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!

Feb. 15 - 21 Update

Small update incoming:

• Find new hobby
  Mark it: March 1st. First day I'll attend ballroom. MWAHAHAHA.
  
  
• Consume 1,800 Calories per day ( 78,820 / 657,000 for the year )
  These 7 days I've consumed about 12,370 Calories, or 1,767 per day. Those Healthy Choice frozen foods are my friend.
  
  
• Maintain a budget of $ 40 per month on gaming related purchases ( $ 55 / $ 480 for the year )
  WoW subscription is cancelled. May have to go over $ 40next month, though cuz BF: BC2 and FFXIII are coming out. I'll just have to have extra discipline in April (and maybe even May.)
  
  
• Don't curse for 300 days ( 35 / 300 )
  I miscounted last week; it shoulda been 29, not 39. Anyhow, went 6 of 7 last week. Forgot what I said and why, but I'm pretty sure I dropped the Sword on Thursday or Friday.
  

That's it. I feel that I'm accomplishing something everyday (which is good!) One goal at a time. One step at a time. It's gonna be interesting to look back at all this at the end of December and see just how much I can accomplish in a year. Just need some discipline and motivation to move forward.

On a somewhat related note, Lent is on! Filet-o-fish Fridays in McDonald's is gold. What am I giving up you're wondering? I'm giving up something similar to what the guy gave up in 40 Days and 40 Nights. Catch you all later!

February 1 - 14 Update

Apologies for last week's lack of update. Good news is, this update will contain 2x as much goodness. Here we go:

• Learn to cook a recipe a month (2 / 12):
  Yema candies complete!
  
  Need suggestions for March. Hit me up with some!
  
  
• Find a new hobby
  Seriously looking into ballroom dancing. Next week I'll inquire about it.
  
  
• Befriend someone new
  None yet, but I am saying "hi" and "hello" to random strangers. One'll eventually be my new friend!
  
  
• Consume an average of 1,800 Calories per day (66,450 / 657,000 total for the year)
  Consumed about 27,200 Calories these past 14 days, which is about 1940 Calories per day. Went over, but too much good food going on! This Saturday I pigged out at Gery's Grill (some Filipino restaurant); their Sisig is overrated, but I was hungry!
  
  
• Read 5 new books (1 / 5)
  Finished Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen. It is crazy good. I have a much greater appreciation of the parable of the Prodigal Son now. Highly recommended. Still need 3 other books for my booklist.
  
  
• Maintain a budget of $ 40 per month for gaming-related purchases ($55 / $480 for the year)
  My WoW subscription just renewed. I think I'm gonna cancel it since I hardly play it anymore. Great new games are just around the corner: Battlefield: BC2, FFXIII, and a few others. Gonna have to stick to my budget!
  
  
• Don't curse for 300 days ( 39 / 300 days)
  I went 13 / 14 these past two weeks. I'm getting the cursing under control. Although, there are still those times when you can't help but blurt it out. E.g. I rolled my ankle last Thursday and out came the F-bomb.
  
  
• Learn 5 new piano songs ( 2 / 5 )
  100 Years is complete! Candidate songs to play: Journey - Faithfully, Rhianna - Umbrella, Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
  
  
• Learn 5 new guitar songs ( 0 / 5 )
  I've decided to split this one from the above. I'm gonna try to learn 5 different songs. So far my playlist is: John Mayer - Daughters, Joshua Radin - I'd rather be with You. Need more songs!
  
  
• Read one book from the Bible each month ( 2 / 12 )
  1 Samuel was awesome! That has the stories of David and Goliath, David vs. Saul. I'm actually reading ahead to 2 Samuel. The Bible's pretty interesting I must say!

And that wraps it up! Next week's post should be awesome as well. I'm definitely excited about possibly ballroom dancing. Stay tuned!

Wrapping up January

And there goes January. Too fast, I must say. Here's my progress report so far:

Learn Ilokano

• Still haven't learned anything new apart from, mai mai sah, away, and sing sing put.

Improve Tagalog by speaking a different each day

• My sentences still suck and are too simple. Need to continue improving my fluency; I still have to think to construct these sentences.

Learn to cook a new recipe each month (1 / 12)

• January's Fried Rice! What's in store for February? Who knows.

Find new hobby

• Still looking. Ballroom perhaps?

Befriend someone new

• Not yet. I will one of these days.

Consume an average of 1,800 Calories per day (54,250 / 657,000 KCal for the year)

• Consumed about 13,200 Calories last week, pushing me up to a total of 52,450 which is about 1,700 Calories per day.

Read 5 new books (1 / 5)

• Finished Return of the Prodigal Son. Onto Ender's Game. Still need 3 more books to read.

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

• Been pretty good about this. No other purchases were made since early January. Sweet.

Create Facebook app

• Starting research on how to get started and what I need. I need to learn Flash to make it look nice and pretty.

Spend at least 20 minutes walking the dogs

• Well when I can, I do. There was a week when it just rained all day and night; can't do anything about that.

Don't curse for 300 days ( 16 / 300 )

• Curse-free all last week! Still a long journey ahead.

