#NOT nearly double my daily goal haha | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

purplesurveys · 4 years

Text

966

by skiassurveys

1. How has covid affected you? It robbed me of few months’ worth of memories in my last year in college, my graduation, travel plans, employment prospects, a 22nd birthday with friends. Fortunately, other than a mutual friend, I personally don’t know anyone who has gotten the virus.

2. What is a comfort show of yours? Friends, without a doubt. If I need a pick me up I just look up a scene on YouTube and I’m bound to feel better in seconds.

3. Are you open about your past or do you not let anyone in? I’m pretty open about my past as long as people ask the right questions that would make me want to open up that can of worms lol. But I’m very secretive about the present and if I’m currently going through something, I tend to be selfish when it comes to opening up. I don’t like being completely vulnerable, and I leave those last few bits of vulnerability to only myself. I can’t even open up on Tumblr in certain instances; it’s just how I am.

4. Favourite fast food joint? Yellow Cab.

5. Do you think we were put on this earth for a reason? I don’t. I don’t put a lot of thought into this, either. It’s just not something I particularly care about.

6. What is something you have done this year you’re proud of? Finish my thesis. I used to think it was some colossal, nearly-impossible requirement and I never thought I was capable of creating my own. But I got through it and it was such an amazing feeling to see myself and Andrew wrap it up and write our acknowledgments at the very end.

7. Do u ever feel like surveys are usually the same questions? There are definitely questions that come up more often than others, but I’m never super bothered by them. I just try to answer them differently then move on.

8. What were you doing 10 years ago? I was 12, in sixth grade, friendless, suicidal, and was in the biggest mental health slump of my life thus far; so, not doing well.

9. Do you call out Karens when they’re harassing a cashier? I don’t call them out but when it’s my turn to be served, I make it a point to greet them and smile and give them the change, like I do with any cashier – except amplified this time around so they can feel better and not think that every customer is an asshole.

10. Animal crossing, yay or nay? Yay. I don’t play it but I’m certainly not gonna dampen people’s enjoyment by thumbing it down lol. It looks so cute and the challenges look wholesome; that game just can’t hurt anybody haha. But I guess it helps that my favorite characters to play on Mario Kart are Animal Crossing characters, so there’s that.

11. Why do you like to do surveys? It’s a safe space. And I’m very talkative in my head but not in real life, so surveys always serve as an outlet for my thoughts and feelings.

12. Did you ever have a MySpace? I did but I caught they very tail end of its popularity. By the time I joined people were already starting to flock to Facebook, so it wasn’t like I was ever able to do anything fun or worthwhile on Myspace. It was also never as popular in the Philippines too; we were into Friendster a lot more.

13. Do you think breaks are toxic in a relationship? I don’t think things like that work in absolutes. I’m sure breaks work for some, but for others they could also just create more distance and cause a couple to grow apart over time.

14. Do you have a YouTube channel? If no, would you create one? If yes what’s your content? I have one but it’s only so that I can support my favorite channels and subscribe to them, and so that YouTube can tailor my homepage to my interests. If I had to start posting videos, I’d prefer to take it easy and just post chill daily vlogs, nothing that tries too hard; and maybe take part in a taste test every once in a while because I enjoy watching those.

15. Are you a math person? Only up until advanced algebra or geometry. I’ll have to bow out if we have to get into trigonometry or calculus.

16. What’s the worse thing someone has said to you? I’ve been told I was a headache to deal with, heartless, unlovable, ungrateful, lacking a brain. All courtesy of my mom.

17. Have you ever befriended someone because you felt bad? Just once. In Grade 7 there was a new girl who was a bit of a loner, so Gab and I started talking to her so that she wouldn’t be alone during lunch. She didn’t really mix well with us and our dynamic though, so we slowly stopped hanging out with her. I felt bad, but I also didn’t want us to keep faking it with her because it would’ve been unfair to her – at least we tried. I was glad when she finally found her group, which didn’t take long.

18. Would you ever date someone online? I’m not open to it.

19. Have you been ghosted before? Would you ghost someone? I’m pretty sure what I did with Mike is the equivalent of ghosting...oops. I haven’t been ghosted.

