One storm a week. MINIMUM. Really, winter? I don't know about you all, but I am getting sick (literally, last week) of snow. And ice pellets. And hurricane force wind gusts. And more snow. And ice. And. Can we please just stop now?

Spoiler alert: No, we cannot. More snow predicted for both Saturday and Sunday. *sigh*

To those of my friends in warmer climes, you are lucky ducks.

But if the weather (and subsequent insane-work-crazy-phones-never-stop-ringing-ness) has been yicky, everything else has been running pretty smoothly. The most exciting (to me) thing is that I finally, finally, FINALLY got my writing groove back. It took some perfect timing on Snick's part, who somehow knew that now was the right time to challenge goal-driven me to a writing challenge. We called it February Frenzy, and the person who posted the most words wins fic from the other. I managed 4 fanfics for a total of almost 9K, and would have had the win had Snick not pulled out all the stops and posted her final fic with TWO MINUTES left on the clock! So congrats to her... and MARCH MADNESS is mine!

Been so busy that I still couldn't read much this month, but I did knock out one more book.

( The Stone Sky by NK JemisonCollapse )

Books Read: 12/80
Goodreads Book Challenge: 12/52
Popsugar Book Challenge: 9/40
Total Pages Read: 4404

Now I need to write many words so I can kick ass on March Madness!
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Okay, so it's not quite 2019 *yet*, but I am working NYE and won't be home tomorrow so..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm so happy to be starting a new year. I have GOALS, and I have TRACKING SHEETS in my cute little journal, and I feel determined as all hell, and I AM GOING TO KICK 2019'S ASS. *nods so much*

GOALS:
01. Health:
With my disc issue, I have to start out small. My doc suggested 10-15 minutes on the stationary bike a couple of times a week. I am going to dial the bike way back to the lowest setting and see how it goes for the first month. Then I'll maybe increase the tension and the duration for February. This is just to help get better range of motion for my back/hip, and alas not for weight loss. (But I'm sure anything will help.)

My goal is also to limit myself to one can of Pepsi per day (I am an addict, I tell ya) and to drink allllll the water. Yes, indeed.

02. Money Jar:
Putting my Saturday coin in the jar has worked for the past two years. Gonna keep it up!

03. Writing:
Considering I did only slightly over 12K in 2018, anything will be an improvement. But in the past I have always been motivated by word count, and it was reallllly difficult this year to decide what word count level over at getyourwordsout to choose. After much debate with my "project manager" persnickett, I finally decided to go for 150K, simply because 75K -- the next lowest level -- felt TOO low. (Funny, considering that 12K mentioned above. Heh.)

This year is also the year of, at the very least, the START of some kind of original fic.

04. Livejournal/AO3
Replying to LJ and AO3 comments, and keeping up to date with my lovely flist and making sure to comment on YOUR posts is also on my tracking sheet. Too many times I read posts on my phone, and find them amusing or heartrending or interesting, and then never seem to get online and comment and let you all KNOW that. That changes in 2019!

05. Reading
I read 79 out of 80 books last year (and would have made the goal had I not picked a 600+ zombie novel to read at the end of the freakin' year) so I'm going to stick with that number. Through a book enthusiast on Wordpress, I also found these awesome reading challenges, which I have duplicated here so I can check them off. And if anyone wants to play along, you've got the prompts. :D Check 'em out!

( Popsugar Reading Challenge 2019Collapse )

( Goodreads Reading Challenge 2019Collapse )

Now if you add those all up, it comes to 92 books. But what I plan to do is -- if a book meets the criteria for something on BOTH lists, then both items get crossed off. So for example a single book might be 'set in space' (Popsugar) and 'a book with more than 500 pages' (Goodreads). CHECK and CHECK. I'm looking forward to marking items off these lists!

And this year, I'm writing reviews as I go so I don't have 15 of them piled up and no time to do them!

06. Movies
I don't have a 'movies watched' goal, but I do want to make sure to 'review' them online after I've seen them.

*rolls up sleeves* I can totally do this. And I hope you all have lots of look forward to in 2019!
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First off -- I am still not getting comment notifications from LJ, so if you've responded to me anywhere I apologize for not replying. (Also, I see that I have comments on my previous post, which I still won't get to tonight because I'm in a mad dash to get stuff done before work.)

