February Resolutions

How the month has flown! January 2009 is now a pile of memories. Let's see how I've held up so far on my tiny list of New Year's Resolutions:

) 1 ~ Concerning "The Leslie and Kyle Sock-Puppet Show"; unfortunately we haven't gotten around to filming a new episode yet, but in February I guarantee that you'll see at least 1 new show (hint hint: having to do with Valentines Day, talk amongst yourselves.)
) 2 ~ Concerning my drawing and doodling skills; I am happy with the attention I'm getting from my good blogfriends, LouMac and Rainy Rani, your comments are like raisins in my oatmeal, or seashells in the sand. I am also following a couple bloggers who are artists, in the hopes that their fine skills will rub off on me, and if you'd like to check them out, here's one, and here's another.
) 3 ~ Concerning my hope to have more adventures and new experiences; so far this month I have gotten to better know my sleepy little town by taking bikerides and discovering new places, (such as Valerie's Place, and this cool bridge that me and Bettina can climb under and be alone, and the beautiful Library Park) and I have learned more than a thing or two in these first 31 days of 2009 (I have made my first clay platter with imprints of my hands and leaves all over it, I learned how to braid challah bread, and I have been introduced to Write or Die. Thank you Dr. Wicked!) 
) 4 ~ Concerning my aspiration to be a better person this year; well I think I'm a better person. I'm a little bit scared of the future, and I don't know what life has in store for me, but any challenges I may face will definitely make me a better person than I am today. I just hope it doesn't hoit! (Say it like Bugs Bunny.)

Okay, some new Resolutions for the month of February so I don't get lazy:

• Read 10 new books this month.
  
• Wake up earlier than 11:00 a.m. and Go to bed earlier than 11:00 p.m.
  
• Draw a little everyday, and write a little everyday (in blog or notebook.)
  
• Make new friends.
  
• Try something that I never thought of trying.
  
• Go skydiving! (Nah, just kidding. Maybe later this year. Me wanna skydive!)

Okay, signing off now. I'll write later after I've watched the Superbowl!

Monopoly Win!!!

I'm a winner! Big Time!! I kicked butt (not literally)!

I played Monopoly with my brother and sister for over 2 hours, and I bankrupted them by building hotels on those 2 purple properties and the gray properties! Do you know how much a hotel on Oriental Ave. costs for the poor soul who lands there? $550. Neither Bettina nor Adam could pay me, (I'm being the "meanie" landlord here) so I won! Bettina eked out a close 2nd, with some green houses on the pink properties, but they were no match for my red hotels!

Okay, one last bit of gloating before I get too full of myself; here's a picture of the cute old man on the Monopoly box, which I'm quite proud of.

(You see? I'm a stuck-up, thinks-she's-all-that braggart! Hey, I don't get much chance to brag in the real world, so I'm doing it here. Ha!)

Anyway, besides this big win, what else have I been up to this week? Well...

1) Bettina and I are trying to script a new episode of the "Leslie and Kyle" sock-puppet show, and it features a special guest who I will NOT tell you about, only know that his name is Chad. (Innocent enough name, isn't it?)

2) On Saturday, me and my bro & sis bikerode ALL day, man. We went to the library, and hung out at the park nearby and ate Subway (one of the few fast-food places I really enjoy because of the Veggie-Delites).

3) I've started to read an amazing book called "Mastering the Art of Selling" by Tom Hopkins. It's nonfiction, but you don't have to be in the profession of sales to enjoy it and learn from it. It's got a lot of common sense, and psychological concepts, and it's all for the purpose of earning a more handsome income.

Enough, enough about me eh? I'm so self-centered, aren't I? Just kidding. I can hardly believe that the month of January is almost over! I've gotta get ready to think of Valentine ideas soon.

Byeeee!

My Doodle Collection #2

Hello, hello, hello! Annette Levy here! Check out my doodle collection #2!

<---This right here, with the mannequin parts in different poses, was the first page I filled out in my sketch book. My aunt got both the sketch book and the mannequin for my 16th birthday. Thanks a million Lisa!

--->

This one over here was done in early June, when I was reading "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It talked all about how objects have "negative space", and if you notice the spaces around a subject, it's easier to draw. Imagine a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs runs through a wall, and all you can see is the hole he made in the wall; that's exactly what negative space is! There's a nothingness, yet there's something there, you know? Whatever.

