Wobbegong Prepares for the Best

[Wobbegong]

Today is another one that needs a to-do list to keep me on track and productive. Here we go. 

• Get passport photo taken for interview app
• Print interview documents, fill out, and collate
• Purchase slip for interview blouse
• Admin stuff (work)
  • Got through 2.5/4
• Mystery assessment for boss (???)
• 2018 Planning
• Clean and press interview clothes
• Pack interview bag 
  • Interview documents
  • FBI Background check
  • ID
  • Pumps (wear flats to and from) 
  • Wallet
  • Clipper Card
  • Water
  • Hankie
  • (Cellphone, keys day of)
• Therapy
• Interview prep (again) (as much as possible) 

I should also probably do something to relax tonight. I'll go running tomorrow morning before the interview but sleeping well tonight would be great. Last night I had a really long dream that I was among the last survivors of a zombie apocalypse and had to team up with my mother to save humanity. It didn't go very well. 

[Wobbegong]

I feel so prepared for this interview you guys

 

Something's going to go horribly wrong

[NightWatcher13]

1 hour ago, Wobbegong said:

I feel so prepared for this interview you guys

 

Something's going to go horribly wrong

Nooooo don't tell yourself that! 

[Siferiax]

I feel so prepared for this interview you guys
 
Something's going to go horribly wrong

That's because you are prepped. As I saw on your list. And so nothing is going horribly wrong!!

Good luck with it!! You'll nail it!

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[zeroh13]

10 hours ago, Wobbegong said:

I feel so prepared for this interview you guys

 

Something's going to go horribly wrong

You're prepared enough to be able to handle anything going horribly wrong. If anything goes wrong.

[Diadhuit]

I feel so prepared for this interview you guys
 
Something's going to go horribly wrong

The fact it that you are so prepared
Now don't let your fears hide that!
Maybe you can try some power poses (

) to increase your confidence and stress tolerance.
I used to do that before interviews and they went very well. I probably should introduce them in my next challenge to see now that I think about it...

[Wobbegong]

20 hours ago, NightWatcher13 said:

Nooooo don't tell yourself that! 

 

14 hours ago, Siferiax said:

That's because you are prepped. As I saw on your list. And so nothing is going horribly wrong!!

Good luck with it!! You'll nail it!

 

11 hours ago, zeroh13 said:

You're prepared enough to be able to handle anything going horribly wrong. If anything goes wrong.

 

11 hours ago, Diadhuit said:

The fact it that you are so prepared
Now don't let your fears hide that!
Maybe you can try some power poses to increase your confidence and stress tolerance.
I used to do that before interviews and they went very well. I probably should introduce them in my next challenge to see now that I think about it...

 

Thank yooooooou

 

You guys are so nice to me! I didn't check in on NF before I ran off to my interview this morning, but all these responses were a very lovely present to come back to. <3 I think the interview went ok? Nothing was noticeably terrible and they seemed to pleased with my candidacy, but at the same time nothing I did felt really stellar or amazing either, so I honestly have no clue how it will go. 

 

This interview was 180° from the last one I did in Seattle. The interviewers were super friendly and welcoming and the whole situation was really laid back. So... that also threw me off a bit, lol. But at least now it's over and done with and there's nothing further I can do to influence the outcome one way or another. I can relax! 

[Bean Sidhe]

Wobbegong

I am so sorry I missed so much.

I am glad the interview went well. Hopefully this is a good sign, but I am sure you rocked it.

And I think your doing great on your challenge, but I agree you shouldn't penalize yourself for the whole falling thing.

*Hugs* on the rough day. Hopefully things are going to go better now.

[Wobbegong]

4 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

Wobbegong

I am so sorry I missed so much.

There's no need to be sorry! You were overwhelmed and said you were going to back off following a few challenges and I assumed mine would be one of them. I'm super proud of you for following through and sticking to that and prioritizing taking care of yourself, and of course really happy to see you back!  

 

Quote

I am glad the interview went well. Hopefully this is a good sign, but I am sure you rocked it.

I also am hopeful, but trying to be cautiously so. There's no point in being overeager anyway, since I won't hear back for months. Better to just relax and let whatever's going to happen happen. 

