Stay tuned...

...gonna save my update til Thursday.

See you then.

15/03/10 - 22/03/10 Update

Here we are, third week of March. Already the third freaking week. How time flies. Lots of mini-goals achieved last week, so without further ado, here they are!

Learn to cook a recipe each month ( 3 / 10 )

• 
  I call it March's Mac n' Cheese Madness! 8 out of 10 I'd say. Gotta thank my favourite cousins Nadine and Natalie for inspiring me and help me to cook it. Awesome!

Ballroom Dancing

• May as well change this since this is my new official hobby.
  So I'm finished Beginner's Cha Cha! I'm pretty awesome at it now. Gonna take Beginner's Tango in April. Looking forward to it! XD

Consume an average of 1,800 Calories per day ( 128,390 / 657,000 for the year )

• 12,190 Calories this week, or about 1,740 Calories per day. Don't know if my estimates are accurate, but it definitely feels like I'm eating less and less each day.

Don't curse for 300 days ( 55 / 300 )

• I'm golden here. My speech has improved because of my lack of swearing! Nice.

Learn 5 new piano songs ( 3 / 5 )

• Uh, I somehow learned Lifehouse's song Storm magically. It just happened; I listened to it, picked up the chords, and then learned it in 2 days. Like magic I say.

Read a book of the Bible each month ( 5 / 12 )

• Way ahead of pace here, but it doesn't matter. So far I've read Judges, both books of Samuel, and now 1 Kings and 2 Kings. Poor Israel had such shady kings at the time. Dunno if I wanna continue with 1 & 2 Chronicles; so far it's just a recap of the last two books!

And that's it! What a productive week. One more week of March to go. Easter is almost here! I'm doing well with my Lent fasting. I plan to give my Church's PASA drive thing some good amount of money.

In other, more interesting (to me!) news, I JUST beat FF13. Man was that ending confusing. Excellent game overall. 9 / 10. It loses a point because I didn't hear my beloved Final Fantasy theme. Oh well.

Til next week!

From the Eighth to the Fourteenth of March

Not sure why it's getting tougher and tougher to update this blog. It's only once a week. MUST GET MOTIVATED. Here are last week's results:

Learn to cook a new recipe each month (2 / 12)

• Pan-fried noodles. Maybe. I need a link to a recipe. There are a variety out there, so I need to hone in on one.

Find new hobby

• Another good day of Ballroom today. Learned the Underarm Turn and the Shoulder Catch. So the pattern is Basic -> Cross-body lead -> Shoulder Catch x 3 -> Underarm Turn.

Consume an average of 1,800 Calories per day (116,020 / 657,000 KCal for the year)

• 12,000 Calories last week. Around 1,714 Calories per day. I've gotten used to eating only enough. That is, eating until I'm not hungry anymore (and not eating until I'm full).

Maintain a budget of $ 40 per month on game-related purchases ( $ 105 / $ 480 for the year )

• Final Fantasy XIII is mine! Awesome game. Definitely helps to be a fan of the FF series! I've sank about 25 hours on it, and I've read it's about a 40 hours game. Cannot wait to finish!

Don't curse for 300 days ( 55 / 300 )

• Went 7 of 7 two weeks in a row. *Pats self on the back*

Learn five new piano songs (2 / 5)

• Decided to learn A Song for Mama by Boyz II Men. Almost finished; just need the bridge and I'm good.

Read one new book from the Bible each month ( 4 / 12 )

• Started 2 Kings. 1 Kings is pretty depressing. Lots of terrible Kings that ruled Israel during that time. One notable King was King Solomon. Other than that, horrible!

2nd week is up. Way too fast. Maybe I'm getting too old or something. Anyhow, if you, the reader, are still following, keep up! Keeping up with my Lenten fasting. Been praying daily. Now I just need Almsgiving. Hrmm.

1st of March to the 7th of March

So for two months in a row, the 1st has started, conveniently for me, on a Monday! So here are my Monday - Sunday updates for the week:

Learn to cook a new recipe each month (2 / 12)

• Need suggestions! Cousins suggested Baked Alaska. Seems doable, but I want to make a non-pastry item, if possible.

Find new hobby

• Who knew cha-cha could be so fun? Just attended my 2nd class and it's still a blast! Learned three new "moves" today: crossover break, walk around turn, and cross body lead. Good stuff!

