Jonathan Lovelace's Blog, page 2

Jonah Makes a Splash

Rachel Newhouse has started the third arc of her Red Rain series with a bang. Jonah is the longest installment yet, and brings back the elements that have made earlier entries in the series top Amazon’s sales charts in their categories: frantic action, suspense, twist after twist after twist, and bombshell revelations dropped in the middle—all carried along by Mrs. Newhouse’s trademark narrative voice, so once I picked up the story I couldn’t put it down.

If you’re just joining the series for the first time … strap in; you may find this story’s takeoff a bit rough. From my perspective as a longtime reader of the series, Mrs. Newhouse seems to me to usually be good about either working any necessary background from previous installments into the narrative, or simply telling the story in a way that your imagination seamlessly fills in the gaps … but she also likes to start many of her stories with, or in the middle of, fast-paced action scenes where any space for explanations has to go to the immediate context before the series context, and that seems to go double for this one.

At the end of Operation Thunderbird, Philadelphia Smyrna (aka Andromeda Nolan)—“naively sheltered pacifist teenage girl” turned “revolutionary figurehead for Jesus”—changed a carefully-orchestrated plan at the last moment, only to find her “Dr. Nic”—her former nemesis turned dysfunctional father figure—being placed under arrest. That’s where we open this story, and things immediately go off the rails for both sides.

Unlike Crook Q and “Prisoner 120518” (which mostly give alternate perspectives of the same events; I recommend the latter “side story” above the former “main entry,” as explained in the linked reviews), however, this doesn’t turn into nonstop action, but rather a suspenseful “slow-motion chase.”

Mrs. Newhouse also uses the increased length to develop some key themes that have mostly been only hinted at before. In particular, characters’ Christian faith has mostly come into previous stories in their mostly-nonviolent resistance to “the United,” supplemented with prayer in moments of crisis and occasionally sensed silent-but-verbal spiritual guidance—but here we get actual extended discussion of spiritual concerns between the characters. (One that doesn’t suggest that any of the characters has any knowledge of pre-twenty-first-century Church history, but still.) And it is primarily on the basis of this new thematic depth that makes me think that this is the first story in this series that, by itself (not one of several in a “reading list,” or as part of an eventual omnibus), could be suitable for a thoughtful in-depth discussion in a book club.

As mentioned above, this story is yet again carried delightfully along by Mrs. Newhouse’s talented narrative voice: once I started into this story, I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it, and I never felt like it was dragging or slower than it should be. On the other hand, as with “Laodicea”, if it weren’t for the labels above each chapter and the fact that the two point-of-view characters are almost always together (and are on each others’ minds when they are separated), it would have been very difficult to keep track of whose perspective we were seeing things from at any given point in the story. Of course, because Philli and Nic are traveling and working together, and Mrs. Newhouse does clearly mark each chapter with the name of its point-of-view character, this is merely a level of greatness she has not yet reached, not truly a hindrance to enjoyment of her story.

(There were also a couple of places where as a writer, pedant, and “technical” person myself, I tripped over a phrase that made me say, “Did you have to word it that way?” But those were few and far between, and hit “buttons” that I know to be idiosyncratic to me, so I feel they are more indications that I should have taken the time to read the “beta” chapters my Patreon contribution level entitled me to and suggest wording changes then, than anything that any other reader would likely even notice.)

On the other hand, one mark of authorial maturity that this story does illustrate comes at the very end, where to avoid spoilers I will only say there is an instance of what I’m inclined to call “Chekhov’s gun”. Inter-book structure has been a weakness of the series from the beginning, as with almost every installment the series’ scope has grown beyond her previous intention; first it was going to be a standalone novella, then maybe a trilogy (plus a side story or two), then a nine-main-book series, and now “God alone knows …”

Now, “necessity is the mother of invention”—at least in the hands of an author of Mrs. Newhouse’s caliber, at the top of her form—and so she has gotten a lot of mileage out of challenging our and the characters’ perceptions (retconning, except that everything in previous stories remains “canon,” just explained by totally unexpected machinations and other twists that the point-of-view characters didn’t see), and adding great significance to elements that were originally intended as incidental details. But here she has taken a major plot element from the previous book, in which it was conspicuously and surprisingly not used at the crucial moment, and used it now in a way that feels so satisfying I am reasonably confident she planned it this way to begin with. (If not, she’s yet again done instinctively what some great writers take long practice to master.)

I can’t say that Jonah is Mrs. Newhouse’s best work to date, but it’s meeting the high bar set by the last several books in this series, and keeps the series racing forward. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next (fair warning: this book has perhaps Mrs. Newhouse’s biggest cliffhanger ending yet …).

I received a “free” electronic copy of this book as a supporter on the author’s Patreon.

2023 Year-in-Review, Hopes for 2024

A year ago, I summarized the past few months’ activity on this blog as a return from “what might have been its most silent hiatus yet … if not with quite the frequency or regularity of posts that I used to have.” 2023 saw a continuation of that return to activity, enough that readers who missed a post at the time might not notice it scrolling back. So let’s take a look back over the past year’s posts; I will also briefly discuss my hopes for the year to come.

Red Rain Reviews

Since the event that proved the impetus for this blog returning to regular activity from its hiatus was my friend Rachel Newhouse‘s return from her own hiatus with the publication or reissuing of story after story in her Red Rain series, I’ll begin, as I did a year ago, with my reviews of that series.

In the second half of last year, Mrs. Newhouse published a book or story a month, if we count reissues and the omnibus edition of the series so far. This year her schedule was less ambitious to begin with, and slipped significantly along the way, but she still published a breathtaking amount of material, of remarkable quality, and I managed to write reviews of each new book or story as she published them:

“Book 4”, Fox Hunt, at the end of January“Book 4.5”, “Catalyst”, at the end of February“Book 5”, Blue Fire, in mid-April“Book 5.5”, “First Light”, in early June“Book 6”, Operation Thunderbird, at the end of July“Book 6.5”, “Laodicea”, at the end of November.

Earlier this month, she released a second omnibus volume, containing all of this year’s stories (the only way to get the “side stories”, or “half books” as I think she has sometimes called them, in print). She also, earlier this fall, released a professionally-produced audiobook of the original Red Rain.

More stories are planned, and an audiobook of Crook Q is in production. The success of this series over the past two years has been nothing short of a series of “remarkable providences”; I look forward to seeing what God will provide next.

Hymns and Holidays

I managed a couple of posts in my series on “great, old, hymns” early in the year:

“Immortal, invisible”“Christ, the Life of all the living”

I also wrote a brief Ash Wednesday meditation, and as usual a longer Thanksgiving reflection. And a brief reflection on my birthday, which isn’t a holiday but I have no better place to mention.

I hope to resume the “Hymns” series in the new year, with more than just a couple of posts, but We Shall See. And while I have no specific plans beyond the annual Thanksgiving reflection, I hope to have more coherent and insightful, and less repetitive, thoughts to share about some of the year’s other holidays.

Poetry

The vast majority of my posts this year were poetry—none previously published—at a rate of about two a month.

A significant fraction of these poems were Psalm settings:

Psalm 20Psalm 21Psalm 22Psalm 23Psalm 24Psalm 25Psalm 26Psalm 27Psalm 28

The other poems were:

A Foreboding DreamThe Untrimmed LampWistful WakingTaliesin’s Requiem for ArthurFor the Cessation of MusicSpring MorningThe FountainLiberty’s RebukeFestival ArrivalSorry My Lot?Taliesin on the Occasion of His FealtyHeart’s CryGrowthThe Greatest Gift“Oh, what a difference”Emptying

More poems are already scheduled to appear in this space about every other week through August, with enough more ready to post to bring that into October once I find images to accompany them. I’m hopeful that I will be able to continue the every-other-week pace through the entire year. The first poem for 2024 is scheduled for two weeks from today.

Other Plans

Apart from posting here in the areas described above, writing some new poetry that isn’t for public consumption, and keeping up with correspondence, here are some projects that I hope to make progress on:

My novel The Invasion .

After spending 2018 making a detailed outline, and briefly starting in 2019, God upended my plans for that year—and then world events forced me to think carefully about reworking my the “future history” that is the story’s background.

This year I returned to the draft, and with a dear friend’s encouragement and critique of my draft as I wrote it, I am now (by the outline) not quite half-way through, 26 chapters and about 33,000 words in.

I don’t think I’ll be able to finish the draft in 2024, even if I took time off to try to write full-time, but I think that sometime in the summer of 2025 might be a possible completion date—God willing.

My second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers.

This still needs a cover, which I need to put in the effort to find a designer for. There is also a laundry list of mostly-minor issues (such as “this accompanying illustration detracts from, rather than adding to, the poem”) to resolve—and a technical issue with the latest version of the TeX typesetting system and the primary library I use, which I need to spend more time trying to debug to be able to report to the developer. But I’m hopeful that I will, God willing, have this in print by the end of 2024.

Book reviews

Other than the upcoming Red Rain series releases, I hope to make at least a slight dent both in the list of books I have read “recently” and have opinions about but have not written reviews of (my “to-review” shelf on Goodreads currently stands at 181), and in the collection of books I have been given in recent years but have yet to read.

Strategic Primer

The long-running campaign came to an end last year, but I’ve been intermittently working on development of both game mechanics, game data, and the assistive programs to get them closer to how I’d like them to be before possibly starting another campaign—or possibly even producing some form of the game that can be sold. I expect this process to take years, given that it’s a rather low priority, but I hope that by the end of 2024 things will be in a state that I can begin to share details and make progress reports.

Task-management app development

A year ago, I explained at some length plans to work on a task-management app to help me better manage my various tasks. I managed some development work on the project early in the year, but the intervening months mostly showed my need for the app—I’ve scarcely touched either Pivotal Tracker or my spreadsheet, except adding tasks to both via scripts. I hope to make more progress on the development this year, but I suspect other projects will take priority.

That’s the year that was, and some of my hopes for 2024. But as it is written, “a man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps,” so We Shall See what actually comes of any of this.

A Year in Verse is on sale!

My first collection of poetry, A Year in Verse, is now available at a quarter of its normal price, from today through January 1, as part of the Smashwords annual end-of-year sale. The ebook usually costs $5.99, but from now through the evening of New Year’s Day, you can get a copy for $1.49—that’s a 75% off, and more than 80% off compared to the price of the paperback. The same discount should also be available on Kindle and any other platform that matches prices.

