h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A bit like New Years Resolutions, list 13 things you want to do this year with a short explanation, then come back periodically and update us on how it's going.

My 13:

1) Be more positive. I'm maybe a bit too quick to see the bad side in people. This year I'm going to make a conscious effort to be more positive.

2) Get my belly to the point it doesn't wobble when I run.

3) Cycle 1000 miles over the year.

4) Visit my sisters - something I very rarely do and it's perhaps time I re-connected more with my family.

5) Track down at least one old schoolfriend and say hello. It's been twenty odd years since I spoke to someone I was at school with.

6) Spend one entire week off the internet, I spend far too long on the net and it's time to perhaps find other interests or at least regulate this one more.

7) Climb a Munro. Never done it. I lived on Arran for eight years and never quite got around to going up Goatfell so no more thinking I'll climb one some day, just do it.

8) Reduce my credit card balance by at least 50%

9) Take the wife for a meal at a Michelin restaurant. I eat out a lot with my job - I should take my wife out more often.

10) See the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo - ok, this is a wife thing again. She loves pandas and the last time we visited the zoo we had to cut it short because she was struggling on her sticks. This time, take a wheelchair.

11) Make a pot of soup - and eat it. I've made soup before but never liked the results enough that I could thole a bowl.

12) Give blood

13) Go an entire year without getting a parking or speeding ticket.

13 4 13

1 Make Soup
2 Volunteer random acts of kindness
3 Exercise my mind
4 Exercise my body
5 Work on better communications
6 Stop and smell the flowers
7 Watch the Sun rise
8 Create Art
9 Get help
10 Walk somewhere interesting
11 Be a good friend
12 Provoke better thinking
13 Become less superstitious

Thirteen's a pretty tall order.
Some of us can't count that high.
I just can't concentrate on one idea that long.

So, can I do, like a ten percent thingy, and just
have one point three things?

1. Get out of bed every day.
.3 Maybe think about maybe doing some stuff maybe.

Yay! That was fun!

Ta!


~jwf~

blimey, 13...

ok here goes...

1. (inspired by swl) reconnect with my wider family - it's moving from the "only meet at weddings" to "only meet at funerals" stage, and I always forget how much I like my cousins (the approximately 5 million of them)

2. Stop writing my essays at the last minute in a rush then being peeved at a less than brilliant mark (so: keep on track with the studies)

3. read less rubbish

4. keep with the gym schedule, it's working well - but add in more strength and "stomach" training

5. get out on my (push)bike at least once a month

6. find a new job (closer to home)

7. stop going to work when I'm sick

8. re-do the Gruesomes' bedrooms

9. get that broken tooth sorted out

10. throw out less food

11. take more photographs

12. stop always wearing comfy jeans and sweatshirts and dress up a bit more

13. call people out on the little everyday sexism things (apologies in advance)

Some of these are daily goals, so I won't be reporting back that frequently! But good idea for a thread.

1. Run an average of a mile a day (I'll use MapMyRun to track it)
2. Run a half marathon (Either Lisburn or Belfast)
3. Eat one vegetarian meal a week
4. Have 2 nights a week alcohol free. Minimum.
5. Spend 10 minutes a day training my little dog - there's a gold award to work for!
6. Say I love you every day.
7. Visit the Ulster Museum.
8. Go see Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty (Grand Opera House March)
9. Join a yoga class.
10. Cross the Peace bridge in Derry
11. Tidy my desk. (My home desk, the work one's fairly good)
12. Enjoy any holidays I take - write a blog with plenty of photos.
13. Get back under 140 pounds - and stay there!

1. resolve to think of 12 other resolutions by the end of 2013.

1. Maintain the slow but sure momentum I've managed to achieve with my (current) diet.

2. Keep up the gradual increase I've managed to achieve with my current exercise plan.

3. Spend my money more wisely. I've kept a spreadsheet of everything I've spent in 2012 and it's shocking how much I waste - 3% of my spending went on buying sandwiches instead of making my own.

