Another Year Close to Being Over

As 2011 draws to a close, so (hopefully) does my current lifestyle. 2012 promises to hold the theme of change,   whether that be from moving to a 'new' city, to finishing school, and even the prospect of a family member finally getting married. With this in mind, it is my hope that I can follow in the footsteps of others and begin to change my ways.

While I do not live a bad lifestyle, it is still one prone to many flaws, the largest offender generally being Laziness. Due to the upcoming move back to Vancouver, there's a feeling of pressure to start getting things done, start getting it all on track. With these feelings it is quite possible that I can use this to motivate myself and start forcing these changes to occur instead of simply saying "One day I'll start doing....." and hoping for the best, or making a half-assed attempt.

To end this post, I am going to post a tentative list of things that I intend to start doing more, and ways I hope to change how I go about it. Over time this list is sure to grow and shrink as I complete these things, and I sometimes wonder if the list ever truly finishes.


School:

The largest item on the list by far. I continually seem to fall behind because I simply cannot be bothered to begin working on my projects, because I am not going to school regularly or even because I will start to work but allow myself to become overwhelmed which soon leads to being sidetracked as I take a break. It is my hope that by planning out my courses carefully I can 'easily' work on all of them at once while still making large leaps of progress in each as I start to finish off courses.

There are some ways that I do intend to try getting caught up aside from my better planning. It is my hopes to start attending school far more often so that I am forced to sit there, even if for an hour or two, and do nothing but work. I also hope to start cutting out electronic distractions by leaving off the laptops and television so that I will not be easily swayed into bad habits.


Waking Up Earlier - If I am to succeed at all this coming year I will need to start falling into a better habit.
Going to Bed Earlier - In order to succeed at the above, this does tend to go hand in hand.

Obtain a Passport - A relatively minor thing, but I do intend to obtain one so I can travel if needed.

Obtain my L - Despite not owning a car, I do hope to learn how to drive so that I can have this useful skill.

It appears that my initial estimate was.....way off course last month. Instead of breaking down every subject for school again and where I am at, I will simply leave things at "In Progress."

Currently however, I'm hoping to get things back on track for school as well as hoping to start several new projects.

So it begins again.

Tomorrow marks the first official day of school, and with that the race begins to get as much done as I possibly can. While I did work at trying to get caught up on all the work I had with me, I simply did not get nearly as far as I had wanted due to slacking off. With that said, I -am- however content with the fact that I did still do more than just nothing at all. While there is still time tonight, I will be hoping to at least pick off a few more assignments and see if I can't squeeze in the last bit as much possible.

So to recap my classes, here is where I currently stand.

Math Prep - All Summer homework completed. Upon starting tomorrow I can hand it all in and receive what I hope/believe is the last set of work before I can start the real Math.

English Prep - Incomplete. I still have three paragraphs to finish up, though I did get one started. It's quite likely with a bit more work I can finish this off so I can hand it in upon arrival tomorrow.

Family Studies - Incomplete. While I had been hoping to finish this entire course off over the summer, I do have the sneaky feeling that I might have some stuff handed back to me that was still being marked to fix or possibly redo at the worst. This course is amazingly infuriating despite how simple it can be, our teacher was quite correct that this course would be hard just due to how boring it is. While I do agree that it is boring there are numerous assignments that are just plain frustrating in how nonsensical they can be.

Social Studies - Incomplete. While this course -is- incomplete, I did manage to finish off nearly one full section of work. There is at least one assignment however that I will need to speak to my teacher about before I can begin it due to the nature of it. There is still one full section (The Roaring 20's) that needs to be worked upon, and perhaps with a bit of luck I can get a lot of this done tonight, if not tomorrow at school.


While there is a lot of Incomplete's up above, I'm in pretty good shape all things considered. As far as this first 'week' of school goes I am hoping to finish off my Math Prep entirely, advance in to the last stage of finishing Family Studies and begin advancing further into the English Prep as well as receive the last two sections of Unit Two for Social Studies.

As for the month of September overall, I have confidence that I can complete Social Studies Unit Two entirely, the English Prep, the Math Prep and Family Studies. This will leave me in good condition to begin Math, English and Unit 3 of Socials in October. I have also been contemplating taking back Earth Science so that I can finish that course as well. Initially I had dropped it due to the fact it did not give Course Credits, but since I have an interest in it I do wish to complete it regardless.

Chaos Near Defeated.

So far so good. After much work chipping away at things here and there, the chaos is finally becoming tamed and growing less and less. A large chunk was carted off earlier today thus paving the way for the rest to get picked off.

Tomorrow will hopefully see the end of it, along with the storage room being taken care of. I do have doubts that it will all get done, but given how far we've come today in a couple of hours I think it's doable.

Chaos aside, the three closets are nearly finished off as well, which will now give us more room to put away various items that don't need to be laying about the apartment. I hope to have things done in the next few days and back to a normal "just need to tidy up" status again.

The Chaos.

Juuust so people can see what I'm working with here and to sort of be a great comparison for the After photos.

The Last Day

Well it's finally here, after a month of constant work all of the packing, downsizing, lifting, trash runs and cleaning is near over. Today is the final day of cleaning up the apartment and finishing up the odds and ends of necessities getting packed away.

Starting tomorrow, the moving truck will arrive as will the cavalry of family to help move the last bits that are actually going to Vancouver.

In a way I look forward to Wednesday night because it will mean it's done. No more lifting and packing. However that also means my Mom will be off in Vancouver and no longer be just a couple blocks away. There is hope though that this is only temporary and that soon I too will be living it up in the big city, but until then I get a reprieve before I resume the task of downsizing my own things, though far more lazily since I have a lot more time on my hands.

