Think New Years Resolutions, but made in March.
Any year where I read at least a book/month has been a good year, so I'm going to get that going again this year. I'm already tracking at one book a month, but maybe I can get it to two?? Here's the reading list.
I have a bachelors in philosophy, but I left undergrad feeling pretty disillusioned about the discipline. Modern philosophy tends to be very analytic, and in my opinion analytic philosophy, when taken to an extreme, just leads to a form of frivolous mental gymnastics that has no bearing on human life.
This year I'd like to read:
I have a Masters in Illustration as Visual Essay, but a lot of my classes focused on editorial work, and there wasn't much teaching/instruction on how to write a narrative. (This makes sense since most people end up making their money from editorial work.) Anyway, I want to improve my storytelling with an eye toward making some longform comics.
This goes hand-in-hand with "Practice Storytelling Theory". Last year I made this bizarre, stream of consciousness comic -- I loved working on it and am proud of the result (will post about it later), but I want to tell actual stories, with characters and dialogue and struggle/hope/dread/happiness/etc. So this year I want to plan a graphic novel or two, and hopefully start churning out pages towards the end of the year.
Last year I started to branch out with my cooking, thinking it was the easiest and cheapest way to increase my quality of life. I was right, so I'm going to keep up with it this year. I'd like to get to the point where I can freestyle recipes, but I'd also settle for just following existing recipes and eating great food.
I'm 34 -- not old at all, but I don't have the same healthy habits I did when I was younger.
This year I'd like to:
I got off my personalized cocktail of mental health medications towards the end of last year. Things have been a little rocky, but overall I'm not as crazy as I was when I was in the prime of my madness.
I've been doodling on my iPad for so long that my life drawing skills have atrophied, not to mention my ability to work with acrylics/watercolors. I started rectifying this late last year, but I want to keep going and strengthen my fundamentals, and maybe finally pick up some anatomy. I've also been practicing with my left hand -- maybe in a year or two I'll be able to switch back and forth between my hands more naturally.
I used to be a piece of shit hipster cyclist in Austin, but I sort of left that behind when I moved to New York. I have the bike here and I'd like to get back into it. First, I need to rebuild the back wheel (I stripped the threads on the hub), and get the front hub serviced by someone who knows what they're doing.
I have brakes, by the way, because I'm not a fucking clown idiot.
For as long as I can remember I've sort of scoffed at all things fashion. Maybe it was RTO, maybe it was becoming single, but I've come around and realized that I want to present myself as a man of taste. This goal is going to be a little difficult for me -- I've been looking at the men of NYC for fashion inspiration, and so far I've found none. So I think I'm going to have to spend a lot more time shopping and maybe pick up screenprinting to get to a look that I think is tasteful but expressive of who I am.
I love my apartment, but I hate my interior design sense. I tend to organize my space by efficiency rather than beauty, and this year I'd like to find a happier medium between the two. I'm on a bit of a budget, so I think lots of DIY projects are in my immediate future.
My lovely dog Georgie is very smart and knows lots of basic tricks (sit, down, paw, sit-pretty, speak, spin, kiss, don't eat dirt) and a handful of people's names. Her recall is also great. Her obediance on the sidewalk leaves a lot to be desired -- she will throw her entire 35lb body against the leash to let you know she wants to sniff something. I want to do long walks with her where we both get a bit of exercies. We're in the middle of learning "heel", which I think is a good start.
She also loves to chase and catch a ball at the park, but seconds after catching the ball, she drops it and starts meandering. So we need to learn fetch.
I started notebooking in 2022 (I like the leuchtturm1917 A5) to keep track of ideas, book/life/work notes, TODO lists, and occasionally drawings. More recently, I started capturing what happened the previous day as a bulleted list. It's been helpful to keep me in the context of my life, remind me what I'm grateful for, and to examine things that I want to improve on.
This blog has been good for practicing writing and keeping longer-term, easily accessed records (like book notes or my resume).
One post a month feels good to me -- it takes a while to make a post (i.e. cleaning up my writing, finding all my highlights in a book, resizing images, etc.)