Second Quarter 2023 GOALS Check

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Second Quarter 2023 GOALS Check

We’re halfway through the year and it’s time to see how I’m doing on my goals.  Below is my full list, but let’s do a quick overview first.

WRITING:  Goals 1 – 3.  This is a bit tricky to determine how I’m doing.  Some of them I’ve completed.  But the writing of my second steampunk novel has been set aside because I went back to working on my first steampunk novel.  A literary agent I would like to work with suggested that my draft should be longer.  Between notes from my critique groups and an example of a rewrite another group member did, I now see how I can add atmosphere to my scenes without slowing down the pace.  So, while I’m not meeting the goals I set at the beginning of the year, I do feel I’m getting closer to having a publishable draft, and that is the overall goal.

Goals 4 – 6 are pretty much dependent on finances.  That has been a challenge this year.

READING:  Goals 7 and 8.  On reading a book, I fell a bit behind, but I’m catching up.  On reading my Bible, I’m still behind.

COOKING:  Goal 9.  I love to cook.  My goal was 12 new recipes this year. I have tried 24 new recipes so far.  I probably won’t even put this in my goals next year.  It comes too naturally.

LOSING WEIGHT:  Goal 10.  I’m 1.4 pounds behind my goals.  I didn’t even lose any weight this past month.  But considering I was at 205 at the beginning of the year and I’m down to 197.4, I think I’m doing okay.

BLOOD DONATIONS:  Goals 11 and 12.  Giving blood, I’m on schedule with my next available donation date on July 22nd.  Unfortunately, Westercon was canceled, so I won’t be able to host a second blood drive this year.

MARKETING: Goals 13 and 14.  My IT department is still working on the back end of my website.  The Writer’s Conference has been moved from August to next January, so I won’t need my business cards until then.

 

