Getting Ready for the New Year

Well, Christmas has past. It was a good one. Had fun hanging out with friends and family. Got some nice gifts. My gifts seemed to be appreciated. So, now it's back to business and trying to figure out how to work Cakewalk. I'm doing the tutorials to try and get an idea of how stuff is working. It reminds me of how much a mystery a new and complex application can be. I haven't had this much struggle since I learned Photoshop back in the Stone Age. Still, it's not as bad as 3D graphics software, so I'm not really worried. I'm hoping to finish up the tutorials over my winter break and maybe even get some tracks laid down. Just some simple blues patterns just to get the hang of working the software...and getting it to make a halfway decent recording.

I'm also working on goals for next year. I have the usuals...I want to lose weight and exercise more, just like everybody else. I want to get more practice in on making music. Those are kind of "givens" that I always look to do more. I also want to pay attention to some of my other interests as well. I'd like to get in some more cartooning, maybe look at writing for different media (animation, video games, etc.). I have so much I want to do, I really have no time to waste.

Yet I have wasted lots of time. Most of my time waste is worrying about nothing while doing nothing. I'm really hoping to turn that habit around this year. I'm hoping that most days I can have a day like I did today. I went and caught a good movie created from one of my favorite books (Golden Compass). I had lunch, came home practiced guitar AND bass. Then I copied some cartoon figures for practice. A perfect day for me. I had lots of fun with all of that...all day. I need to do that more and web-surf less.

Of course, I'm on a break for the holidays. That helps. I'm hoping to make days like that more of an everyday occurence next year. Of course, I have to actual go to work, so that tends to put a damper on things. Most of my goals will hopefully help alleviate the energy drain of the work week so I can do more of the stuff I love. I want to be composing more, but not just composing. I would love to get a cartoon, graphic novel or animation going. Or maybe start writing and designing a video game. Sometimes I look at that and think, when am I going to have time to do all that and go to work? Other times I think, I have to do this...life is short and I need to make the best of it. I've spent so many years being miserable for one reason or another. Time to stop. There is more than enough misery in the world. Why add to it?