Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Goals Update 15

Right, time for my last proper goal update of the year.

1. Play through some of my video games - 5+ hours a week. Spending a good bit of time on this especially in the last week. Completely addicted to Arkham Asylum at the moment, and should be completing it in the next few days at the rate I'm going. Then I'll probably move on to Uncharted and Assassin's Creed.

2. Write every day. Have done well with this. I'm writing most days, but I think I need to start writing more anyway. I'd like to fit in an hour a day, starting on Thursday. But as long as I'm writing at least something, I'll be happy.

3. Exercise 5 hours per week. Still only been hitting 3-4 hours a week but I'm mostly satisfied with that. Work has been insane, and I come home exhausted, so I'm rather proud that I still manage to make myself exercise as much as I have been.

4.
Save money, and learn to manage my money wisely. More unexpected bills, damn it. I still haven't had to tap my savings yet though. I don't think this is hurting my goal, however. I've been doing well with saving and managing what I have, which is why I'm able to handle all of these expenses that have popped up. I can't help any of them, and I can't put any of them off either. So at least I'll be okay to pay off everything that I need to, and I can always start building again from there.

5.
Photography. The weather has still been miserable for pictures. We had snow one day but it didn't cover the ground enough. I've just been continuing to mess with editing and different camera setting, and I'll keep an eye out for any good picture opportunities.

These updates go much more quickly now that I've actually cut my list down a bit. Of course, then it will be 2010 and I'll go back to having 20 different goals (though whether I decide to post them here and continue to update remains to be seen!) At any rate it's time for bed - have another long day of work in customer service ahead, followed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Goals update 14

I can't believe it's already December. Where in the world did the year go? I know I've done a lot this year but it still seems like it flew by way too fast. Here goes one of the last goal updates - I will possibly do one more mid-month and then one final update at the end of the year. And of course then it will be time for my list for 2010, though I'm not sure if I'm going to include it in my blog and post updates this time. We'll see!

1. Play through some of my video games - 5+ hours a week. Still doing well with this. Haven't finished anything yet as I'm still just playing random games that I'm in the mood for. I think I may get into Assassin's Creed soon though, so I can pick up the second game.

2. Write every day. I've done this every day, but I'm giving myself a 3-4 day break after the hectic end of Nano. I'll start back up by this weekend at the latest, and probably tomorrow.

3. Exercise 5 hours per week. I've been hitting 3-4 hours, which is better than nothing. Going to try and get this back up to 5 now that Nano is over and I have a little bit more time to play with.

4.
Save money, and learn to manage my money wisely. Still managing this one okay, though more and more things keep coming up that I need money for. Not just "fun" things, but stuff like new glasses and dentist appointments and other unavoidable nuisances. Thankfully nothing too major yet. I may not be able to save much money for a little while, but I shouldn't have to dip into my savings either so at least I'll break even.

5.
Photography. Still playing with the free editing software but definitely need to invest in something more in the near future. Thankfully what I want isn't very expensive - just have to wait until I get through the Christmas season. Haven't made much progress with taking pictures. Didn't get any of the meteor shower. Despite setting my alarm and getting out of bed at 3:30am or whatever time it was, the weather didn't cooperate and it was too cloudy to see anything.

6. Make more time for myself - one hour per day. Going to take this one off the list, as it's become second nature to take a bit of time for myself just after work, and again before I go to sleep at night. This was definitely a good habit to get into I think, as overall I'm a lot less stressed now.

7. Nano. Over and done, and won! This one's off the list.

Wow, down to five goals and still nearly a month to go in the year. Not bad at all.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

New boss

My new manager started at the company yesterday. I didn't even get an introduction before 2pm so I started off rather irritated with the whole situation. I mean, apparently having meetings with every other department in the company is a priority over introducing yourself to your own department. Not my new manager's fault - he's not the one who scheduled his time this week. Just saying.

Anyway, sometime after lunch yesterday Cori went into a meeting with the new guy, and after a while they came back out and she introduced us. Then I had to go back to the conference room and meet with him for a while. We chatted for a bit in general, then discussed what was going on in our department now that he's started.

Between that meeting and the brief amount of time I saw him today (again, he had meetings - he won't be settling into our department properly until Friday), I'm cautiously optimistic about the whole situation. He seems to have a good bit of experience with other companies and developing inventory management and purchasing practices. He also doesn't seem as though he wants to switch anything around much. He said that he plans to keep us all in the positions we're in now, and that he just wants to organize everything so that our department is more efficient.

I'm all for that, actually. If we're not going to be able to hire another person for the department then anything that can be done to make our jobs easier and quicker will help. Also will be nice to have someone trying to get the inventory situation in hand as it's ridiculous, between issues with the ordering reports I'm forced to use and warehouse problems. So far all of the questions and suggestions he's had are ones that we've been asking for ages, but apparently since he's got a degree it means more coming from him.

Oh well, as long as it gets done I suppose that's all that matters. We'll see how it goes!