[Yearly Review 2012] Part 2 – 2012 goals met?


The end of the year is nigh! Like most of the blogosphere, I’m going to mark the occasion by taking a look back at the year that’s ending. 2012 has been a pretty good year for me all told, but how well did I meet my aims and goals for the year?

Spoiler Alert: I missed a lot of my targets for 2012.

I'll list all of the aims and goals that I set myself, and comment on how well I did as I go along.

General
Move my RBS accounts to St Andrews - DONE! After a lot of hassle, I did manage to move my current account to the St Andrews RBS branch to avoid the Santander sale. Which, of course, didn't go ahead in the end. D'oh.
Save at least £2000 - DONE! I easily managed this, mostly thanks to the money I earned from tutoring and planetarium shows. In the end I think I saved almost £2500
Sort out my savings. - DONE! I managed to get all of my savings into a variety of accounts to actually earn some interest for a change.

Work
Publish my RM paper - DONE!
Get 1st drafts of at least 2 thesis chapters done.  - FAILED! I managed to squeak out one draft chapter just after Christmas, but the other two that I started remain tantalisingly close to being finished.
Draft my second tidal interactions paper. - FAILED! I was sucked into a second RM paper instead.
Update the AS1001 and AS2001 labs and tutorials structure. - DONE!

Reading
Read 30 fiction books.  - FAILED! I came very close, finishing 28 books. In contrast to previous years, the summer holidays killed me this year. I got stuck on a couple of long books that took me ages to finish.
Read 5 non-fiction books. - FAILED! Again, I came close and finished 4.
Work through my back catalogue of magazines.  DONE! I got through all of my gaming magazines, but the Physics and Astronomy ones remain untouched.

TV and film
Watch two new TV series from my collection. - FAILED! I watched the whole of "Jackie Chan Adventures" (all four seasons), but only got half way through Samurai Jack.
Watch at least 3 new films from my collection. - DONE!

Wargaming
Paint 26 models - FAILED! I thought that one model every two weeks on average would be doable after a great 2011. Buuuut, I didn't get anywhere near it. I got bogged down on some heavily detailed models that I just couldn't be bothered to finish. Units will forever be my bane.
Finish painting my 50pt Deneghra list. - FAILED!
Finish painting my 15pt Terminus list - FAILED!
Get a MERCs force. - FAILED!
Build my FOW: Large forces. - FAILED!
Finish modelling my Wave Serpent conversion - FAILED!
Get a Firestorm Armada fleet - DONE!
Play at least one game of at least three different systems - FAILED! I only managed to play Warmachine/Hordes this year. But I did play a lot of it.

Computer gaming
Finish 2 games single-player - DONE! I actually managed to complete five games, which is a record for me.
Play online multiplayer at least once - FAILED!

Lifesaving
Improve at least two Personal Bests. - DONE!
Get a medal at the BULSCA Nationals - FAILED!
Win a BULSCA league Bronze medal - FAILED! But I'm not too bothered, because....
Win a BULSCA league Silver medal - DONE!
Win a BULSCA league Gold medal - FAILED!
Achieve Bronze Medallion, Silver Medallion, and Bronze Sport awards - FAILED! Two out of three isn't bad. Sadly we ran out of time before the summer for to take Silver Medallion, and this semester I've been busy teaching the new members.
Run a successful St Andrews competition - DONE!

So overall, I finished 2012 with 12 out of 29 goals achieved. That's not too bad, but I'm very disappointed with my almost complete failure in the Wargaming category. It certainly didn't help that I really didn't get much painting done this year though, as that blew three of my goals out of the water. My renewed love for the XBOX 360 under the television certainly didn't help matters on that front, as quite often I'd turn that on in preference to sitting down with a paintbrush. I'm hoping to turn that around in 2013, helped by some new models and the Firestorm Armada ships that I want to try and speedpaint.

Tomorrow I'll set out my goals for 2013.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[Warmachine] Smogcon 2015

Image
Just over a week ago I had an absolutely awesome experience - I spent three days at a hotel just next to Heathrow airport. Which doesn't sound so great, until I say that it was my first experience of a convention. Specifically SmogCon 2015, the UK's biggest Warmachine convention, and the only US-style gaming convention in the UK (and possibly Europe, though I'm not sure that's entirely true).  As I said, I had an awesome time. I'd been hoping to go for the last couple of years, but was either a) in Scotland, or b) forgetful and missed the tickets sale. This year I was actually at orchestra when tickets went on sale, but fortunately there were still about 50 left when I got home and I managed to snag one. I decided pretty early on that I wouldn't bother trying for any of the tournaments; instead I'd spend all my time in the casual play area playing pick-up games of Warmachine/Hordes, or trying out some of the boardgames. I'm quite pleased with that
Read more

[Astronomy] Chile 2012 part 1 - the journey

Image
My (2nd) grand adventure in Chile has commenced! I'm writing this from the ESO guesthouse in Santiago, after a rather eventful journey that didn't exactly set the kind of tone that I was hoping for for this trip. Still, after 36 hours of travelling I have at least arrived in one piece and with all of my luggage, which is a bonus. Expected, given that I only brought hand luggage, but still a bonus. The ESO guesthouse in Santiago is a place of peace and tranquility. Just what you need after travelling around the world to get there! (Credit: David Brown)
Read more

[Sport] 6 Nations 2014 - week 5

Image
The final week of the 2014 6 Nations tournament was incredibly tense. Not necessarily because of close games it has to be said. Two of the three were blowouts, but the finale really made up for it as the momentum swung back and forth between the sides, and the final standings correspondingly went in favour of one team or another. I'll get to that eventually, but as usual I'll start with Scotland's performance.
Read more