Come one and all, pray tell me your tales of achievement over the course of 2015. Or has it been a less than successful year? No matter. Share with us yours attempts at betterment and perhaps how you may reign triumphant in 2016.
In regards to 2016, the new post will be going up in the next few days. I have created a fancy spreadsheet to use this time. It will provide interactivity, statistics, and a bit of gamification. It should just all round be more useful than the word document.
Speaking of which, said document can be found at the link below if you need to top up your memory or just fancy a gander
Last but not least, I sincerely apologise for not keeping these posts up regularly but I shall endeavour to over the coming year.
Shoutouts, let me know if you wish to be adder or removed: nowaypablo, ghostoffuffle, kleinbl00, thundara, veen, OftenBen, lil, thenewgreen, swedishbadgergirl, doesntgolf, blackbootz, Cumol ,ButterflyEffect, kingmudsy, _refugee_, jleopold
I thinking of this for a 2016 goal. Go up and down these stairs on mornings when I'm in this city where I mostly live: It's a 20-minute walk from my house to the stairs, or 10-minute jog. Maybe I'll take my bike. I'm leaving in five minutes to walk/run to the bottom of the stairs. I'll report back in due course. Edit: Ran up the stairs in 8 minutes, down in four. Yay!
Sadly yes! I lived in Brighton (the place in those pictures) for university, then London for a year and now I am back with my family near Cambridge. The geography in my immediate vicinity is pretty boring, but if I go ten miles south it is scenic rolling hills (but not as steep as in Brighton) and if I go ten miles north it's very very flat marshes. OK I guess it's not that bad! But I still miss being by the sea.
Love stairs. Wish there were more around here. In Bellingham, I used to run the taylor stairs, then head down to the ocean and head up Taylor hill. That was a workout. You oughtta give it a try.
- Move out of LA I unpacked eight boxes yesterday. My driver's license number is the same as when I left in 2009 is the same as the one I got in '95. We're still getting junk mail for my wife's ex-husband, whom she divorced in 2002. the fishmongers remember me. - Rebuild wife's business in another market We either submitted for permit the day before Christmas or we're about to. She's already attracting a constellation of practitioners around her. We underestimated the "anchor effect" of a birth center and are going to leverage what we got as if our livelihoods depend on it. - Learn WWise & FMod Well... cert in WWise, never so much as opened FMod. We'll revisit that once the gear is connected. - Add another industry to roster The industries I'm already in kind of overwhelmed me. I was too busy getting 1100 union hours to even finish editing the damn novel. - Log into MyFitnessPal every goddamn day I missed three days. Three days out of... 361. I also subsisted on high-fat, low-fiber, high-sugar, low-nutritive-content catering food for six goddamn months and didn't gain a single pound. Didn't lose a single pound, either, but hey. We'll take it. Happy new year, Hubski.
It's been an incomprehensibly intense year for me! Pasting my original list from the very first lineup: Definite failure on that one, though I've largely recovered from the mental weight of shitty-ness in the morning, thanks to attitude and coffee. Mission accomplished. Mission a-fuckin'-complished. Source: Staying level-headed, being open and cool to new faces and old friends, and taking it easy. Lol. I did fine. I finally got back to regular exercise thanks to the wrestling season, regained a lot of lost weight (very quickly), now I'm slowly recovering my strength with really patient, concentrated workouts in addition to practice with the team. Can't begin to explain how great it feels to be back in the rhythm of gettin' sweaty. Ahahaha Long-term: I actually made more music this year than I ever thought I would! Thanks to Logic Pro X and a MIDI keyboard I borrowed from my high school music lab, I've got a ton of stuff saved in my hard drive and a few jams and experiments on multiple Bandcamps :) Got a Congressional nomination to West Point from my Congressman, which is the last step before WP makes a final decision. It's looking pretty good, but completely unpredictable at this point :) I must add, my greatest accomplishment this year is none of the above. It's mostly the new $20 coffee dripper I bought off amazon, which changed my life for the better in replacing my shitty, watery, old French press. Lookin' forward to a fuego 2016!1)Inspired by tng (thank you!), I will go to bed by 11pm at least 2 nights a week.
