Last time, my career goals changed about nine months into 101 in 1001 and I didn't get anything done. Plus, the crap I was dealing with, I just couldn't get motivated to do anything. Now, that's changed. Hopefully. Definitely.
First of all, let me wish you all a happy new year! Hope people didn't get too drunk. Not gonna lie: I rung in the new year watching the NCIS marathon on USA and I think I may have actually fallen asleep. But, oh, well.
2011 was a hard year for me, especially toward the end. It started kinda meh. I was happy where I was for the moment, but knew I wanted to move on. Just after Mother's Day, my grandmother took a bad fall that messed up her back and I started looking for jobs in Austin so I could be there to help. That didn't work out too well.
By summer, she had been in and out of the hospital three times and we could see her quality of life getting worse. I have to admit: we were getting really frustrated because we didn't realize how bad her back was. Turns out it was a compression fracture that, because her osteoporosis was so bad, had basically pulverized two vertebrae. Looking back, I feel like a terrible person because I kept thinking that, yes, it hurt, but that was part of physical therapy and she should just buckle down and deal with it.
In September, she had a procedure that basically was an attempt to put a resin around the vertebrae and fuse them in place, thus reducing her pain and maybe making it possible for her to walk again. Unfortunately, the anesthesia fried her brain. Her grasp of reality after that was tenuous at best and downright wrong at worst.
She started to decline rapidly after that. My grandmother, matriarch of the family, died 11 November 2011 at 11 am. Yes, that's 11-11-11 at 11. I think she was trying to make it to 11:11, but she just didn't have the strength.
Some of you may have noticed that I have been...distant of late. Now you know why. It was hard. I loved her, but for a good portion of my teen and college years, I didn't like her. She was the kind of person who thought everyone should do things her way because her way was best and, because of that, she could be...not kind. I have a distinct memory from my teen years of talking to her on the phone, crying silently because she had gotten on a tear where she just kept telling me that I would be so pretty, such a beautiful girl if I would just lose some weight, if I would dress like a normal girl, if I would do this and that. I know now that she was trying to help, but all I heard was "you're not good enough, you're ugly, nobody wants you the way you are, so you should just be someone else."
In the end, though, I managed to find it in me to forgive her because I do know that she didn't mean to be cruel, but she just didn't know any other way to be. Personally, based on what I know about her own childhood, I really think that's how she was raised and that she never learned to express love. But that doesn't mean that I don't still feel the sting when I think about it.
But that's not what this is about. I loved her and I miss her but I move on. And move on, I have. Even though that whole time was made even worse by us losing our beautiful Ninja Kitty about two weeks before to bad kidneys that she'd apparently had all of her short life.
I graduated in 2009 with a BA in Criminal Justice and Political Science. I thought to go into either law enforcement or go to grad school and study international affairs. Both of those things have proven impossible for various reasons. I took a step back, I reevaluated and I decided I needed a new direction.
In 2012, beginning 9 January, I will be attending Culinary School at the Art Institute of Austin. That's right. Culinary school. I'm excited. I'll never stop loving criminal justice or political science (or linguistics or history or any of the other things I considered), but there's something about culinary that calls to me. Because I have a degree, I'm looking to get my diploma in about a year, with the possibility of continuing on to get another BA if I decide that I want the management portion.
As far as my writing, with everything happening with my grandmother, that all kind of stalled out. I had to push myself pretty hard to get the three stories for ficathons that I did this year (Lewis Secret Santa, yuletide and 3_ships), but I think it's been enough to really push me back into gear.
I'll be looking to finish writing stuff for help_japan as soon as possible cause I know people are waiting for it. The Sherlock fic for marill_chan is likely to happen first just because I have a lot written on that already. Granted, it's all handwritten and needs to be typed and edited and I need to get past the block that I wrote myself into, but I have ideas again.
The Sanctuary OT3 for nomorefrostbite got a huge inspirational boost from the Season 4 finale (and OMG, how about that?!?) mostly from a single line of dialogue. Thank you, Helen, for telling me more about where you were during WWII.
The Haven and Constantine fics will come after that. The two Moleskine's worth of fic that I'm doing are coming slowly but surely. I just watched a bunch of NCIS and that gave me some more fic fodder to play with so I just have to make sure I actually write it down instead of getting lost with the two epics that are happening right now.
2012 is looking better all around. I'm giving 101 in 1001 another shot (my list is here if anyone is curious. I have quite a few writing goals, some huge reading goals, and a long list of things that simply couldn't be categorized.
