Nosing around for the New Year...

[DJ Jackalope]

No real new year's resolutions here, cept to take the stairs as much as humanly possible, just kinda wondering what you guys have been up to and if you have any pseudo new year's resolutions (cuz ok, who are we fooling here)?

Mine would be to DO MORE STUFF. I didn't really do a lot of stuff in 2012 and feel like I need to make up for it. Not do ALL THE STUFF, just do more stuff. Or most of the stuff. Or something.

One of my new dear friends gave me an Arduino board, so that's the first item on the agenda.

What else is out there that you want to do?

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Nosing around for the New Year...

I was at a party the other night where folk wrote down resolutions and tossed them all in a hat as part of a game (group trying to match resolutions to who may have written them) and one of mine got a laugh...

"I resolve to become more serious about keeping active and getting healthier, and I further resolve to never say a goddamn single thing about my progress on Twitter."

If my Twitter feed gets and more full of posts regarding FitBit stats, Earn'd It, KettleBell swings, or calories consumed/forsworn, etc i'm going to have to start unfollowing people.

[DJ Jackalope]

Re: Nosing around for the New Year...

I was at a party the other night where folk wrote down resolutions and tossed them all in a hat as part of a game (group trying to match resolutions to who may have written them)

So taking the game one step further... throw resolutions in a hat and you have to do the one you get.

[astcell]

Re: Nosing around for the New Year...

At every Defcon I try to:

1. Make at least one new friend I will stay in touch with even after Defcon has ended.
2. Teach someone something they did not know that is interesting enough that they will take home to others and share.
3. Learn something new and interesting enough to bring home and share with others.

[DJ Jackalope]

Re: Nosing around for the New Year...

I think you hit everything on the head, especially #1.

Who else?

[Zorlac]

Re: Nosing around for the New Year...

In no particular order:

- More exercise (hahahaha!)

- Start hardware tinkering (started this, am now working with Arduinos, Raspberry Pi, stepper motors, I2C, SPI)

- get involved and be more social when I actually go outdoors :)

- be less "terrified" around people I dont know well

- chose better talks to attend at DEFCON, or get to the good ones earlier so there is space

- get out under the stars more, and start taking astroimages again

- Re-learn who I am and what I want out of life after a bad few years

- Appreciate the help I get from understanding, patient, inspiring people, strangers, friends, anyone...

- Help others when I can

Jeez... sorry abotu that, it sounds like one of those motivational posters or self help group agenda that makes you roll your eyes and/or make you feel queasy :)

[TheCotMan]

Re: Nosing around for the New Year...

I gave up New Year's resolutions a long time ago; I do not need a new year to make decisions on changing things in my life.

Similar to this, but not the same thing, I do review the work I have done, and make some decisions, but these happen almost monthly, sometimes more often, sometimes less often:

* Is there anything new that I would like to do, and if so, how much time can I dedicate to it?
* What did I like and want to continue, and how much time will I allocate to it?
* What have I "outgrown" or no longer have time for?

For most of my life, that last step wasn't really addressed, and as a result, I continued to accumulate gifts, books and equipment related to topics that I found interesting, but never really revisited to see if I still have any interest or expect to have a renewed interest in them. Over a 1 year period, I applied that last question to pretty much everything I have in my life, and eliminated about 2/3 of the "bulk" and "volume" of "stuff" in my life. Some recycled, some dumped, some re-gifted to people I thought I would like it, and some sold.

I cannot find words to adequately convey how much better it feels to reduce the things in my life after decades of not really addressing the "old stuff I no longer need." (This included a visit of ALL old media (floppies, stiffies, IDE/ATA HD, SAS, SATA, SCSI disks, tapes, and more) for shredding while I can still find hardware to shred them.)

An argument for the last item:
"If you are not really using it, why deny someone else access to have it if they will actually explore and learn about it?" (I'm not saying you should give your stuff away. You could sell it it you want.)

You lose a burden, and kind of lodestone that persists on a recurring, self-instantiating, ephemeral "to-do" list when you are able to reduce things in your life to what is most important. A side-effect is that you are less distracted by these less important things, and you are able to increase your focus on what matters most. This makes you more effective when you move in the directions you decided to focus your life.

One more advantage? My place is clean, and easy to keep clean.

[Nikita]

Re: Nosing around for the New Year...

In no real order, just as they came to me.

• Make the world a better place by being more human and appreciative of the people in my life, being a positive factor, with appreciation and encouragement to others.
  
• Lose weight and try to eliminate some day to day pain.
  
• Figure out wants and needs and budget accordingly.
  
• Try to make more friends than enemies.
  
• Quit allowing others to "create" their version of me.
  
• Never again delete a number from my contacts because I was pocket dialing, or any reason really, because it might be to late to call them again when you want to....So make contact(s).
  
• Spend time on fourth of July, and every holiday of the year with family and not working.
  
• See the dentist more often.

[arose4beni]

Re: Nosing around for the New Year...

1) The common get in shape/ be a healthier eater.
2) Become better at picking locks.
3) Finish the MIT Open Courseware Intro to Computer Science & Programming
4) Get back to DefCon this summer.
5) Participate in a contest this time around.
6) Save enough money to buy a house.
7) Get better at home brewing.
8) Move into a full time teaching job.
9) Complete my master thesis.


Hoping to achieve at least 6/9 this year.