I held off reading this post by Jason Calacanis because it was slightly longer than most. I didn't have time to read it. I kept it unread until I had the time. Today I read it. If you haven't had the time, let me summarise:
- If you're a normal person who never ran a business, you don't get business.
- If you're a skeptical person, you probably had a half-arsed idea go half-way at some time.
- If you're a dreamer, your idea is automatically a winner. Doesn't matter what it is.
It is, as I said, just that simple.
That little effort means I at least wrote something in between last weeks awful self-review session and this week's. Now i'm going to shake this up..
The Wasted Space
1. I won't write about checking the list whilst checking the list anymore. Waste.
2. I won't detail anything achieved more than once if nothing has changed. Waste!
The Easy Stuff
1. I will stick to my weekday food and drink ethic as set out previously.
2. I will stick to wasting less weekday time playing fake poker.
3. I will continue watching 2 or more films each week.
4. I will take photos everywhere I go (high bar remains).
5. I will buy at least one more work shirt by the end of February.
6. I will move to Birmingham before the end of April.
7. I will stay in touch with my friends weekly.
The Challenging Stuff
1. I will continue to write a song each month.
2. I will continue to work towards my set work goals.
3. I will continue to rethink my career inside and outside my current role weekly.
4. I will find the time to manage a 3 times a week exercise schedule.
Easy - Took some photos this week. Some very good ones actually. Everything else remains on track.
Challenging - Still honing the January song even though I have to start writing a new one on Thursday. Making very strong progress on work goals, but need to assert this week to stay on track. The exercise I want to do is made hard by the lack of opportunity to swim at local pools. Hopefully it might be easier when I move. One additional rule this week - no exercise can be put off until Sunday. It quite simply won't happen on Sunday.
There, much more concise. I hope some of the work related ones will become more specific soon - in these cases the goal is better goals. I now realise, rightly or wrongly in the eyes of the experts, a specific goal for the sake of a specific goal is just stupid.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
2004 #4
Time to goal-track.
- Workday caffeine cut-back still on track, as are the lunches and vending machine policies. No slips this time.
- No extra games of fake poker. Stack looking healthy, incidentally. Shame it's not real.
- Watching loads of films. Haven't come close to missing this one since the start. Reliving the Matrix trilogy this week. A little sad that i'm past the best film of the three.
- My camera has taken a few shots, but they've only been inside my home. For some reason I don't seem to be able to elevate this to importance. I'll clear the card and go drop it in my laptop bag before I publish this. Hopefully that'll convince me.
- Bought two new work shirts. Neither one is blue. Goal met and complete! Nice and easy and looking a little smarter today.
- Weekly list reviews continue.
- Song-writing. With 10 days left in the month I have my song, and a rough recording of it, so technically this goal is met. I'm not done with it yet though.
- Still working towards the work goals. Back in a slump as far as my job is concerned - feeling lack of direction for the 9 millionth time. Nonetheless, this is reasonably on track. Will review these individually next week.
- Discussing positions within my company that I might be interested in hasn't happened. Due to my slump, i'm at a loss as to which positions I might be interested in. No progress for no good reason yet on this one.
- Exercise schedule - managed the two swims this week, but failed to cycle. Procrastinated on Saturday and it was too wet on Sunday. Forgot that it's too dark in the evening to make up for this in the week. This will ease as it gets lighter. Still aiming for the trio this week.
- Skills transfer/Skills gap - no new research. Plenty of time left and already some conclusions back in week 2.
- Work away from a computer screen. Not coming up with any ideas beyond something in music, and most of that even requires a computer screen at this point in time. Keep thinkin'.
- Management? About the same opinion as last week.
- Where to live - Birmingham instead now. See yesterdays post. Big progress made on finding suitable areas/lets. Too early to pounce right now, but poised to do this in early to mid February.
- Don't lose touch - had to turn down a visit to London to see Uni friends next weekend as already agreed to do something locally. No shortage of contact at the moment. Spending a bit more time emailing people too, which is good.
I must say, a few weeks into it, I really don't like how i've gone about doing this. The resolution style goals are fine and easy to measure. The career and life oriented ones aren't, and all i've really done is set myself some vague research topics with long deadlines in the hope of stumbling upon some kind of true calling. I'm going to rethink this before next week and at least reorganise it a bit.
