New year, new danger
Jan. 25th, 2007 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4If I don't post this now I never will. I was going to try to keep the New Year's Resolutions analysis brief this year, but it's been sitting there accreting stuff since late December...
You won't miss anything important if you skip this post.
This is what I said last year. Here's how I did at keeping those resolutions:
• NO SANDWICHES FROM THE SANDWICH VAN
• No new plastic bags!
Okay, we didn't manage to acquire absolutely no new plastic bags, but we did manage to average more like one a month as opposed to the previous one a day or so. And we recycled the broken ones and the useless ones.
• No unnecessary clothes over £2 until May
• No CDs over £2.99 until May
• Send fewer txts
• Read a poem every day
We averaged a poem a day, with a bit of catching-up after short periods of poemlessness. Result: a renewed love of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and one or two other serendipitous finds which I will probably post here at some point.
• Knit at least one row a day until I've finished my scarf
• Cook more
• Dress better
Being in the habit of dressing smarter and neater has proved incredibly useful now that I'm in a job where I usually have to be smart. I have even learned to look slightly less awkward in a suit.
• Get![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pto452 sorted out
Sort of. Fuel pump is now fixed thanks tobrrm's tender ministrations, but pto452 is still in the wrong city (or possibly the right city depending on how brrm's dad feels about his outdoor lodger).
• Sort out phone
In the end I justupgraded downgraded my phone to one that does the things I need more simply and effectively.
• Make the first drink of the day a non-caffeinated one; stop taking so much sugar in coffee; drink more water
I've stopped taking any sugar in coffee, and started drinking more water (though probably still not enough). As for the first-drink-of-the-day bit, I've succeeded at the important bit: thinking about it. That is, now that it's in the back of my mind, I sometimes remember to act on it, which is an improvement at least.
• Make some more usericons
I've added some, but I still need more!
• Read 100+ books!
• Start sorting out Christmas cards/presents in October
Both of these fell at the fairly significant hurdle of "moving house and job in early November", though to be fair the reading was already underperforming by then, and I did still manage to average a book a week.
• Give away clothes on LiveJournal
I didn't actually do this, though I did give away about three suitcases' worth of clothes (mostly to Oxfam, Cancer Research, and EACH shops), so perhaps that should count as morally a success.
• Watch at least one film a month
I did watch more films, but nowhere near the target.
• Don't have arguments withaddedentry
Sigh. I guess we're still rubbing the corners off each other. But we're settling in to each other better, we're building up a better map of the landmines, and I still wouldn't swap him for anything. Not even a million badgers.
• Read for at least one lunchtime a week
• Get to bed before midnight on school-nights unless doing something specific.
Actually, I was much better at getting to bed for the month when we didn't have any net access yet at the new house. I should probably learn from this.
• No LJ/email/IRC until lunchtime
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
• Make sure work inbox contains less than 100 messages at the end of each day
Actually, I did keep this up with my inbox at MISD; but see this year's resolutions...
• Tag my LiveJournal to date
• two other LiveJournal-related resolutions
All LJ-related stuff got sidelined by work and moving house. That's probably right in terms of priorities and usefulness, but I haven't shelved the ideas completely.
I feel as though I spent a lot of last year trying to juggle doing far too many things, both in and out of work. However, moving house brought most of those things to an abrupt end, so I'll probably be spending a lot of this year finding new ways to fill up my 'free' time -- all the more necessary as I fear that work time (which, fact-fans, accounts for approximately 1/3 of the day) isn't going to be as much fun as it was before. Partly as a result of this, some of this year's resolutions are bigger, though the rest are the usual batch of administrivia:
• Get AND KEEP work, chiark, earth.li and freecycle inboxes under 100
• Sort out chiark mail to cope with spam
By 'work' I mean my OUCS account, not the shared admin inbox (which is a law unto itself). The freecycle account frequently goes over 100 messages in the space of a millisecond (don't get me started), but usually I can delete the whole thing in ten seconds... I may yet decide that the net usefulness is negative.