4. Read more. Since I started driving instead of getting the train my reading has dropped from 1½ hours a day plus bedtime to just bedtime. I need to turn off the telly/computer and read instead, at least on one or two evenings a week.

5. Moisturise regularly. I keep forgetting and sometimes when I get round to it, it actually stings because my skin is so dry.

6. Keep up with the news a bit more. I live in a bit of a bubble, getting by on little more than headlines, so I need to make an effort to watch more news and less junk.

7. Set aside a room a week to "proper" clean. I find it hard to care about housework and sometimes it gets on top of me.

8. Take the stairs. I work on the 6th floor and want to start a stair effort whereby I get off on the 5th floor in January, 4th in Feb and so on. The only time I had to climb all 6 floors my legs were decidedly wobbly by the 4th floor and I wasn't at all sure I would make it.

9. Think of something to write about and have a go at a guide entry. I've been here long enough now, I really should.

10. Make more soup. I just made broccoli & stilton soup because someone bought me a jar of stilton for Christmas. It was really, really easy and really, really tasty. Must do more.

11. Vary my vegetables. I'm very persistent in my preference to broccoli & sprouts, so I want to try maybe some of the squashes, sweet potato, anything a bit odd looking in the supermarket. That could tie in with No 10 too.

12. Keep a diary regularly. Not a deepest feelings one, just one which records the day to day stuff, any health niggles, things happening in the lives of those around me. It's a useful reference and I have a really pretty little diary to do it in so fingers crossed.

13. Take more photos. Whole occasions go by with no record because I've forgotten the camera (my phone is useless and I can't seem to transfer them anywhere).

Good idea for a thread. The 13s of others may even provide inspiration.

Deb

Oh cripes. I hate New Year's Resolutions. I'm rubbish at them and it's a bad time of the year to do it anyway. But anyways...

1. Lose more weight. I've started, so I'd better finish.

2. Get divorced. This has taken a while, and progress has been glacial.

3. Go to Germany. Planning on bringing my kids on their first big road trip some time in the summer.

4. Secure a secondary school for my daughter. This promises to be something of very little fun.

5. Go hiking on a number of occasions with my twin boys. The summer better hold up, I'm warning it now.

6. Get back to QEDCon and avoid trapping myself in the stairwell. (Also if I can secure some speakers for my local meetings, that would be jus' great).

7. Avoid being made redundant. I think I say this every year. I'm going to have to work damn hard next year, so hopefully it will be worth it, hopefully I will benefit from it, and hopefully I will enjoy my time doing it.

8. Learn German. It's embarrassing. I have, what's known in Ireland as "cúpla focal" in German, which works perfect, but when I am speaking to German people it all somehow comes out mangled and confused.

9. Get some overdue dental work done. Not just me, my whole family.

10. Start saving. Ha! Good one. But yes. This is really important. IMPORTANT, d'y'hear?

11. Learn a computer language - Python. And start getting my kids interested in programming.

12. Learn to use a camera properly. I'm sure there's more to it than point and click.

13. Don't die.

I'm glad you didn't suggest this back in '99...

1.) Spend more time with family.
2.) Spend more time with old friends.
3.) Get out and enjoy the countryside more.
4.) Go on a walking holiday.
5.) Lose weight
6.) More importantly, don't put it back on immediately after.
7.) Overcome addiction to biscuits.
8.) Actually sort out the vast number of boxes of bits and bobs in the roof - and THROW SOME THINGS AWAY.
9.) Try to listen to people's conversations at work. I always seem to get easily bored and my attention drifts off.
10.) Wash up a little more often.
11.) Change more nappies.
12.) Have a bit more salad and a bit less salad cream when I have a salad.
13.) Buy and possibly even wear smarter clothes.

