Author: Miriam

101 Goals – Update 1

Miriam1 Comment

So far this 101 goals lark is going great. I’ve already completed a couple of goals and I’m working towards several more.

Completed Goals:

51. Go indoor rock-climbing

I went indoor rock-climbing with my sister and Michael a couple of weekends ago. Loads of fun, despite having absolutely no upper-body strength 🙂

54. Go to the art gallery

The art gallery trip was my first completed goal. Got that one out of the way on a rainy Melbourne weekend.

Semi-Completed Goals:

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

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

Finished Animal Farm on the plane to Sydney two weekends ago

9. Read 50 Nonfiction Books (1/50)

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

46. Try 50 new Recipes (3/50)

Pork with Tomato and Caper Sauce

Protein Bars

Mechoui (Morroccan Roasted Lamb)

56. See 25 Greatest Films as Voted by IMDB (11/25)

The Dark Knight

Pulp Fiction

One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest

Star Wars: Episode V

Casablanca

12 Angry Men

Star Wars

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings

Fight Club

Dr Strangelove

58. Write Monthly Updates of 101 Progress (1/33)

59. Maintain Monthly Closing Balance of $0 on credit card (1/33)

66. Do makeup every morning for a month (19/33)

67. Dress up at least once a month (1/33)

Next month I plan to sort through my clothing and jewellry. Do a brutal cleanout of clutter. Complete my makeup every day goal and move on to another sustain x for x period goal 🙂

I’ll also chuck in a few more movies and books for good measure.

101 Goals in 1001 Days

Miriam8 Comments

A couple of days ago I was reading through The Simple Dollar archives and I noticed Trent’s post on 101 goals in 1001 days . This really caught my imagination and so I have compiled my own list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days. The basic premise is this:

The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days. The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).  From: http://www.triplux.com/dayzero

My start date is Friday 1st August 2008. My end date is Friday 29th April 2011 So without anymore ado I present… The List:

Stuff I just need to DO

Blog

1. Create photo tour of my workspace for blog

2. Rewrite ‘about me’ section in blog

3. Submit a guest post to another blog

4. Upload 250 photos to flickr (65/250)

5. Write 5 blog posts about productivity (0/5)

6. Write emails to 5 bloggers I read regularly (0/5)

7. Write reviews for 5 books for blog (0/5)

Books

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

9. Read 50 non-fiction books (15/50)

  • 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
  • The Ghost Map, Steven Johnston
  • The Book of Dead Philosophers, Simon Critchley
  • The Zookeepers Wife, Diane Ackerman
  • 1788, Watkin Tench
  • The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker
  • How to Become a Straight A Student, Cal Newport
  • The Brain that Changes Itself, Norman Doidge
  • Running for Mortals, John Bingham and Jenny Hadfield
  • Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely
  • Run Less Run Faster, Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss
  • The Runners Diet, Madelyn Fernstrom
  • The Omnivores Dilemma, Michael Pollan

