New Year's Resolutions!

Well, I'm back for 2009- we're going to be re-arranging the blog a bit and hopefully upping the content so there are more pictures, videos and just better content in general to look at. I know it's not much of a blog, but I'd like to build it into something that people actually want to check out every day.

But Allison and I (along with Moxie, Sampson, Sophie and Hawkeye) are officially back in Iowa City. When I left, I was eager to get away- and everything was too familiar and too stale for me to appreciate it. Now that I'm back, it turns out that Allison was very correct- I do see things with new eyes- and I appreciate everything that this incredible community has done for me over the years and want to (in the coming year) figure out a way to give back to the community somehow. (First of course, there is the small matter of acquiring a job and a place to live other than my parents' house.)

But in the spirit of the New Year, I thought I'd type out 10 Resolutions that I'm going to do my utmost to meet in the coming year:

1. Lose weight. When I moved to Mankato, I was fit, trim and hovering around the 190 mark- now, as of thirty seconds ago I was at about 234. I'd like to get down to 200 at minimum and maybe that 190-195 range at best. But for sure, this is the year I lose the Mankato weight.

2. Cook. I have this thought going through my head that I would like to, someday, maybe open a bar/restaurant- and to do that, I want to see just how good at cooking I really am- whether I'm just really good or whether or not I'm 'restaurant' good. Stay tuned- because I plan to share the results of my experiments right here on the blog.

3. Finish the MA: It's essentially down to the last dregs, but it has to be done. I have maybe .25 of a thesis to finish and defend by May and that's that with the whole school thing for awhile.

4. Blog: I think, thus far I have established the fact that I can blog- now I just want to be better at it and build this thing so it can get some readership going. There are, I think around 50,000 blogs created every day- I'm not saying this could be an Instapundit or an Althouse, but I'd like to try and take it places.

5. Be an Active Member of the Community: I don't just want to sit on the sidelines and commentate- I want to stand up for the things I care about in my community and work to get some problems solved. I'd like to do something to help the Arts Campus get back on its feet after the floods of last summer or maybe get the Art Museum re-established somewhere.

6. Write. Apart from the blog and the MA Thesis, I want to outline and start writing a novel. I have had the building blocks of a story in place in my head for a long time. Now I want to build it- and see if it's actually worth reading.

7. Photograph. Occasionally, when the time is perfect I take really good photographs. I'd like to become more consistent and maybe start building a portfolio of sorts- with an eye to seeing, once again, if it's something I'm seriously good at or just something of a hobby.

8. Refresh my languages and find ways to use them: I collected so many languages as an undergraduate and pretty much stopped using them once I hit grad school. I'd like to change that this year- and Iowa City, with its active international community might just be the place to do it. I won't even bother regaling you with the disaster of my ventures into Arabic- but French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili and Hindi I would like to find at least semi-regular uses for.

9. Find a job- like a $30,000 a year one.

10. Find a house. (I didn't really include a lot of detail on these last two resolutions, because as far as I'm concerned, they're both done deals. I AM going to find a job and we ARE going to find a house.)

I hope everyone had a fantastic (and safe) New Years! Congratulations to the Iowa Hawkeyes for stomping South Carolina 31-10 in the Outback Bowl yesterday! Hopefully, it's the harbinger of good things to come.