New Year's Goals

It's the beginning of a new year, and with that new year comes new hopes and dreams. At the beginning of each new year I see this vast blank page, waiting for me to fill it, waiting to to fulfill all my hopes and dreams.

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions, but I always envision the incredible things I might do in the New Year. So this year, I am making New Year's Goals.

Since my life is divided in three main ways (Christian, writer, and engineer), I'm making those goals in those three categories.

And this year my friends is going to be a BIG year. Why you ask? Well, you'll have to read my goals to find out.

Engineer Goals:
1) Graduate in December 2011.
Wow. Graduation. Again. But this time, for realz. This time, I'll walk that graduation stage in a hooded robe to get my Master's Degree and there will be no going back. No going back to school that is. With that degree I'm going to be done, and I CAN'T WAIT!

2) Get a job at JPL.
That's a big one. A life goal actually. But since this is the year I graduate, this is the year to realize this goal. Fingers crossed my friends! Hopefully this time next year, I'll be looking for an apartment in Pasadena, CA.

3) Complete my design of R3's ADCS.
This one is sort of necessary to make either 1 or 2 happen. I can't graduate without completing it, because this is sort of my master's thesis. I can't get a job unless I graduate. And designing a complete ADCS system from scratch is a great way to get the attention of JPL.

Writer Goals:
1) Make the FINAL revision* on Spirit Riddled.
I don't know if my final revision will be the next revision or two more after that, but I want to get this story done this year. I've been working on Spirit Riddled for ages (school really slows down the writing process), and I'm ready to be done.

2) Start querying Spirit Riddled.
Yes, with final revision done I can finally query! For the non-writers who read this blog, that means I will start sending out a letter describing my book to agents in hopes that they will represent me. Woo! Perhaps this goal would be better if I said "I will get an agent for Spirit Riddled", but I've never seriously queried a book before** so querying is a big step for me.

3) Finish a first draft of ANY other book.
I believe I've expressed before that I have writer ADD. I have a hard time focusing on one story. School also sort of sucks all the time out of my life. Most of my stories make it to about 10 chapters in until something else takes over my life. Namely school. So I would like to have another first draft done, so once Spirit Riddled is done done I can start another set of revisions.

4) Not be a slacker critiquer.
If I've ever agreed to critique something for you in the past year, I apologize. I'm going to once again through school under the bus, but its the only real excuse I have. This year, I'm actually going to respond to the people I'm critiquing for in a timely fashion. Woohoo!

Christian/Personal Goals:
1) Be a nicer person.
So 1/3 of my family thinks I'm like a really mean person. (1/3 being two people, so more than you might initially think). I'm going to work on that one. I don't mean to be mean (is that a pun? it's not intended). I don't think my friends think I'm mean, so maybe its just that I'm too harsh on my family. Maybe I expect too much of them? So this may actually come down to me not caring as much. (That's my little sister's advice). We'll see how this goes.

2) Actually have a regular quiet time.
Once again, I blame school for this not occurring. But by golly, I'm not going to continue allowing school to take over my life. I'm going to schedule regular quite times and its going to happen!

So that's my New Year's Goals. Any else out there have goals? Any thoughts on mine?

Happy New Year!

*By final revision, I mean my final authorial revision outside of the revisions my agents and editors will probably ask me to do. Most agents and editors do have suggestions and want changes. I'm cool with that.
**This is not to say that Spirit Riddled is the first book I've ever tried to write. I've always been a really harsh judge of my own writing and I've shelved numerous stories for various reasons. This will be the first time a story has made it this far in my personal judgment court.