Merry Christmas...and looking toward the new year.

And once again I have failed to post in a long time.

Merry Christmas. Or belated Christmas rather. My Christmas was good. I already described it on my Tumblr, so I'm not going to describe it again.

I have a feeling I may not post on this blog much in the future. I'm getting more into my Tumblr. I mean, I do still like this blog, and I've had it for 8 years, but at times I like the active community of Tumblr and such. I think I will still use this as a sort of semi-private journal, a place for when I just need to write down my thoughts. Like what most people use a diary for as kids. That was always the intention of this blog. I acknowledged the audience at times (you can't really ignore them) but mostly just forgot they were there.

The end of the year is a time for reflection, and thus I am reflecting on my life once more. I think I do it too much though. It's some sort of curse I have; I am extremely introspective. Might be an introvert thing, might be an Asperger's thing, I have no idea.

We (my parents, my brother, and I) had a long discussion about stuff at the dinner table after Christmas dinner, and the idea of me living in low-income housing came up. I knew this was an option, and an affordable one on my current income, which isn't enough for a regular apartment unless I had roommates. But I think pride got in the way, and I didn't want to even look into that option. But now I am thinking maybe I should look into it. I'm almost 30 and it's about time that I move out. Of course, I may have to talk to my parents about this, especially since my mom doesn't seem to think I'm ready to move out, and my dad got all weirded out the last time I attempted to move out (some school friends of mine and I were looking into getting an apartment together). I mean, I lack skills essential to living on your own, like making a budget and cooking. And if I move out, I would probably qualify for food stamps and stuff, which I'd have to apply for. Depending on what my rent situation was, I wouldn't have as much money and thus would have to budget. The food stamps/EBT would help for food, but I'd have to pay rent and utilities at least, plus the things I pay for monthly like my bus pass, cell phone, and subscriptions to Hulu, Netflix, and Crunchyroll. (I might cancel the Crunchyroll one, since I haven't used that site in a while). Oh and now my Gamefly subscription. Plus I would want to tithe. And pay for internet access if I wanted it (unless it was part of the utilities). Cable TV I could do without; I did without it for about 14 years of my life. You can watch pretty much every show there is online now anyway (or through Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, etc), so it's possible to live without cable.

Just sent in a form for my bank's Financial Freedom service. It's free for all members (I belong to a credit union, so we're called "members") and is supposed to help you get your money situation sorted out. Hopefully that will help.

Then there's the job front. I got my certificate in Web Development and Design, but nothing has come of it yet because I haven't begun job hunting. The other night at work I was thinking I should try to research the industry and figure out exactly what kind of job I'm qualified for. That would give me a place to start. Currently on my web design portfolio site I list myself as a "web designer and writer," but I guess that might be kind of vague. I suppose I could try Dribbble too, since a lot of web designers are on there. There is also the issue of if I switch jobs whether I'd still qualify for low-income housing and so on, since a job like that would likely pay more than I make now. I guess for entry-level it might be ok though. I would have to check. I think my mom probably knows more about these things. (My coworker Adam has an issue with this sort of stuff; the reason he's always complaining about his hours is that if he earns too much money, he can't continue getting the Social Security Disability benefits he receives because of his Asperger's...but then that's his problem. I've gotten along just fine with my Asperger's without government help, but then Mum thinks I'm really high-functioning, to the extent that my Asperger's doesn't affect my ability to have a pretty much normal life all that much).

My spiritual life is still a mess, and I'd like to work on that in the new year. I really want to get into studying the Bible, praying, and growing in that relationship. My parents and my younger brother seem more spiritually mature than I am. But maybe because I am not sure I like people who bring God into every conversation. Or nearly every conversation. Maybe my almost 6 years in a rather un-Christian workplace are having a bad effect on me. I don't know. Agh!

So, as of right now, my resolutions for 2013 are:

1. Get my finances worked out so I can come up with a budget.

2. Begin looking into ways I might be able to move out on my own.

3. Work on getting an actual career job.

4. Strengthen my relationship with God.

5. Stop being just a consumer on my social media accounts and actually be active. This is something I wrote about on my Tumblr the other day. I realized that the reason I don't have a big following on social media is probably because on most of my accounts, I'm not that active. I just use them to consume content primarily. Maybe this is because I never really liked social media much to begin with, and only got into it in 2008 because it was something everyone was doing. I still prefer forums/message boards, which I have much more experience with and which seem to allow for more depth of conversation. Currently, between my personal, writing, and web design promotion accounts, I have Facebook (twice, one for personal and one for writing), Twitter (times three), GetGlue, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Tumblr, YouTube (times three), Scribd, StumbleUpon, Flickr (though I never use it), Dribbble, and Instagram. Not to mention minor accounts for Blogger, Crunchyroll, Photobucket, and Technorati, and my new Viggle account. Can you see why I'm in over my head?

6. Work on my writing.

7. Get my web design skills up to snuff, if necessary.

***

Those are the only ones I can think of right now.

Whoa it's super late. I better go to bed.

Oh one last thing. I have started a new blog. It's called TARDIS Thoughts and is a Doctor Who episode analysis blog. It's been up since October but I just recently started really promoting it. It already has an authority of 86 on Technorati, which is pretty good. I just posted an analysis yesterday of the 2012 Christmas Special, which I was really excited to see and write about. Check it out!

Ok, good night!