Well, I’m officially breaking my make-to-be-broken resolution tonight; I’m behind enough on laundry that I won’t be laying anything out tonight for work. It’ll still be in various states of being laundered when I go to bed [an hour fast approaching, honestly]. In fact, it’s a strong possibility that I’ll be 0-for-3 on the resolutions, but … that’s okay. Doug called Dad and I “my right arm and my left arm, and most days, my right leg and my left leg” the other day. That’s enough for me. Silly resolutions pale greatly in comparison to being there when your family needs you. And boy, did we need to be there.

I take it as a matter of faith that y’all will respect the radio silence around here. I’m still finding words for the thoughts going around in my head. And all this feels very cheap to write, because, well … you know, I’m not Doug right now, who has a far heavier burden to bear. He’s not bearing it alone—thank God for that, quite literally—but it’s a heavy burden.

God? This sucks. But you didn’t promise us a bed of roses.

I’m sorely tempted to have the doomed-for-failure resolution to include going for a walk every night, but … nah. I mean, I’m going to take more walks this year, but I won’t bet on an every-night thing. Even if it’s destined for failure—working late, rainstorms, alien abductions—I want something with a chance to succeed, and right now, I’m not very inclined to go for a walk. [Should've done that earlier today as I'd intended.] So, that’s out. But here’s what’s in:

1. Fixing the plumbing tasks around my house that I’ve been slacking on. These are: replacing the guts to the toilet tank in my bathroom, replacing the diverter valve in my tub, and replacing the cold water feed line in the sink downstairs that’s got a tiny pinhole leak in it. That’s one motivated Saturday or three mildly-motivated Saturdays.
2. Move the CD storage area out of the loft and build a better queueing system than piles on my desk and in the filing cabinet. This sounds easy, but it’s not going to be, given the sorry shelving state of things around me. I’ve been keeping them close by the computer for ready access, but letting that stay as it has resulted in overflowing [because I'm acquiring bootlegs at a crazy rate] piles around the one tiny bookshelf that’s being used for them. At this rate, I’m best served by moving both bookshelves into my bedroom, pulling all the books out of the bigger one, and storing all the CDs in the fully-available shelves. Doing this would open me up to build those bookshelves that I never built last year.
3. DfF: Every night, before I go to bed, lay out the clothes I’ll wear the next day. This is part of an effort to start every morning, weekday or weekend, parked on a downhill slope. If I have stuff all laid out for me, my first considered action in the morning is going to be to bathe and then get dressed. It won’t be, “Go read the email and feed items that came in overnight,” or “Read some of this month’s Esquire,” or “Go back to bed.” It’ll be, “Get up and start the damn day already.” Case in point: if I’d done this task last night, chances are that I wouldn’t be wearing a hat to cover up last night’s bedhead still. Granted, I did go ahead and start the damn day already, because I was up at 0630, but I also got back in bed for a while mid-morning without going back to sleep.

So, there we go. Let’s test my resolve!

Well, last year’s resolutions were, uh … not really a success. :chuckle: By my estimate, I achieved three of them, semi-achieved two more, and wholly failed seven. Meatloaf never sang a song about that, though. [Bastard!]

[In case you want a review: I did get organized with Quicken and Pocket Quicken, I did get my taxes filed early, I did take a vacation, and I did end up buying a new car, even if that wasn't really my intention as 2006 dawned. I had some technical issues with Quicken, though, and after April, I really ... didn't keep up with it. As to the other one, I never built SandraMcCracken.org/info, but I did help build squarepegalliance.net. I would like to fiiiiiiiinally build the Sandra site this year, but I'm not making any definite plans.]

As I mentioned elsewhere today, I’m going to focus on more short-term stuff:

As for my resolutions this year, I’m going to take a different tack: monthly goals. I found that, as the year progressed, my view of the goals I’d set at the beginning of 2006 grew dimmer. Also, I find myself a strong believer in repentance and staring anew, and a more regular focus is what I seek. I’ve always been great at short-term goals due to my procrastinative nature: the thrill of the deadline provides all the adrenaline that I need to succeed. I’ve also generally done well with long-term goals, which I pursue blindly and seem to just … sort of achieve. [I think I’d title my memoirs to date How I Became an Aerospace Engineer Without Really Trying.] But the medium-term stuff—the stuff that I’ve long held is the glue that really builds upon the short-term stuff and makes the long-term stuff happen a lot faster—is something I’ve generally sucked at in my life.