2) I will score >2200 on the SATs. This is very short-term and freaking me the fuck out.
3) I will put insecurity behind me. I can't just decide to put depression behind me, but I will not surrender to it and waste my time which is, at this point in my life, far too valuable for teen angst.
4) I will break and stay in the A-range (90%+) in my AP US History course by the end of this month.
5) I'll get back in the gym (for fuck's sake) without guilt or pressure so that I can maintain a reasonable and balanced routine again. I will be consistent until June.
6) No weed until the beginning of March.
7) I will learn to create an electronically-recorded song or two in the style of SBTRKT or Thom Yorke, depending on where it takes me. Then I will put an EP up on Bandcamp.
8) I will get into a college that will make me feel proud of myself. I will pursue the application process with no regard for unnecessary pressures from parents, friends, or teachers. I will be accepted into the best college that I can, and by best I mean the best for me.
I'd say I was pretty successful. I graduated with Honors and the highest average grade of my year and had an amazeballs road trip to Sweden with friends. I went running for a few months, then changed gears to powerlifting until I moved to a new uni and didn't have time for sports anymore. I still eat and feel pretty healthy though. This year I read more books than the years before it combined - 22 according to Audible. Didn't read a lot of regular books though, but hey, I read a ton so I'm happy. Only thing I really didn't achieve was to make enough blog posts. I wrote a lot, but it was all for assignments / essays / theses.
Thanks rezzeJ - I look forward to seeing the new doc. OK, Let's take a peak at the old ones from the list: MARCH 2015 -AUGUST 2015 HEALTH PROJECTS/WORK/WRITING/LEARNING got most all done in that area - will write some interesting new ones when rezzeJ gets the new list up FAMILY OTHERWrite a blog a day during Ramadan.
- didn't do it, but wrote some good blogs on Shakespeare and greatly expanded my #writebetterdammit blog to address many, but not all student errors.Embrace the north.
yup, working on starting a new life of embracingnot feeling too well right now. Exhausted likely from travelling.
feeling healthier and lighter than ever.Goals, March 3: Make some
Clean/organize office/unpack
ongoing and worse than ever since I had to empty out one house and fill up another.Figure out Flipkey.
donePlan book project
lots of these, unplannedRewrite courses
have to rewrite these again with tons of improvContinue to work on building trust w/ A.
definitely improving (A is my daughter)GET FRICKIN’ ORGANIZED and motivated hmmm
definitely progress here
Go running 2-3x a week Did this for about a month until life (and weed) took over Meditate at least 5 days a week for 10-15 mins I did meditate for 3 months with breaks in between. Here, also, weed got to me. I meditate in the morning and when I smoke a day before I have a different headspace that is very fuzzy and makes it harder to concentrate. Set up knowledge base about MDMA, LSD, Psilocybin and Cannabis This was overrun by work. I noticed that I am not able to read work-related literature during the day and the evening and then top it off with some non-work related. I need to find a way to make this work because it is still important to me. Any suggestions? Read Marx - Das Kapital Didn't even get a copy. This is probably something that I was interested in for a short time (when I wrote the list) but didn't care much about. I didn't even think about it that much, suggesting that it is not so important for me. I also remembered that I put this one off pretty early in the february update and replaced it by the next. Find a PhD position that suits me/Leave current job This was very high on my list for last year and it worked out very good. I got accepted for the graduate school in Heidelberg, found a group I like and feel good about settling here for the next few years. Success! In summary, apart from the PhD position, I failed to do the things I planned to do. The question is why? One reason is that I smoked too much weed and this has to change. I also noticed that it affects my efficiency at work, even if I only smoke during the weekends which is why it will be further reduced to once or twice a month. It won't be easy as my flatmates are functioning stoners and the way to the next joint is very short. But, it is doable, I think. The next thing is probably the way I set the goals. I noticed that they lack flexibility. I live a very split week. During the week its work work work and the weekend is either additional work or -do-as-much-non-work-related-stuff-as-possible. I didn't have much time to go running during the week because I woke up late and came home late. Might have to work on my "work-life-balance".
