SMART

As previously mentioned, I don't do new years resolutions. The running joke is that severel years ago I made a new years resolution not to make new years resolutions... which is kind of circular.

However, I do like to set and achieve goals. And an unwritten goal is just a wish. The five parts of a proper, well thought-out goal are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Hence the title of this post (see, I smarts. :P)

So here is my goal: I will complete a writing exercise every week for the first eight weeks of 2018.

It is specific - I have a spreadsheet I wrote out with 8 writing exercises, one to achieve each week.
It is measurable - each Sunday I can evaluate the week and see if I hit that target (or not).
It is attainable - each of the exercises could (theoretically) be knocked out in under an hour; could do all of them in one day. If I wanted to really challenge myself, I'd be aiming at a writing exercise every day (I can do more, one a week is the initial goal).
It is relevant - in order to get better at writing, I need to practice.
It is time-bound - I will have a seven day window to complete each exercise and if I miss one for some reason I have to move on to the next one.

Why only the first eight weeks? I could set myself a longer goal, such as an exercise each week for the whole year, but that is just setting myself up for failure. With work, I know there will be times when I will be away and I don't know when, for how long or what I will be doing. It would be too easy to have some work commitment come up, miss a few weeks and then get depressed that I missed my goal for the whole year.

I'm reasonably confident that I won't have any time away from home in the first two months. After that... not so sure. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

End of the year

Looking back on what I've achieved this year, it makes me wonder were the time has gone. Some things were quite hard, others were quite easy. On the whole, very  glad I didn't injure myself.

I don't do new years resolutions, but I am trying to be more creative. I don't like sitting around passively consuming, such as just being on the phone watching Youtube videos. I've wasted too much time this year doing that, and that's time I'm not getting back.

Stalled

It's been over a month since the first two videos for #BadlyDrawnCinema went up. Not that I'm worried about viewers or followers, but I don't like not being creative. :(

The main holdup at the moment is trying to get my old Wacom graphics tablet to work. I can draw on bits of paper and scan them, then go over it with the mouse and get a halfway decent result (hah!) but I would prefer to do full digital.

I think the pen isn't working properly, it's always in draw mode. I really don't want to have to buy a new tablet (new pens are hard to find for old tablets and cost more than a whole new tablet).

On the plus side, I have got a second computer up and running (big thanks to my awesome wife), just needs a bit more software loaded on. I can write on there, and have been. Might look at upgrading the keyboard next year. Or the year after...

Lighthouse keeper

I had another weird dream.

Dreamt we bought or owned a lighthouse. Constantly working on the maintenance, paying bills - but no matter how hard we worked, we couldn't turn a profit.

Would have helped if the lighthouse wasn't in the middle of the desert. :(

Drain cleaning

Cleaned out the s and p bends on the sinks today. Most were good, one was ... not so good. Pretty icky, near to the point of calling it "blocked". Glad it is done. It builds up slowly, so you don't notice it as it is happening.

Net neutrality

For those who haven't been keeping track, the FCC will vote on net neutrality on the 14th of December. What this vote is about is internet service providers (isp's) will change classification from a utility (such as a water company) to an information provider (like a library).

How does this affect you? In the short term, it won't. It will take time for changes to feed through. But what it means is that isp's will be allowed to charge extra for certain services, if they wanted to.

For example, you may have a 'standard' internet plan that requires you to pay extra for accessing Youtube or other streaming services. You may have a plan that allows you to access Youtube, but you won't be able to access Vimeo.

A water company can only charge you for the amount of water you use. Doesn't matter if you use it for drinking, washing the car or freezing into ice - it's your choice.

A library can't stop you coming in - but they can decide which books to keep on the shelves. They can decide what knowledge you have access to. You can put in requests for a book they don't have, but it's up to them if they get it or not (and how much they charge you).

You probably won't notice anything, except maybe the prices of internet fees creeping up. You definitely won't see all the information you will be getting blocked from. Lucky for us large corporations aren't in the habit of gouging their customers for every cent they can squeeze out of us...

OGame

Winning at OGame

For those that don't know about it, OGame is an browser based mmo where you enter numbers into boxes. It's more fun than it sounds, especially in the middle stages.

Simple enough game - gain resources by harvesting on your planet, steal them from other players or buy them with your credit card. Spend resources on defences, space ships or bonuses.

