Tag: goals

Typing does not do January justice. I took great pictures of my headshot, of the inner ticking of the rest of me. I rode physical and emotional rollercoasters. I know more that I ever have before – it is a sobriety that, well, demands sobriety as I figure out where this know-how goes.

So hey, we are going to keep this quick – so much more to do! Come along for the bullet points:

January Goal Review

1. Citizenship
   • Won! I take good profile pics. Now a state citizen!
2. Health Decisions
   • Won! More on this in a second –
3. Six Flags & Adventures
   • Failed. Six Flags, yes, but a loss of a lot of the calendar. Not counting this one despite the fun.
4. (Private) Restart
   • Won! Did the week, discovered some things have changed (for the worse?), but learned my principles around this activity could be flexed. Good thing, since there is no time to wait!
5. Bonus: Death Walk
   • Won! Get acquainted with my own mortality again. I am a bit listless as I write – death walks always have set me right, and it has been a minute since the last! Let me see if a weekend can be made free for dedicated recovery…
6. Bonus Bonus: Become Educated on Dx
   • Won! That #2 health decisions goal above? Ya, I spent a few dozen hours reading medical reports from the US and Europe, watched procedure videos, looked up statistics, and… too much more. Counting as a bonus.

February Goal Proposal

1. Estate Planner
   • Been a few years since updating my last will and testament – let’s fix that!
   • Bonus: Letters Round 2
     • A death walk once included writing letters to be delivered after things are done; time I reviewed new letters these years since.
2. Birthday! And Other Feelful Things
   • Bday celebration (of course – might include a silent disco!) and enjoying things that make me really, really feel every Sunday night. A date with myself to enjoy some nostalgia.
   • Bonus: Solo RPG #2
     • Last year I played a roleplaying game on my own using BITS and discovering solo play methods. It was a lot of fun. As RPG content continues to be the most evergreen info on this site and I liked it so much, I will shoehorn this in as a bonus.
3. (Private) Restart #2
   • When I was in kindergarten or first grade, one of the two things I wanted to be when I grew up would be a scientist. Glad I am living up to that – doing a personal study on the same rails at January’s goal.
   • Bonus: Private
     • Private extra bit for #3. Will be honest if we hit or not!

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125% – getting stuff done!

IDK if I will hold myself to “hey, aim for 100% but usually get ~75%” – time is seemingly increasing short, so do do do, go go go.

Let us see if the same work ethic may be applied to February. This bday will be important for a few reasons. I have an inkling I’m going to need to change the goals at the start or midway through, thus only 3 with bonuses – so it goes.

Anyway, cheer me on! Stay warm. Remember to start treating your Valentine as your Valentine today, not only February 14th 😁 Cheers to a month of joys ~

Tis the season to get things done!

December Goal Review

The month was dedicated to EOY blog posts, the EOY letter, and celebrations. I add too that I made some novel financial decisions with confidence and conviction. This was all melancholy as it goes in the season – low light, poor sleep, friends and more scattered to the winds.

Will I go as boldly in January?

January Goal Proposal

1. Citizenship
   • Have some paperwork and tests to complete that cement my place in where I call home now. About time I brush up in study!
2. Health Decisions
   • Might be a chimeric cyborg. This month is for the appointments and tests and decisions that change my future.
3. Six Flags & Adventures
   • My social calendar is =poppin’=. I reserve time to build those memories and strengthen those relationships.
4. (Private) Restart
   • A private goal for myself, I am going to restart something for a week, ride out the consequences for the month thereafter. This namely will explore if a principle I have held for years still holds true enough.
5. Bonus: Death Walk
   • Get acquainted with my own mortality again. I am a bit listless as I write – death walks always have set me right, and it has been a minute since the last! Let me see if a weekend can be made free…

–

Thinking of these goals, they generate and create very little – something I find disappointing. Thinking ahead, I already know that getting my estate planning updated, concerts, and my birthday in February are on deck.

