Happy New Year, 2012!

It's hard to believe it's 2012 already. With the exception of my wedding in August (which was amazing!) and the Packers winning the Super Bowl (hooray!), 2011 was a complete and utter waste of time for me. Let's not kid ourselves...it was a Goddamned horror show.

Pi Studios imploded back in February and I've been out of work and looking (with very little success) ever since. Money has been a problem. The housing market in Houston tanked big time. I had unemployment issues. I failed to start a business. The Badgers lost the Rose Bowl. Yes, 2011 was truly an awful year in every sense of the word. Good riddance.

I guess there was one other bright spot: I still have my health (*knock on wood*). I managed to lose 20 lbs over the course of the year. Back in January, I was sitting at an all time high of 252 lbs, but as of this morning I was down to 232. It's still a long way to go to get to my goal weight of 210, but I'm hoping to do that this year.

That brings me to the point of this blog, actually. Goals. Resolutions, if you will. I have big plans for 2012 and even though you probably don't care much, I thought I would share them with you anyway. So here goes...

My 2012 New Year's resolutions!

• First and foremost, get a job that doesn't make me want to jump off a cliff and get back to being a productive member of society.
• Finish the long overdue repairs to the house (I may have to sell it soon!)
• Cross off a bunch of movies from the AFI Greatest Movies Of All Time list that I haven't seen, including Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, Singin' In The Rain, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, All About Eve, The African Queen, Dr. Strangelove, Bonnie & Clyde, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Annie Hall and To Kill A Mockingbird.
• Read more of the classic literature I failed to read in school growing up, including, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Lord of the Flies, The Prince, The Catcher in the Rye, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Brave New World, East of Eden and The Red Badge of Courage.
• Get my weight down from 232 lbs to 210 lbs.
• Play a game of Chess at least 3 times a week
• Write something in my journal every day (the first time I've ever kept a journal in my life)
• Blog more regularly (minimum of twice a month)
• Assemble a polish a diverse writing portfolio I can be proud to show people
• Re-design and re-launch Thundarr.com (or pay someone else to do it)
• Become more proficient in Microsoft Project and Microsoft Visio (building my job skills)
• Write and publish at least one sports article per month for PocketDoppler.com.
• Finish writing at least one feature length screenplay
• De-clutter my life by throwing away, giving away, selling or donating all of the extraneous crap I've assembled and have been carting around with me over the last 38+ years.
  

There are probably other things I should be doing, but I think this is a good start. I really do have high hopes for 2012 and I hope you do, too! Cheers to bigger and better things for all of us in the New Year!

Oh, and let's hope those pesky Mayans didn't really know something about 2012 that we don't... ;)