New Year's Resolutions 2019

Resolutions 2019

1. Lose at least two stone
2. Get at least one piercing
3. Get at least one tattoo
4. Learn to drive
5. Read 100 books
6. Watch 100 films
7. See at least 5 films at the cinema
8. Write at least 30,000 words for NaNoWriMo
9. Buy a tablet
10. Get a second dog
11. Find a new job
12. Draw more and improve my art

Much the same as last year but condensed and simplified. I usually say I want to complete NaNoWriMo but that seems to be un-achievable at the moment so I thought I'll create goals to get closer. Normally I'd say 30k is too high but I want to get a tablet for writing because typing is quicker, the one year I typed my attempt I got to about 29k I think, I think I was a few hundred words off 30k so apparently it is doable for me. I need to continue that story at some point...

Last year I easily surpassed 5 films at the cinema but I though I'll keep the goal at 5 because I don't know what the year will bring and I want to achieve at least one goal on my list LOL! This list was compiled by looking at the Coming Soon section of the Vue cinema website. There were some films that had intriguing titles but no description or descriptions that had me thinking maybe. Those would need trailers to help any decisions.

Films I Want To See:
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
A Dog's Way Home
Aladdin
Artemis Fowl
Avengers: Endgame
Captain Marvel
Charlie's Angels
Dumbo
Escape Room
Frozen 2
Hellboy
It 2 (need to watch the first one though...)
Missing Link
Pet Sematary
Rocketman
Shazam!
Spider-man: Far From Home
The Kid Who Would Be King
The Lion King
The New Mutants
The Queen's Corgi
The Secret Life of Pets 2
The Sun Is Also A Star
Toy Story 4
Uglydolls
What Men Want
Wonder Park
X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Other Goals
As well as my official resolutions list I have a list of 'stretch' goals I suppose you could call it that are unlikely but I would still like to achieve.

1. Go to Longleat Safari Park
2. Finish 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series
3. Upload book reviews on time - at the moment I am 14 books behind and 7 of those still need reviews writing, oops.
4. Refine my clothing style
5. Get a Playstation 4 - mostly for the Spyro remake :D
6. Upgrade/replace all furniture needed
7. Get a new car

Longleat has been a dream for a few years now and even more so since I upgraded my camera - still need to learn the focus thing though, fences are a pain - and it's not too far away but it always gets shoved down the list. I don't know what happened with the SoIaF books. I started reading them, got to a Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow and then stalled. Apparently I started reading that one September 2017.

Ah book reviews. Oh dear. If it were just posting them here then I could maybe work out doing them on my phone but it's the posting on Goodreads and often NetGalley as well that make it a trickier process. I only get on the PC a few times a week thanks to work and sometimes I just forget to post as well. I will do one in a minute and post straightaway and then schedule this post for later or something. This is another area that getting a tablet may help, bigger screen to see what I'm doing and a keyboard case for typing.

Clothing style... Rainbow Goth in a nutshell. I love goth style but I also love bright colours and hippie clothing Wicked Dragon and The Hippy Clothing Co. both do the kind of things I dream of wearing, the latter in particular has some epic purple velvet tie-dye dungarees that I love! At the moment the main issue is that the sizes do not quite extend enough on most items to fit me. That is why this is a stretch goal and not a main resolution, because a lot of it rides on me losing a bit of weight, then I can wear the clothes of my dreams.

PS4 doesn't need explaining beyond Spyro being the last straw in me wanting to catch up technologically. Now furniture... Some of it is due to the dog's chewing phase (coffee table), most of it is age and being generally worn out: my bed, cooker, fridge, washing machine, sofas, carpets. It's a big job and will take a while.

And finally the car. Our little Nissan Micra is great and it's in better condition and better to handle than the old Ford Mondeo but while the Mondeo was too long, the Micra is too small and needs a bit more power in the engine, I think it's only a 1.1 or 1.2 engine verses the Mondeo which I think was something like a 1.4 or 1.6, I can't remember now.

Anyway this post is way too long but I can't be bothered to split it, will write soon!

Stef Out x

2018 Resolutions Recap and Film Overview

For anyone that wants a reminder here is my post about 2018's resolutions here and film overview here. I did not do well. Out of 20 goals I achieved 2 and a half. I saw 5 films at the cinema, got a new car and lost 1 stone out of 2. Not great. I even failed my usually faithful book and film challenge. This year I did change my work hours slightly. Friday's I used to do 8 til 1 and then I'd come home and watch a film before walking the dog to meet mum from work because she was doing 11 til 5. But then we realised switching round would be better because it means mum can come home and do things like cleaning or ironing. So we did so that meant bye-bye film Friday.

I will do a post in a few days about this years resolutions, I've just got to come up with them first! Back to last year's recap. Body mods, driving and days out were affected by money. We got the new car in February but then a few months later the clutch went so that needed sorting, plus it's had two tyres done. Forest had his op in the summer as well so no pups for him. Also mum had problems with her Universal Credit stopping, basically her details got deleted when the system changed so we needed to re-set that up. We also did one for me but apparently living at home means I have no outgoings - tell that to my weeping bank account - so I'm not eligible for anything. Sucks. I haven't had the energy to look into anything job-wise so I'm still in retail hell for now. The only drawing I've done all year is two Secret Santa gifts in December. I've really struggled with motivation and concentration this year, with reading as well :( I worked out that for music to play on my phone it needs to be in MP3 format so I'm working on converting my library and I will get a larger memory card for my phone. I do still need to get a tablet for writing though and It'll make keeping up with this blog easier. I can't keep taking months to post reviews...

