January Journeys [Group Chat]

My goals don't seem to change much from month to month, year to year, mainly because I don't get them done! Here are my January goals.

1. Get work. (Of some kind. Freelance, day jobs, whatever.)
2. Finish Nano 2005.
3. Finish Nano 2011.
4. Fix bathroom faucet.
5. Clean bathrooms.
6. Clean and rearrange kitchen.
7. Continue detoxing my diet.
8. Do a one-day fast.
9. Clean home office.
10. Do a feng shui space clearing.
11. Continue to do visualizations.
12. Look into some kind of stretching or yoga routine.
13. Donate some old clothes and stuff.

This will do for the moment.

Hello? I guess I just abandon this one, or it becomes my personal log. Whatever. :-(

I'm on my way to day 1 of my yoga challenge, but I thought I'd wish everyone a happy new year. I'm going to start the new year off with a shock to the system by following the hot yoga with a quick jump in the ocean. Will post more about January plans later...

Sorry, now this can be the thread. ^^ I just don't think i realized it was a group chat. o.0

1. Finish the first drafts of my first series (Trapped). o.e It's at such a low point right now I don't think it'll be all that easy.
2. Clean my room (much less stress for my dad)
3. work on Chosen series. It's at even more of a low point than Trapped is. o.o I don't expect to get anywhere near the last novel though...
4. Survive the rest of 8th grade and beginning of high school. ._.

-Write a script
-Get a second job
-eat a cookie
-draw something
-Take a photo to use as a Facebook cover
-prep for Script Frenzy
-organize room... somehow...
-lose weight
-exercise
-get back into stretching in the morning.
-replace broken phone.

That's enough for on month I think.
-X

I still can't get over the personal finance stuff from last thread. I feel like you can't win no matter what you do. My parents were huge on money management, but even avoiding credit pitfalls didn't help me much! I worked through college and half that money went towards it, half to stock, which got wiped out in the 2008 crash. Then I worked, saved about 40% of salary; 50% of that got lost in the market in 2010. My SO had investments worth 6 years of work and they lost 80% value and haven't recovered. I ended up pulling my remaining money out of the market and throwing it into real estate when prices hit nadir in an area I liked. Thankfully we are young and have time to rebuild, otherwise that would have been it.

One thing that is definitely worth doing in the US is what he and I call tax hacking, when we sit down in October with tax laws and balance sheets and see what needs to get shuffled where and when to maximize refunds and minimize taxes. It is surprisingly useful.

Zoo -- the list looks attainable but time-consuming. Maybe if you start with #9, you'll gravitate towards the office because it'll be the only really clean space in the house and #1 will be easier to attain...

Smartiez101 -- IMO middle school is the worst and you made it through that, so you'll be fine.

January:
-- Apply to volunteer at the small animals division of the shelter
-- Try to set myself up as an 'unpopular pets' pet sitter for snakes, lizards, & tarantulas
-- Reassess how long savings will last to refine job search plan and job criteria
-- Pick up some spare change as a study guinea pig for the zero-risk ones
-- Keep my email and magazine queue under control
-- Register with the temp agency
-- Clean the kitchen at the end of each day
-- Finish half of my DP book project
-- Learn 1 area bird per day by sight and sound
-- Resume going to night seminars & ratchet up networking at the department I really, really want a job at, also the department I think I will apply to grad school at
-- Start studying for the GRE

I know what you mean about the finances. I had finally, after half a century, struggled up to middle class. I finally had a house, a small IRA, a small nest egg, and even some stocks. Then the Recession hit, and one by one they all went away. Now I'm in "middle class poverty" as Lily put it. I don't want to go back to living like I did when I was 20 -- living in crappy apartments, no money, dead end jobs, no future. I don't have another 35 years to struggle back up to lower middle class again, and I don't want to be one of those elderly lonely ladies living in a tiny one-room apartment in a bad neighborhood with a cat. I want to be an elderly lonely lady living in a nice house in a decent neighborhood with several cats. ;-)

I think my best financial decision is to try to keep the house no matter what. The Recession will end eventually, but if I lose the house, I don't think I'll ever be in a situation where I can buy one again.