<--- Now old Charlie over here I copied from Google Images. (I dearly hope you know who Charlie Chaplin is, although he was famous many decades ago). I didn't know how to do his eyes, so I just filled them in. I hope it doesn't make him look spooky. I'm especially proud of how I did his jacket; I used a graphite pencil and some blending tortillions. You can buy those sorts of tools at any good arts-&-crafts store.

---> I made this cutie just a couple months ago, I think it was one of those times when I wasn't feeling happy with my art. So I made a seahorse, and that made me feel much better. Seahorses are so cool, aren't they? Did you know that there are over 32 different species of seahorse?

(so says Wikipedia.)

<--- Out of this collection, this is my latest one, drawn only a week ago. Pretty kitty was started with just a simple "smiley", like this:

^,^

And then it just grew from there. Drew it from imagination as well as the seahorse. I don't own a cat because that would scare the feathers off of Sasha and Sammy, and Hazel too, but that doesn't mean I don't love cats as much as the next person. They're so coy, and plushy!

Well, that's all for now!

Signed, The Funny One.

1-Month Anniversary of Me Joining Blogger

It was 31 days ago today that my twin sister Bettina  introduced me to blogging. I had already known about blogging and it's apparent popularity, but back then, I didn't realize how much fun it would be. You can put up pictures, embed movies, post your opinions, share your creations, and even connect with people. A shout-out to LouMac: Thank you for taking interest in what I have to say!

For any of you who are reading this blog for the first time, please check out my 16 previous postings. I'm a person who likes to make people smile (maybe even laugh), I like to draw and show off my work here (soon I'll put up another doodle collection for your viewing pleasure), I have a sock-puppet show called "Leslie and Kyle" which you can see on YouTube (or you can just see all the past episodes in one place, here), and I like to write about my 3 pets, Hazel the Hamster, and Sasha & Sammy, the cockatiel bros. Also I like to write about what's on my mind at any given time, if I think you might be interested in reading it.

Even though today is my one-month anniversary of joining Blogger, I'm not doing anything special today, besides writing a post to comemorate this date, and just generally lazing about. Time to log off for now. Byyyyeeeee!

Hip-Hip-Hooray!! (x 3)

I have 3 very happy reasons to be in a very cheerful mood, and I will very well tell you what and why (notice that I said "very" thrice! Although if you count the one inside these here parenteses, 4 times now.)

<1>This should be the most obvious reason to be any kind of happy: Barack Obama is now officially, (if he wasn't already since the election was all over) the 44th president of the United States of America! Me and my family saw the whole Inaugural ceremony on television. I'm glad that we didn't have to go to Washington D.C. to see him give his big speech. 

If you'd like to see the speech in it's entirety, here's the Wikisource article for Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

I might have been able to endure the crowds, but I'm not so sure about the low temperatures there. After the show was over, I felt so glad that finally "Dubya's" term is at it's end, and that Obama will soon be hard at work thinking of ways to make America better. Not that I would call George W. Bush a bad president, but he didn't really add too much to America besides funny SNL skits and new words like "misunderestimate". Barack Obama makes me look forward to the days ahead and the work that needs to be done, and he is a natural leader, with energy and strategy, as well as humility. He can't fix this country all on his own you know.

<2>Tonight I have finished the book "Pendragon: The Quillan Games", after starting it just last Sunday. What a story! I am still amazed at how fast I breezed through those pages, reading chapter after chapter to see what happens next. D.J. MacHale is a great author, and I've enjoyed reading this series since August of 2008. Critics and fans have called it the next "Harry Potter", and only the 10th book is left for release in the Pendragon saga. (It's interesting to note that saying "the next Harry Potter" does not deter readers from buying Harry Potter books. On the contrary, the series is still as popular as ever.) I highly recommend the series and I'm eager to get my hands on the 8th book, "The Pilgrims of Rayne".

<3> And my 3rd reason to be happy is...is...well I don't really have any big reason, but I did remember that it's LouMac's birthday today, so here's a shout out to her: "HOPE YOU HAD A VERY HAPPY ONE!!! <|:)"

Also my little brother is now tall enough to ride my bike. From now on he doesn't necessarily need to use his little kid-bike anymore, the option is always open to use either mine or my sister's.

And I have also read the 4th book of "Bone", titled "The Dragonslayer". I just loved the story, but I finished the whole volume so quickly I forgot to write a review on it, because I finished the "Twilight" book on the same day.

