“Finish editing and release (and decide on final titles for) on my two works-in-progress novels: Combat Story and Monster Story. Completion dates: January and March.”
Win. The final titles actually stay very much the same, “Combat” and “The Monster Story Conference” respectively. However, the Monster Story is still not in the final version, not matter that I released what I had online. But who knows, maybe the final version will be a screenplay or comic book!
“Have another run at Human Danger (working title), the novel I began but didn’t complete in 2009. I have a feeling this will be a longer term project than just this year though.”
Fail. Although I noted at the beginning of the year but it will probably not get done in 2010 alone.
“Research, outline, and write another novel I’m giving the working title “Arc of Life.” It’ll be a fantasy novel set in a world of strange creatures and magic.”
Half and half. This is still in the works, even though I completed all the research and outlining. I wrote just over a quarter of the novel itself, although I actually believe that because so much of it was about world building and outlining the plot and characters, I’m more than half done with the entire project in terms of writing. I never intended to have it completed by the end of the year, completely edited and released, but I thought I would be a bit further along than I am now.
“Start work on the final novel in the Minding Tomorrow world.”
Win. This is almost finished, at least as a first draft.
“Do an audio recording of one of my novels. ”
Fail. I never even thought about this after writing the goal in the original list!
Total for this section: 3.5 win points, 2.5 fail points. I’m very happy with this though, because Win points, when it comes to writing novels, mean a lot. And the fail points apply to a novel I didn’t think I would write, and an audio book recording projects which I never intended to do anyway.
I had 13 plans and goals in this section, which makes it the largest section of all. That’s to be expected, considering I am a professional juggler, and juggling is one of my main hobbies.
” Keep improving my solo shows and performing skills.”
Win. I’m getting better at performing all the time.
” Work on my Room show project, a juggling theater show. I plan to have all the set building work complete by March, and 20 to 30 minutes complete by May.”
Partial win. I have worked a lot on my room project, but this constitutes many fails in this list. I never managed to get as far as I wanted to, mainly because it’s too difficult to work on such a big project by myself. As soon as I invited somebody over to help with the project, I worked quickly and easily, but the entire thing was too much work for one person.
Therefore:
” Perform a short version of the Room Show at the Berlin Juggling Convention in June.”
” Have an hour show finished by October, and put on a series of shows in my own home for invited audiences.”
Two fails. However, I give myself a partial win for the first one about my room show because I did without a cool video in August, and did write a lot of material, even if the video was the only thing I managed to present to anyone.
” Finish other juggling routines I’m working on at the moment.”
Win. Then again, I’m constantly working on new material, so I probably have more unfinished juggling routines now than I did at the beginning of the year.
” Run the British Young Juggler of the Year show for the sixth year. Also do a series of online workshops for those taking part, in attempt to raise the quality of the acts. Nobody has won a Gold Award yet!”
I marked this down as a fail, because I didn’t run the British young juggler of the year. I didn’t go to the British juggling convention at all. There are many reasons, really after running BYJOTY for five years in a row, I don’t think I need to prove anything to anyone and continue when my inspiration is running low.
I have written quite a few workshops about juggling and performing for my blog though, so maybe I should give myself half a point here.
” I’m in charge of the Open Stages at the EJC in Finland. That means seven or eight nights of zero stress and easy work as my superior organization skills result in everything running smoothly, and every night’s show rocking. Or so I hope.”
A win. There was a little bit of stress, but nothing serious. I ran five nights of entertainment, plus I organised the fight night, and hosted the opening show. On top of that I took dozens of photos every day, and uploaded them to Facebook in my blog. I probably did a bit too much but the European juggling convention, to be honest.
“Generally rock out playing combat.”
Win. Combat is one of my favourite things about juggling, and I think I’m getting better all the time. However…
“Beat Jochen in the final of a Fight Night 3 Club Combat tournament. I’ve won a tournament we both entered before, but I wasn’t the one to knock him out. ”
Fail. Jochen beat me in the final in Berlin, or maybe it was Flo, but I didn’t win there. And then at the European juggling convention, I messed around too much, and Alex beat me in the semi-final. Jochen went on to win.
Maybe next year!
“Release some more Juggling Podcasts.”
This is in the works. It’s a secret project at the moment, which I intended to release by the end of 2010, but it’ll be out in the New Year instead. It isn’t specifically about juggling, but I do talk to plenty of jugglers. Stay tuned.
“Release some interesting juggling videos on YouTube (I have a few good ideas).”
Win. I’ll let you judge if my YouTube videos are interesting or not, but I think they are.
” Juggle 9 clubs for 19 passes each with Pola.”
I think this is included more for nostalgia purposes than anything else. It was always one of our plans and goals for the year when we did the juggling podcasts, and generally made plans together for the year, but it’s not very handy when you no longer live in the same country, let alone in the same house.
” Also, depending other work commitments, I might enter Britain’s Got Talent.”
Fail. Although, judging by the reputation of Britain’s got talent, this might be a win.
In this section, I got six win points, one in the works, and six fail points. Not very good, considering I am a professional juggler, and juggling is one of my main hobbies.
