Monday, January 31, 2011

Day 28

Well today definitely started off oddly, I had gotten up earlier as I had a doctors appointment and so everything was going as expected till I actually got out to my car and tried to start it up with absolutely no luck at all, it is a very cold day today and I don't really get out too often these days so I imagine that is what has done in my car at the moment.  So after about 10 - 15 mins of playing around with it trying to get it started I tried calling a few people who I knew I could ask for a ride but none of them were home so with only about 10 minutes before my appointment was supposed to start I figured I should at least call the doctors office and let them know I wouldn't be there however once I got connected with the receptionist and conveyed my message I found out that the doctor I was supposed to see wasn't in that day and that according to their records my next booked appointment wasn't until the middle of February so it all worked out in a strange sort of way.  Anyway as for yesterday I was indeed able to accomplish my goal and then some this time, I finished the exercises and even spent some extra time playing around with the code to try a few things on my own.  It was really nice to get back into some actual coding and realize again how much I actually do enjoy doing it.  I also accomplished my goal for the week last week as I missed 2 days but managed to meet my goal on 5 days (unless my count is off but I don't think so) so that is good and it is an improvement over last week which is also nice to see, so for this week my goal is going to be 6 of 7 days and try to keep that improvement going.  I am now finished the first section and so am moving onto the second which means back to more textbook reading, I am a little worried about this part as if memory serves this is one of the driest chapters so I am hoping my recent re-exposure to actual coding will help get me going and working through it.  To be clear and specific my goal for today is to get started on reading the second section of my textbook.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Day 27

Well I was able to get the last chunk of reading done for my course yesterday so now all I have is the actually programming exercises to do and I'll be moving onto the next section.  Yesterday was a better day, I got to see a bunch of my cousins I hadn't seen in awhile as we were celebrating my mother and my aunts birthday (they are twins) so that was nice.  So my goal for today is to get started on the programming exercises and see how far I can get with them today.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Day 26

Well yesterday ended up being an off day for me right from the start and consequently I didn't get anything I set out to do done.  I'm not sure if I have just been going through a particularly low point as the past few days I have been feeling particularly down and unmotivated or if there is something I am just missing that has triggered it.  I guess the only thing I can do at the moment is to try to focus and see if I can't try to work through it and get back to getting some work done.  Again my goal for the day is to finish up the reading I have for the first section in my course.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Day 25

Well I didn't manage to accomplish my goal yesterday since I just didn't push myself hard enough to actually sit down and get it done.  Even though I got up late and was out for a good part of the afternoon I still had plenty of time to get it done but just didn't, I had a hard doing just about anything yesterday though and sadly enough spent probably a good hour at least sitting around trying to figure out what to do while doing absolutely nothing, I hate it when I do that.  So my goal for today is the same as yesterday finish the reading for my lab project and if possible get started on the actual programming exercises.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Day 24

Well this is probably the first time I've been making my blog entry this late when I haven't actually forgotten about it.  I ended up getting up later then normal this morning and was supposed to be meeting a bunch of my extended family for lunch today so I didn't really have much time to write it earlier hence why I am writing it now.  As for yesterday I have to admit I kinda cheated a little on my goal as I had actually finished it before writing the entry as it was actually working on my course that reminded me I hadn't written an entry for yesterday.  So my goal for today is to try to finish off the reading for my lab project so that tomorrow I can actually get started on the exercises and actually doing some programming.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Day 23

I'm not entirely sure how I managed to forget to write my blog post earlier this morning but clearly I did so here it goes.  I was able to get started on the lab project for the first section of my course, of course I had forgotten that the first part is an explanation of the base program which we will be modifying for the exercises so it I still have some more reading to do before I actually get into the programming side of things again.  So I read the first chunk of the explanation yesterday and my goal is to continue on with it today and get the majority of it finished so that I can finish it off tomorrow and get started on the actual programming part of it.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Day 22