Well, 2017 was rough in terms of goals. Here's hoping 2018 is better!

My goals:

* Finances: Continue to slowly pay down the credit card debt. Continue to put all coin left in my wallet on Saturday nights into the money jar.
* Writing: Get back on track! My goal is 200K for the year, of which 80K should be original fic.
* Reading: Though I got through 100 books last year, I'm setting this years goal at 80 books because some of my reading time should be taken up by writing time!

Not setting health goal right now. Hoping to make a 'what I've been up to' post on the weekend. Right now, I've got fic to post before I run to make my bus!

Hope all are well!
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Remember when I wrote out a list of goals for the year and said I was gonna make a conscious effort to be around more/write more/work on my health/all that jazz? Yeah, me too.

*hangs head*

But hey, let's catch up, yeah?

2017 was a strange year. I moved into the in-law suite at my friend and her husband's house, and for the most part I *do* love it. I did discover that the apartment is just TOO big for me, though. I am not used to having both an office and a living room, so I'm finding that generally the living room just doesn't get used. I bring DVDs to the computer in the office to watch instead of using the TV and sitting on the sofa, etc. So now I'm trying to figure out how to reconfigure the room(s) to make them more user-friendly.

I did find that once I moved, though, I completely lost all motivation. Part of it is the new time constraints that I still haven't acclimatized to. I have to leave my house at a little after 8pm to catch the last bus. That gets me downtown by 9pm but I don't start work until 11pm. So I'm missing out on 2 to 2.5 hours of time at home that I would normally have spent writing/reading & commenting on LJ/playing on landcomms, etc. Still haven't managed to work out an effective work-sleep-play routine.

So I fell down on the job on a lot of things in 2017. My health/weight is worse than ever and I had my worst writing year on record (yeah, I have no idea what my total even was, but I'm pretty sure I didn't crack 50K). I did keep tabs on twitter in the social media arena. In the Finances department, I continued putting whatever coin was in my purse in a money jar every Saturday night -- that netted me $224 from May 01 to December 31 (I had previously cashed in the money jar when I moved) so that was a nice plus. And I made headway on paying down my debit. Slowly but surely, it's happening.

My big win was in the Books Read area. My goal was to read 65 books in 2017. I actually read 100 books in 2017. See, that's what falling down on all your other hobbies will get ya. (I also saw a shit-ton of movies, always fun.)

Anyway, for my own interest I did want to keep track of what I read and a little blurb about each, so if anyone is interested ( here is the Big List of Books I Read in 2017Collapse )

So at least I smoked ONE of the goals. Onward to 2018, where I truly hope to get back on track. Hope y'all are well, flisties!
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So it just occurred to me that I never made my 2017 State of Me make-me-accountable goal list. But first, my good news: I am moving!

( Here's the details!Collapse )

Onward to my 2017 Goals.

Health - At this point I'm only looking three months ahead, and my only goal is to weight less than I do now. Seriously, if I lose ONE POUND this will be considered a win. I'll reassess at the 4 month mark after the move and set something more concrete and challenge-worthy!

Writing - My goal for this year is 250,000 words. I took January 'off' from writing so this is going to be a challenge for me. I also want to attempt to write an original fic. I've been reading a lot of genre fiction lately and honestly, more than half the time my impression is "pfft, I could do better than that!" So why not try?

Money Jar - Still continuing to put whatever change is in my purse on Saturday night into the jar. I've already covered the bottom of it, woot woot!

Social Interactions - No matter how low my mood gets, I'm going to try try try to stay on top of reading my LJ and commenting and chatting with you lovely people. Hopefully the move into a less stressful environment will help with that!

Books - My goal this year is to read... 65 books. I think it's doable. *nods*

Finances - Within the next 6 months I have to make SOME kind of advancement on the state of my credit card. Whether that means credit counseling, bankruptcy, or some kind of arrangement with the bank itself. Just some movement forward on getting out of debt will be a win.

