New Year, New Resolutions

Sorry I haven’t updated the blog for a while. I’m still trying to get the hang of my new schedule. And drawing pictures in MS Paint actually takes a lot longer than you’d think it would. It’s a shame too, since I have some great blog post ideas that I really want to share with y’all.

As far as my life goes right now, I have a lot of new classes that I’m really excited about, but they’re all on Tuesday and Thursday, so those days are pretty draining. I also have one religion class (Doctrine and Covenants) on Monday and Wednesday. I love all my classes, but I did something really stupid that I promised myself I would never do ever since I took Econ 110 freshmen year from Professor Read-the-Slides-in-Monotone—take an 8:00 AM class. I now have an 8:00 class every day, Monday through Wednesday. This has necessitated a need to change my lifestyle from internet surfing night-owl to something more responsible. I’m now in bed every night by midnight. This is weird because I don’t think I went to bed once before 1:25 AM for all of 2011.

Anyway, it’s a new year, which means it’s time to update my New Year’s Goals. I say goals because it’s something I’m really serious about and that I’m planning on working on. This isn’t something I’ll simply resolve to do and then forget about it in a month. But before I do that, I want to give a quick accounting of how I did with last year’s goals (which you can read about here).

#1 Work out for 30 minutes three days a week—C+

I did really good with this during the winter semester, ‘meh’ during the summer, and pretty spotty during the fall. I’m in pretty good shape, but I could have done better. Especially since my earliest class during the fall was 12:30. Now I’m kind of kicking myself for not working out more. 

As far as results go, I'm still keeping an extra-slender figure. So girls who like that sort of thing should probably try to figure out what I'm doing. Maybe this year the old metabolism will slow down (It's faster than a greased cheetah on Red Bull, strapped to a rocked and set on fire while being chased by ninjas, if you remember).

#2 Don’t get any grade lower than a B-Plus—B+

I give myself a B+ not because it’s ironic, but because I did average with this. No, I didn’t get any grade lower than a B+, but at the same time, I did get three B-pluses last semester, which is the Asian equivalent of a D.

Shout out to quickmeme.com for the image.

#3 Give five complements a day—B-

I think I did close to three-to-four complements a day. I didn’t count, which I think would have defeated the purpose of setting the goal, but at the same time made this goal impossible to measure and made this a poorly designed goal.

#4 Read the Book of Mormon in 100 days—B

It took me closer to 115 days, but I did do a complicated highlighting system that took extra-long to do. Yes, I’m making excuses, but I’m counting that as extra credit.

#5 Cut back on the Mormon Swears—EEFfffffffff. . . . .

If anything, I’ve gotten more creative with the swear word substitutes , and I say them more frequently. The other day, I watched this video, and I realized that I say more of these words than don't.

Anyway, I'm going to list this year's goals now. I'm not going to detail them quite as much as I did last year, because I don't feel like it and I think people like scanning lists more than reading anyway.

• Write in my journal at least once a week.
• Get at least six hours of sleep a night.
• Get an internship over the summer.
• Go on a date at about once every other week.
• But don't force myself to go on dates just because someone said it's something I need to do.
• Go to the temple at least once a month.
• Keep obeying the Word of Wisdom like crazy. (haha)
• Host get-togethers at my apartment around once a month or so.
• Memorize and remember everyone's names in my congregation.
• Go for a run.
• Deep fry a pizza.
• Shoot my shotgun.
• Say something nice about three different people daily.
• Express gratitude to one person daily.
• Go skiing.
• Update the blog once a week, just to blow off steam [feel free to hold me accountable to this or any of the other goals].

Dear Future Me

So, a little while ago, I was going through some of my old stuff when I came across something interesting: a letter addressed to myself. It said "Open in 2012."

I thought for a second, and then I remembered. Back about five years or so ago, my high school made me and a bunch of other kids write letters to ourselves. It was one of those experimental programs that made you set goals and had pillars of excellence or some other type of educational mumbo-jumbo that sounds good on paper.

I was impatient and decided to open the letter and read it right then:

Dear Future me,


I thought, "Wow, it's like I'm hearing a voice crying from the dust--a specter from the past speaking from beyond the grave!"

Well, I really don't want to write this. I think this class is pretty stupid. In order to fill out more time and make it look like I'm busy, let's talk about stuff that's just as meaningless as this class.

So last night I was watching Heroes. Do you remember that show? It was a pretty good episode. I like that TV series a lot right now.

"Oh yeah, I do remember that show. I used to love that show!"

"Too bad it only had one good season and then got canceled while I was on a mission."

For those that didn't know, I am a Mormon, so I did that whole two-year mission deal. I left college after freshmen year to go preach the gospel to people across the southern United States. Yes, it doesn't make any sense to do professionally.  I had to go through the process of putting a scholarship on hold, and play catch up on all the stuff I had forgotten during those two years. 

But if I could go back, would I change my decision? Not a chance.

In the end, I realized the financially responsible thing to do would be to go to a school that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I ended up never applying, even though the school sent me a couple of letters. I think my counselor was slightly disappointed.

Ouch.

Accountability Time

Given that we're a whole month into the new year, I figure it's time to give you an update on how I'm doing with my five new year's resolutions (which you can read about here).

Work out for 30 Minutes Three Times a Week -- A-

I'm doing pretty good with this one.  I've figured out my schedule so that I can make time for exercising on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  I was worried that I wouldn't have time to do this because of my increasingly demanding studies, but I have figured out a solution that I will get to later.

I gave myself an A-minus because of the hardcore fail so far in achieving my vision:

But did anyone really expect that to happen in one month?

