I resolve to...

Last year was the first year that I made a New Year's resolution that I completed. I don't think I read many books in 2007. I replaced them with teh interwebs. My resolution was to read 20 books that I had never read before. I actually read these 25, in this order:

• Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson
• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) by Jim Butcher
• Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, Book 2) by Jim Butcher
• Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Book 3) by Jim Butcher
• Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, Book 4) by Jim Butcher
• Death Masks (The Dresden Files, Book 5) by Jim Butcher
• Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, Book 6) by Jim Butcher
• Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, Book 7) by Jim Butcher
• Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files, Book 8) by Jim Butcher
• White Night (The Dresden Files, Book 9) by Jim Butcher
• Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10) by Jim Butcher
• The Host by Stephenie Meyer
• Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
• Paper Towns by John Green
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• The Christmas Countess by Adrienne Basso
• Blood and Chocolate by Anette Curtis Klause
• Let it Snow by John Green, Lauren Myracle, Maureen Johnson

This year, I would like to also complete my resolutions. I know my limits. I know that I can't always eat healthy 100% of the time. I know that no matter how much I bully myself, I won't exercise more than occasionally. At the moment, I don't particularly want to quit smoking, so I know that I won't be able to. (It's hard enough when you really, really want to. I've tried plenty of times.)
So, here are my resolutions for the year:

• I only saw 18 new movies last year. I own DVDs that I have never seen. So, this one is in 2 parts. I want to watch at least 30 movies that I have never seen before, and I want to watch every DVD that I own but have not seen. For the 30 movies, other than in my collection, I would like to finally see some "classics" that I have never seen, including, but not limited to (please don't mock me): The Godfather, Goonies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Royal Tennenbaums, Labyrinth, Old School, Anchorman, The Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, and almost any of the James Bonds (new or old).
• I want to read 25 books again.
• I want to post on my personal blog at least 104 times this year (twice a week, on average).
• I want to complete another photography project as amazing as the photobooth party.
• I want to finally watch all of The West Wing. I think I have only seen seasons 1-3 in their entirety, parts of season 4, and nothing much after that.

So, we'll see how I do. What are your resolutions?

A Year in Review

Ganked this from my friend, Ember.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
I drove through Utah, Idaho, and Oregon.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My new year's resolution was to read 20 new books and I managed to read 25, plus reread Deathly Hallows and listen to an audiobook. Next year I'm shooting for 25, and I'm also going to try to blog at least 10 times/month.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Kelley and John had this cute lil' bundle. She's the only kid that I insist on holding every time I see her.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Fortunately, no.

5. What countries did you visit?
Ach, I was stuck here! I am definitely leaving in 2009, though.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Sleep. I would like to cure my insomnia.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 22 and May 10. Jen&Doug's and Will&Shan's weddings.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting into my interior design program, I suppose.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not cleaning my carpets.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I am almost constantly suffering illness or injury. Right now, I actually have a vicious cut on my thumb from the Brita pitcher. No lie.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
It was a gift, but I love love love my Flip camera.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I thought that McCain's concession of the presidency was quite humble and dignified. Good on him.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Anyone who is publicly hateful about same-sex marriage.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Wizard rock and happy hour.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Wizard rock, LeakyCon, writing for the Wizrocklopedia, getting into LaRoche, Jen&Doug's and Will&Shan's weddings.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2008?
Any Whomping Willows or JFF songs.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier, definitely.
ii. thinner or fatter? I was at my lowest adult weight about a year ago, so at least I'm back to reasonable.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer, I guess. We have less credit card debt, at least.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Watching movies

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Obsessing over Seth Rogen, daydreaming, sitting on my ass.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve with the extended immediate family, Christmas morning at my parents' and Christmas dinner at the Fridy's.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I'm constantly falling in love with one thing or another. And also constantly in love with my kittens and JP.

23. How many one-night stands?
Being married has really hindered this.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't think I discovered anything new. Probably Top Chef and Project Runway - they're always good fun.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Sarah Palin, perhaps?

