1 month down...

January is over and February is already moving through. It's time to have a look on "how well" I did at January (post can be found here) and set some new Desired Changes-of-the-month for the month of February.

Let's start with a look back, and then set out changes for Feb.

January
More gym attendance is an easy one. Thanks to the poor weather, my attendance has been pretty shocking, so that's an immediate goal for the continuing months - that never was going to be a one month fix, a lot of these will be things I'll start (or stop) doing and continue to do so. The weather is getting better, plus the days are getting longer, so here's hoping to make an improvement over January.

The job focus was also big for January. I have had 2 career advice sessions with a 3rd one to happen in a week or so (with any luck), and I couldn't expect a quick fix, but hopefully they'll help me refocus of my job search. In my 2nd session, I did a questionnaire like Kudos - you know the software which you answer questions to and it uses the answers to suggest a list of suitable careers (and dancer is always on the list). Well, my answers pointed to a strong computing/technical foundation - something which happens a lot I was assured. There was no mention of the support roles which again is no surprise as I both dislike that work and believe that my skills aren't biased towards it. What it did point to was a developer role - something which I initially was looking at doing, plus a big motivation for specialising in computing/computer science throughout college and university.
The problem which I raised was that I haven't been doing any development, it's very difficult for employers to find my CV attractive, but we're going to work on that in the 3rd session - plus do something about my confidence. I do believe it to be a vicious circle - confidence and motivation will come from higher self-esteem but it's so hard to find from my current work, so we'll see about breaking the cycle.

In more positive news, one simple success of Jan was me trying out contact lens. 2 appointments later and I have updated my prescription and had a lesson on putting them in and taking them out. That was a fun experience, and even though I am a lot more practised, it still looks like I've been crying a little immediately after putting the contacts in.
I was told to wear contacts for 6 days straight in order to become familiar with putting them in/taking them out and also for my eyes in general to get used to something literally in my eye (or upon, perhaps more accurately).
Because my prescription has got a little "worse" since Summer 2008, I can actually see better with my contacts vs my current glasses - plus, my bridge doesn't get itchy with contacts, nor is it possible to get finger prints on them. I wore them at work, but it's not something I'll be doing in the future - staring at a monitor means you blink less and this dries out the contacts so they were getting a little irritable towards the end of the day. I have dailies at the moment, but may switch to the monthlys but happy I can tick that off.

And finally a potential move has been a bit on/off. I've had a look at a few places but so far haven't found anything which is both good value and a nice place with all my criteria ticked. Recently I've been applying for jobs in the Telford area so if one of those were to work out then that would be ideal. Note: I am not interested in a renting a room for the cost of an entire apartment - that, is just silly.

Goals for February
e-book readers seem to be the "in tech" these days, and it was interesting to see what Apple's tablet would turn out and all the rumoured promise of how it will revolutionise ebooks, magazines etc. I, personally, was left a bit deflated when the iPad was shown as a jumbo iPod Touch, plus alternatives like Amazon's Kindle seem an expensive way to get myself to read more books.
Instead, let's stick with the paper variety so starting this month I intend to read more books. I used to always read before bed when I was younger and even when I worked part time at TJ Hughes, I would take the earlier train and read in the library. Lately it seems like I don't do much reading at all - I have a couple of magazine subscriptions so February is the month to change that.
I'm thinking a book a month is a pretty safe goal, I will be starting a little late in February but I'll order a couple of books soon - I've definitely decided on getting World War Z plus a few others, and I am accepting any recommendations of course.

Another change would be to move my drinking habits away from my long-time safe bet of Cider to other poisons. I still need to lock that down but moving over to spirits + mixer is a pretty safe option. Another option would be wine - I've said many times that I'd like to get into wines and become a bit of a connoisseur so that would be cool. Ordering things online usually give me a Virgin Wines voucher for what is essentially a subscription to wine. They send you x amount of bottles for an ongoing charge, or something - more research is needed but could be interesting to explore.



I bought a set of clippers last month with the aim of cutting/shaving my own hair, so I'll take the plunge this month as long as the weather gets better. In fact, I may go for it this weekend so look out for some pix.

And to round off the Desired Changes, continued job search and more gym attendance is a must. If the weather continues to improve, I will hopefully scout out a cool route to go on jogs, so look out for some published activities thanks to the RunKeeper iPhone app I got a long time ago.

Ok, so there's the lookback on Jan, a look forward to Feb - perhaps in the future I'll break it into two posts, we'll see.