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[Vector]

Goodbye August, fuck you, you won't be missed.

I combined points 10 and 11, which were both for preliminary exams, and added a free space which I will probably use for some kind of artistic or musical project.

Behemoths

1. Learn to make coffee. - VICTORY !
- AFTERMATH: This coming month, perhaps I will learn to make espresso ice cubes.
- AFTERMATH: I have completely stopped getting coffee out, which is very clearly saving me hella money.

2. Sort through belongings and downsize in preparation to move.
- I am on my own side of the duplex now! I've been Konmari-ing it up.
- I still have some boxes of junk in my room and the garage but the situation is under control.
- The challenges I joined on Habitica are really helping me with slowly weeding through my things.
- I'm actually very close to asking my parents to bring down more boxes of stuff just so I can sort through it and put it away. Yes.

3. Complete an editing project.
- Haven't started!

4. Go back to my full moon tea and solstice cleaning traditions.
- I had a very nice full moon tea with my friend in Pennsylvania.
- I have already made plans for the 20th of September; I will be serving Gateau Invisible.
- I want to think about which cleaning I will do before/on the 22nd. It's likely there won't be much to do because I just moved in; I haven't cooked in a long time, so my knives are sharp.
- Might just make a short list of cleaning and then work on the boxes I've saved to Konmari, or mending projects; something like that.

5. Reading goals (see the Hot Fresh Reading Challenge)
- I have started the reading habits that I wanted to start before the end of the year -- working on my most difficult categories.

6. Tithe 10% again this year.
- My finances are unfucked. I am no longer losing money in whackadoo places like the VPN bundle I never use.
- Now ... I simply have to let go of the money . . .

7. Study for the JLPT N1 and take the exam if it's offered this year.
- Blitzed through my Wanikani backlog, am working on my iKnow! backlog, and I am reading every day.
- The JLPT will not be offered in a location close to my own this year, and I don't really want to fly to LA and take it.
- I am going to focus on improving my skills and will take the exam next year for sure.
- I am starting to learn about subtle differences between vocabulary items. It's so hard!!

8. Apply for [REDACTED] grant--> apply for 3 - 5 similar opportunities that I'm equally unsure of achieving.
- I applied for a program pairing mathematicians with classrooms in underserved communities.
- I applied to the special directed reading program as a mentor and was rejected.
- Now I need to do this 1-3 more times?.

9. Work on starting a lesson study group at my present institution. - VICTORY !
- Was asked to join a faculty-led group working on equity in mathematics assessment as a student voice, in ADDITION to my student club officer position.
- The faculty group is involved with the professor who is working on the calculus sequence.
- In this case, what I need to do is work on convincing them to do lesson study with the students.

10. Study for prelims
- Boot camp starts on Monday ...

11. []

12. Actually sign up for the prisoner penpal project.
- I signed up for the project and have picked someone to write with
- It turns out that I actually didn't need a PO box because I'm not supposed to send her my address or other personal contact info. Oops!
- Next up: send my first letter.


I feel OK about how things are going so far. It's gonna be all right...

[None]

Reporting: Seven days this month with no meaningful contribution, and an unrelated five where I excused myself for massive back pain. I suppose it's the privilege of the healthy and comfortable to be able to do that, which makes the general lack of progress more acrid in my mouth still. Spent more time yet trying not to exist during our heat waves and helping friends manage homes/pets. I could have done more. I could always have done more. I did have a lot of days spent well with friends or being helpful, or rebuilding things.

1) Get a job: More job applications out, more dead-end interviews. Most of my productive time has been spent here. Successfully acquired a bartending license figuring I could fall back on doing that in town and trusting in my vaccine, since my career is still stalled out. One such application is quiet for two weeks now, the second isn't actually hiring. Will have to hit the less tasteful bars of the bend if I want this to go anywhere, or take another massive paycut and try my hand at some entry level remote QA thing that I'm probably going to get ghosted on for having too much extraneous nonspecific experience.

2) Get three certifications: Nominal progress studying, nothing scheduled. Again.

3) Finish that stack of books on my nightstand: Took a big chunk out of upstart addition 'More Than Two.' I'll have to re-borrow it from the library to put more progress in. That gal I was going on dates with stopped wanting to date, so I don't need any longer to understand better for her sake, but I'd still like to know better for other people, or perhaps myself. At this rate, I'll actually finish The End of War, hehe.

