New Year's Resolutions

Those three words usually make people cringe. When I see them, the first phrase I think of is:

"Empty Promises"

I also ask:

"Why does the year changing have to coincide with the decision to make better choices?"

I've made NYRs in the past. I have no idea what I'm batting in regards to the successful and failed ones as I mostly would make these just to humor someone or for some sort of a class assignment. These things come in all shapes and sizes and, coincidentally enough, NYRs usually have something to do with one's shape and size.

However, given the changes going on already in my life and the fact that I can publish some of these resolutions essentially for the world to see and hold my feet to the fire over, I decided I'd give it another try to see what happens.

Without further adieu...

Qtipus' New Year's Resolutions

1. Lose 30lbs. I'll get this one out of the way first because it's obligatory to any resolution's list. This means I need to go buy a scale and stop eating so much McDonald's. My weight ballooned up mostly because of my diet. I'm on the road quite a bit because of my profession, so bagged/sack lunches aren't always an option.

When I graduated from high school about 14 years ago (guh...that long...), I was 5'11" and weighed about 130-135lbs.

Can you say, "Bean Pole".

My metabolism back then made me invincible. I could seriously go eat 3 or 4 triple cheeseburgers from McDonald's or about 24oz of steak and a large order of chili cheese fries from Longhorn's back then and be ready for another meal about an hour later. Same thing still applies nowadays in regards to how fast I'm ready to eat again (which doesn't really help matters), but I can't eat the quantity of food in one sitting that I used to.

Where am I at now?

5'11", 195lbs.

I put on about 20lbs of muscle during my first two years of college because of a work out regimen we band geeks undertook.

Yes, I know...lolbandgeek.

Don't be so quick to judge though. While we were not out there running full force into each other constantly, doing a marching band routine is a lot harder than most people think. I was athletic enough to play a sport like baseball or basketball, but I opted to carry around a trombone and sousaphone instead because I found them to be more fun.

Anyway, as Y2K approached, I was a rather beefed up version of myself weighing in around 160lbs. Weight lifting, situps, pullups, pushups, cardio on top of having to work 2 jobs and the near endless hours of classes and practice time had me in insane shape.

As I became super interested in computers and opening my own business, my weight ballooned. Two Thanksgivings ago, I made a deal with Kay about losing weight and I failed to meet the goal I set for myself. So I'll try again.

Resolution: Weigh 165-170lbs by 2011.

2. Learn to build and maintain databases.

Oddball goal right?

Not really when you consider what the future is looking like it'll hold for me at the moment. I'm essentially being groomed to be the replacement for the head IT guy here at "work". This means at some point within the next couple years, I'll likely be closing my business down and coming to a point where this will actually be work instead of "work".

My strengths in the computer industry revolve around troubleshooting common hardware and software issues and repairing them. When it comes to programming, I don't have the patience for it.

I discovered a few years ago that patience (or the lack thereof) isn't really a quantifiable emotion or response. It's a choice. You either do what it takes by taking the necessary steps or you go do something else. More often times than not, "going to do something else" just makes life worse. Opportunities like the one I have here at "work" don't grow on trees, so the necessary steps I have to take to make the most of said opportunity include doing something I've always believed I didn't have the patience to do.

Five years ago, I would have scoffed at this opportunity because I didn't want to learn.

Today, however, I'm more than willing because it expands my horizons and makes me better.

Resolution: Database Programming. Learn it. Love it.

3. Financial Freedom.

No secret I messed up quite a bit during the course of trying to run my own business. It's taken me years to dig myself out of the mess that's part my fault for making and part the system's fault for being so shitty. I made great strides in 2009 towards cleaning things up and 2010 looks like I'll finally be able to move back out of the parent's house and into my own place again.

No one likes living with their folks. I was out on my own from 1996-2006 aside from a short, 3 month stay back with my folks while I was looking for a new place around 2001. Most view someone living with their folks that's in their 30s as a sign that the kid is a complete slacker incapable of living outside the nest.

