I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't pay much attention to, well, anything at all, really, in 2013. Among the many, many things I wasn't giving anywhere near enough attention to was money.
This is, sadly, not something unique to 2013.
I do, as a general rule, ignore anything with maths involved. Accounts and finances doubly so.
As a result, it appears I've been haemorrhaging money over the past few years.
I've been living with my family since returning to Townsville (primarily because I stayed to help take care of my grandmother and I've been too lazy to change my circumstances since my grandmother died), and I've had the perfect opportunity to save up some money. But I haven't.
I worked out the other day that I've been in a situation where I could have easily put aside $30,000 a year for the past five or six years - if I'd just bothered paying attention.
Sure, there have been a couple of overseas holidays, a new car, a couple of degrees and a few new hobbies thrown into the mix to put a drain on the bank account... but I'm still about $150,000 worse off than I need to be, and I can't adequately account for what I've spent that money on.
I expect I've largely squandered it on magazines. Also books, comics, DVDs, coffee, novelty T-shirts, random pieces of camping equipment that I've never used (why? God only knows), but mainly magazines. Those things are expensive, but I find I rarely walk past a news agency without being drawn in to look at the shiny pages.
Anyway, I've decided that 150K is a lot of money to not have in my bank account and not have anything to show for it.
I've decided that 2014 shall be my year of a) paying attention to what I spend my money on, and b) spending less of it.
I've set myself a challenge of living off an allowance, rather than buying whatever I feel like on random occasions, and seeing how much I can save. I'm hoping for over 35K. We'll see.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
Well, that's just sad
My baseball team (the one I support in the ABL, not one I play for) has recently put this in a news post:
"In the last series of the year, the Bandits are up against Canberra in the hopes of eliminating the Cavalry from the playoff race over the final weekend of the regular season."
We're at the bottom of the ladder, and so resigned to being there that our greatest hope is to make life miserable for some other team.
Not: "hey, let's see if we can end with a win!" but rather: "hey, let's see if we can spoil Canberra's chances of making the playoffs!"
Which is something I find particularly depressing, as Canberra is the team I'm likely to be barracking for in the post season.
Do we even have a post season in Australia?
Anyway, buck up Brisbane Bandits. And show a touch of sportsmanship.
"In the last series of the year, the Bandits are up against Canberra in the hopes of eliminating the Cavalry from the playoff race over the final weekend of the regular season."
We're at the bottom of the ladder, and so resigned to being there that our greatest hope is to make life miserable for some other team.
Not: "hey, let's see if we can end with a win!" but rather: "hey, let's see if we can spoil Canberra's chances of making the playoffs!"
Which is something I find particularly depressing, as Canberra is the team I'm likely to be barracking for in the post season.
Do we even have a post season in Australia?
Anyway, buck up Brisbane Bandits. And show a touch of sportsmanship.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
2013/2014 Pt3: Keeping myself amused
Theoretically I suppose I could have included reflection on language learning in the post on studies, but since this is what I do for fun, I figured it deserved to be in a post about things I do for fun.
My Estonian and German studies both suffered a little last year. After having a cracker of a year in 2012 - which had a great virtuous circle relationship with a trip to Europe in which I spent two weeks in Estonia and two-and-a-bit weeks in German speaking countries (plus a week and a bit in Italian speaking countries, but I'm not learning Italian, so that doesn't count), 2013 was a but of a bust.
I kept my hand in with Estonian by having a lesson once a month (which is not as useful as having one once a week), but for various reasons I couldn't take any German language subjects in my studies, so it was up to me to keep studying things like grammar and such... without an external reminder... while being busy with other subjects...
And, well, good intentions do not always translate to actually doing useful things. I spent the whole year totally going to do some German studies this week. Occasionally I actually started a module, which I was totally going to finish by the end of the week...
And then it was 2014.
It's been one of those years. One minute it's April, and there's something I want to do tomorrow, the next minute it's October, and I can't quite tell you what I did with the days in the middle.
