Dreaming big

It seems like I should have a big fantastic year in review post or something but everyone does that at this time of year, and really, isn't living through it once plenty. If you want my year in review, well, Blogger does archive posts, so you can peruse and review at your leisure.

I will say, my year ended pretty well. I finished Phase I of my big project at work and just got back from visiting my sister's family, which was fantastic. So, December has treated me well.

Instead of the year in review, I thought I'd maybe focus on some of my hopes for the coming year. Not goals. Quite frankly, my goals mine and quite frankly they'd probably bore anyone else. They are pretty custom made, after all. But there are things that I hope 2014 is, so here goes:

I hope 2014 is a spring year. Some years are winter years, and feel barren and dreary and dismal. I hope 2014 is a year of green and new and clean and wholeness.

I hope it's my year to leave limbo. I hope that there is some concreteness to the year, instead of hypothetical decisions to be made. Hypothetical choices--I'm not sure they don't count, but they sure don't seem very helpful when it comes to getting out of bed and living.

I hope it is a year for unloading. I have been carrying around the same old concerns for so long and it really is tedious. I would like to have some new things to think about--like, buying a car, or moving into my own place and figuring out what to do with all my stuff.

I hope it is a year of light. Things seem to be going dark--in the world, in the lives of people I know, and my view has seemed dimly lit for a while. So, yeah, I'd love light.

I want it to be a year of changing. Changing myself, changes in my circumstances. But mostly in me.

Mostly I hope it is a good year.

Over-Teched

The other day, my co-worker needed to take some pictures, but her phone battery was dead. So, she asked if my iPod had a camera on it. I said, "Yes, but I also have my camera here." (I know. Weird, you are thinking. Well, I am pretending like I'm developing my photography skills and that I have a hobby, so I carry it around with me most days. It's not like I am short on room in my backpack).

As I was walking to my locker to get said camera, I realized that not only did I have my iPod's camera and my camera camera, my Kindle has a camera, and so does my phone. All of which were in my locker or on my person. Meaning I had 4, yes 4, cameras to choose from.

I would like to point out that only one of those cameras was purchased for the actual purpose of taking pictures. The camera feature was not a motivating factor for any of the other devices. And of the 3 device cameras, I only use the iPod, and that only occasionally, because I prefer the quality of my Camera.

So, can anyone explain why every tech toy has to have a camera? Because I think it's a bit much, myself.

What I love about Christmas

1. The lights. I LOVE Christmas lights! I will probably go blind someday, because in December, I read by the light of Christmas lights. In college, we once decorated our apartment with 15? 20? strands of Christmas lights. It was quite bright. (18 year old exuberance).

2. Christmas music. I am partial to religious ones (it is, after all, the context of the celebration). "O Holy Night" and "Carol of the Bells" are probably my favorites. Oh, and "Silent Night". I do enjoy "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas", because it makes me think of my nieces and nephews. And "Feliz Navidad", which has a fun story about me and nicknames, and my nephew loves it, too.

3. Christmas shopping. Okay, this is kind of a love hate, but I do love coming up with gifts for people. That is really fun for me.

4. Christmas treats. My favorite is Cereal Candy, which is something my mom always made. And it isn't like I couldn't make it any old time, but I don't, because it belongs to Christmas.

5. Family. I am especially glad I have nieces and nephews because Christmas needs kids.

6. Snow. I am not necessarily a fan of the mess it makes of the roads, or the cold, but I love snow at Christmas time. For some reason, it just belongs.

7. The nativity. I love nativity scenes. I love the story. I love the little baby, and the whole scene. I haven't found a nativity for myself yet (I did make one, which is in storage, and it's cool because I designed it and everything), but I'm looking.

8. Movies. Not that these are essential for the holiday, but the one I do love is Mr. Kreuger's Christmas. Especially the scene at the manger, because that is so me. I can skip out on all the other movies, but that scene really brings things into focus for me.

9. Decorations. I love Christmas villages, and ornaments and LIGHTS (oh wait, I already said that one!). For some reason this year I have a thing for penguins, and really want a penguin ornament, but I have no idea why. But I do love decorations. The Christmas section is a huge black hole for me. I just get sucked in!