I moved back in late 2006 because of spiraling debt due to my business. Most people move back in because they lost their job, got divorced, etc for a short while. For me, I didn't really "lose my job" per se, but I had to stop paying myself directly. I also moved back in because I was staring $150,000 in debt in the face with no f***ing idea how to get it under control.

"Why did you keep playing FFXI during that time period?"

In seeking out counseling for my financial issues, it was made clear to me that I needed to find one or two things that make me happy and don't cost a ton of money as I work towards repaying what I owe. FFXI and Transformer figures became those two things. Over the course of a year, I would spend approx. $800-1000 between those two hobbies. When you compare that to knocking out $10,000-20,000/year of the debt, it's a very small percentage.

"Happiness is the key to financial freedom."

I took that lesson to heart and always tried to find the good things in what I was dealing with. That doesn't mean I succeeded every time as there are people in this world who want to do nothing more than ruin your day (re: some debt collectors), but it did mean I at least tried.

"Why didn't you just file for bankruptcy?"

I looked into it. It was definitely the easy way out. Unfortunately, I was in a situation where my parent's assets were tied to business debt. My failure to pay off debts means that my folks lose their house. It wasn't my choice for them to put the house on the line, but it was a decision my Dad made because he had faith I wouldn't fail and because he always taught me to never run from a debt I legitimately owe.

Starting from 2006, my total business-related debt was approx $150,000 owed to approx 17 different entities.

As of today, it stands at approx $80,000-85,000 owed to approx 5 different entities.

I'm not going to set a goal of where my debt needs to be by the end of 2010, but I will get 3 of those entities out by the middle of spring pretty easily.

Resolution: Debt under control enough to re-establish my own independence.

4. Get Girlfriend moved down here.

This is a biggie. Her lease is up at the end of June. Her ability to move down here is directly related to the previously listed resolution. Income isn't a huge concern on both ends, but it would be nice if I could lend a major helping hand financially to getting her down here and move into a place where the phone isn't ringing constantly from one or two companies trying to collect money I don't owe.

This is also a big step towards getting me back out of the parent's house as well. Obviously, before I take this step, I want to make sure I can support myself, but having a significant other's income to help with the monthly expenses would help paying off the debt load on both ends go a lot faster.

Resolution: Girlfriend moved to KY by the end of July 2010.

5. Improve my Credit score.

Man this area is a vicious world. This is going to involve a lot of legal wrangling and it'll be a slow process getting it built back up to an acceptable level, but this is something I have to do.

There are a lot of little ticky-tack entries on my credit score that have been charged off. A couple utility bills that I have proof I paid, but it doesn't note that I did. A few entries related to business debts that I still owe, but said debtors are being unreasonable with fees and whatnot. Now that I can mostly afford attorney fees, we'll see how reasonable they are when talking to a law firm instead of directly to me.

Resolution: Improve my credit score by 50-100 points.

6. Get at least 2 more jobs to 75 in FFXI.

While this one isn't necessarily a huge resolution, I'm to a point in this game where really there's not much left for me to do or experience. Going as DRG to everything I do gives only one perspective to the game itself. Going as another job gives another perspective.

Most of you know I ended up getting 2 jobs to 75 in 2009. PLD and DRK. Because of Gungnir though, I'm rarely on either of these jobs. I suspect that will be the case with whatever job I level (unless I complete another relic), so that basically means I will be leveling jobs for the sheer "fun" of it.

I've made no secret that BLM will be the next job I take to 75. As for the other one, I'm undecided as of now, but...

(I know some of you will laugh really hard at this...)

I'm leaning towards BRD or COR as the job afterwards.

Any of you can feel free to start exhaling as hard as you can to try to get me to lean in a different direction now...

Resolution: Level at least 2 more jobs to 75 in 2010.


So there you have it. My own personal list of resolutions to work on in 2010. At the beginning of 2011, I'll come back here to see if I achieved any of these. Or I'll just check them off as I achieve them.