What I did do, and found that helped me keep me slightly in the loop with my German, was start learning Esperanto.
In German.
Just in case you've missed it the last few times I mentioned it: I've been learning Esperanto in German.
I have German books on Esperanto, and I've been using a couple of programmes like Kurso and Lernu, which I've set to German. I haven't been doing as much with these resources as I'd need to in order to actually have a useful knowledge of the language (considering I've been doing this for a few months, and I should totally be able to go to a congress or something by now), but it's been getting me to use German to achieve some goal or purpose, which is supposed to be good for your language learning.
Plus, as an added bonus, I'm learning Esperanto. Why? Well, that's a topic for a later post.
My goals for 2014 are to brush up on my German enough to pass my course (going back to the studies bit), but to also try to find a way to have more useful German based stuff. I haven't worked out the details of this plan, so I suspect it will fail.
I'm going to endeavour to gain more "contact time" with Estonian. I actually have a plan for this one: I'm going to read something involving Estonian words every night (if possible) and watch at least one eesti keeles TV programme or Movie a month.
Actually, I suspect the same plan could probably work for German.
And I'm going to learn Esperanto well enough to feel I wouldn't be wasting my time if I went to a congress or tagged along to a meet up group.
Once again, the overall goal is to be a bit better.
And - on a completely different note - I'm going to try to get away more this year. To put some of my annual leave towards things like camping and such. I was too much here last year. This year I'm going to spend some time elsewhere.
My Estonian and German studies both suffered a little last year. After having a cracker of a year in 2012 - which had a great virtuous circle relationship with a trip to Europe in which I spent two weeks in Estonia and two-and-a-bit weeks in German speaking countries (plus a week and a bit in Italian speaking countries, but I'm not learning Italian, so that doesn't count), 2013 was a but of a bust.
I kept my hand in with Estonian by having a lesson once a month (which is not as useful as having one once a week), but for various reasons I couldn't take any German language subjects in my studies, so it was up to me to keep studying things like grammar and such... without an external reminder... while being busy with other subjects...
And, well, good intentions do not always translate to actually doing useful things. I spent the whole year totally going to do some German studies this week. Occasionally I actually started a module, which I was totally going to finish by the end of the week...
And then it was 2014.
It's been one of those years. One minute it's April, and there's something I want to do tomorrow, the next minute it's October, and I can't quite tell you what I did with the days in the middle.
What I did do, and found that helped me keep me slightly in the loop with my German, was start learning Esperanto.
In German.
Just in case you've missed it the last few times I mentioned it: I've been learning Esperanto in German.
I have German books on Esperanto, and I've been using a couple of programmes like Kurso and Lernu, which I've set to German. I haven't been doing as much with these resources as I'd need to in order to actually have a useful knowledge of the language (considering I've been doing this for a few months, and I should totally be able to go to a congress or something by now), but it's been getting me to use German to achieve some goal or purpose, which is supposed to be good for your language learning.
Plus, as an added bonus, I'm learning Esperanto. Why? Well, that's a topic for a later post.
My goals for 2014 are to brush up on my German enough to pass my course (going back to the studies bit), but to also try to find a way to have more useful German based stuff. I haven't worked out the details of this plan, so I suspect it will fail.
I'm going to endeavour to gain more "contact time" with Estonian. I actually have a plan for this one: I'm going to read something involving Estonian words every night (if possible) and watch at least one eesti keeles TV programme or Movie a month.
Actually, I suspect the same plan could probably work for German.
And I'm going to learn Esperanto well enough to feel I wouldn't be wasting my time if I went to a congress or tagged along to a meet up group.
Once again, the overall goal is to be a bit better.
And - on a completely different note - I'm going to try to get away more this year. To put some of my annual leave towards things like camping and such. I was too much here last year. This year I'm going to spend some time elsewhere.
