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I’m currently reviewing the goals I had made for 2013 and seeing if I had met each of them or if there had been better alternatives. I will still make goals for 2014 but perhaps not as specific as I used to make them. Let’s see…

10. YEARLY GOAL: Travel at least twice a year. Half done.
I spent most of the year being a hermit so I had to think back really hard… OK, spending a team building weekend with my College of Saint Benilde (CSB) co-faculty in Puerto Galera during the summer should fall under this. It was my first time to go to Puerto Galera anyway. Though my mom hailed from Mindoro, I had never been to this particular area. And other than that fun weekend trip to Tagaytay with my former Anino Games officemates in September, I don’t think I completely fulfilled this goal.

9. YEARLY GOAL: Participate in a nation-wide competition. Done. And more.
Well, I still entered the Philippine Game Development Festival 2013. I actually twisted the arm of my former associate producer to submit our game, Grave Mania: Pandemic Pandemonium, even though I was no longer connected to Anino Games. Haha! My team did not win but I still felt really good because my thesis advisee, Asia Pacific College’s (APC) Ronnel Infante, won in the student division of the same event. (I should be blogging about that in my folio’s students section soon.)

Also, 2 out of 3 of my College of Saint Benilde (CSB) thesis advisees have been nominated for Best Capstone Project of their graduating class. The games are Echo and Project Butterflies. I am just sooooo very very proud of them!

8. Hold another art exhibit before March 2013. Failed. But wait…
Hahaha! I totally failed this one. But there was a reason for it: I had been busy creating a book adaptation of my 2012 doctoroal dissertation. And I’m very happy to say that the hardcover edition of “Images in Play: How Filipino Women Co-Create Empowerment in Social Games” has been released two Fridays ago (December 20). The Kindle version has also just been released last Wednesday (December 25), though I’m already working on updating the images and the cover. Thank goodness digital editing is way easier than doing it in print because Kindle updates. The paperback version will be out very shortly. I’m not really expecting sales. It just feels so good to have my research published.

7. Attend international conferences and/or publish/present my doctoral dissertation in conferences. Done.
Thank goodness this goal was an “and/or” thing when I set it. I didn’t go out of the country though CSB certainly was pushing for it. My research schedules and topics were conflicting with each other. But I did present in a national conference (National Communication Research Conference 2013) AND published my book.

(Wasn’t able to take a photo of myself during the conference, but I did take a photo of President Fidel V. Ramos, who was our honored guest. =^.^=)

6. Relax from January to February so I can go back to the game industry by March. Done.
I think I was pretty relaxed during those months and though I did not get back to the mainstream game industry, I am doing indie game projects on the side. I’m very thankful, though, because I never realized that freedom of schedule allowed me to do and experience so many different things despite living like a hermit.

(Note: It was difficult to pick which moments of relaxation I liked best, but I guess it’s Valentines 2013, when I cooked steak for the first time.)

5. Wrap-up all legal stuff (license, NSO etc.) Halfway done.
Again, another half left undone. Managed to renew my expired license but the NSO thing is still hanging. LOL. And now I need to renew my passport as well. Will schedule these for February on my calendar.

4. Pay all of my credit card debts by June. Halfway done.
My mom actually paid off all my credit card debts. But now I owe my mom. So I still lose. XD On the bright side, I ain’t touching my gold credit card again. I’m also going to have it cut sometime in March. Every time I remember that 2/3rds of my salary always went to the card and still not seeing any improvements in my bill, I just shudder. I’ve also been rejecting/ignoring calls from numbers I don’t know. These banks have a way of trying to wheedle more money out of you and one bank, in particular, does not seem to know the meaning of the word NO.

3. Invest in a condo of my own starting June. Failed.
LOL. Fail. I’m not the one with the money to invest. The boyfriend is. This just makes me feel more like the epitome of a starving artist/scientist. Anyway, now that the boyfriend has rented a condo unit in the building adjacent to mine, it just inspires me to do better with my finances. (Photo: the boyfriend signing checks for his transitional home. He says that the next time he signs checks for a place, it would be for a more permanent one.)

2. Be an active blogger again with a regular schedule. Sorta done.
This will no longer be part of my checklist for 2014. While it was always on my calendar to regularly blog, it’s a hit or miss for this goal because the blog schedule always has to give way when weighed against my research, my production, and my teaching. I try to update at least twice a month, though, so I guess that’s a good thing? I realized one thing though: I don’t think I can be active in the Philippine blogosphere in the popular sense. The PR route is not for me. I’ve decided to turn down all events except for ones about the arts and sciences and only because I feel it’s my duty as an educator to feature these. I’d still do post requests for some of my students and start-up business owners but that’s about it.

I can, however, be invited as a guest speaker since that’s one of the things I do as a professorial lecturer and a research doctor anyway. (Photo: Speaking at the Youth for IT Congress.)

1. Be ready for a love life by June. Done.
HAHAHAHAHA! Ok, well. I did get a love life before June 2013 arrived but being ready for full time commitment is another matter. Let’s see how it goes…

In the meantime, here’s a picture of our cat, Arya. My sister accuses me of staring at her as if the little cutie were my own bundle of joy. I think I am in love with this beauty.

I should be preparing my next post about what my goals for 2014 will be. It shouldn’t be as detailed as this one. I just noticed that I’ve actually achieved half of what I set out to achieve. Then there were some stuff in 2013 that far exceeded my goals (I probably did not hit the original goals but got something better in exchange). As for the ones I did not achieve, well…there’s still 2014. I have not stopped working on them.