4) Get thirty followers on Twitch: Spent a lot of time fussing about peripheral equipment- this mic won't work with that webcam, this webcam won't work at all (no, it does), this hard drive containing my operating system shit the bed and took all of my setup and creative works with it, etc. That's a lot of words to again say "lmao i barely streamed this month."

5) Learn Python: lmao i didn't even touch it this month. Again.

6) Go on six metal detecting forays, counting from none from today: 1/6. Running out of warm weather by not going outside during the warmest month of the year.

7) Get a little bit fit so that I don't throw the everloving fuck out of my back again: I spent five minutes on children's monkey bars and ended up with a persistent gut pain that's taken the better part of two weeks to abate. Was afraid I'd herniated myself. My knees hurt. I'm up eight pounds since the pandemic started. I feel so fuckin' fragile.

I don't know, August was too slow and too fast all at the same time. It felt busy for how little I've accomplished here, or maybe I just need to reconsider how I allot my time or what I peg for a busy day. Start cramming extra hobbies and tasks into single days, or something. I'd like to spin around and blame the job hiring process, or spontaneous injuries or hardware failures, but the common variable in all of that is still 'me.' S'pose I'll just consider whinge-wanking about it here as progress enough, go to bed discontent, and do September the exactly the same way?

[Naturegirl1999]

The title is very interesting, although I’m confused about what this thread is

[JoshuaFH]

This does look cool, I should really look around the forums more to notice the cool people doing cool things.

[Vector]

It's kind of like a new-year resolution thread, except the gimmick is that it's twelve concrete goals which you report out on at least once per month.

The point is less "New Year! Completely change my life!" and more "There's a lot of time in a twelve-month period! What are some long-term goals I would like to make happen?"

Unlike New Year Resolutions, it's expected and normal that you make zero progress on some of your goals in some months.

[Vector]

Goodbye September, fuck you, you won't be missed.

1. Learn to make coffee. - VICTORY !

2. Sort through belongings and downsize in preparation to move.
- Folks brought more boxes of books down. I guess I should make a concrete goal for the month of October.
- Here's a goal: go through the box of mailing materials in the garage, and the box of academic papers in my room.

3. Complete an editing project.
- Still haven't started!

4. Go back to my full moon tea and solstice cleaning traditions.
- I tried to get ready for the school year by the equinox.
- The gateau invisible was a big hit. It was just, extremely tasty. Floral. Wonderfully applish.
- For October I plan to make pumpkin breads, but the person I would have invited is going to be in Europe (I will have tea with her in February). So I need to figure out the next person.

5. Reading goals (see the Hot Fresh Reading Challenge)
- I'm kind of floundering.

6. Tithe 10% again this year.
- I tied tithing payments to losing HP in Habitica. I guess the nicest surprise has been that it hasn't been adding up the way I expected it would.
- The second-nicest surprise has been realizing that I'm giving money in way more interesting places now that I'm getting rid of it in small amounts, and not so much to non-profits.
- I like thinking about all the people who I've given a little helping hand to here and there. It's a much nicer world to imagine.

7. Study for the JLPT N1 and take the exam if it's offered this year.
- I am so freaking overwhelmed u_u
- I'm still kind of behind on wanikani and iknow.

8. Apply for [REDACTED] grant--> apply for 3 - 5 similar opportunities that I'm equally unsure of achieving.
- I applied for a program pairing mathematicians with classrooms in underserved communities.
- I applied to the special directed reading program as a mentor and was rejected.
- I will apply for a school-wide fellowship opportunity.
- I will apply for a beekeeping opportunity in November.
- One more?

9. Work on starting a lesson study group at my present institution. - VICTORY !
- I need to work on convincing them to do lesson study with the students.

10. Study for prelims - VICTORY!!! [until next year]
- I passed one of my exams and am auditing a course in lieu of formally studying for the other one.

