Review of the Year

[chrisvenus]

So, as I look back on the year without doing an analysis what are the things that spring to my mind most...

1) a nice month and a half of relationship at the beginning of the year preceding the obvious being dumped
2) Getting a nice new job that is really fun and with really nice people
3) Nice trip up to scotland in the summer. In particular spending time with the people up there that I don't see often.

So how am I in a different place from last year?

Well, the first two points pretty much sum that up. This time last year I was in a good relationship with somebody I really liked. In fact, this time last year we were probably eating chinese. :) Now I'm single and have been for some time. Its not a choice, I'd like another relationship but its not happened. I'd like to say its not a problem but I know it does get me down. Still, maybe next year will bring me more luck. That crush that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago might come to something if I ever actually properly do something about it.

Jobwise. This time last year I was temping for blackwell publishing. The Literature Compass pilot CDs that I created and had pressed had gone out at their conference and it was all going pretty well. They started making noises about a permanent job but I was still temping on £8/hour which worked out in practice to about 15k pro rata. Now I have a proper permanent job paying 8k more and will be 11k more after my review in january. A much smaller company but with some fantastic people to work with. I've found myself smiling as I leave the office most days because I really enjoy the job. I've spent a lot of time settling in but hopefully soon I will start to really make a mark on what we do.

Living place. I'm still living in the same place as I was last year and I have been for over four years now. However, the end of that is in sight. Because my housemates are getting married (and one of those is the landlord) they are wanting to live together on their own after they are married so "moving out" noises have been made. There is no definite exit date, its just something to work towards so in the new year I will be house hunting and looking to have moved out by June at the very latest I think.

Social life. Roleplaying is still a lot of what I do. I've cut down on Cam a lot in the last few months. This time last year I was going to three or four games a month and now I'm barely making it to one. I'd probably go to a few more but its just not as important to me any more. Instead I'm doing smaller games. I've started playing Firstborn, a live action freeform type game run by chris1234 and cardinalsin called Firstborn. I've also started to FLRP again which is good. I've said for a long time that I prefer the smaller games and I'm now putting my money where my mouth is and playing in more of them.

There are friends that I haven't seen that much over the last year that I used to see more of. Hopefully I'll see more of them in the next year. Conversely there are people I have seen a fair bit of over the last year that I will probably now see a lot less of. lathany's long running game (three or four years?) had me visiting her and bateleur and seeing venta, ao_lai and chrestomancy far more than I would otherwise. With the end of the game of course I don't see them but I will hopefully make some plans to go visit sometime. Perhaps to guest star in Dom's current game for which he occasionally advertsies guest spots.


That seems horribly short as a list of things to compare and contrast in my life. Oh well, if people suggest more things I should talk about then I will.

But now lets see what I want to be saying this time next year.

I'd like to be able to look back and say that I have managed to contribute well at work. That there will be big things in our project that I could point at and say "that was me". Some of that I can already see if I manage to pull off the thing that is in my mind. Other stuff will have to come as the year progresses. I don't want to be just a programmer though. I want to be a proper developer and develop some new features and things that really make a difference in our project. I think one of the big things I want to do though is going to be vastly complicated and the sort of thing that shouldn't be obvious to look at. :)

Love life. Well, of course I'd like to be able to say that I've spent most of the year going out with the girl of my dreams. However, this is one of those things that I really can't plan. I will try to make more effort and actually ask people out (or hopefully just one). Who knows how this one will go. At least I can't really end next year any worse than I am now from this point of view. :)

Housing. Well, hopefully I will be either living in my own place with a mortgage or more likely sharing somewhere rented with cool people. Either of which I will be quite happy with, as long as the housemates work. Living with people you get on with is possibly one of the most important things to my happiness. I don't think I could cope if I lived with people I didn't get on with most of the time. I get annoyed with my housemates from time to time. Especially when they phone me at 2am, waking me up, to ask me to post the christmas cards that they forgot to. On the other hand I do really get on with TFM and Angharad so its been really good living with them.

Social Life. I'd like to expand my social life. To have more than just my RP friends. I want to get out and meet more people. On the other hand I'm not sure when I'd do this right now. Probably what I should strive for is to see some of my friends more. There are people like snow_leopard who I haven't seen myself. Its my own fault, I have nobody else to blame, but she is somebody I used to get on well with and now I only see via LJ. All I can say is at least there is LJ...

Holidays. I've not been on a proper holiday for some time. There's been things like the above trip to scotland but that was to see friends so doesn't feel like a *proper* holiday. I did some touristy stuff but really not much at all. Next year I may have a holiday. taigne is hoping to be in Japan for a year starting end of next summer sometime. If she does go over there then I have promised I'll take a holiday out there to see her. Otheriwse I am sure I will go on a proper holiday somewhere. Maybe I'll finally make it to the US or maybe I'll do Egypt as I want to.


So what are my resolutions for the new year? Nothing specific. Maybe I'll try to get more exercise. I dunno.

Comments

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Perhaps to guest star in Dom's current game for which he occasionally advertsies guest spots.

A fine plan!