10. Read a book by Ayn Rand

11. Read a book by Dostoevesky

12. Read Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn (0/2)

Community

13. Give blood

Family and Friends

14. Attend a family Christmas

15. Call/send cards/email all my friends/family on their birthdays

16. Cook a 3 course meal for a friend

17. Give 10 unexpected gifts (2/10)

18. Make 30 cards to give to friends/family (0/30)

19. Make a bag out of ties for my mum

20. Put all birthdays and anniversaries in my calendar

21. Send photos to whole family 5 times (0/5)

22. Visit Dad in Canberra

23. Write a letter to each grandparent (0/3)

Financial

24. Only use credit-card when I have the cash available in savings

Health and Fitness

25. Get a smear test

26. Get new glasses

27. Go to 25 spin classes (6/25)

28. Run the length of elwood beach on the sand 20 times (0/20)

28v2. Run a half-marathon in the melbourne marathon

Networking

29. Collect business cards from and email 25 people (0/25)

30. Go to 5 conferences/unconferences (2/5)

31. Make contact with 5 potential employers (0/5)

Personal and Personal Achievements

32. Collect my favourite recipes into a recipe book

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

34. Identify 100 things that make me happy (0/100)

35. Identify 50 things I like about myself (0/50)

36. Listen to every track on ipod (0/?)

37. Make bread

38. Make gnocchi from scratch

39. Make ravioli from scratch

40. Organise all my files on both computers and ext hard drive (3/3)

41. Own 5 pieces of jewellery that I love (5/5)

42. Remove all ipod tracks I don’t like

43. Sell/give away all clothing that I don’t love

44. Sell/give away all jewellery that I don’t love

45. Spend a weekend making 20 meals to freeze (0/20)

46. Try 50 new recipes (20/50)

47. Watch the sun rise 10 times (2/10)

48. Work out at least 5 outfits for every clothing item I own

49. Write a personal mission statement

Recreation

50. Go camping 5 times (3/5)

51. Go indoor rock climbing

52. Go to Melbourne museum

53. Go to Moonlight cinema

54. Go to the art gallery

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

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

Stuff I need to maintain for a while

Blog

57. Blog once a week for 20 weeks (0/20)

58. Write monthly updates of 101 progress (10/33)

Financial

59. Maintain a monthly closing balance of $0 on credit card (6/33)

Health and Fitness

60. Eat 5 servings of veggies every day for a month (0/30)

61. Go one month without eating junk food (0/30)

62. Go the to gym 3 times a week for 10 weeks (0/10)

63. Keep a food diary for 3 months (0/90)

Organisation

64. Do a daily review every day for 3 months (0/90)

65. Do a weekly review every week for a year (0/52)

Personal

66. Do makeup every morning for a month (30/30)

67. Dress up at least once a month (5/33)

68. Follow a regular skincare routine for 2 months (0/60)

69. Wear a skirt/dress every day for a month (0/30)

70. Wear earrings every day for a month (0/30)

71. Write a personal journal every day for a month (0/30)

Stuff that requires a long-term effort

Blog

72. Create blog template

Health and Fitness

73. Complete a 4km race

74. Complete an 8km race

75. Do 25 consecutive men’s’ push-ups (best 25/25)

76. Do the splits

77. Finish in the top 25% in a 4km run

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

79. Fit into ‘skinny’ jeans

80. Meet all fitness requirements for army (PFA)

Personal and Personal Achievements

81. Average over 80 in uni classes

82. Do career relevant work

83. Complete 5 non-uni related programming projects (0/5)

84. Get a high distinction

85. Get a tattoo to represent this stage of my life

86. Get above 90% on 5 assignments/tests (5/5)

87. Get my driving licence

88. Read a book in French

89. Work through French grammar book

Stuff I need to save money for

Financial

90. Build an emergency fund of 2 months pay

Family and Friends

91. Create a savings account for gifts

92. Go on a girly trip with my best friend

93. Go to Tasmania to visit Alice

94. Go to the gold coast to visit Victoria

95. Go to the snow with my sister

Personal

96. Do a massage course

97. Do a photography course

98. Get a facial

Recreation

99. Go overseas

100. Go surfing

101. See a Cirque Du Soleil show

I will update my progress monthly so… Wish me luck 🙂

6 Weeks Left at Bosch

Miriam1 Comment

I’m approaching the final stretch at Bosch which means a number of things.

Firstly and most importantly I need to take my finances seriously. Now I know I should have been taking my finances seriously before but somehow during the past 6 mths I’ve managed to not save a cent (Don’t tell my dad!!) Clearly all those minor discretionary purchases, you know: $1000 phone, $500 winter shopping spree, numerous nights out on the town, have added up and managed to eat up the solid $250 a week I should have been saving all this time. Bad Miriam!!!

To make up for all this financial naughtiness I’ve been doing some very sensible and responsible budgeting, and examining credit card statements and I’ve figured out how I’ll pay off my credit card in the next 6 weeks and all sorts of other well behaved activities. Then I get to suffer for my sins by working to earn the money I need to survive. Of course the best bit here is I wouldn’t have to work for a year if I’d been saving that money. Ah well, priceless lesson in the value of saving I guess. Anyway the upshot of all of this is I need a job (speaking of which if you happen to know anyone looking for a regular babysitter I am quite a lovely one, references and all)

Secondly I need to start revising my uni work. I’ve been away from uni for nearly a year now and I suspect I’ve forgotten most of the important stuff which will carry through to next semester. In fact, given I haven’t been exactly the most disciplined of students over the years there’s probably a whole bunch of maths things I never really learned in the first place. So over the next couple of weeks I will (attempt) to knuckle down and study all those things I either can’t recall (Fourier Series) or never really learned in the first place (Differential Equations) which I know will be assumed knowledge in subjects coming up this semester. Lucky me!

Finally it means that it’s nearly time for celebrating. Those of you who I’ve spoken to during my big break from blogging will know that to say I didn’t really enjoy my IBL placement is an understatement. Despite the stress of having to find a job in time the knowledge that in just 6 short weeks I’ll be outta here is a huge relief. However in the spirit of my new resolve to find the positives in every situation I have compiled a list of important life lessons I’ve gained while working at Bosch which I intend to form into a sort of series of blog posts for your entertainment.

A New Direction In Life

Miriam1 Comment

IBL has taught me many things, most importantly that I’m kinda heading in the wrong direction with all of this automotive engineering stuff. I love cars but its just not my thing. So, in an attempt to figure out what is ‘my thing’, I sat down and had a little think about what I’m good at, what I enjoy, what I’m interested in and suchlike. The upshot of all this is that I’ve decided to take a slightly different direction to my original intended one.

During my pondering I noted that almost without exception my best marks every Semester have been in my software subjects. I also noted that I really like programming. Programming is one of the few things that I can just sit down and do. My ADD seems to go into hiding as soon as I get into the swing of a bit of coding. So at this point I’m thinking ‘aha, perhaps something relating to software could be a good plan.’

I then considered what I’m interested in and, looking back on all the information I used to devour I realise that neurobiology seems to be more heavily represented in my bookcase than any other subject. I’ve also always been fascinated by automation. Not boring manufacturing style automation but proper intelligent automation, like cars that drive themselves for example.

By now you can probably see where I’m going with this. I have decided that after I finish my Bachelor degree I will do a Master of Software Systems Engineering specialising in AI. I do of course recognise that I may not be able to work in AI straight away which is fine because everything I’m doing up to and including the Masters degree will give me enough generic programming skills to get me by for a bit. In the mean time I shall try my hand at programming little web apps and suchlike. Got to do something with all the spare time that my remaining years at uni will provide.