Films
Now onto the film section! This year I only managed to watch 88 films. That's bad for me. Onto the breakdown:

January: 18 of which 4 were animated, 3 musicals, 3 superhero, 2 fantasy, 1 serious and 5 horror. 4 new to me.

February: 5 of which 1 was animated and 4 were fantasy. 3 new to me.

March: 7 of which 3 were animated, 1 superhero and 3 fantasy. 1 new to me.

April: April was a bad month and I watched no films. :(

May: 4 of which 2 were animated and 2 were superhero. All 4 were new to me.

June: 10 of which 4 were animated, 1 superhero, 1 musical, 1 romance, 1 animal and 2 fantasy. 4 new to me.

July: 10 of which 3 were animated, 3 animal and 4 fantasy. 2 new to me.

August: 12 of which 5 were fantasy, 3 were animated, 1 animal, 1 musical, 2 serious. 2 new to me.

September: 2 of which 1 was superhero and 1 was animated.

October: 2 of which 1 was fantasy and 1 was horror. 1 new to me.

November: 3 of which 1 animated, 1 fantasy and 1 serious. 2 new to me.

December: 15 of which 11 were animated, 3 fantasy and 1 serious. 4 new to me.

33 animated so less this year. 27 new to me films I ended up not tracking re-watches like I planned. I may for 2019, I've started a new notebook which is a little bigger and lined so it may be easier.

Total Cinema Trips: 10
I smashed my goal of watching 5 films at the cinema and went 10 times for 8 films!
The Greatest Showman x 2
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Deadpool 2
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again x 2
Bohemian Rhapsody
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

I haven't yet looked at what's out next year but I think that'll come in my next post with the new resolutions themselves as this has gotten a little long.

Stef Out x

Long Time No Post + NaNo Questions From PaperFury

So... It's been a while. That potential dog I was talking about? 

Meet Ryazan Fingal aka 'Forest'! He is a purebred Borzoi and at the moment he's 5 and a half months old. He was born 7th May and we brought him home 12th July! It has been a whirlwind and things haven't really stopped since then. We must be mad because we're now thinking about possibly putting or names down with a couple of sighthound rescues and hope they're OK with flats and enthusiastic puppies 😆 LOL!

So now onto the main reason for this post: the yearly tradition that is National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo! I attempt most years and have yet to succeed. Last year I got to 29k words which I was pretty pleased with and that was with a fairly solid idea and lots of laptop time. This year my idea is much more vague and I'm planning on hand writing so not exactly a recipe for success... But hey I'm gonna try!

1. What inspired the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea? The base idea came to me as I was trying to get to sleep one night a couple of months ago.
2. Describe what your novel is about! It's about the truth behind family and heritage. There will be magic and faeries.
3. What is your book’s aesthetic? Use words or photos or whatever you like! 
   
4. Introduce us to each of your characters! Lindy is the main character, she has black curly hair, ice blue eyes, tanned skin. She is queer and trans and love goth/strega fashion. Her mum is Andrea, who is pale, blonde and petite and they look nothing alike (sets off story). Sadie is Lindy's supportive best friend who has red frizzy hair and loves research. Onyx is one of the first figures Lindy meets on her journey, she is not human and has very dark skin and white hair. Fennel is a pure white talking Borzoi (pictured above). Villains of the story are Mallick and Magda.
5. How do you prepare to write? (Outline,
   research, stocking up on chocolate, howling, etc.?) Come up with a vague plot and some characters, start writing, panic when things don't go to plan (I never properly plan because planned chapter 7 always ends up happening in chapter 2 and it's frustrating), drink copious amounts of tea and hot chocolate.
6. What are you most looking forward to about this novel? Seeing if I can actually tie this thing together into something that makes sense.
7. List 3 things about your novel’s setting. Forests that appear purple, crystal clear lagoons, British secondary school.
8. What’s your character’s goal and who (or what) stands in the way? To find out the truth about herself, her whole identity is tied up in knots. Her mother is a primary block in refusing to tell her the truth. Mallick is the other block in her accepting her future.
9. How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel? She has matured, accepted her differences and even embraced them. She willingly takes the role she's meant to.
10. What are your book’s themes? How do you want readers to feel when the story is over? "Choice not chance determines destiny". I want them to be able to accept their differences as a part of them and embrace themselves.

New Years Resolutions 2017

Last year I had a massive list of 34 resolutions separated into 3 categories of which I achieved 7 and two of those were halves. *sigh* This year I have a more manageable list of 22.

