Category: just-plain-life

1. More public talks
   I quite like public talking although I personally think I’m not very good at it. I’ve forced myself to talk more in public and so I’m going to push my public talking more in 2012… Its starts with Ignite Leeds and a few others in the first half of 2012. More will come soon after.

Well I certainly did a heck loads more talks this year… I had the pleasure of talking about things close to my heart Perceptive Media and my own life changings in the story of me. Its been a great year for talks and I certainly don’t want to go beyond what I was doing this year. A talk a month is good more than this certainly is a handful and maybe too much?

1. Keep my calendar more clear
   I find if I keep my calendar clear, adhoc things pop up and I quite enjoy this. So hopefully keeping it as empty as possible will help this happen. I’ve been known to use twitter a lot to arrange adhoc meetups and this year I’ll keep this going. This also fits with my idles about focusing more and removing the stuff which doesn’t matter so much, from my life.

Ok this didn’t go so well… I ended up filling my calendar with stuff which was great because I was able to keep a track of it all. I did however spend more time looking at Facebook, Eventbrite and Google plus Events which gave me a certain level of adhoc’ness to my routine.

1. Play more
   Like previous years, I hope to play more games but unlike last few years I’m considering real life gaming like Werewolf, The thing, etc… I’m already playing Werewolf once every two months in the northern quarter with Larkin About. And the venue we have has bags of potential for other types of real life gaming experiences.

This didn’t go so well either… I did help arrange the Salford University and BBC Games event in November but frankly I’ve not turned on my Xbox 360 for almost a year. I keep meaning to put it up on ebay or sell it some other way but I would miss certain games. I did play Anger Birds a bit but generally most of gaming this year was done with Larkin About with social games. Werewolf was the order of the year and Epic Werewolf topped off some amazing games earlier in the year.

1. Inspire through what I do
   I still love the simplistic of iamido.info. I feel there’s a lot more what I can do to inspire others through what I do. Hopefully some of this will come through what I do at work. Lots of friends say to me, why don’t you setup your own company? But to be honest I love my job and I feel like I’m in a bit of a startup environment within BBCR&D. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but either way hopefully it will show theres more to life than money. This also means even more oversharing or overlistening. But I’ve decided to pump more information into Google Plus (because of their Data Portability) instead of Facebook or Twitter. I think the circles are a good idea, and I think I could use them over another service like Path. Even considered documentating things like dates I go on just like 52 first dates.

I would say this was highly successful. Certainly people didn’t like my oversharing nature and sometimes it got me into some trouble but also its got people asking questions. My status as a bit of a rouge but also a team player seems to be strengthen by whats happened with Perceptive Media. Hope to repeat the success with the next thing I’ve seen and I think could be really interesting for the BBC. The connected studio program has had input from myself on different levels and I hope to be involved even deeper with some of the black swan projects we’re working on.

1. Don’t settle for mis-information and totally bogus arguments
   Quite a few times I’ve been having a debate with someone and they throw in something which is totally bogus. I mention it but we carry on regardless, then later on it comes back but worst. The other person builds a argument off the back of this mis-information. I then have to build a argument to counteract this mis-information. No more! The debate isn’t going to carry on now.

Yes I’ve been doing this but because of this, I’ve come across as bit too argumentative. Even saying in my own head to leave it, doesnt really work. So maybe I just need to drop this one in future.

1. Never shy away controversy / push social limits (including complaining myself)
   I understand social limits or boundaries but can’t help but push them. I don’t do it to be deliberately a pain to others but sometimes I use them as a transport towards something much more enlightening. In my blog post about VivID lounge, I faced a lot of angry people, but in the end I’m starting to see comments which confirm some of the points I was making. Its not about me, I’m just pushing the conciousness into the public where others can give a better reasoned argument. Someone needs to be the person who lights the match I guess, and thats me. I’m also adopting Senior Troublemaker as my title at work, which is very fitting. I’m sure my plans for #geekstalksexy will also cause some controversy. Lastly complaining is important (within reason) My ex-wife use to complain when something grated with her and you know, it always ended positively. So its time to shake off the British stiff upper lip…

Yes I did this a lot. Very fitting while I watch the film Compliance.

1. Drink only when they serve decent cocktails or wine I actually like
   I’ve already stopped drinking stuff I think is so-so, by extension I’m generally only going to drink when I’m really up for it and looking forward to enjoying the taste. This means no more drinking cherry beer just because theres nothing else to drink, no more settling for crappy cocktails made out of packets.

This is one I’ve done a really bad job at keeping up. Theres been quite a few times when the bar I’ve been to isn’t great but I order a cocktail anyway because I’m not drinking wine.

1. Improve my circus skills
   I still loving my Diabolo and when I was off sick I was going to Manchester University Circus Skills. But when I went back to work the timing (2-4pm on a Wednesday) was never going fit with work. Now there’s the circus house next to me, and I’m hoping to make full use of it. On top of that, when it gets warm in MediaCity again, I’ll be pushing for Circus Skills classes again at lunch times. Maybe there’s a way to combine the two? Or even move one of the after hour classes away from South Manchester to East Manchester?

Another missed goal, which was a shame. The plans just didn’t play out and the circushouse had to move when their contract ended. On top of that the summer was a wash out, so there was not much outdoor time with the diabolo.

1. Buy more non-black shirts
   If you know me, I tend to wear a lot of black shirts. Hey I like them and I have many of them (maybe I should take a photo of my wardrobe just to prove it). However I’m not against other colour shirts (I wear Orange/Yellow/Green/Red Tshirts for example), but they do need to be short sleeves and not dodgy cheques like you see on a lumberjack. So time for different shirts and you know what? Maybe even different colour trousers now and then…

I did buy about 5 white shirts across the year and I’m getting use to wearing them and liking them. So thats a tick off…

1. Be more careful with money
   I’m spending right now about 6 pounds on lunches bought at Booths at MediaCity (Booths is the Waitrose of the North) , this has got to stop. Not only that, I’m treating maybe too many people with free meals and drinks. Cool but I do need to limit the number per month.

Not bad on the Booths lunches, now spending about 3 pounds per lunch but the quality of the food isn’t as good I feel. However I’m spending too much on Cocktails and more to the point ones which were not the best.

1. Bake a cake
   I don’t understand why but there seems to be something about engineers and baking cakes. I don’t personally get it, but the guys all bring in cakes every week for everyone else. I’ve not contributed to this and to be honest I can’t bake because I can’t help but mess with the recipe. Maybe its the creative side of me… or something. Anyway, sometime this year I’ll bake a cake and bring it in for BBC R&D, can’t pledge for its quality however

Ok this didn’t happen but I have got a recipe which seems pretty straight forward and its for Banana Bread. I’ll move this one over to the next year for sure

1. Eat healthy
   Been consistently loosing weight at a slow pace, and to be honest my NHS dietation/nutritionist has been good. And we’ve identified the only time I eat bad is when I’m far enough away from decent quality food. So I’m going to avoid all the rubbish food places and stick to decent places (even if its at odds with number 10). I’ll also do more smaller shops, so I can pick up more fresh fruit and veg.

This did happen although very slowly… The general quality of the food i’m consuming is of a much better quality, I’m just eating a little much of it. The plan to move away from monthly shops didn’t happen, maybe next year would be a good idea to take up Tesco’s delivery saver.