It is difficult to… come up with more. I am a doer, accustomed to positions of poverty and urgency, whether actually threatened or merely imagined. Now I see big milestones on the horizon that I am soon to pass and need the strength to perhaps set new courses.

Or I might just be tired. I am resetting my sleep routine and it has been brutal. Might be time to get on board for 2024! Cheers to you and yours ~

Computer learning, human psychology, economic blooming, and more I have likely missed living a life of work, study, and growth.

What comes next? No one can know this. 2024 is a mystery to me, yet here are some shapes in the dark:

Citizenship

I like where I live. I like my work. I will make additional commitments to my beach life and professional endeavors in 2024.

This will mean travel, more morning swims, some days at the beach, some weekends camping and giving of myself to this place and the people I am coming to call “home.”

Chimeric Cyborg

Remember when my conversion to the machines was ditched?

Looks like the procedure is back on the table. This time, it includes non-human parts, so who can tell? I might evolve through science 😁

Making

A copout point. Of course I am going to make things. Games, blog posts, distilled patterns.

There is no reason to not make more of myself, too. Progress on my FI goals, a better understanding of the world, compassion for others in their journeys, insights to my mind and body and needs and wants.

“Give more than you get.” I endeavor to do that.

Time for Some More?

While there are a few things to gird myself for, I open myself up to the joys I expect will arrive and more that come as a surprise.

My birthday to celebrate with my West Coast friends will be a blast. We get after so many different activities, I sometimes need to find excuse to stay in (like tonight as I write!).

Concerts of power metal, hyper metal, a menagerie of EDM, and more will see me on the dance floor. Heck, who needs a concert to dance? Swing, line dancing, two step, and other classes will see more of me.

Books and shows and music and maybe a game or two could bring me to tears. Many did this past year. I am eager to keep the wonder in me of media stoked.

As AI and machine learning make strides, I for one am ready to welcome new tools – or new sentience – on this Earth.

And company – let me not forget the people. Who will I meet? Continue to enjoy time with? Come to understand and party alongside and travel for and so much more? Not the destination nor the journey, but the company you keep seems to be key to a lot of happy feels.

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Such high hopes for 2024. I do not pretend to have influence over major global affairs, nor dwell anxiously on matters that… well, do not really matter.

2023 has taught me “this too shall pass” – the pain, the joy. I seek to withstand hardship by my strength and bring about its end swiftly. I seek too the opportunities and openness to recognize and accept and be present with the joy that wanders along.

That is me. How about you? What are you expecting in the new year? What do you want for yourself? For others? Let us talk to understand. I think it is time for some more of that.

Cheers to the mysteries forthcoming for you and I ~

As you will see, from 50% to 150% is a heck of a jump. How? What gives? Let us talk about that a little:

November Goal Review

1. Home Care
   • Won! I live in better spaces, things in their places.
2. Review This Journal
   • Won! Content has been translated into the EOY review and I still need to revisit the deets for any blogs I wish to write and notes to act on. +Bonus for the books and shows review. (Lacking the additional bonus from last month.)
3. Money Matters
   • Won! Managing my books, I discovered some help to short-term budgeting and am very pleased at the recent market pops. If the market continues to grow, certain goals will be struck in December or January – if so, that means I must attend to more money matters 🤞
4. Suit Stuffing
   • Won! Wedding, Thanksgiving, a holiday party to prep for, concerts, house warmings – giving myself credit here for showing up.
5. Bonus: Life Audits
   • No dice! No audit of my whole life just yet, but:
6. Bonus: More Sleep Journaling
   • Won! Sleep journal has been invaluable. Data is great – future consideration is to measure my daily actions vs. only nighttime and supplement routines.

December Goal Proposal

More parties, visiting chosen fam and friends, drafting and writing the EOY letter, the EOY blog posts… I am taking December off credit because these things must and will be done – no wiggle room here! (Won’t count December as a vacation just yet!)

Will come back to revisit come January’s goal proposal – sound good?

