Goals Update 1

Shoot, I meant to do this on 9/5, ah well. What's a couple of days between friends? Let's do this!

Goals I'd like to accomplish prior to the Presidential election of 2012

Update 1

1. Acclimate myself to warmer temperatures
The thermostat's 5 degrees higher than it was, and I'm spending more time outdoors!

2. Write 4 pages a day M-F (offline)
Hoo-boy, sadly no. I've got major fiction writing "ring rust" which has come from years of posting stupid comments online. I find myself just blasting through plot without stopping for dialog or breathing room and finishing up what I want to say in less than a page. I need to do some writing exercises to get my brain working again.

3. Become more social
I've been to a movie with someone other than my wife, a couple of social functions with my wife during the week! That's kind of a big deal for me because I tend to be a complete hermit during the week

4. Volunteer (maybe at the Democratic Party of C-U?)
We did a foodmobile for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank and it was actually quite a bit of fun. I mean yes, there was some soul-crushing realizations of how bad off some people are, especially since the complex we did the foodmobile at i being torn down in the next couple of weeks, but I did feel good about helping them out while they were in the process of moving, even if nobody want my triscuits.

5. Stay employed full-time
So far, so good.

6. Never be "adjusted" by the IRS again
We "self-adjusted" our First Time Homebuyer's Credit back to the IRS because of an incorrect letter that was sent out. Never should have signed up for that thing in the first place.

7. Cut out soda (by Sept. 2011 hopefully)
Done! Well, at work. I still drink (soda) socially, say if we go out to eat.

8.Work out every day (6x/week after my challenge is over)
Yes, but I've been very sore lately, and just this weekend my exercise bike broke. The left pedal just broke off where the crank meets the interior wheel. That's the third time that's happened in my life, and I have no idea why. Is my left leg so much stronger than my right? You wouldn't be able to tell that just from looking at it, in actuality my right leg looks much more buff than my left, which is something I need to work on.

9. Put $50/check in savings for when I want to buy something
So far, so good. Though now I'm torn between an iPad and a new thingy from Wacom which is a pen that stores your movements when you're drawing so you can upload them into photshop. It's like a weird low-ish tech version of the Cintiq where paper is your screen.

10. Pay off the credit card
Well, Jenna's card is at $2k, but now we have to pay back the FTHBC, so it's an additional 8 months (10 total) until it's truly paid off, barring some other catastrophe.

11. Get past this *bleeping* weight loss plateau
I got past that one to settle at another 5 pound lower. *sigh*

12. Pay more attention to my parents/family
Another one that's gotten away from me, though I've been interacting a bit more on Facebook.

13. Update my blog more often.
Hey, once a month is better than slightly longer than a year between posts, right? Right?

Goals for 2011-12

Issues, we've all got them. I'm going to try to work through mine myself (and perhaps with a little help from my wife)

With that in mind -

Goals I'd like to accomplish prior to the Presidential election of 2012

1. Acclimate myself to warmer temperatures
2. Write 4 pages a day M-F (offline)
3. Become more social
4. Volunteer (maybe at the Democratic Party of C-U?)
5. Stay employed full-time
6. Never be "adjusted" by the IRS again
7. Cut out soda (by Sept. 2011 hopefully)
8. Work out every day (6x/week after my challenge is over)
9. Put $50/check in savings for when I want to buy something
10. Pay off the credit card
11. Get past this *bleeping* weight loss plateau
12. Pay more attention to my parents/family
13. Update my blog more often.

I think that's a good start,
I'll try to update these once a month, so stay tuned regular readers!*

*that means you, spam robots who post in my comments

Well now

Seeing as Health care reform has finally gotten over with, I'm back to posting. To celebrate the win for the country, I went on a little spending spree, and bought 37 of the "Best of DC/Blue Ribbon/Adventure Comics" digests that got me fully into comics as a kid, and really into the Legion of Superheroes.

