Catch Up (Take Two)

Hmmm...playing catch up again. Maybe one of my goals should have been "keep Touriste halfway up to date"...

Anyway, on to the news!
1) French Praxis. I'm signed up to re-take the test on April 25th (I believe, or whatever date that Saturday is). Hopefully I can get those few extra points I'll need to pass in both states this time.

9) Submissions. I've submitted a total of 8 times so far, with 5 rejections. The other three are still out. Should be hearing from them soon though!

16) 101 new foods. I've had at least three new foods off the top of my head, all thanks to my Cultural Diversity class. One was a strange mixture of pork, beans, and various fruit (I remember oranges and pineapple off the top of my head). It tasted as strange as it sounds! I also tried a maple syrup pie and this Thai rice with some kind of tasty yellow spice in it. I've forgotten what the spice was called, but it's supposedly really common in Thai cooking. I usually don't like hot foods, but this one had a really slow burn to it that I enjoyed.

24 and 25) Hugo and Nebula novels. I just finished reading Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold, which won both the Hugo and the Nebula in 2004. Woot woot for double dipping! One sentence review: I like it, though I have no idea why. To expand: I spent quite a bit of time asking myself, "Why am I still reading?"; most of the time, I had no answer, but didn't want to put the book down. The plot meanders and relies on accidents - for example, the first few chapters are nothing more than Ista, the main character, getting bored and deciding to go on a quest. No monster to slay, no royal/devine order to carry out, just...boredom. She goes off and spends several more chapters wandering the countryside, looking for something to do, before a chance encounter gives us the first taste of any real plot. Yet I wanted to keep reading and was, for the most part, completely pulled into the story.
How did Paladin manage this? My best guess is through the characters. Ista and her friends feel a little bit like stock characters to me - the young, playful soldiers/guards; the older, cynical, "only I know the truth" woman; the kind-hearted but bumbling priest - yet Bujold manages to make them come alive on paper. Yes, there was a little voice in the back of my head saying, "Hey, Ista seems like a stock character" but for the most part, it was easily ignored. If I'm being honest, I don't mind authors using stock characters, as long as they have individual traits as well, which Bujold pulls off without a hitch.
Next on the list: The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon (Hugo and Nebula winner for 2007)

83) My filing cabinet is about halfway up now! All my writing files have been moved in and organized (and how much happier they are now that they can breath!) but I still have quite a few papers, mostly foreign language resources, to add to the bottom half of the cabinet. Yeah, I wish they didn't have to share too, but I don't have enough files yet to support the expense of buying a second cabinet. Maybe after I outgrow this one.

And that's actually all I have for you right now. I'd better get cracking in April, eh?

9) Submissions

Heard back from Poetry Magazine - rejected. But that's okay; my poem simply wasn't meant for their pages. I re-subbed a different poem to Poetry and re-subbed the rejected poem out to AGNI and West Branch. So, 3 more for my tally, and hopefully an acceptance somewhere in the batch!

16) 101 New Foods

Well! New food number 3! Today I ate a kiwi for the first time. Yes, seriously. I'd never eaten a kiwi my entire adult life, but they were on sale at the grocery store today so I picked one up. It wasn't bad - very citrus-y. I'm not sure it's my absolute favorite, but I will certainly eat more in the future.

9) Submissions and 88) Dates

Two more submissions today! I now have poetry out at Tin House and A Public Space. *crosses all her fingers and toes*

While I'm updating, my boyfriend and I went out to Fazoli's for dinner last night. It was good food, affordable, and we had some great conversation, so I'm counting it as a March date :) It was so nice out yesterday and today! Here's to hoping spring will stay this time (instead of bowing out and dumping several more inches of snow on us like it did last week...)

Catch Up!

Wow! I can't believe I've been gone this long. Time to play catch up:

1) Pass my French Praxis. I finally got my scores back and I only half-completed this goal: I passed in one state but not in the other (living on the state line, I was hoping to pass in both states). So I'm going to re-take it and leave this one as "in progress"

11) Review and study my Japanese to a third-semester level. I've been going back through my first year textbook and I'm doing well! I just finished chapter 2 (which would be a third of the way through first semester) so I'm right on track. Moved to "in progress".