That’s the idea, anyway. How am I planning on handling this? Well, the idea I’ve rolled around in my head for the last week, but specifically today [mainly while watching the Space Race documentary on the National Geographic Channel that I'd TiVo'd seven months ago and finally got around to watching today, heh] it’s been this: three goals to resolve upon doing per month. One of them will be a resolution designed for failure—an idea I loved the moment I read it.

Come the first of every month, I can then come back here and flagellate myself for your amusement and mine. Sounds like a plan to me, largely because I do good to know what I’ll have time to do more than a week or two out at the time. Work is just that much fun right now. [I only mean that slightly sarcastically; it really is fun. Sometimes it's just fun, y'know? I'm betting it'll be fun tomorrow, though. The good kind.]

Anyhow, back after a few to post January’s threesome.

If one of the earlier resolutions proves to be unworkable by its scheduled date, you could swap it out with this one, as this is probably the easiest resolution to accomplish that you’ve posted thus far.

– Steve Talley, 8 Jan 2006

Well, Steve, you were right. First I punted on March. Then April came and went, too. I’ve been getting things done, but not at the rate I’d like, and clearly not working this list down.

So, let’s re-adjust, shall we? [As we say at the office, we've never failed to meet an adjusted schedule.]
.

• SandraMcCracken.org Launch: I’m slipping this until the end of July. The pressure is off, as squarepegalliance.net is up and running, and Sandra’s album isn’t coming out until August.
• Office Setup: Because I took my vacation early, money that would have gone towards the desk went towards my plane fare. This is going to slide to September.
• New Bookshelves: I’ve laid the basic design out [and I will try to get that scanned in at the office this week and posted here for all to see], but with the office un-done, I haven’t done the bookshelves.
• ShowInfo: I’m pulling this off the schedule. Why? Jeff has built something that will largely do. Will it do everything I want to do? No. But it will do enough, and I’m not going to duplicate efforts here.
• Vacation: Well, I’ve half-done this with my trip to Portland, and the rest of the vacationing I’m doing this year will be done in two more weeks, post-Memorial Day, as I stalk follow the Over the Rhine/HEM tour through the mid-South. Yes, actually finishing one early. I’ve also got some lessons learned to post when this is complete. I’ll be done with this in June.
• Bar Extension is going to slide into September and maybe October with the office completion.
• DirecTV Setup is going to go away unless I somehow get a promotion at the office. Buying an iBook largely took the funds I’d have spent on that. Sorry, Rick.
• Car Buying Plans are still in progress, and I’ll finish the outlines of the task in October. I’ve decided what cars I’m going to consider already and will do test-driving this summer.
• All other tasks remain on schedule.

Due to a variety of happenstances—work being really busy, being out-of-town, a server that upgefuchted on me [causing me two days' downtime and pushing all the work I'd've done last weekend to this onw], and increased church commitments—I’m punting this month’s resolution back to finish in April. I’m subsequently pushing April’s stuff back in to May, as I can re-work the office and build the bookshelves in the same month.

I’ll get the layout done for the bookshelves today; I’m still trying to decide how to lay the office out. I’m putting a [couch|futon|loveseat] up here, and the bookshelves will either go on the short patch of full wall next to the windowseat or along the angled half-walls opposite. I had just about decided which way I’d go back in January, and then I picked up a much-needed filing cabinet in February, and that’s jumbled my thinking. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

However, with the decision to slip the launch of SandraMcCracken.org made, I’ll rest a little bit easier. March has honestly kicked my ass repeatedly, and I need some time to regroup.

Last month’s resolution was to see if I could get my taxes filed by the end of the month. I had a false start in terms of getting the taxes done the first time, thanks to a bug in TurboTax.com’s deduction module, but I got it finished on 28 Feb. I have a nice, healthy refund coming my way: I plan on purchasing some furniture with it.

You’ll remember that, at the start of my 2006 resolutions, I resolved to have greater fiscal tracking. I’ve got it.

1. Financial tracking software be procured for my home computer as well as my Treo handheld no later than 15 Jan 2006.

   I picked up Quicken 2006 for Mac and Pocket Quicken. Both have been excellent; I find that I only use PQ for realtime balance checking at the moment and not for data entry. I imagine that I’ll use PQ for data entry on business travel and when I’m away from home for more than a day or two. It’s been a good choice—I was already familiar with the software, and it’s working well.

