omphaloskepsis: the act of contemplating one's navel

Hello world;

This blog is a matter of resolutions and revolutions. Specifically, I intend to develop myself by trying new things, at of a rate of at least one new thing per week. Even if I only go on to earn a few cars and bar stories, I will consider it a success. I was inspired to do this by the show The Buried Life, as well as my Dad's habit, along with his partner, at the beginning of the year to announce the firsts of 2010 ("first egg breakfast of 2010", for example). However, there are two more concrete reasons I undertake this o so glorious endeavor.

1) I consider myself a leech. That is, I absorb the information, habits, vocal quirks, and interests of the people who surround me. I do not believe this in necessarily bad, per se, especially as I have had the great luck of knowing many interesting and diverse people. However, I would like to contribute my own such quirks to conversation, and I expect this will be most readily achieved if I branch out of my comfort zone.

2) For the past year or more, I find myself rather frequently and unexpectedly plagued by the idea of death. Not even death as an action, as that can only be confronted once it greets you eye to eye, but more so death as an ever impending noun. Between my university career and weekly pay check, I feel as though I am forever rushing forward without enjoying the present, or reaching significant or satisfying milestones. By setting weekly goals, I hope to give myself something which I can look forward to which will also serve to ground me in the moment.

These goals will vary in degree, as some weeks I will simply try a new recipe or game, where other weeks I hope to start learning a new instrument or go to the local zen center.
Other weeks, I may even bend the rules such as to do something I rarely do or haven't done in a while, like write notes to close friends expressing what they mean to me. I may also use this to achieve goals I have been putting off, such as finally replacing the strings on my violin and practicing regularly again.

I also intend to use this blog to express my logophilia, and each entry will be titled using a word I wish to learn, the stranger the better, as I'm sure this entry's subject line demonstrates. What can I say; I've a weakness for weird words, and love the idea of finding and recording them along with this project.

The last finicky detail I will list within this preface is that the domain name, "hedsit", is the offspring of desperation and convenience: it is the term blogspot asked me to type when setting up this blog in order to prove I am not a bot. Seeing as this project involves the aim of proving my selfhood to my own dear self - and because all the cool words I wanted to use were already taken - "hedsit" it is.

Here goes nothing. Or, preferably, a whole lot of somethings.