It's that time again. The page turns to a new year and all foibles of the previous are erased with a clean slate. Here are some things I would like to achive in 2013:

1. Evolve photography project: A speaker at the PhotoPLUS Conference in October talked about the street portraiture process. He claimed the best results could be had by simply walking up to people and clicking the shutter on your camera. The end result would be honest, unrehearsed and infinitely more compelling than asking subjects to pose. While I'm sure this works in theory, I can't help but take pause before employing this method for my first resolution of 2013. I already get strange looks when I'm walking solo around my town and snapping pics of architecture and whatnot; whether this is a symptom of lack of civic pride or greater paranoia of Big Brother, I'm not sure. I don't think people here would be so receptive though. Having said that, I really want to evolve a photography project I am doing to document the characters that act on the stage that is YXE.

2. Learn basic French: I already did this from grades 1 - 10, so hopefully it all comes back to me with relative ease. Having said that, I can't recall most of my classmates names from this same period and they were far more interesting. Sacre bleu.

3. Lose 10lbs. Obligatory.

4. Renovate condo. Equal parts saving money and making a decision I am prepared to live with for the next while. The latter part being more difficult.

5. Write/Illustrate and possibly self-publish a children's book: Books have played such a huge part of my life since childhood that I would love to contribute something back in this artform, whether it be a one-off or something that is decent enough to share with others. The story I am playing around with is the bond between human and pet and is inspired by Reggie & Monty. I tend to be more detailed in my drawings, but I want this to be very simplistic. As I've been saying this for years, I wouldn't place bets on this resolution getting done but it's always motivational to have something in writing that can haunt me next December 31 in addition to the 10lbs that I never lost.

Here's to 2013!