I guess SMART goals would have helped me here, or at least MT goals. Manager Tools tells me that only measurable and time-bound really matter. You could argue my goals aren't specific, but that's really only because they're not measurable, they're just time-bound. Manager Tools, incidentally, is a great Podcast that has helped me improve at work, despite my wavering interest in management.
- Workday caffeine cut-back still on track, as are the lunches and vending machine policies. No slips this time.
- No extra games of fake poker. Stack looking healthy, incidentally. Shame it's not real.
- Watching loads of films. Haven't come close to missing this one since the start. Reliving the Matrix trilogy this week. A little sad that i'm past the best film of the three.
- My camera has taken a few shots, but they've only been inside my home. For some reason I don't seem to be able to elevate this to importance. I'll clear the card and go drop it in my laptop bag before I publish this. Hopefully that'll convince me.
- Bought two new work shirts. Neither one is blue. Goal met and complete! Nice and easy and looking a little smarter today.
- Weekly list reviews continue.
- Song-writing. With 10 days left in the month I have my song, and a rough recording of it, so technically this goal is met. I'm not done with it yet though.
- Still working towards the work goals. Back in a slump as far as my job is concerned - feeling lack of direction for the 9 millionth time. Nonetheless, this is reasonably on track. Will review these individually next week.
- Discussing positions within my company that I might be interested in hasn't happened. Due to my slump, i'm at a loss as to which positions I might be interested in. No progress for no good reason yet on this one.
- Exercise schedule - managed the two swims this week, but failed to cycle. Procrastinated on Saturday and it was too wet on Sunday. Forgot that it's too dark in the evening to make up for this in the week. This will ease as it gets lighter. Still aiming for the trio this week.
- Skills transfer/Skills gap - no new research. Plenty of time left and already some conclusions back in week 2.
- Work away from a computer screen. Not coming up with any ideas beyond something in music, and most of that even requires a computer screen at this point in time. Keep thinkin'.
- Management? About the same opinion as last week.
- Where to live - Birmingham instead now. See yesterdays post. Big progress made on finding suitable areas/lets. Too early to pounce right now, but poised to do this in early to mid February.
- Don't lose touch - had to turn down a visit to London to see Uni friends next weekend as already agreed to do something locally. No shortage of contact at the moment. Spending a bit more time emailing people too, which is good.
I must say, a few weeks into it, I really don't like how i've gone about doing this. The resolution style goals are fine and easy to measure. The career and life oriented ones aren't, and all i've really done is set myself some vague research topics with long deadlines in the hope of stumbling upon some kind of true calling. I'm going to rethink this before next week and at least reorganise it a bit.
I guess SMART goals would have helped me here, or at least MT goals. Manager Tools tells me that only measurable and time-bound really matter. You could argue my goals aren't specific, but that's really only because they're not measurable, they're just time-bound. Manager Tools, incidentally, is a great Podcast that has helped me improve at work, despite my wavering interest in management.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
UK Letting Market - Baffling, Rightmove rocks, Useful features or Social Networking?
Having now started my West Midlands flat hunt i'm surprised by what i'm finding.
I've been telling people that i'm reluctant to move because I think I have the lowest rent in existence for a one bedroom flat. I was under the impression that I wouldn't find anything similar for anything like the same price. I was wrong.
Not only that, but it seems a lot of the "luxury" apartments, which really just means anything refurbished within the last 5 years are available at far lower prices than expected in very central areas.
Originally set on setting up in Solihull i've had a change of heart - started thinking about how much I like being walking distance from... pretty much everything. Solihull is a town of many amenities and a nice place to be, but as much as I like the pleasantness (lots of green, very little litter), the thought of living there has suddenly given me the "closing the lid on youth and retiring into middle age" feeling. I'm nowhere near ready for that yet.
The new plan is Birmingham, South Central. There's loads available at all kinds of prices. 2 bedroom apartments for £100 less a month than studios with fold down beds in similar areas. Crazy!
The buy to let culture seems to have had the effect of creating a letting price war that I had assumed hadn't started trickling down yet. Couldn't be more pleased that I was wrong about that.
