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So with Tough Mudder Austin out of the way, how am I doing with the rest of my goals? Let’s check in …

1. Novel. Lots of thinking about it, but no tangible progress.
2. Slappa da bass. Not started.
3. Poker. It’s remarkably easy to blow off other things when you can justify playing online poker as working towards a goal. Bankroll is currently at $14.58, so I’m making gradual progress.
4. Health. Haven’t done anything fitness-related since Tough Mudder, although I did get a set of dumbbells in the mail this week (thanks Mum & Dad!). The Texas weather is already getting warmer, so I’d better get running again soon if I want to enjoy it before the heat starts getting unpleasant. New goals in this category: master 100 push-ups, work up to an 8 minutes/mile pace for 5 miles, be in excellent shape by October.
5. Books. Running a bit behind my stated goal of a book per week. I really want to get into Pinion but it’s a sequel, and there is too much reference to the events in Green for me to really follow what’s going on. Pinion is therefore on hold, but I’ve already started its replacement: The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. As with Pinion, I found its sequel The Desert Spear on the shelf first, but this time the original was also available so I checked them both out. 7 chapters in, and I’m hooked. I don’t think I’ll have any problem getting both of them finished within the next couple of weeks.
6. Debt. There’s a couple hundred bucks back on the Discover card due to a long-overdue new pair of glasses (first new pair in 15 years or so!), but this will be paid off in full before the juice starts running again. Some negative movement on the other card as well, due to some unplanned car maintenance, so total credit card debt currently stands at around $2000. However, I got our taxes done promptly and the refund will cover that, so one way or the other the credit cards will both be paid off shortly.

To illustrate my tremendous inner drive, I note that this blog resurrection post has sat in “draft status” for a month, I have done nothing to improve WordPress’s default theme, and thus far I have done very little to advance any of my below-stated goals for the year 2011. Hey-ho, here we go.

1. Novel- 90,000 word first draft by year end 2011. I have the framework of a fantasy novel (possibly even a trilogy!) under construction in my head and this is the year to get it out into words, sentences and possibly even paragraphs and chapters. Status: Not Started.
2. Bass- learn how to slap by year-end 2011. Status: Not Started.
3. Poker- build bankroll to play at 10NL (No-Limit Hold-’Em cash game with $.05/$.10 blinds) by year-end 2011. Status: currently grinding at 2NL ($.02/$.04 blinds) with a bankroll that started with a $.35 win from a free-roll. After a bad session tonight I’m currently at approximately $8.50. If a comfortable bankroll is 20 full buy-ins, then I’ll need to turn that into $200 by the end of the year. Note that I have no intention of actually depositing additional money any time in the near future, so if I go bust it’s back to play money and free-rolls!
4. Health- complete Tough Mudder Austin in February January 2011, maintain 190lbs body weight, complete 100 consecutive push-ups. Status: training for Tough Mudder was progressing reasonably well in the fall, but I fell off the wagon over Christmas. For the next two weeks I need to put 20 miles a day in on the exercise bike so that my body doesn’t get blind-sided by a 10-mile obstacle course on the 28th. It will be plenty to deal with when I see it coming, I’m sure.
   As part of my training, I’ve been working on a 100 push-ups program. Again, it hasn’t really happened in the last couple of weeks, but the last time I did an exhaustion test I managed to do 35.
   Body weight is trending down, last time I checked I was 197lbs- the first time in several years that I’ve come in under 200lbs.
5. Books- read a book a week. Status: on track. I read Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth over Christmas, just finished his Jackdaws (loved them both), and currently reading Harrington on Cash Games Volume 1 (which will help me meet Goal #4), and just checked out Pinion by Jay Lake.
6. Debt- pay down approximately $1600 credit-card debt prior to receiving income tax refund. Status: depends on how quickly I get around to doing our taxes once all the paperwork comes in, but I do have one card all but paid off. Once the cards are taken care of, with steps taken to make sure they stay that way, it’ll be good to start tackling student debt. I owe my folks a bit, and Q owes Sallie Mae a lot.

A side goal is to learn how to blog again and just get into the swing of writing frequently. I’m going to begin by writing about the above topics to keep myself on track. If you’re interested in any of them, I’d love for you to follow along with me.

See you around.