2011 Resolutions Finale

So where did 2011 go? 

It is hard for me to believe that it has been a year already. This year has certainly had its ups and downs but I think it was still a pretty good year. I am hoping for a better 2012 and I have a bunch of new goals/resolutions that I want to undertake, which I blogged about yesterday. And since I made new goals/resolutions, I should take a look back at the past year and see how I did.


Once again I will use the Mountain Dew LiveWire Rating System with 5 Dews being the best (meaning I totally nailed the goal) and 0 Dews meaning I totally flopped.


Resolution #1
"Take Time to Write More"
I completed both the ScriptFrenzy and Nanowrimo competitions. Unfortunately I didn't do much writing aside from that. I did do some minor edits in my Official Missionary Journal but that's all folks! I did alright with the blogging as well. Not as good as I wanted but I am at least still doing it. 

Resolution #2
"Read More"
The year started out really good. But then the wheels slowly came off the wagon. I did complete my goal of reading a book a quarter. I read all the Diary of a Wimpy Kid the first quarter, Mick Foley's Have A Nice Day the second quarter, Belinda Carlisle's Lipps Unsealed for the third quarter and I just finished (a day late) Ozzy Osbourne's autobiography I am Ozzy. I did manage to read the Ensign every month for the first three months but I failed the rest of the year. And I don't really want to bring up the scriptures, I did a really lousy job with that. At times I was breezing through the New Testament and then it would stall. I don't think I did a bad job but I could have definitely done better. 

Resolution #3
"Be Healthy"
My resolution stated that I would exercise 5 days a week and I think for the most part I succeeded. I know I missed some days and the month of December suffered a bit but I think I did pretty well. I rode my bike 8 miles to work almost daily, I played a lot of racquetball and I did my Total Gym too. Unfortunately due to my knee I was unable to run the 5K marathon. But on the other hand I did run a 1 mile race. For the most part I have eaten more healthier, I pay a lot more attention to serving sizes now and I have cut my soda consumption down quite a bit. I think for the most part I knocked this one outta the park!

Resolution #4
"Pick up a Pen and Draw!"
Uh oh. I have not done any type of art since the mid-point of the year. I have taken some time to do some doodling but that is about it. I didn't do any Queen-related art which I still want to do. Ugh, I failed on this one.

Resolution #5
"Play the Bass"
For the most part I played the bass pretty regularly. I wouldn't say every day but I know that I did it at least weekly. And I am slowly expanding all the songs that I can now cover. The other part of my resolution was to use my musical talents (and I use that term lightly) and look for more opportunities to sing. Now that I have done, I sang in my local Church choir and I have joined a few others as well. I can safely say that I killed this goal/resolution! 

Some of the time I feel like I am not accomplishing anything but then I take a long look (and blog about them) and I think I have done a pretty good job. And I do owe it to the blog, if I didn't have to list goals/resolutions and then have to own up to them, I doubt I would have done anything at all. 

2012 Resolutions

Kristy, Logan and I celebrated an early New Year with a glass of Ginger Ale at 9:00 PM, New Year's Eve. We did this so Logan could celebrate the New Year along with Kristy and I. We hoisted our glasses in the air and I made a toast. 

"Here is to a Happy 2013. I hope it is better than the last year."

Logan and Kristy immediately busted up with laughter. I guess I was getting a little ahead of myself. I think I wanted to skip making resolutions for 2012!

I really liked the format I used last year so I am doing it again. 

I RESOLVE...

• to go back to school and get an education. I am still not sure exactly what I will studying, I am going back and forth from Pharmacist to Paralegal. Either way, I will be heading back to school sometime this year.

I RESOLVE...

• to continue to read more. I think I will continue with reading a book every quarter and I am sure I can find more autobiographies or instructional books that I can read. Along with that I am going to try to read the Ensign magazine monthly again. Last summer we also had the cool opportunity to hear from Elder Bednar and he gave us all a neat promise that I am going to work on to fulfill. 

I RESOLVE...

• to continue exercising and trying to eat right. I will still continue to eat what I want but I am going to limit my portions more carefully. I still would like to run a 5K race but I am unsure how my knee will react. If all goes good, I will try to run the Top of Utah 5K. If that does not work I might run the 1 mile race at Logan's school again. I will continue with my walking DVDs, playing racquetball and going out for runs.

I RESOLVE...

• to actually do some drawing or some kind of art this year. Even if I do some rough sketches that would be good enough. I used to do some art while watching Lost a few years ago so I know that I have the time. I just need to get disciplined and do it. I still am highly interested in doing some Queen art. 

I RESOLVE...

• to continue to use and hone my musical talents. I will continue to play the bass guitar and participate in as many choirs and other singing opportunities. Along with that, I am also going to spend some time learning about music. I would like to get to the point where I can actually read music. 

I RESOLVE...

• to take the time to write more. I have a lot of projects that I need to edit and work on again. I will participate in the Nanowrimo competition again this November and I will give ScriptFrenzy a whirl again here in April. This time I think I might try out something completely different with ScriptFrenzy. I might do a TV show or a musical. I will also blog a bit more than I did last year. I might have to do a few more BlogBlitzes to accomplish that goal.          

I RESOLVE...

