Let's Get 2024 Started!

Happy 2024 everyone! 

 

I hope anyone who happens upon this blog is having a wonderful start to their new year. I am not going to lie I needed the break from doing stuff in 2023. The funny thing is I told Alaina at the start of the year that 2023 was the seventh year in a row that I was doing projects. I tried at the start of the year but I was unprepared and my heart was not into it. I told her I needed the break, kind of like the crops in the old testament in the bible that the crops were rotated and every seven years not to plant anything to give the ground a break. I really did need the break. Honestly, it gave me the time to really look at some stuff in my life that needed to change and to make it happen. So, not having the self imposed pressure of projects was great. I am not in a much better place and I am ready to get back to doing projects. 

Here is the fun thing. I have told no one that I am restarting the projects. Now, I am not going to lie and if someone asks I will tell them. However, starting these project. now eight years ago, I didn't tell anyone. I just started doing them cause I wanted to do them. Well, I'm going to do that again. I am not going to overload myself with these either. The last few I did I did major projects all at the same time and it took a lot of time, effort, money, and fun out of doing them. It became more of a check list item rather than doing something that I enjoy. So, the secret it fun because it does involve me doing stuff with friends and getting them in on it without them knowing, but it's also to remind me how fun doing them without the craziness of everyone asking me what I am doing. So, we will see how this goes. 

Let's talk about what is to come then.

Just a quick refresher, not that anyone is even here to read this, my projects are based off of characters from The Wizard of Oz. This year is going to be a very Wizarding year. The two projects that I am going to do are based off the two different Wizards we see in Oz. 

The first Wizard we meet is not the one everyone was hoping for. The menacing floating Oz head is terrifying! It's also iconic with all of the fire and special effects that they could do in 1939. 85 years late its still a marvel! However, as little air time as this character gets it still serves a great purpose for the film. He motivate the characters to do things that they never thought they would do in order to come back with a victory and claim their rewards. Now, we learn later that this was all a lie, the real Wizard was hoping that the others would be too scared to get the broomstick from the Wicked Witch of the West and not come back and find out truth. They did do just that and had to come back and get what they were promised. All of this was accomplished with two words "Come Forward". 

I will say that I am working on some stuff this year that I am not telling anyone about, I do know that I need to get motivated. Now, while I won't speak of the one thing I am working on, I will say that there is plenty of stuff through the year that I am going to need to be motivated to do. Right now the start of the year I don't have a lot on my plate. In a few days that will not be the case. So, I have a list of all of the different types of ways to get motivated when I am working on something. They can range from walking away to doing the fun things first. We are going to see which one's I like best or maybe why some of these things didn't work for me. I am hoping that maybe just having a place to talk about the struggles of doing something will be helpful. 

The second, and true, Wizard that we meet is the one we were all hoping for! We all wished that the Wizard was kind and helpful while all of these wonderful characters skipped down the yellow brick road. The true Wizard tries to hide himself because he doesn't live up to the image that he thinks the Wizard should look like. He tries to hide his authentic self in order to present what he thinks the people want to see. However, when he allows himself to be seen he proves to be a wise and caring Wizard that is very helpful is guiding the others. Not only in giving them what they think they are lacking, but in helping them move forward in life with their new sense of self worth. "The Man Behind the Curtain" is the one who lacked in being authentic with himself but saw who being really are when others were looking. He saw the authenticity in the others and found a way to show it, not only to them, but to the rest of the world. 

"The Man Behind the Curtain" is going to be a little bit of a two fold mission of mine. The person authentic journey I am going to take this year and picking out one thing a month that is "so me" or and belief that I have and question why I like these things, or why I believe in them. It's going to be a real journey that I am taking but really it's a cover. The real project is taking pictures. One of the things that I feel like people who are younger than me don't know about, and truthfully don't do, is candid pictures. They all grew up with cameras that you can re take a picture with out the waste of film. When everyone my age and older was growing up we knew that taking another picture meant that you would loose the ability to take a different picture cause you only had so much film. Now, you can take literally take the exact same picture 100 times, call it "so much better" and tweak it to make it even more perfect. The art of candid pictures is a dying and I am going to change that this year. I used to take candid pictures all of the time, but I have slowed down some as well. So, this year I am going to take a lot of pictures, and try to get away without my friends and family knowing that it was even taken. Then I am going to make a video at the end of the year with either all, or the best, or those pictures. I am going to have an album at the end of the year that will have all of the pictures. 

The reason I am so excited about this is because our memories of a moment in time, or of a person, are not usually what we are taking the picture of. When I think of people that are no longer on this side of heaven, I don't think of them in terms of the pictures I have but of moments the don't seem significate. That is what life is. It filled with so many more moment of "unsignificant"  moments that add up to a life that the exciting parts we do take pictures of. 

So, the last project is one that I can't seem to get myself to stay on. It's the "No Place Like Movies at Home" project. The one where I go through all of the movies that I own and watch them? Well, I didn't do that last year even though I said I would. Well, we are trying again. Like I said I needed the break. I think what killed the one was the fact that I am determined to go through them in the order that I have them on my self. I saw so many bad Frank Sinatra movies and then moved into Noir that I no longer cared. Not that all of the movies were bad but I hit a slump on my shelf that is for sure. The good thing is in looking at my list I have like two more movies that if I power through them, I will get to musical that I know that I love. then I will be happy to watch them again. So, hopefully I can be on a steady routine of watching some of these at home again in February, what my church is done with the fast. 

With all of that being said, I have to say it's glad to be back. I am hopeful that these projects are going to be chill and fun. I hope that my year off will give me enough time away to have fun doing these again, and hopefully these will also encourage me to stay on track with all of the other things that I have going on in my life. 

I hope that your year is wonderful and let's get started!