20. When do you think things will be normal again? For a second this sounded really accurate about my life and I almost started crying :’’’’)))))) but now I realize you meant to ask about Covid lol. UHHH idk man. I remember back in March thinking this was gonna be over by April, and I had never been more wrong lmao. It’s so hard to tell.

21. Do you watch anime? No.

22. Biggest goal you wanna reach before 2020 is over? Be happy.

23. How old did/do you turn this year? 22.

24. Do you like tiktok? I don’t have the app downloaded but I’ll watch TikTok compilations on Facebook sometimes, and I’ve never had anything bad to say about them. I loooove the ones where people show what they do in their workplace like cleaning laptops, making ice cream cakes, doing pottery, etc., or showing projects that they’ve been working on like cleaning their swimming pool or renovating their bedroom. Those are the most satisfying to watch.

25. Do you ever miss vine? OMG yes. TikTok is entertaining, but the sense of humor that Vine birthed is on another fucking level. Only Vine could’ve made hurricane tortilla, a child, two bros chilling in a hot tub, and no head funny.

26. How are you doing, seriously? Today was one of the easier days. But I’m still hurting. It was just more manageable to breathe today.

27. Is there someone you want to talk to but you know you can’t? Yes.

28. Do you make jokes to cope with your problems? Sometimes, if I’ve already accepted the problem. It’s harder to make light of a situation that I’m still grappling with.

29. Have you ever had someone call you their best friend but you didn’t even consider them a close friend? I don’t think so.

30. Have you ever dealt with a pathological liar? Sure.

31. Long or short surveys? Medium-length to long.

32. If ur in school, are you doing it on zoom or in class? I’m not in school but I can definitely tell you that there aren’t any physical classes happening any time soon, at least in this country. It’s just not safe enough yet.

33. Would you ever have a pet rat? Nope.

34. Favourite memory with your best friend? I like laughing fits with Angela and spending hours at her house doing nothing. With Gabie, I always enjoy eating out with her.

35. Favourite type of content to watch on YouTube? I’ve mentioned them a lot on surveys recently, but it’s definitely Good Mythical Morning. I always turn to them when I’m going through depression so I’m really grateful that they have 1500+ episodes on their main channel and have a bunch of secondary channels with hundreds of videos in each as well. They have no idea how many lives they’ve saved. Other than that, I also like watching Korean reality shows, mukbangs that double as ASMR videos, soothing baking videos, and vlogs from local celebrities heheh.

36. Are you allergic to anything serious? No allergies for me.

37. Dream job? I don’t really have a dream title for now; I just want to eventually end up at the top of the ladder in my chosen career path which is PR.

38. Do you think dreams mean anything? No.

39. Fave clothing brand? Mango or Zara.

40. Do you miss anyone? Painfully.

#survey #surveys

0 notes

ezra-blue · 7 years

Text

Week 41

Sorry about the late post, busy day! Under the cut.

Last Week: 127 This Week: 127

Nobody said the last few pounds to goal would be easy. I’m so close I can taste it, and there’s no shame in being where I am.

Today was the day. Facing down with the doctor!

... I had my gyn appointment first, but nobody actually cares about that one. Smart me scheduled two doctor’s appointments in one morning to get them the fuck over with. I did impress the hell out of the gyn, who actually did a double take and asked, “Am I reading your vitals right? Were you 174 or 124 last year?” At least I got her to look me in the face for more than a split second. Maybe next year she’ll get my name right.

But sitting down in front of my primary care doctor after losing nearly fifty pounds man... She was surprised and proud of me. I told her I decided to lose weight after she told me to lose ten pounds last year, and I told her I got to ten and kept going. She did ask how I did it (and said that I should be a Weight Watchers spokesperson given my success, HA), and when I told her I was close to my goal but not quite there, she said that my goal was fine but that I should stop after that since I’m at a good place, and I told her I planned on it. All in all, impressed my doctor.

... and then she gave me a script for fasting blood work to be sure I hadn’t done anything dramatic to my internals after dropping nearly fifty pounds. Luckily, this smart Blue predicted that she might have to get blood work done, and set up an appointment three months in advance early in the morning in case it was fasting blood work DID I MENTION I WAS A CHAMPION-LEVEL ADULT.

