So apparently I'm bad at blogging

Heeeey everyone, it's been a while, wut?

Long story short - I've been keeping up with my 30 days of new things plan but since none of those included active blogging I've been very poor at keeping up with that. It was a classic case of a couple days' notepad files getting lost and then my motivation tanked.

For those of you curious about what I've been doing recently:

August - Promise Loop. It's a thing my work does, essentially stating that you make a series of commitments every day to people, saying you'll get X done by Y time. The important part is it realizes not everything can be met as initially stated so you have the ability to renegotiate with whoever your 'requestor/client' is. Anyway, goal for this was to meet all promises I made for the month.

Adding it to my 30 day plan kept it in the front of my mind more and made me more aware of my actions. I have a habit of willy-nilly agreeing to everything as my first response and that's come back to bite me in the butt a couple of times recently. Enacting a proper promise loop made me think more about the time-frames I was agreeing to.


September - Spanish! With the help of a really cool app (it's free, too!) called Duolingo I practiced my Spanish daily. I'm not functionally fluent or anything but it was a very good refresher and helped get my basic grammar back down. I need to stop being lazy though and keep up with it daily, even if it's just for one lesson.


October - Back to the fitness with T25. From the same guy who made Beach Body Insanity and the company who put out P90X comes the new hotness in kicking my butt... T25! The premise is simple; 25 minutes of high intensity workouts five times a week.

This has been a fun month so far because I suckered Malia and Peter into doing this with me as well. It also helps to have the peer pressure to keep me going during the workouts; there have been times I wanted to just call it a day but I can't look like a sissy in front of other people, can I?

The workout itself is pretty great, too. My biggest issue with P90X was the required 70-90 minutes a day; it was just a huge time commitment. 25 minutes is much more manageable and they really cram the exercise in there. Where normal ones would have a couple of breaks and stuff, this just keeps you going at high intensity for the entire time. It's been about half a month on it and I've lost 4 pounds of my bad food pudge and my calves are looking quite well turned if I say so myself.


Going forward - I'm going to try and update this a bit more regularly again as I noticed I just pay more attention to the 'soft' 30 day things if I have a way to hold myself more accountable.

New Albums: June 10 - 18

June 10th:
The Sound of Sunshine by Michael Franti & Spearhead
I don't know what to say about this other than it's a damn fine album. It's kind of a reggae/alt/hip-hop mix-up and it just put me in such a great mood listening to it. I put on the first track, self titled 'Sound of Sunshine' as I was walking out the door to go to work and it just bumped the whole tone for the day up a notch.

June 11th:
Believe by Justin Bieber
This was definitely another album that I had huge preconceived notions going into. I've heard a couple of his recent songs and liked them well enough, but overall 'Bieber-fever' is to be frowned upon. Imagine my surprise when it was a very solid album; apparently the guy has talent! It flows well between songs and has a good mix of catchy beats and slower R&B crooning. I don't know how it compares to his earlier work since I assume he's grown as an artist but hey, hopefully he can keep this up.

June 12th:
Nux Vomica by The Veils
As Matt put it, imagine "if James Mercer (shins) and Paul Banks (Interpol) had a love child and made Jack Whyte the godfather, you'd get this guy Finn Andrews." A very specific, and super spot on breakdown of their lead singer. They have a fun sound, almost like Panic At The Disco decided to go more avent garde.

June 13th:
Some Nights by Fun
This album has a lot more depth than you might think, although the title song's theme should have tipped me off to the feels of the full album.

June 14th:
¡Uno! by Green Day
A nice throw-back to their earlier punk days. Pretty solid 180 from their last two albums more rock-opera feel.

June 15th:
Legend by Bob Marley
Here's another guy that I've heard a decent number of songs by but never more than one in a row. In retrospect, I think this album doesn't quite fit the bill of what I want to accomplish as it's a 'best of' compilation so you dont' really get the full feel of what the artist wanted as he arranged song order and stuff. Regardless, a super chill album with songs that contain great messages. I'll be going back and listening to more of his full studio albums for sure.


June 16th:
This is War by Thirty Seconds to Mars
I've liked their earlier stuff and it was fun to see them have an album that feels a bit more optimistic in general. Normally they're a bit of a downer group and while I still wouldn't qualify this as an 'upbeat' release, it at least felt like they were a bit more positive about life.

