Revisiting last year's goals

Last year I posted a list of goals for the new year. I re-read them last night and thought that it would be a good time to revisit that list. You know, to keep me honest.

My goals for 2004 were...

I would like to spend as much time with my sweetie as possible! I don't really need to make this a goal because it's going to happen regardless, but I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm slipping up on the ShmooMeter. ;)

Acceptable levels of quality time with the boy in 2004, for the most part. Due to him being laid off at the soul-sucking job in early January, we had much more time together than we normally would have throughout the spring. When he started working at the photography studio in August, time together went down the drain (we got every other Sunday together, and basically two hours every evening.) Luckily, that only lasted for two months, and now he has a job that doesn't currently require working on the weekends, and he's home before me (and I get off at 4:30) every day, so that's working out pretty well.

I would like to keep track of what books I read. I have a strong feeling that this one is doomed to failure, but I'd like to give it a shot anyway. It would be interesting to know statistics on my reading.

Ha. Yeah. That so completely didn't happen that I don't even know where to start. I did create a Word document, but I think it only contained three books when I forgot about it. I did, however, read quite a bit of new stuff (I do a lot of re-reading, but I had several used-book sprees and a couple of new-book indulgences this year.) Of note: I've become a Bill Bryson fan this year, which is courtesy's fault, and I greatly enjoyed both In a Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods. I read several romance novels that I greatly enjoyed, including a few that have made me refocus on my own writing approach. (I'm thinking of Nora Robert's Key trilogy here.) I also finally got around to finishing The Physics of Christmas, which I'm glad to finally be able to take off my list of things to read. (Very interesting, but a little heavy on the science for such as me.) I also read a lot of trashy novels that I will probably never remember again in my life, but I need those the way other people need Saturday Night Live or, in M's case, MXC. We got into audio books for a while just after we moved, and we listened to several Anne Rice books that we hadn't read, including one that was really, really good (Blood Canticle) because it featured Lestat as his old cocky self. (He looks like an angel and talks like a gangster, and that is one of the best lines she's ever written.) Oh, and Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.. we enjoyed that one a lot. I'm currently reading The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie, by recommendation of totte, and Servant of the Empire, Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts, by recommendation of carrieb and big_bubba.

I would like to work on my creative powers. M bought me The Artist's Way for Christmas--there's my first step. All of this is in preparation for the next item on my list.

Well, The Artist's Way lies pretty much unopened. I did do some creative things, including some tatting--and I increased the number of tatters in the world by six, which isn't too shabby if I do say so myself. I did some web design, and a lot of programming, which is both creative and anti-creative.. don't ask me to explain that.

I would like to fully edit my first book and (*gulp*) possibly send it off--and continue writing, both another novel and shorter pieces.

I have no excuses for this one. It is my biggest failure of the entire year, and I have no one to blame but myself.

I would like to see an improvement in the financial situation--much as always. No one is ever satisfied with that aspect of their lives, I guess. :)

Well, we have a financial situation now, which is more than I could say at the time of writing. Actually, we're doing alright with this right at the moment. Never as good as you want, but there exists a curious lack of worry in our household regarding money which has never been there before.

I would like to continue to work on my levels of tact. I was doing well, but I've been slipping up a little lately. Was not good to ask The Cousin if The Gay Guy has any personality outside of Gayness. Was funny as hell, though.

You know what? It's still funny a year later. Sometimes I think I need to worry less about how honest I am with people and worry more about the people in my life who can't enjoy my sense of humor and like me for myself.

I would like to work on my Swedish again. When will I have more time for it than now?

Never, you foolish, foolish last-year me. Not a whole lot of progress on that one, and ground was (hopefully temporarily) lost. Very hard to keep at it when not bombarded with it at all times. I think I lost a little.. inclination this year, too, which is the worst part. Sometimes I don't even bother with translating some things that I could do on my own. That is very bad and if I don't improve anywhere else, I should do that.

I would like to do my part to make Mosaic Minds brilliant. :)

All modesty aside, I think I did pretty well on this one. I did not do nearly as much writing as I had planned when we got the whole thing started. I don't think anyone anticipated what a huge undertaking maintaining the site itself was going to be.. I certainly didn't. I made some things harder on myself because I have a certain standard of doing things that some would find excessive, but every issue went live on time, even when I was in the middle of a move that took less than a week. By fall, I had a system in place for managing content and the whole process is much smoother on my end, so I'm much less stressed out about it. Our ninth issue is coming up this month, so the zine itself is still going strong. We get wonderful feedback from our readers now and then that makes it all feel worthwhile. I've met a wonderful group of ladies, and strengthened friendships with the ones I already knew, and after a few wrinkles that needed ironed out in the beginning, we all work pretty smoothly together by now. We also have a whole new set of plans for making the second year even better than the first, so I think we're doing pretty well on this one.