Last year, I did not have any specific goals. I spent the year trying to figure out what I wanted and where I wanted to go. I am not sure that I have figured everything out, but from where I am standing right now I have been able to identify a few things that I am want to achieve.
Through my work as a programmer I have learned that having a defined set of goals, guidelines, or even a specification gives me the target so that all I have to do is break down the steps to reach that goal. Things change, targets start moving, but the steps will still get me close to achieving my goals.
The following are a list of the goals that I will accomplish this year.
Books
I have been finding great guidance in some of the books I have read this past year. They have been informative, teaching, and helped me to make decisions which have improved my work ethic and my ability to accomplish my goals. I know this sounds sappy, but its the truth.
Recently, I purchased the following books, which I hope to read. I will be finding and reading other books as well, just figured I would add these to the list since reading does take quite a bit of time.
The 4-Hour Workweek
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Personal
Melissa and I renewed our current lease until November 2010. When our lease is up, we will move into a house. We have been saving and will continue to save anything extra past our bills (we have a well-defined budget) towards the down payment of a house.
As well as purchasing a house and making our mortgage payments without fail, we will also work hard to get rid of our student loans.
I am already started on my goal to lose 15 pounds. I have been lowering my food intake and eating smarter, this is hard for me to do as I really like food. I would prefer to eat something different at every meal and not repeat more than once a week.
Reinforce Media
My company is called Reinforce Media, LLC. Since I registered my company with the State of Colorado it has been in the red. My goal is to get Reinforce Media into the black. I will do this by finishing builds on my projects, posting on my blogs, and generally working my ass off.
FocusOfTheWeek.com – My goal is to have at least 5 active blogs including TwitterUserOfTheWeek, Tony On Business
MKBernier.com/ReinforceMedia.com – I will post to these sites more often, sharing quality information and how-tos. I already have a list of articles to write.
OddEmail.com – My goal is to achieve over 150 hits per post, currently this site averages 83. This site is just for fun, but it would be nice to see it get more popular.
ProbableFollow.com – I will continue to improve the current functionality, speed up the features, and add new features which will help draw more people to the site.
SendThemAShirt.com – My goal for this site is to sell an average of 3 boxes per month throughout the year. This site is all due to a joke that I heard in college, but people seem genuinely interested in what we are doing. At the very least it will be fun to work on and create some great blog posts on this domain.
SpammerOrNot.com – I will get a 1.0 version of this site up and running. The idea of this site is to help identify true spammers and remove them from Twitter as soon and as effectively as possible.
Twindicate.com – I will take Twindicate live and begin charging a monthly subscription fee for users of the site.
TwitterUserOfTheWeek.com – I will continue to write articles once a week about top-notch Twitter Users who deserve to have their name and story shared. My goal for this site is to improve the traffic of the site from an average of 470 hits per article to 1000.
Twitter
My goal is to continue to use Twitter to discover new friends, improve the relationships I currently have, to help unique twitter users discover each other, to provide information and help wherever possible, to share the ideas and projects that my friends and followers are working on, and to promote my current projects. If that isn’t enough, I will also do my best to discuss the merits of Cherry Coke as much as possible.
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Rant Status = Extreme
Likelihood to Offend = 93%
This morning I was watching the
Today Show’s coverage of the window shade recall. I was instantly appalled, frustrated, and infuriated at the same time. I still cannot believe that this was allowed to happen.
Basically, the whole story boils down to little kids getting the string wrapped around their necks and dieing. This in itself is horrible, I never want to hear about another accidental child death again.
The thing that bothers me about the fact that a recall was put into effect is that ALL of these deaths could have been avoided if the parents would have been paying attention. Why are child services organizations around the country not going after these parents whose children died?
Parents are constantly buying the baby-proofing hardware for their houses. Things like plug guards, cabinet locks, etc. They constantly are on guard to make sure that the child’s food is cut up small enough so that they will not choke. Parents are always looking out for their kids safety. So, WHY IN THE HELL did these parents put a Roman style shade next to their baby’s crib or even within reach of their child?
This is not Target’s, IKEA’s, or Home Depot’s fault that you shoved a crib up against a window that had a 6 foot rope hanging from it. This is purely the fault of the parents. It is not Target’s job to go into your home and look at every single product YOU CHOOSE to buy and put in your home for the potential health risks that they pose to anyone who walks in the door. This is ridiculous. If this was the case then stores would stop selling marbles, knives, and anything made of a hard plastic over 15 ounces that could be used to break glass and commit suicide.
With the same logic, they could say it is your fault your baby died because you taught it the skills necessary to grab onto an object and play with it, resulting in them wrapping it around their own necks. OR they could say that it is your parental responsibility to be aware and responsive to everything your baby does. Oh wait, you ARE supposed to be aware and responsive to everything your baby does. My bad for expecting you to do your job as a parent. Obviously, it is the big box store’s job to raise your children…or was that Cartoon Network’s job? I can never remember.
Come on people. Take responsibility for your own actions, your choices, and your children. It is not the tree’s fault for growing in the same spot for over 100 years when you run your car into it. You can’t sue God for inventing trees.