2. Aforementioned software shall be learned and implemented no later than 20 Jan 2006.

   There wasn’t a steep learning curve to it, but I just barely snuck in under the line on getting the stuff in place—no one sold either package locally, and I couldn’t get a download of Q2k6 for Mac, so I ordered both via for postal delivery. The USPS took their sweet time getting me the stuff—I ordered on the 7th and didn’t get my packages until the 19th. I squeaked this one in under the wire.

3. A basic budgetary outline [mortgage, house-related expenses, groceries, entertainment, vehicle maintenance, etc.] be completed no later than 31 Jan 2006.

   It’s in place. I’m reviewing it every two weeks—when I get paid, of course—to see how I’m doing. This is a constant revision process, but with some fixed expenses to be sure. I’m liking how I’m doing—the greater visibility has made me far, far more conscious of my spending, and that alone has been a huge benefit.

This has been a great exercise for me to undertake. I’m really happy with how a bottom-up approach has helped me to see the forest and the trees. Personal and professional experience has hammered into me, repeatedly, that bottom-up approaches are how I work best. [I argue that they should be the norm, but I'm also wary of magic bullet solutions and blanket statements, so I'm trying to stay me-specific and not put my foot in my mouth too often here.]

See y’all back here in four weeks.

A RESOLUTION to Lose 50 Pounds in 2006

WHEREAS I’m really out of shape, and

WHEREAS I’d like to not be so bad next year, and

WHEREAS It’s just a pound a week,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved that I will lose 50 pounds in 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that I will tell you how close I got to that goal sometime in January 2007.

RESOLVED on this, the thirteenth day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Fatass, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to Finish My Christmas Shopping by the End of November 2006

WHEREAS I’m your prototypical last-minute Christmas shopper, and

WHEREAS Such practices typically result in poor financial decisions, and

WHEREAS The main failure in finishing Christmas shopping early is simply a failure to plan ahead, and

WHEREAS this entire series is about planning ahead,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that I will finish my 2006 Christmas shopping by the end of November 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 Dec 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the twelfth day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Truck Drivin’ Man, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to Develop a Plan to Buy a Car by 31 Oct 2006

WHEREAS I nearly totaled my beloved 1995 Nissan pickup truck three-and-a-half years ago, at which point I drained nearly all of the resale value out of the vehicle, and

WHEREAS I’ve told myself each of the last two years that “when October comes around, I’ll think about buying a new car,” but never have, and

WHEREAS I really probably would have done it in 2005 if not for that whole house-buying thing, and

WHEREAS I’m doing enough capital improvements around the house this year that I don’t expect that I’ll suddenly have the sizeable down payment I’d want to drop on a car just materialize out of thin air, and

WHEREAS I really don’t have any idea what I want in a vehicle right now, and

WHEREAS Darlene is still running in good shape and is still under 200,000 miles driven, which concerns only my parents, really,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. A plan be devised for saving up the down payment I want on a vehicle by 30 Jun 2006.
2. A plan be devised for timing the purchase of a new vehicle by 31 Oct 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 Nov 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the eleventh day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Truck Drivin’ Man, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to Get My Home Theater Set Up by 1 September 2006

WHEREAS I regularly visit a local sports bar to watch Cincinnati Bengals games, and

WHEREAS these visits usually run me $15-20 between the food and beer, money which would be better spent getting my own NFL Sunday ticket package, and

WHEREAS this sports bar is run by Pittsburgh Steelers fans, and

WHEREAS I’ve really come to hate Steelers fans as a group in the last year, and as such, I’ve got little desire to give them any money, and

WHEREAS Rick watches the NFL, too, and would probably chip in on my DirecTV Sunday Ticket purchase as long as it meant that he got to watch Saints games, and

WHEREAS my nice new bar will be done by the end of September, and

WHEREAS the 2006 NFL season will start early in September, and

WHEREAS I have a huge, huge wall in my living room on which to project an HDTV image,

THEREFORE, Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. An appropriate HDTV-capable projector be priced and selected by 15 Jul 2006.
2. Said projector be procured by 15 Aug 2006.
3. Said projector be installed by 20 Aug 2006.
4. Necessary room alterations [thicker drapes, shortening the chain on my ceiling fan] be completed by 22 Aug 2006.
5. An HDTV-compatible DirecTV system be procured and installed by 29 Aug 2006.
6. NFL Sunday Ticket be procured by the start of the 2006 NFL season.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort, including photos of the debauchery that this implement inspires, be made no later than 15 Sep 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the tenth day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident “Who dey?!” Shouter, presiding.

