I've felt recently that the attempt to actually do something cool instead of just putter along in the status quo actually attracts problems. February was more or less a nightmare: dealing with Grandma Jo and my breakup drove me into socialization overdrive to stave off feeling down, one of my few friends left the next week into the silent vacuum of California, relationships deteriorated around work with my manager in the hospital for a month and everyone stressed out, trying to do to much in too little time made me late for two private lessons, my house went nearly a month without a good cleaning.

November was pretty much without comment yet two months later February goes all to hell. Irritating.

I've had a few successes, despite all this. Let's do an overview.
--Writing. My daily writing hasn't been great this week, but before that it was pretty solid. It helped that the previous two weeks I was fucking off and writing when I should have been working; I really can't continue to do that, so my writing time needs to be elsewhere. The great news, however, is that I submitted my first article to a local magazine and it should be published in april. I am also going to send something into Ty's Pine Beetle Review, as soon as my editors get back to me.
--Reading. I've read six books so far, which would make it seem that I am on pace to finish the whole list in time. Unfortunately I have been knocking off mainly the easy ones, so harder reading lies ahead. I am about half done The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel and so far it is good, so good in fact that it makes me want to be a sailor... well, nearly. I am also rereading Getting Things Done and listening to an audiobook by the same author, whom I can thank for what little control I have over my life right now. I'm going to be meeting up with Matt at the end of the month, so I have to finish The Tipping Point by then and give it back to him.
--Photos. I am really behind so far. I think I have shot 600 instead of 800 right now, and there are two main problems. 1) my cards, combined, don't hold a hundred photos, so I either have to delete as I go and make room, or constantly swap and dump. That's annoying. 2) I have yet to figure out a fast and easy system for importing photos, deleting junk, editing the good ones and importing the lot into iPhoto. I guess the realization is this: if the photo isn't good enough to take the time to edit, it should probably be deleted or kept just for the "I was there, I did this" factor. That means that my photography and editing skills still have a long way to go, as most of them don't seem worth editing.
--Work. Teaching privates has been ok, but my coworker opted to stay longer so I can't count on that income right away. On the upside, I can go on Japanese EI for three months at 60% wages to help cover my bills for a while. The real challenge here isn't finding work - there are gobs of teaching jobs - but finding good work. I'd ultimately like to be working at a college or doing some contract writing work, but I have to do some figuring to get there first.

Studying Japanese and exercising have both basically sucked. I am going to change my Joe's goals system a bit: if I go two days in a row not doing something, the penalty will be doubled. Similarly, if I can go a week without missing something, that goal will be doubled for a day. I think I'll also raise the bar too: from now on my goal is going to be +5, as +4 is a bit easy to do.

So what's to come on Wendingwayfare? Next week I'll have my review of the Getting Things Done methodology and potentially some new photos. I'd also like to do a location spotlight, so keep your eyes peeled (or subscribe to the RSS feed).