What Are You Working On (And How Are You Getting There)?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

CorporalClegg wrote:

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It's kind of depressing that MLB has been to Target Field and I haven't.

Well then, just go there, and you won't be depressed anymore!

It really is a very nice ballpark. Much better than the Metrodome. It'll even get the All-Star Game next year!

As for my trips this year - probably the ones I'm most excited about are AT&T Park (Giants) and Dodger Stadium. Those will probably become my favorite non-NY parks by the time I get there!

[Pingfah]

Kestra wrote:

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That sounds intense. Are you moving far/for long?

Also I'd like to encourage people to engage with each other more in this thread!

I don't know exactly where i'll be moving to yet, i'll be teaching and it depends where I get placed. But out of the country at least, and somewhere non english speaking. And it's a minimum placement of a year. I'm quite excited as I have been in the same job for 10 years, and have tired greatly of sitting in an office all day. I snapped a few months back and applied for the training. I now have about 6 months to save as much money as fast as possible.

Incidentally, as far as finance tips go, if you are talking about basic budgetting for yourself rather than investments and such? Write it down. Just write it all down, all the incomings, all the outgoings, and every bit oif it. When you can see what is happening to your money right in front of you it's much easier to understand. You can't budget in your head, you'll just make the calculations you want to make

[Kestra]

That's fantastic! Not the snapping part, but the rest. I hope that it's a great experience for you. And thanks for the tips, I'm definitely trying to write it all down.

[Robert Maxwell]

I have a lot of goals.

1. Learn the ropes of my new position. I just started a few weeks ago. I've already been sort of useful, but my new boss is extremely busy and doesn't have time to point me to everything I need. There have also been issues getting me set up with the software I need, so I can't even do what I need to do. Things might be tough for a while.
2. Get a bigger place this summer. That one's a question of money and location.
3. Finish editing my friend's novel.
4. Finish editing my own novel (a NaNo from last year.)
5. Work on a visual novel with my girlfriend.
6. Continue working on SagaSim (the world simulator linked in my sig.)
7. Get my son's medical issues addressed (or at least get some progress going.)
8. I have a couple other story ideas I'd like to put down, too. One of them, I am already writing. Should probably turn out as a short story.
9. Rebuild my primary Web server since it's kind of a mess.
10. Take a vacation with my girlfriend sometime this summer. May go to Montreal.

I always have a lot going on.

[J. Allen]

CorporalClegg wrote:

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There are always those newfangled pencil things.

That's crazy talk. Quit talking crazy.

[thestrangequark]

I'm...
- Trying to learn to use my insulin pump to its fullest potential so that I can have better control of my diabetes.

- Trying not to lose my temper with my dad while I plant some seeds of skepticism so that maybe he'll stop blaming me for having diabetes and stop recommending stupid fucking naturopaths. There is little in this world that causes me as much disgust as alternative "medicine."

- Trying to learn the ukulele.

[Gary7]

This is the "can o' worms" kind of thread... some will open it, some won't. Maybe some don't have any worms (you've already got plenty of fish, so you're set).

Lucky 13. I really hope it is. For me and everyone else here. Lots of interesting insight into what people are up to. I wasn't going to contribute, but... what the hell, why not.



I hit a major roadblock in my life, for no apparent good reason on the outside (I'm healthy, had been doing pretty well financially, was gainfully employed, etc). I sank into depression after I was laid off from a rather unscrupulous company that had bought our division from our comparatively larger parent company, then sent 40% of the staff home after a few months (despite promises to the contrary), to later enable two senior executives to pilfer resources and forge documents to gain a massive infusion of investment but got caught and caused the whole company to collapse in the most deplorable disgrace. This was in mid 2009.

I hadn't had a really good long vacation for quite some time, so with the sinking economy and jobs being shed, not opened, I purposefully decided to take a break for a year and work on a few personal things. What I hadn't anticipated is how... dependent I was on external structure. I wasn't very self disciplined and didn't really make much progress in 2009. By mid 2010 I was really starting to get scared, as employment opportunities were still really dismal.

I decided to start writing a book, with much encouragement from several trusted friends, using a lot of ideas I had jotted down over the years. A kind of philosophical book on where humanity is ultimately going, what are chief areas of concern (beyond the obvious tremendous negatives to the environment) and some remedial suggestions as to how to move forward in a more productive way. But after 12 months of slaving away, I came to discover that Al Gore was doing the same kind of book. My efforts would prove superfluous. Don't you just hate that kind of thing? It sunk me further into the damp, dark doldrums.


Well, I had tried a few different medications to help soften the periodic dips into deep depression, but all of them altered my consciousness in peculiar ways... I didn't like it one bit. Fortunately, I began to discover a few things that would help pull me out of it more naturally. Exercise, hydration, plenty of sleep, and focusing on small easily accomplished tasks to bolster feelings of self-worth. It's so very hard to do this when you've got the kind of mind that can't help but be comparative to past potential... a side effect of learned behavior. I hate being fragile to external opinions.


