It’s a New Year!

Every year, at this time I get a little manic. It’s both a delicious and slightly uncomfortable feeling made up of anticipation and fear, of potential and possible failure.

Okay, so failure goes without saying. You’re going to fail this year. I’m going to fail, but man! Look at all that potential.

We can try anything. And, I’m biased I know, but how about trying something new in the “Maker” arena today?

• Do you like to cook? Learn to make something delicious.
• How about electronics? Go ahead, order that Raspberry Pi kit with Arduino, and make something.
• Sew a new dress.
• Write a short story.
• Paint a picture. Sure, go digital, that’s fine.
• Throw a pot!

Hey, not like that. You know I meant for you to create a pot on a wheel or hand build one if you prefer.

There is nothing like the satisfaction of having made something.

Sometimes you fail, yes, that’s life, but you always learn, and that is the most exciting part of it all. You learn.

• You can learn almost anything at Youtube
• Yesterday I discovered that I can borrow The Great Courses from the library via an app called Hoopla.
• We have Senior’s classes at our University. I bet there is a University near you that has non-credit classes.
• Or try Lynda.com, or Udemy, or the Open University.

I already know I’m going to take David Schmid’s course on mystery writing (The Great Courses) and a whole lot of classes in psychology.

What about you? What are you planning to learn and make this year?

The artwork above is one I made some years ago. I used a process of sticking down many little bits of paper (on canvas) until I began to realize an image of sorts. This one came out looking a bit like a Cezanne painting.