todo for 2005 in review
Very late in 2004, I made a list of things to do in 2005. Basically, my new year’s resolutions. Let’s review, shall we?
- only watch TV if I planned to see what’s on
This went pretty well at first. I got pretty good at avoiding the TV. Then I got a TiVo, and I started watching huge amounts of Law and Order. I’ve certainly backed off since then, but now I’m watching too many suggestions. I need to cut back on things like King of the Hill and South Park.
So, this one was a qualified success, but will remain an area for improvement.
- write more prose and/or poetry
I didn’t even try to do Nanowrimo, this year. I have done a lot of writing-like work with the RPG I’m running. I think I may just eliminate this goal, in the future, and maybe replace it with something like “do more letter-writing.”
- learn enough Obj-C to write a Cocoa application
Ha! No, this didn’t happen. I’d still like to learn to work on Cocoa, but it’s just not very urgent. Maybe if I had something specific I wanted to do, and I had a real need for it. As it stands, this looks like a loser.
- keep a record of every book I read (and read more of them)
I’m not sure how I did, compared to last year, because I had no record of last year’s reading. I did start keeping a record, and frankly I’m disappointed in myself. I need to up my pace and really plow through more books that I’m currently picking at. If I replaced every hour of stupid TV watching with an hour of reading, I’d make some serious progress.
I’ll take half credit on this one.
- go have a beer with a friend more often
I definitely did this more, this year, than last. Still, not much. I just need more local friends who actually have time to grab a beer now and then!
- get better at maintaining my own bicycle
Finally, a serious win! I took a bike maintenance course at the Bethlehem Bicycle Co-operative, and it was loads of fun. I got a certificate from the Park Tool School program, I took apart most of my bike and put it back together, I got a bike stand, and for Christmas I got a number of the tools I need.
Once the winter is over, I will try to do more riding and repairing!
- enroll in a Spanish course (if possible)
Again, I did it! I took Spanish I and II, and I feel alright about how much I learned in just thirty hours or so. I need to find a way to put my Spanish into use, though. If nothing else, I should get my dad to speak more Spanish with me. It’s so very, very easy to be lazy about using a foreign language when you already share your native language with people. I could speak German or Spanish with my parents, but they both speak English, so es dificil por mi no hablar ingles.
- learn to drive a car
Er, whoops. My learner’s permit expired, and I didn’t renew it. I really will get around to this, someday.
- cook and bake more often
Honestly, I think I did this less often than last year, and that’s saying something. I need to pick out some simple recipes and schedule my attempts to make them. I am especially sad that I didn’t try to make scrapple, this year, as I’d hoped to.
I still have the Joy of Cooking, which I got for Christmas last year and helped me feel good about making this resolution.
- be better about continually improving my software
I don’t know… I’m certainly not anywhere near as good about it as I wanted to be. I need to work on organizing my agenda better. Keeping a real todo list seems impossible for me, as for many geeks. I just can’t find a planner that I like, be it hipster, RT, or Stickies.
So far, Stickies may be the best I’ve found so far.
That’s it… I’ll hopefully draw up my agenda for ‘06 before it gets here.