Had Julius Ceasar decided to go on a hunt – Jan 1 might be actually Jan 15. These days, new years really does not make sense in the large scheme of things – a speck going around a little brighter speck in a  random corner of the Universe.

However – it does matter in the personal progress. Am I wiser, stronger, smarter compared to last year? What am I going to accomplish this year, that I did not do last year?

It does serve as a mile stone.

In no particular order – my goals for 2016 – where I return to Bangalore for the 2nd time in my life.

Running

In 2012 December, I ran a half marathon (21.6 KM) in a little over 4 hours.
In 2015 September, I ran a half marathon in a little under 3 hours ( 2 hours, 53 minutes )

In 2016, perhaps I will run the half in under 2 hours? Or should I aim to run a full marathon ( 42.2). I have at my disposal 2 lakes at walkable  runnable distance from my home. Today I did a 5k in 32 minutes.. will see if I can extend it to 10k in 64 minutes and try to increase distance and maintain the pace. Yes.. my age is increasing…. but I am getting younger.

Biking

In 2014, I did a Bangalore to Mumbai Ride – on a Royal Enfield, Thunderbird 500 cc ( http://kvrlogs.blogspot.in/2014/06/bangalore-to-mumbai-on-thunderbird.html ) . The longest I did after that was the Gorai Beach trip, or could be Thungareshwar from our home in Kandivali.

Perhaps this year I will ride to Nilgiris. It is a crime not to let the bike run full throttle.

Reading

2015 has been a good year with books.  Crunched a cart load of them. Yet to compile the list of 2015 – to continue my annual tradition (  http://kvrlogs.blogspot.in/2015/01/2014-books-roundup.html )

In 2014 ( or could be 2013 ) – read about a guy who planned to read 365 books that year. Now at a minimum I will crunch 52 books this year. Life is too short for the number of good books that are there waiting to be read.

Cycling

The Home-office distance is 5.2 Kms one way. The days I don’t run I am planning to take the cycle. Tried it once and it was just right. Did not get too sweaty that I needed a shower. Don’t know how it will be in summer.

Dog

The idea of having a pet dog bites me every year. Last year I got serious and joined a few adoption forums of Bangalore and Mumbai. Anyone coming there looking to adopt  a pure breed get nicely scolded and they leave the forum and go buy one from a pet breeder ( or puppy mills as they call ). I keep seeing the posts in these forums – cannot bring myself to adopt an Indie ( call me a hypocrite if you want  – I see them on the road all the time and cannot imagine them running inside the home ) – and at the same time cannot bring myself to buy from a breeder – as it perpetuates this inhumane practise. So waiting for a puppy to fall into my lap – hope this year I get lucky.

Programming

I started writing a Project Management tool in angular ( I evaluated so many but none fit my simple requirements  – all had too many features). Will complete it and make it available for our team.

I got a Raspberry Pi last year. Played around with but didn’t do much. This year will improve upon Python and along side plan a few projects. I strongly believe low cost computing will be the next big thing. Perhaps I will hook it to our Generator in our Apartment  Complex – Being in Mumbai last 4 years I had forgotten how it used to be without power cuts. But here.. in Bangalore – when Generator is on – I cannot turn on the iron box or geyser – as the Circuit Breaker will trip immediately. This is an immediate problem I want to solve – a simple App that shows when the generator is on.

I enjoy coding. I enjoy working on a Mac. Want to learn Swift and write a Mac application – perhaps a todo list ( while Omnifocus is good I am not too happy with it ) or an Email App ( Mailbox was almost perfect.. and Dropbox idiots acquired and killed it ).

Travel

I am not a wanderlust. I am more than happy to be holed inside the home – with my mac, music and a fast internet connection – for days.

However, with the responsibility of bringing up a human being –  the 8 year old son – I have to maintain his curiosity levels and keep him exposed to different experiences – I have to plan more travel. Perhaps will show him the temples of South, or go to the bottommost tip of the country, or show him Snow..

Food

Its been more than 2 years since I turned Vegetarian. But still I consume Egg occasionally and Diary products. Perhaps this year I will kick off the Animal products entirely and go Vegan. Now that I am in Bangalore – I can afford to do this.

Fasting

Have never done fasting – other than the times when I was forced to skip a meal. But it has been disastrous – head splitting headaches, irritated mood levels.. have to conquer this. The Vegan fad has subsided ( it has become mainstream ) – and now the new fad is fasting.. the mentions are increasing in the podcasts I follow. Will as well try it.

Going Carbon Neutral

I heard that a guy in our Apartment Complex has made a van with solar panels – which is parked in our visitors parking lot half the time. Apparently he is doing research on this and has got grants etc. Yet to meet this guy. Planning to put up a panel on our roof and see how much juice I can generate.. and start learning on these technologies – perhaps when I retire off in a small farm somewhere someday I can live off the electrical grid entirely – or who knows – this might as well be my next startup – once I own all the Apartment Complex Rooftops 😉

So thats it – starting a new tradition with this – will revisit this post in 2017 to see how I did.