Tim's Bits and Pieces

Revising my goals a little. I'm going to start calling it "Self Improvement" rather than ten things so I don't have to maintain the exact number of goals:

1. Run a half-marathon (21KM) in a decent time (less than 2 hours) and achieve a moderate level of strength; 30 pushups, 60 situps, and 10 pullups should do as a start (based on the Australian Army's Commando Physical Fitness Entry Requirements). Merging these two goals into a single goal. Currently to work on these I'm doing the Fifty Pull-Ups plan (at level 3), and the c25k plan on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and doing relatively small rep situps and pushups (three sets of 30 & 20 respectively) Tuesday-Thursday to maintain my counts on them. I'm thinking of adding more hand grips to this to strengthen my grip as well.
2. Be at a half-decent martial artist. Dropping for now; may revise at a later date.
3. Shoot a rifle and pistol accurately. Dropping the pistol component for now (pistol licenses are even more painful then rifles), but I'm a member of the local rifle club, and I've got an application for a "Permit to Acquire" in and I'm waiting on that to buy myself a rifle.
4. Have a decent knowledge of First Aid. Continuing to read bits and pieces of first aid books.
5. Be a member of the SES. Still got to get in contact with the local branch.
6. Have a basic working knowledge of at least one non-English language. Recently restarted the Indonesian book; and I've finished two of the lessons over the last three weeks.
7. Make a decent profit on the share market (better than 5% annually). Nothing new; but my shares are doing OK.
8. Publish a short story, at least in one of the online magazines, but print would be better. Dropping for now; may change my mind at a later date.
9. Post regularly here (at least once a week). Yeah, I'm really not doing too well at this, but I'll keep working on it.
10. Have at least a basic knowledge of the Western Canon. A new goal. Haven't really got any direction on this; sort of just starting with whatever is cheap at the local second-hand book shop. I've read Rousseau's Social Contract* so far and have a handful of poetry, drama, and philosophy books in my to-read pile.

*. One sentence review of the Social Contract: "Wrong, but in interesting ways." I'll hopefully write up a more detailed review sometime soon.