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Despite having my worst NCAA bracket in the history of me, I have to say that I still enjoyed the month of March. Here are a few of my bracket stats before I move on to discuss the status of my new year resolutions. Number of correctly picked final 4 teams: 1 (thanks, Duke). Number of correctly picked elite 8 teams: 3. Average position in the few pools that I joined: 12.3 out of 14. Shameful as those numbers are, I must admit that it was pretty fun watching the craziness that was this year’s NCAA tournament.

I’ll be brief for this month’s resolutions updates. My physical resolutions are rolling along.  We are two-thirds of the way through p90x lean and my weight is currently at 206 lbs. That’s 23 lbs down from where I started and only 16 lbs short of my goal. Katie has started a formal “Couch to 5k” program, so I’ve also started doing some light running with her.

My professional resolutions were a bit stagnant this month. I’ve grown a little complacent in my reading and really need to light a fire. April will be the month to get things moving in the right direction again on this front.

Lastly, my personal resolutions have been going slowly but surely. Our money saving has taken a hit by our first Spring in the house (things like outdoor furniture and lawnmowers aren’t cheap). We have been doing a pretty good job of following our budget for everyday things though, which is a good sign. I have been making my lunch in the mornings before work, which isn’t exactly what I had in mind by “doing things early in the mornings again”. It is a step in the right direction though.

I think it’s time for a break-out month and the timing just couldn’t be better for April! Also, if Duke wins in the Final Four I will finish in 4th place out of 15 people in one of my pools. That wouldn’t be too shabby!

So in my last post I put a lot of emphasis on the fact that we started p90x in February. Well so far things have gone really well with it! I’ve lost 15lbs in less than 30 days! I think the biggest culprit for the weight loss is the very strict diet. I had little idea how many carbs I was eating prior to starting p90x. Needless to say, my diet changed pretty drastically. The workouts are intense too, though I do enjoy most of them. My favorite so far is Kenpo. I’m interested to see just how much weight I will have lost by the end of the program. Surely I won’t get all the way to 190, but you never know (currently 214). I think the 200 to 205 range is a pretty achievable goal, but we’ll see.

I’ve also been reading through Code Complete and making pretty good progress on it. It’s a much longer book than many that I’ve read in the past, but the material is very thorough and practical. The book that I have on deck is Design Patterns by the Gang of Four. I’ve heard many good things about this one, so I’m really excited about starting it.

I’ve had a few different ideas for web apps that I’d like to develop, but haven’t made a ton of progress on any of them yet. There is a small one that I’m trying to put together for the Oscar’s this coming weekend, but I don’t know that I’ll have enough time to get it done.

Regarding my “learn PowerShell” goal, I’ve found a very good resource at powershell.com. There is an e-book that I’ve found quite helpful. I’ve only gone through the first couple of chapters, but it seems like a great introduction to PowerShell. Also, I found it kind of funny that one of my favorite podcasts, “Deep-fried Bytes”, did an episode called “Using PowerShell to be more Effective”. That’s right up my alley.

The one thing that I’d really planned on starting in February that didn’t happen was to start doing things early in the morning. We started out doing p90x in the mornings, but due to differences in our schedules we decided it was smarter to do it at night. As a result I have gone back into my habit of waking up just in time to get ready for work. Here’s to changing that in March!

All in all I’d consider February a pretty successful month. I’m very excited to be down 15lbs already and I feel like I’m making good progress in other aspects of my resolutions. Just need to keep up the fire and keep knocking stuff out. It’s a long year, so there’s plenty of time still to accomplish everything I wanted and then some!

Our budget has been holding strong and my reading has been progressing. I’m not waking up early yet (we do p90x at night) and I’ve yet to dive into Powershell. Basically, the ball is rolling, but there is plenty of room for it to speed up.

Things are getting very serious on Monday. That is when Katie and I are starting p90x Lean. We have committed to doing the program all out (including following the nutrition guidelines). From what I can tell, this could have a serious impact on a number of my resolutions for the year.  Below is my list of resolutions (excluding professional goals), with the ones potentially touched by p90x in red.

Physical

1. Run a 5k in <25 minutes.
2. Run a 10k in <55 minutes.
3. Run a half-marathon in <110 minutes
4. Get weight down to 190 by September and maintain through December (I expect some big progress here)
   
5. Complete a fitness program (p90x or similar)
   

Personal

1. save up for a new (used) car (following the nutrition guide will mean more eating in or less $ spent eating out)
   
2. get braces
3. improve conversational skills (yeah, it’s a stretch, but it could be a conversation starter)
   
4. read New Testament
5. start doing things early in the morning again (we are planning on doing the workouts in the morning)

As you can probably tell, I’m taking this p90x thing pretty seriously. I’ve known folks that have completed the program and the results truly are astounding.  Of course I know many more people that have attempted the program but never finished it. Guess we’ll just have to see which category I fit in!

