I bought a new car. It’s a 2012 Nissan Sentra SR Special Edition. And it’s my first new car in over 25 years.

My First New Car

My first new car – 1987 Honda Civic

In November 1986, I bought a 1987 Honda Civic sedan. I drove that car for almost 14 years and put 196,000 original miles on it.

My First Nissan Sentra

my 2001 Nissan Sentra – 02/03/2003 – the day I bought it

This was my last car, a 2001 Nissan Sentra GXE. I drove this car for almost 9 years before it got traded in on the 2012 Sentra pictured above. It had just over 120,000 miles on it.

the last night at home for my 2001 Sentra

The last four years, the paint and clear coat started to come off the car, making it my “leprosy beater”. It was time to get a new car and every thing worked out for me to get a great deal.

The Sentra SR Special Edition is pretty loaded for a compact car. XM Radio, navigation, keyless entry and keyless start are all features I really liked. There’s a sunroof, a large trunk, 35mpg on the highway and an ultra smooth ride. I am quite happy with my purchase.

What about the LEAF?

The LEAF will be mine someday, just not now.

I’m sure many of my regular readers have just one question? What about the Nissan LEAF that I have been wanting now for over two years? Well, this was a hard decision on many levels. It involves purchasing a $40k all electric vehicle that I was ready to spring the money for, then stopping and realizing that I didn’t have $40k. Nor did I have the almost $520 a month car payment [I refuse to lease a car I plan to drive for many years].

The LEAF is still part of my plan to eventually own, but the age of my previous car and the forth coming repairs it was going to need compelled me to look at another car. I looked at hybrids, but really am not fond of the look and the price of a loaded Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight was hampered feature wise. The Hyundai Sonata hybrid was out of my price range as well.

So for at least the next five years, I now have a new car [and a new car payment... just a couple hundred less than the LEAF]. The LEAF is still reserved and we’ll see when Utah will finally recognize and support non-fossil fuel vehicles on a wider scale. And when that time comes, I will see where I am at. People own more than one car, right?

• Filming and editing videos

- Still have the same 3 final episodes of Scooter Sunday Season 4 filmed and sitting and waiting to be edited into some type of greatness. With Season 5 coming up in the next 90 days, I best get crackin’ on this. Obviously, Snowy Sunday is in the queue as well. More on this in a future blog post.

• Writing

- Working on my next submission for Thrice Fiction. A dark yet humorous piece that is actually flowing quite well.

• Screenwriting/Movie making

- Talked to my daughter this last week when we attended a Sundance 2012 film, which is when I get the most motivated to create something of my own. The idea is still there, the characters are stil in development and it’s in my mind each day.

• Reading Books

- No progress here. Same stack, same spot on the desk they sit.

• Exercise

- Probably the most progress I’ve made of all of these TINTFA items. I am to the point where I am actually going to the gym without making my own excuses. I still am highly distracted by others, but working to overcome those.

• Golf

- I can tell you that with cold temps here in Utah, there won’t be any updates on this until at least late March or early April. Still planning on playing at least 15 games this year.

• Blogging

- I have been posting more over on Chillywilly.org and have made some more consistent design changes over on Scootersunday.com, including a nicely edited pic of the scooter as the header image and a Favicon, too.

Motivation needs to be my middle name.

Another update on March 1st.

Thanks to Kapgar for his blog post update.

1. My mom had me when she was 40 years old

- my family would know this, but even for the times I’ve talked about my mom here, I don’t believe I’ve shared this here on the blog. There were some complications (breach), but for the medical advances that were around in 1963, I’m sure this one was common.

2. I took Ritalin as a child

- for some reason when I was about 9, my teacher thought I was hyperactive. This was reported to my mom, who as a single parent, took it to an extreme level and put me into counseling. At the time (early 70′s), Ritalin was a common thing for psychologists to prescribe for activities they were not all that familiar with. This lasted for a good three years before I finally got tired of taking it.

