Rambling to follow later, and goals for now

OK, I just about finished the trip report - and it's clocked in at 11 pages and over 4000 words and no happy pictures yet to be added.

I think I'll be breaking it up into multiple posts and start putting them up tonight and tomorrow.

For now, though, since I already reviewed the goals from 2008, let's lay some out for 2009.

1. I will not make any resolutions with regards to my weight or diet. I am too damn stressed to worry about what this fast food might do to me. Besides, I actually went 30 days without fast food last year and lost a grand total of...ZERO POUNDS. So, diet isn't really going to change things. There are more important things to worry about in our lives than how many calories this milkshake has. In general, try not to stress so much about little things like food - though it can easily extend to other things as well.

2. Be a little more active, working out in some way at least once a week. One good thing about my current class schedule, if I keep it, is that it requires me to do two half-mile walks each day of class to go across campus. If nothing else, it is some forced exercise, and it beats laying on the couch.

However, that brings me to goal #3:

3. Graduate in 2009 in the Spring OR FALL semester. I had planned on taking four classes this Spring, but now I might not decide to take all four this term. I have until tomorrow to decide.

The past few months have been incredibly trying and stressful. There are pros and cons to both finishing out in the Spring, and taking two classes each in the Spring and Fall and graduating in December. I still have not decided, as there are just so many factors at work (family, time, work, money, stress, etc.) that this probably requires its own post after I do everything else tonight.

4. Go to a Blogger Gathering. I'm thinking about the Summer Vegas gathering, especially if I do finish all my classes this term. But I'm going to do one this year, dammit.

5. Give more to church and charities. Since we've been getting more involved in the St. Joseph's, we've really tried to be better about what we give. Hopefully circumstances will allow us to give a greater percentage in 2009 to match the time we already contribute.

6. Become a better writer. I occasionally have some good posts and articles up, but a lot of the time I fall into lazy habits, both here and elsewhere. I really would like to work on doing a better job and writing some more interesting content, though I'm not really sure where to find the time to really put in some work on it.

7. Clear at least $6,000 in net winnings at the tables this year. 2008 was a bit meh, but still barely positive thanks to Full Tilt and BoDog at the end of the year erasing some tilt losses from Beau Rivage. I want to get to the point of being able to make at least $500 a month, from both live and online poker play, to pull out for paying off other expenses or beginning to re-establish some kind of savings after a woebegone 2008.

I'm not going to differentiate between ring games and tourneys, online or live, Sit-and-goes or MTT's, bloggerments or circuit events. I'll do that later. But yes, I am resolving to play MORE in 2009, but also to play better and avoid the crazy monkey tilt I am prone to do.

8. No matter what the level of winnings, donate 50% of all poker winnings to Susan G. Komen, UT Cancer Center, and Avon Breast Cancer research. More on the reasons for this to follow later tonight, but it's more than just the work we did here for the Atlanta Making Strides Walk.

9. Whether on this site or on Examiner, do at least one post or article a day. Between this site and Examiner I did almost 500 real posts in 2008 (not counting adposts which I am not choosing to do anymore.)

Hopefully a few more in 2009 can actually be decent. Of course, I'm not declaring this one ready to go until right about...now. 2008 turned out to be a very beneficial year for me on this in ways I hadn't imagined at the beginning of the year, so hopefully it can continue.

10. Keep the house clean and tidy - because this is an area where we fall behind way too easily. Other things build up, and we let normal chores go, and before we know it the house looks like a tornado hit it. If we try harder on this (OK - if I try harder on this) perhaps we won't feel so stressed out about everything else going on.

OK, that's a good enough list for now, and it covers multiple areas of my life. Besides, I'm already at a thousand words. I think that's plenty to get a good picture of where I want to go this year.