Miriam Parkinson

I’ve been fairly slack with my goals this month.

So busy with work and uni that all I’ve managed to achieve towards my goals is reading 1984 and going camping… oh well. Better luck next month I guess

I’m late again but here’s my monthly update for beginning of March.

Goals Completed
40. Organise all my files on both computers and ext hard drive
56. See 25 greatest films as voted by IMDB
75. Do 25 consecutive men’s’ push-ups
82. Do career relevant work

Goals I’m working towards
4. Upload 250 photos to flickr (65/250)
47. Watch the sun rise 10 times (3/10)
65. Do a weekly review every week for a year (2/52)
74. Complete an 8km race

Direction for This Month
This month I’m training for a 5km race in April and a 8km race in May.
Since I now have a job I’m also getting up before dawn twice a week so I’m racking up the sun rises.
I’m also focusing on building up my savings for emergencies and skiing.

I just finished my first New Ventures tute and given we’ve been sent off to Google each other a number of them will be visiting my blog shortly.

So hello, welcome. Feel free to have a poke around, you will leave in very little doubt about how I tick. My earlier posts are far more entertaining than my later posts because I temporarily lost my sense of humor during IBL but other than that it’s chock full of ranting and the occasional insight.

I will be Googling a number of you shortly. It should be entertaining. I have already Googled our tutor and as it turns out I have 5 common friends with her on facebook, only one of which is a uni related friend. Guess that’s what comes of hanging out with too many entrepreneurs! This exercise has reminded me to get off my butt and start adding people I know on LinkedIn because logic says she should be a 2nd degree separation with me and she’s 3rd which means my network has big fat gaping holes in it.

I guess we’ll see whether I discover any similar unexpected links with my classmates

Its been a fairly sucessful month. I’m finally running regularly and I ran just short of 60km this month. I’ve been doing both the 100 pushups and the 200 situps programs. I’m getting stronger and fitter and feeling great.

Goals Completed

16. Cook a 3 course meal for a friend

53. Go to moonlight cinema

55. Organise, prepare food for and go on a picnic

Goals I’m Working Towards

9. Read 50 non-fiction books (5/50)

• The Ghost Map, Steven Johnston
• The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley

56. See 25 greatest films as voted by IMDB (23/25)

75. Do 25 consecutive men’s pushups (20/25)

The way things are going with the pushups I’ll be up to 25 in the next week or so.

I started my 101 Goals list on the first of August 2008, just before I started my university semester. So I thought that given 2008 has drawn to a close I should do a little checkup of what I have achieved towards these goals in the past four months.

Completed Goals

13. Give blood

14. Attend a family Christmas

22. Visit Dad in Canberra

42. Remove all iPod tracks I don’t like

51. Go indoor rock climbing

52. Go to the Melbourne Museum

54. Go to the art gallery

66. Do makeup every morning for a month

73. Complete a 4km race

78. Finish in the top 50% in a 4km race

81. Average over 80 in uni classes

84. Get a High Distinction

86. Get above 90% in 5 assignments/tests

So… 13/101 down

Goals in Progress

4. Upload 250 photos to flickr (10/250)

Got plenty more of these to add when I get home from Christmas

8. Read 1984 and Animal Farm (1/2)

9. Read 50 non-fiction books (3/50)

Anais Ninn’s In Favour of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays

6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief, Lewis Wolpert

Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong, Marc Hauser

20. Put all birthdays/anniversaries in my diary

27. Go to 25 Spin Classes (2/25)

30.  Go to 5 conferences/unconferences (1/5)

33. Do 5 brutal cleanouts of unnecessary clutter (1/5)

40. Organise all files on both computers and external highdrive (1/5)

46. Try 50 new recipes (3/50)

56. See 25 greatest films as voted by IMDB (19/25)

58. Write Monthly updates of 101 Goals Progress (4/33)

59. Maintain a monthly closing balance of $0 on credit card (4/33)

67. Dress up at least once a month (4/33)

72. Create blog template

90. Create an emergency fund of two months pay

Completed

81. Average over 80 in uni classes

After a semester where I was afraid I wouldnt pass some of my subjects at all I managed a very surprising three D and one HD haul in my results.

84. Get a high distinction

Working Towards

14. Attend a Family Christmas

22. Visit Dad in Canberra

27. Go to 25 Spin Classes (2/25)

40. Organise all the files on my two computers and external harddrive (1/3)

56. See 25 Greatest Films as voted by IMDB (19/25)

72. Create Blog Template

Its a little late I know but here’s my november update for my 101 goals.

Completed

13. Give Blood

really not that scary I promise. You should give it a go

42. Remove all ipod tracks I don’t like

I think I got them all. Might change my mind on some though

78. Finish in the top 50% of a 4km race

very happy with that one. Now I just need to crack 23min to get the top 25%

86. Get above 90% in 5 tests/assignments

I managed above 90% in stacks of assignments this semester including one worth 50%

Scratched off  the list entirely

28. Run the length of elwood beach on the sand 20 times

Being as I’ve moved I just don’t think it’ll happen but I have replaced it with a new shinier goal

28v2. Run a half-marathon

Its been a while since I’ve written one of my traditional rambling and mostly pointless (but hopefully entertaining) blog posts so given I was kinda in the mood to ramble and be pointless I thought I may as well do it publicly.

