Happy New Year

I won't bother regaling the details about our riveting (not!) new year's eve. All I will say on that topic is that, once again, we had to fight to stay awake until midnight. We watched the countdown, I gave Andrea a kiss, and promptly fell asleep. Pretty much the standard for us on new year's eve.

One of the (apparently) most important aspects of the new year is coming up with a set of resolutions for self-improvement that everyone will most likely fail in attaining. Oh, sure, everyone has the best intentions to keep those resolutions, and may actually keep at it for a month, maybe two, but ultimately this year's resolutions are doomed to become next year's resolutions.

On that note, I'd like to offer up my own list of resolutions for 2006. I have every intention of keeping these resolutions (just like everyone else). :)

1. More practice with my guitar. I've been hacking away on this thing for several years now and I should be a lot better than I am. Hell, I don't even know the scales yet. Pitiful, really. I would really like to get an electric guitar, but there's no point in laying out the cash for that sort of thing if I'm not going to get the best use out of it.
2. More time with the telescope. I've got a lovely 10-inch Dob and I've only used it a handful of times in the 1.5 years that I've had it. I'd like to get some additional equipment for it (UHC filter, a couple of eyepieces, Telrad, laser collimator) that will hopefully encourage me to head outdoors a little more often. Olivia has a pretty good routine now, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get out for a couple of hours a week.
3. More coding time. I've had a couple of ideas for coding projects running through my head for a couple of years now. I've gotten partway through one of them (DVD inventory system), but I just haven't had the necessary motivation to work on it. As with the astronomy, I'd like to spend 3-4 hours a week working on these projects.

The trick to keeping these resolutions is time management, which I've never really been good at. The other major component is laziness. It's a lot easier to sit down and read a book or watch TV than to work on other things. I will use the 3 items I listed to help drive the two fundamental resolutions. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can achieve at least some success.

- Mike