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

• Stock market's not going up, nor going down. Meh. If I day-trade hard I'm sure I'll make the next tier ($ 1,000).

Don't miss Church

• Went all 5 times in January.

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

• Long way to go before this one gets considered.

Buy own place

• Hopefully when my Dad gets a job, I can start going on my condo hunt again!

Learn five new guitar and piano songs (1 / 5)

• Don't Stop Believin' is good to go. Learning 100 Years by Five for Fighting, which is all sorts of fun.

Teach Charlie new tricks

• I tried to teach him something, but the dog's got an attention span of a flea. I'll persevere.

Read one book from the Bible each month

• Finished Judges. Gideon owning the Mideonites with his 300 men was great. Also read some Ruth, but that's only 4 chapters. Onto 1 Samuel.

And that's January. February's the shortest month; we'll see how much I can accomplish during this time. I need suggestions for books, hobbies, and songs! Post a comment or use Facebook to message me! See you readers next week.

Jan 18 - 27 Update

Made some good progress this week. Feels good to accomplish some of these goals.

Learn Ilokano

• 3 (out of 5!) new phrases learned: mai mai sa "by yourself", away "farm", and sing sing put "kind/nice (person)"

Learn to cook a new meal each month

• Fried rice complete! Next.

Consume an average of 1800 Calories per day

• Accumulated about 13,050 Calories this week (~1864 Calories per day), bringing me up to a total of 39,250 / 657,000 for the year. Not too bad

Make Facebook App

• Decided it'll be a game. What kind of game? A simple turn-based "pick up and go" type of game.

Don't curse for 300 days

• Went 4 out of 7 this week (9 / 300 days). Blah. This one's so tough. I just can't help but blurt out a swear word when I do something wrong. E.g. I spilled some Powerade all over my cousin's blanket and said s*** without realizing it.

Learn 5 new piano/guitar songs

• Learned "Don't Stop Believin'" so that's 1 out of 5. Current playlist (subject to change): 100 Years, Faithfully, Umbrella

Read one book of the Bible each month

• Finished Judges. Liked the Gideon story. Next is Ruth but there's only 4 chapters to that, so I'll include the next book for February as well.

Jan 10 - 17 update

Not much to update this week.

Consume an average of 1800 Calories per week (26,200 / 657,000 total thru the year)

• Consumed about 1900 Calories per day this week. Friday our company had a pizza party for our quarterly meeting; Saturday, cousins and I went to O-Nami (great seafood buffet!) Went. All. Out.

Create Facebook app

• Need some ideas here. Have only been suggested creating a game. Can someone point me to fun Facebook apps out there?

Don't curse for 300 days (11 / 300)

• Went 6 / 7 this week. I just said the F-bomb a few minutes ago because I lost in COD6.

Learn 5 new piano songs (1 / 5)

• "A singer in a smoke-ay room..." It's stuck in my head now, but I can play it! Next up, 100 Years.
• My third song is Faithfully, also by Journey

Read one book from the Bible each month

• Started reading the book of Judges (which I think describes the stuff that happens after Joshua's death.) Chapter 7 so far.

This week, I really need to get going on the Bible reading. Still have to make some fried rice too! Running out of time this month fast.

Resolution progress update.

It's been about a week, and so far I've accomplished some of my sub-resolutions.

Learn Ilokano

• Learned mai-mai-sah, which means "by yourself"

Improve Tagalog by speaking a different sentence a day

• Saying hoy pare here and gutom na ako there
• Learned what pooki means!

Learn to cook a new meal each month

• Decided to cook fried rice some time this month. Shouldn't be too difficult

Find a new hobby

• I've been getting great suggestions from Facebook. Some of them include: photography, hang gliding, and painting. Still need to decide on one.

Befriend someone new

• I should just go and say hi to a stranger and invite him/her to a coffee one day.

Consume an average of 1800 Calories per day

• This one's tough. So far I've consumed about 10,200 Calories over six days, which is about 1700 Calories per day. (I'm pretty sure my estimates are off but that's okay!)

Read 5 new books

• Found two to read so far (thanks Facebook friends!): Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen, and Ender's Game by Orson Scott. Still need to get started.

Maintain budget of $40 per month for game related purchases

• used $40 out of $480 for the year. This includes my WoW subscription + a new optical mouse

Learn a new technology and implement it (software or hardware)

• gonna make a Facebook App. Pretty excited about this one!

Spend at least 20 minutes a day to walk the dogs

• I've been keeping up. Haven't missed a day yet.

Don't curse for 300 days

• Ack, probably my worst one. I've managed to go swear-free for only 4 days. Tough roads ahead.

Make money off investments

• Woohoo go BAC! Made ~$500 so far!

Learn 5 new songs for piano

• Here are two I've decided to learn: Don't Stop Believin', and 100 Years

Learn 5 new songs for guitar

• May as well learn the above two songs for guitar!

Teach Charlie new tricks

• I need to start soon!

Read a book from the Bible each month

• Need to start this one soon as well!

So far so good, I think. If you have suggestions to any of the above, drop a comment or leave something on my Facebook wall.