I have come back with a new outlook on life. My friends out there seem not to stress about anything. They are much happier people for it. Four of my friends who currently live together Dave, Jake, Jen, and Jolie live in Green Bay, Wisconsin and live life like they should, by working hard and having fun when the time is right. Another person who I got to know better is Alex, who has his stuff together at a very young age. Again he works hard, but knows how to take a load off when necessary.

My friends on a regular basis are involved in activities that I consider fun. After work, all four are involved in a volleyball league as well as a dart league. These are two things that I am alright at, but I would like to get better at as well. I plan on purchasing a volleyball net this summer for my outdoor barbecues, as well as getting an additional dart board for the porch out back.

I had two nice flights on the way home to ponder the way my friends in Wisconsin live, and how I operate on a daily basis. Currently when I get home from work I don’t really do anything. In fact I feel spent and tired. Well I am tired of that. I plan on being productive. Now, when I say productive, I am not talking about always doing more work. Working on a house project like the bathroom or working on eBay / Internet sales are definitely included in this, but there are other projects that I classify as being productive as well. Such as working on my darts and corn-hole skills, finish the conversion on my Spider-man arcade machine, and working on my Game Boy collection.

One thing I do that I am not proud of is spend way too much time at home on the computer. Usually it is just browsing video game forums, looking for any bit of information I can. There is no reason for this. Checking email or eBay sales is fine, but there are better things to do when I have a few free hours at night. Another one is staring at the TV. I watch about 5 different shows a week, taking about less than 4 hours total a week. That is reasonable. This Work -> Dinner -> Internet / TV mentality has to stop. It is making me lazy, and unproductive. Now this is not to say that I can’t have something on in the background while I am blogging, listing stuff on eBay, working on my Game Boy project, or grading, that is still being productive.

I also have started working out. Now I have had an elliptical in my home for over a year. A nice one, several thousand dollars poured into it. However I had not ever touched the thing, until about 5:50am this morning. 30 minutes this morning, I burned about 250 calories. I feel refreshed, full of energy, and I am looking forward to tomorrow’s workout.

In short, I haven’t been living life happily in the past few months, between work, teaching, holidays, and just overall being busy, somewhere along the line I have forgotten how to live life. I knew someone once that told me “Life was meant to be enjoyed, not to be worked all the time, or lazy all the time, but a happy medium.” This starts now. I am tired of being “booked” or having to “check the calendar” Screw it. I am going to be productive and have some fun at the same time. I am going to grab some healthy food for dinner on the way home from work, some Miller Lite, some DIF wallpaper remover, and clean up my bathroom & basement. I am living life to the fullest, and enjoying it. If anyone from Wisconsin is reading this, I want to thank you and encourage the others to read this. Not only for being good friends, but for reminding me that life can be fun, while still being productive. If you never thought you had ever changed anyone’s life, you can throw that out the window, because you just changed one. -C

• Put important finances first
• Work on my Game Boy collection/site/publication
• Eat better.  (Damn you French Fries. How I love you so.)

A Snow-covered Tree in my Front Yard

A Snowy Backyard

Woke up this morning, and look what I found to my surprise!  The first snowfall of 2008. Winter has been teasing us all this week with flurries almost every day, but we finally got hit!  It was in a good way though, because it was just enough snow to make things looks nice, but not to hazardous to drive in.  It didn’t cover the roads or sidewalks, just the cars and grass.  Take a look for yourself! These pics were taken with my MacBookPro ichat camera.  I had never used it before, works pretty good! -C

Garfield Christmas

After getting asked several times by friends and family, I had to update my Amazon Christmas wish lists.  I love these lists because not only is it helpful for people who wish to obtain gifts for me, but it also helps me keep track of what I don’t have when I am out to purchase something for myself. Once I obtain something, I delete it from the list.  Anyways I have two lists this year.  One is my Christmas Wish List for Friends which is generally lower dollar items like CDs and DVDs and another Christmas Wishlist for Parents & Family for the higher dollar items (videogames, etc.) Feel free to browse if you are curious! -C