New Year, 1st Blog, Old Resolutions

I've always wanted to start a blog, but never had the time to write one. Not to mention I'm a horrible writer. What better time than now though, because the girlfriend is at work, the baby is asleep and it's the first day of 2010!

2009 went by fast! When filling out dates on paperwork at my job, sometimes I still write 2008. 2009 wasn't too bad of a year for me. I didn't get laid off, didn't catch H1N1 (knock on wood), didn't foreclose on my home. I wasn't too excited about who was elected President, but that's a blog for another day. My biggest failure for 2009 was that I failed to accomplish most of my New Years Resolutions.

My first New Years Resolution for 2009 was to Lose Weight and Get in Shape. Around this time I believe I weighed around 194 pounds. My goal was to get between 180 and 185. This Morning I weighed 191. Mission failed! I know I can accomplish this goal. It's not something out of reach or unattainable. I just need to workout and ease up on the food. I have a 24 hour fitness membership ($99 a year) that I never use. Never! As far as the food, I admit I have an addiction. It doesn't help that I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. There are so many very good restaurants in this area. The DFW area definitely does not get enough credit for it's restaurant offerings. I'm rolling over this resolution for 2010. Get In Shape and get my weight down under 185.


Next for 2009, I wanted to improve my poker game. My goal was to just get in more playing time to improve my overall game. Poker is just a hobby to me, but it's a hobby I really enjoy. I played less poker in 2009 than I have in the past 3 years. What happened? A little thing called having a baby happened. With a new baby of course I had to make some sacrifices and poker was one of them. Towards the end of 2009 I started to get back on the felt a little and I plan on increasing that a bit in 2010. I'm not officially going to include Improving my poker game as a 2010 Resolution, but I will always thrive to improve.


This is a big one and the only one I was successful at accomplishing. Become debt free (except for mortgage)! A couple of years ago I read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. It changed my way of thinking. I followed his program and as of December 2009 I have no debt outside of my mortgage. The last debt I paid off was my student loan. It felt great! I don't ever plan on getting in a situation again where I have credit card or any debt other than the mortgage.


The final New Years Resolution for 2009 was to improve my Japanese. This one hurts, because it doesn't just affect me. I have a daughter who lives with her Mother in Japan. She can't speak English anymore and I speak very little Japanese. I visit her every year in Japan and we occasionally speak on the phone. When I visit we do fine because we find a way to communicate. But for the other 51 weeks a year when we are just talking on the phone it's tough. I don't understand most of what she is saying and She doesn't understand most of what I'm saying. In 2008 I tried to take some Japanese lessons at the Fort Worth Japanese Society, but all we did was read through a book. I can do that on my own. I need to practice speaking. In 2009, I didn't do much studying at all. It's tough to learn a language on your on, but I'm going to trying harder in 2010. I really need to find a Japanese person (preferably a male so my girlfriend doesn't trip) that I can meet up with and practice speaking. We'll see. This is definitely a Resolution added to the 2010 list.


So here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2010:

1. Improve speaking in Japanese
2. Get in Shape, Get under 185 pounds (I always lump these two into one)
3. Improve Golf game (My addiction for Golf is stronger than my addiction for food)
4. Keep Blog going (At least two blogs a month)


-Tony


P.S. I'm not a very good writer. If you notice errors in any of my blogs, just let it be. I will not be proof reading them. I will quickly type them up, run a spell check and publish.