It's still the beginning of December, and I know the tradition is to review the last year before AGU, and do resolutions after. And the geoblogosphere is doing the first-post-of-the-month meme. But it's not just the beginning of the last month, the end of classes, and the week before AGU for me. It's also my 42nd birthday, and in celebration of the number 42 and the answer to life, the universe, and everything, I'm going to skip straight to plans for the next year.
In the next year I want to:
- Put more miles on my bike, skis, and feet than I do on my car. ("Better start taking long bike rides," says my husband. Bad news, because I prefer to run. But I was doing 20-mile weeks a few years ago while training for a marathon; I would like to get back to that kind of mileage.) If I can't pull it off, I want to at least do two running races: the Mother's Day 10K trail race (with free chocolate) and the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. Both start within a bike ride's distance of my house, too.
- Get one paper sent off to a journal. I know this doesn't sound very ambitious, especially for people who are still actively in the job hunt. But for me, it's more about not feeling guilty than about being a super-productive scientist. Finish the paper, stop feeling lousy about myself.
- Follow through on at least one really crazy idea. Could be a research idea, could be a teaching idea, could be some kind of non-work thing that I'm scared to try. (Husband says I should do this 42 times, but when I say follow through, I mean really follow through. It could take a year or more to really give a crazy research or teaching idea a chance.)
- Avoid unpleasant interpersonal politics. I've been lucky this year - I've been on good committees, my department is getting along, and the geoblogosphere has been pleasant. I'm going to try to continue the pattern.
- Post more pictures. I got a new camera for my birthday. Now I need to learn how to use it (and how not to break it).
Oh, and unrelated: for an AGU meetup, how about at the Thirsty Bear (661 Howard St., SF) at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, December 17?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Goals for the next year
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7 comments:
Happy Birthday, Kim. I thought that might have been what you alluded to in your previous post...
Happy Birthday! And those are wonderful goals for the year. All the best on all of them. :)
Happy birthday, Kim!
Excellent goals!
The mileage could be tricky, depending on where you live relative to work, but certainly very do-able.
(Does it snow in Durango?)
You might like David Suzuki's Nature Challenge
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/
You inspire me to try to do so, too. Thanks.
Happy birthday! I'm looking forward to seeing the photos...
Thanks, everyone. (Kurt, I live close enough to campus that I have not bought a parking permit. I either bike or walk to work... though one rainy day I was offered a ride by someone else who works on campus. Count for yesterday: 3 miles running, 2.5 miles on bike, 0 miles in car. But, yeah, the goal will require consciously avoiding driving as well as trying to run and bike. Fortunately, I can x-country ski from my house. The hard part will be making sure that any field work involves more walking than driving.)
neat post.
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