2010 Goals

What I am going to get done in 2010, by category, with all the steps I can think of to get there.

1) Religious / Spiritual:
     A)Never miss church unless sick or out of town. Can be accomplished by not partying so much on Saturday night that I oversleep the next day.
     B) Participate in a mission or outreach with my church.  We have a very tiny church, so we don't  do this right now.  However, I know I am not the only one interested.  I need to talk to the people I know are interested, find out what they would like to do, and contact organizations that do it to find out how we can help.  Then I need to arrange for a time and place.
      C) Read The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language.  At some point, I believe that I've read every word in the Bible, but never through an entire edition.  I'm not sure if this will take me a week, a month, or all year - my plan is to start from the beginning and read as I feel guided to do so.  Can be done by setting aside the time every day, and not by putting it off until I fall over dead tired without having done it.
     D)Write every day in a prayer and gratitude journal. I was very touched by Debbie Macomber's Testimony as to the effectiveness of a gratitude and prayer journal on her life..  I must set aside a time every day to read my Bible and to write in my prayer/gratitude journal.
     E) Continue to Tithe. Figure out our 2010 take home and set up an automatic debit every month.

2) Health
     A) Maintain my weight between 145 and 155 pounds.  I just lost 30 pounds last year, and I am not sure where the best  balance between maintainability and healthfulness is yet.  This can be accomplished by going back to strict Weight Watchers point counting and regular exercise (see below).
     B) Swim or do Physical Therapy 4 times a week.  I want to get back into better cardiovascular shape and work on my core strength.  I am going to sign up for a gym on Monday and set myself times when I will swim, same times every day, every week.
     C) Do Physical Therapy Exercises Every Day. Continue to work on my core strength by doing the exercises recommended by my physical therapist every day.
     D) Practice Aikido Every Day.  I have been neglecting this, because I am not healthy enough to take the falls and such that I enjoy.  This year, I will set aside time every day to do the daily solo kata 6 times and to do 1000 cuts with the Bokken, both of which my health does allow.

3) Financial
     A) Pay off loan from relatives in the amount of $1000.  I have this set up to be auto-paid; I make the last payment in February.
     B) Pay off loan from relative in the amount of $30,000  In combination with my other financial plans, this will require an additional $927 a month that I am not sure where it will come from.  The easiest thing would be not to tithe this year, and use that money, but I have rejected that option because I feel that tithing is the only way that I am consistent in expressing to God my joy and thankfulness for his eternal love.  I am contemplating several small business ventures including a) buying things at yard and thrift sales and reselling them on ebay, b) restarting my old document review business on a less than full time schedule, c) finding a part-time job (this is contingent on finding more help for the farm), or d) turning old feed bags into shopping bags and selling them on etsy or similar.  It will be hard, but if I can pull this off, the only debts I will have left are one more family debt and a school loan at 1.65% APR.
     C) Fully Fund 2009 and 2010 Roth IRAs.  I have funded Mr. Goat's 2009 Roth and I have the money for mine, but I want to make an appointment with my financial adviser to discuss mine when I deposit the money. (I have until April 15, 2010 to get this done).   The 2010 money should mostly come out of the present that my parents gave me, if I can find a nice car cheaply enough.  Since we don't get employer matches, I have limited our retirement contributions to Roths until we are debt free.

4)  Dreams
     1) Write something besides this blog.  I plan to purchase the 2010 Writer's Market and see what is out there.  I'd like to enter a couple of short story competitions this year, and maybe even try to get paid for writing, if I see something that I think I can do (and the editors will take unsolicited stuff).
     2) Learn how to Accompany on the Piano.  I'd like to be able to accompany people when they sing.  My Dad, who plays the piano, has offered to give me lessons on Monday afternoons.  I also need to set aside about 30 minutes a day to practice if I plan to make any progress.
     3) Get officially affiliated with a dojo.  Since there is no dojo for my Aikido system in my area, I've not been affiliated with any since I left Dallas.  Once I get well enough to travel, I need to figure out whether I should have the guys in Houston or Dallas be my teachers and get a regular training schedule going.
     4) Keep up with my Chinese.  I've let my Chinese lapse again.  My plan is to write characters every day, so I don't forget my vocabulary.  If I add a new character every day, then by the end of the year I'll be writing 365 characters every day, and in a few years years I'll be writing all the ones I learned, everyday.

5) Prosaic
     1) Practice with my carry firearms at least once a month.  This is the bare minimum, and I have not been making it.  Of course, I'm also so full of pain medication that I don't carry right now, but I have high hopes that I will soon be carrying again, and then I'll need to be in practice.
     2) Keep my house in a reasonable state of neatness.  My housekeeper quit yesterday and I've decided not to replace her.  I'm hoping to be able to keep my house in a reasonable enough state of neatness that I don't go crazy. This isn't a financial-based decision, it is because Mr. Goat hates having people in his house messing with his stuff.  We'll see how this goes - I may need to get some kind of monthly deep clean service to keep up with myself.  But it's not as though my late housekeeper really kept up with me - the house was never in good enough shape for me to be comfortable having company over.  So I'd just as soon live in a pile of mess for free as pay for it.