Oh well, that seems to make 5 happy things, but I thought the title was so clever that I gave it a chance. Good night, and Happy Tuesday!

My "1,000 Word Story"

Hey dear readers! Last night, I had the most amazing time with the coolest of writing websites,"Write or Die"! I wrote a 1,000 word segment in less than 45 minutes! I showed it to my brother and sister, and they thought it was funny and cute. If you feel like it, you can check out my story below. For all of you "would-be", "wanna-be", or "sooner-or-later-will-be" writers, take it from me, you have just got to check out "Write or Die", as soon as you possibly can!

The Girl Who Wrote 1,000 Words in 45 Minutes

One day, a girl decided to write exactly 1000 words. She had no idea what to write. But once she wrote the beginning, it got easier and easier. She just decided to write about the first thoughts that would undoubtedly pop into her mind. She wrote and wrote, and suddenly found that in no time she had written over 60 words!

"Wow, that was really much easier than I thought" she said to herself. "I wonder how many minutes it took me. Too bad there's no timer to keep track." She listened all around her and typed as she was listening. She listened to her mother talking on the telephone, and her dad made a funny fart.

"Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm" The girl heard her mother say. "What if I could hear what my Aunt Lisa was saying on the other line?" the girl wondered to herself. "Whoa! Almost 150 words now!" She thought in amazement. "Okay, I've got to stop myself. It's silly for me to keep word counting like this, it only distracts me from the actual typing that I should be doing" the writing girl thought to herself as she typed every word she was thinking almost automatically.

Then she thought, "This is really kind of cool." Her fingers seemed to fly across the keyboard, each seeming to be part of a team, with no leader to speak of. She thought to herself, "Which finger would be the leader or brain if that was at all possible, or practical? Hmm." Maybe the Thumb? Nah, too short. The Middle Finger, perchance? "Too rude," she pointed out.

"Why should I be pointing out things to myself if there's no one to talk to besides myself? Am I two different people? Maybe it's the two hemispheres of my brain that are talking to each other". She imagined. "What a funny way to think about such things, although at one point or another, I seem to believe it myself."

The girl who was a writer heard her brother enter the house, and now he was in the living room, talking with the girl's twin sister. But suddenly, he was behind her, asking to go on the computer. "Probably to play some game online," She thought to herself. "No Adam, I'm writing." She snapped after he had distracted her. "Fine." Adam said grudgingly. "I didn't mean to be so short with him," the girl worried to herself, hoping she hadn't upset him even a little bit. No, he was with the twin again, looking through library books, apparently happy and occupied.

"Okay, back to me." The writer refocused her mind and started another train of thought. "If the thought I am typing right now was a train, and all the words were freight cars, I would have over 460 words right around now." She thought, amazed at herself. "How long have I been sitting here I wonder." the girl wondered.

"Hey, now I'm just being repetitive, I'm saying 'the girl' and 'she' and the 'writer girl' too often. I'm starting to run out of anonymous identities for myself!" she realized. She decided she would just finally type her name and declare it as her name so she wouldn't have to beat around the bush when it came to telling what she was thinking. To put it another way, (because that last thought was probably too convoluted to understand completely,) she introduced herself formally, although there was no one to introduce herself too, because everyone around her knew what her name was.

"Oh well, I'll just introduce myself to myself then." Annette decided, finally using her real name after writing over 600 words. "Hi Annette, my name is Annette. How do you do?" the writer imagined herself saying. "I really am getting quite used to having my thoughts being typed out as I'm typing them now, it's almost become second nature to me!"

Amazed at her newfound talent, Annette then wondered, "I wonder if I'm making any sense at all. I haven't checked my grammar or thought any of my, well, thoughts completely through. I think I'll make perfect sense to myself though, why wouldn't I? I'm the one who's writing all of this." Funnily enough, Annette didn't have the time or patience to see that what she thought actually made little sense after all.

But what did she care? She was having an excellent time. watching her fingers fly across the keyboard. "I've already said that, but what the heck." She shifted in her seat and proceeded to type away some more.

She only had less than 250 words to go to reach her lofty 1000 word goal that she had set so hastily. "I must be writing for a very very very long time. I wonder if I've written for an hour yet? Maybe I've written for 2 hours even." she imagined. Annette then caught a little of what her mother Shira was saying on the telephone. "She's talking about me and Bettina's blogs." she thought proudly to herself. "Adam's behind me right now," thought the girl writer, whose name was Annette (don't wear it out).

