i’m not going to be speaking about monitor or television resolutions, but rather, the more popular type of resolution at this time of year, new year’s resolutions.

now normally people discuss this the day of new years, january first, however i have decided that today, sunday january fourth, would be an appropriate date.

so without any further delay, here we go:

• make cash money: school is soon over, which means that student loans are going to become payable soon. also, life has it’s expenses, which are not always cheap. there’s only so much free stuff you can get online or at the grocery store on the weekends. so i want to make sure i set myself up for the next year or few with a good job, preferably within my field of study, web and interactive media. this means working for another design firm, or possibly creating and establishing my own. but also, i’d like to research google ad-words and see what it can do for me. small, achievable goals.
• create beautiful things: i’m a designer. this shouldn’t be a surprise. i want to recreate my portfolio, which needs a major facelift. i also want to create an application. whether it be for the web or for mobile interface. i want my mark to be felt and i want to have people use my creation. i’ve got ideas, more so for the web, but i’ll start jotting down notes for an iPhone application of sorts and then possibly read up on how to create iPhone apps.
• read/listen more: recently for Christmas I got the Artie Lange book, Too Fat To Fish. A few weeks ago I downloaded the audiobook from iTunes which was great up until Artie Lange himself stopped reading, which happened around chapter six, so it’s a good thing i have this book in hand now. not only this book, i think there’s a lot of other books out there that might be worth looking at. i’m focused more on the web and design type books, but i wouldn’t be opposed to a good biography or comedy book. as for fiction, forget about it. i love movies too much… too much to even consider reading a book. i’ll say this as well, i want to keep reading the newspaper on a more frequent basis and maybe subscribe to a few magazines while i’m at it.
• watch more flicks: this past year i canceled my netflix account. i don’t feel bad about, considering i had the same movie for months at a time that i ended up never watching. whatever i’m over it. but i’m not over my fixation with cinema. i love it. so in 2009, i want to access the movie theatre more. but under a few conditions… 1)AMC brings back student rates 2)better movies are made 3)michael bay never makes another film that i successful. ok maybe not that last one, but i want better films and i want them to be cheaper. AMC you really suck for taking away student rates.
• make a film: also for Christmas, i received a camcorder from my girlfriend. it’s awesome. i love it. i took it with up to wisconsin for new years. i pulled so much footage on that trip…i couldn’t turn it off. this was the perfect gift for me though. i really have been wanting to get back into my old hobbies. one of them being radio/podcasting which i was able to do earlier in the year. but now i want to start creating mini films again. i’m thinking a documentary/podcast. something that is reoccurring but contains a story/purpose.
• graduate: that’s it. i finally feel ready and want to finish this stage of my life. school is amazing. i love it, and maybe i’ll end up going to graduate school to advance in my field even more, who knows. but i do know that i want this to be my final year of under-grad. it’s been long enough, i realize this, and i’ve really enjoyed it, but i think it’s time to continue moving forward. 

that’s my list so far. i don’t know that i’ll add to it. maybe offline. but i want to revisit this next year and see where i’m at. have a good year everybody.

We’ve all answered an online questionnaire asking what our hobbies were right? I don’t know about you, but at least for me, I’ve always had the hardest time figuring out what my hobbies were. I’d alway put film, music, soccer, web design as my defaults. a good list, but honestly, how many of those hobbies require me to do anything, one..maybe two?

I finally feel like there are actually hobbies in my life right now. If you’ve kept up with my tweets, you’ll know that I’m in the process of setting up a Podcast. The Super Terrific Show. This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and finally it’s happening. I’m actually really excited to be doing this. In fact tomorrow evening I am going in to do the first official show. Stay tuned. 

What else? Trading cards. As a child, I relied on my cousin to give me all his doubles. That was the extent of my trading card collection. Rarely was I able to go and buy myself a pack of trading cards. But I still loved them. In fact I still have all my old baseball, football, basketball and hockey cards. And it’s really exciting for me to look back at them and see the old players, look at the stats and occasionally find that one gem lost in the sea of cards. Now I’m older though and I’m able to buy these cards and yes it may seem childish but for some reason, I get this feeling of excitement every time I open up a new pack of cards. Maybe it’s me reliving part of my childhood, or actually acting out a piece of my childhood that I wish was there, but there’s something that really gets me excited about opening up a new pack of cards. 

And teas…I love my teas and just recently my sister in South Africa has sent me a nice shipment of Afro Tea. 7 individual containers. All different flavors. Surely they’ll last me for some time. There was a time, back in April and May right around the time of my surgery that I would sit outside each morning, drink my tea, have my cigarette and speak to my girlfriend who was, at the time, in west Africa. Since then my tea collection has diminished, but now, thanks to my sister, I have a bunch of new flavors to try out and get really excited about. I cannot wait to start trying them. 

So those are my hobbies. And it’s good because without those my days would really revolve around just work and school. And although I enjoy those both very much as of late, it’s still important to be able to escape the norm and treat yourself to something that you like sometimes. And it doesn’t have to be expensive or exotic, it can be as simple as tea and trading cards. Whatever it is, be happy with it. And if you don’t have a hobby, go find something out there that gets you excited and invest some time into it. I guarantee you that it will bring some sort of joy or happiness to your every day life.

be good.