So, to try putting it more briefly, I'm working on two things:
1. Improvement of self-image
2. Achieving gainful employment

Once those two are squared away, the runway will be cleared for delving into many other things on the back burner, including a shifting of my book focus in a way that might still prove useful, yet without loaded expectations.

[Emher]

I'm trying to write more on my "last man" story. Problem with me is I like to write it all to be just right from the start. Which is insane, and it makes for some really chopped up writing. Now it's more a question of just sitting my ass down and just continuing. To get somewhere.

[Sakrysta]

I just wish I actually WANTED something.

[Sephiroth]

thestrangequark wrote:

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I'm...
- Trying to learn to use my insulin pump to its fullest potential so that I can have better control of my diabetes.

- Trying not to lose my temper with my dad while I plant some seeds of skepticism so that maybe he'll stop blaming me for having diabetes and stop recommending stupid fucking naturopaths. There is little in this world that causes me as much disgust as alternative "medicine."

- Trying to learn the ukulele.

I used to say never a larger scam was put into play than "natural medicine" until I met the Leahman Brothers.

and I saw your ukulele vid, not bad, but could use my ocarina

[mimic]

I guess my goals are as follows:

-Be a great teacher - Three years in, I am pretty good at my job, but I want to be one of the best. I am putting in a lot of extra time this term and trying a few new things.

-Improve my climbing - taking some classes at a local gym with a friend, and trying to climb as much as possible.

-Start caving - there's a few local grotto clubs I want to join

-Stay on good terms with my ex - He's a bit of a mess right now and in desperate need of friends. Without support he'd probably fly off the deep end and completely ruin his life. It would be hard to cut him out anyway, because I regularly see him at the rock gym, and he's not a bad guy when he's not being an idiot. (for the record, he's not a mess because of anything to do with me - lost a parent recently, and license suspended due to reckless driving)

[thestrangequark]

Sephiroth wrote:

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I used to say never a larger scam was put into play than "natural medicine" until I met the Leahman Brothers.

Seriously. And the really clever bit is that the scammers convince their victims that it's really everyone else being scammed, so all the reason they fail to write off with magic they can write off with conspiracy theory.

and I saw your ukulele vid, not bad, but could use my ocarina

Haha, I had an ocarina when I was a kid! And the guy at Pike Place Market in Seattle who I bought it from is still there selling!

Oh, and I'm much better at the ukulele than I was a couple weeks ago -- I can play that song without halting between chords, and I've got a few more complicated songs under my belt. Still getting there, though. It's certainly not a difficult instrument, but the tuning is a little counter-intuitive for me as a cellist, and I really don't have any right hand technique as I'm used to holding a bow. It's fun, though!

[SmoothieX]

I'm moving 2,000 away in the next week. Good career opportunity indirectly related to the oil/gas boom in the Upper Midwest. I work in land development, public works, infrastructure, etc.

The demand there for engineers is huge and they are bringing people in from all over the US.

[mari]

I'm working on my wedding! Using theknot.com checklist so I don't miss anything, and using the hell out of my iPhone calendar with reminders and alarms and alerts and everything. Lots of dinging so I don't forget appointments or deadlines. Also enslaving my fiance and family for making centerpieces and stuff. That's my longest-term project right now. Also trying to clear out some old crochet projects before I start any new ones, which of course I have failed at, because I had the overwhelming urge to make a hyperbolic plane this past weekend.

Sigokat wrote:

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I've written some fanfics as well and have some that are incomplete, but its hard fo rme to write now because I can't do it at work on the computer and all I have out here with me (I'm in the Army and deployed) is my new sony tablet and I don't know any good android apps that are like Word.

I try to write everything on Google Docs. Drive. Whatever they call it now. And I have it on my Android tablet. I like it because even if something happens to the tablet, my laptop or my work computer, it's still out there in the cloud thing.

[thestrangequark]

I've decided to put some effort into my dad. I had a long talk with him about his crazy and stupid ideas (though I was kinder with my choice of adjectives), and he seems at least slightly open to a more rational perspective. I think the biggest problem is he is getting a shit-ton of propaganda, misinformation, and nonsense in the form of my half-sister's antivaccine, "all-natural", raw milk hippie ramblings, and broadcast idiocy like "Coast to Coast" and "Ancient Aliens." I have launched a counter-attack in the form of knowledge. I sent him Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World, a nice presentation by The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe on being a savvy healthcare consumer and not falling for the natural/alternative medicine scam, and each morning I've been sending him a Science Daily article.

He was the person who first got me interested in science, and one of my earliest memories is of watching "Cosmos" with him as a kid, but I think the daily assault of massive amounts of THC starting at the age of 15 has left him a little...pliable...and he just wants to let other people think for him -- and the people he's choosing range from just silly to downright dangerous in their idiocy. So, I don't know whether or not my attempts will be ultimately futile, but my new thing to work on is to try to give my dad at least a slightly more balanced worldview, so that maybe he'll stop saying hurtful and ignorant things to my mom, sisters, and me about our health/mental health, beliefs (and lack thereof), and lifestyles.