Finally for today, i'd like to extend my appreciation to rightmove.co.uk. The site itself isn't much more complicated than the type of lettings search engine most agencies have, but the sheer amount of participation in this aggregation makes this the only service I need for this type of search.
At the moment I am plotting pins on a saved Google My Map with links to the rightmove pages. It occurs to me that the ability to do this automatically within the site would be a very useful feature, and probably be quite possible with the Google Maps API. I think this type of thing is what we're still missing on many sites at the moment..
Designers and developers are so blinded by the 2007 idea of adding social networking features to their sites at all costs that they're ignoring the benefits of adding non-social user-profile based features. I picture somebody deciding not to add something like the above because they can't find a way to realise benefits from letting users share their house buying/letting experience with each other.
The bottom line is i'd like to record the properties i'm interested in, and see their locations on a map with simple links back to the details, but I have no desire to share this with anyone else - if anything I want to keep it very private. Both the house buying and letting markets are competitions and i'm hardly going to gain an advantage by building a list of all the best finds and then shipping it to other people similar to myself who are likely looking for the same. This is no reason not to build the feature just for me though - it would keep me coming back for certain.
I've been telling people that i'm reluctant to move because I think I have the lowest rent in existence for a one bedroom flat. I was under the impression that I wouldn't find anything similar for anything like the same price. I was wrong.
Not only that, but it seems a lot of the "luxury" apartments, which really just means anything refurbished within the last 5 years are available at far lower prices than expected in very central areas.
Originally set on setting up in Solihull i've had a change of heart - started thinking about how much I like being walking distance from... pretty much everything. Solihull is a town of many amenities and a nice place to be, but as much as I like the pleasantness (lots of green, very little litter), the thought of living there has suddenly given me the "closing the lid on youth and retiring into middle age" feeling. I'm nowhere near ready for that yet.
The new plan is Birmingham, South Central. There's loads available at all kinds of prices. 2 bedroom apartments for £100 less a month than studios with fold down beds in similar areas. Crazy!
The buy to let culture seems to have had the effect of creating a letting price war that I had assumed hadn't started trickling down yet. Couldn't be more pleased that I was wrong about that.
Finally for today, i'd like to extend my appreciation to rightmove.co.uk. The site itself isn't much more complicated than the type of lettings search engine most agencies have, but the sheer amount of participation in this aggregation makes this the only service I need for this type of search.
At the moment I am plotting pins on a saved Google My Map with links to the rightmove pages. It occurs to me that the ability to do this automatically within the site would be a very useful feature, and probably be quite possible with the Google Maps API. I think this type of thing is what we're still missing on many sites at the moment..
Designers and developers are so blinded by the 2007 idea of adding social networking features to their sites at all costs that they're ignoring the benefits of adding non-social user-profile based features. I picture somebody deciding not to add something like the above because they can't find a way to realise benefits from letting users share their house buying/letting experience with each other.
The bottom line is i'd like to record the properties i'm interested in, and see their locations on a map with simple links back to the details, but I have no desire to share this with anyone else - if anything I want to keep it very private. Both the house buying and letting markets are competitions and i'm hardly going to gain an advantage by building a list of all the best finds and then shipping it to other people similar to myself who are likely looking for the same. This is no reason not to build the feature just for me though - it would keep me coming back for certain.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Concentration is a Killer
I continue to be baffled by an affliction that seems to worsen with age. It can be summed up as the mind hindering what the body already knows.
Intense concentration should, in theory, improve a human's ability to perfect something, but it seems more and more now if I want to screw something up, the easiest way is to concentrate as I'm doing it.
This could easily be an indicator of my intelligence - i.e. not high enough to do the thinking and the doing at the same time.
Some examples:
- Guitar. Playing a fairly new song from memory; just the chords. If I concentrate, i'll end up stopping wondering where I am, or fretting the wrong fret because i'm trying to remember what comes next, even though my hand has already gone roughly where it needs to go, so I must know the next position, but it doesn't stop my mind from desperately trying to work it out, ruining my hand's good work by, I suppose, making me hesitate before then over/under-compensating.
- Typing. Like most technical children of the 80's, I can type in a non-standard way that leads to amazement in older generations, but, as I continue this sentence and really try hard to concentrate on what i'm typing I will be sure to make some errors... On looking up I actually didn't make any this time, but you get the point.
