2014 End of Year

My goals from the beginning of the year--I've bolded the ones I accomplished:

• Climb Mt Rogers and Buffalo Mountain
• Take yoga/aikido/tai chi/something class--had a physical training class and I've signed up for a tai chi class starting in January
• Revisit Costa Rica
• Try new foods--things like pummelo, chayote, cherimoya: chayote, horned melon, oysters Rockfeller, gin, some Indian food, kubideh, doogh, 
• Attend LibertyCon, Historicon, SLC ComicCon, GZGECC and others
• Visit Mesa Verde, Shiprock, Monument Valley
• Reconnect with the Charlottesvillains 
• Study investing
• Write 120,000 words of fiction
• Visit Virginia ACW battlefields

Events from the year:

• January: so cold the pipes froze; announced retirement
• February: retired, went to Costa Rica; sold Mum's house in Montreal (and got a batch of furniture from it); and went to GZG ECC 17 in New York.
• March: new carpet
• April: visited Knotts Island; a 750ft ship dragged its anchors and went aground at Chick's Beach; and I went to RavenCon, where I met Michael Z Williamson and Sarah Hoyt, among others,
• May: quiet 
• June: visited some ACW battlefields around Richmond; hada visit from Greg Rees and his partner Julie; saw a bear near Willis; visited Jon and family in Nashville; the Huntsville Space Center; LibertyCon, at which I met Miriam Ringo, Dorothy and Peter Grant, Bill Fawcett, and Toni Weisskopf.
• July: Gwen's brother Chris visited; a tornado touched down about 2.5 miles away; celebrated Independence Day in Williamsburg; camera class
• August: helped Josh move from Blacksburg to Christiansburg; replaced a panel for the upstairs glass door.
• September: attended Salt Lake City ComicCon; joined Diana for a tour of New Mexico (and bits of Colorado and Arizona)--Santa Fe, Taos and Taos Pueblo, Tierra Amarilla, Farmington, Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Four Corners, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Albuquerque.
• October: visited James and family and stayed at the Homestead, which included a trip to the shotgun range and the falconry mews; replaced the heat pump; saw two bald eagles together over the Lynnhaven.
• .November: NaNoWriMo, at which I did better at teaching than doing; six crowns installed on front teeth; went to the Farm for Thanksgiving, and it snowed.
• December: installed a new faucet on the kitchen sink; Josh and Gwen came here for Christmas, then they headed out to Philly, NYC, and Boston.

Counting the Days

At work today, speaking of my impending retirement, someone said "You must be counting the days!"

Well, no. You'd think I would be, and it sounds odd even to me that I'm not. I really should have a big calendar, on which I gleefully mark out each remaining day with a fat red marker. If I hated my job, I'm sure I would be counting off the minutes until I could get free; but I don't hate it, it's just that I want to do other things now.

Retirement

I told my boss nearly a month ago that I was ready to leave; today I officially handed in my resignation. Huzzah! I've started training my replacement, telling my customers that I'm going, and cleaning off my desk.

2014

Things to do in 2014 (a partial list):

• Climb Mt Rogers and Buffalo Mountain 
• Take yoga/aikido/tai chi/something class
• Revisit Costa Rica
• Try new foods--things like pummelo, chayote, cherimoya
• Attend LibertyCon, Historicon, SLC ComicCon, GZGECC and others
• Visit Mesa Verde, Shiprock, Monument Valley
• Reconnect with the Charlottesvillains 
• Study investing
• Write 120,000 words of fiction
• Visit Virginia ACW battlefields

A secret of Game-Fu

From Eric S Raymond : "when in doubt, play to maximize the breadth of your option tree", and "It looked like I was getting lucky; what I was actually doing was maximizing the number of possible ways I could get lucky." As is noted in the comments on that post, this strategy also applies to life.

On Goals

Ever look at something like football, or Angry Birds, and wonder why they're so popular? I suspect one reason is that they have multiple levels of goals. Take football--real football, i.e. as played in the U.S.:

• Immediate goal is "Get a first down"
• Second tier goal is "get a touchdown"
• Third level is "win the game"
• Top level goal is "win the season".

