The New Year

So, while everyone has sworn that, this time, they're sticking by their New Year's resolutions and improving their lives, I admit I suck and there's no hope that I'll actually finish mine. Will I make it to the gym regularly? Probably not. But, there's plenty of other things to do.

Cook more.

I did pretty good with this for a while, but it's fallen by the wayside lately, as I tend to get home from work too late to start meals from scratch. For anyone starting to cook, I recommend Epicurious.com and FoodNetwork.com. Neither is perfect. Epicurious has a huge variety of dishes, but definitely pushes towards the higher-end. Beginning cooks should read the recipes carefully. Food Network, on the other hand, is reflective of its current lineup of shows (obviously). Avoid Rachel Ray or Sandra Lee and all costs. Be skeptical of Emeril. Paula Deen's secret is simply to add more butter. But - recipes by Alton Brown, Giada DeLaurentis, and Mario Batali are often winners.

Build things. And fix what's broken.

This weekend, I started actually framing the walls and closet in the unfinished portion of my attic. By started, I mean that I bought the wood and finished preparing the area for work. Some of the early steps need two people, and my wife was stuck working all weekend. So, this week we start final measurements and marking, and maybe do some basic cutting and nailing. The rest of the work has to wait until the weekend, when we rent a nail gun, and we can get final measurements on what size doors we need.

Similarly, I need to learn more about electrical work, and some of the oddities of home ownership. This spring will be landscaping fun.

Lighten Up.

Not just losing weight, but lightening my load - I have too much stuff. It's time to go through it again, and toss/donate/recycle what I can. And I really need to clean out my basement.

Relearn to Draw.

I did great in my figure drawing class in college - and I've completely fallen apart since then. I need to start doing 2-3 finished drawings a week. Hopefully I'll pick it up quickly again.

Design.

Besides learning AS3/refining my Object-Oriented coding skills, I need to start designing for myself again. In the past few years, I have had 2 projects that were mine, start-to-finish, designed how I wanted them - my website and HavenSkatePark.com.

A few months ago, I interviewed at Huge Inc. It was a breakthrough moment for me. Talking with the founder and an Art Director there, we talked a bit about a divide in my work - work I had done for other people, and work I had done for myself. The work I had done for other people was done to match styles or expectations, or to make someone else happy was fine, but what they liked was the work I where I made myself happy.

It's hard to disagree. I'm always hard on myself. Some of it is due to the work that I want to do, but much is due to the fact that there's lots of designers who suck - and I don't want to be one of them, so I make myself extra-conscious of what I'm doing. Yet, when I'm designing for someone else, I have to make them happy. I need to flip that around a bit.

Quitting Things.

I need to quit World of Warcraft. Ok, not really, but it's the easiest target. I just need to get better about using my time - quitting when something is soaking up too much time. To be fair though, if I quit WoW, I'd still need some sort of gaming. There's still a couple PS2 games I want, and a few computer-based games. I won't say games make us stupid (thanks Brendan, but when you're playing a game that more or less requires a regular time commitment (the group content is the fun stuff), you run out of time fast. You get trained in gameplay patterns and statistics, and memorize what bosses drop what loot you need (Ilhoof will die!)... not exactly the most useful skills.

Oh. And less soda. I need to quit drinking so much soda. DAMN YOU MOUNTAIN DEW.