Tag Archives: 2016

2016 – Progress on my red goals

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
January 2 2017

I mentioned in my earlier posts that I would talk about something in the red goals section, and this is that section, so I guess I will cover the issues here, if I have to! They impact on everything, which is not surprising as the red goals are about health and career.

MY RED GOALS: Be bright, be bold, be direct

For my Career, I was experiencing a bit of ennui. I love my job, it’s a great configuration…I have a fair amount of autonomy, knowable deliverables, enough variety to keep it interesting, and a solid team to manage. And yet…there is something in my work that is becoming a bit stale. I have been in the same job for eight years, something often unheard of in the EC category of government, with policy analysts being one of the most mobile groups in government. Even for planners, I’ve been a bit long in the same spot.  » Read the rest

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2016 – Progress on my yellow goals

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
January 2 2017

Ah, the yellow goals. My social and creative side. My weakest side. Let’s see how I did in 2016.

MY YELLOW GOALS: Focus your energy, be prolific

  • First out of the gate is my Writing goal. This looks a bit like my blue goal, but whereas the blue was more about non-fiction and blogging, this was about my true creative side. Fiction was non-existent. Posting stuff was almost non-existent, although I did put up a couple of things. And I killed the creativity challenge, and I don’t mean that in a celebratory way. Literally, I killed it, deleting the group from Facebook. There just wasn’t enough interest. I’m still doing memes, quotes, jokes, etc. which is something. Part red, part yellow, part green, I guess I’ll call it YELLOW overall.
  • I thought the Cooking one was going to be a complete and utter bust. Most of the year, I tried almost nothing new.
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2016 – Progress on my green goals

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
January 2 2017

Green goals are my “emotion” goals, the “feelings”, the warm fuzzy side of me. Not my strongest area, but not quite as weak as my normal “yellow” / social ones. In 2016, I limited myself to only three.

MY GREEN GOALS: Stick to the knitting

  • Under the general heading of Andrea, I had hoped to have some date nights out, a few game nights and to take a family trip. We had a few date nights, but nowhere near enough, and much of that is my fault. I often like to go out for dinner, etc., but I am not looking for fancy or anything, just eating out, and Jacob is old enough to come without too much distraction. So we usually do things as a trio than as a couple, and truth be told, I like exposing Jacob to new things. But most of the time, Andrea and I commute together which is good, hang out with the cub from supper to bedtime, often in the office together for a half-hour or hour or so after that, and then I tend to watch TV while she works, surfs or reads.
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2016 – Progress on my blue goals

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
January 2 2017

So it is 2017. January. The year that was 2016 is over, and as per usual, it is time to see how I did. It is NOT going to be pretty. I’m starting with my “blue” / analytical / learning goals.

MY BLUE GOALS – Live Blue or Die!

  • Astronomy was on my list at the start of the year, and I did almost nothing on it all year. Not quite nothing, I did get my laptop setup to try linking with my camera for a bit of astrophotography, but the astronomy part was minimal. I’ve entered a bit of a inertia problem with my astronomy, much of which will sound like a series of excuses rather than explanations. For me, there are four inter-related problems. First and foremost, I struggle with my equipment. I have a good scope for me and my interests, great optics, some filters, etc. But I struggle to “find” what it is I’m supposed to be seeing still.
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Project with Jacob – Boomerangs

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
November 6 2016

One of the things I have been hoping to do is some formal “projects” with Jacob. Some people might have a workshop, others are big on sports things…I don’t really have much in the way of skills in those areas. Lego is fun, but I wanted something maybe just a little less pre-packaged but not full DIY level. There’s a website called SonicDad.com and it has some interesting projects.

There’s an element that is probably completely sexist in the site — it’s designed for dads and sons, but you don’t operate any of the tools or crafts with your penis, so there is nothing specifically “male” about it. It’s actually more benign in its design than that, as it was started by two dads doing projects with their sons, so I’ll cut them some slack. Just wanted to mention it.

They have about 75 projects in their site now, and some are free for download.  » Read the rest

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