Tag Archives: resolutions

Looking Ahead to 2012

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One year ago in this space I attempted to start a new tradition for myself. While I rarely bothered in the past, mostly as an excuse to write a post, I jumped on the bandwagon and composed a set of resolutions for 2011. Now, in the waning hours of 2011, I wanted to take some time to review my resolutions and update them for 2012. Let’s take them from the top.

Spend more time with my daughter.

That should now read daughters, plural. In June we welcomed our second child, Brenna Rose, into the world. I’d like to think I’ve done well on this resolution. I spend every day looking forward to getting home to see my girls.

Read more.

I added this to the list because every year I would read a little less than the year before. I’ve managed to reverse this trend. Sure, I’ve added feeds to Google Reader, but I’ve removed a few as well. I’ve also opted to read actual books in my free time, reducing the amount of television I watch to a mere couple hours per week. I’ve read through two James Herriot books so far, with one remaining. I received a Barnes & Noble Nook for Christmas and purchased my first book for it on Thursday, The Ghosts of Belfast, which I’ve been rapidly devouring.

Write more.

While I frequently sat in front of my computer, pondering topics about which to write, I rarely found the necessary inspiration to put metaphorical pen to paper. Over the last 12 months, I composed a mere 16 posts. Four of those, a quarter of them, were about OSCON, which is far fewer than in years past when I would write an individual post for each session I attended. In addition, there are four drafts I never got around to completing. Looking them over, it appears that at least three of them are mostly done. I just need to give them a quick edit and post. Sadly, one of them is about Kaylee’s summer camp, so it’s a bit stale at this point.

Having read several blogs over the last year, I’ve developed a desire to be a more prolific writer. Not only personal posts, like this one, but anything that comes to mind. I can write about my programming work or even short fiction. I probably won’t delve into the realm of political commentary, but only because I lack any real desire to study the issues in enough depth to do them justice.

Be more Paleo.

More of the same here. I can count on one hand the number of bites of grains I had during the year. While my sweet tooth has been difficult to suppress, I really don’t eat very much sugar. One beer per week, to end Friday on a high note, is all I indulge in anymore. I managed to get my weight down to 158 pounds, which hasn’t budged in a few months. I would like to drop a few more pounds of body fat, so perhaps that is where I’ll focus my efforts for 2012.

Join a CrossFit Box.

I thought about it a few times, but never bothered. I have been going to the gym at work regularly and have been making decent strength gains. I’m mostly pleased with my progress on fitness and even earned my third degree black belt this year, so not accomplishing this particular resolution isn’t bothering me very much.

Get into MovNat.

The closest I got to this was our recent trip to Grape Day Park in Escondido. As a fitness program, it’s still something I want to do.

Actually use Facebook.

I added this one as a joke, but somehow I ended up using it. Sort of. I rarely post anything on Facebook, preferring Twitter and Google Plus, but I do try to keep tabs on what my friends are doing.

Looking Ahead to 2012

Aside from the above, what else should I look forward to doing in 2012?

I’ve recently been putting an emphasis on being more organized and getting things done in a more timely fashion. I’d like to keep this going into the new year, particularly with respect to the things that need doing around the house.

Segueing from organization into preparation, the recent power outage in San Diego made me take a serious look at our disaster preparations. My wife pokes fun at me for treating the entire situation as preparation for the zombie apocalypse, but I find it a fun way to stay motivated. Besides, when zombies show up and start eating people, who will be laughing then?

So that’s my theme for 2012: organization and preparation.

Resolutions for 2011

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Welcome to the year two thousand eleven. Well, not quite yet; I’m actually writing this with about an hour to go. I’ve never been one for so-called New Year’s Resolutions. After all, why put off until the first of January what you can reasonably start on the twelfth of August?

With that said, here are (in no particular order) my resolutions for the next 365 days.

Spend more time with my daughter.

Not really a resolution, since I already try to spend as much time as possible with her. Still, it seemed important enough to reiterate at the beginning of this list.

Read more.

And not just Twitter. I already do more of that than I probably should. Having several hundred unread items in Google Reader is normal for me, especially now that I have subscribed to so many great nutrition and fitness blogs.

I haven’t had a cable television subscription for months, so if I’m not at my computer (and I use Linux, so you know I’m not playing games) I have the time to read a book. It’s been a long time since I read one or two books per month. In fact, it took me several months to get through the last book I read, The Three Musketeers. I did manage to read through Manthropology since receiving it for Christmas (I should write a review), so I figure it’s a combination of picking the right books and setting aside the time to read them.

Write more.

I neglect my blog, sometimes so much I start to wonder why I bother having one. On my to-do list for some time has been to clean up my blog. I still have too many categories from the days before WordPress supported tags, and images in a lot of my old posts are broken. Worse, I’ll go months without posting anything. Worse yet, I have a handful of half-written posts; always thinking I’ll finish them later. Later never seems to come.

Writing more also applies to programming. There is at least one project I started but never finished. Sure, I can blame my last computer crashing and life generally getting in the way, but how hard would it be to just sit down and finish it? Then there all the Perl modules I write. Unfortunately, most of those are for work, so I’m unable to release them. I tried once, but didn’t get very far.

Also, all those blogs I mentioned in the last resolution? I should comment when I think I have something to say, or participate in forums when they’re available.

Be more Paleo.

While I’ve eaten a fairly low carbohydrate diet since my wife was pregnant with our daughter over two years ago (my wife was diagnosed with gestational diabetes), it wasn’t until last March when I started looking at diet from a Paleo perspective. Looking at a graph of my weight, that really marked a change. From a peak of 235 pounds around three years ago, I finally dropped under 200 in March. As I write this, I’m weighing in at 178 with my eye on getting down to 165.

So far, even though I appear to be “eating Paleo,” I still acquire my meat from Costco. From a budget perspective, this isn’t too bad, but their meat is still conventionally raised and fed grain. There is a local meat CSA which I am interested in joining. Maybe this will be the year I start spending money on quality instead of quantity.

In addition to the meat CSA, there’s one that has partnered with the company I work for to make weekly deliveries of produce at one of our office buildings. I may join this CSA to augment our semi-regular Saturday morning visits to the Vista Farmers Market.

Join a CrossFit Box.

It’s all the rage in the Paleo community and I’ve never been a huge fan of lifting weights and I’ve always loathed chronic cardio. In fact, there’s one within walking distance of my house. Looks like I’m out of excuses.

Get into MovNat.

Because it looks like fun. That’s the kind of shape I want to be in.

In 2012 (if the world doesn’t end) I might throw parkour and ninjitsu into the mix because how cool would that be?

Actually use Facebook.

It seems that all of my friends and family use Facebook now. They chat, they share pictures, they comment on each others’ wall, and when I see them in person I discover I’m totally out of the loop. I tried to wait it out, hoping it would go away (anyone remember MySpace?), but it’s about time I jumped on this particular bandwagon.

Nah, I’m just kidding. Maybe next year.