We’re less than two weeks into Advent, and thus less than two weeks into the current Church year. By the time the sale is over, a new civil year—2024—will have begun. And most students are currently either eagerly anticipating or already enjoying the winter break prescribed by their school’s calendar. These are just three of the overlapping calendars that A Year in Verse takes as its organizing principles: most of the nearly sixty poems relate to a season of at least one calendar, so they are arranged based on their placement in the year. Since I chose to begin the titular “year in verse” with Advent, now is the perfect time to get a copy and start reading.

The poems in A Year in Verse are most of those I considered my best as of 2014, when the collection was released—some written only shortly before, and a couple dating back to as early as 2002. Most are blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), there is also one sonnet, a handful of free verse poems, and a few poems in other meters. While each poem has previously appeared here on the blog, I have made a number of minor revisions to the poems; I have not updated the posts here, but the book contains the latest version of each poem. Each is also accompanied by at least one public-domain line drawing or engraving.

Get your copy today, either the discounted ebook or in print—and enjoy!

“But thanks be to God”: A Fifteenth Reflection

Today is the day which this nation historically designated for public thanksgiving to the Creator for the gifts lavished upon us by his gracious divine Providence. As such, even in these days in which most government officials would rather not acknowledge his existence or justified involvement in the affairs of men and nations, it is fitting for me to again publicly express my gratitude for specific blessings, as I have done each year since my first Thanksgiving reflection—and particularly those newly experienced, or newly remembered, since last year.

Perhaps I should begin with this: I am grateful for God’s continued training in contentment. As my hopes and plans came to nothing at various times through the year, I found myself able to pray “God’s will be done” in trust—if not yet entirely wholehearted trust—that his ways are best. As Job said (in my paraphrase), in a verse that a recent Sunday School discussion brought to mind, “Shall we accept good from the Lord and not evil?”

Second, I am grateful for the patterns that he has allowed to develop in my life that have kept me at least somewhat anchored in the Word even as time has slipped away—beyond the weekly gathering with his people, and the sermons from a few other churches that I download each week and listen to later, I am grateful for the half-hour time of Scripture reading and study and prayer each weekday morning with members of the church I attended in Virginia via Zoom.

Third, I am grateful for the accomplishments he has allowed me to see in my professional work; two systems that the team I am a part of maintains saw major upgrades this year that we’ve been working on for about as long as I’ve been with the team. My contribution to each was small, but recognized by both my teammates and our leaders, which was gratifying. I am also thankful that my team’s leaders exemplify servant leadership, going to great lengths to ensure we have the knowledge and feedback we need to work successfully and efficiently, and publicly praising key team members by name when we had positive news to report, but taking responsibility to higher-level management when we failed to meet deadlines demanded of us.

Fourth, I am grateful for safety and blessing in two trips God graciously provided the means for and brought me through early this year, the first to see two friends I hadn’t seen in about a decade or more and to meet another friend in person for the first time, and the second for a work-bureaucracy requirement. That first trip brought me some of the brightest happiness I can remember in many years, with the Sunday morning meeting with God and his people as the particular highlight, and even the second trip was far less stressful and unpleasant than I had expected.

Fifth, I am grateful for the word I periodically hear of a dear friend’s continued and increasing authorial success, after ending years of “radio silence” about a year and a half ago. After many months’ experience has modified my expectations I can’t say anymore as I did last year that everything has been “far from the way(s) I would have ever expected events to turn out,” but this ongoing saga is still one where God is plainly at work, and is answering my prayers.

Sixth, I am grateful for the words the Lord has given, or allowed, me to write this year. This includes both new poetry, old unfinished or poor-quality poems I polished up to presentability, and prose. On the poetry front, By this time last year I had resumed semi-regular posting of poetry at a cadence of about one previously-unpublished poem every two weeks, but I was only about three months into this new pattern, and I was still feeling concerned that I would run out of presentable material soon. Over the past year, by God’s help I have maintained that pace and increased how long in advance I am getting these posts scheduled. (I now have poems scheduled to run through next July, with two more ready to add as soon as I can find images to pair with them and two others almost finished.)

In addition to poetry and book reviews (six of those this year), I’ve finally resumed and, by God’s help, continued to make fairly consistent progress on the draft of The Invasion that was supposed to be my major project for 2019 before God upended my plans that year. The draft currently stands at about 32,000 words, and is in Chapter 26, out of perhaps (if the ratio of chapters to scenes in my outline holds true) 66 chapters. I’m also thankful for the encouragement and critique I have received from a dear friend who has taken time out of her own very busy schedule to read and comment on draft chapters that I’ve sent her.

Seventh, I am grateful for an abundance of works by churchmen of past generations, and our own day, by which my faith has been built up in multiple ways. (In particular, this year I’ve been reading—albeit skimming through many of the reproduction-of-original-texts portions—the classic work on The Creeds of Christendom by Philip Schaff, and rereading The Descent of the Dove by Charles Williams, in addition to my regular diet of sermons, podcasts, etc.)

Finally, I am grateful for the confident assurance of God’s providence,

the almighty and ever-present power of God, whereby he still upholds, as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures, and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance, but by his fatherly hand … since all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they cannot even move.

To close with the words of John Milton, paraphrasing Psalm 136:

Let us, with a gladsome mind,
Praise the Lord, for he is kind:
For his mercies shall endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

First Quarter 2021 Goals Check

At the beginning of this year, I checked in on last year’s goals (ha!) and set new ones. I’d intended to make a post checking on them every other month, but as that obviously didn’t happen on schedule, I figured at the end of the first quarter was better than at the end of the trimester or (as happened in 2020) at the end of the year. Here’s how I’m doing so far this year on the goals I identified for the first couple of months, and some specific goals I’ll aim for over the next few months.

First Quarter ProgressMisc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.General Goal: Write posts marking my birthday and the major ecclesiastical and quasi-ecclesiastical holidays (Ash Wednesday, at least one holiday in Holy Week, perhaps Pentecost, Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas)

I managed a post for Ash Wednesday, but not my birthday. I have some ideas for Good Friday and Eastertide, but we’ll see.

General Goal: (In a change to my past pattern …) Write a goal-checking post at the end of the liturgical year, and a blog retrospective at the end of the civil year.

Not yet applicable, of course.

Correspondence and Life-Maintenance

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

I’m doing better on this objective overall than either last year or the year before, and in fact any year in recent memory, but I’ve still let a few messages slip by.

General Goal: Note down when each letter or email needing a response arrived.

I haven’t actually done this, but with the exception of a few emails I don’t think I’ve let things go long enough that the timeliness of replies has slipped from my mind.

Goal: Finish and send all my “after-Christmas” letters by mid-January

Check!

General Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.

With the exception of an email or two that I’ve let drop without the reply I’d intended, I think I’ve for once succeeded here, by God’s grace. Certainly I’ve written letters far more promptly than any year in the last decade!

General Goal: Write any “birthday poems” at least a month in advance of the “deadline”

This wasn’t originally in the “first months” section specific, because the first one I had in mind is “due” in May, but for a change it’s already written. It can certainly use some revision, but it’s complete in form, in my opinion not bad, and not too repetitive from previous years’ poems—so it’s a poem I wouldn’t blush to present to the addressee, but I’m hoping to polish it up a bit before May.

General Goal: Buy, wrap, where needed write covering letters for, and send Christmas presents and birthday to the recipients I’ve planned for.

Similarly, this wasn’t in the “first months” section in January because I wasn’t planning to do much until March. I’ve bought presents for the three upcoming birthdays, wrapped two of them, and written the covering letter for one and started the letter for another; the one that is most imminent is all packed up and ready to send, but I’m waiting until a little closer to the date to do so.

General Goal: Write to at least each of my “particular correspondents” on my list, six or perhaps seven, on Christmas and Easter.

Neither Christmas nor Easter has happened yet, but I’ve started planning out what I will write on Easter, to save time on the day.

Objective: Write keeping-in-touch letters and emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays.Goal: Write letters or emails to mark the two such events in the next couple of months.

I think I got emails, at least, to the people highest on my list, and almost certainly the two I had in mind for the first two months. And I have one long-ish letter written for an almost-imminent birthday, and one well started for one a few weeks later.

Objective: Finish my long-overdue critique of Peter’s Angel.General Goal: Get at least through page 320.

Nothing yet. But with my backlog of outgoing Christmas and (my-)birthday correspondence cleared, I intend to get back to this Real Soon Now.

Objective: Make and keep a budget for the year as a whole and each month in particular.Goal: Check and update my budget for and after each month.

I’ve been doing this informally, more or less, but not with the sort of formality I’d hoped.

Goal: Set up regular “sustaining” gifts in accordance with my budget for the year.

Done, except that with some recent bumps to income I have a very little left in the “charity” budget and a bit more in the “patronage” budget not yet allocated to specific recipients (and thus not actually spent). But even if that continues all year it won’t be a really significant amount to give away come December.

Objective: Keep up with Bible reading.Goal: Catch and keep up with the “CBC Reads the Word”

I think I’m closer to caught up than I was at the time, but I’m still months behind.

Objective: Keep up with, and regularly assess progress on, my goals.Goal: At the end of February, assess my recent performance on my goals and make note of what I hope to accomplish through April.

As I mentioned, I intended to do so last month, but didn’t get to it until now. But this is an improvement over last year!

Uncluttering

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.Goal: Shred all mail (etc.) kept for that purpose

I did shred everything in that pile, except some expired credit cards and such and some mailing labels, and except for some mail that arrived in the last week I’ve kept up with this goal.

Goal: Triage and, if possible, deal with at least one “packet” brought from home.

Haven’t gotten to this yet.

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”Goal: Clear out my blog reader ASAP, and set up the next one.

Despite the high urgency of this one, I haven’t gotten to it at all.

Goal: Get my collection of ebooks that can most easily be read on my Kindle, which currently stands at 154 if I’m counting right, down to 125.

The books in last batch I transferred to my Kindle that I’ve read (enough of) haven’t been moved to the “read” section or deleted, so this should probably be two to five fewer, but the count currently stands at 136.

Poetry Book

My second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.Goal: Write a satisfactory blurb.

I haven’t given this more than a thought or two since January.

Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.Goal: Write at least one new scene.

And I haven’t touched this either.

I note that recent events have wreaked unexpected havoc on the “future history” background of the story, so I may need to rework it before I can get to the story itself. We’ll see.

Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Finish my blog series on Goal: In the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry, finish coverage of specific poetry libraries

I haven’t even looked at this so far this year.

Objective: Finish my series of verse Psalm settings.Goal: Finish my setting of Psalm 18.

I’ve barely looked at the piece of paper my current draft is on, but with recent days’ sense of inspiration some progress might come “soon.”

Objective: Maintain a pace of at least one “Hymns” series post per month until I run out of hymns I think merit inclusionGoal: Post or schedule at least four “Hymns” posts.

I think we’ve seen two in the past three months, and there aren’t any “scheduled” in this sense (meaning “will automatically appear at the specified time”), but I do have one in mind for a few weeks from now.

Objective: Review every book I read that I have not already reviewed.Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) reviews of at least four recently-read books.Goal: Post at least one batch of such reviews.

No progress here.

Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.Goal: Write posts marking my birthday and Ash Wednesday.

I managed a post for Ash Wednesday, but not my birthday.

Since this batch of goals was intended to cover only through February, it didn’t mention Holy Week or Easter. I have some ideas for Good Friday and Eastertide, but we’ll see what comes of them.

Next …Correspondence and Life-MaintenanceObjective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)Goal: Note down when each letter or email needing a response arrives.Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.Objective: Write keeping-in-touch letters and emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays.Goal: Write letters or emails to mark the seven such events (other than the holiday, and this is from a somewhat longer list …) in the next couple of monthsGoal: Write to at least each of my “particular correspondents” on my list, six or perhaps seven, on Easter.Goal: Wrap, write covering letters for, and send birthday presents to the recipients I’ve planned for.Objective: Finish my long-overdue critique of Peter’s Angel.General Goal: Get at least through page 320.Objective: Make and keep a budget for the year as a whole and each month in particular.Goal: Check and update my budget for and after each month.Goal: Set up regular “sustaining” gifts in accordance with my now-increased budget for the year.Goal: Keep up with my regular gifts that I can’t as easily automateObjective: Keep up with Bible reading.Goal: Catch and keep up with the “CBC Reads the Word” and whatever comes after, if anything; if not, restart or resume Old Testament reading.Objective: Keep up with, and regularly assess progress on, my goals.Goal: At the end of May, assess my recent performance on my goals and make note of what I hope to accomplish through July.UnclutteringObjective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.Goal: Shred junk mail as it arrives.Goal: Triage and, if possible, deal with at least one “packet” brought from home.Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”Goal: Clear out my blog reader ASAP, and set up the next one.Goal: Get my collection of ebooks that can most easily be read on my Kindle down to 110.Poetry Book

My second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.Goal: Write a satisfactory blurb.Shine CycleObjective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.Goal: Develop an approach for revising the “future history” background.Goal: Write at least one new scene.Misc Writing and BloggingObjective: Finish my blog series on Goal: In the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry, finish coverage of specific poetry librariesObjective: Finish my series of verse Psalm settings.Goal: Finish my setting of Psalm 18.Objective: Maintain a pace of at least one “Hymns” series post per month until I run out of hymns I think merit inclusionGoal: Post or schedule at least four “Hymns” posts.Objective: Review every book I read that I have not already reviewed.Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) reviews of at least four recently-read books.Goal: Post at least one batch of such reviews.Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.General Goal: Write posts marking at least one holiday in Holy Week and perhaps Pentecost.

That’s what I’m now generally aiming for. Now to see what God has planned …

2020 Goals Review, 2021 Goals

At the end of 2019, I set goals for 2020, after looking over my most recent 2019 goals. And then This Year™ happened, and I scarcely thought about any of my specific goals (let alone the list as a whole) from then until this month. Still, I’ll peel back the cover of the year, as it were, and see how badly I did … and then look forward to 2021.

2020 Goals

Most of my “objectives” (broad ambitions that aren’t measurable, or that I keep on the list to remind me when I might have time for them) haven’t changed, so I will wait to restate them until the end of this summary, except insofar as I have something to say about any in particular.

I began by saying, in part,

Also, while I usually try to set goals a little beyond my estimate of what I’ll actually accomplish, I’m still finding my feet in this minimal-free-time situation, and if my free time is really as little as I fear just one task beyond the items I put in as constants (Bible reading, listening to sermons, Peter’s Angel critique) and things like birthdays and holidays has me overbooked in some months, so for once I’ve not gone beyond my “plan.”

While my amount of free time was actually substantially higher than I expected, my mental energy to use that time productively was disastrously low for most of the year. (In short, I traded a daily commute of almost an hour each way for full-time telework with minimal human contact beyond occasional audio links, and found the latter was far more exhausting than the former.) Of the list of “constants” and time-specific items, I’ve only managed to keep fully up with listening to sermons.

Uncluttering

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: Bring the backlog of items in my blog reader down from its current count of over 51,900 (and rising) down to the nearest round number: 51,750 in January, 51,500 in February, 51,250 in March, 51,000 in April, 50,750 in May, 50,500 in June, 50,250 in July, 50,000 in August, 49,750 in September, 49,500 in October, 49,250 in November, and 49,000 in December.

I’m not quite sure where my blog reader stands, but while I made a bit of a dent early in the year (though less than I’d hoped), I suspect the count may be higher than ever. Most of the year I scarcely looked at my blog reader, if I had it running at all.

Reduce the virtual pile of unread, untriaged, unsorted writing-related downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 75 in January, 50 in February, and 25 in March.

I’d have to go digging through my records to see when I got there, but the “unsorted” subcategory of the “writing-related” category currently stands at about 12.

Reduce the virtual pile of unread, untriaged, unsorted XML-related downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 25 by April.

I’m not sure how many there were to start with, but there are currently 41.

Reduce the virtual pile of unread, untriaged, unsorted “Web”-related downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 50 by May, and 25 by June.

As with the “writing” category, I don’t know when I got there, but the “unsorted” subcategory here currently stands at 19.

Reduce the virtual pile of “Strategic Primer related (strategy)” downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 75 by July, 50 by August, and 25 by September.
Reduce the virtual pile of “Strategic Primer related (tech)” downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 350 by October, 325 by November, and 300 by December.

I haven’t even touched these.

Poetry Book

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Write a satisfactory blurb for the back cover by the end of January.
Goal: Write the “Acknowledgements” section by the end of February.
Goal: Create a marketing plan by the end of April.
Goal: Finish designing (my first draft of) the cover by the end of May (minus text additions), and finish it completely by the end of June.
Goal: Take, or have taken, a suitable photograph of myself for the “author bio” by the end of June.
Goal: Collect a list of possible reviewers by the end of June.
Goal: Have the publication process ready for upload of the book itself (all the fields filled out online) by the end of October.

I haven’t even touched anything relating to Dreams and Prayers this year.

Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least three scene into my new draft of The Invasion by the end of January, five by the end of February, seven by the end of March, nine by the end of April, eleven by the end of May, thirteen by the end of June, sixteen by the end of July, eighteen by the end of August, twenty by the end of September, twenty-two by the end of October, twenty-four by the end of November, and twenty-seven by the end of the year.

I haven’t touched anything relating to the Shine Cycle (except my pool of potential characters) this year either.

Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Finish my blog series on

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry, by the end of August.

Haven’t touched this either.

Objective: Finish my series of verse Psalm settings.

Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, finish my setting of Psalm 18 and write my setting of Psalm 19 by the end of January, Psalm 20 and 21 by the end of February, Psalm 22 by the end of April, Psalm 23 by the end of May, Psalms 24 and 25 by the end of June, Psalms 26-28 by the end of July, Psalm 29 by the end of August, Psalm 30 by the end of September, and Psalm 31 by the end of October

I didn’t manage a single line of a psalm setting—or in fact more than seven lines of poetry at all—this year.

Objective: Maintain a pace of at least one “Hymns” series post per month until I run out of hymns I think merit inclusion

Goal: Post or schedule at least one post in my “Hymns” series each month this year.

I managed three of these, and then in March, like everything else in my life, my blogging fell into disarray for many months.

Objective: Review every book I read that I have not already reviewed.

Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least two “recently” read books by the end of January, one more by the end of February, one more by the end of May, one more by the end of June, one more by the end of July, one more by the end of August, one more by the end of September, and one more by the end of October

I wrote one review, period, this year.

Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.

Goal: Write posts marking my birthday and the major ecclesiastical and quasi-ecclesiastical holidays (Ash Wednesday, at least one holiday in Holy Week, perhaps Pentecost, Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas)

I managed posts for my birthday, Ash Wednesday, and Thanksgiving … and that was it.

Goal: Write my usual (liturgical-)year-end summary of the last year’s posts.

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: Note down when each letter or email needing a response arrived.

I didn’t manage this, which didn’t help me keep up.

Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.

Some messages late in the year did get reasonably-prompt responses, but some earlier ones went unanswered for months.

Goal: Write any “birthday poems” (one planned for May) at least a month in advance of the “deadline”

I neglected this so much that I didn’t write a single “birthday poem” this year; this is the first year since I started college that I’ve not written at least one.

Objective: Finish my long-overdue critique of Peter’s Angel.

Goal: Be through page 248 by the end of January, page 256 by the end of February, page 264 by the end of March, page 272 by the end of April, page 280 by the end of May, page 288 by the end of June, page 300 by the end of July, page 308 by the end of August, page 312 by the end of September, page 320 by the end of October, 328 by the end of November, and finished before the end of the year.

I might have managed a single page, but I doubt it.

Objective: Write keeping-in-touch letters and emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays.

Goal: Write letters or emails on birthdays and anniversaries: one in January, one in March, two in April, three in May, two in June, one in July, one in August, one (“community birthday”) in September, one in October, and one in November.

I think I managed at least a brief note for most of those I’m already keeping in touch well with, but those I was hoping to strengthen a more tenuous connection with I regret to say I again let lapse.

Goal: Write to at least each of my “particular correspondents” on my list, six or perhaps seven, on Christmas and Easter.

This, I managed. Somehow, by God’s grace.

Goal: Buy, wrap, where needed write covering letters for, and send Christmas presents to the recipients I’ve planned for.

And this as well, though significantly later than I’d hoped and planned—at this late date almost half are still not in the hands of their recipients, despite optimistic Post Office estimates when I shipped the big batch of them.

Objective: Make and keep a budget for the year as a whole and each month in particular.

Goal: Check and update my budget for and after each month.

