Weekly Check-In for Weeks 16 and 17: August 10 to 23
I'm starting this at 1:47PM Sunday afternoon. I'm trying to get this done between putting baseboards down, showering, and working. I've got odds this won't be finished until after I get home after midnight, but damnit, I've got to get this done.
Again, I've been slacking in terms of, well, just about everything here. I've been exhausted, lonely, depressed, blah blah blah, et cetera. I don't mean to demerit my despair--it feels genuine, at least to me, but to be fair, I could be letting it get to me more than I should--but I'm not here to talk about that. Not right now.
So.
[-+-]
1: Lose Weight! - Fail.
I've set up for myself weekly tasks to schedule myself time for exercise. I've been doing that, but what I haven't been doing is keeping to my schedule. Again, I've been exhausted and blah blah and so on, so recently, when I've scheduled myself to get up at a decent hour on my days off, I've opted to sleep in instead.
As of this morning, Wii Fit tells me I am 232.6 pounds. This is 17.6 pounds more than I want to be by the end of September and 13.6 pounds more than I need to be by Thanksgiving. I've got to get my groove on.
I have also tasked myself with tuning up my new bicycle and finally taking it out for a spin. Who knows? I might actually make it a regular thing to ride out with Chris's old digital camera, just like Chris told me he used to do.
2: Budget and Save! - Success!
This is easily the one thing I have been thinking about the most over the past few weeks.
I looked over my spending habits and figured out how I want my income divided between different things. When I first figured this out, I was far enough in the negatives that seeing multiple instances of "You have negative money to spend" in my spreadsheet was depressing.
However, it may have also been deterrent enough for me to not spend so much money recently. My August MasterCard bill only shows me spending something like $780, and I swear this is a good $500 less than what my bills usually tell me. This is a positive sign that my spending habits are changing for the better.
Another positive sign: All those instances of "You have negative money to spend" in my spreadsheet? Most of them are now the equivalent of "You have more money to spend on things right now than you care to spend on said things right now." The only exception is the Food category; I think I'm still in the negatives here. On the one hand, I could simply up my Food budget so that it is more realistic. On the other hand, I am trying to cut back (it's hard when you're exhausted all the time and grabbing Wendy's on the way to working midnights is easier than trying to prepare your own three-course meal to go), and while the number is still negative, it's a much smaller negative than it once was.
I also have a number of larger purchases planned for which I am keen on saving towards, namely a TV for my new bedroom and an iPhone. Yes, I have a huge 52" TV right outside my new bedroom, but I can't use that absolutely anytime I want, which I think is the key to me wanting my own screen. I've kind of been wanting a new phone for a while; maintaining an up-to-date contact list on a device I can't sync with my computer is annoying. Also, Jane just isn't cutting it in terms of a portable media device anymore. The next portable device I get is definitely going to be an all-in-one thing. As much as I am against Apple on principle, oh my God the iPhone is a beautiful piece of hardware. The only thing that can possibly stop me from wanting one at this point is that it can't let me alter Word and Excel documents on the go, which I have been promised it can. The very fact that so many apps exist for the iPhone is also more than a little appealing.
I think I also want a new electric guitar, one that's, you know, good, and doesn't, you know, suck. The one I have I bought used years ago, and I'm pretty sure the key selling point for it was that it was cheap. I mean, it sounds alright when I plug it in, but it doesn't keep in tune very well, and the strings always sound like they're rusting or something. I haven't thought hard about this yet, but I imagine this will come eventually if music and guitar playing keeps being as important to me now as it has become in recent months.
Another thing I have also been thinking about is Magic and my spending habits within. Am I okay with dropping hundreds of dollars on a new set every time one is released, which is every three months? Yes. Having new cards with which to play is one of the reasons I am still playing the game. Am I okay with spending tons of money for particular chase or hard-to-get cards on eBay? Yes, but I am definitely pulling the reigns back on the whim-buying. Am I okay with paying up to three times as much for a shiny version of a card that works just as well as the not-so-shiny version? That... I'm not sure. I've actually thought about how much money I could make if I sold my shiny cards on eBay. Y'know what? You know that electric guitar I was thinking of buying? Yeah. Pretty damn near that much, I would say. So while Rob is right in that a part of me probably would miss having entirely shiny Elf and EDH decks, I'm just not sure how important it is to me anymore to have the most pimped-out cards in my decks; they all play the same, and they'd actually probably shuffle better, too.
So, yes. I feel I am very much getting the hang of this handling-my-own-money thing. I'm still buying things I ought not to, I'm sure, but I've definitely come a long way in monitoring how I spend my money and making sure I'm saving some of it and not throwing all of it away. I'm thinking this is likely going to be the first to come off my list of goals on account of me getting the hang of it enough that I don't need to keep reminding myself anymore.
3: To-Do List! Fail.
Again, it's hard to say what I have done this week, but it's plain to see what I haven't:
Look over Virgin Mobile bill
Organize MasterCard statements
LJ Check-In on Goals
Clean bedroom
Laundry!
Organize pay stubs
Get bike tuned up!
