Checking in on my resolutions from 2007

January 1, 2008 by alex

As I thought about the things I wanted to do in 2008, I decided to go back to my post from last year regarding what I wanted to get done in 2007 and see how I did.

I’m first going to go through what I wanted to do and designate each as either: nailed it, missed it + carrying over or missed it + moving on.

Here we go…

Take one a day
Take a picture a day and post it up on this site. Presumably I will learn something from this and hopefully become a better photographer along the way. It’ll also help me break in the Powershot SD700 Karen so nicely got me for Christmas.

Nailed it! - and the results can be seen here. I still have one more big batch to upload to round out the year. Though it occasionally felt a bit tedious, this was a great project and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get more comfortable with their photography equipment. Not only will you get better at taking pictures but it really gets you tuned to being much more aesthetically aware of your surroundings.

15 by 31
2006 was about 30 by 30 - losing 30 pounds by my 30th birthday (and our wedding) and this year I’m going to shoot for 15 more pounds and then maintaining right around there.

Missed it + carrying over - While I never would have thought so, it turns out that I actually gained weight training for the marathon. I think it had to do with all the extra carbs I was consuming along the way. Messed up knees and race recovery led to a period of relative stagnation to round out the year. All in all, right now I find myself about 8-9 pounds heavier that I was at the outset of marathon training. I am determined to get back on track so this goal is going to carry over in one form or another into 2008.

Focus the blog
I am going to no longer off post links because they are “funny” or “interesting” without having them be part of some sort of orginal thought of mine or be related to an event or something that I’m writing about. Hopefully this will result in me becoming a somewhat better writer. I also think Take One A Day will be a good vehicle for more regular personal updates.

Nailed it! - I am really happy with the direction the blog has taken and the recent redesign has gotten it in a really good place - combining a lot of our personal experiences along with more about things that interest us in the world at large. While I think we were successful with this last year, I’d like to take it a bit further this year so a related goal will be making into the 2008 list.

NYC Marathon
I plan to apply for the marathon via the lottery and hopefully get picked and then train my ass off. Karen’s already in for this year and I think it would be a real good time to run it together. I will also look into trying to get in via the New York Road Runner’s Club.

Nailed it! - One of the best things I’ve ever done. So happy Karen got me inspired to go ahead with it.

Book of the month club
1 book a month?! Sounds easy, right? It should be but I haven’t been doing it so I’m going to start small and perhaps double this after I see how the first few months go. Don’t laugh.

Nailed it! - Booya! Though getting into podcasts listening to music more took out a lot of potential reading time, I read about 17 books. Again, don’t laugh. Check out the list.

Take a class
Learn Ajax, get my cooking on, or do something photography-related. It could be anything but I’d like to take one.

Missed it + moving on - I got a lot out of the Take One a Day project and find that I learn a lot when I try and work through something myself so I’m going to have one or two things on the 2008 list that fit that bill. That being said, I’ve recently felt that it would be fun for us to take a wine class so I can be a bit less of an ignoramus when it comes to wine.

Polar Bear Club
I guess this is more of a goal to kick off 2008 but I want to go to Coney Island and jump in the filthy cold water. I had my eye on it this year but then forgot, stayed up till 4:30am and then woke up with only 30 minutes to get to Coney Island. This year was the year to do it though - a little rain to cool you beforehand and an outside temperature of 55 degrees. I fear I will pay for missing it next year.

Missed it + moving on - Realizing that maybe this just isn’t for me. After being partially psyched again, I ultimately couldn’t get motivated for this and will most likely abandon it.

There you have it. Not bad. Got some good ones lined up for the new year. Stay tuned!

Posted in Projects, Thoughts