Week 2 of April

Two weeks down. Two to go.

Toronto Raptors suck. That is all I can say. So disappointed in them.

Now for something not so disappointing: updates!

Learn Ilokano

• I'm up to five! awan pai means "(person) not here". The other four are mai mai sa "by yourself", away "farm", sing sing put "nice person", and awan un "nothing".

Learn to cook a new meal each month

• April adobo. Did I mention this last week? Anyhow, need to start cooking.

Ballroom dancing

• Always fun. Saw more newbies coming in for a drop-in lesson! Really cool people joined in.

Consume 1,800 Calories per day ( 176,310 / 657,000 year total )

• Where'd my discipline go? I ate around 13,400 Calories last week, which is about 1,914 Calories per day. Gotta drink more water to supress my "hunger".

Read 5 new books ( 3 / 5)

• Finished On Earth as it is in Heaven by Warren Wiersbe. Great book. It definitely shows my prayer life lacks maturity. Two in the book list: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis and Life with the Saints by James Martin. Dunno which to read first.

Don't curse for 300 days ( 77 / 300 )

• My extra rules made me go 5 for 7. Very difficult. Even if I don't say the word and replace it with a "friendlier" version, the intent is there. This is gonna take some getting used to.

Make money off investments

• The stock market's doing well! Made another $ 1,000 off my stocks. I've hit the $ 2,000 tier; here's hoping, my stocks keep soaring!

Learn 5 new piano songs ( 4 / 5 )

• Finished Gounod/Bach's version of Ave Maria. I'm going to learn Lamb of God by Twila Paris next.

Read the Bible

• The book of Job's a tough read, but worth it. I'm glad Biblegateway has those commentaries to clarify what's going on.

Volunteer

• Volunteered last Saturday in the Divine Mercy conference at St. Timothy's Church. Surprised that many people came. It was great. I stayed the entire time, helping out registration, the kitchen, and wherever else they needed me. And I'm glad I stuck around cuz now I know all about the Divine Mercy.
  
  Gonna keep looking for other places that need volunteering. It felt great!

Draw

• As my friend suggested, I'm gonna try to draw or sketch something at least once a day, starting today. I'll even scan these sketches up on my updates from time to time.

Compose

• Ah I've been stuck with this one. I just need the right motivation and fire again.

And that is how my week went. Hope you readers have a great week!

First Week of April, Complete!

1st week of April is done. What just happened? Is it true that time seems to fly faster as the older one gets? Sheesh.

On with the show!

Learn to cook a new meal each month

• April Adobo: sounds good?

Ballroom Dancing

• Tango is interesting. Especially interesting is the "personality" of the dance. The man must play the strong, confident, MAN'S man who makes it clear that he wants the woman; however, the woman is the I-don't-want-you-but-I-do type who plays hard to get. I like that.
  

Befriend someone new

• I gotta stop being so anti-social or something. Hopefully all my activities'll help me meet even more new people.

Consume an average of 1800 Calories per day (162,910 / 657,000 for the year)

• Did a pretty poor job again last week. Consumed about 13,270 Calories for the week, which is about 1,895 Calories per day. Way above my target. Gotta start disciplining myself again.

Spend at least 20 minutes walking the dogs each day

• I need to be punished for this one. I ignored some days just because I felt too lazy. Can't do that. Gotta keep on track. Feel free to give me a virtual punch in the face in the comments to help me out.

Don't curse for 300 days ( 72 / 300 days )

• This is too easy now. Went 7 for 7. I'm going to have to step up the rules here:
  1) Cannot substitute swear words for "friendlier" versions e.g. "frick", "shoot", "eff".
  2) Cannot use the Lord's name in vain or any substitutes e.g. "gosh", "golly".
  This should be fun.

Read the Bible

• Don't remember if I mentioned this but I'm in the book of Job. Really interesting, but also difficult to read stuff. Taking my time with this one; as I read a chapter, I also look at any commentaries it has (Biblegateway.com).

As for my new New Year's Resolutions:

Volunteer

• Gonna volunteer for my local Church this Saturday to help out with the Divine Mercy conference. I'm only signed up for an hour, but I'll probably stay the entire period.

Draw

• First step is to find an art store and pick up supplies. I'll do that this weekend.

Compose

• Have something already. Working with a G-D-C with some Em chord progression. Gonna be a pop/dance/Christian rock type of song.

And that's the first week. It's been busy, but it's been a good kind of busy.

In other news, I need to go buy my white suit for my favourite cousin's Debut. I bet I'm gonna look damn fine in it.

See you all next Thursday.

March Marches Right Along..

And there goes March. I waited until today so I can wrap up March in one post. Too bad it didn't land on a Monday; that woulda been sweet.

Here's a review of my goals:

Learn Ilokano

• New word get: awa-nun (awah-nuhn) - "nothing"

Improve Tagalog by speaking a different sentence a day

• Going to be honest here: I don't do this enough. Need to speak more Tagalog at home. I'll make it a goal to speak at least one sentence at home each night.

Learn to cook a new meal each month

• 3 down! March's Mac 'n Cheese was great!

Ballroom Dance

• Done my beginner's Cha-cha. Gonna enroll in beginner's Tango next week. Should be pretty sweet!

Befriend someone new

• Why is this one so difficult? I meet lotsa new people in ballroom, yet none of them are my friends yet. Maybe this means my social skills need polishing.

Consume an average of 1800 Calories per day (149,640/ 657,000 Calories total for the year)

• Over the last few days (11 days) of March, I consumed about 21,430 Calories, or about 1,948 Calories per day. Horrible. I blame the birthday parties and good food.

Read 5 new books (2 / 5)

• Next book is another Christian book called On Earth as it is in Heaven by Warren Wiersbe. It's a book about the Lord's prayer and how to apply it (I think).

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

• Don't see many purchases in the near future, so I should be good.

Facebook App

• My friend says I need to get back and focus on this one! It's true; I've neglected this one for a while now. The fire isn't as bright, but it's still lit! I just need something to make that fire big again.

Spend at least 20 minutes a day to walk the dogs

• Good here. Sometimes I miss a day, but I make it up on the weekends.

Don't curse for 300 days (accumulated) (65 / 300)

• Not bad. Went 10 for 11. One-fifth there!

Make money off investments

• Good gains for my stocks over the last month. I'm at the $1,000 tier now. Hopefully another big gain comes this month. Who knows!

Don't miss Church

• Not a single Church missed! Even went to confession yesterday. Gotta pat myself on the back for this one!

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

• Nothing here, yet.

Buy own place (house/condo)

• Same as above.

Learn 5 new piano songs (3/5)

• Learned Storm for my third song. My 4th song I'm currently learning is Ave Maria the Gounod/Bach version.

Learn 5 new guitar songs (0/5)

• Almost done piano, so I can start this soon!

Teach Charlie (new dog) new tricks

• He's starting to focus a lot more, so it should be easier from now on. He can sit and paw and lie down, but that's it.

Read Bible

• Been reading the Old Testament. I've decided not even to count the # of books I read. I'll just read at my own pace. So far it's been awesome to go back and read my "roots". I'm on the book of Job, which is really interesting so far!

And that's it!

Actually no, that's not it. It's not too late to add more resolutions right? So let me share you some new New Year's Resolutions:

1. Volunteer - for anything or any place
2. Draw - carry around a sketch book with me everywhere and draw anything
3. Compose music

Just these three for now. Should add some spice to my year. I can't wait to re-ignite my art and music passion. It's definitely been a while, but the inner-fire is burning for those two things.

Anyhoo, see you all next week (Thursday)! Happy Holy Week.

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.