Unlimited.
One last set of goals I have is to declutter - both my physical and digital spaces. I've already started a bit, but there is still a long way to go. Maybe I'll finally get more of my 2015 vacation photos of England on Flickr!
Alright 2022 - let's see what you've got in store for us! And may you be a bit more gentle than your siblings 2020 and 2021.
2021 was definitely a very mixed bag of highs and lows for the world and me personally. The winter storm in February was definitely a low point, although I came out of it alive and without property damage, so I fared a lot better than many. But on the upside - I finally bought a new car! And that leads me into a re-cap of how I did on the 2021 goals.
I did okay on my health goals for the most part and did keep up with walking and blood pressure measurements until I started going back into the office 4 days a week (I kept working from home on Friday - which I love!) and then I lost some of the exercise routine, but then I was getting in a fair amount of walking by going in to work. I went in for my regular physical and my numbers are not all that different from the year before, so I'll take it. I even managed to lose some weight - until the holidays hit. Same story as always.
On the financial front, I actually managed to accomplish everything I had hoped to. I had a rough plan that once I had a loan and credit card paid off by the late spring, I would apply for one last consolidation loan and get all of my remaining revolving credit card debt off the cards, which I was able to do. Since I now, finally, understand more about how these things work, I knew that getting rid of that revolving debt would give me a stellar credit score, so I knew I would be able to get a good deal on a car loan and finally get a new wehicle. And the plan actually worked! While I still have the personal loan for a few years, and now a car payment, no longer having that weight of the credit card debt that I've been hauling around for so long feels pretty amazing. Not to mention the peace of mind of not having any surprise expensive car repairs in the next few years!
For the various entertainment goals, I did pretty well there too! I did manage to watch a 'new to me' movie every week, including finally getting back into the Alamo Drafthouse (thank you vaccine science!!) and I hit my Goodreads goal for the year. I didn't read as many comics as I would have liked, but I did clear out my YouTube backlog. And I did have a couple of in-person happy hours again, which was great! I ended up not getting out to McDonald Observatory since they moved the summer board meeting to October and it was scaled back, so I just monitored the virtual portion from home. And I was able to keep doing quite a bit of stitchy and crafty things, although that fell off a bit once I was back in the office regularly.
Goals for 2022!
Trying to decide what my goals are for 2022 is interesting, because I also have A Major Birthday coming this year, so that does give me pause a bit. Mostly on the health goals, at least. For that arena, I'm going to do Dry January, since I think this year I do need a break from the wine and cider. (I really got into cider in 2021.) And I want to get back into walking on the days that I'm not physically going into the office since I kind of fell off on that in the latter half of 2021. Although the record heat in the fall and early winter didn't help. And I want to generically say "eat healthier" since I often focus on weight loss, but really I just need to cut back on the pizza. Once I started going back into the office 4 days a week, I started getting take-out more often, which isn't all that bad in and of itself - I just need to be a bit better about making healthier choices more often. But not always, since we all need to treat ourselves from time to time. :)
For my entertainment goals - I set my Goodreads goal just a little lower this year since I now have a big podcast backlog to tackle because I went a little nuts with subscribing to them last year. Part of it were all the lists of "podcasts not to miss" that came out near the end of the year that turned me on to some that looked interesting. And part of it was finding a bunch of new "word nerd" shows that sounded like fun. Thankfully a number of these are limited and not on-going, but some are long-running and have a big back catalog - and I'm a completionist! And I could say basically the exact same thing with TV shows, although I don't have as many long-running things to watch back seasons of - mostly just things to keep up with or to binge the latest seasons of. And I could kind of say the same for comics as well, but that is almost all 'back catalog' of and not many new things to keep up with. But I'm really going to try to tackle some of those old runs in my stash, even though it will probably prompt me to pick up new things in the process. A few years ago I realized the brilliance of Marvel giving away all of those #1 issues on Comixology many years ago - if you like the first issue of a 4 or 6 issue series (or arc), you're likely to go buy the rest or subscribe to Unlimited.
One last set of goals I have is to declutter - both my physical and digital spaces. I've already started a bit, but there is still a long way to go. Maybe I'll finally get more of my 2015 vacation photos of England on Flickr!
Alright 2022 - let's see what you've got in store for us! And may you be a bit more gentle than your siblings 2020 and 2021.
Happy Freakin' New Year!
Hey everyone! We made it to 2021!!
Taking a look back at the goals I made for 2020....well... most of that got thrown out the window about 2.5 months in, especially the health and fitness goals. Instead of losing 20 pounds, I ended up gaining 5. But given that I was essentially completely sedentary for about 6 months of working from home I'm actually kind of okay with that. What I'm a little more upset with myself for is that I started walking regularly and eating better in late September through November and managed to almost get back down to where I started 2020. And then the holidays came. Even without all of the parties and extra happy hours, I still managed to overdo it. Oh well! All things considered, I'm trying to be a bit easier on myself with all of this and I don't feel too bad about enjoying myself during this long, dark December.
I did do a little work on my brain in the first part of the year and listened to the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy course. And then the world went pear-shaped. We were insanely busy for the 2.5 months we were physically in work and then the shift to work-from-home and finishing out the spring 2020 semester was stressful. Although from a technical standpoint, I was ready to go from Day 1... mentally maybe not so much. I did start getting more sleep though since my commute became about 5 seconds long, so that was a plus.
And I was doing so well on the License Plate game this year until mid-March. That said, I managed to get 48 states and the District of Columbia before lockdowns and work from home... and to be honest, North Dakota and Wyoming are hard to get even in normal years. Well, Wyoming was easy for a couple of years since there was one in the parking lot at my apartment complex, but they either moved or finally got Texas plates.
BUT! I did finish the Shakespeare 2020 Project! And I met my Goodreads goal, but I did end up counting some of the longer Shakespeare plays towards the goal since my audiobook listening fell off a cliff starting in March. And I did make some headway on organizing my digital photos and I even got a few sets uploaded to Flickr! Not as much as I would have liked, but at least it was *something*. I also made more progress on reducing my debt and since I'm barely driving I expect my car to make it to summer 2021 when I'll be in a good position to finally buy a new one. And I still have lots of crap sitting around my apartment that needs to go to Half Price, etc. but that got derailed by 2020 as so many things did. I can (and probably should) write more about how it felt to live through 2020, but to be honest, I'm just ready to kick it in the ass and move on.
