So I’ve been making New Years Resolutions since 2011. Every year, I make new resolutions, and every year, I keep doing more and more awesome things. (As in, I’m doing more things, and the things I’m doing are more awesome.) And every year, I promise to do even more awesome things the next year, and those promises are what drive my New Years Resolutions.<\/p>\n
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To give you all a refresher, you can find my Retrospective\/Resolutions posts for 2011<\/a>, 2012<\/a>, and 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n Just like last time, before we talk resolutions, let’s talk about the big events of 2013. The first one is, I bought a second house. I looked at my bank account and realized I had a lot of money and nothing to spend it on. I also realized that I could use a house with a second bedroom (guest bedroom) and a garage. So buying a new house fit the bill perfectly. (Between laziness and busy-ness, I still haven’t sold off the first one, but more on that later.)<\/p>\n The second thing is, back in February, I started the Bakers @ Amazon group, and I suggested doing a bake sale for charity. I pulled 40 volunteers, and we raised over $2k for charity. (The proceeds went to Northwest Harvest<\/a> and Seattle Humane Society<\/a>, for the curious.) And then in September, I did it again, and raised another $2k. (I would have raised more had I not made a strategic error and ran out of food.) I consider this to be the single biggest achievement of my life.<\/p>\n Third, after Black Sabbath dropped a new album<\/a> this year, I became the second person ever to perform a piano cover of God is Dead on YouTube<\/a>. Alas, the internet is a fickle place. The video has been on the internet for almost a month and only broke 200 views just a few days ago. As opposed to my Gravity Falls Theme Song cover, which I threw together in a day, posted on YouTube<\/a> in mid-September, and now have 900 views and counting.<\/p>\n Lastly (and this isn’t really an event), I feel like I’ve bit off more than I can chew this year. I did everything I promised, but I felt like I had a lot of things fighting for my time. And several points in the year (especially in November), I felt like I had to choose between social time and me time. (Me time won out a few times.) So next year, I’m going to focus on doing more awesome things while scaling back the number of things I’m doing.<\/p>\n Resolution #1 – Continue Being Awesome.<\/b> Specifically in my music and my baking. Given the bake sales and YouTube videos I mentioned above, along with 2 original pieces I wrote and posted<\/a> to YouTube<\/a>, I can say I knocked this one out of the park. Result: SUCCESS<\/b><\/p>\n Resolution #2 – My Fencing.<\/b> I promised myself I’d fence in tournaments, since tournaments are the culmination of competitive fencing. Specifically, 4 tournaments. I did attend 4 tournaments, and I plan to do more next year. But I’ve decided that promising myself a specific number of tournaments was the wrong way to motivate myself. Because what ends up happening is I go to a November tournament and a December tournament when I really should have been training more in November. Result: SUCCESS<\/b><\/p>\n Resolution #3 – Take Lessons and Classes.<\/b> I promised myself I’d take 10 cooking classes, 40 (weekly) fencing lessons, and 40 (weekly) piano lessons. In early January, I changed those to miss no more than 10 (weekly) fencing lessons and no more than 10 (weekly) piano lessons to account for fencing coach\/piano teacher being unavailable. Which made a difference for fencing, but not for the piano. In any case, I made to most (but not all) of my fencing lessons and piano lessons (missed 8 and 4 respectively), and I went to something like 22 cooking classes in total, so it’s safe to say I knocked this one out of the park. Result: SUCCESS<\/b><\/p>\n Resolution #4 – Sleep Earlier.<\/b> Once again, my sleep time was 2am and my wake-up time was 9:30am for days where I have work. Success is measured by not missing sleep\/wake-up time by more than 60 cumulative hours. I clocked in at 40:44. Success? Result: SUCCESS<\/b><\/p>\n Resolution #5 – My Website.<\/b> You’re reading it. It’s not pretty, but it’s functional. Result: SUCCESS<\/b><\/p>\n So I’m 5 for 5 this year. Awesome. And like I said, next year, I’m going to be more awesome, but I’m not ready to do more things. I still have 5 resolutions. The first two are multi-faceted though.<\/p>\n Resolution #1 – My Baking.<\/b> I’m obviously going to do more bake sales, because the bake sale was the culmination of everything I am about baking. Until now. I’ve been doing a lot of experiments with cookie recipes and with ingredients, and I’ve been learning a lot. I’m planning on writing the book Everything I Know About Cookies<\/i>, but the experiments are expected to last through the end of 2014 and into 2015. But at least I can get started on writing a first draft. So 2 parts: (a) more bake sales (b) write first draft of Everything I Know About Cookies<\/i>.<\/p>\n Resolution #2 – My Cooking.<\/b> Like I said, I’ve been taking cooking classes and learning a lot about cooking. Unlike baking, it’s really easy for cooking to fall by the wayside, so this is a skill I’ll need to exercise regularly. I’m thinking (a) cook monthly (b) throw dinner parties with my friends at least 3 times this year (c) cook dinner when I visit my family for the summer and for the holidays. (b and c count toward a.) Also why monthly? Because I don’t cook to eat, so most of the things I cook are complicated and time consuming.<\/p>\n Resolution #3 – Sleep Earlier.<\/b> Same as last time. Except I’m constantly striving for self-improvement. I got the counter down to 40:44. So let’s round it down to an even 40 and say my time limit is a cumulative 40 hours. (Sleep time is still 2am and wake-up time is still 9:30am.)<\/p>\n Resolution #4 – Put the old house on the market.<\/b> Remember how I said I hadn’t sold off the old house yet? Well, I spent the months of April, May, and part of June modding up the new house. (Most of the work was installing new heater grills and cat-proofing the kitchen cabinets, but there were a lot of small things.) And by June, I had mostly burnt out on dealing with house stuff, that I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore. So I moved the essentials, hired movers to higher the large items, and just left everything else in my old condo. And between laziness and busy-ness, I just never really put more time or effort into at. (Thankfully, the last thing I did in November was take inventory of everything and sort everything into “keep”, “donate”, and “trash” piles, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.) But anyway, I’m making a promise to myself to finally clean out the place, get it market ready, and put it on the market by the end of 2014. Because if I haven’t put the house on the market within 18 months of moving out, then I have failed as a human being. (Also, the goal is putting it on the market, because I have control over that. The actual selling of the house is slightly outside of my control.)<\/p>\n2013 Resolutions<\/h3>\n
2014 Resolutions<\/h3>\n