/mike

It’s been a while hasn’t it. I can’t believe I’ve gone so long without updating and I’ve got no good reason other than good ol’ procrastination. This is obviously something I need to work on and unfortunately I keep saying that over and over with no progress. I suppose that would be the catch 22 of procrastination. That being said, here’s what’s been going on lately.

Working life

Ah the joys of the self-employed. Unfortunately some snags were encountered and I’ve dropped the ball a couple times over the last couple months. My goal is to remedy that. Over the next months I will be putting in as much time as possible to complete the tasks I have in front of me and do what I can to elevate myself to the next level.

Life and interest changes

As the old saying goes, nothing stays the same forever. In the past few weeks I’ve been noticing some changes occurring around me. At the same time, I’ve been making some changes myself. Most of it is in an effort to improve myself in some way or another. Things like working on my procrastination—as mentioned earlier—and not distracting myself with so much “crap”—using the term loosely of course, not all these distractions are crap but I’m not going to follow through with something if I don’t see value, whether to me or others, in it or don’t believe in it.

I’ve also been struggling with an internal decision I’m working out. The decision is a “six of one, half dozen of another” type thing so I don’t really know how it will all work out. Either way the decision will be a bit of a life changer.

The health change

For the past 20 days or so I’ve been following the Body for Life program. Ever since James mentioned how it helped him and after having so many setbacks attempting to figure out something on my own it became a simple decision.

Since starting Body for Life I’ve got more energy and I’m looking better. James has made major progress and he’s a constant inspiration. While our goals are different I’m looking forward to completing my first 12 weeks and seeing how many of my goals I achieve.

To measure my progress I’m taking a photo of myself every two weeks and will be measuring my body fat percentage and body parts every month. I also hope to share some of that progress here in the hopes it will keep me honest about reaching my goals.

Doing new things and meeting new people

Finally, this is something I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time and I’m going to do it damnit! I’ve already had the pleasure of driving to New York city where I spent New Year’s with Chris Coleman and a large group of his friends—some of which I’d be happy to call my friends as well. It was a blast.

I also made the decision to drive down to Refresh DC in early January. The big reason for going, I must admit, was to meet both Cindy Li and Dan Rubin. It was unfortunate I couldn’t stay longer because Cindy finally found a Nintendo Wii that weekend and the Hello Kitty breakfast sounds like it would have been a blast. I did have a good time at the Refresh though and it would be fun to attend another.

Also, for the past couple years I’ve avoided the SXSW festival. This was done mostly because of a lack of funds during this time of year and partly due to some secondhand information regarding the festival itself. This year I’m making my own decision though, and I’m going. I’ve already got my conference pass and hotel confirmation. I’ll be staying at the Hyatt Regency Austin on Barton Springs, apparently it’s just across the river from the conference center.

Thanks to Faruk Ates—who I’m looking forward to meeting face-to-face at the festival—I’ve found someone to share the room with. If you’re also looking for a room for the SXSW festival let me know, we’ve got no problem splitting up the room with another person, it just makes it that much easier on all our pocketbooks.

And that’s that

Now that I’ve written myself a little novel here I think most of the important topics have been covered. Now it’s time to get back to this weekends movie rentals and some more reading.