After announcing my goal of making more blog posts… Here one is. Subject? Some stats and analysis on achieving my goals so far this year, and some political ranting:

Bicycling: 810 Km so far. Quota is 767 Km. I’m 43 Km ahead of my cycling goal so far, basically two full days ahead. As nasty as the weather’s been, I’m almost surprised I’m even ahead of goal at all.  I really have reduced my riding since last year.

Footbag: 11.75 hours so far. Quota is 14.38. I’m 2.63 hours, almost a week, behind goal. I’m missing my session today, which would have given me another 1.25, because I’ve got a really bad cold. Missing just a single session has an impact, and it seems like every week has something that tanks one of my sessions. But as soon as the weather warms up, I’m planning to lay in two 2-hour sessions a week. For now, I’m trying to do Tues-Thurs-Sunday, an hour to an hour-fifteen per session, at the rec center. I’ve gotten one outdoor session so far:

Resisting: I’ll be damned, but trump is still president, the GOP is entirely complicit and on-board with his fascism and authoritarianism, Corporate media only reports on the controversy, not the facts, and Propaganda Media (Fox News, Sinclair Broadcasting, RT & Briebarf-like websites, and millions of bots on social media) just push outright lies, and propaganda. Literally a third of the US adult population have become Propaganda Zombies. The Propaganda Machine can turn the zombified people’s ideas and preferences on, and off, like light switches: One day: FBI is great! Next day: FBI is awful! And you see the huge swings in polls follow the propaganda being pushed.

Turns out it wasn’t a biological agent that brought on the Zombie Apocalypse, it was propaganda. But, mark my words, these mind-controlled people are the Zombie Apocalypse. Fight them accordingly.

A lot of people aghast at what’s happening seem to still have faith in this tiny little pocket of the FBI, but… I have little faith that little pocket of that institution can hold under the massive propaganda attack being aimed at it. These institutions are traditional Republican strongholds, but suddenly (magically, overnight, via the Propaganda Machine), 30% of our population, and virtually every federal GOP representative, now sees (or at least lies and says) these institutions are untrustworthy hotbeds of liberalism and corruption. Talk about projection, those corrupt GOP jerks use it.

Perhaps even worse, I’m already seeing team trump directly pitting the FBI, against street cops and ICE agents. This is already really ugly, and it keeps getting uglier.

New Job: I’ll be damned again, but… no new job yet. Only one I’ve found to even apply to since last post. I’ve gotten a bit off-track on my training, still need to finish that up. So despondent here…

Blog Posting: Tada! Managed to complete one of them so far!

Until next time…

 

Another year, Gone! As usual, I reconcile my goals for the year against final outcomes, and set new goals. This year? No different.

2017 Goals

1. Ride my bicycle at least 8,888 Km

Outcome: 10,727 Kilometers HECK YEAH! I crushed my original goal on 11/7, moved the goalposts out to an even 10,000 Km, crushed that goal on 12/7, moved the goalposts again to any 10,x01 number, rolled past 10,701 this morning, landed on 10,727 Km final for the year. Note, that’s 6,666 Miles.

2. Play at least 150 hours of Footbag (Hacky Sack)

Outcome: 141 hours. It’s amazing I even got that close. I was only at 56 hours at mid-year, but… crushed it in the fall to nearly catch up. I was doing 2-3 hour sessions on Thursdays or Fridays, then another 2-3 hour session for Mizzou Game Day Saturdays.

3. Improve Diet

Outcome: Um… not so much. I did stop drinking coffee, which is definitely a good thing, but otherwise haven’t changed my diet all that much.

4. Kindness

Outcome: I probably bombed at this. I’ve generally been less hostile and angry at real people I deal with, but I’ve been a flaming asshole to people on the internet, especially Twitter.

5. Be part of #TheResistance

Outcome: Difficult to Gage. I amplify Resistance tweets on Twitter, with some 20,000+ tweets & retweets this year. I’ve called my Members of Congress dozens of times. I’ve written my MoC’s. I’ve tweeted at my MoC’s. I’ve donated to progressive & democratic candidates. I’ve marched in the streets. I don’t know that I’ve done much, or been particularly effective, but I’ve sure done more than nothing.

6. Install a solar PVC system at my house

Outcome: Project Complete! It took me almost 7 full months from inception to completion, but I did it! I now have a 7.8 Kw solar PVC system operating at my house. It roughly covers all our household electric usage. It’s one more important accomplishment to reduce fossil fuel and nuclear energy use.

2018 Goals

1. 8,000 Km on the bike. I’ll probably ride a bit more than that, but after my stellar 10,000 Km+ year this year, I’m actually planning to ease up on the riding just a bit. Still gonna ride every day that I can, but probably focus more on purpose-driven riding, less on riding to fill quota.

2. 150 Hours of Footbag. I fell just a bit short this year, mostly due to investing so much time and effort getting my solar system built and running in the first half of the year. This year, I won’t have that project, and should be able to kick a bit more in the first half of the year, plus do as much kicking next fall during Mizzou Football season as I did last year.

3. Continue resisting the trump cabal. At this point, a year later, there’s so much damning evidence of conspiracy to commit espionage with an enemy of the state, obstruction of justice, and lying to government officials to cover up same conspiracy, that it’s quite frankly insane trump is still in office. I’m stunned at the complicity of the entire GOP party; it turns out they’re all in on it, the entire Republican party has been taking laundered Russian mob money, and are being blackmailed by Kompromat held by Russia. This insanity has got to stop! I vow to contact my MoC’s even more, donate even more, and take to the streets if things get worse. I will die fighting, before I let what democracy we’ve had in America die. America is founded on the Rule of Law.

4. Get a new job. I’ve been working on this one for a long time, but face age discrimination and skillset mismatch. I’m planning to get ITIL certification this year, and work towards becoming a ServiceNow or similar ITSM system developer. Or just about any database or networking job. Just not AV anymore. I’m tired of AV, tired of my current work situation. I need a change, I need something new. I’m gonna go find it, and slay it.

5. Do another 100+ mile day on my bicycle. Last year for the annual BikeMO ride, I literally cycled from my house to the start of the ride in Rocheport, rode the 65 mile route, and then rode back home. A total of 103 miles for the day! I’d like to keep riding at least one Century ride a year, plan to do the same thing for BikeMO this year.

6. Oh, and maybe post a little more often here on my blog. It’s been almost a year since last post. Once a month at least, maybe?

That’s about it. An accounting of last year’s goals, and setting of new goals for this year. When all is said and done, I’m very pleased with 2017, except for the phenomenon of trump. Here’s to hoping 2018 will take care of that stain on our country, too!

Good luck, good skill, good Resistance, and Best Wishes for a great 2018!