As promised in my first post of the year, here are my goals for 2015.

1. First up, my hiatus from organized exercise has ended effective immediately. I once read that if you are not fit at age 40 you never will be, and it’s a fact that falls into the category of something I have no scientific proof of whatsoever, but seems to mesh with general common sense. So now is the hour.
2. More nature. - Over the last year (and indeed the last decade) I’ve largely lead an urban existence. I would love to spend more time in real nature, not just manicured parks, both with my kids and on my own. New years in a remote part of Scotland was a good start.
3. Consume less realtime news. Frankly it’s largely depressing and of minimal value. I’ll instead focus on deeper analysis of more topics. In this regard, I continue to LOVE the weekly physical copy of the economist. Würde mich sehr freuen was ähnliches auf deutsch zu finden (Die Zeit, die ich lange abbonierte, ist nicht das gleiche - zu viel Lifestyle und Zeitung ist das falsche Format. Der Spiegel fängt jetzt an Sonnabends zu erscheinen, vielleicht versuchen sie in dieser Richtung zu gehen.) Above all, my goal is there should be many more topics about which I am utterly content to be completely ignorant, to save space for more relevant things.
4. I am experimenting with getting more organized. To date I’ve largley relied on very adhoc systems to manage my todo list. It has generally worked well enough, but could probably be more effective. My inbox currently has 69,000 emails in it (I use no folders or labels). My new technique is a text file on Dropbox creatively named … todo.txt. Not sure how this experiment will work, but so far finding it to be an improvement, although not yet radically life changing.
5. More frequent posting. Over the last year my experiment with weekly notes resulted in many positive discussions. It seems there are many people out there who like to read what I’m up to, though don’t necessarily take the time or effort to comment, which is fair enough. There are plenty of blogs on which I just lurk as well. Again and again I would meet people I hadn’t seen in a while and they would comment about some point I had made on the blog.  So I need to find a regular rhythm. Not yet sure if it’s weekly, but that’s what I’ll aim for to start.

Some things went really well in 2014 and are trends I’ll keep going:

1. I read a ton of great fiction, vorallem auf deutsch. Der Sommer in Berlin war Stefan Zweig gewidmet, derzeit ist Sigfried Lenz dran. Also I have to admit that in a moment of literary weakness I started on the first Game of Thrones book and then proceeded to read all ten. Most of all, I am largely off of non-fiction. That said, for xmas I got Neil MacGregor's Germany: Memories of a Nation, and it was excellent, despite not at all being new terrain. Highly recommended. Nevertheless, as much as possible I will remain on a fiction diet.
2. Raising bilingual children. Things are going very well in this regard with my son. We continue to interact nur auf deutsch. My daughter is on the cusp of learning to speak, so there remains much more to do.
3. Really enjoyed the summer in Berlin, will see if we can repeat it in 2015.

And that’s probably enough. If achieve all that I’ll be thriving.