Erowid if you don't already use it. Great site, with a bunch of quality, largely academic information. Probably the site for psychoactives. There's other literature around, but it can be hard to get to. Erowid has a bunch of links to e-books for the major texts in the field, which helps a lot.Set up knowledge base about MDMA, LSD, Psilocybin and Cannabis...Any suggestions?
my greatest recommendation for people who want to read stuff but feel like they don't have time or energy to after a long day is this: Bathroom reading. You're not doing anything else with your brain at the time, right? I used to keep my study notes in the bathroom because it made it easy to study.
Thanks rezzeJ for doing this! I've got my 2016 goals planned out and I'm excited to see your new format. How'd 2015 go? Nope. I ran around 40 miles a week during cross country season (I'm a coach), but outside of that, not much at all. My daily flexibility, body strength, and meditation stuff was consistent at certain points and inconsistent at others. It's been good for the last month, and it's part of my 2016 goals as well, albeit focused differently. Not quite, but close. I've read about 4 in the last 1.5 months though, and one of my 2016 goals is to keep up that pace. It's easier when I don't have a job :) My computer and desk are pretty much set up, but they've now been put away in a closet. I think I can chalk that one up to not knowing at the beginning of the year that I'd be quitting my job to travel. I've learned Rust a bit, and have started contributing to a couple Rust projects, but haven't gotten too far. I've also made some progress on Go and some js frameworks that I didn't anticipate in the beginning of the year. Blog is set up and some blogging has been done! Nope. I recorded about half of one song. My recording set up just wasn't ideal. And now I'm on the road without any instruments. I'm currently working on a custom interface for the audiovisual live coding environment Gibber, and when I get to a good place with that I should be able to start making some new music. Overall I'd say I did okay, but not great. I'll blame some of it on some big lifestyle changes 2/3 of the way through the year that I didn't plan for.run 40 miles/week. lift and swim once/week. work on flexibility and body strength daily. meditate daily.
read one book/month
finish desktop computer setup. learn Rust. finish setting up blog and actually do some blogging.
record some music
My priorities were all over the place a year ago. - Contribute to #Hubskioriginalmusicclub - Whitewater kayak - Graduate and attain a meaningful job -Improve fitness Total wash on the first two, though I have grown a tremendous amount musically. Technically speaking, I did shoot some small rapids over the summer. Graduated, with a better GPA senior year than any previous. Got a kick ass job that has given me all sorts of momentum for future growth and professional success. I can't say enough positive things about my colleagues as a whole and in specific. Fitness wise, my overall performance doesn't seem to be much improved. I am about 15 pounds lighter than I was a year ago, which I would consider a minor success. I think the biggest change is in my mentality towards goal setting and goal achievement. I am better able to break up large long term goals into discrete accomplishable objectives. Its really nice not feeling like I have a mountain of things to do. Also, I think as a result of working harder in general, I enjoy my downtime more, and I definitely get more out of it. With significant weight being given to professional and academic development, I pronounce 2015 s very solid success. I think I'll enjoy my new years celebrations a little more this year.-Develop fingerstlye and blues guitar
- Cook: Been doing it! A decent bit more than crockpots. Going to get a vegetarian cookbook when I head home so I have something a bit more convenient than a phone to use for recipes in the kitchen. - Science: Been doing it! Project is coming along very well. I'm at a point where I'm trying to both mine more information from the data sets I have (using something more complex than "sort by fold change") and finish off collecting data from a few more samples. Internally I'm hoping to have something submitted for review by the end of 2016, but I'm not sure how reasonable that is. Doing proteomics on brain stuff is definitely an untapped fountain of information, almost everything I've been finding has yet to be studied at a systems level or even noted anywhere that they even play a role in the brain (let alone diseased brains). I was thinking that once this all goes through and I've had a few rounds of peers critiquing it, I'll make a post on here explaining things from the basics on up. - Draw: Didn't do it to any appreciable degree, maybe next year. Also mk: Looks like there's a bug in closing a bold tag on this post
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is the bible my friends and I swear by. I also like Veganomicon. Are you vegetarian or looking to cook that way more?
