Long Time No See... 2019 Resolutions Progress.

Hello. So the resolution for keeping up with this blog and reviews didn't exactly happen. 2019 was a bit of a crap year. It seems a bit of depression snuck in somewhere and life circumstances around April meant it really dug it's claws in. It still hasn't let go yet. I suppose some people might see a doctor about that sort of thing but I don't have time to wait around. Appointments at my doctor's surgery regularly run half an hour late although recently my mum was waiting about an hour so... I end up avoiding it when there's a small list of things I could do with talking to them about.

Another thing that hasn't helped in more recent months (mid October onwards) is that I got a new job. I'm now Assistant Manager for a local charity shop. It's fun but busy It's - currently - four days a week working 9 til 5, well half-5 by the time you've cashed up and gotten out of there. It's been a massive learning curve and it doesn't leave a lot of computer time. I am typing this on my laptop which is an option but it's big and heavy and awkward so I'd like to get a little Chromebook or something soon. Something light and fast! A Macbook would be the dream but considering they cost more than my monthly wage that's all it'll be, a dream. Even if I had the money an iPad Pro would be higher priority, mostly for Procreate, the drawing app, I follow artists online who use it and it looks epic!

Anyway resolutions. These were last years:

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

As you can see I did not do very well at all last year. If I recall I lost a bit of weight but not as much as I wanted to, one of those things that depression affected, like my concentration which is why I failed my reading goal. I thought I consistently read above 100 a year but checking back I've failed a few times, 2014 I read 97, 2017 was only 84, 2018 was 91 and last year, 2019, was 92. My best year overall since I started the challenge on Goodreads in 2012 was 2013 when I read 207 but that was due to re-reading my Animal Ark books before re-homing them. Concentration also affected NaNoWriMo, also with that one time was a factor, having only recently started my new job.

Speaking of the job as you know I was originally at Sainsbury's. I'd not been happy for a while but then a bunch of stuff went down in April which led to my mum losing her job which then left me feeling awkward and stressed and extra unhappy. I was planning on looking for something new soon anyway but then I was in the charity shop talking to the manager there who I used to work with at Sainsbury's and she said they had an Assistant Manager vacancy and I should apply, so I did and I ended up getting it!

Now... the dog... That was not great. We'd been looking into adopting a Greyhound since March and had filled out forms with Hounds First and Forever Hounds Trust, it was taking so long for anything to happen we later filled out one with Bath Cats and Dogs Home but later all they could offer was a Yorkshire Terrier, not going to work. We had a meet with a Greyhound from Hounds First but he was an older, slower chap so we didn't feel like it would work. Forever Hounds Trust kept on giving us the runaround but eventually we got told about Stacey, a Greyhound x Whippet. We went and saw her mid August and despite reservations we decided we'd take her home (not helped by the distance and horrible country roads to get to the centre) and renamed her Breeze. Things were difficult from the start. We had to buy her a slow feeder and stand between her and Forest to give him a chance to eat his food. She didn't understand toys, she blocked him from getting on either bed and he ended up sleeping in the kitchen which he'd never done before in his life! She was also a chewer, ate a pair of my shoes and put a hole in my towel. Her training was also non-existent, pulling strongly, barking at other dogs, couldn't walk in a straight line, she also had several accidents inside. Of course this was mostly stuff we could have worked with (except maybe the beds) but then she quickly started to get quite nippy with him and caused a couple of small injuries and so we decided after a few weeks that she needed to go back for his safety and hers if Forest decided to retaliate - being so much bigger and all). We have now decided if we're going to get another dog then another puppy is going to be the best plan for us personally. We need to know a dog's background, Breeze was a former stray so was always going to be a mystery.

The other goals as normal suffered from lack of money. Same old, same old.

Anyway this post is long enough that I will sign off and do 2020's goals in a new post.

Stef Out xx

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

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!

Fear Tag

I was reading Nocturne Street and spotted this with a note at the bottom saying if you are reading you're automatically tagged so I stole it XD

 Rules

• Do this tag with the lights on. You may be facing your worst fears in this room...
• Answer the questions! 
• Tag however many others as you want and link them in your post.
• Tell the others you've tagged them on their blogs.
• If you read their posts and notice you share the same fears, give them a virtual hug. :)

Questions

1) Three things you're afraid of for a very good reason (in order).

2) Three irrational fears of yours (in order).

3) The medical term for one of your fears.

4) Are you superstitious in any way?

5) Are you easily startled?

6) Do you have any common fears (heights, bugs, etc.)

7) When you watch horror movies, are you better at dealing with suspense or gore?

8) Are you afraid of ghosts?

9) Are you afraid of any animals?

10) What was your scariest nightmare about?

Answers

1) Deep water - you can drown, fire - horrific burns and loss of possessions and bees - stings (I'm not allergic though) and I will risk traffic to get away from them.

2) Spiders - England doesn't exactly have poisonous spiders XD, dolls - can't actually move to hurt you and clowns - generally considered children's entertainment and as such not logically threatening...

3) Bees = Apiphobia

4) Kinda, I touch wood, avoid ladders, occasionally avoid cracks in the pavement if I'm feeling silly - mostly because it reminds me of The Land Before Time and one of the silly moments in a fairly serious film. Black cats confuse me because I can never remember which side is supposed to be good luck vs bad luck, it changes worldwide.

5) Not really

6) Spiders, most bugs, clowns are fairly common, small spaces... I have a lot of fears really...

7) Gore. I love gory films, the Saw series is one of my favourite film franchises :D

8) No, I believe in them but I'm not really scared of them. Maybe if I encountered one I'd feel differently.

9) Sharks, crocodiles, I'm also a bit wary around strange dogs. Particularly big ones even though personally I've been closer to being bitten by a small dog than by a big one...

10) I don't think I've ever had a nightmare... Not that I can remember anyway, I don't think I really dream... If I do it's usually about something really random like toilets O_o