 

Quote

And I think your doing great on your challenge, but I agree you shouldn't penalize yourself for the whole falling thing.

Oh, I'm glad to hear you agree! No one else really responded to that so I was wondering if maybe I was cutting myself too much slack and everyone was too polite to say so. 

 

Quote

*Hugs* on the rough day. Hopefully things are going to go better now.

Hopefully. I'll quit my job pretty soon and then I won't have that stressing me out, at least. I probably won't know about JET until early April, which is unfortunate, but I don't think I can stay at my current job until then. 

[Wobbegong]

I'm so tired and happy to realize it's almost my bedtime so I can feel totally normal about going to sleep. 

 

My year is almost entirely planned. I am shy seven nonfiction books (goal is one a month, I have five lined up, maybe six) and four things to work on to improve my mental state. I was going to see what the internet had to suggest on that latter one but got distracted, so I'll just leave myself a note here to look into it tomorrow. 

 

Tomorrow will also be running, finding a habit app I like, programming a bunch of stuff into my phone and writing things on my calendar and white board, looking into train fare and schedules, and attending a play a friend is stage managing. 

 

I found out about "Finish Shit February" today and decided to participate, so I tidied up my goal #4 calendar. All that's left for that goal is actually programming alerts and deadlines and making things easy, so that can be what I finish tomorrow. Aside from that I have four books to finish reading (at least three by the end of the month), at least two fanfic to finish writing, a paint by numbers to complete, and I'm sure some other projects if I set my mind to them. 

[NightWatcher13]

45 minutes ago, Wobbegong said:

My year is almost entirely planned. 

 

...finding a habit app I like...

 

I found out about "Finish Shit February" today and decided to participate, so I tidied up my goal #4 calendar. All that's left for that goal is actually programming alerts and deadlines and making things easy, so that can be what I finish tomorrow. Aside from that I have four books to finish reading (at least three by the end of the month), at least two fanfic to finish writing, a paint by numbers to complete, and I'm sure some other projects if I set my mind to them. 

How... how do you plan out an entire year? What is this sorcery? *pulls out notebook*

 

As for habit apps - Habitica is pretty fun, I wound up giving up on it because I couldn't use it at work but it's very much done as a game. Epic Win also does a pretty decent job, though it's a bit more simplified

 

"Finish shit february" definitely sounds like it could be helpful  good luck! I know the pain of having a bunch of books & crafts that need doing that aren't getting done

[Bean Sidhe]

19 hours ago, Wobbegong said:

There's no need to be sorry! You were overwhelmed and said you were going to back off following a few challenges and I assumed mine would be one of them. I'm super proud of you for following through and sticking to that and prioritizing taking care of yourself, and of course really happy to see you back!  

 

 

No, i didn't mean to back off anything, I got overwhelmed with the "Hey homework needs to happen, how does this work again." I wasn't expecting that much the first few weeks either.

 

19 hours ago, Wobbegong said:

 

Oh, I'm glad to hear you agree! No one else really responded to that so I was wondering if maybe I was cutting myself too much slack and everyone was too polite to say so. 

 

I am firm believer in "you hurt yourself, its not your fault, (unless you did something really really dumb like walked off a building), so its okay to cut slack when needed."

 

19 hours ago, Wobbegong said:

 

Hopefully. I'll quit my job pretty soon and then I won't have that stressing me out, at least. I probably won't know about JET until early April, which is unfortunate, but I don't think I can stay at my current job until then. 

 

Well, sometimes getting out of the situation alone is a good thing.

 

 

6 hours ago, Wobbegong said:

I'm so tired and happy to realize it's almost my bedtime so I can feel totally normal about going to sleep. 

 

My year is almost entirely planned. I am shy seven nonfiction books (goal is one a month, I have five lined up, maybe six) and four things to work on to improve my mental state. I was going to see what the internet had to suggest on that latter one but got distracted, so I'll just leave myself a note here to look into it tomorrow. 

 

Tomorrow will also be running, finding a habit app I like, programming a bunch of stuff into my phone and writing things on my calendar and white board, looking into train fare and schedules, and attending a play a friend is stage managing. 

 

I think its great you got it all figured out. That is great news.