I’m trying to convince myself, bit by bit, that it’s okay not to be perfect. I’m allowed to go over on points a tiny bit, as long as I don’t go overboard. I had a cookie! I had a piece of candy! Singular! It’s okay to have a small treat, and giving in to a tiny bit of temptation will keep me from binges. I think. As long as I stop after one and don’t get too unreasonable, I’ll be okay.

Part of coming close to my goal means moving from “weight loss” to “maintaining” and that will mean making this “diet” a lifestyle. Thing is, I can’t really imagine not living the way I am now. I’m so used to portion control and watching everything I eat! I guess I can eat? more? when I’m not trying to lose weight? Like, maybe instead of vegetable snacks, I could have a snack pack of almonds in the morning? Or maybe treats??? regularly??? I don’t know. Part of me wonders if I’ll ever be able to get out of the “diet” mindset. I’m definitely going to stick with WW tracking, so I’ll see how the program changes when I go from “lose” to “maintain.” Then again, I’ve been maintaining recently anyway, haha...

My one concern is that I know I’ll need to maintain my activity level to keep my metabolism up, but I’ve mentioned my lowered cold tolerance, and a good chunk of my activity comes from going outside and taking a walk. But if it’s too cold, I really should not be out walking around. Mr. Blue said he’s going to start objecting to our morning walks when it’s less than 40 out, which is reasonable, but I still want to get a walk in daily, and my best time is in the morning. Trouble is, going without him means taking away from “us time.” I considered getting up earlier so I could go to the gym for indoors exercise before he woke up, like I do on Saturdays, but he gets up much earlier on weekdays for work and I already don’t get enough sleep, and he balked at the idea of me going to the gym any more than I do. I can’t always guarantee getting a walk in during my work break, either. It’s making me insecure, and I’m concerned winter is going to be tough.

On the bright side, the cold weather means I can have lots of lovely soups! I made a chicken, bacon, and orzo soup with lots of lovely vegetables on Saturday, and a Moroccan chicken soup on Sunday, and I have lasagna soup and lentil soup and stews ready in the freezer for easy lazy dinners. <3 All healthful recipes, all good, and super for those chilly nights we’ve been having. Plus, I’m gradually easing Mr. Blue into the habit of meatless Mondays. Tonight, Roasted Cauliflower Tofu Curry... with enough for leftovers! :D More easy dinners!

Tomorrow, though, I get an early birthday present: a trip to Hershey to see Alton Brown’s live food science show! EEEEEE! I don’t even care that I haven’t been able to cook any of his recipes in months, I still love my food science stuff!

This is a good week. I’m going to be alright. <3

#blue-chan confessional night #blue goes on a diet

6 notes · View notes

ahappyevent · 5 years

Text

Atomic habits, part 1

At the beginning of Jan, as I just finished Atomic habits, by James Clear I promised you girls a summary of the book. For that it meant I needed to re-read it, at least partially (I initially listened to the audiobook, realised I like the book too much so I ordered the paper print copy of it). But wait, what??? that meant I needed to stop reading other books and my list is long :) ...so guess what, it is mid march and only now I’m getting to it, and it still feels I’m doing a sacrilege for not reading my “normal” read for tonight. Hahah, the idiosyncrasies of me.

Here goes, part 1, first 4 chapters.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1. The surprising power of atomic habits

1% better every day > the effects of small habits compound over time. If you can get just 1% better each day, you’ll end up with results that are nearly 37 times better after 1 year.

Unfortunately the slow pace of transformation also makes it easy to let a bad habit slide.

Success is the product of daily habits - not once in a lifetime transformations. It doesn’t matter how successful of unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path towards success. You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits.

The plateau of latent potential - we often expect progress to be linear. At the very least, we hope it will come quickly. In reality, the results of our efforts are often delayed. It is not until months or years later that we realise the true value of the previous work we have done. This can result in a “valley of disappointment” where people feel discouraged after putting in weeks or months of hard work without experiencing any results. However, this work was not wasted. It was simply being stored. It is not until much later that the full value of previous efforts is revealed.

Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.

FORGET ABOUT GOALS, FOCUS ON THE SYSTEM INSTEAD

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement.

You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems > inspired by the following quote from Archilochus: “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”

Habits are a double-edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why understanding the details is essential.

An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.

Chapter 2. How your habits shape your identity (and vice versa)

Changing our habits is challenging for two reasons: (1) we try to change the wrong thing and (2) we try to change our habits in the wrong way.

