2007 has come and gone, and here we are at the beginning of 2008! That means that it is goal-setting time once again!

• Debt Repayment!

We want to continue the positive trend of debt repayment this year. As it stands right now, our calculated debt-free date is August 2010. That does not take into account any bonuses or tax returns that we will be receiving, but I want to continue the focus and get down to just student loans remaining by the end of this calendar year.

Aside from that goal, liquidity is going to be the name of the game. We want to have the fewest amounts of debt remaining so we can do things with the cash that we were paying to bills. No specific goals here, except for “as much as possible.”

Roadbumps, stories, and goal updates for this will be tracked at the new debt tag. Periodic updates will be made in the main blog and via the goals tag.

• Karate

I want to use 2008 to prepare myself for an eventual Sandan (third degree black belt) test. I believe the plan is to sharpen our katas by focusing on those that are required for that test, and take sparring concepts each month and focus on them. I don’t know if there will be a number associated with the kata portion of that goal, but I’m betting it would around 100 of a chosen kata per month if not more. That will become clear as we reach a consensus at the dojo.

I hope to return to consistency with at least three workouts a week, more where I can fit them in.

Updates to this goal will take place in the standard karate tag as well as periodic updates via the goals tag.

• Learning to Relax

This one is a tough one. Over the recent winter break, it has become painfully clear to me that I have no idea how to relax anymore. This is often lamented via this blog, but I tend to go from “insanely busy” to “bored to tears.” I need to find some activities or hobbies that allow me to actually relax and that don’t become stress-generating pursuits.

Honestly, this will likely take the form of shopping for a cheap recreational hobby or two. It may take the form of finding a few new video games or something, but right now I don’t know… I just have to work this one out.

I am setting up the relaxation tag to help track this, I doubt highly there will be any goals but I might tag any updates via the goals tag as well.

• 2008BloPoMo

I’m going to attempt to continue the habit of daily blogging. I’m going to set up a monthly *blopomo tag, like I did for December Blog Posting Month last year. Any of you that wish to join me in this endeavor during the year, please feel free.

Those are the main ones! I believe that I can actually achieve all of these goals in some way or another this year, so keep an eye out for updates! Let’s hear your 2008 goals!!

I decided after the fun that was NaBloPoMo last month, I would continue and see how many days I can continue this daily posting business. I have to say, after about one additional week it became extremely easy to carve out ten minutes in which to draft a new post.

I need to go back and clean up some tags, but those of you that actually visit my blog can see by the calendar view on the right hand side that I successfully completed posting something every day in December. I know that not too many of the blogging crew that are reading this wish to participate in such an endeavor, but I intend to continue this pattern for as long as I can.

I’m going to challenge those of you that are occasional bloggers to try it for even a week… and then after that just try and go one day at a time. Each post doesn’t have to be a novel, just a few blurbs about what is going on with you, or something that you’ve been thinking about today is plenty. If you are one of those people that feel the compulsion to produce every blog post down to the n-th detail, this will be an opportunity to exercise your “off the cuff” muscles. Don’t sweat it so much, give yourself a 15 minute time limit and crank something out each day… and this goes double for those of you that have an interesting hobby, like volunteering, photography, music, art, etc! It should be easy for any of you to nerd out for a few minutes daily!

I found that for myself, it is often a 15-20 minute jag approaching bedtime, or if I know I will be out in the evening (like tonight) I carve out a little niche right before I go to do my running in which to blog. It’s not oppressive, it doesn’t take all night to come up with an idea, and it has actually helped me focus on the good things in my life lately which is a much needed reminder of how good life is.

I’d actually tag a few people to have them go for a week, but I don’t have enough time to type out all those LJ user tags or URLs! Get to it, people!

It is now time for one of my favorite (and most often requested) posts of the year: the goal review! This year, my goals were largely focused on the repayment of our outstanding debts in our quest to become debt free. I am proud to say that thanks to some excellent dedication from both Tasha and I that the results are extremely good.

• 90.3% of consumer debt paid off (formerly known as Phase I)
• Estimated 45.86% of overall debt paid off
• ALL credit cards paid off, chopped up, and cancelled as of 12/17
• My Saturn paid off as of 12/28

Here is the familiar graph that we were using to track our consumer debt paydown:

This graph was previously incorrectly named “Total Debt Remaining.” You will notice that we didn’t quite make it to the bottom of this graph, however we did make it far enough to realize that there were more gains to be made in liquidity of funds by attacking some of the items that we did not include in our “consumer debt” segment, namely our vehicles. Both of our cars ended up being both higher interest AND lower balance compared to the last debt that we had remaining in our consumer debt category, so we elected to shuffle things around.

This led me to the realization that I did not have good records regarding the other category, Student Loans and Cars, so I took it upon myself to do a reverse projection to determine how much we started with as a whole. If I was paying the proper level of attention I would have done this up front, but we live and learn and it is what it is.

The following graph represents the same data, however it is plotted from our estimated starting point:

This is the true picture of our total debt remaining (not including mortgage). Not too bad of a picture!

