Goodbye, 2011! Hello, 2012!

It's been… a great year. I can't remember anything past… yesterday, but I'm very sure that it was a good year.

Scratch that. I can't even remember yesterday. I remember disjointed occurences, of course, but other than that, I can't think of many things that made this year the best ever. I think when I was one was the best year ever. So many new things!

Some highlights of 2011:

• Taking care of a three-year-old for 3 days.
• Taking the ACT
• Spending a weekend with my best friend, walking in the gorge and studying
• Leaving on the trip (and all that it entailed)
• Reading 150 books

What will be some of the highlights of 2012:

• Writing 1,200,000 words
• Reading 150-175 books
• Finishing Khan Academy material
• Reading Les Trois Mousquetaires and Don Quijote in their original languages
• Visiting China, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and more
• Being super productive
• Turning 18.

And quite a few others. I've got my plan set out for 2012's writing schedule. I'll be working on two projects at all times— in January this will be Riddle Rose and a rewrite of my NaNo'09, In Which There is Edward (I'll also be working on a NaNo swap every day, but it will not have a posting schedule.). I'll be updating all the blogs once a week (at least), reviewing books, and critiquing pieces from my critique group.

The posting schedule is:

Sunday: Post a blog post.

Tuesday: Post a chapter from Project #1 and #2. Post one critique.

Wednesday: Post another critique.

Friday: Post a chapter from Project #2. Post short story.

Saturday: Post a chapter from Project #1. Post a third critique. Post book review.

I'm not exactly sure how I've got Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday with two or three submissions and Monday and Tuesday with none, but I'm writing about three thousand words a day (what with 750 words of 'morning pages,' 500 words of Write Your World, planning for the chapters…), which means that I should be able to stay on top of things word-count-wise.

Time-wise, I'm not too sure if it's possible. It should be— I can write 3000 words in forty five minutes to two hours to a whole day, and I can read a book in two hours to twenty four hours to forty five days.

I'll be posting updates on my Day Zero Project's goals on there, but I'll also be updating here. At some point before January 31^st, I'll have posts with goals separated by year an category (growth, reading, writing, official learning, unofficial learning, random, and travel). Those should be posted by Saturday, acutally.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what else to mention, besides a happy new year! Let's hope that those of us attempting crazy schedules and goals in 2012 will not burn out before January, Feburary, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, or December are through!

Turning 17

Turning 17 is an interesting phenomenon. While 16 is widely celebrated in America, and 18 is celebrated in Romania (as well as 14, but that's another story), I like 17. For one thing, it's a prime number. For another thing, the numeral 7 is probably one of the most elegant. And I like it. For another thing, 'seventeen' has more syllables than any other year from one to sixteen, and from eighteen to twenty. And many other things I could mention but don't want to clog up the post with.

I'll be posting all the details of what we saw on Noi6, because it's a bit more public and that one needs views too, and focus on more writerly/readerly things here, because no one goes on an Around the World blog to read about my word count and book total.

The Liebster Blog Award

Lemme start off by saying I have no idea what the Liebster blog award is.

But it was a wonderful birthday present, from Coffee of The Land of Man-Eating Fairies. THANK YOU!

Receiving the award meant finding out what it is.

The Liebster Blog Award is awarded by bloggers to other bloggers whose blogs have 200 followers or less. (I think I have... 0. 0 is also a beautiful and elegant number.)

The rules ARE:


1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.

3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 3-5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.

5. Let them know they have been chosen, by leaving a comment at their blog.


Now, let me also start off by saying I don't exactly follow blogs. In fact, I never read them.
THAT IS NOT TO SAY that I do not have friends who blog. I do. Here they are. They're all writing related. You may hate me or love me because of it. XD

Kaedekit's Thoughts of a Paper Dragon hasn't got too many posts yet, but she's doing MilWordy. Instant win and instant follow. There are not enough people doing MilWordy in this world.

Katie G's MilWordy & Beyond is also about MilWordy. It hasn't started yet, though, so there's only an introductory post. BUT THAT'S OKAY! I only had one post once... and it was a terrible one. Katie's is a good one. It explains things. Mine didn't.

Bouchra Rebiai's Pink, Purple, and Fuchsia is awesome. For one thing, Bouchra (Boosh-rah) sets insane goals... just like me! For another thing, her blog is bright pink. Now, I like pink. And, she's been doing the Day Zero Project for about... 14 months. So... instant triple win. She's not doing MilWordy. She's studying her ... ICGSE's or some other strange acronym.

The Thoughts


Seventeen doesn't feel much different from sixteen, with the exception of the fact that instead of being in a plane this year, I was on my feet. I'll have the details of the things we did on Noi6, but suffice it to say that it was an AMAZING birthday.

But I've also got a couple of thoughts on what I want to do with the next year... more personal wise than writing goals:

1. Stop drinking carbonated drinks. In the two months since we left home, we have drunk more soda than we have in the past year. It needs to stop.
2. Start working out. I haven't done anything since we left, and I'm starting to wonder if my muscles remember what a split is or not any more. They definitely don't remember push ups.
3. Count to ten before yelling at any one. Unless there's a rhinoceros charging them and they won't move... this means that before calling peoples' attention to things... I count to ten. This will hopefully stop me from being such a terrorist to people I know well.

And that's it! Three, simple, easy things that I'll be able to remember.

Also:

1. Don't have more than 7 things on the to-do list for one day. This, of course, doesn't include things I haven't finished from days before. ^_-