Day 249: Update on Goals

Next year, I'm definitely not going to update on my progress towards my goals (whatever they are) every 50 days - the year seems to just be flying past. Still, tomorrow is day 250 of the year, and as I won't have a chance to post an update then, here it is. I've been busy...

1. Super Secret Goal #1. Complete.
   
2. Super Secret Goal #2. Abandoned in April; included here for completeness only.
   
3. Books. I have now read 43 out of my 52 books for the year, and have picked out enough books to reach my target. Specifically, I'm going to read the remaining 5 Bond novels (including "Devil May Care"), "The Princess Bride", "Azincourt" (by Bernard Cornwell), "Pathfinder: The Final Wish" and the "Pathfinder Core Rulebook". Once I get to my target I'm going to keep on going, and maintain the ongoing list, but won't be maintaining such a frantic pace.
   
4. Weight loss. This one was really frustrating, as I finally managed to smash my plateau at the end of July, and got down to within 2 pounds of my target by the time I went off to France, only to put on half a stone while there (and just after). It's taken a bit of effort since then to restart the weight loss, and I've even felt the need to give up Irn Bru almost completely (!), but I have managed to get down to 5 pounds over the goal. With a lot of luck, I'll shift that over the next few weeks.
   
5. New skill. The course is booked, and starts on the 7th of October. Then there are ten weeks of lessons, to complete early in December.
   
6. Car fund. Complete.
   
7. General finances. It's lucky I was working on this, because the recession has hit us (my work) just the same as everyone else, which means I now have somewhat less money to play with than previously. Ouch. (Don't worry - I remain employed, and there's no immediate danger of that changing. I can't really say any more than that.) In the last few weeks, I have adjusted my charitable donations to make them a bit more manageable (monthly rather than quarterly donations), and also to bring them up to the level I would prefer. I also went to the bank yesterday, and made sure my accounts are nicely streamlined. In the next couple of weeks I need to review my pension arrangements, and then try to get back to saving money regularly starting at the end of this month, and then we're done here.
   
8. Band. Complete. I'll be doing a longer wash-up post about the band's season in about two weeks, after we've had out last competition (Peebles next Sunday) and the AGM (a week on Wednesday).
   
9. The house move. I managed to find some time to sort through some of the junk in the Purple Room, but there's still quite a lot to do. Once it's sorted, I need to actually get rid of the stuff I'm wanting rid of. There's also a dining table and a tumble drier, both of which I still haven't acquired.
   
10. TV. Completed.
    
11. RPGs. Yesterday was the third of four scheduled sessions required to complete the current campaign. Ideally, we should finish it off next Saturday. (Although, there's an awful lot to get through, so it may run into a fifth session. But that's fine.) I've re-read through the rulebook for the next campaign, and done some informal prep. The next step is to do some 'real' preparation for the campaign, at which point I'm still intending to post some of it here.

The net result of all of this is that I have completed four goals and abandoned one, leaving six to work on. The next update to goals is scheduled for day 300, which is the 27th of October, by which time I hope to have completed the weight loss (#4) and RPGs (#11) goals, be on the verge of having completed the books (#3), and have started on the skill (#5) goal in earnest. But we shall see.

#43: "Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay", by Green Ronin Publishing