Blast from the Past

Lately I’ve been going through and cleaning up a few things around the blog. Mostly, this means fixing some tagging issues with older blog posts–like, the really, REALLY old stuff from the first year of this blog, back when it was still on Blogger and I was in college.

It’s been kind of fun going through some of those old posts. It occurred to me that I haven’t written much about my real life on this blog in a long time; mostly I’ve been focusing on writing and crafts. Personally, I prefer it this way, but I wonder if you guys feel the same?

Anyway, I was working on this post, and thought it might be interesting–eight and a half years later–to see where I stand on my list of 101 things to complete in 10001 days:
Writing/books:
1. Finish editing Fortune’s Fight and send off for publication. Former title of THE SPIDER’S WEB. Done!
2. Finish Fortune’s Prize first draft. Former title of THE FERRYMEN. Look for it this fall. Done!
3. Finish uploading stories on the Akashic Library. This was an old writing blog I had for a brief period of time. It no longer exists. N/A.
4. Read all books that I own and have not yet read. HAHA. Still working on this, though it’s a new crop of books. In progress.
5. Weed through those books once I’ve finished them. See above. In progress.
6. Get published. Counting this as done, even if my publisher folded. I still have books for sale, so it counts.
7. Update my card catalog. N/A.
8. Finish a journal before the end of the summer. It’s reasonable to assume I reached this goal, but I don’t remember for sure.
9. Write more. Fill up msc. notebooks that are lying around and do not buy more until they are gone. Calling it done. I still write, and all of the notebooks I have now were purchased within the last year. I think I’m doing pretty good on that front.
10. Keep a list of every book read over the summer, including author. I didn’t do it in 2008, but I have been doing it since at least 2013 with pretty good success.
11. Add those books to Facebook visual bookshelf. I don’t use the FB bookshelf anymore, but I do keep everything on Goodreads.
12. Get stories from desktop hard drive saved to disk and converted to word files.
13. Re-edit Ankh.
14. Finish sequel.
15. Submit for publication. These were never complete. I would still like to go back to revisit that book, though.
16. Finish reading Princess Princess en français. Still working on this. My french isn’t much better now than it was 8.5 years ago.
17. Update blog at least every other day for one month. NOPE.
18. Journal every day this summer. Again, no idea if I actually achieved it, but I probably came pretty close.
19. Get Writer’s Digest subscription. Done.
20. Join (and complete) NaNo. Done.
21. Join (and complete) SuWriMo. I’ve never been able to do the camp nanos successfully.

Crafting:
22. Learn to spin on drop spindle. Done.
23. Learn to spin on a wheel. Done.
24. Learn to dye yarn. Done.
25. Use up/donate/weed out entire stash of acrylic yarn. Done.
26. Write down patterns for all knitting projects. NA
27. Finish making the knitting bag. NA
28. update Ravelry with good pictures of all projects. And I still suck at photography.
29. add stash to ravelry. Still working on this one.
30. Set up Alchemy account. I don’t even remember what this is.
31. learn to read and write patterns properly. Done.
32. Update my artist’s portfolio. NA
33. Set up a real studio, even if it’s just a spare room in the house/apartment. Oh, to live in a place with that much space!
34. Upload finished knitting patterns to the blog and to Ravelry. I wish I could say this was done, but I still have two incomplete patterns on my hard drive I haven’t uploaded yet.
35. Get the podcast onto Itunes.
36. Updated the podcast regularly.
37. Finish the extra flags for the Peace Project.
38. Finish Alice’s Armwarmers.
39. Finish blueberry socks. (June 26, 2008)
40. Finish, upload to Etsy, and mail chemo caps for Sempai. (finished and uploaded June 18)
41. Frog too small skirt.
42. finish scrapghan #4
43. Finish the work shrug.
44. Finish the jeep amigarumi (preferably before Christmas).
45. Donate at least five afghans to nursing home.
46. Come up with gifts for everyone and have them completed/bought by Halloween.
47. Make a kickass costume for final Big Boo.
48. Find a better way to store my bazillions of knitting needles.
49. Come up with, and make, at least three pagan-related items to put in the etsy shop.
50. Find requirements for a business license, and if I need one for the etsy shop.
51. Find out how much I can make on etsy before I have to pay taxes on it.
52. Update and maintain Devart account.
53. Put together 10 patterns and a short story to make a knitting book. I would still like to do this, but haven’t yet.
54. Draw every day for a month.
55. Fill all small sketch books.
56. Make the euro coin jewelry and list it on Etsy.
57. Get Knit.1 subscription.
58. learn illusion knitting. Done
59. Follow a pattern completely just once. Done
60. learn double knitting. Done

Life in General:
61. Graduate from college. Done.
62. Move to Canada. Still working on it.
63. Stop using so many plastic bags. Done.
64. Start recycling paper. Done.
65. Make senior thesis show a success. Done.
66. Come up with more projects for senior thesis show. Done.
67. Travel to at least one new place that is on the list of cities I want to visit. I haven’t gone anywhere new since I came back from Florence. 😦
68. Make the Cloverbud dog kit.
69. Apply to grad school.
70. Get my own apartment.
71. Figure out how to do my own taxes. Done.
72. Learn how to set up a real and proper website. I need to do this. Really. And I will. At some point.
73. Learn how to make fried rice. I don’t even know why this is on my list. And I never did do it.
74. Mail Susanne that package from two years ago that has been collecting dust. done
75. Go to Ft. Peirce again. done, back in 2011
76. Visit Savannah. See #67
77. Go on a ghost hunt.
78. Get nails done professionally.
79. Get hair done professionally.
80. Get a facial.
81. Wear retainer at least two nights a week, or figure out what the heck is wrong with it.
82. Move in with Alice. Still living with her.
83. Don’t kill her brother. He survived. But barely.
84. Take a martial arts or dance course. Still want to, but haven’t yet.
85. Exercise upper body at least 3x/week. HA. You’ve seen my new year’s goals for the last, oh, five years, right?
86. Lose 5 lbs, or 3 inches off waist (curse you muscle mass! Why must you weigh more?) See above.
87. Clean closet.
88. Find better way of storing clothes/shoes.
89. Take at least one calcium pill every day.
90. Print pictures from Canada and put them in an album.
91. Drive less. (thank you, fuel companies.)
92. Go on the bike trail at least twice a month. (going with grandpa on other bike trail counts). Still want to. Still haven’t. Sadly, Grandpa is no longer around to ride with. This month is 2 years.
93. Get odometer/gloves for bike.
94. Fix handlebars.
95. Learn to cook things that don’t come from a box or involve pasta.
96. Get at least a 3.5 GPA for both semesters of senior year. Failed at this one, but I’m happy with my 3.4, all things considered.

Money:
97. Put aside at least $500 into savings account. I still don’t have a savings account. Until recently, I wasn’t making enough money that I actually could save.
98. Buy a new car. A real car, that I actually like. Done.
99. Get a job that pays enough money to live off of without relying on the parents. Done.
100. Start paying off college loans before graduation. Pay at least $500.
101. Pay off credit card. Working on it. Along with the student loans.

I don’t think I did too badly on that list. There are some things that I’ve clearly been meaning to do for an embarrassingly long time, and haven’t made the time for–like learning to make a website, or working out more. There are other things that just haven’t been possible until recently–like paying off debt, saving money, or going to a class.

The last six months or so have been a struggle, for a lot of reasons. But looking at stuff like this reminds me of how far I’ve come.