- Walking straight when drunk.
- Walking on a narrow beam.
- Carrying a full glass evenly to avoid spilling any of the drink.
- Kicking a ball accurately... the list is probably endless.
I'm really not describing anything unique to me here. What I could use though is a tried and tested method for either convincing my mind to help me rather than hinder me, or at very least to leave my body alone to get on with it. Is this what the drug culture of the artistic world is all about?
Intense concentration should, in theory, improve a human's ability to perfect something, but it seems more and more now if I want to screw something up, the easiest way is to concentrate as I'm doing it.
This could easily be an indicator of my intelligence - i.e. not high enough to do the thinking and the doing at the same time.
Some examples:
- Guitar. Playing a fairly new song from memory; just the chords. If I concentrate, i'll end up stopping wondering where I am, or fretting the wrong fret because i'm trying to remember what comes next, even though my hand has already gone roughly where it needs to go, so I must know the next position, but it doesn't stop my mind from desperately trying to work it out, ruining my hand's good work by, I suppose, making me hesitate before then over/under-compensating.
- Typing. Like most technical children of the 80's, I can type in a non-standard way that leads to amazement in older generations, but, as I continue this sentence and really try hard to concentrate on what i'm typing I will be sure to make some errors... On looking up I actually didn't make any this time, but you get the point.
- Walking straight when drunk.
- Walking on a narrow beam.
- Carrying a full glass evenly to avoid spilling any of the drink.
- Kicking a ball accurately... the list is probably endless.
I'm really not describing anything unique to me here. What I could use though is a tried and tested method for either convincing my mind to help me rather than hinder me, or at very least to leave my body alone to get on with it. Is this what the drug culture of the artistic world is all about?
Monday, January 14, 2008
2008 #3
Two weeks down.. sort of. Didn't this all begin on a Wednesday? Does that matter?
- Workday drinking ethic - still on track. Tilted the wagon today with two coffee's in the morning but balanced it out by not having one later. Tick.
- Lunch and snacks - largely on track. One trip to the vending machine, one to the canteen. Some excuse. Not too worried about it. Half a tick.
Tip - if you have come to enjoy tuna in sunflower oil, do not accidentally pick up tuna in brine. I find it completely inedible. On the day I reached this conclusion, the vending machine saved me. The following day (it normally lasts 2-3) a pork-stuffing baguette completely ruined all meat-stuffing sandwiches for me due to over-mayo. I like this over-hyphenating.
- Play poker - this one game max. on a weekday has actually improved my game, and i'm sticking with it. Tick.
- Movies - still batting above the goal, watching 3 in the week. Have almost completed the full Star Wars (movie) marathon. Can't believe I wasn't into it when I was a kid. Tick.
- Camera - still not taken it anywhere. I don't think I feel i've been anywhere interesting enough, but this really wasn't the point. I will make a point of not having nothing to show for this one next week. Cross.
- Work shirts - still not done it yet. Still 17 days to do it.
- Reviewing weekly. Tick.
- Song a month - I have an idea and an emerging song structure. Some of it is recorded. Good chance that i'll be okay on this one. Really enjoying spending more time playing too..
- Works goals - booked some training last week which address specific goals. Still on track, but work to do.
- Talking to colleagues to obtain insight - as I said, this will probably need to happen on specific days. Wednesday this week may be one, so here's hoping I do it.
- Man management? - I'm back in the thick of admin staff leadership at the moment. Fairly convinced I don't want to do this type of man management. That's another shaper to what will hopefully, eventually be a conclusion.
- Exercise - I have learned that my exercise choices are minimally effective. That said, both have helped me before, so i'll stick to them for now. In the first week I managed only one swim and one ride, which is a swim short, but the missed occasion was with good reason, and judging by the state of me after the eventual first swim, it might be a good thing that i'm easing into it. Two this week, hopefully.
Even the ride seemed hard. The difficulty with cycling is that you can go quite a distance in very little time, but you always have to come back, and it never leaves the mind, particularly if unfit. The feeling is along the lines of "if I feel this bad now, and I have to ride outward for another ten minutes, how will I manage to get back". The solution I suspect is round-trips, which i'll look into for this week.
