Blog and challanges summary

I started this blog to write about things that interests me. At the beginning it was a little bit about motivation and running [here]. I set some goals for myself to achieve [here] and event create a page that stores all my successes and failures [here].

Today I would like to end this part of my webpage so I will do a quick summary of how I failed hard and succeed in some of the challenges.

Challenges summary - failure part

Lets start with the bad news - in both of the running challenges, namely:

• run half marathon in 2015
• run marathon in 2015

I failed. Last time, that I wrote about running [here] I mentioned that I got injured. Unfortunately the recovery period was long (I tried running after 2/3/4/5 weeks and my knee was still hurting). I took some pills but it did not help. I did some exercises instead - ride a bicycle, did over 100 km while cross country skiing. The break from running made it impossible to take part in half marathon in Poznan in April. I started running in April and gradually increased the intensity (I read a book about running during while being injured). Unfortunately in July my knee started hurting again and I had to pause running again. This shattered the dreams of marathon for me.

On the bright side of things - I bought a bike and I enjoyed riding it. I did almost 1500 kms last year, while in previous years I did not ride at all. I was even able to ride over 100 km in one day which I am proud of :) All in all despite not fulfilling my plans I enjoyed the year trying different sports.

Additional note for other people that are starting running or are planning to - do not force yourself to much. I know it is nice to exhaust yourself after a long day in front of the computer but for the sake of your health run slowly. Really. Or read a book or run with somebody at pace that you can talk comfortably.

Challenges summary - I don't know what it is part

I started the blog to express myself to the world. To hone my writing skills. To share my ideas. I challenged myself to keep the blog up with regular updates. It is still alive. Maybe not exactly alive and kicking but also not on the verge of death I guess. What do you think my dear reader? Was this challenge a success or was it a failure?

Challenges summary - I did something right part

At the beginning of the year somebody showed me a program for a mobile phone that allows learning the foreign languages. I am talking about Duolingo. It is really well executed application and what is most important it is free (and can be used on both mobile phone and the PC thanks to being a webpage). I started doing the exercises and today I achieved 100 days streak (which was my goal). That means I did the necessary exercises each and every day starting from 4th of January. I finished all the lessons a while ago and now I only did repetitions and it is less interesting that new lessons.
I would like to encourage everybody to try the Duoliong and the method of learning by small but frequent exercises. On the downside there is only one level of Polish-English course and is rather simple.

TL; DR

When I started this blog I set myself a few goals (challenges). Today I revised how I fare - I described my failures and successes. Now I retire this part of the webpage - no more challenges for me (at least for now). The archived ones can be found here.

Proper first post - it's time to start DOING THINGS!

Last post was just a test to see the blog layout and available customizations. Now it's time for some serious STUFF.

Blog origins

Long, long time ago I had a blog. It was called "Amin's world" and it was about electronics, programming, my studies and computer stuff. You can still find it in Internet archives:

• at its original address: https://web.archive.org/web/20090207174236/http://amin.kn-atena.net/
• or later (same content): https://web.archive.org/web/20100831114147/http://kn-atena.net/~amin/?

It was a great period back then.

New beginning

For some time now (really long period) I was bugged by the idea of starting over. I always thought about things to write, I even have a list of topics to cover in my evernote! Unfortunately innate laziness has prevented me from doing it. It's always easier to just watch or read something on the Internet. Consuming content is easy to do, interesting, but also time consuming. The thing is I want to give something to the Internet and the world (yea, it sound pathetic ;) I would like to create content and share it (if there is anybody interested). Also as time is passing so freaking fast I would like to leave a mark, a place where information about me and important for me are stored and preserved for future generations ;) In all seriousness I just want my own place in the Internet. Unluckily the desire is not enough, you have to start doing  or even start trying. That's why this blog name is "Amin can!". Amin is my nickname and this blog is a proof that if you want to achieve something you can, you just have to start doing and stop wasting your time. This is first step in my journey to achieve my goals. This is part of my first challenge - create a blog and keep it up (with regular updates) for a year. This day, the 16th of November 2014 is the starting point and a chronicle of my failures and successes in future challenges.

A lot of things has changed since my first steps in blogging. I found new passions, some have shifted in different directions. I'm so eager to write, don't now where to start. I've some many plans, including:

• second big challenge (will be revealed this week),
• articles about my new interest - cars,
• collecting, linking and summing up all the informations about myself, which are scattered around the web.

All in all it gonna be a blast. And remeber: You can do it!

TL; DR

This blog will present my long-term goals and document my progress. First challenge - creation and regular updating of a blog is started and on its way!