All is quiet on New Year's Day
Jan. 16th, 2007 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaHmm. So, I thought that maybe it'd be a good idea to try and develop the habit of not faffing about online before I go to bed. Accordingly, I have barely been online this year from home. Which is why it's half way through January before I get round to fixing my new year's resolutions...
It is thus time for my annual outburst of not-terribly-interesting reading in which I do my bookkeeping. If I don't make this the first post of the year I'll never find it again.
Last year, I resolved to:
1. Do More Creative Stuff
Yes, writing, music, etc. But really, I'm still just keen on stuff. I'd like to have achieved Things over the course of the year, I'm willing to be flexible on the exact nature of the Things.
Sadly, I think I'll have report a further year of failure on this :(
Things written: none. Hours spent playing any of the various instruments I profess to play: next to bugger all. Exciting new projects undertaken: nil. Time spent attempting to learn/relearn foreign languages: considerably less than it ought to have been. Music made: zero.
I did manage (with some prodding) to organise another Advent Calendar Game, and another Photo Competition though that was less of a success. I made a silly fancy dress costume at short notice for a party and I finally got myself to some gigs to take photos. But overall, I don't think that this resolution was really accorded the attention it was deserved. However, this was largely caused by the failure of...
2. Sort My Room Out
Now,anyone who's, er, ever spoken to me might well be aware that "tidy my room" has been on my to-do list since about 1999. I'm not talking about just a quick tidy-up here, but a redesign of lifestyle is really required to sort it properly. I have a lot of stuff and a small room,and achieving long-term tidiness isn't that easy.
This resolution really covers a wider range of things, like keeping on top of paperwork and correspondence, and not losing/forgetting important things.
My possessions stubbornly remain of greater cubic capacity than my room. This does not a tidy environment make. As a result, I don't have a pleasant place to sit and achieve the stuff required in (1). More importantly, whenever I have a spare evening it's immediately swallowed up by the necessity of trying to create myself a bit of space, leaving no time for anything (1)-related.
I have made some progress. One of my big difficulties in throwing out old things is that I find it incredibly difficult to throw away anything given to me as a present; in general, this is because I fear that the donor might be offended or upset by this. However, towards the back end of last year I did finally start manage to being parting with presents which - though liked - are non-essential and taking up space. I'll just have to hope that anyone who gave me one of these things and finds out is prepared to accept that. Tangentially, if anyone else suffers the same syndrome they are hereby given permission to pass on, destroy, abandon, burn or otherwise remove from their lives anything I've given them as a present.
3. Dress Up
Having had two heavyweight resolutions, this one is nice and fluffy :) I have been noticing of late that (a) I own a lot of nice clothes and (b) Ispend updwards of 99.9% in jeans or combats and a jumper.
Well, this one did at least progress a little :) Really, rather than it being a matter of wearing 'nice' clothes it's more a matter of considering what I'm wearing. If I'm going out after work, do I want to get changed ? Do I want to wear something specific rather than just the next t-shirt out the drawer ?
I can happily believe that many people will have noticed absolutely no difference in how I dress. However, I'm aware of the difference, which is what I was hoping to achieve.
So, accordingly, (1) and (2) are carried over to this year for re-use. In many ways, the limiting factor on them both is time. I'm still bad at making sure I have a sufficient number of evenings when I'm not supposed to be doing anything and can just lounge around the house. Part of my attempt to combat this so far this year has been fitting in 15 or 30 minute bursts of tidying as-and-when, thus meaning that with luck I should soon have got myself to the state where a free evening can be used for fun stuff.
Watch this space...
If I manage another consecutive year failing on resolution 1 then it's probably a clear sign that I'm just not cut out for this creative thinking lark and should resolve to do nothing more interesting than cake-baking in the future.
It is thus time for my annual outburst of not-terribly-interesting reading in which I do my bookkeeping. If I don't make this the first post of the year I'll never find it again.
Last year, I resolved to:
1. Do More Creative Stuff
Yes, writing, music, etc. But really, I'm still just keen on stuff. I'd like to have achieved Things over the course of the year, I'm willing to be flexible on the exact nature of the Things.
Sadly, I think I'll have report a further year of failure on this :(
Things written: none. Hours spent playing any of the various instruments I profess to play: next to bugger all. Exciting new projects undertaken: nil. Time spent attempting to learn/relearn foreign languages: considerably less than it ought to have been. Music made: zero.