And a really great name. Vegan food seems to lend itself to good puns. Hail Seitan!
The standby that everyone starts with is Moosewood, which I certainly grew up with. If I may make a counter-suggestion, however, RFD is hands-down the best vegetarian restaurant I've ever been to and their cookbook is awfully approachable. Now ask me why my inlaws eat tofurkey. I'll have to tell you I have no fucking clue. I will say that my cleverness of the year was referring to Morningstar Farms and their ilk as "parody meats" to my brother-in-law, who heard "parity meats" and thinks it's a great term.
Interesting. I'd been eyeing this one as my parents had a copy and it was top-rated on the Amazon. It looks like the newer editions of Moosewood have had the recipes changed somewhat (less fat, more sugar, but I like my fats), but the 1st edition is up there, used. I'll look if there's a hardcover of it somewhere... The supermarket near me doesn't stock tofu, so I've yet to cook anything with it, nor do I particularly want to.
America's Test Kitchen is great at consistency, terrible at... flavor. Their stuff is pretty much the median of everything you could care to eat, which means they excel at pretty much nothing. That said, I've never tried that cookbook. I've just made a few of their recipes and found myself underwhelmed. That's... amazing. Where the hell are you?The supermarket near me doesn't stock tofu
Good to know, Moosewood's got a cute aesthetic to it that I know would appeal to certain people I know. Edge of Cambridge, MA. It's a big chain, too, and I swear I looked all over. I don't really want to make the walk to Whole Foods, and I'm fairly content with making whey, legumes, and beans my primary protein sources.America's Test Kitchen is great at consistency, terrible at... flavor.
That's... amazing. Where the hell are you?
Weird. Ask next time. It's probably in with the dairy and cheese, but might be somewhere as bizarre as the "fresh salad dressing" or deli or something. I'm not a big proponent of tofu, but check it: 1 pkg silken tofu - soft to medium 1 pkg chocolate chips, the darker the better 1 shot amaretto, gran marnier or kahlua 1) melt chocolate chips in microwave etc 2) put silken tofu in blender 3) add melted chocolate chips and shot of liqueur 4) let set for like half an hour highest-protein, best-for-you, most delicious, easiest chocolate mousse you've ever had.
I seem to have lost my original list, but I'll see what I can remember. 1. Be more social Did that well. In fact, I'd say I aced that. 2. 2100 on SAT, 32 on ACT, 4 or 5 on AP tests 20 points shy on SAT, but 35 on ACT and all 5s on AP make up for that in my mind. 3. Run a marathon Nope, realized it be probably be better to just keep on the saddle and bike. Did a metric century, and rode about 50-75 miles a week during the summer, and then 15 mile a day commute during much of the fall. So I feel okay with that. Plus, joined the school mountain biking club,which helped with two goals at once. 4. Various lifting goals I now forget Pretty sure I met all but bench, because I fucked up my shoulder. And some of the bodyweight moves, which got hard when I had to take like six months total either of my shoulder or wrist. 5. Have adventures. Done like a boss. 6. Get published Eh, sorta. For ideas, not for quality of work. Not what I wanted where I wanted, but it's something. 7. Earn $. Yup. 8. Apply to College Finished up my Common App schools on Christmas.