Friday, January 10, 2014
2013/2014 Pt2: Health and Fitness
Having realised, in 2013, that taking on too many things is a bit dumb (yes, I know it's obvious, but that doesn't mean I have to expect/accept it), I'm thinking of taking advantage of a more sensible study schedule by taking on too many things.
I'm currently tossing up between adding Softball or Judo to Fencing as an extra sport this year. They're both sports I have previously "played" (Softball being something we'd do at a cut-down level for school sports in primary school, Judo being something I did for a couple of years in high school).
Softball has the advantage of tapping into my current obsession with Baseball (but, hopefully, being a bit less blokey than Baseball was the last time I looked into it). It also has a dual advantage/disadvantage of being a team sport, which would mean a level of commitment to other people that I usually avoid. It will either be good for me in terms of my growth as a human being, or it will be the undoing of the whole thing.
Judo has the advantage of being reasonably useful as a self-defence thingy and the cheapest martial art available in The Ville. It's also an individual thing so, like Fencing, I can miss a couple of sessions without disadvantaging anyone other than myself. It has the disadvantage of being a lot less kicky and punchy than I was hoping. When I was considering martial arts at the end of last year, I thought Judo would be a bit to pacifistic to be truly useful as a form of self-defence.
Taikwando would probably be closer to what I want than Judo, but Judo is cheaper, would fit into my existing schedule and tap into latent things half-remembered from childhood.
I just suspect I'd probably enjoy Softball more - useless though that may be as a form of self-defence.
And, speaking of useless martial arts, in 2013 I let Fencing slip a bit (well, a lot), so in 2014 I want to make more of an effort to actually pick up some skills and game time.
I'd still like to take up Lawn Bowls more seriously, but that's something I can come back to later.
I have an overall goal of building a better athletic base. Whatever sports I end up doing, I want to feel as if I'm actually trying to be a decent athlete. In 2012, when I started Fencing, I was really committed to building that base - but I let it slide when my workload jacked up in 2013.
I'm starting, perhaps counter-intuitively, with a short walk. Everyday. It's my goal to make it my "Normal" to step away from the computer and get outside for a walk (if nothing else) sometime between the hours of 1700 and 1800.
If I desire to replace that walk with a swim, a gym session or a run, then so be it. If I legitimately have something else to do (desk shift) then that's okay, too. But I'm going to make it a habit to get that walk in every day.
This will hopefully stop me saying "I'll go for a run this afternoon!" and then deciding that, because I don't want to get changed or I'm a bit too tired for an actual run, I just won't do anything. Instead, everyday (God willing), I'll just stand up and leave the building.
In terms of other health related things, my goal for 2014 is to make more of my own junk food (so it's slightly less junky), and be kinder to myself in regards to what I put into my mouth.
Whether or not I take on anything new, it's my primary goal to take the things I'm already doing and try to be just a bit better.
I'm currently tossing up between adding Softball or Judo to Fencing as an extra sport this year. They're both sports I have previously "played" (Softball being something we'd do at a cut-down level for school sports in primary school, Judo being something I did for a couple of years in high school).
Softball has the advantage of tapping into my current obsession with Baseball (but, hopefully, being a bit less blokey than Baseball was the last time I looked into it). It also has a dual advantage/disadvantage of being a team sport, which would mean a level of commitment to other people that I usually avoid. It will either be good for me in terms of my growth as a human being, or it will be the undoing of the whole thing.
Judo has the advantage of being reasonably useful as a self-defence thingy and the cheapest martial art available in The Ville. It's also an individual thing so, like Fencing, I can miss a couple of sessions without disadvantaging anyone other than myself. It has the disadvantage of being a lot less kicky and punchy than I was hoping. When I was considering martial arts at the end of last year, I thought Judo would be a bit to pacifistic to be truly useful as a form of self-defence.
Taikwando would probably be closer to what I want than Judo, but Judo is cheaper, would fit into my existing schedule and tap into latent things half-remembered from childhood.
I just suspect I'd probably enjoy Softball more - useless though that may be as a form of self-defence.
