New Years Resolutions

Somebody told me they don't believe in New Years Resolutions today, because they are concerned about being saddled with unnecessary guilt.

I believe a New Year is an opportunity to set the tone for the next year. It's not about saying "I will lose 10 pounds." It's about saying "This year, I want to be a better person." "This year, I'm going to focus on being holistic."

It's not about specific goals, but about ideas.

So in that vein, here are my specific goals for the year. I'm intentionally aiming high.

1. Lose 50 pounds.

2. Rewrite Ashram.

3. Complete a new book/project.

4. Take a ferry.

5. Go to an NFL game in person.

6. Beat my record of blog posts (109).

7. Complete my Space Marine and Lizardmen armies.

8. Win a tournament with one of those armies.

9. Get 3 Stars on all Angry Bird levels.

10. Surprise my wife with flowers at least 1/2 dozen times.

11. Visit the Space Needle.
12. Run a 5k.

13. Get less holes in my socks.

14. Pay off our PT Cruiser.

15. Be published on a website (not blog).

16. Triple my monthly blog visits.

17. Create a 5 year plan for my life.

18. Move into a new apartment/space.

19. Engage better at work.

20. Rewrite the instruction manual at work.

21. Create a home budget.

22. Get a desktop computer.

23. Win a fantasy football league.

24. Improve my NFL picks.

25. Listen to more sermons.

26. Get internet for my home.

27. Try a new restaurant every other month.

28. Create a list of movies/books that I own.

29. Create a list of movies/books that I want to own.

30. Create a list of movies/books that I've seen/read.

31. Own all the Animorphs books.

32. Create 2 short films.

33. Write 3 sermons/devotionals (that aren't for anything specific).

34. Get Ashram printed/published (self publish if necessary).

35. Own a sportcoat.

That's good enough. We'll start there!

NFL: Crystallizing the Playoff Picture

So, the AFC is locked in, and we're just finagling positions. The NFC has two spots up for grabs, and some finagling of positions. I'm not going to write much here, because in a week what I write will be obsolete. Might as well wait and see.

I'm going to review my predictions from the preseason now. Hopefully this doesn't hurt too much.

Correctly predicted that Dallas and San Diego were overhyped (and Green Bay and New York Jets are close to being overhyped).

Correctly predicted that Arizona would drop a ton, but also incorrectly theorized Pittsburgh would.

None of my surprise playoff teams made it in (Carolina, Houston, Cleveland).

Dead right about Seattle / Denver. Nothing new in their fronts.

Was wrong about worst team. Tampa turned out to be a good crappy team and Buffalo showed some spunk.

Ryan Matthews was a bust in San Diego. Glad I didn't draft him. Suh was a marvel though.

I did predict Detroit would challenge third place in the division.

My quarterback analysis wasn't bad. Flacco probably didn't belong in the top 6.

Cleveland wasn't bad down the stretch, but didn't come close to 9-7.

I picked 6/12 correct playoff teams. That's really not that good.

Let's just move on to some slightly better picks.

Week 16 in Review:

Correct Picks: Steelers, Patriots, Bears, Ravens, Rams, Colts, Packers, Buccaneers, Saints

Incorrect Picks: Cowboys, Titans (upset), Dolphins, Jaguars, Chargers (lock), Texans, Eagles

Week: 9-7

Overall: 140-98

Lock: 11-5

Upset: 5-10

Week 17 Picks:

Panthers at Falcons: A strange must-win game for the Falcons, and not a must-lose game for Carolina. I'd like to think Carolina would rise up and try to have a say in the division, but they just don't have the talent to compete with Atlanta. So Atlanta wins.

Steelers at Browns: Not a gimme game for the Steelers. The Browns have been playing to the level of their opponents - crappy against crappy teams, good against good teams. I'll take Cleveland as an upset.

Viking at Lions: I wasn't going to pick the Lions this week, but the Vikings play the weird Tuesday game, so they'll be done. I'll take the Lions. Although, I don't like the thought of Brett Favre having his final game against Detroit.

Raiders at Chiefs: As the Chiefs, I may actually want to lose this game and get the 4th seed. Because in round 2, I'd much rather play New England than Pittsburgh (if I'm a running team anyway). I think Oakland wins because Kansas City isn't worried.

Dolphins at Patriots: Patriots do play hard in these games, and the Dolphins are really not a good team. I think the Patriots will win, because Miami can't come back when Tom Brady buries them by 30 points in the first quarter.

Buccaneers at Saints: Probably a meaningless game for New Orleans, but a must-win for Tampa. So I'll take Tampa. (Although can you imagine the craziness if New Orleans somehow snuck into the #1 seed? That would be a blindside for the ages.)

Bills at Jets: The Bills, as they won't let Mark Sanchez get within ten feet (heh) of the field.

Bengals at Ravens: Baltimore has the potential to win their division, but they did play their worst game of the season against Cincinnati. Unfortunately, passionate revenge and Joe Flacco don't really go in the same sentence. So, in a stunning move, I'm taking the Bengals as a second Upset (mostly because for some reason I've only picked 15 upsets to this point).

Chargers at Broncos: Who cares! Chargers will beat up on Tebow to take out their frustrations.

Bears at Packers: Green Bay is sort of maddeningly inconsistent. Have they posted two or three good games in a row? Chicago is at least consistent (they win games but look like they should lose). I guess I'll take Green Bay.

Titans at Colts: Don't bet against the Colts, at least until the playoffs.

Cowboys at Eagles: Meaningless! Vick plays a quarter, and then Kevin Kolb picks apart the Cowboys secondary. I think this is a better game for Kolb to play in anyway, as Dallas does have a pretty bad defense.

Cardinals at 49ers: Uglyrama. Take the home team, don't watch.

