Thought Leadership

12 Things for 2020

New Year greetings! There are many people who are heralding a new decade as well, though it may be argued that the decade does not start until 2021, but I will save my pedantry for another day. 🙂 I recently reported on the reasonable success that I had with goals [if that is what they were] for 2019. Today I want to “go public” with my 12 Things for 2020 …

Here is the list:

  1. get a new bed
  2. participate in a gig
  3. no socks for summer (Jun/Jul/Aug)
  4. do a one-day brewing experience
  5. set up a photography website
  6. try archery
  7. swim in Cotswold lakes
  8. master making cookies
  9. attend a rugby match
  10. have a dairy-free month
  11. make sausages
  12. sample every Chinese take-away in Malvern

Some notes:

  1. This is something we have talked about for a while. A good night’s sleep is quite a priority, IMHO. By putting this on my list, I am [somewhat] committed to taking action.
  2. Late last year I started taking lessons in playing bass guitar. If I can develop some proficiency, I have the opportunity to play with some other musicians.
  3. I like being barefoot and often wear sandals and have been on vacation taking no “real” shoes at all. I thought that it would be interesting to see whether I’d enjoy extending the habit through the summer. Of course, I might need to make exceptions for any formal events.
  4. I enjoy drinking beer and liked visiting a brewery. So, when I discovered that it is possible to have a day-long visit that includes participation in the brewing process, I was interested. Samples of product are also available.
  5. For some time, I have had an idea for a website offering a number of services to amateur photographers. Most of the planning is done. This year, I must make it happen.
  6. A few years ago, I went on an afternoon class that was an archery “taster” session. I really enjoyed it and found that I had the “knack” – i.e. I actually hit the target occasionally. I want to investigate this further and there is a local club that I can contact.
  7. The last couple of summers I have enjoyed “wild swimming” in some local rivers and made a few friends who also participate. There are some lakes, about an hour from my house, that I am told are worth visiting.
  8. Last year I made some cookies from scratch for the first time. The results were very satisfactory, but I am sure that I can do better. My goal is to develop the technique/recipe to reproducibly make cookies the way I like them.
  9. I am not really a fan of sport in general. What I have seen of football [soccer] games seems very unexciting and the very unsporting attitude of fans is, IMHO, deplorable. In the area where I live, rugby is quite popular and the game seems more exciting. I have watched a match on TV, but now want to go to an actual match in real life.
  10. In 2019, one of my Things was to have a dairy-free month. I successfully executed this one, but the experiment was marred by my having a cold. I wanted to ascertain whether my catarrh level was reduced by not having dairy and the cold masked that. So, I decided to re-run that one.
  11. I am a big fan of English-style sausages and prefer the ones made by a butcher instead of the mass-produced product. My local butcher is closing down, as people seem to think that cheaper food from supermarkets is a better option. So, I decided to have a go at making my own sausages. I have purchased a kit …
  12. We do not get take-away food very often. I quite like Chinese food. There is much debate about which Chinese take-away in my home town is best. I plan to do definitive research. There are, I believe, just nine places, so I only need to sample about one per month.

I will report back on my progress later in the year. I noticed that, although I had no intention to do so, none of this list are things that span the whole year. Last year there were a few that I could not check off until the end of the year because they related to my ongoing behavior. I may think of an additional Thing [#13] and update my list – as I am re-running one, this will make sense.

Colin Walls

I have over thirty years experience in the electronics industry, largely dedicated to embedded software. A frequent presenter at conferences and seminars and author of numerous technical articles and two books on embedded software, I am a member of the marketing team of the Mentor Graphics Embedded Systems Division, and am based in the UK. Away from work, I have a wide range of interests including photography and trying to point my two daughters in the right direction in life. Learn more about Colin, including his go-to karaoke song and the best parts of being British: http://go.mentor.com/3_acv

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This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/embedded-software/2020/01/09/12-things-for-2020/