There are three layers of behaviour change: a change in your outcomes, a change in your processes, or a change in your identity.

The first layer is changing your outcomes. This level is concerned with changing your results. The second layer is changing your process. This level is concerned with changing your habits and systems. The third and deepest layer is changing your identity. This level is concerned with changing your beliefs.

Outcomes are about what you get. Processes are about what you do. Identity is about what you believe. When it comes to building habits, the problem is the direction of change. Many people begin the process by focusing on what they want to change > outcome-based habits. Alternative is to start from the core - our identity.

With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become.

The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.

It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Ask yourself, “Who is the type of person that could get the outcome I want?”

The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.

Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.

True behaviour change is identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you’ll stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity.

The real reason habits matter is not because they can get you better results (although they can do that), but because they can change your beliefs about yourself… fundamentally they are not about having something. They are about becoming someone.

Chapter 3. How to build better habits in 4 simple steps

A habit is a behaviour that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible.

The Habit Loop

Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop that involves four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.

The four stages of habit are best described as a feedback loop. They form an endless cycle that is running every moment you are alive. This “habit loop” is continually scanning the environment, predicting what will happen next, trying out different responses, and learning from the results. In summary, the cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.

1. CUE - triggers the brain to initiate a behaviour. The cue predicts a reward and so it naturally leads to a craving.

2. CRAVING - the motivational force behind every habit. What you crave is not the habit itself (i.e. smoking) but the change in state it delivers (i.e release of anxiety).

3. RESPONSE - the actual habit; depends on how motivated you are and how much friction is associated with the behaviour, also depends on your ability.

4. REWARD - it satisfies the craving; it teaches us which actions are worth repeating in the future.

The Four Laws of Behaviour Change are a simple set of rules we can use to:

> build better habits. (1) make it obvious - the cue, (2) make it attractive - the craving, (3) make it easy - the response, and (4) make it satisfying - the reward.

> break bad habits. (1) make it invisible - the cue, (2) make it unattractive - the craving, (3) make it difficult - the response, and (4) make it unsatisfying - the reward.

Chapter 4 - The Man who didn’t look right

With enough practice, your brain will pick up on the cues that predict certain outcomes without consciously thinking about it. Once our habits become automatic, we stop paying attention to what we are doing. The process of behaviour change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them.”

“Pointing-and-Calling” raises your level of awareness from a non conscious habit to a more conscious level by verbalising your actions. One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing. This helps explain why the consequences of bad habits can sneak up on us. We need a “point-and-call” system for our personal lives.

The Habits Scorecard is a simple exercise you can use to become more aware of your behaviour > make a list of daily habits, once you have it rate each one as good habit (+), bad habit (-) or neutral habit (=).

If you’re having trouble determining how to rate a particular habit, ask yourself: ‘Does this behaviour help me become the type of person I wish to be? Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?’

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 2 coming soon, hopefully it doesn’t take me 2 months :)... talk about habits formation haha!

Love,

Mama

#atomichabits #habits #reading #bookworm #ilovebooks

0 notes

theseventhhex · 5 years

Text

Kelly Moran Interview

Kelly Moran

Photo by Timothy Saccenti

Composer, producer, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Kelly Moran made an early name for herself in New York collaborating with dance performance and composing for long-term John Cage collaborator Margaret Leng Tan. It was with the 2017 album Bloodroot that Kelly Moran began to reach wider attention. Now, on her Warp Records debut ‘Ultraviolet’ she continues to interpret these wealth of inspirations into a sound all her own and pulls off a nearly impossible feat: the annihilation of experimental music’s imposing, esoteric, über-academic status quo in the name of pure, unbridled intuition, of human joy. ‘Ultraviolet’ plays to a wide, arresting array of stylistic influences: dazzling inflections of jazz and dream pop, classical composition and black metal, darkness and light, encapsulated in a single, mystifying LP… We talk to the delightful Kelly Moran about overcoming anxiety, running daily and her beloved cat Wendy…

TSH: How valuable is it between projects for you to turn your brain off and reset with a new approach towards your music?

