New Year's Resolutions

In an effort to get this blog rebooted I figured I'd jot down a few things about the past 12 months and how I might do them differently in 2013, or actually do them at all, or stop doing them entirely. So, in no particular order...


Home

Perhaps the biggest change I'm willing to make in 2013 involves my general living situation. I've been with my girlfriend for just over a year now and I promised her that once we got our massive USA Trip and Xmas out of the way we could get a place together. It's gonna take a good few months to finish paying for said enormous holiday and raise some kind of deposit, not to mention finding somewhere that fits our quite niche requirements (Can we have pets?/Can I get Sky TV installed?/Is it far from a Train Station? etc), but I'm confident it's going to happen next year. It has to.

Gaming

My videogames backlog has got so big now that I've decided the only way to get through it all is to play the shortest games first. Thanks to howlongtobeat.com - which I discovered a few months back when I was googling how many years Metal Gear Solid was going to drag on for - I have a rough approximation of the running time of every game on my Amazon wish list and 'Pile O' Shame' at home. This website also informed me that getting through my current backlog would take approximately 37 days = 888 hours / 15 hours per week (average?) = 59 weeks. Just over a year then, to get to the point where the only game I have to play is Skyrim (+ everything decent that comes out in 2013).

I also intend to continue not buying very many games at full price. I eased off on it last year and found myself regularly picking up 1 or 2 month old games for £10-20 less than their original RRP. I even had the discipline to delay games I was really excited for, though I have no doubt in 2013 I will relent on Aliens: Colonial Marines (because my friends are buzzing about the multiplayer), Bioshock Infinite (because, duh! Have you seen it!?!?!) and GTA V (...).

Playstation Plus should also help me tidy up my backlog. I intend to continue paying the £12 per qtr subscription because it works out to be such incredible value across PS3 and Vita. I have access to about 10 games in my backlog this way, so will no doubt be getting to work on these once I've finished X-COM: Enemy Unknown.

Exercise

After more than two years of a quite dedicated gym regimen, I found myself opting out a bit in 2012. The first reason was the cost of it. I'd got myself tied up in a £65 per month Nuffield Health Gym Membership, which I really wasn't taking that much advantage of at only two sessions a week. I never used the pool, never took any classes etc. It really was wasted on me and with a very expensive holiday looming I decided to ditch it ASAP and look at alternatives.

I vowed that I would go running, but the sketchy british climate decided it wasn't going to fit around my schedule so I bailed after the first attempt.

Salvation came in the form of EA Sports Active 2, which I had picked up a while back in the January Sales for a tenner, but had yet to try out. It was an old game by then - EA had dropped all their online support for it, but here still was a fairly intensive and structured workout schedule (not to mention PSN Trophies!). The downside was that in order for it to do any good at all, I had to do it 4 times a week(!) and so I ended up having to work-out during antisocial hours, which annoyed my housemate and eventually the neighbours. I finished my second 9 week program with the game just before I went on holiday and haven't exercised since.

This is all set to change in 2013 though, with my spanking new membership at www.thegymgroup.com. It was an easy sell: £11 a month, no contract, open 24 hours. The real clincher though is that I won't feel like I have to go any more than once a week to feel like I'm getting my money's worth. I might go more, but to be honest, I haven't done any deliberate exercise for a couple of months now and I feel OK, my clothes still fit and my girlfriend isn't complaining. Any more than once or twice a week and I think it will annoy me that I'm not spending my time doing something else, like...

Writing

This one ties into what I'm doing right now in fact: writing shit down properly instead of pasting links on Facebook with a 5 word comment. I used to love writing reviews of games I played and movies and TV shows I watched, but it's been difficult to find time since I started commuting to London. Next year I intend to write at least one blog per week. You heard it here first...

Smoking

Yeah I know - that old chestnut, cliche etc. This does kinda tie in with the whole moving out thing though. I've been quite lucky(?) for the past decade or so, because everywhere I've lived I've been able to light up wherever and whenever I want. That is most definitely going to change when I move out with Laura though, because:

1. She doesn't smoke
2. You can't smoke in rentals.

I have friends who have tried out that strange electronic fake cigarette thing with varying levels of success. I might give that a try. My problem with smoking, or rather - not smoking, is that I've always associated it something: Watching a movie, Playing a Videogame, Drinking a Beer, Walking to work etc. Hopefully if I can form the same kind of bond around this strange 'future cigarette' I might succeed...