Giants at Redskins: The Redskins are the Vikings of the second half of the season - a crappy team dominating headlines. I subscribe to the notion that the Giants have folded, so I will pick Rex Grossman. If I ever have to type that sentence again, you know there is a gun to my head.

Jaguars at Texans: I haven't heard, but if Jones-Drew is playing I'll take the Jaguars. Actually, I'll just take the Jaguars no matter what.

Rams at Seahawks: And it comes to this. The 7-8 Rams at the 6-9 Seahawks for supremacy of the NFC West and the right to be trounced by New Orleans. I think I'm going to take the Seahawks. Two reasons, neither having to do with football (because these teams don't really play football). Number one - After Seattle makes it as 7-9 team, there is bound to be an outcry to reseed the playoffs. Number two - I could potentially go to the New Orleans game and get drunk and make fun of Seattle fans. So Seattle is my Lock.

Predicted Seedings:

AFC (In Order): New England, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Baltimore, New York

NFC (In Order): Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Orleans, Green Bay

2010: Year in Review

2010 was a good year. A decent start to a decade. Let's look back on it:

I'm anticipating 108 blog posts on the year. That's nearly double the year before (only 62 posts). That's not really that great, seeing as I didn't really accomplish much else in writing.

January: Slow month. I spent the month predicting the NFL playoffs (6-5 total) and also making Lost predictions.

February: Lost Season 6 starts.

March: I unsuccessfully start participating in 750words.com, and write some more Lost Reviews.
April: I have vacation, and it's my wife 1st Birthday since we've been married. Red Wings burn out in the second round.

May: The Lost Series Finale destroys my soul.
June: First time I was Best Man in a wedding. I also wrote a series on quantum physics that didn't go far.

July: Inception rocks my world. I create a short film for a film contest and then promptly forgot about it.

August: I start a few new writing ideas. I do my first guest post and my first blog giveaway. I also turn 24.

September: The NFL Starts, and I start making picks.

October: The immensely popular NFL Bias Rankings make their first appearance.

November: Second married Thanksgiving. I enjoy it even though the turkey doesn't come out as good as last year.

December: Christmas was a great time. I really enjoyed it. It was a good blend of intimate and public, small and large.

So that's the year in review. Later this week tune in for an NFL column and New Years Resolutions.

Coolest News I've Heard All Week

Scholastic is going to relaunch Animorphs.

That's seriously cool, for my nerdy self. I used to own them all, and have recently decided to try to recollect them. The covers look pretty sweet:

Count me as interested.

Horror Movie Plots

I've said in the past that many horror movies are cliched and uninspired. So check out this "horror movie" synopsis:

Two kids are dragged underwater in a remote third world country and killed, and no one manages to catch a glimpse. After the locals rise up to defend their children, no more attacks happen...

...for nine years. Several more attacks happen, and one villager manages to catch a confusing glimpse of the creature. To help fend off the attacks, the locals call for help, and a British biologist shows up to try to identify and defeat the creature. After ruling out all manner of possibilities for the creature (crocodiles, sharks, etc) the Biologist sees a creature that shouldn't be there - or at least shouldn't be that size.

The Biologist (our protagonist) decides to set a trap for the creature. Theorizing that the creature (s) has been feeding off the half burned corpse that the locals leave in riverside funeral pyres, he creates a fake funeral pyre, and actually manages to catch the creature.

The creature - which has grown to 5 times it's normal size because of the abundance of human flesh- is...

A giant, six foot long, 160 pound, catfish, of course. Oh, and the final shot? There's a whole community of giant man eating catfish (for the sequel).

That's a crappy movie. Why? Because it hits every cliche in the book. Biologist Expert? Check. Glimpse of the monster? Check. Small child eaten to raise sympathy? Check. Even the final trap sounds likes a cheap jaws ripoff. Also, doesn't a man-eating catfish sort of sound stupid?

Good thing then that it's not a movie. This whole story is true - including the entire community of killer catfish. It happened in Nepal, on the Kali river. (And It Could Happen To You!)

I've been on a river where they have these types of funeral pyres. The entire time I was worried about seeing a dead body. Turns out I should have been worried about being eaten by a giant catfish.

Merry Christmas

"I Celebrate The Day"

by Relient K

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know how much You've touched my life
Because here is where You're finding me, in the exact same place as New Year's eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I'll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life

The Holidays

Merry Christmas (Eve)!

I hope you enjoy the holidays and spend time with the ones you love. I figured I'd share a few things...

My Favorite Memory: My mom once tried to convince me that I should open one of my Christmas presents early, because she was so excited to see me open it.

Random Christmas Fact: I had my first live Christmas tree last year.

My Favorite Christmas Gift I've Received: 24 Christmas's so far. I think my favorite gift was still when I was a kid (first or second grade I think). I received the Jurassic Park Tyrannosaur Rex (with realistic dinosaur skin!):

My Favorite Christmas Movie: What was the one with Arnold Schwarzenegger? Jingle All the Way! That was always an absurd favorite. Or catching a Home Alone on TV.

Another Random Christmas Fact: I just got rid of last years live tree two weeks ago.

My Favorite Christmas Tradition: Waking up super early, and making (probably horrible) coffee for my parents. That was always their condition - we could wake them up super early, but there had better be some coffee ready.

Dumbest Thing I've Given (or Tried to Give): Well, I tried to give my alcoholic great grandfather a pack of beer once. Turns out seven year olds aren't allowed to buy beer.

My Favorite Christmas Song: I do enjoy Feliz Navidad, only because it may be the most annoying song in the history of the world, and thus I have come to enjoy it. But alas, that is not my favorite. I'll post my favorite song tomorrow, with lyrics. Until then, have a Merry Christmas!

What about You?