New Year's Resolutions!

Goals and resolutions:

I've got a dozen or so goals for this year, so I figured I'd hop on the bandwagon of resolution making, and the tenth day of the tenth year seemed like a decent day to start.

Complete 7 certificates

I'm currently halfway through my A+ certification, and plan to get the rest of the CompTIA suite and a security cert or two, as well as my CCNA cert. This will require about a workday's worth of time spent watching videos and taking practice tests for about three months. However, once I finish my A+, I'm going to start applying for jobs, but keep working on the certs. Basically they're working as my room and board (and insurance) while I'm living at home, so I gotta get 'em done!

Read more of the Bible

Now this may seem religious and old-fashioned, but I am going to do my best to read at least a chapter of Proverbs each day. Eventually I plan to expand to the Psalms and even a 365 plan, but we'll stick with the wisdom for now. Some of that will probably show up here even.

Set up a wireless N linked router

Dad's got a decent wireless router in the basement, but spotty reception on the main floor (Duh, it's in the basement!) We got a range expander, but that still doesn't let the TiVO hook up to the internet wirelessly, which is a real bummer when you want to, you know, have an accurate TV schedule for recording. So, we're looking into linking an N router to the one in the basement (not running an ethernet cable around the basement ceiling... the wire hole behind the TV is too crowded already. I'd rather just run the cable, but the four ports downstairs are already used up... more on that later too.

Get a job with a $40k+ salary

This one I think is a bit of a lofty goal, though possible depending on where I look. I'll be searching out "government" jobs, because there happens to be a military base near us that is relocating to a bigger base even closer, and they need a ton of tech guys because it's mostly IT stuff that they're moving. But that's another post and a half again.

Set up a media/backup server (Test FreeNAS, CoreNAS, OpenMediaVault, OpenFiler)

Going to college and having a job was a blast, because I got to enjoy life and buy a few toys along the way... among those ended up being an awesome tower of a case and more than 6TB of hard-drive space. The eventual goal is to put most of the drives in a box in the (climate-controlled) basement, and have it serve up TV shows and movies or music whenever and wherever in the house I'd like, as well as serve as a central backup for all my other computers (desktop and laptop), though they be few. So I'll be exploring getting a cheapo box to experiment with before moving everything around.

Set up a media client (MythTV, XBMC, Boxee, LinuxMCE, Enna/GeeXBoX, etc)

Again, with all that media, I'd kindof like to watch it on the bigger TV screen, so I'd like to have a better solution than plugging in the output from my laptop every time I want to watch a movie from more than two feet away. So, a dedicated/multipurpose box is the solution here. Honestly, it'll probably be both my server and client box for a while, at least until I get my own house.

Start re-learning Sign Language

A long time ago, I was taken to a class where we learned some sign language, and even got to ineract with some deaf people to practice our "speech". (Hint: They're normal people like you and me, don't yell at them or think they're dumb just because you can't communicate easily with them.) My best friend also knows a large chunk of ASL (American Sign Language) so I've been interested in it again since college, but haven't really made the time for it. I shall make some goals to get to so I can measure my progress. Starting with memorizing the alphabet forwards, backwards, and inside out.

Rent or own my own place

This one is easy, or is it really? It's actually pretty dependant on getting a job, which will allow for and require a lot of things to happen. I'd love to have my own personal network to play with so I'm not accidentally screwing up something with Dad's network or other's computers, even if I did help set it up in the first place, or fix it later when it's broken.

Get on an insulin pump

This one is a long story about the rapid progression of my diabetes, which came as a sudden surprise (as opposed to a slow surprise?) to me and the rest of my family. I'm dealing with it pretty well and we have things very nearly under control, so once I get my habits down I can get a pump and go from sticking myself with needles 5-7 times a day to 3 times a day, and then hopefully to just once every 3 days or so. Yippee!

Write a blog entry a week

Here's looking at ya! I'm already nearly two weeks behind, so I suppose we'll just count by business weeks, eh? This one I'll just need to keep plodding upon, and some weeks I'll post more, some less, but always at least one, even if it's just before midnight on Saturday!

Actually put up a decent website for myself

I currently own two domain names, and my dad got me a third, but right now they're just parked. I'd love to look into a hosting solution (media server multitakser maybe?) and putting up a real, actual website about myself, with resume and other info useful for those interested in hiring someone like myself.

Move my blog to that site/URL

Once I get the website up, I'll probably want to attach a blog to it. I haven't decided yet whether I'll simply move this blog over, or start up a new personal blog, or have two blogs, this informal life-related one and another more professional and documentarily focused. Of course, that's definitely a ways down, but hopefully not too far along!

Read a book a month

I really want to read more, and times to escape into literature will be harder and harder to come by, I'm sure. I'd love to get up to reading a book a week, but I doubt that'll happen till I retire. For now we'll just say a full fiction or non-fiction novel every month. There are some good books in the library with suggestions on classic literatures to read each month, but I think I'll just find a list of 'must-read's, cross off the 'have-read's, and start from there.

And now we start getting into longer-term goals. I'll get into those next week, when I continue fulfilling my resolutions for the year.