Tuesday, January 08, 2008

first Eagle Scout on my watch

I'm pretty happy right now because I just got back from my first Eagle Scout Board of Review. The young man became the first Eagle Scout while I've been an active adult leader. It makes me proud to know that I've had some influence in his success.

And it just occurred to me that I should probably include this little tidbit: I'm going to become the next Scoutmaster for our troop. I'm really excited and want to hit the ground running when I start in a few weeks so I've been compiling things to say and do for use later on.

New Year's Resolutions - two years later

It's just getting to be too late to talk about new year's resolutions. That must mean it's about time for me to start writing about them. I picked up Guitar Hero 3 which has been totally addictive and is pushing into all sorts of productivity time including blog writing.

So I've been meaning to write this entry for a few days now. In doing so, I figured I'd look back and see if I've written about the topic before. It turns out, I have! I think I did a damn good job of it too! It leaves me very little to say except to instruct you all to go and read that post instead of this one.

In all seriousness, my feelings toward a new year hasn't changed. Yet as I read last year's resolutions my resolutions from two years ago I realized that I've pretty much failed on most of them. Yes, I did indeed have the best damn wedding possible. But I've fallen short of the mark on the others - some quite considerably. I'd like to attribute these failures to factors such as the list being too long or too lofty, but there's not much truth to that.

This reminds me of a Scrubs episode I was watching just last night. Turk and Carla were having marital issues (communication - not sex) and she was spending a few nights with Elliot. Kelso, on a dare from Cox, was actually attempting to treat a patient. The patient was a large woman who seemed to know exactly what Kelso was going to say because she had one of those "internet phones." She insisted on having a gastric bypass instead of dieting and exercise, despite Kelso's recommendation to do so. Getting to the point, as Turk is about to take the patient to surgery Kelso barges into the room (he literally knocks the door off it's hinges) and Cox-ishly explains to the patient that she's not going to have the gastric bypass. His crutch was that she was avoiding doing the right thing, the hard thing, because she might fail and there would be no one to blame but herself. Turk, of course, overhearing all of this rushes to Carla and the light little piano music comes in and all is well in the thirty minute tv world.

The point, and I have one for once, is that Kelso's message is true for many things in life. And one of those things is new year's resolutions.

Without any further delay or soapboxing, here are my resolutions of 2008:

  • Soda be gone. I have given up on soda. There's nothing to be gained in all that sugar, carbonation, and caffeine.
  • Farewell french fries. I really don't like them most of the time anyway.
  • Gossip and revel in misery less. I've gotten mean! If I'm going to be a Scout leader, I should be following the "A Scout is kind" point of the law.
  • Read more. I'm still trudging slowly through Harry Potter (book 2). But the list of books I'm interested in reading is growing by the month. Must keep reading!

And since I was so inspired by 2007 2006's resolutions I'll be borrowing:

  • Get back into the gym and get back to eating well
  • Continue to shrink that to-do list! I'm doing pretty well on this one.
  • Clearer communication. I have made almost no progress toward speaking in full & coherent sentences with proper enunciation.

Do you have any resolutions (or stock in them in the first place)?