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On Tap: Some Early 2016 Resolutions
Dec. 28th, 2015 02:19 pmThe last week of the year always feels like a bit of a denouement, like I've been given time to put this past year's affairs in order, finish up what needs finishing, and wait for the clock to tick over to the next year. It's downtime, where I don't have anything last minute planned, but I should at least clean up and put things away.
As always, I'll be posting my writing and creative resolutions over at Welcome to Bridgetown, and posting my year-end music lists over at Walk in Silence, so that leaves me with the more personal resolutions here on the LJ.
So! What do I have on tap?
--Reading: I'd like to read more independently-published books in the coming year. Considering I'm now a self-published author, I'd like to read more books that were released the same way. This kind of ties in with what I've been doing for years on the music scene: using social media, indie epublishers (like Kindle and Smashwords), and other platforms (such as Kickstarter, Patreon, etc). I find a lot of these by word of mouth; either they follow me on Twitter, or they're suggested by another indie creator I already follow. I've made a pretty good dent in my TBR pile this year, and also culled quite a few titles for varying reasons.
--Music Listening: I've always been a bit iffy about streaming sites such as Pandora and Spotify. Not just because of the pittance the bands get, but that it tends to feel like I'm merely putting my own collection on shuffle. I still listen to a lot of terrestrial radio stations that stream online as well as internet radio such as Sirius XM, but now that I've signed up with Amazon Prime, I'd like to use that service to check out new bands that I otherwise might pass by. When new bands release music, I like to listen to the entire album and not just the singles, and sometimes it's hard to find streaming previews that I'd be interested in. It'll also help me rein in my music purchasing; do I really like the entire album, or should I just go with the few songs? Will I still be listening to this album six months down the road? In short: broadening my musical tastes, but calming my spending habits.
--Health: I've felt pretty good this year, having avoided any major illnesses and retaining my usual weight. The eating habits may have gotten away from me a bit, and our visits to the YMCA fell apart near the end of the year (due to weather, laziness, and Day Job hell), but again, that can be easily rectified. I wouldn't mind losing a bit more weight and getting back to the gym more. I really should cut back on the sweets. It's high time I got another eye exam (it's been 2+ years, I think). I should also continue my visits to the dentist. I'm at that age where I'm starting to feel the aches and pains, especially in my joints, so maybe a few checkups are in order as well. In short: Meets Expectations, with Room for Improvement.
--Life in General: One of my recent thoughts was expanding my horizons a bit. Since I spent most of 2015 giving myself a more stable platform mentally, emotionally and creatively, I'm ready to widen that platform with new possibilities. Try out new things, think about things from different angles, things like that. I'm also ready to let go of some old and tired habits as well. I'm not aiming just to fix my time management, only to clear it up a bit. I've done a lot of that this past year already, so it would mainly be a lot of small fiddly habits and distractions that I no longer need or want.
And that's about it for now on the non-creative end of things. Looks like 2016 will be a year for completely new things, and I'm looking forward to it. :)
As always, I'll be posting my writing and creative resolutions over at Welcome to Bridgetown, and posting my year-end music lists over at Walk in Silence, so that leaves me with the more personal resolutions here on the LJ.
So! What do I have on tap?
--Reading: I'd like to read more independently-published books in the coming year. Considering I'm now a self-published author, I'd like to read more books that were released the same way. This kind of ties in with what I've been doing for years on the music scene: using social media, indie epublishers (like Kindle and Smashwords), and other platforms (such as Kickstarter, Patreon, etc). I find a lot of these by word of mouth; either they follow me on Twitter, or they're suggested by another indie creator I already follow. I've made a pretty good dent in my TBR pile this year, and also culled quite a few titles for varying reasons.
--Music Listening: I've always been a bit iffy about streaming sites such as Pandora and Spotify. Not just because of the pittance the bands get, but that it tends to feel like I'm merely putting my own collection on shuffle. I still listen to a lot of terrestrial radio stations that stream online as well as internet radio such as Sirius XM, but now that I've signed up with Amazon Prime, I'd like to use that service to check out new bands that I otherwise might pass by. When new bands release music, I like to listen to the entire album and not just the singles, and sometimes it's hard to find streaming previews that I'd be interested in. It'll also help me rein in my music purchasing; do I really like the entire album, or should I just go with the few songs? Will I still be listening to this album six months down the road? In short: broadening my musical tastes, but calming my spending habits.
--Health: I've felt pretty good this year, having avoided any major illnesses and retaining my usual weight. The eating habits may have gotten away from me a bit, and our visits to the YMCA fell apart near the end of the year (due to weather, laziness, and Day Job hell), but again, that can be easily rectified. I wouldn't mind losing a bit more weight and getting back to the gym more. I really should cut back on the sweets. It's high time I got another eye exam (it's been 2+ years, I think). I should also continue my visits to the dentist. I'm at that age where I'm starting to feel the aches and pains, especially in my joints, so maybe a few checkups are in order as well. In short: Meets Expectations, with Room for Improvement.
--Life in General: One of my recent thoughts was expanding my horizons a bit. Since I spent most of 2015 giving myself a more stable platform mentally, emotionally and creatively, I'm ready to widen that platform with new possibilities. Try out new things, think about things from different angles, things like that. I'm also ready to let go of some old and tired habits as well. I'm not aiming just to fix my time management, only to clear it up a bit. I've done a lot of that this past year already, so it would mainly be a lot of small fiddly habits and distractions that I no longer need or want.
And that's about it for now on the non-creative end of things. Looks like 2016 will be a year for completely new things, and I'm looking forward to it. :)
