New Goals Page

Added my goals for 2010 on a nice page in the top nav bar.  It covers pretty much every goal I can think of off the top of my head.  It has a good amount, so I'm hoping I can get at least 75% of it done.

The first 10 days of 2010

While mulling about at work today, I've been constantly thinking about how the first several days of the year have gone.  Just over a week ago, I committed myself to one overarching goal for the year: To be more determined.  That is not terribly specific, but I broke it down into a few sub-categories: To be more productive and more efficient.  Both of these things take determination to get past my previous lazy state.

For a long, long time, I never really cared about what I did with my life.  I went with the motions, yet had some nice ambitions.  Well I don't want my dreams to remain dreams.  Somewhere along the line, I figured out that if I wanted to do something, I had to work a lot harder for it than I had thought.  It's the kind of spark that most successful people have, but it can take time to acquire it.  I don't want to say that I've acquired that spark, but I know that some day it will come, and I want to be fully prepared for it.

To be more productive

Being more productive to me is just like it sounds: to get a lot of things done, especially in the creative field.  Last year I managed to make a game (technically anyway, I didn't invent the game, and it only took 10 hours to code), and almost finish two novels.  But it's more than just creating.  I fully intend to do that too, hopefully make an original game and have a publishable version of at least one of my novels, plus write another one during NaNoWriMo this year.  But this also includes consuming as much media as I can.  My backlog of games, shows, and movies, is horrendous, and I'm hoping that this year I will end with less than when I started.

To be more efficient

This is really the sticking point for me.  I can be productive when I want to, but what I really have trouble with is wasting time.  I tend to spend a lot of time doing useless things.  Surfing the Internet, checking sites I've already visited a dozen times that day, that is one of the big ones.  Also those times where I just sit and think about what I should be doing without actually doing anything.  Those need to cease.  I also have a big problem with doing things promptly, taking care of them before they become a problem.  These mostly involve various chores, like doing the dishes or cleaning the apartment.  So no more procrastinating over stupid things either.  That's what I mean by efficiency, no idle time and get things done when they need to be done.

The first 10 days

So in regards to the first 10 days of the year, I obviously haven't completely changed myself, but the results so far have me very pleased.  Here's a small breakdown of the things I've been doing lately.

• Getting up early - Back when I first started working, I did a pretty good job of getting up at 6am everyday in order to get to work early so that I could also leave early.  Somewhere along the line I lost that ability and kept getting up later and later.  Eventually it got to anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour later than I wanted to get up.  So far this year, been getting up on time and actually not feeling terrible when I do.
• Working out - During the last third of 2008, I was on an intense workout regimen that succeeded in all areas I wanted it to.  I lost a good 20 lbs of fat and added on a lot of muscle.  But then near the end of the regimen I messed up my elbow pretty badly.  Because of that, I couldn't do most of the tricep exercises any longer on that arm.  I stopped doing the regimen, and haven't really gotten back into working out since.  So far this year, I have worked out everyday that I intended to, and love the feeling I get from doing it.  Elbow is still messed up so I can't be too intense, but hopefully that will also get resolved this year.
• Wardrobe makeover - One of my goals this year was to rework my wardrobe, since my clothing has tended to be pretty bad.  Not that I dress like a slob or anything, it's just that I'm still dressing the way I did in high school with some additions.  Heck, half of my clothing was from that period of my life.  This had to change, especially with so much of it falling apart on me.  So far this year, I have replaced my whole under garment collection, gotten rid of all my torn clothing, gotten two new pairs of shoes (which I love), a new coat (which I love), two jackets (which I love), a new belt (which I don't love, but it looks nicer than the old dangly one), new pants (need time to adjust), and other minor things.  All in all, I've probably spent more money on clothes this year so far than I have the rest of my life combined.  How's that for change?
• Add variety to my eating - This is something I've been working on for a while, but now it's going to be even more important since I've decided to commit to the Paleolithic diet, for a few months at least.  The only thing I really added to my eating last year was wine, which I've come to find is pretty nice at times.  Now for the rest of it, I need to stop eating like a college student, which is to say, having the same things over and over again.  So far this year, I have completely switched up my breakfasts, my morning snacks, my dinners, and my late night snacks (if necessary).  Lunch and afternoon snacks are going to be largely the same since they were already just salads and fruit.  I have more cooking equipment now, so I'm excited to see what kinds of things I'll be able to do in the future.