And each of those gives you a payoff, an emotional thrill. And the reason that thrill is there is not because there's inherently something satisfying about moving a leather ball ten yards that way, or crossing a little white line on the grass, or seeing numbers on the scoreboard; it's purely because that was your goal. You set a goal, you accomplish it, you get that thrill--and the harder you have to work for it, the more you get it.

And the corollary is that if you don't set goals, you won't get that thrill. At work, someone probably sets those goals for you, but at home, you have to do it yourself. Ever get to a Sunday evening and think "Where did the weekend go?" What did you do for those couple of days? "We just hung out", or more accurately, "Nothing". And the result was, you were bored.

I've been in sales, one form or another, for over twenty four years, and I've heard a lot of sales training. One aspect of sales training is time management, and one of the aphorisms I've heard often is "You make time for what's important." This is a lie. "Quit smoking" is important. "Work out at least three times a week" is important. If you're in sales, "make more sales calls" is important. But people, by and large, don't do these things. This is because you don't do what is important; you do what gives you positive feedback. And not feedback months down the line, when you win the championship or get your annual bonus. You need immediate feedback. Instant gratification works. Get the first down, feel the thrill, do it again.

Sometimes you'll still find yourself thinking "the day is gone, and for what?" I had a day like that yesterday. But write down what you want to accomplish, and then cross through the items as you do them. At the end of the day, you can say "I took out the kayak, I put in the supports, I went out on the water for an hour, I sprayed the plants, I rearranged the closet, I threw out those two pieces of junk. I didn't accomplish everything on the list, but I did pretty good."

Make a list of what you need to do.

Cross them off as you do them.

Succeed.

Simple as that.

Funds March 1

Values per share from Jan 3 and now. I'm putting this in because "paying attention to funds" is one of my goals for the year.

• Akre Focus (AKREX): 13.45 > 14.59 = +8%
• Artisan International: 20.33 > 22.75 = +12%
• Cullen High Dividend Equity: 12.99 > 13.24 = +2%
• American Funds Europac R5: 35.95 > 39.78 = +11%
• UMB Scout International (UMBWX): 28.77 > 31.68 = +10%

Writing

Got out my NaNoWriMo 2011 manuscript and did a little work on it--nothing major, just getting back into gear.

Goals

"Your goal is not to get to the top of Everest--because if that's your goal, you're likely to die there and stay there. Your goal is to get back down again."

--climber's saying

Random Walk

As part of my goals for the year, I'm reading nonfiction, which includes books related to finance. Random Walk Down Wall Street was the first one for the year, and it was interesting, but 90% of it can be summed up by the Amazon review:

Since stock prices cannot be predicted in the short term, argues Malkiel, individual investors are better off buying and holding onto index funds than meddling with securities or actively managing mutual funds. Not only will a broad range of index funds outperform a professionally managed portfolio in the long run, but investors can avoid expense charges and trading costs, which decrease returns.

He adds that an index fund which includes small caps is likely to be better than the S&P, and that reliable profit is the realm of the long term investor. If you like day trading, that's fine, but recognize that you're gambling rather than investing.

Funds

One of my goals is to pay more attention to my 401k at work, which is small enough that I can play around with it without worrying. Shares and their values right now are:

• Akre Focus (AKREX): 13.45
• Artisan International: 20.33
• Cullen High Dividend Equity: 12.99
• American Funds Europac R5: 35.95
• UMB Scout International (UMBWX): 28.77

Goals for 2012

My goals for 2011 were:

• Complete first editing pass on A Knife in the Dark by end of January. (Not completed)
• Write 110,000 words of fiction this year. That means 50K for NaNoWriMo plus 500 words per 3 days; posts on Ficton count but posts here do not. (Not completed. 30K words for NaNoWriMo)
• Weight 190 lb by end of March, and stay there. (Haven't been monitoring. At 211 now, which is down from 220)
• Put up 7 posts per week, counting both here and Ficton. (327 posts = 6.29 per week. Almost there)!
• Take a major trip (Anasazi and Grand Canyon). (Done!)
• One mini adventure per two weeks; generally this will be "go to a new place" or "try a new food", although it also includes ultralight flight, taking a martial arts class, and making an acrylic artwork. (Not monitored)
• Read one significant non-fiction work per month. (Not monitored)
• Get my naval miniatures painted--enough for the Hughes v Suffren campaign. (Not done)
• Complete one wargame battle per month, even if solo. (Done, although most of the battles were in September and October. See Battle Honors blog)
• Acquire a rapier or similar weapon. (Done!)

So. Some failures, some success, some "I wasn't counting". Goals for this year:

• Financial: check and adjust mutual funds every month
• Complete Untitled Napoleonic Fantasy Starring Chadwick Awesome.
• Write 110,000 words of fiction this year. That means 50K for NaNoWriMo plus 500 words per 3 days; posts on Ficton count but posts here do not.
• Weight 190 lb by end of March, and stay there.
• Put up 7 posts per week, counting both here and Ficton.
• One mini adventure per two weeks; generally this will be "go to a new place" or "try a new food", although it also includes ultralight flight, taking a martial arts class, and making an acrylic artwork.
• Read one significant non-fiction work per month.
• Complete one wargame battle per month, even if solo, and write AARs.

Blog stats

Wrapping up the year.

294 posts here, plus 16 at Ficton, plus 20 at Battle Honors = 327.

"All time" stats, not counting the two sub-blogs:

13029 pageviews. Last year the total was 4369, so my net views for 2011 was 8660, or 23 a day.

Top posts by page views:

• 245 Classical Values blog
• 128 Absurd beliefs
• 123 Stones and scriptures
• 111 Letter from Australia
• 103 If I had ten thousand dollars

Top referring sites:

• 643 Google
• 574 Bing
• 119 Blogger
• 90 Google Philippines
• 68 Google Canada

Pageviews by country:

• 8859 USA
• 567 Australia
• 401 Canada
• 384 Russia
• 294 Germany
• 230 South Korea
• 177 UK
• 132 Ukraine
• 128 Netherlands
• 121 Philippines

Across the Pacific

Josh had intended to fly from LA to Sydney on United, but the flight was overbooked and he didn't make it on. So here he is, solo in LAX, having been awake since 5:30am, and it's now 1:30am the following night (all times in US East Coast time, not local) and no plane. A lot of people would have taken a shuttle to the first available hotel and tried again the next day, but Josh is not willing to be stymied by a little detail like "there are no more planes until tomorrow." He checks other options with United--could he go from LAX to San Francisco and then to Sydney, or from LAX to Auckland to Sydney? United has flights but no spaces that he can use with his ticket. Meanwhile, while he deals with United, he has me check with Qantas; Qantas is excellent and they had a few seats but they don't take stand-bys, the cost of a ticket was $2500, and also he'd only have twenty minutes to get his luggage from United and haul it across terminals to Qantas. That won't do. He gets his gear back from United and marches over to Cathay Pacific. Yes, they'd be happy to book him for tomorrow night. "No", Josh says, "I have no interest in waiting till tomorrow night." Josh had the nickname "Bear" before he was large, bulky and furry; now that he is all of the above, he's even more ursine. He digs his fingers into the counter, leaving claw marks like a grizzly, and glowers with bloodshot eyes glowing red. Oh, well, sir, says Cathay Pacific, actually, we have a flight leaving in half an hour.

Josh got on it. Departed 4:30am Friday, arrived at Hong Kong at 7pm Friday night, changed planes and arrived in Sydney at 6:30am Saturday--I'm assuming that's what Gwen's text "THERE HE IS!" meant. :-)

When he got to Hong Kong he opened a chat to let me know he'd made it.

I replied "Yay! I'll alert the media."

Josh: "Make sure you mention how awesome Cathay Pacific is.