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150% of expectations… Did I not challenge myself enough? Did I especially enjoy these goals?

Like the bonus activity audit of November, I have years of data concerning my goals I could compile and correlate – maybe I will do just that.

Next year, though! For now, let us all survive and thrive in this wintertime. I myself am getting a big dose of the seasonal blues – this too shall pass. I know you may be a bit fuzzy too – I am here with you and for you in it.

For the joys and battles you face, I know too you will come out far ahead – these will be gone and you will remain as more. Cheers to you and yours ~

New month, different guy (kinda) writin’ the blog about last month this one next up. Let you and I do the goal review:

October Goal Review

1. Bio Tracking
   • Won! While the genetic analysis and blood panel results are in the mail, a few other bits: Ketone testing showed I really lack the ketosis state (may try for in November), glucose monitoring is stinkin’ expensive, and my sleep journal has data on time, activities, and supplements that I can further explore for exact impacts on my quality of life!
2. Efficiency Audit
   • Failed. I reviewed nothing of my time, my activities. Pretty lame effort, to be frank.
3. Old Journals
   • Failed. One done, but the other was a wash. Perhaps a single journal per goal? Whatever the case, got music playlists put together and are in review. Since the main goal was missed, I cannot take credit here.
4. Everything Everywhere All At Once
   • Won! Birthdays and travel and high-tea and dancing and soon-to-be Halloween. Enough said on the fun here 🙂

November Goal Proposal

1. Home Care
   • My spaces could do with some upkeep: my car, my living areas, my phone and papers, my pantry, my “stuff.” Why wait for spring to have a cleaning? 😁
2. Review This Journal
   • Like last month, this month review my active journal. The EOY review will be better for it!
   • Bonus: Review my books and shows for media to include in the review.
   • Bonus: Follow-up on October’s ol’ journals.
3. Money Matters
   • Time to be vague! Given a certain opportunity, I may need to better afford things tangential to it. So, I will run a short-term budget and perhaps cull from my under-performing investments. (Have to be careful with this, so putting as a goal that may be pretty quick or unnecessary.)
4. Suit Stuffing
   • Have a wedding weekend and Thanksgiving holiday to celebrate. No need to elaborate – these take a goal off my plate.
5. Bonus
   • I will try for October’s efficiency audit after the above four are accomplished!
6. Bonus
   • Investigate my sleep journal’s data!

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50% October >_> Ouch.

But November? I think this cool-down of “produce stuff” will be a nice reset. You thinking the same?

It has been on my mind – perhaps I say “no” (and clear the calendar) a week for each goal missed of the previous month. Does that go too far? Kind of attractive, no lie…

Hey, a reminder I had to relay to some others this month past, so I share with you: We can do everything right and still not have what we intend happen. And I encourage you, us, to try regardless.

Cheers ~

50% last month led me to consume a little more culture in September. Something a little more manageable, right? 😅

September Goal Review

1. Lay Out Less
   • Won! I spent less than 17% of the month with these 4-task days, but I realized something at the end of it: I need to reserve, say, the bottom of a workday (4 out of 10 tasks) to overflow and spontaneity. Will try this habit going into October, no goal required 🙂
2. 10 Hours Video Game
   • Failed. 6. 6-stinkin’ hours. I could not manage 10 hours of dedicated play. Big sad here. I cannot get over the sensation that solo play felt like… empty calories? A feeling pointedly lacking in this next goal:
3. Cold-Play BITS
   • Won! TLDR; a =huge= amount of learning and content was generated from * checks notes * 50 journal pages of the single mission played cold. It took at minimum 11.5 hours to play a single RPG adventure solo (writing the journal took a lot!), yet I had a fantastic time. Worth bookmarking future games to try this way – a few principles, a handful of tables, and a Magic 8 Ball. More on all of this in blogs to come!
4. Read Tools of Titans
   • Failed. Only ~200 some pages of the ~700 page book. It is still a quality tome – it will remain on my coffee table for the future. I might sneak further reading in October’s goal that in part tracks sleep. Speaking of which:

October Goal Proposal

1. Bio Tracking
   • In no specific order, but all of lasting importance:
     • Genetic Analysis
     • Full Blood Panel (at least one)
     • Glucose Monitoring
     • Ketone Monitoring / Manipulation (will involve diet)
     • Sleep Journaling
     • and more!
2. Efficiency Audit
   • What are my biggest time sinks? Work and home? How can I get 10% more by limits and cuts? 80/20 study, gun-to-head must-do? What am I not good at, but do anyway?? Find these answers, execute solutions.
3. Old Journals
   • Get started on the ol’ EOY letter. To do this, I have at least two journals from this year to review.
   • Bonus: Books and movies reviewed for the EOY. (This is a preliminary pass.)
   • Bonus: Music gathered and playlists started for the EOY.
4. Everything Everywhere All At Once
   • Cool movie. In my life, this means spending time and attention with the people I will share life and joy: birthday weekend, a week in Texas, a silent disco, dancing, perhaps some camping, and of course, Halloween! Failure here means forgoing these things because of my own weakness.

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50% again 🙃 And I regret nothing! All of it a learning experience – learning how much I enjoy the company of others, the gratitude for the work my past self has done, appreciation for the glut of opportunity in danger of drowning my busy body.

So take care of my body. Collect the facts. Celebrate in October with friends what a doctor has recorded as a “well developed” physique 💪 Here we go ~

Looking forward to celebrating with you in person or spirit as we enter the haunting month! Feeling swell and passing on these well-wishes your way. Cheers~

Gird yourself – while July was swell, August pushed me in new ways:

August Goal Review

1. “No” Week
   • Failed. Temptations came out of the woodwork. I said “yes” to a few nights of dancing, a going away party, and more when asked. I did feel good about saying “no” to some events after the “no” week, but not in a way I feel confident in claiming this goal.
2. Appointments o’ Function
   • Failed. I did not set aside the time to make the calls, set the appointments, and show up for many of the maintenance tasks I wanted accomplished. #Shame
3. Appointments o’ Fun
   • Won! Big wins here. Now I know how to surf, I have a new climbing gym and regular twice-a-week routine, line dancing and two-stepping are added to my suite of moves, I have made or joined new social groups, and have of course enjoyed the water these few weeks. Despite going without the martial arts class in August, I am having fun 🙂
4. Sleep
   • Won! I missed three days unintentionally to the 10 PM in-bed time, while six seven days I actively chose to stay out for the activities and people I engaged with. I left a lot of parties early and stayed out for some, having it come to mind that a 9 PM “go home” reminder is a reminder to evaluate the vibe, rather than a rule to call it quits. Adopting this for a daily consideration!
5. Bonus: 4 Days No Internet
   • Failed. Or at least I cannot take credit for. Absolute cutting off of internet was a problem the first day of this experiment. Heck, I write this blog post on another! Really, it made me think where was I spending my time aimlessly – this happened to be on a few social media apps. At least I uninstalled most of those 💯

September Goal Proposal

1. Lay Out Less
   • A spinoff from the “no” of last month, 1-to-2 days a week (roll a D6, on a 1:) only allow myself to list 4 tasks to do vs the 10-20+ I normally jot down.
2. 10 Hours Video Game
   • I cannot recall the last time I had to schedule in play time – months? Last year? Anyway, I want to play a game again. Heck, maybe some games! The only way I feel I can do that right now is set aside the time. 10 hours ought be incredibly doable over the month.
3. Cold-Play BITS
   • Taking the starting ‘missions’ or ‘adventures’ from a tabletop roleplaying game (I am thinking something from the Warhammer universe or a Mork Borg solo jaunt using oracles and randomizers), I aim to play it to completion by using the BITS system, making sure to form or update rules as appropriate as I play. Keep the content lean, keep it just-in-time applicable to the play situations that come up.
   • Bonus: Play multiple scenarios to rehash BITS rules “just-in-time.” Shake up the genres too.
4. Read Tools of Titans
   • Another Tim Ferriss book, Tools of Titans has been sitting on my desk for months, owned for years. Time to do something about that.

