{"id":9463,"date":"2020-12-17T04:13:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T09:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/?p=9463"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:01:06","slug":"off-topic-12-things-done-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2020\/12\/17\/off-topic-12-things-done-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"OFF-TOPIC: 12 things done or not"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each year I make a list of \u201cthings\u201d that I plan to do. You might call them \u201cgoals\u201d, but I feel that sounds a bit too serious. My Things might be serious or they might be quite trivial; they might be easy or hard; they might be one-off activities, or last a whole month, or extend through the whole year. I have settled on having 12 Things each year. At the beginning of 2020 I posted my list of 12 Things for 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it is time to see how I did. To be frank, I was less successful than I hoped, but I did not reckon on there being a pandemic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get a new bed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Done. We procrastinated, having looked at some options in the local bed shop. Then, on 29 February they had a 1-day sale with 29% off of everything. This spurred us into action and we ordered the new bed. Not long after, lock-down happened, and it was many weeks before the new bed was delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participate in a gig<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Not done. This was always an ambitious goal. I was taking bass guitar lessons and hoped to get good enough to play with my friend who has a small band. However, lock-down stopped my lessons and we have not been able to resume. Maybe next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No socks for summer (Jun\/Jul\/Aug)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Done. During the summer, I commonly wear sandals with no socks, but default to \u201cproper\u201d shoes and sock on a less warm day. I heard that being barefoot has health benefits, so I decided to eschew socks for 3 months. As it turned out, the end of May was very warm, so I started early and then carried on until the end of September. I had decided that I would break this rule if I needed to wear my hiking boots [I did once] or go somewhere [like a funeral] where formal dress was required and I only went to an informal funeral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do a one-day brewing experience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Not done. As I like beer and I had enjoyed a visit to a brewery, I thought that it would be nice to get some \u201chands on\u201d experience. Several breweries offer such \u201cexperience days\u201d. But COVID got in the way. Maybe next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set up a photography website<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Done. I got my act together and set up MakeMyPicturesBetter.com<\/a> where I offer some services to amateur photographers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try archery<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Not done. A few years ago I went on a half-day archery experience and found, to my surprise, that I was quite good at it, even being able to shoot with an English long bow. I planned to contact the local archery club in late spring, but that was not to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swim in Cotswold lakes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Not done. I enjoy swimming and, even though I confine myself to indoor pools at this time of year, when it is warmer I like to go to rivers, lakes or the sea. Where I live is some distance from the coast and there are few lakes, so rivers are the normal option. The Cotswold lakes are an hour or so away. The lock-down meant much less sociability this summer [and I like to have swim buddies] and less travel. Next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master making cookies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Done. I really nailed this one! Not only have I produced very satisfactory cookies [reproducibly], I have used several recipes and created my own variants. Many people got interested in baking during lock-down, but I was pleased to be able to say that I was ahead of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attend a rugby match<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Not done. I am not generally very interested in sport. In particular, I cannot understand the enthusiasm in the UK for soccer. It just is not a very interesting game. Rugby, on the other hand, seems to have much more to offer. A while back, I watched a whole match on TV with a friend explaining what was happening. I felt that actually being at a match would be a richer experience. A friend agreed to arrange it for me, but COVID got in the way. Next year hopefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a dairy-free month<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Done. This was successful, insofar as I did go a whole month without consuming and dairy products. It was slightly disappointing as I experienced no health benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sausages<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Done. I have always liked sausages – traditional British \u201cbangers\u201d most of all. So, I thought that it would be fun to make some myself. I bought a kit, got some suitable meat and followed the instructions. The results were just fine, but nothing special, and I am not sure that I really enjoyed the process. I guess that is why I like to try things – win some, lose some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sample every Chinese take-away in Malvern<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Part done. The plan was to get a meal from every Chinese take-away in the course of the year. We are not great users of take-aways, so it was always going to be a bit of an effort. But COVID made that worse. We did about half of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I succeeded in 6.5 out of 12 things, which is rather disappointing, but I feel justified in citing the pandemic as the key reason for the shortfall. I will most likely carry forward some or all of the failed ones to my 2021 list, which I will publish in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year I make a list of \u201cthings\u201d that I plan to do. You might call them \u201cgoals\u201d, but I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning-resources","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9463"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9467,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9463\/revisions\/9467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9463"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=9463"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=9463"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}