Using Yahoo! Pipes wasn’t an ideal solution, but an easy one to set up and share. It has lots of bugs and, after a month or two of eating my own dog food, I decided to try again, this time with a little bit more web nerdery in my back pocket.

So I created one that uses PHP and XSLT to make a very nice, pretty Tumblr dashboard RSS feed. Then I put it on Github using the best open source license I could find so that anyone who wants to play with it or download it can.

The only problem is you have to be nerdy enough to have a place to host this thing for yourself. I’d tell you where mine is, but it’s a secret.

Future plan: make one of these to aggregate Facebook notifications so I can stop going on Facebook too.

I was talking with a friend the other day and when I realized the new year was here, I said something along the lines of, “Dang, that means the gym is gonna be crowded for a few weeks.” He asked, “A few weeks?” before the light bulb went on and he laughed and nodded in understanding.

I would say that 95% of the people who resolve to lose weight (the most common of resolutions, I’d imagine) give up by the end of the first month. Or maybe they forget. The problem, as I see it, is that people aren’t planning their goals well. Actually, it’s not just as I see it. Otherwise this whole concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals that so many people talk about wouldn’t exist.

Normally I don’t make resolutions because I know they won’t hold up. But this year, I’m calling them goals, making them S.M.A.R.T. and keeping people updated on them as a means of accountability. I’ll stop yammering. Here they are:

Write and record a song every other week

The point: Increase creative output so I’m practiced and more familiar with the process.

Other details and rules:

• At least half must have lyrics.
• Each song must be at least two minutes long.
• Remixes and mashups are allowed, but they fall under the “no lyrics” category and they must show a reasonable amount of effort on my part.
• I’ll be posting each song online and asking for feedback from you (whoever you are).

Draw something every other week

The point: Again, to increase creative output. Also, to get back in the habit of drawing like I used to when I was younger.

Other details and rules:

• Drawings will be scanned and posted online so I can get your feedback.
• Each drawing must show a significant amount of effort. Nothing half-assed just to meet the goal.
• Many will probably end up being comic-ish because that tends to be my style. I might take some influence from John Campbell, so it could end up being how well I execute the idea more so than how well I draw it.

Read 15 books

Fifteen was an arbitrary number. It just happened to be the number of books that I already own that remain unread which I have a desire to read.

The list:

• G.K. Chesterton – Orthodoxy
• Mark Ferem – Bathroom Graffiti
• Nic Harcourt – Music Lust
• Stephen Colbert – I Am America (And So Can You!)
• Jeff Fischer – Investing Without A Silver Spoon
• Mark Frauenfelder – Rule the Web
• Paul Harrison – All the Clever Words on Pages
• Tosca Lee – Demon: A Memoir
• Hugh Ross – The Creator and the Cosmos
• Malcolm Gladwell – Blink
• O’Reilly – Programming PHP
• The Art and Writing of WFMU
• Haruki Murakami – The Elephant Vanishes
• Daniel J. Levitin – This Is Your Brain On Music
• Francis A. Schaeffer – Art and the Bible

Create a personal, dynamic website

The point: I’ve become curious about the possibility of doing freelance web development and I come up with more and more reasons why my own website (not just a blog) would be useful for me.

Other details and rules:

• Must be developed with PHP and MySQL (technologies I don’t know but would need to know to increase my value and open up more freelance options for me).
• Must include a blog (which means this one will be moving eventually).
• Set up a permanent email address so I never have to change it again.

Get my passport

The point: I intend to travel someday. (One more reason why freelancing is attractive.) I figure having my passport will lower the barrier and encourage me to look into it.

Refurnish my bedroom

The point: All my furniture has been inherited from several places and there was a reason people were getting rid of it. Plus, I can’t stand sleeping on a twin mattress any more. Oh, and having a multi-purpose bookshelf will help me to stay more organized (see my next goal).

Details:

• New bed and mattress (queen, minimum) by April.
• New desk & office chair by August.
• A CD/DVD/book shelf by December.

Organize, clean and throw away stuff

The point: I hate that I have so much stuff. I don’t want it to rule me. I figure the less stuff I have, the easier it will be to organize and keep clean.

Start investing

The point: Putting money into savings is great, but making wise investments that generate more interest is even better. It’s not that scary once you’ve read a book or two about it(the Motley Fool is awesome).

So those are it. It’s probably too much, but I’ve set up a Remember The Milk account to keep my tasks in order so I know exactly what’s up. I’ll also be trying to make regular updates here so that others can be aware of the status of things.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a drawing to finish by the end of the day and plenty of reading to do.