Now on to goals for the new year...
Health goals - I'm going to get back into the routine of walking at least 5K steps every day (with the occasional day off when the weather is crappy), doing my arm exercises, and measuring my blood pressure more regularly. I was doing pretty well with these for a few months at the end of 2020 so I think I should be able to pick them up again in 2021. Especially now that the days are starting to get longer again since sometimes I have to get the walking in at the end of the work day and in December it got dark so early! I think I'm going to skip Dry January in 2021 since I didn't really overdo the alcohol in the latter half of 2020... plus I really want some champagne on Inauguration Day! And I'm going to watch my added sugars in 2021 though since my bloodwork in late 2020 was a little concerning (although I think Halloween candy had something to do with that...).
Other goals - on finances, I expect to keep making headway on getting my old debts paid down and I'm planning to finally buy a new car around summertime. And I'm going to keep working through my comic book backlog since I didn't get to as many as I would have liked in 2020 (my comic reading time ended up being Shakespeare reading time!). I think I'm going to keep my Goodreads goal at 30 since I'll probably be counting some comic book collected volumes and I'm going to try to listen to more audiobooks while I get my steps in since I don't expect to be regularly commuting to work again until at least the summer.
I did this a couple of years ago and I've decided to do it again - watch a new (to me) movie every week. This will probably help me also start tackling my backlog of Disney and Pixar films that I haven't seen. I probably should also try to make a dent in all of the TV series that I've added to my watchlist over 2020. As we've all been stuck at home I've gotten lots of good recommendations! I also have a few new digital backlogs to work through, although not as much as a few years ago. Not surprisingly with the extra time at home I've picked up a few new podcasts and YouTube channel subscriptions. I'm also going to try to start making some headway on the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die list since I didn't manage to get much done last year. I think the mistake I've been making is trying to do it in a particular order, but since I'm tracking it on a spreadsheet and I have the book on Kindle on my phone and tablet, it's not like it's all that hard to jump around. And I did quite a bit of stitching last year and I've got a few goals for 2021, which I've written more about on Lara's Loose Threads.
And I wanted to finish out with the things I'm looking forward to being able to do again sometime in 2021 (fingers crossed!) - happy hour with the gals, a Marvel movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, drive around Central Texas once I get a new car and maybe finally do the tour of the Spanish Missions. And I'm really hoping I'll be able to head back out to west Texas and McDonald Observatory in July!
Here's hoping that 2021 is oh so much better for us all than 2020 was and that everyone is able to stay safe and healthy!
Seven-ish month check-in
When I look back at the Three Month Check-in post I have to kind of laugh at the "At this point, I think we're expecting at least 3-4 more weeks of working from home." sentence as I sit here at FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS after the shut down, still working from home. And there doesn't seem to be much of a chance that will change in the near future since Texas is one of the current coronavirus hot zones right now. The dean of my college at the university sent out an email a couple of weeks ago that basically told us to keep working from home through the fall if we can and since we don't have visitors, star parties, and field trips, I can and will. But I am hoping to go up a couple of afternoons a week to work on the lab classroom that I'm in charge of since this is the best time to finally clean out old equipment and get our demo stuff in order since no one else can use the room.
This continues to feel like some weird time-warp since almost everything I wrote three months ago is still pretty much how things are going. I haven't lost any weight - in fact, I gained a couple of pounds since I'm still not getting enough exercise. Now the weather is too hot instead of too wet and we had a bonus Saharan dust influx, which my lungs can't handle. Although I have been regularly getting in some arm weight exercises! I'm also still keeping up with the Shakespeare 2020 Project and I'm still getting in some more stitching time! I haven't done quite as much stitching in the past few months since I actually did some work on my Tudor History website. (My webhost is moving to new servers and so I had to do some work regardless because things would break if I didn't!)
I've been on a "cooking things from scratch" kick for the past few weeks and have learned to make my own tzatziki after I discovered that my grocery store has gyro meat in the frozen foods section. Not as good as fresh from the Greek deli, but not bad at all! I also made a pot of Boston baked beans a couple of weeks ago to finally break in my Dutch oven that I bought for myself at the holidays. Of course, I picked a day that would get up to 106°F to cook beans in the oven all day... Next up will be some homemade charro beans and the restaurant-style Mexican rice that I like (I've done that one several times now, but not with my new Dutch oven!). And probably some cook-all-day marinara too. I kind of wish this had come over me earlier in the stay-at-home time when it wasn't so damn hot!
That's it for now. I hope anyone who stumbles across this is doing well and staying safe!
This continues to feel like some weird time-warp since almost everything I wrote three months ago is still pretty much how things are going. I haven't lost any weight - in fact, I gained a couple of pounds since I'm still not getting enough exercise. Now the weather is too hot instead of too wet and we had a bonus Saharan dust influx, which my lungs can't handle. Although I have been regularly getting in some arm weight exercises! I'm also still keeping up with the Shakespeare 2020 Project and I'm still getting in some more stitching time! I haven't done quite as much stitching in the past few months since I actually did some work on my Tudor History website. (My webhost is moving to new servers and so I had to do some work regardless because things would break if I didn't!)
I've been on a "cooking things from scratch" kick for the past few weeks and have learned to make my own tzatziki after I discovered that my grocery store has gyro meat in the frozen foods section. Not as good as fresh from the Greek deli, but not bad at all! I also made a pot of Boston baked beans a couple of weeks ago to finally break in my Dutch oven that I bought for myself at the holidays. Of course, I picked a day that would get up to 106°F to cook beans in the oven all day... Next up will be some homemade charro beans and the restaurant-style Mexican rice that I like (I've done that one several times now, but not with my new Dutch oven!). And probably some cook-all-day marinara too. I kind of wish this had come over me earlier in the stay-at-home time when it wasn't so damn hot!
That's it for now. I hope anyone who stumbles across this is doing well and staying safe!
Three month check-in
Huh, yeah, so my life and pretty much everyone else's has now gone off the rails!