I've been in a bad mood this morning. The cats peed on my socks. My nightlight stopped working last night, and when I went to pull it out of the socket I noticed something beside it. I had almost grabbed a big, brown spider! I thought caulking would keep them from getting in, but I've had to deal with several in the past couple of days.

So I started cleaning the kitchen. I've got a load of dishes going, and I've got the oven set to self clean.

Just no more spiders, please. I'm too tired and down to have to deal with several more hours of being freaked out.

It's a new year, and it seems there's a bug going around at my house. Last night my oldest had a fever that made him hot everywhere but on his head, this morning the husband is dragging because he "feels like crap", and I've been feeling a lot of tension in my head. Not headaches, just the distracting pressure that makes me dizzy. But despite all that, I hope to get a few things done around here today.

Going to set myself a few easy goals to go with the complicated ones (weight loss looks really complicated this year with all the changes I want to make):

1) Take down the Christmas decorations

2) Print off husband's W-2 and get our taxes filed

3) Make a "super list" of things we need/want to do with that money

4) Finally get the back porch under control. (Paper is taking over, but I refuse to throw it away when we have recycling bins all over town for paper. After we get that car, it'll be easy to get all of that out and start again with a smaller, more manageable box for recycling. Or better yet, start a mulch pile with some of it. My garden might just thank me.)

5) Sort paperwork inside the house.

6) Begin the Great Bug Purge. A few different types have moved in here in the last few months and I'd like to take measures to make it clear they are not welcome. And the spiders aren't doing a good job of that.

7) Edit and submit my pegasus story to the site I've been following.

8) Update my mp3 list and back up my computer. The baby deleted my "My Works" folder from the desktop. (No idea how he managed that... Thank God I had a copy of it on a flash drive. What I can't get back is either research, or posted to deviantart. A new backup would be stellar)

9) Exercise twice a day when the kids are at school. Well, once before they get up and once while the baby naps, but you get the idea. My main channels for that are in need of repair, though, so I'll be using the youtube widget to find some belly dance posts and the like in the meantime.

10) Pick up a Missouri Driver's guide so I can study for my permit and eventually (finally) get my license and make use of the coming car.

11) Continue making time for reading.

12) Clean the house. Vacuuming, mopping, dishes, etc. I want this place to sparkle.

13) I'd also like to find some time for meditating every day. Sitting still and quiet, with my meditation balls in hand and some incense burning nearby. Sounds like great stress relief.

There are lots of other goals I have that have pretty much become habits so I don't really need to list them here but here are the main goals for January:

1. Get a new job – send out one application a day during the week, go to the job seminars at church
2. Read six books (including one nonfiction)
3. Use chapstick
4. Finish Excel workbook
5. Finish impressionist puzzle

question: would this be more fantasy, or more SciFi? (I'm completely clueless about genres, so sorry if either of them doesn't fit at all.) And whoa, why did I say the trilogy 'Trapped'? Those books are strictly for NaNo projects.
I meant at least the first book (or at least 55K of it. I'm expecting probably over 100K in the story looking at how large the summary is) of my series 'The Drakkon Reborn'

