2018 Goals

These are the 2018 goals, finally up to date.

• Blog
• Aiming for 50 again, don't have plans for many new topics
• And getting updates done on time!
• Car
• Just see how it goes, house is more important than a car for this year
• Not sure how many years I've been saying that now
• Fitness
• Bike
• Not sure what a good distance goal would be, particularly over winter, maybe 1000 kilometres to start with
• Just finding a way to include bike riding in my schedule would be a success
• Run
• Get a new PB for 5km and 10km
• Might already a bit behind trying to break the yearly distance record
• At least a couple of interstate or international events
• Go to 10 new parkruns, although they are starting to get further away
• Triathlon
• See how the bike goes first, a possibility for the 2018-19 season now at least
• Weight
• Get back to 70 kilograms during the year
• Food
• Might need to get a better diet than bread or fruit for dinner often
• Holiday
• Thinking about finally getting to do another mid-year trip to South East Asia
• Hawaii at the end of the year with a running event possibly
• House
• Hopefully this could be the year
• Prices not going up is the best hope at this stage
• Money
• Shares
• Get to 450 at least, maybe 500 if the market is stable
• Music
• Don't have much choice on this if nobody is touring
• 10 events would probably be a success
• Reading
• Being less tired would be a good start, then try to get through 10 books
• Sport
• Get Foxtel
• Possibly some AFL and NBL games
• Nothing really worth attending the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
• Study
• Ideally both AWS and Mule certification exams
• To Do List
• Items on my to do list sit around forever
• Need to get better at getting things done and not delaying
• Video Games
• Should finish Final Fantasy XIII-2, about two years after starting
• Get the Xbox One setup
• Buy a Nintendo Switch
• Work
• Don't expect any change for the year
• Getting promoted to the next job title seems unlikely given the current situation

2017 Review

This is the 2017 review at last, just earlier than last years.
I seem to have failed a lot more 2017 goals than I expected.

• Blog
• 38 posts was not far off the goal of 50
• Only had a short holiday report and the other regular posts
• Car
• Didn't have any issues or need major repairs, so still not a priority to replace it
• Fitness
• Bike
• Just got the bike in time, but didn't ride it
• Need to come up with some riding routes
• Run
• Came down with an injury in the first half of the year
• No personal bests, very close for 5km since the previous best was only 4.92km
• Happy to get back to decent times for 15km and half marathon at the end of the year
• About 1000 kilometres short of best distance for a year
• 2016 running review
• 2017 running review
• Triathlon
• No swimming or triathlon activities
• Weight
• Has been a big frustration, stuck at the same level all year regardless of exercise
• Food
• Decided that baking could wait until I improve fitness and weight
• Holiday
• Work kept getting extended, so missed out on a good mid year holiday
• March - Canberra
• May - Apollo Bay doesn't really count, and was injured too
• November - New Zealand
• December - NSW South Coast and Canberra
• House
• A minor slow down in prices, but Melbourne still increased the most!
• Was hoping for some interest rate increases to help, but it's getting further away
• Going on my usual luck, I'll buy a house just as prices fall
• Money
• Shares
• I did fairly well for the year, helped by a few exceptional results, finally a goal achieved
• Up about 70k for existing investments and added 80k more
• Started a small investment loan for about 20k
• Last three years: 92k, 190k, 360k
• Super
• Went from 240k to 280k
• Not a huge increase if charted out over the next 20 years or so
• Music
• Not many band tours, but 2018 is looking better so far
• March - Spoon
• May - Real Estate
• June - Crystal Castles
• December - Muse
• Reading
• Haven't been reading for a while now, usually tired on the train or listening to podcasts
• Study
• Went to an AWS training session, haven't taken the exam yet
• A failure to not have one certification for the year again
• TV
• Some favourite shows for the year:
• The Challenge
• The Leftovers
• Twin Peaks Season 3
• Utopia
• Video Games
• Not much to report, failed on my goal of unpacking the Xbox One
• PC - Alwa's Awakening - a fun indie game but not too challenging
• PC: River City Ransom Underground - disappointing
• Xbox 360 - Stuck on Final Fantaxy XII-2 for the whole year!
• Work
• Good to finally have a change to a new company
• Not so good having to take two weeks of at the end of the year
• Still have managed to have a little leave carried over to this year

February Review

This is the February review, already running way behind.

Been pretty frustrated with fitness and running, just seem to be slow and getting slower - can barely run 5km at full speed right now. I've been dealing with a minor issue with a sore right knee - the good knee, but it seems to be resolving itself. Have gone to the new Gardiners Creek parkrun a few times in a row, somehow I set my best time the first week and then slightly slower every week afterwards.

Also been in search of new weekend running courses, a couple of new tracks starting near Westerfolds Park to the Diamond Creek trail and Plenty River trail. And finally, got some new running gear:

• Headphones - got some Sony running headphones with 4gb storage, haven't tried it yet
• Heart rate monitor - didn't work well on wrist but is more accurate near elbow

No activity for biking.

It was looking like another bad month for shares when I lost about $30,000 in two consecutive days, but thanks to a few good results for company reports I had a decent recovery. I got rid of a few under-performers but so far the replacements haven't been any better.

I tried to watch a bit of the Winter Olympics but found it difficult like usual to just get the good events and the finals from the scattered TV coverage.

Not much happening from the to do list, but should be better next month:

• Blog - still have to complete the 2017 and 2018 yearly
• MICF tickets - got tickets for three events at the comedy festival in April
• Speed bump - keep complaining about the new speed bump installed right outside, no result yet

Not sure what's going on with work at the moment, seems like we are running out of work already. Need to decide to study for an AWS or Mule exam first.

That's it for this month:

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• Grouplove at The Croxton
• Great as usual, even a Sabotage cover
• 9 out of 10
• TV
• Black Mirror
• Black Museum
• A strange collection of related small stories, didn't like it much
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• Sega Mega Drive
• Streets Of Rage 3
• Too difficult with limited lives and continues, even on medium difficulty
• 5 out of 10
• Xbox 360
• Final Fantasy XIII-2
• Finally starting to like it and it's nearly finished