February ended up being just as busy as I had expected and that continued on into the first two weeks of March. We had our faculty candidate visits, our board meeting, and our grad student recruiting and then the university closed on March 13 when the first cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Austin. Most of us have been working from home since, although I've popped up to campus a couple of time to grab things. I was lucky that I was pretty much ready to go with a set up for working from home - probably a sad statement on my life choices - since I have had to occasionally do some work while home on staycations.
Not surprisingly, with all of the free food around during all of our events, I have not been able to sustain any weight loss over the past two months. And I don't expect to really lose any while working from home. I'm actually mostly okay with that, as long as I don't have a huge gain. I'm not getting as much walking and stair climbing in right now, mostly because the weather hasn't been very cooperative (not really a complaint - we've gotten some much-needed rain). I also haven't been checking my blood pressure as frequently as I should, but when I have checked, the numbers were pretty good.
But the good things - I've been keeping up with the Shakespeare 2020 project! I can stay up later reading since I don't have to get up as early to get ready for work and drive in. And I've gotten quite a bit more stitching done, not surprisingly. More on that over on Lara's Loose Threads soon!
I keep thinking that I should write some about what it's like to be living through this time, but the main thing I keep thinking is just how WEIRD it all feels. I was shopping in the grocery store on March 10 when things were really starting to get... "interesting" and they were already starting to sell out of some things and limit purchases on items and while I was standing in line to check out, I was reading the news on my phone. And for one brief moment I had a wave come over me where I honestly felt like I was in the first 20 minutes of a post-apocalyptic movie (or the first episode of a post-apocalyptic TV show) as things are *just* starting to tip. I did a little shopping last week and it was just surreal going through a store with a bunch of empty shelves and few people, some already wearing masks. I'm probably going to head to the grocery store later this week and this time I'll be wearing some sort of face covering too.
At this point, I think we're expecting at least 3-4 more weeks of working from home. I'm not really stir crazy yet since I've been working and chatting with people over Slack, Zoom, etc. but I think even I will have a breaking point eventually. I may be a homebody introvert, but even introverts need some in-person interaction with friends and family! With some good alone time to recover after. :)
February ended up being just as busy as I had expected and that continued on into the first two weeks of March. We had our faculty candidate visits, our board meeting, and our grad student recruiting and then the university closed on March 13 when the first cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Austin. Most of us have been working from home since, although I've popped up to campus a couple of time to grab things. I was lucky that I was pretty much ready to go with a set up for working from home - probably a sad statement on my life choices - since I have had to occasionally do some work while home on staycations.
Not surprisingly, with all of the free food around during all of our events, I have not been able to sustain any weight loss over the past two months. And I don't expect to really lose any while working from home. I'm actually mostly okay with that, as long as I don't have a huge gain. I'm not getting as much walking and stair climbing in right now, mostly because the weather hasn't been very cooperative (not really a complaint - we've gotten some much-needed rain). I also haven't been checking my blood pressure as frequently as I should, but when I have checked, the numbers were pretty good.
But the good things - I've been keeping up with the Shakespeare 2020 project! I can stay up later reading since I don't have to get up as early to get ready for work and drive in. And I've gotten quite a bit more stitching done, not surprisingly. More on that over on Lara's Loose Threads soon!
I keep thinking that I should write some about what it's like to be living through this time, but the main thing I keep thinking is just how WEIRD it all feels. I was shopping in the grocery store on March 10 when things were really starting to get... "interesting" and they were already starting to sell out of some things and limit purchases on items and while I was standing in line to check out, I was reading the news on my phone. And for one brief moment I had a wave come over me where I honestly felt like I was in the first 20 minutes of a post-apocalyptic movie (or the first episode of a post-apocalyptic TV show) as things are *just* starting to tip. I did a little shopping last week and it was just surreal going through a store with a bunch of empty shelves and few people, some already wearing masks. I'm probably going to head to the grocery store later this week and this time I'll be wearing some sort of face covering too.
At this point, I think we're expecting at least 3-4 more weeks of working from home. I'm not really stir crazy yet since I've been working and chatting with people over Slack, Zoom, etc. but I think even I will have a breaking point eventually. I may be a homebody introvert, but even introverts need some in-person interaction with friends and family! With some good alone time to recover after. :)
One month check-in!
I have no idea if I'll actually be able to keep up with these (I'm almost certain I won't be able to at the end of February/early March), but I'll try!
Here's where I am so far:
* Did Dry January! (like I mentioned before, not really that hard for me these days...)
* Down a few pounds - always hard for me to tell a few pounds difference thanks to my water weight fluctuations due to a medication
* Measured my blood pressure four times this month, which was almost once a week
* I kept forgetting to do my arm exercises, so I only did a few. Still need to figure out a good time to work those into my schedule
* About half way through my "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" course (which has been really interesting)
* Finished the first section of the Wonders of Space stitchalong and another small project
* On track for the Shakespeare 2020 Project
All-in-all, so far so good!
Here's where I am so far:
* Did Dry January! (like I mentioned before, not really that hard for me these days...)
* Down a few pounds - always hard for me to tell a few pounds difference thanks to my water weight fluctuations due to a medication
* Measured my blood pressure four times this month, which was almost once a week
* I kept forgetting to do my arm exercises, so I only did a few. Still need to figure out a good time to work those into my schedule
* About half way through my "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" course (which has been really interesting)
* Finished the first section of the Wonders of Space stitchalong and another small project
* On track for the Shakespeare 2020 Project
All-in-all, so far so good!
Welcome 2020!
Time for my annual blog post! Yeah, I probably should make a goal to post more - which I probably will, but mostly over on my needlework blog.
Looking back at the goals for 2019 and how I did on those:
Health goals - I *did* finally get an eye exam and my first pair of prescription glasses! And I did dry January, which really isn't all that hard for me anymore. As for the rest... kind of... meh. I didn't lose 15 more pounds and unfortunately I regained some of what I had lost in 2018 and ended 2019 about 5 pounds higher than where I started it. I'm still under my highest-ever weight though, so at least there's that. I did get at least 5,000 steps a lot of days, but that is one of the knock-on effects of being busy at work and doing a lot of running around! I was horribly inconsistent about measuring my blood pressure and doing some arm exercises. I think part of the problem with the exercises at least is finding the optimal time to work it into my schedule since trying to remember to do them when I got home from work hasn't been working. I'm thinking maybe adding them to my morning routine might be the best bet, but that might run into trouble with when I usually measure my blood pressure. But it might be worth giving it a shot in the new year.