3. My first car was a 1974 Honda Civic


The above photo is not of the actual car I owned. Mine was a creme color. I didn’t have it very long – maybe about 6 months or so. My memories of driving this car are fading as the year’s pass. Unlike my memories of my second car, which was a 1972 Toyota Corolla wagon that had a huge dent on the side [I wish I had taken more photos in my early 20's].

4. The first computer I owned was an Atari 800


- Yes, with two cartridge slots and 48k of RAM, this was the top of the line back in the day [I won't tell you what year this was, but I'll let you guess]. I owned it for a good five years, even after I got my first PC. I wrote BASIC programs and played several games on it.

5. I was called “McFly” when the Back To The Future movie first came out

- I was proud to have this nickname. Even if people would use it often, to be associated with someone like Michael J. Fox was pretty cool in 1985.

6. The first CD I bought was U2′s “The Unforgettable Fire”


- the year was 1988. I had just bought my first CD player. There was a local record store in Orem, UT called Crandall Records. Albums and cassettes will still big, but CDs were starting to make huge inroads into the hands of music fans. As a fan of the band, I thought it was appropriate to get my favorite album of theirs on CD. I still have this CD today and will never part with it.

7. Several of my randoms here are “firsts”

- no particular reason other than they are random facts about me. See how I did that there? I now only have to worry about coming up with 10 of these.

8. My first short film I did was shown at a film festival


- the film is only 1 minute long, which was a requirement for the 2007 Treo Film Festival. But it was based off something that actually happened to me. The film festival was held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood in October of that year. A good 500 people were at this event and for 60 seconds, I saw something my daughter and I created on a big screen. To this day, it’s one of the things I am most proud to have done, even though my skills in filming and editing have improved greatly.

9. I grew up a couple of miles from Disneyland


- Until I moved from California to Utah in late 1987, I never lived more than 2 miles away from Disneyland. My mom use to take me often when I was little. As a teen, I would go with my friends. And my first wife worked there when we first started dating. I would hear the train sound most days and fireworks at 9:30pm each night provided long lasting memories of growing up near The Happiest Place On Earth.

10. My favorite vegetable is brussel sprouts


Original image found at The Daily Green
- Believe it or not, I really do love these. steamed and cooked for 30 mins, then served with butter, they are so, so good.

11. I went to Gambler’s Anonymous for playing video games


Original image found at Pink Gorilla Games
- At the age of 17, along with my mom in tow, I stood up along side some people with serious gambling problems to announce that it had been 12 days since I last played Pac-man. I shit you not, this really did happen. The meetings were held at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA and I was the lone person who wasn’t dropping $100 bills on the blackjack table or other card and casino games. My addiction to the quater-eating mavens wasn’t really an addiction at all, as after 10 or so meetings, it was suggested that we find another option for saving me the $10 a week I spent at the arcade. To say that I was embarrassed at being forced to do this, is an understatement. I look back now and glad I didn’t do this with my daughter over her Pokemon “addiction”.

11 Questions From Kim

Ok.. ok… I’ll at least answer Kim’s questions she posed over on her blog post. Go to her site to see the questions.

1. To be a writer/published author and filmmaker/screenwriter
2. Maine in 1999. I toyed with going all the way up to Nova Scotia, but ran out of time.
3. Yes.
4. Shrimp scampi and pan-seared scallops. And Fettucine Alfredo if it’s made right.
5. Depends on the news, but normally my wife.
6. Computer problems. See this blog post and why I loathe it.
7. Lately, MySQL questions. I try to keep them down to just a few times a month.
8. Because I like to read other people’s writings and the curious nature of why others blog like me.
9. Probably my wife. Maybe a few others. Mostly though, myself.
10. Yes.
11. The conspiracy that surrounds the JFK assassination. I did a history report on it many years ago in college and I was highly fascinated by how many different versions of the story are out there.

Ok, now comment away. Or steal this meme for your own blog. I say make up your own rules as you see fit.

This time, it is happening. 2010 and 2011 were failed starts to a promise of change. And since there were no TINTFA lists made for those years, there wasn’t much headway made into getting things done.