11. []

12. Actually sign up for the prisoner penpal project.
- I have not sent my first letter. I have fucked up.


I'm ... behind on everything important. I am going to put on the brakes and stop playing video games more than half an hour a week for the rest of the year. The half-hour per week as opposed to a total ban is so that I can finish Get in the Car Loser, after which I guess I won't be playing at all until I am 100% back on top of my stuff.

[None]

Report.

1) Get a job: I did it! I start on monday.

2) Get three certifications: More studying. Started getting into a morning routine of poring over exam things with a bottomless mug of java at the local shop. Time to figure out a new routine if I want to make this work. I DID discover there's a testing station a mile down the road, so I should be able to get right to the exam when I'm ready. This isn't like to hit three, but maaaybe two could happen if I really gun it.

3) Finish that stack of books on my nightstand: didn't even touch a book this month, besides study guides, I'm gonna go finish The End of War out of spite tonight. Not great.

4) Get thirty followers on Twitch: New mic came in, which is super exciting- streamed more this month and picked up a few followers from a local community. Thirty's still a pipe dream, but I've got a friend asking for a show pretty regularly and that makes me pretty happy.

5) Learn Python: lmao i didn't even touch it this month. Again. Again. Not great.

6) Go on six metal detecting forays, counting from none from today: 1/6. If we were counting magnet fishing, I'd be done, but that's on pause too since I need to replace my ropes.

7) Get a little bit fit so that I don't throw the everloving fuck out of my back again: I bought a bicycle for a song and have been walking pretty regularly- Pokemon Go helps with this. No luck shedding the few extra pounds I've put on over the pandemic, but we're getting there.

Other highlights include being an excellent host to some friends one weekend, beta-testing someone's project, fighting a scourge of fungus gnats that have infested some of my plants, and hours of hammering out Linux issues. Jobseek took the brunt of my effort again, but that's done now. Squandered four days this month and didn't actually mark my calendar for eight up near the end of it, whoops.

You're doing great, Vec.

[Vector]

Other highlights include being an excellent host to some friends one weekend, beta-testing someone's project, fighting a scourge of fungus gnats that have infested some of my plants, and hours of hammering out Linux issues. Jobseek took the brunt of my effort again, but that's done now. Squandered four days this month and didn't actually mark my calendar for eight up near the end of it, whoops.

You're doing great, Vec.

You too! Look at how you managed to turn it around in such a short period of time!

[Vector]

"Vector spent October playing video games."

Goodbye October, fuck you, you won't be missed.

1. Learn to make coffee. - VICTORY !

2. Sort through belongings and downsize in preparation to move.
- "Here's a goal: go through the box of mailing materials in the garage, and the box of academic papers in my room."
- I've sorted through the box of mailing materials in the garage, and worked on the box of academic papers in my room.
- For November, I guess my specific goal will be to get my parents to bring more of my books/other things from their place when they visit for Thanksgiving.

3. Complete an editing project.
- :V

4. Go back to my full moon tea and solstice cleaning traditions.
- I hosted a department tea on the full moon this month. People were reminiscing about it for days afterward!
- I bought a $45 bottle of wine (yes) for the full moon of February 2022, which will be very special.
- I'm not sure what/who I'll invite for November, it's a little hard to decide/get people to plan ahead/find energy to cook or care about networking.
- I did get tickets to a Balinese shadow play that day.

5. Reading goals (see the Hot Fresh Reading Challenge)
- Well . . . I'm certainly reading a lot this year.

6. Tithe 10% again this year.
- I have now tithed 20% of the 10% I owe others, based on last year's income.
- The current method is working well. I can use it consistently and respond to disasters affecting others.
- Looks like I will do another game giveaway this year though because there's still a lot of money in the kitty :V

7. Study for the JLPT N1 and take the exam if it's offered this year.
- I am no longer so freaking overwhelmed u_u
- I've been steadily doing 150 Wanikani flashcards and 50 iKnow flashcards per day. My accuracy rate is finally going back to pre-pandemic norms.
- I think I'm going to keep chunking along at this rate while I go through vocabulary, and then slowly transition over to more speaking, writing, and reading practice.

8. Apply for [REDACTED] grant--> apply for 3 - 5 similar opportunities that I'm equally unsure of achieving.
- I applied for a program pairing mathematicians with classrooms in underserved communities and was soft-rejected (no reply).
- I applied to the special directed reading program as a mentor and was rejected.
- I will apply for a school-wide fellowship opportunity.
- I will apply for a beekeeping opportunity in November.
- Applying to attend ICM conference.