Kelly: I think it’s good for anyone who’s in a creative discipline to examine what their process is every couple of years. It’s key to revisit how you approach doing things just so you don’t get stuck in a rut and continue to make the same thing, which is a problem that I’ve had for years. I always had the same approach to everything and I felt like I wasn’t growing as an artist. However, when writing new music lately I’ve been finding that the methods I used for ‘Ultraviolet’ are not really working for me right now. I feel like I need to constantly defamiliarise myself with my musical habits and set to default again. It’s good to step outside of your comfort zone and see where it takes you.

TSH: Tell us more about your latest EP entitled ‘Origin’...

Kelly: With the exception of one track, all of the pieces on ‘Origin’ came before ‘Ultraviolet’, hence the name. This EP predates ‘Ultraviolet’ and almost all the songs are the actual demos that I improvised, recorded and had been working with. The versions of ‘Autowave’ and ‘Water Music’ that you hear on ‘Origin’ are the actual versions of those songs.

TSH: Is your music impacted much at all by the current affairs in America?

Kelly: Well, living in America, our politics have been shit for a long time. We had a bit of a break with Obama but things have been bad since Trump took office. People thought great art would arise out of the political turmoil with Trump in power, but it didn’t. I find that politics in general is distracting and overwhelming for me. I need to separate from the current political state - not in a way that I don’t know what’s going on - but I have to knowingly detach in a way because if I don’t, it can be really difficult to even exist because of how shit and terrible it can be out here. For me, when I pursue art and music, it’s mainly an escapism from the dregs of reality.

TSH: Does being immersed in music help you to overcome your anxiety and stress hurdles?

Kelly: At times, yes. A lot of my anxiety in the past was about performing or not reaching my potential and maybe not working hard enough, but I feel like I’m in a good place with all these factors now. I feel very confident as a composer and with my musical abilities. It is funny though because I suddenly have a much bigger platform after being signed to Warp. I do feel more exposed to the world in many ways than I wasn’t before. I am now dealing with new anxieties that I have to contend with...

TSH: What sort of issues have you been facing?

Kelly: Well, now that I’m a little more known I’ll get a lot more weird messages from people online. For example, during the recent Warp 30 announcement I got so many random DMs and rude Twitter messages. Also, sometimes if I read the YouTube comments for my music videos people say stuff like ‘Is this what Warp has become? It’s going so downhill.’ It’s weird because people never used to reach out to me to say random things like that but in the past year it’s happening more regularly. I’m dealing with these little new problems now.

TSH: It must still be so rewarding that individuals connect with the way that you communicate your music...

Kelly: Yeah, it’s a double edged sword I guess. It is nice when people connect to my music - it really is great. I mean I try to be an accessible person on social media. I try to be very open and speak with people directly when people tweet at me or send me messages, but sometimes I do feel very emotionally drained by it. There are messages I don’t want to have to respond to, in addition to the mean messages. The thing about the internet is you can get a thousand nice comments and one bad comment, but you’re gonna focus on the bad one, haha! I’ll have to just develop a thicker skin.

TSH: What do you recall about fleshing out the excellent track entitled ‘Helix’?

Kelly: Like all of the pieces on the album this one started out with improvisation. The original piece I created of ‘Helix’ was very exploratory because I had figured out how to play piano in a more percussive way where I was alternating between my hands. This discovery of me playing the instrument in this new way led to a very minimalist pattern that drives this song. The improvisation has similar patterns to what you hear on the original version and I ended up transcribing it trying to be as accurate as possible .When I recorded it I listened back to it and streamlined it a little bit. To me, figuring out the underlying chord progressions that I was implying in addition to figuring out a bass progression really gave this piece direction and drive - it was so crucial.

TSH: Did you select ‘Radiant’ as the album closer quite early on?

Kelly: I kind of knew it would be the closer because I like ending albums on a gentle note. I like for the last song to be the most simple and like its saying goodnight to people - sort of like sending them off with something delicate. ‘Ultraviolet’ was already an intense record and not many of the tracks are relaxed so I wanted to give the listener a break as the record was ending. It’s funny because the original of this track was more busy and hectic; it had more piano arpeggios and additional melodies.

TSH: How important is running to your daily life?

