I made a mid-year resolution to start carrying my camera around everywhere.

My goal is, over the course of the summer, to take pictures of many of Nashville’s landmarks and cool architecture. I started today by taking a trip out to Centennial Park. I realized that, although I’ve been living in Nashville for almost a year and I lived 45 miles away for over 18 years, I had never been to Centennial Park. So I grabbed my camera and drove down West End to the park.

I walked around the one-mile loop twice while I was there and snapped a bunch of pictures of the Parthenon. I also took some pictures of a few of the cool trees that are in the park. These are all in the gallery. Hopefully, over the course of the summer, I will be adding to this gallery.

Ben and I are going to the Ren Fest tomorrow, and then (hopefully) going out to the Frist Center on Monday. So I plan to take some pics of the outside of the Frist Center and of Union Station while we are there.

Happy 2007!

I am not making resolutions this year, though I did fairly well at keeping the one I made for 2006 (to keep up with the news better). However, I do have several goals that I intend on trying to meet by the year’s end. These include buying a house around the time my lease is up (beginning of October) and buying a new or new-to-me car around November. I’d like to buy a car before then, but having car payments would severely lower the amount of a mortgage loan I can get. So my goal for the first half of the year is to get my credit cards as paid off as possible. This means attempting to be frugal with money for a few months, so I’m having to cut a few things. Like I doubt I’m going to continue my ballet classes until next year, probably not going to go out very often, and, well, just plan on coming to visit me if you want to see me. I just really, really want a house so I think I can make a few sacrifices for a little while. I might even consider getting a second part-time job to supplement the savings process.

I am, however, still planning on going to both MTAC and DragonCon this year, since tickets to both were purchased prior to me coming to this decision. Probably not going to make it to MomoCon this year and AWA is iffy (especially since it will be right when I’m trying to close on a house). I will be putting off a few costumes until I get the house, such as Presea, since I will need a large space (such as a garage or a yard) for working on her axe. The costumes I plan to complete this year are: FFVI’s Celes (Amano version), FFVI’s Locke (for Ben), Death Note’s Misa, and Dragon Quest VIII’s Jessica. The former three I hope to finish in time for MTAC and have Jessica in time for DragonCon. I’m only planning on working on one costume during the summer since I assume my spare time will be mostly taken up by house hunting.

Anywho, that’s my 2007 plans. Here’s hoping everything goes well!

Our Xbox 360 came in yesterday.

We have no games. None we really want right now. But my gamer tag is SweetVenus if you want to add me.

So, before I graduated, the question I was most commonly asked was, “What are you going to do when you get out?” and my answer was always, “I’m not sure.” Now that I have graduated, I keep getting “Have you found a job yet?” and the answer is, “No.” I still don’t know what I want to do. Let me rephrase: I know what I want to do, but I don’t have the education or experience to do anything remotely related to that right now. And I don’t know how to get my foot in the door to start doing that. I’m pretty sure the only way to get my foot in is to get a job doing something that I will despise. Which I don’t want to do. So, no, I haven’t found a job yet. In the meantime, I’m looking for jobs maybe with web design, but I really don’t have enough experience with that either (even though I’ve been making them for 11 years, just not getting paid for it, so it apparently doesn’t count since I don’t have a portfolio).

I would like to move out of Knoxville. There are basically two places I would consider going: Nashville or San Francisco. There are many pros and cons to both places. Nashville, obviously, is close to my family, cost of living isn’t too bad, and I won’t have to move too far from my friends here. San Francisco, however, is like my dream. As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to live out there. Plus computer jobs are fairly easy to come by, so it would be a good place to get my foot in. However, it means probably an apartment half the size of my current one for twice as much money and not being close to anyone I know. I’ve applied for jobs in both places and I haven’t heard from anything yet, so I suppose it really doesn’t matter. I guess I’ll just end up going wherever I can finally get a job since I’m apparently not qualified for anything I want to do despite having a BS in computer science.

Back in Knoxville. Back to my apartment. Back to work. Back to school. Back to where I don’t want to be.

Really seriously thinking of moving to Seattle this summer. I just have to see if I can get money saved up and how well my credits will transfer to U of Washington. It wouldn’t be happening till the end of July, so I’m going to finish out this semester here (and try not to go insane in the process) and get some insanely boring but well-paying job this summer so I can save money. And no spending money for San Francisco. Well, not a whole lot anyway. Haven’t fully decided if I am going to Music Midtown yet. Will have to see the other bands that are going to be there before I decide if I want to spend $45 + hotel room. Probably need to get rid of my phone line in my apartment too. That’s $40/month for something I never use.

I’m really looking forward to this. I need a change of scenery so bad. I just hope I can afford it. If I can’t afford my own place right off, I may be living with my best friend for a month or two, who is also moving there in May. And, if anyone out there that reads my blog lives in Seattle, please recommend good pizza places! I will miss Mellow Mushroom!

Anyway, got some spring break pics up in the gallery. More will come when I get Tera back.