I did manage (with some prodding) to organise another Advent Calendar Game, and another Photo Competition though that was less of a success. I made a silly fancy dress costume at short notice for a party and I finally got myself to some gigs to take photos. But overall, I don't think that this resolution was really accorded the attention it was deserved. However, this was largely caused by the failure of...
2. Sort My Room Out
Now,anyone who's, er, ever spoken to me might well be aware that "tidy my room" has been on my to-do list since about 1999. I'm not talking about just a quick tidy-up here, but a redesign of lifestyle is really required to sort it properly. I have a lot of stuff and a small room,and achieving long-term tidiness isn't that easy.
This resolution really covers a wider range of things, like keeping on top of paperwork and correspondence, and not losing/forgetting important things.
My possessions stubbornly remain of greater cubic capacity than my room. This does not a tidy environment make. As a result, I don't have a pleasant place to sit and achieve the stuff required in (1). More importantly, whenever I have a spare evening it's immediately swallowed up by the necessity of trying to create myself a bit of space, leaving no time for anything (1)-related.
I have made some progress. One of my big difficulties in throwing out old things is that I find it incredibly difficult to throw away anything given to me as a present; in general, this is because I fear that the donor might be offended or upset by this. However, towards the back end of last year I did finally start manage to being parting with presents which - though liked - are non-essential and taking up space. I'll just have to hope that anyone who gave me one of these things and finds out is prepared to accept that. Tangentially, if anyone else suffers the same syndrome they are hereby given permission to pass on, destroy, abandon, burn or otherwise remove from their lives anything I've given them as a present.
3. Dress Up
Having had two heavyweight resolutions, this one is nice and fluffy :) I have been noticing of late that (a) I own a lot of nice clothes and (b) Ispend updwards of 99.9% in jeans or combats and a jumper.
Well, this one did at least progress a little :) Really, rather than it being a matter of wearing 'nice' clothes it's more a matter of considering what I'm wearing. If I'm going out after work, do I want to get changed ? Do I want to wear something specific rather than just the next t-shirt out the drawer ?
I can happily believe that many people will have noticed absolutely no difference in how I dress. However, I'm aware of the difference, which is what I was hoping to achieve.
So, accordingly, (1) and (2) are carried over to this year for re-use. In many ways, the limiting factor on them both is time. I'm still bad at making sure I have a sufficient number of evenings when I'm not supposed to be doing anything and can just lounge around the house. Part of my attempt to combat this so far this year has been fitting in 15 or 30 minute bursts of tidying as-and-when, thus meaning that with luck I should soon have got myself to the state where a free evening can be used for fun stuff.
Watch this space...
If I manage another consecutive year failing on resolution 1 then it's probably a clear sign that I'm just not cut out for this creative thinking lark and should resolve to do nothing more interesting than cake-baking in the future.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 12:36 pm (UTC)1) Languages and relearning thereof could involve signing yourself up for an evening class in Oxford or Reading. This works for me as I am very stingy and signing up for something and then paying for it means that I tend to go. A couple of evenings a week plus a leetle homework is no big deal. Then you could plan a trip to a relevant country and order beers...
Having said that, relearning French has been on my to do list for some years now, at least partially as my couple of evenings a week are currently going to German. Which shunted French and Spanish out of my brain to begin with.
Bah!
As for creativity, the Advent Game is a pretty amazing idea and did I hear mention of a postcard challenge?
2) Tidiness has long eluded me and the flat has the air of a squatter camp. We've effectively stopped buying things other than books, music and computer games, but we still have so much stuff. After Christmas we have a cupboardful of scarves and I own 4 wallets. I think that it's time to give things away...
Glad to see you're still alive!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-18 08:07 am (UTC)1) Actually, to me, "a couple of evenings a week" is a very big deal. It's pretty common for me to be away at the weeknds with a dance team or some such, leaving me only Mon-Thurs to play with. Of them, I'm at a rapper practice on Tuesdays and a jive class on Wednesdays. So I've only got a couple of evenings a week in which to have run/do things/tidy my room...
2) For years now I've been attempting to curtail my scarf-and-wallet acquisition. Family asks for a 'Christmas list' of things I want and mostly works to that. Everyone else gets told that ideally I'd like presents which can be used, eaten, otherwise consumed, or don't have physical presence.