2012 Goals/2011 Goals Review.

Ok, here are my goals from last year:

Goal 1: Continue my process of getting down to 210 lbs, and a 10% body fat.

Goal 2: Work on shrinking my debt, and begin building my credit score at the same time. It is too low to make me happy.

Goal 3: Increase my religious studies and reading.

And the drum roll for the results??

Goal 1: Not so good. Went back up roughly 15 lbs, mainly due to a leg needing surgery again, and not being able to exercise the way I should have been. (And also due to not eating right, in the way if probably eating the wrong foods, and too much there of!) However, my body fat is actually down by about 15% from where it was last year!

Goal 2: This goal I did much better on! I am much, MUCH closer in this area!! And I’ve not added any new bills (except medical, which is now a gone thing as well, no new medical bills as of July of last year!) My credit score has gone up a small amount, but NO WHERE near enough!

Goal 3: A TOTAL success! I read and pray for about 2 to 3 hours each night! And I pray all day when at work as I work, provided I’m not talking to someone, or someone isn’t talking to me.

Goals 4 and 5 (that I kept to myself): Goal 4 was a total success. Goal 5 I am still working on.

This years goals?

Goal 1: Continue my process of getting down to 210 lbs, and a 10% body fat.

Goal 2: Work on shrinking my debt, and begin building my credit score at the same time. It is too low to make me happy.

Goal 3: Increase my religious studies and reading.

And there are a couple of private ones as well….

Yep a re-run of last year, with the exception of 5 is now 4, and a new private goal 5 is in place.

No More TV!

Ok, after only two months of having TV on here at the apartment, I turned it off on the 7th, only two days after thinking I would do it at the end of the month. For the almost $50.00/month to have cable TV, there was really nothing much on. I did, however, find myself watching the NCIS re-runs (which I hadn’t seen in the first place) every day, which was taking me away from my reading projects, and home grown homework studies in theology and philosophy.

And I don’t miss it at all!! This last six days have been very productive in the evenings, even those days when I had outside events/meetings to go to, when I got home, and I am getting back on track to having my studies and reading done on my “original” schedule.

I can say that TV has gone WAY down hill over the years as to what is shown and how it is put together. (Now, mind you, on the TV I have, the picture is OUTSTANDING, which kinda helps in the viewing!) The cinematography is often weak, especially comparing it to times long past, and that is with the better technology today! You would think it would be OUTSTANDING now. It isn’t.

When I bought my TV back in August, I also picked up a BlueRay player. WOW, that picture is GREAT!! Almost 3d in appearance when watching a BlueRay movie! Now to find CHEAPER BlueRay movies!! WOW, they are expensive!

I will probably continue to watch movies on the TV, via the BlueRay/DVD player, but I intend to cut WAY back on that as well, and have done good in that area this past 6 days as well!

A Book Review: Lectio Divina Bible Sutdy

Over the past 10+ years, and more so over the past 7ish years, I have been an avid reader of the Catholic Theology and Philosophies. I am striving to “grow into” my faith in a more profound way than I have to date, and I am always looking for a good book t read on the subject. Through The Catholic Company, I have found a great resource of books to choose from, and I get some free by reviewing them, as I am this one.

This book is a hard book to review. While it has several great Bishops and other people giving it great reviews and a strong backing, I fear I do not agree with their thoughts on the book. While it is structurally correct, as near as I can tell in my neophyte status within the Church, in general I do not agree with the resources he pulls together to support his claims. The writing is hard to read and follow, and over all I was not impressed.

The book does have some good gems though, and the concept the Author, Stephen J. Binz, shows is valid, and is a good way to process the Bible as you read it.

Not an easy read, and not a book I’d want to have bought.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Lectio Divina Bible Study: Sacraments.

WOW, Clean up time!!

As I clean up “my world” and get things lined up the way I want them, I decided to start looking at all the “Users” here on Don’s Thoughts II.

WOW, well over 300 “spam bots” or what looked like spam bots anyway. I deleted all that looked like Bot accounts, and kept the rest, leaving only about 38 and some of those are probably Bots too. If I happened to delete your account, sorry, drop me a line and I will be sure not to delete it in my next clean up round! (Don’t worry thought, I seem to only do it every couple of years!)

Why do people waste their time with these spam programs? Do they bring that much money in? Isn’t it more work than it is worth? Boggles the mind…

New Option…

Ok, I added, yet, another plug in to the system that will post related post at the bottom of each post. I’ve updated the first two or three so they are more accurate than the rest, and all future post will have accurate related post, but the older ones may be hit and miss to how related they may be. Enjoy!

Email Accounts…

Since the Internet kicked in and emails became available, I have acquired and still use over 50 emails. This is a lot of work and a waste of time. It is time to pare them down to VERY few. I’m thinking three. One for my Paypal account, I belong to the Knights of Columbus and will keep that one, and one of my oldest accounts, my yahoo.com account. There may be a fourth in the near future, but possibly not.

Well, I will still have my work account at the VA, but about the only people that use that are those people at work….

So, in the very near future if you send an email to one of my accounts I am shutting down, you will receive, for a while, an auto response letting you know that that account will be deleted in the nearish future, please start using XYZ account from that point on…

Each day I am planning more and more “cut backs” to make life simpler and to free more time for reading, exercising, and Church, not necessarily in that order…

Reading Books – Paper or electronic?

Over the last few months I have read several blog entries on reading books, which was better, reading from a paper book or reading from an electronic book. Last night, Christmas Day, we went to my wife’s brother’s house for dinner and another exchange, and the topic came up there as well.

Those people on the side of reading books in paper format have the following reasons, among others, for preferring to read in paper:

Those people that advocate the electronic books mainly say:

For the past 5-6 years, since the e-book concept has been around, I have tried reading books on my Palm, or on my laptop, and just couldn’t get into it. I agreed with many of the comments that the pro-paper book people had to say.

But with the advent of the current e-book hardware options, I have to say I’m a VERY happy convert. I have acquired, thanks to my wife, a Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology. Some of the worries I had initially where screen flicker, hard to read, eye and hand strain. None of these issues are present with this great device. I have been able to now purchase over 40 books, receive them instantly, and start reading them when I am ready to. And I can read them on my computer or cell phone if I want as well, at no added cost. (Not that I will often.) After having my first Kindle stolen at work, when I receive the replacement, bought by my wife again, I was able to instantly update the books I had purchased before to the new Kindle.

LOVE it!

So, my reasons for going to electronic books:

I have to say the reasons to stick with a paper book, especially in today’s economy and with environmental concerns are no longer valid, we should all shift to ebooks…

YAY!!

Not that any of you were using it, but it gives my wife easier access to my wish list, Amazon has created their own widget for wish list for blogging, so I have my wish list back in the mix!! Scroll down and you should see it. At the same time, I was able to get my book and movie reviews back in place (as I waited for my car to warm up to go to Mass)! So, I’m happy again!!

Feel free to use the wish list to see what I would like.. Like I said, mainly books…