Day 114 Project

Back in September, I posted about DayZeroProject.com, a website that is useful for setting and tracking your goals. Although I haven't posted much about it lately, I have still been doing it. I thought I'd give a brief update. You can follow along with my list at https://dayzeroproject.com/user/beckeram/list/155774.

Goals I completed in 2019:

• Go to a haunted house
• I started writing a blog post about this. I'll probably get around to posting it at some point, though it won't be topical anymore.
• Go to a renaissance fair
• Ditto
• Go skydiving
• I did write a blog post about this, so I won't go into detail here.
• Build a blanket fort
• This one was fun. Makenna and I went back to our childhood by making a fort and stocking it with books, games, legos, and a TV. 

It's kinda hard to see, because it took up most of the room. But it was sweet.

• Start a blog
• Well, here it is.
• Buy a new suit
• It was...expensive. But now at least I don't have to go to weddings in my old, worn dress clothes.

Here I am in what's left of my suit.

• Create and maintain a budget
• Well, I created it. The maintaining has been a bit difficult to do, but now I have data from four months on what I spent money on, so I can adjust my budget to better reflect that.
• Talk to a therapist
• I took the plunge, and it wasn't as bad as I had feared. My guy's name is Taylor and he plays Magic more than I do, so we've connected on that point. Although it has been helping, I haven't felt like it's enough, so now I have an appointment to see a doctor about getting antidepressants.
• Learn to DM and run a campaign
• This is something I tried to do years ago with a Mistborn RPG and I had no idea what I was doing. It was rough and we only played once because I was too timid to figure out where we were going. Now I've run three sessions of a D&D campaign in a world I designed and I'm very happy with the story and world. Although our schedules changed a bit, hopefully we can continue meeting this semester.

The DM screen Kelsey got me for Christmas

At this point, I have completed nine of my goals in four months. That's a little low. Mathematically, I need to complete one every ten days (or three per month) to finish on time. However, I have also started the process of completing many others goals, so I'm really not as behind as it might seem.

I sat down and planned out which goals I would like to complete this year. There are 32 of them. Between these, the ongoing ones that I will continue working on, and whatever goal I decide to do on a given day because I have the time, this should be a good number to stay on track. Here are the 32:

• Publish a game
• This is one of my loftier ones. My goal is to have a workable game by June, then spend the summer months marketing it. My brothers and I might be headed toward making a game company, so self-published on Kickstarter is also an option. This is eventually the career I want to go into, so setting these goals is important.
• Write a song for Makenna
• While I haven't written a song in a while, it has long been a goal of mine to write one for Makenna. Something both classy and sweet.
• Create family tree
• Last semester Makenna and I attended a genealogy seminar. This is something we have both been interested in for a while. And though I have made a family tree that goes back several generations, I want to fill it out more and prove the family relationships using firsthand data.
• Record family history
• Going along with the family tree. My late Grandma Rinehart was very into genealogy and had lots of information and documents that she left to my Uncle Rick, who is also interested. My goal is to both help Rick sort the multitude of documents and also interview family members to get some fun family stories.
• Create a conlang
• A conlang (short for constructed language) is any language created intentionally over a short period of time, as opposed to a naturally-developed language. Think klingon or esperanto. It's a fun hobby.

Something I've been working on.

• Blind solve a Rubik's cube in 10 minutes
• I have actually done a blind solve before, but it took so long as to not be very showy or impressive. I'd like to speed that up. The hard part is remembering the location of each piece.
• Finish my custom MTG set
• Another game design goal, not something I can monetize but something fun that I've been working on for like seven years. And it can at least go in my design portfolio.
• Make a comprehensive list of music I like
• This one is a bit of a trap. I don't think it's even possible to remember every song I like, but the idea is that when I do think of one, I add it to the list. Once I make a concerted effort to go through all my music and organize the list better, I'll probably check this one off.
• Explore an abandoned building
• There's a ghost town in Indiana, just a short drive north of where I live. I've been trying to go for a while, but it just hasn't been a good time. Soon, though.
• Watch a meteor shower
• For all my interest in space, I have never actually seen a meteor shower. They happen all throughout the year, though, so with planning, it should be simple enough.
• Keep in touch with friends and family
• This one is hard for me. I probably need to make a schedule of who I'm gonna contact when.
• Make a list of birthdays and anniversaries
• Important days tend to sneak up on me. I'd like to be at least on top of things enough to say happy birthday.
• Surprise Makenna with dinner
• I like to cook, but first you have to decide what you're cooking, then you have to go grocery shopping, then you can finally cook, but then there are dishes after. It's an ordeal.
• Take my parents out to dinner
• Just to spend some quality time with them. I took my dad to lunch a couple months ago, but I still need to get my mom.
• Change my signature
• Just enough to make it something I like. I've got a good start, but I need to tighten it down more.

• Decorate with photos of friends
• I love good pictures of me with people I love. I keep meaning to print out a bunch and hang them around my room, but I haven't done so yet.
• Find a new band
• Just to keep branching out.
• Find a new hobby
• I like to try new things.
• Get a bike
• Biking is both exercise and a good stress reliever for me. It also helps me think. I have a friend who has a bike for me, but I need to go pick it up.
• Get a new wallet

Enough said

• Learn fingerstyle
• That is, playing guitar prettier than I know how to play.
• Learn to create karaoke tracks
• So that I can make song parodies, my seventh favorite pastime.
• Learn to invest
• The sooner I do this, the more money my money will be making me. I just need to take the time to figure out how to do it smart.
• Learn to whistle
• I've never been able to whistle, but I'm sure I can learn in time. I've been working on this whenever I'm driving or walking around. I've made some real progress. My goal is to be able to whistle tunes.
• Buy a car
• Mine has never been the same since a deer jumped in front of me. It's time to move on.
• Revamp my wardrobe
• I have way too many shirts and way too few pants that fit. Among other problems.
• Exercise regularly
• I did this a couple times last semester. On Wednesday, I got my membership so I will be working out three times per week starting on Monday.
• Get rid of 100 things
• I've got too much stuff, man.
• Make a comprehensive schedule
• I talked about this in my post from Monday this week. I am almost done.
• Open a savings account
• Like investing, I should have done this years ago.
• Visit Kelly
• I have never gone to visit my sister in Ohio, in the six years she's been living there. She doesn't live that far. Come on, Andrew.
• Visit New York City
• I love to travel, but it's the hardest thing on my list to accomplish. Between my responsibilities here and the barrier of having never made my own travel plans (for anything bigger than a weekend trip), it's difficult to actually go. But I need to start somewhere. New York's not that far, so it should be a good place to start.

I know that was quite the mouthful. Props if you read the whole post. These are my goals for this year. It's a lot, but I believe it is attainable. And even if I don't complete something, there's always next year.

Updates as I check these off the list.