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.

The above photo is my response to the funk I’ve been in for some months now. I am finally making some good progress on changes to my personal schedule to do more regular writing, entertaining videos, frequent blog posts and catching up on my media viewing [TV shows, movies, magazines, books].

As I’ve said many times here on this blog, Stay tuned.

I’m a person that likes to be challenged. Not in a fight or any physical altercation, but more to expand my mind and keep myself doing creative tasks.

In my reading of the blogs on my feed reader, I came across a post by Nilsa, updating her readers on the progress of her lifestyle challenges. Towards the end of that post, she mentioned that she was going to be reading at least one magazine article or one chapter a day from a book. She also asked her readers to join her in a 30-day challenge of their own.

So I left a comment telling her that I would join her. Not even five minutes after leaving my comment, I got an email from her asking me what my challenge was going to be.

Thinking about this, I decided that I too needed to read more. I have a stack of books that I’ve bought that have either barely been started or haven’t even had the cover cracked on. My 30-day challenge is to complete a book – not just a chapter a day, but read an entire book [preferably something with 30 chapters or less]. And not only will I read a book, I’m going to do a book report [blog post style] on it at the end of the 30 days. It’s been years since I’ve had to do a book report, so this should be a challenge on top of a challenge.

But Wait, There’s More….

Ok, so reading a book is a challenge to me [time wise, smart asses]. Some of you read books all the time. My wife can read one in a single weekend. I can hear some of you saying, “Hey… what about another challenge..” Ok. I’ll do another challenge. But it’s going to require a separate blog post. Early next week, watch for a post detailing my other challenge.

For now, it’s time to pick a book and get ready for some literary enjoyment.

So without further delay, I give you my top 5 TINTFA’s for 2009:

1. Writing

If I listed each and every idea and writing project I want to do here, this would be a long-ass blog post. But at the top of the list, there are five stories, novels, screenplays and new web sites that I want/need to finish this year. One is almost 10 years in the making [a novel]. Some are just a few months to a year old. Making time for this is a priority for me. All of you that follow me on Twitter and this blog will know when I’m working on these because there will be announcements and links as I make significant progress.

2. Time Management

This really should be number one, but it’s not. But it’s just as important. As I’ve mentioned many times out here, I get distracted easily. I try to do too much at the same time and end up seeing my time just slip away. This doesn’t mean I’m going out and buying all of those “self-help” and “time management” books that make some of these authors rich and famous. Nope. I’m going to analyze the various things that cause me to manage my time poorly and make what changes I can to manage my time better. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It does, but it’s a daunting task, sometimes on a much larger scale than I can imagine. If I can master this, I can accomplish pretty much any TINTFA on my list.

3. Reading Books

I’ve got a huge stack of books I want to read. I’ve started a couple already and just need to finish them ["Too Fat To Fish" by Artie Lange, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins], but there’s tons of others that I’ve been itching to read for a long time. I’d like to get though a book a month. That’s 12 books. Not a lot to ask, except carving out dedicated and uninterrupted time to read. Piece of cake.

4. Blogger Events

Last year, I attended two (2) blogger events. Both with Dave from Blogography. But even though a blogger meet up with Dave is nothing short of awesome, I admit that I would like to meet some of these other bloggers I read. And while I will seek out some bloggers local to Salt Lake, I want to attend at least a couple of these “Star-Studded” bloggers events, starting with TequilaCon 09 in Santa Fe, NM on April 25, 2009.

5. Exercise

For those of you waiting for Part 3 of my WORKOUT blog post series, it’s coming soon [promises, promises]. I kind of ran into a snag in my exercise plans, which I blogged about here. I’m reworking my plan to make it something that will not only produce some results, but keep me exercising on a regular basis. I made a good dent into this from October to the middle of December last year. I just need to add some tweaks and kick it back into gear.

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The Bottom 5 TINTFA List

So you’ve read my top 5 list and are probably thinking, “That’s it? Aren’t there any other low-priority things Marty wants to accomplish in 2009?” So glad you asked. I give you my bottom-of-the-barrel list of TINTFA’s for 2009.

96. Buy Another Scooter

My wife and I have talked about getting her a scooter. That’s still in the works, but there’s other things that have pushed their way into being more important this year, like home improvements and paying off current bills. This one may have to roll over to 2010. No worries, my current scooter isn’t going anywhere.

97. Watch Every Monty Python Episode

My wife got the me the Complete Monty Python Collection for Christmas. 16 DVDs – every skit and episode in all of it’s searchable glory. Would be nice to watch each and every one, bringing back memories and making me laugh. For this, I may seek more than a sick day… more like a sick week.

98. Take Less Time To Poop

Ewwww…. TMI, dude. This is low on the list because it’s the only time I have to read the large number of articles from my stack of Vanity Fair and Playboy magazines I subscribe to. I figure if I’m not reading enough books, I might as well keep up on current affairs while sitting on the throne. But I guess I could work on tying things up a few minutes sooner in the new year.

99. Travel to England

My daughter wants to go to England… and bad. But even with finding some deal and discounts, it’s still a sizable chunk of change to make a trip across the pond. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t still look for deals and contests.

100. Learn How To Invest

Why is this last on my list? It’s not because I don’t have an interest in knowing how to buy stocks and bonds. I do and I think it’s a good way to plan for things like retirement and to add to one’s income. But it takes dedicated time to make this happen. I figure if I can complete the other 99 TINTFA’s, by the time I read #100, I’ll have enough time to learn the proper steps to investing my money in the right places. At least that’s the thought.

So wish me luck in 2009. I think I will need it.

TINTFA

A lot of people will make New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not much into them. Sure, I’d like to have things I want to accomplish, but they seem too contrived and shallow to me, like something you hype up, only to fail at in the first few months of a new year. I’ve set many resolutions over the years, only to look back and see what never happened. So I got to thinking… maybe if I give them a new name, there will be more of an increased desire to complete them.