The spam is another matter. I'm getting anything between 50 and 200 spams a day, and it's got to the point where I can't keep up with manual deletion (or rather I'm extremely likely to delete real email by accident in the scramble to keep ahead of the spammers). Realistically, I'm only going to manage to keep my inbox to a sensible size if I can sort out my SAUCE config. The documentation is there, I just need to sit down and read it and Just Do It. I also want to try to sort out procmail, though last time I tried that I made all my email bounce, which was, er, not exactly what I had in mind.
• Slim my LJ friendslist
No drama, just that I'd rather read a few things properly than skim everything inattentively and still struggle to keep up. Also, LJ probably isn't the right place to be reading some of the blogs I'm subscribed to, so I want to look into getting an RSS reader or a blogroller or whatever the young people use these days.
• Buy no more flatpack furniture after January
In the last month or two I have assembled more flatpack than one person should do in a lifetime, sustaining various minor injuries to my fingers (and tights). 2007 is the year to say NO MORE to this ridiculous way of life.
• Fix back light and (if possible) lock on bike
I finally bought a proper front light, the sort you can see by as well as being seen by. Comparatively expensive, but if you'd told me that I had to pay 35 quid to make my car road-safe I would have paid it without blinking, and my bike is my main means of transport.
• No caffeine after 8pm on schoolnights
I often find I'm still drinking coke at 11pm, and while I'm usually too tired to actually have trouble getting to sleep, the caffeine isn't exactly helping me to feel rested. Also, limiting the caffeine window will mean cutting down on coke in general, which has got to be good from a health/weight/teeth point of view.
• Find a choir
• Find an orchestra or ensemble in which to play violin
I did try the Leys Choir, thanks tobopeepsheep's recommendation, which was interesting but not really my thing; I've got a long list of possibilities to try, and if I haven't found people to sing with by the end of the year I will have probably gone slightly insane. The orchestra may prove harder -- as far as I can find out there just isn't an amateur Concert Orchestra (pop, musicals, light classics, etc.) around Oxford, so I may have to compromise and do something a bit different. Or I might try to find some people to start a quartet, as it's been ages since I've done any small-ensemble stuff and it's really good fun with the right people.
• Leave work on time unless I'm actually busy
• Switch computer off every night
• Try to convert every work-related whinge into a positive thing
Okay, these are sort of related. Basically, I feel as though I may have taken a bit of a wrong turn, or at least a detour, in terms of my job/career. I'm finding myself feeling quite negative about the whole thing, so these are a few small ways I can combat that without making huge guilt-generating resolutions like "be less rubbish" and "make the job work". I'm going to try very hard to keep the work/life balance sane, which means getting out of work on time -- half the time if I'm there late it's because a) I'm faffing, b) I'm feeling guilty about my lack of productivity earlier in the day so don't feel I have the moral high ground to leave on time, and c) I feel that I can't leave before other people (this is mostly a knock-on effect from point b). This is all stupid: I'm quite willing to stay late when there's urgent work to be done or when I'm really in the middle of something absorbing or tricky, but time wasted is a sunk cost and isn't going to be recouped by wasting more time and feeling resentful about it.
Switching the computer off every night is just an environmental thing. I want to be a bit more proactive about environmental issues at work, because it's a pretty wasteful organisation, but again, I won't really feel confident about doing that until I'm making a better job of the things they're actually paying me for.
Converting whinges into positive things is harder (and less SMART), and probably won't involve some kind of pathological Pollyanna-ism ("Well, at least they can only fire you once"). I just want to try to get into a mental habit of stopping myself when I'm whinging and thinking "Is there a better way to look at this?"
That's it. Long overdue, but at least it's still only January.
Mind you, the real "resolutions" are all staying in my head -- the resolutions to do something, be something, make something, justify my oxygen-consumption in some way. They're vast and formless, and they don't fit in my head, but I can't work out how to get them out. Maybe that's why I've got a headache.