Interestingly, I’ve received a wide variety of feedback on this goal. When we venture on to this topic, I get many people wishing that they had the dedication to do what we’re doing. I get some supporters, who are doing all they can to encourage us on our way. I get some detractors, that claim that this goal can’t or shouldn’t be done. In the end, Tasha and I are happy to be on this path because we see the endgame that it will provide us. Contentment is the name of the game… I don’t have to drive an exceedingly fast car or have the newest and bluest computer systems, because when I’m through all this I will have money to burn. I was taught discipline from my parents and my karate teachers, and this is just another outgrowth of those same principles… it just resolves in a much more financially satisfactory way.

I can completely understand why people think this can’t be done, and to those several people I say “watch us.” 2008 is going to be a big year and our goals in this space are going to get even more ambitious. Whenever I recap my progress in this way, I like to recognize and thank who introduced us to Dave Ramsey, whose Total Money Makeover has allowed us to realize these gains. To those people supporting us and joining us on this quest: thank you! If anyone gets all inspired and wants to talk more about this topic I will be glad to do everything I can to help!

As for my karate related goals for 2007, I am sad to say that most of the dojo was slapped with a major bout of motivation issues during the second half of the year. I did participate in a LOT more sparring, however focus on kata waned to very low amounts by even the first quarter of the year. We are going to get back to some more measurable goals in 2008 to get us back on the right track, and I have no one to blame for my failings this year except for myself. In retrospect, I think that the 2006 Sochin related goal was flying a bit close to the sun and the crash was inevitable, however I am starting to feel energized again in order to attack my training with fervor.

We will see what 2008 brings, tomorrow I will list my resolutions and goals so stay tuned for that!!

When Teddy Met Addy
Originally uploaded by dalcher.

Tonight, my sister and brother-in-law stopped by for a visit and Teddy got to meet Addy for the first time! I had my camera at the ready and he ran right up to her and gave her a kiss on the side of the head! He was very interested in her, but was surprisingly gentle when he would approach her car seat. She seemed to like Teddy pretty well!

This is probably the best picture of the group, right as I took it both Teddy and Addy looked over and my camera decided to focus correctly for a change!

I was getting ready to go to karate this morning and the dog had another seizure, so I had to stay home and help take care of him. He’s doing much better now, acting and moving around normally.

It’s always scary when this happens, but he will be just fine. Tasha pointed out that all of the times that we’ve caught him having a seizure it has been in cold weather, and she’s wondering if he’s sensitive to the weather or the Christmas tree.

As some of you may know, today I paid off my car!! I will now commence with driving it until the wheels fall off with no further payments! Up next on the chopping block is Tasha’s car, which should be paid off by March!

Soda Can Robot
Originally uploaded by dalcher.

Tasha got me this small robot kit from ThinkGeek for Christmas. It said ages 8 and up, and I qualify for that range…

Anyway, the instructions were very clear, and the only thing that didn’t quite go as smoothly as I would’ve liked is that the screw for the front leg that it stands on didn’t seat quite right so its front leg is a little wobbly.

Barring that, I found some fresh batteries and flipped the thing on and it shot its way across my bar in a pretty quick pace. There was no soldering involved, it was purely a little buildup kit but it was neat to see it all in action when it was done.

It is small robotics kits like this that I wish I would’ve had when I was a kid… I was always a little interested in this stuff but I never knew where to get started. This kit uses a little toy off-center motor to vibrate the whole system and make the soda can move so its not all that high tech, but its still neat to see it in action!

Thanks Tasha, what a fun thing! 🙂

It’s finally time to blog my workout from Saturday. It was a small crowd, just , , , Dad and I. If I’m forgetting anyone, its because it was half a week ago and I didn’t blog it right away so I might have forgotten.

We warmed up with some Shodan test basics for the benefit of the brown belts, and then ended up the day with the basic 15 kata. On the way out, and I started discussing goals for 2008, and we both agree that we would like to do something that would prepare us for a 2009 Sandan test since neither of us intends to test before then.

All interesting things to think about as we round out this year!

Whew… I’m on a break from our Christmas festivities, and let me just say that Christmas is a ton of fun now that you’ve got a niece to spoil! The holiday has been great so far, I plan to post a recap tomorrow.

Merry Christmas to everyone!! I hope your holiday has gone as smoothly as mine! 🙂

It was a very laid back Christmas Eve! We spent some time with various members of family and went to Church, and I am now in the middle of one of my favorite Christmas traditions: watching A Christmas Story.

I don’t know what it is about this movie… the whimsical characters, the visuals, the hilarious leg lamp… but it just screams “Christmas in the Midwest” to me. I liked it so much that my Aunt Gail bought me the DVD a few years ago so I would never have to miss it at the holidays.

Tomorrow is going to be a zoo… breakfast with the parents in the morning, lunch and presents with my Dad’s side over lunch, then back to my parents house for presents with my sister and brother-in-law. Then it’s back over to my aunt’s house for dinner… and that should about cover it!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas… and if Christmas isn’t your thing have a Happy Tuesday!