Thursday, January 5, 2012

2012…I’ll fish it!

It is amazing how fast 2011 went by. My plans were fairly grandiose and unfortunately I fell slightly below the mark on a few fronts. Not getting a large catfish and a few failed trips that didn’t happen only scratches the surface. Seeing how things went last year it may be foolish of me to try and make even more elaborate plans for 2012. But between workdays and digging underground bunkers I intend to fish.

A few things left undone on my 2011 list include making a few blog layout tweaks, doing a few interviews and making longer treks to those far away places that I dream about. I have no crystal skull telling me secrets of the universe and will have to simply make the best of every day from here on out. Sounds a lot like my game plan from last year. If a devastating calamity does hit I will only be mildly prepared depending on the situation. If things go very badly I can at least say that in this life…I fished my ass off.

There is always room for improvement and even though I only gave my blog a B- grade for 2011 there was still a lot of quality fishing. A few things I am looking to do more of in 2012:

  1. Quality fishing. More trips at new locations while still checking in on a few old ones. The further the distance, the harder the planning and that is always an obstacle with the workaday\responsibility scene. Some day I may be a fishbum but for now I still have to feed the dog.

  1. Be a better blogger like TexWisGirl over at http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/. This means commenting more on the many other blogs that I read and maybe even buying a real camera. Her photos are superb and I could place more focus towards mine. 

  1. Follow up on a few offers that I failed to complete in previous years. This is a longer list than I like to admit.

A few things I am going to avoid in 2012:

  1. Organizing a large event that will most likely backfire on me horribly. The luncheon I planned for the staging group is but one example of my terrible failures of 2011. I am finding that trips with even three people are difficult to plan. Make no mistake that folks who pull off large events with any degree of success are pretty amazing in my view.

  1. Posting up stuff without at least one or two edit cycles. Last year I submitted a few posts with some egregious spelling errors and omitted words that could have easily been avoided. I don’t claim to be highly edjumakated but with a little more effort I could look far less illiterate.

  1. Being my own worst enemy. This is a goal of mine every year as no one hurts my chances of success more than me. Looking before I leap and not talking myself out of larger trips would be a good start.

Admittedly this may not be the most riveting fish post that have ever put up. My goal was to put up an introduction for the year while more or less apologizing for some failures in 2011. This is something I say every year as I purposely set the bar too high for me to reach. The amount of disappointment from last year equates to how much harder I need to try this year. Sincerely I wish the best to all of my followers, readers and viewers be the very best in 2012.

The calendar was done in AutoCAD 2011 and then later rendered using the material library features in 2002. I am not promising my imaginary graphics team will do better in 2012 but they sometimes come through in a pinch.

8 comments:

Daniel said...

"Posting up stuff without at least one or two edit cycles. Last year I submitted a few posts with some egregious spelling errors and omitted words that could have easily been avoided. I don’t claim to be highly edjumakated but with a little more effort I could look far less illiterate."

This is one I should stand by. I wrote up a post last night at 3 AM when I could not sleep. For some reason Bacon looked better with an extra E in it. So people are expecting me to add a rotating lights to my venison roast. looked good at 3 AM.

TexWisGirl said...

dear matt: you cannot compare yourself to my blogging presence. i am a prolific poster and commenter BECAUSE I HAVE NO LIFE! :) i spend WAY too much time in front of my laptop reading WAY too many blogs! however, i do try to follow one of my own rules - if you take the time to read/view someone's post, leave a comment to say you've been there, appreciated their efforts/prose/photography, whatever. we bloggers blog to document our lives - whether it be a grand catch on a river or just a view out the window to the pond. but we LIVE for comments. they feed our soul. so, yes, commenting more if you're already stopping in is a good one. i've probably slipped to about an 85%-90% comment rate from the insanely high 95%-98% i used to do. whew! a girl's got to limit herself! ha!

as for your proofreading and editing, don't beat yourself up! you write beautifully. that's one of the reasons i follow you. i don't fish, but you relate your fishing tales wonderfully. as for typos, etc., we all make them. one of my favorite bird bloggers writes incredibly, but his posts are often rife with misspellings or punctuation issues, etc. doesn't deter me. i see past it to the heart behind them. i should learn to run spell-check on my posts, but i have yet to do so.

thanks for your great blogging, and for the really sweet compliments on my site! my photography is midling, at best, but i do really enjoy living in Blogland. thanks for being my neighbor and friend! :)

Mark Kautz said...

I gave up on the resolution thing since I crapped out so bad last year. Might as well just go with the flow.

Mark

Jeff Hatt said...

I agree with TexWisGirl, getting a blog post perfect kinda takes the heart out of them as I think the best are written in a state of high excitement after catching a monstrous beast of a fish! So long as they scan well I just ride over the errors, though I do perform at least one edit cycle myself to uncover the real howlers!

It's odd how many comments blogs get in the States. Over here people are far more reticent and a really good return on the time investment is just ten or so, but the same post with a similarly numbered American audience would get perhaps 30-50? My most viewed post ever got just thirty comments! Odd, but true...

I should lead the way and comment on every blog I read, but I don't. Bad practice and lazy really, but us brits are a funny bunch when it comes to being up front about things.

My new years resolution is make an effort with commenting, and I start here!

Tight lines,

Jeff

THE RIVER DAMSEL said...

Well..let's hear it for 2012! Looking forward to seeing those goals come to fruition... : ) Don't worry about a couple of edits...you are way ahead of me! I must edit 10X before publishing the post...ugh. Always changing my mind on things!

Coloradocasters said...

@Daniel:Mmmm a little beacon can really brighten up a venison roast. I’ve added the number of beers that were consumed in the process to help disclaim that pobody’s nerfect especially me.

@TexWisGirl: You are indeed an amazing blogger. With no life, three laptops, two ipads and a smart phone with a blogger app I probably still couldn’t up. =P

@Shoreman: I am hoping you really rock ‘em this year. My 2012 is getting off to a shaky start. Always glad to see a Shoreman post.

@Jeff Hatt: Agreed on all counts but have to admit I am really jazzed when I get even five comments total. Anything over that and it means I either got really lucky on a fish or typed up something decent for a change. A third option would be the occasional graphic that tickles the fancy on the stopper-by. Rare but it does happen.

@ The River Damsel: You are delightfully gracious in regards to my literary mistakes. Secretly I think spellcheck likes to throw us all a curveball now and then for its own amusement. So glad you stopped by.

Steve Zakur said...

Yeah, trip planning is a thankless task at best and right up there with wearing Sockeye earrings and dancing with hungry Grizzly bears at its worst. My version of trip planning is "I'm going fishing over there, if you want to tag along, fine, but keep your mouth shut."

Good luck with the resolutions.

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