Challenge

I like challenges. I find they push me to do things I would not normally do.

BDH and I just completed a 100 Day Challenge in mid-December. That meant that we had to do at least 30 minutes of physical activity (a.k.a. “exercise”) every day for 100 days. It was a good challenge, because we both pushed each other to keep going.

Guilt is a great motivator — it’s hard to slack off when you know the other person is doing something or has already completed their exercise. PLUS we blogged about it every day, so Teh Entire Interwebs were there watching us, man.

So we had to do it.

We were really proud of ourselves for making it through. 100 days straight is a LOT of continuous exercise when you are unaccustomed to it. When you are young, sure; but then when you get older and get jobs/make life choices that make you more sedentary, it’s hard. Your body aches, and there are no rest days. You’re tired. And life gets in the way and makes it hard to fit in exercise sometimes.

So, with a new year just around the corner, I am thinking of what it will bring. Usually I make some resolutions, or goals, or plans.

And then I start out full tilt and, shortly thereafter, fail spectacularly.

But this year, I am looking for a challenge. I can do that. I know that if I am accountable, pride gets in the way and stops me when I want to slack off. People are watching! Do something! Don’t be a slack bastard!

So the question has been, what am I going to do? And it’s been hard to come up with something.

I want to do another exercise challenge. I am just not sure what, yet. 100 days straight was hard, so it’s not going to be that again. At least, I don’t think so. But BDH and I both need to push each other to get back to regular exercise, and something more aerobic more often, too. So definitely, I have to think about that one. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

But there is another challenge I am going to do: Project 365.

Somewhere out there on Teh Intartubes, someone came up with the idea of taking a picture every day for a year and posting it. It was a great way to document a year in pictures, and it caught on, and soon, a number of people took it on as their personal project. Now, there are all kinds of people doing “Project 365″s all over the place.

And so am I.

Now, people do all kinds of projects. Photography. Scrapbooking. Blog posts. One woman even cooked a meal in her crock pot every day. (Ugh. That seems a bit much for me. But then, she made it into a cookbook and it was a bestseller and she’s probably making a shit-ton of cash so, hey, the joke’s on ME.) But me? I’m sticking to the original concept of a photo a day.

One photo per day, posted every day for 365 days.

Now, I am hoping this challenge will do a few things for me:

• I want to get better at taking pictures. Currently, I just point and shoot — and shoot, and shoot, and shoot. And I hope I get something good. As a professional sports photographer once referred to it, I “spray and pray”. So I want to learn to do more than just that. I want to use this as an opportunity to get better at using our camera, and learn about the various settings and options and maybe even pick up some more technical aspects of photography. I’d like to develop a better eye, and learn to use light better, and learn about composition. But mostly, I just want to take better pictures.

• I want to get better at taking different pictures. Currently I take pictures of Stinkerbelle. Maybe the cats sometimes. But I want to take this opportunity to see if I can take interesting pictures of subjects that are not two years old and dancing by me. Not that I will stop taking pictures of That Baby, you understand… but I will try to do other things, too.

• I want to use this as an opportunity to learn to use my photo editing software. I have two that I like and I can do the basics, but I really want to try to play with some of the finer tools and techniques and learn things.

Getting back to point #2 for a minute, this challenge will actually be two-fold. Yes, I want to have a picture of each day. But I also want to have a picture of That Baby for each day of the year. So at the end of the year, I will have documented a year in the life of my daughter.

So, it might be that I take more than one picture per day. But there will have to be at least one.

I am not sure how and where I will post the pictures. Maybe here, maybe not. I’ll think about it and see. (Obviously any pictures I post of Stinkerbelle will be password-protected — having met people who know of what kinds of evil troll the internets in search of photos of children, I’m even more firmly on the password protection team, thankyouverymuch. Same password rules will apply.)

So there you have it. No new year’s resolutions this year. I am facing the new year with a challenge — or two.

Anyone care to join me?