I hope everyone else is as psyched about 2012 as I am. But now it's time for me to get some sleep. Love to you all!
This is my Master Post for 101 in 1001, put in a forwarded dated sticky post so that people can easily see it as the first thing in my journal. Also, since I'll be finishing up on 29 September 2011, I figured it was apporpriate. I'll update this post as things are accomplished instead of reposting my list every time.
00. These are things yet to be started 00. These are things that are in progress 00. These are things which have been completed and their finish date.
That's right! It's time for the monthly update now that February has flown by. Does anyone know where the month went?
So, things that I've finished:
009. Go to the gyno and have all needed work done before insurance expires This one I kind of had to do. I won't gross you out with the details (I don't even like to think about it), but suffice to say that I've been poked and prodded down there and I'm finally on the depo shot. Yay!
039. Sign up for Netflix OMG, freaking crack cocaine. That is how addictive Netflix is. Let me put it this way: I've managed to fill up the 500 movie queue limit in about three days. So far I've rented Bon Cop, Bad Cop and Looking For Cheyenne. Next up (once I put Cheyenne in the mail on Monday) is the UK series Eleventh Hour. Patrick Stewart anyone?
Things that I'm actively working on:
018. Send out birthday and anniversary cards to family and friends (0/3) I sent my grandmother a birthday card. Unfortunately, I didn't send my aunt and uncle an anniversary card and my uncle a birthday card, but I so blame that on Mum. If I don't know the dates, how can I send cards? I've also got a Firefox add-on that reminds me of important dates. I'm using it for birthdays/anniversaries and homework! It keeps reminding me right now that I have an assignment in CS. Dammit.
056. Buy and read all the books by CNN anchors and contributors (except Lou Dobbs) I haven't been able to really start reading any, but I do have one of Wolf Blitzer's books. Unfortunately, I'm thinking most, if not all, of my pleasure reading is going to have to wait until after graduation.
094. Rewatch every episode of 5 shows (2 season minimum) (0/5) I continue to watch Due South and now I've also started Daria. As it was a half hour show, I'm thinking I'll finish that one first.
I'm not exactly pounding through them, but I think it's pretty steady progress.
This morning...yesterday morning...the morning of 16 February, after I got off work, I decided to sign up for Netflix. It was on something of a whim since, though I've been meaning to do it for awhile, I was waiting until I graduate and I have more time and money. Yeah, that didn't happen. I saw Bon Cop, Bad Cop posted in one of my special places (gods, that sounds dirty) and realized that, as much as I want to see that movie, everywhere I've seen it, there's been something wrong with it, usually subtitle related. I may be able to watch French news and understand it, but I can't do so much with French drama.
So I joined Netflix. I figure, what the hell? $8.99 a month and I get unlimited rentals, although only one disk at a time. When I graduate, that's so going up to three at a time for $16.99.
Plus, what really made me want to join Netflix was a NY Times article I read awhile back that talked about their recommendation system. There's a complicated algorithm involved that finds movies maybe you didn't even realize you'd like and tells you how well it thinks you'll like them. Yeah, it gets scary accurate after awhile. Even my wonky tastes, though I doubt it realizes that I gave 1408 5 stars because I was laughing my ass of through it instead of enjoying the horror. Anyway, I remember reading this article and thinking, "Why the hell can't Amazon do that?" since, though I love Amazon, they have a tendency to try and rec me the same damn book, even though I've said I wasn't interested five or six times. Also, the minute I buy a book about Russia for class, suddenly it's reccing me a whole crap load of books on Russia and Post-Soviet Studies. *sigh*
*cough* I got off on a bit of a rant there, didn't I? Anyway, so I start playing with the ratings and the suggestions and, before you know it, I'm running late for class and now I have 264 movies in my queue. In all fairness, though, a lot of those are series so have multiple discs. Inspector Morse comes to mind with it's almost 30 (I figure, as much as I'm loving me some Lewis, I should totally watch how it all started).
Now, my Netflix homepage (which customizes itself!) is now telling me that I like BBC, TV Crime Dramas, Films from the UK, Films from France and Foreign Gay and Lesbian. There's also a little "favs from Conroe" thing, but I mostly ignore that. I'm pretty sure that an extended page would also give me scifi and thrillers.
I keep telling myself I'm going to stop playing with it, but really, until they send out my first DVD (come on, Netflix!), I've got nothing better to do. Besides, you know...homework.
