January stats

Books read - 10
DVD movies watched - 27
Distance walked - 60km
Drawings done - 0

I've been monitoring my action count since October 2006, but only last month realised that it wasn't very useful to measure without setting targets. So last month I identified the actions I wanted to emphasise, and ended up achieving 92% of my overall target (147/160). While I didn't draw as planned, I did more reading and walking, which balanced things out.

I've upped my drawing target for Feb to keep me looking at that as something needing more focus. I'm still far from settled on the right mix of walking to resting, as the second half of Jan was quite the fatigue-y struggle, and today has been far from encouraging. Oh well, 11 months left to work things out :)

Fly

After buying some new walking shoes on Thu, finally got a chance to christen them this morning, with immediate positive results. Actually got my walking speed back up over 6kph (for a 3k walk) after it'd been hovering at 5.6kph (must've been walking kinda dainty). And my knees and ankles feel fine! Surely this can only help maintain my walking enthusiasm :)

Broken!

The fruits of my labours so far, records for all my walking metrics :) And I'm less than halfway through the month! Of course I have to spend the remainder of my days resting, so hopefully it'll take a smaller percentage of my energy to maintain this over time...

Build

My focus the past week or so has been almost exclusively on building up my walking capacity, which has paid off nicely. 12 walks in the last 14 days including a couple of full hour-long efforts. While I've been sore, I haven't been fatigued, so must be doing something right :)

Another week or so of this and I can start to shift my attention to something else on my long todo list, with a base of strength to build from!

Week 1

Amazingly, I've only been on holidays for a week but it already feels like a month away from work. Which is a good thing, given the legitimate concern that a year off will fly by all too quickly.

So, what do I have to show for this strangely stretched time?

Firstly, a return to walking (although still a bit of a struggle) and weights (very light, but a start).

Secondly, some drawing. Well, ok, one drawing... But it's my first in 2 months and so I have to rebuild a routine.

Thirdly, lots of time with family, with Christmas gatherings spread across 2 days plus my usual Thursday dinner.

Fourthly, reading, with 2 more finished books taking me to 70 for the year. Not the 100 I was on track for back in April, but a step ahead of last year, which was an increase on the year before that. Perhaps 2012 will see a century...

Fifthly, some DVD watching. I'm still working out where I'll draw the line between relaxing in front of the tv and doing more constructive things. Overthinking it threatens to suck the life out of me, so I'm just going by feel for now.

Finally, I've written this post, a rare occurrence indeed! Hopefully there'll be more to come.

When I write it up like that, I can convince myself I've been much busier than I really have :) Lots more to do though!

Why a PM?

Here's a little taste of the kind of thought that sit in my head, and explains why even the briefest taste of "news" both drains me and makes me want to scream...

Are there any compelling reasons why we have a PM, and a Cabinet, which have some kind of precedence in decision making? Come to that, why do we need any aspect of an adversarial "govt vs opposition" approach? This makes a mockery of proportional representation, since all those who have voted for their local member, presumably on the basis that he or she represents local interests most effectively, are left without any kind of effective voice in decision making. It also disregards members' individual expertise.

If collegiate decisions could be made by the parliament as a whole, using the entire knowledge and skills of the group, surely the results would be more representative?

There would be no need for factional fighting, for arguments over who should lead, for secrets between or within parties which weaken the collective decision making process.

Double rainbow

Taken from my family's new deck this afternoon.