Home, digital, and financial goals - Mixed bag, again. I did actually update all my passwords on my digital accounts, added 2FA where I could, and even closed some accounts (I really wish this was easier to do!). I didn't buy a new car in 2019 and I did finish the year with less debt than I started with, but not by as much as I would have liked. I also did get started on organizing my digital photos but I haven't managed to get them uploaded to Flickr. I also didn't get stuff over to Half Price, etc. and I still have some repairs that I need my complex to come do.
Entertainment - Because Disney+ ended up launching later in the year that I originally thought, I didn't get a chance to start into watching Star Wars Clone Wars and Rebels until fairly late. And I ended up not reading many of the backlogged Star Wars comics and books (although I did read some - just not many). So basically the second half of November and December ended up being the "month and a half" of Star Wars (and course seeing Episode IX twice in the theaters)! I keep poking along and reading through my backlog of comics but there are still lots left. I also managed to meet my Goodreads goal of 25 books, including some re-reads and some comics volumes. I did have some spurts or more cooking and stitching too, but it would have probably been better for me overall if I had done both with a little more regularity. I'll post a bit about the stitching in 2019 over on Lara's Loose Threads.
And I did manage to write a little something down in the day planner everyday, which proved to be pretty helpful in writing up this re-cap of the year! I bought another one while I was out running errands a couple of days ago so I can do it again for 2020. And I did take a few days off here and there in the fall after having to take off nearly half the summer so I wouldn't lose vacation time.
Goals for 2020!
Looking back at the past few years and things that I've done well with and... not so well with... I think I need to get back to setting more clearly defined and measurable goals. So with that in mind:
Health - Since 2020 is a nice round number, I'm setting the goal of being down at least 20 pounds by the end of the year. With my weight creeping back up and my clothes getting tighter, I'm getting back to the "lose weight or buy more clothes" area and I'm really too cheap to buy a bunch more clothes (although I really do need to get a few more pairs of blue jeans since spots are wearing thin on the two pair I'm currently wearing to death). And I wrote it that way on purpose since a couple of years ago I did lose the 15 pounds I wanted to, but then re-gained 5 of them by the end of the year. And I'm going to measure my blood pressure at least once a week. I probably should do it a bit more, but I think weekly is doable. I'm also going to do Dry January again, but that is the one thing that I'm actually quite good at doing. Since I'm going to monitor my calories closely to lose weight, I'm likely going to be going back to just having the occasional beer, wine, or cider when I'm out, but not keeping bottle of wine, etc. at home. As much as I love those things, they are a very easy way to consume too many calories. Once in a while when I'm out with friends or family is fine - or at my Happy Place, the Alamo Drafthouse - but that's about it. And finally, I'm going to try to get back into regularly doing some small weight exercises for my arms. As I mentioned above, finding a better time to work it into my routine is probably the key. I'm going to aim for doing them 5 times a week, at least.
Home, digital, and financial - Yeah, I still need to get some repairs done around the apartment and I still need to take stuff to Half Price, etc. so maybe 2020 will be the year those things finally happen. And I'm going to keep working on organizing and posting my digital photos. If nothing else, I'd like to get them organized and uploaded to where I'm backing them up in the cloud, but maybe I'll actually add a few things to Flickr this year! I have TONS of stuff that hasn't made it there yet that I'd really like to share. For financial goals - again, end the year with less debt than I started with. That's going to continue to depend on how much longer my car holds out, but if I can make it to mid-2021 I'll be in better shape financially to buy a new car. (Technically I could do it now, but the longer I can go the better loans I'll get!). I've also made some gradual improvements in the past few years of controlling my impulse purchased and scaling back the things I buy for my collections. I probably should be more in the "getting rid of things" mode instead of "acquiring things" mode anyway since my little apartment just can't hold all my nicknacks!
Entertainment - One well-defined goal for the new year is to complete Ian Doescher's (of William Shakespeare's Star Wars fame) Shakespeare 2020 Project. I tried to read or watch productions of all of the plays and sonnets between 2014 and 2016 (the 450th anniversary of the Bard's birth and 400th anniversary of his death), but didn't make it, so I thought maybe I would succeed with a little peer pressure. (And for the record, in 2015 I did visit Stratford-upon-Avon for the second time, so that should count for something). I'm going to set my Goodreads goal for 30 this year and not include the Shakespeare unless I finish the challenge, in which case I'll pick a Complete Works to count as read. And I do have the sonnets as a separate book (purchased in Stratford!) so maybe I'll count that too. :) I'm also going to keep ploughing through the backlog of comic books. 2020 almost certainly won't be the year I get caught up, but I can at least make a dent! One other entertainment thing I'm going to start in 2020 is making my way through the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die list. I don't plan to try to finish it for a few years, but I want to start on it finally! And of course, I'm going to keep working more cooking and stitching into my routine. I've signed up for a Wonders of Space stitch-along in 2020 so my one firm goal is to have it finished by the end of the year. And to keep me company while I'm stitching, I'm also slowly making my way through all of Disney's animated features. While I was looking through the list of the movies I realized that there are SO MANY I haven't seen from the past few decades. I mostly watched the older things while I was a kid and then never saw most of the new ones as they came out.
And I'm going to throw in a few more vague things - I think the key to getting some of these other goals done is actually in my brain, so I'm going to work on that a little too. I've tried it learn to mediate a couple of times and I haven't kept with it, so I'm going to try a little different approach. Audible had a 2-for-1 credit sale at the end of 2019 and I got two Great Courses - one on "Practicing Mindfulness" and one on "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" and I'm going to listen to one lesson a night (outside of days that I have other evening commitments). I think I can learn a few things in those that will better help me with some of these other goals. Or at least that's my hope! And one of the other vague things I'm going to try in 2020 is to not get too discouraged with things either in the greater world or in my own life. I know it's going to be a busy year at work and heavily front-loaded, so if I can maintain goals through to the end of March then I'll really have no excuse for falling off later in the year.
