Explore your craft
Looking back over the past year its clear that there have been some major changes. Positive and negative both. What spurred this look back is the fact that on Monday the 26th the two domains I bought will both expire. Thats fine (although man does the registrar want me to renew) and I won’t particularly miss them. In fact I never did a damn thing with one of them so losing that one will do literally nothing to hurt me. The other one, 8feet.me, was something I did with a purpose and it was ultimately a great thing for me. It made sure that I got out of my home and actually did stuff. It helped me get out of a fairly dark period in my life that was filled with negativity. It forced me to be accountable to the promise I had made to myself that I would get out and just fucking do stuff. On the other hand I have gotten much better about actually doing stuff so I feel as though that promise has both been fulfilled and more importantly it has, at least partially, been converted to a habit rather than an exception.
Speaking of habits, there is the simple truth that I am at a point in my life where I need to change some existing habits and create some other habits. I still drink a bit more beer than is really good for me. I still need to get really full bore back into the habit of exercising. I still need to follow through with my decision to learn some programming. I still need to get better about reading. I still need to get better about my diet. I still need to get better about going to bed at a consistent hour. I still need to spend more time with idoru and writing in general. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. On the other hand I am realizing that I need to make these changes which is a huge step from a while ago and they say that it is truly the first step. So with that step made its on to the next steps.
In much lighter news, I will be going on a long weekend away in February with the lady which is something I sort of need. Maybe not with the lady, just the getting away portion is what I need/want. I believe that it is also something she feels that she needs so that makes it an easier sell for both of us. A nice long weekend in south Florida sounds amazing, particularly in the light of all the bad news that I have had this previous week. Planning on doing some reading (I’m looking at you Peripheral), getting some sunshine, and just generally having almost nothing in the way of obligations. We are also, tentatively, planning on getting away towards the end of March but really no clue where to. Which is actually pretty ok at this point other than the fact that plane tickets will increase in cost. Such is life however.
Speaking of traveling, I am starting to explore the idea of a trip to Munich for oktoberfest again. I abandoned the idea last year after making the decision instead to buy a home and knowing that it would eat up the majority of my finances. It also did in fact eat up the majority of my finances. But now that I am not planning on shelling out tens of thousands of dollars, its very tempting to explore the idea f a trip to Munich, drinking beer, and then stopping at Reykjavik on the way home to sit in some hot springs. It also ties in well with the whole point from earlier about ‘getting out’ since that is… truthfully quite far out.
One of the other big changes that I still reflect on from time to time is the change in my employment. This time last year I had a job I hated that I was completely dispassionate about. I liked (most of) the people but that was as close as it got to something I didn’t hate. And now I have a job that I enjoy a great deal more and that pays me better. Those are all some great things, however the real lesson that I took out of that job was the fact that I need to not grow complacent and instead keep focusing on getting new challenges. Otherwise I end up bored and stagnant which leads me towards unhappiness. Hence why I am already starting to explore new opportunities that might be out there; its already apparent that I will outgrow my current job.
But man thats a lot of, mostly good, changes in the last year. Now its time to make some more good changes for 2015. Like losing 15 or 20 pounds. Like lowering my cholesterol (when did I hit middle age again?). Like traveling some where I can. Like exploring my craft and creating new ones.
Man that shit got real sappy real quick.
