I am torn about New Year Resolutions, if only because I'm bad at carrying them out - and it feels like setting yourself up for the fail. My experience at work of life being increasingly determined by Intended Learning Outcomes and so forth mean that there is more focus on the one thing that you did not do rather than the nine hundred and ninety nine that you did. Why is your glass only half full?
I failed at completing the top hundred films, the Hitchcocks and the Colin Dexters, but I saw a lot of other films and read a number of books, and wrote a lot - see this:
( Cut for sheer bloody exhaustedness )I've had a To Do List to get me through December, and I think
( I did pretty well: )So for 2010, my resolutions? Well, what am I committed to?
- Probably another chapter on The Man Who Fell to Earth
- A section for another guide to sf
- An article on steampunk
- A chapter based on the proposal
- A 100,000 word book on seventies sf.
On that latter, I want to watch 100 films, read 300 books, and watch about three hundred episodes of television.
See what I mean about the fail? It's the fine for films, but it's three or four times as many books as I've read last year. Think of it as one a day until November.
On the other hand, a rolling to do list would have to include all the Hugo and Nebula novel winners of the 1970s, namely:
- Larry Niven, Ringworld
- Robert Silverberg, A Time of Changes
- Philip José Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go
- Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
- Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
- Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
- Frederik Pohl, Man Plus
- Kate Wilhelm, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
- Frederik Pohl, Gateway
- Vonda McIntyre, Dreamsnake
- Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
- Gregory Benford, Timescape
- Joan D. Vinge, The Snow Queen
The number ticked off mean I can probably add shortlists too (but what is it with the Nebulae in 1975?).
In other aspects of life - less pub follows, and I want to do more food preparation and preparation, so I have things to defrost rather than too much reliance on prepared food. No more crisps; tips on low fat savoury snacks for lunches welcome (there must be oaty stuff). More fruit.
I want to get to Nottingham, Chichester and Alfriston, in part for exhibitions, and maybe to Brighton. It's about time I went back to Hastings, and maybe a second visit to Lewis or Eastbourne.
I am going to see this
comedyI need to get a rhythm.
Over the last year I managed to redress the work and leisure balance - by going to the movies, by seeing comedy, by going to the pub. What I also need to do is doing nowt time - to catch my breath.
So, there's the plan, and as far as it is a resolution, bring on the fail...
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