Kelly: It’s very beneficial. I’m one of those people that really strives off having a structured schedule. Unfortunately for me I picked a career that really does not enable this whatsoever, ha! For me, running is the one way that I can have this sort of consistency to my schedule. I strive for this factor, especially when I go on tour. I always bring my workout clothes and it’s an added bonus if I stay at a hotel with a gym. I just think the endorphin rush you get from running and also having a ritual a day helps me to get in the right mental space.

TSH: Are you still listening to a lot of hip-hop when you run?

Kelly: Haha! I haven’t actually been listening to much hip-hop whilst running recently. I’ve been listening to Aleksi Perälä, who is on Aphex Twin’s record label, as well as K-pop and even some Miley Cyrus from the Black Mirror soundtrack.

TSH: Is it hard to leave your cat Wendy behind when you go on tour?

Kelly: It really is! It’s definitely one of the most challenging parts for me because I’m very attached to her and she’s my little daughter. Unfortunately, I have a high maintenance cat who doesn’t like many people - she only likes me. So I feel really guilty when I leave for my travels as I think she’s not getting the right attention. She’ll stay with my mom and she’s been warming up to people but she’s not a friendly cat at all. I’ve had her for 5 years and only been travelling for the last year or so, therefore she must be wondering what’s going on. I never used to leave my apartment and now I’m out of the country every month. I guess I have to earn that money if Wendy’s gonna keep eating those fancy feasts!

TSH: Being a huge figure skating fan, how proud were you to witness the great Yuzuru Hanyu win Olympic gold on your birthday?

Kelly: Yes, he won his second Olympic medal on my birthday. I remember watching him win and being like ‘Holy fuck! This is absolutely incredible’. It’s funny because for my birthday party the next day I had a bunch of friends over and we were drinking and listening to the new Oneothrix Point Never record whilst also watching recaps of the figure skating.

TSH: What factors do you mostly consider exploring when it comes to collaboration?

Kelly: Well, there are so many artists that I look up to and respect that I would sell my right arm to collaborate with someday. When I first got signed to Warp the first thing I thought was if I ever have an opportunity to collaborate with someone else from the label that would be so cool. I basically worship everyone on this label. The kinds of collaboration that are important for me is to work with people that I’ve looked up to and who are respected. I’m also really interested in working with people who are just completely different from me and can push me outside of my comfort zone. For my next record I want to have a few collaborators from totally different genres to enable interesting results.

TSH: What matters most with your musical endeavours as you look ahead?

Kelly: I think my biggest drive is to keep improving and to keep surpassing myself. I always try to hold myself to what my own standard is. My goal is for my next album to be even better than what I’ve put out before - I want to push myself to reach new places musically. A lot of people describe me as a pianist who does prepared piano but in the actual timeline of my musical activity prepared piano actually occupies a very small part of that timeline. It’s really only been 3 years in my entire career that I’ve worked with prepared piano. There’s this part of me that wants to show people that I can do a lot more than that. As a pianist I feel really free because there are so many ways that I can translate what I do to other genres, it would be very easy for me to do techno, hip-hop or even black metal. I feel that my biggest strength is my malleability as a performer and as a composer, so I just want to show people that I have many different sides as an artist and not just one thing as people know me as now.

Kelly Moran - “In Parallel”

Kelly Moran - “Water Music”

Ultraviolet

#Interview #Kelly Moran

0 notes

andrewdburton · 7 years

Text

My 2017 year-end review

Hello, and welcome to 2018!

What a long, strange year was 2017. And what a perfect example of just how tough it can be to predict where life will take you.

Twelve months ago, Kim and I were firmly ensconced in our penthouse condo in southeast Portland. We had recently returned from our 15-month RV trip across the United States. After a long stretch struggling to re-acclimate to every day life, both of us had developed routines. She was working regularly at several local dental practices, while I had found my groove writing at Money Boss.

When I sat down to do my 2016 year-end review, I found that I’d earned $4233.36 in revenue from blogging. My goal for 2017 was to triple revenue. I also wanted to write 120 articles — about one every three days. Lastly, I intended to track every penny I earned and spent during the year, and to report about my financial habits for everyone to see.

As regular readers know, things didn’t go as planned.

Missing the Mark

I missed the mark on nearly every goal I set for myself last year — financial and otherwise. But you know what? I don’t feel bad about this. As we’ll discuss in a moment, my life experienced some profound shifts that led me to direct my attention to different priorities.