I am in the process of the laundry and, obviously, the LJ Check-In, but I need to set myself time to finish the other things.
I had a list of video games to buy on my To-Do List. They're still there, but now they don't have due dates. I don't think it's nearly as important to me anymore to be playing video games all the time. I'll still get them, but having them is not as crucial to me as owning, say, an iPhone.
Basically, I'm going to make an effort to make sure the items with due dates on my To-Do List are actually items I care about getting done in a timely manner. The bike is a perfect example. The sooner I get that done, the better. But video games? Really? Not that crucial.
I anticipate I'll still be behind on a few things next week simply because I will be spending a lot of my free time this week moving all my worldly possessions in my new bedroom. Yes, at last, it is practically finished.
Not sure what else to say here.
4: Read! - Fail.
I haven't put aside the time for this. I think I mentioned last time that I've started reading Neuromancer. I've picked it up since then, but only once, and only for, like, half an hour, if that.
Again, I simply don't set aside the time for myself to do this. That's part of the issue here. I think another part of the issue is that I'm not sure how important specifically reading is to me. Sounds daft, I know, considering I'm a glorified English major, but I've been pondering if the root of this goal is simply to absorb more stories or if it's actually to get back into the habit of reading.
If it's the former, I could honestly accomplish the same by watching all kinds of TV shows and movies, which I've been told I ought to do, anyhow. Heck, I could even accomplish that by video games. Music usually isn't about telling a story, but surely it fits into here somewhere. If it is the latter, I've been doing a horrible job of it right from the get-go.
Thinking more about it now, I think the key is balance. (Yes, I fucking underlined it. Deal.) I still like video games. I love watching movies. I don't want to cut these things out of my life by any stretch. But I do enjoy the intellectual stimulation of reading, and I need to work on incorporating that into my life style.
Perhaps what I've been meaning to do is find a way to achieve some kind of balance with all the many mediums I wish to absorb. I'm going to ponder this more--again, it just occurred to me now, and now is 1:40 am--but I'm really very curious to see what my peanut gallery has to say on this.
5: Write! - Success!
I am this close to finishing that thing I've been trying to finish for months now. Honestly, once I block out the time to sit down and hammer it out, it'll be done. I have the framework, I have the themes and ideas, I have most of the words. I just need to figure out the order in which they belong with each other.
I am going to make a note of finishing that this week, as I have promised this completed item to several people several times--including you, The LJ Audience. It's about time I finished something.
[-+-]
I want to address the issue of, in layman's terms, why I've been sucking so hard at these lately, but it's late, I need to get up early, and I am physically sore from sitting and typing all night long. I'm glad I did it, though. I guess it's kind of like confessional that way (catharsis).
We'll see you again soon, LJ, hopefully before next Sunday.
Again, I've been slacking in terms of, well, just about everything here. I've been exhausted, lonely, depressed, blah blah blah, et cetera. I don't mean to demerit my despair--it feels genuine, at least to me, but to be fair, I could be letting it get to me more than I should--but I'm not here to talk about that. Not right now.
So.
[-+-]
1: Lose Weight! - Fail.
I've set up for myself weekly tasks to schedule myself time for exercise. I've been doing that, but what I haven't been doing is keeping to my schedule. Again, I've been exhausted and blah blah and so on, so recently, when I've scheduled myself to get up at a decent hour on my days off, I've opted to sleep in instead.
As of this morning, Wii Fit tells me I am 232.6 pounds. This is 17.6 pounds more than I want to be by the end of September and 13.6 pounds more than I need to be by Thanksgiving. I've got to get my groove on.
I have also tasked myself with tuning up my new bicycle and finally taking it out for a spin. Who knows? I might actually make it a regular thing to ride out with Chris's old digital camera, just like Chris told me he used to do.
2: Budget and Save! - Success!
This is easily the one thing I have been thinking about the most over the past few weeks.
I looked over my spending habits and figured out how I want my income divided between different things. When I first figured this out, I was far enough in the negatives that seeing multiple instances of "You have negative money to spend" in my spreadsheet was depressing.
However, it may have also been deterrent enough for me to not spend so much money recently. My August MasterCard bill only shows me spending something like $780, and I swear this is a good $500 less than what my bills usually tell me. This is a positive sign that my spending habits are changing for the better.
Another positive sign: All those instances of "You have negative money to spend" in my spreadsheet? Most of them are now the equivalent of "You have more money to spend on things right now than you care to spend on said things right now." The only exception is the Food category; I think I'm still in the negatives here. On the one hand, I could simply up my Food budget so that it is more realistic. On the other hand, I am trying to cut back (it's hard when you're exhausted all the time and grabbing Wendy's on the way to working midnights is easier than trying to prepare your own three-course meal to go), and while the number is still negative, it's a much smaller negative than it once was.
