New Year’s Resolutions

The holidays were great, but they also sucked up any energy I might normally have devoted to posting. In the interests of not procrastinating any longer, I’m just going to write one sort of uber-post about all the holiday-related stuff.

Christmas was great. Annie got me a funny shirt and I got her some funny buttons. We were able to get presents for just about everyone because I was making decent money at my temp job, and despite getting horrible colds, we both managed to avoid being sick on Christmas eve or day. Pat was in town for the holiday, so we got to see him and Sharron, and found out that they’re getting married! Oh, I also bought a new computer.

New Year’s was a bit more interesting. We went to Urn and Kat’s party, and proceeded to have a grand old time, until Annie started puking. She really hadn’t had that much to drink, and I wonder if it maybe wasn’t a bit of food poisoning from the not-so-great Subway we had for dinner. Either way, she was still really sick the next day, and spent the whole time watching movies in a fog on Urn and Kat’s couch. They were nice enough to let us crash there for another night, and the people at my temp job were pretty understanding about missing a day of work. I still don’t have a license, so I couldn’t drive home, and our bank accounts were empty from the holidays, so I couldn’t buy a train/bus ticket. Though, I doubt I would have left Annie alone up there in that condition anyways. Aside from Annie being violently ill, though, we had a lot of fun, and it was great to see Urn and Kat for longer than we expected.

Video Games have been a lot of fun lately. Annie beat the first Katamari Damacy already, and I’m well on the way to beating Darwinia. Plus, Daniel came down before New Year’s and showed me Guitar Hero, which is crazy. I had played a bit of Donkey Konga with Dave (and Oskar, who loves the game and shouts at Donkey Kong), and while that was fun, this was much better. It’s really the whole package, from attitude to art style to music, it just works better, I feel. Of course, I suck at ALL rhythm games, so you can take this with a grain of salt.

New Year’s Resolutions! This year, I’ve resolved to make better resolutions. I was looking back over last year’s and the year before, and I’m a little embarrassed by how boring they are.

2005 Resolution Review

• Get up at a regular time every weekday - Check! Though I can’t really claim the victory here, since the reason I managed to keep this one up was due to finding full-time work.
• Work out 15 minutes every weekday - Failed. I managed to keep this up for several months, but after I found work, it was too hard to fit it into my schedule.
• Accomplish at least one thing every day before playing games - Failed. hahahahaha …RIGHT. Didn’t even come close on this one. Budgeting time is still something I struggle with.
• Do more web design - Check. Granted, it took me the full year to accomplish the redesign I’d been dreaming about, but I did focus on design more.
• Post more frequently, and use more images in my posts - Check! I was able to mostly keep to a MWF schedule, and I use images whenever it applies. Setting up my photo gallery was a big help with this.

2004 Resolution Review

• Eat Breakfast Every Day - Check! I did manage to keep this one up, and I’m still doing it. I don’t eat a huge breakfast, but I at least have a cereal bar or shake every morning.
• Go For A Walk Every Morning - Failed. This didn’t last long, after finding work, but oddly enough I managed to start it up again in the form of going for a walk almost every evening after dinner.
• Exercise Every Weekday - Failed. (see above).
• Do More Design - Check. Again, a qualified success. I didn’t do as much as I would like, but I was active and thinking about it a lot.
• Learn More About Unix - Failed. Heh. I bought a couple of books, but after the server crash, my motivation was flagging. I’m still at the same basic level I’ve always been.

I was disappointed by the number of resolutions I failed at. It also doesn’t help that I wasn’t interested in the resolutions. They were things I knew I should do because they were good for me, like exercising and eating well, but I had difficulty sticking with it. So this year, I decided to do something different. My resolutions are things that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and I’m going to make them happen this year. Annie also has some pretty big resolutions, but I’ll post about those another time, or let her do so.

2006 New Year’s Resolutions

• Shoot A Gun - For such an action film geek, you’d think I would have sought this out at some point. But I grew up in the city, I’ve never been hunting, and the closest I’ve come is shooting a BB gun. Annie also has somehow avoided this, even though her Dad is a hunter. A few years ago, we got the idea to take a group of friends to a shooting range so everyone could go as a group and not feel dumb. Well, the group has changed, but Eric owns several guns, and has agreed to play supervisor for us, so this year I’m going to make it happen.
• Play In The Snow - Timberline Lodge up on Mount Hood has innertubing during the winter, and tobogganing during the summer. I haven’t been in years, and Annie misses going to play in the snow with her snowboarding group. Well, Gavin is old enough to appreciate these things now, so we’re going to use him as an excuse to make two trips up this year. One fairly soon for innertubing and snow, and another in the summer for the crazy tobogganing.
• Jump Out Of A Plane - It’s my Fight Club answer. When Tyler is about to drive the car into oncoming traffic, and he asks the spacemonkeys what they’ll wish they’d done before they die. One blurts out “Make a painting,” and the other says “Build a house.” Well, if I had been in that car, I would have said “Go Skydiving.” I’ve always wanted to do it. I’m not super comfortable with heights, so it’s kind of my way of confronting it, but it’s also just a challenge to myself. And even if I have to jump strapped to someone else, I can at least say I’ve jumped out of a plane.
• Attend Web Conferences - Every year, I read about my internet mentors attending web conferences and wish I could go. This only got worse once I went to Gen Con, and got a taste of how much fun conventions can be. Well, no one is ever going to send me to conventions, unless I make it happen. It’s too late for me to hit SXSWi, but if I start setting aside some money now, I should be able to travel to one or two others later this year. Maybe I’ll even go to An Event Apart, and meet Zeldman and Meyer. Even if I don’t meet the grandmasters, though, it’s be nice to be more active in my community, and make connections.