But I have to say that this doesn’t mean that 2011 was all bad. In fact, lots of it was good. I traveled a lot [Myrtle Beach, Vancouver, WA, Seattle, LEGOLand, Las Vegas], I made a few videos, I expanded my writing by contributing to Thrice Fiction and I had a great Christmas.

But all that good doesn’t change the fact that I wanted to do more with my creative talents. I let way too many other things distract me from what I really enjoy and want to do.

So with that, here is my TINTFA 2012 list of what I want to accomplish:

• Filming and editing videos

- everyone that has read this blog for any length of time knows the videos I’ve done. Both Scooter Sunday and Snowy Sunday videos have been fun to make and fun to hear other’s comments on them. I love making them and have missed making them. 2012 will be the year I make more of these. Scooter Sunday Season 5 will be my push to make at least 10 episodes this spring, summer and fall.

• Writing

- my other love is writing. I’ve almost made a living at it some years back and would love to do that again. That takes time to sit down and write and often. Meeting deadlines for Thrice Fiction helps, but I want to write more and expand my skills. 2012 will the year I add at least another regular writing gig to my portfolio.

• Screenwriting/Movie making

- combining the above two, my daughter and I have talked about making a movie together. 2012 is the year we stop talking about it and actually make a movie… regardless how professional or rudimentary it is.

• Reading Books

- along the same lines as my desire to write, reading other works seems natural. And I love to read, but just don’t make the time to dust off the stack of books I want to finish. 2012 will be where I read a book a month. Ambitious for this wordsmith, but it will be a great thing to accomplish.

• Exercise

- As I recently blogged about, I joined a gym that is very close to my house and at a low cost per month [$10], which gives me pretty much no excuses to not get fit and in shape. 2012 is the year I do this without any more failed attempts. My health depends on it as I approach the age of 50. Also would be great to get rid of my chin and gut.

• Golf

- I only played 2 games of golf this year. I played none – ZERO TIMES – in 2010. 2012 is the year I plan to play at least 15 times. I enjoy the game and simply need to make time for it.

• Blogging

- I blog enough here, but I have two other blogs that I post to as well – ScooterSunday.com and Chillywilly.org. But I am working [and have been for almost 2 years now] two commercial blogging sites. I have made some progress on both of them, just at my distracted pace. 2012 is the year that both sites [which I will talk about more as things get closer] will be launched.

And that should be enough TINTFAs to keep me from being distracted in the year of 2012.

Wich me luck. Better yet, kick my ass in a couple of months if you don’t see any updates on these items here on this blog. Because that’s one of the ways I’m going to stay accountable for the above list. Regular updates so that I can see my progress.

Happy New Year all.

With a new year brings new adventures – a new cat to our home.

A week ago, a member of our family asked us to take his cat as the place he was moving to doesn’t allow cats.

Her first few days here were mostly spent hiding under the bed. It’s a new place and she needs to get acclimated to her new surroundings.

Still shy, but warming up

Up until Triscuit arrived, we had one cat – Rocko – who is 18 and moves slower than normal. While he’s very patient and mostly leaves her alone, he’s still curious what we have done to him.

Staying for a while

So while Triscuit may end up back with her previous owner, she’s welcome here for as long as she stays. Now let’s see how a couple of late 40-somethings and an almost 20 year old feline keep up with the young little thing.

Merry Christmas

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Kwanza

Winter Solstice

I hope everyone is safe and happy this holiday season. Being with loved ones and enjoying some good meals and drink.

When I catch a cold, it’s more of a flu, with body aches and attacks most of my muscles. I hate it. So I do what I can to fight getting a cold.

Grapefruit Seed Extract pills

I started taking these daily [two a day] about three years ago and since then, the number of colds and other sicknesses have been significantly reduced. When I feel a cold coming on, I take six of these pills a day – two in the morning, two at lunch and two at dinner. They are non-toxic and taking a lot of them doesn’t do any harm. Only good.

Green Tea

I’ve been a green tea drinker for over 10 years now and while I only have a couple teas a week when I am well, I drink two a day when I am fighting a cold. Like the pills above, this acts as an antioxidant to cleanse the system. I’m sure there are healthier teas out there, but the goal for getting rid of a cold is quick and easy and available at your local grocery store.