Well I managed to get all the software I need for my lab projects downloaded, installed and setup so now I can dive right into it whenever.  So I did indeed manage to accomplish my goal from yesterday.  I know I am going to be going out today so I am going to have to try to figure out a way to still manage to meet my goal despite that disruption in schedule.  I think I am going to try to get it done a little earlier and see if that works.  So my goal for today is going to be to actually get started on the lab project now that the environment is all setup.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Day 21

Well it is the beginning of another week and although I didn't achieve my goal for the week last week as I managed 4/7 days of getting some work done on my course however I did learn a little more about some of the things that caused me to miss it.  I think my goal for this week though is going to be the same as last week, to manage to get some work done on my course at least 5 of the 7 days.  Not too much to say about yesterday as I pretty much covered it in the last entry so I'll just move onto my goal for today.  My goal for today is going to be get everything setup and get started on the lab project for this section of my course.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Day 20

Well I just realized that I hadn't actually sat down to write up my blog post for the day, I got up later then I have been and so it kinda threw off my apparently still quite fragile semi-schedule, and so even though it is now quite late in the day I figured I should still try to write up something at least for reference on yesterday since it is a little for aiming for anything for today.  As for yesterday I didn't end up getting started on the lab project since I ended up going out for a little bit and then for supper with my parents to celebrate my mothers birthday which is coming up, if that had been it I think I probably would have still managed to get some work done on it, however my friends ended up stopping by so I ended up talking to them for most of the night.  So while I didn't in fact get any of my work done it still ended up being a good day and still productive in its own sense as it is quite rare these days for me to have a chance to sit down and talk to my friends as most of them have either moved away or we have just lost touch completely.  Anyway I'll take another shot at getting my lab project started tomorrow.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Day 19

Well I was able to meet my goal for the day yesterday and I am now finally finished the reading for the first section of my course.  It definitely took longer then I would have liked to get here but I guess that just means I have something to aim for when I start the next sections.  The next part of my course will be to go through the section 1 workbook which should be interesting as it is more hands on in terms of actually doing some programming so I am hoping I'll be able to motivate myself to work through that a little quicker as I will be doing more then just sitting there and reading.  So that is my goal for the day get everything on the computer setup for the first lab project and get started on it.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Day 18

Well I didn't manage to accomplish my goal yesterday but I am pretty sure I know the reason why this time, I had gone out for lunch with an old friend I haven't seen in years and we had a good long talk which was nice but it also was very draining for me.  I am not sure if it is because I don't regularly get out and see and interact with other people too often anymore but these days I find that I will be quite tired afterword, I definitely enjoy it but it takes alot out of me.  So that certainly threw off my tentative schedule for yesterday, that combined with just feeling worn out lead to me not getting my reading done.  However for the next two days I have more time in the evening as I don't raid on Friday or Saturday so I am going to make a renewed effort to get some solid reading done still going to aim for the afternoon around 4 pm slot but maybe if I get on a roll I can pick it up again later on in the evening.  That's the goal for today then.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Day 17

Well I was able to meet my goal once again yesterday, I really think that focusing on a particular time for me to do my reading helped as it helped avoid the "I don't feel like it, I still have time, I'll do it later" thought pattern as I had a certain time frame in mind so that when I hit that time frame I could go "okay this is when I set out to do it, so let's get it done".  So I think I am going to aim for consistency and see I can make this a regular occurrence as I am almost done with the reading for this chapter and then can move onto the first lab project which should be more interesting as it is getting back into actual coding.  So to be clear my goal for today is to again get some reading done in the afternoon around 4 or so.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Day 16

I was able to accomplish my goal yesterday and sat down and actually got a decent chunk of reading done for my course.  I think the best idea in terms of timing for this is probably going to be later in the afternoon probably around 4 or so as usually around that time I tend to have finished what I was doing earlier and start trying to find something else to do, I think I need to start really trying to make doing some course work what I do at that point as it gives me plenty of time to get a fair bit of reading done if I am able to get into it.  So with that being said my goal for today is going to be to continue what I did yesterday and try to get some reading done within that same time frame.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Day 15

