Working on Resolutions for 2010

I love the beginning of a new year. Yes, it's still the Friday that follows a Thursday, but there's still something different about it. Mentally, it's a NEW year, which means I can slough off the old year and all the mistakes I made in 2009 and start fresh in 2010... a rebirth of sorts.

I've been contemplating what my resolutions will be for 2010 and have realized that all my resolutions fall into one of three (and usually ALL three) categories: money/finance, health/fitness and personal growth.

One thing that I completely let slide in 2009 that I think I'm going to pick back up for 2010 is logging all my game plays. It's not necessarily a "resolution," but I think it's something I'm going to re-start in 2010.

And looking back on 2009, I think the other non-resolution, but something I want to start back up is blogging! I've been lagging severely on that. I hardly posted anything in 2009. Mainly because I didn't want to blog about the guy I liked and that took up a lot of my mental energy. Now that that is over and done with, I feel the new year shining on my blogging soul!

At this point, I'm not going to go back and "catch up" on my old stuff, but just go forward from now.

Behind on blogging

I'm terribly behind on blogging. The last non-health-related post I was working on was that crazy 25 random things about me. Dave - I will get this posted soon. However, I'm not sure I can post it to Facebook. It seems too ancient at this point to do it. Although, with the new format, I'm not sure anyone will even notice it anyway. I hate how everything is so jumbled up. I especially hate that on the website you can't *just* get status messages, you have to go through the news feed and see everyone's quiz results. Although I bet there is a way to filter out the extraneous BS and just get status messages. I'll have to figure that out some other time. At least on the mobile version, I can still just get status messages.

Random Stuff

I'm feeling better. I have a cough, but in general, I'm feeling much better as of this morning... I'm going to get lots of sleep the next couple days and I'm packing cough drops and Dayquil for the trip, JUST IN CASE. Maybe going to Texas tomorrow will help because the fires are making the air so gross and it is NOT helping my cough. At. All.

I'm not sure how much time I'll have from blogging... hmmm... maybe some live blogging from the con? Anyway, I think I'm going to schedule some posts in advance of the con so that I am not worrying about the whole posting every day in November. Actually, I think it's just 30 posts in November, so I guess in theory I could post twice in one day to make up for a missing day!

I'm pretty much all packed up for BGG.CON, just going to stop by Trader Joe's in the morning to pick up a few snacks to take with me to the con and then to Greg's afterwards.

The couch surfer is leaving tomorrow morning. She seemed nice enough, but I can't imagine living so loose the way she does. More power to her, but living gig to gig is definitely not for me!

NaBloPoMo 2008?

I will try, but with my schedule lately, I don't know if I can guarantee a post every day, but it's a worthy goal. I've been meaning to post anyway. It should be interesting because I'm also trying to do Ramit's "Save $1,000 in a month" challenge! So, if nothing else, I can post about how that is coming along.

I encourage you all to check out his posts on the topic. If you haven't read his blog, it's definitely one of the more enjoyable personal finance blogs out there. Speaking of, I should probably update my blog roll...

White Water Rafting This Weekend

I've been very neglectful lately on the blogging. It seems I've barely had enough time to sleep lately, much less blog! Hopefully that will change by next week. I'm going on a trip this weekend, but after that, I'll be home for a shocking four weeks in a row! I'm really looking forward to a few weeks without flying off somewhere. It'll give me a chance to start thinking about Christmas! I feel like Christmas is right around the corner. Where did this year go?!

I'm a bit nervous (and excited) about my next trip. I'm heading out to West Virginia this weekend to do some very chilly, white water rafting. I've never gone rafting before, but it's something I've always been interested in doing. Whenever I've imagined it, I've pictured myself in my bikini, drinking beers on a toasty day on the river. I certainly didn't imagine wearing wool long underwear to keep warm because the water is in the 40s! My friend who went last year said she had a great time, so I'm keeping focused on that! I am already anticipating the sheer exhaustion that will undoubtedly come along with class four and five rivers. I'm just glad I'll have a helmet and a personal flotation device. My goal is to survive!

And as a related side note... On Monday, I made my first trip ev-er to REI. That place is a money pit. I bought some SmartWool long underwear and a sweater. The sweater retailed for $140!!! But it's super-cute and I can wear it hiking on Tuesdays and I love it. They gave me a coupon for 20% off, but even with that, I spent more on clothes than I did for the actual rafting trip. On the plus side, I'm stocked up on all the winter clothes I'll probably ever need for the rest of my life!


Quick update: Here's a video they sent out that shows (in warmer weather!) where I'll be this weekend. Also, I forgot to mention that this weekend is Bridge Day and there will be base jumpers hopping off local bridge that crosses the gorge. We'll get to watch from the water below!



More blogging to come next week... I'm sure there will be a boyfriend update in there somewhere! Until then...

