Monday, December 31, 2018

Happy New Year!

Here we are, at the end of another year. I find it hard to comprehend that 2018 went so fast since I wasn't all that busy this year—but the year's gone!

When it comes to New Year's resolutions, I have to admit that I don't have any outside of goals I know I can't forget about (like I usually do about resolutions). I have to get a job in the new year—I know I've been saying that for months, but there haven't been any jobs openings that I fit and when there were jobs I sent my resume in but never got a response back (either I still didn't fit or I was now terribly overqualified since that I graduated college...)

But 2019 holds many opportunities. The day after tomorrow I'm going to walk into a business that has been looking for employees for months with my resume and hand it in to the owner—I've already handed one in to him months ago, but it seems that it was lost because when a friend asked about it he said that he never got one from me. Understandable, because I handed the resume to an employee and not directly to the owner.

The year of 2018 held many opportunities and experiences for me, which I'm extremely grateful for. Among them are:

  • I read 23 books in total, from The Great and Terrible Quest by Margaret Lovett to Falling Kingdoms by Canadian Author Morgan Rhodes to The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker and the first three Rangers Apprentice books by John Flanagan: The Ruins of Gorlan, The Burning Bridge, and The Icebound Land. Most of them were extremely long—The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks is 726 pages long, Quietus by Tristan Palmgren has 512 pages, and Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir has 480...
  • I got an awesome internship at my local county building that I wished I could have continued indefinitely.
  • I graduated from college, though it took two-thirds of the year from the graduation ceremony before I was officially deemed "graduated" thanks to how busy my program supervisor (*cough**cough*Ron Nickel*cough**cough*Bill and Frank Graham's photographer*COUGH*) was.
  • I got to explore a lot of my county thanks to my internship.
  • I got to level up one of my characters in Lord of the Rings Online to over Level 100 (so he's in Gondor now—in the city of Dol Amroth).
  • I learned to cross stitch properly.
  • And I got to switch my cat, Pebbles, over to healthier food so now I see her thriving in front of my very eyes, at a hale 7 years of age.
Looking at what I've listed, which feels like only a fraction of what I must have done, it makes me excited about what 2019 might bring. Will I get to further my experiences as a writer by attending a writers conference? Will I join a writer's guild? Will I manage to help my parents build their desired deck off the back of the house? Will we finally get on track with Trim Healthy Mama?

New Year's Eve marks the cliff over the precipice of a new year, in which so much could happen for us or to us. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time. For some we may end up gliding into the new year and barely notice the change outside of the 8 changing to a 9 on the calendar or the fact we're handing a new calendar after using up the last one (I'm going to miss my cat one, but the good news is that I have this year's Murdoch Mysteries one!). For others, it may feel like they're falling into the new year as they desperately wait for the next paycheck or the date when a loved one finally gets to come home (I'm praying for you guys).

Some are writing down or have written down their New Year's resolutions, and some aren't going to achieve what they set out to do. But that's okay. I'm not doing New Year's Resolutions.


Instead of resolutions, I'm going to say that I have a list of goals for 2019, a year in which seemed so far away when I was a kid and thought ahead to when I'm the age I am now.

My list is:

  • I want to publish at least one novel/novella/short story this year. I had told myself this last year but I got... distracted, lol.
  • I want to open an etsy and a craftsy store and sell cross stitch patterns. I have one pattern done already but I'm still working on transcribing it to a professional-looking sheet so it's more understandable.
  • I want to do more with the photography skills I learned in college. I don't have my Adobe subscription anymore, but the other day I got an Affinity Photo program that does the same things as Photoshop so I should be good to go.
What resolutions or goals do you guys have? I would love to hear them!



Ranger's Apprentice: The Battle for Skandia, a review

The Battle for Skandia . John Flanagan. 2006. Puffin Books. Pages: 294. Price: USD $8.99/$11.99 CAN. Setting: Skandia. ISBN 0142413402. [S...