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Back on track! I seem to have been challenged enough in August to accomplish much, just not everything (~50% 😱). An accomplishment of balance!

Writing all this out, it looks like September has ~36-40 hours of core activity planned – a month of consumption, leisure, and casual entertainment creation. Will keep with up with climbing, swimming, dancing, at least once-a-week dining, the blog here, a few concerts upcoming, and any socializing I shim into the calendar.

What is life without a little fun? A little living?

Off I go to do the things. What are you off to? Share your wins! Cheers to ’em ~

All I want for Christmas is to get a few things accomplished.

While this here is more for me to keep track of everything I am adding to my plate, I think there is interest for you in what might be upcoming these last four months of the year. In rough order of excitement, “blessed are the list-makers:”

• Concerts! Especially electronic and metal shows. Live country bands every weekend, silent disco every first Sunday, Beast in Black this September, Dragonforce in November… I am getting out!
• Speaking of country, learning to line dance! This kind of dancing is much less principle-based and more memorize-the-patterns.
• Play a tabletop roleplaying game again, but with the BITS / 4M / BMWS / Hand-Head-Heart-Habits system to address missing rules or clarifications, e.g.:
  • Warhammer 40K misc.
  • D&D
  • Cy_Borg
  • Mork Borg
• Mods for the TTRPG Cy_Borg:
  • Cyty 17, a Half-Life 2 Combine city, faction, NPC, weapon, and mission outline.
  • Cy_Super, Super-Cy, Cy++, whatever I end up calling it, an introduction of truly next-gen super-punks. Introducing (anti-)heroic templates like Master Chief from Halo, WH40K Space Marines, Samus Aran from Metroid, Iron Man, DOOM Guy, Alien‘s Ripley, and the ever-useful “wizard with a gun.” Add power armor, personal mecha, plot armor, lightsabers, chainsaws, chainswords, and more.
  • Introduce the Mork Borg Basilisk god-things into Cy_ in many forms: land-ships, air-ships, floating sea fortresses, sunken weapons, space stations, orbiting craft, hidden super-computers, buried smart-cities, mythical creatures long dead, actual twin-headed god Basilisks of prophecy…
• General TTRPG mods:
  • Faction sheets, one-pagers that bring any fictional faction into any system, any game.
  • Land Ships (giant vehicles, like those from Bolo, Deserts of Kharak, Gundam, and Star Wars), both as single entities and as game dungeons unto themselves.
• Take another “death walk” to really focus down important things and people in my life.
• Bottom Half(ish) Below:
• Explore my neighborhood, trying out new restaurants at least once a week, getting onto the beach and into the water every morning I may.
• Break into V5 for my bouldering gains 🙌
• Go hiking somewhere in / around my new digs.
• Play Mork Borg solo, playing by “rules as written.” I think Solitary Defilement will be my best entry here.
• Read all of Tim Ferriss’s Tools of Titans (been sitting on my desk for months, owned for years…).
• Review a backlog of old journals, summarizing and collecting ideas for more projects.
• A “Market of Mecha:” A manual of system-agnostic (or BITS-based) mechs where buildings are like boulders, bridges but fences to mount. Including examples from Gundam, Battletech, Pacific Rim, Warhammer 40K, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. (Which others should I include?)
• To go along with mechs, “Monster Mayhem,” the kaiju equivalent: Godzilla, the Angels of Evangelion, a kraken, World Serpent Jörmungandr, a Mass Effect Reaper, a straight-up city-destroying UFO, and Cthulhu.
• More Cy_Borg mods:
  • An alien invasion of the city Cy, combining elements of Independence Day, War of the Worlds, and little-grey men. (Could combine with the XCOM mod below.)
  • Stranded factions from Star Trek: what happens when a technologically superior but diplomatic and non-cooperative (i.e. the Prime Directive of noninterference) group gets dropped into the end of the world?
  • Hunger Games in the a district of Cy.
• Some Mork Borg mods:
  • Bring the DOOM Guy as a playable ultra-character in the MB world.
  • Bring Guts from Berserk as both a playable and NPC ultra-character, randomizing different items like the Berserk armor, The Egg of the Perfect World, superior companion followers, a band of soldiers, and more.
  • Create a “downfall” prequel to Mork Borg. Start as a fantasy super society of gods and heroes, slipping more and more into wretchedness as the prophecy of the Twin-headed Basilisks comes to manifest.
• Make a Cy_Borg-like “end of the solar system.” Lightly base it on the Warhammer 40K universe, setup players to command strategically (space ships, planets, armies) and tactically (singular super soldiers) to search for some kind of salvation before the “Last System” bastion is overrun by deadly and multiplying enemies, internal and external.
• Convert the videogame XCOM into an alien-busting TTRPG with base-building and ever-present escalation.

Left out a few private goals – those are fewer and easier to track. Will I get to even half of what is here? Unlikely.

Regardless, time to get after it before the holidays demand a refocus and glimpse into next year. Cheers, y’all ~

1. Move (Again)
   • Won! On the beach just in time to go for a swim with a set of keys now in the treasury of Poseidon (ie I lost some keys 😅) The rest of the time has been great – out every day! Can’t wait to be in the water all this summer 🙂
2. Festivals & Travel
   • Won! I write this now as a I travel. And the festivals? =Frikken fantastic.= Reminded me of capacities I have not stretched in a while! Making some new friends and acquaintances along the way.
3. Stocks
   • Won! Investments readjusted, well on the way to a FIRE milestone. (But we know about FIRE already…)
4. Audit
   • Won! Time, people, finances, stuff, and more have been under the gun. I have taken some steps to make more and less time, but perhaps August can help with that:

August Goal Proposal

1. “No” Week
   • Like a fast, a resetting of the mind and body. Goal is to take a random set of 7 consecutive days in the month to say “no” to all new functions and asks (it starts on the 18th). If I am interested, I ought ask. Regardless, a tracking of what gets “no”-ed and how I feel and what I ask for will be kept for evaluation. Who and what and when can then be evaluated for their applicability to my life later.
2. Appointments o’ Function
   • Duty calls. DMV trips, doc appointments, and a few other personal maintenance matters requires my attention. Fight to get them done, at the least getting them on the calendar before the next change of season.
3. Appointments o’ Fun
   • I have been letting a lot of things go either through neglect or waiting on others. This violates a motto of mine: “Wait for no-one.” So I must cut this time out for myself to enjoy things like dance lessons, my first surf lesson, martial arts, a new climbing gym, and writing outlines to stories I have been playing with. Oh, and of course, swim and eat my way through the neighborhood and city ~
4. Sleep
   • I have been doing something iffy with my sleep. I wonder if it is the city’s air? Anyway, to get back on the foundation of quality living, I am setting a recurring alarm for August for 9 PM to get inside, 10 PM to be under bed sheets. This will require saying “no” to a lot of opportunities and communicating my own boundaries – all things I am less than familiar with. A journal of sleep quality will help things along methinks!
5. Bonus: 4 Days No Internet
   • Two solo days and one pair of days where I take the day without internet (with exception to work-work where I get paid). How will this feel? I’ve done week-long camping trips before, but perhaps this reset along with the “no” week will do me some justice.

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While more a fan of succeeding just under 100%, the occasional completion of all goals in a month is nice 🙂 Yay, July!

For now though, August: Getting back on the themes of “no”. I have been stretching myself to lengths that are objectively not my forte. But hey, I am my own responsibility, and that is so very empowering 🔥

Anywho, happy August your way! Stay cool, gird yourself for battles upon your personal hills, and continue to be excellent. Cheers ~