Sunday Secret

Housekeeping

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I tend to get comfortable with sameness. Whether that be in my personal life, my professional life, or in blogging.

In the 5 years I've been blogging, I've changed my blog template once.

Sure, there have been minor tweaks - adding the Home, About Me, HNT Archives, Sunday Secrets, and Suicide - The Never Ending Story tabs - changing my profile pic - adding gadgets to the side bar - but the overall look of my blog has remained relatively the same.

It was time for a change.

I'm all about simple and efficient.

Now the blog is too.

~*~

HNT is making a one-day return.

December 27th marks the first full year of HNT retirement. In celebration, it's coming back!

And so am I ...

I put a poll up in the sidebar, hoping it would help me decide whether or not to participate. The overwhelming majority of you who voted *cough*TWO*cough* were supportive, so I figured what the hell?!

~*~

I'm taking a bit of a self-imposed, social media (tumblr, twitter, facebook) break.

I find myself - once again - bitching more about it than having fun with it.

Patterns ... I've got 'em.

We'll see if I can pull my head out of my ass.

~*~

Mike and I celebrated our one-year anniversary last week.

I think I'm finally (maybe) coming to grips with the fact that his love isn't in spite of my faults, flaws, and quirks, it is because of them. Okay, maybe I have a hard time accepting that every day ... let's just say that I believe it more now than I did a year ago.

It's been a good year ...

I look forward to many more.

My Name Is Dana And I Am A Project 365 Quitter

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By now, most of you have at least heard about Project 365, and a lot of you have probably attempted one yourself.

I took on my first Project 365 (Dana Does Digital) in 2010. I made it through the year, taking (and usually posting) a picture a day. It was, at times, more painful than accidentally chewing on a piece of aluminum foil. 

I vowed to never do one again ...

Until 2012.

Suddenly, it seemed like a good idea (I'm guessing this is a similar phenomena to the one that allows people to have more than one child).

41 days into the 2012 project, I quit.

There were several reasons why I quit, but it really boiled down to setting unrealistic expectations (for myself and the project) and feeling like a failure when I didn't meet those expectations. 

I'd rather quit than fail to meet my unreasonable expectations.

What's that you say? That attitude is a little self-defeating??

Yeah ... well ...

I really do like the Project 365 premise, but how do I get past the must-take-one-excellent-photo-each-day-and-post-it-that-same-day-with-some-witty-banter-attached-or-I-am-a-failure mentality?

I set lower reasonable expectations.

1. I will remind myself that for me, this endeavor is less about the quality of the photos and more about the memories. It's just another means of documenting a period of my life, and I give myself permission to post crappy, unedited photos.

2. I will not start my Project 365 on January 1st. I hate New Year's resolutions almost as much as I hate Jell-O, yet for some reason I decide it's a good idea to start my Project 365 on January 1st? Pffffttttt! I'll start when I want to (I am such a rebel).

3. I will take at least one photo every day, but I will give myself permission to miss a day (or several) of posting a picture to the Dana Does Digital blog, catching up when I can. I will not invite needless guilt into my life by beating myself up over it "not really counting as a Project 365 blog" if I don't post to the blog daily (and yes, this was the the single issue that contributed most to my decision to quit this year after only 41 days).

4. I will use technology to my advantage. I have installed 365 Photo App on my phone and will use it, without fear of judgement, to capture moments in time. I will approach this project as an artist (in the loose, artsy-fartsy sense) rather than as an aspiring photographer, using all imaging resources available to me.

I think I've really limited my success with this project by setting cumbersome and arbitrary rules for what Project 365 should or should not be.

Some might say the practice of setting cumbersome and arbitrary rules of what  should or should not be has crept into more than just my Project 365 life.

Maybe there is a lesson here *smirk*

I'll let you know when I start the project again.