Whew - I didn't think this was going to end up being such a long post! Okay, let's get started with 2020!
Looking back at the goals for 2019 and how I did on those:
Health goals - I *did* finally get an eye exam and my first pair of prescription glasses! And I did dry January, which really isn't all that hard for me anymore. As for the rest... kind of... meh. I didn't lose 15 more pounds and unfortunately I regained some of what I had lost in 2018 and ended 2019 about 5 pounds higher than where I started it. I'm still under my highest-ever weight though, so at least there's that. I did get at least 5,000 steps a lot of days, but that is one of the knock-on effects of being busy at work and doing a lot of running around! I was horribly inconsistent about measuring my blood pressure and doing some arm exercises. I think part of the problem with the exercises at least is finding the optimal time to work it into my schedule since trying to remember to do them when I got home from work hasn't been working. I'm thinking maybe adding them to my morning routine might be the best bet, but that might run into trouble with when I usually measure my blood pressure. But it might be worth giving it a shot in the new year.
Home, digital, and financial goals - Mixed bag, again. I did actually update all my passwords on my digital accounts, added 2FA where I could, and even closed some accounts (I really wish this was easier to do!). I didn't buy a new car in 2019 and I did finish the year with less debt than I started with, but not by as much as I would have liked. I also did get started on organizing my digital photos but I haven't managed to get them uploaded to Flickr. I also didn't get stuff over to Half Price, etc. and I still have some repairs that I need my complex to come do.
Entertainment - Because Disney+ ended up launching later in the year that I originally thought, I didn't get a chance to start into watching Star Wars Clone Wars and Rebels until fairly late. And I ended up not reading many of the backlogged Star Wars comics and books (although I did read some - just not many). So basically the second half of November and December ended up being the "month and a half" of Star Wars (and course seeing Episode IX twice in the theaters)! I keep poking along and reading through my backlog of comics but there are still lots left. I also managed to meet my Goodreads goal of 25 books, including some re-reads and some comics volumes. I did have some spurts or more cooking and stitching too, but it would have probably been better for me overall if I had done both with a little more regularity. I'll post a bit about the stitching in 2019 over on Lara's Loose Threads.
And I did manage to write a little something down in the day planner everyday, which proved to be pretty helpful in writing up this re-cap of the year! I bought another one while I was out running errands a couple of days ago so I can do it again for 2020. And I did take a few days off here and there in the fall after having to take off nearly half the summer so I wouldn't lose vacation time.
Goals for 2020!
Looking back at the past few years and things that I've done well with and... not so well with... I think I need to get back to setting more clearly defined and measurable goals. So with that in mind:
Health - Since 2020 is a nice round number, I'm setting the goal of being down at least 20 pounds by the end of the year. With my weight creeping back up and my clothes getting tighter, I'm getting back to the "lose weight or buy more clothes" area and I'm really too cheap to buy a bunch more clothes (although I really do need to get a few more pairs of blue jeans since spots are wearing thin on the two pair I'm currently wearing to death). And I wrote it that way on purpose since a couple of years ago I did lose the 15 pounds I wanted to, but then re-gained 5 of them by the end of the year. And I'm going to measure my blood pressure at least once a week. I probably should do it a bit more, but I think weekly is doable. I'm also going to do Dry January again, but that is the one thing that I'm actually quite good at doing. Since I'm going to monitor my calories closely to lose weight, I'm likely going to be going back to just having the occasional beer, wine, or cider when I'm out, but not keeping bottle of wine, etc. at home. As much as I love those things, they are a very easy way to consume too many calories. Once in a while when I'm out with friends or family is fine - or at my Happy Place, the Alamo Drafthouse - but that's about it. And finally, I'm going to try to get back into regularly doing some small weight exercises for my arms. As I mentioned above, finding a better time to work it into my routine is probably the key. I'm going to aim for doing them 5 times a week, at least.
Home, digital, and financial - Yeah, I still need to get some repairs done around the apartment and I still need to take stuff to Half Price, etc. so maybe 2020 will be the year those things finally happen. And I'm going to keep working on organizing and posting my digital photos. If nothing else, I'd like to get them organized and uploaded to where I'm backing them up in the cloud, but maybe I'll actually add a few things to Flickr this year! I have TONS of stuff that hasn't made it there yet that I'd really like to share. For financial goals - again, end the year with less debt than I started with. That's going to continue to depend on how much longer my car holds out, but if I can make it to mid-2021 I'll be in better shape financially to buy a new car. (Technically I could do it now, but the longer I can go the better loans I'll get!). I've also made some gradual improvements in the past few years of controlling my impulse purchased and scaling back the things I buy for my collections. I probably should be more in the "getting rid of things" mode instead of "acquiring things" mode anyway since my little apartment just can't hold all my nicknacks!
Entertainment - One well-defined goal for the new year is to complete Ian Doescher's (of William Shakespeare's Star Wars fame) Shakespeare 2020 Project. I tried to read or watch productions of all of the plays and sonnets between 2014 and 2016 (the 450th anniversary of the Bard's birth and 400th anniversary of his death), but didn't make it, so I thought maybe I would succeed with a little peer pressure. (And for the record, in 2015 I did visit Stratford-upon-Avon for the second time, so that should count for something). I'm going to set my Goodreads goal for 30 this year and not include the Shakespeare unless I finish the challenge, in which case I'll pick a Complete Works to count as read. And I do have the sonnets as a separate book (purchased in Stratford!) so maybe I'll count that too. :) I'm also going to keep ploughing through the backlog of comic books. 2020 almost certainly won't be the year I get caught up, but I can at least make a dent! One other entertainment thing I'm going to start in 2020 is making my way through the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die list. I don't plan to try to finish it for a few years, but I want to start on it finally! And of course, I'm going to keep working more cooking and stitching into my routine. I've signed up for a Wonders of Space stitch-along in 2020 so my one firm goal is to have it finished by the end of the year. And to keep me company while I'm stitching, I'm also slowly making my way through all of Disney's animated features. While I was looking through the list of the movies I realized that there are SO MANY I haven't seen from the past few decades. I mostly watched the older things while I was a kid and then never saw most of the new ones as they came out.
