Week 232 was posted by Charanjit Chana on 2022-04-04.
I never really stuck to resolutions when I was younger, but found that they're a good motivator to help try new things or maybe to get better at something. My daughter's resolution was to try new foods a few years ago and she's stuck to it. This time, I took a different approach for my resolutions and have been drawing something every day as well as trying to read more books.
Drawing everyday
This hasn't been a massive challenge in terms of scheduling it in, but I've learnt a hell of a lot in the past 3 months. Not just about drawing, but about Procreate too. There are a load of tutorials I've been following and inspiration has come from a whole range of places. Instagram for one, but every day objects and some books I've had for a while but not had the time to really get stuck in to.
It's been really nice doing something I had forgotten I really enjoyed doing. The younger me loved to draw, but I guess I never had the confidence to take it much further... even as a hobby it's not really something I delved into much. Yes, a couple of years ago I did start using brush pens but without some discipline I wasn't really get in enough practice.
Reading 12 books in 2022
2½ books in as we get into April isn't too bad in the grand scheme of things. Exercising for charity has taken up more time than I expected, so I'm a bit behind and really should have finished my third book by now.
- Mentality Monsters by Paul Tomkins
- How To Be Right by James O'Brien
- Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera
Mentality Monsters was a fantastic walk down memory lane. It covers the 2019 Champions League winning season for Liverpool FC in great detail. I've read Tomkins' work online for years (decades) and it was nice to read something in a much longer form.
How To Be Right is maddening, but in a good way. It's lessons and thoughts could apply to any of the world events that have plagued us over the past 6 years. Even if does reopen wounds from how the world has been shaped in that time, I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
Empireland inspired a documentary, hosted by Sanghera, and is pretty raw in it's honest look at the British Empire. I'm about half way through and while I've seen plenty of backlash on social media about the books premise, I don't see how any country can heal without looking at it's past honestly. There's plenty in Empireland that makes for uncomfortable reading. I'm British and remember buying into the thought of how successful Empire was as a child, but that perception had already been changed in the last couple of years (thanks to Sanghera and others) and while I can see both sides of it's place in the modern world, I don't think enough people in the UK appreciate just how negative some aspects were.
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