Log #4 coming at you. Not a ton of progress but more than my previous logs. Old habits die hard, but this log is meant to keep me honest and on track so I can form better habits conducive to acheiving these goals. And while I want to be instantly good and acheive all my goals in a snap, I realize it's a journey of a thousand miles type thing.

1.Primary

a. Writing: Nothing again, but I did get more familiar with the program I dowlaoded a while back called Scrivener. The have a text tutorial that I personally found not super helpful, but on there website there's a video that explains basically all the features and it was wicked useful to me. Honestly, I'd probably have better new in this area if I posted this tomorrow, but I want to stick to the routine of posting these on Saturdays

b. Career: Heres the big one. I updated my resume, my LinkedIn page, and applied for an internal position at my company. I got denied, but it was nice to get a response. Failure is just a stepping stone on the path of success and there will be other open positions that I will apply to. Honeslty, it felt great just to apply to it. It felt like a bit of a weight off my chest and provided me with some greater motivation to be more proactive in moving out of my current position

c. Health & Exercise: Same old dumbell routine, but I have bumped up the curls I do across my body up from 30 to 50. Again, doing these things only once per day is not going to get me ripped or anything, but it's nice to push myself a little bit further.

d. Art & Animation: Nothing. I just got to bite the bullet and learn Blender. Hopefully they have a simple vidoe tutorial for how that works. I also should try to making any sort of art into a habit. I posted crappy MS Paint doodles towards the ends of last year, and even just doing that will form habit of making art, leading to a habit of improving my art.

2.Secondary

a. Reading: More Lord Of The Rings (spoilers) Got from were Sam and Frodo first enocuter Gollum in the Emyn Muil to when Gollum begins taking them to Cirith Ungol after reaching the Black Gate. I love the part when they are trekking across the Dead Marshes. Tolkien gives that place such captivating imagery. Given Tolkien was a WWI veteran, it's likely he was inspired by the stuff he saw in the war when writing that section

b. Programming: Not a darn thing

c. Music: Honeslty can't really remember a lot about the records I listened to this week. I did listen to this song called Rylanor's Last Stand. It's about Warhammer 40k characters and I'm a decent sized fan of 40k. Enough of a fan to soak in as much lore as I can, but not enough to take out a mortgage so I can afford some plastic miniatures. Even if you're not a fan of 40k I can recommend the song. The best way I can describe it is this metal opera song in which Rylanor confronts a demon who betrayed him. Rylanor's resolve to kill the demon as well as his blistering rejection of the demon's temptations is amazing. Didn't learn anything about how to make musci. That will change.

d. Don't know what to put here, because I haven't begun to build the set of Beaver Stadium yet, and I don't know what else to do.

3.Tertiary

a. Videogames: Dusted off my Steam library and played some round of Rivals of Aether. It's like Melee, but on PC. It's really fun, especially the frog ninja chracter Ranno. He's so awesome. The sequel comes out this year and that looks pretty awesome. Althought I will miss the amazing pixel art of the first game since the sequel is going with 3D Models. I just think great pixel art has a lot of charm compared to models. My go-to example when I think of pixel vs model is comparing Street Fighter 3: Third Strike's sprites to the models used in future games. 3rd Strike is an awesome game that I should play and learn. Need to get over my old man esque tech ineptitude and finally setup Fightcade properly.

b. YouTube Watch Later: I watched like one video I saved to that playlist like a day ago. I need to go int there and do some serious pruning.

c. TV: Nothing. My biggest roadblock for this is finding the services or means to watch the shows I'm thinking of watching and paying for them. I'd rather watch them legit and I'm cheap and don't feel like paying for streaming services

d. Music: Considering I have music twice, I need to make some changes with these goals

4.Miscellanous

TBD: Don't know, but I should look into how to play musically instruments. I think it'd be neat.

