Posts Tagged ‘End of Month’

We’ve come to the end of the first month of the first year of the new decade. For me at least, it has been quite the eventful month indeed.

At the end of the first month of the first year of the previous decade I was a youngen only a year out of high school. I was just beginning my first job with the evil company of ‘they who must not be named’

It seems like the curse of the previous decade has been lifted now, as I finished my second term of employment with ‘they who must not be named’ just a few short months ago.

Since then, I’ve come some distance and did many a thing… I’ve written and put together an award winning collection of short stories, created an award winning webcomic, Designed an award winning zombie based coffee mug, I’ve made an award winning move inter-state and acquired my own award winning abode. And most importantly, purchased myself a new award winning jacket – whom I call Awesome Jacket.

        NOTE – awards mentioned may not be based in this reality… Yet.

All in all, I think this year (and/or decade) is already faring much better than the last.

So, onto the future then. What is to come?

Only time and fortune cookies can tell.

Well it’s been quite a February hasn’t it?

I returned from holidays at the end of last month to find my hours at work cut down to barely nothing. I’ve started “looking for a new job” – I put that in quotes because I haven’t technically started yet but I’m sure I will soon. Things are much more expensive when you have no money.

I’ve put my time to good use… At least some of it… Okay, a few hours of it.

I’ve finished a new short story. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. I got real good at super-mega-procrastination over the last couple of months and it feels good to get back into the swing of things. The hardest part was trying to avoid all my old bad habits, most of which seemed to have reappeared. I need to make sure I keep up the practice from now on…

Anyway the story is called Oneirophasia – and you can read it here.

It’s a strange little story. A little different than any of my others.

It’s actually based on a dream I had a few weeks ago. One of the more coherent and vivid dreams I’ve ever had and when I woke up I wrote down everything that happened. Unlike most of my dreams, like the one where the nurse was cutting all her limbs off as a gift for me, or the one where a ninja kept poisoning my cordial… this dream had more of a story-like structure. So I thought I’d give it a shot as a new life as a short story.

It’s actually very close to they way I dreamed it. But the prose is all mine.

Hmmm…

What…else…have…I…been… doing in February?

Oh!! I went to the… no, no, that was on Tv…

Oh!! I’ve been quitting smoking. It’s been going pretty well too. I’ve cut down to about half of what I was smoking a few weeks ago. Yesterday I had the least smokes in a day that I’ve ever had… (Except for this one time in Tasmania where we were bogged in a camping ground in the middle of nowhere for a day and a half but it wasn’t on purpose so it doesn’t count.) I’ve been using this little programmy doogie on my treo which after a few days of recording your smoking habits slowly makes you cut down by making you wait longer and longer between smoke. It’s been hard butt it’s going good.

Funnily enough though, one of the worst obstacles in quitting smoking is quit smoking ads. Every time I see one I feel like a cigarette.

What…else…

Oh!! And I killed a homeless ma… no, no, that’s a secret… shh… no one said anything.

So, It seems I have a lot to do this coming month. Including looking for a new job. I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s time for a grown-up type job… But you never know, I may put off being a grown-up for a few more years yet…

Until next month…

On my flight back to Brisbane, for the first time ever, I wasn’t seated behind someone who leaned their seat all the way back. Added to that, there was an empty seat beside me – making this the most comfortable flight I’ve ever been on.

The only downside is that I can no longer complain about my streak of misfortune in air travel.

I’m sure to be headed back to Melbourne some time soon though, for the plums and the dirty old yaks, and I’m sure I’ll be able to start a new bad streak.

It’s the end of January now and I’ve a pretty decent start to the year. I got some dental work done which I’ve been meaning to do for a while now, and scored a cute dentist which makes the visits a fair bit more enduring. I got a week in a silent house, where I had time to myself to think and ponder and read in the yard without interruption. I got a holiday in Melbourne where I got to flirt with a bar girl, play the ‘blind fold someone and make them eat a donut while wacking them with a stick game’, and drink coffee shop coffee each morning.

But now, holidays are over. It’s time to get back to work, start sorting out my life which has somehow, somewhere run off the tracks and crashed into the side of a mountain and all the little passengers waited around for help until they died of pneumonia.

Step one will be looking for a new form of employment. I’ve been standing in the doorway for far too long and now they are beginning to shrink the doorway, forcing me to either go in further and join the dark side or be squeezed out and left in the cold.

And I’m opting for the latter and a chance to find some work which I don’t despise more than I’m able to.

On the whole, I think things are starting to look up.

This year will be a good one.

It’s coming up on the end of another month and another year. I feel this year has been a little better to me, and I’m hoping naughty nine will be even better. So, it’s time to look at my last years resolutions and see how little I got accomplished that I had planned at the beginning of the year.

But, first things first – How was yer Crimmas?

I had a pretty good one. Lots of nice presents, fun times, noisy kids and some assembly required. At the top of the list – A nice new comfy business chair. I like to spin around in circles until I’m dizzy… Oh, and it’ll probably come in handy when working as well… But mostly the spinning.

So, onto other things, I had a number of plans for this month. My Todo list wasn’t a very long one but that didn’t stop me from not doing all of it. I did read a little more, as I’d planned, and I also got a short Doug update finished. I got my Christmas shopping done, buying awesome presents for everyone to tear open, look at in confusion for a moment and then toss aside in anticipation for larger presents from others more willing to open their wallets.

