We've now made it half way through the year (how did that happen!?). That means it time for another goals check in. You can follow my progress by reviewing the initial post on goals and see how well I was doing in the first check-in. Since we’ve crossed another quarter it’s time to see how I’ve managed to keep things going (or haven’t, as the case may be…) As always, let’s take the 30k ft view at the goals themselves:

This past Wednesday I officially hit one year as a self-taught Italian Student. I have been a lover of languages for as long as I can remember. I'm not someone for whom learning languages comes super easy, but I do alright. Italian was actually the first language I attempted to learn, when I was maybe 10 or so. I made practically no progress at all at the time. The only word I can still remember is "radio" which is... you guessed it, "radio." I can still hear the speakers voice from the tape (made off a record) with the Italian pronunciation/accent. 

Today is April 1st, that means a day for a little harmless pranking, but it also marks the end of the first quarter of the year! This marks a good time to check in on our goals. In my post on goals one point I made was that a benefit of setting codified goals was the ability to gauge your progress through the year. I like to do that about once a quarter, so that means now. First let's review my goals for the year. They are:

This is the second post in a two part series on my process creating my first knife. For part one please click here. 

As I mentioned in my post about my goals for the year one thing I wanted to do was get started in bladesmithing. I was actually thinking about this the other day and I my interest in knives can be pretty clearly traced back to Poppie. I remember him showing me a knife from his time in the military. It was a folder with a fork and spoon and I thought it was the coolest thing. He told me when I got older he would give it to me, and it's one of my most prized possessions.

The new year has arrived, and with it many a resolution has been made, and quickly broken. I thought I would take this time to discuss my personal goals and my philosophy regarding them.