Going forward, I'm going to listen to my records when working on any of this stuff. Music keeps my focused, and records force me to stay on track. I love Spotfiy, but the ability to just jump from song to song so easily just derails my. I cannot watch/listen to YouTube when doing any of this. Having to watch just soaks up all my attention and kills any nascent potential I had for doing anything. But I do feel like I've reached a bit of a turning point here. I will say January on the whole has been a bust progress wise, but something about what I did mange to accomplish this week makes me feel like I finally have some momentum. I think finally sitting down and getting familiar with Scrivener and how envigorating Rylanor's Last Stand is to listen has gotten me feeling more optimistic than I have in a long time. See you next week

It's that time again. New Log; same lack of progress. I'll elaborate further on my feelings and what I percieve are my roadblocks at the bottom beneath the log

1.Primary

a. Writing: Not a word. I have written a bunch of ideas and some plot outlines for various stories I want to write in an old note book. I think some of them have promise for stories, but when I try to muster up the focus to putting pen to paper, it just fades away like fog in the midday sun.

b. Career: Dusted off my old LinkedIn profile and made some updates to me resume. Not going to be showing either of those hear since they contain sensitive private info about my I'd rather keep private from NG. I did have a meeting with my superior at work on Friday, and she sent my some internal job listings at my company. I want to apply to at least one of them. I want to get a new job soon. I'd don't feeling like getting verbally abused over the phone by random strangers all day for the rest of my life.

c. Health & Exercise: Here I have fared better. At least once a day for at least a week (give or take a few days, I've lost track) I do 50 bicep curls with some dumbells. I've also started doing 30 curls where I swing my arm across my body. I'm under no illusion doing that little is going to instantly get my in shape or ripped, but it gets the blood moving a little bit. I've also made a conscious effort to stop eating after 8pm and I'm proud to say I've kept that up for around a week, give or take a few days.

d. Animation: Didn't do a darn thing. I want to but starting from no skills and starting the process to learn is very daunting to me.

2.Secondary

a. Building: I've finished building that set of the Philadelphia Flyers' mascot. I greatly disliked that thing for years before I got that set. Going through that process of building it was very fun. I'm a little proud I completed it, and I'll admit that mascot has grown on me because I completed that set.

b. Reading. Read through more of Lord Of The Rings. (Spoilers) I read from just after The Battle of Helm's Deep to where Frodo and Sam are trekking through Emyn Muil. The Ents ripping apart Isengard, Gandalf's verbal sparring match with Saruman, and Pippin looking into the palantír are highlights for me. Pippin's experience with the palantír is so harrowing, you feel like saw what he saw through his own eyes. (End of Spoilers) Still haven't read beyond the first chapter of the other book I've meant to read.

c. Programming: Nothing.

d. Music: No learning music or playing it. I did get some records last week, and I listened to two while reading last week. Workingman's Dead and Terrapin Station by The Greatful Dead. I thought it fitting to listen to them, because I was formally introduced to the Dead and Lord Of The Rings at the same time. Listening to those albulms while reading took my back a decade in time. It was very nice.

3.Tertiary

a. Videogames: Didn't play a sing second

b. YouTube Watch Later: Didn't make any sort of effort to dent that playlist

c. TV: Only really watched sports and no shows I've been meaning to watch

d. Language: No effort to learn any other than English, and even then I don't speak it that great.

4.Miscellanous

TBD when I've gotten some sort of whim or fancy that pops into my head.

In my head I know I want to do all these things, but when it comes time to doing those things, my heart just isn't into it. I just veg out wathcing random YouTube videos. I'm wasting my time on useless stuff, but I don't know how to do the stuff I want to or how to even learn how to do what I want. I stay stuck in the mud because its familiar and takes no effort. I have issues withconcentration and intrinsic motivation. I try to sit down to do something, but my mind jumps to something else and then I do then and then it jumps to the next thing, and suddenly I've wasted a day doing nothing. And that day wasn't even wasted on soemthing really fun or interesting; just wasted it staying in the same rut. I'm also worried about failing trying to accomplish these new things, too. Lack of concentration, clinging to familiar low effort activites, and cowardice about failure are holding my back in this stagnant pattern I want to break but just don't know how. I feel like there's a bottle that is bubbling with all my hopes and dreams inside. But I don't know how to uncork it, so I just sit there twiddling my thumbs and hoping in vain I'll uncork that bottle some day. Anybody have any tips on how they keep themselves motivated and help them concentrate on projects? Like an exercise or some sort of technique? Or listening to some type of music? I'm open to advice because I need all the help I can get.

Seriously did you know? Because I don't, and I was hoping you could tell me.

It's been one week since Michigan beat Washington to claim their first national championship in football since 1997. We also saw the greatest coach of all time in Nick Saban retire at the end of this season. College football isn't going to start back up again until the end of August. What am I supposed to do until then? College football is just so fun and wonderful that nothing else really compares. I'll find something to occupy myself with, but I'll be counting down the days untill it comes back.

