Remembrance of goals past
My old portfolio site, lisefrac.net, lives again. Because it's a WordPress site it was vulnerable to an exploit (many, in fact), and at the time it happened I couldn't be arsed to fix it, and so Dreamhost took it down.
Dreamhost seems to have put it back up and auto-updated WP. Or put a static version of it up. Or something? I have no idea. All I know is it went away for a while, but now it's back, and it seems to be perfectly normal. (Having had WP blogs exploited before, I looked for a few indicators of that, but didn't see anything, at least on the front-end, like random hidden links to spam, etc).
Weird. Not sure if it will disappear again, like R'lyeh beneath the waves, but I saved static copies of the pages I wanted to keep.
Like my 101 goals in 1001 days page, which I had been curious to check in on. It turns out it ended in April 2013.
Let's see how I did, huh? Struck through items are completed; italicized items are abandoned; bold is my commentary. And I'm going to mark off items I've completed between April 2013 and today, because why not?
Health & Fitness
Exercise 30 minutes daily for one month (at least 70% compliance)
Be able to bike to the Lunenburg library
Lose 35 lbs (haha, no, instead I've gained probably 15 lbs)
Work through the Introductory Fitness Ladder of the Hacker’s Diet
Keep track of everything I eat for a month (at least 90% compliance; 30/30)
Clearly I didn't do great in this category. No one is surprised!
Creative Pursuits
Finish first draft of Jewel in the Eye of the Storm I finished this in May 2013, actually.
Finish first draft of Viktory Empire I haven't touched this since finishing NaNo in 2009. Maybe someday I'll get back to it, but I'm much more invested in Lioness right now.
Finish revised draft of Mode of Employ I think I have officially abandoned Mode
Build Frugal in the Fruitlands readership (RSS + email newsletter) to 100 readers (53:100)
Write 50 new FitF posts I think I have also abandoned FitF
Knit a complex lace piece (Dracula’s Bride or something similar) I did knit the Forest Canopy Shawl, which doesn't count, sadly
Write ten poems and submit five for publication I've been really bad about keeping track of my poetry in the period this covers. I have been writing more of it lately, but I certainly haven't submitted any of it.
Complete a WorldCon Masquerade entry and compete
Become a master level costumer. These two are no longer so important to me
Submit a novel for publication I didn't do this in 1001 day window, and I'm not sure agent queries count. But... sorta?
Make new Victorian garb HMS Eden dress, somewhat constructed from earlier pieces
Write and run a new LARP Cracks in the Orb!
Write a Lovecraftian pastiche story Nope. Speaking of which, need to put notes into my idea document...
Learn how to crochet
Finish the embroidered “welcome” sign I’ve been working on forever I am going to be working on this on my deathbed, methinks
Finish or rework the Two-Income Trap review series on FitF See: abandoning FitF
Finish PDF of archived fanfic reviews, and take the site down I've made the PDF... somewhere, but the site's still out there, clogging up the internet
Block all finished lace pieces Wow, I had a block about blocking even back then. I've blocked one of them, though, so partial credit
Successfully complete at least one NaNoWriMoI just successfully completed Camp NaNo, but that's very different
Begin work on the Jack the Ripper story I want to write Nope. Also, that needs to go in the idea file
Develop/modify a WordPress theme for a new Frugal in the Fruitlands design Again, I doubt my commitment to frugality blogging
Make mouclade The stars have to align just right for me to do this, as Matt refuses to be around when I cook seafood.
Consolidate my collection of photos in Flickr - Flickr has become less of a thing in the intervening time. These days a lot of my photos live on Facebook. I may need to rethink that.
I think it's interesting to see the direction my creativity went here over this time period. Clearly I lost my interest in frugality blogging and competitive costuming--hell, I've lost my interest in almost all costuming. I continue to write, but my focus is almost entirely on long-form fiction. It's also clear to me that if I hadn't spent so long dicking around with blogging, I might have actually achieved the fiction-related goals.
Intellectual Curiosity
Now we enter the lands of the sublists!
Read 10 fiction books from my collection of unread books (7:10) Not too bad. My completed list was:
- On Stranger Tides, Tim Powers. Read November 2010.
- The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold. Read August 2011.
- Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold. Read August 2011.
- Declare, Tim Powers. Read February 2013.
- The Chronicles of Amber, volume I, Roger Zelazny. Read November 2012.
- Sethra Lavode, Steven Brust. Read August 2012.
- Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner. Read August 2013.
Read all of the original Sherlock Holmes stories
Read the 10 best Victorian novels according to Sarah Waters (2:10) I didn't do any better in the intervening period
Visit 20 (more) places from the 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts list (8:20) This is so freaking hard to keep track of, but this is what I think I accomplished?
- New England Aquarium, Boston. Visited July 2010.
- Chinatown, Boston. Visited July 2010.
- Longfellow’s Wayside Inn, Sudbury, MA. Visited August 2010.
- Stone Zoo, Stoneham, MA. Visited October 2010.
