Sunday, January 22, 2012

General life update

Sorry for the infrequent posts lately, but, well, I'm lazy.  However, a few things of note have happened lately:

1. I'm in Seattle - My long saga of finding a job has (hopefully) ended for a while as I got an offer from Amazon to work for them as a Software Development Engineer.  I moved to Seattle this past week and I start work on Monday.

2. My leg is (healing from being) fractured - In my distance build-up while training for a half-marathon last fall, I got a stress fracture in my leg (hence the abrupt halt in the Twitter updates about my running).  I was in a brace for a few weeks and on Monday get to start running (small amounts, sticking to a schedule) again.

That's about it for now, on the news-of-my-life front.  More will I'm sure come as I settle into place up here in Washington.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

New Year's Resolutions

First, last year's resolutions:

1. Eat pie - definitely succeeded.
2. Run 365 miles, including in the Charlottesville 10-miler - Success. I ran the ten miler, and in November hit the 365 mile mark as I crossed the finish line in the Richmond Half-Marathon. I did a few miles after that but wasn't able to do much as I found out a short while later that I have a stress fracture in my leg, and won't be able to run until mid-February (and even then, much less than I had been).
3. Lose weight to 160 lbs. - Ha. Not a chance.
4. Test in Myo Sim - I tested for my 3rd degree black belt in kendo, and passed.
5. Be more organized - Hard to say.
6. Build stuff - I built a bed, as previously mentioned, and completely reassembled my bike.
7. Climb stuff - I did a bit, but nowhere near enough.
8. Work on learning an instrument - I worked a bit on guitar but not enough to get much better.
9. Work on learning a language - Nope. I worked a bit on my Spanish in the spring but since then, nothing.
10. Be a better person - Again, definitely not my place to judge whether or not this was successful.

My resolutions for the upcoming year:
1. Eat pie - as always.
2. Run 365 miles, including the Tough Mudder and the GORUCK Challenge - I've shown I can run this far, but a) I won't be able to start until mid-February and b) I want to put more of a focus on endurance runs and overall strength, hence the non-traditional runs I've set as my goals.
3. Lose weight - If I can lose any weight at all this year, it'll be an improvement from previous ones. That said, if I can gain muscle while staying the same weight, that'd be fine, too.
4. Climb more - There are three climbing gyms convenient to where I'll be living and working, and as I don't currently have kendo filling up evenings, I have no excuse not to go. I was going to sign up for a membership today but the one I was going to join was closed today due to snow.
5. Do more photography - I did a bunch back in 2009 with the trip to Vietnam and Europe but it's fallen off a lot since then. I want to change that.
6. Stay organized - I just moved into an apartment in Seattle (post explaining everything about that to come) and I'll be living here for at least the next six months. It's currently not messy (even I have trouble getting a place cluttered in a few days) and I want to keep it that way.
7. Write - I haven't really written fiction in a few years now, and I'd like to give it a shot again.
8. Draw - I always feel like I'm right at the border of being happy with how I draw, and I want to practice enough to get over that hurdle and into the range of art that's at least good enough for me.
9. Get involved in some form of community service - In elementary - high school I had Boy Scouts, and then in college I (eventually) got involved in APO. Now I'm out in Seattle and I want to find some way to get involved in service. Not sure exactly what yet, but something.
10. Be a better person - partly a cop-out because I had trouble coming up with my usual ten, but also something I'll always think I need work on.