I resolve

First of the year

[As the sun sets on another year we… hahaha… no really, no heavy reflection here. Besides, that is the first sunset of this new year.]

Last year I wrote a bit about resolutions and never really stated what those were other than to be a better blogger — keep laughing, I am — and to stay in touch with faraway friends a bit better. Well, if you are keeping score, I didn’t do well with either, but probably better with the blogging than the staying in touch. As for the unrevealed ones, much worse. In fact, for one, total and utter failure.

This year, I am going to throw a couple right out there right now and we’ll see what happens. You can maybe help hold me to them. Or maybe you don’t care. Heck, as Juice commented last year, this is for me after all. Secondarily, it helps keep them straight. I swear I started the year with one or two others in my head, but now I don’t know if I did or not. That is either old age or denial for not having come thru.

So, last year I utterly failed at catching up on reading my comics. Now, the key word is reading because I have been buying them with due diligence just about every week. (I don’t want the leg breakers from the comic store calling on me if I fail to collect my subscription at regular intervals.) Yes, this is ridiculous behavior when you consider how much I spend per month on them. Therefore, it is definitely time for action because inaction is costing me a good amount of scratch that could be better served elsewhere. Anyway, if I had to estimate, I’d say I am at least two years behind. TWO YEARS! That’s a lot of books and my goal isn’t to read them all, but it is to catch up on those that I will read going forward and to trim the fat of those I won’t. As for a deadline, if I don’t catch up (or give up) by July 1st, then I have to quit. I also have a penalty involved for not meeting the deadline, but I’ll address that if/when the time comes.

My second is related to another neglected hobby; it is to become a better photographer. Part of that is just getting out and shooting more, but the other part is getting some ka-nawl-edge. To me, that means part practice and part taking some classes/workshops. I am going to look to take a workshop in March at the New England School of Photography. It is right there in Kenmore Square and I figure easy to hit after work. I looked into it last month, but the thought of heading over there on winter nights isn’t appealing. No penalties here as this one is actively costing me money.

Lastly, I aim to continue to make way with the two I copped to last year. I feel like I started to make a bit of progress here at this domain last Fall. Sure, the holiday’s saw some inactivity, but that seems normal. I feel like two posts a week here is still doable, so I aim to keep up with that, but also, I am going to finally cave and go active on Facebook. I say active because I am already there, just friendless. I set up an account to test some things I did for Ed and Jason‘s blogs, but stayed stealth. So even though I don’t feel like Facebook is that many more steps above MySpace, it still isn’t MySpace, so that is something. Basically I feel like it gives me a better opportunity to stay in touch because e-mail does not cut it for me. Too easy to blow it off whereas Facebook provides the ability for quick hits. I guess it is somewhere between e-mail and IM.