baldysblog.co.uk

Should one make New Year Resolutions is probably a valid question because inevitably we always miss our stated goals because either we didn’t desire them sufficiently in the first place or, achieving the goal did not lie within our personal gift anyway.

A good example of the first is “I will give up smoking” because we feel that on both health and economic grounds, we should but in truth haven’t really bought into the idea, we still like smoking. In the case of the second, a career goal based upon getting promoted may also be fated to fail simply because it relies on other people and circumstances beyond our control. So perhaps we should choose our ‘resolutions’ with extreme care…

Reality

Some years ago now, I gave up smoking on purely economic grounds when I was about to go bankrupt. It might be that many people in the UK are curing themselves of personal debt in a similar way if what I read on the web earlier is true. According to a BBC report on property:

“The survey was published the day after Bank of England figures showed that home-owners were concentrating on repaying their mortgages, rather than spending by cashing in on equity.

Households in the UK put £5.7bn of equity back into homes between July and September , compared with withdrawing £11.1bn in the same period in 2007 to spend on big-ticket items such as cars.”

Is it me or have we become numbed by figures in the Billion range ?

My Resolutions

Well having had some blood tests recently, I have traces of diabetes which could be halted by losing weight which will also prevent heart issues further down the line. So rather than spend the rest of my days sticking a needle in myself, losing weight is a must and therefore goes on the list. The “how” is down to reducing intake and upping the exercise routine all of which lie within my power to do.

The second one is connected to the first in a way – rebuild both the front and back gardens and that will be hard physical work. Gardening is not really my thing and I have no interest in a prissy neat suburban idea of what a garden should be, I like relatively wild and green spaces that birds and insects can enjoy however, even these need well defined and constructed areas to work well.

And That’s Both My Resolutions

Both those resolutions are within my ‘compass’ and should be achievable, in fact I will start on the garden on New Years Day.

The other list of things that I want to achieve in 2009 are not really suitable for ‘resolutions’ because whilst the ‘effort’ lies within my control, the ‘outcomes’ really don’t. What I have managed to do is to restrict my focus and try to concentrate my efforts better in two main areas, web technology and fine art printing.

Having narrowed down the potential to web technology, I have had to prioritize the learning sequence because to do for example full scale web multi-media requires learning a whole raft of complex software concerned with video, compositing, music and sound generally. The real need is to pace the learning so that each module clicks into place, enhancing and extending the output.

The big mistake would be to try and tackle them all in parallel, it must be one at a time, adding a new facility and then using it always, then later and when ready, add another. It is always true of any software that you must keep on using it in order to become proficient in it but that is especially true of graphics and editing programs.

Creating Content

I have been convinced for many years now that the real market to aim for is the creation of original content to be displayed/played over the web and even TV. As the world moves from “broadcasting” as in terrestrial channels outputting programs to a set timetable, to “time shifting” and on demand services, there will be a vast amount of programme demand set against relatively limited amount of high quality programme production. In a sense we have the signs of this with a lot of the stuff on You Tube which is highly pastiche and pirated.

Whilst I am if you like, assembling the supporting knowledge and experience to attempt the type of output I would like to see on my web sites, I am keeping my hand in or rather developing my two basic skills by writing this blog and taking photographs because the written word and still images that “tell a story” (the photographer’s ultimate goal), are the bedrock of all storytelling.

A Man With A Plan

Whether I am any good at either is another question but, it is only by constant practice and consciously developing your ideas and personal style that you have any chance of making progress. Behind this of course is a need when my Mother passes on, to try and earn a modest living again at the age of 63.

Although a London Boy, I doubt that I will be able to return to the city of my birth on financial grounds alone so what I am really exploring in a sense, is via the communications we have these days in terms of broadband, whether I can earn a living whilst remaining on the Somerset Levels though, what such a ‘living’ may be, I do not yet know.

And if you have read this far, may I wish you a Very Healthy and Happy New Year.