Goals 2017: April Update

This update takes place at least in the first week of April, so I’ll give myself a small pat on the back for that.

Goal 1: Health

March continues the theme of challenging on the health front.  I continue to fight wanting to stick 100% to the eating plan and, as a result, more carbs sneak in and before I know it, five pounds have climbed back on.  I’m hopeful that the return of better weather will provide me more opportunities to get out and walk and that will help because staying active has to be a part of this, so fingers crossed.

Grade: C (Little improvement month-over-month)

Goal 2: Tech Refresh
I’m going to cut myself a bit of a break here and acknowledge two small things:

1. I worked on a cool, little Arduino project which required some wiring and some programming of a NeoPixel LED strip.  I got it working and programmed a couple of patterns (starting, of course, with a sweeping, red Cylon eye pattern which you can watch here.

I hope to add more scenarios, make it controllable remotely (it’s a tiny microcontroller that actually has a web interface) and possibly wire in a light sensor and/or a motion sensor.
2. I also did some woodworking, electronics wiring and general Making.

Grade: B

Goal 3: Read some non-Fiction
I’m going to coast on being ahead of my goal and knowing that I’ve got a book on Mindfulness that I’m reading next called “Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace)“

Grade: A

Goal 4: Document some Projects
I’ve got one on some lamps I’ve been working on for a while ready to go today or tomorrow.  On track for the goal.  (Still need to do some level of writeup on the leather working).

Grade: A

Goal 5: Volunteer
I was asked by a friend if I would mentor his Senior through his Senior Project because he wants to manage projects and do software.  I’ll have my final meeting with him this week to review the results, but that was a fun little side project that I enjoyed.

Extra Credit: A

The aggregate score gives me a 3.4 or a B/B+ with the extra credit.  I think I should have weighted the grades a bit as my primary goal’s reasonably low grade it being pulled up by the other goals.  Not sure I’m okay with that or not.  Oh, well, moving on.