Shira in the meantime seemed to have gotten disconnected in the middle of her conversation and had gotten back to her chat, shmoozing about both her daughters most recent favorite book, "Twilight".

"I just wanted to mention right here, if nowhere else, that I love the name Edward." Annette typed, thinking about the character from "Twilight" and also from the movie "Edward Scissorhands". "Oh I love both movies so much." she thought.

"Oh wow! I'm almost done with my 1000 word goal! I'm now on word number 942! I'd best choose my last words very carefully." She thought and she thought, but the longer she thought, she realized too late that what she was thinking was being automatically typed by her furious fingers. "Stop!" Annette commanded, and her fingers slowed down. They only moved to carefully type out the last words, which were,

"The End. Goodbye."

"Twilight" Review (for the book and the movie)

I can hardly believe that I watched the movie 2 days ago, and only finished the book yesterday! I so wanted to read the whole thing before going to the theater, but I still had half of the story to go. I don't get bitter about these things anyway. I'm a pretty mellow person. 

I loved the movie first of all! And not just because of Robert Pattinson's portrayal of Edward Cullen, although I would be the first to admit that he is a great actor. I liked everything about "Twilight" the movie; the camera angles, the make-up, the settings, the music, the actors, the attention to detail, loved it! Plus the romantic scenes. And the battle scenes. And the scenes with Bella's cute red truck in it. The acting was great, the story was great, and I loved the special effects! However, I did notice something a bit odd. In a scene where Bella and Cullen are at Forks High and they're in the cafeteria, there is an organic looking salad-bar! A salad-bar! Where in the world is there a high school that pays attention to the nutrition of it's students? I don't know, seemed a little idyllic to me. But besides that, I enjoyed sitting still for 2 hours very much.

The book, "Twilight", is so cool! Even if I saw the movie I still was hooked on every word. It didn't matter that much that whenever I read the name Edward I picture Robert Pattinson's face. There were quite a few parts from the book that didn't make it into the script, so I was free to imagine the character's voices and whatever they were doing, without remembering the part from the movie. I love the attention to detail! I love attention to detail in any story, and any author who pays attention to attention to detail is on my A-list. Stephenie Meyer is a great writer, in my humble opinion. 

Hey, now I'm free to read Pendragon 7!

For all who are curious about Sasha the cockatiel, he is doing great and he and Sammy are getting along as normal. He still needs to grow in his crest feathers though.

On a bit of a lighter note from last post...

I have come back from another practice-drive from the library (every trip I get to drive is practice until I get my licence...which should be in a few months o.~ ) and I have checked out the 7th installment of the "Pendragon" saga by D.J. McHale, which makes me pretty excited.

Still, me and Adam are reading "Twilight" together before we go to see the movie in the theater, so Pendragon will have to wait until then.

I am liking both book series! "Pendragon" is a perfect escape from reality, seeing as it takes you to many different realities. "Twilight" is my first dominantly romantic novel, with a bit of the vampire genre mixed in.

I am very excited about seeing "Twilight" the movie soon. I hope someday the first "Pendragon" book will be made into a movie; it has already been made into a graphic novel. (Though it would be best to read the full book anyway, the graphic novel doesn't have all the details.)

I wish everyone a productive week, and a good night. ~.~  -.- ^.^ 

Pet Post #2

This morning, my sister and I noticed something very strange about Sasha and Sammy's birdcage...it was opened, and Sasha and Sammy were not inside! Whether they can now open the cage door by themselves we do not know for sure, but that's not the strangest thing that happened. We went to look for them in our living-room, and soon enough, we found Sammy sitting on a picture frame innocently, but we had to search a couple more minutes until we found Sasha. He had lost a few feathers from his head, and had a little "boo-boo" on his beak, but besides that, we found him safe and sound. There were several feathers on one or two spots on the living-room rug, as if one of the birds was in a fight or something. Bettina and I suspect that Sammy had a fight with Sasha and took off those feathers, but for now he's innocent until proven guilty. Poor Sasha, I hope he heals soon. His little "mohawk" is smaller than it used to be, but he's still cute.

Questions, questions. Random questions.

