Goals update 11

I'm back after a bit of a hiatus. To be honest, I just didn't feel like blogging for a while there - I was trying to spend more time writing and getting other things done, instead of updating a blog that only one person was even reading (HI CHRIS!). But lately I've actually felt like updating regularly again, and I've had quite a few things I wanted to blog about, so I'll see how that goes. I'll probably post a few entries in the near future, and then try and keep to a once a week update at least.

But for now I'll start with a goal update. I'm sticking with what I had from last time, though I may add a few more to the list within the next couple of weeks. Here goes...

1. Watch all of the movies I own and have never watched. I have very few of these left. Still spending a lot more time on shows than movies, but I usually get one or two in on the weekends. I'd like to finish this one by the end of the month.

2. Play through some of my video games - 5+ hours a week. I've kept to this one every week, I think. I don't play much more than that, as I'm trying to spend time on some other projects, but I'm making my way through Arkham Asylum and Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

3. Travel. Philly was fantastic, as usual. We went out drinking one night (I got to shoot Christian up with vodka! :D) and also hit the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair. Pics of that to come. We never did make it to Ohiopyle unfortunately. Oh well. I'm hoping for nice weather either this weekend or next weekend - I'm itching to take a random road trip to get pictures of the mountains and such with all of the leaves turned for fall. And I'm going back to Philly next month to see Kevin Smith. Also planning a trip to NYC and maybe Washington DC, though there's a good possibility they'll actually be next year. We'll see!

4. Continue to learn Japanese. Still saving for the Rosetta Stone. I'm going to stop updating this goal for now - I'm still reviewing everything I know regularly and trying to immerse myself in the language whenever I have the opportunity, but I can't make much more forward progress until I get something new to work off of.

5. Write every day. I've been doing well with this, though I've been having some issues with writer's block lately and everything I've written has been pretty much shit. I keep plugging away. Some of it probably isn't as bad as I think it is (and some of it is). And even if I don't go anywhere with the stories I've written lately, at least I'm spending the time writing. I'll never improve unless I keep at it - even when it's seemingly impossible for me to string a coherent sentence together.

6. Exercise 5 hours per week. I backslid a bit on this one, again. Still fitting a few hours in but I've been pretty sporadic with it. For the next update I'm going to try and make up some sort of schedule I can follow. I'm getting busier and it's harder to exercise mostly spur of the moment like I did the past six months.

7. Save money, and learn to manage my money wisely. Ugh. This is such a horrible time of the year for bills. So far I've done well though, I think. Ireland is entirely paid off and I only took $100 out of my savings for that. I have yet to put that back in...but I'm dealing with my car registration/inspection/6 month insurance payment/Christmas so it might take a while. So far I've managed to leave my savings alone though, and I'm hoping not to have to dip into it over the holidays. I'm starting my Christmas lists and shopping now so that I can spread the spending out over a longer period of time and not completely drain myself come December.

8. Eat healthy. I said last time I'd probably take this off within a month or so, and I think I'm going to do so. I may bring it back over the holidays, as it's extremely hard to eat well at all at that time of the year, and I don't want to lose too much ground there. But for now I'm good!

9. Photography. Pretty sure I'm going to get Adobe Lightroom 2, though I don't have the money at the moment. I may ask for it for Christmas. For now though I'm playing a bit with the software that came with my camera. It's not my favorite but I'm at least learning some of the tools. I've also gotten back into the photography books I bought, and I feel I'm finally starting to grasp some of the manual controls and slightly more advanced techniques.

10. Make more time for myself - one hour per day. I've done wonderfully with this one. I'm making time for reading, gaming, writing, etc. Work is quite stressful right now and I think that down time really helps calm me down after a shitty day. I'm going to leave this one on the list though. Work is going to get insanely busy, and I might be picking up a class, and I want to make sure I continue to make time to just relax.

11. Finished all of the borrowed things I have. This one's coming off the list. I really just wanted to clear out the clutter of borrowed things, and I did quite well at that. I'm down to just a couple of books and DVD sets. Still making my way through those, and I've been really good at not borrowing any new stuff until I return something I already have.

Even without really paying attention to this blog or the goals for the last month, I've done fairly well. This is definitely a good thing - it shows I'm actually making these things a part of my life instead of only doing them because I have to post about them on here!