The big screaming goal for the year, after I committed to the quest to become PolyWogg 4.0, was a yellow goal — to write 500,000 words before the end of the year. It’s big, it’s scary. I’ve also recommitted to my spiritual journey of 12 questions to ask myself this year. You would think that might be enough all by themselves, but no, this is the super year where I push myself to my limits, and beyond. Let’s put the yellow pieces together.

YELLOW PRIORITIES (Social, spiritual, creative)

My top two goals are my writing goal and my spiritual goal. But I’m also going to take three things off my bucket list this year too. The first one is “easy” in the sense that it’s already included in the writing goal — I’m going to finish my HR guide. By March 31st. My second bucket list goal of being creative is actually tied to my engagement with Jacob. I mentioned that we’ll do special projects each month, and one of the months will be to design a game. The game will combine some of the aspects of Life, Settlers of Catan, PayDay, Snakes and Ladders, and maybe BusyTown. All games that Jacob likes and plays. I feel like it will be a good way to solidify some of Jacob’s board game skills, laying the foundation for later games like full-mode Settlers etc. because he’ll already have the basic concepts to relate to when he learns the new game. He’s already doing a good job on card games and puzzle games. And, I’m also going to do a movie extravaganza weekend. Also known as a “BingeWatchWeekend”, my goal is to take a Monday off to recover because I’m going to watch movies from Friday night at 6:00 to Sunday night at 10:00. To be clear, I don’t mean no sleep, but basically that every waking hour I’ll be watching movies. I’m leaning towards a series or two (like LotR or Harry Potter) plus a couple of other action movies too. I suspect deep movies are best consumed as single entities and not in a binge, so I’m game. Just have to pick a weekend when Andrea will take the cub to Peterborough!

The day-to-day stuff is not without its challenges too. While it will tie into some of the above, my ongoing commitments are, by themselves, smaller in nature and spread across 7 headings:

1. Writing – I’ll finish my HR guide and I’m hoping to write an outline for a future book;
2. Blogging – I’m going to blog like crazy this year. I have a bunch of one-off topics / events / experiences that I’m keeping track of for future entries, but I also want to do some research and curation on the new topics I mentioned earlier (pop culture and news; law; business models of publishing; marketing of books; libraries and performance; and charities). My goal is at least fifty new blog entries this year in these areas. However, I also do reviews for books, movies, TV and music. For those, I’m going to do 24 book reviews, 500 reviews of TV episodes (tweets), 24 movie reviews, and 3 new reviews of Billboard year-end results.
3. Memes – I confess that I really like memes. I like designing them, I like seeing good ones, I like reading them. I have ideas for some related to music, quotes, questions, humour, work, careers, TV, movies, etc.). So much so that I’m committed to 200 new memes this year.
4. Reading – I am going to be plenty busy this year. I know that. But I also need to unplug from my side of the production equation and read what others have done. My goal is 25 books by the end of the year. Which books? Good question. I’m going to start with an easy one — Tolstoy’s Crime and Punishment. 🙂 Other books in the year will include: Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird; Gabriel Garcia Marques, 100 Years of Solitude; J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye; E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web; John Buchan, The 39 Steps + Greenmantle + Mr. Standfast + The Three Hostages + Island of Sheep; Bulfinch’s Mythology + Grimm Fairy Tales + Don’t Know Much About Mythology; the new Agatha Christie novel, The Monogram Murders; and Turn Left at Orion (an astronomy book). I’ve read some of them before, and I’ll still have room for 10 more. Those are likely to be a bit lighter fare — Star Trek, Dick Francis, Sue Grafton, Lawrence Sanders, Lawrence Block, John D. MacDonald. Mysteries for the most part. And hopefully a surprise or two.
5. Spiritualism – I’ve already blogged about my goal to ask myself 12 big questions and answer them from my own perspective. I’ve also started my gratitude journal, and I’m hoping to do 260 posts for the year. Onward and outward!
6. Photography – As mentioned already, I’m hoping to do a bit on photography this year, and listed it under my bucket list items for Blue. Because it is both about learning as well as about being creative. And so it’s really just reinforcing it here — a course of some sort, and some quick reference photography cards. I’m planning to start in March, but after that I want to do at least one thing photography related every week. Even if it is just process some old images and play with them a bit.
7. Recipes – I mentioned under “blue” for organization and “green” for family that I want to do better planning when it comes to recipes and cooking. Some of that is simply meal planning, but some of it is ensuring we continue to try new recipes and not just repeat the same old ones. In terms of new recipes, I have a few in mind, but they are not completely specific. I want to perfect a nacho recipe, and we’ve made good progress so far in terms of which cheeses to use, which toppings, etc. There are some limitations in that Jacob doesn’t like certain things but we do half Jacob / half adult nachos, and it seems to be working out. I also really like the Epicure steamer, and because I hate browning meat, I want to find five ground beef recipes that are quick and easy to do with the Epicure steamer. On top of that, I want to do some baking. My father learned baking from his father and grandfather, and while I didn’t do that, I would like to perfect five recipes — peanut butter cookies; chocolate chip and/or oatmeal cookies; a simple bread; dinner buns/rolls; and cinnamon buns. I didn’t experience it for as long as my siblings did, but my Dad used to bake buns sometimes on Saturday morning and you’d come downstairs to a household full of warm buns with butter that would melt in your mouth (the buns and the butter). Heaven. It may take me some time to get there, but I want it. After that, my plans get a little more basic. I want 12 new crockpot recipes, with at least 4 of them Asian. And I want to finalize/adapt the GroundNut Stew recipe I got about 8 years ago, make Tiramisu a la Izabella, perfect options for making quick and easy crepes, and after six years of sitting in a cupboard, use my dang ice cream maker. Let’s see, that makes 27 new recipes for the year. Time to get cooking hehehe

That’s it, that’s all for the yellow…On to the red!