2014 New Year Resolutions - Q1 Review

End of the quarter pop quiz!!! How are we doing with the 2014 New Year Resolutions?

"Social And Media" Q1 Review

1. Be social! Go out once a week.

I feel really good about this one. 60 West. Knob Creek. Firefly Fridays. Basa. The Back Door. Decca. The Garage. Papalino's. Mellow Mushroom. Paintball Asylum. Doc Crow's. Science Center. Boulder. Church!  I'm getting out. 

2. Make media! Create a work of art every other week.

I've created 7 - 1 more above my pace of 6!

3. Social media. Raising the self-imposed Internet ban! 

Still on Facebook. Still blogging (duh!). Still need to update my LinkedIn. Keeping at it though.

4. Social exercise. Run 300 miles.

According to MapMyRun.com, 73.88 miles. Wow, not bad since my pace over the course of the year should have me at 75 miles. I'm counting it. 

5. Read media. Finish reading a book every other month.

I should have read at least one book by now. I have not. I've read half of The Art of War... but it's such a short book. *blush*

6. Thrifty weekly spending. Spend less than "the magic number" per week on average weekly expenses. 

Welllllll, I'm only $25 over budget if you don't count this last week. I got a little nutty with some spending on golf gear yesterday. I suppose we really do have to count it so I'm $62 over. Oops! I gotta do better.

7. Do not touch the froggy. 

I'm going to make an addendum to this resolution, and by addendum I mean I am totally going to rewrite this. How about this instead?

7. I am not going to fall in love with anyone/anything that cannot love me back.

Succeeding so far.

The Walking Dead season finale

SPOILER FREE

This whole season of The Walking Dead (obligatory The Walking Dead link) has been top-notch. The finale was great. There have been 3 mind-blowing episodes (3 of the last 4) that I consider to be some of the best story telling on television - great character development and a fantastic job from the respective actors for delivering it. I cannot wait to see more!

Hearthstone Arena tutorials

Woke up feeling beat up. Definitely a day to chill at home.

A friend came over in the afternoon and helped me with some deck construction in Hearthstone, specifically the Arena builds. I am a sucker for the game Hearthstone right now (obligatory Hearthstone link). I can't get enough of it. But I'm not quite as good as I would like to be. So I picked up some good pointers and feel as if I learned a lesson or two. I'm ready for more action once the season rolls over March 31st.

Chick Pea also came over with nommy Cuban. Oh. Em. Gee. It hit the spot! She's the best. :)

Farewells

I experienced two farewells tonight. They occurred at the same time, more or less.

The first was watching UofL fall to UK in the NCAA tournament. As we were winding that party down, the Lord's kiddo, Junior, was begging me to let him go out. It was his last night of his internship before heading home. He said he wasn't going to make it back to the states soon so it was tough seeing him go. I hope he enjoyed his time.

Ease My Mind

In a
In a deep sleep
Awakened
By the dragons
Kept you hidden
Here with me
Was not prepared
For a dead end

Take me
Take me downtown
Tonight
I want to forget ()\
I want lights to
Blind me
I want beat
Want to disappear (to disappear)

Oh oh, DJ
Ease my mind, will you?
Play that song again
'Cause we were in love
Before
Before the rain began
And if I cry I
Cover my ears

Ease My Mind - Skrillex
(from DJ, Ease My Mind - Niki and the Dove)

Been in a funk

Work has been killing me. This month seems like a blur. Finished my project. Endured the IT Summit and the 24-hour (more like 40+ hour) Hackathon. Heading back out to Colorado next week for more work and play. Training for the mini was going well and then I stopped. Head testing continues. Made 4 hours of phone calls today to people like Roberta, Luis, and Carlos. Didn't get what I wanted but it did give me ideas. Filed my taxes tonight too. Ouch. The good news is that what I owe falls right in the middle of where I guessed. The bad news is that far too many zeroes are involved.

It's tough to do things. Life seems so heavy right now.

Nutty, crazy, sexy dream!!!!

