1. Set aims
2. Start project “want that”
3. Look at project “Crafty”
4. Get fit
5. Money
6. Coding
7. Make sure I spend time with the unmentioned aim from last year
8. Plan to relax

The above is copied and pasted from a blog piece earlier here, I believe March 27th if you want to be precise.

So what happened..

Some things worked really well, something failed, miserably. The good thing of the whole year is realising that things were not working and trying to change them rather than continued moaning while not doing anything different. Don't get me wrong I'm still a miserable moaning bastard but not in the same way for the big things ;)

Let's take a deeper look

1. Set aims

Well I can't clearly remember what I wanted out of this when I wrote it, I'm not sure that I fully understood what it involved but I would say that while my initials ideas about this have changed, I honestly think I have surpassed what I thought I could do, I have actually managed to achieve things. There have been a few occasions that I have lost my way but, when I have started over thinking things and getting all frustrated, I have returned back to this point. Not all the aims have been big but if there is a list of things both near and far, it's certainly helped. Also this has helped with the whole change things when you start moaning approach I now have on live.

2. Start project “want that”

Fail, nothing at all really done. I did do a lot of poking around, looking at ideas and methods that might work with it but as they say "Start doing, Stop talking". Until that happens it's still a fail.

3. Look at project “Crafty”

Failish. I did stop talking and start doing but not quite in the way I expected. Since last year I have learned to crochet, not something I have done since I was really young and not something I ever thought I would go back to. Also I did a beginners silversmithing course which was amazing. It was like being an apprentice on the benches again. yeah the tutor wasn't anywhere near as harsh as Mr Cook and the material was a lot more expensive but it used all of those skills all over again and I made some excellent pieces. It was that good that I have signed up to start the intermediate course starting in just under a week. At some point I will publish what I made but as one is a present I can't just yet. If you would like to give it a go and you live or work here in London, try the london Jewellery school, amazing place and my tutor Rebecca was amazing. Not originally around what Project Crafty is all about (or will be) but certainly along the craft line, I pushed my brewing last year more than ever before. 20 Bottles of Elderberry wine, more than that Elderflower wine were the wines, nothing special there as that's what I have done previously but I went a lot further with three full grain beer brews. Only gallon each but still a good step and it will certainly mean a lot more is brewed this year. What do they taste like? Well only the chocolate porter has been tried so far and it is far better tasting that I would ever expect, lets hope the others hit the mark as well.

4. Get fit

well this was a big fat, literally, fail. from average 5k a week in 2012 with an aim to hit 6 I managed 1.9 km/week. Miserable. Managed the usual British 10k in by far the worse time I have ever done it in, failed on the Cardiff despite being signed up. Not good and my body is letting me know that. I could blame work and illness and this and that but the reality is it was just down to me not getting out there and putting in the miles. Onwards and upwards is the only thing to do

5. Money

Better than I ever expected, I'm no saint but it has certainly allowed me to have two holidays, buy pretty much what i have wanted to do but, and this is the biggie, put a deposit down on a house. Hopefully I can keep it going despite what will be needed to do the house up..

6. Coding

While I can't remember most of what I'm doing and generally have to check again, the python is coming on leaps and bounds. Previous job took the proof of concept, was used as a backup for one title, and made me productionise it as the main delivery system for the title for the iPad app. I'm still learning and there is still a long way to go but I'm trying. Another recent thing was getting frustrated with no simple remote on my Linux laptop for xbmc I wrote one. As for a second language, still thinking about that one at the moment but I have thrown together a couple of PHP sites and I'm back working in a proper devops role, so I'm guessing ruby will be back on the list

7. Make sure I spend time with the unmentioned aim from last year

Well the unmentioned aim, was obviously the SO. As we live together and we are now buying a house together, couldn't really get away from her ;)

8. Plan to relax

Old job made that a fail, changed job, lets see what happens.

So we are on to 2014

Not really thought much about this one as old job, new job, buying house and then Christmas hitting me has kind of been occupying my mind. This last sentence was the final point in this post until I returned two days later, here we go

1 Coding, keep learning keep pushing the python. Try and get a better understanding of Java script. Use all I have to try to get some of my projects done

2 Craft anything and everything, see what I can do to help the projects

3 Get the new house and keep working on that, this will certainly project managed by the SO and it will be her pace we follow.

4 Just do some exercise this year

Finally, and a failure before I have even started

5 Apart from the house, try to focus on no more than three projects at a time

Clean and simple and should be easy. Only 359 days left to get it all right....