A Resolution to Build the Bar Cabinet Extension I’ve Been Dreaming of by 31 Aug 2006

WHEREAS I will have liberated my nice piece of butcher block from its pedestrian service as a computer desk by the end of April 2006, and

WHEREAS I have a nice wet bar in the nook under my stairs and the master bathroom, but that counterspace is wholly inappropriate to actually, you know, serving drinks, and

WHEREAS I have no desire to have a traditional dining room arrangement while I am still an unbridled bachelor, and

WHEREAS putting that slab of maple butcher block at bar height, building a cabinet underneath it, and finishing it out as a traditional bar would be great fun, and

WHEREAS I’ll have honed my woodworking skills by building the shelves in May,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. An estimate of the weight of the butcher block slab be made no later than 15 May 2006. “Damn heavy” is not an acceptable estimate, although it’s probably the one that Jon and Rick want to give it when they think about moving that damn thing.
2. A sketch and materials list of the cabinet box be developed by 31 May 2006.
3. Manufacturing of the cabinet be completed by 15 Aug 2006.
4. Finishing of the cabinet be completed by 22 Aug 2006.
5. Deployment of the cabinet be completed by 31 Aug 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort, including photos of the debauchery that this implement inspires, be made no later than 2 Sep 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the ninth day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Norm Abram Disciple, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to Take a Vacation in July 2006

WHEREAS I have worked for Teledyne Brown Engineering since August of 1999, and

WHEREAS I have, in six-plus years at TBE, only had two weeks where I charged no time to a contract, and

WHEREAS both of those weeks were spent on mission trips for youth, so they really weren’t vacations in the traditional sense, and

WHEREAS I’m unlikely to take a full week off of work unless I tell everyone that I’m going to do it and get the plan in way in advance, and

WHEREAS I really have no idea where I’d go on a vacation at present,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. I’m going to take a vacation in July 2006, come hell or high water.
2. A plan for taking said vacation—what to do, where to go, how to get there—will be devised by 30 Apr 30062006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 Aug 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the eighth day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Workaholic, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to Release ShowInfo v1.0 by June 30, 2006

WHEREAS I had this really great idea a couple years ago about creating an open-source software package to allow fan sites and artists alike to share information about shows, and

WHEREAS this really great idea really hasn’t gotten anywhere in, oh, the last year-and-a-half—no, really, check it and see! :sigh:—and really needs to be acted upon, because, well, that whole SandraMcCracken.org thing really could use it, ya know?, and

WHEREAS the biggest reason that I’ve gotten nowhere is, well, inactivity, and

WHEREAS I have the basic idea mapped out in my head, but need to avoid the pratfall that all such hobbyist, would-be coders face of feature bloat, and

WHEREAS I recognize that I need to just declare basic functionality to be 1.0 and leave the fancy shit for later, because a fait accompli beats the hell out of a pair of aces, and

WHEREAS I’m clearly quite frustrated with myself here, because I just said “shit” in a resolution and am not upbraiding myself at all, and

WHEREAS my hangups with this subject have had this entry’s window open for, literally, twelve hours, and

WHEREAS I really need to get on with this resolution,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. The scope of ShowInfo 1.0 be clearly defined by 31 Jan 2006.
2. A milestone plan be developed by 15 Feb 2006.
3. Milestones, being short, be aggressively scheduled so that the inevitable slips can still be absorbed and this likely-unrealistic deadline has a hope of being met.
4. A final version of ShowInfo 1.0 be release by 30 Jun 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 Jul 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the seventh day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Slackass, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to Finally Build the Custom Bookshelves I’ve Had in Mind for Years

WHEREAS I’ve had this really wicked idea for bookshelves for years now, but have never actually built them, and

WHEREAS I discovered during unpacking that I really do have a heck of a lot more books than I have bookshelf space, and

WHEREAS I have this whole six foot section of wall here in the loft that just begs to have bookshelves built to fit it, and

WHEREAS Mom and Dad bought me a great table saw for Christmas, leaving me without an excuse to get this built,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. My book- and CD-shelving needs be roughly scoped by 24 Feb 2006.
2. Custom shelving be designed for the space by 24 Mar 2006.
3. Materials be selected for the space by 17 Apr 2006.
4. Shelves be constructed and installed no later than 31 May 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the completion of this task be filed no later than 2 Jun 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the sixth day of 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.gom, Geof F. Morris, Resident Blowhard, presiding.