Aria Yang was a famous planetary racer, until her rival Dariah Samson frames her and gets her arrested. After going to court, Aria Yang is found guilty and sent to the outer ring planets. However, Dariah Samson has only just gotten started. She then plans out a way for Aria to die, but when that fails, Dariah sends an assassin after her. Barely escaping with her life, Aria turns to another planet, one full of magic and forest. There she meets Avery, who accidently makes her stumble upon the Drakkon Reborn (group of those who can control all elements except fire). Is she willing to practice magic, the very thing that got her kicked out of her home in the first place?
Willow always claims she was born to be the Last Drakkon Reborn. All throughout childhood she practiced alongside the master in the temple, learning all she could about the four elements. She does, however, find trouble when two other pupils, Aria and Truvik, give her a hard dose of competition for the same title.
Truvik Darius Fruik lived the average life in the inner circle planets. His parents had a decent amount of money and plenty of friends. He has never thought /once/ about practicing magic, which was highly illegal. However, when his parents die and he is left alone with his druken Uncle Darius, Truvik decides to escape to the outer planets and try life there. The first thing he is able to cling to is magic, something he dreaded in his life before. Now he has plenty of magic and healthy competition, but is that supposed to build friendships or destroy them?

Wow, that was long. And that's only a brief summary of the first book. 0.o

NEW LIST!!! My UPDATED list for January:
1. Get at least 55K in my first book of The Drakkon Reborn (55 because I did five thousand yesterday, and that's not January... I've already got 10K out of 55K woot!)
2. Get out of that plothole in Escape (a different novel I've been working on for three years. I've only got 60K in, but I'd feel really bad scratching it, it's not a terrible plotline without the plotholes...)
3. Clean...out...my...closet.
4. Don't go insane because I have to go to school two days from now. D:

Such a small list. I love being young. *little dance*

My goals for January:

1. Complete the 30 day challenge at the Bikram yoga studio
2. Write and submit two short stories
3. Learn one new banjo tune... my next lesson is on the 8th of January, so I think that'll be my next tune
4. Learn one new slack key guitar tune
5. Complete the first four lessons in Samoan
6. Walk 20 minutes a day, five days a week
7. Go for at least two donkey walks

I'm such a div. There was I, merrily posting to the December thread, wondering where everyone was! I opened this thread only because it was new! Sorry.

I'm turning 47 at some point in Jan, so it's more than just a new year for me. In line with my year-target of getting healthy & staying there, I want to include the following for Jan:

1. Exercise every day
2. Try to each a piece of fruit every day, as long as finances allow
3. Increase my water intake

In addition, I want to get into the habit of:

4. Washing up every day
5. Writing every day - whatever type it is

And I really need to:

6. Sort out my gardens - dig over the front one for veggie growing & perform some hair cuts in the back!
7. Apply for teacher training
8. Finish tidying up around the house

Think that's enough for one month! lol!

And I completely failed to even follow these group chats after the first two times I posted. Go me. Maybe I can have the bonus goal of stay part of a thread for once.

Main goals for January:

1. Write 30,000 words.
2. Write at least 1,000 words every day. I want to see if I can be consistent for once.
3. Practice violin at least four times per week.
4. Work out characters for Currently Untitled Novel I'm Trying to Start Today.
5. Work on arrangement of Black Hole/Green Sun. (I'm a Homestuck nerd, okay. And I really like violins.)

That's it for now. Happy 2012, everyone!

Not too many things this year.

I'm gonna try to read 150 books, instead of 100 like this year (though, I think I ended up with more like 109 or 111 or so books. That's, like, three a week, so, we'll see how it goes or if I get too far behind.

And, there is supposedly someone retiring where I work this year, so, we'll see if they actually fill the position or leave it open. If they fill it, I'm workin' on being the one they chose, but, we'll see... (and with the recession still on, you never know if they chose not to fill it right away, ugh... local government, don't ya love it... :))

Of course, there's always the writing. Fanfic and real publishable stuff, but, that's been on my list for years now, so, back to chipping away at various stories.

I think that the site's Jan goal should be an edit button, Sheesh I miss the edit button....

Oh yes, I almost forgot. New year, January goal. Get my bleepin' computer to work for more than one day.... hopefully the new motherboard will be winging its way towards me sooner rather than later this month.

