Wayne is probably one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet. Currently he teaches technology to high school kids in Watertown and bikes 9 miles each way to work (and yes, in the winter too. I’ve seen it.). Besides that, Wayne pretty much spends all of his spare time working on his art, which is necessary considering he’s usually carving life-sized wood blocks with a japanese tool about the size of tweezers. Needless to say, it’s pretty time consuming, but has some really incredible results.

Recently, Wayne was offered the chance to take an artist residency in Buenos Aries for 7 weeks in June & July of this year. The entire time I lived with Wayne, he was always talking (and stressing) about not having enough time to make his art, and this is finally a great chance for him to dedicate himself completely to advancing his craft and his growing body of work.

That’s why Wayne started a page on KickStarter. He’s raising money to fund his trip down to Buenos Aries, and in return, he’s offering a bunch of cool art that comes out of the process.

Here’s a little more about his story -

There’s a great article in the Press Herald where owner John Naylor mentions “It’s going to be pretty, but no bells and whistles,” in reference to the fact that the store will not have any fancy displays or grocery bags to help keep costs low. I think this is going to be a great addition to the downtown scene in Portland and hopefully a regular destination for me. It’s also great that its right next to the only credit union on the Peninsula and across the street from Bay Lines so there’s easy access for anyone who lives on the islands.

The new storefront is slated to open sometime in late February or March.

The Modern Family Garden Book

Recently, I’ve been finding a lot of great resources for urban gardening that I’m excited to explore more and put to good use. Lily’s mother works at a garden center, so her parent’s Christmas present to me this year was a plethora of gardening supplies including a windowbox with braces to attach it the deck railing, a trowel, some seed starter tools, and most importantly, a vintage book on gardening – “The Modern Family Garden Book“.

It’s sometimes very hard to find books on basic-knowledge items, such as the basics of gardening, especially with all the chemical advancements that have happened in that field. I’m really excited to have something so simple and basic, and obviously written before the whole “better living through chemistry” era came around.

Hydroponics

Another book I recently picked up is “Hydroponic Basics” from the Urban Garden Center on Warren Ave. in Portland. I’ve had this place on my radar ever since I started visiting Portland almost 2 years ago, so I figured it was time I stopped by and checked it out. My first impression is that this place has a lot of hydroponic equipment, but also has a lot of organic products as well, including organic soil (which I’d never seen before). I told the guy at the counter I knew nothing about hydroponic growing but wish I did, and this is the book he handed me. I thumbed through it the other night and it’s very informative and worth checking out if you’re interested in hydroponics.

WindowFarming

The last thing that I’ve been really interested in for some time now is WindowFarming. If you haven’t heard of this before, you definitely need to check it out. In a nutshell, the idea is to create a vertical “farm” made of several small pots hung on top of each other and grown hydroponically to save space in cities but still allow for indoor gardens. There are DIY options (how the project started) using plastic water bottles or pre-packaged options that still run just over $100. This is definitely something I’d love to try out this year.

The past year held a lot for me – moving to Maine, going to Iceland with Lily, getting a scooter, finding a job I really enjoy, and getting an apartment that I want to stay in for a long time. It’s a really great feeling to be at a place where I’m comfortable with almost every aspect of my life. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot more I want to accomplish in next year though, which brings me to the list.

It may be a little more ambitious than most,think when I think of how much has changed in my life over the past year, I think this list is 100% doable if I work at it.

So without further adieu,

1. Stretch every day in January – I’ve heard that stretching in the morning can really help your body get moving.  I’d like to try doing this in the morning before work for an entire month and see how I feel. I’m also trying to eat a full breakfast in the morning to help myself get going, and I think the two of these combined might make a world of difference for my productivity in the morning.
2. Learn about personality types – I had a long talk with my good friend Hannah about this last new years at a house party in Cambridge, MA. She was nannying at the time for a couple who did a lot of training based around the psychology behind personality types, and it really caught my curiosity. If you don’t know anything about personality types, I’d recommend checking out the Wikipedia page on the subject – it’s some pretty interesting stuff for sure.
3. Learn to sail – I’ve always wanted to learn how to sail. In college I was disappointed there was no sailing program, in Boston I was planning to take lessons right before I  ended up moving. and this past season I was so busy getting settled, I never really got around to it. This year is my year to really get into it.
4. Professional Development – I do a lot of work with the Drupal content management system for building websites. I the last year I’d say I probably tripled my knowledge of working with the web, and this next year I’d like to take that to the next level. Sure, there are a million things I’m interested in learning, but things I specifically think I should be able to accomplish this year include learning drush (command-line scripting for drupal), contributing to the Drupal  community, and attending Drupalcon Denver in March.
5. Get in shape and exercise regularly – pretty basic, but Lily have committed to eating healthier and exercising regularly this next year.
6. Be less self-oriented – It seems so easy to be self-interested and caught up in your own life, especially when things are going well, but it’s also a really unattractive and unuseful personal trait to have. This next year I’d like to focus a lot more of my attention on what’s going on around me.
7. Start a retirement plan – last but not least, it’s one of those things I should probably start caring about and establishing.

That’s all I’ve got for this list – of course there’s plenty more I’m interested in doing this year and plenty more unexpected things that will come along the way, but this is at least a good start.

Saw a really cool article on Tan Vampires at NPR.org with some backstory on the song “I Found a Body”. I’d actually overlooked this track for a while, so it was nice to hear more about it and get a nudge to give it another listen. The video here is also really solid for a local act (now regional- maybe?) and brings back a lot of nostalgia for the area and the times I used to see the Tan Vamps play at the Barley Pub in Dover.