2015 roundup & New Year's Resolutions 2016
Jan. 3rd, 2016 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elen_nare2015 was an extremely busy year! One of the major events, of course, was that I actually graduated! I spent the first half of the year writing up my undergrad thesis (and studying for the last exams I still needed to take), then did the oral presentation on the 8th of July and officially graduated. At last :D
I also had my first job, as a student teacher - I think the term is teacher’s assistant in the US? Ironically after I graduated, but because of the date I graduated I could still do it. Fun, even if there were only three students in the class! I’ve also been working on a project with my thesis director and two of her postdocs, reducing spectra, which is very interesting - if also often frustrating when codes don’t work properly! It gives me something to do, and ideally we’ll get a paper out of it too.
Having graduated, the next step is… go back to studying for a PhD! (Well, what else are you going to do with an Astronomy degree but stay in academia?) I submitted a bunch of applications, was second choice twice (annoying!), and got to go to Belgium on what should have been an application-related trip, but thanks to a paperwork mix-up wasn’t. Still fun, though, and I’m working on a project with the people there. I’ve got a couple of interviews coming up in February, too.
A more local trip was to La Plata in September, for the national astronomy conference. It’s a lovely city, and all the streets are numbered rather than named, which makes it easy to get around - provided you stay off the diagonals! We did one block on one and got completely and utterly turned around, lol.
Outside of academia, it was also a pretty busy year. I got back in touch with some friends from the Maths olympics - someone started a whatsapp group which really helps to organize get-togethers easily. I’ve kept playing Pathfinder (D&D style roleplaying); two of the people who play moved to Europe recently, but we’re going to keep playing by skype, so that’s good. I kept up my german classes, too - the difficulty jump between A2 and B1 levels is very marked! But I still enjoy it. I also dated a friend from my german class for about a month in september-october, so this year I had my first date (ever), first kiss… we decided to be just friends after, but it was lovely while it lasted, and we’re still really good friends which I’m happy about.
Oh, and I turned 25, or as a friend put it, I’ve had my first quarter century! That made me feel old, lol.
New Year's Resolutions 2015 - Let's see how I did!
So… 18 fics, 3 fanarts, 2 poems, a meta, and a fanmix. Not too bad, but it’s definitely a lot less than last year, and I managed to miss September completely - well, I did go off to a conference for a week, and went on a couple of dates, and yeah, busy busy busy. I definitely feel I could have written/made more this year, though, there’s several bits and pieces that only need finishing, or even just editing… I hope I can do more in 2016. And original… well, I did write an undergrad thesis ;) But the point of that was original fiction, which I didn’t manage.
Resolutions for 2016:
I also had my first job, as a student teacher - I think the term is teacher’s assistant in the US? Ironically after I graduated, but because of the date I graduated I could still do it. Fun, even if there were only three students in the class! I’ve also been working on a project with my thesis director and two of her postdocs, reducing spectra, which is very interesting - if also often frustrating when codes don’t work properly! It gives me something to do, and ideally we’ll get a paper out of it too.
Having graduated, the next step is… go back to studying for a PhD! (Well, what else are you going to do with an Astronomy degree but stay in academia?) I submitted a bunch of applications, was second choice twice (annoying!), and got to go to Belgium on what should have been an application-related trip, but thanks to a paperwork mix-up wasn’t. Still fun, though, and I’m working on a project with the people there. I’ve got a couple of interviews coming up in February, too.
A more local trip was to La Plata in September, for the national astronomy conference. It’s a lovely city, and all the streets are numbered rather than named, which makes it easy to get around - provided you stay off the diagonals! We did one block on one and got completely and utterly turned around, lol.
Outside of academia, it was also a pretty busy year. I got back in touch with some friends from the Maths olympics - someone started a whatsapp group which really helps to organize get-togethers easily. I’ve kept playing Pathfinder (D&D style roleplaying); two of the people who play moved to Europe recently, but we’re going to keep playing by skype, so that’s good. I kept up my german classes, too - the difficulty jump between A2 and B1 levels is very marked! But I still enjoy it. I also dated a friend from my german class for about a month in september-october, so this year I had my first date (ever), first kiss… we decided to be just friends after, but it was lovely while it lasted, and we’re still really good friends which I’m happy about.
Oh, and I turned 25, or as a friend put it, I’ve had my first quarter century! That made me feel old, lol.
New Year's Resolutions 2015 - Let's see how I did!
- Take all the exams I have left (and, you know, pass, preferably with good grades).
- Continue German classes.
- Exercise more – swimming, pilates, yoga... something. Keep fit. Eat healthily.
- Write at least one thing (fanfic or original), and make at least one thing (art, fanmix, whatever), each month. Write at least one original thing this year, too!
Month |
Writing |
Fanart |
Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Give Your Heart (LOTR) | ||
| February | Questions and Choices (MCU) | ||
| Would Have Mattered (Chalet School) | |||
| March | Thoughtless (Downton Abbey) | Fitzsimmons (AOS) | Prisons without keys (Vorkosigan, poetry) |
| April | Words to Build (Harry Potter) | Sorting Swallows, Amazons & Ds (Swallows and Amazons, meta) | |
| May | Discovery (Harry Potter) | Witching Hour (The BFG) | |
| After the Fire (Swallows and Amazons) | |||
| June | Telephone (Swallows and Amazons) | Beyonce is my Spiritual Twin (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, fanmix) | |
| Don't Lie (Swallows and Amazons) | |||
| July | Fancy (Agent Carter) | ||
| Poetry meme (various) | |||
| August | Sunrise (Narnia) | ||
| A Proper Ending (Chalet School) | |||
| Blues in the Night (High School Musical) | |||
| Aftermath (Old Kingdom) | |||
| September | |||
| October | Vigil (Harry Potter) | ||
| November | Poetry Meme (various) | Though Once Among the Stars I Danced (Stardust, poetry) | |
| December | My Dancing Day (Anne of Green Gables) | Laney Jones (Leagues and Legends) |
So… 18 fics, 3 fanarts, 2 poems, a meta, and a fanmix. Not too bad, but it’s definitely a lot less than last year, and I managed to miss September completely - well, I did go off to a conference for a week, and went on a couple of dates, and yeah, busy busy busy. I definitely feel I could have written/made more this year, though, there’s several bits and pieces that only need finishing, or even just editing… I hope I can do more in 2016. And original… well, I did write an undergrad thesis ;) But the point of that was original fiction, which I didn’t manage.
- Finish final project!
- Keep everything cross-posted and the Masterlist up to date.
- Apply for doctorate places.
- Track the books I read - I want to see how many I actually read in a year!
- Continue with effort to be less shy, more outgoing, etc. It's an ongoing thing, I doubt I'll ever be perfect, but I can always improve. At the same time, accept that I am an introvert and need time to myself every now and then to recharge, and there is nothing wrong with that - so long as I don't use it as an excuse to avoid social stuff ;)
Resolutions for 2016:
- Continue applying for PhD places / Hopefully start a PhD!
- Complete spectra project.
- Compete comet project.
- Write at least one thing (fanfic or original), and make at least one thing (art, fanmix, whatever), each month. Write at least one original story this year, too!
- Keep everything cross-posted and the Masterlist up to date.
- Continue German classes.
- Keep going to gym.
- Track the books I read.
- Continue with effort to be less shy, more outgoing, etc. It's an ongoing thing, I doubt I'll ever be perfect, but I can always improve. At the same time, accept that I am an introvert and need time to myself every now and then to recharge, and there is nothing wrong with that - so long as I don't use it as an excuse to avoid social stuff ;)