It starts of easy enough but everything keeps costing more the higher you develop. Such as, improving engines from level 1 to level 2 might cost 200 but going from level 2 to level 3 might cost 400. By the time you're getting to level 15 it's costing millions.

Not that collecting that much is the issue, but if you leave too much lying around on your planet, you'll get attacked by other players who'll break your defences and nick your resources.

What the enemy can't do is destroy your planet or your capacity to produce more resources. So even if all your planets get attacked, all your ships destroyed and all your defences smashed - you can't really lose. Which also means you can't really win either...

The only ways to win are to a) stop playing b)continue playing indefinitely, or c)reach some artificial target.

Today I reached my target of getting a moon on all my planets. There's an economic limit to how many planets you can have (I reached 9) and the only way to get a moon is to have a bunch of ships blown up in orbit so the debris can form a moon. And it's random, so you could have a truly epic battle that results in a bunch of debris and no moon.

So on that happy note, I can now declare victory and stop playing. :D Accounts are deleted after about a month of inactivity, so I might log in on occasion just to keep the planets producing so other players can harvest the resources.

Frustratement

Hurmph. Got my first two videos up pretty quick but hit a wall now and can't seem to get an idea I like for the third one. Might be over thinking it, aim for something simpler...

Free pee see

Wooh! Managed to score some free second hand computers. :) I'd been going to place an ad on Gumtree to see if anybody had an old pc they were going to get rid of, but these came up. Very lucky. First time getting a chance to fiddle around with some pc's in a while.

Repost

I'd done a post earlier this week but hadn't posted it. Here it is:

So, the latest (rehashed) creative idea is to write out short stories, then create storyboard videos to upload.

Since I'll be recording all the dialogue in house (or on my phone) then there shouldn't be any copyright issues there. Music will be a bit harder, I don't really have a way of generating decent music. Might need to re-find that old site I found before for background music that is royalty free. Good old classical music should be a good source too.

Images shouldn't be an issue as I'll be (badly) drawing everything myself. And I won't be advertising it, this project is primarily for the fun of it.

I foresee the drawing part taking the longest, that would be the most time intensive part of the creation process. Short story ideas are easy enough to generate. So initially I'll stick to making them all stand alone stories that don't tie in together, but the long goal is to make a series of stories that interconnect in some way.

At least, that's the plan.

Again.

First video live!

The first of my latest project ideas has gone live. You can see it in all it's mediocrity here: https://youtu.be/559IeKzg2vg

Am I happy with it? Not really, it is a first attempt at a first draft and done while working around other things, and I didn't put as much effort into it as I wanted to.

But it was mainly a proof of concept to see if my workflow would work. As it is, I think it will; I just need to tweak a few ideas in order to improve the quality.

Oh, and practice. Lots and lots of practice.

(I'm not going to be advertising this anywhere, other than the occasional post here. I'm mainly doing this for my own enjoyment.)

First setback

Grrr... can't get my (old) graphics tablet to work with my (ancient) laptop. Most frustratement.

Next stage is trying to use a phone app. I've got some basic results to use for my first proof of concept, but although I like the stylistic (albeit oversimplistic) look... I'm not happy with the result or workflow.

I may end up just doing it the dead tree and scan way, which I was trying to avoid. Need to get the first one done.

Proof of concept

Stage one complete. I believe I have all the resources I need in order to start Badly Drawn Cinema. I'm pretty surprised that name wasn't already in use, but searching for it with parentheses came back with two results.

Can I copyright #BadlyDrawnCinema? Probably, but it isn't worth the effort. I could register it as a company name but considering that my budget is ... um ... zero, then that makes it kind of hard.

Now comes the hard part, actually doing it.

Reincarnation

I don't believe in reincarnation. To my way of thinking, it seems a bit pointless. I prefer a story that starts somewhere, goes somewhere, then ends somewhere. If people died but then had to come back and give it another go as something else, it feels too much like all that learning and experience was wasted. Then do it again...

However, I do have a pretty good argument in favour of reincarnation. It is thus:

If all living things require a "soul" (or spirit, or spark, or essence - any name for an imperceivable life force), and there are a finite number of these souls, then since there are now so many souls taking their turn being human, then that explains all the extinctions (there aren't enough souls left over to be other things).

That's my argument in favour of reincarnation. I'm sure if we do the maths it wouldn't bear out (how many cows and chickens and pigs are there now compared with a hundred years ago?), but it sounds good.

