A Pixelated Mind

Some resolutions:

1. Be in better shape than I am now
2. Pass my departmental prelim
3. Contact friends and family every month
4. Do something creative
5. … I need a fifth resolution here. Perhaps something involving sexy lady types.

Did I accomplish all of my goals for this year?  Did I accomplish any?

1. Get down to 172 lbs. or 12% body fat
   Fail. Damn. I thought I’d set the goal at 175. Even then I failed. I got down to 177 for a while, but it turns out I just have a bigger frame than I thought. I got to the point where I exercised every day for three months, counted calories, and maximized my protein intake, but it just wasn’t enough to overcompensate for the heavy, regular drinking.
2. Start and maintain a podcast
   Ambivalent. I have many things to upload and many things to work on,
3. Maintain my Sarah Project
   Success! Sort of. I messed up last week.
4. Maintain my secret Sentence Project
   Fail. I simply cannot keep up with projects. I think I should stop.
5. Pass my departmental prelim, write a chapter
   Fail. This has not happened. It will by April, though. It has to!
6. Super Friend Bash 2011
   Success! Oh no!
7. Finish writing my microfiction
   Fail. Though I did start the @puntitled account. That was kind of fun.

Here we go! Let’s get it DONE this year. No particular new projects to work on.

1. Get down to 172 lbs. or 12% body fat
2. Start and maintain a podcast
3. Maintain my Sarah Project
4. Maintain my secret Sentence Project
5. Pass my departmental prelim, write a chapter
6. Super Friend Bash 2011
7. Finish writing my microfiction

Did I accomplish all of my goals for this year?  Did I accomplish any?

This past year I stopped making 18 resolutions because I kept forgetting them and had less than a .500 batting average. I went down to seven in accordance with this post.

So here we go:

1. Issue (and meet) a Creative Challenge every week (to be announced here)
   FAIL! And miserably so. I got past January and was plowing through February when Hourly Comic Day came up and bit me in the ass.  I spent two solid weeks coloring and editing the comics, which left me drained for the rest of the month and unmotivated for the rest of the year.
   Still, I was creative enough this year.  I held a No Prospie Week series of celebrations, I drew comics every hour for a day, I started a podcast (To be announced and advertised later), I wrote some stories, I learned to design trophies, I shot and edited countless hours of video, and I made no less than three new websites. Among these was a website I designed for my best friend to help her on the job market and a full remodeling of this blog.
   Still, I failed at my stated goal.
2. Get back to the point where I can do a full four sets of 12 pull ups.
   Ambivalent! I say ambivalent because it’s not ambiguous. I unambiguously failed, but I got back into shape in a bad way. I started playing basketball several times a week until I broke a finger and a rib. Then I switched to the less violent sport of Mixed Martial Arts until a very fat man sat on me and tore (or sprained) several “nondescript ligaments.” I started running 5k every day until the semester started. And I started swimming or riding my bike regularly until it got too cold. Above all, I started going to the gym regularly. I improved my bench press and squat by 60% and 400% respectively. I never got to the point where I could do four full sets of pull ups, but I did improve greatly. I even lost 20 pounds at one point!
   Since I only chose that particular goal for the sake of improving my general fitness, I still consider myself a winner this year.
3. Pass my Future Research Statement and begin to work on my dissertation reading
   FTW. I passed my FRS, which is our third year exam, though one of my advisers did not show up.  It was an ego blow, but it worked. I began to work on my dissertation reading, but not anywhere near the rate at which I want to continue a goal similar to this in 2011.
4. Give good presents
   FTW!! I made a concentrated effort to give good presents this year and am proud of my selection.  Of course, I only ended up getting presents for a handful of people (6 or so), which is less than almost any other year. But I made them count, damn it! 
   
5. Continue posting on constrainedwriting.com at least every week
   … *ahem!* I failed pretty badly, but I’m going to fix this before the end of the year, so… maybe a success?
6. Organize my files digitally and the other way
   FTW.  I have some stray PDFs to label and some papers left to file that have accumulated in the past few months, but other than that I met this goal.
7. Continue writing a sentence every day
   Fail? Don’t bother making sense of this one.  I’ve never posted about it and not really told anyone. But I’ve been writing a sentence every day in the hopes that at the end of five years I will have a workable autobiographical novel.
   … It’s pretty much the biggest fail project yet. But I’m only halfway through, so… we’ll see?