It has officially been one year since I joined Hubski! With this anniversary I give you my very first post.
I don't like New Year's resolutions. In fact, I hate them. There was some sentiment of that in this post about New Year's resolutions made by thenewgreen a couple months ago. Self-improvement is something I am constantly thinking about, and if there is something in my life that needs to be changed, I try to work on that as soon as possible.
Yet here I am with a post all about resolutions! This year I finally did decide to make a simple New Year's resolution for myself: read more. This came as a result of an e-mail I received from GoodReads that told me how many books I had read in 2013. To my dismay this list was shockingly short with only three entries. So my resolution is to read at least one book per month and at least 15 books throughout the year.
But this is very straight-forward and not very difficult. It gives me something to focus on this year, but it's not nearly ambitious enough. I can definitely do better. After some thought and questioning the reasoning behind New Year's resolutions I came upon a new thought: monthly resolutions. Why not spend each month focusing on improving a facet of my life or a facing a challenge that stands in my way? These shorter deadlines help to motivate as well as allow me to tackle more things in a single year in a straight-forward manner.
My monthly resolutions so far:
January: Finish reading Catch-22. I actually first picked up this book a number of years ago, but for some reason it took an incredible effort to actually finish. I did finally finish on the 31st of January, thus completing my January resolution.
February: Complete my college applications. It's been nearly a year since I finished community college and, my God, do I miss being in school. The transfer application to the University of Washington was due on the 15th and I've completed that. There are a couple more schools that I need to talk to before labeling this month a success, though.
I haven't decided on my March resolution yet, but I do have some ideas for the rest of the year. I plan on spending various months focusing on improving my drawing skills and/or learning how to silk screen, creating/improving my relationships, focusing more on music; especially local music, getting back to learning Italian and refreshing my German, and others. I will probably spend at least part of a month trying to "de-clutter," which I've seen become fairly popular.
I'm thinking that I will make this a monthly deal and detail my goal for each month and how well I have or haven't accomplished it. Stay tuned for more and have a wonderful year, Hubski!
-Jeshk0
Goal setting is a really simple, but powerful tool to help prioritise stuff. I was surprised the first time I sat down and made a list with a few goals. I discovered I'd been carrying around a sense of paralysis at the thought that there was so much that I could do, that I didn't know what to do. Since then, I've been setting goals with varying degrees of specificity depending on the time-frame, and I've been really happy with the results. I am starting a new job in a new country in a few weeks and that all stems from a goal that I set more than 5 years ago.
I'm a big fan of making "lists." There are always things that I'd prefer to be doing and I don't allow myself to do them until I've crossed all of the more tedious things off of my list. -It works. Jeshk0, good luck with your goals! You write: Good luck!But this is very straight-forward and not very difficult. It gives me something to focus on this year, but it's not nearly ambitious enough. I can definitely do better.
-I think its important to challenge yourself for sure, but at the same time its VERY important that the goals we set in life are realistic and attainable. Otherwise, frustration sets in and often complacency isn't too far behind.
It's true, and it also means that you feel as in-control as it is possible to feel. Having clear priorities also means that it's easy to readjust should something unexpected come up (even if that readjustment is "I'm going to re-examine my priorities, and set a new goal"). I've been watching House of Cards recently, and I'm a little worried that I'm starting to sound like Frank Underwood. I'm not that committed or ruthless, I just like to know where I'm going. Working in IT ($big_name_company), moving from Dublin, Ireland to the Pacific Northwest. Also moving from engineering to management. Very excited about the whole thing! :)
What did you think of Catch-22? Also, congrats on completing the college applications. I've got a friend at U Washington for Graduate School. It's a great university. I wouldn't say that I have a resolution every single month, and some of my resolutions are grouped into a period of time as opposed to a single month. For example, I have a resolution to finish writing, recording, and to release an LP worth of music by mid-August. As a record label we do have monthly resolutions of who we'd like to put out in a given month or what show that we would like to do, and those are rolling and never-ending. Outside of that, I have been trying to read at least one book a month. It's looking like A Farewell to Arms will be finished today. I'm also starting to set resolutions with regards to web development since I've started to teach myself that stuff.
I'd love to know what you thought of a Farewell to Arms? Is it your first time reading it? It is one of my favorite reads and the only book I've ever read three times. Enjoy the completing of the book it is intense to say the least.
There's going to be spoilers in this post. ===
This was my first exposure to Hemingway and it was a fantastic read. I thought it was a brilliant way to show the many brutalities of war: the degradation of Rinaldi, the shooting of the Sergeant, the rounding up of officers and really all of the retreat scene in the book was incredible poignant. I think the latter did a good job at a brief exploration of moral relativism and the idea of self vs. duty, which is constantly explored by Frederic. I think the most brilliant part of this book might have been the way that Hemingway handled removing Frederic and Catherine from the brutality of war, and then introducing them to a more personal and possibly worse form of brutality. The ending astounded me, even the very last page left me thinking "is there any escape?", which is probably exactly what he wanted. Great book. Not as good as the last book I read but still great nonetheless.
I really liked it. I read Something Happened a number of years ago and loved it. It's much slower than Catch-22, but it drew me in. The way Heller deals with death in his books is something that I really appreciate. Many authors force meaning into a character's death, but for Heller it's "sometimes people just die." A somewhat futilistic (if that's even a word) view, but it makes his books stand out for me. My book for this month is Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. There's also a production of Venus in Fur by David Ives being performed in Seattle that I hope to see this weekend or next.
I have very mixed feelings about Something Happened. I read it. It might as well be titled Nothing Happened. Heller's style is amazing and some of his bits of insight are off the charts, but for a relatively long novel to lack a plot was a bit dull for my taste. After a while I just got bored.
I definitely understand. The reason I like Something Happened so much is because of how in-depth it is into Bob Slocum's life. It's an everyday tragedy of a common man; unhappy, unfulfilled, with all of his best years behind him. Like I said before, Heller is incredible when writing about futility. Having the climax two pages before the end of the novel made the novel for me. The novel ends where Bob's life ends (in a figurative sense).
I like this idea, I do something kinda close to it which is every 2 months or so I have the talk with myself and say you gotta go to the gym more, gotta stop ordering take aways etc. This forces me to go to the gym for about 4 weeks and then during the second month I sort of descend back to steady state, then comes the talk again and the cycle repeats.. It seems to keep me fit enough as that's usually one of my main resolutions.. Possibly due to it being on my mind early January after eating loads at Christmas.. I like monthly resolutions though a lot as it allows me to think about introducing new elements into my life I might not have thought of. Like your local music idea, there's no way that would have come up in January I'll bet. Also I commend you on your reading a book a month, I honestly just don't have the time but it's something I would love to do. After coming home from work and then studying the last thing I wanna do is more reading..
That's a great first post Jeshko: Inspring and thought-provoking. Some time ago, we were discussing the dark side of goalsetting. A particular poster was disparaging about setting goals.. It is now 378 days since his remarks and he has gone on to set academic and life goals. Meanwhile, I'd better set a goal for the day or all my time will be eaten up on hubski.
You can DIY silkscreen for just a few bucks. Youtube also has a ton of videos along these lines. Basically, if you just want to make tee shirts for you and your friends, it's totally do-able. Also, here is a guide that gives some pointers and common mistakes for beginners to avoid. I'd search youtube for 'DIY silkscreen' though. It's like the wikipedia of getting shit done.
It's something that I've been working towards for about four years now. I have all of the equipment needed, but I've been putting it off for some reason. I also took a beginner's class a long time ago, so I plan on taking a few more classes to get the ball rolling again.