This is it, sports fans. It’s 4 AM the night before the web site goes live. I’ll publish the web address later when I know the site release was successful. I’m not pessimistic. I just don’t want to invite you all to the party and they kick you all out because somebody spilled punch on the carpet.

I’m making the last preparations and moving the latest code to the server. It’s kind of like putting your kid on the bus for the first time (except I’ve never actually done that). You just hope that you’ve raised them right and that none of the other kids beat them up once their out of your care.

I want to thank EVERYONE for your encouragement, prayer, patience, prayer and prayer. If you sent me a comment and didn’t see it show up, it’s probably because I had 352 comments in my moderation folder (I’m SO not making that up) and rather than try to sort through them, I just deleted them all. Nothing personal. It’s just… you know… 4 AM.

I had a huge response from friends and family about the verse of the week. Did you all get Romans 3:23 memorized by last Sunday? I did.

As for my other resolutions, on Monday, after a week of going without processed carbs (candy, sodas, etc.), I weighed exactly (to the pound) what I weighed the previous Monday. And man am I jonesing! I dream of sitting down to four or five grilled stuffed burritos and a 200 ounce Mountain Dew Code Red.

For the last five years or so, I had a standing order for Christmas: A Dilbert desk calendar. Every morning, as my PC started up, I’d tear off yesterday’s humor and get a fresh laugh. Then I discovered something. The strips in the desk calendar are the same strips that are on the website, just three years older. That means that for the last two years, I’ve been laughing at strips I’ve laughed at before. (Still just as funny though.)

So, this year I thought I’d get out of the rut. While Tammy and I were out shopping, I saw an “Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader” desk calendar and asked for that instead. It’s been weird not having two doses of Dilbert each day, and so far (Jan. 9th) Uncle John hasn’t been that great. But I’m going to give him a chance. It’s early.

Today’s story about a crossing guard who used a hair dryer to get cars to slow down at the crossing earned a mild chuckle. Then the kicker (there’s always a little one liner at the bottom) said, “Experts say pessimism raises blood pressure,” to which the pessimist in my brain said, “Oh great! Now I’m going to get high blood pressure. THANKS!”

Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to go read today’s Dilbert strip, because laughter lowers blood pressure.

All the experts agree (which implies that someone is lying) that the best way to achieve long term goals (like resolutions) is to make short term goals. So here goes.

Long term goal: Finish 4 non-fiction books
Short term goal: Read at least 5 pages every week day.

I am a miserably slow reader. I enjoy reading but I get very frustrated by the fact that I can not read without vocalizing the words in my head. Thus I read silently just as slow as I read out loud. I’ve tried many tricks, but my brain refuses to change how it reads. Naughty brain. No donuts for you!

Long term goal: 235 pounds
Short term goal: No candy, no donuts, no soft drinks, no white rice and no potatoes in January.

I tipped in at 250 this morning, down a little from last week. I still can’t ride my bike to work for a while, since I’m going back to late hours to get the web site project done. So my only alternative is to cut back on refined and starchy carbs. Expect the stock prices of french fries and Sprite to spike in early February.

Long term goal: More productivity
Short term goal: No web comics, no web videos, and no news/blog sites outside of my RSS feeder until the web site project goes to beta.

This is going to be much harder than the donuts and soft drinks.