Physical

1. Run a 5k in <25 minutes.
2. Run a 10k in <55 minutes.
3. Run a half-marathon in <110 minutes
4. Get weight down to 190 by September and maintain through December
5. Complete a fitness program (p90x or similar)

Professional

1. read 1 technical book a quarter
2. develop a usable web application on my personal time
3. drastically improve my domain expertise at work
4. get certified (probably MCTS: .NET Framework 3.5 Windows Forms Applications)
5. learn PowerShell

Personal

1. save up for a new (used) car
2. get braces
3. improve conversational skills
4. read New Testament
5. start doing things early in the morning again

1. save up for a new (used) car
2. get braces
3. improve conversational skills
4. read New Testament
5. start doing things early in the morning again

As you can see, the first goal on the list is the one that is similar to the goal last year of saving up enough for a down payment on a house. However, this one will be more difficult than the house down payment was just because our mortgage is much more than our rent was last year. However, I’m very motivated to pay cash for our next car. Since both of our cars have over 100,000 miles this is a very important goal to hit this year.

When I was in high school I had braces for about 7 months and had straight teeth for the first time in my life. When I was done with the braces I had a permanent retainer put in. As it turned out, this retainer has really caused quite a bit of harm. It came undone from one of my teeth and has been causing general confusion ever since. I want to get this corrected again. Unfortunately this one will slow down progress on the 1st resolution, but that’s something I’m willing to live with.

I really want to improve my ability to carry out a meaningful conversation. I tend to shy away from conversation, especially around people that I don’t know very well, and this just isn’t a good habit. It’s hard to measure improvement in this area, but I’m going to try to find a book or two on the subject and make a concerted effort to get better.

I did poorly in my Bible reading goal last year, so I figured I should make it a little easier this year to ensure that I complete it. I think I got a little overwhelmed last year with all of the reading that I was trying to do and it burned me out. As a result I’m going to take a slightly different approach in 2010.

Lastly, I just want to start doing things in the morning again. I used to play basketball a couple of times a week at 6AM and, while training for the half-marathon, I would run with a group most mornings at 5:30AM. Also, there was a men’s bible study breakfast on Fridays at 6:30 that I used to go to. Basically, I just want to start doing these things again. It feels so much better to get up and around before work in the morning.

1. read 1 technical book a quarter
2. develop a usable web application on my personal time
3. drastically improve my domain expertise at work
4. continue involvement in local tech community get certified (probably MCTS: .NET Framework 3.5 Windows Forms Applications)
5. learn PowerShell

So the first goal is one that is clearly a big step back from what I tried to do last year. There is a huge difference between 12 professional development books and 4 technical books. Basically, I felt like I was having to rush through books last year when I would have been better served taking my time and really digging into the books. Also, some of the general personal help books were helpful, but I feel like I need to put more focus on sharpening my technical skills right now. That’s why I went with this goal for 2010. If I blow through it and decide to add more books later there will be no penalty, of course.

The second one is related to the “analysis paralysis” that I mention in the About Me page on this blog. Basically, I’ve had at least 3 ideas for web applications that I wanted to develop but just have not done it. This goal is my way of forcing myself to get something out of my mind and into the real world. It may turn out that the ideas really aren’t that useful, but I would be better off having them developed regardless. It’s as much about exercising my skills as it is about the ideas themselves.

The third resolution is one that will be difficult to measure. It’s going to come down to whether or not I am more comfortable discussing the various aspects of our product’s industry (banking) than I  feel now. While this one is probably one of my weakest resolutions, I do feel like it’s an area with room for improvement and hopefully this will bring that about.

The fourth is another weak resolution on the surface, but I needed it in writing as a reminder of what I want to accomplish. I’ve put a lot of effort into getting out of my bubble in the past year and I don’t want that effort to be for naught because I stopped participating in things as regularly. I know there is a lot of value in being involved, but I also know how easy it can be to let other things of less importance get in the way.

ed. – the fourth resolution is still something that I want to accomplish, but I don’t feel like it is worthy of an official resolution anymore. It’s been bumped by a resolution that I have wanted to do but had slipped my mind while I was making the list

For my fourth resolution, I want to take my .net knowledge to the next level. While I don’t put too much weight into certifications as an indication of someone’s ability to develop quality software, I do feel that they offer wonderful learning opportunities. When I played basketball in high school, we would spend the first half of every practice working on nothing but fundamentals. This gave us the foundation that we needed to excel when things got more tricky. I believe the same principal applies to certifications. It’s not about proving that I can develop, so much as it’s about making sure that my foundation is solid.