Last year I made some resolutions for the year. Here’s what I came up with.

#1 -Complete Two Novels.
#2 – Keep to a sleep schedule.
#3 – Complete 3 short stories.
#4 – Loose Weight.
#5 – Cut down my smoking.
#6 – Save Money.
#7 – Get out more

As for number one – Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… ha.

ha ha ha.

ha.

Two?

ha ha ha…

Anyway… onto number two. I was having trouble sleeping back then but it’s been pretty good for a while now. The secret is to close your eyes early and open them late. Number three – finally, some good news. Not only did I do this one, I DOUBLED it. Booya. Four and five – I’m starting to get a roll on but there wasn’t a great deal of progress this year. Ditto for six and seven.

And as for ‘09. I haven’t really thought that much on resolutions except for one thing.

Write 1000 words every day.

Simple. Easy. Straight forward.

I can handle a thousand words a day. I’m sure of it. If I know what I’m writing then I can get through that in an hour or two. Although most of the time I don’t know what I’m writing, so It may take a little longer. But, dag nabbit, a thousand should be easily done.

By this time next year I should be sitting on about three hundred and fifty thousand words more than I am today.

Ouch.

It’s the end of another month. The eleventh this year. It seems like only yesterday that it was January first and I was dreaming of all the things I would get done this year. I have gotten some things done but not nearly as much as I had planned. But then who ever does?

Maybe people who are more in touch with their obsessive compulsive side than I am… sigh.

So, usually around this time, I take a look at my ToDo list for the month and go through what I did and didn’t do. But I think I covered that in the previous entry.

I feel like a bit of a trap-door spider – nothing happens then suddenly I strike – 20,000 words – and then I take cover again.

Okay, I don’t feel like a spider. (They’re weird and definitely aliens.) but you get the point.

So, heading into December and the new year I plan on working my buttocks to a high sheen. I’m not sure If I’m going to start with a new project or a rewrite but I’m sure I’ll have made that decision by tomorrow…

That’s it for now folks, I’ll see you tomorrow for a brand new Monthly ToDo list.

P.s. – Dr Horrible is available for Pre-Order on Amazon. I ordered mine the second I heard. Now I just have to wait for it…

And an even early ToDo for the month Post (for next month).

Usually around this time… Actually – the last day of the month… I go over my months ToDo list and realise that I didn’t do anything at all.

Then the day after that I come back with a whole new ToDo list for the next month.

Exciting isn’t it. I almost peed my pants from all the excitement.

Well I just had a look at my ToDo list for October (Have a look at it here) and I just realised two things.

One – I didn’t do any of numbers 1 through to 7.

Two – I noticed I made a mistake. It reads “My ToDo list for November“ – It was supposed to be for October. I think that explains why I didn’t get anything done. I wrote the list for the wrong month.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyway… My ToDo list for November is simple. It’s one point and one point only.

1 – Write NaNoWriMo Project.

Luckily – the one thing I did do on my October ToDo list was to choose a project for this years NaNo and Write down the plot points.

I then went a step further and wrote out a plot synopsis. I think it came to about 1800 words or there abouts. Then I went even further and extended it a little more. Adding a couple of details and moving some stuff around.

It’s now just short of 3000 words long.

Which is great. The story is a lot clearer in my head and I’ve gotten rid of most of the “Maybe this happens or maybe not…” type stuff. (All except one or two small maybes)

So when November 1st arrives in two days, and I get home from work about midday, I’ll be ready to roll.

All in all, I’m already doing a lot better than I did last year.

I’ll be posting updates as the months rolls along, with little word count doobers and all.

You may remember at the beginning of the month I made a little To Do list. You may also remember that I’m not the greatest of actually getting shit done.

That being said, Here was my To Do list for september –

1. Write everyday.
2. Finish the current Short Story I’m working on
3. Rewrite the last short story I wrote.
4. Start on novel. Get through a few chapters at least. Let’s say 5.
5. A couple of Doug updates. (I’ve gotten a bit behind on the Doug updating lately).
6. Let’s throw another short story in there just for the hell of it
7. Do other stuff too.

No. 1 – Fail – I tried to do this and managed for the first week or so but it kind of slowed afterwards and I took a number of days here and there and in between.

No. 2 – Pass! – That story I was working on was Where Wolf. I finished it like a mofo! You can read it here

No. 3 – Pass-y fail-y kinda thing That was Out of Reach. I rewrote parts of it but in the end gave up on the total rewrite I planned on. I may get back to that sometime in the future but for now… Meh

No. 4 – Fail… With a capital F!. Five Chapters? What the hell was I thinking?

I did, finally, find a half decent way to begin the novel and it’s slowly moving along which is awesome. but five chapters? I must’ve been nuts!

No. 5 – I’m gonna say pass… Because well… I got one done. So that’s more than nothing. Go here to see.

No. 6 – Fail. There wasn’t any old ideas I felt like working on so I started thinking up some new ones. I considered about writing a story about gay spiders called Arachno-Fabulous, but didn’t get further than the title. There are better ideas in the stew pot, so keep an eye out and an eye in.

No. 7 – Pass. – ‘Cause I did do other stuff. Including fixing up this site and adding a static front page like I’d always intended to do.

There were also some other changes as well, as shown in these before, during and after transformation pictures….

That’s all for now folks. Check back tomorrow when I come up with a really difficult to complete ToDo list for November!