Happy Gregorian New Year!

A lot of people I know don’t do New Years Resolutions, mostly because they feel it’s just setting oneself up for failure. I’ve always liked the whole tabula rasa feeling of a new calendar year, and it makes me want to set some goals. So I’ve come up with a short list of things that I think are actually quite achievable for me.

I’ve also started a 101 goals in 1001 days list for myself, as a way to have some more specific goals, but I’ll talk more about that later. For the time being, here’s my list of New Years Resolutions for 2012:

1. Create something every day.
2. Learn something new every day.
3. Move my body in a way I enjoy every day.
4. Try and make every day just a little bit healthier than the day before.
5. Be a better friend.
6. Make sure the people I love, know that I love them.

Tomorrow is the day I’ve been practicing for the past 6 months or so for! Tir Righ Arts & Sciences/Bardic Championships is happening out in the Shire of Lionsdale, and I’m doing a single entry in bardic. Single entry means I’m not entering the actual championship part of things, but doing a single performance for the experience, practice and feedback.

The piece I’m doing is called Frog Galliard, and was composed by John Dowland. If you like, you can read my documentation here. I got the music from Lady Isolde de Lengadoc‘s weblog. Big thanks go to my friend Mellissa for proofreading my documentation and making some great suggestions for changes.

I also have Isolde’s “Beer is for Girls” piece practiced up for performance later in the day, if I get the chance.

The 100 blue and white beads are ready for site tokens (that reminds me… need to take a picture tonight!) and my new bright red apron dress is all ready for me to wear. Tonight I just need to string my own second strand of beads and pack the car, and I’m all ready for the weekend.

Wish me luck! It’s been ages since I’ve performed in front of a big group of people, and the harp is a brand new instrument for me. But I’m sure I’ll do fine – I grew up playing in front of people.

‘Scuse me while I rant for a moment.

I just read a forum post written by someone who is WAY up there in development at one of the biggest game companies out there, and within the first half of a sentence, I was ready to hit something.

He began “Back in June, I wrote a blog blah blah blah…”. This made me want to rip my eyeballs out.

You do not “write a blog”, you “write a blog POST”. You create a blog or keep a blog, because the blog is the whole of the thing. Blog is short for “web log”. A blog is made up of multiple entries. So you write a blog post, or a blog entry, but if you’re using the verb write, you’re writing FOR a blog.

To use an analogy – if you’re familiar with Livejournal, think about it this way. You wouldn’t say “I wrote a Livejournal”, you would say “I wrote a LJ entry”.

Similarly, you record a vlog ENTRY, you don’t record a vlog.

Seriously, is the English language really that hard???

While I AM an advocate of Health at Every Size, and size/body acceptance, I don’t want this blog to turn into nothing but ranting.  So when everything I’ve thought to blog about recently was on that topic, I’ve been restraining myself.

But this sort of thing is why my attempts at blogging (which number in the dozens over the years) always seem to fizzle and die.

Anyhow!  On to something more positive:  fall has definitely hit Vancouver!  I’m one of those people who finds it far easier to warm up than to cool off, so I rejoice when the fall arrives each year.  It’s time for turtlenecks, scarves, hot tea, and not feeling like I’m roasting to death.

For anyone who has kids, you’ll also know that it means school starts again.  While I’m not in school right now, this is exciting for me anyways, because it means the start of the new band season!  I was a band geek all the way through junior high and high school, and have been missing that ever since I graduated from grade 12.  Finally this year, I got my act together enough to join a community concert band.  Last week was my first practice, and I had a blast.  Second practice is tonight and I am SO STOKED.

Ahem.  Apparently band geeks never die… at least not in my case.

Have you ever seen a dog’s reaction to a brass instrument? I did last night, and it was hilarious!

On my way up the elevator after work last night, I went into our storage locker and got out my french horn. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time, since I want to get practiced up enough that I can join one of the New Westminster concert bands. Once I finished my piano and harp practice for the evening, I pulled out the horn. Cody (our Akita) was lying on the living room floor at the time, and obviously wasn’t expecting anything. He’s totally used to me practicing the harp now, and it doesn’t seem to bother him at all. The piano still perplexes him, and he will often come up and try to shove his nose under my hand as I’m practicing, similar to what he does when I’m on the computer.

But the horn… oh, that was funny. Keep in mind I haven’t touched it in at LEAST 15 years. I picked it up and blew through the mouthpiece, making the horn let out a loud “BLAT” The dog sat up abruptly like someone had shot something at him. He sat there watching me as I practiced a few scales, acting like he was startled every time I took a break and then started again. I’m still giggling over it.

Hello!  My name is Karla, and I am a perfectionist.

So much so, that I have a tendency to get very little done – really just barely enough to get by.  This includes my web presence.  For so long, I have wanted to start a personal blog, a cooking/food blog, a craft blog, an activism blog, and none of them ever happened because I took on too much and expected too much from myself, and even when I did get something started, my perfectionist tendencies kicked in and I fizzled out before I got anywhere.

This all ends today.

With the exception of *possibly* a joint food blog with my fiance Ian, it’s all going here.  I am going to start out with a nice, plain, pre-made theme for now, and focus on content.  Content is king.

Topics you might find here in the future include: cooking and baking, crafts of all types, my pets, my sweetie Ian, music, geocaching, the Society for Creative Anachronism, pop culture, geek culture, paganism, size acceptance and activism, World of Warcraft, feminism, gender and sexuality activism, health, wedding planning, and anything else that enters into my overly-active brain.

So, welcome!