Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts

Monday, June 13, 2016

Dear Kerby,

I have been looking at my next purchase with my photography equipment. This is something I would need to plan into my budget and not forget the other items that my money will be going to.

My first small purchase would be a few camera cards. I am looking at another SD card card for my Nikon1 V1. The card would have to be of a higher complicity so I do not rely on the computer. On the flip side I have an old Nikon D70 which takes a Compact Flash card. I feel this format has died out due to the ease of destroying the little needle like pins that the card mush make contact to read/write to the card. In my mind I would like to pick up that camera and start to use it again. A few of my manual lenses would work with ease on the D70 without the need for an adapter.

A medium size purchase would be to get some sort of a ringflash. A ringflash is a "doughnut" or ring of light that sits on the end of a lens. The flash like light effects the image coming into the camera. With the light sitting closer it does not create dark shadows like a traditional flash sitting farther away on top of the camera. The Nikon1 system of cameras has an accessories port rather than a standard hot shoe making it difficult to trigger the ringflash. Lomography website sells a ringflash that comes with a set of colored filters to create fun colored photos. On the other side, Photojojo sells a more sophisticated and professional ringflash. This flash attaches to the front of the lens with a series of screw on adapters. Sorry, no filters.

The larger of the purchases would be to get a new lens. Yes, I said new. The lenses I have a mostly manual and have been either given to me on have been purchased used/as is. The only electronic lenses I have are the ones that came with either camera body. The new lens I am looking into is the Petzval 85. I have not found another lens that I am into at the moment. The lens not only functions as a lens to take crisp clean photos but has an artistic side.

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

What to Buy?

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Dear Kerby,

Dancing with the Stars; it is back for another season this spring. The first episode was Monday night.

Since Ellen's Design Challenge is over I now have another competition show to watch. I have watched bits and pieces of American Idol over the years (sad to see it going) but never stuck with it. With the television I have access to Dancing with the Stars is a good choice for myself.

I am not sure what I will be watching this summer as it is way different than the fall or spring seasons. I might have to catch up on my Malissa and Joey, which was a summer only show. Maybe Netflix or the like will have full seasons of shows to enjoy from the pat year.

Are you into any competition shows: baking, cooking , design, dancing, or other? What is your reaction to summer shows? How do you handle it when a show you are watching ends a season?

On the flip side I have not been sitting around watching television all day. I have been keeping up with my workouts and daily goals.

In December I received a gift card for lovely Target. In return, I got two new pairs of pants. One is a skinny style jean and the other is a relaxed light wash.

Both pairs of pants fit when I purchased them in January. I noticed that the waist in the one pair is a little loose. Even my belt could not fit that. The ass just right not to let them sag. This must men that I am doing something right in my workouts.

Each day that I have I weigh in this past month I see the scale telling me I am loosing it. It is partly, due to the fact, that I changed the numbers of calories I consume in a day. The other part has to do with my heart rate when I exercise.

The Fitbit app tracks my heart rate via the heart rate monitor in my tracker. Since I got the tracker I have been burning quite a bit of fat which is equivalent to a low number heart rate. Lately, I have higher number which sends me up and into the cardio heart rate zone more often.

Hoping to look good and feel healthy.

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

Television Weight

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Dear Kerby,

Yesterday, I felt like I had nothing going on this week. In return, I stated tackling some organization. Here is what happened the first day:

  • Recycled a somewhat nice size pile of photographer magazines.
  • Started a bad of items that need to go in the trash. This may include clothes and other such items that can not be recycled.
  • Clothes than can be worn again by people other than myself.

Here are my goals in organizing my room:

  • Be able to fit my desk into the room.
  • Easy ways to find the items I want.
  • Every item has a nice clean home in a drawer, in the closet, or on a shelf.
  • Make sure it smells fresh and clean all the time.
  • Remove sticky from the walls. This person had the same exact problem. Some items are better for the walls and this was not one of them.

