2010 Resolutions - The List

1. Check progress of my Resolutions
In order to help ensure I'm working toward my goals, I resolve to check in with my New Years Resolutions every 2 months or so. I hope this will will keep me on track, because too often these types of resolutions are made with the best of intentions, and then ignored or forgotten within weeks.

1/25/10 UPDATE: Check in #1, and it's still January!

2/6/10 UPDATE: Check in #2, only 2 weeks later! I don't know how helpful it will be, but I was reading through my blog and thought I'd check in on my resolutions.

12/22/10 UPDATE: Check in #3, I guess I dropped the ball this year - while my 1st and 2nd check-ins were timely, it appears I completely forgot about this whole thing all year :( !

Verdict: Resolution Fail! :( 

2. Lose weight
It's that time again. I've escaped the holiday season at about 182 lbs. In order to get myself to a more appropriate weight I resolve to drink no more than 1 soda per week (plus 1 per weekend), avoid overeating, and be more conscious about the food I eat. My initial goal is to weigh in at 175, and then from there I intend to go down to 170.

1/25/10 UPDATE: Well, I had a shaky start with this resolution - after the beach frisbee tournament I went to an all-you-could-eat buffet, and I literally ate about all I could eat. Sure, I hadn't eaten all day, but I still ate about 2x as much food as I'd need in a day, and all at once! The next day I went to the Olive Garden with my family, and while I was going to just have soup, at the last moment I ordered Chicken Parmesan, which is more than enough for a meal on its own, and comes with soup as well. Those 2 days made me feel pretty crappy, but since then I think I've been doing better. I've kept my soda intake down to 1/week + 1/weekend, and I think I'm starting to see an overall decline in my weight in the mornings, though I think it's too early see anything definitive in that respect.

2/6/10 UPDATE: I have taken some specific steps toward meeting this resolution, setting a specific short term goal, and finding an organized way to keep myself honest. It's kind of early to tell, but I think I've lost a pound or 2, and more importantly I've avoided eating when I know I don't need to (even if a little hungry). I also skipped my soda for the week altogether this week.

12/22/10 UPDATE: I did OK with this resolution for the beginning of the year, but I don't think I ever got my weight down under about 177 or 175. I was doing pretty good physically through Potlatch in July, and I continued to go to frisbee practices and tournaments with Monsoon after that - but frankly I felt a real decline in my in-shape-ness after Seattle. I just felt pooped all the time. I don't know what happened - maybe I'm just getting too old, or maybe I just got kinda burnt out on frisbee. After the season I feel like I've really let myself go - barely any exercise, and more cake and junk food. I'm up to about 185 again, and I think I need to make another concerted effort to control my eating habits going into the new year, or things like Lei Out will just be a lot less fun for me.

Verdict: Resolution Fail! :(

3. Finish Game Designs (Prototyping)
It's getting annoying repeating the same resolution which I continually fail at, but I feel like not doing so won't make it happen any faster, and this is something I'd really like to get done, so here we go again...

I have a lot of game designs that I've started, some of them are really almost "finished" - to the point where I could play them and see if they're any good. Some of these have been around for a couple of years now, and its about time I get them finished up. So I resolve to complete prototypes and play the following designs:

• Hot and Fresh - A game about pizza delivery and traffic laws. This is at least 2 years old, and is ready to test except I need to make a game board and some cards.
  
• Dynasty - A game about the spread of culture in ancient China. This is almost as old as Hot and Fresh, and will be ready to test as soon as I come up with a list of technologies which players will research (like gunpowder and the compass)
• Eminent Domain - A card game about colonizing planets in which you get better at doing things each time you do them.

1/25/10 UPDATE: I'm starting to wonder if I'll EVER get back to Hot & Fresh or Dynasty :/ However I have made a prototype and played Eminent Domain a few times, and it's coming along nicely. It still needs some work, and I'd like to re-theme it from space exploration to a more earthly civilization building game, but at least I'm making progress on it!  

2/6/10 UPDATE: I haven't even thought about Hot & Fresh or Dynasty, the pattern there continues. I have however continued to work on Eminent Domain, and I like how it's shaping up. I have not yet attempted a re-theme, but I've been thinking along those lines, starting to get an idea of what I'd like to re-theme it to.
12/22/10 UPDATE:  I finally have some news to report on this front! First and foremost - Eminent Domain did not only get a prototype, but it's being published! We raised $48,000 to publish it via Kickstarter.com and right this minute there are illustrators making art for the cards... the game should be out in April!



I even made some progress on Hot & Fresh. Steve came to Tucson for a week after BGG.con and we got to talk about game design stuff a lot. He gave me an idea that revived Hot & Fresh for me, and we even made a prototype and played a game of it! I think it's made a big step forward, but I think it's still got a ways to go. It'll probably be a long time before anything else happens with it. Dynasty still hasn't been touched, but Michael mentioned that he thought it should be the next thing I work on. We'll see about that. 

Verdict: Overall I think I have been successful with this resolution!

4. Blog weekly I've got 2 blogs: this one, and another about games and game design. I have not been posting as frequently as I'd like in them, so I resolve to make a minimum of 1 blog post each week in each of my blogs. I believe that this will encourage me to do more than simply blog... I think it will help keep me on track with resolutions, with my game designs, and other stuff like that.  

1/25/10 UPDATE: So far I've missed 1 week in this blog, but thanks to Eminent Domain (see previous resolution) I've posted every couple of days in my game design blog. So... so far so good, I guess?

 

2/6/10 UPDATE: Lately I've been posting in both of my blogs. Diet stuff and Eminent Domain continue to be noteworthy topics for the time being. I haven't planned ahead on what I might blog about, but at least I'm not neglecting my blogs! I like that because blogging helps me to think through ideas I have, and it also serves as a reference that I can look back on to see what I was thinking about which I may have forgotten.  

12/22/10 UPDATE: Looking back at my blog dashboard it appears I've been posting pretty regularly in my Game Design Blog (with the exception of May for some reason). This blog has been much less consistent - missing a whole month here and there. 

Verdict: Resolution Fail! But it could have been worse. I think the worst part is that I haven't been using the blogging opportunity as I'd hoped - to make myself concentrate on these items.


Edits: 
1/25/10 Updates 
2/6/10 Updates
12/22/10 Updates