This year, I'll try to be more superficial

There's no point in running it into the ground anymore - my goals for 2010 have been covered and revisited. Overall, I did OK, but it was not the year things really happened for me. In the interest of looking forward, even though that way lies oblivion (it lies the other direction, too, only then I didn't know any better), here's what we'll be going for in 2011, which we've already been in for a week:

Simplify:

• Cut down Google Reader Usage as much as possible
• Same with Facebook. Maybe just never use it again. I never feel good after spending time there. Usually I feel more alone and isolated than I did when I started.
• Same with 99% of the Internet
• Get books I’m not currently reading and stow them away somewhere, so they don’t mock me and stress me out.
• Use fewer variations of the same thing at work (e.g., one version control system is enough).
• Organize the bills/etc. better
• throw away things I don’t need
• Don’t work on 50 projects at the same time, mainly at home, I mean. I ought to finish something occasionally

Learn:

• R
• Audio-related electronics (amplifiers, DACs, effects, circuit-bending, noise making).

Stay the course:

• Spend lots of time with daughter and molding her impressionable young mind and such
• Spend time with my lovely wife also
• Continue to weigh 185 +/- 5lbs
• Continue to not have any major health problems
• Run
• Ride the bike
• Walk the dog, remember to take the time to tell her she is in fact a good dog
• Maintain wall of detachment between self and people/places/things that won't be named at this time

Also, as per the title:

Be more superficial.

What does this mean? As a ‘back end’ guy (ha), I focus on behind-the-scenes stuff nobody notices (data, monitoring, number crunching, etc). I need to do more bullshit front-end things, dress up the web stuff a bit beyond really stark raw info stuff. I had this realization recently that I spend an awful lot of time doing stuff nobody really sees.

I don't really care about that at work (they pay me, so the sting of being ignored is not so great - in fact, they need to have a big sign printed that the HR department hangs up everywhere reading 'Being Ignored Is Its Own Reward', because that's a true story at that place), but it would be nice to get the occasional notice/recognition elsewhere.

On another superficial note, I really ought to do a better job keeping up with movies and music. It's one thing never to have anything to say when people talk about sports, but I look at peoples' 'My 50 Favorite Movies of the 4th Quarter of 2010' lists, and I feel like I'm totally out touch. Who knows how many comic references I'm missing? I may eventually find nothing funny but wordplay and slapstick. The prospect is horrifying.

Wish me luck, or don't, and have the best 2011 possible.