- The Butterfly Place, Westford, MA. Visited May 2012.
- Tower Hill Botanical Garden. Visited summer 2012?
- Magic Wings Butterfly Center, Deerfield, MA. Visited June 2014.
- Purgatory Chasm, Sutton, MA. Visited June 2014.
Participate in another Worldwide Photo Walk They stopped doing these, I think
Become conversational in Spanish This is a terrible goal, because it's basically immeasurable. Shame on 30-year-old Lise
Find a French conversation partner to keep up my French Aside from cute French waiters at EB's bachelorette? No.
Learn to darn socks and knits
Take an auto repair/maintenance course
Learn to play Go
Read 3 nonfiction books about the Victorian era Honestly, I'd have done better if I said "the 17th century" instead
Read The Time Machine and K.W. Jeter’s Morlock Night
Take a knife skills class
Take martial arts lessons I did a few months of fencing in 2012
Read Joshi’s biography of H.P. Lovecraft
Read 5 books about the natural history of Massachusetts I'm not sure there ARE five books about the natural history of MA, aside from, like, identification guides...
Learn the Russian alphabet
Personal Development
Complete 4 years of “sobriety” from WoW I'm not sure about the math on this one. I did go back to playing for a brief period in either late 2012 or early 2013, but I don't remember what I was counting as a "sobriety" date. And I played for about a month and then got bored, so what does that count as?
Volunteer to mentor a youth at my church
Complete a 30 Day challenge to build the meditation habit (at least 50% compliance)
Financial
Pay off $50,000 of the second mortgage (25,000:50,000) Did this one in spades--we currently are down to the last $13k on the mortgage, having paid off $62k
Pay for next car in cash I gave up on this one when I partially financed the Yaris in September of 2010. It's paid off now, though
Implement a system for keeping financial files organized Did just this last month, on my staycation
Have a will/trust drawn up
Have a durable power of attorney for healthcare drawn up
Become a Friend of the Lunenburg Library
Increase my giving to Vassar to the next donor level I can't remember where I started, so I can't really say
Raise 401k contribution to $150/pay period I'm still at like $40/pay period, so not even close
Sell Ren faire garb that no longer fits me Hey... anyone want a size medium Morella bodice dress in a rust color with orange and mint accents?
Home & Garden
Paint the guest bedroom
Hang a clothesline for laundry
Create a gardening notebook
Make a sleeve for and hang the decorative quilt that needs to be displayed
Reorganize the sewing room with adequate storage room for costumes and craft supplies Although it's pretty much doomed not to stay that way
Organize cat files/paperwork
Decorate the master bedroom/make it a more comfortable space
Replace ugly blinds with something more attractive
Hang photos of parents & me
Career/Income
Launch the “Learn French 4 France” microsite I’ve been planning
Receive a raise and/or promotion at my job
Write an ebook to sell
Complete MS in computer science
Complete all the lynda.com Javascript courses
Complete a significant Javascript application I would say some of the projects I've done for work count
Develop a unique WordPress theme for my portfolio
Finish helping K. upgrade her fiction website
Relationships
Meet the neighbors I met them, and they were assholes, and now I try to avoid meeting them
Frame Matt's and my wedding photos. I'm not sure why I want to do this. We have terrible wedding photos.
Celebrate one of Matts and my anniversaries in Providence
Take a trip with my mother Trip to NH to see the Indigo Girls
Hold at least 5 parties for friends (2:5)
Hold at least 5 dinners for close friends (2:5) For these last two, I honestly have no idea. These are impossible to keep track of.
Entertainment/Travel
Travel to Argentina (or elsewhere in S. America) and complete a language immersion course - or at least have the trip scheduled
Take the H.P. Lovecraft walking tour of College Hill in Providence
Take a culinary tour of New York City
Try a new restaurant every month (14:33) Seriously, no idea now, but I probably have done this
Have a meal at Brasserie Les Halles in New York
Try 75 foods off the Omnivore’s 100 (62:75) I'm not going to post the whole list here, but I did add things like pho, bellinis, vodka jello, and gjetost to the list, and the debatably raw Scotch Bonnet
Visit Salem, MA
Attend a WorldCon
Find 10 geocaches (5:10)
Attend a Mass Audubon event
See a concert by the BSO or Boston Pops
Get old iPod fixed or get rid of it
Play Race for the Galaxy
Watch 5 items from our collection of unwatched media (2:5 - seasons 1-7 of Muppet Babies, season 1 of Golden Girls) I honestly can't keep track of this
Visit Seattle
See a flower on the MA endangered species list Another bad goal, because I have relatively little control over this
Get to the end of the main plot in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Amazingly, I still have managed not to do this
Go hiking/camping at least once The closest I've gotten to this is boffer larping
Visit a Six Flags
So, that was entertaining. I may do this again, because making the list is fun. Or I may not. I think I've stopped viewing these as goals and more viewing them as guidelines; writing this is like writing a letter to my future self.