A look back
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