Baby Steps for Father Kris

I'm still a bit hesitant about self-improvement, especially since I have gone 'over the hill' and am quickly sliding down the back slope of the mountain we call old age. However I am going to work on slowing my self-decay and strive to not be such a 'grouchy old grinch'. I am not as public as Tiffany in terms of posting an entire year's listing of areas of improvement for our happiness project, so I thought I would just start with the month of January and post my tentative 'baby-steps' in this adventurous journey of happiness improvement.
I will periodically post my successes and failures for this month -- and if I survive my rigorous regimen then I might try some other areas during the remaining months.

January's areas are two-fold that include both physical and mental improvements.
Physical: I have finally left the ranks of morbidly obese and am going to strive to stay overweight this month. I know it sounds like a very slovenly goal given that all of you guys are so hyperactive and physically fit... but if I can keep my weight at this level for a month then I might even be willing to give getting to a 'normal' weight a shot this year. To accomplish my goal of being overweight I will be going to the gym for aerobic exercise at least 3 times each week at one hour per session -- I will get my heart rate up to 85% of maximum for the majority of each session. My second measureable performance criteria in the area of physical activity is to engage in upper body strength training for 3 sessions each week. If the weather will cooperate then I hope to also get out for some hikes this month on Saturdays -- as always you guys are all invited to come along -- too bad we are so spread out across the continent.
Mental: I have become addicted to a variety of mind-numbing apps on my ipod -- such as suduko, angry birds and ragdoll -- while my addiction to my ipod will probably not be eliminated I am going to replace my game-playing by rereading some of the classics that are now available (free of charge through the gutenberg project). This month's classics include Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Art of War by Sun Tzu and a collection of short stories by American authors. A second goal for the month is to continue to contribute to the world-wide genealogy efforts by assisting in the conversion of the various handwritten records collected throughout the world into digital records to assist individuals that are searching for their family roots. My goals are to convert 100+ individual records per day for the entire month -- it may sound like a lot, but when you consider that we have over 6 billion individuals living on the earth now -- then it is not even a pico-drop in the genealogy bucket.
I will repost again in two weeks with my successes (and perhaps my failures). I will certainly have failures -- which is why I entitled this posting 'my baby steps'. I often recall looking at little Nathan during our Christmas vacation in Texas-- whenever he started walking -- invariably he would end up on his bottom -- but it never deterred him from getting right back up and trying to walk again. I hope to have his resolute determination in accomplishing my goals during this happiness project and continue hopping back up whenever I fall flat on the seat of my pants.

dad