This I let slip very early on, and never recovered. I think I basically kept to my budget for the year as a whole, and on this point if nothing else the “lockdown” certainly didn’t hurt.

Goal: Finish typesetting the Tartan & Thistle Ball program at least several weeks before the event.

This was a moot point, as the event was cancelled well in advance due to pandemic quarantine precautions.

Objective: Keep up with Bible reading.

Goal: Keep up with the “CBC Reads the Word” (or whatever it’s called) plan, and a parallel track through the Old Testament, each month.

I’m a few months behind on the New Testament reading, and my Old Testament reading has stalled enough that I’ll start over at some point.

Objective: Keep up with, and each month check progress on, my goals.

Goal: Each month, assess my performance on my goals the past month and make note of what I hope to accomplish in the next month.

This obviously did not happen.

Restatement of Objectives

Before I get into specific goals, such as they are, I should begin by restating my “objectives” (long-term non-granular goals). Any that I think I may be able to make progress on will also be listed with the relevant goals.

Correspondence and Life-Maintenance

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)
Objective: Finish my long-overdue critique of Peter’s Angel.
Objective: Write keeping-in-touch letters and emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays.
Objective: Make and keep a budget for the year as a whole and each month in particular.
Objective: Keep up with Bible reading.
Objective: Keep up with, and regularly assess progress on, my goals.

Uncluttering

These first four objectives depend on access to my books and papers. I brought some of my papers back with me when I went home last February, but I only have the one box of papers here.

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.
Objective: Reduce my book collection to those I want to keep, and preferably a size I have shelf space for.
Objective: Get all notes I made in the margins of my Bible, which I recently replaced, into a more accessible format.
Objective: Ensure that my collection of magazine and journal issues doesn’t contain any I don’t affirmatively want to keep.

This objective, on the other hand is not blocked by anything except lack of time.

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Development

These objectives, except perhaps the first, will all have to wait until I am no longer under a contract that claims ownership of code I write in my spare time.

Objective: Release “version 1.0” of my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and its more-user-friendly editing program.
Objective: Develop the e-commerce project I have in mind to a “1.0” standard release.
Objective: Develop my “task monger” project to a “1.0” standard release for all interfaces I am able to test.

Poetry Book

My second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.
Objective: Have a biography, history, description, and “character logline” or “motivation summary” for every named character deemed “major”.
Objective: Create sufficiently-complete, sufficiently-detailed, maps of the worlds and areas with which the Shine Cycle is concerned.
Objective: Develop each race and culture that the Shine Cycle is concerned with sufficiently to portray it distinctly and excite potential readers’ interest.

Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.
Objective: Finish my blog series on
Objective: Finish my series of verse Psalm settings.
Objective: Maintain a pace of at least one “Hymns” series post per month until I run out of hymns I think merit inclusion
Objective: Review every book I read that I have not already reviewed.
Objective: Write regular blog posts beyond my series I schedule in advance and retrospectives.
Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.
Objective: Regularly post substantive Shine Cycle-related content here, as an incentive to continued progress and to attract interested future readers.
Objective: Create blog posts using “worldbuilding” material created using the various “systems” and question sets.

2021 Goals

And now for the new year.

In past years I’ve experimented with different approaches to planning, tracking, and checking up on tasks—weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, and in trimesters—with varying success. Today I’ll first give “general goals” (which might also be labeled “sub-objectives”), then narrow down to specific points for the next two months.

As in “2019 as amended”, and as in 2020, I expect my time (and more importantly mental energy) to be limited enough that I don’t dare set ambitious goals. In fact, in setting up my calendar-equivalent for 2021, I haven’t even bothered to set out specific tasks (other than those that have specific deadlines) into specific periods of the year as I did in the last several years.

Correspondence and Life-Maintenance

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

General Goal: Note down when each letter or email needing a response arrived.
General Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.
General Goal: Write any “birthday poems” at least a month in advance of the “deadline”


Objective: Finish my long-overdue critique of Peter’s Angel.

General Goal: Get at least through page 320.

I expect that if I manage any progress on that at all I will be able to finish, but I’ve learned that overambitious goals tend to become daunting and inhibit partial success.

Objective: Write keeping-in-touch letters and emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays.

General Goal: Write letters or emails on birthdays and anniversaries
General Goal: Write to at least each of my “particular correspondents” on my list, six or perhaps seven, on Christmas and Easter.
General Goal: Buy, wrap, where needed write covering letters for, and send Christmas presents and birthday to the recipients I’ve planned for.


Objective: Make and keep a budget for the year as a whole and each month in particular.

General Goal: Check and update my budget for and after each month.
General Goal: Ensure that my tithing, charitable giving and “patronage”, and investment are commensurate with my income as an ongoing flow.

(Rather than only remembering them at the end of the year and having to catch up.)

Objective: Keep up with Bible reading.

General Goal: Catch and keep up with the “CBC Reads the Word” through Easter; if church leaders suggest a plan for the following months, follow that, and otherwise restart or resume Old Testament reading.


Objective: Keep up with, and regularly assess progress on, my goals.

General Goal: Every other month or so, assess my recent performance on my goals and make note of what I hope to accomplish in the coming weeks.



Uncluttering

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.

General Goal: Shred all mail (etc.) kept for that purpose, and junk mail as it arrives.
General Goal: Triage and, when possible, deal with the first few “packets” I brought from home.


Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

General Goal: Clear out my blog reader.

That goal is highly urgent, as my blog reader software is no longer supported (and no longer available in my Linux distribution for new install), so I need to switch delivery of new items to a new reader and clear out the “unread” backlog in the old.

General Goal: Triage (i.e. read enough to know what I want to keep …) the virtual stack of “to-read” “fiction etc.” ebooks.
General Goal: Triage and sort the collections of “mainly nonfiction” ebooks (and articles) into narrow sub-collections.

Poetry Book

My second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

General Goal: Once I’ve set sufficient funds aside, commission a cover for the collection.
General Goal: Write a satisfactory blurb, Acknowledgements section, and “author biography”
General Goal: Prepare a marketing plan.



Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

General Goal: Write at least six scenes this year.



Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Finish my blog series on

General Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry


Objective: Finish my series of verse Psalm settings.

General Goal: Finish at least a couple of these poems.


Objective: Maintain a pace of at least one “Hymns” series post per month until I run out of hymns I think merit inclusion

General Goal: Get enough “Hymns” posts in the queue to maintain that pace even if my productivity in general falters.


Objective: Review every book I read that I have not already reviewed.

General Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) reviews of all books read (and finished) in 2020 and 2021.
General Goal: Post at least one batch of such reviews during this year.


Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.

General Goal: Write posts marking my birthday and the major ecclesiastical and quasi-ecclesiastical holidays (Ash Wednesday, at least one holiday in Holy Week, perhaps Pentecost, Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas)
General Goal: (In a change to my past pattern …) Write a goal-checking post at the end of the liturgical year, and a blog retrospective at the end of the civil year.



First Months
Correspondence and Life-Maintenance

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: Finish and send all my “after-Christmas” letters by mid-January


Objective: Write keeping-in-touch letters and emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays.

Goal: Write letters or emails to mark the two such events in the next couple of months.


Objective: Make and keep a budget for the year as a whole and each month in particular.

Goal: Check and update my budget for and after each month.
Goal: Set up regular “sustaining” gifts in accordance with my budget for the year.


Objective: Keep up with Bible reading.

Goal: Catch and keep up with the “CBC Reads the Word”


Objective: Keep up with, and regularly assess progress on, my goals.

Goal: At the end of February, assess my recent performance on my goals and make note of what I hope to accomplish through April.



Uncluttering

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.

Goal: Shred all mail (etc.) kept for that purpose
Goal: Triage and, if possible, deal with at least one “packet” brought from home.


Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: Clear out my blog reader ASAP, and set up the next one.
Goal: Get my collection of ebooks that can most easily be read on my Kindle, which currently stands at 154 if I’m counting right, down to 125.



Poetry Book

My second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Write a satisfactory blurb.



Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Write at least one new scene this year.



Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Finish my blog series on

Goal: In the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry, finish coverage of specific poetry libraries


Objective: Finish my series of verse Psalm settings.

Goal: Finish my setting of Psalm 18.


Objective: Maintain a pace of at least one “Hymns” series post per month until I run out of hymns I think merit inclusion

Goal: Post or schedule at least four “Hymns” posts.


Objective: Review every book I read that I have not already reviewed.

Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) reviews of at least four recently-read books.
Goal: Post at least one batch of such reviews.


Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.

Goal: Write posts marking my birthday and Ash Wednesday.

And I think there’s something I’m forgetting, but as I’d meant to have this finished and posted yesterday evening I won’t delay any longer.

2020 was a crazy year in which most all my already-reduced plans fell to dust; God willing, and with God’s help, I hope I can do better in 2021.

2019 Goals Review, 2020 Goals

This year, instead of setting goals for the whole year and then checking up on them periodically, I decided to set goals quarter-by-quarter. When God upended my plans for the year, that proved to have been a good decision. It’s now time to see how I stand in reference to my goals for the fourth quarter; to get a full picture of the year, you can see the first-, second-, and third-quarter reviews.

After reviewing my previous goals, I’ll explain my next set of goals going forward. As I’ll explain in more detail below, in 2020 I plan to adjust and check my goals on a monthly basis.

Fourth Quarter Goal Results

Here are the goals I tentatively set for the past few months at the beginning of October. As usual, by “objective” I meant a long-term, broad goal that I wanted to reach (often one merely mentioned as a reminder to myself in future goal-setting), while by “goal” I meant a long-term goal against which my progress can be measured, that I thought I could meet in the time interval I was planning out, and I used the phrase “stretch goal” to mean a goal (in that sense) which I was doubtful I could accomplish in that period, but still felt was worth mentioning.

For the last three quarters, more areas than usual were left with merely “objectives” because I left nearly all of my books and papers behind when I moved here for this training program; I’ve omitted those objectives that are so impeded from this progress-checking review, but I’ll repeat them before I list my January goals below.

As I prepared these goals, I was aware that I had been placed with a client and would be starting full-time work as soon as my paperwork went through, but I was also aware that a great deal of personal-task work for the fourth quarter could not be postponed (e.g. Thanksgiving blog post, Christmas presents, etc.)

Uncluttering

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: Bring the backlog of items in my blog reader down from its current count of over 51,700 (and rising) down to 51,000.

No progress here.

Reduce the virtual pile of unread writing-related downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 300.

Done; it looks to me like the current count is 238. But since the task in my task tracker talks about unread, untriaged, and unsorted ebooks, what matters is that the count in the “unsorted” directory (that I moved everything into to start with) is down under 100.

Development

My goals here are tentative, conditioned on whether my employer claims any ownership in code I write outside working hours.

Since it turns out my employer does claim such ownership in my contract, all of these projects have been postponed for two years or longer.

Goal: Get my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and the more-user-friendly editing program, to a state I consider sufficiently complete (mostly resolving all of the issues listed here and here, but also improving code quality and writing documentation)
Goal: For the e-commerce project I’ve decided to undertake, implement the first three “features” in the task tracker.
Goal: For the “task monger” project I’m undertaking (primarily for my own use, so I don’t have to fiddle with rearranging lines in a spreadsheet in future months!), implement the basic features in the command-line/pipe interface.

Poetry Book

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Design a satisfactory cover. (I won’t invalidate this if, on advice of more graphic-design-inclined friends, I decide to make changes later.)
Goal: Write all necessary prose sections for Dreams and Prayers.

I made some progress on each of these, but not enough to meet either goal.

Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least eight scenes into my new draft of The Invasion.

I got a couple of paragraphs into the second scene, but no further.

Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry.

No progress here.

Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, get through at least Psalm 20 (The last one I’ve finished as of this writing is still Psalm 17.)

Nor here.

Goal: Post, or schedule, at least three posts in my “Hymns” series.

I exactly met this.

Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least one “recently” read book.

I managed three.

Objective: Maintain my “presence” on this blog.

Goal: Write at least two “miscellaneous” blog posts, other than goal-checking, the “Hymns” series, and “year-end” posts.

None.

Goal: Write my usual Thanksgiving post reflecting on how God has blessed me.

Done.

Goal: Write my usual (liturgical-)year-end summary of the last year’s posts.

Done.

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: In my critique pass through Peter’s Angel, get through Page 270. (As of this writing, I’m on page 236.)

No progress here. (Sorry, Aubrey!)

Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.

I suspect I didn’t meet this.

Goal: Write keeping-in-touch emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays. There are two birthdays this quarter, and the obvious high holiday.

Done for the holiday, and one of the birthdays, but didn’t manage the other birthday.

Goal: Finish typesetting the Tartan & Thistle Ball program at least several weeks before the event.

Done, though some last-minute revisions were required.

Goal: Buy, wrap, where needed write covering letters for, and send Christmas presents to the recipients I’ve planned for.

Done—much later than I would have liked because I put off buying presents until I’d moved, and put off starting the covering letters until I’d wrapped the presents, but most even arrived before the day.

Objective: Keep track of my finances

Goal: Assess my finances for this past year and set my budget for next year in general and January in specific.

As of this writing I haven’t done this, but it’s at the top of my list.

Objective: Revive my spiritual life. (Which, like everything else, does not depend on me … but if I don’t state goals I’ll fall yet further behind.)

Goal: (Re)read at least through the first three quarters of each of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

I’m as far behind as ever.

Objective: Keep up with my goals.

Goal: At the end of the quarter, assess my performance in light of these goals and set new ones for next year.

Hereby done.

2019 Summary

While I tracked and reviewed my goals on a quarter-by-quarter basis, not with reference to any year-long stated plans, here’s a very brief summary of the year as a whole for me.

The top-line “objective” that was entirely out of my control, namely entering gainful employment, finally happened, throwing all my plans into disarray.

All progress on physical “uncluttering” ceased, as I had to move five hundred miles away and left the vast majority of my papers behind. What’s more, the count of items in my blog reader has kept rising and rising. On the other hand, I did catch up on listening to downloaded sermons, and did get through the old flat file of bookmark links.

My “development” goals stalled with the move and the reduced free time, and are now on deliberate hiatus until any code I write in my spare time is no longer contractually automatically transferred to my employer.

Of the two projects that I had set out as my “big projects for the year,” hoping to either finish and have ready for release (Dreams and Prayers) or be most of the way to finishing (The Invasion), neither progressed much at all. I finally wrote the first scene of The Invasion this fall, and got some work done on the cover and front matter of Dreams and Prayers over the summer, but that was about it. I also had “very mixed success” keeping up with correspondence.

While I didn’t reach my goals for the “Hymns” series, nor my (still not posted) “review of ‘recent’ books” post, consistently … I did manage some progress on each.

Finally, I’m even farther behind on my Bible reading than ever, I think, though I started the year well.

Restatement of Objectives

With the recent changes in my life, some of the objectives (i.e. long-term non-granular goals) have had to be put off. This past year I’ve tended to leave them in amidst my goals, then omit them when reviewing my goals, but for this post I decided to list them all up front, then repeat only those relevant to specific goals I set.

Uncluttering

These first four objectives depend on access to my books and papers. I hope to get back home briefly and bring some of my papers back with me, but I won’t set goals based on these objectives until I have actually done so.

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.
Objective: Reduce my book collection to those I want to keep, and preferably a size I have shelf space for.
Objective: Get all notes I made in the margins of my Bible, which I recently replaced, into a more accessible format.
Objective: Ensure that my collection of magazine and journal issues doesn’t contain any I don’t affirmatively want to keep.

This objective, on the other hand is not blocked by anything except lack of time.

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Development

These objectives, except perhaps the first, will all have to wait until I am no longer under a contract that claims ownership of code I write in my spare time.

Objective: Release “version 1.0” of my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and its more-user-friendly editing program.
Objective: Develop the e-commerce project I have in mind to a “1.0” standard release.
Objective: Develop my “task monger” project to a “1.0” standard release for all interfaces I am able to test.

Poetry Book

These tasks relate to my second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.
Objective: Have a biography, history, description, and “character logline” or “motivation summary” for every named character.
Objective: Create sufficiently-complete, sufficiently-detailed, maps of the worlds and areas with which the Shine Cycle is concerned.
Objective: Develop each race and culture that the Shine Cycle is concerned with sufficiently to portray it distinctly and excite potential readers’ interest.

Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.
Objective: Finish my blog series on
Objective: Finish my series of verse Psalm settings.
Objective: Maintain a pace of at least one “Hymns” series post per month until I run out of hymns I think merit inclusion
Objective: Review every book I read that I have not already reviewed.
Objective: Write regular blog posts beyond my series I schedule in advance and retrospectives.
Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.
Objective: Regularly post substantive Shine Cycle-related content here, as an incentive to continued progress and to attract interested future readers.
Objective: Create blog posts using “worldbuilding” material created using the various “systems” and question sets.

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)
Objective: Finish my long-overdue critique of Peter’s Angel.
Objective: Write keeping-in-touch letters and emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays.
Objective: Make and keep a budget for the year as a whole and each month in particular.
Objective: Keep up with Bible reading.
Objective: Keep up with, and each month check progress on, my goals.

2020 Goals

And now we come to my goals for the next year. Not that these are by any means set in stone, since my life will proceed by God’s will rather than mine, but I know from experience if I don’t try to follow some kind of plan I’ll end up with nothing done.

I’ve tried to break things down so I can see what’s to be done each month. This year I’m tracking my tasks in two-week “sprints” (after doing so week-by-week in 2018 and month-by-month in 2019), but I don’t want to have to write a blog post about things every two weeks.

Also, while I usually try to set goals a little beyond my estimate of what I’ll actually accomplish, I’m still finding my feet in this minimal-free-time situation, and if my free time is really as little as I fear just one task beyond the items I put in as constants (Bible reading, listening to sermons, Peter’s Angel critique) and things like birthdays and holidays has me overbooked in some months, so for once I’ve not gone beyond my “plan.”

Uncluttering

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: Bring the backlog of items in my blog reader down from its current count of over 51,900 (and rising) down to the nearest round number: 51,750 in January, 51,500 in February, 51,250 in March, 51,000 in April, 50,750 in May, 50,500 in June, 50,250 in July, 50,000 in August, 49,750 in September, 49,500 in October, 49,250 in November, and 49,000 in December.
Reduce the virtual pile of unread, untriaged, unsorted writing-related downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 75 in January, 50 in February, and 25 in March.
Reduce the virtual pile of unread, untriaged, unsorted XML-related downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 25 by April.
Reduce the virtual pile of unread, untriaged, unsorted “Web”-related downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 50 by May, and 25 by June.
Reduce the virtual pile of “Strategic Primer related (strategy)” downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 75 by July, 50 by August, and 25 by September.
Reduce the virtual pile of “Strategic Primer related (tech)” downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 350 by October, 325 by November, and 300 by December.



Poetry Book

These tasks relate to my second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Write a satisfactory blurb for the back cover by the end of January.
Goal: Write the “Acknowledgements” section by the end of February.
Goal: Create a marketing plan by the end of April.
Goal: Finish designing (my first draft of) the cover by the end of May (minus text additions), and finish it completely by the end of June.
Goal: Take, or have taken, a suitable photograph of myself for the “author bio” by the end of June.
Goal: Collect a list of possible reviewers by the end of June.
Goal: Have the publication process ready for upload of the book itself (all the fields filled out online) by the end of October.



Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least three scene into my new draft of The Invasion by the end of January, five by the end of February, seven by the end of March, nine by the end of April, eleven by the end of May, thirteen by the end of June, sixteen by the end of July, eighteen by the end of August, twenty by the end of September, twenty-two by the end of October, twenty-four by the end of November, and twenty-seven by the end of the year.



Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Finish my blog series on

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry, by the end of August.


Objective: Finish my series of verse Psalm settings.

Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, finish my setting of Psalm 18 and write my setting of Psalm 19 by the end of January, Psalm 20 and 21 by the end of February, Psalm 22 by the end of April, Psalm 23 by the end of May, Psalms 24 and 25 by the end of June, Psalms 26-28 by the end of July, Psalm 29 by the end of August, Psalm 30 by the end of September, and Psalm 31 by the end of October


Objective: Maintain a pace of at least one “Hymns” series post per month until I run out of hymns I think merit inclusion

Goal: Post or schedule at least one post in my “Hymns” series each month this year.


Objective: Review every book I read that I have not already reviewed.

Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least two “recently” read books by the end of January, one more by the end of February, one more by the end of May, one more by the end of June, one more by the end of July, one more by the end of August, one more by the end of September, and one more by the end of October


Objective: Write my usual seasonal/holiday posts well in advance.

