New Year's Eve 2014

May the upcoming year bring you good health, hearty laughter, great friends, boundless adventure, deep satisfaction, warm hugs, pleasurable romance, noted belonging, assured stability, and unending joy. Blessings to all of my online friends.

Resolutions 2014

One of my least favorite posts to write each year involves my list of New Year's resolutions. This is not so much because I am afraid to face my failures or to see where I fell short, but rather because I am uneasy about baring myself too much. However, I make the choice to "get naked" before you because somehow I hope that this might be helpful to someone out there in some way. Perhaps a reader might understand that they are no more a failure for not measuring up to their own goals than anyone else. Maybe it might help someone not to feel so odd or so worthless. I truly believe that we should not let ourselves be marked by our failures, but by our attitudes and our goals. So, I present my list of New Year's resolutions for 2014 and a few words on how I fared with each.

• To meet the woman of my dreams - I tried my hardest to meet someone this year, and though I went out on a few dates, I did not meet anyone that I resonated with. Lonely just won't leave me alone.
  
• To exercise the whole year - I did very well on my exercise this year from start to finish. I even began a diet in September that has resulted in a 7% reduction in my weight that was icing on the cake, so to speak.
  
• To make several new friends - This area was a total failure and I made absolutely zero forward progress. It turns out that it's not them, it's me.
  
• To grow closer to my daughter - This area was also a source of frustration to me. I feel so much better equipped to be a daddy to a young child instead of a father to a young adult. As my daughter continues her move toward full independence, I have continued to struggle to find a way to adjust.
  
• To embrace adventure and living to a higher degree - I thought I made some progress in this area last year, but if I did, I made several huge steps back this year. More and more I find myself just accepting my same-old, same-old life and morphing into a bad caricature of a "cat lady".
  
• To find some degree of happiness and peace - I have struggled throughout this year to find some measure of happiness and peace, but have not found anything that sustains me for any length of time. How I long to find my smile.
  

So, it seems that I have failed in nearly all of my resolutions, save one. But I will not let my poor showing bury me yet. My first step is to now prepare my list of resolutions for 2015 and to find ways, no matter how small they may seem, to make progress.

Blog Recap 2014

At the end of each year, I take a moment to look back over what I have included on my blog. As I scroll through the list, I come upon posts that still resonate with me. Memories are stirred regarding the seeds that gave me certain ideas. Some posts are memorable for the ease with which they burst forth from my cluttered mind, others for the toil they involved. For some, I still grumble and murmur because what I wrote didn't satisfactorily capture what I had initially intended. However, as a body of work, I am quite pleased with the breadth and depth of my posts.

One of the ways that I look back over my site, is to make a list of my top 10 blogs for the year. This list is not compiled using some detailed scientific approach with predefined metrics of what elevates one post above another. I just note which blogs I appreciated the most this year. So, without further ado, here is my top 10 list of my own blogs (in no particular order) for 2014.

• Men in Black (Nov. 10) - The practiced hijinks of the hangers-on.
  
• The Way I Need (Oct. 22) - Loving someone they way they need to be loved.
  
• Wave Goodbye (Oct. 1) - A post about the pain and necessity in letting go.
  
• Eau de Toilet (Aug. 27) - A quiz for women to understand how close they are to what their men need.
  
• Giving Generously (Jul. 7-9) - A consideration of what it means to give.
  
• Big Words Hurt (May 19) - Helpful hints about 20¢ word choices.
  
• Honeysuckle (May 14) - Reminiscing about how fast time flies on our journeys.
  
• Foundation (May 7) - How every moment from our past builds the foundations of our present relationships.
  
• Funny is ... (Mar. 26) - Inanity about how certain words boost your funny IQ.
  
• Sculpture (Jan. 15) - A consideration of how our taste in the opposite sex is developed.
  

I hope that you found something here that made you think, that made you smile, or that somehow created a spark for your day. I appreciate your presence and the time that you have taken to stop by. See you in the 2015 recap.

Best Books of 2014

This year I have read 90 books and definitely found some good ones along the way. This was a year dominated by Orson Scott Card (31 books), with Rick Riordan (8 books) a distant second. Following my well-established year-end tradition, I share my list of the top 10 "books" for this year in no particular order. Note that I use "books" because I typically count a series by an author as one entry.

• Mistborn series (Mistborn, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages, The Allow of Law), Brandon Sanderson
  
• Tres Navarre series (Big Red Tequila, The Widower's Two-Step, The Last King of Texas, The Devil Went Down to Austin, South Town, Mission Road, Rebel Island), Rick Riordan
  
• Life Expectancy, Dean Koontz
  
• Enchantment, Orson Scott Card
  
• Divergent trilogy (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant), Veronica Roth
  
• Sam Capra series (Adrenaline, The Last Minute, Downfall, Inside Man), Jeff Abbott
  
• Formic War series (Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens), Orson Scott Card
  
• The Summons, John Grisham
  
• Abraham, Charles Swindoll
  
• Tales of Dunk and Egg series (The Mystery Knight, The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword), George R.R. Martin
  

I have already started to pick out some books for the first part of 2015. If you have any suggestions, send them along and I will check them out. I keep my list of reads current on my Shelfari page.

Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas to all of my online friends and thank you for being a part of my site. I hope you feel the blessings of God upon you this day and you make time to thank God for the blessings of his son. May you find it within yourself to let joy claim your heart today no matter what you may face.

Christmas Eve 2014

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there ...

From one end of our world to another, children have reached the peak of expectation and hope. What will Santa Claus bring me this year? The excitement is palpable and the troubles of this world can be set aside for just a little while. Hope your Christmas Eve is a magical time no matter where life finds you.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Weight Loss Secrets

If you go to the self-help section of your local bookstore or library, you will find literally dozens of books on the secrets to effective weight loss. If you type in "weight loss" at Amazon, they list more than 3000 publications! Judging by the titles of these books, it is apparent that your unwanted flab and fat will instantaneously melt off your body if you eat only grapefruit or kiwi or Scandanavian tubers. Apparently different authors come to different conclusions. But anyone who has tried to lose weight through dietary changes or exercise knows that both of these approaches are crocks. All they do is cost you time and money, and often leave your girth even more impressive than when you started. Folks, I am here to tell you the straight poop on how to effectively lose weight. I am not talking about a few worthless pounds, I am talking about how to go from morbidly obese to crack skinny in just days. I have personally experienced these four weight loss approaches and can assure you with 100% certainty that they are as good as gold.

• 1. Severe depression - A bout with severe depression, will suck away your appetite almost as much as your will to live. Pretty soon that death in the family or that pesky divorce will be worth it when you see the new you in the mirror.
  
• 2. Uber laxatives - If you have had major surgery recently, one of the pre-op fun-time activities is the requirement to ingest large quantities of mind-numbingly powerful laxatives. These special concoctions force you to purge nearly every last cell in your body. You will go from fat to fabulous long before you notice that you have run out of toilet paper.
  
• 3. Tropical centipedes - Getting up to half a dozen bites from a tropical beastie will have you purging over the toilet bowl for days on end. As opposed to laxatives, this purging comes out the other end. Oh the colors are absolutely dazzling and that burning sensation you feel in your throat means that the process is working.
  
• 4. Tumor removal - For those that are super lucky to have their weight issues fully contained with a body tumor, one quick trip to surgery will have you looking like a runway model in less than a day. If you survive being carved up like a Christmas goose, you can definitely look forward to the upcoming summer swimsuit season.