The end of 2013 is now upon us bringing with it the chance to reflect on this year of blogging. LifeIntrigued will turn 7 at the beginning of the year – truly hard for me to believe this has been a 6 year effort so far. It is interesting to see how this blog has transitioned over the years. In the beginning it was really a vehicle for my ramblings and musings on the many encounters and observations that result in everyday interactions in a society. There are still posts scattered on this topic throughout the year, but over the last few years I have been leveraging the blog more and more as a mechanism to promote my photography interests. Not only does it allow me look back and see how my own abilities are maturing in this field, but I enjoy putting my products out there for my viewers to enjoy and critique. There is no better way to improve than having a third party weigh in on your efforts.. and trying to win over all of Linda’s fans out there. This is the third year in a row I have met my goal of at least 6 posts per month. Trust me, this isn’t getting any easier as the years go by and in truth, this year seemed like a little bit more work than the last two – considering all the near misses I had and a number of last minute posts that had to be made while out on the road. I blame project Aaaauuunooold for a lot of that and running took an extra toll on my free time thanks to the decision to fix a number of problems with the mechanics. Some of the extra work was self imposed trying to up the overall quality of the images used throughout the year, especially the ones related to photography. It probably doesn’t show in the optimized images used in the posts, but I spent a LOT of time in the digital darkroom this year trying to find the best shots I could and working those to their maximum potential. This can take days to get through which is the common cause for the tight deadlines at the end of the month – it’s a special moment when I can hit that publish button and reveal to all my viewers what I’ve been spending my time on. The good news is the “at least one image per post” goal received another check mark this year! (admittedly the custom artwork has taken a back seat to the camera this year and likely going forward).
On the project front I took on some pretty big ones this year and yes, one is going to be moving into its third year come January. My promise to you is Project Auuuunnooold will be closed out this year even if it kills me to do it (translated.. if it doesn’t get done this year Linda is GOING TO KILL ME). Book recollections was an underperformer this season but some of that can be attributed to alternative sources of material that I figured would not be interesting to you. There is a lot of reading that goes on during the course of a year, but a lot of that is technical manuals or skill augmenting for work – next year looks to be one for the latter due to new work responsibilities which will have my nose buried in a complex third party system. I have a number of books queued up for this year to give some balance to those technical books, but time will tell how that goes. Birding is still a huge attraction for me and a hobby that gives me plenty of challenges and equal amount of happiness. Those around me know I like a challenge and birding gives me all I can handle – traveling to different regions of the U.S., searching for new birds for my list in all kinds of terrain, doing my best to get a decent picture of them (many times in harsh conditions) and working them in the digital darkroom to a point they are worthy for your viewing. You will continue to see a large amount of bird posts which should make any fellow birders happy – I’ll try my best to mix in other topics so as not to boar those that lack a similar affinity to the feathered ones.
In closing I would just like to once again extend my heartfelt appreciation for everyone that takes the time to read my little blog and every time I see someone taking the extra time to write a comment I smile a little bigger. Thanks everyone for putting up with my meanderings and <cough> political opinions </cough>. I think there’s at least another year left in me (granted with a few more tweaks coming your way), so here’s to next year!
And now, the completion of the final blog goal for the year – the year end summary.
Hit the jump to see the 2013 stats!