9. Work on starting a lesson study group at my present institution. - VICTORY !

10. Study for prelims - VICTORY!!! [until next year]

11. New Goal: Do new depression treatment starting in December.
- I'm apparently eligible to get my depression treated with head-magnets.
- So I guess this is my new behemoth :V

12. Actually sign up for the prisoner penpal project.
- I sent my first letter! I have not yet received my first reply.
- I will cross this one off at the end of the year if I have done a good job of keeping up with whatever is in my inbox.


I've also started thinking about Behemoths for next year. See below spoiler for a general idea.

Spoiler: In No Particular Order (click to show/hide)

1. Pass Prelim #2
2. Hot Fresh Reading Challenge
3. Tithing 10% + 2-3 hours of activism per month
4. Pass JLPT N1
5. Get driving license
6. Full Moon Teas / Solstice Cleanings
7. Presidential run for [REDACTED] (or, apply for 5-6 grants/opportunities)
8. Continue downsizing
9. Quarterly art/home project 1
10. Quarterly art/home project 2
11. Quarterly art/home project 3
12. Quarterly art/home project 4

[Caz]

those are some big behemoths man.

[None]

Beware, beware, the eaves of November?

Report.

1) Get a job: jobbin' jobbin' jobbin

2) Get three certifications: jobbin' jobbin' jobbin'

3) Finish that stack of books on my nightstand: jobbin' jobbin' jobbin'

4) Get thirty followers on Twitch: jobbin' jobbin' jobbin'

5) Learn Python: jobbin' jobbin' jobbin'

6) Go on six metal detecting forays, counting from none from today: 1/6. Running out of time on this one. Had every weekend booked this month and daylight is running short. Can probably squeak another foray or two before everything colds over, but on the bright side, this probably means fewer people out to raise eyebrows about the long-haired weirdo sweeping the beep stick around at the park.

7) Get a little bit fit so that I don't throw the everloving fuck out of my back again: Bicycle good. Pokemon Go good. Walking good. Jog across town to get drunken bargoer home, good. Feelin' all right about this one.
--

I don't know how people find the time to do everything when working full time, but I'm also a li'l bitch with time commitment issues and a major update to path of exile, heh. I joined the local university's community band, which ties up an evening weekly, and a friend of mine had a seizure recently, so I'm adding a commute to my work day to get her home from her job daily. Combine that with frequent evening game time online with my siblings and the obligation of seeing the local sportsball game over a pint to keep said friend social and un-isolated, and I'm pretty booked up these days.

I know my goals are pretty low by comparison and I'm not reaching them quite well, but I'm still pretty happy with how I'm filling my time right now. I'm feeling pretty privileged to be able to work the way I am and maintain my social networks, so the shadows feel pretty well at bay right now and I feel good about that.

That said, you're inspirational, Vec. Keep keeping on!

[None]

oops i blinked and November is gone.

I'm not going to be able to make any of my goals besides the 'getting a job' one. Days got busy with working and commuting. Only really read two books this year, certifications stopped dead when I got hired on, weekends became holidays or friend events. I might make a last-ditch squish effort to put some work into each of the categories (particularly since work slowed down pretty hard), but otherwise, I'm willing to accept the year for what it is. Will need to reassess how I utilize recreational time and/or how I unwind if I want to get out of this new holding pattern I've set for myself, but admittedly, it's not a bad one to be in at this point in my life.

I really, really can't get too complacent though if I ever want to leave the country. Had it hard enough just landing this job, I need to be more marketable than this. More goal-oriented, better time-budgeting, I don't know.

[Vector]

November ... I don't know why you thought you would be different from the rest of this year. GOODBYE. Fuck you! You won't be missed.

1. Learn to make coffee. - VICTORY !

2. Sort through belongings and downsize in preparation to move.
- "For November, I guess my specific goal will be to get my parents to bring more of my books/other things from their place when they visit for Thanksgiving."
- NARRATOR: Vector's parents did not visit for Thanksgiving
- No time to work on this for last month. None.
- I am sure I will do a hell of a lot of cleaning and konmari-ing after next Wednesday when my finals week officially ends.