In the interest of accountability, however, I think it’d be useful to see just how close I came toward meeting the goals I set for myself at the end of 2016.

Last December, I wrote: “A year from now, I hope to be telling you my company has generated between $15,000 and $20,000 in revenue [during 2017].” How much did it actually earn? $7958.80. While I doubled my business revenue in 2017, I missed my target by a wide margin. The good news is that things are looking up. Even with minimal monetization, Get Rich Slowly generated $1700 in revenue during December. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect I can make a full-time income — say $5000 per month maybe — by the end of 2018.

My goal for 2017 was to write 120 articles. I thought they’d all be at Money Boss, of course, because this time last year it didn’t even occur to me that it was possible to re-acquire Get Rich Slowly. In 2017, I wrote 96 articles. Of these, 39 were published at Money Boss and 57 were published at Get Rich Slowly (all within the past ten weeks). Although I missed my target, I’m pleased with my current production. In fact — and I know this is a big hairy audacious goal — I think it’s quite possible that I could produce 500 articles during 2018. Let’s call that a soft target.

The goal I did best at was tracking my money. I actually did track every penny I earned and spent during 2017. And for the first few months, I shared my experiences publicly. However, I axed the public part of this project once I realized I was about to make some huge transactions that made the data useless as a learning tool. I paused the project. (I’m still trying to decide if I’ll bring it back in 2018.)

There you have it. Last year, I set three big goals — and I missed the mark on all three. But, as I said, I don’t feel bad about it in any way. You see, it turned out that 2017 was the year of opportunity. While I didn’t achieve what I set out to do, in a lot of ways I achieved even more.

Net Worth Update Although I stopped sharing monthly money updates, I feel that at the very least I owe readers a year-end summary my financial progress.

My net worth on 31 December 2016 was $1,577,014.27. My net worth on 31 December 2017 was $1,584,545.87. That’s a negligible increase — less than one-half of one percent — in a year that saw the stock market jump by 19.42%!

In a normal year, these market gains would have boosted my net worth by $175,000 — not $7531.60. But 2017 was not a normal year. At times, I felt like I was hemorrhaging money. That money wasn’t wasted on frivolous expenses like computer games and comic books. It went to remodeling our new house and buying businesses. All the same, that money is gone.

The Big Move

On the surface, the biggest change Kim and I made in 2017 was moving from a luxury condo in Portland’s popular Sellwood neighborhood to a quaint “English cottage” in rural Stafford Hamlet. (Stafford Hamlet isn’t an official city. It’s a hilly farm area scrunched between three Portland suburbs. It’s filled with lots of million-dollar homes. Ours isn’t one of them. It’s funny to go on Zillow and compare our home value with the value of the other houses nearby.)

We love our new place. We love how quiet it is. We love how friendly the neighbors are. We love the absence of both crime and traffic, two factors that influenced our move from the condo. We love that there’s space for the dog to roam and trees for the cats to climb. This place isn’t perfect — no place is, right? — and we know that. Two big drawbacks are a lack of walkability (I walk several miles each day for exercise, but I can no longer walk for errands) and a lack of social interaction (at the condo, we saw neighbors all the time and lived close to friends).

The biggest downside to the new place, however, is that it’s been a money pit. Our pre-purchase inspection revealed that there were some issues to address, and we were prepared for that. With the $59,000 “profit” we made from downsizing, we thought we were financially prepared. Haha. By the end of the year, we’d spent that $59,000 making repairs — plus an additional $20,000 besides. Yikes!

I won’t lie: At times, all of this work has made us question our decision to move. It’s no fun writing check after check to fix things you didn’t know were broken. But ultimately, Kim and I are pleased with this place. As I said, we love it. Now that the structural issues have been addressed, we’ve been turning it into a home.

In early autumn, I put together my new writing studio, from which I’ve been rebuilding Get Rich Slowly. Meanwhile, Kim has been setting up her own workspace in the house. And at this very moment, she’s spending New Year’s Day rocking out and painting the kitchen while our little zoo lends a helping paw.

The Year of Opportunity

Moving from city to country wasn’t the only big change in my life. Throughout the year, I was presented with a variety of amazing and unexpected opportunities.

The most obvious opportunity was the re-acquisition of Get Rich Slowly.

