This is it, the final day of 2011 – New Years Eve! My final goal for the new year:
Weight Loss
Lord have mercy, how many times have we all thought about or tried to lose a couple of pounds? Well, here’s my latest attempt, friends. My goal is looking something like this – by February 10, 2012, I hope to be at least 20 pounds slimmer. By July of this year (the mid-year mark) I hope to see 50 pounds shed. And by next Christmas, I’ll be happy with a total loss of 100 pounds. This is my number one goal for the new year because I know it will also be the hardest. I’m going to give it my best, though.
Happy New Year to each of you. Be safe, have a great night and a fantastic new year in 2012. See you on the other side!
I realize I’m running a little late in the day for this one, but there is still two days left until 2012. Today (tonight) I present to you my second Goal of the New Year:
Be Debt Free (Except for the House)
A very personal goal for my wife, son and I, being debt free is something that is very much within our reach. By May of 2012, I believe everything but my wife’s car will be paid off. And by October of 2012, even her car will be paid off completely, leaving only our house, which I plan on tackling at the rate of at least one extra payment every 4 months. Perfectly do-able, as long as we stay on track and do not lose focus.
Three days ’til the New Year, 2012. Resolution/Goal #1 for me is: (drum roll)
Be Nice.
To expand on those two words, I plan on “being nice” by smiling more, arguing less and nix’ing the negative influences in my life. There is no long term goal for this one, I plan on going cold turkey. For every negative I’m giving, I’ll dig until I find some bright spot and then run with it. That’s the plan anyways. Also, no more back talk or getting in my 2-cents worth of advice or opinion on subject that, really and truly, doesn’t require any input from me. Smile and nod.
The end of 2011 is near. In three short days we will cross over into the LAST YEAR OF OUR LIVES! according to the true believers. End of the world type stuff, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria. I may be wrong, but let’s just chill out for a few minutes here and enjoy it for what it is: another year of excitement and adventure – or peace and tranquility depending on your likes and dislikes. I honestly do not believe 2012 will be the year it all ends, but I do believe we are going to see some weird @#$% because of the nut jobs that do believe it will.
With the above in mind, and if your own beliefs about what our future holds allows, I ask you this: Have you made any New Years Resolutions yet? I’m not really big on resolutions. By proclaiming something as my resolution then I am automatically setting myself up for a bigger disappointment if I fail. So, I counter the resolution by making small goals for myself and spacing them throughout the year. This gives me something to work for and build on all year long, gives me time to accomplish each goal individually, and as I reach each milestone, I am rewarded for achieving it, yet also know I still have work ahead of me to meet the next step in my plan.
To answer my own question, though, with three days left, I haven’t made any resolutions/goals yet. Too much going on at home right now to focus on setting those long term goals. Both with distant family relative issues (on the wife’s side) to wondering what is going to happen at work in the new year to come. And, I suppose I might as well throw it out there, I also need to go to the doctor because of some health issues I seem to be having. Could be nothing but my imagination, but I’ve put off finding out long enough. Oh, and jury duty. Can’t forget the joys of receiving that little piece of paper in the mail either.
I’ll have a goal before January 1st, I’m sure, even if it is just one. I always have something. Just not sure what it will be.
One of the best things about holidays is the food, especially the desserts! There is no picture attached to the following recipe, but just reading the ingredients makes me drool a little. Oreos, chocolate, butterscotch, toffee – COME ON PEOPLE! I need to make these ASAP.
To see what I am talking about, visit Kraft Foods at the link that follows: Ultimate Seven-Layer Bars
Finding things to do with your kids doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Money doesn’t even have to be factored in! Check out the link I will post below and follow it to the fine blog: Domestic Simplicity, where you will find 50 great suggestions on activities to do with your children as we go into the holiday season.
Please visit: Domestic Simplicity – Merry Making: 50 Things to Do With Kids in December
Before continuing with this post, let me say that if you do not know what Spotify is, please go here: What is Spotify?
Put simply, Spotify is a free music service with premium offers as well for those that want to pay for some pretty cool features. If you want to put up with some audio and banner ads from inside the software, you are allowed to listen to a huge library of music from nearly every artists you can imagine. You can create playlists, star your favorites for easy access later, share what you are listening with on popular social media sites, add your media to theirs as searchable content, and it will even sync songs to your iOS device! This last part will only sync your own music unless you pay for Spotify premium, which will allow you to sync songs from their library as well. And the selection is pretty recent, the Michael Jackson Millennium Collection, for example or Justin Bieber’s Christmas cd is already up there, and you can listen to the entire cd for free.
