Maxi Danger Uncut

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Goal Tracking - Apr '11 Status Report

This post is a little belated, however better late than never. Overall April was 'meh', doing well with the health and fitness, however again work seems to be dominating. Highlight was hitting up Groovin The Moo, a music festival in Bendigo. Music festivals are the way forward, think I'd like to go to the Blues and Roots Festival in Byron next year.


Goal Category 3 Month Trend
Feb Mar Apr
Writing -
Reading
Listening -
Saving -
Contributing
Healthing and Fitnessing
Work/Life Balancing -


  • Writing: Amber (static). One post in April - last months review. Just scraping through. However I did post a few comments on the facey, including this: 'she stole my heart with a slice of margherita..', about the girl in the pizza shop who gave me a free slice of pizza when I popped in for a snack on the way home from a night out. Going to have to re-visit that pizza shop...
  • Reading: Amber (down). Only one book read this month. Trying to get through Hamlet, which is pretty difficult. However did read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which I would have to say is the best book I've read this year.
  • Listening: Green (static). Smashed it this month by going to Groovin' The Moo up in Bendi. Good day out, saw Horror Show, Architecture in Helsinki, Bliss n Eso, Birds of Tokyo and Drapht. Caught a little bit of the Wombats as well. Would have to say BoT was the pick, although my enjoyment of each band could be directly correlated to how close to the stage we were - probably was standing a little far back to really get into the Bliss n Eso performance which was a bit of a shame. Gig count ahead of schedule at 8, progressing along to the target of 15 very nicely.
  • Save: Red (static from red last month). Have to mark this one as red again, as I didn't get around to doing a rough budget this month. I still saved some cash but it's not really planned so need to work on this.
  • Contribution: Amber (up from red last month). Didn't do a lot, however I did complete the Run For The Kids, entry fee goes to the Royal Children's. Think I need to put a bit of focus on this one, can't honestly say that I'm making any tangible impact on improving the world around me at all.
  • Health and Fitness: Green (up). April was good on the health and fitness front, mainly due to competing in the 14.4km Run For The Kids. Punched it out in 1:07:13 (4:40 min k's) which I'm pretty happy with. Great day for it, it's an interesting run, through the Domain Tunnel and Over The Bolte Bridge. Some pretty sweet views from the top of the bridge, it's also pretty fun running with like 30,000 other people. Clocked up about 50km's on the road during April which is a good base to start building from. Also still on track with my AFD's vs NAFD's which is good, can perhaps get to the gym a little more in May.
  • Work-Life Balance: Red (static). Still getting crushed at work. I do have to admit that work isn't ballistic all the time, and I'm pretty lucky to have a decent job/boss, with the freedom to go out for coffee's etc in the mornings with the work crew, and it's not like I'm working through lunch everyday. However, feel like I'm not getting ahead - the number of work requests coming in is slightly higher than the number I'm closing out, so it just mounts up all the time. Have been working a few late nights/weekends, so perhaps I need to work on some strategies to deal with this or something. Maybe I'm making more out of this than I should, it's probably not that bad. But either way, I've got flights booked to Vietnam next Saturday, going across to visit JD for a week, so having some time off in May should be an excellent remedy. Can't fucken' wait!

Books I've Read in 2011



  • The Life of Pi, Yann Martel (Nov). Ok.
  • 100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Oct). Good.
  • Dune, Frank Herbert (June). Good.
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey. Excellent. Best book I've read this year. (Apr).
  • Saturday, Ian McEwan. Ok to Good. Little bit overrated in my opinion. (Mar).
  • The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort. Lame. (Mar).
  • Heart Stopper, Joy Fielding. Rubbish. (Feb).
  • Jasper Jones, Craig Silver. Good (Feb).

Books I'd Like To Read



  • Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster. Actually a kids book but heaps of people list it as their favourite book so would like to check it out.
  • The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein
  • The Stranger, Albert Camus
  • Dune, Frank Herbert
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Redwall, Bryan Jacques
  • Zen and The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M Pirsig
  • Snow Crash, Neal Stephensen
  • Lamb: The Gospel of Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
  • Ishmael, David Quinn
Most of these taken from this reddit question post (minus the ones I've already read).