Top 10 of 2010: The Resolutions

I’m not much for New Year’s Resolutions.  I didn’t resolve last year to go to Europe.  I didn’t resolve last year to bike over 2000 miles.  Those things just happened.  I prefer to let the game come to me.

But I do like finding ways to bring content to the blog and teach myself a new programming skill.  And in honor of 2010, all of these resolutions will have 10 as their goal.

Therefore I will resolving to do the following in 2010:

• Read Ten Books – In my decade end review noticeably absent was a Top 10 Books list.  I used to be a voracious reader.  But these days I do much of my reading on the interwebs.  I’m not entirely sure I read ten books in the Oughts.  I started dozens.  Finished but a handful.
• Attend Ten Shows – Another regret from my list was the low number of shows I saw.  This should resolve that problem, at least for the first year.
• See Ten Movies in a Theatre – I’m not a huge moviegoer.  But I do love writing scathing movie reviews.
• Go to Ten New Restaurants – This may be harder than it sounds since I do so love the restaurants I love.  And the “new” Green Room isn’t technically new.
• Cook Ten New Dishes – This is probably the easiest of the list.  Between Alton Brown, Mark Bittman and my journey through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I have more than enough material.
• Spend Ten Days Outside the US – This may be more difficult this year with my limited number of vacation days at my new job.  So I may have to supplement it with a few days in Canada or Mexico.
• Do Ten Things Outside My Comfort Zone – The most subjective item on my list.  This will force me to try new things and relate them back to you, my loyal and extremely good looking readers.  Have I mentioned the Bloggie Awards are coming up?  TheSummerOfSteve has been nominated for Least Read Blog by a Narcissistic  Snarkmeister.  It’s touch competition since it includes virtually every blog out there.
• Lose Ten Pounds every Quarter – also a huge challenge.  But one of my leaders, Alton Brown, has recently dropped a huge amount of weight.  So why not me?  And 10lbs/quarter seems attainable.  Of course, if I’m short at the end of a quarter, I can always do a detox and shed a quick 15.

The other part of the resolution, the programming skill to learn, will be added to the blog soon.  I’ll be writing a little Silverlight widget for the right side of the blog keeping track of all my goals.  If you don’t know what any of that means, I’ll explain some of it when I deploy the widget in the next few weeks – hopefully sooner.