Well I didn't manage to get any reading done for my course yesterday, I think that might be partly due to the fact that for the past few days I have been getting up earlier and going to bed earlier then I used to and since I used to do my reading for my course later in the evening after I had finished raiding but now I generally go to bed after I am done raiding as I am usually quite tired at that point, so now I just have to try to find a good place to fit it in that isn't going to get thrown off by my sleeping schedule.  Again my goal for the day is going to be to sit down and get some reading done hopefully at a better time that I can make consistent.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Day 14

Well this is the beginning of the second week of this blog, unfortunately I did not meet my goal for the week last week but I had a few off days that really threw things a little off track.  On the brighter side I did manage to meet both of my goals for yesterday I was able to get myself on the treadmill for 20 minutes and I managed to get some reading done on my course work so that was quite good.  I think my goal for this week is going to be a little different rather then setting a milestone or something I want to achieve by the end of the week this week my goal is going to be to actually sit down and do some reading for my course for at least 5 of the 7 days, hopefully I'll be able to do it for all 7 but for now I think my goal is going to be 5 of the 7 days.  As for my goals for today it is going to be my usual, get some reading done on my course work as I really want to try to get that going as I am hoping if I can get it to pick up some momentum that I'll be able to really start making some more significant progress on it.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Day 13

Well yesterday I did manage to sit down and read a little bit for my course, it wasn't much but at least I was able to actually sit down and do it and I think that is what should probably be my goal for right now is just trying to make sure that I actually sit down and read some of it each day no matter how much or how little and that way once I can do that consistently I will start working on reading more each day till I am at point that I am happy with.  Although I wish I could just jump right ahead to reading for an hour or two each day it looks like if I really want to make this work over the long term I need to start back at the basics.  I was also up at a good time this morning and so am feeling a little more alert and awake so I think I might also take a shot at going downstairs and getting on the treadmill for a bit.  So for today I have two goals, first to sit down and read some more of my course work and second to get on the treadmill for a little bit today.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Day 12

I wasn't able to achieve my goal yesterday as I didn't get any reading done for my course, I knew it was there and I knew I needed to do it I just couldn't seem to get myself to sit down and get it started.  This caused me to really start trying to figure out exactly why it was that I have such a hard time getting myself to sit down and focus on this as this course is definitely something I want to learn and I think that I could really get into it if I could just get through the initial groundwork section.  In some respects I think it also just might be that I am afraid of failure, I have tried to finish this course in the past and have never succeeded so I think part of it is that I am afraid that will happen and that I am worried about what effect that might have on me.  I think it might be that some part of my mind is avoiding it because if you don't try you can't fail but that is really no way to live and is not what I want for myself going forward I just haven't quite figured out yet how to overcome it but I am more determined now to push through it and keep trying to move forward with my life.  That being said my goal for today is again to get some reading done on my course regardless of how much or how little but just to sit down and actually focus on actually sitting down to and starting to read it.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Day 11

Well I managed to at least get a little reading done for my course yesterday certainly not quite as much as I would have liked and so if I want to reach my goal for the week I am going to have to try to step things up a bit and really focus in on this.  My sleeping schedule seems to be improving a little bit and I think that is actually helping a little bit on regards to focusing on what I want to get done each day.  So for today my goal is going to be to try to focus in on this course and make some good progress towards achieving my weekly goal.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Day 10

Yesterday definitely did not go as planned I woke up already tired and somewhat out of it and things didn't really change much throughout the day, I am not sure if that is because my sleeping schedule is off at the moment getting to bed really late then correspondingly getting up really late as well but I wasn't able to get any reading done for my course yesterday either.  Well I guess I might be able to test whether it is the getting up late part that was the problem as I am up much earlier today although I still didn't get to sleep till quite late so I am not really going off that much sleep but I guess we'll see.  My goal today is the same to get some reading done on my course.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Day 9