Oh, and neither were 90 minutes - both about an hour. Again, hopefully i'm just easing into it. Half a tick.
- Does my work transfer to other companies - no further research this week.
- What work away from a screen would I enjoy? - no further research here either.
- Where to live? - Still Solihull, but it's mainly going to be for the purpose of losing the commute. It doesn't, and I think shouldn't feel like a final destination.
- Keeping in touch - still going well. Hung out with someone not seen for quite some time at the weekend, and trying to chat a bit more via stupid Facebook.
Again, reasonable progress, but nothing ground-breaking. I think I need to commit to reviewing these daily to keep them fresh in mind, though i'm definitely not writing about it any more than weekly!
- Workday drinking ethic - still on track. Tilted the wagon today with two coffee's in the morning but balanced it out by not having one later. Tick.
- Lunch and snacks - largely on track. One trip to the vending machine, one to the canteen. Some excuse. Not too worried about it. Half a tick.
Tip - if you have come to enjoy tuna in sunflower oil, do not accidentally pick up tuna in brine. I find it completely inedible. On the day I reached this conclusion, the vending machine saved me. The following day (it normally lasts 2-3) a pork-stuffing baguette completely ruined all meat-stuffing sandwiches for me due to over-mayo. I like this over-hyphenating.
- Play poker - this one game max. on a weekday has actually improved my game, and i'm sticking with it. Tick.
- Movies - still batting above the goal, watching 3 in the week. Have almost completed the full Star Wars (movie) marathon. Can't believe I wasn't into it when I was a kid. Tick.
- Camera - still not taken it anywhere. I don't think I feel i've been anywhere interesting enough, but this really wasn't the point. I will make a point of not having nothing to show for this one next week. Cross.
- Work shirts - still not done it yet. Still 17 days to do it.
- Reviewing weekly. Tick.
- Song a month - I have an idea and an emerging song structure. Some of it is recorded. Good chance that i'll be okay on this one. Really enjoying spending more time playing too..
- Works goals - booked some training last week which address specific goals. Still on track, but work to do.
- Talking to colleagues to obtain insight - as I said, this will probably need to happen on specific days. Wednesday this week may be one, so here's hoping I do it.
- Man management? - I'm back in the thick of admin staff leadership at the moment. Fairly convinced I don't want to do this type of man management. That's another shaper to what will hopefully, eventually be a conclusion.
- Exercise - I have learned that my exercise choices are minimally effective. That said, both have helped me before, so i'll stick to them for now. In the first week I managed only one swim and one ride, which is a swim short, but the missed occasion was with good reason, and judging by the state of me after the eventual first swim, it might be a good thing that i'm easing into it. Two this week, hopefully.
Even the ride seemed hard. The difficulty with cycling is that you can go quite a distance in very little time, but you always have to come back, and it never leaves the mind, particularly if unfit. The feeling is along the lines of "if I feel this bad now, and I have to ride outward for another ten minutes, how will I manage to get back". The solution I suspect is round-trips, which i'll look into for this week.
Oh, and neither were 90 minutes - both about an hour. Again, hopefully i'm just easing into it. Half a tick.
- Does my work transfer to other companies - no further research this week.
- What work away from a screen would I enjoy? - no further research here either.
- Where to live? - Still Solihull, but it's mainly going to be for the purpose of losing the commute. It doesn't, and I think shouldn't feel like a final destination.
- Keeping in touch - still going well. Hung out with someone not seen for quite some time at the weekend, and trying to chat a bit more via stupid Facebook.
Again, reasonable progress, but nothing ground-breaking. I think I need to commit to reviewing these daily to keep them fresh in mind, though i'm definitely not writing about it any more than weekly!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Gizmodo Screen Killing
Story of the day, even though it's probably yesterday's news by now, Gizmodo writers killing screens at CES. Everyone knew it was coming, half the people are saying LOL and the other half are saying the whole thing is way out of line.
The latter viewpoint wins with me, simply because the only defense anybody seems to have for this stunt, disregarding lost time, money, reputation and opportunity for CES stand-runners, is that it's really funny, and we should get a sense of humour.
