Reflecting upon Goals for October

Sometimes you have to aim high with the goals you want to achieve.

At the beginning of the month I posted about the goals I had hoped to accomplish this month. This post will discuss why I did not accomplish some goals while other goals were accomplished.

1. 90 percent or more mastery in Khan Academy Algebra

Although I thought it was going to be a forced grind of waiting, turns out I was able to rise from 77 percent mastery to over 90 percent mastery in a couple of days and I managed to get 100 percent just before the month ended. It helps that I'm really only doing Khan Academy math to review my math skills at every level they can offer. The next step will be completing Algebra 2, then Precalc, then Calc 1 and 2 (or AP Calc AB and BC). Somewhat off topic, it appears that Khan Academy follows the same order as AACPS does for Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2, but that may just be coincidence.

2. Complete Khan Academy Trig

The hardest part about completing this part of Khan Academy math was solving for x as there were multiple answers unlike basic one to one algebra as answers start to repeat after 2*pi radians/360 degrees. Thankfully I had everything else complete before the month began.

3. 3100 XP in Duolingo Japanese

The hardest parts about trying to accomplish this goal were the fact that I skipped some days and had to catch up and that some of the exercises I'm working on were repetitive in a poor manner. One "lesson" essentially consisted me of answering "I am a student" whether the exercise was a type the translation down, choose word and sound chunks, and other methods. Hopefully the team working on the Japanese course can improve the course in general. In the meantime, it appears that I have some grasp on Japanese grammar, including the use of particles such as wa, wo, and mo.

4. Mario Kart: Double Dash! 100cc All Cup Tour Perfect Score

I could have completed this goal if I spent less time on my computer, but this was more of a goal for having goals sake rather than anything of importance or growth. Wario Stadium so far is my biggest roadblock to getting the 160 points needed.

5. 30 day plank challenge

I actually was doing quite well on this challenge until I had to do the plank for two minutes (somewhere in the middle of the month). I tried the first day I was scheduled to plank for two minutes and I only made it 90 seconds. I conceded defeat as it was late in the day and I wouldn't be ready for another try that day. I'll try again next year.

6. 500 tiny origami swans folded
7. 250 tiny origami swans folded

These two weren't achieved simply because I chose to watch YouTube instead of listen to podcasts in my spare time. Also, I'm not as motivated to fold the tiny cranes as I've already folded one thousand of them before. Though I will still try to fold some tiny cranes and swans before year's end.

8. At least five blog posts posted this month

This was numerically a success, but there were some caveats. Two of the blog posts were basically re-writes of short stories I wrote on paper and two are related to goals for October. Only the math post and the Pusheen cross-stitch post were not thematically related. No matter, I have a more ambitious goal for November and December regarding this blog, so stay tuned! November goals will be posted tomorrow.