Goal: Write posts marking my birthday and the major ecclesiastical and quasi-ecclesiastical holidays (Ash Wednesday, at least one holiday in Holy Week, perhaps Pentecost, Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas)
Goal: Write my usual (liturgical-)year-end summary of the last year’s posts.



Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: Note down when each letter or email needing a response arrived.
Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.
Goal: Write any “birthday poems” (one planned for May) at least a month in advance of the “deadline”


Objective: Finish my long-overdue critique of Peter’s Angel.

Goal: Be through page 248 by the end of January, page 256 by the end of February, page 264 by the end of March, page 272 by the end of April, page 280 by the end of May, page 288 by the end of June, page 300 by the end of July, page 308 by the end of August, page 312 by the end of September, page 320 by the end of October, 328 by the end of November, and finished before the end of the year.


Objective: Write keeping-in-touch letters and emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays.

Goal: Write letters or emails on birthdays and anniversaries: one in January, one in March, two in April, three in May, two in June, one in July, one in August, one (“community birthday”) in September, one in October, and one in November.
Goal: Write to at least each of my “particular correspondents” on my list, six or perhaps seven, on Christmas and Easter.
Goal: Buy, wrap, where needed write covering letters for, and send Christmas presents to the recipients I’ve planned for.


Objective: Make and keep a budget for the year as a whole and each month in particular.

Goal: Check and update my budget for and after each month.
Goal: Finish typesetting the Tartan & Thistle Ball program at least several weeks before the event.


Objective: Keep up with Bible reading.

Goal: Keep up with the “CBC Reads the Word” (or whatever it’s called) plan, and a parallel track through the Old Testament, each month.


Objective: Keep up with, and each month check progress on, my goals.

Goal: Each month, assess my performance on my goals the past month and make note of what I hope to accomplish in the next month.

God alone knows what will come, but that’s my hopes for the near future.

2019 Third-Quarter Goals Review

Back in July, I set goals for the third quarter of the year after reviewing the second quarter. Because I had no idea what my free time might be like these last three months, between the classroom, project, and marketing phases of the training program I’ve been in, I left my plans cut severely back from what I’d originally envisioned back in January. And then the quarter flew by, so here’s a look at how I managed to do compared to those goals, and my new goals for the year’s final quarter.

Third Quarter Goal Results

Here are the goals I tentatively set for the past few months in July. As usual, by “objective” I meant a long-term, broad goal that I wanted to reach (often one merely mentioned as a reminder to myself in future goal-setting), while by “goal” I meant a long-term goal against which my progress can be measured, that I thought I could meet in the time interval I was planning out, and I used the phrase “stretch goal” to mean a goal (in that sense) which I was doubtful I could accomplish in that period, but still felt was worth mentioning.

More areas than usual were left with merely “objectives” because I left nearly all of my books and papers behind when I moved here for this training program; I’ve omitted those objectives that are so impeded from this progress-checking review, but I’ll repeat them in my fourth-quarter goals below.

Uncluttering

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: In listening to recorded sermons that I download and store each week, catch up to the present.

Finally done!

Goal: Bring the backlog of items in my blog reader down its current count of nearly 50,400 (and rising) down to 50,000.

This, on the other hand, has worsened; there are now over 51,700.

Objective: Get my collection of “links I want to do something about someday” is at least minimally organized to help that.

Goal: In my process of reconsidering and tagging links from my old (main) flat file of bookmarks, which stood at 135 as of this writing, finish that file off.

Done.

Development

Most of my software-development efforts need to go towards my training program, but there are a few items I hope to get to in the near future, provided my eventual employer does not claim ownership of any code I produce while working there.

Goal: Get my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and the more-user-friendly editing program, to a state I consider sufficiently complete (mostly resolving all of the issues listed here and here, but also improving code quality and writing documentation)
Goal: For the e-commerce project I’ve decided to undertake, implement the first three “features” in the task tracker.
Goal: For the “task monger” project I’m undertaking (primarily for my own use, so I don’t have to fiddle with rearranging lines in a spreadsheet in future months!), implement the basic features in the command-line/pipe interface.

No progress on any of these—partly, but not entirely, because of my uncertainty about ownership of my code.

Poetry Book

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Design a satisfactory cover. (I won’t invalidate this if, on advice of more graphic-design-inclined friends, I decide to make changes later.)

Progress, but not yet done.

Goal: Write all necessary prose sections for Dreams and Prayers.

Progress here too, a very little, but nowhere near done.

Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry.
Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, get through at least Psalm 20 (The last one I’ve finished as of this writing is still Psalm 17.)
Goal: Post, or schedule, at least three posts in my “Hymns” series.
Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least one “recently” read book.


Objective: Maintain my “presence” on this blog.

Goal: Write at least two “miscellaneous” blog posts, other than goal-checking and the “Hymns” series.

Since this is the first post since the end of the second quarter, I obviously didn’t get any of these done.

Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least eight scenes into my new draft of The Invasion.

I finally “put pen to paper” (so to speak) and started and finished one scene, which I consider progress but isn’t anywhere near my goal.

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: In my critique pass through Peter’s Angel, get through Page 270. (As of this writing, I’m on page 230.)

Some progress, finally, but nowhere near enough; I’m through page 235.

Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.

The one letter that merited a response took me a month to finish my reply, and there are a couple of others that need writing (though they aren’t strictly speaking replies) that are weeks and weeks if not months overdue.

Goal: Write keeping-in-touch emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays. In addition to two such friends with dates on which to remember them already past, there are five yet to come this quarter.

I think I managed three of however many there were that I’d hoped and planned to remember.

Objective: Revive my spiritual life. (Which, like everything else, does not depend on me … but if I don’t state goals I’ll fall yet further behind.)

Goal: (Re)read at least through the first three quarters of each of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

I’m still behind.

Objective: Keep up with my goals.

Goal: At the end of the quarter, assess my performance in light of these goals and set new ones for the fourth quarter.

As you can see, even this is only belatedly completed.

Fourth Quarter Goals

Now, for my goals for the rest of the year. My training program has these last weeks moved from a focus on the “final project” through interviews to “placement,” and I have in fact been placed with a client, though I can’t start until what seems an exceedingly large quantity of paperwork goes through and red tape is unraveled. Once I do start at my “new job” at the client, the amount of time I can call my own will drop again, but this quarter is also the one in which, of the plans or goals I’d mention here, those that are fixed by the season of the year make the largest part. So, while I’m still aiming to estimate conservatively, I’m going to take my standing list of objectives and the tasks I currently have scheduled for the next months as my guide for the below goals.

Uncluttering

I again leave several of these objectives here as reminders to my future self but set no goals for them because essentially all my papers, all but about ten of my books, my old Bible, and all my magazine and journal issues are still five hundred miles away.

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.
Objective: Reduce my book collection to those I want to keep, and preferably a size I have shelf space for.
Objective: Get all notes I made in the margins of my Bible, which I recently replaced, into a more accessible format.
Objective: Ensure that my collection of magazine and journal issues doesn’t contain any I don’t affirmatively want to keep.

These other objectives, however, are I should be able to make progress on.

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: Bring the backlog of items in my blog reader down from its current count of over 51,700 (and rising) down to 51,000.
Reduce the virtual pile of unread writing-related downloaded ebooks (and articles) to 300.



Development

My goals here are tentative, conditioned on whether my employer claims any ownership in code I write outside working hours.

Goal: Get my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and the more-user-friendly editing program, to a state I consider sufficiently complete (mostly resolving all of the issues listed here and here, but also improving code quality and writing documentation)
Goal: For the e-commerce project I’ve decided to undertake, implement the first three “features” in the task tracker.
Goal: For the “task monger” project I’m undertaking (primarily for my own use, so I don’t have to fiddle with rearranging lines in a spreadsheet in future months!), implement the basic features in the command-line/pipe interface.

Poetry Book

These tasks relate to my second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Design a satisfactory cover. (I won’t invalidate this if, on advice of more graphic-design-inclined friends, I decide to make changes later.)
Goal: Write all necessary prose sections for Dreams and Prayers.



Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least eight scenes into my new draft of The Invasion.


Objective: Have a biography, history, description, and “character logline” or “motivation summary” for every named character.
Objective: Create sufficiently-complete, sufficiently-detailed, maps of the worlds and areas with which the Shine Cycle is concerned.
Objective: Develop each race and culture that the Shine Cycle is concerned with sufficiently to portray it distinctly and excite potential readers’ interest.

Misc Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry.
Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, get through at least Psalm 20 (The last one I’ve finished as of this writing is still Psalm 17.)
Goal: Post, or schedule, at least three posts in my “Hymns” series.
Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least one “recently” read book.


Objective: Maintain my “presence” on this blog.

Goal: Write at least two “miscellaneous” blog posts, other than goal-checking, the “Hymns” series, and “year-end” posts.
Goal: Write my usual Thanksgiving post reflecting on how God has blessed me.
Goal: Write my usual (liturgical-)year-end summary of the last year’s posts.


Objective: Regularly post substantive Shine Cycle-related content here, as an incentive to continued progress and to attract interested future readers.
Objective: Create blog posts using “worldbuilding” material created using the various “systems” and question sets.

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: In my critique pass through Peter’s Angel, get through Page 270. (As of this writing, I’m on page 236.)
Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.
Goal: Write keeping-in-touch emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays. There are two birthdays this quarter, and the obvious high holiday.
Goal: Finish typesetting the Tartan & Thistle Ball program at least several weeks before the event.
Goal: Buy, wrap, where needed write covering letters for, and send Christmas presents to the recipients I’ve planned for.


Objective: Keep track of my finances

Goal: Assess my finances for this past year and set my budget for next year in general and January in specific.


Objective: Revive my spiritual life. (Which, like everything else, does not depend on me … but if I don’t state goals I’ll fall yet further behind.)

Goal: (Re)read at least through the first three quarters of each of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.


Objective: Keep up with my goals.

Goal: At the end of the quarter, assess my performance in light of these goals and set new ones for next year.

This quarter-by-quarter experiment has been a mixed bag this year; next year I think I will set year-long (or perhaps six-month) goals, but try to break them down month-by-month and (as I used to do with “writing status updates”) check up on and revise them each month.

God willing, I hope to end this year more productively than I began it, and carry that on into next year. But we shall see.

