MetaChat - Something you've done recently that you're proud of?

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01 February 2008

Something you've done recently that you're proud of? →[More:]

okay, so... I guess I don't have anything to shout about or be pissed off over or any major media faux pas to discuss. So if you'll forgive the Pollyanna, I'll ask:

What have you done recently that you'd like to toot your horn about. It doesn't have to be big, it can be learning a new crochet stitch or hell, cleaning out your In box. Just something you did that makes you happy, busted you out of a slump, or whatever.

me? I got off my lazy, unmotivated slacker ass and applied for a challenging job that will be a big stretch for me if I get it. Now, this may not sound like a big deal, but for me, it is. Mainly because I tend to be a path-of-least-resistance drifter, which has landed me in a ton of deadend jobs, where I slack along, bored and progressively irksome at the management, until either my attitude or the job market (or both) gets the better of me.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not implying this site's a huge bag of downers or anything, but I do sometimes get the 'misery-loves-company' read from being here...

YAAAY IT'S FRIDAY!!!

post by: lonefrontranger at: 16:01 | 31 comments

I got an A+ on one of my final papers (which I just picked up yesterday), with the comment "This is a perfect paper" and a request for a copy so that the professor could include it in the reader for the next time she teaches the course. I put a fair amount of work into it, including a lot of creative thought in devising an appropriate therapeutic intervention for a case study, and I really respect the professor, so that was really really cool.

posted by occhiblu 01 February | 16:05

I started an neuroscience journal club with some of my friends. We are scattered around the world, so we are talking about the papers on IM and then putting them up on a blogger page. It's gonna be pretty cool. We just did the first one yesterday.

posted by gaspode 01 February | 16:09

At the company I work at I do our website and copywriting. I turned our IT guy onto PHP and he created a php script to automate a process. Yesterday, I looked over his code and found a way to make its output far more efficient.

I was proud of the accomplishment.

posted by drezdn 01 February | 16:10

I returned to university after a 6 year hiatus. It had been so long and it would have been easy to second guess my decision (I've done so before.) I didn't and now I'm taking 13 hours this semester.

posted by Schyler523 01 February | 16:11

occhiblu: holy cow, that *is* cool!

'pode, I would have never, ever thought of "book-club via IM / web" approach, that's totally excellent!

drezdn, my cycling team is currently dealing with some PHP issues on the team website, and could use a wickedsmartgeek like you. sadly, about all they can pay anyone is in beer + free team logo socks, tho.

*high fives Schyler523* man if i ever get off my ass and go to college mumblemumblemumble...

posted by lonefrontranger 01 February | 16:16

That's so awesome, occhiblu.

posted by muddgirl 01 February | 16:23

My younger foster kid is back in school, yay! And she's not quite so black-clothing-wearing-"satanic"-cutter esque as she used to be -- she actually seems kind of happy-ish and stable and growing up.

posted by Claudia_SF 01 February | 16:29

Refinanced my mortgage. Shaved 6 years and 4/5 of a point off, plus got cash out for our renovations this spring, all with a trivial change in our monthly payment. Hooray!

posted by eamondaly 01 February | 16:29

I created a dedicated emergency fund, money that will not be touched unless there's an emergency. And I got a good start on IRA contributions for 2008.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 01 February | 16:30

I completely redesigned and redid the summer camp brochure and it looks awesome. Not only do I like it, but the rest of the staff is impressed and pleased. Also, the postcard advertising outreaches that I did in December has paid off - we made over $1000 more money and scheduled something like double the outreaches we had last year. I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere as a designer - as well as getting to a point where I've finally taught myself Indesign - and I'm really proud of myself and happy about it.

posted by mygothlaundry 01 February | 16:34

I've managed not to spend money on stupid shit for 2 weeks. (Which is pretty amazing to me, given my track record for fuckups.)

I'm almost done sorting through the backlog of microform at work. None of which had been shelved or even really looked at in 2 years.

My budget seems to be do-able and it's exciting to watch the numbers go up.

posted by sperose 01 February | 16:36

wow, occhiblu and 'pode, majorly impressed.

