I bought two books on Friday (they were 50% off and I got an additional 10% off with my Barnes and Noble membership). They were the 8th and 9th books that I have bought this year. That means that I have failed my first resolution of the year. I have to question why I picked such a low number (I wouldn't even recover the cost of my B&N membership at 8 books), but what has been done is done. My failure prompted me to check up of the status of my other resolutions. The results are mixed.
I've accomplished 2. The Spartacus Challenge pictures were submitted. I did that one to motivate myself to workout. It's too bad the challenge ended in March. I could have used the motivation a little deeper into the year. The end of the challenge and the onset of a minor medical thing has derailed my workout intensity since the middle of March. I need to pick up the pace if I'm going to get my waist size down. My weight has gone down by 10 pounds or so over the course of the year, but I don't know how much of that weight has been from my gut. I also got accepted into law school. I was actually accepted into two law programs in 2010 (with a few more in 2009). Despite an offer to attend the University of Richmond part-time (that's something that they only offer to one or two students every couple of years), I think I am going to pass on the law school thing. The application process was enjoyable, but the prospect of juggling my career, family, and law school for 5 years is not at all appealing. I'm not really sure how I could get to where I want to go through that route either. It's a heavy investment for a less than certain return.
I'm a little ahead of the pace needed to read 16 books this year. Since I read that post about reading a book a week, I've noticed that I can make it through a 250 or so page book in a week. Most popular business books are about this length. I've always thought that I was a bit of a fast reader, but seeing that my reading rate is about right to read one business book a week, I wonder if I'm at some kind of mean for the rate of getting through a book. Sorry, just some idle speculation brought on by writing. My recent reads (Flow, which I've finished, The Rise of the Creative Class, which I'm reading, and Scientific Genius, which I read in spare moments at work (hey, it's a book about becoming a better scientist, that's good use of my time)) delve deeply into issues that I deal with in what I want to do with my life, how to get there, and things that I can do to make my life better. I would like to go into in more detail about my thinking here, but there's that issue of going to bed earlier...
I've done better in that I haven't been staying up until 1 or later, but I don't know if I would give myself a done on that resolution this year. This whole going to bed earlier thing is one of a couple of issues that I struggle with that are very related to this blog. I like to use this venue to work through issues that I struggle with about my life, but making my life better means putting more of my energy into my family, career (that includes reading books), and health (working out and going to bed). I haven't quite figured out where this blog fits into those priorities. I have things that I am burning to write about, but when it comes to choosing whether I should work out, finish the last few pages of a chapter, or write a blog post, the blog post is usually the odd man out.
To this end, I am going to plagirize my book a month guy and do a 30 day experiment. Two blog posts a week for 30 days. It's May 1st so the date is convenient. This does not count as one blog post.
Alright, now that I've finished my update, I'm going to find the thinnest Dickens book on my shelf...
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