ROW80 2013 Round 1: 3rd Update

Mostly an uneventful week again, though on average I'm on track with everything. I got my teaching contract renewed this week, so bring on another year of terribly written assignments and hilarious excuses for late submissions... *shudders* I still have a few weeks off, though, since I don't think classed start until late February. I also finally got my MRI done on my knee, which I've been waiting for for more than a month, and I will be seeing the surgeon again on the 8th of February. I've also been mucking around with writing playlists and I find that they are really useful in getting me into the right mood to write particular scenes, even if I wasn't really in a writing mood beforehand. Putting the playlist on my iPod when I walk waddle up to the shops helps the ideas to start percolating in my head so that when I get back to my laptop I can just get into the story.

Creative Goals

• Write at least 250 words per day: Every day except Saturday. But most days I got closer to 500 words of novel written, so I probably made up for it anyway.
• Do at least one painting or drawing per week: Another small acrylic, same size as the last one. Photo didn't come out particularly well (the centre of the flower is more subtly shaded in real life), but here it is:

• Maintain writing/art blog: No new posts, but update on coloured pencil light-fastness testing is complete, and a new review post for some soft pastels I got recently is underway.

Academic Goals

• Complete transcript and report from research assistant work: Done. New goal for this week: Complete summary of results report.
• Start preliminary reading research to try to come up with a more specific PhD topic.

Health Goals

• 10 minutes slow exercise-bike riding per day: Every day except Saturday.
• 30 minutes swimming per week: I actually went to the pool... Once. It was full to the brim of screaming kids, with not even half a lane free. This is what usually happens when I attempt to go swimming; no matter what time of the day I try going, I always seem to catch a school excursion or swimming carnival (and I generally can't go at night because of work). Not only is swimming a quarter of a lane before being jumped on/crashed into by an uncoordinated 8 year old unproductive, it just irritates the crap out of me, making the whole experience slightly less enjoyable than falling face first into a poison ivy shrub. Removing this goal.
• Go through one sheet of physio knee exercises per day: Yes.
• Only one piece of chocolate and one energy drink per week: Tripped up a bit here (slightly). While Thursdays are normally my 'sugary indulgence' day, I also had an energy drink and a chocolate on Tuesday; on top of lack of sleep due to severe pain, I was having one of those days where everyone seemed to have decided to annoy me as often as possible, so if I didn't have caffeine, people would have been hurt :)

Judgemental Dog won't let you get off lightly if you don't reach your word count:

See how other ROW80ers are going here.