New year resolution?

I am one of those people who likes doing a lot of different things, but isn’t particularly great at any of them. Yes, I do pretty well in the kitchen, but I wouldn’t consider myself an excellent cook. Yes, I enjoy working on our cars, but I am in no way a mechanic. Add in my interests in photography, sports, the welding and golf classes that I just took and you start to get the idea. The good news is that having a variety of interests makes making a Christmas/Birthday list very easy (except for the fact that everything seems to be $$$). The bad news is that since I’m not 100% focused on one thing, I never actually excel at any of them or acquire all the "accessories" needed for that interest.

Even my profession, Landscape Architecture, is that way: I know plants, but I'm in no way a plant expert, go ask a horticulturist about that specific cultivar of hydrangea. I can design basic structures and understand the terminology/theories, but if you want a building go see an architect. I can design low retaining walls, but if you want anything bigger than 3-4 feet high, I am going to bring in a structural engineer. The list goes on and on. I think “Jack of all trades, master of none,” or more fittingly “knows enough to be dangerous” are both pretty accurate descriptors for me.

By now, you are probably wondering “where the heck are you going with this?” Well, I bought myself a nice digital SLR camera a couple years ago; however, I don’t feel like I have been able to use it to its potential so far. I took it with us on our cruise and got a few great photos out of it, but I think that was more a function of luck than skill. I think that I need to do something that will get me to spend more quality time with the camera, preferably not on the auto setting. I learn best by doing, so I need to do some more doing.

While I am not typically a big fan of “new year resolutions” (seems like a hooky way to try to get yourself to change [which I would argue people typically don’t change much]), I am considering the new year as a good jumping off point for signing up for a “weekly photo challenge” website. The basic theory behind it is that they give you a specific topic/subject/theme each week and you are supposed to go out and shoot a photo that goes with the topic and submit it. If the theme is dogs, then you shoot something with a dog in it...  After everyone has a chance to submit their photo, the “members” vote on the winning photos each week. There aren't any prizes, just bragging rights for the week.
If I do this, I will try to post the weekly theme and my photo for it here… I am hoping that being “accountable” to the few of you that might be reading this will keep me focused on actually doing it. If I slack off, you can post some “where the heck are your photo challenge pictures, slacker” comments.  If any of you are interested in doing this too, it would add to the motivation to know someone else was doing it too.  Let me know if you are interested.

Speaking of this blog, I have been trying to make a definite effort to post at least once a week, even when there isn’t much going on. Personally, I follow several blogs in google reader (it is a nice, easy way to keep track of blogs, news, etc. since it pulls them all into one central place for you) and compared to them, my  rambling (writing) is definitely a very random collection of topics. Sometimes I think that I should narrow my focus down to a more specific topic, but then I realize there is no way I could narrow it down to just one thing… so this will continue to be a running recount of what I (and to some extent, Karen) am up to. I guess that leaves a bit of mystery for you, since there is no telling what I am going to be getting into from one day to the next. I do think I might have over done it on the curling posts, but that is where the “action” has been lately.

Speaking of curling, the PHD’s lost in the semifinals on Monday, so we will be playing for 3rd place (second loser) this coming Monday. We will be going up against the #1 seeded team, who was upset on Monday. The good news is that we beat them during the "regular" season, however they have already said they are out for revenge.  Our team has signed up for the January - March league (I know you are thinking "yeah, more curling!"), although we are losing at least one of our members to family/work/schedule conflicts. We might have to rename ourselves when the team is no longer full of husbands of doctors (Phenomenal ones, of course).

I did get our new artistic acquisition hung this week.  Due to the materials, it was a pain to photograph.  Shiny metal, mirrors and glass are not very photo friendly.  You will just have to come visit to see it in person to get a better feel for it.  It is modern and somewhat funky, yet geometrical too.