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2013 Down, 2014 To Go
12 years ago
General
Is it time for another year already? Yeesh. I swear we have these things all the time.
I have not been too active on FA this past year because it was really busy most of the time. Lots of stuff has happened this year. In fact, thinking back on January, it feels like it was a really long time ago. Looks like I even only posted a couple journals since then, so here is what is going on. This is going to be a long one.
Some highlights:
- I got to go to Anthrocon this year. I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped I would, but it was still a valuable experience and I do not regret going at all. I may or may not attend this coming year, but that remains to be seen.
- MFF was really interesting this year. I got to hang out with a bunch of people I do not get to see too much, connect with others I do see quite a bit but rarely get to spend much time with, and also had a panel on 3D art/Blender. It was a great time and it really left me looking forward to next year!
- I managed to survive school. Calculus and organic chemistry were awful but I got through them and I am not looking back, except as necessary.
- Partially because of school and partially because of independent exploration, I have become really excited about the things I am studying as well as other things I can do on the side. It makes me really eager to work on new and existing skills.
- I started some projects that I am really looking forward to seeing proceed. Even though I have not done a lot of obvious creative work lately, I have a lot going on in my head that I feel will come quite in handy in the near future.
- Got myself an old Volvo brick to drive. Plus, my Cavalier went into much better hands.
- Learned a lot about computers, particularly using FreeBSD. Yes, going to another operating system, especially a less well-known one, is weird when I have perfectly functional Windows boxes. However, BSDs are used in the sciences, and are much more resource-efficient, so why not pick it up when I have a bunch of old systems lying around and not enough Windows licenses to fill them?
Some other things I am not as happy about:
- I spent way too much time online and that became obvious this year.
- Certain experiences with people have made me really suspicious about trusting people, whether I just met them or have known them for a while. I found myself actually happy, lately, that I can tolerate being a loner to some degree.
- I feel like certain parts of school were way too difficult for what they were, and just a little bit more focus, especially early on, could resolve a lot of problems that I had.
- I spent not nearly enough time meditating and exercising as I intended. Meditation is one way that I help myself focus, which has, in the past, been of great utility in studies. I also wanted to work on physical health, which happened a little, but not as much as I had hoped.
- Not enough creative work got done. Yeah, I posted a few drawings here and there, and some of them were even decent, but I have hardly done any writing all year (I even missed NaNoWriMo) and fell quite behind on project work.
I think that sums things up pretty cleanly. Now, setting a strict New Year's Resolution, as many people do, seems a little silly to me, mostly because it is difficult to determine what is a reasonable goal for accomplishing in the course of a year, and then it is difficult to remember what it was as the year advances. However, setting some guidelines for improvement is valuable.
Some improvements I hope to make for next year:
- Doing well in school! I am really excited about my courses for the coming semester, but I think I can do better than I have been doing.
- Getting more done on creative projects. I really wanted to spend more time working on writing, drawing, and 3D art, and I see potential for it this year.
- More meditation and exercise. My mind and body can and should be in better health.
- Waste less time on the Internet.
Well, I know I had some really good times this year, and I am excited to see what the new year will bring.
Happy New Year! Make the best of 2014!
I have not been too active on FA this past year because it was really busy most of the time. Lots of stuff has happened this year. In fact, thinking back on January, it feels like it was a really long time ago. Looks like I even only posted a couple journals since then, so here is what is going on. This is going to be a long one.
Some highlights:
- I got to go to Anthrocon this year. I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped I would, but it was still a valuable experience and I do not regret going at all. I may or may not attend this coming year, but that remains to be seen.
- MFF was really interesting this year. I got to hang out with a bunch of people I do not get to see too much, connect with others I do see quite a bit but rarely get to spend much time with, and also had a panel on 3D art/Blender. It was a great time and it really left me looking forward to next year!
- I managed to survive school. Calculus and organic chemistry were awful but I got through them and I am not looking back, except as necessary.
- Partially because of school and partially because of independent exploration, I have become really excited about the things I am studying as well as other things I can do on the side. It makes me really eager to work on new and existing skills.
- I started some projects that I am really looking forward to seeing proceed. Even though I have not done a lot of obvious creative work lately, I have a lot going on in my head that I feel will come quite in handy in the near future.
- Got myself an old Volvo brick to drive. Plus, my Cavalier went into much better hands.
- Learned a lot about computers, particularly using FreeBSD. Yes, going to another operating system, especially a less well-known one, is weird when I have perfectly functional Windows boxes. However, BSDs are used in the sciences, and are much more resource-efficient, so why not pick it up when I have a bunch of old systems lying around and not enough Windows licenses to fill them?
Some other things I am not as happy about:
- I spent way too much time online and that became obvious this year.
- Certain experiences with people have made me really suspicious about trusting people, whether I just met them or have known them for a while. I found myself actually happy, lately, that I can tolerate being a loner to some degree.
- I feel like certain parts of school were way too difficult for what they were, and just a little bit more focus, especially early on, could resolve a lot of problems that I had.
- I spent not nearly enough time meditating and exercising as I intended. Meditation is one way that I help myself focus, which has, in the past, been of great utility in studies. I also wanted to work on physical health, which happened a little, but not as much as I had hoped.
- Not enough creative work got done. Yeah, I posted a few drawings here and there, and some of them were even decent, but I have hardly done any writing all year (I even missed NaNoWriMo) and fell quite behind on project work.
I think that sums things up pretty cleanly. Now, setting a strict New Year's Resolution, as many people do, seems a little silly to me, mostly because it is difficult to determine what is a reasonable goal for accomplishing in the course of a year, and then it is difficult to remember what it was as the year advances. However, setting some guidelines for improvement is valuable.
Some improvements I hope to make for next year:
- Doing well in school! I am really excited about my courses for the coming semester, but I think I can do better than I have been doing.
- Getting more done on creative projects. I really wanted to spend more time working on writing, drawing, and 3D art, and I see potential for it this year.
- More meditation and exercise. My mind and body can and should be in better health.
- Waste less time on the Internet.
Well, I know I had some really good times this year, and I am excited to see what the new year will bring.
Happy New Year! Make the best of 2014!
I hope 2014 brings you everything you're looking for.