Springtime in San Diego

It's the last day of the year and I just took a walk wearing short sleeves. I haven't lived in Utah for a while, and we've spent a few Christmas/New Year's holidays in Birmingham with Derrick's family, but that doesn't change the fact that for me this weather just screams spring, rather than being a harbinger for the coming of a new year.

I don't often do this--mostly my goal setting is vague and goal achieving even vaguer--but there are a few things I want to accomplish in the coming year. First, I want to write my dissertation. Then, I want to defend it and, assuming that goes well, graduate. I think that's doable. I need to finish two to three papers to do it, but I have the data and I've pretty much though out what I'm going to say. Now it's a matter of pulling it together. I want to have figures for the papers finished by the end of January (very reasonable) along with an outline I can hand to my committee to see if they think the product is sufficient, or if there's something else they'd like to see me do.

For a long time I've had a desire to write a novel. This year I want to actually do it. I'm sure it'll be bad, so I'll probably start with a story that's been kicking around in my head since, oh, high school. High fantasy (kind of) but not so epic. In pursuit of that goal, I'm going to keep listening to Writing excuses and writing at least a few hours each week.

There, now I've written down my goals.