26. What was the best book you read?
Paper Towns by John Green

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Wizard rock, of course!

28. What did you want and get?
A much happier existence.

29. What did you want and not get?
Um, an HD TV, I guess. Not terribly disappointed, though.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Dark Knight, Sweeney Todd, Burn After Reading, and Enchanted were all awesome.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
On the actual day, I went to happy hour at Joe Mama's and dinner at Fuel&Fuddle with bunches of friends. I turned 27.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If any of my far-away friends had moved here.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Cold weather: Jeans, long sleeve tee, boots. Warm weather: Jeans, tank top, flip flops.

34. What kept you sane?
JP and Tim, though they do also drive me crazy at times.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Seth Rogen.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Anything that involves limiting science, whether in school (evolution vs. creationism, abstinence-only sex ed) or research (stem cell research, medical professionals not having to provide services they don't agree with, medical marijuana).

37. Who did you miss?
Steph (especially when she was in Iraq), Tim Scott, Kathleen, Laura, Jen&Doug, Jess&Goat.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Rose, Caity, and the other PAW-ters and the Germans.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
I can do absolutely anything that I decide to do.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
This is never gonna end/It really can't end/Cuz we've made too damn many friends.

Fruition

So, today marks the two year anniversary of my blog! Two years ago today, I posted for the very first time. Sure, there have been some gaps without entries for awhile (like recently, sorry!), but I have stuck with it. And I have to say that being able to rant, rave, and just generally speak my mind to an audience is pretty awesome.

In addition to this anniversary, today also marks the beginning of lots of plans I have had for a few months now. Tonight is the Readathon at Joseph Beth's Booksellers. At 5pm, I will start reading. Hopefully, I will make the full 24 hours. If I do, I will have raised almost $200 for Beginning with Books, my charity of choice. So, I will definitely be out of any communication loop from tonight until Sunday morning (I plan to pass out shortly after coming home on Saturday and sleep until morning). 24 hours with no internet! Is that harder than the lack of sleep? We'll see.

I've also managed to write three articles for the Wizrocklopedia so far, and a fourth should be posted in the next few days. I've totally loved writing for them and getting to talk about wizard rock to an audience who cares. It's very cool to have people react positively to something you've written; especially enough to comment or email me about it.

In less than three weeks, we have the first wizard rock show I have been helping to plan. This has been going on since the middle of August, so again, I've been waiting awhile for it. The day after the Pittsburgh show, my friend Rose and I are going to jump in the car and follow the bands to Columbus, where they will be joined with yet another band. The day after that, we'll drive to outside Cleveland and see them again. Wizard rock road trip! I know some of you think I'm crazy and ridiculous and should be devoting my time to more worthwhile things, but at the moment, this is what makes me happy. After that, it's less than a month until the show that I set up at Your Inner Vagabond, followed quickly by Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yikes! Am I really thinking about 2009 already?

And finally, Monday is my birthday. I am usually so super excited and planning craziness and jumping up and down, but I have really been far too busy lately to anticipate it. Plus, 27 may be a bit old to make a huge deal out of it. There will still be parent celebration and drinks and dinner with friends on Monday, and that's all I really need.

If you've been reading this for two years, thank you so much for following my life, step by step. If you've jumped in somewhere in the middle, I appreciate the time you've spent here. Thanks to everyone for letting me sound off - it means a lot.

Work is for people with jobs, take 2

After my last article for Wizrocklopedia, I decided to make it a series. First, I wrote about wrockers in college, which gave me a chance to interview and talk with several bands. My latest article (here) is in regards to working, and I talked to yet more bands. My final installment is going to be about people who manage to do wizard rock full-time, and yes, that's even more interviews. I've really been having so much fun with this, and the comments have all been positive (from the bands, random readers, my editor, friends/family).

Blogging for a living. How much fun would that be?

Work is for people with jobs

I haven't written anything these past weeks for a couple reasons.

