Happy New Year

Welcome to the new year. Welcome to my new web site.

This web site idea of mine isn’t a new one. What is new will be the ideas, thoughts, and journals I share here. Ideas that a polarized world might not be ready for. But that’s okay, because in this world that we share, we all get to say what matters to us, and learn from one another.

I’m not going to tell anyone how to live. I’m going to tell you how I live, and you can take from that what you will. So let’s start with some new year’s resolutions of mine.

I want to refine my focus on maintaining good physical and mental health. I believe the two go hand in hand. Part of this strategy is to reflect on the child I was, and the things that mattered to me, and bring them back into focus. Life as an adult and all the stresses that come with it can sometimes cause me to neglect those needs, and keeping this blog is meant to serve as a reminder on what to focus on. The resolutions that follow all relate to this.
Improving my piano skill. I have always loved music, and after listening to it for over half my life, I decided I should be better at playing it. As a child, I was always fascinated watching someone’s fingers flying over the ivories, producing captivating music. I always dreamed of effortlessly playing beautiful music. I took lessons when I was a child. For some strange reason, I stopped making time to practice almost as soon as I became an adult. This year, I plan to correct that oversight. I have a Casio Privia PX-160 and a Casiotone CT-S300, so I can have beautiful real piano sound at home, and the ability to practice when I’m away. There are no excuses.
More camping, more bicycle riding, more canoe trips, more swimming, more hiking. Living an active lifestyle brings me a great sense of wellbeing, and it’s fortunate that I can enjoy these things with my beautiful wife and handsome son. We are adding folding eBikes to the mix this year to add to the fun, which my wife says reminds her of riding a big wheel trike when she was a kid.
Reading more books. I love autobiographies, and my son gave me “Discipline is destiny” by my favourite author, Ryan Holiday. I’ll be creating a book list here of all the books I have read, as well as the ones I want to read.
Starting my blog back up. I’m not using Wordpress this time. I took a year off of blogging to come up with a better way of doing things. This is that better way.
Exploring and discovering everything living in the city has to offer. I grew up in a rural community, and always wished I lived in the city. I’ve been living in a city for nearly all of my adulthood, and I only just discovered that I can catch a bus out by my house on a Saturday morning and be in Niagara Falls by lunch. Driving on highways like the QEW and the 401 have become so stressful, in addition to the expense and difficulty of parking and just getting around, these trips tend to be a very unpleasant experience overall. Now that we have folding electric bikes and decent public transit, it’s time to rethink what our weekends can be like.
Take fewer pictures, with more care. I’ve taken thousands of photographs over the past few years, as my aim was to improve my photography skills. I feel confident enough with my skill that I don’t need to take thousands of pictures. Hundreds will be fine this year.

If you wish to carry on this conversation, you can send me an email at paul at this domain name, or in the fediverse @quirk@mastodon.social.