2008 Report Card

The good thing about posting my yearly goals on my blog is that it helps me remember what they are and I feel a sense of accountability, as if all my hundreds and hundreds of loyal readers are anxiously awaiting to see how I do. The bad thing is that remembering is not the same as doing. Mostly what it means is that I spend much of the year feeling guilty because I'm not making much progress on my goals and thus am letting down all those hundreds and hundreds of loyal readers. With that in mind, here is what I did not do in 2008:

1. Drop body fat level down to 15%. I was doing pretty good with this for the first half of the year and seemed to be making progress. I worked out consistently and for a few months denied myself after-dinner treats, and the scale showed small but significant results. Then we spent a month and a half moving and then settled in here where I fell into a depressive slump where all I wanted to do was read comics and eat, and then the holidays arrived and by that point I just didn't care. When I checked my body fat on Thursday the scale said 22%, which is where I started the year. But today after lifting weights and jogging I checked again and it said 18.5%, so I'll go with that. And I just bought a membership at the UC Davis gym so before long that 18.5% will be more than a midday fluke.

2. Finish the novel I'm writing and sell it. I did neither of these things. Just like the first goal, the summer totally killed the momentum I'd built up over the first six months of the year on this one. But I started writing again a few weeks ago and I'm excited about the book again and, all things considered, I did accomplish a lot that first half of the year--the book is about halfway done and clocking in at 222 pages (72,025 words), which means it'll end up being about twice as long as the longest of the previous books I've written (I write YA, so short is the norm). And in my completely objective opinion, this is shaping up to be by far the best book I've ever written.

3. Finish school (forever) and get a good job. Yay! I actually did this one. Sort of. I did finish school (forever) and I did get a good job; it's just not the full-time librarian career-type job I had in mind. But that's by choice, as the part-time work-from-home job I did get is ideal for our current life situation. And there's a chance both job and life situation will be changing this year, so we'll see what happens here.

4. Have more compassion. Yeah, this was totally a passing phase. I've had moments of compassion, to be sure, but between political events and a six-month marathon of being irrationally angry at my kids, I've had some real low points here.

So that all adds up to something like 37%, or a big fat F. Woot!

Bonus Points:

While I haven't done so well with goals, I did phenomenally with my New Year's resolution. I have responded (at least with a general "thanks for the comment") to every single comment posted on this blog. I'm glad I did, too, as it made me feel more like this is a social activity and not just me practicing verbal masturbation while people watch. (Isn't that a nice image?)

Also, this year I saw the fruition of 2007's writing goal, which was to "make five writing submissions, or one successful submission, whichever comes first." I did not make five submissions in 2007, but I did submit a paper on the last day of the year, then found out a month or two later that it was accepted, and then just last week I found out the article has been published in the most recent issue of Knowledge Organization. So watch your local academic library specializing in library and information science for "Minoritization vs. Universalization: Lesbianism and Male Homosexuality in LCSH and LCC." It's a real nail-biter. (And just in time for the above-mentioned possible job change, which entails sending out CVs, now fortified with added publication.)

And, because I'm a masochist, watch this space for 2009 goals, coming soon. As soon as I figure out what they are.