Saturday, February 26, 2011

Life is like a roller coaster

It does flips and throws you over
Board your ship that's going nowhere
If you stop, you'll end up somewhere

I can finally talk about what's been keeping me from blogging/guitaring/pianoing/Japanesing/programming.  I've been applying for new jobs and have taken one in Arlington, VA.  Obviously, this has interrupted my other goals for this year, but once I move (across the flippin' country), hopefully I'll have some time to sit down and work on my hobbies.

In the meantime, I've been squeezing them in when I can, and I realized that I have a really great camera that can record really well, so maybe I'll get a YouTube account and start making an ass out of myself on there.  At least then, I can post what I'm doing, instead of just text about it.  Could be cool.  We'll see.

In other news, my bestest friend ever, Joaquin, has started an interesting new site for sharing his various works in progress.  Cleverly named 2/3rds, after the completeness of the work he'll be showing there, his site will be home to all manner of creative things.  He and I just started kicking around the idea of some collaborations, so I may send some music, art, or writing his way, which I will then pimp here.

I'm excited about his site because I've been wanting to see other people's creative work, from which I might draw inspiration.  We'll see how it goes.  For now, I better get back to packing.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Now I see you fell asleep again...

You've been riding this train since 2AM
Like the circle of fifths you drew in school
The loop line takes round and through

I wish I could fall asleep.  I haven't been sleeping well lately.  Going to bed super late, waking up super early, waking up again sort of early, and finally, waking up late and going to work.

I've been super busy lately.  I've still been finding time to get my stuff done though.  I've made some major progress on Japanese.  I spent my weekend working on it.  Also, I've made the first round of attempts at finding someone with whom to study.  Having someone who's also learning Japanese, or preferably a Japanese speaker who's learning English, would do a great deal to motivate and help me.

We'll see.

The rest of my time has been spent programming and investigating programming.  I'm compiling a list of things I need to learn and resources from which I may learn them.  There are many gaps in my knowledge that need filling.  In the meantime, I'm trying to piece my various experiments into actual games.  I've got to start writing if I'm going to get them done this year....

And all this time, my guitar sits in the corner crying (or gently weeping as the song goes).  Don't get me started on the piano.  About all I've done is screw around with it for a couple days.

So, time for a round up...

MONTH ONE: COMPLETE
Japanese - 3/4 of the way through Level 1 of 3
This is pretty great when you look at how much time is left, but terrible when you consider most of that progress was done last year. :/


Guitar - Learned a bunch of easy songs (none of the ones from my books though)
I made a ton of progress on the guitar.  I need to focus on my goals (one song a month from my chords books) though, in order to better measure my progress.  Still, I think I'm doing fine on this one.


Programming - lots of exploration, but only some code snippets to show for it
Again, I'm looking at my written goals and realizing I need to be making my way through the programming books I've got, and I need to be busting out some games (one a month again...).  I think this weekend will be spent trying to make the fastest, simplest game I've ever made in my life.  Start to finish.  At least then I'll have a base from which to work.


Piano - zilch
Alright, obviously, this took a backseat this month.  Next month though, it'll be time to hit the books.  I need to just incorporate it into my routine.  I'll get there....

Beyond that, I still need to check out Improv classes and get in better shape (two goals I haven't included because they don't really have trackable progress that I can share here).  I've got the "getting into shape" part down though.  I've been playing dodgeball and dancing my way through Dance Central.


My Grade: Not Bad

Not great, but not bad.  Time to redouble my efforts and get going this next month.

How's everyone out there in internet land doing?  Has your first month of the year been productive?