Befriend someone new

• No new friends yet, but I have been talking to some really cool people in dance class! I'll try to be even more friendly and open next class.

Consume an average of 1,800 Calories per day (104,020 / 657,000 KCal for the year)

• Consumed about 12,950 Calories. That's about 1,850 Calories per day. I went all out Sunday (had McDonald's for breakfast, lunch, and some for dinner) for some reason.

Read 5 new books (2 / 5)

• C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity is eye opening. I strongly suggest it. It's informative and logical, but at the same time, it's never feels "cold." The writing has a kind of warmth to it. I liked it.

Maintain a budget of $40 for game-related purchases ( $55 / 480 for the year)

• TOMORROW IS FF13. I WILL BUY THIS AND PLAY IT UNTIL MY EYES BLEED.

Don't curse for 300 days ( 48 / 300 )

• Perfect week last week. Getting easier by the week. Substituting "fuzz" and "shazbot" for the F and S-bombs really make it silly sounding insofar as you just want to stop swearing altogether. (Did I use "insofar as" right here??)

Learn five new piano songs (2 / 5)

• Learning too many songs right now. Need to focus on one. Learning Gounod/Bach's version of Ave Maria, Viva la Vida and A Song for Mama all at once. Not good.

Learn five new guitar songs (0 / 5)

• I'll do this one after my piano. Guitar songs are super easy to learn.

Teach Charlie new tricks

• He can do plenty of tricks for a treat, but without it, he can't focus. I think the first thing I need to teach him is to stay.

And that is a wrap to the 1st week of March. Can't wait to videogame my face off tomorrow! Ah just like the good ol' days.

February Finished in a Flash

Another month down. Here's my progress so far:

Learn Ilokano

• Nothing new here. I need to start picking up on my lola's Ilokano.

Improve Tagalog by speaking a different each day

• Getting better. I can form sentences without stopping to think now.

Learn to cook a new recipe each month (2 / 12)

• February had Yema candies! March is still up in the air.

Find new hobby

• Just started ballroom today! Learning the cha-cha. Pretty awesomely funtastic.

Befriend someone new

• I've met some great people ranging from young to old in ballroom class. Looking forward to making new friends there.

Consume an average of 1,800 Calories per day (91,070 / 657,000 KCal for the year)

• Consumed about 12,250 Calories last week. Running total's 91,070 Calories now.

Read 5 new books (1 / 5)

• Haven't picked a new book since Return of Prodigal Son. My old habits are starting to creep in again.

Maintain a budget of $40 for game-related purchases ( $55 / 480 for the year)

• WoW subscription's up, giving me more breathing room for game purchases. I'll probably only buy FFXIII for X360 this coming March. Cannot wait.

Create Facebook app

• My buddy's really interested in doing the art for this future hit-game. But other than that, no progress.

Spend at least 20 minutes walking the dogs

• Still do it. Every morning or night, I'll walk 'em around the neighborhood, picking up their poop.

Don't curse for 300 days ( 41 / 300 )

• Intense COD sessions had me swearing out of my eyes on Thursday. But pretty good about this one.

Make money off investments ( $500 / $5,000 )

• Haven't traded much. BAC still trucking along. I'll keep riding this high til I hit $ 1,000. Damn me for selling F stock though.

Don't miss Church

• Didn't miss a Sunday. Even attended Ash Wednesday. Ate meat last Friday though; it just slipped my mind. Bah.

Find a new job (or prospective job) by the end of the year

• Current job's good. I'll start searching once my Dad gets a job.

Buy own place

• Coming soon. Stay tuned.

Learn five new piano songs (2 / 5)

• Finished 100 Years. Onto... something. I think Coldplay's Viva la Vida. Maybe.

Learn five new guitar songs (0 / 5)

• Only have a play list. Consists of artists such as John Mayer, Joshua Radin, and 3 Doors Down.

Teach Charlie new tricks

• I've been so lazy with this one. F- for me on this one.

Read one book from the Bible each month (3 / 12)

• Finished both books of Samuel. Good stuff. Has David and Goliath story and David's ascension to king of all Israel.

February's done. Amazing. I've been trying to reconnect with old high school buddies, and it's been refreshing talking to them again. Also I've been taking pictures of my old paintings (my "glory days" of being an artist) and I can't believe I was that good. It's been a good month, especially how Canada owned the US in the Olympics! I'm so proud to be Canadian. And with that I'm off. Wish me luck this month!