Goals for 2015

"Looking at my list of goals for 2015 and I notice that the majority depend upon the acquisition of superpowers. Could prove an obstacle."
-- Christopher Burke, on Twitter and Facebook

I do have a handful of goals -- more like suggestions, guidelines, really -- which will not require superpowers, but might involve managing or creating extra time. (Okay, so maybe that one is a superpower...)

A few things which I would like to do more of this year, in no particular order:

- Read more. Goal is a book a week, particularly now that I'm commuting by train instead of car. This is malleable -- I'm not going to stick to sixty-page novellas and avoid seven-hundred page monstrosities because I can't finish in time. And I reserve the right to use that week to evaluate if the book is even worth reading -- if I can't get through chapters 1 and 2 in four subway rides, it's not likely to happen. And, generally speaking, I usually hate 700-page books anyway.

-- Write more. Not just math articles, but stories, drafts of stories, whatever. I can't self-publish anything if there's nothing written in final form. I've taken too long off. Pick a plot and go for it. Maybe I'll troll twitter for plot suggestions, and ask for crazy combos. Whatever.

-- Record more. No, I'm not going to start a podcast, but I could start recording my blog entries in the same way that I recorded my class summaries a couple of years ago. I stopped because my students weren't listening to them. I know this because I hid Easter eggs in those reviews.

-- Transcribe. I used to keep writing journals. I have all of them. These days, I make notes in whatever's handy. I have three or four different notebooks with overlapping anecdotes and plot ideas. They need to be consolidated. Likewise, there are comic ideas buried everywhere, and I need to find them. Somewhere, I have the topic for this year's Mothers Day comic, and unless I find it again or the topic comes up again, I won't be making it this year.

In any case, the old journals should be typed up. I have twenty-year-old story ideas that need to be done already. Especially now that I have 20 years more writing experience and won't write stuff that will make me cringe when I re-read it. (At least, not as much.)

-- Learn how to make an eBook, and then make some eBooks. Put them on my kindle or put them on Amazon for sale. Whether it's an .epub fiction anthology or a .pdf collection of Common Core worksheets, I should have something out there. Branding.

-- Find a permanent teaching slot. It looks like I won't be going back to either of my last two teaching positions, so I need to find a new one where I'll be happy and less frustrated, where most of the students want to learn and the rest are able to once drawn to it. It's not out of the realm of possibilities.

-- Blog as I can. No, seriously, December taught me not to over-promise (particularly since I'm overestimating the number of people I'm actually promising). I delivered pretty well on the blogging, but the comic suffered. Even though the blog entries seem to get more hits than the comics, the comics are what got me started and they're my first love and first priority.

"Christopher Burke, Voiceover Artist"

Chris Burke, Math Teacher is a cool title. Chris Burke, Webcartoonist is cool one, too. Christopher Burke, Writer would be really cool, and I need to work a little more toward that without using my classwork as an excuse. But another new title I'd like to add: Christopher Burke, Voiceover Artist. Voiceover Talent might be the more preferred term, but that's something that I have to find out. There's a story. There's always a story (Writer, remember?), but this one is short. I took a class at a community college a couple of nights ago called "Voice Overs: Getting Paid to Talk". Well, if you know me, one thing I can do more than write is talk. So, if anything, it was a fun night out. And it was, too. And informative. I did worry at the start that I'd paid good money to walk into a sales pitch, but it wasn't that at all. End result: I was pretty good at it. I was off at first, but with a little direction, I was able to read the copy in front of the class the way it should be read. And at the end of the class, when we were all recorded, I got my lines done in a single take. It helped that I had a sarcastic part (oh, that's so me), but I thought for sure I'd trip over my tongue, reading and speaking at the same time, particularly without reading glasses on. The following morning, someone at the studio (and training program) called me with a critique. She liked my voice, mentioned a couple of comments the instructor had had, and told me she liked the "warm" quality of my voice for narration and nostalgic roles as well as the conversational tone and, of course, the sarcastic delivery. So, yes, this is something I would like to pursue. Something that I would like to investigate, at least. The problem, naturally, is the start-up costs. You can't get anywhere without a demo. And the demo can't be something homemade. Also, getting it done cheaply is probably just as bad; anyone can record you, but if you aren't getting any feedback, then it probably won't be very worthwhile. That being said, if you know any A/V departments or studios who have things that they wish to record, or if you're a teacher and you'd like someone to narrate one of your presentations, drop me a line. I could use the practice and the exposure. I'll ever record your voice mail message if you think it won't confuse your friends. Or even if it will.