Why is this funny? How is this funny? Has the entire bullshit blogosphere taken leave of it's senses and decided that turning a television off is funny? Yes, I watched the video - after about 20 laugh-free seconds the only reason to keep watching was in the hope of one of these guys being spotted and punched. Sadly this didn't happen on Camera, but we can hope it happened elsewhere.
If Gizmodo had a point to make, it might be worth listening. Lacking this, the stunt can only fall somewhere between pointless and mean-spirited, and there's nothing positive in that void.
It really is a shame that the likeable lifehacker has to live in the same stable as Denton's other rags.
The latter viewpoint wins with me, simply because the only defense anybody seems to have for this stunt, disregarding lost time, money, reputation and opportunity for CES stand-runners, is that it's really funny, and we should get a sense of humour.
Why is this funny? How is this funny? Has the entire bullshit blogosphere taken leave of it's senses and decided that turning a television off is funny? Yes, I watched the video - after about 20 laugh-free seconds the only reason to keep watching was in the hope of one of these guys being spotted and punched. Sadly this didn't happen on Camera, but we can hope it happened elsewhere.
If Gizmodo had a point to make, it might be worth listening. Lacking this, the stunt can only fall somewhere between pointless and mean-spirited, and there's nothing positive in that void.
It really is a shame that the likeable lifehacker has to live in the same stable as Denton's other rags.
Monday, January 07, 2008
2008 #2
One week on from the goal setting extravaganza, it's time for the first exam.
- Two coffee's and two teas at work. I actually failed this by having an extra coffee through absent mindedness on day one, but i've been fine ever since. 95%. Slight Improvement notice.
- No more vending machine visits at work. Lunch has returned to tuna salad, and smaller portions to boot. 100% so far.
- One game of play poker on weekdays. 100%. Even managed 0 games on one day.
- Watching two films a week to get the Blockbuster list down. I've watched three! 100%+. Plus i've finally watched the Star Wars prequel trilogy. I think i'd previously seen episode 3, and half of episode 1.
- Take my camera everywhere with me. Complete failure. I haven't remembered to take it anywhere yet. 0%. Big improvement notice.
- Two new work shirts before the end of January. Well, I haven't done it yet, but it's only the 7th. Technically 0%, but no failure yet.
- Reviewing this list weekly. Okay so far. 100%
- Write a song a month. I have an idea for this month. I'm aiming to flesh it out later this week and this weekend. 20%, but plenty of time to go. I have to decide whether I meant write, or whether I meant write and record. I think at least something must be recorded for anything to qualify as a pass.
- Meet my existing work goals by April. This may be happening automatically. I've certainly accepted a responsibility that will assist in meeting one in the last week, so progress is being made. I'm not going to % all of these - it's pointless.
- I haven't yet spoken to anybody about various potential future roles in the business yet, but I haven't been around these people yet. I may have to squeeze these ones in when I make odd visits to other offices at the moment.
- Making a final decision on whether or not to pursue man management. An interesting conversation I had with my dad this week has pushed me a little back in the direction of management. At the heart of what he was saying, there are more types of man management than managing administrative teams. Good point, and I continue to work towards a decision.
- Committing to exercise. I decided to wait until week 2 on this one specifically to avoid the resolution rush. Here I will firm up the plan. Tomorrow I will swim. On Wednesday I will swim. On Saturday or Sunday I will cycle. I could have swam tonight instead of doing two nights in a row, but it seems i'm doing this...
- Does the type of work I do transfer to other businesses/companies at the same salary? Initial findings indicate that surprisingly, yes, perhaps. Either that or many of the existing skills coupled with a few new ones could get me there. Further research to come.
- No thoughts yet on what work away from a computer screen I might like to try.
- Where would I rather live? Solihull. I'm less impressed with central Birmingham after visiting this weekend. Finding people willing to give me lists of property to rent in Solihull estate agencies seems more difficult than expected. Good job I have this Internet thing.
- Not letting weeks pass without contacting friends. So far so good - had a meet up with a few at the weekend. This did sound like a bit of a loser's goal but I can recall quiet periods in the past where life became work, home and computer. That's all i'm trying to avoid. That and losing friends of course.
So far I think i'm doing reasonably. I hope I won't go into this detail every week - it's really not necessary. Hopefully when I write next week i'll have been swimming a few times. Can't see why I wouldn't have...