<BB<

Hmm, 13

1) Be less anxious about things
2) Finish more than 1 book
3) Get rid of paperwork and keep it under control
4) Help my daughter get into college
5) Do more conservation/ volunteer work
6) Fill the frame I've had since last Christmas with photos
7) Get the living room decorated and re-carpeted
8) Make more "proper" food
9) Write more letters to relatives
10) Walk more and further
11) Visit some of my ancestral homes
12) Go and see a show in London
13) Spend more time lounging in my garden (weather permitting)

And having weighed myself this morning I'm horrified to find the scales saying 147 pounds! Some serious reduction work needed.

I wish I weighed 147lbs!

OK here goes:

1) Lose weight
2) Walk EVERY day not just the non-raining ones
3) Phone family & friends for a chat instead of just texting
4) Attend a school reunion
5) Attend an h2g2 meet-up
6) Recycle more
7) Buy less
8) Spend less time online and more time in the fresh air
9) Finish the decorating I began last year
10) Save up for a sat-nav so I can visit my best online friend
11) Find a partner
12) Check all my old entries for broken links
13) Do more random feel-good stuff like giving away coupons in the supermarket that I'm not going to use

GB

I don't know if I can manage 13, but here goes.

1. Watch what I eat. Less fatty food, less sugary food, more vegetables. I'll have to be prepared to cook them for just me - I can count the veggies hubby will eat on the fingers of one hand (peas, carrots, sweetcorn, sweet peppers - that's about it).
2. Walk every day that it isn't precipitating. GB, I wish you luck with walking every day, but I just can't face walking in the rain/hail/sleet/snow.
3. Do half-an-hour Wii Fit every day, in small chunks if necessary.
4. Do some strength training every day. My upper body strength is non-existent.
5. Get my weight down to 12 stone (168 lb, 76kg), preferably less. It's been around 12 stone 5lb for a long time and it shot up over Christmas (wonder why!).
6. Choose and start my final (I hope) OU module. I'm working towards a BA (Hons) in Humanities and it has stopped being fun.
7. Become more fluent in French. I bought the complete Rosetta Stone course in French last year and I want to be a reasonable conversational standard by the time we go on holiday in September.
8. Find some exercises to tone up my abs that don't require getting down on the floor (I have hip problems), standing on one leg (balance problems), or special equipment (can't afford it, don't have room for it). Once I've found them, do them every day.
9. Spend playing games on the computer and more time on my other hobbies that I've been neglecting - needlework, reading, writing, to name a few.
10. Limit the number of books I have 'on the go' at the same time. I have been known to have 6 books started. It doesn't help to get through them any faster, so I'm going to allow myself a maximum of one e-book, one 'tree book' (i.e., a print version) and one bathroom book/book at bedtime.
11. Tidy and de-clutter the house.
12. Phone my mum more often and possibly visit her more often.
13. Get my list of unread 'tree books' down to less than 100 (it's about 150 at the moment).

Did it! Some of those count as resolutions, others are just things I want to do. Watch this space (or somewhere down the thread, more likely) for news of my success - or otherwise.

9 should read:

9. Spend less time playing games on the computer and more time on my other hobbies that I've been neglecting - needlework, reading, writing, to name a few.

And, yes, I did preview before I posted.

Thanks, I've walked a brisk 20-min with my walking partner this morning and that was *after* a 40-min gardening session trimming the buddleia in the strong sunshine (but cold enough to require coat & gloves)

I wish, when I'd posted my list, I'd said "get kissed under my mistletoe that otherwise was a waste of money..." because it just happened. My host son from last year just visited

Thank you, swl, this has been a very useful distraction which forced me to think positively about 2013, something I've been struggling to do. Plus I got to buy new stationery (costing 78p).

1. Join a community choir. Should be able to tick this one on Monday. I love singing in a group - it was probably my very favouritest bit of being involved in Guides - and singing lifts my spirits. But for some reason my children object to me singing (loudly) around the house.

