Mi casa es tu casa, Mr. 2008

Out with the old…

Last year I wrote 355 blog posts, which seemed like a lot until I went back to my 2006 New Year’s post and found that I wrote 452 in 2006. Goodness. But I do think this year’s posts were better, at least to some degree. I hope. ;)

With Riverglen Press I published only Phantastes and Beowulf: Student Edition, both way back in January, but I also designed Lorin Farr: Mormon Statesman and Niels and Christiane Christensen (two family histories), and I’m in the middle of designing books by Truman Madsen and M. Catherine Thomas.

As for the rest of life, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English Language, got an exceedingly cool job at Special Collections going through all the treasures in the vaults, started my MLS (master’s of library science), and got a staff position at Special Collections processing manuscripts (which means I can check out 100 books at a time for six months each :)).

And now for the list:

1. Didn’t quite get all A’s my last semester at BYU, but I did graduate.

2. Turns out being graduated didn’t quite give me all the free time I expected; I only read 60 books this year. And 28 of those were by the end of April — how on earth did I read more books in school than out? Sixty isn’t bad, but it’s nowhere near 100.

3. I wrote a whole novel, Out of Time, in November. (Finally!) And while I didn’t write a full-length play, in August I did write a 20-minute play Candle in the Darkness, and it even got produced in October.

4. Riverglen Press published two titles, not 10. ~sigh~

5. I did get a job at the library (two, actually) and not only figured out where I was going, but also started. (I’d originally planned to work for a year and then start my master’s, but life threw me a twist in the road.)

6. The study program didn’t happen.

7. My planning sort of got better, but it’s still far from perfect.

8. Didn’t really save money at all. And I bought 137 books in 2007.

9. I eat marginally better than I did last year (I usually get a salad for lunch now).

10. It’s hard to measure a goal like this (focusing on others and serving more). I still have much improvement waiting for me here.

11. I give more compliments than before, but not by much. Needs improvement.

12. This one’s even harder to measure. :)

And in with the new…

This year I think I’ll keep to the more quantifiable goals, since I seem to make more progress with them than with vague goals like “eat better.” I have a few more resolutions than I’ve listed here, but thirteen was just too good of a number to end on, so we’ll cap it there.

1. Read 80 books. I figure I may as well be realistic (though considering the trend, being perfectly realistic would mean setting a goal for 50 :P). Sure, I do have free time, but these other goals (like writing novels and plays) take up a lot of reading time, so it’s okay if I don’t read quite as many books as I’d like. It’s the whole consumption v. production balance thing.

2. Read all the C.S. Lewis books I haven’t yet read.

3. Read all the Jane Austen books I haven’t yet read.

4. Polish Out of Time and write another novel (as part of NaNoWriMo).

5. Write three short plays and one full-length play. I’m planning to do the full-length one as part of Script Frenzy in April, and the three short plays will be for the New Play Project. (I’m already almost done with the first draft of my next short, which I’ll submit to NPP in a week and a half.)

6. Write a full-length screenplay.

7. Write five songs.

8. Publish five Riverglen Press titles. (This’ll probably include Pride & Prejudice, Words of the Prophets: Selected Sermons from the Book of Mormon, and the Welsh Book of Mormon.)

9. Redesign the look of this blog (Top of the Mountains) and BenjaminCrowder.com.

10. Produce a short film in 3D.

11. Post a drawing to BenjaminCrowder.com each day in January, a painting each day in February, a 3D render each day in March/April/May (focusing on modeling, texturing, and lighting, respectively), and a logo a day in June.

12. Reply to all incoming correspondence within a day or two.

13. Get engaged. :P

i hope that you won’t mind the comments of a stranger… i stumbled across your blog and i am enjoying it immensely. i don’t think that i will ever be as prolific as you seem to be, but you are inspiring me to try a little harder. keep up the good work, and happy new year.

Hey, Emily, thanks for your comment. I don’t mind at all — that’s the joy of blogging. :) Glad you’re enjoying it, by the way, and I’ve just subscribed to your blog, so keep posting. :) (Spanish literature, eh? Is Don Quixote really as difficult in the original as people say it is?)

I just bought a book with the complete novels of Jane Austen in it, and to my surprise, I had read all of her novels! Seriously, there’s only 6 or so. I was actually like, wait, what? I haven’t done that! But I had. Cool story yes, but you’ll be surprised at how many you’ve read.

it’s challenging, sure. i mean, the language has changed a bit in the last four centuries, but you get used to that. i think that it’s more a question of how dense the novel is - thanks to both cervantes’ masterful play with language and narrative structure, and the history of countless readers of the quixote (and as many interpretations) - that makes it seem like you must be missing something when you read it, even when you’re careful about it. they say that you can read it over and over and get something new out of it every time, and i would attest to that if it weren’t for all the millions of other books that are still calling to me. …but how did you know?

Julie: While it’s true that there are only six, I’ve only read two. :) (P&P and Persuasion.) If only we could get Jane back from the dead so she could publish more… ~sigh~

Emily: I guessed. Just kidding — from Facebook. I’m glad to hear that the difficult with DQ is more of the structure and not really the language — it seemed like that was the case, but I wasn’t sure. Which means I need to get a copy and start reading… I suppose I ought to add another resolution, to read a whole book in Spanish, one in French, and one in German. Latin would be good, too. Everything else seems to eat up my time, though, and so I only dabble every once in a while. It’s tragic.

I haven’t read all of Jane Austen’s books either. I own them all, but I seem to have a much stronger draw towards the books that I don’t own. I feel like Jane will always be there, so someday when there’s nothing else to read I can turn to her and enjoy. It’s odd because I love her style, so I don’t know what I’m waiting for. :P

Five songs? Like music and lyrics? Or just lyrics? Or just music?

As for number 13, Ben, you’re married to your work. How would you have time for a wife?

Mary: You know, I’m the same way — I generally read library books more than I read my own. Due dates have a lot to do with that, I think. But I now own all six of Jane’s books, and I’m going to read the remaining four this year, no matter what. :)

As for the songs, yes, both music and lyrics. (Since technically songs have to have both, and if they don’t have lyrics then they’re “pieces.” Not that I really care, but whatever.) Several years ago I wrote a bunch of piano pieces, along with a single song, but that’s about the extent of my musical output. That’s going to change. :)

Amy: Married to my work? That’s illegal, and you know it. :) I have no doubts about being able to make time for a wife — yes, I’m quite busy now, but wife and kids will take top priority when I have them. Believe me.

[…] Just a quick report that my resolution to post a drawing a day on BenjaminCrowder.com is going well. Here are some of them: […]

[…] Since it’s just over halfway through the year, I figured I’d check in on my New Year’s resolutions for 2008 and see how I’m doing: […]