Entries tagged with 2008

At the beginning of the year, I made resolutions and set goals for myself. Some were specific one-time events and activities I wanted to make happen. The rest were improvements I wanted to make for myself and within my own life, and even though 2008 ends tonight these will remain ongoing goals for myself.

As someone who used to disdain the concept of New Years resolutions, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well this worked out for me, to the point where I'll be doing something similar for 2009 in a few days. But before I can do that, I need to take a look back and reflect on how I did this year.

My goals were:
no more personal neglect. I've been give-and-take on this point. Becoming much more active has been fantastic for my physical and emotional well-being. But keeping this busy has come at a tradeoff: I've gotten neglectful of spending time keeping my tai chi practice fresh between sessions. Other things often get put off as well. Although I'm taking better care of things as a whole compared to last year, there's still plenty of room for improvement here.

get in shape. I've made some awesome strides - literally! I've been doing a lot of hiking, which along with tai chi have been great for my legs. I've also been doing indoor rock climbing, which has been pushing my upper body to the limits as well. I've trimmed off a few pounds from last year, nothing monumental but it has helped too. I'm in the best shape I've been in a long time, and I'll be continuing to build upon this from here.

eat better. Being busy means that I haven't been cooking much; up until recently, neither had my roommates. However I am paying a LOT more attention to what goes into my body. I'm cutting back on excess sweets and sugars, and I'm being conscientous of what and how much I eat when we go out. And I am earnestly cutting back on the amount of meats I eat weekly, which means more fresh fruits and veggies!

play hostess. This one wasn't a huge success this year; things started developing near the end that make this look a lot more promising for next year however. Dana's epiphany gave us the momentum to finally do some major cleaning though, which was the big obstacle to having guests over. Even the name we finally agreed upon for our place, Nexus, holds a lot of promise on this front. JP and Lydia's move means that we'll be hosting Friday Night Gaming probably once a month or so starting in January.

regular LJ posts. I had periods where I wrote more often and periods where I wrote less often, but I averaged out to about once a week which was way better than last year. What concerns me more, however, is that I kept finding ways to censor myself again and again, which meant I kept finding excuses to not write about the things important to me. LJ's Filter system seems to be the best solution. As a reminder: comment here if you want in on some of these filters.

get ?????????? up and running. Never happened; in addition with some of the changes and growth that took place this year, I may no longer be the right person for this task.

work on developing my empathy. This was actually a goal I made for myself the last time I tried doing New Year's resolutions... which was back in 2005. Considering that my other two goals for that year were moving to California and having surgery, and that the process of fulfilling both of those kind of threw my life out of balance, it's not surprising that it took this long for the right time and the right place for me to pick this back up.

As for the events:
Burning Man. BM 2008 ended up being a major turning point in my life, successful beyond my wildest imagination! I may at some point transfer some of the paper journal I kept into my LJ.

anime convention. Never happened; in hindsight, I wouldn't have had the vacation time or money needed to make this happen even if this plan ever had gotten off the ground.

visit my family. I was able to spend 4th of July weekend with not only my parents, but my brother was able to fly down for the weekend as well.

I used to find New Year's Resolutions to be an annoyingly cliche concept associated with the first week of January. I've even tried making my own in the past, to mixed amounts of success. But the more I think about it, I can't help but realize that having a concrete set of goals is a pretty darn good way to start a year. So cliche or not, I'm going to start this 2008 with some personal goals in hand.

My Resolutions
no more personal neglect. My bills get paid on time. I will feed the laundry machine downstairs with a regular supply of quarters. I will do the weekly things I have to do. I can pause the damn Wii long enough to answer my phone, too.
get in shape. Around 2003, I spent religious amounts of time playing DDR in the arcades and I was in the best shape of my life. I have several home versions of DDR and PIU which I can do the same thing with. I will start jogging again (though I will give myself the allowance to wait until it gets warmer for this). I will make good use of those weights sitting in the corner. I will make and devote the time necessary to practicing my tai chi. I will check out Planet Granite, finally.
eat better. I spent way too much money last year on fast food lazy-meals and lunches that could have been brown-bagged instead. My kitchen will see use and feel love on at least a weekly basis. I will also pay more attention to the specific foods I eat and try to eliminate stupid shit like HFCS as much as possible from my diet.
play hostess. I've lived in this apartment for almost two years and only rarely do we have guests over. I want to get Movie Night started up again. With all the toys here, I want to try a "plugged-in" complement to Friday Night Unplugged at some point so that my friends can hand me my ass at Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
regular LJ posts. As I mentioned in my last entry, I let too many important things in my life go unnoted and unnoticed. I want to be able to look back two or three years from now and know exactly what I did in 2008.
related point: get ?????????? up and running. This one has been a long time coming and I'm looking forward to bringing together an awesome community.

Events I want to make happen
Burning Man. This one will happen. The more friends, the merrier. The more I have to share with fellow 'Burners, the merrier.
anime convention. Once upon a time, meeting up with my long-distance and online friends was THE event of the year, and having an anime convention as the setting made this all the more special. I would love to finally revive this tradition. I will need the help of my friends to make this a reality.
visit my family. The last time I visited my family in Florida was July 2006. They visited me last year, it's my turn this year. I will need the help of my employers to make this a reality.