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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Sugar and caffeine on the cheap

I hate leftover candy canes. They are nice to have at Christmas, but everyone always buys a ton of them and they either sit in a cabinet until the next Christmas or get thrown out after someone realizes they have sat in a cabinet for six months.

But I have a solution to this problem:
Mint Mocha

For this you will need one packet of hot cocoa mix, one cup of coffee, and one candy cane. Just mix the coffee and hot cocoa then add the candy cane. Or, if you are like me, save yourself from dirtying silverware and mix the coffee and cocoa WITH the candy cane speeding up the process.

The candy cane will eventually dissolve and turn your coffee into a tasty, sugar filled, and caffeinated deliciousness that is mint mocha. And you can relax in knowing you did not spend $3 or more per drink at Starbucks or some other coffee establishment.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Todo for 2012

Well, 2011 has come and gone. I don't even remember what my resolutions were; there's a good chance that whatever they were, I didn't accomplish them. So let's make a list of what I would like to accomplish in 2012.

Drop body weight to under 200 lbs. This should not be terribly difficult. Currently, I am at 220 or 225. It's been fairly regular there since I graduated. In fact, it should be no problem to reach this by the Spring equinox.

Workout regularly. Again, shouldn't be terribly difficult. I already try to exercise regularly, but it's tough in the winter especially on a tight budget when I do not want a membership at a gym. My goal is 3 or more days a week of intense exercise. Once more hours of daylight are available I will starting bicycling to work again. Until then, I plan to do interval training and calisthenics during lunch on alternating days.

Learn a new instrument. I would like to learn more guitar, but re-learning to play piano is another option. I have a ton of music that I snagged from church services which doesn't look too difficult, and I think the biggest difficulty will be learning and remembering chords. This will be more of a challenge, especially because of the next goal.

Professional advancement. This is fairly open ended. To start, I am going to complete the Microsoft Certified Professional Developer for applications developers. If possible, I will try to complete the web developer path as well since it is two extra exams than the applications developer one, really only one since the other is the final exam. And if possible, I want to try to get into a graduate program.

Go shooting regularly. There is really no reason for me not to do this. I have a .22 rifle and there is a free shooting range a short drive away. I plan on getting a new shotgun since there is a club which has open trap on Friday nights for a reasonable price. In terms of pistol, I would like to take a safety course and perhaps buy one. I have my license to carry, but if I do purchase, I would not feel comfortable carrying without more practice and completing a handgun safety course.

Write a practical program for personal use. Again, this I should have done a long time ago. I had plans to write a web application for recipes, but that never happened because of video games and studying for the MPCD. I will still try to write the recipe application, but I haven't looked at it for a while.

Play less video games. This will probably be the toughest resolution, what with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Minecraft, Portal 2, Sid Meier's Civilization 5, and a whole lot of other games on my computer right now. Again, pretty open ended, but if I can keep it to one or two nights a week for no more than 2 hours, I will be happy.