I had the craziest dream this morning. It's weird, I warn you:

I was scuba diving with a grrrl and I had a huge fish captive in a small net. She and I were in radio contact. Not sure how that technology works these days but it was pretty clear in my dream. Anyway, the grrrl admitted that she was going to be ill. I told her to throw up in the water and I would let the captive fish "clean up". She removed her breather and "expelled" into the water. But then I had second thoughts about releasing the fish. And then I woke up and she was on top of me in my bed! Wham! The dream ended sooner than I would have liked after that.

Project continues.

The project

Started a big deal project this morning... full-stop, deep-dive, balls-to-the-wall... feels like the beginning of finals week. I hate stress like this but it is tempered by some good runs the last two days.

Fundays continue

'Nuff said.

Arcade Expo

Nothing takes me back to childhood and better days than the sounds of an active arcade. For whatever crazy reason it is musical to my earballs. ;)

It was a great time!

Firefly Friday continues!

Another Firefly Friday night out. It was a good night and one that I needed. Took a 4-hour nap this afternoon after a wonderful morning and emotional afternoon.

Blursday

This day was a complete blur. Resolution #7 is officially broken, that much I know for sure. :(

Angry 5 miles

Got my ass chewed out at work and ran an angry, fast-paced 5 miles during lunch. Grr!

Tuesday Q&A

Question:

What do these things have in common?

Chernobyl-level meltdown.
Magic.
Eggs and soysage and Lentil soup over basmati rice lunch.
Work > Play.
Pork chop and roasted brussel sprout and fresh green bean and roasted new/sweet potatoe and couscous with tomato and banana pudding dinner with baby Hudson!
Warm sheets out of the dryer and onto the bed.

Answer:

They were today. Wow.

Tiramisu and fried green tomatoes

Mmmmmmm!!!!!!!

(I'm home. Flight was on-time. Ran into a dear friend returning to Colorado as I was coming home. Conference call at the luggage carousel while the fire alarm is going off was a terrible idea. My father is a maniac driver. The roads are fine but there is no way I'm getting up that hill. Refreshing shower to clean away the grime. Sort laundry and it looks like a massive trash heap. Chick Pea came over with minty-lemon-tea-honey-bourbon drank and nommy food, including but not limited to the aforementioned title of this post. Mmmmmmm!!!!!!! Best ep of The Walking Dead ever! What great story telling (I mean, in a television setting with actors portraying characters based off a comic book)! Made a hilarious mess that required a full change of clothes. Thank you load of black clothes in the dryer! Tried to sleep but failed again.)

A-Basin

My snowboarding bonanza came to a close with a half-day of snowboarding at A-Basin. We hit the Montezuma bowl until lunch, where I got kinda hammered on 48 ounces of Pabst Blue Ribbon tall boys, at elevation and on an empty stomach. Woohoo!

So, I learned something about snowboarding in deep powder today. When you hit powder at high speeds it is unwise to make hard stops. Every time I did my tail would catch, I would lose my edge, and the mountain would flip me head over heels. I smacked my head pretty good once and then followed that initial impact with at least a couple of white-out cartwheels. I had to shake that one off for a bit. I spoke with theKim about it and she explained what I had already figured out - don't do that. :)

Ready to head home tomorrow although I heard the town is getting iced and snowed on by Winter Storm Titan. Here is hoping that the snow plows and de-icers are on their A game tonight and tomorrow.

Breckenridge

Spent the entire day snowboarding at Breckenridge. The conditions were nearly perfect. The slopes were empty until well after lunch. And the drinks during lunch were strong (and our server was super-duper cute). I had the best run of my life right after lunch. I felt like I was just gliding down the mountain. We made it back, started a fire, hung out in the hot tub, and now are just chilling on the couch in the living room. Will went back to Keystone for some more night skiing. Oh, the youth. It's going to be an early night for everyone. And I need it... I barely slept last night. My thoughts were racing, I sweated through my sleepwear and changed clothes, and I just listened to my heart pound in my ear for hours. A good night of sleep would be divine.