1) Financial: It was a tough race, but I’m deciding to go with Lockheed. The main reason is, even though USAA sounds more awesome, there are a few little things I need to be able to do that they can’t, and everyone’s response is that they recommend to also keep a small local bank account in addition. Well, the small local bank account is the one that I’m looking for! So, credit union for now, though USAA definitely sounds super awesome.

2) One free thing in LA per month: Kite Festival is tomorrow! Nick and I also snuck down to the Lantern Festival last Saturday for our Anniversary. Got to see some shadow puppetry and a dragon dance, very cool stuff!

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day: Finished Stacking. SUCH a delightful game! I would recommend it to anyone with a PS3 or XBox to buy, it is certainly worth it. It’s very low key to get through the whole story, but there are plenty of extra puzzles to solve for the completionists. Also, we’ve been playing Magicka this week, which is fun and hilarious! But it keeps overheating my laptop, which is unfortunate

4) Sew 3 things: 1 of 3 complete. Nothing to report here, though I did order some extra bobbins. Woo.

1) Financial: Bank of America started blocking connections to Mint.com, which annoys me, and I’d always felt bad about having an account with those jerks anyway, so I’m investigating local credit unions to switch my checking account to. So far, Lockheed FCU is in the lead, but I’m still collecting opinions and recommendations.

2) One free thing in LA per month: For March, I’ve settled on the Festival of the Kite! I’ll set up a facebook event like I did for the dragon parade, that seemed to work well enough

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day: Still playing lots of Lost in Shadow. It remains simple platforming and puzzle solving, but I still have a hunch that something is going to change in an exciting way, so I’m holding out.

4) Sew 3 things: 1 of 3 complete. Today, I experimented with the darning foot to mend a hole in a pair of pants. I’ve never used any of my sewing machine’s attachments before, so it was a bit of an experiment. The hole is mended, though it’s a bit of a patchy hack job. I feel like I have quite a piece of machinery here that I don’t appreciate.

1) Financial: Wrapping up February’s budget on a good clip. Cutting back on eating out is tricky, but hopefully with Saturday’s grocery shopping I can add some variety to my foods to bring for lunch (I want to make a pork pie, which should freeze well in pieces. YUM).

2) One free thing in LA per month: Time to start thinking about March. There are several events I have my eye on, so maybe my LA friends could help me choose! Here they are:

Chinese Lantern Festival at El Pueblo, Saturday, March 5. They’ll have LION DANCES so this is super tempting!

Long Beach Mardi Gras (what is it with Long Beach and the New Orleans culture stuff anyway?), including a parade, on Saturday, March 5

The Festival of the Kite at Redondo Pier, on Sunday, March 13

St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Costa Mesa, Saturday, March 13. Looks like a lot of dance troupes and musicians.

LA Friends, I await your input!

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day: Started Lost in Shadow this week. I am enjoying it so far for its aesthetics alone. So far the gameplay is pretty basic platforming and environmental puzzle solving, but I keep getting taught new things that make me think the game is going to ramp up. We’ll see!

4) Sew 3 things: 1 of 3 complete

1) Financial: After some budget reworking and tightening up a few categories here and there, I realized that I can actually beat my 5-year student loan payoff plan and pay them off in 3 1/2 years. Gogogo!

2) One free thing in LA per month: I actually got in an extra bonus free thing this month. At work the HR department gets tickets to various venues, and every so often calls on us to nominate someone who has done something awesome to give the tickets to. So, apparently someone thought I was awesome! Nick and I went and saw the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and it was very nice. Especially because we were able to take the metro and avoid driving in the rain 🙂

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day: Slacking on this goal this week. I played a bit of stacking, and have been playing Minecraft at lunch every day. I really need to start up Lost in Shadow!

4) Sew 3 things: SUCCESS! I completed Mr. Davis’s kitty quilt, thus accomplishing 1 of the 3 things to sew this year! It’s a little patchy, but he doesn’t seem to mind:

I missed a week! Curses! Oh well, moving on!

1) Financial: Since eating out is my Achilles Heel when it comes to spending money, I made some huge batches of food that can be frozen and eaten over the month (the lentil soup and the kimchi borscht). I also nabbed some knitting needles and extra yarn on Freecycle.

2) One free thing in LA per month. The Golden Dragon Parade was a big hit! There were lots of dragons and lion dances and that was fine by me. Photos here. There was also an awesome moment at the end where they set off a bajillion firecrackers at once. There are no photos of that because I was too busy gawking. The parade was really long, but fortunately there was this fast food dim sum style place right next to our spot, so we feasted on dumplings. It was a smashing success!

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day. More Donkey Kong, and LOTS more League of Legends and StarJeweled. The latter two are moved to my “doesn’t count” list. WoW is moved off that list, since I haven’t played since my Cataclysm binge over Christmas Break. I also got Trino off Steam, since it was made by some of my ETC friends. Using the mouse to control it isn’t so bad, except that it’s really easy to get stressed out and accidentally click outside the game window. I also got Stacking off of PSN, which is wonderfully charming. How can a game about matryoshka dolls not be?

4) Sew 3 things: Alas, I’m slacking on this one. I have the fabric cut and measured for Mr. Davis’s blanket, and I have the batting, but I have yet to fire up the sewing machine. Meanwhile, I have picked knitting back up, but that doesn’t count for this goal.

1) Financial: Did my taxes. Got my refund. Dumped it into the ole student loans. Adjusted my W-4 accordingly.

