2021 Here We Are
2021 Here We Are
I guess it is an understatement that most people feel that 2020 was a disaster. I am a borderline hermit anyway so keeping a social distancing was not that difficult for me. Shopping for food is the most frequent time that I am near others. No one in my family came down with COVID-19, that I know of so that is a blessing.
The biggest impacts on me are mostly trivial. I had a number of different travel plans that were all canceled. A cruise I had paid for was canceled, the cost noncredit for my next cruise. I was able to take two camping trips to the Thousand Islands to replace the two I had to cancel to Maryland. Furthermore, I would get active in local scuba diving and complete a rescue course. I have only needed the rescue course to complete my Master Diver certification for about 10 years. The rescue course and the local diving was of course canceled.
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Not totally trivial is that it has been almost impossible to get writing assignments. My focus has been scuba diving and travel niches. Fields that have been hard hit and still are. Very few people are looking for writers since the future is so unclear. Also, I have not been that motivated for my own writing. I do have some articles on my website I am proud of, however, I have not written as many as I would like.
My photography changed this year as well. The lack of travel leads me to more nature photography.
My three favorite articles on my website are:
This is my favorite photo essay:
On To the First Quarter of 2021
Everyone makes resolutions and 79% of the people who do, abandon them in the first month. Instead of resolutions, I am going to make some goals for the first quarter. I am putting them here, so I have some accountability.
Writing: As I mentioned in 2020, my personal writing has slipped. Here are my current goals:
- I will write 20 blogs between my personal blog and my cooking to impress blog.
- I will write 100 pages for a photography book from an old outline I have. It is about travel photography.
- Post more on Twitter and Instagram at least 40 posts.
Photography: I want to put more time into my photography.
- Create 6 photo essays and flick albums
- Create 2 travel at home photo essays
Reading: I read too much this past year. I finished the year having read 181 books. While impressive, many of the books are cozy mystery books that cn be read in less than 4 or 5 hours. My longest streak was 177 days. There was only 5 days that I did not read. I have read at least one day a week for 126 weeks according to my Kindle stats. In truth, it is 54 weeks longer. The week I “missed” I had read but was on a cruise and not connected to the internet to update. This year, I will cut back some of my reading and use it for other task.
- My goal is to continue the week streak.
- I will target 25 books for the quarter with at least 5 being non-fiction books
Education: There is still time to learn new things. I saw an interesting quote when many of the colleges went to online classes. It was “Education has never been so expensive, learning has never been so cheap”. Even before this year, many colleges offered free no credit courses online. Many of the top colleges and universities in the world offer Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). You can take these courses for free. If you like a certificate, you can get one for a small fee.
- My goal will be to complete 5 courses in the quarter. The first three I have selected are
- First step Korean. by Yonsei University
- Magic in the Middle Ages by Universitat de Barcelona
- IUCN Red List of Ecosystems by Deakin University Australia
Fitness, This is a hard one to measure
- Fitbit’s fitness report. I want to see improvements in the different areas of my report.
- Lose 8 pounds.
- Try both cross-country and downhill skiing. A total of at least 6 sessions.
- Raise my current goal of 300 active minutes a week to 500 minutes reaching the goal 75% of the weeks.
Cooking:
- Try 10 new recipes
- Have 2 dinner parties if COVID-19 restrictions are no longer in place.
I am sure I forgot some, but I will add them when I remember.
Charles W. Davis
Charles W Davis Jr. is the author of the “Subic Bay Travel and Dive Guide”, the most referenced source of information on the wrecks of Subic Bay. He is also the author of six other diving and travel books and has ghosted written a number of other books. A Freelance writer attracting clients from his own website www.charleswdavisjr.com and working on the upwork website as “Travel & Scuba Diving Specialist Have WIFI, Will Travel”.
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