Year's bingo for 2015

[luzula]

In the beginning of the year I set up a 5x5 card with 25 goals for the year, and this is how I did! I crossed off fourteen things, did five things partly, and did not at all do six of the things. Overall I think this is an excellent meme, and I'm going to do it next year as well. I like it better than a traditional New Year's resolution because you can mix big things and small things, boring necessary things and fun things. Also it's okay to let some goals go entirely--you don't need to cross off all the things.

Things I have done:

• Make a new friend. - Yes! I made two new friends, in fact. One at work, and one through mutual friends.
• Be active in my local syndicalist worker's union throughout the year. - Yes. I was active in the committee that welcomes new members. Also I went to most of the members' meetings and to a couple of courses in negotiation, so maybe that is next.
• Invite the Danish fen to Göteborg for a meet-up. - I did, and they came! We had a great weekend.
• Read 52 books. - Check. In fact I read 90 books this year. I've never really kept track of books read before, and I'm surprised it was that many. I guess it's a result of reading less fic--the amount of reading probably stays the same.
• Sleep 20 nights outside/in a tent. - I slept outdoors 21 nights this year, most of them in my hammock. Wow, I love my hammock.
• Publish a debate article [for my environmental work]. - This one took off! I wrote and published four debate articles about forest issues. This kind of writing is fun, you guys. You get to think through your arguments and think about how best to present them.
• Go swimming in ten new lakes/places by the sea. - I went swimming in sixteen new places.
• Go to some activity/meeting which sounds interesting but is out of my comfort zone. - Yes, I wrote it up here.
• Give away X amount of money to organizations [er, sorry, I feel weird writing out the amount]. - Yes, I successfully gave away chunks of money to various things (to: a cultural center in my old home town, a hospital in Kobane, an organization helping trafficked sex workers in my home town, an organization helping EU migrants in Sweden, and a syndicalist union in Greece). Also I have a monthly transfer to the local Ingen människa är illegal [No human being is illegal] organization.
• Spend a night up in a tree. - Photo evidence!
• Try using a sextant to determine the latitude. - Here is my write-up of this.
• See ten new species of vascular plants in Sweden. - I had a bit of a revival of geekery about vascular plants this year, and saw fourteen Swedish species that I had never seen before.
• Find a new home. - Yes, I moved into a new apartment and found two flatmates.
• Go hiking/be outdoors every week. - I didn't keep statistics on it, but I think I can cross this off.

Things I partly did:

• Write a scientific article together with Senior Scientist Guy from my summer mountain work. - We brainstormed about it, then I did the data entry and some analysis of the data and sent it to him. I'm waiting for him to get back.
• Work out/lift weights at least once a week. - I did this some weeks but not others, and especially not lately. I should really get on that again (we have a gym for employees at the university).
• Harmonize ten new songs with my sister. - Maybe that was too high a goal? We did five songs. I'm most happy with my harmony for "Bread and Roses", I think.
• Record at least three hours of podfic. - I made a total of 2 hours and 18 minutes.
• Record four podcasts [for my environmental work]. - I made two podcasts. Alas, I still feel like I sound like an idiot, but I do plan to make more. Maybe I will sound like less of an idiot with practice.

Things I did not do at all:

• Be on radio or TV [related my environmental work]. - Nope. I was contacted by and talked with lots of journalists during the year, but no opportunities to be on radio/TV. Er, it's not that this is something I really want to do, more that I find it scary and want to conquer that. I have stopped being nervous about talking to journalists, though--I've realized that within the particular niche of forest issues, I usually know way more than they do.
• Finish last year's dS big bang story. - Nope--I didn't work on it at all. /o\
• Work in the mountains again. - This did not happen, due to lack of funds at the research station.
• Do salary negotiations with my union [insert boring explanation about Swedish labor practices]. - Nope, not this year.
• Bike to work regularly. - Ha haaaa. No. I have realized that I dislike biking. I wish I liked it, but I don't.
• Switch banks. - Er, no, I haven't got around to it. The idea is to switch from my big commercial bank to a smaller, more ethically reasonable bank.

Comments

[blnchflr]

It was a great meet-up at your place :)

How far away is work?

I want to switch banks, too, but I am lazy.

[luzula]

It was!

Work is about 11 km away, but it's all boring roads with lots of traffic. Meh.

[blnchflr]

That I couldn't do, either - traffic is boring and annoying.

[frayadjacent]

This is impressive. So many excellent goals achieved!

I'm lately coming to terms with the fact that, while I like cycling when I feel safe, it's very difficult for me to feel safe given the infrastructure where I live. I can generally handle cycling to work and to the beach, but that's about it.

I probably said the same thing last year, but I like the idea of a New Years bingo and am going to copy you. :)

[luzula]

I'm working on my bingo square for 2016 now. Dooo it. : )

For me it's more that I don't like the physical act of biking. Not because I don't like exercise, it's just not the kind of exercise I like. I don't like running, either, but I do like walking and cross-country skiing.

[frayadjacent]

I made a square! I will post it soon! :D

[akamine_chan]

*boggles at your adulting skills*

These days, I feel accomplished if I eat at least once a day and put on clothes. :D

[luzula]

Heh. I told a friend who is depressed about this meme, and he just laughed and said he could write down "get out of bed" 25 times. I guess I just got lucky in the spoon lottery?

(You are running the Snowflake challenge, though! That is a big accomplishment. Or I don't know if you're the one running it this year, but you're still the originator of it.)

[garonne.livejournal.com]

I like this idea. (I suppose you also posted about it at the start of last year, but I must have missed it.) I'm going to give it a go too.

It looks like you did extremely well. And several of the things you didn't get done are rather out of your control.

Good luck with next year's resolutions!

[luzula]

Yes, do it! I've been trying to spread the idea around--I first did it because some of my former flat mates had a tradition of doing it.

Yeah, I'm compiling my list for 2016 now...

[china_shop]

That's so cool! *is impressed*

I meant to do a bingo last year and started making a list for it but never got any further than that. Even so, I'm pretty sure I did some of the things on the list. Writing things down is useful, yo!

[luzula]

It is really useful! I mean, I'm sure I would've done some of those things anyway, but writing them down made me more focused. And also I'm pretty sure I might not have done some of them otherwise.