 

 

6 hours ago, Wobbegong said:

I found out about "Finish Shit February" today and decided to participate, so I tidied up my goal #4 calendar. All that's left for that goal is actually programming alerts and deadlines and making things easy, so that can be what I finish tomorrow. Aside from that I have four books to finish reading (at least three by the end of the month), at least two fanfic to finish writing, a paint by numbers to complete, and I'm sure some other projects if I set my mind to them. 

 

This is interesting. I may have to look into it some more when I have a moment. Thanks for sharing

[zeroh13]

I've been using the Loop Habit Tracker. It's pretty simple and easy to set up. And it tracks "habit strength". 

[Tateman]

Do you know when you might hear back from the interview? Good luck

[Wobbegong]

22 hours ago, NightWatcher13 said:

How... how do you plan out an entire year? What is this sorcery? *pulls out notebook*

It's special Guild Leader magic. 

 

Just kidding. It was my #4 goal this challenge. I have set out exercise, eating, traveling, emotional, and lifestyle goals for myself and plotted them over the course of the year so I won't have to think about it or make any confusing decisions when the time comes. The idea is to plan everything as thoroughly as possible so that each goal is as simple as "just following directions," which I know from experience is a Thing I Can Do. I've left plenty of space for accidental derailing but also have enough planned that if I don't get off track I'll still have plenty to keep me busy. 

 

22 hours ago, NightWatcher13 said:

As for habit apps - Habitica is pretty fun, I wound up giving up on it because I couldn't use it at work but it's very much done as a game. Epic Win also does a pretty decent job, though it's a bit more simplified

I keep looking at Habitica and I like the idea of gamifying habits but I don't know that I particularly like the Habitica game setup. But I have never been able to put my finger on what exactly is off-putting about it. I'll check out Epic Win, I hadn't heard of that one! 

 

22 hours ago, NightWatcher13 said:

"Finish shit february" definitely sounds like it could be helpful  good luck! I know the pain of having a bunch of books & crafts that need doing that aren't getting done

Yeah, I have a bunch of ongoing projects at any given time. It's good to have options, but it's also good to have a deadline, so hopefully FSF will give me the kick in the butt I need to tidy up my to-do list. 

 

16 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

No, i didn't mean to back off anything, I got overwhelmed with the "Hey homework needs to happen, how does this work again." I wasn't expecting that much the first few weeks either.

Maybe I was thinking of someone else. Regardless, I've seen how much you get up to, so no judgement from this corner if you fall behind a little in one of my challenges. It's mostly nonsense anyway  

 

16 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

Well, sometimes getting out of the situation alone is a good thing.

Yeah. But today I spent some time thinking about how much more money I could make if I just stuck around. But then also I really don't like this job. But then even though it stresses me out I don't really do anything, so it's super easy money. Idk. I think I should stick with my original plan and just quit, but... sigh. It would help if the JET program wasn't quite so slow with responses. 

 

16 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

I think its great you got it all figured out. That is great news.

Sure took me long enough! But I'm pretty happy with what I've gotten sorted out so far, so that's good. 

 

16 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

This is interesting. I may have to look into it some more when I have a moment. Thanks for sharing

As if you don't have enough to do already! 

 

13 hours ago, zeroh13 said:

I've been using the Loop Habit Tracker. It's pretty simple and easy to set up. And it tracks "habit strength". 

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll check it out. I think I actually did look into Loop before, but I don't remember why I didn't stick with it. I'll give it another go. 

 

3 hours ago, Tateman said:

Do you know when you might hear back from the interview? Good luck

I applied for "early departure" which theoretically could mean they get back to me by the end of this month and send me to Japan in April. But apparently out of a few hundred applicants that get positions, only 2-3 are needed for early departure. So it's much more likely I'll hear back with the regular candidates in early April, and be deployed in August. Helluva waiting game. 

[Bean Sidhe]

On 2/2/2018 at 11:23 PM, Wobbegong said:

Maybe I was thinking of someone else. Regardless, I've seen how much you get up to, so no judgement from this corner if you fall behind a little in one of my challenges. It's mostly nonsense anyway  

 

I had said I was stepping back, but it was mostly battle log stuff. Those were not helping the "hey, I get stepped on, I should be mad" thing.