Me: "Will do. I'm proud of your determination on getting a flight."

Josh: "Bear. I just clawed at people until one of them handed me a boarding pass."

Me: "I was going to say you remind me of Mile Vorkosigan"--Miles is a character famous for "forward momentum", being totally focused on his mission and not stopping merely because it's impossible. One of Josh's favorite characters, by the way.

Josh: "Bear Miles. Miles Bearkosigan!"

10,000 views

Today we went over 10,000 page views.

936 Little Blobs

Life expectancy in the US is 936 months; what are you doing with this one?

Goals for 2011

My goals for 2010, as written one year ago:

• Average 300 words / day. Achieved: I got 50K words in November, and I have around 270 posts, so if I'm averaging 185 words per post, I hit it. I doubt that my average per post is that high, though. 
• Post daily. Achieved: 268, so 73%
• Weight 190lb. Achieved: I got down from 220 to 205.
• Read 1 significant non-fiction work per month. I didn't keep track of that.
• Take a major trip. Achieved: Australia
• Mini Adventures. Achieved: Well, I didn't specify anything beyond that. I had three postings on "mini adventures" this year, so I suppose I can say "I had some!", but that's not as extensive as I'd intended. 

So I made progress but didn't achieve all I'd intended. I need to have more specific goals, and I need to track them better. On the other hand, I set some additional goals along the way, and achieved them, such as completing all the Warcraft seasonal events and writing 50,000 words in November.

Goals for 2011:

• Complete first editing pass on A Knife in the Dark by end of January.
• Write 110,000 words of fiction this year. That means 50K for NaNoWriMo plus 500 words per 3 days; posts on Ficton count but posts here do not.
• Weight 190 lb by end of March, and stay there.
• Put up 7 posts per week, counting both here and Ficton.
• Take a major trip (Anasazi and Grand Canyon)
• One mini adventure per two weeks; generally this will be "go to a new place" or "try a new food", although it also includes ultralight flight, taking a martial arts class, and.making an acrylic artwork
• Read one significant non-fiction work per month. 
• Get my naval miniatures painted--enough for the Hughes v Suffren campaign
• Complete one wargame battle per month, even if solo. 
• Acquire a rapier or similar weapon
• Others as added through the year

Blog Stats

It's end of year, so time to look back at how I did for the year.
If you're someone I don't know and decided to be a follower (Sky, zara, No More) or commenter (Blair), I'm be curious to know how you got here and what you like about it.

I had 238 posts (plus 17 at Ficton) last year, and 246+20 this year, so I'm averaging 3 posts per 4 days.

All stats are as provided by Blogger and are for "All Time"--they give stats for Week and Month but not Year.

Top posts by pageview:

• Absurd beliefs (126)
• Classical values blog (64)
• "If I had ten thousand dollars" (59)
• Hidden Meanings (32)
• Ironclads AAR (23)

Top referring sites:

• Bing.com (397)
• Blogger.com (119)
• Google.com (113)
• Google.com.ph (Filipino) (86) 
• Ask.com (28)

Search Keywords:

• Chris DeBoe (417) (what a suprise, eh?)
• what to do with ten thousand dollars (13)
• absurd beliefs (8)

Total 4369 Pageviews, with Pageviews by Country:

• United States (3440)
• South Korea (143)
• Philippines (119)
• Canada (107)
• Australia (83)
• Russia (61)
• UK (57)
• Germany (29)
• Netherlands (24)
• India (23)

Sales goal

The people in my department at work have goals for revenue and for profit. What we get commission on is profit, so I don't worry too much about the revenue side of things; in fact, I've been known to say, "If they really wanted revenue, they'd pay us for it." However, all things been equal, more revenue is good. So I hit my annual goal for profit some time back in late August or early September; and today I hit my goal for revenue.

Post # 500

I started this blog on November 1, 2008. This is post #500. Not as high a count as I'd originally had in mind--I'd intended to post every day--but a lot higher than it would have been if I'd done nothing.