Resolution Update #9

[rowyn]

1. Exercise at least five times a week for at least 30 minutes per session (20 of which must be aerobic or weight-lifting).

I didn't do well on this resolution this month; in the last eight days I've only exercised once. But this is a blip, not a trend -- I was sick for two days, busy with costuming for one, and away from home for the other four I missed. On average, I think I'm still beating this one. On "average minutes per day", definitely (I almost never exercise for only half an hour), and probably still on "average days per week" (since my norm is still six, I have some slack to miss days).

2. Read twenty-six books this year.

2 January: Zorro, Isabel Allende; Witch's Business, Diana Wynne Jones
1 February: Elantris, Brandon Sanderson
1 March: Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
6 April and May: In Our Hands, Charles Murray; The One-Armed Queen, Jane Yolen; Dhampir, Barb and J.C. Hendee; Resenting the Hero, Moira Moore; Emerald Sea, John Ringo; Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein
2 June: Against the Tide, John Ringo; Waifs and Strays, Charles de Lint
4 July: Paint Your Dragon, Tom Holt; The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, The Hallowed Hunt, all by Lois McMaster Bujold
2 August: American Gods, Neil Gaiman; Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold
3 September: The Doppelganger, Marie Brennan, Truckers and Diggers, both by Terry Pratchett
7 October: Tapestry of Magics, Brian Daley; Wings, Terry Pratchett; two "Dark-Hunter" novels (I don't remember the titles and, well, it doesn't really matter) by Sherrilyn Kenyon; The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diane Wynne Jones (thank you, John! <3 ); Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming, Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley; The Spirit Ring, Lois McMaster Bujold.

Which puts me to twenty-eight books for the year. Over my goal with two months to spare! Even if

3. Collect six rejection slips for fiction this year.

I don't understand why I can't get my act together on submitting stories. I got no problem with rejection. I don't cry or pout or beat my fists against the wall when I get rejected. I usually feel a vague sense of satisfaction -- "Yeah! Another rejection! Just like all the real writers."

But I'm still incompetent at applying.

4. Pet the cat.

Yup.

5. Put more money into savings in 2006 than I did in 2005.

Still done.

6. Keep track of any other productive things I do.

Writing:
-- Editing Silver Scales very slowly. The current count for the file is 243,400 words, but I cut out three or four thousand words that I plan to stick back in somewhere else, so the number looks lower than it really is. When I was wrting Prophecy, I remember obsessively counting the words that I wrote, and how long it took to write them out. Now I'm obsessively counting the words that I cut, and bemoaning how long it takes to remove them. Why did I want to do this, again?

-- I've written nine entries on "Nightmare Waking".

Role-playing:

"Game of October" proceeded more slowly this month; I think it was one session for everyone, except for one neglected player. But sitll definitely going.

Art:
-- I took a bunch of reference photos while I was in North Carolina, including several for a sketch that I've been wanting to finish for the last several months, but haven't because I needed a phonot reference on it. So I may get some mileage out of those this month.

Misc.:
-- I put together a new costume for Halloween, which I quite like. Even though I didn't make any of the pieces for it, just finding all the bits took several hours of effort, so I guess this counts as productive.

-- I went to visit sophrani and kagetsume, which I'm also sure counts as productive. It produced lots of fun for me, anyway. :)

October wasn't terribly productive on most fronts, but oddly I'm not particularly perturbed by it. Perhaps because nothing stopped, even if I'm not moving forward very quickly on anything.

7. Clear out my email inbox at home.

Amazingly, I had not actually backslid over the course of October. At 737 at the moment, after clearing out 150 just now.

9. Do at least one post per month tracking my progress on each of these.
Nine out of ten now.

Comments

[dajagr.livejournal.com]

If you enjoyed Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming, there's a sequel to it, If at Faust You Don't Succeed. (And, now that I search, there appears to be another one, A Farce to be Reckoned With.)

On the other hand, if you didn't enjoy it, they didn't exist, you solipsist, you.