{"id":9861,"date":"2013-12-31T09:11:45","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T09:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=9861"},"modified":"2014-01-01T17:49:11","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T17:49:11","slug":"not-really-making-an-end-of-year-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=9861","title":{"rendered":"Not really making an end of year list"},"content":{"rendered":"

31st December 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lists are popping up on Facebook. And on Twitter.<\/p>\n

In both Real Life and Virtual Life, there are conversations that mention resolutions.<\/p>\n

And changes.<\/p>\n

And goals.<\/p>\n

Some people have been looking back at the last twelve months and assessing what went well for them; what they’ll try to do differently in the next twelve.<\/p>\n

This morning, on my drive in to work, I spent the time thinking about the year that’s ending today.<\/p>\n

This time last year I said I would move house within the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

Got that right.<\/p>\n

I also said it wouldn’t be a local move; would be a significant move to a different part of the country.<\/p>\n

Got that right too.<\/p>\n

I said that I\u2019d like to teach myself new skills, and enhance other abilities that I had some (but could be better) knowledge of.<\/p>\n

I’ve achieved these things too; have become more immersed in building database functionality, become reasonably skilled at debugging other people\u2019s problems, learned how to build forums and improve front-end usability (though none of my experiences\/skills in these things come close to being on a\u00a0par with Punctuation<\/a>, who is just awesome).<\/p>\n

I’m very lucky to have tapped in to the creative, but non-technical, nature of one friend in particular. It was her ideas that drove me to sit up well in to the\u00a0night for a week or two, learning the technical things I had to get to grips with, to enable me to\u00a0help her achieve her ideas.<\/p>\n

I was also very lucky that my previous contract was in Oxford, half an hour from where I lived in Witney.<\/p>\n

I’m unbelievably lucky that my current (soon ending) contract is less than half an hour away from where I moved to, and that I was able to start work the day after I moved here!<\/p>\n

And I have *loved* my work so much, in 2013.<\/p>\n

As far as other skills go, in the last couple of months I have been getting back in to writing and video production, through working on a series of very short scripted\/staged character films.<\/p>\n

I plan on shooting and editing these, just as soon as I have finished building the set. And that’s a new thing to attempt, too!<\/p>\n

Video and audio editing skills have been revisited, through the randomly free-form HelmetCam edits.<\/p>\n

So, what will the next twelve months bring?<\/p>\n

Hmm, there are a few things that come to mind.<\/p>\n

I’m going to continue building on, and improving, the breadth and depth of my technical skills.<\/p>\n

There is a portfolio of tasks I want to be able to do, I’m not going to be content with having just a few abilities; I want to learn how to do the whole thing, not just a bit of it.<\/p>\n

And I’m more than likely going to buy another motorbike; the Triumph Dayton 955i that I’ve been lusting after.<\/p>\n

I may well move house again.<\/p>\n

There will be a new contract, or possibly two (because that\u2019s the nature of the line of work I do).<\/p>\n

And I haven’t had a real holiday in two years; I love the thought of putting this situation right!<\/p>\n

I like the idea of a road trip.<\/p>\n

Maybe on the VFR. Maybe on the Daytona.<\/p>\n

I need to think hard on this, but I do love the idea of a (relatively) leisurely motorbike trip down to Andalusia.<\/p>\n

As I said, I need to think on this, but I do have a few ideas.<\/p>\n

One thing\u2019s for sure though, in the last year the kindness and limitless generosity of friends has amazed me.<\/p>\n

And I have much to thank one particular friend for.<\/p>\n

She has pushed, niggled, supported, carried, nagged, and encouraged me in so many different areas.<\/p>\n

She has made my life a better place. And she has made me a better person. And she has made me smile a lot.<\/p>\n

Who knows what 2014 will bring (spares a thought for the Mayan supporters who are now 24 months past the end of the world)?<\/p>\n

But whatever does happen in the next twelve months, I hope you have a great year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be an interesting time, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

31st December 2013 Lists are popping up on Facebook. And on Twitter. In both Real Life and Virtual Life, there are conversations that mention resolutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}