Seeing as how we’re already 12 days into the year 2011, I figured my time was running short on doing a self-congratulating post about last year. I could write a whole bunch of nonsense about how 2010 was a year of ups and downs, but it really wasn’t. In all honesty, it was one of the best years I can remember, and I have no reason to believe that 2011 will be any different.
Here’s some stuff I did in 2010, mostly in chronological order:
1. Started a book. Yes, this is a feat in and of itself, considering it took me 27 years to do so. Putting words down for Seven Sons was scary, big and relieving all at once. Little did I know I was setting myself up for a 10 month battle with my own limitations and zany ideas.
2. Ran a half marathon. If you handed me this list a couple of years ago, this is the one I would have singled out with the subsequent exclamation of “you crazy“. I lost about 45 pounds in 2009 so I could run the Houston Half Marathon last January. In reality, I only ran about 75 percent of it (which I did in about an hour and a half) and walked the last 2-3 miles. But hey, it’s a start. I’d like to do one again in the future, but not right away. Running sucks.
3. Finished a Web show. Not entirely impressive, but the run of Web Zeroes is one that I can ultimately be proud of despite the missteps, strange network relationship and crazy time/budget constraints. I think we did well with what we had available, and I can’t believe we actually produced 25 short films in less than a year.
4. Enrolled in Krav Maga. I’ve always wanted to take a sweet martial art, and boy did I ever find one. Not that Krav Maga is a martial art in the traditional sense. It’s basically just a means of defending yourself in any way possible and practical. Not only have I learned some great stuff and made great friends, I’ve also gotten in close to the best shape of my life, even if I’m not at my thinnest. In November, I passed my first test and moved to P1. Still on the path to becoming Batman. Baby steps.
5. Finished a book. Seven Sons came in at a whopping 175,000 words, and if you’re having trouble wrapping your head around that figure, so am I. The book is one great awful mess, and I mean that affectionately. As my first stab at long fiction, it turned out decently, but the first 30-40k words need to be thrown out and mostly restarted from scratch. I’m guessing it’s going to take me about 4-6 months to revise the whole thing, which should happen around the middle of this year.
6. Started a second book. Last year I posted a piece of flash fiction here titled In the Blood, where a kid learns his dad is a vampire hunter a couple of days after his funeral. In November, I decided to take this idea and rework it (monster hunter instead of vampire hunter) for National Novel Writing Month. I don’t really have a title for the thing, but I just finished it on Sunday night, and it came in at 119,000 words. I was hoping to get it done in 2010 as well, just so I could say I did 2 in 1 year, but hey, you can’t have everything. I’m going to start revising this one shortly, as it probably only needs 1-2 months of revisions.
7. Lost 30 more pounds. My total weight loss now clocks in at around 75 pounds total. In reality, the change looks more dramatic than that even, as I’ve started replacing a lot of fat with muscle because of Krav Maga. Kind of wild that I started the path to weight loss almost 2 years ago, and how far it’s come since then. The best way to lose weight isn’t through crash dieting or crazy plans, but just slowly changing your habits and your lifestyle over a long chunk of time.
There’s some more to the list than that, but that about wraps it up. I’m not going to write about any cheesy resolutions to write on the blog more. Really, I haven’t done it because I was working so hard to finish the second book, and now that that’s done, the blogging will commence again with more regularity. If not, you can slap me in the face when you see me next.
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