My last professional resolution is pretty direct. I’ve heard so many good things about PowerShell and I’m tired of being on the outside looking in. This one will likely involve reading a book that would fit under the first resolution in this category, but I don’t want it to stop there. It is a tool that’s great for a software developer to know, and I want to make sure that my level of knowledge is such that I know when and how to use.

1. Run a 5k in <25 minutes.
2. Run a 10k in <55 minutes.
3. Run a half-marathon in <110 minutes
4. Get weight down to 190 by September and maintain through December
5. Complete a fitness program (p90x or similar)

As you can see, I’m wanting to take my running up a notch. Looking back on last year, I felt like I was doing more “surviving” my runs and less actual running. I think that’s why it was so easy for me to stop running cold turkey when I completed the half-marathon. While I didn’t dislike running, I just didn’t love it enough to keep it up when there was no goal to be reached.

One thing I learned last year as well is that I can drop weight in a hurry when I’m running and not eating very much fast food. If I’m half-way conscious about what I eat and stick with my running goals then I should have little problem getting my weight down to 190. Maintaining will be the difficult part if I have already met my running goals though (just like this year). That said, I think having the weight goal itself will give me the motivation that I need to continue through the end of the year.

Also, I really want to give p90x a shot, because I think it would do good things for me. I know someone that went through the program and had results like what you see on TV. I’ve never been as tone as the people that you see that have graduated the program, so I’d be very interested to see what it could do for me.

Below are my resolutions from last year. I’ve put the outcome next to each of the goals, as well as a brief synopsis of how things turned out in each category. I’ll be putting my goals for 2010 in another post to come later.

Physical resolutions
1. Run a 5k I ran the BE5k on February 24th and completed it in 27:33
2. Run a 10k I completed the UAB Dollars for Scholars 10k on April 24th in just over an hour.. narrowly missing my time goal
3. Run a half-marathon I did the Rock and Roll half-marathon in Chicago on August 2nd in 2:13:30… beating my time goal of 2:15
4. Eat fast food no more than once per week Stuck with this goal until July… then the wheels fell off… hard

Over the course of the year I did some great things physically and some very bad things. Running the half-marathon was like an out-of-body experience.  My dad and brother were rooting me on and Chicago is one of my favorite places in the world.  Unfortunately the half-marathon also marked the moment when my good physical actions turned bad. I quit exercising regularly and started eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Here’s the embarrassing part.. from January through July, I lost 20lbs…. from August until now I’ve gained 25lbs. That is just shameful.

Professional resolutions
1. Attend at least one major conference I went to Codestock in Knoxville, TN… unfortunately I missed the first day cause I had just started a new job
2. Attend at least two minor conferences I went to a few of these.. Alabama Code Camp, Bham Bar Camp, LINQ Boot Camp
3. Get involved in BSDA and Bug.Net I did go to quite a few meetings for both of these organizations and met some great people.
4. Read 12 professional development books (technical and nontechnical). Of course, that’s one per month. I read 5 books of this nature through July… then I slacked off here as well and haven’t read anything beyond blogs posts since August.

I’d say it was a pretty successful year on this front. Not only have I learned a bunch from my readings, I’ve also made some very good contacts in the Birmingham tech community. Definitely the most notable thing on the professional front to happen this year was landing a new job at Jack Henry and Associates. It’s a great job as a software engineer working on banking software products, rather than just in-house tools like I had been working on. There are many things that I would have liked to accomplish in this section, but I’d say it was a very good year regardless.

Personal resolutions
1. Find a church home After visiting for ~9 monthes, we joined Mountain Brook Community Church.. it’s a great fit for us
2. Read the bible all the way through I really did awful on this one… made it through about half of the old testament… not good
3. Save up a down payment for a house We did awesome on this one and bought a house this fall! A home run.
4. Find a relatively competitive basketball league to join I did play in a league this fall that was fun. Our team was a little too good though, undefeated champions.

All in all, 2009 was a fantastic year. I accomplished a lot of great things that I had hoped for. There were a lot of things that I had hoped to do that I didn’t get done though. This just tells me that 2010 can be an even better year! I’m going to try to evaluate what worked with my resolutions and what didn’t and make adjustments as needed for 2010. I’m very excited about getting things going in the right direction again. It doesn’t require a new year to set new goals, but it sure does make it fun!