June 17th:
Call on Me by Eric Prydz
So I might have been thinking this was a full studio release of his but NOPE, just 'Call on Me' redone in like 8 different remixes. I love this song, don't get me wrong, but that might have been a bit much for a straight through listen.

June 18th:
The Night the Sun Came Up by DEV
Felt like a more hip-hop Kesha? I'm sold!

New Albums: June 5 - 9

June 5th:
Born This Way by Lady Gaga
What can I say, I'm a huuuuge Lady Gaga fan, no regrets there. Born This Way seems to have a lot more songs that are laced with symbolism and talking about subjects she cares about instead of being more 'mainstream let's sell records' stuff. Makes sense since she's popular enough she can kind of do what she wants now. This was another one that I'd heard three or four of the most popular songs from it but hadn't listened to the whole album straight through.

June 6th:
MASHed Potatoes by K.Flay
A fun album to listen to with really solid lyrics. Definitely breaks out of the hip-hop norm on subject matter.

June 7th:
Night Visions by Imagine Dragons
An interesting album; if you only listened to Radioactive you'd be forgiven for thinking they were pretty close to dubsteppy with that large drop but the album is actually pretty diverse in style.
Breakfast by Chiddy Bang
Fun stuff, almost a pop-rock/rap crossover feel. It's definitely not something I would have ever thought to listen to before but I'm glad I gave them the chance.

June 8th:
Oracular Spectacular by MGMT
Lots of albums today due to Fresno trip! This is another one of those albums where I apparently know half the songs off it but never had put them all in a row to listen to. MGMT is great stuff.
Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro
I don't actually remember too much of this other than I enjoyed it. I was going through Pacheco pass and was wrestling with some pretty gnarly high speed wind which took a lot of my focus. The parts I did actually listen though had some good alternative music.
North by Matchbox Twenty
An all around very pleasant album to listen to. I'd heard a couple songs off it before but not straight through in the entirety. Every time 'Radio' comes on I have a compulsive urge to sing along as loudly as possible to it.
Grow Up and Blow Away by Metric
While I'd heard some Metric songs that I enjoyed before, I never actively sought them out to listen to until after Scott Pilgrim vs The World when they did the music for The Clash performing at Demonhead. Something about the song Black Sheep just completely sold me on Metric.

June 9th:
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye
Much better than I was expecting actually. I think I had pretty low expectations just because I really dislike Kaye as a person and let that taint my view of his music. Good beats and most of the tracks sounded like they were him just kind of talking about his life and experiences. Oddly personal at times.
Mesmerizing the Ultra by Bassnectar
It had the wub-wubs, I was entertained.
Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park
This queued up at a very appropriate time on my trip back from Fresno. I left later than I had planned to and night fell as I was passing by Tracy when this came on. More of a low key and darker feel to it than their other stuff, not as much energy oomph I'd say.

New Albums: June 1 - 4

This challenge came around somewhat organically (Thanks blowed up hard drive... :[  ) but I'm pretty excited about it! Since I didn't actually know I was going to be doing this until yesterday, when wonderful Facebook friends showered me with recommendations, my first two albums are not that far off the normal reservation.

June 1 - Back in Black by AC/DC
What is there to even say about this album? It's my favorite album by my favorite band and I probably listen to it at least once a week. Most bands would fold after their lead singer died but AC/DC rustled up Brian Johnson and went on to release an amazing 'comeback' album. Leading in with Hells Bells, you know it's going to be good, and then it just keeps pumping with Back in Black, and then (the best song ever made in my opinion) Shook Me All Night Long, and finally capping out with a 'mellow' Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution.

June 2 - Random Access Memories by Daft Punk
I'm really digging the 70s funk feel this album evokes, it's nice to see Daft Punk back out there getting music going. (Although I view the Tron album as an unofficial Daft Punk album release, and it's amazing). The only downer in this was track three, which just has a dude rambling for a couple minutes about music in Germany in the 70s. It's interesting but put it as the last track; it completely breaks the flow of the album I feel.

June 3 - Head First by Goldfrapp
A fun, light electronic duo. Had it running while I was playing Tower Defense instead of the in game music and apparently everything just does get better with a good beat. I'll definitely be checking out more of their stuff as it makes for great background music while doing things. (Recommended by Roxxane)

June 4 - Je t'aime je t'aime by Bang Bang
This is the first artist I'd never even heard of before listening to them and based on the name I went in expecting a punk rock style. What I got instead was a very chill and relaxing trip-hop style of electronica. I listened to it while riding my motorcycle up to San Francisco today and it really put me in a relaxed mood, with the music almost feeling like a background noise of my life as I was heading up the freeway. I could easily see having this playing while people are over as an undercurrent white noise to hanging out. (Recommended by Nessa)

I am a blog slacker... Or: Where I recap May and talk about June.

