Last updated on April 3rd, 2021 at 11:50 pm
Alright, so let’s start this entry with a shout-out to Sharon for keeping me accountable on the 2010 20K by asking frequently if I’ll be posting an entry on any given day. Rain or shine, she’s always checking up on me to make sure that I’m not losing my edge š Much appreciated!
So another month down, some more dollars made, but still a long way to go. The 2010 20K is an idea spawned from a random plan made near the end of 2009āit can be said that without proper planning, a plan is doomed to fail. If I went with that perspective, I wouldn’t keep at the 2010 20K like I have. You may not always see it in blog posts, but there’s always something going on behind the scenes. With two months and $192.14 down, there’s just over $1,980 to be made monthly over the next ten months in order to hit my goal. That’s a lot different from the $1,667 I’d originally stated on January 1stāalmost as if I need to pack in almost an extra week of work into the remaining months. The slower I make progress, the harder the journey will beāI totally accept that.
Some of the stumbling blocks I’ve been finding include:
- My aversion to the coldāI’m a real wuss when it comes to the cold to the point where I haven’t even cut my hair in five months (or more) just to keep my head warm. The sooner the spring comes along, the better. Eventually, it’s either I adapt (and yes, I’ve lived in Canada my whole life, so you’d think I should’ve got this covered already), or I hold out until I’m ready to have the world face more Casey, more of the time š
- Keeping too busyāI’ve touched on this beforeāwork, friends, girlfriend, commutingāall important factors of my life. They take up a lot of time, and while money isn’t everything, it really doesn’t leave too much time outside of work to make extra dollars. However, I’m not above juggling as much as necessary to do so, and as the days go on, it seems that this is a skill I’m going to need to figure out how to master š
For example, I didn’t really find enough time to enter the Toronto Star Short Story ContestāI did start fleshing out my ideas in order to really get the stories down…
…but just didn’t find the time to get everything done. Maybe I should blame the Olympics on this one, but really, it’s all on me š
With that said, February definitely wasn’t a total bust. I have been learning new things, working on different projects and trying to just keep improving and developing things for what I anticipate to be a massive upswing in 2010 20K activity as the months continue on. Things I’ve been up to include:
Time management
An area in which I’m sorely lacking. Too many deadlines have been missed this year (so far) due to not being able to find the time to get things done. It’s unfortunate, because I think there are several decent ideas I have for contests, side jobs, etc., but it’s really a question of how much I can realistically manage with my current workload taken into consideration.
Web design and architecture
We’re in a day an age where having a solid set of web skills can ONLY be seen as an asset. Companies need better websites to communicate information to be public; individuals seek to better express themselves and what they doāand often, the standard templates from cookie-cutter sites just don’t… well, cut it. At the moment, I’m learning more for my own purposes and sites, but eventually, I’d love to get good enough to offer services to and collaborate with others. Currently, I’m refreshing and refining my skills and understanding of PHP, but I’d love to eventually get into AJAX, jQuery and ActionScript (unless, you know, Flash dies off or something due to CSS3/HTML5…)
WordPress
Okay, Kev? In some ways I think I was better off designing my websites with Notepad++ and a self-compiled reference bookāit was easier to figure out how all the pieces out when I do it from scratch. However, I’m still trying it out, though some developer friends are whispering Drupal in my ear…
Networking
Still chatting away with anyone who cares to listen! Some client projects have fallen by the wayside, others I need to aggressively chase after and yet others are developing more and more as the days pass! I’ve still got the fingers crossed and the brain cells humming while I keep working away at the hush-hush projects (so that I can finally announce them and you can all be impressed)!
The week has flown by so far. Not insomuch that it’s been overwhelmingly busy, but just that the first few days seem to have gone by in the blink of an eye. I’ve had a blog post sitting on the burner since the weekendāI just never seemed to getting around to wrapping it up so I could post it. Now I have, and I hope that there will be far more quality posts to come in the next while!
So guys, it’s late and I need to hit up the sack, because I’m hammering away at my day-to-day workload like a jackhammer, granted that I have enough energy to do so š
The 2010 20K Running Total = $192.14
Thank you and keep reading!
