I was late to the 21st century to begin with, then for the past 20 years I’ve managed to do nothing but “grow up”…
…at least the dog is there for me.
In the spirit of the new year, I have to at least begin by acknowledging that this is the first time I’ve retained a blog’s content from a December to a January.
Although I couldn’t help but move to a different content manager and a new domain before January, since I was bored with all that spare holiday time. I resolve, this year, to be happy with what I have and to stop messing with things. I’ve said this before, but this time I’ll have to prove myself. Building trust is a skill.
Regardless of my indecisive experimentation with things that shouldn’t require any maintenance, I’d like to resolve some of my other bad habits now that we’re halfway through the decade already. I’ll say this: this year, I resolve to make my words more valuable.
I think that, as a whole, I need to think more about what I say, but still be more outgoing, I need to keep my word a little better, and I need to be more confident in myself when I’m speaking in general. To be perfectly honest, the greatest thing I’ve learned since coming to college was how to interact with people. Whether you say you’re an introvert or not, humans are social creatures and fighting biology is futile. I think it’d be nice if I gave myself the gift of being a regular, personable human.
If you don’t know this about me, too, I tend to incessantly reorganize more than just my blog. I’ve changed emails ~4 times in the past year, and graphic design might not be my passion, but interior design certainly is!
Here’s what my room in my current apartment looks like now (it actually hasn’t changed too much since when I first moved in in August, which is unusual for me. On the contrary, I just finished repainting my bedroom at home earlier this week).
I’m a little limited by my lease agreement — I need to keep the yellow walls, I can’t sell all the furniture, you know, I don’t own this place…
…but I did find this neat little game a while ago, called “My Dream Setup”. It’s on Steam, and gives you free reign to fulfill your greatest interior design dreams for only $6. There are add-ons, but I don’t have any of them, and you don’t really need any of them. I made this nice looking room using it just yesterday (the walls are a similar shade of green to what I just repainted my bedroom with).
This room could even look a little better. I probably shouldn’t have put it on the off-white background that matches the color of the walls in my actual bedroom here. I’m a little sick of that color already.
But, anyway, this (the first picture above) is the space that I’m living in going into the new year, so I thought I’d put a picture up, since I always like to change things.
This year, I have some other resolutions, too. Like a lot of people, I’d like to be more outgoing and well put-together, but I’d also like to put myself out there and achieve some early career goals. A number of nice job openings have come up on the on-campus job board as of late, so I’ve applied both to the library and as an assistant at the fab. Either would be excellent — the library is a cool place, and as a microelectronics student, I’m looking for any way to get my foot through the fab door so I can actually learn what goes on in there. My resume is looking pretty dry until I have actual experience.
I also need an internship for over the summer (and for the fall, too). I have this stretch goal to get myself a Mandarin double major before I leave, and after many backs and forth (is that the proper plural form?) with my advisor and with an associate department head from the Chinese program, I’ve managed to get myself a plan to take all the classes — everything but the study/internship abroad that make up the requirements to actually get the major degree.
So, I need an internship, and it would be even better if I could get myself one in Taiwan, somewhere in China (as long as they stay a level 2 on the US government travel advisory list, something which was only achieved recently and for which the future seems a little uncertain), or Singapore, or anywhere else where the people would probably speak a reasonable amount of Mandarin.
This is also the year where, if all stays going well, I can go to Taipei later on in May and see some of those things that northern Taiwan is famous for (you know, night markets, scooters, musical garbage trucks, window cages, lots of rain, Seven-Elevens…), and maybe I’ll be able to travel south or to some nearby countries too (I might try to get myself a layover in Tokyo for a few hours on the way back if I get to book my flights with that much precision).
I’m regretting not bringing my hat, gloves, and bicycle back to school with me, too, after realizing how well these sidewalks get paved during the winter. I wasn’t ever behind the dorm buildings last year, and besides, the winter was pretty mild — there’s actual ice and snow on the ground now, but none of it’s on the sidewalk, so I think leaving the bike behind was a missed opportunity. Besides, I learned about Bike Index lately (from the excellent podcast Darknet Diaries) and feel prepared to own a light transportation device again after recovering from minor theft auto last November. I’ll have to wait until March, when I’ll have a week to go back home and get it.
Until then, I have some clarinet to practice if I hope to secure myself a place back in the concert band, and I have some people to talk to and emails to check if I want to make sure I can get myself back into the orchestra, and I have some eating, sleeping, and positive self-talking to do to convince myself that I can do those things better than I did them last semester.
Thanks for the patience (and for managing to find my blog continually, even after I moved it again). This time is the last, I swear!