Those are all the major things.  My only real goal with these is to keep them going long enough to the point where they become habit.  I admit that with my schedule the way it is, taking time out of my evenings to work out and do chores, it doesn't leave me with a lot of time to do things that I want to do.  Well, so be it.  As time goes on, I've come to realize more and more that most of the things that I have done to kill time do not benefit me in any way.  If it turns out that I spend so much time doing necessary things that I don't have time to watch something before bed, oh well, there's always tomorrow.

After this gets posted, I'm also going to make a separate page that contains my whole list of goals for the year.  This way I can remind myself what I want to do, as well as give updates on what I have done.

Some changes for 2010

Hey people who actually read this, it's 2010 now and there are going to be a few changes to this site.  Mostly just to the part you're reading now.

As is usually the case, I have started yet another blog, and no matter how much I try to keep on top of it, I will inevitably slip.  This has happened here as it does with every blog I've ever tried to do.  The last weekly update was three weeks ago, and at this point, I can't remember all I've done since then.  So you know what, I'm not even going to bother!

Yes yes, the main change here is that the weekly update stuff is going away.  But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm not going to post stuff here.  No no, that will continue.  But instead of trying to do a weekly all-encapsulating blurb, the updates will be more focused, just to talk about things that have interested me recently.  They could certain be movies or TV I've watched, perhaps a game I just finished playing, or maybe even just commentary on a current event.  I remember that back in the old days of the Realm (and the Murph Mafia, circa 2002), people who actually read the shit I posted liked it because I would just rant about things, mostly teachers.  I kinda want to go back to a model like that.  Just speak freely about what I think is interesting.

With that, here's a couple things on my mind right now.

Carl Sagan's Cosmos

Originally filmed back in 1980, this 13 episode show won many awards, which is quite amazing considering it is 100% an educational show.  But really, it is well deserving of those accolades.  Being too young to watch it originally, I had never seen any of it until recently.  The idea to watch it came from some like-minded people on a forum I frequent, and they tend to post Youtube clips from the show, or on occasion, a clever remix of clips set to music.  I'm very glad that I did.

I'm certainly no dummy when it comes to science.  I am an engineer after all and I had my fair share of biology, chemistry, and physics, plus other general sciences.  But what was really great about this show is that it's not just about the science.  It's not just about the universe and astronomy, though it is the main theme.  It is also about history.  It absolutely blew me away to learn that some of the most respected philosphers of all time were actually some of the first influencial people to stamp out the precursers to modern science.  It infuriates me beyond measure to think of how advanced we could be right now if the library at Alexandria hadn't been burned down, if the Christians hadn't taken over, if superstitious BS hadn't squashed the idea of the scientific method.  It took two millenia to recover from those horrible mistakes.

And even beyond that, the show is full of the unsung heroes that created modern science.  Take Kepler for example.  When most people think of astronomy and those who were persecuted for thinking that the Earth was round, and it circled the sun, not vice versa, most people automatically think of Galileo.  Why is that though?  Compared to Kepler, Galileo was an amateur, and they lived during the same time.  But nobody really knows about him, even though Kepler is really the person who founded modern astronomy, and laid some of the foundations for physics well before Newton.  And the show is just full of anecdotes like this.  Absolutely wonderful.

The show is not perfect, it is quite old now, and Carl is a bit heavy handed on some topics (see mankind's imminent destruction, but I forgive him since it was the Cold War when it was taped), but the information is still way better than most people will ever get.  Highly recommended.  As of right now, it is still on Netflix streaming, which is how I watched it.

The Paleolithic Diet

So one of the things that I did recently was watch Super Size Me.  Most of the information in it didn't surprise me since a lot of it is well known at this point.  Still shocking yes, and some of the conclusions don't sit that well with me, but it was entertaining at least.  This doesn't really relate to what I want to discuss.

My best friend has been talking about this Paleolithic diet for a while now, and from what I've seen it certainly seems to be working for him.  He's always been skinnier than I, but I could tell that recently he's put on more bulk, while staying thin.  The diet, from his description, is only marginally different from my own, which is a med-carb, high-protein/fat diet.  Anyway, as a way to pass time at work, I decided to do more research on the diet.

Some of this stuff really blew my mind.  Especially when I read about the toxins that are generally found in grains, potatoes, and other starchy foods.  I honestly never really realized that it is true that all of those foods have to be cooked before they can be eaten.  I was like, "Hmm, I don't really make bread, but it does have to baked.  I also bake potatoes, and steam rice."  And I went down the list, and I was like, "Well, that is rather interesting."

And then came more information about how this sort of diet has been known for 150 years.  Forget Atkins, the Paleolithic diet has been helping overweight and obese people since the 1800s.  The more I read, the more it made sense, and the more I felt like I should give this a try.

