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I thought for some time about doing a 2007 retrospective post, but I just don't really want to. I'm much more in a mood to look forward at the moment.
I don't like to do resolutions. They're kind of like a to-do list, which is a good thing, but they're also either things I would do anyway, or things which, at some level, I know I won't do. So instead, I'm going to talk about a category of future speculations I like to call prospective plans. These are not things I'm planning to do, but things I'm thinking about doing. They may become actual plans at a future date, and they may not. Having them out here for people to poke at and discuss helps me examine them for practicality. So here goes.
Papercrafting Website: I like papercrafting. I like cutting up bits of paper - hell, I like paper - and sticking them together to make cards and collages and other such things. I like the way I can keep all kinds of things and find a use for them, and do stuff that sometimes makes people make pleased noises when they see it. It's like a hands-on version of web design, really. But the magazines that are out there for papercrafters are abysmal. They're pink and pastel and gingham and utterly lacking in class or style, and oversupplied with syrupy schmaltz. I forced myself to buy one last month so that I could find out what was there, and I actually had some difficulty in picking the things up off the shelf to look at them. So... what I want to do is make and run a papercrafting site, which will be called something like nobloodygingham.com. It will have no pink, few to no pastels, and no schmaltz, and especially no gingham. It'll be about the use of bold colours and patterns, grungy, punk, steampunk and retro looks. It'll do things like scrapbooks of Victorian porn, flying buttresses, carburettors, high-tech boats, and cards that you could send without the envelope melting from all the sugariness. If anyone is interested in helping with this, please let me know.
Large Campaign Event: I've been running partially linked RPG campaigns in my own world for about eight years now. That is, they've all taken place in one world, with events from one sometimes bleeding into another, and characters and players from one have sometimes appeared in others. I will also, however, have been gaming for 20 years, come summer of 2008, so I would like to do something to mark that. The current idea is to run some large, world-spanning event, which will include one or two mini-campaigns, but also a lot of small involvements for other people - IRC RP sessions, for instance, or events decided by polls here on LJ, or the like. Something that involves a good few people. Further plans yet to be settled.
More Communal Events: The Assault on November program was pretty good. I enjoyed it greatly, and while I was running out of time a bit, I think it went well for most people. I have vague plans to do something similar in February, although I might look to recruit a few folk to run events. I'm also considering doing more regular gatherings-with-intentions, whether they be boardgames, papercrafting, cooking, museum visits, road trips, or whatever. It's also a way for various members of my wider circle of friends to meet each other. While I don't suffer from the geek fallacy that says that all my friends will like each other, there's the possibility that they might, and events with organised purposes and tasks bring people into different contact than just being in the same place for a party, for instance.
Lose Some Weight: This should not be on the prospective plans list, but the methods are still under some consideration, so up here with it. The size of my belly is limiting my mobility a bit, and I suspect it's not doing my general health any favours, so it has to go down a bit. Current plans for this are to reduce the intake of junk foods, get the full use of the gym membership, and do some more active stuff at weekends. I hate to consider jogging, but I might have to give it a try, at least until hill-running becomes an option. For this and a few other reasons (partly driven by the notion that meat would have been a rarity in the neolithic diet in the BBC's Truth About Food series, and partly by similar reasoning by Kim Stanley Robinson in the Science in the Capital trilogy), I'm going to phase over to a vegetarian diet for a few weeks or months, and see what that does. This is experimentation, and unless I suddenly develop mutant powers[1], I'll be back on meat again.
Get Rid of Stuff: This is more a general principle. I have a lot of physical possessions around, I'm going to look to reduce it a bit. I'll be following a general principle of "if it was stolen, would I notice?" which will probably result in me being down to a net connected computer, a cat, and a confused expression fairly quickly if followed all the way through. I have plans to run a bring and buy stall at Gaelcon this year, too, which should help me get rid of some of the stuff.
Modern Ireland Website: More fuzzy idea than even prospective plan, the idea here is basically to get good, illustrated articles about Ireland in the 21st Century, and put them on a website. Article to be written by people in Ireland, and paid for, payment to come from advertising, probably of the direct banner sort more than Adsense. The emphasis of the articles should be on things that are different or new in Ireland - the massive influx of other cultures, the new Moore Street, what effect the number of actual devout Catholics arriving in the country is having, why Dublin airport is such a mess, and how you can now get authentic Chinese food in rural Kerry.
[1] Having given this some serious consideration, the only mutant power that would be cool enough to keep me from eating meat on a permanent basis would be manipulation of space and time, like Hiro Nakamura in Heroes. If I get that, I'll let you know.
I don't like to do resolutions. They're kind of like a to-do list, which is a good thing, but they're also either things I would do anyway, or things which, at some level, I know I won't do. So instead, I'm going to talk about a category of future speculations I like to call prospective plans. These are not things I'm planning to do, but things I'm thinking about doing. They may become actual plans at a future date, and they may not. Having them out here for people to poke at and discuss helps me examine them for practicality. So here goes.
Papercrafting Website: I like papercrafting. I like cutting up bits of paper - hell, I like paper - and sticking them together to make cards and collages and other such things. I like the way I can keep all kinds of things and find a use for them, and do stuff that sometimes makes people make pleased noises when they see it. It's like a hands-on version of web design, really. But the magazines that are out there for papercrafters are abysmal. They're pink and pastel and gingham and utterly lacking in class or style, and oversupplied with syrupy schmaltz. I forced myself to buy one last month so that I could find out what was there, and I actually had some difficulty in picking the things up off the shelf to look at them. So... what I want to do is make and run a papercrafting site, which will be called something like nobloodygingham.com. It will have no pink, few to no pastels, and no schmaltz, and especially no gingham. It'll be about the use of bold colours and patterns, grungy, punk, steampunk and retro looks. It'll do things like scrapbooks of Victorian porn, flying buttresses, carburettors, high-tech boats, and cards that you could send without the envelope melting from all the sugariness. If anyone is interested in helping with this, please let me know.
