As was committed last quarter, last month had stellar impact in what I wanted to have accomplished. Writing, money in housing, people, experiences, all of it worthwhile.
But I’ve been having a nagging… urge, to work more on tabletop RPG systems. The ideas have been stewing for a few months now, but even as I write this in September, I’m surrounded by notes on different play systems. In October, I’m going to leverage that drive, while not forgetting to write something too 😁
My Goals Due EOM:
Titles and Loglines
Taking a hint from Blake Snyder’sSave the Cat!, I’ll be fleshing out, at the bare minimum, the titles and loglines of my bucket full of back-burner stories. (This feels particularly liberating, no longer having to use “Working Title” anymore 🙂)
Truths
Putting together a collection of “Truths” (see capital ‘T’) is on my end-of-life to-do list. Having discussed some of these with intellectual persons, I already have my first pre-order for the collection once it’s put out (unknown to them, it’ll be put out for free [I’ve a short rant about why – Truth!]). In October, I’ll get at least this collection together concerning people, people interacting, the world, stories, religion, government, and an outlook on the future. (Daunting, no?)
Role Playing Games
I’ll continue my study of tabletop role playing games, but I’ll also put together the systems I think might work best for fast, intuitive, flexible gameplay 🎲 Anything to further this understanding will be taken up, including organizing a role play session, watching games be played, and going solo through my own systems.
A Pull-up
My arm still isn’t 100% from a shoulder injury experienced earlier in the year. Though able to do a few push-ups again, pull-ups are still a no-go. I aim to fix that. 💪🏻
Join me in celebrating how good it is to get after some important bits! 😃
Won. Twice. Besides a writing sample that was edited by some very strong friends of mine, one of them let me know of Cubicle 7’s (not “Crucible 7” 😑) call for writers. In about one-and-a-half to two hours, with 30 minutes to spare, I applied there, too! Despite it being months before knowing the results, it’s a heck of a win, this goal.
Investigate other housing options
Won? Didn’t find apartments at better prices and am cooling my heels looking at houses (expecting a raise that’ll benefit my loan pre-approvals). Regardless, I’ll keep an eye out for houses in Las Vegas because this is where I can see myself living for a good while 🙂
Meet and hang out with other people
Won! Friends I haven’t seen in ages, I got out to visit. More folks I’ve reached out to, some of whom I’ll be seeing in October and summer 2020. It feels good to be in a place materially, socially, and mentally to keep up with some pretty cool folks ~
Fulfill end-of-life experience goals
Won! Played in the waters of Venice Beach in Santa Monica, saw some important people, and tried sensory deprivation (cool, but maybe not all that 😜). This is a tough one to have done, because now I need to re-evaluate what to do with my life, even if it’s only three months ahead 😶
I like winning. Can I make a repeat of October’s goals? Guess those will have to be figured out first… Bear with me as I get my priorities straight 😁
Super successful previous quarter. However, as I was writing the post for the December quarter, a lot started happening really quickly. Into such an extent, I feel we’re going to try something new: Monthly goals.
By the 21st of September, a Warhammer 40000 story of either “Betrayal from Within”, being “Against the Odds”, or a “Hunt for Glory” will be in Games Workshop’s inbox. Getting after it! 😎
Housing Updates
I’m looking at houses and/or cheaper apartments. Crossing my fingers something cool is found! In any case, I do like where I live already 😊
Others
I’ve been really good in August about meeting more people, friends old and new. This is merely a goal to keep that up for a month!
End-of-Life Experiences
Part of my ‘mortality’ list, AKA ‘what-if-I-die-in-three-months’ to-dos. (Morbid, aye? 💀) Already getting sensory deprivation under my belt, visiting LA to play at the beach soon, and visiting important people I haven’t seen in awhile after that.
All else is secondary. I’d thought to include starting a simple podcast, writing the things I’ve found as “Truth” in life so far, cleaning up my Blood Crown short story from last quarter, and ensuring I can do one pull-up (recovering shoulder injury). Priorities change, as can be expected 🤷🏻♂️
This’ll be an interesting challenge, to do in a month what might be expected to stretch over three. What are your sought for outcomes in September?
