While this site is all about me and the things I like, it’s not a true lifeblog, at least not the types of lifeblogs that I wrote ten years ago. But there are some things that Twitter and other social sites aren’t quite as great for, and getting the big picture update of one’s life is one of those things. Enough stuff has happened lately that it all seems like a blur, so here goes.
Fitness! I mentioned that one of my 2015 goals was to get off my butt and get moving. I barely made any progress on this during the winter, but then lots of things happened. Spring happened, which was a welcome arrival for me because my body was sick and tired of winter. But an even better thing happened than spring (and no, I don’t mean fall). Accountability happened. It’s well-known[citation needed] that having an accountability buddy makes you more motivated to accomplish a goal. This applies for just about everything, from writing a novel to going to the gym. I still have no plans (or money) for a gym membership, but several friends are also tracking their fitness and trying to get healthier. I’ve joined them in this quest, and having several someones to stay accountable to has been really helpful. I’ve already reached my 50k for the month (yes, 50 kilometers; that’s roughly 30 miles, or a mile a day). It’s the 17th, so I may have up my goal. More on that in a minute.
While we’re still talking about fitness, I also started running recently. In a surprising turn of events, I have not started to hate everything yet. It started innocently enough; I was walking home from somewhere a few weeks ago and reached a downhill stretch. “You know, I’m already walking pretty fast,” I told myself. “I could go down this hill a little faster.” So I started running down the hill and got home relatively unscathed. That’s when I started thinking to myself, “Hey, I could make running a regular thing.” I’ve done exactly that since. I’m still alternating between walking and running, but I’m pulling off a 15-minute mile consistently (and not dying in the process) by combining the two. In related news, a friend and I are doing a 5k next weekend. It’ll be my first; it’s her second since she did one a couple of weeks ago. Also, ducks are involved.
Camp NaNoWriMo/Wikiwrimo! These are going together because they are, at least for my purposes, the same thing right now. See, I have a terible track record with Camp NaNoWriMo. I usually try to work on a second draft, and for some reason that doesn’t work well for me. That’s why I decided to work on Wikiwrimo for camp. Since writing 50k words in a wiki full of existing content is a challenge at best, and since tracking characters is easier than words in a wiki, I decided to add 50k characters of content to the wiki. Most of this content has come from adding 2014 stats and content to the regional directory, and so far I’ve finished the rest of the world outside of the US (and Ontario, since that province has a lot of NaNo regions). I’m at around 45k characters added so far with plenty more to add in May. This way, all the 2014 regional info will be updated before new Municipal Liaisons are selected and some old ones step down. Since a lot of regional pages don’t exist and I’m creating them as I go, this has added a lot to my character count as well, meaning I’ll hit 50k soon and will probably up my goal.
But what would I up my goal to? I thought about 75k, and then I remembered that I’m at 50k for my exercise goal as well. Why not up both of those goals to 75k? Or more challenging, keep the two counts as close as I can for the month. When I up (or lower) one goal, that lowers the other as well. Hmmmmm. That could work.
(Oh, and the funny part? This has taken about as much time as writing a novel, even if 50k characters is much smaller than 50k words.)
Reading! I’m well on track for 60 books this year, and I’m going to try and finish reading book #50 by the end of this month. This will put me very close to on track for 120 books like last year, especially keeping in mind that I don’t read too much in October and November. Okay, let’s be honest, I’m almost certainly shooting for triple digits again, even if it means reading another big batch of Baby-Sitters Club books one night.
Writing! …Okay, I haven’t done as much writing lately. That’s a lie. I’ve written in my paper journal a LOT ever since things from meatspace have started to calm down. But I haven’t touched my fiction, and as you can probably guess, I haven’t written in here at all. Time to get back on that train.
Social life! Let’s see, what has happened over the past few months? I hosted an out of town friend, I hosted a taco party for Valentine’s Day with people who would snicker at that term as much as you and I are, I went to a conference on diversity in tech and gaming, I went to Charleston for a friend’s wedding, I met a cousin who was visiting from South Korea (and hosted her for a weekend of her stay), I went to a few board game nights, and I saw a live Welcome to Night Vale show. That’s just since the beginning of February. Whew. That is a lot now that I look at it all typed out. I’ve been cherishing all my free time on the weekends because introverts gotta introvert.
Anything else? I think that covers the big stuff, but I’m willing to talk and write about any of these things in more detail. So ask away!