If you're ever on trial for stuff like murder, armed robbery, arson, or armed arson just tell the judge it was a prank. Judges are required to dismiss the case immediately if you use the "it's just a prank, bro" defense. I know this because I have a law degree from Harvard Law School. And by that I mean I have never set foot inside the state of Massachusetts.

Howdy, folks. Time for my second log. Unfortunatley, the second verse is much the same as the first. I'm thinking of upping these logs to twice a week in stead of just once. 7 days is still too much time for me to waste. Alo I'm going to break up my acitvities into 15 minutes chunks to further to break up the time on goals, so I'll atleast make some progress in some things. Last Monday, Michigan beat Washington in the Nation Championship game for football. Michigan's fight songe "The Victors" has become a guilty pleasure song for me since, because the guilty aspect come from me being a Penn Stater and the pleasure come from it being one of the greastest college fight songs ever.

1.Primary

a. Writing: Just dowlaoded the license for a bit of writing software called Scrivener. I don't feel like using MS Word for writing a novel and other fiction. Scrivener looked to be more geared towards producing a book so that's why I got it. Unfortunately I haven't put any amount of pen to paper yet, so to speak

b. Resume/Career: Nothing. I want to dust of my Linkedin profile, update my resume, and look towards enrolling my grad school. My parents really want me to go to grad school, and my worplace will foot the bill for any A's I get.

c. Exercise: I rode my bike for all of three minutes today, because I was just too cold and windy for me to ride longer than that. This is why I want to break stuff up into 15 minutes

d. Animation: I opened the Blender software I have burning a hole in my Steam library for like a minute

2.Secondary

a. Building: My sister got my a knock-off lego set of the Philadelphia Flyer's mascot for Christmas and building that has been a major time sink. I used to be big into lego over 10 years ago, but building this set has made me realize how bad out of practice I am with building set. Plus the instructuions for this set aren't quite as good as a bona fide lego set. It did make me come to a realization about the creative process: Sometimes you need to go back and redo multiple stages before making progress. I also need to be more patient with the porcess is something I've realized. She also got me a set to build of Beaver Stadium, but I don't think I'll get to it immediately after building this set

b. Reading: I read through more of Lord of The Rings. It's my favorite book of all time. It's so rich. I'm going to spoil what progress I've made in the book, so warning for what's up ahead. (Spoiler) I've gotten from the part where Aragon, Gimili and Legolas have made camp under the eve of Fangorn forest to just after the end of The Battle of Helm's Deep. This read through has made me realize how awesome all characters and stuff about Rohan is. Tolkien's writing is just so rich and wonderful (End of spoilers). I also have another book I'm reading through , Unlrashing The Artistis Within, but I've only read the first chapter. I have a bunch of other books I've got burning a hole in my shelf I need to read, too

c. Programming: Nothing I have a book about C++ that I want to crack upon. I took a programming course aboutPython in college, but it sucked and I dropped it part way through the semester. Wanting to take another crack at it.

d. Music: Have learned nothing about music theory and done nothing with music. Have a trumpet but haven't touched it in years. That needs to change. Would be a great idea to relearn the fundamentals.

3.Tertiary

a. Videogames: Massive Steam and GOG library with a bunch of unplayed games. Want to work my way alphabetically though them.

b. Youtube Watch Later: Hundreds of videos in my watch later playlist I need to pare down. Some of the videos in there have been in there for years and I need to take the plunge ot watch them.

c. TV: Didn't watch any shows I feel I should watch. Shows like The Sopranos, Breaing Bad, etc. The thing is I'm cheap and don't feel like paying for a streaming service, but at least with these log keeping track of my progress, I'd probably get my money's worth tracking the shows I've watched and encouraging me to keep watching

d. Music: I have a bunch of records and want to listen through them all alphabetically. I did listen to Are You Expereinced? and Axis: Bold as Love by The Jimi Hendrix Expereince. Jimi Hendrix is worming his way up my ranking of favorite muscians with those relistens. Songs like Third Rock from the Sun and Wait For Tommorrow are so great and just stick in my head.

