In my last post I looked back at 2005 and the resolutions I made and how well I met them. Now it’s time to look ahead to 2006 and find some worthy stuff to strive for. I have been giving this some thought but have not come up with any earth shattering ideas that I think I can meet (curing cancer is just not in my future no matter how much I would like to. Sorry). I think I’ll stick with a reading goal. I liked that one last year. I hit a couple of slumps during the summer where I probably would have stopped reading and parked in front of the tube instead. 24 fun books is a little too much (I am still addicted to WoW after all) so I think I’ll target 18 instead of 24. 4 technical books was about right but I’ll push a little and go for 6.
I could go for a blog goal but that seems a little cheesy. I don’t agree with posting x amount in y time frame. I’d rather post when I think it is either interesting for the 3 readers or something I want to write about (like this post. Who is really interested in my resolutions?). I think this idea will work: I’ll introduce a blog roll this year. I know lots of people have blog rolls and I never see them since I read all my blogs in Omea Reader. To get around that I’ll do a short writeup on each one as I add them and post it on the blog so that the 2 of my 3 readers that view in an aggregator can see them too. See, I’m not committing to any number of posts and have a huge time frame.
I suppose I should finish the work I started last year with the backup plan and put in place an off site rotation. Ugh.
So far these seem a little easy. I’ll add one more that I know I’ll hate but I can definitely improve upon. A couple of years ago I had a resolution to learn to touch type. I type just fine if I can look at the keys but I really need to learn to type without looking at the keys. I was mildly successful. I learned all the letters and a couple of the symbols but none of the numbers. I also did not practice much at work because I was so sloooooow at it and being a consultant I felt that it was not proper for me to bill while not working at full speed. I’ve gotten to a point now that I’m not too much slower at touch typing (unless I stop and think about it(stupid brain, get out of the way!)) so I need to start doing it everywhere. This is gonna hurt in the short term but should be better overall. Ugh again.
Recap:
- Reading goal: 18 fun books and 6 technical books finished in 2006.
- Introduce a blog roll
- Finish my backup plan from last year by adding off site support
- Continue to strive for touch typing nirvana
You’ve seen mine. What are yours?
Now playing: Hungry Lucy - Telltale Shot
I'm always late with my new year resolutions (or whatever the popular term for them is these days). I think I'm always swamped leading up to the new year and never take the time to think about them until a couple of weeks after the new year starts. It is now a couple of weeks after the new year started and is time for a re-cap of last years goals and to make some new ones. I had 2 main goals (resolutions, whatever) last year:
- Reading goal: Finish 24 books for fun and 4 technical books for the year
- Backup goal: Come up with a backup plan and stick with it
Simple right? Let's see how I did. I finished 16 fun books and 4 technical books. Not too bad. I think I was short on the fun side for one reason: World of Warcraft. I got addicted to this game and spent more time than I care to consider playing it (although I seem to play it far less than a lot of people online. Some of them are just plain crazy with the amount of time spent playing). I think most of that time came from reading and sleeping budgets. Thus short on the reading goal. 4 technical books doesn't really sound like a lot since it is only 1 book every 3 months. The key here is to finish 4 books in the year. With technical books I often read bits and pieces and never finish the book. Who can really sit and read .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference Volume 1: Base Class Library and Extended Numerics Library all the way through? I prefer to pick it up, read short sections and move on until next time I feel like reading a little of it. I'll never know if I read the whole thing (I doubt I will but stranger things have happened(That was a good place for a link to something strange but I sudden;y drew a blank on strange things(Weak one, but try this))).
I managed to setup a backup plan in the 3rd quarter of 2005 and it is still running. Should I call that a success? Maybe. I setup some NAS space and have my machines setup to backup key files to the space on a regular basis. This protects me from the (all too common) hard drive failure but it does not protect me from the (also all too common) fire. For the latter I need some sort of off site backup plan. That piece is not in place yet. I'll call it a partially met resolution (goal, whatever). Two resolutions, two partially met resolutions. I'm actually satisfied with that this year. 2/3 of my fun books + lots of WoW time + all of my technical books is successful enough for a new years target (resolution, goal, whatever).
Next time….some new targets, goals, resolutions, whatever