These are some questions that as of yet, I have not found a satisfactory answer to. Maybe anyone who reads this post can comment me if they have any ideas. These questions don't exactly fall into the "burning question" catagory, but I am curious.

1. Why don't monkeys have whiskers?
2. Why is it impossible to effectively tickle oneself, and what makes some people more ticklish than others?
3. How do people get sleep in their eyes, and where does it come from?
4. How do scientists know which animals see in color and which see just black and white?
5. How is it that when people draw "hearts", that shape isn't at all what a heart looks like, and who invented that shape?

2 Fine Days Out

Yesterday, my dad treated my sister Bettina and me to smoothies. He wanted to celebrate because of all the good work we did. You see, recently, Bettina and I learned both the Greek and Arabic alphabets, because we're building up this website where you can view and hear the pronunciations of the alphabets of each of the different countries. If you care to see it, here's the link: http://www.levsoftware.com/ab/abc.html (just so you know, we don't have the Greek, Arabic, or Russian alphabet recordings, but everything else we've got.)

Anyway, where was I...Oh yeah! Smoothies. Well, my dad let me and Bettina do the driving (which was a treat in itself), and we found a cute little place called "Valerie's Place". It was this small, natural, french gourmet family-run type place, and along with fresh orange-banana smoothies, we ordered 2 apple tartes and crepes. Everything was delicious, and we had a great time altogether. It was a fine day out.

This afternoon, me and my twin sister went on a bikeride together to explore our sleepy little town. We went to this nice natural-gourmet cafe type place called "Offerdahls" and had an Oriental salad and a vegan sandwich to share. The food was all overpriced, but somehow, it was worth it. It was just me and Bettina sitting together, enjoying some good eats, and talking sister-stuff. The bikeride was so much fun! I'm not sure how far we rode, maybe a little more than a mile from our home and back. It was a nice sunny day, with no clouds in the sky, and a nice breeze behind us as we pedaled. Today was yet another fine day out.

It's so much fun to actually go outside and go to places, you know, instead of sitting at home, blogging all day? Oh well, I'll post later. Maybe tomorrow.

Pet Post #1

Welcome animal lovers! Today, I'd like to introduce 3 of my family members to you. Please welcome Sasha, Sammy and Hazel!

Here, they are all eating banana. I find that it's easier to photograph animals if you give them something to eat. Sasha and Sammy are our first cockatiels, and we've had them for about three years. We got them from a breeder rather than a regular old pet store because A: it's more cost effective, and B: the animals seem healthier. When we bought Sasha and Sammy, the breeder told us they were girls, but since then we've found out that they are really both boys. Usually you can tell the difference between a girl cockatiel from a boy cockatiel by the amount of yellow in their faces: boys are brighter, and girls are grayer, unless you're dealing with young'uns, in which case they're all gray-headed. Even though Sasha and Sammy look alike, their personalities are usually good indicators of who's who (just to be safe, my sister and I know the differing markings, so we can reliably tell our birds apart).

<---Sammy is the out-going one. He's a messy eater, and he's easy to put back into the birdcage.

Sasha on the other hand, is the cautious one. He's a much neater eater (hey, I made a rhyme!), and much more difficult to put away. He only goes back on his terms, if you know what I mean.--->

Neither Sasha nor Sammy are able to talk, but they can whistle and make "kissy" noises, and when they are hungry or want to be let out, they can really scream! But mostly, Sasha and Sammy are very mellow, and very sweet. They watch movies with us, read over our shoulders (while sitting on our shoulders), and best of all, they love a good neck rub! Sasha especially shows his appreciation when he gets a good scratching behind the ears (the red cheek-spots are actually a cockatiels' ears). The look of bliss on his face: priceless!

But enough about that. Now here's Hazel the Hamster!--->

 Technically she belongs to brother Adam, but the whole family simply adores her, especially my mom; she loves to give Hazel a bit of spinach or something and kiss her on the head. Actually, that's what she does for Sasha and Sammy as well. Anyway, Hazel is the 4th hamster we've ever owned, and we've had her for a little over a year, but sometimes it feels like we've kept her for longer than that. She has the brightest eyes, the perkiest ears, and the glossiest fur. We got her from a pet store, because an employee told us she was pregnant, and so for 2 weeks after buying her, we didn't take her out of the cage or touch her even once! We never found any tiny hamster babies in that amount of time, though, so we figured that we got "jipped" by that pet store, or just the employee. Since then, Hazel has become, in my opinion, our most darling hamster ever. She scares Sasha and Sammy though; if she gets anywhere close to them, their crests go straight up and they both fly away. Hazel is also the most creative of the hamsters we have owned; she makes the coziest-looking "nests" out of the paper-towel and newspaper that we supply, and she looks simply precious when she's asleep.

