Rolling out of the holidays and into January, I had a couple things I wanted to accomplish for the month. I went into this feeling fired-up and ready to keep going, but the previous six months of high productivity, combined with the holidays insanity, and my tank was emptier than I thought. Tack on some extrajudicial killings in my hometown by ICE agents, some challenging parenting stuff, and work being super-busy as we’ve lost people, and the result is me being pretty drained. Coming into the month, my (unrealistic) goals were”
- Register for the DAMN, prep, train
- Finish PCAP studies, register
- Find a writers’ group
✅ DAMN/Training
I registered for the event during the first three minutes it was open, which was great. My back was really bad in the first part of the month, but by MLK Day, I had gotten my shit together with a training program, and doing the Foundation workouts to help get my back into some semblance of functional. While I’m still in the early stages of work, I do have a plan, I’ve been mostly-consistent since I started, and I’m feeling pretty good about my prospects for August. WIN.
🚫 PCAP
Yeah, my studying was going okay…up until I got distracted by the fact that my city is UNDER FASCIST OCCUPATION. So yeah, I didn’t bother registering for the test this month. Maybe in February? FAIL.
✅ Writer’s Group
I joined MinnSpec in the waning days of the month. This is going to make me rush through a couple of manuscripts so I can get ready for the February 15th critique meeting. I’ve been noodling with a particular short story for awhile, inspired a bit by some Ted Chiang stuff I’ve read, and I need to get it workshopped, so I can polish it for submission. WIN.
Minor/Other Accomplishments/101 Things
- Got my cycling season largely planned, including events, a short trip, and my training schedule. I’m feeling really good about this.
- Busted out a bunch of reading.
- Huge headway on Tears of the Kingdom. Should be done in February.
Reading
I’ve been continuing to chug along this month, and had one of my most productive years (reading-wise) in the last two decades. Not all of these were finished this month, but I did have my face in all of them at one point or another.
🛑 Blockers
- Holy shit, Stranger Things got in the way hard. I didn’t start watching the show at all until this month, and we blew through the first three seasons and were into the fourth by MLK Day.
- Back issues — see the thing about the DAMN, above.
- Social life! I had one this month, and it was totally worth doing.
- The ICE murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti put a massive cloud over the last half of this month, and I expect that to continue into February. Oof.
🧐 Lessons Learned
- FUCK ICE.
- FUCK ICE.
- FUCK ICE.