And I'm going to throw in a few more vague things - I think the key to getting some of these other goals done is actually in my brain, so I'm going to work on that a little too. I've tried it learn to mediate a couple of times and I haven't kept with it, so I'm going to try a little different approach. Audible had a 2-for-1 credit sale at the end of 2019 and I got two Great Courses - one on "Practicing Mindfulness" and one on "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" and I'm going to listen to one lesson a night (outside of days that I have other evening commitments). I think I can learn a few things in those that will better help me with some of these other goals. Or at least that's my hope! And one of the other vague things I'm going to try in 2020 is to not get too discouraged with things either in the greater world or in my own life. I know it's going to be a busy year at work and heavily front-loaded, so if I can maintain goals through to the end of March then I'll really have no excuse for falling off later in the year.
Whew - I didn't think this was going to end up being such a long post! Okay, let's get started with 2020!
Happy New Year!
Welcome 2019! While I can't say that 2018 was a cakewalk, at least compared to other recent years it wasn't all bad. (Some of the bad things in 2018 I just think of as continuations of bad things that happened a few years ago... namely in or around November 2016).
Time to check in on how I did on my goals from last year!
Health goals:
Another successful Dry January (these actually seem to get easier the older I get). On exercise - I did pretty good on the arm exercises for about 1/3 of the year (January, February, June, and parts of March and July) and I got 5000 steps in more often than not. I also naturally get a lot of stair climbing in at work, so that helps. And I did actually lose 15 lbs so that realistic goal was actually pretty spot-on! I gained a few pounds back at the end of the year, but still ended up at an overall loss for the year so I count that as a win. I didn't monitor my blood pressure as regularly as I should have, but for the most part it's been good (losing weight certainly helps!). I still didn't get an eye exam, but I did sign up for the vision insurance at the annual enrollment in 2018 so I at least made movement towards getting it done.
Home stuff:
Still some things that need tending to at the apartment that I haven't put in work orders for, but the big thing this year was that they finally replaced my air conditioner! I can't believe how much my electricity bills dropped after that... I also still need to take some stuff to Half Price and the creative reuse place. I did get a batch of stuff out to the charity shops though, but there is still more! And although I didn't put it down as a specific goal, I did finally put some shelving in my storage space and organized it a little better.
Digital stuff:
I'm still working on updating old passwords and clearing out old accounts and adding 2FA, but I did get quite a bit done. It's just that I have a lot of old accounts around! (And who knows how many more may be out there from the days before I started using 1Password).
Financial goals:
I ended the year with less debt than I started it with, so that's always good! I did reduce my monthly bills, especially right at the end of the year when I finally dumped my old cable/internet/phone plan and switched over to AT&T fiber internet which they installed in our complex over the summer. I'm not quite sure how much I'm going to save yet, but I know it will be cheaper than what I was paying. And oh sooooo much faster! I also did pretty good on reducing the impulse shopping, but I still could use a little more will power in that arena.
Entertainment:
I set my Goodreads goal for 20 books since I was planning to clear out a huge backlog of other things and I did meet that goal (actually went over by a couple). And on the backlog - I completely caught up on reading BBC History magazine, cleared out the podcast backlog, and finally watched all of those final seasons of TV shows that I hadn't gotten around to. (Pro tip - watching a bunch of series finales in a short amount of time is a great way to put yourself through the emotional wringer). I didn't listen to the few non-Audible audiobooks, but I did mostly catch up on the backlog of most of the YouTube shows I subscribe to. (There are still a couple that I didn't finish.) About the only thing I didn't really make a dent in is all of the games in my Steam library and on my iPad. And I still have a bunch of unread comic books but I keep chipping away at the pile.
So, all-in-all, I'm pretty happy with the stuff I managed to accomplish in 2018!
Now, on to the goals for 2019!
Health goals:
Pretty much the same - Dry January, continue to monitor blood pressure, try for semi-regular arm exercises and step count goals and keep losing weight. If I could lose another 15 by the end of the year (for a total of 30 from the high that I started from on June 1, 2018), that would be good. I'd be happier with even more if I could actually keep it off! And I WILL get an eye exam this year!
Home, digital, and financial:
Again, pretty much the same - get some lingering small repairs done, take stuff to Half Price, continue updating old digital accounts, and finish the year with less debt than I started with. (One possible exception to this last one will be if I end up buying a new car in 2019 - that will mostly depend on how long my current car holds out.) One new thing I'm going to add is to finally take a serious stab at properly organizing my digital photos and uploading more to Flickr.
Entertainment:
I set my Goodreads challenge to 25 this year since I'll probably get more audiobook listening in. And overall I've decided this will be the year of Star Wars! Since Episode IX will be coming out this year, I figured it would be a good time to finally catch up with some unread expanded universe books (both new stuff and a few older, now non-canon, things), comic series, and the Clone Wars and Rebels animated series. And I'm going to continue chipping away at my comics backlog (which includes a fair amount of Star Wars, so that will cross off two things at once). I also hope to get back into stitching and cooking a bit more, which I had kind of started to do in the latter half of 2018. Now I've got to keep it going!
I got a nice paper daily calendar/journal from a co-worker for Christmas so I'm going to write down some of these things as I do them, even though most of them are also recorded digitally in a variety of places. But it will be kind of nice to have it all in one physical place as well. I anticipate a very busy year at work, so balancing all of the above things with that work is going to be tricky. I earn a whole lot of vacation time now because I've been at UT for so long, so I need to try to start taking the occasional day off here and there more instead of trying for larger chunks (which can be quite impractical in my current job). Although some of those individual days are hard to do too sometimes!
Those are the main things I can think of right now so.... 2019 - let's do this!
Time to check in on how I did on my goals from last year!
Health goals:
Another successful Dry January (these actually seem to get easier the older I get). On exercise - I did pretty good on the arm exercises for about 1/3 of the year (January, February, June, and parts of March and July) and I got 5000 steps in more often than not. I also naturally get a lot of stair climbing in at work, so that helps. And I did actually lose 15 lbs so that realistic goal was actually pretty spot-on! I gained a few pounds back at the end of the year, but still ended up at an overall loss for the year so I count that as a win. I didn't monitor my blood pressure as regularly as I should have, but for the most part it's been good (losing weight certainly helps!). I still didn't get an eye exam, but I did sign up for the vision insurance at the annual enrollment in 2018 so I at least made movement towards getting it done.
