Sunday #ROW80 Update

What’s new this week?

A little progress on the writing front – I’ve finished 2 Chapters of The Perfidious Mister Wickham, and will probably get this week’s chapter posted either tomorrow or Tuesday... This counts as my ROW80 update, and I actually got a good bit of editing done on my critique of Steven Pressfield’s The Warrior Ethos.

I also got in my yoga class for the week, and though I’m not teaching language (yet) I did study both Russian and French, and in fact I found a neat, free tool for anyone learning a Romance language - French, Italian, Spanish, etc. - http://www.duolingo.com/ - so far I've done the basic course (4 lessons) for French, and I really like it!

As for dating, I think I’m going to take that one a bit slow... The gene pool seems to be a little shallow around here, but who knows, perhaps I’ll be happily surprised.

No bucket list adventures to report, but I did have a good time up in Charleston with my little brother, playing Dominant Species and watching the UFC fight...

And I got nothing much done  in terms of networking or the new economy, but I listened to some greatTED Talks on a playlist featuring conversations about the open-source future.

A short update, but it is what it is... In the coming week I’ll focus on:

- Posting Chapter 32 of The Perfidious Mister Wickham,

- Posting on GypsyDangerously

- Final edits and e-publishing of Ho B-52 (short story)

I’ll have to squeeze in one weekday yoga class so that I can get up early to Charleston next Saturday to run in the rUndead 5K, and try to make sure I get around to:

-  Scheduling language classes for my Marines

- Joining Lowcountry RWA

- Joining AirBNB

- Reducing my personal carbon footprint by getting a kayak and paddling to work...

But all that requires some rest, so off to bed I go!

Wishing everyone a happy and productive week,

Edward

Sunday ROW80 Update - Goals!

Thanks to everyone (Steph, Shan, and Gloria) who made suggestions on my last post regarding their approaches to setting goals...

I shall indeed plan to build on my past success (French, physical fitness) and work on areas where I didn't do so well last time around.

But, as usual, I'm going to build my goal set in a format that should appear familiar to anyone who's followed my past ROW80 adventures.

WRITING

- Post one Chapter of The Perfidious Mister Wickham each week.

- Post at least one ROW80 update

- Post at least once on my GypsyDangerously blog

- Finish The Artillerists (short story)

- Finish Ho B-52 (short story)

- Finish Merry Christmas, Mister Washington (short story)

PUBLISHING

- Publish Ho B-52 (short story)

- Start the Parasol Books imprint

FITNESS

- Run two 5K races

- One yoga class per week (flexibility)

LANGUAGE

- Teach French for 2 hours per week

- Teach Indonesian for 2 hours per week

SOCIAL

- Begin dating

- Go on 5 “bucket list” adventures

NETWORKING

- Spend 5 hour per week on Social Media (Twitter, FB, blogs, etc...)

- Join Lowcountry RWA

NEW ECONOMIC

- Join Air B&B

- Reduce my personal carbon footprint

It's an interesting set of goals, for an interesting time. So, I do hope you'll join me here occasionally to see how I progress through the next few months, as winter comes to the Lowcountry and my cozy little boat rocks gently at her moorings.

A Return to the ROW...

Thanks, Yoda... I'll get right on that!

When one is a writer, one is obliged to do certain things, one of them being to write.

This can be somewhat troubling at the end of a 15-hour workday in a week where that has been, in fact, one of the shorter days - when you come home to a boat that is simply a wreck (figuratively speaking) with company due to arrive in 48 hours, and still laboring under the malaise that results from a once-a-year cold...

Thank Goddess for a Round of Words!

And thank Goddess for calendars, which are an apparently recent invention which, properly utilized, might actually have resulted in my beginning this Round on the 7th along with everyone else, rather than fashionably late as I am doing today.

So, ahem, with little further ado, my goals. Actually, a glass of wine, and then the goals. Ah, better.

Actually, I believe I shall start this ROW with a recap of my previous round, since it has been just a while since last I wrote a ROW80 post - June 9th, to be precise, and it is already October. So, I've been away for a whole Round, (four months to the day) and what did I get done?

Well, not too much, and then again, a bit... I returned home from Afghanistan, took on a new and challenging job leading a little over 100 Marines, flew to Europe to visit my dear sister Kaiti in Geneva, bought a boat on which to live, (you can read all about my adventures in the life aquatic on my new blog www.gypsydangerously.blogspot.com) celebrated a 40th birthday aboard a cruise ship surrounded by nearly all of my 8 sisters and 3 brothers, met my new niece, Astrid, and received the following note from the editor of a distinguished military journal to which I had submitted an article:

Thank you for submitting your article on the Marine Corps’ Diversity Taskforce.  I have one question.  Are your really proposing that the Marine Corps resemble the gender demographic of the United States and be composed of 50% women?  Or is this a thinly veiled satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal?” 

To which, of course, I quickly replied:

While I am no stranger to satire and appreciate the comparison to Swift's masterpiece, the observation that the Corps would be different and improved if the demographics of female Marines more accurately reflected that of the general population was quite serious, etc, etc...

Apparently this answer satisfied the editor, (a retired Colonel) who observed that he enjoyed printing "contrarian views" and looked forward to seeing what sort of comments the article elicited from my contemporaries and seniors. I shall know next month, I am told...

But, back to last Round's goals... On the literary front, I was supposed to post one chapter of The Perfidious Mister Wickham each week, write a chapter of my Learning Indonesian book each week, and finish three short stories; The Artillerists, Merry Christmas, Mister Washington, and Ho B-52.

I was supposed to start a publishing imprint (Parasol Books), publish a collection of short stories, increase my strength and decrease my bodyfat, and study French for five hours a week, all the while improving my social networking.

Well.

I did get proficient enough in French to get paid for it by the military, and I did manage to put out a weekly update to The Perfidious Mister Wickham. I accomplished nothing with the Learning Indonesian book, and similarly made little progress with finishing any of my short stories.

Fitness goals were met, social media goals, not so much.

Which leaves me to contemplate what I should strive for in the next 78 days...

Suggestions?