2) One free thing in LA per month. January complete. Waiting for February

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day: Bit of Donkey Kong, and a lot of League of Legends and StarJeweled. LoL is great, it’s free to play, so it’s easy for a busy person like me to just pick up and play a match. The paid portion seems to support the more hard core community, so it serves both audiences really well! I’ve already posted about StarJeweled, but man I love that game.

4) Sew 3 things: I have started on my first project: a cat blanket! I figure Mr. Davis won’t mind if my scrap fabric is ugly and clashing, it’ll give me a place to start. I already cut out and sorted the squares of scrap fabric to use for his blanket.

1) Financial: I’m focusing on reducing my eating-out spending this year, and have started with a budget of $40 every 2 weeks. So far I’m sticking to it!

2) One free thing in LA per month. Nick and I spent last Saturday at the Getty. It was beautiful! The grounds alone are enough that I would spend all day out there, lounging around the water features. Art-wise, there was a great exhibit of illuminated manuscripts that I found really fascinating. I love seeing the tiny detail in the illuminations, and all the shiny gold leaf. For February, I think I’m set on the Golden Dragon Parade.

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day: Lots of Sonic Colors this week. And Starcraft, of course, but I’ve already said that doesn’t count.

4) Sew 3 things: No progress this week, but I have a rip in one of my pants that needs mending, so that will get me to fire the machine up.

1) Getting rid of the credit card: This goal is pretty much complete! I called to cancel, got my confirmation letter, and now I just have to wait a month to check my credit report and make sure they did it right. Part of the thing that made it so easy was that right off the bat, I politely requested that we skip any steps that involved persuading me not to close my account, and the person helping me complied. There were a few mentions of benefits as he loaded up my account, but I didn’t have to deal with any long speeches read out of a manual. Turns out you can just ask for stuff! Since this goal is wrapping up, I’ll devote slot 1 in future updates to general financial goals that are part of the big 5 year one.

2) One free thing in LA per month: Tomorrow, Nick and I are going to the Getty. Thinking ahead for February, there are two free events which have my eye. One is the Golden Dragon Parade in Chinatown for the Lunar New Year (on the 5th and 6th). The other is a lecture in Santa Clarita about the early history of Warner Brothers Studios (on the 26th). Thoughts from people who may want to join in?

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day: More Donkey Kong and Sonic Colors this week, with a dabble into Metro 2033. That game does SUCH a good job of establishing post-apocalyptic environmental storytelling. The combat is kind of so-so, but I like some of the wackier mechanics, like the gas mask above the surface thing. I have Lost in Shadow sitting here, too, which I want to get to soon.

4) Sew 3 Things: I’m trying to figure out where to get bobbins for this ancient beast of a sewing machine and spent some time searching this week. I found a place I can order them online if need be. I’m also going to try and check out a sewing machine supply shop in my area and see if they have more than just repair stuff.

Here it is, the first of my goal progress reports!

1) Getting rid of the credit card: I spent this week going through any of my online accounts that are linked to the card for auto-billing and such and changing it over to my debit card. The balance is at zero, so the next step is the dreaded one of calling to cancel my account and having to suffer through some poor representative having to try and convince me not to close it. Hate the phone so much!

2) One free thing in LA per month: I researched a bunch of potential options and listed out places and events I’d like to go to. I think the first visit will be to the Getty, perhaps next Saturday. They have a few exhibits that I’m curious about.

3) 20 Minutes of Games Every Other Day: This week’s gaming included Donkey Kong Country Returns and Sonic Colors. I like them both very much! DK is just a joyous co-op platformer, and I’m really surprised how much of the original music is in the game. Sonic Colors has a very old school Sonic feel to it, which is great, because I grew up on those games. The wisp mechanic fits in with the basic Sonic mechanics really well. I think these two games will keep me busy for awhile. I’ve also been playing Shining Force on the iPod Touch, but I’m not sure if that counts since it’s an old game I’ve played several times before.

4) Sew 3 things: No sewing yet, but I did clean and organize all my sewing supplies into a single drawer. I need to do a couple of maintenance things: get some more bobbins, and clean/fix/find a new oil dispenser to oil the machine with.

Time for 2011 Goals! Sharing your goals helps make you feel accountable for them, so you are all my witnesses to this year’s.

1. Get rid of my credit card*. This is actually part of a larger goal, that I am going to get crazy with my budget and pay off my student loans in 5 years. I never have a balance on my credit card, but I know that using it for day to day expenses makes me less frugal than I could be. Also, I kind of hate credit cards and all that they stand for and I want to put my foot down about it**.

2. Do one free thing in LA (Entertainment-wise) every month. Also related to the long-term budget goal, but also to get me out of the house and exploring and learning about the city. There are several free museums I want to go to, and free events that take place throughout the year. It’s a little ambitious considering how busy things get, but if I plan ahead I am certain I can make it happen

3. Spend a minimum of 20 minutes every other day playing a game that is not one of my standards (that is, not a game that I’m already into and playing regularly). Someone told me once that if you can’t devote 20 minutes every other day to something, then you aren’t really interested in doing it. This was in terms of stuff like practicing learning a new thing, so the application is a little loose. I really want to spend more like an hour every day on games, but I also want to be realistic with this goal so I can achieve it.

4. Sew 3 things. Because I want to use my awesome sewing machine more. I do not know what the 3 things will be, and even if they end up being ratty little toys for Mr. Davis, I will consider it a success!

5. Update my blog once a week with an accountability post about all these goals, so I can assure that they actually happen!

* I don’t want to hear any guff about my credit score going down, or rewards
** I also don’t want to hear anyone say “but if you carry a balance and pay it off every month you are sticking it to the man!” Because we all know that’s not really true and it’s just a way to make us feel okay using a credit card 😛