Won. The three stories (all WIP titles) were completed very early on in July. Gem Heist is short but complete, though a little boring despite involving ghosts (surprise). Aladdin gives me a lot of excitement as it explores themes of children entering adulthood and the old guard envying youth. Nightmare Jack is grim though not vulgar with its horror exploring hope, the acceptance of death, and taking life for granted. (Comment if you’d like to see more of these.)
Edit a fan-fiction to be a unique IP
Won… Kind of. I explored outlining a short story, but it ultimately fell flat. The parts that did work worked in a way so far different I was merely writing a new short story. Instead, I blitzed through a horror short story first draft involving some malicious jewelry in two days split over two weekends. (Sounds like a win to me.)
Keep up this blog
Won. Did I cheat, though? Out of the sixteen blog entries since the original goal post, thirteen of them were carving up various short stories. That’s unsustainable going into the future, so how will I pivot?
Make it rain $$$$$
Won. Have more money in the bank not just at the end of the day, but going into the future too. This took a lot (a lot) of work: Timing, negotiations, study, travel, deals, talk. I’ve learned a lot, and can now demand a lot. With my current main income stream, it can boost my earnings to a point where moving to a place like Seattle or San Francisco to work for one of the Big Five between $150K and $200K wouldn’t alter the outcome of my ultimate goal: Financial Independence.
Back to goals. This quarter involved many pivots, some quick action, dedication to getting things done, and was ultimately a very, very successful time in my life. Full steam ahead into the last quarter (or month; more on this later) of the year!
After some serious consideration, it’s best that I alter my goals for this quarter early before we continue too long.
A few things have been on my mind: a shoulder injury hampering sleep, work, and working out (it’s a pain to type this); what to do now that I’ve hit certain financial milestones; and, the benefits of small mental exercises.
To that end, I’m going to take more control over my day-to-day and work more in value-add activities for my future.
Funny that I write this on Free RPG Day (June 15th). Anyway, I’m backing off on the investigation / design / development of potential solutions to D&D-style Dungeon Master problems. Yes, this could reduce other people’s suffering; no, this is more a fun pastime than ought to be a full-focus goal.
As for making an RPG? In honor of RPG Day, I’ll take a few minutes to make a whitepaper on the tank commander idea mentioned earlier.
Books and LeetCode
Again, these are pastimes. I’m going to read the books anyway, so they shouldn’t be a goal. Neither LeetCode – I am studying the problems over lunch at the ol’ day-job despite having the sincere thought that tackling programming riddles isn’t what I want to be doing with my spare time.
I’m nearly done with this one and might finish it in days. My plan will be to put my outlines aside, work on other things (maybe even add in more outlines!), then revisit these in August.What I have so far (working titles and loglines):
Nightmare Jack – The undying queen of the damned encounters the land of the living and with it, death.
Aladdin – Aladdin, a slave to become eunuch, loves Badour, heir to the empire, but when the power of Jinn overtakes him, Aladdin will battle magical armies and a greater danger to them all: himself.
Gem Heist – Pirates looting treasure don’t expect to meet the former owners.
Edits
It’d be nice to have something that could be sold. That, and editing the fan fiction into my ‘own’ short story will help guide writing future stories inspired by preexisting intellectual properties.
This Blog
Hello there! I’m going to cut back to one dedicated post a week with others coming as the inspiration hits.
Last month I had a ‘secret’ goal. I’m transforming that goal into a broad topic: Make more money. It’s up to my creative performance to see what I can offer; discipline will then deliver. By saying “no” to more things, I can perhaps pursue two of these every month:
The secret thing from before. I’ll start with this and #2; if they turn out, great! If they don’t, I’ll be dropping them heading into July.
The stock market. I’ve a nice table showing the top percentage gains over time of major technology and entertainment brands. Using that, I’ll drop a few extra dollars on stocks vs. mutual funds to see if my simple system turns a profit.
Real estate. This may not be a thing. Real estate scares me something terrible. Any move will only be done after serious (serious) review of the market. Still, might be quaint to finally purchase a residence-to-be-rental.