This seems like an endless task but it will be worth it in the end. I have not done a deep clean in almost two years. How do you tackle a project? How long does it take you do a task?

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

Schedule

Monday, February 15, 2016

Dear Kerby,

My old 17 inch laptop was semiprivate because I was able to not have people look over my shoulder when I was sitting at my desk. Also, I could easily move it elsewhere in the house when I wanted. The laptop was on an old desk I had put in the living room area. With the new iMac everyone can see and hear what I am doing in the living room. Having a 21 inch screen is pretty big and lacks privacy. I can also hear the loud tv at the same time I am sitting at my desk using the computer. This becomes a problem when I would like to listen to music or watch videos on the computer. Currently, my nephew shares the space with me and the desk. A number of times I have told him to watch out for my computer when he goes wild with his toys.

One way to solve this problem is to move the desk into another room (most likely my bedroom) with more privacy. I am making space in the bedroom to put the desk and all of its current contents. One space that I would like to put it is in front of my main bedroom window in the alcove and the other in along the wall of my smaller window. I would rather have it looking out onto the front yard if possible. Both places are near outlet. Each outlet contains one plug that controlled by the rooms light switch and the other that is independent of the switch. I am already using a power strip due to the fact that I have a computer, lamp, pencil sharpener, and computer dive to plug in. I would hate to have my computer get shut off because I plugged it into the wrong outlet. The house not only has wireless internet but a wireless printer the are easy to use. When the desk gets moved I will no longer have a piece of art in front of me but a nice view of front yard and street the street from the second floor window. Making the computer more private I plan on using it more in the new location.

In the process of putting the desk and computer in the room I have to simplify the "clutter". I would not call it clutter as much as saving old school projects and items from middle school, high school, and college. Everything will find a place even if it happens to be the recycling or trash. I already broke a plastic storage container trying to organize items. From my experience, plastics to not last as long as you would hope they should. This will help me simplify and begin to get on a nice path for moving out soon.

As a result of moving the desk into another room I leave a nice size void in the living room. Not sure what will go in replace of the desk other than more room for my nephews toys. The living room is one room that I wish could be better utilized.

I am keeping on track with one of my goals of getting more organized this year. Hopefully I will have pictures to share. Are you on track with your goals?

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

Reorganization

Monday, February 08, 2016

Dear Kerby,

The other day I calculated the total of my weekly income from when I started my job at the restaurant in May till when it closed in October. In total it was enough money to pay for a new 2015 iMac and then some. I remember that the first thing I purchased was the Fitbit Charge HR. At that time I wanted to start tracking my activity/weight more better since I had a job where I was walking around all the time. I am not quite sure where the rest of the money exactly went but I can imagine it went to gas, date nights, and other odd things.

I started an account with the bank where $25 a week would automatically go into it. The account was to help me save money and make it harder to touch. I switched to to $25 a month now that I do not have steady income.

This year I stated looking closely into my finances. Tracking finances is not as easy as it sounds because I have skipped tracking a few small items. Every time money comes in or goes out I have to remember to go to my computer or iPad and pull up my finance document so that I can adjust my income and outgoings. A category that I would like to see money grow is paying off the computer and saving up for moving out. When I get a new job I plan on changing my automatic transfers into my other savings account so that savings for these items are made easier.

No one is borrowing money from me (except my boyfriend) and or I am not offering to pay for things that do not directly affect me and my personal growth. It sounds a little selfish. Personal growth would include paying for the Adobe design programs I once had.

How do you manage and track your finances? Are you on track with your ins and outs?

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

Finances

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Dear Kerby,

Monday — Friday is equal to one workweek according to Fitbit. Fitbit has a competition called the Workweek Hustle. During the week of February 25 — February 29 I hit a goal of 55,384 steps total with a daily goal of 11,000 steps. Some days I did less and other days I did more to make up for previous days. I am proud of myself for doing this many steps. Some of the steps happened to be during exercise.

