Plans and Goals for 2014

There are going to be some changes in 2014. Some I’ll like. Some I’ll hate. Some I’ll grow tired of and likely forget after a week or two. That’s why I’m posting this nonsense here and now. In the event I do forget to continue these changes, I want you to basically publically shame me back into doing so in a manner of speaking… Like, helpful reminds and not actually shaming me with horrid insults and threats… unless I know you very well and I can tell you’re just joking… that said, let’s roll out.

First, let’s focus on health for a moment. Not long ago I said that recent family incidents have pushed me into wanting to make myself healthier. I’m not horribly out of shape, but I could certainly do better. Therefore, I want to start a new system of food intake and work out routines. For starters, I’m reducing my food intake to two meals a day (breakfast and dinner) and I’m increasing variety by attempting to eat more fruit and vegetables (which is a very low amount right now). To avoid starving in the middle (at first) I’ll have little snacks in between like carrot sticks, mixed nuts, or chips on days when I feel the rest of my week has been successful in the health deal and I want to reward myself. And lunch is still something I will do on occasion, but I’ll probably mostly reserve that for weekends when I can more easily make my own instead of needing to bring it in to work or eat what they have. 

As for a workout routine, well… this gets trickier. You see, I’m a cheap bastard who barely ever pays full price for games and refuses to go to movies in 3D because I still argue that those extra $5 could be better spent on something more beneficial or fun. Trying to get me to pay for a gym membership when I don’t even know how much mileage I’ll get out of it sounds like a joke to me. So long as I have the drive to, I can “workout” anywhere I want and have plenty of free (or cheap) options. You could convince me to go if I had someone to go to a gym with, but I hate trying to push myself into their routine or drag them along if they don’t have interest. So if someone reading (and is local) is interested, let me know and I might very well take you up on that invite.

What I’ll do instead is have my own little routine. This won’t be as easy in the winter since it’s cold outside and there’s snow and ice everywhere, but I want to at least walk a couple miles a day. I wish we had more hills in our area to make it more of a challenge, but I guess I have to start somewhere. Then, of course, I’ll do a variety of sit-ups, push-ups, and other shenanigans at home. Alternatively, I would like to get back into Tae Kwon Do or some other form of martial arts (if anyone is a member of a place somewhere local, again, I’m interested in recommendations). I had fun doing that and I know that level of activity would be immensely helpful. Moving on. 

Other ideas for self-improvement involve more mental-based efforts. For example, I tend to swear quite a fucking lot. Sometimes I do so for humor, other times I do so for emphasis, and other times it’s just a shitty force of habit. While swearing has its place and purpose, I want to reduce the amount a bit but not because I want to stop swearing, but because I want to challenge myself to make up new words to express frustration or to say something is bad. This is more a challenge of creativity and less so about trying to be a good example for the wee children of the world that parents don’t want to turn into foul-mouthed sailors. This also includes commonly used phrases and insults. Again, I want to challenge myself to be more creative and if you see me falling into old habits, call me out on it and I’ll keep a mental note for the next go-around.

 Now that I’ve been done with school for a while, I want to get back into a habit of reading again. I haven’t in a while because of two reasons. Firstly, I write a lot and I enjoy creating content more than experiencing content of others. Two, I also play a lot of video games. And before you say I should just cut that out entirely, I still stand that video games are my preferred entertainment medium because I get to interact with it. And, depending on the game, there can very well be multiple NOVELS-worth of text to read. Just look at games like Skyrim and the Ace Attorney games for games with heavy amounts of text. But, all that said, I’d like to get through more books whenever possible. This isn’t necessarily a guarantee I’ll stick to this one, but more like something I’d like to do if I can manage to find time amongst everything else I’m throwing up here.

Next, people. I’m going to a new job and likely moving in the next six months or so. The last thing I want to do, however, is forget about all the people in my old job or from my old circles of friends. Because you’re all fantastic people. I just am terrible about trying to keep up with 20 or so people when I have things to do. And I know not a lot of you fuckers make attempts to plan shit together so that usually falls on me anyway. But, hey, we all have a chance for improvement here, let’s give it a whirl.

Simply put, I want to try and set aside at least one day/night every other week to hang with friends. I’d say every other week, but that seems somewhat unrealistic at the moment given that I don’t know how insane my current schedule will be or how free any of you will actually be. This doesn’t necessarily exclude anything above either. Maybe someone wants to buddy up for a workout routine? Or (read below) someone wants to help out with video projects? And, again, if you have suggestions or ideas then jump on it and go for it. Don’t make me do all the work when you are perfectly capable of sending me a message to do something or ask if I’m available for a thing too. 

Going off the “people” thing again, not only do I want to continue to strengthen bonds with people I care about now, but I also want to rebuild old bridges that were burnt down either by accident or by force (mostly by accident) because there are some people I actually gave a shit about (and still do) that I wish I could talk to again or hang out with again but stupid misunderstandings caused stupid arguments which lead to stupid ruinations of otherwise perfectly good friendships. So shout out to Dave and Ria because those are the two that mostly come to mind. You guys are good people and it’s a shame the way things ended. You probably aren’t reading this, but if you are, I want to talk and see what we can do to start over again. And if anyone could pass this along to them (since they’re likely to ignore me) I would appreciate that.

Now on to my last and probably most important bit, creative content. I like writing. I like making videos. I like telling stories and making jokes and I want to continue to make more weird shenanigans for people in 2014 and maybe (hopefully) make money off of it. So I want to get back into a routine where I put together something new every week. This blog has been immensely helpful for just forcing me to write something every week and come up with something TO put up every week. That’s a great start. Now it’s time to take it a step farther and make original content of my own instead of JUST being a review/personal complaints post. I may very well start with Let’s Plays again, but I want to challenge myself with something even more ridiculous and I definitely want to restart the podcast again.

But, most importantly, I went to school to write something fun and interesting. I have ideas. I just need to be pushed into a chair and cut off from the internet (unless I need to research a word or idea for a story) and be told to write until I have something I am willing to show people. I need to set deadlines and attempt to meet them. So every Friday I will have a new chapter ready (I might push to weekends of my work week gets swamped with extra work) and I still have to decide if I want to post publicly or if I want to just share with someone as an “acting editor” to give me feedback for how to improve this and what to look out for in the upcoming chapter. 

So, yes, I suppose I’m looking for volunteers for that… and for really anything on this list of changes I want to make. If you want to work out and wouldn’t mind me tagging along when you go to a gym or whatever else, let me know. If you want to hang out or do something fun, let me know. If you want to read my work and tell me what’s shit and what’s worth keeping, let me know. I don’t expect any ONE person to do all this for me, which is why this is going here. Because I’m hoping more than one person reads this and I’m hoping more than one person will raise a hand and offer some assistance and/or feedback.

But that’s it for now. My goals for self-improvement in 2014. Somewhat inspired by Erin. Mostly remixed by me. Only to be ignored by most of you. But, whatever, makes me feel better to have written this. See ya next time and Happy New Year.