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2025 - Week 1

Weekly Happenings

I know I keep changing formats on this blog. I feel like a section that is just me writing the weekly happenings out followed by the goals tracking section is the way to go.

This week technically had a couple of 2024 days in it, but it's also the first week of a new year. Quite a transitional time.

On Monday, I completed a touch up coat plus several coats of varathane on the underside of the shelf. My goal was to finish it before 2025 got here. I put it in place and planned to do the topside sealing from there. This allowed me to chip away at cleaning up my condo on the 31st.


It's so nice seeing my vision realized. I'm so tired after the many weeks of sanding, filling, painting, and sealing. And when one is under 5 foot tall, it's so ridiculous to be moving an 8 foot by 1.5 foot board around. It also taught me that my ceilings are not 8 foot. I may get a light strip for the underside for movie ambience. I still don't know what I want to put on the wall under it, but I'm sure something will eventually strike my fancy. 

It was annoying to work on the shelf in place and I knew that would be the case, but I managed to seal it anyway. It is functionally done. I will likely be adding an edge to it since it's not as smooth as I'd like. I will likely also be adding a strip of lights just in a bit from the edge. We'll see what I can find eventually. The finished top looks so shiny. I can put things on it as of the 12th. 


I am looking forward to the day I have reclaimed my living room. I had wanted to do a marathon of the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings, but I had nowhere to put anything that was on my couch. Instead, I watched Black Doves on Netflix. It's a British spy show. I also watched PWHL Montreal vs Boston. Montreal took it. There were constant penalties on both sides and Dubois got a major for a head check.

I made a ham in my instant pot on the 30th to give me some easy homemade meals between the shelf work, cleaning, and relaxing. Eventually, I'll be working through the Glucose Method to establish a healthier way of eating. The holidays led me to figure out that it's both lactose and annatto that I react to. I gave a bunch of food to friends.

I woke up on the 31st to discover that trades happened between PWHL Ottawa and Toronto. It was bye bye Scamurra & Harmon and hello Laroque & Bach. We would all see that evening if that was a good move or not. Laroque is older, but has a deep well in the defensive end of things. Defense has been lacking in Ottawa. Bach is young and barely got any ice time with Toronto. I'll miss Scamurra as she was a decent scorer. I heard her name many times during last season and she scored the first ever franchise goal. Ottawa broke the tie with 1m 10s left in the third period. Monster Masch was on fire all game and stopped 37 shots!

On New Years Eve, I confirmed I don't like Guinness. Sadly, this means I should've bought more cider. Ah well. I had charcuterie for dinner (before figuring out the lactose issue) and watched Woman of the Hour with Anna Kendrick before the clock struck midnight. A dark movie to end a challenging year. I opened my balcony door to let the old year out and the new one in. Hopefully that helps!

I spent a lot of the morning of New Years Day finalizing my goals in my Trello. I hoped people didn't find me annoying with so many blog posts over several days. It's not something I do often. Monday was the final weekly of 2024. Tuesday was the 2024 Wrap-Up. Wednesday was the 2025 Goals Post. It will be back to mainly weekly only posts going forward, though I intend to make some special content posts on my Ko-Fi Blog and there will be quarterly updates on my goals.

I played my tenor ukulele until my fingers hurt too much to continue. Gotta build some calluses. I completed Level 1 on Fender Play this week.

I played some Sky Children of Light this week. It's beautiful, but the flying is so messed up at times it wasn't worth the frustration. I got just passed this cool bit where I'm basically snowboarding down a ridge (without the snowboard) and then the next section kept leading me backward. I couldn't progress anymore and I couldn't find anything online about it. Hell, I couldn't even really describe where I was enough to be able to search it out. So I said it's not for me. When the bulk of your game is about flying, the controls for flying should actually work properly all the time. It's the foundation of the whole thing!

Unexpectadly, I'm now addicted to Infinity Nikki. The whole premise is a bit silly. Saving the world with fashion. This is why I never expected it would grip me as it has. But I did have an altercation with some cashmere on the weekend that made me feel like all my martial arts knowledge was useless. Maybe saving the world with fashion isn't so far-fetched after all.

I decided not to bother with streaming. I never got more than the odd person in my stream and I felt like I could be using my time better on my other goals. I didn't get all my reading done because my eyes were sore. I made progress on the chapter I've been stuck on with my own novel.

Though I didn't get all my goals done this week, I accomplished a lot and feel pretty good about it.

Monthly Oracle Card

This month's card is Lou Reed. I think he fits for the vibe I need right now. There will be much of The Velvet Underground in my future.

Goal Setting & Tracking

Arts & Crafts: The Neverending Shelf Project ✅, Procreate❎, and Fairy Cross-Stitch ✅
Decluttering & Minimalism: Reclaim The Couch (50%)
Education & Spirituality: Japanese lesson ✅, Bardic Study (3%)
Gaming & Streaming: Reinstate Saturday Morning Twitch Streams ❎
Health & Fitness: Core ✅, Upper ✅, Lower ✅, and Walking ❎
Music & Songwriting: Uke ✅ and Singing ✅
Reading & Writing: Gideon the Ninth - Chapter 30❎, Weekly blog post✅, Goals post ✅, Sparker - Chapter 10 ✅, Cyberfunk 3000 - 250 Words❎

For more details, please visit my Trello here.

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