rewind 2012 - final edition

These took a lot longer to keep up with than I thought, but glad I set out to do it and finish it.  Maybe next year, I can be a little quicker with the updates.  I mean 2013 is basically half over, so let's wrap up these rewind 2012 posts, by posting a bit about general things in my life.   

Last May, I did a 5K walk.   I was really proud of myself for doing it and it was a good challenge.  I walked most of the way, but tried to do a faster walk.  I jogged toward the end to feel the rush of crossing the finish line.  I did the whole walk in about 40 minutes and I'd do it again.  I was really surpised at how much fun I had doing it.  I'm definitely not a runner, but I was proud of the accomplishment.  All year, the weight loss was slow, but I kept most of my weight off and I kept trying to break through some barriers.  Most of it is due to needing to adjust habits which I'm slow to change.  I tended this year to do well for a bit, but then falter.  I did make it my lowest weight in 8 years, but I gained a bit to be back around the 300 mark.  The goal for this year is to get out of that century mark and keep the weight coming off.  I find it interesting that on this journey, I'm constantly learning and re-learning over and over again.  I need to keep my momentum going, but it's a marathon, not a sprint.  The weight didn't come on over night I tell myself all the time.  

Work was busy as ever and I took on lots of new responsibilities again this year.  I tend to do this each year, but the job is still fun and keeps me very busy.  It was stressful at times with lots of upper management and just general changes.   I tried a mentoring program and I thought it was beneficial.  In general, I just felt extremely busy and tried to tick off more accomplishments.  I got our live game interface working and we took text to air live from an online source with automation for the first time ever.  ABC Family automated tons of graphics and finally came over to the side of everyone else using the same applications.   Like I said, busy as ever, but fun.  The biggest change was having Danyel move to Programming which was a major adjustment since she and I worked so closely together.   It's been good for both of us, but she's the best work partner I've ever had and I may never have a work relationship like that again.  One of the most fun things I've ever done at work was a 2 day immersive Disney class where I learned about the company which I did in January.  I got to do lots of fun things and even got to be a character at Disneyland.  Way fun!

 California Adventure was finished last year and it's spectacular.  They did an amazing job on the rebuild of that park and it's great now.  The new Cars Land is superb and really sets the bar high for any future endeavors.  The ride is a big favorite and it's always got a very long line, I tend to get on it early in the day when I'm there so I can get it in, because I don't want to wait in a 2 hour line.  

April 2012, brought it to the 1 year mark since my Mom passed away.  I think I felt like I turned a corner and could take a breath again, but I still miss her a lot and I probably always will.   But with time, it's not a daily upsetting piece of my life, more like a lot of memories of her that drive my positivity.  She's the person who's had the single biggest influence on my life.  

The world brought a lot of craziness and sadness in 2012.  Whitney Houston suddenly passed away after a troubled life with drugs.  It was definitely sad to hear that.  Lots of stories on guns and needless killings.  Especially the story of New Town Connecticut with all those elementary school kids who were killed due to a crazy gunman.  I mean, enough people, enough.  The crazy has to stop.  We've got to turn a corner with this craziness.  It sparked a lot of debate on gun control and in my opinion, we'll never solve this issue.  I don't think we need assault rifles out in the marketplace to purchase for hunting.  I think we can just stay with shotguns for that.  I just don't see a need to manufacture those types of assault weapons except for kiiling and war.  But it's very political and it's not a common sense arugument, so I'll leave it at that.  The fiscal cliff debates were a joke.  I mean seriously our elected represenatives would rather see us go bankrupt I think than fix their problems.  I think they are all worried about getting elected to additional terms and not as worried about governing at the best of their capability.   Maybe they are not smart people I don't know, but compromise has to enter their vocabulary soon.  Because even though we avoided the dreaded fiscal cliff, it's still politics as usual in Washington D.C.  On top of that, we had the presidential election that just didn't want to quit.  It felt like it lasted for the full 4 years.  We saw Barack Obama get re-elected over Mitt Romney.  I was essentially glad, but I'm hoping for some progress in government and I'm still not seeing any.  We had the hockey season locked out and didn't start until 2013.  Ugh.   At least they started playing in 2013.   But that's for next year's recap, right?.