10. The spirit of the season. I don't know if I think it changes everyone else, but there is a spirit I try to capture. And I try to keep that more than just at Christmas, but it is more special at Christmas. Like I've been doing it and trying to not be noticed, and then in December I get to let it all out. It changes me, and even if I don't always feel as Christmas-spirited as I want to, it is always a reminder to me of what I am working for and where I'm going and who I want to become. Something about it is just different. December is like the weekend of months, and I love it.

I just love Christmas!

The path of least resistance

I like to keep life as simple as I can. Or at least, I want to be the kind of person that keeps things simple. I never know how much my real self matches up with my idea of myself and my ideal of myself. Generally speaking, probably not superbly well, but I digress. Back to simple. I like to keep life simple and generally I have found that being good is the simplest option. I mean, I hope I choose to be good because I want to be good (again, real-perceived-ideal correlation hasn't been accurately measured), but I think that even if I didn't want to be good (which I do), from a practical point of view, I'd still generally choose to do the right thing. It is SO much easier.

For example: You need money so you decide to rob a bank. Let's talk about all the work that goes into that. First, you have to pick a bank. Then you have to come up with a plan. It could be your basic snatch and grab, or you could go Ocean's Eleven elaborate (which is even more work. I mean, seriously. Put your ingenuity to work and get a job! Save the prison sentence!). But you still need to at least have a plan, right? I don't know--I don't rob banks, but I guess it's possible people waltz in on a whim and hold up a bank. Seems dumb to me, but then, robbing banks seems dumb to me. Like I say, too much work.

Your plan is probably going to require a lot of work. You have to coordinate with any abettors you may have (and recruit them--more work), have a getaway plan, contingency plans for when things don't follow the plan, coordinate schedules, find parking. I mean, it's a mess. A huge hassle. And you aren't even getting paid for it. At work, when I have to coordinate meetings, etc., I'm earning money doing it.

Then, presuming you manage to rob the bank. You have to spend the rest of your life on the run--new identity, moving all the time, possibly leaving the country so you don't get caught. You have to lie to everyone you meet, which requires an amazingly agile mind, which if you have one, why waste it robbing banks (just sayin'). And the money runs out eventually, so you've done all that work for what? It's just so much stress. And, if you don't manage to not get caught, you get the joys of prison, which I guess does save some stress. No bills, you don't have to go to work everyday, no deciding what's for dinner or grocery shopping. But is it worth the cost? No privacy, a pretty big public relations issue when you get out, and I have never heard recommendations for the local prison cuisine.

And that is pretty much the case with anything you shouldn't be doing. Sure, it seems easier up front to rob the bank--no job interview, no actual working for an income, but when you really think it through, a job is so much less work. Really.

So, yeah. Just be good. It's so much easier.

It's all fun and games

This weekend, I got to play games with my nephew. He is 4, and we were on the same team for one game. Which was fantastic. He even earned us points. We played Dixit, and Farkle, and he played games on my Kindle.

One of the things I love about playing games with him is that the rules are kind of optional. It's not that he's cheating, it's just that at 4, rules are still tricky things to understand sometimes, and in all of the games we played, he adhered to them in varying degrees. But mostly he did pretty good. My favorite though was a game he played on the Kindle.

He really didn't know the object of the game, and I didn't do so great at explaining it. I showed him how to play, just not what the goal was. But the beautiful thing was, he always believed he'd won (the game had a certain number of moves and you had to complete the mission before that) whether he'd completed the mission or not. And he just enjoyed the graphics and all the cool tricks and learning new tricks and figure it out. He really honestly was just having fun and playing.

That's what I love about playing games with him. It is just so easy and simple and all about having fun and going with the flow. It's creative. When I play a game, I'm not super competitive. I like games because it's fun to be with people, and I like learning as I play. Learning new strategies and ways to play. I'm competing against myself really, and I like the challenge of learning to play better. But that is not creative. Playing with my nephew is very creative, and I love it. And I love how uncomplicated his world is. He wins because he is a winner. Of course, he's going to grow out of it soon, and that will be sad, but in the meantime, I love playing with him.