It’s almost December now and I’ve been thinking a lot about my new years resolutions and how I’ve mostly kept them. I say mostly because I have already bent the rules on my 365 Project tumblr,
today's 365 post!
bought 13 items that contribute to my wardrobe this year (instead of 12) and am behind on reading 24 books right now. Still, I’m actually pretty pleased with my progress so far and already have plans for bigger and better resolutions for next year!
The relative success of these resolutions have me thinking about projects that I’ve tried to hatch and incubate in the past. I have one in particular that I’ve been thinking about picking up again next year, which involves video and interviewing people. As grandma gets older I feel more and more that it’s really important for us to capture her stories I had been thinking that it would be good to capture some moments and stories with her while she is still able to share them. She’s 85 now and I still don’t know much about her life back in Vietnam. I feel that we should get something to remember her by on video. I’d like to learn how to set up a shot, basic lighting, and how compose and edit a compelling video interview.
I’m hoping to do more of these interviews with people in my life and questions that I often wonder about. This sounds vague but the whole concept itself is pretty general so let’s go with that for now.
But sometimes you just do things because you should try everything in life at least once. This year I am not making just one NYR but several! Statistically speaking, my chances of following through with a NYR will be greatly higher if I just make more of them.
So here we go!
1. So I was thinking I will read 40 books by the end of the year. Now, I hadn’t actually thought about this until yesterday at work when someone suggested I go for the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. That was when I actually realized the rate I would need to be reading in order for me to actually pull off this 40 books/1 year idea. Instead, by this day next year I will be finishing the last few pages of my 24th books. This puts me at 2 books a month. Still a challenge but a much more manageable one especially for me since I am a slow reader. Comic books will not count for this project but audiobooks will because it takes just as long to listen as it does to read in my head.
2. I am also going to actually follow through with a 365 project which will consist of some daily record of my life be it a photo, writing, audio or video. I imagine the toughest part of this will be remembering to post something. I assume I will probably go camping at some point which will keep me from being able to post on exactly the day but every day will still be accounted for at the end of the year. I’ll probably post these here.
3. Only one new article of clothing may be bought per month. I think this will be THE hardest of the resolutions. Mostly because I’m terrible at knowing what will actually be the most loved item in my closet until at least a 3-4 month residency. This is going to take some research and no more impulse buys or boredom shopping. I think the less clothes I buy, the more I can spend on one piece and that one piece better be f*ckin worth it.
The rest of the rules for 2011 are general guidelines for living that don’t exactly apply to just a year of amusing tricks (the resolutions above are probably not going to continue for more than the one year – though #3 probably should stick around for as long as possible). The other rules will be things like no more making excuses for not working out. No more making excuses about eating when not hungry, just make sure you’re actually hungry when you eat. Clean your room, once every two weeks at least. Pursue things that you’re actually interested in. General year round “spring cleaning”, pair down your material things, get rid of things that you never use.
no more of this
2011 is looking to start off pretty good, starting a 401K next week, still got a job, took care of my car, starting to make exercise a part of my regular life (well, not since before Christmas but I will be going back to Bikram yoga soon and I still have my gym membership), family is well, got an excellent boy.
So there is a theory, not sure whose theory, that a person can only be active in up to three online communities at a time.
The same is probably true for blogs.
I have two main blogs that I use, one here and one at mitziyoung.com. The other is for the off chance that I should some day need a “professional” blog. The idea being the posts on the other site be more thoughtful and insightful than say, the video I posted earlier of “God Gave Rock And Roll To You”. So far though, the content is basically the same there as it is here. Although I actually posted more about Lost there than here.
I also have a Twitter account that I update daily and a Tumblr that I update more frequently than the blogs and less frequently than the Twitter. The obvious reason for this being the length of content and ease of posting. Twitter is fast and easy. Tumbler is just as easy, less fast. Blogging is the kind that likes to play hard to get.
Anyway, all of this you probably knew before (not about the accounts but about the ease of posting, etc.) I’m thinking the best way to do things now is to post here daily – or at least attempt to. I think I tried several 365 projects and they’ve all failed. Well, in the sense that I failed them. Really the easiest 365 project for me is Twitter.
Anything worth cross posting to the professional site will get reposted but this will be my daily journal, my dear diary – with discretion seeing as how this space is still pretty public. There is always the password lock entry feature, but what fun is that? Secrets aren’t fun unless more than one person knows it.
So there we go. Most days I won’t be able to think of anything to write, so maybe I’ll just post some links or pictures from today’s internet fodder.