Whew. I think that's it. How YOU doin'?
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One of the challenges over at tv_universe was to make a list of positive things from 2016. With what a horrendous year it was for just about everybody -- and the ghastly start to 2017 -- this was actually quite cathartic. I have great friends, great family -- looking at it that way, it's not so bad.

( Positive Things about 2016Collapse )


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So. Remember me? I used to actually write things here instead of just post fanfic. Hi there. Hello. *waves*

It's been a rough few months. I think everybody struggled through 2016 (and God, with the whole Trump debacle in the States and the loss of Mary Tyler Moore 2017 hasn't started out any better, has it?) Personally, I have been going through a very 'depressed' period for the last two months in which I couldn't focus on ANYTHING. I've basically sat around like a lethargic lump, letting everything fall by the wayside while I read all the books known to mankind and rewatched multiple seasons of Survivor. Yeah.

So I thought that maybe if I finished off my 'State of Me' for 2016 that would enable me to put all the crap behind me and FINALLY get a start on 2017.

So. Health-wise, I am still short and fat. (Yes, I know that I can't do anything about the short part.) I was never able to set a real goal and that definitely hindered my progress.

I did continue with my Money Jar (putting all the change in my wallet into a jar every Saturday night) all year and that little baby is FULL. I would love to show you a photo of it but my camera photos won't load onto my computer, because TECHNOLOGY HATES ME. I also kept up my Happy Memories jar, and ditto.

Writing-wise, I fell about 20K short of my 2016 goal of 200K (and sadly my Nanofic is still unfinished, sigh.) But I was overall happy with my progress, and I signed up for a 250K goal in 2017.

( All The FicCollapse )

I wrote in 6 different fandoms this year and added 2 new ones (True Blood and Supernatural, although SPN was just a one-off) and wrote in 10 different POVs. I went back to Nanowrimo for the first time in forEVER and won by writing 50K in a month, though the story isn't finished yet. So yeah, overall I feel I did well even though I failed in my word count goal.

In the Book category, my goal was 45 books and that's exactly where I ended up. YAY SUCCESS! In Movies, my goal was 40 movies and my final tally was 23. Hmm. A toughie. Will have to rethink this one. I did keep track of all the books and movies in the past three months but meh, not going to write that up.

So. That was 2016. I need to think on my 2017 goals and write up something up -- this posting and making myself accountable has to work *sometime*, right? And hopefully "finishing out the year" like this will inspire me to get back on track. It sure can't hurt!

I also have been reading everyone's posts but just haven't had the energy to respond to anything. I hope to get back on track with that soon, too.

Adios for now, friends.
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I swear, I intend to post more. I think that I'll write updates of my life and take photos and then... I do none of that. I've been feeling very lethargic lately. There's been more home stresses and more work stresses and it's taken it's toll. *sigh* Annnnyway, here's where I am for my yearly goals.

Health - It took me midway through the three month cycle, but I finally got myself in gear. Started riding the stationary bike, ate healthy food. And THEN I had a major wipeout at work. Went down hard on my knee and was barely able to hobble across the room never mind ride a bike. It's been three weeks now and I am still bruised and sore. So while I did manage to lose twelve pounds I have not made nearly as much progress as I would like.

Writing: I had a VERY successful first five months, but June was a disaster. Sitting at the computer for long periods of time was difficult after the wipeout, and whenever I've tried to write it's just strings of gibberish. So frustrating. I'm down 22K on words from where I should be right now.

( And I broke my chainCollapse )

Money Jar - I've continued to empty out my coin into my money jar every Saturday night. It's starting to get heavy now! It's a little more than half full.

( Accomplishment!Collapse )

I'm also doing well in my Movie and Reading goals! As of end of June I am exactly where I should be in the reading department...

( Books 12 to 23Collapse )

... and I am just slightly behind in the movie watching goal.

( Movies 10 to 17Collapse )

Aaand I think that's it for me. I'm currently at the start of a week's vacation so I'm gonna try to snap myself out of this funk and actually start accomplishing things again.
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Everything three months I try to update the results of my current goals in the hopes that it will keep me on track. So here's what I've done for the first quarter of 2016.

