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Resolutions for 2016

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It is that time of the year again. Time to review the year that finished and plan for the year ahead. At least this time I’m writing this in the first days of the year instead of the first months like last year. For me, 2015 was a rollercoaster. Started very steady with lots of work and projects, then changed direction completely.

Like in previous years, here’s how my main 5 points from 2015 went:

1. Health
This topic has not progressed in a year at all. This must be something to prioritize.

2. Projects
Last year I started notasbit.com as a WordPress blog to write about tech news. But then I transformed it into an automated news grabber which released me from having to write the news themselves to prepare for the radio show which I still have going on. That project is one of my favorites, as it needs very little maintenance and brings me a lot of entertainment. Is the project I’ve done that I use the most. Then I have a project with my cousin to help him in his tourism agency that has been going on for 6 months now but in very slow progress. It’s been an learning experience for me working with his team and developing it on my own. Also there’s another project I’m working on for a head hunter agency which I’m very interested in finishing for publication.

3. Photography
I had no big plans for this area of my life for 2015 other than having some lenses. Well, one of my biggest dreams of having a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 has become a reality. I’ve been wanting that lens for a while to improve the photos I take in low light in the theaters at the ballet. Another big change happened after the robbery incident. As I mentioned in my blog post then, I took that bad situation where they stole my camera body as an opportunity to improve my gear. So I finally made the jump from a half-frame body to a full frame. Now with the Nikon D750 and the zoom lens, the quality I get in low light is something I struggled for with my previous gear. My main machine is now a Macbook Pro, so I’m now fully editing my RAW files in Lightroom. I also started to get more into video this year with several videos published in my Youtube channel.

4. Travel
We never got to go to Cuba, but we did travel to several places in the country and visit friends which was nice.
5. Writing and reading
I missed on the 6 books in the year, I only got two read. And on the writing, well, this blog was almost forgotten. Only 5 posts in all year! Then notasbit blog got changed into an automated system, so no writing there either. I think I used that time to do more projects this year instead.

To remember 2015 here are some of the images captured in the year:

Fish in bags

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Sala Covarrubias

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Hotel Quinta Real Villahermosa

Hand made chocolate

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So far, this 2016 doesn’t seem to have much surprises or any ups and downs. On 2015 I’ve focused a lot on searching ways to diversify my income and came up with some plans. I think that this 2016 will be about executing those plans more thoroughly.

Health

I keep promising myself to do more about my health with the tendency of not reaching my goals. I won’t stop promising myself healthier life and even though I don’t reach my goals, attempting it never hurts. I’m curious about starting to run. I’ve heard a lot of people getting addicted to it and almost being as annoying as a cross-fit nut. I’ve never tried running as an activity and don’t know where or how to start but I’ll try it. My current body fat is 29%, worse than last year’s post. I need to lower that a lot.

Projects

This is an area where I have a lot of things going on at the same time. I’m worried that because of the high load I won’t be able to manage and complete anything. My mum suggested to have an agenda and set aside time for each project in my day. It is a good idea, since most weeks go by and because of work I forget to put some time for my projects. I want to continue and finish up all projects started last year. I don’t plan on starting new ones anytime soon but a lot of things can happen in a year.

Media

This time I switched the word “photography” to “media” because I’ve been experimenting with video too. I’ve been following several vloggers and I’m very curious to explore that. Editing is not an easy task and very time consuming, but daily vlogs are the best way to practice to perfection. I won’t commit to do vlogging yet but it’s a very strong idea I’ve been thinking about for several months. In photography, I really want to make some money out of it. I’m trying stock photography websites with very little results. Paid jobs would be nice but I still lack the confidence. Maybe that’s what I should work on this year: confidence. And in that topic of confidence, I’d like to grow my Instagram account. I’m trying to post more frequently and maybe a 365 project will help grow my account faster. One post a day. Currently I have 390 followers.

Travel

Cuba is still in the plans for this year. We’ll start the savings planning early in the year so it can happen. Besides that, there’s not much planned so far for the year’s traveling. I guess less travel times means more time to focus on work and projects.

I hope 2016 will be a year of steady grow in several areas in my life, preparing for a more exciting 2017. But, many things happen in a year, who knows if this year will be as calm and steady as I see it in these early days of the year.

By Gabriel Saldaña

Gabriel Saldaña is a web developer, photographer and free software advocate. Connect with him on and Twitter

2 replies on “Resolutions for 2016”

Buen post, me imagino es muy útil al fin de año cuando miras en retrospectiva.

Pero hay algo que me parece increíble; ¡¿TÚ usas una MACBOOK como tu computador personal?!

Saludos.

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