Ran the numbers on this for two hours after writing this post. The goal in buying property would be to eventually turn it into a rental. To effectively do that, I ought to follow the 1% [or greater] Rule of rental-to-purchase values. On the West side of my town where I’d want to live right now, the percents on houses/condos is .6-.7%, clearly failing the 1% Rule. Thus, real estate just isn’t for me at this time. Glad to know I won’t need to worry about that!
Writing. Probably would be writing for others. It’d be writing regardless. I can type quickly (500-600 words / hour) and can quickly research any topic (don’t get me started on knitting; omg).
Fiverr. Fiverr went on IPO the other day to great gains. If I’m going to be part of the “gig economy”, let me perform in its marketplace. An idea here would be to sell my company, my time, my conversation. That, or send physical, handwritten letters (hey, there are romantics out there). I’ll think of something…
Why I’m Doing This
My overall goal is to pursue any goal, any time. To do that, I see financial independence as the gateway, where more money is always better than less money. At some point, investments (whatever those happen to be) will become self-sustaining, thus not requiring myself to work for anything but personal interest all the time.
Thus, today’s pleasures need to be geared towards that end. It’s a race to the professional finish, a race I will win.
The last quarter had some drifting in my focus towards game design and software development and away from writing. It was so impactful, I was thinking of taking a quarter off to see what I naturally drew myself to doing. That train of thought was thrown out posthaste – there’s so much exciting stuff to do, why skip out on what should be some easy accomplishments for myself?
We’re going to split this next quarter into three buckets with three criteria each. Check ’em out:
My Goals Due September 2019
All About Writing
I will produce 1 outline a month. Likely more will be generated, though extra time will be given so I don’t get off track like I did on the in-hiatus Shallow Seas novel. Let’s count an outline as at least 5 pages.
I will rewrite a fanfic so it’s not a fanfic, but something I can really own. People are inspired all the time by others. My They’re Aboard is one such case, though with a bit of tweaking and world-building, it ought to stand well on its own.
I will keep up this blog. That’s going to be things such as a larger post exploring the need for gratuitous weaponry in science fiction and shorter updates on works in process.
Game Time
I will investigate the problems faced by Game / Dungeon Masters (DMs). This all spawned from when I heard someone lament that no one in a Role Playing Game (RPG) wanted to have the responsibility of DMing. I hope to provide some solutions to that, like:
A RPG card-based system to ease campaign setup and running. I’m using Magic the Gathering cards at the moment. They’re surprisingly useful, though more work is needed for items, traps, locations, time of day, distances, weather, etc. I’ve high hopes for this one.
I will get a tabletop RPG into a prototype state. Between players acting as tank commanders w/ crew, players being the leaders of space fleets and worlds, or a study of this game The Orc and the Pie, someone somewhere should be able to play something (sometime).
I will study coding on LeetCode. It was suggested to hit-up 50 questions each of the easy, medium, and hard categories. I trust this person’s advice, so I gotta get on it!
I will read two work-related books (with notes!) every month. Despite the list possibly changing, I can look forward to:
Checking the Toggl (my favorite time tracker) analytics for the last 17 months as it comes to time spent on goals, the numbers are very humbling. (Spoiler: I don’t spend enough time pursuing my goals.)
Last year, I spent an average of 33.6 hours per month on goals (2019 at least is 37.5 hours per month!). In the 17 months I’m referencing, we are at about 35.55 hours a month, or 105 per quarter.
It has taken me about 17 hours to come up with an outline (any draft would be a conservative 500 words per hour). That’s 51 hours out of our 105. 54 left to go.
The blog has, on average, taken 2.5 hours per post. If I keep with 2 posts per week for 12 weeks, that’s 60 hours… Let’s aim more for half that at 30!
Down to 24 hours.
Edits for stories tend to be about 22 hours split between 2 unequal stories. Assuming the They’re Aboard rewrite has more than my typical editing required, let’s assume 22 to be a generous cushion for the changes.
The games will be… problematic. It’s been awhile since I’ve fully designed tabletop games (checkout my mods!). We can say that 8 hours is the most I’ve spent on designs this year in a month, so let’s assume 8 per month, 3 months, for 24 hours total.
Everything else gets wrapped up in my normal studies (LeetCode) or reading.