In the coming weeks I will attempt to review each and every one of them. At the end of this, unless I happen to find more incredibly cheap lots on eBay, I'll have read over 4000 pages of late '70s/early '80s comics. I hope you enjoy the reviews as much as I enjoyed the digests.

Universal Healthcare

Since Tuesday's election I've heard at least one story a day that has made me wonder more and more why we don't have Universal healthcare in these United States. In order:

1. Regis Philbin was remarking on his show how he had attended a benefit the previous night for a charity that helps pay the medical bills of injured soldiers who cannot afford to. These people fight and almost die for their country, and they have to go bankrupt because of the medical system? Way to support your troops america!

2. The automotive industry wants a $50 Billion bailout to help pay for "Future health care obligations" GM alone pays an average of $1500 PER CAR it builds for health care. (that sentence seems odd, $1500 of the sticker price per car built goes to pay for healthcare.) That's $14 Billion/year just for GM. They insure 1.1 Million workers, so that's almost $13000/year per worker!

3. The father of a woman I work with had a stroke Thursday morning. He couldn't afford the blood thinners he's been on since his last stroke since Medicare puts a cap on prescriptions, so he was taking half as many as he should have, hoping it would be ok.

I pay around $3600/year and my employer based insurance is amazing! If every household paid $300/month like ours does, that would work out to $849 Billion dollars a year for Universal healthcare. Add to that the annual budgets for medicare ($454B), medicaid ($100B), and the VA medical programs ($93B), and you're still looking at a savings of over $1 Trillion/year.

Day 1: Uh-Oh

It turns out that the cut-off point for the test is 40 WPM, and I was averaging 38 WPM. Started at www.keybr.com today, and averaged... 35WPM. Damn. Guess it doesn't really help that I'm typing this the old way. I also feel bad because it's Labor day, my wife has off, and here I am typing away, basically ignoring her while she paints the kitchen. Well, six more days and I'm sure I can improve more than 5 WPM, guilt free. Big training day is Saturday, with Jenna at a dog show all day, I'll have eight hours of practice time, to make up for my 42 minutes today.

Current WPM: 35, with gusts up to 50

Posting with a purpose!

I've got a typing test as part of a Civil Service exam a week from Monday (9/1), and the last time I took it, I flunked out on the typing portion, getting just slightly less than the 45wpm demanded by the exam. (My average was 43wpm.) The proctor was disappointed when I said I didn't make the typing cut off because I was the first one finisihed with the test, and aced the rest of it. If I'd typed just a little bit faster I would have had a new job two years ago.

This week in an effort to get away from my current job, which I won't post about because my wife would yell at me for doing so, I will be typing nonstop 3-4 hours a day and keeping track of my progress here, on my long forgotten blog. I've been meaning to start doing this since I got the notice of a testing time, but my schedule and lack of focus has gotten the best of me. I'm hoping that 25 hours of practice in a week will give me the necessary bump to get a swank (well, any) civil office job (maybe I should appear on the Colbert Report!).

Current WPM: 43

Political Hilarity?

When I first saw this on the news (and great job getting the free advertising on Hillary's part) I honestly thought MADtv or someone of their caliber (say a random person on the internet) had made a parody of the original advert. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case.

Apparently Hillary Clinton believes there is a singular person in charge of the United States' economy, an economic downturn could take place in a very short period of time, and that person, in their time of need, would call the President at 3AM, looking for a solution.

1. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time putting thoughts together at 3AM, even though that's when I start work EVERY morning.

2. Economic downturns happen over an extended period of time, that's why all the experts have such a hard time agreeing whether we're currently in a recession, a depression, or just a slowdown.

3. If they happen more quickly, it's going to be tied to a bigger issue, say a 9/11, or a Katrina (although, the more centered on New York, the more effective the issue.) These issues are more along the line of what I expect the President to be dealing with, not a bank realizing it shouldn't have bought sub-sub-sub-prime loans and whining to the fed about it.