Managing unemployment

So I've been finding unemployment pretty stressful and depressing. The inability to do anything fun/meaningful/that requires even a little bit of money is horrible and limits what I can get up to on this list. I've decided to try and get through this by learning. I love learning. It's one thing I'm pretty good at. So at the moment I'm trying to learn a couple of things.

Firstly, I'm learning Italian using the website "Memrise". Essentially this is a flashcard website so pretty good for learning vocab, but also has the neat trick of visualising learning as growing a flower - so first you "plant the seed" and try and memorise the words. 4 hours later it has you come back and "harvest" it and see if you can remember the words - if you can't it makes you practice again. Then every so often it has you "water" the flower, so continually topping up your knowledge. It's working pretty well. You can also "overwater" and practice more in between times. Perhaps once I know enough Italian to string a sentence together I'll write some here... I've also had busuu.com and lang-8 suggested to me to improve my Italian, so I'll probably head over there once I can actually express myself a little in Italian.

Whilst on Memrise I discovered they have a lot of other things you can learn, but mostly really poorly done. I had a look at anatomy and physiology and Alzheimer's, but it seems they're not really flash card learning stuff, with some deeper knowledge required. The one thing that does seem to work for it is geography. Now, when I was about 3 or 4 I knew all the countries, rivers and seas in the world. I was an odd kid. As I grew up I forgot this, but I kind of want to get that knowledge back, so I've been practising that. So far I have all of Europe learned, with only a few of the Eastern European countries still giving me trouble. Incidentally, I thought Estonia was way further south than it is.

ALSO, I found out a little while back that MIT (a fairly prestigious American University) is offering their degree courses for free over the internet. So I've started learning from their brain and cognitive sciences course. Naturally I won't get a degree at the end, but that knowledge may end up being very useful in my career.

So those are my plans for staying sane whilst unemployed - my attempt at a meaningful occupation. The only one of those things on my list of goals is to learn Italian, and I don't think I'll change that. For now anyway.

Onwards and Upwards!

Good news

So I had a pretty good week. Firstly, my whole "do your to-do list and get 1%" seems to be working; having small goals to achieve every day working towards my bigger goals is meaning that I'm making small progress constantly. I'm actually really pleased with the way this whole concept is working out and I wish I'd come up with it sooner. Whenever I'm bored I can just look at my goals list for inspiration as to what to do, and use my to-do list to give myself some immediate positive feedback for doing it. To-do list may become a long term part of the plan.

Secondly, I finally have an interview! At the moment at lot of my day is filled with preparation (they want a presentation) but I'm pretty excited because it's exactly where I want to be, and also in my home town so I'm still close to my family and friends. I just hope I get it now. Don't want to talk about it too much as I don't want to jinx it!

I've also been running pretty consistently (it helps to put it on my to-do list the night before so I don't get lazy on the day and just not bother) and my diet's still not bad and alcohol-free. Admittedly there aren't really any diet goals on my list (apart from much stricter goals like paleo and clean which I can't achieve as I've been eating small amounts of processed foods), but I'm pleased with my control anyway. So hopefully fitness will be following in its footsteps. I'm trying to do at least one strength related thing a day (50 squats, 50 let-me-ins, 1 minute plank) to build up to my bodyweight goals. It makes sense to work for those at the moment as I don't have access to any kind of weights equipment.

Anyway, things are looking good for my goals, and therefore my life!

Unemployed

So being unemployed is sort of sucking my resolve. I was pretty sure I'd have a job sooner rather than later, but that's not happening. A lot of my goals require at least some money

So I've introduced a couple of very short term goals to help motivate me (and make sure I don't just spend my days playing Assassin's Creed 3). Firstly, my daily to-do list. You'll never get to see it on here, but I've been writing myself a to-do list every day and often not doing them. So I've cut down the number of things on it to make it more realistic (and so I can just get them done pretty quickly), and upped the reward from "you can play AC3 all day once you're done" to "you can play AC3 all day once you're done, AND you get 1% experience!" We'll see if it works. Today my list consists of

• Go for a run
• Do 50 let-me-ins (might as well make a start on the pull up aim!)
• Tidy room

You'll notice no applying for jobs - at the moment I'm waiting for my professional registration to come through; at which point I imagine it'll be a little easier to appear attractive to employers. So I'm waiting until the deadline on the jobs I want before applying to give it some time to come through.

The second short term goal is to run 3 times per week, which I think I'll set at 5% per week completed.

I've also added a couple of other (easier) strength goals - well, they're not easy, just I can do them without equipment. They are: 100 body weight squats in one set; and a 5 minute plank. Obviously it's all about working up to them.

On the plus side, I've been pretty good in terms of diet at the moment. I'm focusing on more fruit & veg, no cakes/biscuits/desserts or alcohol. I haven't really struggled so far to be honest. Nor am I worried too much if I don't stick to it all the time - I went out with my friends last weekend and ate half a pizza, but also loaded up on salad. I don't need to be perfect, just better.

I need more very short term goals I think. These big goals are all well and good, but I quite like my pull up breakdown as a way to aim for something bigger. Hmm, I shall have a think and come back to you.

New Year, new determination

So I'll admit both my goal progress and my blogging has been poor recently. After finishing my course and then Christmas I was lacking a bit of motivation for this and also getting fat with lots of food. However, today is the 1st of January 2013, and as a result it is time for a fresh start and fresh determination.

My immediate priorities are mostly WIS goals now, with a few important INT goals (like finding a job...) thrown in there. I also want to get working on STR/DEX stats, as I have made zero progress with either and it's annoying me now. Also I'm getting soft and not battle ready. As my Christmas presents were based around how to survive a zombie apocalypse, it is clear that I am physically not ready. I'M NOT READY!!! CHA is making slow but steady progress, but I'd like to ramp it up with "making new friends" and "visiting people"; the latter requiring money of course.

Someone who is ready for a zombie apocalypse. Who has an awesome beard

I think now a major section of my life is finished (that being my degree) I may need some new goals. If any of my readers (and stats on here say I have at least a couple) can think of any I'd appreciate some input! One that I think I'm going to add to my CHA stat is updating this blog every week. That way at least I'm keeping my goals in mind.

I'm being fairly flexible in my goals; for example selling my clothes didn't happen in December, but I did sort a load to get rid of and I'll give myself 20% when I do. They are sitting in my room looking at me accusingly, so it'll happen pretty soon, I'm sure.

Speaking of which, I still haven't gifted myself with anything for reaching level 2. Not sure what I'm going to go with, but it may have to wait until I get a job so I can afford it...so I may get a double gift as I'll probably have reached level 3 by then. I'm currently 75% towards level 3, so it's going well.

Another blog this weekend I promise!