1. Get my septum pierced.
2. Get my ear re-pierced.
3. Get at least one other piercing.
4. Get at least one tattoo - cover-up or otherwise.
5. Lose at least 2 stone.
6. Refine my personal style.
7. Learn to drive.
8. Get a dog (preferably a Borzoi - to be followed by a Shetland Sheepdog).
9. See a stage show.
10. Go to Longleat Safari Park.
11. Go out for a meal.
12. Read at least 100 books.
13. Read 'A Song of Ice and Fire'.
14. Watch at least 100 films.
15. Buy a new camera.
16. Buy an iPod Classic.
17. Buy some New Rock boots.
18. Buy new wardrobes.
19. Buy new sofas.
20. Finish the first draft of my novel.
21. Blog once a month.
22. Improve my art.

So that's my list. I haven't even bothered to categorise it like last year. I've also left off some of the less achievable things like 'go on a date' XD knowing my history that's kind of unlikely. And things like art goals tend to get forgotten. We'll just have to see what happens.

New Years Resolutions 2016

So I thought I'd post my list of resolutions here just so I've got a digital record. Dunno why, just thought I would. :)

Personal/Appearance

1. Get my right ear re-pierced
2. Get my septum pierced
3. Get my ears pierced at least once more
4. Start stretching my ears (once healed)
5. Get an industrial piercing
6. Get my cover-up tattoo
7. Dye my hair purple
8. Dye my hair with henna
9. Lose at least 2 stone - more like 1
10. Refine/establish my personal style

Finance Related

1. Learn to drive
2. Get a dog (preferably a Borzoi)
3. Buy a laptop
4. Buy an iPod Classic
5. Get Netflix
6. Upgrade the car - battery changed
7. Buy a new camera
8. See Mamma Mia on stage
9. Get Amazon Prime
10. Buy a new phone

General Goals/Aims

1. Read at least 100 books
2. Read A Song of Ice and Fire series
3. Watch at least 100 films
4. Discover 2 new shows
5. Discover 2 new bands/singers
6. Blog at least once a month
7. Do more book reviews
8. Improve my equine art
9. Improve my human art
10. Learn to draw dogs
11. Learn to draw cats
12. Draw a self portrait
13. Finish the first draft of my novel
14. Go on a date

Naturally some of these are more achievable than others. For example the 100 books and films. My challenge history on Goodreads has me at over 100 every year but one where it looks like I didn't set a challenge. In 2013 I even read 213 although it looks like it was a year for short books like my Animal Ark collection (which I did finally let go of last year, at 25 I guess I'm a little older than the target market).

Go on a date seems unlikely but I still wanted to add it. Upgrade the car currently means fix it since the battery appears to have died so depending how things go that may count as that goal being completed.

Oddly things as easy as getting pierced seem to slip furthest down the list. Get my septum pierced has been on my resolutions list since at least 2013 (can't be arsed to check my older diaries) yet I still haven't got round to it. Mum may be tricky regarding the stretching. She's fine with me punching a ton of holes in my ears (almost encourages it) but she hates stretched ears that you can see through. Luckily I wasn't planning on going that big, an 8 or 6 maybe and the only reason I'd actually wear tunnels is so I can still wear my other dangly earrings, unless I just wear them in the next hole up.

Also while it does say about losing weight up there it's not my highest priority. I do want to lose some and I know I need to - my blood pressure has been up my last two nurses visits and while it may be stress related (old awful job the first, starting a new job on Christmas the second and cuffs/machines not working both times) it may also be weight related since I have put some back on. I don't want to be taken of contraception I know works thanks to weight (that happened before at my old surgery). And also I want to wear nicer clothes. I want to fit into Joe Browns main range and all the cool Gothy brands I see around. I want to find the right stuff to be able to wear Dark Mori without looking like I'm wearing a sack. I'm not doing any diets or anything. I'm just walking to and from work and I hope to set up a swimming membership at some point. Possibly around March. Finances should be more free by then. I have a list of books as long as my arm for January and hopefully a laptop for novelling in February. Course it all depends on how much I get and how much mum needs for household stuff.

Blogtober Day 24 - Where Do You Hope To Be In 10 Years?

1. Be in a job that I love.
2. Retrain for said job if necessary.
3. Be in a loving relationship.
4. Have moved house - possibly to one I've bought.
5. Published at least one book.
6. Made my way through at least part of my bucket list.

A short and sweet post today. Looking at the subject list I won't be back until Day 27 so I'll see you then.

Blogtober Day 5 - Do You Have A Bucket List?

I've never really thought about a bucket list as such. I have one of those 101 in 1001 days lists: http://dayzeroproject.com/user/nemostar/list/81097 but that's about it.

OK so here's a hastily thought out bucket list:

1. Get a Borzoi
2. Learn to drive
3. Buy a house
4. Meet someone and get married
5. Go to Glastonbury festival
6. Go to at least one other festival - would have loved Reading 2013, The Cure were playing!
7. Go camping with my significant other
8. Get all the tattoos I have planned
9. Get all the piercings I have planned
10. Go to Canada
11. Go to New Zealand
12. Learn to horse ride
13. Go skydiving
14. Ride a roller coaster

I think a list of 10 is enough to be going on with for now - yeah I updated it to 14 XD. See you tomorrow for Day 6 :)

Have a gorgeous Borzoi!