2008, here I come

Good thing procrastination isn't on my list of things to attack this year. Well, better late than never. Here, in all its glory, preserved so I can't forget it, my goals for this year:

• Write at least 160,000 words. That's 10,000 per month, except 50,000 in November. This means I also have to keep track of my writing, so I'll start an excel spreadsheet to track my word counts.
  • As a subgoal of that, I want to win NaNoWriMo 2008.

• Take one photograph a day that somehow represents the day for me. I know some people do 1 picture a day of themselves, or of something arty. Well, I'm not all that arty, I'm more looking to have a photo-journal of 2008.
  • Pictures of my kids don't count, because I'm going to post the pictures online but I don't like to post pictures of my boys online. Heck, if pics of them counted, I've already taken a picture a day (or more like 20 pictures a day) since they were born two and a half years ago!
  • It's January 2nd, and I have two pictures already (not downloaded yet, but Jan 1 is a couple of ornaments lying on the ground as we un-decorated the tree, and Jan 2 is tissues, a thermometer, and medicine since my son and I are sick).

• Post a minimum of 120 blog entries in 2008. It's kind of fun...a neat way to get some ideas out of my head, or just to have a place to let my random ideas flow. Good escapism, and another good way to keep track of memories.
  • This doesn't count toward my 160k word year goal above!
  • Dare I say, I'm considering NaBloPoMo next November on top of NaNoWriMo? If anyone doesn't know, it's like NaNoWriMo, except you commit to writing 1 blog entry a day during November (so, it's far, far easier than NaNoWriMo :)

• Start planning our great cross-country adventure. In 2010 or 2011, we're planning to spend a month or two driving across the country, seeing all the sites that strike our fancy.
  • Start a savings account!
  • Start a file of places we may like to visit, and research some of those areas.
  • Learn about camping...and try to decide if that's something we want to do on our trip. Try to find some outdoorsy people to befriend who can teach us all about camping.

• Live healthier!
  • Join the Y and take a class. Go to family swim times.
  • Join a CSA or otherwise plan to go to a lot of farms this summer to pick fresh veggies.
  • Stock healthy snacks in the house instead of chips and chocolate.

Random unrelated thought, What I'm Reading edition: I'm currently reading Moth Smoke for book group on Wednesday. I'm really enjoying it so far. My book group is really on a winning streak recently. We've read a ton of books I've been pleased to have had a chance to read.