Home stuff:
Still some things that need tending to at the apartment that I haven't put in work orders for, but the big thing this year was that they finally replaced my air conditioner! I can't believe how much my electricity bills dropped after that... I also still need to take some stuff to Half Price and the creative reuse place. I did get a batch of stuff out to the charity shops though, but there is still more! And although I didn't put it down as a specific goal, I did finally put some shelving in my storage space and organized it a little better.
Digital stuff:
I'm still working on updating old passwords and clearing out old accounts and adding 2FA, but I did get quite a bit done. It's just that I have a lot of old accounts around! (And who knows how many more may be out there from the days before I started using 1Password).
Financial goals:
I ended the year with less debt than I started it with, so that's always good! I did reduce my monthly bills, especially right at the end of the year when I finally dumped my old cable/internet/phone plan and switched over to AT&T fiber internet which they installed in our complex over the summer. I'm not quite sure how much I'm going to save yet, but I know it will be cheaper than what I was paying. And oh sooooo much faster! I also did pretty good on reducing the impulse shopping, but I still could use a little more will power in that arena.
Entertainment:
I set my Goodreads goal for 20 books since I was planning to clear out a huge backlog of other things and I did meet that goal (actually went over by a couple). And on the backlog - I completely caught up on reading BBC History magazine, cleared out the podcast backlog, and finally watched all of those final seasons of TV shows that I hadn't gotten around to. (Pro tip - watching a bunch of series finales in a short amount of time is a great way to put yourself through the emotional wringer). I didn't listen to the few non-Audible audiobooks, but I did mostly catch up on the backlog of most of the YouTube shows I subscribe to. (There are still a couple that I didn't finish.) About the only thing I didn't really make a dent in is all of the games in my Steam library and on my iPad. And I still have a bunch of unread comic books but I keep chipping away at the pile.
So, all-in-all, I'm pretty happy with the stuff I managed to accomplish in 2018!
Now, on to the goals for 2019!
Health goals:
Pretty much the same - Dry January, continue to monitor blood pressure, try for semi-regular arm exercises and step count goals and keep losing weight. If I could lose another 15 by the end of the year (for a total of 30 from the high that I started from on June 1, 2018), that would be good. I'd be happier with even more if I could actually keep it off! And I WILL get an eye exam this year!
Home, digital, and financial:
Again, pretty much the same - get some lingering small repairs done, take stuff to Half Price, continue updating old digital accounts, and finish the year with less debt than I started with. (One possible exception to this last one will be if I end up buying a new car in 2019 - that will mostly depend on how long my current car holds out.) One new thing I'm going to add is to finally take a serious stab at properly organizing my digital photos and uploading more to Flickr.
Entertainment:
I set my Goodreads challenge to 25 this year since I'll probably get more audiobook listening in. And overall I've decided this will be the year of Star Wars! Since Episode IX will be coming out this year, I figured it would be a good time to finally catch up with some unread expanded universe books (both new stuff and a few older, now non-canon, things), comic series, and the Clone Wars and Rebels animated series. And I'm going to continue chipping away at my comics backlog (which includes a fair amount of Star Wars, so that will cross off two things at once). I also hope to get back into stitching and cooking a bit more, which I had kind of started to do in the latter half of 2018. Now I've got to keep it going!
I got a nice paper daily calendar/journal from a co-worker for Christmas so I'm going to write down some of these things as I do them, even though most of them are also recorded digitally in a variety of places. But it will be kind of nice to have it all in one physical place as well. I anticipate a very busy year at work, so balancing all of the above things with that work is going to be tricky. I earn a whole lot of vacation time now because I've been at UT for so long, so I need to try to start taking the occasional day off here and there more instead of trying for larger chunks (which can be quite impractical in my current job). Although some of those individual days are hard to do too sometimes!
Those are the main things I can think of right now so.... 2019 - let's do this!
Goals for 2018! (And a recap of how 2017 went...)
Happy New Year! Time to check in on how I did with my goals for 2017 and set some goals for 2018.
Recap of 2017, starting out with the things I did well on -
* Writing a little about each day in my notebook - check! I actually did it! I had to catch up a day late every once in a while since I had a number of long work days last year (in addition to the usual Wednesday nights), but I did actually write something for every day. Given what a ridiculous year it was (both in the world at large and for me personally), it will be interesting to go back and read some of it in the future. Among other things I ended up doing in 2017 that I never imagined I would - attended the Women's March and the March for Science. Never attended an organized march in my life and then I go to two in 2017!
* Read 30 books for my Goodreads Challenge - check! Actually made it to 31 by the end of the year.
* Yes, I did get a haircut. Two of them actually. :)
* Dry January - check!
Now for the ones I did moderately well on or totally bombed -
* Digital security improvements - I did make some progress on this, but I still have some duplicate and old (weak-ish) passwords that need updating and there are still some things I need to add 2FA to.
* Health things - a had some stretches where I did eat much better and even managed to lose some weight... before blowing it all in the last month of the year. I was on and off with monitoring my blood pressure too, but for the most part it's been pretty good. I did okay with walking more, but that was mostly just a side-effect of how busy work was last year! I didn't get an eye exam, but I did get an abdominal scan which confirmed what I already was pretty sure of - I have gall stones and will need to eventually get my gall bladder removed. But as long as I'm eating moderately well and not drinking too much, I haven't had too many twinges (and I have never had a full-blown "oh my god I think I'm dying!" attack). I also didn't do too hot on the regular arm and core exercises.
* Clearing stuff out of the apartment - I didn't get stuff to Half Price, but I did do a thorough clear-out and reorganization and did take some stuff to charity shops.
* More stitching - nope. I think I did *some* stitching earlier in the year, but not much. Although I did build some 3-D puzzles and Lego kits, so at least I did have an outlet for making things in 2017!
And now for 2018!
A lot of these are going to be re-dos of the things I didn't do in 2017 since they are things I really do need to accomplish! The overall theme for 2018 is going to be "clearing out the backlog" - whether it applies to digital and physical stuff, health, and money (i.e. debt).
