2013: My Resolutions This Year!!!

This is a few days late, but that is because I wanted to be sure of my goals for this year. Now that I am sure of what I want to do, I will share them as research shows that writing them down or declaring your goals make you more likely to finish them. Anyway.....

I hereby declare that, in the year of 2013, I will:

Found this awesome picture here!

- Get A Full-Time Job!
So far I only have a part-time job and although it helps me pay the bills, it is not enough for me to live on. I'm a hard worker and I learn quickly, so I would be a great asset to any companies out there. Hopefully, I will find something soon.

Picture found here.

- Establish A Routine!
Because of my plans this year, I will need to get more organized and more stringent with myself in regards to what I spend my time on. I know I spend too much time on the internet, so that will have to be cut down quite a bit. If I get a full-time job, that will help me get a routine going because I will have to work around it. So far each of my goals will help the other ones out.

Found picture here.

- Write & Publish A Book!
I've always wanted to be a writer. I'll settle for self-published for this year. In the grand scheme of things, I want to become a published author with a publishing house's might behind me.

Found this picture here. 

- Be More Creative!
I plan to devote some time each week to a project that will get my creative juices flowing. Recently I've become a part of an online community where that is encouraged. If I'm able to do that maybe I will start doing something biweekly and so on until it becomes easy for me to do something every day by the end of the year.

I'll be honest and say that when I googled images for "creative", all that came up were pictures that involved rainbows. When I'm creating I feel more like a mad scientist than a happy-go-lucky rainbow.

Found picture here.

- Read 45 Books!
This is a step down from what I did last year. I read 61 books! Originally I had a goal of reading 55 books and I was able to up the ante to 60 books in September! That is awesome! But, because of my other goals this year, I have to cut back on something and the sacrifice is reading. (And time spent on the internet. Hopefully, I'll be able to pull myself away from it to get something worthwhile done!)

Hey, thanks Lincoln!
Found picture here.

- Lose Weight!
I am not particularly healthy, so I hope to remedy that this year. My goal is to have a whole new lifestyle change by the end of the year.

When I googled "lose weight", I decided that the pictures of fat people and people happily working out were stupid. So I looked up "feeling awesome" instead, 'cause that's how I want to feel!

Picture found here.

- Blog!
As far as the blog is concerned, I've already implemented what I would like to do on it ("Graphic Designer of the Month"), but it is an ongoing project. I appreciate my followers and any help I receive from friends and family alike. I will keep posting the "Typeface Review" on Monday, the "Comic of the Week" on Tuesday, and any book reviews as soon as I finish them.


Halfway through the year, approximately 183 days from now or the 3rd of July, I will post an entry about how I'm getting along with my goals.

Oh, and I wanna live here: 

jk Found picture here.

What are your resolutions this year?

Save at Lulu!

http://www.lulu.com/?cid=030512_en_email_SPACIOUS305

Insane Book Art!!!

I don't know if anyone has noticed yet, but I'm kind of a bookish person. I feel they are a better medium than most people realize. There are many things you can do with a computer, but a book has personality!

You sit there reading from a computer no matter how shiny and high-tech and people assume you're addicted to video games, have the personality of a kumquat, or on the other end of the scale, assume you're trying too hard to look high-tech and in the in-crowd. Whereas with a book people assume you're intelligent, sophisticated and possibly weird. But on the other hand they could also assume you're too poor for a high-tech gadget, which would be wrong because books are sometimes pretty expensive.

You also get bothered by people wondering if you could settle a dispute by telling the exact and correct spelling of a certain word. And, of course, it's a word you have never used before and therefore you don't know how to spell it. The computer would be helpful in that exact situation, because then you could look up the Oxford English Dictionary and then you would say, "You're both wrong, it's Latin. Why don't you idiots get a Kindle like a real person!"

But anyway, I wanted to show this amazing artwork by Brian Dettmer! Using "knives, tweezers and surgical tools" he creates sculptural beauties out of old and out-dated resource books. Check it out:


If I had even a tenth of the patience needed to carve out these wonderful pieces.....

The "Modern Painters" one is my favorite! It's just beautiful!

To read the whole article go here:
http://karanarora.posterous.com/insane-art-formed-by-carving-books-with-surgi

I first noticed this on the blog of the wonderful Mister Neil Gaiman, which you can view here:
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2012/02/one-morning-with-nebula-nominations.html

"The Complete Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1" Book Review

The Complete Sherlock Holmes 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

"All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works."
Excellent stories and excellent characters! Why have I not read these before?! They should be a part of some high school or literature course somewhere. Americans really should take more British authors seriously. There are only so many plays of Shakespeare and so many novels of Jane Austen to choke over. I find the title kind of funny though: "The Complete Sherlock Holmes: Volume 1". I would hate to see the size of the book that contained both volumes.


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"The Little Book" Book Review

The Little Book by Selden Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de siècle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.

"The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legend's son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. In 1988 he is forty-seven, living in San Francisco. Suddenly he is - still his modern self - wandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de siècle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth.

"It's not long before Wheeler has acquired appropriate clothes, money, lodging, a group of young Viennese intellectuals as friends, a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young American woman, a passing acquaintance with local celebrity Mark Twain, and an incredible and surprising insight into the dashing young war-hero father he never knew.

"But the truth at the center of Wheeler's dislocation in time remains a stubborn mystery that will take months of exploration and a lifetime of memories to unravel and that will, in the end, reveal nothing short of the eccentric Burden family's unrivaled impact on the very course of the coming century. The Little Book is a masterpiece of unequaled storytelling that announces Selden Edwards as one of the most dazzling, original, entertaining, and inventive novelists of our time."
It was very good. I loved the way it was written with so many details. But I feel it went a bit slowly. That may be because there was so much to remember and absorb. Overall, a wonderful and beautiful book.

UPDATE: I also want to point out that this book introduced me to the tragic story of Empress Elisabeth. She is only mentioned within the story when the main character meets her and asks her for help, but it's a part I remember very well.

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"StoryTeller" Book Review

Storyteller by Amy Thomson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It was ok, but I couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll give it another shot on another day. I originally got it thinking that it was a collection of short stories because of its title and I didn't really look at it, so maybe I'm being unfair. But I'll give it another try at another time.


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Goodreads

I've created an account at Goodreads @ http://www.goodreads.com/karakreative! 

You can see all that I read there. I was going to blog all of the books that I've read aver the past few years here, but this is so much simpler.

So far it has been a much more pleasant experience than at Shelfari. All of the people at the last sight drove me crazy with all their messaging and crap. So now, I don't join any groups or become a part of the genre groups. i just want to post my books and reviews in some peace.