Memories and scone-making

This weekend has been a pleasant one. I was able create some new memories with my family at my local themepark and consume more homemade scones than anyone probably should in a day. The chocolate I picked up from the LA Chocolate Salon a couple of weeks ago is now a distant memory.

Speaking of memories, in college I really wanted to study robotics but I ended up on a different academic path and subsequently a career path quite different from that.  I’m excited to note that today I’ll be starting my first AI course. There are 145,000 students enrolled in this course and I’ve added over 150 classmates on Google+. If you’re taking that course too and wish to connect for class discussions, add me on Google+, drop me a line saying we’re classmates and I’ll put you in my AI class circle.

I hope things don’t get too crazy in November due to that and NaNoWriMo. I took last year off, but I am planning to dive in headfirst to write a novel with no plot planned out beforehand. Historically this has been no problem but it has never coincided with a class that suggests I brush up on my linear algebra(?!) and programming ability(?!). I’ve taken both of those subjects in my past student life but that was a long time ago. I’ve since filled my head with many other things, some of them even practical in everyday life.

Next month I’m realistically predicting that my Goodreads Challenge progress will come to a dead halt. I still have my goal to read 36 books by the end of 2011. I am behind in terms of evenly-paced reading, but with a few books in my queue ready to crack open I should be caught up by the end of the month and ahead of pace by November.

To connect for NaNoWriMo, sign in at the site and add my author profile to your buddy list. Happy writing, reading, studying, or whatever you have planned for Fall!

Social reading update + sites of the week

I joined Goodreads a few months ago to keep track of my reviews, other books I’ve read or wanted to read, and to keep tabs on what my peeps are reading. For months after I signed up I’ve only had one book listed. I received weekly e-mails saying (paraphrased), “*So-and-so* has read/added 3 books this week and you’ve added nothing of literary value.” Well, that may have been true but it wasn’t very fun to belong to a site that told me that I’m the least well-read out of my buddies week after week. So over the holiday I deleted my one book and unsubscribed from their stupid e-mail list I logged in and added some things I’ve read throughout the last year. There’s some actual content on my page now including a few reviews so hooray for that. My updated site can be found at goodreads.com/amadvox.

If 2010 was the year of working on my fitness, 2011 is the year of writing. I do plan to stick with the not so random feats of fitness and work in some 10K, variable distance triathlons and other fun. Now I’ll be more inclined to write about them. To make room for that I’ve moved my monthly desktop wallpaper feature to my tumblog because that platform is better to showcase images and other short posts, IMO. But the downside is that Tumblr has had a lot of downtime lately, which is why I’m staying put on WP for my other content.

This week I came across a few links of note.

1) 2011 Blue Print from Suze Orman A month-by-month Financial Planning Guide to improve finances this year.

2) FoodPress The WordPress destination for food blogs. Lots of time was spent here as soon as I clicked on it so I thought this one was worth passing along.

3) //dailypost.wordpress.com/ The site that kicked off my 2011 goal to post something every week. It’s not too late to join if you’re so inclined.

That’s all for now. Try not to get hit by any dead birds falling from the sky. Especially if you’re in the southern US or Sweden.