Winning!

Was out for a jog today and spotted a dollar coin on the ground. Stopped to pick it up, then had a quick look around in case there was more. Found another and a two dollar coin. Not too bad, $4 will almost get me a breakfast! Nom nom nom...

Making cakes...

...in my dreams. Had a weird dream that I and someone else (some random npc my subconscious pulled out) were making a cake for some tv show.

We had no clue what we were doing so we were following a recipe, but the steps were weird. Like, one step was add eggs and sugar, then next step was add milk, then third step was separate yolk and egg whites and only add yolks.

Seemed like the recipe was written by someone deliberately trying to sabotage the cake making. Maybe my brain was trying to tell me to read all the instructions before starting something. Or don't trust recipes from the internet. :P

Sugar and Spice

Hrmmm... need to do more exercise. Lots of yummy treats taste nice, but yummy treats go straight to the hips.

Might have a go at making sausage rolls or something. Home made has to be healthier than store bought, right? :P

In unrelated news, passed last round of tests so should be due for a promotion this week. Or this month. Maybe year? lol Lots more responsibility for two or three dollars a week extra. Yay.

Test

Had a weapons test today. Pretty happy with the result; 88mm. Better than my average of around 100mm. Not too bad considering I haven't had much practice in the last few months.

Of the 12 in the group I was with during the test, I got the third best score with the best score being 83mm. I know there are heaps of people out there who can do better than that, but it's nice to be in the high end.

New phone, new toys

Have a new smartphone to replace the one that died. Well, not new-new, just new to me. My old phone was a Galaxy S2. Had it for nearly six years. Good run for a smart phone. Had been meaning to do backups for ... um ... weeks before it died. Kicking myself for not having done that.

This phone is a HTC. It's much of a sameness between them, though I do still instinctively reach for buttons where they were on my old phone. Was running with an old school phone for a few days. Could have kept using it, but a smart phone gives so many more options. :)

Playing with some new toys at work. The old trucks I was driving were very bare bones, bash it til' it works type trucks. These new ones have more buttons than my computer! Will take a bit of getting used to!

Phone died

Was about time, had the old Galaxy S2 for nearly six years. Was a good run. But she died.

New ground

Away from family again, never fun and always too long. At least we get paid extra for being apart. And tgis trip is a bit shorter.

Only just left home and already hanging out to get home

Sweaty and stinky

Plus I'm sick as a dog. Been at work for an hour, on a Sunday... and the sun's not even up yet.

fml

Bit dissappointed

Currently doing some training for work and part of that training was a part to push ourselves and see just how far we could go. I had been really looking forward to that, a major challenge, a major milestone. Something where I could look back and go "yeah, I did that".

Due to circumstances beyond our control, that part had to be stopped about halfway through. I can completely understand why it was stopped and completely agree with it.

But it still sucks that I didn't get the chance to see what my limits are. At the point where we stopped, I was tired and hungry but could have kept going. The frustrating part is I have no idea how much further I could have gone.

The dissappointing part is that (as far as I can tell), it is highly unlikely that I will ever be able to attempt a test like that under safe, test conditions.

Maybe in another lifetime...

Before it starts

Just under the 85kg mark, managed to gain back most of the weight that I'd previously lost.

Next few days will be interesting: little sleep and less food. Fun training for fun stories, should just lose water weight. But shouldn't be too much long term damage.

Be interesting to compare how I feel about it now, when we're deep in the middle of it and once it is all done and dusted. :D

Upcoming courses

Starting preparations for upcoming courses that will keep me busy through the middle of the year. That's good.

Not happy about not being able to get pre course preparations done. Keep getting pulled away to go do other things and haven't had time allocated to preparations.

Oh well, just need to do the best I can I guess.

Weekends' work

Over the weekend I (finally) got around to servicing our bicycles. The important ones are good to go but my one is pretty much just good for parts now.

Took the pink one out for a ride this arvo, was good to do some exercise. Got a bit of numb bum now though.

Definitely rides better now that I've adjusted the seat and put more air in the tyres. Still need to adjust the gears a bit, they're a bit off.

Just a tad cheaper than fixing a car up...

Busy doin not much

First post since last year!

Busy at work doing work stuffs. Had the opportunity to do a few things with the family, which is awesome. :)

Here's hoping get to have some more time at home this year.