You won't miss anything important if you skip this post.
This is what I said last year. Here's how I did at keeping those resolutions:
*** Succeeded (total: 13) ***
• NO SANDWICHES FROM THE SANDWICH VAN
• No new plastic bags!
Okay, we didn't manage to acquire absolutely no new plastic bags, but we did manage to average more like one a month as opposed to the previous one a day or so. And we recycled the broken ones and the useless ones.
• No unnecessary clothes over £2 until May
• No CDs over £2.99 until May
• Send fewer txts
• Read a poem every day
We averaged a poem a day, with a bit of catching-up after short periods of poemlessness. Result: a renewed love of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and one or two other serendipitous finds which I will probably post here at some point.
• Knit at least one row a day until I've finished my scarf
• Cook more
• Dress better
Being in the habit of dressing smarter and neater has proved incredibly useful now that I'm in a job where I usually have to be smart. I have even learned to look slightly less awkward in a suit.
• Get
pto452 sorted outSort of. Fuel pump is now fixed thanks to
brrm's tender ministrations, but pto452 is still in the wrong city (or possibly the right city depending on how brrm's dad feels about his outdoor lodger).• Sort out phone
In the end I just
• Make the first drink of the day a non-caffeinated one; stop taking so much sugar in coffee; drink more water
I've stopped taking any sugar in coffee, and started drinking more water (though probably still not enough). As for the first-drink-of-the-day bit, I've succeeded at the important bit: thinking about it. That is, now that it's in the back of my mind, I sometimes remember to act on it, which is an improvement at least.
• Make some more usericons
I've added some, but I still need more!
*** Failed (total: 11) ***
• Read 100+ books!
• Start sorting out Christmas cards/presents in October
Both of these fell at the fairly significant hurdle of "moving house and job in early November", though to be fair the reading was already underperforming by then, and I did still manage to average a book a week.
• Give away clothes on LiveJournal
I didn't actually do this, though I did give away about three suitcases' worth of clothes (mostly to Oxfam, Cancer Research, and EACH shops), so perhaps that should count as morally a success.
• Watch at least one film a month
I did watch more films, but nowhere near the target.
• Don't have arguments with
addedentrySigh. I guess we're still rubbing the corners off each other. But we're settling in to each other better, we're building up a better map of the landmines, and I still wouldn't swap him for anything. Not even a million badgers.
• Read for at least one lunchtime a week
• Get to bed before midnight on school-nights unless doing something specific.
Actually, I was much better at getting to bed for the month when we didn't have any net access yet at the new house. I should probably learn from this.
• No LJ/email/IRC until lunchtime
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
• Make sure work inbox contains less than 100 messages at the end of each day
Actually, I did keep this up with my inbox at MISD; but see this year's resolutions...
• Tag my LiveJournal to date
• two other LiveJournal-related resolutions
All LJ-related stuff got sidelined by work and moving house. That's probably right in terms of priorities and usefulness, but I haven't shelved the ideas completely.
I feel as though I spent a lot of last year trying to juggle doing far too many things, both in and out of work. However, moving house brought most of those things to an abrupt end, so I'll probably be spending a lot of this year finding new ways to fill up my 'free' time -- all the more necessary as I fear that work time (which, fact-fans, accounts for approximately 1/3 of the day) isn't going to be as much fun as it was before. Partly as a result of this, some of this year's resolutions are bigger, though the rest are the usual batch of administrivia:
• Get AND KEEP work, chiark, earth.li and freecycle inboxes under 100
• Sort out chiark mail to cope with spam
By 'work' I mean my OUCS account, not the shared admin inbox (which is a law unto itself). The freecycle account frequently goes over 100 messages in the space of a millisecond (don't get me started), but usually I can delete the whole thing in ten seconds... I may yet decide that the net usefulness is negative.
