Mid Year Check In - 2010 - Part Two

Hello again, Hello!

In the first part of this post I spoke of my photography goals for the year.  Now it's time to take on the larger life goals that I set for myself on February 1st and see how I've done.

1. No more fast food.  Since January first I have not had any fast food.  To tell you the truth, I don't really miss it. Well I have had some fast food since February, but I can honestly say that I can count the times on one hand.  I'm still going very strong on this one and I think it's helped greatly with my weight loss that I've seen through the year.
2. Workout every weekday before work.  In January I managed to do this and work up from a thirty minute workout each weekday to my current workout which is one hour.  Although I haven't lost any weight, I'm ok with it, as the goal that I made was to get up and workout every weekday morning in January and I did it!  This will continue into February. Although this did continue through February, in March some things happened that really de-railed this goal.  I have since adjusted my thinking and my overall weight loss goals to be more in-line with a life change instead of working out everyday and burning myself out.  I am still working out regularly, so I think I'm doing just fine on this goal and I'm on track to lose 75 lbs by the end of the year.
3. Dive back into the technical side of things on the web world and re-learn Flash and Flex.  I've done a great deal and even completed my first freelance job in January.  I'm back folks. I was back - and now I have some ideas, but I haven't executed them.  Fail.
4. Post a blog entry per day every day of 2010.  If you've been following, then you know I've managed to do this through January as well! This is another fail, but I feel that I've been doing a much better job and I think the real goal of this should be to keep posting as it will help me improve my writing skills and since I enjoy it, there is no reason to stop, right?
5. Begin immersing myself into technology and business by reading more and listening to podcasts instead of music on the way to work.  Done. And Done - I still do this and have found that this has been a great source of ideas and inspiration both physical and mental.
6. Start to take my photography hobby a bit more seriously and learn more about the art and what makes a good picture.  I'm well on my way for this one, I do have lots to learn though, but I think it will be great.  If you've seen my Photography Goals for 2010 then you know just how much work I have ahead of me. I'm working on this one and the goals I've set forth for myself.
7. Cut down on going to the bar.  I've cut this back quite a bit and what I've found is that I like being at my house and feeling productive.  Go figure. I quit drinking for good as of March 16th.  I've learned from experience and from reading that this type of habit will lead to nothing good, in fact it actually helped put me in some situations that I would have not rather experienced.
8. Re-learn French.  I'm proud to say that with the help of Rosetta Stone, January has seen me make it through the first Unit of French.  There are four units per level and I plan to make it through a unit per month.  There are five levels total. As of March I stopped taking the French course, I will promise myself to begin this again before the end of August and complete the first level before the end of the year.
9. Take a moment or two to do a mental health check on myself.  Work on building self-esteem and self-confidence.  Courses like "The Psychology Of Achievement" and a couple from David DeAngelo have been helping out on that front.  I'll look to continue with these classes in February. This is an area that I've really dove into head first.  (no pun intended) and I've started studying the mind and why people do the things they do, what motivates us and how to be more socially confident. 
10. Launch a local user group.  I have been given the ok from Adobe to try to launch the Chelsea Adobe User Group. I look forward to this challenge and I'll that I'll learn by doing it. Still on the list, and I'm working on it.

 So out of the ten goals - I'm doing six well.  I think that's pretty good.  I'll keep working on the others and set some new goals to shoot for before the end of the year.  These will focus around my career and relationships.

Let the fun begin and Happy Birthday to me!

Creating A Photo Book - Part One

One of my many goals for this year is to find a way to share my photography in multiple media formats.  I would classify myself as a hobby photographer, with lots to learn about the craft.  It really is an artform, however my method is much more "point and shoot".

I had decided that I wanted to make a photo book, so I did some research and came across LuLu.com.  This site makes it very easy for you to create an eBook, or Photo Book, and more!

I decided to use their service to create a photo book of some of my favorite pictures over the past couple years.

I started by using their tool to create the Photo Book and then it hit me... I hadn't yet organized the photos I wanted to go in the book!  At first this seemed like an easy task, but I want this book to tell a story.  I want each picture to really be worth a thousand words and to strike up emotions of the whole experience when I look back on these in ten years.

What I had realized was that this was going to take some thought and effort.

My first step has been to reach into my collection of photos and go through picking out my favorite shots.  Those pictures that jumped out at me.

My next step will be to fine tune those pictures and make sure that they are print ready.  By print ready, I mean that they are at least set to 300 dpi and have any effects on them that I think make them tell the story better.

I am going to pick fifty of my favorite pictures and then will use LuLu to publish a book of the photos.  I will likely also order a book for my Mom and I'll make the link available for anyone else who would like to check the book out. I may even pick my favorite twelve and make myself a 2011 Calendar, the possibilities are endless!  LOL.

I'll post any other thoughts along the way.

Have you ever done a Photo Book / Scrapbook?  What is your favorite part of the process?