Hello! I have been trying to work at least a little bit at things every day this month. There are a lot of goals I need to chip away at or I'll never get them done. And too many big things I can't really do at the moment.
Completed:
Nothing! Absolutely nothing!
Updates:
2. digitally transcribe my journals
- I finished journals up through high school and I'm almost done with freshman year at BYU! This is one I really need to work on a little every day or I might not finish. I write a lot.
4. read 100 books in a year (84/100)
- 11 books! Boosted by finally reading my color Scott Pilgrim volumes, haha. And I finished a few books I had been working on for a while - Art, Inc. and Peace Is Every Step. Both very good! Just books I took in chunks more than one sitting.
23. see 30 new animated films (23/30)
- I watched Cars 3 before our Disney + subscription went away. It was pretty okay! That's saying a lot, considering Cars 2 was absolutely terrible.
30. see 30 new international films (4/30)
- It's been a while since I've watched one, but I got one this month: Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Can I just share Andy Samberg's review? He said, "It blew me away. And I feel like it's a good movie for men to understand energetically how when they show up it can really change things. It's not a spoiler to say this. You get lulled into this amazing space of there being no men for a long time in the movie, then a random guy does show up. He's a nothing character; he's there to do an errand. He's not being a jerk or being weird. But him just sitting there eating some slop, you're like, "Ugh, what's this guy doing here? Get him out of here. He's ruining the vibe."
31. a year of (silly) holiday celebration
- This month was full of excellent holidays: Mahjong Day, International Cat Day (celebrated by browsing r/catswhoyell), the 10-year anniversary of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World! (we had a viewing party with friends online! with garlic bread and "Coke Zero"!), Potato Day, and the anniversary of my discovery of David Rio Chai. Heck.
These are totally cans of Coke Zero.
35. watch 10 anime series (still 4/10)
- Okay, I haven't finished either of them yet, but I've watched 2 seasons of Haikyu!! this month as well as the first season of Aggretsuko. Why did it take me so long to watch Aggretsuko? It's so good. I'm sure we'll finish it in September. And Haikyu!! is so great. G's started calling them my Hai-cuties. If everyone could just watch sports anime, the world would be a happier place. You learn to empathize with opponents and cheer everyone on! And it totally inspires you to work hard and do your best!
58. see 30 new documentaries (19/30)
- We watched Love on the Spectrum on Netflix and it was delightful. I feel like they accurately represented the challenges of dating and finding love for those on the spectrum. No sugar coating, no inspiration porn! Though I did see some criticism of it for expecting them to conform to neuro-typical dating standard rather than allowing them to do what may come more naturally. But we really enjoyed it! I would totally watch a sequel.
60. r/52weeksofcooking - year-long cooking challenge
Cucumber: Cucumber Mint Lime Agua Fresca
Finnish: Makaronilaatiko (Macaroni Casserole)
Food in Disguise: Sweet Corn Panna Cotta sandcastle and Sand Dollar cookies
Figs: Fig Oatmeal Energy Balls
72. complete 12 30-day projects (3/10)
- Still working on these since I still have the momentum! This month I wanted to focus on typographic literacy so I got some practice in copying fonts and hand-lettered alphabets just to practice a bit more and get used to letterforms. I did a different style each day and I think it really was good for me! September's 30-day project is TOP SECRET and it will be GREAT (you can hear about this one later, don't worry!).
79. try 30 new salad/side dish recipes (19/30)
- I made a delicious shawarma salad and sweet corn blessed us with griddle cakes as well as a corn salsa. YUM.
99. complete a reading challenge (41/50)
- Wow! I'm less than 10 books away from finishing! This month I read a medical thriller (Doomsday Book), a book written by a journalist (Garlic and Sapphires), an anthology (Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand), a book with just words on the cover (Men Explain Things to Me), a book I touched on a shelf with my eyes closed (The Breadwinner), and a book with an author with flora or fauna in the name (Spindle's End). I had to cheat on touching a book on a shelf because of COVID and no library (though now I'm realizing I could have gone to a bookstore...oh well!) by using a random number generator to select one off my to-read shelf on Goodreads. That's okay, right? It better be because I'm counting it! One of my final nine books is Chernow's Alexander Hamilton biography, so it still might take me til the end of the year to finish my challenge, haha.
Okay! Nothing completed this month, but lots of progress. September makes me want to go back to school, so maybe I'll try working on my daily routine and setting more regular working hours. We'll see!
