Going into the new year, I've been thinking about resolutions and accomplishments. I have a list of things I'd like to achieve this year, and I thought I would write them down here so I can revisit at the end of the year.

Health/Body

• Exercise more. Not necessarily to lose weight (though lord knows I have a lot of weight I could lose), but just to be more mobile. Less sitting in front of the devices and more moving the limbs.
• Break the habit of eating while watching sitcoms. I can finish a sandwich in 10 minutes, but I have 15 more minutes of sitcom to watch, so I feel the need to find something else to eat while finishing the show. Stop it.
• Get outside. I work from home and spend a lot of time indoors. I need more fresh air!
• Look into therapy. I believe my mental state deteriotated during the pandemic and never fully recovered. It might be beneficial to talk to someone about things

House

• Get at least one of the following projects done:
  • Redo upstairs bathroom
  • Paint main floor
  • New counters, backsplash, paint, and bar for the kitchen
  • De-junglefy the backyard
  • Replace driveway

Misc

(wasn't sure how to title this one)

• Become more of an "anti-capitalist".
  • Attempt to repair/upgrade before buying new.
  • Don't fall prey to needing the "latest and greatest"
  • If I do need to purchase something (big ticket items), research for reliability and longevity

• Ignore Social Media

  • deleted twitter
  • deleted tiktok (beat the gov't)
  • greatly reduced my facebook interactions, be it posting or even just visiting
  • greatly reduced my instagram interaction

  I'm sure there are many others I could (and should) reach for, but this is a start. I might revisit this post as I think of other things to add.

I've been wanting to write for the past two months. I've been wanting to keep a cheerful outlook (as tough as that is), and everything I've written about has been full of gloom and doom. As a result, I have ended up deleting several posts.

So, with that said, let me just say, I hope you have a happy, healthy, and positive year. Peace.

• The spark of creativity has fizzled. Which is fine, as I've come to accept that it comes and goes.
• It does leave several projects I had in progress or wanted to work on up in the air.
• These included a new backend for this site (considering going to Statamic, and a completely new website dedicated to electronic music.
• Instead of productive creativity, my brain is currently absorbed by slither.io. Talk about a fruitless endeavor. It is fun though, and not every moment needs to be filled with being creative.
• These are lessons I've only really come to understand here in my mid 50s.
• Mid 50s. Fuck I'm old.
• In other news, the wife and I spent three nights out last week. For two people who tend to stay within their comfort zone, this was pretty amazing.
• We went downtown to see Sarah and meet her boyfriend. We had dinner at Georgia Brown's. In a word: divine.
• That was Monday. Tuesday, the Mrs. and I were back in DC to see the Nationals lose to the Rockies. Had a really good time and given how easy it is to get downtown now, we've decided we need to try to get to at least one more game before the season ends.
• Wednesday we went to a brewery for their "One-hit Wonders" music trivia. Again, great time, and gave me ideas for my own music trivia, which was on...
• Sunday, I hosted music trivia for the wine club at the winery the Mrs. works at on weekends. It was the first time I've done music-related trivia (I host trivia in a non-music format twice a month there), and it went over like gangbusters. From the patrons to the staff, I had nothing but compliments about what a good time they had and even praised my music selection. I'm very much looking forward to doing more music trivia type events.
• This probably should've been a regular blog posting and not a list, but oh well.

Like many people, I have found myself a little less outgoing since Covid. Prior to 2020, I was involved in community theater, went camping often, and was at my local pub at least once a week. Several times, I organized happy hours for friends, and was much more outgoing.

After things opened back up and life started getting back to normal, I found I was just as happy staying at home and watching TV or playing on the computer. I don't go camping any longer (not having to sleep on the ground is ok by me!), and I'm no longer invloved with theater in any way. My pub formally shut its doors during Covid, though if rumors are true, Covid was just the nail in the coffin.

So this year -- four years on since the first days of Covid which feels crazy to say -- I've made more of an effort to get out. If I'm invited somewhere, I make the effort to join. Further, I've started hosting trivia at the winery the wife works at. I spend about four hours researching categories and questions and twice a month I drive with the wife out to the winery and host a two-hour trivia tournament. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm really enjoying having something to look forward to, that gets me out of the house.

Plus, I get paid, which is nice bonus! Helps me pay for those things I want but never get myself as alluded to in my last post.

My dad preferred to use the term "Frugal" as opposed to being "Cheap". After my parent's divorce, his frugality escalated, with him not wanting to shell out for things he deemed "unneccesary". When I was in high school he didn't want to pay for a yearbook, nor a class ring. Getting him to help with money for band trips was a chore. He also took to buying the store brands of everything he could. Some things would make sense; bleach, for example, I get. I mean, bleach is bleach. One time he bought the store brand version of Velveeta, but it was so bad even my dog wouldn't eat it. But that didn't stop him from saying "We can't buy Velveeta until this one is gone". Needless to say, chunks of that "Processed Food Loaf" (literally what is was called) disappeared when he wasn't around. In the garbage, over the back fence, etc.

I tell this because I, unfortunately, have some of the same tendencies. I have a hard time spending money on things not only do I deem not necessary, but things I actually want, but feel like I can either find alternatives to, or flat out don't deserve.

Recently, say over the past 6 months or so, I've made a conscious effort to not be so miserly. The wife has a subscription to a food delivery that shows up once a week, with all natural, organic, locally grown vegetables, eggs, butter, etc. I know that's not cheap, but I'm managing to not stress about it.

When shopping, I was buying the store brand flavored seltzers, even though I discovered I really liked the cherry version of Bubly water. I finally told myself it was ok to spend a little more for something I enjoy.

As a web developer, I've used VS Code as my IDE of choice for years, which we also use at work. It's free, and to be fair, it's a great editor. But as the saying goes, "There's no such thing as a free lunch". Microsoft, which owns and distributes VS Code, has a bunch of data collection in how their app is used. So, like Facebook and Twitter (yes, I'm deadnaming), if it's free, your data is how they make their money.

I've long admired Panic as a company and used Transmit back in the day. Sometime back, they released Nova, a native Mac code editor. I really liked it, but only used it as long as the trial lasted, because it was $100 bucks. This past week, I downloaded it again, and after just two days playing with it, paid for the license. It just feels good to support the smaller code shops. Kind of like shopping at local bookstores, as opposed to simply ordering something online.

The culmination of all this relaxing of the purse strings, was a new Mac Studio. I've had a 2015 MacBook Pro as my personal machine since, well, 2015. The Mac Studio is the first computer I've purchased for myself in nearly a decade. And while I hemmed and hawed about it for ages, I finally took myself over to the Apple Store and purchased the base model. There were arguments for getting the Mac Mini, but I'm hoping to do more video editing, and still am doi...