The PWC2 Introduction

Alright, since you (and by "you", I mean you specifically, the one person who did this) are bitching at me for an update on my New Year's Resolutions, I figured now would be a decent time to revisit those starry-eyed plans of yestermonth and see how they're coming along. Along with letter ratings, for those of you scoring at home.

Item 1: Get Pilot's License Current Again (Grade: N/A) I'm giving myself an N/A here since, while I haven't actually made any progress on the item, I have excellent excuses for doing so, that being that (as you'll read below) I had no idea where I was going to end up living, and I don't want to start a training routine at an airport that might end up being 2, 3 hours away from where I lived, causing me to have to restart training at a different airport. So my plan is to let my location settle down a bit before embarking on this item.

Item 2: Move (Grade: N/A) Another N/A here, due to my employment situation which you will read about later on. However, the plan now is to move by my birthday, which is June 11. Well, technically it's June 11, 1971, but it's a little late for that now.

Item 3: Get Finances In Order (Grade: D-) After an initial burst of energy in the areas of reducing expenditures, stopping cashflow leaks, and keeping good records, I realized that there's not much (other than rent, which is addressed by Item 2) I can do to reduce expenditure, and there weren't too many slow leaks, and then I stopped keeping records. So, not too good. But the situation wasn't too bad to begin with, so no biggie. And the poker tables have been kind to me this year, so it's not all bad.

Item 3a: Spend Less Money (Grade: D+) Almost identical to Item 3. There wasn't much less to spend, and the stuff that I am spending on (food/beer/etc.) I really do not want to give up.

Item 3b: Spend More Money (Grade: B-) Up until today, I would have given myself an F on this, but since I spent all day spending $1000 on toys for myself (specifically, music-recording equipment, a mountain bike, and various biking accessories), I gotta think I'm doing much better here.

Item 4: Record Some Music (Grade: D-) Other than recording a few ratty guitar tracks and emailing them to friends, not much progress here. But since I just started spending money on it (see above), I'm pretty optimistic here.

Item 5: Get a New Fucking Job (Grade: A) Call it luck, call it good connections, call it karma, but I landed possibly the best and the timeliest (given the economy) job I've had. And it pays a lot of money. Of course, the company is now in dire financial straits, so I'll probably be out of said job next week, but until then, it's sweet. This would have been an A+, except they have been hemming and hawing about where they were going to build an office, so I've been stuck on my other plans before deciding where to live. Now, last week, they decide they're not going to build an office at all, so we can live wherever the hell we want. Which is good, no doubt, but I really wanted to be settled into a new place by now. Oh well, can't have everything.

Item 6: Work Better (Grade: C+) While I'm still subject to fits of laziness and goofing off (and sometimes blowing off entire days), the quality has gone up, and my value to current and future employers has skyrocketed as a result of my recent study and experience with esoteric Java/J2EE development concepts which, if nothing else, look good on a resume (should one be necessary shortly -- see Item 5).

Item 7: Get Laid At Least Five Times (Grade: F) Well, you can look at it like this: I've made absolutely no progress (other than a couple nibbles on Matchmaker which came to naught). Or you can say, I've gotten laid only five times less than I'd originally planned. All this being said, I am making indirect progress, as you will see in the brand new Item 11.

Item 8: Write More (Grade: F-) Rather than writing more, I'm writing less. Right idea, wrong direction. But hey, I'm writing this, aren't I?

Item 9: Cook More (Grade: C) Been cooking a little more, and with recipes. Having success, too. But I want to be one of those people that cook almost every night, and always have a culinary trick up their sleeve if they need one. I'm not one of those people, though.

Item 10: Local Travel (Grade: D) Moseyed around in the Santa Monica mountains for a bit, and along the Malibu coast. On one hand, you can say that that's really not all that big a deal, one trip to a place 15 minutes from your apartment. However, since the view of the ocean from the top of the mountains is the most breathtaking thing I've ever seen, and quite frankly am every likely to see, one could make a case that I've made significant progress here. I'm not that one, though.

New! Item 11: Get In Shape (Grade: N/A) While I did say that "Lose Some Fucking Weight" wasn't an item (until someone suggested a contest), I've decided that its more talented, prettier sister "Get In Shape" was a worthwhile addition to the list. Toward that end I have begun a rigorous physical fitness regimen, including (but not limited to) weight training, biking, and restricting myself to no more than ten beers per day. I see good things ahead!

Welp, that's it for the first three months. I see a lot of D's, a lot of F's, and a lot of N/A's. But if I got everything done in the first three months, that would make for a pretty boring remainder of the year. Consider the first quarter as "setting the stage" for fabulous success in all of these areas. You do not want to miss it! So keep checking back!