Friday, January 13, 2012

Still Resolute?

(Note: Take two on this post. I tried to post it yesterday, but for some reason Blogger didn't want to post it.)

“So, how’s that resolution thing going?”

Well, so far this year I haven’t been doing too well with the resolutions, I must admit. Let’s go over them one by one to see how I’ve been doing for the first couple of weeks.

Floss daily - last night I woke up around two in the morning and realized that I hadn’t flossed before going to bed (just a couple of hours earlier). I dragged myself out of bed and flossed. If I hadn’t, that would have been the first time so far this year. So far, mission accomplished!

Tweet daily - I’ve missed once - and that’s because I couldn’t figure out a phrasing I wanted. However, I’d tweeted twice the day before and I’m calling it even. Mission accomplished!

Upper or full body workout - Utter failure here... let’s move on.

45 minutes of cardio or something - I’ve skipped a couple of days, but I’ve walked around for a bit so at least I’m doing something here.

Clean up my share of the house - umm.... the less said, the better. Moving on...

Eat more greens -Success! I’ve been eating more. Not every meal, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve increased my veggie intake. Mission accomplished!

Work in the garden - My schedule on weekends has increased so I haven’t done as much as I should, but I can do better and am planning on it. I just need to work harder on getting out there and working harder.

Daily comedy building exercises - Success!

Weekly cultural excursions - Didn't do it the first week because my schedule was a little wonky, but I did go this week. Partial success! Which, of course means, partial failure!

The Weekly Quest - kind of a success. I’ve been taking opportunities to go places that I wouldn’t have gone a year ago. In only a couple of weeks I’ve been to areas of Los Angeles I haven’t been to in the previous ten years. So, while I haven’t been doing a set quest that I plan out on Sundays, I’ve embraced the idea of just heading places to go there.

Creating an performing a stand up routine - I’ve teamed up with a couple of friends and we’re working on our materials. Partial success - the other part will happen when I step onto a stage.

Write a weekly blog post - Take a look at the date on this post... At least I’m posting in January and not July.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Twelve Resolutions for 2012

Well gentle readers, obviously I haven't been around much of late. I've haven't forgotten to post or even that I've been too busy to post. I haven't posted because: 1) I'm lazy & 2) I haven't really felt like I've had anything to say, well, anything interesting at least.

Is all that going to change? Am I going to start post with any sort of regularity? Honestly, probably not. I am going to try though. Somebody once said that you need to shoot for the moon so that even if you miss, you'll still be among the stars. I'm only hoping to get off the ground.

While considering my two reasons (laziness and boring-osity) for not posting and for my life in general, I've decided that something has to change... me. I have to take steps to becoming something better than I am right now. So, here are my twelve resolutions for 2012:

1) Floss daily - okay, so I was having trouble starting this list and I went with my usual. I put this on my resolution lists most years and it lasts maybe two months, if I'm lucky. This year, though, I resolve to actually Floss daily for the entire year and I really mean it... just like every other year.

2) Tweet daily - I think it's important to be putting out some kind of daily bit of humor or interesting information, just to keep my mind active. Also, at 140 or whatever characters, this seems like a low impact blog.

3) Upper or full body workout once per week - I'm going to hit the whole laziness thing pretty hard in my resolutions. Shoot for the moon... stars... off the ground... you get the idea.

4) 45 minutes of cardio or cardio equivalent exercise every day - again, battling laziness.

5) Clean up my share of the house once per week - this is like the flossing thing. Who knows, I may actually do it this year.

6) Eat more greens - just a good idea, really.

7) Work in the garden one morning each week - I like it, but lately I just haven't been putting in the effort, I really need to get back out there. The grass in the back yard is knee high and I'm pretty sure most of the sprinkler heads are broken. If I turn on the sprinklers, I'm sure I'd see fountains that rival the Bellagio's.

8) Continue doing daily comedy building exercises - I started doing this a few weeks ago and while I have to admit that I've skipped more than a few days, for the most part I've been doing it. The comedy building exercise I'm doing comes from Judy Carter's Comedy Bible. I'm not going to explain it here, since I feel that if you are interested, you should buy the book.

9) Weekly cultural excursions - I need to see more things out in the world, open my eyes to other people's forms of expression. To this end, once per week I want to go and see improv, stand-up, movies, storytelling, art galleries, performance art, live music, and everything and anything else that Los Angeles has to offer... well, not everything else, I'm probably not going to want to see anything that is too depressing.

10) The Weekly Quest! - on every Sunday, I want to challenge myself to a quest that I have to tackle that week. My Holy Grail of the week will probably seem tame to some, but will probably be a challenge to me. I'd like to give you examples of what I have in mind, but it's Monday and I'm only going to be coming up with them on Sunday... and it's only 2011, not 2012.

11) Create and perform a five minute stand-up routine - while this sounds like a weekly quest, I think it'll take more than a week to get my butt up on stage and perform five minutes of comedy by myself.

12) Write a weekly blog post - This is a key part of why I'm doing all of the above (except maybe flossing or eating greens). I'm making a change to my life and I want to document my change into the 30th most interesting man in the world - or at least the 800th most interesting man in the San Fernando Valley or wherever I end up.

Jeez, that's one big, unedited ramble... I hope it makes some kind of sense - and even more I hope that I actually do 90% of it. Well, if I don't do it, you'll know it because my next post will probably be dated six months to a year after this one.






Friday, May 6, 2011

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Sunday newspaper comics that I skip

Cathy, Prickly City, Peanuts, Marmaduke, Rose Is Rose, For Better Or For Worse, Family Circus

Why do I mention this? On Sundays I have all the time in the world to read the comics, and I still don't bother finding the time for these. What went wrong?

Cathy lost any relevance to humor or reality back in the Eighties. Prickly City has never been funny and the politics of the strip are only annoying. Since Peanuts and For Better Or For Worse are repeats of old strips I've got a "been there, done that" feeling. I liked them when they first came out, but I'm done with them. I'm not the audience for Marmaduke or Family Circus, they skew to the extremely young or slow. I actually think that Rose Is Rose is a clever strip and I hope that they continue to make it, I just feel sorry for the main character.

I think that there are a lot of great comics out there- important comics that delight me or make me consider different viewpoints on the world around me. Candorville, La Cucaracha, Zits, Baldo & Doonesbury may not hit the mark for me every time, humor-wise, but I like their viewpoints and messages. On the other hand, Pearls Before Swine is the best current comic in any newspaper in the land.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010