Overdue

Well this post is overdue...by a lot. So let's recap where I'm at.



- Learning to cook

Haven't started this at all. Oops.


- Finishing my High School credits

Progress was made but it's now halted. Hoping to begin finishing any and all assignments I have before school starts back up again in September.


- Leading up to The Move

Sadly not a huge amount of progress was made here. The end of July is the moving date. So far the Storage Room of Doom is totally finished that in itself is a big achievement. Aside from that it' just a bunch of little things completed like cleaning out the food cupboards, smuggling stuff from my Mom's to my Dad's and cleaning out various cubby holes. In four days my Mom will be done work and we will be doing the mad dash to get things caught up and ready.


- Learning to drive

Also not started. Oops.

Revenge of the High School

Back in September I decided to go back and get my High School Diploma along with my Aunt, and my cousin. After many months of very, very slow progress we've barely made a dent in the overall grand scheme. While this does mean we have to return once more in September again, the looming deadline of June 29th is starting to look a bit daunting.

While a two month break could be welcome, given my current status with moving, it's also going to be two months where no progress will be made at all on school simply due to us not having access to fresh work. With that said, we are rather hoping to get as much done possible between now and the end of June, while still getting as much fresh work possible to do over the summer that way we can walk in on day one and plunk down a nice giant pile each for our teachers to mark. Listed below is a general idea of where I am at for each course for those wanting to know, and partly for me so that I have a visual reminder of sorts.

Math (Accounting): Not Started - This course has proven to be a slight pain, after completing a Math test it was decided that my Aunt and I were required to do a bit of brushing up on various levels of math before we can begin this course.

Math (Prep): Started - This is actually nearly completed. Today I have just started the last of three booklets for Fractions. After I have completed this booklet three more await before I can call the prep course finished and move on to the real deal. Decimals, Ratio and Percent are ahead, and hopefully I can finish one per week at the latest.

English (Prep): Started - While a large chunk of this course is actually complete, it's unknown how much more there is to go. This is largely due to the fact that some assignments will be omitted if we show we already understand it in the work. There has also been a bit of juggling of the work, some assignments removed or merged together. This does look as if it will be finished off though by the end of June with a little luck.

English 12: Not Started - This course cannot be started until the prep is finished off. Hopefully this will be started in mid-June and we will be given a nice amount of work to do over the summer so that we can get a head start in September.

Family Studies: Near Completion - I've managed to nearly finish off this course, currently I am on the last three sections of work and wrapping up little odds and ends here and there. After I have done all that I will earn my first high school credits and be one course closer to graduating. :)

Social Studies - 1/4 Finished - Sadly this course seems to have been a burr in our side the whole year. We are still on the first module technically, but at the point where we only have one last assignment and the first module test. We have also been given the first two sections of module two and have been working here and there on finishing those off as well so that once our test is done we can hand in a good deal of work and hop ahead. While it is unlikely, there's still a chance we can finish this course at the halfway mark before June 29th.

Course 5 - Not Started - We have been looking into options for our fifth course, but due to several of our picks being reworked it's been rather pointless to worry over this one. One thing we have done however is redirect our energy into the current load of work and in September we will likely begin this course, whichever it may be, and start working on through it.


So there it is. Hopefully with a bit of luck the last half of this month will be fruitful for school work and we will be able to get caught up just enough to finish the two prep courses so that the real ones can begin in the fall. With a little effort though, I will be able to finish one full course.

Boxes, Boxes and More Boxes.

Sadly not of the "Being Packed" variety. However, I have begun the very long, painful task of downsizing things. One of the things that makes this hard is just the fact that I am a rather bad pack rat. However, I am attempting to be rid of that bad habit, and hopefully gain some free space in my room (just so I can get -new- junk ;) ).

Now. One of the things that I've noticed thus far is just...not being able to justify tossing out things. That is to say, things that are not easily classified as Trash. I have on problem at all tossing papers and broken items into the trash/recycle bins. However, what is hard is just simply justifying throwing out books in good enough condition, trading cards annnd....other various things like that. So...I suppose stuff that is still usable, or that a fair bit of money was spent on.

I'm sort of hoping to find these items a good home....largely been eyeing up family members who I am fairly certain would happily take in the stuff. Though I suppose the thrift store down the road would also be a good alternate source.

At the time of this post I have managed to (semi)successfully declutter my closet, the three boxes used to raise my bookcases annnd...several other boxes under my bed. I have also made a tiny dent in my books, though these will be gone through again once more things have been brought out of storage, or down from my Mom's place.

My room at my Mom's.....*shudders* That is like a black hole of chaos. Buuuuut that's a whole other blog post. For now though, I am diligently working on my room here in preparation for the incoming chaos and hope to soon see some nice, sparkly organization!

So It Begins

This blog is largely intended to serve a few purposes. First and foremost it will be a place for me to ramble my thoughts as I work through various projects that I will be undertaking. My main project that I will be sharing is that of moving to my hometown of Vancouver, which ties in to the second purpose this blog will serve.

Upon moving to Vancouver, I intend to chronicle my first year of living in the big city once more. I will be making various comparisons hopefully of what it's like living there again to the vastly smaller 'city' I currently live in.

I can't promise this blog will be fully interesting, but it's my attempt to try something new. There may not be constant posts each day, though I will do my best to keep at it in the days leading up to the move, and afterwards. Following here is a small list of what I wish to learn, and what you could expect to see me talk about here:

- Learning to cook
- Finishing my High School credits
- Leading up to The Move
- The first year in Vancouver
- Learning to drive.

With that said, hopefully this blog actually stays put. I've made it once already and for some odd reason it decided to vanish. Perhaps now that I've made a first post it will stay glued down. :)