Plans for 2009

Basically, I think I'd like to reorient myself more towards doing stuff on a daily basis rather than just reading about stuff. I guess this could be something like a set of New Year's Resolutions. I'm putting this out here for two reasons. One is that if I say in public that I'm going to work on these things, then maybe I'll have some more motivation to actually do them. Second reason is that I'm sort of crying out for help. A lot of these projects would go better if I had someone else to work on them with or at least talk about them with. So here goes...

There are two basic tracks here and there is some overlap between the two. The first is the "offline" realm and the second is the "online" realm.

Making stuff:
cooking - been trying to really cook at least one real meal (not pizza rolls) every week
bread - been keeping one sourdough alive, want to start another one (or two)
beer - made beer once, want to try it again
cheese - not huge into dairy, but find cheese-making to be as fascinating as bread and beer making
gardening - want to get my hydroponics rig going again and also start a real outside garden if someone will let me use their land
local food - been a member of the cincilocavore mailing list and loving it; want to make more of that
bison - visit a bison farm and maybe get some bison meat; bison are so awesome
CSA - maybe join a CSA (or herdshare)
farmers' markets - visit these more regularly despite not being very close to one
recycling paper - found some super-easy instructions on how to do this online; want to try it
crafting/remaking - i am working on turning a busted ikea hamper into a folding table; needs more work
knitting/weaving - i'm fascinated by weaving and would love to give it a try in some spare time
composting - tried collecting kitchen scraps but it doesn't work too well if you don't have an outside compost place to take them
rapid prototyping - i want to try getting something made from ponoko or similar (also maybe papekura); i'm a big fan of everything bre pettis does

Making online stuff:
hereincincinnati blog - update the blog more frequently and let people know it exists
hereincincinnati wiki - keep it up-to-date and use the articles in blog posts; maybe reach out to others to help contribute
virtual vine st. - tried it with omeka, wasn't really that great; maybe try another cms or roll my own. also, may need to get approval from CMP
diycity - started a local "chapter"; need to find others to join in with me; do projects on something other than transit
cincymicrocosm - blog needs love; find ideas, blog them.
citycouncil2rss - i'd like to streamify the city council agendas and other stuff they do; needs a weekend of planning and doing; also maybe a team to help
wikipedia photo hunt - got started with the project, but ran into hangups; need to kick it up a notch or let it die
cincinnatiparking.info - figure out a way to get the data into the site "fresh" and automatic

I plan to write a post about each of the things on this list to flesh it out more. For now this is just a starting point and a public reminder to myself that I do have interesting problems to work on.