One way or another, the blog returns 9/26.

You may react in the manner of your choosing.

I had a nice weekend of not doing anything but snacking and having some pizza and playing video games with my brother and sister in law (and now finally own Mario Kart thanks to them!). And, here on Sunday night, I’ve decided to continue that trend and not really write a post.

And that, I suppose, is enough implied advice to merit a post.

Wednesday’s post was a heavy bit of griping.

So today, a cute video!

Plus, I’m tired and don’t have any better ideas worked out yet.

Behold the fattest little puppy ever.

And, of course, puppies twitching as they sleep.

No particular reason for picking bull dogs, other than the rule of cuteness that something that looks grumpy while it is tiny is cute.

…I am weak and I lack discipline.

Housing concerns and various variousnesses have conspired to keep me from finishing my blog posts of late. So, today you are left with another pseudo-post.

And now, Zelda music, because you love Zelda.

Last night was a busy night. I collected keys on my new house (!) and spent my first fairly long trip at Home Depot buying supplies. It was a long night. So… in the stead of a full post, here’s a video of a gibbon teasing tigers.

In the fashion of screenwriting guru John August, I’ve decided to make my New Year resolutions more about areas of focus than specific statements. It’s very easy to slip from a targeted goal, but much easier to simply keep a particular frame of mind, so that’s what I’m aiming for.

2010 is going to be an insanely busy year for me. Around about June I become a Dad. If things go according to schedule, in February I will own a home. Making things busier still will be my first goal:

1) Focus more on creative work

I’d like to say that I’m going to crank out a couple screenplays and a novel this year (and that’s really what I’ll be keeping in the back of my mind), but I think it’s more reasonable to tell simply ensure I’m continuing to think about and chip away at creative work. I want to be making sure that a certain portion of my free time goes to continuing this trend—and I’d like to start doing a bit more learning and exercises as it relates to writing.

To date, I’ve depended largely on natural ability to get me through most things. I don’t do so well with intense practice at much of anything and tend to reach a point at which my ability plateaus on its own and that’s where I rest. Sure, I have a degree in Writing, but my previous statement holds true for my time in that program as well. I was good enough at the outset to work through all those classes, and didn’t really sit around studying techniques and methods and writing out exercises. In 2010 I want to work on actually improving my work rather than simply doing more of it. This means I’ll be tackling more sitting on park benches and writing descriptions of what I see and trying out small page-long exercises.

2) Focus more on single tasking

You can’t multitask with a baby. Rather, I don’t want to. It’s not something I want to start training an infant to do, and that makes this year the perfect time to break the habit for myself. A subset here (2a) will be Shave More/Shave Better. In 2010 I want to get to the point where I’m shaving daily. I’ve got pretty sensitive skin on my face, so I think it’s time to delve into the tricks and techniques of this classic bit of manitude. I have the resources near to hand. This just seems like one of those things that every dude should know how to do, and the only reason I’m not better about it now is that I don’t take the time to allow myself to be. So I wake up 10 minutes earlier to get it done. I can handle that.

3) Focus more on my leisure

A subset of this is 3a) Read more. I’m going to relax a bit more. Janelle and I have a lot of fun, but we’re also busy a fair amount of time. 2010 is going to have a lot more of my sitting around the house and doing what I want to do. From reading to watching DVDs to writing to playing games. It’s hobby-time.

4) Focus more on my health

I don’t want to lose a certain amount of weight or get a certain number of abs (27), I’d rather just make sure that I’m thinking about better choices, plain and simple.

Unless you don’t do the Christmas thing, in which case:

It’s Friday! You’re not at work!

No post today. Get off my back. Geez.

Shazam. Done.

I’m just shy of 48,000 words for National Novel Writing Month, and should be wrapping things up around about 6:30pm today.

Wednesday I’ll probably chat a bit about my experience writing so far, but will probably be absent on Friday.

Monday, however, I’ll be branching content in a new direction for a bit, so look for that.

It’s my birthday tomorrow (today by the time you’re reading this) and it’s very late and it’s been a very busy week. So I’m taking the day off.

Starting Sunday, my schedule will be changing quite dramatically. National Novel Writing Month begins for me, and I embark on a quest to write 50,000 words bound together with some form of cohesive purpose, all in the span of one month. This means I need to be writing at least 1500 words each day. It’s a bit of a marathon, especially seeing how it comes right in the start of the holiday madness at the end of the year. If you’d like to learn more about the program, or care to suffer from your own rush of temporary insanity (or inanity, as it may turn out), you may click upon this text.

And now, I leave to open cards from loving family members, sit on a couch, perhaps eat a cupcake and look forward to sleeping in cold weather because that means I can load up tons of blankets and get all nice and super cozy. Apparently I still sleep best when I’m more or less swaddled.

Play me out, keyboard cat.