 

On 2/2/2018 at 11:23 PM, Wobbegong said:

Yeah. But today I spent some time thinking about how much more money I could make if I just stuck around. But then also I really don't like this job. But then even though it stresses me out I don't really do anything, so it's super easy money. Idk. I think I should stick with my original plan and just quit, but... sigh. It would help if the JET program wasn't quite so slow with responses. 

 

If you really think you should, maybe give them an extra 2 weeks or something. Then you can truly decide if and what you want to do. and the cash won't hurt while your doing your traveling, but its not a long commitment.

 

On 2/2/2018 at 11:23 PM, Wobbegong said:

As if you don't have enough to do already! 

 

Oh, I am sure i can take on more things... I am getting some sleep, I can always cut that back *smirk*

 

On 2/2/2018 at 11:23 PM, Wobbegong said:

I applied for "early departure" which theoretically could mean they get back to me by the end of this month and send me to Japan in April. But apparently out of a few hundred applicants that get positions, only 2-3 are needed for early departure. So it's much more likely I'll hear back with the regular candidates in early April, and be deployed in August. Helluva waiting game. 

 

Wow, hopefully they get back to you sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed

[Wobbegong]

In the end I tried to go with Habit Bull but... my phone is too old! Boo. I grabbed Strides instead, and hopefully it'll do just fine for me until I upgrade my equipment. I like that it allows both good and bad habits, is flexible with number of times per period (anything from several times a day to once a month), and allows me to measure averages and build projects as well as yes/no habits. It also keeps track of streaks! 

 

5 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

If you really think you should, maybe give them an extra 2 weeks or something. Then you can truly decide if and what you want to do. and the cash won't hurt while your doing your traveling, but its not a long commitment.

At this point I'm thinking maybe I'll just stick with it until I hear back from JET. Instead of suffering through it, I'm trying to see if I can change my mindset to just not be so stressed out. I'll still be able to do my train trip, but probably closer to the end of March/early April (depending on JET) and just use vacation time.

[Wobbegong]

This challenge is over, and I TOTALLY KILLED IT!! I'm usually really relieved when a challenge ends and I can move on, but I actually had a great time this round and was pretty successful. That's great. 

 

To recap, here's how it went: 

1. Couch to 5K: The goal was to get through four weeks this challenge. I didn't meet that because I got injured (and more relevant, damaged my only pair of running shoes beyond repair) and had to wait two weeks to get back to it. However, as soon as I was able I did get right back to it, and since the challenge was extra long, I ended up only one week behind. As previously discussed, I'm not going to beat myself up for not continuing to run with no shoes and a shredded toe. This challenge was a success. 
2. Go to the grocery store every week: I averaged 1.4 visits to the grocery store per week, and made it at least once every week. Success. 
3. Make your own healthy breakfast 4/5 weekdays: I was at 5/5 for the first three weeks of the challenge but still made 4/5 the last two. Success. 
4. Plan 2018: I have a glorious plan for the whole year. It could stand to have more specific details about some of the things I'm going to do, so I'll keep working on that, but I met every metric I outlined initially. Success. 

Overall this means I won my loot, a set of nice linen handkerchiefs!!!! Except that my friend bought me a set of handkerchiefs and gifted them to me this challenge period. Womp womp. (They're fantastic, btw. I'm never using disposable tissues again.) This leaves me without a reward. Normally I'd say, "great, be happy with what you've got, you're successful and you have your hankies and you didn't even have to pay for them." But I rarely offer myself loot and I did really well this challenge, damnit, so I want to follow through and treat myself. 

 

My next challenge is yoga-based, and my current yoga mat is one of those $15 ones from Target or Kohl's or somewhere and after a semester of 3x/week yoga classes + four years of intermittent use since then, it's falling apart. So I have decided to gift myself a high-quality yoga mat. It's cheaper than the handkerchiefs, but should last about as long and hopefully having it will inspire me to keep my floor vacuumed so I can use it. (I've already stopped bringing my trail running shoes inside. They live in my car now. It helps a lot, but I still need to vacuum. Like, regularly.) 

 

New challenge: 

 

[Tateman]

Nice work! I'll see you over in the new challenge!

[zeroh13]

Great job!

[Bean Sidhe]

Great job rocking the challenge.

[Siferiax]

Nicely done! Congrats!!