walbourn | New Year's Plans

I'm not a fan of the "New Year's Resolution" ritual. More often than not it just ends up being things that one feel's sad about at the end of the year if they didn't happen. On the other hand, one of the key factors in having a sense of happiness is having goals.

So, this is more my "intentions" list than my "resolutions" list:

Buy a house: If I don't actually find one this year that's right, I don't mind waiting a bit longer. I'd like to manage it without wiping out all my liquid funds, but as long as I can leave my retirement alone, that will be good enough.
Continue to scale back the gaming hobby: Really cut back on conventions that invovle a flight. I plan to fly to Chicago to visit some friends for the final Living Force triology, and GenCon SoCal might still be worth going to but probably not. I'll continue to game at local and perhaps nearby conventions, but I need to find better things to do with my time on the whole. Of course, gaming with jeliza, rubylou, and drakemonger in a home-game setting would be super cool.
Read more: I was never a voraous reader, but ever since graduate school I've been pretty burned out on reading. I have a stack of technical books that I should get through, a bunch of fun books I've been meaning to read, and I shouldn't have to struggle to get all my magazines read in a month. I read occasionally during my frequent air travel, but that's not really enough to keep up.
Meet more people locally: Keep going to the Microsoft social/singles things, find more ways to be social with people outside of my comfort zone.