*cough* edit button *cough*

I'm in a snit now! Yesterday, I treated myself 6 months of membership to a dieting website I used to belong to for years. I ummed and ahhed about it, on the basis of going back to things is not often a good idea & thinking about what else I could do with the money, but then I decided I needed help to sort out my food (the healthy bit), so just went for it & they gave me 1/3 off, completely out of the blue, for good measure! :-D

It offers forums to help & it's these that have caused the snit because I couldn't get on them yesterday - site kicks me back to the logon page - but I just thought that was because they hadn't had time enough to process stuff - bank holiday & all that. However, I can't get onto them today, either, & nor can I even email the site admin to ask why! I just get kicked back to login every time! So annoyed!

So I guess I need to get on with the washing up, then! lol!

January is going to be quite busy for me...

1. Stick with my deadlines (AKA have all my planning done by Saturday and chapter 6 written by the end of the month)

2. Clean my room... Tackling that today. Somehow writing on the couch in front of the television never leaves me inspired.

3. Work with my horses every day possible. Weather is terrible and so my whole field is ice, but hopefully it will either snow a LOT or all melt so that I can get some work in.

4. Do all my homework (and not the night before it's due!).

I can't wait for high school to be over. I'm starting University in the fall, and my school of choice is UBC for Creative Writing, but I'm also planning on taking some acting and music classes.

#1 goal for the year: self-publish the first novel in my series before August. It'll take a lot of time, and a lot of money, but I feel this goal is attainable and will make me feel better about my not having done anything beneficial in all my high school years.

Well, I still can't access the forums on the dieting site, though I've sent off the relevant missives to the relevant people to sort it out.

I *have*, however, done the washing up (lol!) & been for a walk (it was a lovely sunny day here today, if cold), I'm working on drinking more water, I included my fruit with my tea & I'm planning to clear up the lounge whilst watching Young Morse in half an hour. So I'm not doing too badly! :-D

I'm also planning on getting up *really* early to clear up my bedroom & dressing room before 9 (will I make it?! lol!) because I'm having an energy surveyor come round to see if I'm eligible for free insulation. I don't think I am, due to the construction type of my house, but it never hurts to ask. :-)

It has been a very frustrating couple of days. The computer hasn't been working perfectly. I've had to deal with multiple spiders. The cats have been acting up and fighting. And twice in two days they've peed on my clothes. Last night, just as I was getting ready to get to sleep, I found that they'd pulled a pair of almost new WHITE pants down and peed on it. I don't know if I can save them or not. I'd only worn them once!

My goal has been to read 100 books in a year, and I haven't made it yet. Last year I finished 77, the year before 86. So that goal is going to stay at 100. I was so depressed last night that I ordered a couple more books to cheer me up. I've got to stop that. Books are becoming my chocolate.

And I had anxiety dreams. I blew finishing college in the dream and left some paperwork on the counter in the college. I was chosen to sing for a performance but never got to the rehearsals, just the performance. I didn't do very well, and the other singers were mad at me. I was trying to practice my stepdancing but couldn't get it right. Then I dreamt that there were train tracks going through my back yard. Don't know what that means. Other than the fact that I slept long hours but didn't get enough rest.

Well, back to cleaning and decluttering.

Sympathies on the cats, Zoo - why are they acting up? Is it too cold for them to be out? I know mine goes a bit stir crazy when he's kept indoors for too long. As to the pants, not sure I'd want to wear them, even if I got them clean, knowing they'd been peed on by cats! lol!

Sounds like you're getting a bit of anxiety depression from your description of your sleeping pattern. Strikes a bell. I went down that route about 10 years ago. My doctor gave me some anti-depression drugs that made me sleep deeply. If you can't afford that, spend your book money on something from the pharmacy to make you sleep better - something like St Johns Wort or Kalms or you can get tea made from Valerian - neither of these is as costly as a book & would do you a lot better. You need to get into the habit of not sleeping more than eight hours, too - invest in an alarm clock if you don't have one & get up when it goes off, even if you're still tired. And then go to bed at the same time every night. You'd do well to get some fresh air at some point every day, too, even if it's cold outside - that'll help you sleep, too.