4.Miscellanous

a. Saxaphone: I eventually want to learn saxaphone, but didn't do anything about learning or getting one

b. guitar: Same story as the saxaphone. My uncle has a guitar and that inspired this flight of fancy to get and learn guitar

c. Language: No progress. Want to learn a bunch, but the first one I want to learn is Irish. I know it's a near dead language, but I'd think it'd be really cool to learn it.

d. TBD: I can't think of anything at the moment, but I'll keep you posted in a fututre log if I think of anything

Apologies for any grammer and spelling mistakes. I'm trying to get this done before midnight and I spent most of the evening at my neighbors', drinking and watching football.

In sticking with my New Year's Resolution, here is my fist Progress Log. The purpose of this log is to motivate me to get off my behind and make progress on a lot of dream and goals I've wanted to do for a long time. Unfortunately, all I really did was come up with the format which I'll elaborate on. My goals will be broken down into categories of Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Miscellanous. Goals will be sorted into these categories based on my feelings towards them, ranging from must complete goals to things that are fun but not the end of the world if I don't complete them. Goals will be further broken down in to a,b,c etc. within those categories to further delineate their priorty. For example goals 1a and 1b are primary must acheive goals, but 1a is the most important goal. I'm sorry I wasted a week on nothing but this, but with this log begining in earnest, I forsee this weekly log doing great things for me getting these goals done. Example of the format I'll be using for future logs is listed below. Note: amount of goals in each category may or may not change in the future as goals are completed. Be on the lookout for my next log next Saturday

1.Primary

a.

b.

c.

d.

2.Secondary

a.

b.

c.

d.

3.Tertiary

a.

b.

c.

d.

4.Miscellanous

a.

b.

c.

d.

I was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning I break my legs. And every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lie awak in agony until my heart attacks put me to sleep.

In the waining hours of 2023 I want take a look back at this year. In terms of Newgrounds, I was very active. My acitvity mostly composed of reviews. I also dipped my toes into art. I have no artistic skill what so ever so I just toyed around with the shapes tool and various brushes in MS Paint. Despit my postings being very crude and unrefined, I do have a soft sport for them. They were my first foreays into art in about 10 years and I liked how NG affored me a platform to express myself creatively. I disocvered a lot of really cool art, really cool artists, and even made some fans along they way. Granted, I think the people following me did so mainly because they thought my reviews and responses to news posts amusing rather than my artistic skill. My favorite piece was "MS Paint Robot" because I like the grays I used and the white highlight I added to the robot's eye. My least favorite was "Suprised Alien." I like the detail I put into the alien's mouth, but I made it way too small and it's off center and it just looks so weird. My entire artistic output took place from early November to ealry December, and I really haven't quite felt that drive to draw again this year.

Outside of Newgrounds, my life was the same old same old. I contiuned in my current postion I'm in at work. I became eligible to seek a new job internally this year, but nothing I'm interest in or qualified for has opened up. My personal ambitions went unfulfilled. I want to be a writer, but only wrote like two first drafts of short stories. I have a bunch of ideas and amibitons, but they aren't doing anyone any good by staying in there. I keep wanting to write, but I just waste they time and let it slip through my fingers. There was also a lot of stuff I wanted to do. I wanted to read more, listen to mire albums, watch tv shows and movies I've never watched before, etc., but all just piles up and I put it off by vegetating out on Youtube. These unfulfilled ambitions and dearth of time maangement skills lead into my New Year's Resolution.

My New Year's Resolution is to keep a weekly journal about things like writing, art, exercise, programming, media, learning music, etc. A problem with New Year's resolutions is that they are often grand things people burn out in like 2-3 weeks and abandon because there's no real accountability for them no doing it. And my issue with time is if I have a big chunk of it I waste it, because I feel as though I have time to burn. My aim with this journal is to head off both issues. Posting these jounrals as news posts to NG will make me accountable to anyone who happens to read them. Keeping it weekly will break-up the amount of time I have to do things. Setting deadlines for myself with make me realize time is not just some giant morass I can burn away, but something precious I need to use wisely if I acutally want to move on from square on as opposed to just unproductively wishing I could move on from square one. I don't know the exact format of this journal, but it will at the least have the primary goals of logging my writting progress and progress at getting promoted at work/or finding at better job with a different company along with secondary goals. I'll post in the coming days the format of how my journal will look and I'll post these journals on Saturdays, usually in the evening. I'm really looking forward to this because this journal will provide me with the accountability and motivation I need to make my dreams a reality. I'm looking forward to it. Stay golden and have a happy New Year!

The beatings will contiune untill morale improves.