When the previous owners approached me in early spring, I was shocked. It hadn’t occurred to me that there might be a chance to buy the site back. I didn’t know if I could afford it. And even if I could afford it, I didn’t know if it was something I wanted to do. I mean, I sold the site because I got burned out on it, right? What if buying it back would just be me spending tons of money to buy a job?

Turns out, repurchasing Get Rich Slowly was a good thing — a very good thing. I’ve loved being able to throw myself at this work once again. As much as I enjoyed Money Boss, it never felt like the right fit for me. Get Rich Slowly is the right fit. It’s home.

Meanwhile, 2017 offered me plenty of less-public opportunities.

Last January, a friend asked if we wanted to partner with him and his wife to purchase a rental property on the Oregon coast. We spent a couple of months tossing the idea around — and visiting the property — before all of us decided it wasn’t the right move.

In February, my friend and colleague Shannon McLay asked if I wanted to invest in her business. You see, back in 2013 I came up with an idea for a store that sells financial advice — a “money store”. This wouldn’t be a brokerage or a financial advisory firm, but a place to get help with your real-world financial problems. That fall, I met Shannon at a financial conference. She had the exact same idea for a business! The difference is, she followed through on her plans. In the fall of 2015, she opened The Financial Gym near the Flatiron Building in New York City. Because I believe in Shannon and her business, I now own 0.86% of the company.

Throughout 2017, I had a chance to invest in three other businesses. I passed on two of those opportunities and am still considering the third. (I find it tough to evaluate business investments. I’m just not qualified to do so based on numbers. Instead, I’m inclined to invest in companies with missions I believe in and owners I respect and admire. Probably not the best method, but that’s what I do.)

Aside from these financial opportunities, I’ve had offers to travel, to speak, and to write for a variety of people and groups.

I feel lucky — “blessed”, maybe — to have been presented with these opportunities and to actually be able to take advantage of some of them. That’s a fortunate position to be in. At the same time, however, I’ve burned through my cash reserves in order to fund these projects. I’ve had to resort to selling some of my mutual funds to get the money I need. I don’t like that. One of my aims in 2018 is to create both a cash buffer and enough income to fund my daily life.

Looking Ahead

Speaking of 2018: I haven’t set any concrete financial goals for the year. I want to re-build my cash reserves so that I don’t have to sell my investments whenever I need money. To do that, I intend to sell the RV and, especially, to grow Get Rich Slowly as a business.

Rather than set financial targets — which are outcomes I can’t influence directly — I’m focusing my attention on things I can actually control. I’m going to work on both the quality and quantity of the articles I share at Get Rich Slowly. I’ll pay to have the site redesigned. I’ll work my way through the archives, updating old material. And I’ll do lots of other things, like foster the email list and restore the discussion forums. If I work hard, I’m certain that both traffic and income will grow as a result.

I do have some non-financial goals for 2018, but I’m not going to share them today. (I’ll publish them on Friday, when I’ll ask all of you about your aims for 2018.)

The post My 2017 year-end review appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance http://www.getrichslowly.org/2018/01/01/2017-year-review/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

foursproutwealth-blog · 7 years

Text

My 2017 Year in Review

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/my-2017-year-in-review/

My 2017 Year in Review

Hello, and welcome to 2018!

What a long, strange year was 2017. And what a perfect example of just how tough it can be to predict where life will take you.

As regular readers know, things didn’t go as planned.

Missing the Mark

In the interest of accountability, however, I think it’d be useful to see just how close I came toward meeting the goals I set for myself at the end of 2016.

Net Worth Update Although I stopped sharing monthly money updates, I feel that at the very least I owe readers a year-end summary my financial progress.

The Big Move

The Year of Opportunity

Moving from city to country wasn’t the only big change in my life. Throughout the year, I was presented with a variety of amazing and unexpected opportunities.

The most obvious opportunity was the re-acquisition of Get Rich Slowly.

Meanwhile, 2017 offered me plenty of less-public opportunities.

Aside from these financial opportunities, I’ve had offers to travel, to speak, and to write for a variety of people and groups.

Looking Ahead

I do have some non-financial goals for 2018, but I’m not going to share them today. (I’ll publish them on Friday, when I’ll ask all of you about your aims for 2018.)

The post My 2017 Year in Review appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

#Wealth

0 notes