2006 goals in review

In 2005 I ended up listing 18 goals for the year, and I fulfilled 4, addressed 6, and failed the rest. So for 2006 I came up with a dozen goals, thinking that was a more reasonable number. Overall, though, I think I had a less successful year than 2005.

1. Create a film for the Stockstock Film Festival.
   For various reasons, Stockstock 5 did not actually begin until November 20, and films are due this coming February 11. So, meeting this goal was taken out of my hands. That said, I could have at least downloaded the footage, reviewed it, and maybe even begun editing it before the end of the year; instead, I only just downloaded it last weekend and have yet to watch it.


2. Learn to use GarageBand enough to make my own soundtrack for the Stockstock film.
   Naturally, I took the lazy route of waiting for the festival to be announced first, and never played with GarageBand at all. Because I could have, and should have, done this on my own without waiting for that announcement, this is a full failure.


3. Develop my 'Monsters Outside the Polis' concept into an actual complete game.
   Although I spend lots of time talking about game design with my friends, I never actually did anything with this. I did spend a little time thinking about another game concept I've been calling Pixels, and John's been prodding me occasionally to do something with it - even showing up one game night with his own cool idea for the basic game format. Speaking of John, although I did not get any work down on a game design of my own, I did get my first editor credit for an RPG, for John's new game Agon - and I did contribute a bit to design ideas and playtesting that as well. So although I failed the stated goal, I think that's a fair trade-off.


4. Earn a serious raise at work.
   I really didn't put much effort into earning the raise I wanted doing work I wanted to do. However, it happened that our office manager decided to leave, and I agreed to step into that role. I got a moderate raise up front, and I believe the work I've done in that role has justified it. I also earned a Mac Mini as a bonus, but more importantly, the raise enabled me to continue affording my condo and also deal with the cleft palate work.


5. Reduce my credit card debt.
   I failed to reduce the debt, but I did more or less maintain it at the same level. So it's not getting worse, but of course I'm paying all those extra finance charges. Fortunately, thanks to some generous help, it looks like I've got a fair chance to clear the debt up over the next several months.


6. Visit at least two of:
   • The Olympic Peninsula, up in the mountains and rainforest.
   • Mount St. Helens.
   • Portland.
   • The Pacific Ocean proper, on the other side of the Olympic Peninsula.
   • Victoria or Vancouver (return visit).
   
   Hey, a goal I unequivocally met! When Doug was visiting last August, we went down to Portland and then drove out to the Pacific coast, where I stood in the open Pacific for the first time. (I actually have a few photos which I should post.)


7. Resume martial-arts training and attend weekly.
   I did nothing about this.


8. Continue writing at least once a week in this journal.
   Shock and dismay, I failed this goal! I thought I had posted during the second full week of February when I had actually posted the Saturday before. That was just a dumb mistake though, and I made up for it by posting six times the following week. I do think toward the later part of the year I could have posted more than I did, but overall I think I did okay.


9. Continue attending at least one club show a month.
   Yup, no problem. I even managed to get to a show in June, when I was still recovering from the bone graft operation. It was a pretty good year for shows too, and I discovered cool local bands Beehive and Bethurum Collective.


10. Play some violin.
    Umm... I think I opened the case once during the year, while I was doing cleaning or something. Tony Sacco did have a busy year being a new dad and finishing his creative writing degree, so he wasn't really available to play, but still, I could've.


11. Make a new recipe each month.
    Ha! It was a nice idea. I did make chinese pie - it later became a regular food when my post-operation diet meant no biting - and I also made rotini, but otherwise, no.


12. (insert goal about meeting new people, starting a relationship, or learning to be content with being single)
    Well, in 2005 I had a goal to "make use of the social network/dating website services I belong to, and go out on dates"; this year I did make some more use of them, in particular paying for a Yahoo Personals subscription and contacting a few people, but I didn't get much response or any dates. I also didn't do anything else to meet people, so this one's basically a wash.

I've been thinking about my goals for 2007, and I hope to get them posted before the weekend's over. I should probably make that one of the goals, that way I'll have something done right off the bat. Meanwhile, my first show of the year will be this Saturday: Halou at El Corazón, with Mexican Institute of Sound, and either Zoe Keating (formerly of Rasputina) according to Halou's website and the T.I.G. calendar, or Beehive and Miss Solar System according to Beehive's website and El Corazón's website. Either way, it should be good.