12) Finish a self-study book in Arabic. I haven't had the extra money to buy a book yet, but I have been listening to some beginning Arabic podcasts. I can't technically move this to "in progess", but at least I'm getting somewhere with my Arabic.

16) Cook/eat 101 things I've never had before. One of my profs is Mexican-American, and he brought in some kind of spicy...I think they were garbanzo beans, but I'm not sure. They were really spicy, far too spicy for my tastes, but I tried them! Super adventurous? Not really. New? Absolutely. It counts!

28) Write 1,725,000 words of original fiction. Yes, I have worked on this. No, I have no idea what my total word count is at. I need a far better way to keep track of this.

35) Beat Tale of Genji and FFX. I started a new Genji game and I'm almost done with the first chapter. Woohoo! Yoshitsune rocks! Moved to "in progress".

41) Get my hair done at least once every 4 months. I had an appointment for last Monday, but my hairdresser called in sick, so I moved it to this afternoon. In a few hours, I'll be able to move this one to "in progress" as well!

43) Grow an apple tree from seed. Pot? Check. Soil? Check. Apple seed from lunch? Check. Tree? We'll label this one "in progress" for now.

56) Make pizza instead of getting delivery. Last Saturday, I made two pizzas from scratch. Dough and everything. It was so good, we made a new house rule: try to keep a supply of homemade pizza dough in the fridge at all times. COMPLETE!

87) Paint my nails once every month or so. I just did my nails yesterday. Which is technically late for this goal: I missed February. I'm giving myself leeway with the "every month or so" wording (yes, I had said it that way before I missed February). I'll just paint them again at the end of March to catch up.

88) Take my boyfriend on an actual date at least once a month. Perhaps it's cheating, but we did go out to dinner for Valentine's Day. I'm counting it!

Whew! It's the beginning of March and I have 3 goals down for a total of 2.97% complete and more in progess than I had a month ago; February progress feels a little slow, but I have pleanty of time. I'll just have to work a little harder in March, eh?

16) Try 101 new foods

Mark one for number 16! One of my dad's co-workers gave us this recipe for a chicken and rice dish from Peru. It turned out dry and a little bland, but we're pretty sure we didn't use enough spices - the recipe didn't have any measurements. For example, we had to add "a ton of yellow chili powder". Live and learn, right?

Today is February 1st! Which, of course, marks the passing of the first month of my adventure. Two goals down and a 1.98% completion rate, with many, many more in progress? Fantastic! I'm looking forward to see what Month 2 will bring to the table :)

9 (submissions), 87 (nails), and other updates/edits

I feel kinda behind - there's quite a bit to be updated, honestly! Some of the things I have to update, I still have to double check (for example, I still have to re-add up my word count to update number 28) but I can tell you, I sent out a sub last night to Poetry Magazine, so there's my first tally for goal number 9. I also painted my nails a beautiful deep blue - well, I got my mom to do it since I have a hard time painting my own - earlier this week, so there's a tally for number 87 too!

Also, a few more edits super fast. I'm clarifying goal number 9 to include poetry submissions, and cutting back on goal number 45 (take my medicine every day). Why? Well, I can't remember if I took my medicine yesterday, which normally means I didn't. Frankly, I don't want to fail after the 1,001 days just because I missed a single day, so I'm changing it to every day for a month (defined as 31 days to make me feel better). Why a month? I read somewhere that if you do something every single day for a month, that's how it becomes a habit, and that was really the point of that goal anyway. Am I cheating? Perhaps. But I'm doing it anyway!

6 (Shoes) and 95 (Two New Hats)

Woohoo! My boyfriend and I hit the malls today to take advantage of some of the great sales. Among a few extra things I picked up for work/school, I bought a pair of black peeptoe heels - knock another color off #6! - and two new hats. I actually didn't think about the hats being on my list until I was standing in front of the mirror trying to figure out which one of the two hats I should buy. My boyfriend helped me out by buying one of them, since I had spent some money on the other sales, but I'm still counting it as completed since I have two new hats, and that is the basic idea behind the goal. Besides, I'm sure I'll buy another hat at some point in the next...900 whatever days.