3. Complete an editing project.
- :V

4. Go back to my full moon tea and solstice cleaning traditions.
- Didn't do November full moon, was overly exhausted/distressed but brought food for a serious meeting the next day.
- I do have something like December plans already.

5. Reading goals (see the Hot Fresh Reading Challenge)
- so tired. 84 books read, so few truly good. why

6. Tithe 10% again this year.
- ARGH
- I can't do anything about this right now, I just literally don't have the time. I did save a bunch of ppl's Paypals/Cashapps to send help once finals are over, but right now everything is Turned Up To Eleven at school.

7. Study for the JLPT N1 and take the exam if it's offered this year.
- I won't be working on this for the next week or so, but I am satisfied with my progress so far.

8. Apply for [REDACTED] grant--> apply for 3 - 5 similar opportunities that I'm equally unsure of achieving.
- I applied for a program pairing mathematicians with classrooms in underserved communities and was soft-rejected (no reply).
- I applied to the special directed reading program as a mentor and was rejected.
- I will apply for a school-wide fellowship opportunity.
- I will apply for a beekeeping opportunity in November. This is not the year.
- Applying to attend ICM conference.

9. Work on starting a lesson study group at my present institution. - VICTORY ! [until next year]
- I have a good idea of a candidate for an actual lesson study project and of a few participants.

10. Study for prelims - VICTORY!!! [until next year]

11. New Goal: Do new depression treatment starting in December.
- I couldn't get an appointment for this until January... so victory I guess?

12. Actually sign up for the prisoner penpal project.
- Nothing in that inbox so far. I'm doing great!
- Maybe my letter was too shitty. I want to try harder next year.


Most importantly I am about to be off of academic probation. Yes. Only one more week.


My Habitica to-do list is literally about 90 tasks long at this point, most of them with due dates, and my "list of creative ideas I want to pursue" is becoming overwhelming. I am kind of shocked by the amount of work available for highly trained professionals. I worked so hard to get a shitty teahouse job about five years ago, I interviewed so many times to schools for lousy pay and benefits, and now I'm constantly turning down work and have a stupidly large list of things to do that will help me get work later. I hate this. Fuck this country.

[EuchreJack]

Well, life is shit, so might as well make a list of shit I gots to do if I want to survive (pregame list for 2022):
1) Need new office by Jan 2022, fuck you landlord
2) Need close files, fuck you work
3) Need save money because no work, fuck you world shit I fucking won't be saying
4) Need lose weight, because damn not gonna be fucking overweight whale no more, fuck fuck fuck
5) Need save update at least one computer, fuck outdated crappy computers
6) Should probably go on one date in 2022.  I mean, I make that resolution every year and epic fail every year, so why not make it again?
7) Shit, I can totally travel a half-marathon.  Not like run, but run/walk on my own.  So shit, why not?
I got some books I bought.  Maybe read one?  Douglas Adams for the win!
9) Speaking of books, what about writing a short story(s)? Yeah I can do that!
10) Update wardrobe.  Damn, some of my stuff is OLD
11) Save for sis to get married.  Sure.
12) Clean, service, and fire these cool guns staring at me. At least several of them (some are missing parts).

Fuck you 2021, maybe 2022 won't utterly and completely SUCK.

EDIT2022: Well, it looks like #1 is ok.  Everything else is just fluff anyways.  Oh, I did some #11, and this can qualify as some contribution to #9.  Maybe I'll have time/energy to write up something this month for 2022.

[Vector]

The year in review. This year I:

1. Learned to make coffee
2. Passed one of my preliminary exams
3. Moved house
4. Got a 4.0 in the fall quarter and therefore off of academic probation
5. Applied to a number of fellowships and other opportunities which I felt I was about 50-50 on winning

6. Read 84 books, including many books on prison and education
7. Served tea on the full moon about 50% of the time
8. Tithed some of the money I owed directly to folks' kickstarters and paypals

9. Studied off-and-on for the JLPT N1 and leveled up a few times in Wanikani

10. Laid the groundwork for getting insurance to pay for a necessary depression treatment

11. Wrote my first letter to an incarcerated person.