Progress Report: New Years' Resolutions

One month of 2011 down, eleven more to go. 1/12 of the year is finito, over, kaput, spent, yesterday's news. But you all knew that already, didn't you?

I'm not one who likes to be a sheep; I don't follow the crowd automatically, do what everybody else is doing while they're doing it. If my friends decide to blog about their New Year's Resolutions, I think, "Hey, just because they want to let the world know about their goals for 2011 doesn't mean I have to." No sir. I'm more likely to be the one who says, "Wait for me, fellow sheep! I'm coming, just wait up!" I, more often than not, follow the crowd on my own terms.

With that said, here are the resolutions that I have made for myself this year:...

• No sweets for the month of January.
  
  • This means no cakes, pies, candy, cookies, or ice-cream (except for the home-made non-sugary kind).
• Draw in my Donald Duck notebook and write something everyday.
• Doodles, poetry, short-story ideas, movie reviews, sketches, just anything creative that involves a pen/pencil.
• Finish Toastmaster Speeches 8, 9, and 10
  
• In my basic "Competent Communicator" manual

...and here is how well I've been keeping to them:

• No sweets for the month of January.
  
  • I almost kept this resolution for the whole month, until the Toastmaster's Officer Training event in Boca Raton on Jan. 25th. Those darn Danish pastries! Ah well. This was just an exercise to test my will-power, and now that January is over I think I passed my self-inflicted test of endurance quite well.
• Draw in my Donald Duck notebook and write something everyday.

• Alas, this resolution I haven't kept as well as I wanted to. There have been days where I did not draw a single smiley-face or write a single sentence, but I can say with confidence that the days that I did do something creative outweigh those days that I didn't. Check out the drawings I did this month on my Art Blog here
• Finish Toastmaster Speeches 8, 9, and 10.
  
• I didn't deliver any speeches this month, but that's okay, because this resolution is for 6 months, until June 31st. I'm going for 3 speeches in 6 months, 5 months now, so I've still got plenty of time. In other news, our club is having a couple of contests in the coming weeks, which I'm helping to organize.

Now that January's over, I think it would be a good idea to renew my resolutions with some all-new goals that I'll be more likely to keep this year:

• Deliver my 8th speech this month and blog about it afterwards.
• Write reviews for movies I watch in February and put them up as blog-posts
• Put at least 10 new drawings up on my Art Blog
• Read 3 new books and review those on my blog
• Blog, blog, blog!!!

This month, my goals are all about blogging. I think that if I can write online more often about the things I'm interested in and what I'm doing during this period in time, the better I'll be for it. At the very least I want to break my blogging record for last year (in Feb. 2010, only 1 post did I write).

See you later!

Blogging Again!

I'm back everybody! How've you been?

Since the beginning of 2011 I've been procrastinating and putting off the day when I finally could return to being an internet presence and share with you peeks into my world, but I just couldn't hold on a day longer. I'm back and I'm glad I am. It feels a lot better to actually do something instead of saying you'll do it tomorrow.

Yesterday I went and did a blog makeover for both this blog and my Art Blog, plus I posted some new drawings that I made this year, so after finishing this post you can go check the other blog out.

I plan on putting up another Art Post later today, so bonus points for you.

Lately my family's been feeling a little under the weather, health-wise, taking blows from things like fevers, stuffy noses, sore throats, and achy lower-backs, but now we're all feeling much better, except for Bettina, who still seems to have just a hint of higher-than normal body temperature (it just keeps hovering around 99.2-99.6 Fahrenheit or something).

Today for lunch my family had homemade veggie-burgers! Shira hasn't made them for the longest time, and they're really the best! We also played Monopoly together as a family, and after a game that lasted about 2 hours or so, Benny won with over $5000! He got it from his houses on St. James Place, Tennessee Ave., and New York Ave. Whoop-de-doo for him. >_<

I plan on writing again real soon, but for now I have nothing else to say. Bye now!

Merry Christmas! + Thank you Charles Dickens!

First thing's first. In case you didn't know before, I come from a Jewish family. So, when it comes to Christmas, I normally don't make a very big deal out of this major holiday. But this year, all the days leading up to the 25th of December have been so full of happiness and cheer, as well as some very mercurial weather mood-swings. (One week it's 36 degrees, another week it's in the 80s. What is the deal?!)

Anyway, the month has been great. Channukah...Hanuka...khannnuckah...ooooohh...Candle Day, was fine and dandy. Next came Adam's 13th birthday bash, and, following that, his super-duper Bar-Mitzvah extraordinaire! What a turnout it was, and what a party! Too bad I haven't been a very diligent blogger this month, otherwise there might have been some pretty awesome posts about the things that have happened. As it is, the only thing I can write about right now is today, Christmas Day.

It was a beautiful, sunny, 72 degree Fahrenheit Saturday. I woke up relaxed and in a good mood. The past few Saturdays, my sibs and I have been attending rehearsals for Ms. Judy's latest stage production of "Mamma Mia" (of which Adam plays the part of one of the 3 possible father characters), but since it was Christmas, all the cast members were given the next 2 weeks off. No rehearsals until January 8th! Hurray! It is no surprise then that this has contributed to my generally jolly mood.

Anywaaaaayy, since it was such a good-weather day, my family decided to go to our favorite beach. On the way there, the roads were surprisingly clear (seeing as many people celebrate Christmas at home with their friends and family), so we got there in record time. The beach itself was pretty sparse; not many people choose to celebrate Christmas on the edge of the Atlantic. However many of our good friends were there, so we set up our blanket and umbrellas nearby.

Eventually the topic of conversation turned to the Charles Dickens classic "Christmas Carol" story. It turns out that I actually checked out the book from our library recently for a bit of light reading, and watched a few different movie versions on YouTube to compare how faithful they were to the novel. This year I have gotten mighty familiar with the characters Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Don't ask me why, I just suddenly found myself inexplicably fascinated with "A Christmas Carol".

So I sat up straighter in my chair and joined in the conversation. Somehow, it turned out that some of the people present did not know the actual story of "A Christmas Carol", despite the uncountable screen versions available. Before I knew it, I found myself in the position of storyteller, relating the amazing tale in it's entirety and in great detail at that. It took me about 20 minutes or so, but by the time I ended with the words "God Bless Us Everyone", my friends were cheering and applauding! At that moment I just felt so good and happy inside that I couldn't stop smiling.

The rest of the day was very fine indeed. I literally ran into the ocean and had a good, bracing, cold swim, I got a little skin-color from having a good lie-down in the sun, and I even did a couple drawings today. Here they are right here.
<--- The guy in the picture is pretty much an "everyman", not really a representation of anyone I know. We stayed at the beach until about 5:00ish, and then we had to go. We wished everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and a "see ya next weekend". Then my family decided to go for some pizza on the boardwalk, so we sat down and sprung for a large pie topped with peppers and mushrooms. Tonight, my bro, sis and I have been enjoying various holiday movies on television, including the live-action "Grinch Who Stole Christmas" with Jim Carrey, the "Phineas and Ferb Christmas Special" (love those little guys ^_^), and even "Scrooged", a modern-day retelling of the Christmas Carol starring Bill Murray. That's pretty much it. For me, these little pleasures all add up to making this day the very best Christmas ever. It was merry, it was spent with family and good friends, and it was sunny almost all day! That's my idea of a holiday well-spent.

And now, a word from my good friend, Ebenezer Scrooge.