  1. SECOND STEAMPUNK SCREENPLAY:
    1. Finish editing through it: It stands at 163 pages at the moment.  I’d like to get it down to at least 143 pages, the length of the first screenplay.  DONE
    2. Submit it to my screenplay critique group. DONE
    3. Make changes based on the feedback from my screenplay critique group.
  2. UPDATE FRIST STEAMPUNK SCREENPLAY BASED ON CHANGES TO FIRST NOVEL: This actually shouldn’t take that long.  I’ll do it while my screenplay critique group goes through my second screenplay.
  3. START WRITING SECOND STEAMPUNK NOVEL: This I can do once I finish going through the second screenplay after my critique group reviews it.
    1. Break down screenplay into chapters.
    2. Write Chapter One by 2/19/23 Oops!  I’m behind.  Plan to catch up by end of month.
    3. Write Chapter Two by 3/21/23 Working again on First Steampunk Novel.
    4. Write Chapter Three by 3/16/23
    5. Write Chapter Four by 4/9/23
    6. Write Chapter Five by 4/23/23
    7. Write Chapter Six by 5/14/23
    8. Write Chapter Seven by 5/28/23
    9. Witte Chapter Eight by 6/11/23
    10. Write Chapter Nine by 6/25/23
    11. Write Chapter Ten by 7/9/23
    12. Write Chapter Eleven by 7/23/23
    13. Write Chapter Twelve by 8/6/23
    14. Write Chapter Thirteen by 8/20/23
    15. Write Chapter Fourteen by 9/3/23
    16. Write Chapter Fifteen by 9/17/23
    17. Write Chapter Sixteen by 10/1/23
    18. Write Chapter Seventeen by 10/15/23
    19. Write Chapter Eighteen by 10/28/23
    20. Write Chapter Nineteen by 11/12/23
  4. SAVE UP FOR A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR FOR MY FIRST NOVEL: I hope it will go better than last year.
  5. SUBMIT MY NOVEL TO A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR: I already have one in mind, but it will depend on the above.
  6. START WRITING MY THIRD STEAMPUNK SCREENPLAY: Actually, I already have the first 36 pages done.
    1. Start on my “String of Pearls” – that’s a whole other blog – and I have covered it.
    2. Put those pearls in an outline.
    3. Start fill out the screenplay.
    4. Finish the first draft. This may sound obvious, but it’s a big deal to actually finish a project, even if it is the first (vomit) draft.
  7. READ BOOKS: Twelve books in a year didn’t work out so well last year.  I only read three.  That also didn’t include keeping up with comic books.  So, let’s try something different.  I have a stack of books on my nightstand that is 17.5” tall.  Let’s try to get it down to 5.5” by the end of the year.  That’s an inch a month.  And that means I’ve got to keep up with any new books and comic books I buy.  And I just ordered two books from Amazon.
    1. End of January, 16.5”: 25”
    2. End of February, 15.5”: 5”
    3. End of March, 14.5”: 5”   Exactly one inch and one month ahead of schedule.
    4. End of April, 13.5”: 14”   Got a lot of reading done, but added one book.  Behind .5”
    5. End of May, 12.5”: 375”   Added five comics, didn’t finish the book I’m reading.
    6. End of June, 11.5” 12”  Still behind, but catching up.
    7. End of July, 10.5”
    8. End of August, 9.5”
    9. End of September, 8.8”:
    10. End of October, 7.5”:
    11. End of November, 6.5”:
    12. End of December, 5.5”:
  8. READ MY BIBLE: Picking up from where I left off last year, so I’m starting almost three months ahead.
    1. Keeping up with January’s reading:
    2. Keeping up with February’s reading:
    3. Keeping up with March’s reading: Fallen behind, but can catch up by next month.
    4. Keeping up with April’s reading: Okay, didn’t catch up this month.  Still behind.
    5. Keeping up with May’s reading: Still behind.
    6. Keeping up with June’s reading: Still behind
    7. Keeping up with July’s reading:
    8. Keeping up with August’s reading:
    9. Keeping up with September’s reading:
    10. Keeping up with October’s reading:
    11. Keeping up with November’s reading:
    12. Keeping up with December’s reading:
  9. TRY TWELVE NEW RECIPES: Last year there were some months I missed, but overall, I tried 18  new recipes.  So, I’m not going to do them by months, I’m just going to number them out.
    1. First new recipe: 01/14/23 Hashbrown Casserole
    2. Second new recipe: 01/15/23 Ground Beef Vegetable Soup
    3. Third new recipe: 01/15/23 Old Fashioned Cloverleaf Rolls
    4. Fourth new recipe: 1/28/23 Baked Meatball Parmesan
    5. Fifth new recipe: 1/28/23 Crockpot Taco Soup
    6. Sixth new recipe: 1/28/23 Billion Dollar Buttery Biscuits
    7. Seventh new recipe: 2/3/23 Pizza Grilled Cheese
    8. Eighth new recipe: 2/4/23 Mexican Taco Meatloaf
    9. Ninth new recipe: 2/4/23 Chili mac and Cheese
    10. Tenth new recipe: 2/25/23 Hawaiian Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
    11. Eleventh new recipe: 3/5/23 Hearty Crockpot Cowboy Soup