Ouch. We have -22 hours left over at the end of the quarter if we’re diligent, not counting the quarterly review and next quarter planning. These might be called “stretch goals” 🙂 Whatever the case, time’s ticking!
Failed. Didn’t even touch it. There’s a lot wrong with this almost-draft of my first novel-length work. So much so, and myself still evolving leaps and bounds as a fiction writer, it’s best to put Shallow Seas to rest for now. Maybe after pushing out a few more stories, we can revisit the world of Shallow Seas.
Finish Edits on Two Outstanding Stories
Won.Unblinking Skitarii (a Warhammer 40K fan fiction) and They’re Aboard (also fanfic) are done! Done done! In the near future, these two short stories will be posted. They’re Aboard is also the planned subject of one of my goals for September 2019 – keep an eye out!
Create Lists for Life
Won. I’ll spare you these for their private and very personal nature. This will be a true win if I can live by these guiding bullet points to have a more fulfilled life!
Won. WordPress made it really easy to get started and to keep up posts. It was on me to find something(s) to talk about. Getting 11 (now 12) posts out, 3 pages published, and plans for more, this is a definite win.
75% success! It’s been a fantastic last three months. Despite a loss of friends and coworkers, more friends have been made and I’m more secure in just about everything.
I’m cutting down this quarter to a number of goals I’ve found works great: four. Thank you for your patience with me getting this list out – the last two weeks have required a drastic reevaluation. Let’s get started.
My Goals Due June 2019
Phone Lock Screen Reminder
JimmyChattin.com
The primary goal was going to be to finish Shallow Seas, but I think a website to show off Shallow Seas is of a lot more interest. By June, I need the domain name “JimmyChattin”, an “About” page, contact and hiring information, and a backlog of posts for the site. We’re going to keep this simple, maybe adding tags for posts as necessary.
Surprise! WordPress makes setting up a website amazingly easy. With a coupon code, I now have JimmyChattin.com for the next two years! Huzzah! Now there’ll need to be a few more posts than just this one…
Finish Draft 1 Shallow Seas
My first among equals. The goal last time was to draft Shallow Seas; that didn’t happen, but I’m close. This time, we’re going to cover the final thirty-to-forty-thousand words.
Lists
“Blessed are the list makers.” I hope to systematize my life. First, we’re going to need to make and stick with a “No, But” list – whenever something would distract from goals or pure pleasure, pause. Give the list a review. Then either give it a “hell yes” or an unashamed “no”. Maybe include writing my own obituary too. There’s no time to dally.
Edits
Update the stories They’re Aboard and Unblinking Skitarii (working titles), two fan fictions written around 2018 for the Warhammer 40K universe. There are a few edits I’ve left behind for myself, so finally ‘completing’ these stories would be grand.
These goals, though fewer, are bigger than previous endeavors. Regardless, I’ll push hard. However, all are subject to replacement in the next three months. I’m keeping eyes peeled for Games Workshops‘ Black Library open submissions for 2019. If / When that hits, a few alternates will have to be taken up instead of the above:
Send one fully realized submission to Black Library. That’s brainstorm, logline, outline, pick, draft, revise (continuously), and finally submit a Warhammer story. Ideas so far:
Follow a soldier’s horrific journey through a spaceship boarded by aliens he once called home.
A simple heist of the jewels in an alien crypt at the heart of a continent goes wrong.
The lost crew of a ship crash on an ancient space station hidden in a sun’s corona.
When excavating advanced technology awakens an ancient menace, cyborg IB-13 must make her escape to warn the fleet of its impending doom.
Life is made easy for a child after they discover a new toy until the mechanical trinket decides to act on its own dark wishes.
This’ll be a tough three months. With GDC happening in March, leading a new fitness group, and training / coaching for Las Vegas’s Corporate Challenge competitions, distractions will be rife. Rising in my role at my job is also a concern as I seek both more responsibility and less time in office. Wish me luck and give me understanding as things get shifted around to realize these goals and position myself for a life of leisure in the future.
If you’re interested, these were useful links for determining goals for JQ:
Jenna Moreci, who inspired the quarterly goals system.
Jimmy Chattin 