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...