Reading – At the end of January my sister loaned me 19 books. Eight of those were the rest of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I’ve only read two of them because I’ve had enough of Richard and Kahlan, thank you very much. Those who have read the books know what I mean. Those who haven’t… let’s say that if Romeo and Juliet were starcrossed lovers then these two are walking disasters. I don’t want to spoil anything but there is always something that happens to them that separates them for months at a time. This usually happens in the first couple of chapters of the book. The rest of the 600 pages are devoted to them trying to get back together. Instead of continuing after I read the sixth book I started reading The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb. I read these long enough ago to forget a large part of the story but recently enough to be able to remember bits and pieces. I’ve almost finished the final book so I’ll need to move on to something else.

Photography – I’ve been keeping busy with my new camera. I started a new 365 project with it to help myself learn how to use it. The week after I got the camera I bought a 50mm lens for it. I’m loving it so far. It could only be better if I could use autofocus but I don’t have the right camera body. Manual focus is OK though it has made me wonder if I need to have my eyes checked. Lately I’ve been forgetting to check my ISO setting until after I’m done shooting which has resulted in some grainy photos that shouldn’t be grainy. That’s what practice is for, right?

Gaming – Once again I’m playing Ragnarok Online. It gives me something to do while hubby is busy playing Call of Duty of Halo 3. It can be a time sink like most MMOs but no worse than watching TV. While we were in for my dad’s 50^th birthday party my sister mentioned that she had started playing Super Mario Galaxy again. I never finished that game; I got to the toy planet and hated being Spring Mario. I think I’d like to pick that up again as well as my replay of Twilight Princess. I’ll just have to wrest the TV away from hubby sometime.

Twittering – Most of what I’ve had to say lately has been short, random thoughts or sharing a random link. I’m glad that I placed my twitter updates on this site where they are because that at least gets updated almost daily.

Suffering – A bit dramatic but that’s what it is. I’ve decided (again) that I need to stop drinking as much soda as I have been. Last year I started out saying “I’ll only drink one or two a week.” Having that stuff in the house, though, was a bad idea. Sometime last fall it became a “I’ll only drink one a day.” That didn’t last for long either so some days I was drinking two a day. While I don’t plan to cut soda out entirely I don’t want to be dependent upon it to keep a caffeine headache a way. I should be over the headaches in a day or so, which is the worst of it. The other downside of not drinking soda is that the water bottle I bring with me to work runs out much faster.

Ever since I put the new theme up I had intended to write about my New Year’s “resolutions.” That’s a little ironic because one of my “resolutions” was to not procrastinate so much about writing. The thing is, some people seem to hope that by writing down all of their goals for the upcoming year that they will automatically turn into revolutions. Not quite. You aren’t going to change yourself overnight just because you wrote something down on a piece of paper or in your blog, though I think broadcasting your resolutions makes you a little more accountable. I also don’t quite get the big hoopla over wanting to just make resolutions at New Year’s. It isn’t magical or anything but hey, if it works, it works.

The key thing is to not consider your resolutions a failure the first, or second, or hundredth time you don’t follow it to them letter. So what if one of your resolutions was to post more on your blog and then you went a whole week without touching it. That should just give you more reason to try harder to keep to your resolution for the rest of the year. So. On to my list.

Be more accepting. I tend to have a perfectionist streak. I often find myself getting upset, even angry, because something hasn’t been done the “right” way or frustrated because something isn’t working. Life will be much easier for me if I just learn to let some things go.

Be more active with my websites. I think I got off to a fairly good start with Captured. I had three pictures to post just this week. That is in correlation with another of my resolutions, though. I haven’t been so successful yet with this site but hey, it’s only one week into the New Year. I also need to not think so hard about what it is I am going to post. I also need to get off my butt and work on the different projects that I want to start and/or finish. I keep telling myself “baby steps.”

Be more aware of my health. I know, I know. I bet 90% of all New Year’s Resolutions have to deal with getting in shape and being healthier. (You do know that 85% of statistics are made up on the spot, right?) I don’t know if I’ve worded this one quite right. I want to be more active so that I don’t feel like I have to huff and puff to walk across campus and so I take whatever opportunities I have to walk more. Jogging/running is out of the question for me so I’ll settle for walking. I want to drink less soda, maybe even cut it out all together. This part is actually going fairly well. I had been drinking two 12 oz. cans a day. This past week I’ve managed to do with just 1 and a few sips of my husband’s. As a result I’m drinking more water. Having a larger container to take to work with me helps a lot. There are other things I know I can do like eating less fried food, eating less fast food (which was already a work in progress due simply to the cost of it), eating more fruits and veggies and so on. Again, baby steps. I’m not going to be able to change my eating habits overnight.

Take time for myself. This ties in to a couple of other resolutions as well. Taking walks, spending time on my sites, working on things that I want to do and not feeling guilty about it. One of those things is reading. This one works out well with my “walk more” plan because it’s less than a half hour walk to the local library. I can get out, be by myself for a while, get some exercise, and pick up more reading material.

Photograph more. Part of the reason for this one is so that I will have more material to update Captured with. Another part is that photography is something that I really enjoy. I love looking for interesting things and then being able to take a piece of them with me. I have plans to get myself a DSLR soon and want to be able to put it to good use.

This might be a short list. It might be a long list. Whatever the case I think I will eventually be able to accomplish all of these not just for this year but for the long term as well.