so I made a list...

At the beginning of the year I laid out a list of goals for myself. The idea was that I was going to try and knock out 12 things over the course of the year. Here we are at kind of the half-way point and it is really a great time to sit down and look at how much progress I have or have not made. So to start with lets go down the list.

1)      learn to program:

I’m going to call this ongoing, I have been working on it a bit but the amount of time this pursuit requires me sitting in front of a computer when I would rather be spending time with my family, or playing video games, or stabbing needles into my eyes makes this one rather difficult.

The big problem I think I run into here is that programing for me at this time requires a lot of attention to details. I miss a period or forget a simple command and nothing works. What people don’t seem to understand about programing is that it is like writing in another language, you it takes a lot of practice before it becomes natural.

2)      read real literature:

I’m working up to this I think, kind of like stretching before running. I’ve read a book on Buddhism, currently working through a novelization of everything wrong with information technology in companies, and some Sherlock. I don’t see me reading war and peace but I may revisit some Steinbeck, or Orwell before the year is out.  

3)      spend at least 5 hours a week at the gym:

In my most optimistic ideals I would have spent 135 hours in the gym so far this year, I might be closer to 10. It was a great idea but it didn’t really take into account my life. I’m not making excuses here, the truth is the biggest reason I haven’t been going is that I really don’t want too and it is exceedingly easy to come up with reasons not to do something when you don’t want to do something.

4)      blog at least once a week:

My last blog post was on April 3^rd, I’m apparently not good at this. The truth is that I am a very private person, and have trouble sharing with others. It is something I have been working on and part of why I started putting my thoughts down here in the first place. Not that I expect anyone reads this thing, but the thought that anyone can is slightly intimidating. So I feel the need to try to make everything I put up here at least slightly entertaining.

I’m going to try to do better here, which means posting about more of what is going on. as well as a much delayed post from makerfair…which was awesome.

5)      save at least $1,000 and hold onto it for at least 3 months:

So this has actually sort of happened in a couple different ways but I feel like I’m cheating a little bit on those fronts. In both cases the money goes where I can’t really get at it, not sitting in my savings account.

I have however for the first time in my life come up with an actual budget, now I just have to live it. If I can keep it up I might actually save this money on my own without any cheating.

6)      plan and complete 4 electronics projects:

Planned yes….completed not so much; these things take time which I haven’t had, tools which I don’t have yet, and space which I need to set aside. But I have some fun ideas.

7)      Go camping at least three times:

Once sort of, other trip planned, just need to come up with a third

8)      Go fishing at least 6 times:

I’ll be getting a license soon, once that is done no stopping me

9)      Hiking! :

Once, but I should do it more, I always enjoy it when I’m doing it but getting up the motivation to go out and do it seems to be a challenge for me.

10)   Take up something creative:

I am planning to build a liquor cabinet, out of real wood and everything. I’ll post pictures of the process I promise.

11)   Develop a plan to get music back into my life:

I’m honestly not sure how to proceed with this one, I might just pick up the guitar here, I know beginner instruments are fairly inexpensive. But I know I will run into that old time problem again.

12)   Be an active partner in helping to plan my own wedding:

It seems like we are a little bit on hold on this one for the summer, we are just too busy to really put a lot of thought into it. Although we have picked the place, and started really talking about what we want it to look like, so I suppose there is that.

So I’m not super impressed with myself on some of these, on others I think I was not super realistic. But I am not giving up on everything just yet, summer is here which is camping and fishing season, dad and I have finished (at last) the canoe which means fishing can happen. I am rather engrossed in the maker movement at the moment which is going to help with the creative endeavors. The point is that I want to put more work into these goals for the second half of the year and see if I can’t make some progress.