I've been quite solid on my 30 day challenges but apparently not nearly so solid on keeping up a blog about my experiences with it. Whoops!

Anyway, to bring things up to speed, May's was another exercise challenge, with the primary being a series of increasingly lengthy plankings. I initially scoffed at this, because the challenge starts out with only 20 seconds of planking.... which lasted right up until I tried to do 20 seconds of planking... I made it (barely) but I definitely have a new respect for that exercise.

Long story short, it ramped up daily and by the end I was able to do 3:00 in a row, huzzah! It was a very good ramp, too, as the last 10 seconds of each day felt like my abdominal muscles were going to pop out at any time.

There were squats and crunches too, but they were much less exciting and honestly just kind of boring. Once the squats ramped up into the 150 plus range it became more of a chore than an exercise. I ended up doing goblet squats instead with my 35 pound kettlebell. Way less repetition for a bigger burn.

Aaaaanyway, that's done and it's time I do something a bit more mentally rewarding, instead of all the physical stuff I've been up to so far this year. With that being said, the month of June will be all about MUSIC!

A bit of backstory: one of my hard drives just died on me recently, taking with it my entire (unbacked up) music collection. This pretty much sucked. It especially sucked considering I just purchased a NAS recently to move all my media onto but I was still in the process of doing this and hadn't shimmied the music up yet. The plus side takeaway from this is it finally freed me from the shackles of thousands of individual tracks I'd picked up here and there in my collection. Going forward I can just do entire albums and will make sure everything is sorted in nice and purdy-like as I'm rebuilding the library.

I put out a call to Facebook and many friends answered (thanks everyone!), recommending an assortment of albums and bands worth checking out, becaaauuuuse: June's goal is to listen to a new album every day in it's entirety.

I'd like to take this time to really branch out of my normal music box and experience new bands and genres I normally wouldn't listen to. If you can think of anyone or anything worth checking out, please let me know!

Squats = Quads Death

Four days completed! I've got to say, when I first looked at this, the three minutes of planking was pretty darn intimidating but the initial 20 seconds only earned an eye roll from me... until I did it. 20 seconds seems a lot longer when your whole core is shaking around.

Fifty squats just seemed scary right off the bat though, but per Ashley's advice I broke it up into three sets with a short break between each one. Still hurt like the dickens the next day! Yesterday I kind of shuffled things together and I liked how it ended up so I'll probably keep up with that format: 20 squats, 20 crunches, 20 squats, 20 crunches, 15 squats, planking, and then finish the last 15 squats.

Overall I'm seeing an improvement in how much I can do already, but that three minutes is still sitting at the end of the month, giving me the stink eye...

Another Exercise Challenge!

This is what I'll be up to for the next month! Thanks to Kisa, who initially found a planking chart, and then made the mistake of talking to people about it and watching it steamroll into a three exercise calendar of dooooom. Seriously though, I scoffed at it but after 20 seconds of planking was a very unhappy camper... and the squats.... THE SQUATS.... my quads really hurt.

April's Wake Up Call

The real take away lesson from April's 30 day challenge is waking up early is very nice, but a pain in my butt. That's really the entire month's work summed up right there.

I enjoyed having a bit of time to prep myself for the day; eat an actual breakfast, read a bit, surf the net, what have you. I did not enjoy having to force myself out of bed every morning because apparently deep down inside, I'm pretty lazy...

Anyway, I'm glad I gave this one a try and I can see myself continuing to wake up earlier just because it makes my morning a lot less stressful compared to my normal routine of rolling out of bed and sprinting out the door.

I need to find more exciting things!

As, while this is definitely an interesting one and I'm enjoying a bit of free me time in the morning, it's really not flashy. :P

A Minute In Review

This last month's 30 day project has definitely been the least flashy of them so far, but I'm thinking it will have a subtle long term effect on how I do things.

'If I can do it in a minute or less, do it now' seems like a vague goal (as was pointed out to me by multiple people as well) but it sounded like it might help with some of the clutter in my life. After keeping up with it for a month, I probably could have easily called it 'keep my room clean' and it would have had most of the same end result. My desk especially has a habit of being rather cluttered and it stems from coming home, tossing whatever mail or stuff I was carrying onto it, and then leaving it there indefinitely.

Anyway, yeah, it was the little picking up of things: Taking an empty glass down to the dishwasher when I was done with it instead of the next day. Opening my mail and dealing with it right then. Making my bed when I got up in the morning. Really the only room thing not covered by this was the sorting and folding of laundry, but even then, with the rest of my room being so much more tidy, I was a lot more motivated to deal with the laundry then instead of putting it off.

Professionally the biggest change was replying to emails as I received and read them instead of leaving a bunch to respond to all at the end of the day. No one's commented on it, but it makes me feel more productive, so that's something I'd reckon.

I'm also 1/4 of the way done with this year's experiment and it's interesting to see what's stuck with me. I've been pretty horrible at running recently (as in barely any in March) but with a couple longer races coming up in the next few months I need to get my butt back into it otherwise it'll be pretty embarrassing. The soda's stuck much better overall though; I drink it a bit now, but it's definitely not an every day thing and even if I get a 20oz bottle, I'm more likely than not to drink half, save the rest, and finish it the next day. I'm definitely going to try and have the One Minute Project fall into the latter, where I actually keep up with it, as I've grown fond of having a clean room. 

1 Minute March Update

So really the biggest thing I've noticed about this 1 Minute Rule is my room has stayed a lot tidier so far. Stuff isn't being left on my desk, my sweatshirs are always hung up in my closet, and those closet doors are closed. Small things but it's adding up.

Finishing February Finally

Freeeeeedom!

Almost. Since I'm on the 30 day plan and not the monthly plan, I actually don't get to have soda until Sunday. Which, by the way, I'm waking up and grabbing a Code Red Mt. Dew, I tell you what.

After that I'm probably going to keep soda drinking to a minimum still as it really just isn't that good for me. Running every day in January helped me drop 2 pounds. Running waaaaay less often in February (I got a bit burnt out and lazy, sue me) but cutting all those empty calories helped me lose another 4.  While I do miss the sweet sweet taste of deliciousness  it's not nearly as bad as the start of the month so I don't think it will be hard to keep it to a soda a week when out at a restaurant or something. Plus, coffee just has SO MUCH caffeine in it, it's fantastical.

As this is the first of March, today kicks off my third 30 day challenge, giving me a couple days of overlap.  This month I'm going to be following the '1 Minute Rule'.  In short, anything that I can do in a minute or less, I will do right then instead of putting it off to a later time.

Examples would be:
-Taking an empty coffee mug down from my desk instead of leaving it there for a day or two.
-Hanging up my coat when I get home instead of throwing it on my bed.
-Emptying the dishwasher when it's done so dirty dishes can be put straight into it.
-Sending out a response email to a co-worker instead of letting it sit in my inbox.

I kind of feel like in general this will be a tidiness quality of life month, but I'm interested to see how it impacts my life beyond that. I'm curious what sort of things I normally micro-procrastinate on that will come to light because of this. Plus I'm betting my room will stay a lot cleaner.

So Apparently

Not drinking soda is way less exciting to write about. :p

The push-up challenge is going well. I'm two weeks in and just retested and can now do 30 in a row versus my initial 12, so that's pretty cool.

Still running; trying to prep for an 8k next month. On Saturday I ran a 5k at 11 minutes per mile so I'm feeling decent about my pace.

And that's your Tuesday update!

You know you have a dependency when...

You dream about drinking soda... :P

Almost halfway done!  Although I don't know how much soda I'll go back to drinking when I am done.  I've been really hydrated these last two weeks and it really is a ton of calories and sugar cut from my diet.

Life (Or a Month) Without Soda

So here we are, just about a quarter of the way through February, and I have not touched a drop of soda yet.  It's definitely been tough, and although I still get gobs of caffeine (oh how I love it) through coffee, I've had some strong jonsings for sweet sweet carbonated sugar water.  Overall though it's been going well, and really all I drink now is water, coffee and some beer; I had a some cran-rasberry juice on Tuesday and I think that was the first thing to break the big three's stranglehold.

One thing that was me pretty excited is the fact I went running for the first time on Tuesday since January ended, and I was able to do two miles straight at under eleven minutes per mile.  I really did just need a couple days to rebuild muscles and now I'm pushing out the best times I've had in quite a while.

In an amusing quirk, I was planning on doing push-ups every day in March, but a buddy on Facebook posted up looking for people to do the 100 Push-Up Challenge with him, so I'm getting a bit of an early start on my March stuff.  Three days a week now I'm doing increasing sets of push-ups, with the eventual goal of being able to do one hundred in a row.  Day two was completed yesterday, and it was easier than day one, so.... yay!

January In Review

Whelp.  First things first; I made it all thirty days in a row, running every day.  Second, my legs are veeeery excited for the break.

In retrospect, so far the weirdest thing for me was coming home this evening and realizing I don't have to go out running tonight.  In just a month it's become so ingrained into me that that was my baseline expectation for how my evening would go.  I think this will have been a nice jump-start to get me back into running and I can definitely see myself going multiple times a week, although I'm going to shoot for fewer runs but longer distance;  need to start getting ready for Tough Mudder!

Now for some interesting stats from January:

Total Miles:  40.38

Total Time:  9:03:34

Average Pace:  13:27

Approximate Calories Burned:  4342

My average pace was definitely lacking in this.  The first part of the month started off very strong, and I'd mix in some 'let's see how fast I can do a mile' runs, but I really needed a rest day toward the end of the month and my lagging pace reflected that.  That aside, I'm pretty happy with just over 40 miles run.  Out of everyone I'm friends with on Nike+, that barely squeaked me into most run miles for the month.  (Booyah Peter!)

The calories burned are of interest also.  4342 is a rather abstract number, so I like how my cousin Sharon views it, in number of beers burned off.  In this case I burned off almost twenty nine beers in the course of the month!  Or, I basically made up for two full days of eating by running.  Not too shabby I'd say.

This experience has been empowering and I'm feeling solid about rolling into my February challenge of zero soda or energy drinks.  Based on some very rough napkin math, I'll probably be cutting out about 600-800 empty calories a day plus a ton of sugar.

One twelfth of the way done!

Life Updates and Other Things

Hey hey hey!

It's been a bit since I've posted last; life has been keeping me pretty busy.  I'm happy to say that I'm well on track to finish up January strong, without missing a day of running.

The biggest challenges I've had now come from Vegas (which holy crap was so much fun.)  Nothing says pushing your limits like having to get out and run a mile while in Vegas and decently hung over.  I imagined the Rocky theme song playing the whole time though and that helped me get through it.  The night we came home was another super low motivation day but it's checked off the list.

Other than that I've been feeling quite good about running recently.  I really should stop waiting until it's like 11:30pm to go though, as that puts a bit of a rush on it.  On the days I've done it at a more normal time I'm really hitting that 'this feels pretty good' stage, so I'm excited to see how that will translate into February once I can add some rest days in and give my bitchy right calf a bit of a break.

Coming up in 5 short days I'll be dropping all soda and energy drinks.  I'm figuring this will probably take out an average of 800-1000 empty calories a day, which hopefully will get me looking all purdy before a planned Hawaii trip in March.

Getting the One Mile down

So it looks like I can consistently complete a single mile in under 10 minutes, which is a nice accomplishment on its own.  I'm still running most of it with some sprinting and some walking mixed in, so if I can get it to a steady and quick pace I'm hoping to get under 9 minutes by the end of the month.

Halfway done with month number one!

Yesterday was my 15th run in a row so I am officially one half of one twelfth of the way done with my year's commitment!

Really though, it felt good.  I have a nasty habit of starting new routines and keeping up with them for a couple days and then letting them fall by the wayside.  This is one of the longest continuous exercise schedules I've kept up and I'm really looking forward to it being a jumpstart back into much more frequent running post January.  I've got to train up for Tough Mudder in July!

Looking forward, I need to figure out what to do for February's 30 days. (Yes, it will bleed two days into March.)  I'm currently leaning heavily toward zero soda or energy drinks; basically making the beginning of 2013 a kick in the pants for getting healthier.

Anyone have suggestions for what else could be exciting?

Slowly working it up (That's what she said)

I'm starting to remember that a lot of the challenge of running is in my head and has to be mentally overcome.  After running with Malia on Sunday and being able to make it for a mile straight without walking it I gained more confidence in my improved abilities.  This translated over to running for a mile and a quarter without walking last night and maintaining a quick for me currently speed of eleven minutes per mile flat.

It's small gains but I can feel myself improving.  Add in that the pants I was having trouble getting into a couple weeks ago are fitting much more nicely and I'm pretty hyped about this.

Running with a buddy gets me motivated :)

Thanks Malia for running with me yesterday!  The shame of looking weak in front of you kept me from walking at all in our first mile;  this is the first time I've jogged that mile straight for probably four to five months at least.

1 Mile Test

I was able to mostly run with a couple short walks to give my shins a break and finished up a mile in 9:30 flat!

1/4 of the way done! (With month 1)

As of last night, I've now run eight days in a row, officially putting me over 1/4 of the way complete with my January challenge.  Woowoo!

It's definitely been a challenging week+, with snowboarding and being sick thrown into the mix.  Sunday has probably been the hardest day so far just because after being up at the snow from 9-3:30, driving two hours back to Fresno and then another two and a half back to Santa Clara all I really wanted to do was fall face first onto my bed and snooze.  Follow that up with two days of 100+ temperatures and it really was not a fantastical start to running...

Regardless, I feel like I'm starting to get back into it a bit more.  My breathing is more controlled and not as much of a block, now I am hitting the point where my shins and calves are the new limiting factor.  I really feel like this thirty days is going to be defined by rotating through assorted body parts grumbling at me.  :P  

I'm going to keep an eye on distances and times over the next week but I think my goal will be to be doing consistent two mile runs at eleven minutes a mile.  Nothing super crazy for speed or length, which is good since I'm not giving my body proper time to really recover and build up new muscles.

(As an aside, this is also now officially the most posts I've written for one blog.  Rest in peace Bad Movie Thursdays, Happy Hour Quest, and Video Game Completion thingy [the last I want to get back to, but after finishing Zelda 1, Halo 4 came out :P ] )

Still sick yesterday

and yup, still sucks.  It was definitely more of a quick shuffle by this point... :P

I'm feeling better today so hopefully can get back to a more normal run.

Running while sick

sucks.

That's pretty much all.

Life tries to interfere

So today, for the first time in about two years, I got out and went snowboarding. For anyone who knew me a couple years ago, the hiccup in my previous 'boarding plans was brought about by fracturing my T7 vertebrae; it kind of puts a damper on a lot of things...

Anyway, cold but gorgeous day, spent it with some great people, and other than a bit of getting lost and having to trudge through powder for an hour it was a fantastic day. Hurray for no injuries!

We went to China Peak, left a little after 4, and then grabbed dinner on the way home at Shaver Pizza. (Amazing pizza by the way, check it out.) Got back to Fresno around 7 and then back to Santa Clara around 10:30. By the time everything was unpacked and hung up to dry it was past 11 and my motivation was about zero. I reeeaaaallllyyy wanted to just count the hour of powder trudging for the day and pass out but somehow rallied and got my battered body out for an admittedly very short run of 1.1 miles.

Here's hoping that was the worst I have to deal with. :)

Maybe not the best plan...

Heading snowboarding at 7am tomorrow and due to a busy day I waited until 11pm to get today's run in.

On the plus side I think I'm starting to work through the grouchy shins and have been needing to take walk breaks less and less. :)

Day 3 - 2 miles

Ouchy :(

Halfway through I was feeling good and decided to stretch it out a bit. My ankles now regret that. :p

Kicking off 30 in 2013

So here I am, 30.

The first Thursday of each month my company has our infrastructure meeting;  we go over how things have been, clients, business, etc etc.  Today we branched out and did something a bit different toward the end and watched a couple of TED videos.

For any of you not in the know, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is, as they put it, "a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. The two annual TED conferences, in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Edinburgh, Scotland, bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less)."  We watched this video here, and it got me to thinking.

I normally suck with New Years resolutions;  I'll stick with them for a bit and then futz out after a month or two.  This 30 days thing got me thinking about it in a different way.  (Credit where credit is due, Malia mentioned doing this last year and getting through about half of it, so the idea was bouncing around already.)

Anyway, moral of the story is, for the duration of 2013, I'm going to commit to one life change or new thing 12 times for 30 days at a time.

Starting yesterday, January 2nd, I'm running every day for the rest of January.  I'm currently two days in and have made it only about 1.33 miles per day so far as I hadn't run for probably a month and a half before that and apparently being 30 has caught up with me a bit.  The big test will see  how climbing stairs at Delivery Agent goes tomorrow.