2019 Second-Quarter Goals Review

Back in April, I set goals for the second quarter of the year after reviewing the first quarter. Because I knew the training program I had recently entered would demand the overwhelming majority of my time for at least the next ten weeks, I cut my plans back from what I had originally envisioned back in January even further. Now that the second quarter has come to an end (and I have a day off), here’s a look at how I’ve managed to do compared to those much-reduced goals, and some new goals for the third quarter.

Second Quarter Review

Here are the goals I tentatively set for the past few months in April. As usual, by “objective” I meant a long-term, broad goal that I wanted to reach (often one merely mentioned as a reminder to myself in future goal-setting), while by “goal” I meant a long-term goal against which my progress can be measured, that I thought I could meet in the time interval I was planning out, and I used the phrase “stretch goal” to mean a goal (in that sense) which I was doubtful I could accomplish in that period, but still felt was worth mentioning.

More areas than usual were left with merely “objectives” because I left nearly all of my books and papers behind when I moved here for this training program; I’ve omitted those objectives that are so impeded from this progress-checking review, but I’ll repeat them in my third-quarter goals below.

Uncluttering

The other objectives here, however, are ones I could make progress on.

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: In listening to recorded sermons that I download and store each week, catch up to the present.

I got significantly closer—I’m now caught up through the end of April, while three months ago I was only caught up to last November—but didn’t quite reach this.

Goal: Bring the backlog of items in my blog reader down its current count of nearly 49,500 (and rising) down to 49,000.

Nowhere near, and it may have actually risen some more. But there was one somewhat mitigating factor that held me back on this: I had my blog reader lose all the saved items several times, leaving me to restore its state from backups, so I have tended to open it enough to check for new items in the feeds I follow, then close it again.

Objective: Get my collection of “links I want to do something about someday” is at least minimally organized to help that.

Goal: In my process of reconsidering and tagging links from my old (main) flat file of bookmarks, which should stand at about 300 by the time this post appears, finish that file off.

It’s currently down to 135.

Development

Most of my software-development efforts need to go towards my training program, but there are a few items I hope to get to in the near future.

Goal: Get my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and the more-user-friendly editing program, to a state I consider sufficiently complete (mostly resolving all of the issues listed here and here, but also improving code quality and writing documentation)
Goal: For the e-commerce project I’ve decided to undertake after some friends described their dissatisfaction with their current provider, implement the first three “features” in the task tracker.
Goal: For the “task monger” project I’m undertaking (primarily for my own use, so I don’t have to fiddle with rearranging lines in a spreadsheet in future months!), implement the basic features in the command-line/pipe interface.

I’m still deep in the training program, so to keep things clear (as well as by necessity because I’ve had so little time and attention to spare) I haven’t done any outside development work.

Poetry Book

These tasks relate to my second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Design a satisfactory cover. (I won’t invalidate this if, on advice of more graphic-design-inclined friends, I decide to make changes later.)
Goal: Write all necessary prose sections for Dreams and Prayers.

I haven’t touched this since before I left.

Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry.
Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, get through at least Psalm 20 (The last one I’ve finished as of this writing is still Psalm 17.)
Goal: Post, or schedule, at least three posts in my “Hymns” series.
Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least one “recently” read book.


Objective: Maintain my “presence” on this blog.

Goal: Write at least two “miscellaneous” blog posts, other than goal-checking and the “Hymns” series.

As you can see by the fact that the most recent post before this one was last quarter’s goals review, I haven’t written or posted a single post here between then and now.

Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least eight scenes into my new draft of The Invasion.

Not a single scene.

Objective: Have a biography, history, description, and “character logline” or “motivation summary” for every named character.
Objective: Create sufficiently-complete, sufficiently-detailed, maps of the worlds and areas with which the Shine Cycle is concerned.
Objective: Develop each race and culture that the Shine Cycle is concerned with sufficiently to portray it distinctly and excite potential readers’ interest.

Blogging

Objective: Regularly post substantive Shine Cycle-related content here, as an incentive to continued progress and to attract interested future readers.
Objective: Create blog posts using “worldbuilding” material created using the various “systems” and question sets.

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Meet the obligations of the training program and whatever employment I am bound to thereafter.
Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: In my critique pass through Peter’s Angel, get through Page 270. (As of this writing, I’m on page 230.)

No progress, I’m afraid.

Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.

I haven’t gotten many letters, but my reply to the one I did get sat half-finished for most of a month. And I still have emails sitting in my Inbox waiting for me to reply to them. Maybe once I finish this post.

Goal: Write keeping-in-touch emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays. In addition to two such friends with dates on which to remember them already past, there are five yet to come this quarter, as well as the most important holiday of the year, which is also one of the two I take as a excuse for keeping in touch.

This I managed to meet.

Goal: Finish the poem for a friend’s birthday, preferably well before the “deadline”

I did finish the poem, though with far less time before the day than I’d intended.

Objective: Revive my spiritual life. (Which, like everything else, does not depend on me … but if I don’t state goals I’ll fall yet further behind.)

Goal: (Re)read at least through the first half of each of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

I made progress, but I’d estimate I’m more like a third of the way through each than half-way.

Objective: Keep up with my goals.

Goal: At the end of the quarter, assess my performance in light of these goals and set new ones for the third quarter.

And here we are.

Third Quarter Goals

Now, for the next quarter. I’m in the final stage of the training program (it having been extended somewhat), but I expect to be interviewing with clients for placement soon (half of my training cohort has already been placed), God willing. As such, God alone knows what my free time is going to be like for the next three months, so I’ve basically copied my goals for the last quarter for this quarter.

Uncluttering

I again leave several of these objectives here as reminders to my future self but set no goals for them because essentially all my papers, all but about ten of my books, my old Bible, and all my magazine and journal issues are still five hundred miles away.

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.
Objective: Reduce my book collection to those I want to keep, and preferably a size I have shelf space for.
Objective: Get all notes I made in the margins of my Bible, which I recently replaced, into a more accessible format.
Objective: Ensure that my collection of magazine and journal issues doesn’t contain any I don’t affirmatively want to keep.

These other objectives, however, are I should be able to make progress on.

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: In listening to recorded sermons that I download and store each week, catch up to the present.
Goal: Bring the backlog of items in my blog reader down its current count of nearly 50,400 (and rising) down to 50,000.


Objective: Get my collection of “links I want to do something about someday” is at least minimally organized to help that.

Goal: In my process of reconsidering and tagging links from my old (main) flat file of bookmarks, which stood at 135 as of this writing, finish that file off.



Development

Most of my software-development efforts need to go towards my training program, but there are a few items I hope to get to in the near future, provided my eventual employer does not claim ownership of any code I produce while working there.

Goal: Get my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and the more-user-friendly editing program, to a state I consider sufficiently complete (mostly resolving all of the issues listed here and here, but also improving code quality and writing documentation)
Goal: For the e-commerce project I’ve decided to undertake, implement the first three “features” in the task tracker.
Goal: For the “task monger” project I’m undertaking (primarily for my own use, so I don’t have to fiddle with rearranging lines in a spreadsheet in future months!), implement the basic features in the command-line/pipe interface.

Poetry Book

These tasks relate to my second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Design a satisfactory cover. (I won’t invalidate this if, on advice of more graphic-design-inclined friends, I decide to make changes later.)
Goal: Write all necessary prose sections for Dreams and Prayers.



Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry.
Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, get through at least Psalm 20 (The last one I’ve finished as of this writing is still Psalm 17.)
Goal: Post, or schedule, at least three posts in my “Hymns” series.
Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least one “recently” read book.


Objective: Maintain my “presence” on this blog.

Goal: Write at least two “miscellaneous” blog posts, other than goal-checking and the “Hymns” series.



Shine Cycle

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least eight scenes into my new draft of The Invasion.


Objective: Have a biography, history, description, and “character logline” or “motivation summary” for every named character.
Objective: Create sufficiently-complete, sufficiently-detailed, maps of the worlds and areas with which the Shine Cycle is concerned.
Objective: Develop each race and culture that the Shine Cycle is concerned with sufficiently to portray it distinctly and excite potential readers’ interest.

Blogging

Objective: Regularly post substantive Shine Cycle-related content here, as an incentive to continued progress and to attract interested future readers.
Objective: Create blog posts using “worldbuilding” material created using the various “systems” and question sets.

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Meet the obligations of the training program and whatever employment I am bound to thereafter.
Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: In my critique pass through Peter’s Angel, get through Page 270. (As of this writing, I’m on page 230.)
Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.
Goal: Write keeping-in-touch emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays. In addition to two such friends with dates on which to remember them already past, there are five yet to come this quarter, as well as the most important holiday of the year, which is also one of the two I take as a excuse for keeping in touch.
Goal: Finish the poem for a friend’s birthday, preferably well before the “deadline”


Objective: Revive my spiritual life. (Which, like everything else, does not depend on me … but if I don’t state goals I’ll fall yet further behind.)

Goal: (Re)read at least through the first half of each of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.


Objective: Keep up with my goals.

Goal: At the end of the quarter, assess my performance in light of these goals and set new ones for the fourth quarter.

And, as I said three months ago, I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

2019 First-Quarter Goals Review

At the end of 2018, after looking back over my performance on my miscellaneous goals for that year, I set goals for the first quarter of this year. And with that quarter now over for more than a week, while I’m so busy lately I have little time to spare, I’ve now taken a few minutes to look back over the first quarter to see how well I managed to keep up with the goals I set.

First Quarter Review

To explain how I am so busy while my plans for the last months fell into disarray, I’ll begin with one objective from the “miscellaneous” section:

Objective: Find paying and meaningful employment.

Goal: Unless success at the objective renders this unnecessary, complete at least 3 skill-training exercises or course sections.

I’ve recently begun a paid training program, to be followed, God willing, by work for one of the company’s clients; this has brought me five hundred miles from home and demands most of my time. And from mid-February until I traveled here my efforts were mostly diverted from my previously-set goals to making preparations for the transition.

Uncluttering

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.

Goal: Type and discard at least two of the (deteriorating-into-smudges) college class notes I rediscovered last year (Oral Rhetoric, Calculus, Discrete Mathematics, and Computer Architecture)

I didn’t get to this, and now won’t for the foreseeable future, because I left those notebooks, with the vast majority of my papers, in storage at home.

Goal: In “paper-clearing” process, finish with previously-skipped packets and consider and deal with all through packet #55 (which is one packet past where I currently stand as of this writing).

No progress here either in this quarter or for the foreseeable future.

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: In listening to recorded sermons that I download and store each week, catch up to at least October 2018. (As of this writing, I’m up to mid-December 2017.)

