Day 365 — Cheers!

[for Monday, Dec. 31]



Okay, so I got the issue all figured out. Turns out I had duplicated Day 318, so it's been off since then. As far as I know, I've gone back and renumbered everything since that day, so we should be kosher. I had some days in there that were just crazy off. Like, 224 instead of 324. Etc. Proof that you can blog in your sleep!

So this last photo — fittingly of a glass of wine, shared in the company of several friends on New Year's Eve — brings Project 365 to a close. I have actually had more fun than I thought I would, and I can't believe I made it without missing a single day. I love going back and looking through my daily pictures to see what was happening in my life at any given time. I'm proud of the collection as a whole. I think I'll get to hang on to more memories than I would have had I not collected a photo every day.

I had actually thought briefly about continuing through this year — Project 366, because it's a leap year — but things are crazy right now and I am so tired that I think I'll just cool it for a while. Maybe I'll get back to writing here more regularly in 2008. I used to write really long, meandering, personal posts about life and nature and politics and The Universe and lots of stuff most people probably don't care to read but that I remember really enjoying writing about. I don't do that very much anymore. Posting photos is a lot easier, and a lot less risky. But not nearly as cathartic.

So maybe I'll try my hand at it again.

This coming year could prove to be extremely interesting and extremely tough. There are changes on the horizon for me. I worry about how things will work out. I dread having to make Big Decisions. But I've got some hope stashed away. I'm trying to keep it pragmatic and not get too carried away with anticipation of the future. But it's there.

The good news is that life, even when it's hard, is still pretty good to me.


Project 365

My week — in video

The first time I ever heard this song*, it stressed me out. It was just so loosely bound together that I wasn't sure if it was going to hold tight until the end. It's the opposite of tight and predictable; actually its irregularity becomes so predictable by the end that it's predictable.

Anyway, I've had the kind of uncertain, low week that would be perfectly set in montage form to this song. I hate that — thinking of my life in film montage form — but I do it all the time. It's gotten even worse since I got an iPod and can literally program a soundtrack to my life. How did people think about their lives before the advent of moving pictures? Did they imagine themselves in scenarios from their favorite hefty novels or pulp magazines? Or their favorite cave paintings?

*I wish I could find a better quality version of the song than the one in the YouTube video. There are some short MP3 clips I've been able to find. But the whole song? No clue. Too bad. I really love this song now.

Projects

There are lots of creative things on my plate that I'm working through. Suddenly all these feelings of foreboding and inadequacy that I struggled with in college are coming flooding back. Deadlines and the thought of being judged by peers and superiors.

It sucks. I wish I could say I thrive on that kind of thing, but not when it comes to areas where I feel like I need a lot of work.