This week is a new month. I am trying something new. I read in various places that morning workouts are better than other times of the day. For one week I am going to try morning workout and see what difference it makes. Take a look at what the American Heart Association has to say. When I first got my Fitbit I tried some morning workouts just for fun. When I did a morning workout I burned enough calories to not have any of my calories show up in Lose It! for that day; everything zeroed out. I did not know what was happening but for myself it was hard to reproduce.

This week I plan:

  • Not to over eat and stay in my calorie budget
  • Meet my daily goals.
  • Meet my weekly goals.
  • Try and earn a few badges along the way.
I am not exactly sure how this is any different than any other week. I feel a little bit with it since I upped my daily steps from 10,000 to 11,000 to help with reaching my weight goal.

Since December, I have a had a turn around; I started to gain weight. I do not think it had anything to do with the holidays because November/Thanksgiving did not cause a problem. I have been under my calories and have met my calorie burn/step goals or close to meeting them every day in January. The Fitbit has a polygon for how many days I exercise. Every day I do what constitutes an exercise I get a side to a polygon. I normally do 5 days which equals the pentagon. My goal is set for 5 days. If I do only 4 days it never turns into a square but rather an open polygon.

I will let you know if this makes any difference and I am on the up for the weight loss. Are you where you should be in life with your goals? Are you doing what makes you happy?

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

Turn Around

Friday, January 15, 2016

Dear Kerby,

A few years ago my mom got a nice wooden box of multiple flavours of tea. She never really drank any of it. As a result I started to drink the tea. After starting to drink the tea my aunt gave me a box of candy cane tea and a box of coconut style tea. I think I became know as the tea drinker of the house. To me, tea is not that bad.

For Christmas this year my mom got me a box of cranberry vanilla tea. I think she got that flavour only because she likes the holiday Cranberry Sierra Mist. after drinking the tea I came to the conclusion that it is not the worst thing ever. I could be drinking a giant bottle of soda pop every day. One of my goals for this year is to drink more of tea that I have at home and buy less. When I am low then I can buy more.

I broke that goal because I was in search of box of watermelon lime tea from Celestial Seasonings yesterday. That multiple places had this particular box of tea. I never did find the tea after visiting three of the places that the website said it would be online. Somehow, my mom got the idea that she wanted to buy it online. In my mind I was yelling and trying to stop her from ordering it. Like I said previously, I have to drink what I have. Her spending habit does not help any.

What do you think of tea? Do you like yours hot or cold? Any good flavours? Do you put in milk or honey?

Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

Tea Time

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Dear Kerby,

Last year I started working on losing some weight. As a result I took time to look at all the fitness trackers on the growing market. I was impressed by the Fitbit HR due to it serving dual purpose as a watch and a fitness tracker. I was let down at the time I got mine because I wanted it in the tangerine color that had been showing up all over the wed. Instead, I got the plum. Why not? Certain variations of happen purple/violet are my favorite. (Pantone 2593 is a love of mine) I am still trying to fit multiple types of exercise into my ever changing life. When I got the tracker I was more active due to having a job. Now, I am home looking for a new job.

Along with my time off I have been working on some graphic design work for myself. I tend to start one project and move on to another. Very little have I finished. Somehow I find fault which puts a hold on the process of creation. This time it is trying to come up with the money to pay for the design programs in Adobe Creative Cloud. In some ways I like the Creative Cloud other ways I dislike it. It is not the best thing for me right now (price wise). I was never one of those students that had to have the latest version of the Adobe Suite every time it was updated. I had Adobe Creative Suite 5 for years when Everyone had version 6 or even CC.

For the new year I came up with a loose spreadsheet budget plan on how to keep track of where my money goes which will help me reach some financial goals. One goal is to pay off my new iMac from October of 2015. Besides the budget I plan on being more organized since I have been working a log from home the past two months. I have a file box that has colored file folders, new desk accessories from the dollar store, and a feeling of well-being when organized. I wish everything was easy to organize as my computer/desk.

What is one major goal/project/task you have been trying to achieve since last year?


Talk to you later,
Bluelaugh

New Year, Same Me

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