This is probably the first day that I have really not wanted to sit down and write this blog at least partly because I did not accomplish my goals for yesterday and I honestly have no real reasons why not just laziness/poor planning I guess.  Well my goals for today are exactly the same as yesterday, try to get another chunk of reading done for my course, although so far I just don't really have a good feeling about today don't know why though.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Day 8

Well I was able to accomplish the goals that I had set out from myself yesterday as I did indeed manage to get myself out of the house to complete a few errands that had been piling up I also did manage to get some reading done for my course, not quite as much as I would have liked but at least I made a little more progress on it.  For today my main goal goes back to getting a more sizable chunk of reading done from the current chapter of my course.  Oh and in case anyone was wondering what course it is that I am working on it's a programming course for creating graphics using Direct X and C++.  Well that is all for today

Monday, January 10, 2011

Day 7

Well I have now been doing these daily blog entries for a week and I have to say that I am glad to see that I have been able to keep up with it and it is definitely something I am going to keep working on as I think they have been helping.  Seeing as I am now starting a new week though I think I am going to add one thing to this and that is that I am going to try to add in a goal or goals for the coming week at the beginning of the week in addition to my usual daily goals that way I can have a little more of a larger or broader view.  So here is my goal for this week and it is to be at least if not finished working on the lab project for chapter 1.  Hopefully this will also help give me a little extra motivation to make sure that my goals for each day are at least somewhat aimed at also meeting my goal(s) for the week.  In regard to my goals for yesterday I did not manage to meet them although to be honest I was doubtful of it given that I actually made my blog post a fair bit later in the day then a normally do as doing it early also helps me try to make sure I fit it in somewhere as once I start getting into other things time has a nasty habit of slipping away from me.  As for my goals for today I actually have a few slightly different ones today as I really should try to get myself out of the house and get some errands taken care of that I have just plain been avoiding for awhile now, so getting those done is my main goal for the day although I am going to try to get a bit more textbook reading done even if it is just a bit so that I don't lose track of what it is I was reading and where I was.  Well that is all for today.

Sunday, January 09, 2011

Day 6

I usually try to do these fairly close to the beginning of the day as I can partly so I don't forget about it as I almost did today and partly so I have laid out what my goals for the day are going to be on here even if for the most part they aren't really going to change too much from day to day at the moment.  I did remember though so here goes, yesterday was a bit of a strange day, I don't know if this happens to anyone else but there are just some days where I just feel grumpy, irritable, unmotivated, bored, annoyed for no real discernible reason and I just have a hard time focusing on anything even things I typically enjoy, well yesterday was one of those days for me and I had all but given up hope of getting anything productive accomplished however later on in the evening I'm not entirely sure what happened but I managed to convince myself to try to at least start reading the textbook for the online course I am working on and at first it was fairly tough to stay focused on it but as I continued I was surprised that it suddenly seemed to get easier to keep going and so I ended up getting a fair bit more read then I thought I'd manage so while it started poorly it actually ended on somewhat of a good note.  As for today my goals are pretty much the same to try to keep up the pace and try to get another section of the first chapter of the textbook done so that I can hopefully move into the more hands on part of working on the first lab project since I think I'll enjoy that more and it'll again hopefully give a nice boost of motivation to keep me going on the course as a whole.  Well I think that is all for today.

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Day 5

Well yesterday was a good day I accomplished the things I had set out to finish, I got the thank you email I was writing finished and sent off and I completed listening to the audio lecture portion of the online course I am working on.  That leads me to my goals for today, I think my main goal is going to be to get started on reading the textbook chapter for the online course I mentioned which is going to take a bit more effort then the audio lectures as it is going to require a higher level of focus but that is the goal so we'll have to see how it goes.  Until tomorrow

Friday, January 07, 2011

Day 4

Once again I would say that I was partially successful in my goals for yesterday as I was able to make some more progress on the course I am working on although again not quite as much as I would have liked ideally.  I also realized after reading my entry for yesterday that even if my goals are going to be the same as the day before I should still be as specific about them as possible so there is no misunderstanding when I look back on it later.  So for today my primary goal is going to be to finish the thank you email that I have been working on the past 2 days and get that sent off as well as trying to finishing up the current set of audio lectures for my course.  I don't have a raid tonight in WoW so I am hoping the extra time gives me a chance to get more of this stuff cleared up. Well I think that is all for today.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Day 3