And with that, I've now completed two goals; my list is 1.98% complete! For only being the 17th day, I think that's pretty darn good. I'm happy with it, at least.

I think it would make the blog more interesting if I posted some pictures. So expect some photos of the new hats and new shoes in the next day or so.

81 (LotR movies) and 23 (savings)

Well! Cross number 81 off my list! My boyfriend and I watched all three LotR movies yesterday back to back (to back) with only a short break inbetween Fellowship and Two Towers for food. There were some issues with the DVD player not wanting to finish the second disc of Return, but we switched players and made it all the way through, finishing precisely at midnight.

I've also gone through my list and edited it slightly to make things more specific. I realized that entries like "Maintain and improve my French" couldn't really be verified, so I tried to make them as concrete as possible. All edits are, as usual, shown on the side bar and not in the list in the first post.

And with the LotR movies off the list, I've now completed 1 of my 101 things, bringing my completion percentage to 0.99%! Hmmm...that sounded much better when I said, "hey, I completed one of them already!"

I also put a quarter in my "house savings" fund today. Why only a quarter? Well, it was my change from lunch and I wanted to put something else in italics. So there!

Total fiction word count (minus some in a notebook that I haven't counted yet): 2,889 words

1) Pass my French Praxis

I took my Praxis 2 test today! I think I did alright, but I'm not sure about passing. I need a 166 to pass based on the state I live in, and it only goes up to 200. Not having taken the test before, I'm not sure exactly how good is good enough, you know? But I'll find out in four weeks...

6) Own a pair of shoes in every color!

Well, today my shoe order came in! I tried a new website - 6pm.com - and had been waiting quite impatiently for the delivery. Honestly? I still prefer Zappos in almost every aspect, but 6pm has much better prices for my budget. I got $50 for Christmas for new shoes, so I thought this was a good a time as any to try them.

Thankfully, both pairs I ordered fit quite well (unlike the wonderfully kind Zappos, 6pm makes you pay basically $7 for shipping - and then another $7 for returns). Which also means I can mark off some of my colors for goal #6 - woohoo! I have one beautiful pair of flats from Diba in a golden yellow color, and the other...well, I'm not sure if I can mark it off. See, they're multicolored, and there really isn't a "main" color. They have some white, some blue, some brown, and some yellow...I should have made a slot for multicolored!

Total word count for the novel: 3,392 words (+2,761 words today)

66 (Granddad), 88 (dates with my boy), and more 33 (knitting)

This last weekend, I made a trip back to my parents' hometown, and spent some time at granddad's gravesite (number 66 on my list). We got him a new American flag, which looked very nice. It was just in time too, since the old one was so faded you could hardly see it anymore.

I've gotten quite a bit of knitting done so far as well. All the car ride, time waiting for everyone to get packed and so forth...I'd guess the knitted section is maybe 12" by 16" already? That's pretty good for slow little ol' me...

Additionally, before we left, my boyfriend and I had a nice night out with a friend of mine. She was in town for a short amount of time before heading back out of state, so it was great to see her again. We went bowling and played two games before heading out for dinner, coffee, and great conversation! My boyfriend said it counted as a date, so I'm marking it on the list for January.

10 (Hogan's) and 33 (Knitting)

Well, another Hogan's DVD down. I have now officially completed all of season three - already halfway through the series. Though it looks like I'll get to mark this one off pretty early, I still wish the series had lasted longer. Ah, well, it's still wonderful!

I've also started work on my first knitting project! I'm using a giant ball of blue and white yarn I bought on clearance a year or two back to make a blanket of some kind. I say, "of some kind", because I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I might keep it, or I'm thinking about giving it away to a charity of some kind. I can think of two off the top of my head that are always looking for blankets - Wayside Waifs, a local animal shelter, and Project Linus, which gives homemade blankets to hospitalized children. I think Project Warmth also takes blankets, but I'm not sure, and I think they only collect in December. I'll make up my mind by time it's done, I'm sure.

28) Write 1,725,000 words of original fiction

Well! With a few minutes left in January 1st, 2009, I managed to get started on one of my goals, writing a grand total of 63 additional words on my novel. True, it's not a lot, but it feels good to get started!

Novel word count: 631 words.