A review of last years resolutions 2011

Every year for the last few years I’ve been publicly posting my new years resolutions… 2011, 2010, 2009 and here’s a review of last years

  1. Ski on real snow
    Yes and this year I did it. Chill Factor in Manchester was where I skied on real snow for the very first time. So I can finally take this one off the list for good.
  2. Organise a Trance night in Manchester
    This (kinda) happened, I got together with Dirty Si and Composite and we did it in a small place called Arcadia on the Great Ancoats ring road. It lasted about 4 weeks but only shut down because the owners had a massive fight and we lost our venue in the aftermath. Shame as we were starting to build our night, Startup… Not to say its over, but I’m not pursuing it right now (for reasons below)
    Of course theres more mixes on mixcloud if you want tunes.
  3. Read more non-news stuff
    Ok so this hasn’t happen so much, still got many books I need to read on the Kindle but generally I’m reading less news stuff and more blogs and opinions. Also reading a lot of recommended stuff from people I follow on twitter.
  4. Live even more in the public
    This is all happening… I’m actually currently writing a presentation about this in the same vein as Jeff Jarvis. Over sharing or Over listening? Who knows, but I do know spilling my thoughts into the public domain is always going to cause conflict no matter how I think about it before hand. Perfect example is my thoughts about the late VivID Lounge, which still is getting comments, some negative and some positive. But they got people talking…
  5. Document more online (including films, books, photos, etc)
    Using Trakt to document all the films and tv shows I watch has worked out great….Specially when you look back across the whole year like this… Its much better than documenting them using Twitter or even Identica. Pushing things into Facebook has been interesting, specially when my friends commented “am I feeling alright?” when watching a lot like love. I keep meaning to add reviews there instead of Twitter but it hasn’t happened yet.
  6. Meet more young, progressive, single and central located people
    This is happening more and more, slowly slowly… Only real issue is they all seem to be gay (so no love action), but alas I conclude my gaydar is totally broken and I’ll just have to live with that now. Will have to work around this.
  7. Consider going out with woman who have kids
    Generally I’m more open to woman who have kids, but haven’t dated any yet. But I have spoken to a few in passing, so who knows what might happen next year…
  8. Get my finances in order
    I could have done better but to be honest, I’ve saved quite a bit money but I’ve also spent too much money on lunches and dinners out. A little look through my bank details shows a lot of transactions from the newly opened Booths in MediaCity, and Booths isn’t exactly cheap (its the Waitrose of the north for my friends down south).
  9. Work more on my healthy lifestyle
    Playing Volleyball, walking most places in Manchester and losing weight slowly but steadily. Its certainly going all in the right direction. I did sign up for the gym but they wanted a doctors note to cover there arses, which the doctor could not/would not give me. And to be honest, I think taking up another sport is more likely than the gym.
  10. Play much more
    This is one I’ve failed on for sure… Simon Lumb keeps saying, stop watching films and play instead, but I’m generally doing something else at the same time, so its continent. When Brendan was living with me for a while, we did play PES 2010 a bit but most of the time the Xbox 360 stays off. However, I’ve started pushing the Manchester Werewolf chapter again and the last one was very well attended and its great we got the venue deeply involved.
  11. Spend more time thinking deeper and focusing
    This year has been all about this. Less time keeping track of whats on everyones radar and more time focusing on things which matter to me. This could be seen as a social/media bubble but if it stops me trying to store lots of loosely related things in my head, then so be it. I’m very active about pushing away things which are not core to myself or what my goals/aims are.
  12. Take Geek Culture to new heights
    I’m pursing a few things which are related to this. There’s thoughts about whats next after BarCamp and Hackday? What would go into Geeks talk sexy series 2 and what other games can we play socially. I’ve done some ground work to work closer to Larkin About and who knows where it goes from here?

Next post has to be 2012 resolutions

Author: Ianforrester

Senior firestarter at BBC R&D, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser. Can be found at cubicgarden@mas.to, cubicgarden@twit.social and cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io