The spam is another matter. I'm getting anything between 50 and 200 spams a day, and it's got to the point where I can't keep up with manual deletion (or rather I'm extremely likely to delete real email by accident in the scramble to keep ahead of the spammers). Realistically, I'm only going to manage to keep my inbox to a sensible size if I can sort out my SAUCE config. The documentation is there, I just need to sit down and read it and Just Do It. I also want to try to sort out procmail, though last time I tried that I made all my email bounce, which was, er, not exactly what I had in mind.
• Slim my LJ friendslist
No drama, just that I'd rather read a few things properly than skim everything inattentively and still struggle to keep up. Also, LJ probably isn't the right place to be reading some of the blogs I'm subscribed to, so I want to look into getting an RSS reader or a blogroller or whatever the young people use these days.
• Buy no more flatpack furniture after January
In the last month or two I have assembled more flatpack than one person should do in a lifetime, sustaining various minor injuries to my fingers (and tights). 2007 is the year to say NO MORE to this ridiculous way of life.
• Fix back light and (if possible) lock on bike
I finally bought a proper front light, the sort you can see by as well as being seen by. Comparatively expensive, but if you'd told me that I had to pay 35 quid to make my car road-safe I would have paid it without blinking, and my bike is my main means of transport.
• No caffeine after 8pm on schoolnights
I often find I'm still drinking coke at 11pm, and while I'm usually too tired to actually have trouble getting to sleep, the caffeine isn't exactly helping me to feel rested. Also, limiting the caffeine window will mean cutting down on coke in general, which has got to be good from a health/weight/teeth point of view.
• Find a choir
• Find an orchestra or ensemble in which to play violin
I did try the Leys Choir, thanks to
bopeepsheep's recommendation, which was interesting but not really my thing; I've got a long list of possibilities to try, and if I haven't found people to sing with by the end of the year I will have probably gone slightly insane. The orchestra may prove harder -- as far as I can find out there just isn't an amateur Concert Orchestra (pop, musicals, light classics, etc.) around Oxford, so I may have to compromise and do something a bit different. Or I might try to find some people to start a quartet, as it's been ages since I've done any small-ensemble stuff and it's really good fun with the right people.• Leave work on time unless I'm actually busy
• Switch computer off every night
• Try to convert every work-related whinge into a positive thing
Okay, these are sort of related. Basically, I feel as though I may have taken a bit of a wrong turn, or at least a detour, in terms of my job/career. I'm finding myself feeling quite negative about the whole thing, so these are a few small ways I can combat that without making huge guilt-generating resolutions like "be less rubbish" and "make the job work". I'm going to try very hard to keep the work/life balance sane, which means getting out of work on time -- half the time if I'm there late it's because a) I'm faffing, b) I'm feeling guilty about my lack of productivity earlier in the day so don't feel I have the moral high ground to leave on time, and c) I feel that I can't leave before other people (this is mostly a knock-on effect from point b). This is all stupid: I'm quite willing to stay late when there's urgent work to be done or when I'm really in the middle of something absorbing or tricky, but time wasted is a sunk cost and isn't going to be recouped by wasting more time and feeling resentful about it.
Switching the computer off every night is just an environmental thing. I want to be a bit more proactive about environmental issues at work, because it's a pretty wasteful organisation, but again, I won't really feel confident about doing that until I'm making a better job of the things they're actually paying me for.
Converting whinges into positive things is harder (and less SMART), and probably won't involve some kind of pathological Pollyanna-ism ("Well, at least they can only fire you once"). I just want to try to get into a mental habit of stopping myself when I'm whinging and thinking "Is there a better way to look at this?"
That's it. Long overdue, but at least it's still only January.
Mind you, the real "resolutions" are all staying in my head -- the resolutions to do something, be something, make something, justify my oxygen-consumption in some way. They're vast and formless, and they don't fit in my head, but I can't work out how to get them out. Maybe that's why I've got a headache.