In my plans and goals of 2010 I laid forth the following:
“Release my International Juggler 2009 video, the one I’ve been working on for the last year, which features me juggling in every country/place I visited. ”
Win!
“Shoot, edit, and release International Juggler 2010, a similar video as above, of all the places I visit in 2010. I have some ideas about how to make this different/better than the 2009 video, but I don’t need to think about that too much for the next few weeks.”
Win/in the works.
I do have a project like last year’s, which shows everywhere I travelled this year. But I mix shots from both 2009 and 2010, picking the best shot from each country over two years. However, this video is mostly for me to use in my show, and is not put up online.
What I wanted to do is share my travels as I went along.
In 2009 I shot lots of video in lots of different places, for example on my trip to Spain, I was there for four weeks, but only the best five seconds of footage got into the International Juggler 2009 video.
This year, if something interesting happened in a country, I shared more than just a few seconds. For example:
Antarctica (gale force winds across the deck of the Star Princess):
Papua New Guinea (jumping from rocks, active volcanoes, snorkling):
Australia (wallabies):
India (elephants, etc):
England (White Cliffs of Dover):
Iceland (juggling in the Blue Lagoon with crew members from the Ocean Princess):
Greenland (a great view):
Namibia (juggling, jumping and running on a huge sand dune):
Helsinki, Finland (soundtrack by Sibelius):
New York (with added cute child):
Funchal, Madeira (lost: 1 white beanbag):
” Go to the Berlin, British, and European juggling conventions. And a convention in September/October too. Maybe the Turkish again, maybe another. ”
Partial win. I went to the Berlin, European, Brussels, and Lublin conventions. I didn’t get to the British juggling convention.
Nine plans and goals in the traveling with work and juggling section. 6.75 wins, 1.25 fails, and one project kinda still in the works. If I do release the video of all the places I juggled this year, it won’t be called International Juggler 2010.
I was a guest on the GeekNights podcast again. We recorded this back in September, so I can’t remember exactly what we covered, but apparently I speak very quickly.
“Tonight on GeekNights, we end the year with a discussion we shared with the incorrigible Luke Burrage on the historical legitimacy (or lack thereof) of the Christian Bible. Of particular interest is the Documentary Hypothesis and a solid book on the subject (The Bible with Sources Revealed).”
“Keep working on cruise ships, though structuring the my time away better than last year to maximize time in Berlin/with friends/doing my own thing.”
Win! I could have structured my time at home better than I did, but at least I did it better than 2009. I took all of May and most of June off work, which was a bit unfortunate due to the bad weather in May, but it was nice to have my parents over for nine days. Also I took all of September and most of November off work, though spent none of September at home.
“I already know I’ll be visiting, on various cruises, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, India, and Dubai for the first time, along with a few other places. I may be going to Antarctica again too.”
Win! Although this was a general “I want to see new places” kind of wish, rather than a goal in and of itself. Here is a list of all the countries I visited in 2010 (as normal I use the Century Travelers Club list of countries):
Uruguay.
Chile.
The Falkland Islands.
Argentina.
Antarctica… but didn’t leave the ship.
South Korea… but only in Seoul airport.
Guam.
Papua New Guinea.
Australia.
New Zealand.
China… but only in Hong Kong airport.
Qatar… but only in Doha airport.
India.
Oman.
Dubai, UAE.
Spain.
France.
Italy.
Greece.
Turkey.
Montevideo.
Switzerland… but only in Zurich airport.
England.
Denmark.
Germany.
Estonia.
Faroe Islands.
Iceland.
Greenland.
Newfoundland, Canada.
South Africa.
Namibia.
Finland.
Norway.
Netherlands.
Poland.
USA.
Canary Islands.
Belgium.
Corsica.
Vatican City.
Portugal.
Madeira.
Barbados.
Trinidad and Tobago.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Grenada.
47 countries, and 19 of those I visited for the first time. Not bad for one year!
“On top of work travel, spend some frequent flier points and travel home from various gigs independently. In this way I hope to spend a week in New Zealand, and a week in Japan.”
Win! Although as you can tell from the list above that I decided against New Zealand and Japan. I did, however, use my work travels to visit more places, and see more people, and not always try to get home as quickly as possible. I spent frequent flier miles to visit Rome for three days in November, but all my other travels I either arranged for free through work or spent my own money.
“Go to Poland. I live really close, but have never been. What’s up with that?”
Win. I was invited to perform at a juggling convention in Poland.
“Spend four to six weeks in New York. I’ve visited the city for a few weeks, but I want to get to know the city better. I hear so many people from there talk about it, and I want to experience it all first hand. ”
Win. Actually, I was there the 26 days, not four weeks. But I think that counts. It was an amazing month away, and certainly the highlight of my year.
“Maybe, if I can sort the dates right, I might go to DragonCon, to nerd out with the scifi and podcasting geeks.”
Fail. This was a spur of the moment addition to the list, and was never really a serious plan. I made sure that I arrived in New York before DragonCon began, just in case I got the motivation to go, but I never seriously thought would happen.