Met: I’m currently in mid-November 2018.

Objective: Get my collection of “links I want to do something about someday” is at least minimally organized to help that.

Goal: In my process of reconsidering and tagging links from my old (main) flat file of bookmarks, which should stand at about 300 by the time this post appears, finish that file off.

I didn’t quite get there; I’m down under 200 bookmarks, but that’s stalled for the moment.

Objective: Reduce my book collection to those I want to keep, and preferably a size I have shelf space for.

Goal: Sell at least three books I no longer want to Amazon, or elsewhere.

I didn’t meet this, but partly because the initial setup required to be able to do this turned out to be more than I had anticipated.

Goal: Read all books I or my family was given for Christmas or my birthday this year.

I didn’t even come close to this.

Objective: Get all notes I made in the margins of my Bible, which I recently replaced, into a more accessible format.

No progress on this, and I left it on my shelf at home (the space and weight I could bring along being highly limited).

Objective: Ensure that my collection of magazine and journal issues doesn’t contain any I don’t affirmatively want to keep.

No progress on this either, though I left them in a configuration that is less obviously “clutter.”

Development

Goal: Get my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and the more-user-friendly editing program, to a state I consider sufficiently complete (mostly resolving all of the issues listed here and here, but also improving code quality and writing documentation)
Goal: For the e-commerce project I’ve decided to undertake after some friends described their dissatisfaction with their current provider, implement all the basic functionality. (The first seven “features” in my task tracker.)
Goal: For the “task monger” project I’m undertaking (primarily for my own use, so I don’t have to fiddle with rearranging lines in a spreadsheet in future months!), implement the basic features in the command-line/pipe interface.
Goal: For the delayed-camera mobile app project I’m undertaking, implement at least the first couple of features (i.e. the first steps toward the core functionality).

No progress on any of these, and God alone knows when I’ll have time coinciding with alert attention …

Poetry Book

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Design a satisfactory cover. (I won’t invalidate this if, on advice of more graphic-design-inclined friends, I decide to make changes later.)
Goal: Write all necessary prose sections for Dreams and Prayers.
Goal: Develop a plan for releasing and promoting Dreams and Prayers.

No progress here either.

Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry.
Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, get through at least Psalm 20 (The last one I’ve finished as of mid-December 2018 is Psalm 17.)

No progress on either of these.

Goal: Post, or schedule, at least three posts in my “Hymns” series.

I managed one.

Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least one “recently” read book.

No progress here.

Objective: Maintain my “presence” on this blog.

Goal: Write at least two “miscellaneous” blog posts, other than goal-checking and the “Hymns” series.

I’m mildly surprised to see that I met this, at least until I see why (Ash Wednesday and my birthday are two occasions I usually manage at least something for).

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: In my critique pass through Peter’s Angel, get through Page 270. (As of this writing, I’m on page 230.)

I managed a couple of pages, but no further.

Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within three weeks, including thank-you letters for Christmas and birthday presents.

I managed a few, but not even most, let alone all.

Goal: Write keeping-in-touch emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays. There are three such friends with birthdays or anniversaries in the first quarter.

This, however, I did manage to meet exactly.

Goal: Write the poem I plan to write for a friend’s birthday, so as to have it done well before the “deadline” (which is in the second quarter)

I’ve begun this, but haven’t finished yet.

Objective: Revive my spiritual life. (Which, like everything else, does not depend on me … but if I don’t state goals I’ll fall yet further behind.)

Goal: (Re)read at least the first quarter of each of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

I don’t think I’m quite to “the first quarter,” but I don’t think I’m quite as far behind as usual …

Objective: Keep up with my goals.

Goal: At the end of the quarter, assess my performance in light of these goals and set new ones for the second quarter.

This is a little late, but here it is.

Shine Cycle

I’ll also cover my (utter lack of) progress on the goals I set relating to the Shine Cycle here, rather than making a separate post.

I had been putting off working on the Shine Cycle until other more pressing tasks (such as thank-you letters) were complete, and then the response to my application for the paid-training program came in mid-February to throw my plans into utter disarray. (As I wrote at the time, “God willing, I should be able to meet most of these unless he decides to upend my life with some disruption or surprise,” and this was both a disruption and a surprise.) In the end, I completed quite literally nothing towards either my sole Shine Cycle-related goal for the quarter or any of the other objectives. But I quote them here for the record:

Outlining and Plotting

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least twenty scenes into my new draft of The Invasion.

Character Development

Objective: Have a biography, history, description, and “character logline” or “motivation summary” for every named character.

Worldbuilding

Objective: Create sufficiently-complete, sufficiently-detailed, maps of the worlds and areas with which the Shine Cycle is concerned.
Objective: Develop each race and culture that the Shine Cycle is concerned with sufficiently to portray it distinctly and excite potential readers’ interest.

Blogging

Objective: Regularly post substantive Shine Cycle-related content here, as an incentive to continued progress and to attract interested future readers.
Objective: Create blog posts using “worldbuilding” material created using the various “systems” and question sets.

Second Quarter Goals

Now, for the next quarter. Since I expect my training program here to run me ragged while it lasts, with maybe some respite from the workload thereafter, I’ve cut the next few months’ “plan” in my task queue back even more significantly than before. I’ve organized them under the same headings as I did for the quarter now past; as usual, by “objective” I mean a long-term, broad goal that I want to reach (which may be merely mentioned here as a reminder to myself in future goal-setting if there are no “goals” beneath it), while by “goal” I mean a long-term goal against which my progress can be measured, that I think I can meet in this time interval, and I use the phrase “stretch goal” to mean a goal (in that sense) which I am doubtful I can accomplish in this period, but still felt was worth mentioning.

Here are the goals that I think I may, God willing, be able to meet, and the long-term objectives I have identified for myself.

Uncluttering

A few of these objectives are ones I leave here as reminders to my future self but have set no goals for because I have left essentially all my papers, all but about ten of my books, my old Bible, and all my magazine and journal issues behind, five hundred miles away.

Objective: Get rid of as much paper clutter as possible without throwing away any information that I will later wish I had kept.
Objective: Reduce my book collection to those I want to keep, and preferably a size I have shelf space for.
Objective: Get all notes I made in the margins of my Bible, which I recently replaced, into a more accessible format.
Objective: Ensure that my collection of magazine and journal issues doesn’t contain any I don’t affirmatively want to keep.

The other objectives here, however, are ones I could make progress on.

Objective: Clear out, without a “mass discard-unread,” my “digital backlog.”

Goal: In listening to recorded sermons that I download and store each week, catch up to the present.
Goal: Bring the backlog of items in my blog reader down its current count of nearly 49,500 (and rising) down to 49,000.


Objective: Get my collection of “links I want to do something about someday” is at least minimally organized to help that.

Goal: In my process of reconsidering and tagging links from my old (main) flat file of bookmarks, which should stand at about 300 by the time this post appears, finish that file off.



Development

Most of my software-development efforts need to go towards my training program, but there are a few items I hope to get to in the near future.

Goal: Get my package for Scottish Country Dance ball programs, and the more-user-friendly editing program, to a state I consider sufficiently complete (mostly resolving all of the issues listed here and here, but also improving code quality and writing documentation)
Goal: For the e-commerce project I’ve decided to undertake after some friends described their dissatisfaction with their current provider, implement the first three “features” in the task tracker.
Goal: For the “task monger” project I’m undertaking (primarily for my own use, so I don’t have to fiddle with rearranging lines in a spreadsheet in future months!), implement the basic features in the command-line/pipe interface.

Poetry Book

These tasks relate to my second poetry collection, Dreams and Prayers: Verses from a Wandering Mind, which has been in the works for a few years now.

Objective: Have Dreams and Prayers ready for publication.

Goal: Design a satisfactory cover. (I won’t invalidate this if, on advice of more graphic-design-inclined friends, I decide to make changes later.)
Goal: Write all necessary prose sections for Dreams and Prayers.



Writing and Blogging

Objective: Either finish or discard all “essay ideas,” fragmentary poems, and the like that are cluttering up my files.

Goal: Finish the second entry in my planned series on , on using it for poetry.
Goal: In my series of blank-verse Psalm settings, get through at least Psalm 20 (The last one I’ve finished as of this writing is still Psalm 17.)
Goal: Post, or schedule, at least three posts in my “Hymns” series.
Goal: Write (in content intended for this blog) a review of at least one “recently” read book.


Objective: Maintain my “presence” on this blog.

Goal: Write at least two “miscellaneous” blog posts, other than goal-checking and the “Hymns” series.



Shine Cycle

For the Shine Cycle, I am scaling my ambitions back even further than the other categories, but I’m leaving the objectives listed for future reference.

Objective: Finish a presentable draft of The Invasion.

Goal: Get at least eight scenes into my new draft of The Invasion.


Objective: Have a biography, history, description, and “character logline” or “motivation summary” for every named character.
Objective: Create sufficiently-complete, sufficiently-detailed, maps of the worlds and areas with which the Shine Cycle is concerned.
Objective: Develop each race and culture that the Shine Cycle is concerned with sufficiently to portray it distinctly and excite potential readers’ interest.

Blogging

Objective: Regularly post substantive Shine Cycle-related content here, as an incentive to continued progress and to attract interested future readers.
Objective: Create blog posts using “worldbuilding” material created using the various “systems” and question sets.

Life and Miscellaneous

Objective: Meet the obligations of the training program and whatever employment I am bound to thereafter.
Objective: Keep up with what I have promised, or am otherwise morally bound, to write. (“Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence.”)

Goal: In my critique pass through Peter’s Angel, get through Page 270. (As of this writing, I’m on page 230.)
Goal: Respond to each letter or email that needs a response within two weeks.
Goal: Write keeping-in-touch emails to my short list of particular correspondents on their birthdays and anniversaries and the most important holidays. In addition to two such friends with dates on which to remember them already past, there are five yet to come this quarter, as well as the most important holiday of the year, which is also one of the two I take as a excuse for keeping in touch.
Goal: Finish the poem for a friend’s birthday, preferably well before the “deadline”


Objective: Revive my spiritual life. (Which, like everything else, does not depend on me … but if I don’t state goals I’ll fall yet further behind.)

Goal: (Re)read at least through the first half of each of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.


Objective: Keep up with my goals.

Goal: At the end of the quarter, assess my performance in light of these goals and set new ones for the third quarter.

(What else am I forgetting …?)