- Two coffee's and two teas at work. I actually failed this by having an extra coffee through absent mindedness on day one, but i've been fine ever since. 95%. Slight Improvement notice.
- No more vending machine visits at work. Lunch has returned to tuna salad, and smaller portions to boot. 100% so far.
- One game of play poker on weekdays. 100%. Even managed 0 games on one day.
- Watching two films a week to get the Blockbuster list down. I've watched three! 100%+. Plus i've finally watched the Star Wars prequel trilogy. I think i'd previously seen episode 3, and half of episode 1.
- Take my camera everywhere with me. Complete failure. I haven't remembered to take it anywhere yet. 0%. Big improvement notice.
- Two new work shirts before the end of January. Well, I haven't done it yet, but it's only the 7th. Technically 0%, but no failure yet.
- Reviewing this list weekly. Okay so far. 100%
- Write a song a month. I have an idea for this month. I'm aiming to flesh it out later this week and this weekend. 20%, but plenty of time to go. I have to decide whether I meant write, or whether I meant write and record. I think at least something must be recorded for anything to qualify as a pass.
- Meet my existing work goals by April. This may be happening automatically. I've certainly accepted a responsibility that will assist in meeting one in the last week, so progress is being made. I'm not going to % all of these - it's pointless.
- I haven't yet spoken to anybody about various potential future roles in the business yet, but I haven't been around these people yet. I may have to squeeze these ones in when I make odd visits to other offices at the moment.
- Making a final decision on whether or not to pursue man management. An interesting conversation I had with my dad this week has pushed me a little back in the direction of management. At the heart of what he was saying, there are more types of man management than managing administrative teams. Good point, and I continue to work towards a decision.
- Committing to exercise. I decided to wait until week 2 on this one specifically to avoid the resolution rush. Here I will firm up the plan. Tomorrow I will swim. On Wednesday I will swim. On Saturday or Sunday I will cycle. I could have swam tonight instead of doing two nights in a row, but it seems i'm doing this...
- Does the type of work I do transfer to other businesses/companies at the same salary? Initial findings indicate that surprisingly, yes, perhaps. Either that or many of the existing skills coupled with a few new ones could get me there. Further research to come.
- No thoughts yet on what work away from a computer screen I might like to try.
- Where would I rather live? Solihull. I'm less impressed with central Birmingham after visiting this weekend. Finding people willing to give me lists of property to rent in Solihull estate agencies seems more difficult than expected. Good job I have this Internet thing.
- Not letting weeks pass without contacting friends. So far so good - had a meet up with a few at the weekend. This did sound like a bit of a loser's goal but I can recall quiet periods in the past where life became work, home and computer. That's all i'm trying to avoid. That and losing friends of course.
So far I think i'm doing reasonably. I hope I won't go into this detail every week - it's really not necessary. Hopefully when I write next week i'll have been swimming a few times. Can't see why I wouldn't have...
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
What I Changed My Mind About
I saw a post on, I think, Web Worker Daily yesterday with the above title, but it was yet another post on the ongoing struggle with email in the business world. Yawn.
Personally, I changed my mind on a good few things last year, but one topical and of note would be my view on music distribution.
I had been one of a group of people stating that they still wished to purchase a CD, feeling the need to own something physical, and because so much album art is, as the name implies, art.
Today, I feel more that the only thing tying me to buying a CD is that i'm still unable to purchase lossless music online, even though that would essentially be the same bitstream that I can rip from any purchased audio CD (legally or otherwise - that's this weeks episode of the RIAA soap). DRM free music is gradually becoming available, but is there anything lossless? I haven't seen anything. If it becomes available, I may never buy another CD.
As for album art, yes, it's great, but it's just as great pictured alongside the tracklisting in Canola, pictured above, which incidentally, i'm loving. If you have a Nokia tablet, give it a go (it is an actual beta though - some issues, but very usable and only going to improve).
As for the Radiohead experiment, some will now no doubt be accusing them of a backpedal, as interviews post-CD release seem to speak little of the band embracing the new medium and giving a finger to the industry, more just doing a little experimenting. I chose to pay 0, incidentally, with a view to trying before buying. If I had enjoyed the album, i'd have returned and paid. I didn't enjoy it in the slightest, and wouldn't pay for it. What little artist I have inside me though would rather allow somebody to do this than force them to pay up front for something they then found they didn't want. Where's the artistic integrity in that?