Go to the gym 3x a week: Not exactly, there were periods of time where this has happened but it's been inconsistent. I've been getting better with it again, and once I'm back on a normal M-F schedule that will make this a lot easier. The other problem is that I like running a lot, but despise treadmills and stationary equipment. So what happens is during the winter I lift weights and during the spring-fall run a lot and now go hiking and it becomes a vicious cycle of gaining and losing muscle. Be vegetarian: Yep, learned how to cook tofu and make a lot more vegetarian dishes which has been a pretty fun culinary adventure. Especially making Thai food. Read more often: I've been reading 1-2 books per month and I've recently started purchasing and reading more zines and graphic novels/comics, I've been doing a great job with this one and am doing a better job at supporting short-run artists/writers when it comes to zines. Plus I've started reading a couple of professional publications on top of everything else.
This might be my browser's renderer, but... Everything on this page that's bolded is after thenewgreen's comment, which is bolded, and I think it's because he didn't close a bold formatting bracket in his comment. And so Hubski rendered the rest of the page's contents, i.e. the handful of comments below it, in bold.
Answers in bold: 1. I will run twice a week a distance greater than 3 miles in an effort to train for the Tar Heel 10 miler This is April 18th 2015 I failed this. Miserably. I just began running again and will make it a priority in 2016 2. I will never eat any fast food. Ever did not accomplish I don't eat it often and I've gotten better but while traveling I tend to fail at this 3. I will consume two drinks no more than two nights a week most weeks I accomplished this. I'm drinking much less than ever. I rarely get intoxicated these days. 4. I will go to bed by 10pm at least 3 nights a week failed. I'm a night owl 5. I will meet my sales goals by October 2015 done. I switched jobs but I'm currently #2 in the country at 177% to goal -that's insane. I have already been offered a promotion to a more strategic role. 6. I will have a revenue producing startup by EOY 2015 succeeded -kind of. I had a startup that was pulling in good numbers and trending positively. I had to dissolve it for regulatory reasons. However, the project that was born of it is far more compelling and we will be launching in our first markets in 2016. Can't wait to share this. 7. I will complete two albums, one of which being the Hubski Collaborative Music Project. working with T-Dog and ghostoffuffle on a top secret project and hope to have that done by mid 2016. Largely waiting on our drummer but we are all busy. It's going to be good though. I also have an album pretty much done. I secretly want to hand it to kleinbl00 and have him mix it and give all proceeds (assuming there are any) to the charity of his choosing. -KB?+ It was a mixed bag of success and failures. Honestly, it was a mixed bag of a year. My family is awesome, my work life was very strained, lots of being in the middle of big decisions, which is always stressful. However, 2016 promises to be a year of decisive victory's. Hubski's future looks promising, so that's awesome. Thanks for doing this rezzeJ!
Wow, you're not kidding. That's kind of neat. mk Also, KB, that's awesome. Let's coordinate in 2016. Ideally, I would just send you a drive with it all on it. We can chat. Merry New Year!