With my busier schedule, I tried some groupons/living social deals for cleaning services.  They were a mixed bag, but I've got 1 or 2 still more to try this year, but I'm occasionally using a service of Three Little Piggies cleaning service and they are excellent.  It's not perfrect after they leave, but they do a great job and saves me a lot of time.  Still only hiring them to show up every few months, but it's a big help.   

I tried getting out more and more and visiting around Los Angeles.   I've joined the Grammy Museum which is located downtown and it's a great little music museum with tons of interactive exhibits and fun to walk around every now and then.  We'll see if I decide to renew my membership which is up sometime this summer.  I've been trying tons of new restaurants and make it a point to go out and try them.  I've even been trying more food trucks.  Burbank had a nice little ladies night once a month on a Friday and they would have tons of food trucks showing up on Magnolia Boulevard and that was a blast to try a bunch of those.  Good food.  My home email got to an uncontrollable level - as bad as work - and I've tried lots of ways to tame that beast, but basically, I just stay on top of it.  My emails run a close second to all those loyalty cards in my wallet though.   I'd love to get rid of a bunch of those, and I'm slowly getting more in my phone.   I joined more social networks and I guess the list keeps growing.  Why not?  Right.   2012 brought me a regular to 4Square where you basically brag about where you've been.  It encourages me to get out around town more and then I can check in.  Seems to be working.  Started using my iPad at work for some stuff and also reading documents on my iPad while traveling to see the family.   I've tried reading my Entertainment Weekly magazine on the iPad which I kind of enjoy from time to time and always tried reading the newspaper.  That is more of a challenge because the LA Times has an odd interface.  I may have to ditch my subscription to the paper, but I feel like I'm killing print media by doing that, but it may come to that in 2013.  In general, I've got higher aspirations for my technology.   I even found myself complaining about the Arclight Cinemas iPhone app a bunch in 2012.  Yes, on that app, I can buy movie tickets on my phone and use it as the ticket at the theater. Brilliant.  PRoblem is that there is no synchronization between the iPhone app and the website.  So if I buy tickets online, I can't send them to my phone and if I buy tickets on my Phone, they don't show up as something that I purchased on their site.   Hopefully they will fix that soon.  I also started this new site in 2012, since Apple officially shutdown Mobile Me.  

Our annual Florida trip got a bit chaotic this year, but it was very fun.  I even got to go to Universal Studios Florida and try out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  I thought they did a fantastic job on that place and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I would love to go back at some point.  They are even talking about building a version here in Hollywood at the Universal near my place.  They are also talking about expanding the Harry Potter themed areas and putting some of it in the standard Universal Florida park.  In general, fantastic and the main ride inside the Hogwarts castle was spectacular and sooo worth it.   

Since 2013 is half over, I figured I would lay out some goals for the year.  I'd love to try to read a little more.  I'm reading the Steve Jobs biography now and it's great.   I need to make more time to read and finish books.  It's good for me.  I'm attempting to do more paperless and it's going well.  I did finally break down and buy a printer though, since that's good to have around too.  I've really missed having a printer and it's wireless.  I would like to carve out some time to write and I've also got a lot of home video stuff to work on which I'd love to get out there.  I'm also going to try to get out and about more and even hopefully do some dating, which I'm not very good at, but I would like to.  It's been too long.  I've got lots of weight loss work to do too, but I need to get out there.   I think having a little writing routine and also an exercise routine are both good goals to shoot for.  

I'm going to try to save more money for bigger trips to go different places.  I mostly go to visit the family which I love doing, but I do need to travel to other places.  

Ok, I think I'm going to end this rewind 2012, since I got to travel a bit this year and it's worth writing about very soon.   Hope you enjoy reading these even though I seem to only post a few times a year, it's still fun to have a site and post little blurbs like this and some pictures.   Until next time....