Finances, Workouts, and Writing. Oh my.

A few things.

First, financially (this used to be a dedicated financial blog, so I'll sometimes loop back to that): I had some stock in stem cell companies which I sold today while Obama was signing the stem cell bill. It's all short term gains, which means I'm going to get hit pretty hard come taxes, but I was getting stressed keeping track of the stock, and in the end I essentially tripled my money, anyway. I have a goal to put aside $20-$25K in order to take off a year or two from work, go part time, and write full time. I am happy to say I'm getting closer to my goal, faster than I believed I would.

Second, my fitness: I got a great upper body workout today. I seem to have lost a couple of pounds (I started at 191 and I'm at 189), but that's easily attributed to water weight. I'm not actually concerned about losing weight, however. As Kevin Spacey said in American Beauty, "I just want to look good naked." I'm not running around without a shirt yet, but I'm starting to feel better about myself. A lot of that is physiological, but feeling good is feeling good, and I'm not going to argue the reason.

Third, I've decided to submit my novel to a contest; the deadline is May 1st. I've been struggling to motivate myself, lately. I need a goal, and school doesn't seem to offer me that. In fact, I think it makes me concentrate too hard on the small details that really don't need to be examined yet. I need to get a comprehensive draft completed, and I believe this contest will give me the necessary 'oomph' to do so.

I'll keep everyone updated, periodically, as to where I'm at with all these goals. Thanks for stopping by!