In other, slightly cracky news, my white tea cup (okay, it's a 16 oz mug, but whatever) has turned a raunchy brown because I've been drinking tea almost nonstop. I think I need to bleach it. Also, ever since I went through and read through asrai99's journal (she's new...everyone say hi!) and saw how much she smokes, I've been craving one of my cloves. Okay, realistically, more like three, but whatever. I've been putting it off for awhile in deference to my throat, but dammit if I'm not about to say fuck it and go out and smoke. asrai99, you are a bad influence! Very bad! Got a light? ;)
While I have yet to be able to cross anything off my list, I can say that I have started quite a few things. Since I'm sure y'all don't check the top post on my LJ that has all this stuff on a daily basis, I'll be posting a monthly update.
In Progress 001. Graduate from college I know I've made posts about this, but it bears repeating. My advisor has checked my degree plan and approved me for graduation. As of Friday, there may be a small problem with my German minor due to grades (*grumble*damn D*grumble*), but I'm hoping that won't come back to bite me. If worse comes to worse, I am willing to drop my minor to graduate.
002. Find a job in the Criminal Justice field. I've got quite a few applications in various states of completeness. I posted about this earlier as well, but they all need to have one basic form with further supplemental information and the ability to accept electronic submission. I've killed a butt load of trees printing all of these damn applications and I'm tired of writing in the same damn information.
015. Go through my closet and donate unwanted/unworn clothes every six months I have everything gathered, I just need to drop stuff off.
023. Read 52 *new* books in 2009 One down, fifty-one to go. I actually started another one, but school books have gotten in the way. Note: all of my book goals are outside of school books.
026. Read both books by Barack Obama I have bought one of them.
036. Get a library card and actually use it I have my library card and I have checked out a book and renewed it. Unfortunately, I was dumb and decided to get a book with 970 pages when I knew I would have a crap load of school reading. I'm going to have to turn it back in before I finish it, so I'm not going to cross this off yet.
049. Review each book I read for pleasure Two reviews so far. Check my tags to see them.
056. Buy and read all the books by CNN anchors and contributors (except Lou Dobbs) I may actually try one of Lou Dobbs' books, but don't expect much. I'd likely want to stab myself in the eye. I have bought Ali Velshi's book as well as one of Fareed Zakaria's. I just finished Anderson Cooper's book in December 2008 about two weeks before I started this. As of right now, I don't plan to reread it. However, that may change some time later if I get a hankering for my sekrit TV boyfriend.
072. Complete 5 cross-stich/needlepoint patterns I'm nearly done with the first pattern. Pictures will be posted once I'm done.
094. Rewatch every episode of 5 shows (2 season minimum) I've started on Due South and Daria both. Daria was actually by accident when I found it on the internet and I've kind of gone crazy watching it. It's 5 seasons of 13 half hour eps and two movies. I've started season 3 already, so that will be quick.
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So that's the way things are. Not bad for the first month.
Tags: 101 in 1001 Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: CNN Current Location: home
Yearly Totals: Number of Books Read: 2 Number of Pages Read: 554
I promise my totals aren't as pitiful as they look. I'm currently reading Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth" and this bad boy is just shy of 1000 pages. Give me time!
Tags: 101 in 1001, books Current Mood: blah Current Location: work Current Music: LaFee - Wo Bist Du (Mama)
So, my 101 in 1001 has started and part of that involves reviewing all of the books that I read for pleasure. Of course, it also involves reading 52 new books this year (and 100 next year since I'm accounting for my last semester of school) and I've already started out with a reread, but that's okay. I still have plenty of time.
Since I'll be doing this a lot now, I'm going to see about getting a format down. If there's anything you do or don't like about my format, let me know and I'll tweak it.
I've been watching various people doing 101 in 1001 type stuff and I started thinking that maybe I wanted to do something too. I've done New Year's Resolutions in the past and been easily discouraged, but with 1001 days, I think I have a better chance to actually do them. Plus, with 101 things, I can have both fun goals and serious goals.
I spent most of last night and some time after I got off of work (when I really should have been sleeping) trying to put together my list. Considering how easy some of these were, I think my mind has been making the list for awhile. Of course, my ADD mind came up with these in various stages, so now I want to group them a bit better.
I reserve the right to modify these as some become either outdated or no longer possible or if something else comes along that I have more motivation to do.
Still...what do y'all think? Anyone want to do this with me?
Tags: 101 in 1001 Current Mood: excited Current Location: work Current Music: LaFee - Es Tut Weh
creative
busy
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bouncy
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excited