the rest of it

Things It wasn't a very thingy year. I can't think of any gadgets that impressed me or new foods that tickled me or such. I did get two wear-them-constantly pieces of clothing from White Stuff, one for autumn, one for winter. The jumper had a starring role in the Motherland Christmas special, apparently. I'm grateful to Allison for introducing me to a new-to-me facial moisturizer: Aveeno Oat Gel .  Books My reading habits fell apart a few months into the year, and they slowed to NOTHING during the over-the-top autumn term. But before the hellish term, the reading I did was generally not inspiring (though I enjoyed the ones I read for review). I only finished eight books. Pretty damned pathetic.  There was only one book that made me really think, and that was Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering . I recommend it to anyone who teaches, runs meetings or entertains.  Films As I mentioned in a previous post, I saw 44 films this year, 19 of them in a cinema.  Of the cinem...

As I think about my resolutions for 2023, it's time to review my successes and not-so-successes of 2022. While I make resolutions/work on habits at any time of year (especially the starts of semesters), I do find the space around the  new year very useful for thinking about life. And it's nice to have some new things to think about in winter, after the fun, decorated part of it ends. The 2022 resolutions Here  they are as they appeared on this blog last year . 1. Daily habit Do a plank every day. Having left my trainer, I need more weight-bearing exercise in my life. I’ve been trialing this resolution in the between-holidays time and a 30-second plank, at about a 45° angle, is leaving my abs sore the next day, so this little thing can do something, I think. The plan is to increase the time or difficulty weekly. I did this for some months. It got more irregular as I was getting bored of it, and then I took it off the to-do list when I had an injury. I do still need more weight-...