The winter grind

I made a resolution this year to be happy with what I'm doing today rather than pine for something in the future. Last year, while it was an awesome year, I felt moved way too fast. Maybe it was the second half of the year that flew by. Buying a house, going on vacations, college football, all of these things added up to an amazing year. I was thinking about where the time went and decided that I am in no hurry to get to the next year. So I think it's best for me to slow it down and enjoy what come up each day.

It's easy to think about these things in the dead of winter because a lot of the time you are stuck inside. There are a few things I want to do this year, or rather things I want to work on. Of course I want to travel and whatnot, but by deciding in advance all the individual things I want to do, it boils the year down to a few days of doing those specific things. That is why I want to continually work on projects or develop skills.

First, I want to become a better picture-taker. Some people call this being a photographer, but that sounds too much like a job to me. So I want to take better pictures and learn more about post-processing (aka photoshopping). And when I say photoshopping, I don't mean putting people's heads on other people's bodies (I already know how to do that). I am going to learn how to take my pictures that already look good and make them better. Here's a tip for all of you out there; most of the fixes to a picture can be taken care of in camera.

Next I want to get more experience BBQ-ing. I love to cook, and cooking barbecue is one of my favorite things to do. But I don't do it for the actual action of cooking, I do it for the eating. And more than cooking, I love eating. This is a skill I can work on almost any weekend I'm in town. And it's one of those things that I can do with friends. Last year, Laura and I decided to be more active about going out and spending time with our friends, and that is definitely continuing into this year. My hope is that I can get a bunch of our buddies over to the house a couple times this year to try my ever-improving barbecue. And if the food sucks, we'll order pizza.

Thirdsies, I want to play more golf. Last year I kicked my desire to improve my game into gear and got a lot better. This year, with my indoor driving range (Thanks, Laura), training aids (Thanks, Jim), and other various gadgets (Thanks, mom and dad) I plan to improve even more! I have enjoyed practicing and playing golf. It combines several things I love, outdoors, sports, competition, and shit talking. On that note, I will definitely be working this year to improve my shit talking.

The great thing about my yearly plan to improve on the things I love is that it will get me outdoors a lot and increase the time I spend with family and friends. Increasing the former might actually help me get a tan. But prolly not. The key thing for me to do is to not let myself get bored. If there is a lazy weekend afternoon I need to get my ass off the couch and do something. I'm all for relaxing, but it is so easy to get stuck in a rut. Now I have listed just three of the things I like to do (there are many others), so I have no excuse for wasting a single day.