My pets inspire me in my art: Here are a few sketches of Sasha, Sammy, and Hazel. 

Pretty good, no?

 I love my feathery and furry friends very much, and I hope that we keep them for a very long time.

Blogger's Shortcomings

Hiya. I feel sorry (though I'm not sure who I'm apoligizing to) that I haven't blogged in a few days. Today, I just wanted to share what's on my mind about blogging.

• On the one hand, blogging is a creative activity, in that all kinds of people of all sorts of interests and age and nationality can document their lives, share internet links or funny pictures, let loose some thoughts that otherwise would never be heard out loud, or just to act silly and trivial about things (as in, "OMG, it's so close to NewYear!!! eep! Twilight is sooo cewl!! I love America's Funniest Home Video's!! Hahahahahahaha!!!" etc. etc.)
  
• Just so you know, the above thoughts in parenteses are super-exagerated thoughts of my own. Here are my real thoughts. (Wow, 2009 already. I haven't read Twilight yet, much less seen the movie, so what do I know. I really do love America's Funniest Home Videos, but not quite that much, I mean come on.
• On the other hand, great blogs are so hard to find on this website. I would like to see Blogger have a search engine similar to the Google homepage, where you can use keywords to find other blogs.
• On the other other hand, Blogger is a fun place to just be yourself. With little chance of being read, I have license to be as crazy as I want, with no-one to judge me excepting people who comment!
• On the other hand (how many hands do I have again? I feel like an octopus over here!) I just might have an audience of at least one, so I need to kind of calm myself down a little in case of overwhelming anyone.
• On another hand, I'd like to see less people who lie about their age, or don't list their interests. Come on people, don't be shy!
• On another other hand, one does need to be discreet and not too revealing on the world wide web. You never know who exactly is reading your stuff.

I am sadly confused. I don't know what I really think about blogging. Still, I think I feel a bit better, letting loose my thoughts. I hope I didn't put anyone down or make anyone feel bad, and if I did, please accept my apoligies. I suppose Blogger isn't too bad. I just need to calm down and focus on something else.

Check out what I had for lunch today!

The pink sauce is my favorite part. It has beets in it. Besides that, there is broccoli, curried rice, corn-on-the-cob, and customized salad. All homemade, as usual. Verdict: delicioso!

Okay, over and out.

Oh What a Night...

December 31 2008. Boy, now that was a night to remember. Me and my brother and sister stayed up soooo late, I actually thought that I would make it through the night! We were watching movies, oohing at fireworks, singing to our iPod, top volume (not singing top volume, we had the earbuds in and we played them at top volume), telling jokes, eating very lightly so as not to upset the stomach's regular digestive schedule (an apple here, some grapes there). Man, it was one of those times where "you had to be there, dude!" Unfortunately, I did not stay up to see the sunrise like I wanted; my last memories were of reading the sixth Pendragon book in my bed, and then...all went dark...Haha, so dramatic. But really, that's what happened. Of course I can take some pride in knowing that I alone stayed up later than the rest, but y'all will have to take my word for it.

Anyway, wow, it's finally 2009. I'll bet a lot of people are blogging for the new year this very day. Why did you choose to read mine? You must have good taste. In the new year, there are a few things that I am hoping for:

• I hope I don't fall asleep in the middle of the day today from lack of rest (although if I do I know it'll be all my dang fault for deciding to stay up late.)
• I hope "The Leslie and Kyle show" will be a big hit someday.
• I hope that my drawing and doodling skills will get much better, (as opposed to getting worse with little use)
• I hope to have a lot more adventures and new experiences. (and that might mean spending less time at the computer. Ohhh nooo! Just kidding, just kidding.)
• I hope I can be a better person this year. (Well doesn't everyone this time of year? How unoriginal! But this time I'm serious.)

Well, here's to ringing in the new and all that jazz, time to sing "Auld Lang Syne" or whatever, and make a lot of promises that we don't intend to keep (including the promise for making promises you don't intend to keep), but it's also time for changes. Welcome to the future!