I gave feedback to our webteam about the online curriculum for surgery and asked them if they could design something to support our progress reviews every three months. I wrote a one page brief last November, and talked them through how it could be implemented on the ground over the last 2 months.
Today I got to show it off to the powers that be in my region with real trainee data, logbooks, assessments, portfolio, all availible online having to just give two pieces of info.....and they've decided to roll it out nationally!!!

things in my worklife are going well :)

posted by Wilder 01 February | 16:38

Hmmmm, no, not really. Can't think of anything myself. Proud of other people and creatures in my life, but not anything I've done.

posted by eekacat 01 February | 16:40

Oooo -- I didn't drink alcohol at all in January and I mostly ate healthy (healthfully?). Though today is February 1 ...

posted by Claudia_SF 01 February | 16:44

Also did a refinance this December which will save me and mrs. richat some dough. That was cool.

Got through a HELL week at work without losing my shit. This week included 2 full days of meetings about a new software implementation, that I recommended we do (the meetings, not the software) and the key stakeholders DID show up, and DID have fantastic input that will likely make these two days of meetings produce a better end product that will actually meet the needs of the people who will have to use it, never mind that the meetings were effectively a great team building exercise for these stakeholders, some of whom are rarely in the same city, let alone the same meeting.

Oh, and I named a feedback system the "happy funtime system" and the risk system the "It's Really Hit the Fan" system. In the test environment anyway. Everyone seemed to enjoy that.

posted by richat 01 February | 16:44

I started going to the gym again, after a 3-month hiatus that had nothing to do with anything other than laziness.

I started a diet yesterday. I only have (and have only ever had) 10 pounds to lose but they are damn stubborn. I've realized that exercising while eating whatever I want doesn't work, because I just get hungrier and eat more. So I've set a daily calorie goal (and a daily fat goal). Yesterday I met the calorie goal but not the fat. Today I'm on track to be under for both. I'm not really sure how long I'll stay on this diet thing, but it has been a learning experience already tracking every little thing I eat.

posted by misskaz 01 February | 16:46

I brought my lunch to work every day that I planned to last week AND this week (I don't bring lunch on days when I have clients or vendors in from out of town). Baby steps, right!

posted by muddgirl 01 February | 17:05

I lowered the Fed Funds rate.

posted by mullacc 01 February | 17:06

I bought Yahoo. Too late, Microsoft!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 01 February | 17:10

Thanks, mullac! You've saved me $260,918.99! I owe you a beer.

posted by eamondaly 01 February | 17:12

Oh, and...

hooray, sperose!

posted by eamondaly 01 February | 17:27

This is only partly me, really, but my son (who somehow over the last 21 years has become a six-foot tall, skinny, dreadlocked barista with a college semester and couple of months in Europe under his belt) is moving out today.

So I'm proud of him, even though he tried to sneak my French press out of the house.

I'm also proud of how easily he gets along with women, both as friends and girlfriends, and how well both he and his ex handled their breakup.

So yeah.

posted by jokeefe 01 February | 17:49

I learned the subjunctive aspect!!

¡Espero que tengan un buen dia!

(Seriously, though, I've been trying to understand the subjunctive since I was fourteen. This is a victory indeed.)

And congratulations to all of you. Some major accomplishments in here. Yay!

posted by mosessis 01 February | 18:09

I dealt with a rental insurance claim I've been putting off for forever, and I paid a few bills. That is pretty good for a day off.

posted by desjardins 01 February | 18:11

Yay, everyone!!!

posted by occhiblu 01 February | 18:23

I came up with a new hilarious (only to me) Metafilter-inspired catch phrase --

Kissing: Because cavepeople didn't have blenders.

posted by Claudia_SF 01 February | 19:07

This is small, but I'm finally getting life insurance. I just haven't been able to afford it in years past. Tuesday the nurse comes for my exam. Yay.

posted by redvixen 01 February | 19:34

I wrote some shit that I'm pretty proud of.

posted by Astro Zombie 4 01 February | 23:29

me? I got off my lazy, unmotivated slacker ass and applied for a challenging job that will be a big stretch for me if I get it.

Same here, except I got the job already and am handling it ok. Good luck!

posted by Eideteker 02 February | 10:49

I got my first World of Warcraft character to level 70 (the max).

That statement may seem trivial, and it is, but it's the first time I've actually stuck to a game long enough to hit the level cap.

posted by deborah 03 February | 14:51

That reminds me of a How I Met Your Mother Episode. The main guy meets this woman, it doesn't work out, but at the end it's revealed that they not only met on WoW, but that he had a female avatar, and she had a male one.

I just thought it was cute.

You can all go back to your guacamole making now.

posted by danf 03 February | 15:02

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