    12. Twelfth new recipe: 3/19/23 Honey BBQ Meatloaf
    13. Thirteenth new recipe: 3/31/23 Oven-Baked Sheet pan Chicken Quesadillas
    14. Fourteenth new recipe: 4/1/23 Crock Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni
    15. Fifteenth new recipe: 5/7/23   Best Burgers Ever.
    16. Sixteenth new recipe: 5/13/23   Cooked Salmon.
    17. Seventeenth new recipe: 5/14/23   Italian Meatloaf.
    18. Eighteenth new recipe: 5/14/23   Crock Pot Mac and Cheese.
    19. Nineteenth new recipe: 5/27/23   Slow Cooker Cajun Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
    20. Twentieth new recipe: 5:27/23   Cheddar Bay Biscuits
    21. Twenty First new recipe: 5/28/23   Fluffy Pancakes
    22. Twenty Second new recipe: 5/29/23    Bacon and Cheese Quiche
    23. Twenty Third new recipe: 5/29/23   Sloppy Joe Tacos
    24. Twenty Fourth new recipe: 6/23/23  Sloppy Joe Quesadillas
    25. Twenty Fifth new recipe:  7/2/23   Baked Garlic Parmesan Fries
  10. GET DOWN TO 190 POUNDS: Let’s try that weight loss thing again.  I know I can do it if I stay on top of it.  Using the scale at the warehouse at work, I’m down to 205.  I had been down to 199 in June.   Now I have a home scale, which means I can weight myself au natural – which was frowned upon at work.  This should be more accurate.  Right now, it’s showing that I weigh 202.8 pounds.
    1. Down to 201 by end of January: 199.2 lbs.
    2. Down to 200 by end of February: 201.6 lbs.  Curse you Girl Scout Cookies!
    3. Down to 199 by end of March: 196.8 lbs.  The Girl Scout Cookies are gone.
    4. Down to 198 by end of April: 198.6   Back slid a bit.  A little behind schedule.
    5. Down to 197 by end of May: 197.4   Catching up.
    6. Down to 196 by end of June: 197.4   I was down to 194.0 at one point, but then I went back up.  Can’t blame the Girl Scout Cookies this time.  I blame Doritos and Ralph’s $2.29-per-bag-when-you-buy-four.  By the way, their new Tangy Ketchup and Hot Mustard flavors are good.  Even better if you eat them together.  But they still don’t beat Nacho Cheese or Cool Ranch flavors.
    7. Down to 195 by end of July:
    8. Down to 194 by end of August:
    9. Down to 193 by end of September:
    10. Down to 192 by end of October:
    11. Down to 191 by end of November:
    12. Down to 190 by end of December:
  11. MAKE SIX BLOOD DONATIONS: This could be whole blood donations or double reds, which count as two.
    1. First blood donation: JANUARY 21st
    2. Second blood donation: APRIL 1st – no joke!
    3. Third blood donation: MAY 27th
    4. Fourth blood donation: Next one on July 22nd.
    5. Fifth blood donation:
    6. Sixth blood donation:
  12. RUN THE BLOOD DRIVE AT WESTERCON THIS YEAR:  Kris and I have been running the blood drive at Loscon for 32 years.  We also ran three blood drives at Gallifrey, until they got too big and couldn’t afford to give us a panel room for an entire day.  We’ve also done two Worldcons, a Westercon and Phil and Ed’s Excellent Convention.  Now we have an opportunity to run a blood drive at this year’s Westercon in Anaheim in July.
    1. Attend first con committee on January 14th: 1/15/23 DONE
    2. Initiate contact with the American Red Cross in Anaheim: 1/16/23 DONE
    3. Attend second con committee meeting: Drive Ready for Scheduling – The Westercon blood drive is now online on the Red Cross website.
    4. Whatever other con committee meetings:
    5. Unfortunately, Westercon was canceled due to lack of membership.
  13. UPDATE MY WEBSITE: Actually, my IT Department (Kris) is already working on this.  This includes checking backdoor WordPress thingies, link thingies, background thingies and other technical thingies.  (This is why I need Kris as my IT Department.)  Some background upkeeping.
  14. CREATE AND PRINT BUSINESS CARDS: I want to have them by the August January writer’s conference.

Dennis

 

171st blog completed.

First Steampunk novel:  74221 words.  ß Past 74,000.  Goal:  80,000.

Second Steampunk novel: 783 words.

Second Steampunk screenplay:  157 pages.

First Steampunk screenplay:  Need to update with notes from the novelization.

Third Steampunk screenplay:  38 pages.

“Yesterday’s experiment was Baked Garlic Parmesan Fries.  https://www.facebook.com/100069502586732/posts/573858921607522/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v  Which is actually a misnomer since they are backed in the oven.

These came out a little overdone – some of the thinner ones were burned – But that was due to Dennis trying to time them out with the chicken finger he was frying.  Definitely worth another try.  The parmesan and garlic were very good.  Almost didn’t need ketchup, but also good with ketchup.  Just a matter of taste.” – Vincent Reinhart

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