* Health goals - Dry January again (pretty good track record on this one). Really get an eye exam this year. Eat better and actually try to lose a quantifiable number of pounds - realistically 15 lbs, but ambitiously 30 lbs. Tone some of the flab - arm and core exercises and get more cardio. My lungs have always been problematic, but I really shouldn't be huffing and puffing after a couple of flights of stairs. Keep monitoring my blood pressure regularly.
* Goodreads Challenge - I set the goal for only 20 books this year because the other entertainment backlogs will probably steal some of my reading (and audiobook listening) time. But some of the backlog is still comic books so if I count collected volumes again I might blow past 20 pretty easily so I might up the goal at the mid-point of the year.
* Home stuff - take books to Half Price and more stuff to charity shops/freecycle. Finally get a few minor repairs done that I've been lazy about putting in work requests for.
* Digital security - continue updating old passwords and continue to add two-factor authentication where possible.
* Financial - A couple of years ago I made a big step towards getting a lot of my debt paid and I'm continuing to work on that. But I need to cut back on the monthly expenses, including impulse shopping. It's amazing how 2-day shipping is as bad as walking into a store!
* Media backlog - back issues of BBC History Magazine, comic books, non-Audible audiobooks, back catalog on a couple of podcasts, YouTube channels (including the only four Crash Course subjects I haven't watched yet), final seasons of a surprisingly large number of TV shows that have ended that I didn't finish watching, and finally play more of the old video games that have been in my Steam library and on my iPad for way too long.
I'm not expecting 2018 to be quite as busy at work as 2017 was so I'm going to really try to not use work as an excuse for stuff this year, especially since last year I managed to survive some of the busiest stretches of work I've ever had. The first week back (all three days of it) was pretty nuts, so that might not bode well, but there aren't as many big things on the calendar this year so I am counting on it not to be nearly as bad as last year. I ended up taking a bunch of time off in the summer to avoid losing vacation time since I wasn't able to take much time during the rest of the year - and the time I did take off was often to use up comp time!
Well, let's see how 2018 shakes out!
Recap of 2017, starting out with the things I did well on -
* Writing a little about each day in my notebook - check! I actually did it! I had to catch up a day late every once in a while since I had a number of long work days last year (in addition to the usual Wednesday nights), but I did actually write something for every day. Given what a ridiculous year it was (both in the world at large and for me personally), it will be interesting to go back and read some of it in the future. Among other things I ended up doing in 2017 that I never imagined I would - attended the Women's March and the March for Science. Never attended an organized march in my life and then I go to two in 2017!
* Read 30 books for my Goodreads Challenge - check! Actually made it to 31 by the end of the year.
* Yes, I did get a haircut. Two of them actually. :)
* Dry January - check!
Now for the ones I did moderately well on or totally bombed -
* Digital security improvements - I did make some progress on this, but I still have some duplicate and old (weak-ish) passwords that need updating and there are still some things I need to add 2FA to.
* Health things - a had some stretches where I did eat much better and even managed to lose some weight... before blowing it all in the last month of the year. I was on and off with monitoring my blood pressure too, but for the most part it's been pretty good. I did okay with walking more, but that was mostly just a side-effect of how busy work was last year! I didn't get an eye exam, but I did get an abdominal scan which confirmed what I already was pretty sure of - I have gall stones and will need to eventually get my gall bladder removed. But as long as I'm eating moderately well and not drinking too much, I haven't had too many twinges (and I have never had a full-blown "oh my god I think I'm dying!" attack). I also didn't do too hot on the regular arm and core exercises.
* Clearing stuff out of the apartment - I didn't get stuff to Half Price, but I did do a thorough clear-out and reorganization and did take some stuff to charity shops.
* More stitching - nope. I think I did *some* stitching earlier in the year, but not much. Although I did build some 3-D puzzles and Lego kits, so at least I did have an outlet for making things in 2017!
And now for 2018!
A lot of these are going to be re-dos of the things I didn't do in 2017 since they are things I really do need to accomplish! The overall theme for 2018 is going to be "clearing out the backlog" - whether it applies to digital and physical stuff, health, and money (i.e. debt).
* Health goals - Dry January again (pretty good track record on this one). Really get an eye exam this year. Eat better and actually try to lose a quantifiable number of pounds - realistically 15 lbs, but ambitiously 30 lbs. Tone some of the flab - arm and core exercises and get more cardio. My lungs have always been problematic, but I really shouldn't be huffing and puffing after a couple of flights of stairs. Keep monitoring my blood pressure regularly.
* Goodreads Challenge - I set the goal for only 20 books this year because the other entertainment backlogs will probably steal some of my reading (and audiobook listening) time. But some of the backlog is still comic books so if I count collected volumes again I might blow past 20 pretty easily so I might up the goal at the mid-point of the year.
* Home stuff - take books to Half Price and more stuff to charity shops/freecycle. Finally get a few minor repairs done that I've been lazy about putting in work requests for.
* Digital security - continue updating old passwords and continue to add two-factor authentication where possible.
* Financial - A couple of years ago I made a big step towards getting a lot of my debt paid and I'm continuing to work on that. But I need to cut back on the monthly expenses, including impulse shopping. It's amazing how 2-day shipping is as bad as walking into a store!
* Media backlog - back issues of BBC History Magazine, comic books, non-Audible audiobooks, back catalog on a couple of podcasts, YouTube channels (including the only four Crash Course subjects I haven't watched yet), final seasons of a surprisingly large number of TV shows that have ended that I didn't finish watching, and finally play more of the old video games that have been in my Steam library and on my iPad for way too long.
I'm not expecting 2018 to be quite as busy at work as 2017 was so I'm going to really try to not use work as an excuse for stuff this year, especially since last year I managed to survive some of the busiest stretches of work I've ever had. The first week back (all three days of it) was pretty nuts, so that might not bode well, but there aren't as many big things on the calendar this year so I am counting on it not to be nearly as bad as last year. I ended up taking a bunch of time off in the summer to avoid losing vacation time since I wasn't able to take much time during the rest of the year - and the time I did take off was often to use up comp time!
Well, let's see how 2018 shakes out!
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