In Summation:
What my goals will require for implementation is time.  I believe that I can come up with this kind of time by cutting down on the time I waste on things which do not reflect my value system.  I am going to cancel my subscription to Aion because I spend my time playing it stressed, not relaxed.  I also need to cut back on my internet browsing; I spend way too much time reading news and blogs.  When I canceled my online WSJ subscription I thought it would help, but honestly there's not much difference between the paid and the free content on their site.

In 2010 I will spend my time with projects and people that reflect my goals and values.  I will not allow inertia to steal time, my most valuable possession, away from me.

My Own Detergent and Re-Ordering Aion

Frugal Dreamer's last post about making your own laundry detergent finally convinced me to try it for myself. I would rate the project as a moderate success.

I used the recipe she gave here. For my soap, I used Irish Spring , Reviving with Mint, because I failed to look at the website from which Frugal Dreamer took her recipe, which recommends that you not use heavily perfumed soap, lest it stain your clothing.



I think I ended up spending about as much as Frugal Dreamer did, but differently. I couldn't find any place in my area that sold washing soda, so I ordered some from ebay from this person (she was the cheapest at the time, and she delivered within 5 days, so I'd recommend her). The Borax was lying around the house from a failed project by Mr. Goat, but would have cost about $3 at Wal-Mart. I didn't have to buy a bucket, though, because I had a kitty litter bucket lying around. I save them because they are so so useful around the house, and they proved so this time as well. The soap came as part of a package; it's what we use here at Chez Goat normally.

The actual detergent-making process was quite simple, and it looked like it came out really well. The next morning, it had hardened to a scary jello-like consistency. A vigorous stir yielded a light green sludgy mess.



I have a high energy front loader washing machine, and the detergent did not dissolve in the little tray. However, when I put it directly into the drum, it dissolved fine and cleaned clothing fairly well. After two loads, I have not noticed any staining. The only thing that did not come clean was one pair of muddy white socks, but I washed them on normal with no bleach, so I don't think commercial detergent would have done any better.



I am using about half a cup of detergent per load, so figure 40 loads per batch. It looks like the borax will make 3 batches, so ~ $1 a batch; the washing soda will make 2 batches, so ~ $4.23 a batch, and the soap was ~ $1 bar. So $6.23 per batch, or almost 16 cents a load. Arm & Hammer Detergent, my usual brand, costs about the same amount, tax included, for 31 loads, or a little more that 20 cents a load. The detergent website has a recipe (#8) that uses baking soda instead of washing soda, which I might try next time, as that would bring the cost down for me significantly.

On a different note, Amazon canceled my Aion pre-order. When I pre-ordered, it was $3 cheaper than it is now, but when I called them and complained, they gave me a $3 credit on my new pre-order. So if you had the same problem, it's worth giving them a call to get your $3 back.

Aion Open Beta

Aion's open beta has been officially announced for September 6-13th. If you haven't pre-ordered yet, you can get an open beta key through fileplanet.

For the last couple of months, people in my guild have been harassing me about getting a box version off Amazon, rather than just buying a key online, but I ended up having the last laugh - Only the box editions give you wings for your Guild Wars toons. I'll be able to do this in GW!



Sure, it's a bit silly, but you can't take yourself too seriously if you are still playing video games as an adult.

Pre-order Aion?

Aion is finally almost here. I have been looking forward to it for almost a year; I actually had it pre-ordered last October. But, in the interim, I have sworn off pre-ordering hot new games. I have just been burned too many times in the past couple of years; I pre-ordered Pirates of the Burning Sea, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online and suffered crushing disappointments. My resolution was recently tested with the release of Darkfall, but vindicated when my guild's division flamed out in less than two months due to game play issues, saving me the cost of the game.

I am oh so tempted, though. Aion is an NCsoft product, and NCsoft also published Guild Wars, which is the best MMO I have ever played. I canceled my Warhammer subscription in January, and I am suffering severe gaming withdrawal. Aion won't be out until September, but if I pre-order now, I can play the US betas. The next beta starts Friday, so I feel some pressure to decide before then. After all, if I am going to pre-order, I should get all the beta joy I can out of it. I also cherish a hope that, should I try the beta and hate it, I can cancel my pre-order.

Several people in my guild have been playing the Chinese beta and love it, but none of them are people that I know from other games, so I'm not sure how much weight to give their opinions. After all, I know people who love playing Eve Online, but that doesn't make it a good game. Ten Ton Hammer gave the first NA beta event a favorable review, but they didn't get to try any PvP.

What do you think? Should I give in to shiny beta temptation or wait a couple of months after release to see if the game actually has legs?