Water

I refill this water bottle three times a day at work. Water is a natural hydration method and just increasing the amount of water I drink by one more of these per day while in cold fighting mode is a no brainer.

It takes me about three days of doing the above increased items to feel like I am winning the battle. I get some congestion hanging on for a couple more days, but normally by the 5th day, I no longer have any major cold symptoms.

I got tired of taking all of the OTC cold medicines that made me feel like I had done a small mountain of cocaine. Plus, the no breathing at night, the tiredness that sets in. I don’t like to deal and live through any of it. And what I do above works very well for me.

I know they say you are supposed to get a cold to help your antibodies fight off any sickness. And I’m sure at some point, I will need to let a cold run it’s course. But not before Christmas and the holidays.

Do you have any cold remedies that work for you?

Posting this some 6 weeks later, I still had to share this with my readers.

original photo taken

My friend Ingrid was having a Halloween party on October 29th, but I was out of town, but I still wanted to be at the party. So we came up with a way that I could still attend. I decided to make a stick photo of myself that could be carried about at the party.

I went to the craft store to get some thick board to post the printed picture onto. I found that glue stick helped a lot. So did my wife, who suggested that we use a paint stir stick, which would be easy to hold and much sturdier than the simple craft sticks.

The next few pics are the end result.

Against The Red

In The Chair

Hanging With Lindsey and Ingrid

As you can see, I was able to be two places at once, being able to attend this fine party at Ingrid’s house.

at the company costume event on Monday the 31st

As a nice surprise, I found that I was also able to be at the costume judging event at my company on Monday, even though I was on the road traveling back to Utah that day. Versatile human.

1. If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?

Calm the fuck down. Stop hating others not like you. Relax and pour yourself a drink.

2. If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

John Cusack



3. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?

Newport Beach, CA

4. What do you think about most?

making videos, writing novels, taking time off.

5. You have the opportunity to spend a romantic night with the music celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?

Lily Allen

6. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

My work experience in 1996 at Pioneer Valley Hospital. I might blog about this in the future – in complete detail.

7. What’s your strangest talent?

I can talk like Droopy Dog by pinching the right side of my mouth.


8. What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on?

How do you really feel about _____________ ? (insert several people’s names here)

9. Ever had a poem or song written about you?

Not that I know about.

10. When is the last time you played the air guitar?

Last Tuesday during bowling league after getting a strike.



11. Do you have any strange phobias?

A fear of heights.

12. What’s your religion?

Non-believer. I used to belong to organized religion, but left it many years ago when I realized I didn’t believe in it and couldn’t live that life anymore, trying to be something that I would never be and never wanted to become.

13. What is your current desktop picture?

a plain light gray background on my MacBook Pro running OS X Lion.

14. When you are outside, what are you most likely doing?

Wishing I could stay outside longer (assuming it’s warm and sunny)

15. What’s the last song you listened to?

“Tongue Tied” by Grouplove

16. Favorite band?

Depeche Mode

17. What was the last lie you told?

Monday at 11:35am “I will take care of that in a few minutes”

18. Do you believe in karma?

For the most part, yes.

19. What is a saying you say a lot?

Sounds good. Have fun. Talk to you in a bit. All conversation closers.

20. What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?

Weakness: I let others control me too much. Strength: I make people smile

21. Who is your celebrity crush?

All time: Cindy Crawford. Current: too many to list. I can tell you that Megan Fox is NOT on the list.



22. Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word: heart.

Fragile

23. How do you vent your anger?

Playing loud hard music. Marilyn Manson, NIN, Slayer, Judas Priest

24. Do you have a collection of anything?

Anything penguin, LEGOs, Wacky Packages

25. What is your favorite word?

Speechless

I skipped my annual Thanksgiving post last year. Maybe I wasn’t as thankful in 2010. Of course this year, I’m just thankful I actually accomplished some things [trust me, there was much more that I really wanted to get done].

