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    There’s Glass and then there’s GLASS…


    2015 - 02.24

    I’m still awaiting the shipping of my Nikkor AF Micro 200mm F4D IF-ED. From all that I’ve read, I’ve found only one less than positive review, and I’ve read bucket loads.

    I’m chuffed about the price, it’s a bargain at the price, and from what I can gather, not all that easy to come across. Foolish me ordered right at the start of the Chinese New Year Holidays, so today is really their first day back to business I guess. *sigh*

    This is my first expensive “Big Player” lens. Not that I don’t have some excellent quality lenses, but I’m keen to see what a Class A lens is really like to use and the subsequent results. It’s my hope this is the last Macro lens I buy in a very long time. I’ve had my big spend for the year. Now it’s time to start stacking it away and see what I can achieve by the end of the year.

    A Happy little Worker Be(e)…


    2015 - 02.02

    Well Monday arrives, and so far things have started smoothly, awake as usual before the alarm, about 04:30 with Furbags on bed. So no committee meeting before getting out of bed. Can’t really adequately express right now how good THAT WAS for a change. So it’s Breakfast, Drugs, Coffee, make lunch and it’s off to work I go like a happy little worker bee.

    Pulling Myself Out of the Pit…


    2015 - 02.01

    Well the week has passed and finished on fairly high notes.

    Work has been extremely supportive and we’re shaping some new strategies to help me stay there at this stage. Yes it’s in their interests to do so, I’m a high performer when I’m there. Certainly from my point of view, the longer I can stay at this point the better off financially I can be working towards substituting Photography for my income.

    The Bank approved my application so I’ve removed the burden of Credit Card Debt from my outgoings, and that will make a significant difference to my financial state within a few months. Just in time for winter, given that is my worst time of year from a bills perspective. I think I’ve developed the discipline over the last two years to make the most of this opportunity now. I have one expensive item on my list, a Nikon D810, but it will be waiting until I have the cash ready.

    The Anxiety has virtually vanished overnight with the response from work, and coupling that with the change in finances, my general disposition is at the highest it’s been in years!

    Just need to get some more Cat Food before the Furbags start eating me in my sleep!

    In for a lot of Dungeon Crawling…


    2015 - 01.24

    Another tough week, but at least there’s been some positive action come out of it, if only because of an unexpected attack of anxiety as well. I don’t normally feel anxious as such. My Depression generally manifests without it. But this week I began to get caught up in a being in a maelstrom of Depression & Anxiety with seemingly no hope of escape.

    However I managed to springboard off to another chat with the GP and up the Antidepressants for a period of time until things become manageable again. I’ve also organised to talk with the Bank about rejigging the mortgage to fortnightly payments and suck up the last of my credit cards into the mortgage to focus all my debt in one place with a much lower interest rate. That will make a huge difference to me by the end of this year. I’ve also hooked up with a new Psychologist since my last one has retired and I’ve been procrastinating about organising another one. Just need to get the workplace sorted out for the time being and try and settle in for the ride again.

    However with all that good work done this week, I had a bit of an emotional spend. Of course I blame the cat Chemoux; I reckon she’s worse than Tigga, it must be the Kitten in her still. In the cat’s defence, all of them were reduced by 20% or more.

    So really what’s happened now up to this point tonight is a spending spree consisting of the following: Descent ver. 2 plus a couple of expansions and additionally the unrelated Battle of the Five Armies. All of these from Games Paradise. However they didn’t have some of the expansions in stock. Then, a quick trip to Ozgameshop and picked up a conversion kit to convert the Descent Ver. 1 characters and monsters for play with Ver. 2. Then slipped over to Bookdepository, and picked up the expansions I couldn’t get at games paradise or ozgameshop. It’s concerning for me that book depository are now selling boardgames.

    All in all a good shop, and I can’t actually remember the last boardgame I bought, it’s been a while. I’d say it must have been the final expansion for Arkham Horror being the Miskatonic Horror. This was an expansion for every previous expansion and the main game. I do love my Arkham Horror too.

    Head Up and Looking Forward…


    2015 - 01.11

    Well another weekend is coming to an end, I didn’t get out for a shoot this weekend, but did do some work towards the business. As long as I’m doing something each day towards preparing or growing the business I’ll be satisfied that I’m making progress towards that freedom down the track.

    Caught up with a few friends by phone & email, which I make an effort to do each Saturday morning usually. But now I’ll spread that out a bit more given that I’m scheduling quite a few of the maintenance tasks for the business such as ensuring the preparation of stock and the supplying of stock to the various sites I’ve now got to manage. Other preparations have gone well too, but they’re not to be actioned for quite some time yet.

    I’ve also decided that the Camera shop downtown does the best prints of all my options here: Fuji processing and it really “pops”. So that will be my Stock choice for the orders; despite the increase in cost, I think it will be a better product for the purchasers from the Etsy Store.

    The Lucky Dip of Hope…


    2015 - 01.06

    Whatever I tell myself, it could be far far worse…

    At the very least I still have someone who will tell me that 🙂

    And sometimes I just need to practise patience and discipline (of the non BDSM persuasion)!

    Out of the Blocks…


    2015 - 01.06

    Well I’ve got through the Alamy.com Quality Control without any hitches, so I can upload stock anytime. Have to get a “swift code” from my bank though. Or I can get paid by paypal. Haven’t made up my mind yet.

    On the Bank with My Feet Dangling in the Stream…


    2015 - 01.05

    Well I took another step towards testing the waters from the photography business side of things today. I signed up to Alamy.com today and submitted some images to the Quality Control Assessment in the hope of getting a portfolio of stock photos up there. Hopefully I’ll get through that and be able to put some stock up and see how it goes there too.

    They are one of, if not the largest Stock Photo suppliers on the internet. If I can start making an inroad there, something may happen in the next twelve months. I’m not expecting to make sales yet, but these are the avenues for sales in the sort of work I’m planning to sell. Anything that comes from this for the first year will go straight to debt reduction. Anything that can reduce my need for my current job is a good thing.

    Feeling Proactive Again…


    2015 - 01.04

    Well I’ve made the time for the WordPress update to 4.1 and got my arse into gear on making sure I have current backups of all the blogs, databases and images involved. This definitely relieves my concerns a bit about the future for my photography, as I’d really hate to lose any of the blogs, but particularly now Shards Of Arcadia. Only took a couple of hours to complete all the tasks. I really must get about to automating as much as possible. Still manual is better than none.

    As unlike me as it sounds, Shards Of Arcadia had not had a backup since it went live! I know, insane! Also Tigga was unhappy that her blog was not backed up. Apparently her busy paws don’t like to repeat themselves.

    Of course that then prompted the discussion from Chemoux about when she was getting such a thing also. She certainly has plenty to say, so I guess that won’t be far off. Probably configure that for her soon on a Friday night with nothing else to do.

    A Resolution of Sorts…


    2014 - 12.27

    Well into the last gasp of 2014 now, and within a few days it will be 2015! I’m looking forward to this year in a lot of ways. This will be the year I am positioning myself to break out of my Depressive Cycle. I have a plan to deal with the occupational aspects contributing to my Depression, and I’m well on the way to making more significant strides in the aspects outside of work.

    In many ways they’ve proved easier to make the ground in, due to my capacity to make a huge difference from my side. Work is more complicated than that, and my input has far less impact. However, as I said there’s a plan in motion, with a 6 to 12 month timeframe there. I’m looking forward to that starting to take substance!