• to use my time wisely. I am going to shut off the TV at 9:00pm and spend an hour until bedtime completing my resolutions. So I can draw, read or practice music during this time. I am going to give myself a floating day or two where I can watch TV or a movie or something. Basically so I can veg out once in awhile. 

That should keep me busy this coming year. 

Resolutions Halftime

It has been six months since I made my 2011 New Year's Resolutions and even though I don't want to, I guess I should take a look at how I have done. I will rate myself using the Mountain Dew Rating System with 5 Dews being the best (meaning I totally nailed the goal) and 0 Dews meaning I totally flopped.

Resolution #1
"Take Time to Write More"
I did complete another ScriptFrenzy round but aside from that I have not taken the time to write anything else. I do have that children's book that I want to work on. And I really should complete my other novels and take some time to plot my new novel that I will be writing in November.

Resolution #2
"Read More"
The year started out really good. I read a couple of books during the first quarter and I read the Ensign every month for the first quarter. Unfortunately I am struggling this 2nd quarter. I am a little over halfway through my book (Mick Foley's Have A Nice Day) and I think I can finish it off before the end of the month. I have fallen off the wagon when it comes to the Ensign reading. I missed one month and I am behind this month. I have got a lot of reading to do these last couple of days!



Resolution #3
"Be Healthy"
I said I would exercise 5 days a week and I think I have been very close to doing that. I might have missed a day or two here but I can honestly say that I have been exercising a couple times a week. I have played racquetball, I have been riding my bike to work, I have been walking with Randy and I recently have been hitting the Total Gym. I can also honestly say that I have been careful in what I eat. I am definitely eating more healthier foods (more fruits and veggies) even though I still eat my share of treats. I have cut down my soda consumption as well. I still have time to train for my 5K and hopefully my knee will keep up. I think I hit this goal outta the park!

Resolution #4
"Pick up a Pen and Draw!"
Sadly I have not done as much with a pen as I would have liked. I have taken some time to do some doodling but that is about it. I still am interested in doing some art based on the songs of Queen but I have not done anything yet. Looks like I know what I need to do for the rest of the year.

Resolution #5
"Play the Bass"
I still have not learned how to read music but I still manage to pluck my bass a few times a week. Some of the songs I thought were difficult at first are now pretty easy. And some of the songs I am able to sing along with while playing which is way more difficult than you would think. My voice wants to follow the bass and the timing is off and most songs. I am also active in my choir.

I was thinking that I had not done so well with my resolutions but after looking and thinking about them, I think I have done a pretty good job (averaging about 3 Dew per goal). There are things that I definitely need to improve on and now I am feeling a bit motivated to work on them.

Should These Count?

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to read more. Instead of reading a novel once a month, I decided to read one once a quarter since I was adding some other reading goals too.

Now the month has not even ended and I have completed three books so far. And I started my fourth one this morning. Once I am done with that book, and I am thinking that it will be finished in just a few days (since I started and finished my third book yesterday).

But should I count them? I know they should count for at least something.

Logan at school has been coming home talking about this thing called the "Cheese Touch". He would talk about it all the time. So finally we convinced him to bring home this book that contains this so-called Cheese Touch. He brought home this book called Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Kristy started to read it and she laughed through it so I gave it a try. Now three of these diaries later, I am now starting my fourth one.

I have to admit that I really get a kick out of them. But then I also survived middle school. It seems like I have had some sort of the same experiences as this kid did. I would post some of my favorite parts but I don't want to ruin them. You really should check them out yourself. They are a fast and entertaining read. It totally made me remember what it was like to be that age.

If I count reading them then I will be finished with that goal by the time January ends. Hmmmm.... not sure what to do about it. I think I will count them as something but I am not sure what to count them as.

2010 Book Reviews

It has been awhile since I read these books so I hope that this review can still be worthwhile. Last year for one of my New Year's Resolutions I resolved to read at least one book a month (12 for all year) and review them for the blog.

My mom bought me Larry H. Miller's autobiography Driven for my birthday. Now I am not a huge supporter of the man. I do believe that he has done quite a bit for Utah but I did not see eye-to-eye on everything the man did. But I will say that his autobiography was fascinating. Driven is the perfect title for his book. His love of cars and his love of hard work are very apparent. His love of numbers was my favorite part of the book. Even though I do not agree with him all the time, I would love to work for him and I definitely respect the man. The chapters devoted to how the Utah Jazz came to Salt Lake were fantastic. He was also very honest in the book. He often regretted all the time he spent working and he regretted that he didn't spend enough time with his imperfect family. Miller is a man of integrity and I recommend this to any Utahn, any Mormon and any sports fan.





I finished my last book of 2010 reading the autobiography of Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Boy is she whacked out! But I still love her. In fact, I love her even more after reading this funny and quirky book. If you are a Star Wars fan, you definitely need to check this out. The whole bras-cannot-exist-in-space thing is absolutely hilarious. One thing that I appreciated while reading this is how upfront she is with all the craziness of being from a celebrity family. And I had no idea that she dated Paul Simon. I definitely learned something reading this book. I recommend this one to Star Wars fans and for those that love train wrecks.

My next books will be the Thomas S. Monson autobiography and then the Belinda Carlisle one.