For allowing me to do this Mr Yorke, I salute you. As to your music, few would argue that you're an acquired taste, and i'm not sure i'm ever going to be able to extend mine beyond your past radio-friendly singles.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
2008
In my earliest real post (ignoring the first test post) on this blog I began:
If I don't start writing things down...
...i'm never going to remember anything.
I really hate that post. Reading it grates with me. Trying far too hard, making suggestions that I didn't really have intentions of following through on, and coming across like a school newspaper reviewer. That I enjoy reading my newer posts is a good indicator of progress towards a more honest and comfortable blog, which is certainly something I prefer.
It's great to look back and see progress large and small in any field, which circles right back to the top, and the purpose of this post - how can I track progress if I don't record goals. Funny how that linked back in.
I was going to do some categorising here, but I think a muddled list of blurted plans and goals is better to keep the mind spinning:
- In the second half of 2007 I drank ridiculous amounts of coffee every day. At work starting tomorrow, I will start the morning and afternoon with a coffee and have a cup of tea midway through each also. If anybody offers me a drink beyond that, or if i'm thirsty, i'll take water.
- I'll cut out what had become a daily visit to a vending machine as of tomorrow. I will continue to unapologetically eat 3-4 pieces of fruit throughout the day. My lunch will return to the Tuna salad which served me well last year, but alternate to pasta every few weeks, just to keep things interesting. Is this too specific? Perhaps.
- I will limit myself to one game of play poker on week days.
- I will watch two films each week until my Blockbuster list is as empty as possible, then review whether to continue with the subscription service - If I got excellent value from the deal in the first year i've definitely let that slip in the second.
- I will start taking my camera everywhere again, and use it. I can't work out why I've stopped doing this anyway. A week should not pass without new photos having been taken.
- I will have bought at least two new work shirts by the end of January. Two of my current work shirts I bought in 2002, and it shows. Two more aren't much better. Oh yes, and NEITHER ONE will be blue. I have four blue work shirts. I never wear blue outside work. Very strange.
- I will review this list every week, recording progress, success, failure, and in the case of failure, how to resolve to success.
- Write a new song every month in 2008. Not lyrics; i'm not good at that.. just the music.
- Meet my existing work goals to allow me to reach the next stage at my current grade by April.
- Start talking to people in positions (work) that I am interested in to get a genuine feeling for what the work entails. Have something to talk about on this point by the end of February.
- Make a final decision on whether or not to pursue a career involving man management by June. Elimination is better than nothing for the man with no direction.
- Commit to a set exercise schedule three times a week by end of second week in January. Alternate activities on a non-weekly basis to avoid it feeling overly routine. Aim for 90 minutes of constant exertion for real benefit. Swims must not be 45 minutes as they have been in the past, and cycling can't just be a 20 minute activity. Make a concerted effort to bring old weight bench back into use as a third activity after moving somewhere hopefully with space.
- Seriously research whether the type of work I undertake would transfer to other businesses at the same salary - this seems unlikely. Look into what would be required to bridge this likely gap. Do this before the end of February.
- Look into what work away from a computer screen could interest me. Do this by April.
- Decide where i'd really rather live - Solihull, or closer to Birmingham centre. Do this by the end of January. Once decided, work on locking down a new let for early April by the end of February, ideally with 1 week but no more of overlap to allow move. This is always tough. This time with furniture and a longer distance (i've moved around Leicester 5 times in 6 years but without any large possessions or difficulty) it's likely to be tougher still.
- Do not let a week pass without contacting at least one of my friends, with or without a specific reason.
That'll do at this point. I'm no believer in setting things like this in stone, but these seem like some good points to push. I had hoped to put a few more career goals in there, but the ongoing indecision makes that difficult, so instead I threw in a few that might get me closer to being able to set some more specific ones a little later.
So, it's 9pm on 01/01/08. Well rested after a week away from the office i'm ready for a new if slightly ambiguous challenge starting tomorrow. Wish me luck, and good luck to anybody else raising their bar today!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)