1) Life has been super crazy, with 2 weddings, lots of PAW (Pittsburgh Area Wizards) stuff that I've been doing, and I've been really tired and, therefore, lazy.
2) I've been writing something else. Namely, my first article for the Wizrocklopedia!

It was just posted today, and you can find it here. My editor was really positive about it, and I thought it turned out well, too. There are already 3 really complimentary comments up there from people who have no idea who I am. That makes me super happy.

Thanks to all of y'all for always listening, even if you are entirely uninterested. It really does mean a lot to me.

You don't have to listen to me anymore.

Well, at least about Wizard rock.
Two of my loves have come together: blogging and Wizard rock. Yesterday, I applied for and got a columnist/reporter position for the Wizard rock website, Wizrocklopedia. Hopefully, this will assuage my need to write about it here. I may post links to my entries there, but you don't have to follow them if you don't want to.

It's a volunteer position, but I do get some perks. Even without the perks, I would be happy to do it. I'm sure you've realized by now that this Harry Potter thing is not going to go away for me, and I love the idea of being more involved. Plus, having more people read things that I write? Very exciting. I can't tell you how pleased I am to have all of y'all as an audience, and every comment I get makes me happy. Knowing that I will be writing about something that the fandom community will care about is so gratifying.

Post 200

Since I started this blog in October of 2006, I have posted 291 entries. Since I am an editor first, and a writer second, I agonize over many of these. I actually write most of my posts in Gmail, and then send them to myself to have a separate archive. I guess in case the whole internet except for Gmail disappears? Regardless, I only use this method for things that aren't just links or surveys. So, out of these 291 entries, 92 so far have been links or surveys. This is post 200 of the "real" posts.

I knew it was coming up, so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to write about. And in fact, there are two things we can talk about.

1) Yesterday, I received a text from one Stephanie Pierce. A text from her brand new phone in Georgia! For those of you who don't know Steph, she spent from May 2007 until July 2008 deployed in Iraq. And now she's back and coming here in mere weeks to visit.

2) Today would be Harry Potter's 28th birthday. What has he been up to since we last saw him? He married Ginny, of course. They have 2 or 3 children at the moment - James is about 3, Albus is about 2, and Lily is born sometime in 2008 (we just don't know when). Last year, he was appointed Head of the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. Seems like he's doing pretty well for himself so far! Good to know that he keeps that up for another 9 years, at least.

So, Happy Homecoming to Steph, and Happy Birthday to Harry.

I'm sorry!

I have been neglecting the blogosphere lately. I have had so much going on, personally and at work, that I just haven't been able to devote any time to blogging. I would say 85% of what I've been doing has been fun, though, so I really can't complain. The pinnacle of everything was last night, when I hosted my photobooth party. I set up some curtains, lighting, and a tripod in the living room and went to town. Everyone who showed up was required to sit for at least one photobooth session (4 shots). We had props and booze and great people and it exceeded any and all expectations I might have had. You can check out the final results at my Flickr here.
I can't thank everyone enough for participating. And my most sincere, eternal gratitude to my muse, Tim. He's the entire reason I have rediscovered photography, and I can't believe that I've been missing out all these years.

Shameless Promotion

JP has started a food blog, and I am here to plug it. You'll be able to see what we eat/cook/fail at if you check it out. He even used a word that I don't know in the first entry. Can you get more JP than that?

Bodging Towards Chefery

Be my muse

So after rereading past blog entries, I realize that almost every one of them is written as a reaction to something. Lately, I've been feeling a little apathetic, so I haven't been reacting in the normal sense. I think that's why I've been writing less here. So, I have a challenge for you, my loyal readers. Give me something to sing about! Wait, that's Buffy. Give me something to write about!
I'm willing to branch out here, too. I can (try to) write fiction, if you'd like. Please don't give me any poetry challenges, unless you want some rhymed couplet fluff (which might be fun...though JP will inevitably hate it.). That's all I can handle there. If you want me to write about poetry, song lyrics, etc., that's fine. Post it in the comments, email, or MySpace message me. I promise I will give you credit for it in my response.

I'm really curious to see what you guys come up with...