Monday, January 11, 2010

A New Blog

Ashton started up a blog of his own to talk about his programming projects. He's much better than I am about the whole updating thing seeing as he created the blog yesterday and has already written twice. I thought, however, that I'd create an entry with the link to his new blog for those of you who would be interested in reading it. http://halla-dev.blogspot.com

While I'm here, I might as well write an update about what we've been up to. While we're still looking for a job, we've taken up projects to keep us busy and entertained. Some of the projects are individual. For example, Ashton is usually on the computer doing some programming and reading up on stuff (news, more programming stuff...). I usually bounce back and forth from the computer (when I can steal it or I just use the laptop), to reading books (picked some up from the library), to anything else I can think of.

Other projects, we do together. Usually that ends up being a game. Sometimes, however, we'll watch the news together or take a trip somewhere. Last Saturday, we went down to Colorado Springs to do some sight seeing. We went to the Garden of the Gods. There were more people there than I expected, but it still was nowhere near as busy as I'm sure it gets in the summertime. It wasn't too cold out as well so that made it even nicer. I, of course, brought my camera and had a blast taking pictures. We'd start walking and then I'd all of a sudden stop because I had seen something that I wanted to take a picture of. Ashton was a good sport about it. I took about 140 pictures there so there was a lot of stopping involved. Ashton would sometimes suggest that I take a picture of something, so he got into it as well.

On our way home from Colorado Springs, the sun was beginning to set and it looked like it was going to be a cool sunset. So, we headed over to Waneka Lake so that I could take some pictures of that. Well, the sunset wasn't as spectacular as we thought it'd be, but still good enough to take pictures of. Not to mention, there were lots of flocks of geese on the lake so they made fun models. Too bad it was a bit too dark to see them really well. I guess I'll have to head over there during the day to try to get some better geese pictures. It was a lot of fun.

So I'd post some of the pictures I took except for two things. One, I discovered after I put the pictures on the computer that I apparently had some spots on my lens. Spots that I'm pretty sure that I've cleaned before and had tried to clean off just before taking the majority of these pictures. Apparently, it didn't work. So now I have about 200 pictures to clean up on the computer. It makes a good project no matter how redundant I'm sure it'll feel while I'm doing it. This brings up reason number two that I won't be posting the pictures yet: in order to clean up the pictures, I need the desktop to do it because it's faster than the laptop and because that's where the pictures are. Unfortunately, this is also the computer that Ashton uses to do his programming because it's faster and that's where his program is, and as I said earlier, he's on the computer a lot. I'm thinking we need to talk over some custody rights.

Well, seeing as I have the computer for a little while, I better get going on those pictures...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

It's Been a Year Already?

Generally, I'm not one for New Year's resolutions. I figure that it's not going to last very long anyways, so why bother going through all the trouble of making special goals simply because that's what you're supposed to do at the beginning of a year? Not worth it. I prefer to make my goals because that's what I want to do.

Looking back on the last year, I did accomplish some goals that I wanted to. I did lose the weight that I wanted to, dropping 10-ish pounds and reaching the 130's! More importantly, I can fit into some of my old pants again and fit into them comfortably. It's rather exciting. Now if I can only maintain, I'll be set!

Speaking of maintaining, last year I did start running like I wanted to for a while. Thanks to Tiff for being a great motivation to getting up and running. Unfortunately, I haven't been running since we moved, although yesterday I did get up and go. I also dragged Ashton out of bed to go with me although he walked while I ran. I'm thinking that I'll probably have to go by myself from now on though. Getting up early and walking in the cold is not Ashton's idea of fun and while it's not my idea of fun either, if I want to keep in shape, I need to do it.

One of the biggest goals that we have accomplished this past year was moving out of Utah. Probably the more exciting goal anyways, not to mention the most stressful. Although we're still looking for a job, we're happy to be out of Utah and the craziness that is there. I'm starting to get to know my way around Colorado, or at least this area. The amazing thing is that I'm not just learning how to get to different locations (the store, Aunt Marcia's, etc) and back (always important to know how to get back home), but I'm learning where the street names, where they come out, and so forth. I've never been too good with directions, getting turned around quite easily. Directions were always given by landmarks and familiarity with different areas. So, to be able to tell you what street to turn on to get to the store, where a street will take you, and to be able to visualize which streets are parallel or perpendicular to other streets is quite amazing for me. It's not like I'm an expert yet, but I'm getting there.

As far as goals for this year are concerned, we've made a few and I have a couple of my own. Some of the more obvious ones are getting a job and then a place to live. Hopefully, it'll happen soon. We're still optimistic.