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2024 Goals: Life, the Universe, and Everything
I am not really doing the Snowflake Challenge (or am I?), but I do like the idea of setting 2024 goals. In no particular order:
1. I turn 40 in April, and I have one stated goal for this: to be able to deadlift 100 lbs. I am well on my way -- I started working with a personal trainer on strength training about 15 months ago, and as of today, I can deadlift 75 lbs. Onward!
2. I have only one proper resolution for the year, which is to suck less at work lunch. Once upon a time, I used to bring my lunch to the office like four days a week. Since returning to the office 3+ days a week, I have landed on a lackluster diet of chicken fingers, grocery store sushi, and frozen meals, and it's honestly sort of gross. My progress against this right now is to...buy a prepared meal service to provide about one meal a day. It feels like giving in to, I don't know, being the overworked, single, middle-aged product of corporate America that I am, but on the other hand, it isn't chicken fingers. A week in, I am cautiously optimistic.
3. At work, I have a *really* big project to deliver. And we're gonna do it, and it's gonna be great.
4. I don't set reading goals, because I have flashbacks to getting in trouble for not reading enough when I was a teenager. But I do want to read books I enjoy, and do so with intention. I would love recommendations--the books I loved most in 2023 were "A Memory Called Empire," by Arkady Martine, and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," by Gabrielle Zevin, but I appreciate recommendations across genre with the key exception that I refuse to read books with fake maps.
5. Writing! ICYMI, I wrote *one* whole story in 2023, a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds story I am immensely proud of. the wheel of the headlong year is Marie Batel in the aftermath of "Hegemony." It's a story of grief, and trauma, and loss, and love. It took me five months.
So my writing goal is...write. Not write more, if there isn't more. But to write what I can, when I can, with as much love and attention and care as I brought to this story. Because writing with love--not for obligation, not for kudos, not for anything other than the joy of it--is the best thing ever.
6. I want to do a better job commenting on stories this year.
7. I want to post here more. Perhaps a goal of once a month! (And look, January is done!) And with that, I would like to connect more with people here -- I have wonderful Tumblr and Discord communities especially, but I miss the slower and more thoughtful pace of the old ways.
8. I turn 40 this year. I want to rest well, and enjoy the small things, and slow down sometimes. I want to snuggle the cat and hug my friends. I want to see new places and revel in the old ones. I want to enjoy my aging, challenging, wonderful parents. I want to thrive.
1. I turn 40 in April, and I have one stated goal for this: to be able to deadlift 100 lbs. I am well on my way -- I started working with a personal trainer on strength training about 15 months ago, and as of today, I can deadlift 75 lbs. Onward!
2. I have only one proper resolution for the year, which is to suck less at work lunch. Once upon a time, I used to bring my lunch to the office like four days a week. Since returning to the office 3+ days a week, I have landed on a lackluster diet of chicken fingers, grocery store sushi, and frozen meals, and it's honestly sort of gross. My progress against this right now is to...buy a prepared meal service to provide about one meal a day. It feels like giving in to, I don't know, being the overworked, single, middle-aged product of corporate America that I am, but on the other hand, it isn't chicken fingers. A week in, I am cautiously optimistic.
3. At work, I have a *really* big project to deliver. And we're gonna do it, and it's gonna be great.
4. I don't set reading goals, because I have flashbacks to getting in trouble for not reading enough when I was a teenager. But I do want to read books I enjoy, and do so with intention. I would love recommendations--the books I loved most in 2023 were "A Memory Called Empire," by Arkady Martine, and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," by Gabrielle Zevin, but I appreciate recommendations across genre with the key exception that I refuse to read books with fake maps.
5. Writing! ICYMI, I wrote *one* whole story in 2023, a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds story I am immensely proud of. the wheel of the headlong year is Marie Batel in the aftermath of "Hegemony." It's a story of grief, and trauma, and loss, and love. It took me five months.
So my writing goal is...write. Not write more, if there isn't more. But to write what I can, when I can, with as much love and attention and care as I brought to this story. Because writing with love--not for obligation, not for kudos, not for anything other than the joy of it--is the best thing ever.
6. I want to do a better job commenting on stories this year.
7. I want to post here more. Perhaps a goal of once a month! (And look, January is done!) And with that, I would like to connect more with people here -- I have wonderful Tumblr and Discord communities especially, but I miss the slower and more thoughtful pace of the old ways.
8. I turn 40 this year. I want to rest well, and enjoy the small things, and slow down sometimes. I want to snuggle the cat and hug my friends. I want to see new places and revel in the old ones. I want to enjoy my aging, challenging, wonderful parents. I want to thrive.
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Also, the latest Murderbot was fun.
I really enjoyed Miriam Toews’ Women Talking, but mind the warnings for sexual assault - it’s not graphic, and some of the worst is implied, but it is critical to the plot. The story is a conversation on the nature of faith in an impossible situation and has some interesting Jewish parallels.
Currently reading Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang and enjoying it so far.
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Thank you for the other recs, I will investigate! I am between books at the moment because work is very busy and For All Mankind has eaten my brain, but I am looking forward to getting back to reading.
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Oh, and House of Leaves, but I’m not sure I’d rec that one - it was good, but a lot of work to read.
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The NCC 1701 series by Account5738525 (https://archiveofourown.org/series/2932605) is a long slow burn neurodivergent Chapel/ace La’an series. Some bits are a bit drawn out and wandery and maybe could have used a beta for clarity at some points, but I enjoyed the compliment of OC’s almost as much as some of the settings and descriptions in this one.
Trekkerverse series (https://archiveofourown.org/series/2978370) by Alsike, starting with part 2 made me love T’Pring more than I thought possible. I didn’t read the La’an/Una stories in the series though (just not a pairing I’m interested in)
Summary:
Dr Christine Chapel always figured that T'Pring was a Vulcan's Vulcan, and never expected to find her here, on Betazed, living a very different life than she'd had before. But, no one gets out of a relationship with Spock unscathed. And sometimes the ways you tried to change yourself to keep him end up showing you who you want to be.
There were a couple more I enjoyed enough to rec, but I seemed to have failed to bookmark them and I’m afraid of the rabbit hole I’ll fall down if I skim through the SNW tag tonight. Lol.
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And you’re right about the rarepair thing for sure. I love how varied the shipping in the fandom is, but I also am both amused and a little sad that my pairing of choice has 39 stories (not all of which actually count!). It’s canon! And yet… :D