It is not the store’s fault if you walk in and stub your toe on the wall, it is your own damn fault for putting your foot too close to a wall. It is 100% not McDonald’s fault for making coffee the way it is supposed to be made. If is your fault for getting into a moving vehicle with a cup of the stuff between your legs and you spill it on yourself. You knew when your ordered the coffee that it was going to be hot, that’s probably WHY you ordered it. It is also not McDonald’s fault for your fat ass, you chose to go there and spend your money, you chose to eat three Big Macs a large fry and a liter of Coke. They did not sneak into your house and reverse lipo a whole hogs ass into your belly area, you put it in there one french fry at a time. Deal with it, take responsibility for it.
I am tired of people trying to get rich on their own stupidity. There are too many people in this world who are working way too hard just to scrape by and who are getting screwed out of their job because someone wasn’t being responsible for their own self. Pay attention to yourself, pay attention to your surroundings, use your god damned brain once in a while.
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I know that this is a rant, I even told you that at the top of this post. I am freaking pissed at people who are too damn sue happy and refuse to get off their own ass and do something for themselves. If you agree or disagree, please tell me in the comments as I would love to discuss what you think about this.
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I haven’t written a blog post in a long time, but someone suggested I tell this story.
I have a bunch of stuff I need to sell, so I figured Craig’s List was the place to go. Things like, a 5DVD change, a Vacuum, a desk, and some movies. Simple, easy, 5 minute transactions. “Here’s your stuff, thank you for the money”. Seriously, this is what every transaction I have ever been a part of has consisted of.
This however has not been the case for the last 3 days.
I posted the items on Sunday night and sold some of the movies right away, like within an hour. I didn’t hear anything else until the next day.
This is what happened Monday night:
Person 1: “Do you still have the 5 DVD changer?”
Me: “Yep”
Person 1: “Where are you located?”
Me: “Parker and Arapahoe”
Person 1: “Oh”
Me: “Where are you located?”
Person 1: “Parker and Hampden”
Me: “I can meet you half way”
Person 1: “No, I am just being lazy, I’ll call you back in 10 minutes”
They never called back.
Then the classic interaction which spanned from Monday until tonight (Tuesday at 10:20PM):
Her: “You still have the vacuum? I would like to pick it up.”
Me: “Yep, I am at [insert address], when can you come and get it?”
Her: “I will have to come tonight, can you repeat the address?”
Me: “I just sent you a link to a Google Map, you can get directions there”
Her: “Ok, I would like to come by tonight around 8PM”
Me: “OK, sounds great.”
… 8PM rolls around …
Her: “I am at Hampden and Parker, which way do I go?”
Me: “Go towards the mountains, that is west. Then go LEFT, that is South about 2-3 miles until you see Arapahoe.”
Her: “OK, I’ll be there in a little while.”
… 10 minutes pass, she calls me back …
Her: “I am at Parker and Yale, which way do I go? I don’t want to go on the highway, I will end up in a different state”
Me: “Go South on Parker about 3-4 miles until you see Arapahoe, pull into the Target parking lot, i will meet you there.”
… Yes, she went NORTH …
… 20 minutes pass, she calls again …
Her: “I am at Parker and Florida, I just wanted to make sure I was going the right way”
Me: “You went further North, turn around and come south about 5 miles. You will not be able to miss Arapahoe. Pull into the Target and I will meet you.”
Her: “OK”
… 20 more minutes, she calls again …
Her: “I am at Hampden and Parker, I think I am going to give up”
Me: “OK, I understand. Sorry this is so confusing. Maybe we can try again when it is light out, to make it easier.”
Her: “Yeah, I think that is a good idea. Thank you”
… 24 hours later, it is 10:20PM. I am walking into my bedroom and my Fiance hands me the phone …
Her: “This is [name here], I was just calling to tell you I will not be coming tonight.”
Me: “OK … “
Her: “I will try to come on my day off, if you haven’t sold it already”
Me: “When is your day off?”
Her: “Saturday and Sunday”
Me (thinking) “You mean the weekend…?”
Me: “Ok, well please call me before you try to come down here again, there was someone who said they might be able to come and get it tomorrow”
Her: “OK, thank you.”
… I think about going to bed, instead I write this blog post …
The following is literally the path she took to get to Parker and Arapahoe. Point of order, she never made it to the last stop, and this took her over an hour to accomplish.
The reason I am worried about the fate of the planet is that these were not the only two people I talked to. There were 4 people on the phone, all of this caliber. Also, there were people over email who either didnt respond or sent me 4 emails about the same item from 2 different email accounts.
How do people survive? I am serious, how do they survive? If you cannot print Google Map directions, write them down. If you can’t follow them, take someone with you, or stop at a gas station and ask directions. Let alone the fact that what sounded like an elderly lady was going out at night to meet a strange guy, possibly in a dark parking lot to buy a used vacuum. I would never do anything, but has no one heard of “The Craig’s List Killer”?? This is a real person who preyed on people he met online. GET A FUCKING CLUE, the world is not all roses and good buzzes. I wish it was, but at some point you have to pull your head out of your ass long enough to get the things you need. Most Americans forgo getting the things they need and spend all their efforts trying to snatch up things they want.
These people couldn’t do common things like, figure out directions, drive one direction, follow through when you call someone to buy something, email from a single address… The list goes on.
This was possibly the craziest 3 days of my selling things on Craig’s List. It is enough to make me question where our world is headed, and at the very least it makes me wonder if I will ever try to sell things online again. Maybe I will just drop off all my old crap at Goodwill and call it a day. Or a night, if you are that second lady.
Oh yeah, everything I put up on Craig’s List, except 2 BluRay movies (out of a list including about 20 DVDs total), is still for sale.
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