Shoot the arrows then set up the target...

[ilanin]

The above is, essentially, my reason for not writing a 2013 review post - not having actually established any kind of standards to judge by, making a review would be an exercise in making things up as I go along and entirely dependent on my current mood. Since I'm currently feeling fairly happy, I would argue that things went relatively well, but I don't think that's a useful thing for me to be doing.

If we stick to a dull recitation of events, then we can say that in 2013 I was diagnosed with IgA nethropathy, kinda-sorta got my project at Nanosight into a working state (at least to their approximate satisfaction) and left them and Salisbury on good terms, got a job in Cambridge with surprising ease (I really wasn't expecting my first two interviews to come back with an offer at a higher salary than I was receiving in Salisbury - oh, and Zeiss are throwing a 6.5% raise at me in May and then another 3.7% a year from now, which is better than a kick in the teeth), and settled back down into something that's approximately the same social circles I left. My archery is currently marginally better than last year's indoor season, though seems to be suffering similarly from peaks and troughs. I'm hopeful it'll improve quite strongly after Christmas, but we'll see. My weight dropped from around 80 kg at its post-Christmas peak to a stable 62-63 kg now, which is a little lower than I'd ideally like, but it doesn't seem to want to go up and I'm happy with what I'm eating and my fitness levels are generally good (resting pulse is sort of 58-ish), so it'll stay there I guess. Romantically, I managed to move on from being hung up on Polaris but not actually on to anyone (though definitely now actively looking), which is progess of a very minor sort.

So let's try setting some actual goals for 2014, and then maybe next year's review post might have something to go on.

In 2014, I want to...

• Find a new girlfriend

Nothing like starting nice and simple, is there? Thing is, it'll be more than anything else how I judge the year, since Zeiss seem to have practically pre-judged me to be a success professionally (alternatively "have realised that about half their R&D department is 50 or over and are putting a premium on retaining the ones who aren't close to retirement"). Things are going fairly OK with regard to meeting new people I think, so current strategy might be working, and will certainly be given a bit more time.

• Start working on the set of checkboxes to get CPhys status

​That's "Chartered Physicist" for those who didn't guess, and it's sort of my long-term check to see that I'm still doing useful things, because if I continue to be vaguely competent then I ought to be able to get CPhys in 3 or so years' time. One of the things I need to do is fill out my background physics knowledge a bit since I'm missing a few of the things I ought to know as a result of not having done an actual Physics course in my last couple of years at University, and that's really something to get cracking on this year.

• Shoot a 540 Portsmouth or 500 FITA 18, and get First Class in the Outdoor Season

​Bit of a stretch here; that's 15 points on my best Portsmouth or 19 on my best last year (these scores are out of 600), and then something like 27 on my best Albion and do that three times (that one's out of 972). But I certainly can do it. I regularly shoot 108 dozens (=540 for a full round) in practice sessions; the trick is to string five of them together without doing anything stupid. If I do all of that, then maybe I'll be able to shoot for Cambridgeshire in the summer, that'd be fun.

• Actually write my The Secret World novelisation thing

I started this, and then kind of stopped in an attempt to get my Let's Play of Wing Commander III finished. Well, that's now essentially done - I just need to record and edit the commentary for the final mission with Jade Star, and that ought to happen tomorrow or this weekend. Of course I'd like to get cracking on Wing Commander IV at some point thereafter, but I need to play that through on my own before I get started, and hopefully in the not-doing-an-LP bit I can make a solid start on To Speak of Secrets. The other thing I'll need to do is actually finish TSW's single-player content, but since my character is in Transylvania (the final one of the three occult crises you confront) and my writing is still in the prologue, that shouldn't be a problem for quite a while.

• Do some kind of actual roleplaying thing at some point.

​Ideally I'd like to run an Amber game I have about one-quarter planned, Children of Treason, but I'm not fussy...not very, anyway.