I came up with TINTFA. It stands for:

Things I Need To Fucking Accomplish.

Or if you want the sanitized version, it’s:

Things I Need To Finally Accomplish.

To avoid posting the f-bomb multiple times on this blog [now what fun is that?], I’ll just use the acronym each time I need to refer to that. Will it work? I have an entire year to find out.

So with that, let’s take a look at things I did in 2008 and what can be expected in 2009.

Blogging

2008

This was the year that I delved into the world of big time blogging. Before, my blog posts were as sporadic as sex between Hillary and Bill. Now with Banal Leakage, you get at least two posts a week from me. I try for more, but two a week is what it is for now.

2009

For the new year, I really want to post more per week. I have a lot of stuff in me that I need to get out, which includes [very soon] my 100th post. A TINTFA that I will make extra efforts on in the new year.

I will also announce a new blog. I eluded to it last year in this post and still have plans to make it happen. I will not keep everyone in suspense for much longer… I promise.

And finally, there will be some cosmetic changes here, mostly in the form of graphics and other fun updates.

Switching Jobs

2008

Although I didn’t blog about it, I switched jobs earlier this year. In October 2007, I left the company I currently work for for another company because I was burned out. After three months at the new company, I ended up going back to the previous company. Confused? Yeah, so were a few other people in my life. But it was a good move back and even though my current employer is going through some changes, it’s still a good job and I don’t mind hanging out there as long as I can.

2009

Unless this company I work for does something really stupid [more stupid than they usually set out to be], I won’t be switching jobs. So no TINTFA efforts needed [for now, at least].

Getting Married

2008

As most of my regular readers know, I got married this summer, which I blogged about here, here and here. It went off great, we had a lot of family and close friends with us and we had fun, too.

2009

Our plans for the new year include spending some fun times together and a few more updates to the house. For sure, some good TINTFA will happen in new year.

Scooter Sunday

2008

This year, I turned a weekly blog post into a weekly video of me riding my scooter around the Salt Lake valley. It was fun, I got some great comments and feedback from my readers and I got to expand my video making interest into something I did on a regular basis. In short, it’s become an addictive part of my life, in a sort of non-addictive way.

2009

As I’ve mentioned before, Scooter Sunday will make it’s return in late March. Expect all new episodes each week that continue well into the fall of ’09. [I may take a week or two off, but that's it] There will also be some contests I will throw in throughout the season. For those fans of Snowy Sunday, I will keep making weekly videos until Scooter Sunday returns.

Writing

2008

I’ve mentioned a few times that my greatest love in life is my writing [Sorry honey... I still love you] and starting this blog was to help me improve my writing skills and start pursuing a career in writing. I feel I’ve made a good start and even though I sometimes get writer’s block, I enjoy sitting down and coming with ideas to publish.

2009

Each year about this time, I reflect back on what TINTFA I wanted to do the previous year. So I find myself in the same position why I didn’t push myself harder to write more and spend more time honing my literary skills. This is one of those TINTFA that I so want to work on and I do, but it seems I let too many other things in life distract me and keep me from making my re-entry into the writing world. I’ve got so many stories, novels, screenplays that I want to do… I just need to focus and get myself in a good place to start writing on a regular basis. I did it with the videos, I can do it with my stories.

Reading Books

2008

I’m horrible at reading books. I love to read… love it. And I want to read. That’s not the issue. The issue is making time for it and to stop getting distracted when I need to sit down with a good book. My daughter will tell you that one of her greatest wishes is for me to finish reading some books. I have no less than ten books I’ve purchased over the last year and I’ve read two of them. Pitiful, I know. They sit there, I pick them up and then I put them back down. Sometimes I read 4 or 5 chapters, then I find something else that take away my time. Triple-dog pitiful.

2009

I’m going to do my best to make time for the growing stack of books. A very much needed TINTFA. Plus, there’s a lot of books that will be coming out in 2009 that I will want to read. So best to be caught up before adding more pulp-based bookends to the bookshelf.

Traveling

2008

This year, I’ve been to Lake Tahoe, Mesquite, NV, Las Vegas, Valley of Fire and San Francisco once. Not a lot of out-of-state traveling, but enough to have some good times. The first trip to Lake Tahoe was the week I started this blog and then a second time in June for my wedding. Mesquite NV has Lee’s Discount Liquor and my favored Tilt 8%. My daughter and I went to San Francisco in late August to see Radiohead in concert with 60,000 other people at Golden Gate Park. We also went across the bay to see an Oakland Raiders NFL game [my daughter's first NFL game].

2009

Travel plans for this year should be fun, with a trip planned in the first part of the year [which I will reveal where in the next few weeks] with a few others thrown in throughout the year. My daughter and I always try to find a place she’s not been before and of course, there’s always Mesquite NV. [got to stock up, you know]

Political

2008

What would a year end blog summary be if I didn’t mention politics? This was a heated year, in which I revealed that I am a bleeding liberal, sometimes speak more than my mind [which ruffled a few feathers], squash a few rumors and sound off on pre-election bullshit.

2009

As a very political person, you can be assured that I’ll post on various stories and news worthy topics I feel the need to be vocal about. I’ll try my best to not get heated in any of the comments, but I do get passionate about certain things that I feel strongly about. So I guess my TINTFA when it comes to anything political is to be vocal, but use some restraints.

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Happy New Year

And this post ends the first year of Banal Leakage. To all of my readers, Scooter Sunday fans and commenters, thanks for visiting this year. Stick with me in 2009 and I’ll be here to provide the kind of blogging coverage you’ve come to expect. And maybe… just maybe… we’ll see some new faces here, too.