Plans 2015

I love making plans and itineraries.

I don't know why. I don't know how to describe what the stimulation is.

I know there's more of us out there. I know there's people like me, restless maybe, who relish in the nuts and bolts of everything, who overplan trips much to the nuisance of our comrades.

So am I going to write plans for my upcoming year? Well...yes.

As I've written before, it's one thing to say to a family member "I'm going to lose weight." It's another to write it down, to publish it, because then it becomes a living reality that one has to reckon with. Saying it becomes a conversation that doesn't hold weight, but writing it down...that plan now becomes a record. Someone can now retrieve your documents, some historian from 2334 C.E. and see that you wrote "I'm going to lose weight."

By the way, I'm not going to lose weight.

What I am going to do is record my plans that may or may not be followed. It takes exhausting work to fulfill ambition. Unfortunately some plans fall through the cracks. If I can accomplish 60% of my plans, I'm doing well. That doesn't deter me from making them.

As I said in the beginning of 2014, my plans revolve around a couple of ideas. One is Phase 2, a term I've come up for this stage of my life. The major focus of this is on my development as a screenwriter and director, and working on a career that fulfills my sociopolitical interests, like Library & Information Sciences.

Another idea is the 30 List which is a list of items I am undertaking before I turn 30. It primarily deals with travel but also personal goals and it informs Phase 2.

I talked about what I've worked on in the previous post to fulfill both those ideas. A great deal of progress has been made towards my professional and artistic goals. I made a short film, I'm writing, and I'm getting my graduate school credits.

Ultimately this upcoming year will be about continuing that momentum. I have a job that now informs my career. I'd like to take on an internship for the Summer, but my concentration is now and until accomplished to finish my degree. As I write this I am roughly two or three semesters from that completion. My plan at this moment (thus, subject to change) is to do two more semesters. I want a job in a library. I need to get that degree. I'm close, but I'm still in the middle of where I want to be. That's one plan: walk with a degree in hand, which is inevitable.

That's a professional goal, but there's this artistic thing I do. A lot of those plans are starting to rise up. To meet my 30 List goal of getting something I've made shown at a major film festival, I'm concentrating on making one short film every year. I have a script I'm working substantially on. It's about a young woman leaving behind a science career to fulfill her ambition to act. Essentially the script is about her audition process--her memoriziation of lines and the obvious climax. Currently the script needs a couple more revisions, but it's getting there. The title right nown is Skinny Dipping. I'm starting to make contacts outside my normal group. I find this rewarding because I'm getting "fresh eyes" to look at my scripts and provide feedback. Plus this short may actually have outside funding (emphasis on may).

In conjunction with this I'm going to be working on a new feature spec script. The one I worked on and revised last year was a fulfilling exercise, but I'm reluctant to hand it over to anyone. I have an idea already hatched up for a couple of feature specs, and I'm going to start working on one when I have an opportunity.

So for professional and artistic we have: complete MLIS, internship, make a new film, write a new script. BOOM!

Then there's the travel part of my 30 List. Ultimately Phase 2 is more heavily focused on artistic and professional goals, but I have to travel. I've bitten that bug and I can't stop making itineraries that I will carry out. The travel plans of Phase 2 are just more focused on domestic or local travel (North America). Last year because of my job situation I wasn't able to take advantage of any paid vacation time. Consequently I squeezed in San Francisco and D.C. which fulfilled some life goals and dreams, but this year I intend to fulfill a bit of my 30 List. I've already taken off for a week of vacation this  upcoming year so it's doable. Where am I going?

Last year I mentioned a desire to go to Arizona. This year that may happen. I'm still undecided, but by the end of the month I intend to make my decision between Arizona (Grand Canyon and Flagstaff area) and Quebec (Canada's on my 30 List). Of course I'm writing pros and cons lists, asking friends, etc at this stage. Roughly both trips are the same cost and cancel each other out in terms of pros and cons. What it boils down to is making a decision between nature and culture. With Arizona I get to be a part of wondrous natural environments, environments almost unreal (and Mars-like, which is half the factor). Quebec has elements of nature that can fulfill a little bit of that, but it's not as exotic. The climate for Quebec is fairly unpredictable that time of year. Then again Quebec has Montreal and Quebec City, beautiful walk-able cities with exceptionally good looking food, ice hockey (and my favorite team), a thriving film culture, and a foreign culture most definitely unlike mine.

See my indecision?

In an ideal world, and this may be possible, I'll be able to do both this year, so it's really a decision about what to do in March. What is definite is that I will be taking another item off the 30 List.

So these are my core plans.

Losing weight would be nice, but I'm not planning on it just yet.