And, speaking of useless martial arts, in 2013 I let Fencing slip a bit (well, a lot), so in 2014 I want to make more of an effort to actually pick up some skills and game time.
I'd still like to take up Lawn Bowls more seriously, but that's something I can come back to later.
I have an overall goal of building a better athletic base. Whatever sports I end up doing, I want to feel as if I'm actually trying to be a decent athlete. In 2012, when I started Fencing, I was really committed to building that base - but I let it slide when my workload jacked up in 2013.
I'm starting, perhaps counter-intuitively, with a short walk. Everyday. It's my goal to make it my "Normal" to step away from the computer and get outside for a walk (if nothing else) sometime between the hours of 1700 and 1800.
If I desire to replace that walk with a swim, a gym session or a run, then so be it. If I legitimately have something else to do (desk shift) then that's okay, too. But I'm going to make it a habit to get that walk in every day.
This will hopefully stop me saying "I'll go for a run this afternoon!" and then deciding that, because I don't want to get changed or I'm a bit too tired for an actual run, I just won't do anything. Instead, everyday (God willing), I'll just stand up and leave the building.
In terms of other health related things, my goal for 2014 is to make more of my own junk food (so it's slightly less junky), and be kinder to myself in regards to what I put into my mouth.
Whether or not I take on anything new, it's my primary goal to take the things I'm already doing and try to be just a bit better.
Monday, January 6, 2014
2013/2014, Pt1: Studies
Well, 2013 was a bit of a bust, in the end. I deliberately bit off more than I could chew, just to see if I'd rise to the challenge.
A little bit yes, and a little bit no.
On reflection, I gave myself too much to do in the one year - which actually didn't work out as badly as it could have, all things considered.
I think, if I hadn't been stupid enough to take Education (with a capital E) subjects again (knowing, as I do, that I'm well shot of them), it wouldn't have gone to brown so badly towards the end. The practicum was one straw too many - the kind of challenge that needed a lot more from me than I had left in the tank to give. Without that, I probably would have survived my stupid workload after all.
This year I've resolved to scale back my insane plans and only take two subjects a semester instead of three. In the end, I started to let my actual job slip down on my list of priorities, and I wasn't happy about that. I know this means I'm going to have to keep studying for another trimester longer than I had planned, but that gives me the opportunity to take a subject that isn't offered in 2014.
2014 will see me return to a mode of study where no one gets hurt (except my pride) if it turns out I miscalculated what I can do. I like it better when the worst that can happen is I scrape by with a Pass.
I'm also going to try to apply a few more of the Autonomous Learning practices I keep telling my students to use. I think the only reason I did as well as I did last year was because I was being tactical about my studies. This year, I'm going to try to build on that. See if I can be just a little bit better.
A little bit yes, and a little bit no.
On reflection, I gave myself too much to do in the one year - which actually didn't work out as badly as it could have, all things considered.
I think, if I hadn't been stupid enough to take Education (with a capital E) subjects again (knowing, as I do, that I'm well shot of them), it wouldn't have gone to brown so badly towards the end. The practicum was one straw too many - the kind of challenge that needed a lot more from me than I had left in the tank to give. Without that, I probably would have survived my stupid workload after all.
This year I've resolved to scale back my insane plans and only take two subjects a semester instead of three. In the end, I started to let my actual job slip down on my list of priorities, and I wasn't happy about that. I know this means I'm going to have to keep studying for another trimester longer than I had planned, but that gives me the opportunity to take a subject that isn't offered in 2014.
2014 will see me return to a mode of study where no one gets hurt (except my pride) if it turns out I miscalculated what I can do. I like it better when the worst that can happen is I scrape by with a Pass.
I'm also going to try to apply a few more of the Autonomous Learning practices I keep telling my students to use. I think the only reason I did as well as I did last year was because I was being tactical about my studies. This year, I'm going to try to build on that. See if I can be just a little bit better.
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