So starting soon, I'm going to be switching over to this new diet, as well as getting back into working out on a daily basis.  You can add this as a sub-resolution for the new year.

That's all for now, and as far as updates are concerned, this is really a weight off my chest.

12/14/09

Man, it feels like it's been a long time since I posted one of these.  Two weeks really.  I probably wouldn't have even done it today if I weren't so damn bored at work.  I don't know, it's hard to want to keep doing something that you know no one cares about.  Though dozens of people may read my novel, no one cares about little blog posts about what I've done the last week or two.  Yet, I do it anyway.

Last movie watched: Watchmen

I'm pretty sure this was the only movie I watched in the last couple weeks.  If I did watch something else, it wasn't worth mentioning.  Watchmen, however, is worth mentioning, cause it's pretty damn good.  Like many others, I've read the original comic, but unlike many others, I didn't care much for it.  Probably just a thing of having it too overhyped, and I found it to be decent at best.  I recognize the influences it has had on so many other works, but it just never grabbed me.  I ended up liking the movie much more, mostly because it had an ending that made sense.  Also, it didn't get itself bogged down in exploring the characters that have little to say (which is most of them to me).  Very well paced, extremely awesome fight and action scenes, and it did feel like the comic in the same way that Sin City did.  I'll probably end up picking this one up just for the style and fights.

Last TV show watched: Penn & Teller's Bullshit Season 5

Again, like season 4, just watched it because it's streaming on Netflix.  Same good old stuff.  I definitely liked how this season brought up some things that I'd never really thought about before.  It also has good examples of how they really don't represent one side over the other, it's mostly just common sense to intelligent people.  I pretty much ended up agreeing with them on every topic this time around, which season 4 did not do to me.

Last games finished: Call of Duty 4, Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

Neither of these are really worth talking about since they're both replays for me, and obviously I did them because I like playing them.  Both are just nice short games that don't require a lot of thought, FF:MQ in particular.  I still can't get that final dungeon theme out of my head.

Current PS3 games: Uncharted 2, Red Faction: Guerrilla, PixelJunk Shooter

Now that I have time again, I can play multiple games in a day.  Working through Uncharted 2 on the hardest difficulty, so once that's done with, I can put it to rest for a long while.  About 1/3 way through that one.  Secondly, also jumped back into Red Faction and have been grinding into that.  Although the game itself is pretty fun to play, it is starting to show a lot of its repetitiveness, and that's kind of turning me off to it.  Still, I'm over half way through it now, so there's no point in quitting yet.  I just might not go for 100% like I had originally intended.

But I also got a new game, PixelJunk Shooter, which came out last week.  The verdict is still out on this one in terms of how much I like it, but the first impressions are good.  Based on the trophies listed, it seems there are 15 levels, and I've done 6 so far.  The game is a bit harder than I had assumed.  I haven't managed to get 100% on anything in any level yet, which means a lot more plays to complete them.  I like the concept and level designs, but the controls are a little lacking.  Specifically I don't feel the aiming is precise enough, and doing spins is harder than it should be.  Otherwise it's a good little game, and it's easy to pick up for 15 minutes to just do a level.

Current DS game: Chrono Trigger

Yep, still working on this.  Looking at a guide, I realize that I'm a lot closer to the end than I had realized, and if that's true, it's not as long of a game as I had once thought.  I suppose it's just weird for me because most of my RPG gaming was during the PS1 days, when a fully played out game would take 70+ hours.  Even the shorter RPGs I've played take 30 hours or so to do full completes.  Really, FF:MQ has long been the shortest RPG I've played, and that's 10 hours to get a 100%.  Chrono Trigger is probably longer than that, but it doesn't really feel like it has been.  Maybe it's just because of the lack of grinding compared to most games of its type.  And the sad thing is I still don't like it that much.  I feel like I'll enjoy it more on the New Game+ playthroughs since I will just be wiping the floor with enemies at that point.  Again, it probably suffers from overhype.

Next week is Christmas week, and I couldn't be more stoked to take a huge chunk of time off work.

Seraph: The Fall of Celes posted

My very first novel, Seraph: The Fall of Celes, has been posted on this website for all to enjoy!  Please give it a read and submit your feedback if you wish to comment or ask questions.  Keep in mind that it is a first draft and was written in 35 days, so it will have grammar/spelling errors and may not make sense in places.  I'm just proud of what I was able to do, and I think it's a good story, so I hope you will too.  Enjoy!

Just click Writings, then Seraph: The Fall of Celes to access the story.