Spotify and its large library of songs has allowed me to construct my own Christmas Playlist this year (without having to buy it all!) There are ads between every other song, but they’re only a few seconds long. Now, all this just to share with you my small but growing Christmas Tunes playlist via Spotify. The reason I’m sharing it this year is because I’m really digging the Christmas music on the radio this year. Everyone else around me seems to be in a bah humbug mood as far as radio stations playing 24-7 holiday tunes this year, but I’m loving it.
Regardless of everyone else being down in the dumps, the following songs are some of my favorites.
- Christmas Canon Rock – Trans-Siberian Orchestra
- Sleigh Ride – She & Him
- It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas – Michael Buble’
- Last Christmas – Wham!
- The Entire MercyMe “The Christmas Sessions” cd
- It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
- Gloria
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
- Christmas Time is Here
- Silent Night
- Away
- Little Drummer Boy
- I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
- O’ Holy Night
- Joseph’s Lullaby
- Angels We Have Heard on High – Third Day
- A Mad Russian’s Christmas – Insturmental – Trans-Siberian Orchestra
- I’ll Be Home for Christmas – Josh Groban
- Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town – Bruce Springsteen
- Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Frank Sinatra
- Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys
Starting this topic, I honestly do not know why it hasn’t crossed my mind before. Apps are an every day part of life for so many people that I couldn’t imagine not having access to them. Quick and convenient solutions right in the palm of our hands.
With apps (short for applications) we have on us at all times instant weather reports, movies, television, games, task schedulers, medical information and diagnosis, social media networks, news, stocks, city guides — you name me anything and we can find an app for it.
I suppose apps are like anything else, though. What a person uses will be based on their individual tastes. Some might prefer to pay a little extra to get a better app or one with more features. I can understand, I’ve bought a couple myself. But mostly I go with the free stuff. That being said, what apps do you use everyday?
My list includes:
Facebook
Echofone ( a Twitter client)
Nook (mobile ebook reader)
GetGlue (social media check-ins)
Redbox
Netflix
FeeddlerRSS (rss subscriptions)
Wordpress
Goodreads (printed media social app)
Tiny Tower
Not a huge list compared to most, but they get daily use on my iPhone. What do you use? More business oriented apps, entertainment apps? No matter your interest, there is something for everyone.
Categories: Apps, Books, Browsing the Web, Casual Posting, Entertainment, Games, Holiday, Music, Organizations, Podcasting, Technology
Tags: Android, Apps, IPhone
I present to you Saturday’s project: Outdoor Christmas Decorations. Our lights are up, and while it doesn’t look like much considering how much time and energy we threw in to it, I consider it an accomplishment. As long as nothing blows up, catches fire or starts shooting fireballs, I’ll call it a success!
I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We stuffed ourselves, had a great time with family and friends and are now relaxing at home.It is an extended weekend for many, including myself, and the time is being spent hanging out, watching movies and playing games. Nothing productive going on here, folks!
My wonderful wife and her mother went out on their 4th annual Black Friday mission last night. They left around 9:00 PM, headed to Wal-Mart for their first sale event that began at 10. My boy and I stayed home, popped some popcorn, sipped some Dr Pepper and watched Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, and played Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga on the PS3. Our son has just gotten into the whole Star Wars thing and absolutely loves the Lego version of the characters. He was super excited last night because we told him he could stay up as late as he could stand it. I finally caved at 2:00 AM and told him if he went to bed we would get up early and go have breakfast somewhere.
So, at 8:30 this morning we got up, got ready and went to Shoney’s with my mom to enjoy their fabulous breakfast buffet. The Wife joined us shortly after we got there. It is a new record, being done with their shopping that early. Last year they didn’t get home until 3 the next afternoon! Tonight – not having any of those pesky left overs – we picked up some KFC to snack on and The Wife and I are about to wrap presents. I also watched the new Conan: The Barbarian movie today. I was surprised that I liked it. Do not always believe all those negative reviews you see online or hear on television from half-assed movie critics. The only real problem I saw with the movie was that, in action scenes especially, there was a delay when they switched a scene – as if the actors were just standing there waiting for the right moment to begin the next take. Over all, though, I enjoyed the story, the acting wasn’t that horrible and the action was a tad bit over the top, but fit perfectly into the fantasy-type world of Hyboria.
Tomorrow … well, I’ll have to talk about tomorrow when it gets here. If anyone who visits my site or receives updates when I make a new post has noticed, I deleted my previous blog post. I’ll explain that tomorrow – I hope. Nothing bad to report, just correcting my own rush to make a purchase and hoping for the same fantastic support from a local store.
