New Habits – Update 2

One of the things I that helps with accomplishing the goals you set out is telling people about them, as I stated in this post. That’s why I made a big public stink about it in the first place it’s also why I’m still talking about it too, in the hopes that one of you who reads this will mention it to me in person, to help keep me on the ball. Diana has been great in this regard, any time she sees my hands getting near my mouth she gives me a look and tells me to knock it off. It has been 20 days since I last bit them, I’m thinking the old habit of biting will be broken in another 15.

That leaves working out… Not much good news on that front, December is a terrible month to start exercising regularly. My work schedule starts doing funky things, funkier than usual that is. On top of that there is all sorts of traveling and such. I haven’t worked out at all. I’m thinking swimming is out too, with my schedule changing at work, and the job switch in March, I don’t think I can do it. So I’m canceling that. The complex I live in has a work-out room which I can use. I have a short term goal to organize a work out plan by the end of next week, which I then can implement. Diana is going to be a big help there too as she is also trying to start a work-out regime… I’ll keep you updated!

What else is in the queue? Oh, next after stop biting nails and exercising is meditation. I’m really excited about this one! Everything I’ve read on the subject says it’s life altering, paradigm shifting, and mind numbingly boring too! I can’t wait to find out for myself!

Also dozens of books and games in the queue… You saw the towers, you know! Oh, I also have 2 days to come up with something worth sharing with my writing group (sorry MOAP!)

Quest for Glory 2 Remake goes BETA!

Most of you can ignore this as you have no idea what QFG2 is, but for those of you who do know what it is you know you should be very excited! For those of you who don’t QFG was a Sierra series that combined traditional RPG elements with Sierra’s award winning storytelling and adventures! I’d BETA this if I had the time too, but since I don’t I’ll wait for the final release.

I will be playing through the originals though! Thank goodness for DOSbox!

Read all about it if you want here

Um, not going to put this on my “I Recommend” list…

But I did want to share my thoughts on the book with you!

Adventures in Paranormal Investigations by Joe Nickell – A great, if brief, collection of Mr. Nickell’s studies of various paranormal happenings across the globe in the service of Skeptical Inquirer Magazine. The book will not convince true believers of their errors but skeptics will find his tales light and entertaining reading. Several times I would have liked a more thorough study or investigation done, or perhaps more of the author’s thoughts and insights… I guess we’ll have to wait for Mr. Nickell’s next “real” book for that!

You’ll always be able to read my review of it over at Amazon.com

Tower of Shame – Games

There they are all the games I own but have yet to play/beat. Most of them are RPGs, you know what that means? 20 hour investment for most of them and that is if I’m rushing! I don’t have the time to game anymore, or the patience

For those of you with bad eyesight that’s, from the top:  Lunar Knights, Final Fantasy 3, Eternal Sonata, Crackdown (one more guy!?), Oblivion, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Final Fantasy XII, Rogue Galaxy, Disgaea, God of War 2, Dragon Quest VIII, Kingdom Hearts 2, Steamboat Chronicles, Persona 3, Paper Mario.

… At least it isn’t as bad as my book towers!

Towers of Shame – Books

Here it is, all the books that have been stacking up around here. The ones I didn’t get to this year. I plan on reading them next year, of course this is just the base of the tower as I’m constantly collecting new books that will increase it’s height… *sigh*

I better get to work!

For those who cannot read the spines I’ve listed the titles.

On the left from the top: The Ten Books of Architecture, Reading like a Writer, The Wars of God and Men, A Wizard of Earthsea, The War of Art, Ilium, Lord Darcy, Underworld, Fingerprints of the God, Jesus of Nazareth, The Prince of the Marshes, Books on Trial, God’s Gold, Mister B. Gone, The Wolf of Wall Street, Day of Empire, Evil Genes, Blacklisted by History.

On the right from the top: Camber the Heretic, Mistborn, Saint Camber, Gaia, Across the Nightingale Floor, The Great Upheaval, Death and Burial in the Roman World, The World is Flat, The Human Touch, Atheism, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Breaking the Spell, The Works of Josephus, The Works of Philo.

Passage – Gaming as Art

I don’t want to talk about the game until you’ve played it a couple of times. So please click here now and get it.

Play it a few times through (make sure you read the instructions on the page so you know how to play), each time only takes 5 minutes. Then leave your comments here. When you are all done I’ll say some things too!

I’d be laughing if I wasn’t already crying…

The amount of ignorance in this country is horrifying! What compounds it though is the fact that people are proud of it!

Habit update

So I’m doing great on biting my nails. I haven’t done it since the post, and in fact I’ve used clippers to cut them. This leads to my other goal: swimming. I haven’t swam since my last post. This is bad, very bad as I can’t form a habit if I don’t actually do it. Why haven’t I swam yet? It’s cold, very, very cold. The pool is “heated” but that is being generous, it might be in the mid 70’s while outside is in the mid 50’s so you feel cold in the pool, even when you’re swimming your fastest. Then when you get out of the pool, if you don’t hurry you’ll soon be a human Popsicle. I want to exercise but I don’t want to be miserable the entire time I’m doing so. So I’m changing the goal from swimming to exercising!

Also, I have a terrible ear infection and hate everyone! If you know of some home remedy for this, please send it to me as currently I’m just drugging myself every four hours.

Postscript:  I’m coming up with a writing plan right now I’ll post it here soon!

Done with Graduate School Applications!

‘nuf said!

Forming Habits

There are three I’m trying to cultivate: Writing for a set period each day, meditating (zazen) for a set period each day, and to swim regularly. I’m also trying to get rid of a bad habit I’ve had for far too long; biting my nails. So what am I doing to make this happen? Well the organized folks over at Zen Habits (my source for all things habit forming) have all sorts of ideas! They have all sorts of lists and charts and what-not what it boils down to is this:

1. Be Realistic – Forming habits is hard, especially if you’ve been cultivating all sorts of bad ones (like I have). So don’t expect to turn your life around all at once, you’ll fail and end up disappointed and even further way from making the changes you want to in your life.

2. Be Simple – Whatever habit you are trying to form needs to be broken down into it’s constituent parts so you have a plan of action for accomplishing it. Don’t say “start working out”, It’s vague and you don’t know where to go with it. Instead say, “plan a work out regime, get gym membership, start doing plan, daily, etc…”. Break it all down into simple steps so that you can manage to do it.

3. Commit – This is one of the most important parts, it’s also the easiest one to break. You need to commit and probably in public. Tell your friends and family what it is you are doing, let them know it is important to you, ask for their input and support. Write your intentions down in your journal, on your blog or social networking start. In this case peer pressure is a good thing!

4. Follow Thru – This is the last and longest step. You need to be consistent. Habit’s don’t form until you’ve down them at a regular time at a regular rate, about a month. The first month is going to be a hassle and a pain, but push through and into the second month it’s going to get easier. You’ll find that you had just as mush time as you did before once you’ve adjusted.

Bonus steps:

5. Spread the Word – Once you’ve changed a part of your life, share that experience with your friends, family, and nice people you happen to meet along the way! It’ll get them excited and renew your batteries too

6. Do it Again – Once you’ve formed a habit, pick another aspect of your life you want to change/upgrade. Rinse, wash, repeat!

I’m going to start with swimming regularly and quitting nail biting. You’re thinking, “things are so busy now he’ll never be able to follow through on those!” Wrong! All of us are always to busy to change things in our lives, if we waited until we weren’t busy we’d never get farther! It’ll be a little more hectic but not by much. I’m committed, now all of you know! Hold me to it! If these two are going well I’ll pick up the other two, but you know what they say, baby steps!