I did it! I just finished my first 365 project! One full year of my life has been more or less documented every single day, starting on my 10,000th day of life on February 9, 2012. From there, I just kept doing what I do best: taking pictures. This project in particular has been very rewarding and even life changing. I have decided to continue it indefinitely. As long as life keeps happening, I would like to get in at least one photo per day. Maybe I will be able to reach my 20,000th day, or even just see if this long-term project transforms into something else… Who’s to say what could happen? All I know is that I’m happy that I completed 366 consecutive days and I still feel motivated and inspired to do more.

Aside from this being my last week of the year (and that I extended it to a nine day week to squeeze in the last two photos), the past week was like any other. Not much really happens in the dead of winter, but I do what I can to make the best of the doldrums (especially during the week). The best part is that the days are starting to get longer as the Sun is still out (barely) when I leave work.

It’s a great way to end a yearlong project as a year is completely based off a revolution around the Sun, but time is still an invention of man. This is why I decided to end my project almost as I began it, with my watch. Time is what this project is based on, and it makes for great bookends to a very successful, and rewarding year in my life.

I  can’t believe I’m actually in the 10 days of my 365 project! Nearly a whole year has gone by in what seems like the blink of an eye, and I’m still not out of ideas nor do I feel like I really shot it all. So much has happened in these past 51 weeks, and it still feels like yesterday I turned 10,000 days old when I started this project. I have a week and change left (which I might combine into an extended week post) but I’m going to try to keep going with this. The first 365 days were just practice.  

January is a dull month. It’s too cold, too dark, too damp, and too long. I guess being in the dead of winter doesn’t help it much either… I found myself not really doing anything too interesting this week, but I still got my photos as usual.

I noticed this week was mostly filled with paperwork. Kristin and I received our contract for our reception this week, which it really exciting because after it’s settled, the biggest piece of the puzzle in assembling our wedding will be put in place… the rest of the pieces will start falling into place, and we’re still a year-and-a-half out!

Speaking of falling into place, I started to get ahead in my catalog work, so I started (or really restarted) the index. A year of being immersed in jewelry tools has helped me gain a better knowledge of this industry. Looking back at my previous index, I realized it was organized all wrong, so I figured it was a good time to reorganize that. In my opinion, I think the index is the most important part of the catalog. I can sectionalize all the products all I want, but in the end, there will always be some crossover products that have no one place in the catalog. Rather than making redundant pages, the index, if done right, will help anyone find what they are looking for while keeping the catalog as short as possible. Compared with other catalogs in this industry, I feel my work on this one is pretty simplified. It’s been almost a year, but this thing is really starting to come together.

This past week was a so-so week. Not too exciting, and a little rough around the edges.

I started off by doing some experimenting with long exposures in my car. It was a simple setup. I strapped my camera mounted to my tripod in the back seat of my car, then I used my remote to shoot throughout my commute home. Because I was driving and could not see what my camera was doing, I just pressed the shutter at moments when I thought I captured enough light for the shot. It was a nice experiment in seeing how well I can gauge light with the settings I programmed into my camera… which wasn’t too bad. I just wish my tripod was a little more stable.

Later in the week, I helped out in debugging a camera that will be used in an x-ray machine for analyzing various metals. I’m not a fan of that machine as I have an irrational fear of being irradiated with x-ray particles from a machine I know nothing about, but I think it’s kind of cool that I helped assemble a device of that nature. It also helps me understand the more complex machines that I am putting in the catalog.

The first full week of 2013 was a nice start to the year. I saw The Hobbit with Kristin, which was pretty good, but kind of long at certain parts. It was nice to enjoy a beer with the movie at the dine-in theater, which in itself, is a great idea.

I also decided to try out a new little hobby by taking up geocaching. For those that don’t know, it’s a sort of treasure hunting activity in which a geocacher hides an object somewhere for other geocachers to find. In order for other geocachers to know where to look, the person hiding the cache must leave coordinates and a clue to the cache. Some caches are obvious (although hidden in plain sight) while others require you to take long hikes or solve puzzles. Some hide small prizes for you to exchange while others only contain a log for you to sign. Overall, I think it’s a nice little activity to take up. It’s both rewarding and challenging while keeping me active. I found a few caches this week and now I’m hooked. I think I might have more geocaching adventures throughout 2013.

2013 is upon us! It will be hard to top 2012 as I think it was one of my better years, but I can at least make an attempt to maintain everything I built up in the past year. I decided to start it off right by reformatting my computer. I had some issues with bugs and whatnot, and I struggled to keep fixing these strange errors occurring on a regular basis. So far it is working nice and I think I might upgrade some hardware to keep it running nice an smooth. Other than that, 2013 is looking good and I hope it stays that way!

Well after several years of hype and speculation, it seems like the Mayans were wrong about the world ending on December 21, 2012… or rather, 21st century people were wrong about their interpretations of the Mayan Calendar, which made no real mentions about the end of the world. Life goes on and we all will live to see 2013.

Other than that, I had a pretty nice, and mostly quiet Christmas. My family got together before they all traveled their separate ways for Christmas Day, and I stayed home to just relax, which is something I haven’t done in quite a while (although it wouldn’t hurt to have a real vacation sometime soon).

This is my last post of 2012 and for once I am sad to see the year go. It was a pretty good year for me. There were lots of big changes in my life, but I suppose I will save that for my next post…

Until then, Happy New Year!

Since Hurricane Sandy, I have been just going and going and going… My little accident with the deer has set be back a bit and I had to do extra running around now that I am borrowing my parents’ car. But I am lucky that I was able to use their car because it could have been worse by not having one at all. Fortunately, I got a break last week as my car was finally finished, but the chaos the holidays is far from over. There’s much more to do and a lot I need to catch up on.

I have gone to four Army-Navy games in my life, which also happen to be the last four Army-Navy games that were played. I’m proud to say my team has won each time and has done so consecutively for the past 11 years! Each game is always exciting and we always have a great time going. No other sporting event I have ever been to has been as spirited as the Army-Navy game. From the tailgate parties, to the fans, to the atmosphere, everything and everyone is just pumped up for this game and its 113+ year rivalry. It’s a tradition I’m glad I am able to be part of.

This week, I finally hit my 300th photo! It’s all downhill from here, folks… or is it?

After seeing 300 of 366, I realized how close I am to the end of this photo journey. 300 unique photos, each with their own little story behind them, and only 66 stories to go before I complete a full trip around the sun. It’s kind of sad because just when I was starting to get into the swing of things, I will soon have to stop… or do I? Who says I have to stop after a year? What’s to stop me from doing another 365 project? Why not go for 500, or 1,000… or even the rest of my life? I’ve come a long way since I started this little project. Looking back at it has made me realize that I want to keep doing this indefinitely, but I don’t want to take away from the remaining 66 days, so I will continue as planned until my 366th day in February, then I will try something new… well, not entirely new, but something that goes a little beyond the number of days on the calendar. It’s certainly something to think about, but until then, week 43 is done and I have less than 10 weeks to go.