Read The Book of Mormon in 100 Days -- A+ 

I am about 30 days into my challenge, and am currently slightly ahead of schedule (Mosiah 13, page 172).  I'm pretty happy about that.  I haven't yet set aside a consistent time to read everyday, so I often find myself reading in between classes and during lunch.

I give myself extra credit for having a special highlighting system for this read.  Right before I started, I picked up a blank, hardcover copy of The Book of Mormon from the BYU Bookstore.  I decided that I would highlight the following:

• Any reference to Jesus Christ or God the Father (including pronouns) in Green
• Any communication from Heaven (angels, signs, prophets, voices, etc.) in Blue
• Anything mankind does to merit this communication (praying, showing faith, obeying commandments) in Red

By doing this, I've been able to find a lot of if/then statements throughout the BofM that I might of otherwise missed, such as the relationship between Lehi's prayers and his vision that is found in 1 Nephi chapter one.  I'll likely blog about this more in the future.

Earn at Least a B+ in All My Classes -- B (wait for it. . .) Plus

It's pretty hard to judge this one right now given that none of my grades have come out and that we haven't even gotten to midterms yet, but I can make a couple of observations.

I totally Jimmered my finance test with a 99percent, but I BYU-Football-at-the-start-of-last-seasoned'd my Business Grammar exam with a 77percent.  I heard later that the average for that test was 76.8 percent, so I at least beat the curve.

I've been able to do this by staying on campus from 9:30 AM to about 7:00 PM every day.  I'm even studying while exercising in the mornings (I seem to remember what I read better when I'm on an elliptical machine anyway).

Give at Least Five Compliments a Day -- C-

It's pretty hard to keep track of this, but if I were to estimate, I would say I'm averaging about 2-3 compliments a day--and that's being generous. 

Thing is, I don't want to become a person who gives out compliments just because I said that I need to give out compliments.  I want to do this so that I get better at seeing the good in others, and because I like to make people happy.

Cut Back on The Mormon Swears -- [What the] F!!!!

I still say fetch, fudge, eff, shiz, and the rest of the classics like a Sailor on basic cable.  I've realized that cutting back doesn't happen naturally, so I need to find some way to motivate myself.  I'm thinking that maybe I should get my roommate to punch me in the arm every time I say a Mormon cuss--a la 'Best Two Years.'  That could end poorly, but I can't think of any better ideas.

New Year... New Things to Resolve

As y'all know, the new year is just around the corner.  We go through a yearly ritual of making some resolutions that we're sure to break by February, and by December we've forgotten what those resolutions even were.  We'll I'm going to break out of that rut this year.  I plan on writing my resolutions down and posting it on my bulletin board in my room, so that I see them every day. 

I'm even going to post my resolutions on this blog so that you can hold me accountable.  In fact, if any of you see me on the roads, I want you to stop me and say "how are the New Year's resolutions going?" 

And then I'll say "thank you for asking me.  I'm [a) doing great, b) doing pretty good with most of them, c) having some difficulties, or d) in the $@#% crapper]."

And then I want you to recommit me to live up to my New Year's resolutions, no matter how much I resist.  This is the way missionaries help the people they teach break out of bad habits.  Of course, I do know all the missionary tactics,  so I might be a tough case if I'm not happy about you asking about the resolutions.  Just twist my arm until I break, or something like that.  I'm being kind of serious about this.

When I was a missionary, my mission president would have all the zone leaders and assistants of the mission set a yearly goal for the number of people our mission would baptize by that year, and we would always set the goal in a special mission council meeting in which all the participants arrive praying and fasting.  That goal would then be something we would all work towards--together--for the entire year.  During my time in the Little Rock mission, the number of baptisms we would have per year doubled, and I'm confident in saying that setting some high goals and then following through with faith and hard work was a major factor in that.

Maybe I'm being naive, but I'm going to try the same thing this year.  My goals won't all be religious and I won't say that they came as the result of prayer and inspiration, but I will say that they came after some serious considerations, and that I believe they are attainable, yet stretching.

#1.  Work out for 30 minutes 3 times a week

My vision:

Nobody wants a roundhouse kick to the face in those bad boys.

Vision likely to come true?  Not really.  But it is good to exercise.

#2.  Read the Book of Mormon in 100 Days

I did this at the end of my mission, and it was an awesome experience.  Our BYU stake is planning on doing the same thing this year, so I'm going to capitalize on that.

#3.  Make at least a B+ in all my classes

I go to school for the first time since 2008 tomorrow.  I'm not too worried about this goal, since I'm a freakish perfectionist when it comes to grades and will likely sacrifice just about anything short of a minor appendage if it means higher grades.

"Must... Get... A-minus..."

#4.  Give Five Compliments a Day

Can you imagine how awesome the world would be if everyone did this?  I know I posted the short film 'Validation' on here before, but I think it deserves a repeat: http://bit.ly/evpE86.  It's a film about a guy who gives wonderful compliments to literally every person he sees

#5.  Cut Back on the Mormon Swears

 Examples: Flip, fudge, fetch, freak, freakin', shiz, crap, and my personal favorite: what the eff!?

I'll need to find new words to express myself.
<stubs toe> "Gahh!  Melvin!"
<burns finger>  "Oww!!  Zeezrom!"

I'll work on some better words.  I promise.

Once again, I'm committed to do these resolutions.  So stop and ask me how they're going.  You may think that the idea of having New Year's resolutions is kind of silly.  And to be honest, I do too, but I firmly believe that everyone needs goals in their life.  After all, how can you expect to go anywhere if you don't take the steps inbetween?