Well I didn't quite get everything that I wanted done yesterday, I manage to get through some more of my course work but not quite as much as I would have liked but I am still just getting started and I need to realize and accept that there are going to be days when I don't get everything that I wanted done but that especially at the moment it is more important to stay focused on what I have been able to do and keeping pushing forward.  I also didn't get around to finishing what I had started the first day but that doesn't really surprise me as it is honestly something I expected to have some difficultly with as it is a thank you email I am writing.  As I have mentioned before I tend to have a lot of problems with self-esteem and that usually leads to me being rather hesitant about really putting forward my own view or opinion on things, however it is exactly to work on overcoming this that I have gotten involved in Twitter and other web based communities.  Thank you notes specially to actors/writers/etc are still tough for me as I really don't want to disturb people who I am sure very busy but at the same time feel that it is a cop out and not really fair to withhold my thanks to people who definitely deserve it simply because of my own personal problems, which is why lately I have been pushing myself more to actually go through and send them although especially for longer ones such as email it will take me awhile as I know I am going to worry about how I am phrasing what I want to say.  Well that is just something that was going through my mind yesterday/this morning and I thought I'd get it down in this blog.  Moving on to today my goals are going to be fairly similar to yesterdays and probably for awhile as right now I think that constant progress is more important then trying to find new things to try to do each day, start small and work my way from there and see what I can build.  See you all tomorrow

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Day 2

Well this is the second day for my new daily style blog and I've realized something after starting at the new post screen for awhile and that is don't convince yourself you need titles when you are going to be doing something daily unless you are really clever with that sort of thing.  Anyway moving on from that my goal from yesterday was to actually clear up a few things that I had been meaning to do but just hadn't gone around to doing and I managed to get most of them finished, one of them is still in progress but it is the one that required the most effort so I am glad that I was able to at least get it started and I hope to have it finished today.  Beyond that I am hoping to get through some more of an online course that I have kicking around unfinished for awhile now, I am hoping to finish listening to the audio lectures and move onto the textbook reading and if I am feeling ambitious I might try to get started with my exercise by hopefully getting onto the treadmill we have for a little bit.  Well I think that is all for today, until tomorrow. 

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Day 1 - Getting Started again

Well this is the first day of my daily blog and to be honest I am happy that I have managed to sit down and get it started as motivation for me especially lately has been a huge problem.  I am still not entirely sure of what exactly the format of this is going to be moving forward but to start off I think I'll just keep it simple and list a few small goals I have for the coming day and then tomorrow I can comment on how I fared with them.  So for today my goal is going to be pretty simple as I have a few small things that I have been meaning to do for awhile now but just never gotten around to actually doing so my goal for the day is to buckle under and get them completed.   Well that is going to be all for today I'll see you tomorrow.

Change in Direction and Purpose of this blog

I know that so far on this blog I have mainly been talking about random things that I enjoy or have found interesting but I think with the new year upon us I want to try to do something a little different with this blog.  I don't know if it will work but I think it is something that I need to at least attempt or else I will regret not at least having made the effort.   I haven't really mentioned very much personally on this blog so far as I have problems with self-esteem and being very negative at times especially in regards to myself and that is something that I decided I did not want to bring with me on my foray into the online world and so in order to achieve that I have pretty much avoided the subject altogether.  I bring it up now as I am going to try to start a short daily blog in the hopes of using it to keep me motivated toward my larger goal of starting to see some positive forward progression in my life and as such some of the things I have to say may be a bit more on the personal side as these blogs are going to be mainly for me to track my progress and keep me motivated.  I will still write up some blogs about things that interest me at times but hopefully for the next while this is going to be focused on the daily blog.