Twitter

I'm a little late hopping on the Twitter train, but I'm trying it nonetheless! I added the badge to my blog and we'll see how it goes. I guess I've already been slowly adjusting to this type of thing by updating my Facebook status almost every day. Twitter seems to call for more frequent updates though. Luckily, I can update my status via text message! Hurray for unlimited text messages! Not only good for Twittering, but also for having a boyfriend who lives cross-country.

The upside is at least there will be these mini-updates all the time even when I don't have time to write up a full blog post! Should be helpful as I'm roaming around the country for the next two months. I think I'm home for about two weeks during the next two months. Good grief. I really *am* a maniac!

Heading to OrcCon

I'm headed out to OrcCon/Strategicon for the weekend. I have a handful of posts that I've halfway written up and maybe will finish sometime this weekend! I've been busy with work and socializing and haven't put much time into the blog lately. With my trip coming up next weekend, I'm not sure when I'll have time!

Webcam

One downside to having a long-distance boyfriend is that it means MUCH less face time! We do talk to each other pretty often, but that's clearly not the same as spending time together. To try to make up for that, we decided to buy matching webcams! We bought Logitech Quickcam Ultra Vision cameras. I received mine a couple days ago and he should receive his on Monday. Then we can give it a real try. So far, we've talked online where he could see me via Windows Messenger Live.

I've been having one problem though. I keep getting the blue screen of death! I updated the software and it didn't happen for a couple days until I was trying to stream some video on the blog tonight. Something in the software is causing it to do that, but I'm not sure what. I'm going to ask my computer guy when I see him next week to see if he has any suggestions.

I'm not planning on actually streaming video to the blog really, but I wanted to see how exactly it would work. Pretty cool!! I'm curious to see what it's like talking with him when I can see him. Now I'll have to worry about what I look like even when I'm lounging around at home!

NaBloPoMo 2007

I tried this last year and it didn't work so well, but that isn't stopping me from trying it again this year! It should be easier now that I have web access on my cell phone! That way, when I'm out of town for BGG.CON, I can still post!

The way I see it, between my new Xbox, a new GH, Rock Band coming out later this month, dating, cooking, and catching up on posting about Essen/Europe, I should have PLENTY to write about. Now let's just see if I can be remotely disciplined about it!

Lots of stuff to do tonight

Yesterday, I made a coffee date for tonight with a guy I met online. Other than that, I have a TON of stuff to do tonight. My apartment is loaded with games and I am terribly behind on blogging about the trip. I'm so tempted to get a laptop sometimes. Is there a way to rent them? That would've been great to have one with me. I could've written about stuff while on the train and then just posted it later when I got to an internet cafe.

I arrived home on Sunday with almost nothing to do for the next week and now I have five straight days of gaming lined up! It seems that having games from Essen can make me a very popular girl! :-)

I started writing up some posts about my trip and I think what's going to happen is that they are going to be posted out of order. I'm starting with Essen since that's freshest in my mind. But it's somewhat slow going because work is really busy right now. I'm hoping to get something posted tonight in between cleaning and laundry. And I really want to post pictures with the posts. I haven't even looked through all 627 pictures yet! I'm getting on it though. I have to, because Wednesday starts the game fest that is my life.

What about the blog?

I had some friends over last night for a party games night. #5 was coming a little late and I was telling everyone, "All right, everyone be nice to him!" and someone said, "What his name anyway?" I told them and a couple of them said, "OK, gotta remember to call him that and not 'number 5.' " I was like, "NOOOOO, do NOT call him that. And don't mention the blog!"

Question: What?! He doesn't know about the blog?
Answer: No, he does not.
Question: Why?
Answer: It hasn't come up.

It's not like this blog is a secret, but it hasn't come up in conversation yet. I haven't necessarily avoided or purposely omitted the topic, I just haven't actively brought it up, mainly because I don't feel like it's a "big" part of my life or anything. Also, I kind of am still feeling like, maybe this one won't really turn into anything, so why even bother saying anything to him about it? I figure this is like classified info. I'll tell him on a "need to know" basis. :-)

I don't write anything super personal about the relationship or him, so really, I don't think it's a big deal. I wonder if he'll think it's weird though. I think it would be different if I shared all the mixed up feelings I have at different points about him. In general, I try to stick to the positive. So far, nothing majorly negative has popped up, just minor stuff that kind of bothers me. But I haven't said anything to him about it yet because I kinda feel like it might be me, so I'm trying to be rational. Which can be challenging at times. Sometimes parts of my brain just wanna do their own thing and I have to rein them in.

Oh! And it seemed like he fit in just fine with my friends and he enjoyed himself. Everyone seemed to like him. I think he would go to another games night!

Lotsa hits

I was going to make a post announcing that I had reached 5,000 hits like a week or two ago and I just forgot about it. I just looked at the stats tonight and I'm already over 5,500! I guess with more content, it seems like my blog is getting more and more search action.

The most popular searches are related to:

• 1 vs. 100,
  
• my Mega Menu Mailer endeavor and
  
• Baked potatos