Goals 2018. Not.

Horses
After a week of Looking Back posts, the logical move would be to spend time looking forward. Nope. To overturn the quote, ‘I don’t set goals. I’m tired of the whooshing sound they make going by.’

From this time last year, Rodney slid backwards. My goals for Rodney range from being able to walk around the pasture to jumping 5′, depending the the level of reality with which I am currently in touch.

From this time last year, Milton took a big step on the diagonal, i.e kinda forward, kinda sideways. My goals for Milton got nowhere. Greg’s goal for a driving horse has been rolling along nicely.

From this time last year, saddle seat was all over the map. Robert was on my dance card [Looking Forward, SSF 2017]. He got a better offer [Graduating From Sam].

From this time last year, combined driving shot off in a wonderful, unexpected direction. I went from wondering what we would be doing [Looking Forward, Driving 2017] to navigating a winning team [ICDE].

Life with horses is too unpredictable. Therefore, I have no horse goals for 2018. The plan is to keep moving forward and see where we end up.

Update for those who have noticed the difference between the gloomy posts and the photo of me riding Milton (!!) on the sidebar & on Instagram: The holiday posts were written ahead of time so that I would not be sitting in front of the computer while Greg was off from work. At that point, I was deep in the dismals. Perkier now. Interesting things have happened over the Christmas break. Details on Tuesday (Rodney) and Thursday (Milton).

Blog
I feel more comfortable with blogging goals. Here the rate-limiting steps are under my control, barring the vicissitudes of life that loom over us all.

Some goals are procedural: make photos of the AlphaBooks instead of simply scanning the covers. Include more horse stamps, as available [Letter Art: Graphic Design for the Masses, the One-Horse Open Sleigh Stamp].

Some goals are long-term: Get better at photography; I have signed up for winter and spring evening classes. Learn vector graphics by using Inkscape for lettering instead of GIMP. For an explanation of vector (i.e. Inkscape/Illustrator) vs. pixel (GIMP/PhotoShop): What Are Vector Graphics?

Some goals are specific: A blog I read has expressed possible interest in a guest post. More details when/if this happens. Take a photo suitable to submit to Catduate School on Instagram. Bonus, have it posted by same, if they reopen submissions. Draw posts with this year’s art boxes. Yeah, I tried again. Participate in a blogging secret Santa, which means remembering to get involved before all the reveal posts start showing up.

I list these here for accountability purposes. We’ll see how well I did come this time next year.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott