I thought I would assess how I did on my goals from last year and see where life is going.

• Gain 23 pounds – Well I actually lost three pounds, but gaining the weight was not really my goal. I seriously feel I eat better and exercise regularly now. I have been eating out less and choosing what I actually eat much better. I still bike commute (even in the cold December rain), take longer rides on weekends, and started lifting weights. Progress.
• Net Worth – I tried to increase my net worth by 126% or something like that. It was a weird number because it actually represented a major milestone. Six months ago, I said this was going to be a challenge to actually meet. Well, some serious cost cutting and readjustments made it possible to get to 147%. I hit my goal in late October. I will call this a win.
• Do Not Buy a House – A win.

I guess I will call the year the goals basically achieved. That is enough looking back. Let us see where we are going. I think I will go into more detail than I have in the past too.

• Health
  • Run – After ten years of not running, I want to start again. This is actually a big deal since my running career in high school ended so poorly. I love running, but it has taken me this long to get over it. I do not have a plan for tacking this goal yet, but it will happen.
  • Gain 15 Pounds – Yes, much different than last year’s 23 pounds. The thought here is still eat better and exercise but I would like to take that to the next level to place something tangible behind the exercise part. Like running the ‘how’ will be determined over the next couple days. Mostly it will come down to running, biking, lifting weights, and eating better.
• Household
  • Buy a Car – This has been my desire for a couple years now. I think in June I will be ready to pull that trigger. On a plus side, I will probably get a bigger car to help haul peoples and gear to the various activities I want to do.
  • Buy a Home? – Yep still in the air. Last year, I wanted to wait to save for a down payment and get those prices down. I have been doing some casual research over the last couple months. There are a lot of options out there in the area I am looking. In the event I do not get a home, I will probably migrate the down payment into paying down student loans. Time will tell here.
• Activities
  • Climb Two Mountains – I am thinking Mt. St. Helens and South Sister. Both of these are basically day hikes to the summit. Good starter mountains.
  • Go XC Skiing – Never been. Sounds fun. I actually have a trip planned for a couple weeks. Checking off should come soon.
  • Build a Snow Cave – Alright, I plan to sleep in it too. I need some warmer clothes.
  • Race a Half Marathon – I have always wanted to run a marathon but am not in shape to do it. For this year, I plan to exercise enough that I could run a half marathon (13.1 miles). This will be my longest race ever, and for all those who know how I run, I will not be running just to finish.
  • Ride a Century – That means ride my bike 100 miles in a day. The most I have ever done was about 60. This does not need to be one of those organized 100 mile tours, but just a couple of peoples going on a really long ride.
  • Summer Backpacking – My snow cave adventure in a couple weeks will first real backpacking (and snowshoeing). I would like to do a longer (in distance and overnights) this summer.

I kept a couple things off the list (work, financial, etc) as this is not my official list, but it should keep me busy. Maybe if you are lucky, I will actually take the time to post updates throughout the year. Anybody want to join on any of the adventures?

This past weekend, that all changed. I am now (half) living in Portland again. Thus far, it rocks. My commute this morning as a three mile bike ride down hill into the city. Not a bad way to start summer.

My goal for the weekend was to move my day-to-day things, making sure I could begin living at the new place by the end of the weekend. Strong friends were busy this weekend, so, at times, that seemed like a challenge. After seven car loads and no truck, we got it. I am now living at the new place minus my bed, couch, dining table, and desk.

Planning a move around a holiday is less than ideal. Tomorrow I leave for Wisconsin.

Now I have mooched off a couple people from time-to-time to avoid riding home at 4:00 a.m. or the monsoon that was May in PDX. I, like most people, am far from perfect.

The car took a couple cranks today, but mostly had no issues starting. For a 14 years old, this car is lasting quite nicely. GM might take note of how it used to make cars.

How did I celebrate my re-entry into the car world? Apartment hunting, purchasing bike parts (ironical), sitting in traffic (woohoo), and grocery shopping. (For all those would be no-car-peoples out there, grocery shopping is a pain without a car.)

No, I am not going to now stop biking. I will be riding to work tomorrow – rain or shine. Pattern continues. I will probably only drive to errands.

I actually have not felt this great, physically, in years. About seven years. Exercise rocks. With exercise comes, eating to keep up. For those of you who thought I ate a ton before, now I eat double that, making grocery shopping even that much harder.

Hopefully, I will be moving to PDX at the end of this month.

I had just a moment a couple weeks back. This time a song caused it. When it came on my Pandora station, I literally stopped working and could not focus again for about a half hour. Since this day, I have had the song on repeat.

The song: Where have I been all my Life from George Strait.

You can listen below:

God bless.

If you are uneducated in this realm of spirituallity, they sell Dutch Tacos. Imagine all your breakfast rolled up in a waffle taco.

Today, I had the ham & cheese. Ham, cheese, and, well, waffle.

If that is not Heavenly, there is no hope for you.

Summary: Malcolm answers the questions of how truly successful become that way. Ben Franklin rose from virtually nothing, for instance, to sit with kings. Outliers explains how people in Franklin’s position do work hard but also get very lucky, come from the right family, and in some cases born in to ‘correct’ month.

What I thought: After reading The Tipping Point, I was a bit reluctant to grab another Gladwell book but I tried anyway. I found this text quite interesting though. The examples used clearly construed how a person not only truly needs to work their butt off to get ahead but also needs to get really really lucky.

I have not found a good way to copy and paste on this phone, so you will need to do your own searching today.

WebSockets are a new-ish way for web clients and servers to communicate. This is bi-directional though. Unlike the typical AJAX (client to server) method used today.

PJUG was your typical nerd-alert affair but free pizza and knowledge of new techologies for people more smarter than I was worth it.

This phone warms the hands nicely!

Fast Company is asking if Amazon’s iPad app is a Kindle killer.

My short answer is no. The Kindle was a Kindle killer. Two reasons:

• The medium to large sized consumer electronics users are not going to want to carry a device that does a single task, forcing them to have an additional device. Although it might do that task very well, in the long-term it was be absorbed into other products in its category. As screen technology gets better, devices will produce a black and grey retro ‘reader’ viewing mode.
• Amazon is not a consumer electronics company. It is retailer. It sells other people’s stuff. Its core business will eventually suffer if it distracts itself.

Amazon’s iPad app is a very smart move. Their goal should be to get people to buy and read more books. Producing various mediums for folks to achieve this goal will benefit their company’s foundation.

Going into the day, I was still leaning toward actually attending the auction. Yes, yes, I know I said I would not buy a house this year. Looking at the possible purchase prices of some of these units, I was curious enough to get more information.

The building was open to the public, so we went through about a dozen units. I found two units I was really, really, really interested in 1618 and 2018. Both are the same floor plan – one bed, bath, and study – facing Southwest.

I spoke with two realtors while traversing the building. One basically told me I would be an idiot to not – at my age – buy one of the units. The other thought anybody who bought was an idiot since purchase prices were expected to be 60% of the minimum auction price. This person also told me unit 1218 – same floor plan as I liked – was a short sale she was trying to sell. The most recent offer on that until was $215k, putting it at ~40% increase.

Those purchase prices plus huge taxes and larger HOA convinced me to not buy – again. Although it is a lovely place in an area of town that is most likely going to boom, I still should not buy.

In case you were wondering, my favorite gun manufacture is Nerf. It is the ideal manufacture for fighting tyranny, terrorism, or defending any future fort I might build. I posted a picture of my fabulous creation below.