I made an original list of goals before the 2015 new year and then a second list of goals after feeling good about my progress a few months later. Smoking cessation I don't smoke unless I drink, and I drink infrequently. Though my drinking rises sharply when I come home to visit, a home I left two years ago now on an tour of service and travel through the US. But when I'm home... man, the party resumes. It's like it never really ended. Regular exercise Except for the last two weeks, where the holidays are beating me handily, I can say that I have made a lot of progress in this domain. Between working very active jobs (construction, summer camp, disaster relief, alpaca ranch) and discovering weight lifting and strength training this year, I'm very happy. Almost five months of the year I spent going to a gym doing serious weight lifting six days a week. Regular You Need A Budget (YNAB) updates I have expense tracking down pat. Mostly. But it's the budgeting that I have trouble with. My excuse is that my life changes all the time, from the income I have, the places I live, to the expenses that become regular or not. Excuses maybe, but nonetheless I know I have progress to make. Keep a track of daily habits (Read. Write. Exercise. Brush. Floss.) I do all of these almost daily. Except flossing. Shit, I gotta get on that. Regardless, I'm proud. Write something for a larger audience Well. I started a blog a month ago but have yet to write anything on it. Silly me, being afraid to "publish" anything because it doesn't live up to my taste of what's good or not. I know I should just write anyway. Not damage or break or lose my personal effects I made this goal after a string of bad luck. I'm happy with having not lost or damaged anything new, and actually having relocated my favorite leatherman since I made this goal. I will acknowledge and abide by the voice of hesitation when making larger purchases This goal is basically to wait a few days before purchasing stuff. I don't know if I'm following this rule out of spirit with which I established it, or because I'm super conscious of how little money I have. Either way, goal semi-accomplished. ----- (I believe that this comment was for only my benefit, but it's helpful to track progress and reflect.) In closing: though I am still hard on myself and expect a lot, I feel that I've objectively accomplished a lot of these goals. These goals though are very general. Striving for health and fitness, spending consciously and within my means, reading and writing as opposed to, well, bullshitting. These are well and good. But they're, in my mind, prerequisites. Or maybe in other words, I'm still looking for more. But I'm grateful nonetheless.
Oddly enough, one of the greatest accomplishments I had this year, was also one of my greatest failures. During my life, I have NEVER not gotten a job I have interviewed for. I have ALWAYS been offered the job. (Not always accepted, but that's MY choice, not theirs.) This year I was laid off from a ridiculously good-paying job for a top name company, figured I'd be out of work for a week or two - maybe a month - and then back at it. Nope. 9 months of unemployment followed. Had to go on the dole (UI here in WA state). Failed to get countless jobs I was exquisitely skilled for. When you are my age, there are not a lot of "firsts" any more. Especially when you have lived a life like mine. So the first time NOT getting a job was ... shocking. Jarring. Kind of world-shattering. But it also helped me, by giving me a new experience. A new thing to overcome. So I mark this as a positive experience, overall. This year I also completely divested myself from all things Burning Man, for the first time in more than a decade. No volunteering. No events. No staff position. Nothing. (Turning my skills and interests in a more local direction from now on. Kinda done with TTITD.) So that's my year.
If you're anywhere near Western WA, there's a Meetup in Seattle next month. And if you are in Western WA, mind if I ask what you're looking into as far as a "local direction"? Edit: Yeah you can disregard the first half of this post, just checked the thread and probably should have done that first.
It's awesome to see everyone's achievements. Looking back at my goals for 2015, I can't say I've been all to successful. However, my priorities definitely changed and I found success in over areas of my life. To recap on 2015: - Maintain an early wake up time (no later than 9am) I did not stick to this religiously. On the other hand, my wake up times were significantly improved from previous years so I'm making some progress here. - Meditate and read every day The beginning of the year went well for this but then I dropped off out of the habit. I have been trying to maintain the values gained through the practice still. - Learn to code Tried and failed. I might try again this year. - Ask more questions I'd say this was generally a success. Through my masters I was more vocally inquisitive and less afraid to ask for more information from those around me. - Develop Unity Engine skills I didn't even try. - Reassess my past desire to be different, instead strive to be better I think this was somewhat a success. It's a slow process but my mindset is starting to change here. Though like I said, outside of these I have different and/or unexpected progression. I achieved a distinction for the aforementioned masters. I started running and my 5k/10k times are improving dramatically. My freelance portfolio now has some good brand names on; I've actually made somewhat decent money from my music. I've become more confident in myself. My guitar playing and singing have improved. So yeah, not too bad a year all things considered.
I wouldn't mind being added to the shoutouts. It gives another reason to start making goals.
Commenting now to say that I saw this and would like to give it its proper due. So I'll check back in tomorrow. Thanks rezzeJ for tackling this.