Something New

Hello friends,
In my last post I referenced a new blog project I had in the works. Now that 2009 has officially begun, I'm unveiling it! I've been inspired by my friend Allison and numerous others who have undertaken efforts to see the world differently throughout a new year. Allison did a picture-a-day project in 2008. She wanted to practice seeing beauty everyday, and she captured it through her love of photography. I also followed a blog two girls did together in 2008. They both took pictures weekly that had some sort of word in it and every week they posted their pictures side by side. It was interesting to see what they came up with, because they did not talk to each other about their photographs before posting.
I loved the creativity of these ideas, so I decided to take on something similar with my blog for 2009. This year I want to be more intent on having a learner's heart. I'm already somewhat of a nerd; that's no secret. So this project is going to capitalize on that. I'm merging three things I love: learning, writing, and photography. I'm basing this project on the idea that we learn something new every day. As it turns out, a blog like this is not an original idea. I've found others doing the same thing. I guess Ecclesiastes is right- there is nothing new under the sun. But I digress. Here are the details (such as they are at this point):

-I will learn something new every day in 2009 and write about it here.
-I have no requirements concerning how academic or trivial my new knowledge should be. I can learn from books, friends, mistakes, or any other source.
-I will attempt to update the blog daily, but I know myself well enough to know it may be difficult to do so. Therefore, I'm committing to updating at LEAST weekly with what I have learned each day.
-I will try to take a pictures somehow relating to what I have learned. This may prove to be a challenge, depending on the nature of what I have learned. The goal is to have a picture for every new thing I learn, but there may be times this is not possible. This part of my blog will be a bit of a work in progress as I discover how best to combine the two.

And those are the rules. Pretty simple. I think I'm really going to enjoy this project, and I hope anyone reading it will enjoy it, too.

So, you're probably wondering what I learned today, right?
Nothing earth-shattering, but it is useful.

I learned a new way to prepare chicken. I learned this from Elisa, my roommate. She uses olive oil and seasons the meat with sage, rosemary, and thyme. Seriously (I'm not sure why she doesn't put parsley on it). Then she bakes it in the oven. It comes out very tender and it's a nice flavor. The chicken works well with rice, on salads, with pasta, or however you want. And Elisa uses spices from Vitamin Cottage, so they come in little bags. I don't know why, but there's something I love about that.


So there you have it. I'm 1 for 1. I'd love your feedback if you have it. But more than that, I hope you have a 2009 full of learning, too.