Health - My goal was to get into the mindset to get back on track to being healthy in 2016. I am still dealing with a few personal stress issues and a practical workout issue that have definitely been holding me back. With the help and advice of my personal project manager – that would be the fabulous persnickett -- I am hopeful that I've found a way past those issues now.

So I have now set an 'official' goal. Starting Wednesday (because that's payday) I will be
a. eating healthy good-for-me foods
b. cooking the majority of my meals at home (goodbye take-out, it's been a blast)
c. working out on the stationary bike 4 times a week

I didn't set a stringent weight loss goal mostly because Snick and I forgot, but I'll come up with something next time I meet with my boss project manager. ;)

Writing - I am feeling successful here even though I am down about 6000 words from where I should be for the quarter. I have maintained good momentum, writing 47 days (goal: 42) and for the most part have been happy with my output. My posted word count goal is down (at 46%, goal 80%) but that's because all but 2K of my 17K words in March were toward a big bang that won't be posted until April.

I also have an unbroken writing chain! I have been crossing off my days during the month (black X's indicate writing days, blank squares indicate non-writing days) like so:

( January chainCollapse )

And then when the month is done and I have met or exceeded my 14 days/month goal, I go back and fill in the remaining squares. That means it's a true chain, and it looks like this:

( Writing Chain, January to MarchCollapse )

It's a thing of beauty.

Movies - Goal: 40 movies, 25 of which must be new-to-me. So far I have watched 9 movies (8 new, 1 rewatch) so I am technically 1 movie shy of my goal.

( Movies 08 and 09Collapse )

Books - Goal: 45 books, of which approximately 15 can be rereads. I have read 11 books so far this year (3 new and 8 rereads), so I am on track for this goal!

( Books 09 to 11Collapse )

Money Jar - I have succeeded in emptying my change purse every Saturday night into my money jar, despite how broke I might be that week. Go me! I'm not going to count it up until the end of the year, but take a look:

( Money Money Money!Collapse )

Memory Jar - Good times! Things have still been pretty stressful for me this year, but it's definitely been better than 2015 as my colourful little notes attest:

( Pretty MemoriesCollapse )

And lastly…

I didn't make it a goal to keep up with all the wonderful people on my flist this year, but I clearly should have. I've been woefully amiss at commenting on all your posts, even when they inspire me or make me laugh or make me awwww over your adorable kitties (I'm looking at you, fansee and katleept!) As I mentioned a few times above, life is still stressful with a capital S, but I will sincerely try to do better in the next quarter. You all are awesome and deserve to hear it!
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I set a lofty word count goal for 2015, and again fell short there. Pretty happy with the rest of my results, though. Here is where I hold myself accountable.

( Goals and ResultsCollapse )

So I managed to write 94 stories this year! The vast majority of them were over 1K, which was another of my goals. I wrote in SEVEN different fandoms (adding Black Sails and Stargate Universe to the usual suspects) and for EIGHT different pairings. I wrote from the POV of SEVENTEEN different characters, including a couple of minor ones. I completed the A to Z Challenge at 1_million_words, writing a story for each letter of the alphabet. And I only had two breaks in my Writing Chain. So despite not making my word count goal, I'm still super proud of what I accomplished.

( Links to all 94 storiesCollapse )

I'm always kind of impressed with myself at seeing the huge list of stories. I'm all, LOOK WHAT I DID. I DID THAT.

Speaking of 1_million_words, I just want to give a little shout-out to that awesome community. It's technically a word count community, but it honestly doesn't matter if your goal for the year is 300K or 10K. The whole point is simply encouraging people to write regularly. There are weekend prompt challenges, sign-up posts for a once-a-month writing day, challenges like 100 in 100 (the goal: write at least 100 words every day for 100 days), birthday events, and word wars (my new favourite thing!) Most of all, there is support! Even if you are down on your word count or pissed off at your latest story, there is always a mod like kaige68 or haldoor to jump in and remind you that there is still time to get something accomplished, and to cheer you on when you succeed, or thtwzjustadream or craterdweller to suggest a word war to help you get back on track. It's a wonderful, enthusiastic, and very friendly comm, & one I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys writing and would like to be part of a supportive and awesome community.

Aaaand now that I've officially ended my 2015 fic year, it's onward to 2016!
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