Large Campaign Event: I've been running partially linked RPG campaigns in my own world for about eight years now. That is, they've all taken place in one world, with events from one sometimes bleeding into another, and characters and players from one have sometimes appeared in others. I will also, however, have been gaming for 20 years, come summer of 2008, so I would like to do something to mark that. The current idea is to run some large, world-spanning event, which will include one or two mini-campaigns, but also a lot of small involvements for other people - IRC RP sessions, for instance, or events decided by polls here on LJ, or the like. Something that involves a good few people. Further plans yet to be settled.
More Communal Events: The Assault on November program was pretty good. I enjoyed it greatly, and while I was running out of time a bit, I think it went well for most people. I have vague plans to do something similar in February, although I might look to recruit a few folk to run events. I'm also considering doing more regular gatherings-with-intentions, whether they be boardgames, papercrafting, cooking, museum visits, road trips, or whatever. It's also a way for various members of my wider circle of friends to meet each other. While I don't suffer from the geek fallacy that says that all my friends will like each other, there's the possibility that they might, and events with organised purposes and tasks bring people into different contact than just being in the same place for a party, for instance.
Lose Some Weight: This should not be on the prospective plans list, but the methods are still under some consideration, so up here with it. The size of my belly is limiting my mobility a bit, and I suspect it's not doing my general health any favours, so it has to go down a bit. Current plans for this are to reduce the intake of junk foods, get the full use of the gym membership, and do some more active stuff at weekends. I hate to consider jogging, but I might have to give it a try, at least until hill-running becomes an option. For this and a few other reasons (partly driven by the notion that meat would have been a rarity in the neolithic diet in the BBC's Truth About Food series, and partly by similar reasoning by Kim Stanley Robinson in the Science in the Capital trilogy), I'm going to phase over to a vegetarian diet for a few weeks or months, and see what that does. This is experimentation, and unless I suddenly develop mutant powers[1], I'll be back on meat again.
Get Rid of Stuff: This is more a general principle. I have a lot of physical possessions around, I'm going to look to reduce it a bit. I'll be following a general principle of "if it was stolen, would I notice?" which will probably result in me being down to a net connected computer, a cat, and a confused expression fairly quickly if followed all the way through. I have plans to run a bring and buy stall at Gaelcon this year, too, which should help me get rid of some of the stuff.
Modern Ireland Website: More fuzzy idea than even prospective plan, the idea here is basically to get good, illustrated articles about Ireland in the 21st Century, and put them on a website. Article to be written by people in Ireland, and paid for, payment to come from advertising, probably of the direct banner sort more than Adsense. The emphasis of the articles should be on things that are different or new in Ireland - the massive influx of other cultures, the new Moore Street, what effect the number of actual devout Catholics arriving in the country is having, why Dublin airport is such a mess, and how you can now get authentic Chinese food in rural Kerry.
[1] Having given this some serious consideration, the only mutant power that would be cool enough to keep me from eating meat on a permanent basis would be manipulation of space and time, like Hiro Nakamura in Heroes. If I get that, I'll let you know.
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Would be willing to help out, if that became a project.
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Also I'm pretty sure that when the hunters managed to kill an elk or something of that nature the whole tribe would have gorged on the meat before it went rancid.
I firmly believe the trick to a healthy lifestyle and weight control is eat everything in moderation (including junk food), get some fresh fruit and veg in your diet and get some excercise (even if it's only a brisk daily walk).
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The BBC documentary showed a bunch of people put on a carefully constructed diet of this kind for twelve days, and the improvement in their health in that time was pretty alarming, considering.
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I have had some thoughts on running a game fairly simple game on the internet, a cross between settlers of catan and CIV, where the idea is to trade resources to build stuff and buy votes, with the eventual goal being to be force your way into being voted king of the world or be the first to amass x points, a non starter for me, but if you have any interest I'd like to see it happen.
As for losing weight, fair play to ya, I know how hard in can be. I find that eating whatever you want, but only when you are actualy hungry (no eating tasty snacks, just cause they are tasty) then stop eating when you are no longer hungry. Even if this means eight sambos, some soup and an apple, with no set dinner or meals in general, you'll only get what your body needs. I find that excercise makes me eat more (calorie intake), so it's ok for fitness but not for weight loss. Mind you, I've never been a heavy person, but my system seems to work fine.
Also I live mostly on meats and starchy foods with sugar drinks. Dunno what they contain if I broke them down, but I find I have plenty of energy without being weighed down by vegtable matter. I like to think it's natural.
Neolithic people may have eaten a lot of veg, but that's only because veg doesn't run away when you chase it with a stick. I think they glorified and loved meat and the hunting (see cave paintings around the world) I have yet to see a cave painting of a cabbage.
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I joined a gym for the first time this year. It's been super. I also jog once a week. I can't overstate how great physical exercise is. If you do start jogging, please jog on grass - it's crazy to jog on a hard surface. (I bet neolithic man didn't have to run on concrete too often.)
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I think you would like some of the stuff on the MAKE website :>