I also have a number of larger purchases planned for which I am keen on saving towards, namely a TV for my new bedroom and an iPhone. Yes, I have a huge 52" TV right outside my new bedroom, but I can't use that absolutely anytime I want, which I think is the key to me wanting my own screen. I've kind of been wanting a new phone for a while; maintaining an up-to-date contact list on a device I can't sync with my computer is annoying. Also, Jane just isn't cutting it in terms of a portable media device anymore. The next portable device I get is definitely going to be an all-in-one thing. As much as I am against Apple on principle, oh my God the iPhone is a beautiful piece of hardware. The only thing that can possibly stop me from wanting one at this point is that it can't let me alter Word and Excel documents on the go, which I have been promised it can. The very fact that so many apps exist for the iPhone is also more than a little appealing.
I think I also want a new electric guitar, one that's, you know, good, and doesn't, you know, suck. The one I have I bought used years ago, and I'm pretty sure the key selling point for it was that it was cheap. I mean, it sounds alright when I plug it in, but it doesn't keep in tune very well, and the strings always sound like they're rusting or something. I haven't thought hard about this yet, but I imagine this will come eventually if music and guitar playing keeps being as important to me now as it has become in recent months.
Another thing I have also been thinking about is Magic and my spending habits within. Am I okay with dropping hundreds of dollars on a new set every time one is released, which is every three months? Yes. Having new cards with which to play is one of the reasons I am still playing the game. Am I okay with spending tons of money for particular chase or hard-to-get cards on eBay? Yes, but I am definitely pulling the reigns back on the whim-buying. Am I okay with paying up to three times as much for a shiny version of a card that works just as well as the not-so-shiny version? That... I'm not sure. I've actually thought about how much money I could make if I sold my shiny cards on eBay. Y'know what? You know that electric guitar I was thinking of buying? Yeah. Pretty damn near that much, I would say. So while Rob is right in that a part of me probably would miss having entirely shiny Elf and EDH decks, I'm just not sure how important it is to me anymore to have the most pimped-out cards in my decks; they all play the same, and they'd actually probably shuffle better, too.
So, yes. I feel I am very much getting the hang of this handling-my-own-money thing. I'm still buying things I ought not to, I'm sure, but I've definitely come a long way in monitoring how I spend my money and making sure I'm saving some of it and not throwing all of it away. I'm thinking this is likely going to be the first to come off my list of goals on account of me getting the hang of it enough that I don't need to keep reminding myself anymore.
3: To-Do List! Fail.
Again, it's hard to say what I have done this week, but it's plain to see what I haven't:
Look over Virgin Mobile bill
Organize MasterCard statements
LJ Check-In on Goals
Clean bedroom
Laundry!
Organize pay stubs
Get bike tuned up!
I am in the process of the laundry and, obviously, the LJ Check-In, but I need to set myself time to finish the other things.
I had a list of video games to buy on my To-Do List. They're still there, but now they don't have due dates. I don't think it's nearly as important to me anymore to be playing video games all the time. I'll still get them, but having them is not as crucial to me as owning, say, an iPhone.
Basically, I'm going to make an effort to make sure the items with due dates on my To-Do List are actually items I care about getting done in a timely manner. The bike is a perfect example. The sooner I get that done, the better. But video games? Really? Not that crucial.
I anticipate I'll still be behind on a few things next week simply because I will be spending a lot of my free time this week moving all my worldly possessions in my new bedroom. Yes, at last, it is practically finished.
Not sure what else to say here.
4: Read! - Fail.
I haven't put aside the time for this. I think I mentioned last time that I've started reading Neuromancer. I've picked it up since then, but only once, and only for, like, half an hour, if that.
Again, I simply don't set aside the time for myself to do this. That's part of the issue here. I think another part of the issue is that I'm not sure how important specifically reading is to me. Sounds daft, I know, considering I'm a glorified English major, but I've been pondering if the root of this goal is simply to absorb more stories or if it's actually to get back into the habit of reading.
If it's the former, I could honestly accomplish the same by watching all kinds of TV shows and movies, which I've been told I ought to do, anyhow. Heck, I could even accomplish that by video games. Music usually isn't about telling a story, but surely it fits into here somewhere. If it is the latter, I've been doing a horrible job of it right from the get-go.
Thinking more about it now, I think the key is balance. (Yes, I fucking underlined it. Deal.) I still like video games. I love watching movies. I don't want to cut these things out of my life by any stretch. But I do enjoy the intellectual stimulation of reading, and I need to work on incorporating that into my life style.
Perhaps what I've been meaning to do is find a way to achieve some kind of balance with all the many mediums I wish to absorb. I'm going to ponder this more--again, it just occurred to me now, and now is 1:40 am--but I'm really very curious to see what my peanut gallery has to say on this.
5: Write! - Success!
I am this close to finishing that thing I've been trying to finish for months now. Honestly, once I block out the time to sit down and hammer it out, it'll be done. I have the framework, I have the themes and ideas, I have most of the words. I just need to figure out the order in which they belong with each other.
I am going to make a note of finishing that this week, as I have promised this completed item to several people several times--including you, The LJ Audience. It's about time I finished something.
[-+-]
I want to address the issue of, in layman's terms, why I've been sucking so hard at these lately, but it's late, I need to get up early, and I am physically sore from sitting and typing all night long. I'm glad I did it, though. I guess it's kind of like confessional that way (catharsis).
We'll see you again soon, LJ, hopefully before next Sunday.