Phil's 2009 Resolutions
Well, not quite - but I do have 12 this year (count them!). I think if this community grows a bit, and we get the feed going into facebook, and follow the blog, and comment, and post little and often, 12 should be very do-able. Also, I picked some pretty easy ones.
- Replace flights with videoconferences. You can read more about this here, but the bottom line is that I have to fly less than 22,000 miles this year for my energy consumption to fall to that of an average Brit.
- Explain why. As in, explain why I am replacing flights with videoconferences. (It's because the oil is running out and I don't really want to give up plastics, medicines etc, and because dangerous climate change is bad enough without it becoming catastrophic, thank-you. Tick!)
- Play 72 holes off 36. Another forward-thinking one this - one day I will not be able to run enough to be useful on a football/cricket field. I think golf is going to be my retirement sport, and I'd quite like to be good at it. If all goes well I'll move up to a "handicap" of 35 next year, and so on, so that by the time I retire I will be a scratch player, ready for the Open qualifying.
- Learn to cook 5 new things. Honestly, I have begun to bore myself.
- If you're going to work, work. No more half-working, half-browsing, deeply unsatisfying Sunday afternoons, or workdays when I do not earn my beers.
- Smile. How hard can this one be? It's bad news when someone you haven't seen for a year tells you how serious you have become...
- Get contacts. Alright, this one is going to be tricky - I have a severe phobia of having foreign objects stuck in my eyes, and yet I want to make perfect first time passes that open defences right up. What's a short-sighted attacking midfielder to do?
- Save. This year by direct debit. I have to make the most of this exchange rate! And also of having a salary at all.
- Take 10 days contiguous holiday, and go away one weekend in six. I had this last year (not that you knew) and nailed it, but just to make sure it gets cemented into my lifestyle I'm sticking it in again.
- Eat more healthily. Too much junk food at lunchtime ,with the excuse that "I'm playing football later," has led to Jeremy raising his fat ugly head again, hence undoing all the good work of that 2007 resolution.
- Learn a language. I choose python.
- Don't say no to the beach. I'll be leaving SB in the autumn (fingers crossed) so need to make the most of living by the sea. It's surprisingly easy to take it for granted, which is stupid because I love the sea and will miss it terribly when I leave, I know. So anytime anyone asks me to the beach, or whenever the thought of going to the beach pops into my head, I have to go. However, I reserve the right to say no to surfing, which knacks in my arms and tends to disappoint.
posted by Phil at 5:06 AM
10 Comments:
I also have resolved to do #12, as I probably only have another year and a half here. I'm 40% of the way through my time in Santa Barbara!
Ok, your 12 do look a little more achievable and measurable than improve my mind and waffle about campaigning. Its why you are a scientist and I only pretended to be an engineer. I suggest French or even more fun Spanish would be perhaps a little more useful than python. But am willing to help with the recipes and the beach...in fact I might visit and make you go to the beach for a week.... Happy new year!
Oh look at that, and I can't say no! We'd have to drive to Mexico though ;-)
That 'learn a language' one is a cop-out. Python is meant to be easy to learn. Had you said "Russian" I would have been more impressed. But that said, I found that solving http://projecteuler.net/ problems a good way of learning new bits of a language... (I can't claim it as my idea; it was from xkcd)
Thanks for the tips. I think learning any language at all is going to be difficult enough with two bits of glass jammed in my eyes.
register for the class i'm teaching in the spring on python. no, wait, don't do that, that would be weird.
choose spanish!
what is python anyway?!
Number 12 is definitely a good one ... having just moved from Barcelona back to Oxford, I can confirm that Oxfordshire is still very much lacking in the beach department ...
As for Python however hombre ... surely you should take advantage of being so close to Mexico and learn Spanish instead!
Also, I can give you contact lens advice ... they're only weird for the first few weeks. Unfortunately however, in my experience, you have to ignore the cost and go for disposables (dailies ideally). Its cheaper than losing expensive (and less comfortable) permanent ones playing sport - I've done that twice.
And I expect five new recipes with photographic evidence to be posted in 2009!
Yeah, I was thinking disposables - they're really only for football, I still need my glasses to attract attention away from my receding hairline. I may end up learning more Spanish anyway, in order to improve the communication of the football team I coach... How about I use Spanish python variable names wherever possible?
So does learning python make you a parselmouth?
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