Its been a while mostly because when I started work at Bosch everything was so dull and work like that I had no inspiration for my usual rants, raves and oddities so after starting and abandoning a couple of posts I sort of gave up. Today however I am highly caffeinated and I have had all sorts of exciting things happening in my life and I’ve been working on a very difficult assignment worth hardly any marks which always makes for good ranting fodder so I find myself already closing the second paragraph of a post.

Now, as I’ve completely failed to say anything meaningful (or anything at all for that matter) about my life for the past errm well year actually I’ll give a quick recap. Over the past year and a half I started IBL at Bosch, hated it, broke up with my boyfriend, got a new boyfriend, finished IBL at Bosch, started back at uni all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed having kicked my caffeine habit, got snowed under with work and got caffeinated up again and now you find me at the end of semester completing my final assignments and about to move house.

Now that Ive got that out of the way I can get on with my topics mentioned above.

I’m moving which is all very exciting because it means I get to buy a wardrobe from ikea AND I get to figure out where to put furniture. Most importantly of course it also means that I’m moving in with Michael (boyfriend) in an official kinda way as opposed to the me camping out at his house way which has been happening for the past several months now. Unfortunately I’m also moving right in the middle of the last week of semester so I’m going to have to work doubly hard now to make sure I don’t get screwed over by assignments due in week 12. This is of course why I’m highly caffeinated.

The particular assignment which has required assistance in the form of stimulants tonight to complete is a Robotic Control assignment which is far more complicated and far less fun than it sounds. Its also only worth 12% which is rather offensive given I’ve done somewhere around 10hrs work on it so far most of which was totally useless because it was wrong and ended up in the trash can. Its now mostly complete save several bits where I think I’ve done something dodgy to algebra and need to confer with other students who are slightly less creative with algebra than I am to make sure I’m doing the right thing. I’ve been having particular difficulty with z-transforms mostly because you have to do pages and pages of algebra to sort of mush one expression into the right kinda form to read off a table and then you find that its not on the table which generally means you fucked up and you have a tantrum (at least I do) and give up and rant for a bit.

Anyway that’s more than enough rambling for one night so I will shut up now

Today is World Mental Health or Blue Day. October is also Beyond Blue’s Anxiety and Depression Awareness Month.

Depression and anxiety awareness is very important to me. I have been suffering depression for much of my life and I was first diagnosed with depression by my family doctor when I was 5. A particular aspect of depression that I believe really needs some time in the spotlight is self-injury or self-harm.

Self-Injury is a badly misunderstood and stigmatised condition. There are many incorrect and potentially harmful beliefs about self-injury that pervade the media, society and even the doctors and nurses who treat those who suffer from it. Self-harm is not an attention seeking activity that whiny ‘emo’ teenagers indulge in. Self-injury is seen across all ages, genders and socio-economic backgrounds.

There are a number of articles which cover the various reasons why people self-harm so instead of rehashing all the clinical data  I will give you my personal story.

My self-harm started when I was a child. I couldn’t say when it started but it was common throughout my childhood to soothe my extremes of emotion by hitting or biting myself. The point where it became a problem was when I was 13, the first time took a razor blade and made a long, shallow cut down my arm. From that point on cutting became an irresistible urge. I lear

ned that when I got into a downward spiral, my brain wouldn’t shut up and I was panicking, the one thing that could bring silence and calm back to my world was to cut myself.

Learning to stop self-harming was difficult. One day when I was 17 I cut way too deep and scared the crap out myself. It caused me to confide in my family and friends and with their support and three thick scars on my thigh to remind me never to do it again I managed to stop.

The stereotypes and misunderstanding surrounding those who self-injure is harmful. It prevents people from getting help. People who are already ashamed and scared who have to face telling their loved ones and medical professional who may then react with scorn or disgust.

So I offer myself as a counter to the stereotype. Is this who you see when you think of someone who cuts themselves?

If you take one thing from this post I hope it is compassion for those around you who are hurting and awareness that self-injury exists, is a real medical condition and needs treatment like any other aspect of depression.

This month I’ve been a little slack on the whole goals business but still, I’ve made progress.

I’ve completed:

52. Go to Melbourne Museum

and

73. Complete a 4km run
(In a not so spectactular time of 30.08, but still I can only improve)

that and

66. Do my makeup every morning for a month
(which might not seem like a spectacular achievement but it did require disclipline and earlier waking)

I’ve crawled forward on a couple of the once a month style goals (I won’t bore you with the details) and I’m currently working on:

61. Go one month without eating junk food

in an attempt to detox from Web Directions.

I’ve also read another non-fiction book: 6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast,  by Lewis Wolpert, which is brilliant and I highly recommend, particularly to those who are into behavioural science sort of stuff.

I’ve also seen WALL-E, Psycho, Schindler’s List and the Godfather since last month bringing my count up to 15 unless I’ve completely lost count.

I’ve also booked my appointment to give blood so that should be happening before my next update… lucky me!

Next month my primary goal shall be working towards that all-important average of 80% in my subjects this semester. I will have another 4km race and I hope to get my time under 26 minutes which would bring me into the top 50%

Cheerio for now.

Hopefully I’ll send out another blog post before I HAVE to because I’m up for a 101 Goals update