2011 Personal Goals - November Update

11 months in, 1 to go.

1. Finish first draft of my novel -
January 1st - 1st third is done. The plan this year is to write it and read it to Annabelle and edit it as I go.
February 1st - Nothing new done
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Nothing
August 1st - Nothing
September 1st - Nothing
October 1st - Nothing
November 1st - Nothing
December 1st - Nothing

2. Drop weight to 167
January 1st - 176.4. Starting off worse this year than last but I should have some more time to work out.
February 1st - 174.6
March 1st - 177.6 Damn stress
April 1st - 176.0
May 1st - 179.2
June 1st - 179.0
July 1st - 180.6
August 1st - 180.6
September 1st - 180.0
October 1st - 181.9 - New scale weighs about 2 lbs heavier
November 1st - 179.2
December 1st - 179.2

3. Balance our budget
January 1st - Things are looking up for this year with Veronica getting a new job (hopefully) after residency is complete.
February 1st - Working on it but large expenses due to medical stuff not helping.
March 1st - Getting worse but tax refund should put us back to where we were at the beginning of the year.
April 1st - Tax refund helped up get slowly back on track
May 1st - Eh
June 1st - Still eh
July 1st - And still eh
August 1st - Getting worse
September 1st - No paychecks for 2 months but we should finally be getting back on track this month.
October 1st - New jobs finally paying, not sure if we are going to hit this goal though
November 1st - Damn cars
December 1st - Not looking good.

4b. Read 2 of the Top Ten books on Zanes book list
January 1st - I currently have 6 read. I figured I should be able to finish 2 of the 4 since 2 of them are very very long.
February 1st - The book I'm currently reading, Lolita, is on the list.
March 1st - Finished Lolita. One to go.
April 1st - Still one to go.
May 1st - Still 1 to go
June 1st - Still 1 to go
July 1st - Still 1 to go
August 1st - Started War and Peace on August 1st
September 1st - Finished Book 1 of 4 of War and Peace
October 1st - In the middle of Book 2 of War and Peace
November 1st - Finished book 2 of 4
December 1st - In the middle of book 3 but not going to finish in time.

5a. Finish 2 more movies on my Geological Movie Review
January 1st - Look to start 2 new movies again
February 1st - Nothing new.
March 1st - Nothing new.
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new

5b. Update the 1 Geologic Movie Review that was previously done and not updated
January 1st - 2 out of 3 up to par
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Nothing new
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Started working on The Day After Tomorrow
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new

6. Watch all of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (according to AFI)
January 1st - Current count 69. 31 left to go.
February 1st - Nothing new
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Nothing new
June 1st - Nothing new
July 1st - Watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 30 to go.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Nothing new
November 1st - Nothing new
December 1st - Nothing new


8. Do 1 Geological Fact for each month.
January 1st - That is a total of 12 for the year. Hopefully I can get them set up ahead of time.
February 1st - 1 done for January, 11 to go.
March 1st - 1 done for February, 10 to go.
April 1st - 1 done for March, 9 to go.
May 1st - 1 done for April, 8 to go
June 1st - 1 done for May, 7 to go
July 1st - 1 done for June, 6 to go
August 1st - 1 done for July, 5 to go
September 1st - 1 done for August, 4 to go
October 1st - 1 done for September, 3 to go
November 1st - 2 done, 1 for October and 1 for November, 1 to go.
December 1st - 1 more still to go

Other items of interest:
I went to the annual SVP meeting in Las Vegas for the beginning part of the month and had a lot of fun but then I was sick off and on for the rest of November. Not very nice. But Thanksgiving went over well and I had a good time spending it with my family. Now off to finish 2 grant proposals and a poster before January.

----------------------------------Finished Items---------------------------------------

4a. (DONE!) Read a total of 100 of the greatest books on my lists by my 30th birthday
January 1st - Current count 97. Only 3 to read by March 19th. This was the initial goal last year but I hoped to have them done earlier.

February 1st - Currently reading Lolita.
March 1st - Finished Lolita and The Colour of Magic. Only 1 to go before March 19th
April 1st - Finished The Colour of Magic. This task is completed!!!

7. (DONE!) Finish bottom of hovercraft.
January 1st - I just need to finish epoxying and smoothing out the bottom then paint it. Not too much work but time is an issue.
February 1st - Haven't had time to work on it
March 1st - Nothing new
April 1st - Nothing new
May 1st - Did some work patching the holes that need to be filled and order some more epoxy.
June 1st - Finished fixing the holes and I put the first coat of sealant on
July 1st - Finished putting the 3 coats of sealant on. Now to paint it.
August 1st - Nothing new
September 1st - Nothing new
October 1st - Finished painting the botoom and flipped it over. This job is DONE. Pictures to follow shortly hopefully.

The 306 Greatest Books #101 - Little Women

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Little Women by Loisa May Alcott. This book can be found on the Sybervision, Observer, and BBC Book Lists.  

Typically when Little Women is mentioned, it is often regarded (at least in my mind) as a little girls/ chick lit novel. I had tended to stay away from this book for that very reason and it might have worked out for the better. The way I read it was very slowly, about 10 pages or so a night, to my daughter, over most of the year. In this way I had a chance to grow with the characters as they were growing and watch my daughter grow as well. I become connected to them in a way that doesn't usually happen to me and when one of them died, I really felt the loss. This book was one of the better books I have read in a while and although it would probably still be considered a chick-lit novel, I found the characters very engaging and the writing to be far superior to many books written for the same age-level. As the characters got older, the language in the book also seemed to be getting older, to the point that at the end I didn't know what several of the words even meant, or how to pronounce them. In the end, I would recommend this  book, especially as a family read-time book. I had a great time reading it to my daughter and I could feel many families would enjoy a similar experience.