Live & Direct from Nowhere in Particular...

It’s amazing how much being more active with posting on Facebook & Twitter has impacted my blogging. Is standalone blogging dying? It’s certainly easier to pop 140 characters on Twitter or share something on Facebook than it is to post a longer, thoughtful, blog entry.

*sigh*

There was this little article over on Lifehacker as part of there Top-10 called Top 10 Easy-to-Keep Resolutions for This New Year. It was a pretty decent list, so I thought I’d use it as a basis for my goals this year. Here’s a summary of their list for the lazy:

10. Create (and Stick to) a Realistic Budget
9. Get a Better Education
8. Make New Friends
7. Keep Your Home Cleaner
6. Start Working Out
5. Learn a New Skill
4. Get that Promotion (or New Job)
3. Reboot Your Sleep Cycle
2. Eat Healthier
1. Back Up Your Data

For me, I think 2012 will be primarily a year of refinement, though there may be some minor revolutions. With that in mind, here are my interpretations & what I’ll try to do in each area…

10. Create (and Stick to) a Realistic Budget

Well, I sort of try to do this now. I at least keep track of everything using Mint. However, I don’t see myself doing much more. My version of this would be to continue to save where possible & cut expenses where I can.

9. Get a Better Education

Well, I am already doing this … I should graduate in May!

8. Make New Friends

This is definitely on my list. And really has 3 parts.

• Make new friends & be more social with them.
• Improve my networking habits professionally & personally.
• Strengthen existing friendships where it’s justified and cull them where it isn’t.

7. Keep Your Home Cleaner

For this one the emphasis is on my clutter. It’s past time to purge. There is definitely a cleaning aspect too, all that clutter makes it hard to do things like dust & vacuum & mop regularly. So far I am doing a bit better already.

6. Start Working Out

It’s more about working out more constantly for me. I already work out, just not as regularly as I would like.

5. Learn a New Skill

I’m thinking this would be good, but really, I just want to brush up on some of my existing ones. Perhaps dust off my Spanish, or get back to painting & such.

4. Get that Promotion (or New Job)

I think #9 will help with this. I’m a bit overdue in that regard. I’ve been in the same position for more than a bit too long.

3. Reboot Your Sleep Cycle

This would be nice, but it’s another one I don’t see happening. I think I will try to get to bed earlier so I can get a bit more sleep though.

2. Eat Healthier

I started this already. But I will never eat really healthily, I like the naughty stuff too much.

1. Back Up Your Data

I’ve been doing this for ages. Nothing offsite beyond Dropbox yet though, that’s something I may add in … I’m just not sure how.

I ended 2011 by meeting new people & spending time with old & dear friends. I hope to continue it into 2012 (til the world ends of course).

How long does the current administration get to blame costs on the previous?

This is a bit inaccurate. Obama needs to take ownership of some of those policies that he either continued or even helped to implement from the Bush Administration. Pretty sure those wars are still going on and money is being spent on them. And how about TARP that Obama helped to implement? And that nebulous “Domestic & Defense Spending” is likely still occurring.

And they wonder why no one believes anything that comes out of Washington.

Debt Chart (July 26, 2011)

I posted a couple notes to Facebook, Twitter & Google+ last night when I was at the gym. I caught probably a total of a minute & a half of the address & response, then a few minutes of the 6 hours of commentary and analysis nonsense in-between exercises.

Here’s my summary of the address/response:

Republicrats shoulda paid debt instead of cutting taxes. Democans shouldn’t spend so much.

Did I miss anything?

I then noticed a snippet during several commentaries. It was reported on The Huffington Post that the President’s call to action, to let you Representative know how you feel caused an unintentional DDoS attack on the Congressional servers. Ooops.

Seriously, guys? Read what you type before submitting perhaps? Apparently the last time this happened they just put the idiot responsible on the Sunday evening shift.

“Usama Bin Landen Dead Fox News Confrims”

Usama Bin Landen Dead Fox News Confrims

And regarding the news, I’m not sure what difference him being dead makes in reality. And I’m actually a little surprised that Obama didn’t find a way to keep th news under wraps til election time. Better yet, hide him someplace on life support and pull the plug next October.

Much bigger.