...

BOO!

Fuck off, 2009.

I refuse to be the kind of person who allows themselves to have 'bad days.' I just don't believe in the concept. I think that when someone decides that they're having a bad day, they've made a decision to fail. They decided that things are too challenging, and their way of dealing with it is to give themselves a free pass to be a total piece of shit to everyone around them the rest of the day, and then scream aloud that it's justified, because they're having a 'bad day.'

That's bullshit. By refusing to have 'bad days,' I hold myself to a certain standard, and I don't let myself slip into negative thinking.

But that's bullshit, too. I've been eating more this year, drinking more this year, smoking more this year, and I haven't been a good friend to a lot of people. I allowed myself to make this year bad. I got too concerned with showing signs of weakness, and somehow fell into the belief that if I acted like nothing was wrong, nothing would be wrong.

Anyway, BLAH BLAH BLAH, I did my best to make myself crazy and thus make myself even fatter and sicker. Awesome. That all stops. Now.

I'm putting my goals for 2010 on here for all to see, in an effort to make it more embarrassing if I fail, as an extra motivator.

 - I am going to stop night-snacking. I have a terrible urge to eat while I read or watch stuff at night. It's a terrible habit, and it pisses my wife off.
 - I need to stop snacking altogether. It serves no good purpose, and is a big part of the problem.
 - I need to make smaller portions available to myself, and thus eat less at each meal.
 - I want to drop 50-100 pounds this year.
 - I am going back to not drinking at all on nights that are before work or school days.
 - I am going to quit smoking.
 - I am going to give Fallout 3 one more shot, since so many smart people have such stupidly high opinions of it.
 - I am going to find a way to enjoy exercise.
 - I am going to force my family to be more active.
 - I would like to finish my graduate degree in 2010.
 - I would like to publish another book in 2010.

Making exercise fun is going to be hard. When you're as fat as I am, it seems like it just can't be fun. I used to be a mega-athlete, so I know where these exercise addicts are coming from, I do, but shut the fuck up.

One thing I was thinking about that might be kinda cool is exploring the area in which I live on foot, while using a GPS. I would turn the directions off, and only use the map to navigate. Then, at least, I'm using my brain as well. I'd say, 'hey, I wanna see if maybe my sprawling neighborhood has a road that connects to Street X,' then I'd navigate by the GPS on foot, and see if I can find a route. Sounds interesting to me, at least.

I'm also going to give 'gaming while on the treadmill' another shot. I also like shooting hoops.

So, anyway, while I'm really disappointed in how much I let myself down in 2009, I can pull my shit together and make 2010 the year in which you motherfuckers BOW to me.

What about you all? Any thoughts on 2009? Any plans for 2010?

-Blaine

PS - Don't forget to check out our gaming blog & podcast over at Untitled Gaming!

Random Things

So now that I've had plenty of time to come down from the rush of this past semester, I've been slowly getting a move on things I'd been putting off.

I was WAY too happy when I migrated my music/iTunes directories on my main HDD into a single iTunes directory on my second HDD in my huge gaming laptop and pared it all down from 80GB to 50GB. I moved the .xml files and everything without having a single issue, which I was VERY happy with. I wanted to high-five myself, then hand myself a beer. If you had any interest in doing this yourself, I found a GREAT walkthrough here.

I'm also WAY too pumped for the Nook I'm getting tomorrow. Acquisition Day is always a reason for joy, but I'm a junkie for gadgets, and I think that ebooks are a great thing. Cutting down on paper consumption is a great way to reduce the number of trees that are cut down, which also has the benefit of angering pro-hate terrorist zealots.

Plus, being able to take my collection of books down from something that nearly fills a huge basement to the something that fits onto the Nook is very appealing. 

I've been using the B&N ereader on my netbook for a while, and while I've really enjoyed that, I'm pumped to have a super-thin, super-light device that specializes in the ebook stuff.

Additionally, since I can import .pdf files into it, I've been prepping .pdf versions of a lot of the strategy guides I've purchased in the past so that I can load them on it for easy access. I've also been doing the same with a lot of the novels I've purchased in the past. Additionally, I've been buying ebooks from the B&N store for a while, so it'll be cool to load all those on there, as well, which will be easily accomplished via the persistent 3G connection.

I'll be getting some Blu-Rays, as well. I'm hoping and praying for the Battlestar Galactica Blu-Ray set, but we'll see.

I'm not expecting anything on the gaming front, since I never really ask for them, since any game worth owning is already in my position.

Anyway, I want everyone to have a great Acquisition Day, and while you're getting sick of your family, be sure to check out our new gaming, Untitled Gaming, and be sure to check out the new podcast when it goes out this weekend on the blog!

-Blaine