So with that, here’s my list of what I’m thankful for:

• My wife, who puts up with my love of all things tech and geek. And my odd sense of humor. And my many distractions that sometimes take away from deserved attention on her.

• My job. Even though I complain about it often, I really am glad I have my job. I look forward to my three weeks of vacation days each year and the flex time which allows me to run errands during the day, in trade for being available by phone 24/7.
• My friends in music – KevinIL and KevinAZ, who share many of the same bands and genres as I do.
• My daughter, who also shares the love of music I do, and not only is an awesome companion for the many concerts we have attended together, but who is also a great travel partner, as evidenced by our awesome trip to the Pacific Northwest this summer [not to mention, previous trips to San Francisco and the Grand Canyon].
• My iPad. Seriously.. this device has done a lot for me since I first purchased one in April 2010. I upgraded to the iPad 2 this year and it’s done even more to help keep me organized, not to mention the apps and tools that I use to write, blog and take notes.
• My creative side. My videos might have been sparse this year, but I still filmed when I could and my fiction writing got a nice boost thanks to Thrice Fiction.
• To those who inspire me. There’s too many to individually list here, but your works, efforts and creations do find their way into my head often when I need that push to get past my distractions.
• My many online friends, who without them, Twitter and blogging would be a solo effort.
• And lastly, to my brother and sister, who I don’t talk to enough [thanks in large part to my reliance on online communication, which takes away from my real life communication] but who I am grateful for all they have done for me in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you have a great day with food, football and family.

I will be blogging again in the next day or two with coverage of my recent travels to Las Vegas and LEGOLand.

So here’s my list of things I wished I would have done, in hindsight of course.

• Writing

I’ve had so many different opportunities to write in my life. And there has been quite a few of them that I’ve taken and they are a part of my life I cherish and remember. But in hindsight, I would have not stopped towards the end of 1995. I wished I would have kept up with the freelance work I was doing and venturing into my fictional works.

• Filming and movie making

As evidenced on this site by those who know of my videos I love to do, I’ve not done too many of them in 2010 and 2011. In hindsight, I should not have let the pressures of my day job and many, many other distractions I get multiple times a day, take me away from filming, editing and putting together even the silliest of videos.

• Giving my power away

A friend told me about 11 years ago that every time you let someone else control your life, you are giving your power away. A great piece of advice on how to live your life, which I have mostly ignored. Very similar to how I let other things distract me on a constant basis. But more along the lines of always doing what others ask of me and me almost always doing them. I don’t mind helping people, but I admit to being too nice and letting other take advantage of my time. In hindsight, I wished I had learned to politely say “NO” more often and kept my power over my life in many areas.

• Spent more time with my daughter

I do spend a good amount of time with my daughter, but there was a time during my divorce that I wished I would have spent more time with her. The many times I moved about and some of the darker times I experienced due to the lack of money and too many different substances I partook of. For the years of 2002 to 2006, I felt there wasn’t enough time I spent with her, which could have helped both of us. We have a good relationship now, but in hindsight, I think it could have been better.

• Had more video footage of my mom

Since the late 1980′s, I’ve had a video camera. And I’ve taken a ton of footage since then. But from what I remember, I don’t think I have a lot of footage of my mom. Now that she’s been gone for over 5 years, in hindsight, I wish I had more video footage of her. I look at the many photos I have and wish they could speak and move about.

• Exercising/Working out

Back in 2000, I joined Bally’s and worked out a lot. And up until about 2009, I found ways to stay active. My growing double chin and belly are two things I look at multiple times a day and I wish they would disappear. In hindsight, I should have continued working out and staying active. Especially since my yearly physical where my doctor told me that my blood sugar was a quite a bit higher than it should be. Now I add metFormin to my 2 pills I take daily for the next 3 months. I am using a treadmill several times a week, which is a good start. Maybe posting mostly naked pictures of me again will add to the motivation.

I may think of more, but those are the ones that I think of each and every day of my life. Not so much as a burden, but things that I really wished I had done that I want to be doing now or have memories of having done.

What things do you wish you had done, in hindsight?