2. Finish my cross-stitch embroidery. I used to do a lot of embroidering and I finished a set of five framed flowers in a frantic rush just before Nod was born 16 years ago - I correctly perceived that I wouldn't have a lot of time for this sort of thing after her birth. When she was about 7 months old I sorted all the threads for a new picture (while I was on my way to Guide camp - would you credit it? I mean we barely ever got time to *sleep* at camp). And I've sewn about 50 stitches of it in the decade and a half that's passed since. This year I want to finish it.

3. Get in the habit of checking myself in a mirror before I leave the house. I almost never look in the mirror and although it's good not to be vain, it's foolish to carry a mental image which is 20 years and two stone out of date. I'm planning to extend this one in 2014 to include using mascara and lipstick, but I need to cultivate the mirror habit first.

4. Clean or paint all the woodwork in the house (skirting boards, door frames and doors). Possibly clean *and* paint. I already have all the equipment to do this, because I meant to do it in 2012, but it was a busy year and there weren't that many days when it was possible to have all the windows open to get rid of the smell.

5. Keep a list of all the books I read. I bought a little 'date book' today to do this.

6. Reconcile the bank accounts weekly. SIGH. I hate doing this. But I hate it even more when I haven't done it, and don't really know how much money we haven't got. I've just booked a holiday though, so paying for this will force me to monitor our cash more closely.

7. Send birthday card plus letter to the people on my Christmas card list, and explain that they will only get an e-card next Christmas. If I'm going to spend £25 on stamps (£25!!!!!) I'd rather spread the cost (and the joy). Over 65s are exempt, they still get a Christmas card, and a birthday card, and postcards when we're on holiday.

8. Eat 52 bowls of soup. Eat more soup seems to be a popular one and I love making home-made soup. But I'm the only person in the house who then eats it. So I have lots in the freezer to get me off to a good start. I've put 52 so that this is measurable, and I'll be recording my bowls in another little 'date book'.

9. Create 52 works of art. Every single time I review my life, I decide to draw and paint more, and every single time I fail to do this. So, one a week. I'm not talking Royal Academy standard here (although I reckon I could do a better job of the tube map cover than Ms Emin), just playing. I might have to create a new blog for this one, and also for ...

10. ... write 52 blogs. I really enjoyed blogging while I was on my European adventure last year; and I've been blogging in a limited and sporadic fashion for years, just for friends and family. I can't spare the time to write every evening (I was writing for at least two hours every night while I was away) but I can manage it once a week.

11. Lose 2" from my waist. We have moved the Wii upstairs, so I can use it now when other people want to watch TV in the living room. And I'm assuming that I won't be able to lose inches from my waist without losing inches elsewhere and getting fitter. Actually I don't really have a waist any more but I've just measured roughly where it used to be and frankly, I'm appalled. I didn't realise how much I'd gone to seed (see 3 above).

12. Clean the kitchen sink 52 times. This is another one to record in the little 'date book'. Cleaning the sink does not, of course, just involve cleaning the sink: it also means tidying the kitchen, dealing with any stray washing-up, wiping the surfaces, and probably cleaning the hob and wiping down the cupboard fronts while I'm at it. So it's a bigger ask than it seems. But, as anybody who has ever visited FlyLady knows, it's the first step to a cleaner house. I want a cleaner house. I don't particularly like cleaning; but I hate it when my home is dirty.

13. Do 12 walks, walking in 12 different counties. This means that walking around the village counts, but only once, unless I manage to do a two-county walk some other time (actually quite possible given where I live). Ooh - and we're visiting DH's family in Lincolnshire tomorrow ...

Mol

Mol

For someone who's worked in IT for twenty-cough years, I'm a bit of a technophobe. I can easily list 13 modern labour-saving/entertainment devices I've never owned or used. The thing is, I can't decide whether my resolution should be to a) try these things or b) continue to avoid them for a whole year. Whaddya reckon?

1) Microwave oven
2) Dishwasher
3) Blu-Ray DVD
4) Flat-screen TV
5) Games console
6) Wii
7) iPhone
8) Tablet PC
9) Kindle
10) Remote-control toy helicopter
11) Blackberry
12) Navigation device
13) Satellite TV