Every year most of us sit down and write (or mentally take note) on what our resolutions are for the forthcoming year, and most of us will break them within the first few days (or weeks) of the year starting.

I’m just as guilty of doing this as anyone else.  So, this year I’m going to take on my resolutions with a different look.

What I mean by that is that I’m not going to make major life-altering resolutions that are over-the-top and hard to keep in line.  My resolutions are going to be small steps for my personal being so that when 2011 ends I will be changed for the better.

Here is the short list of my resolutions:

1. Get back into podcasting

If any of you know me well enough with my online presence I am the creator and co-host of the Average Joe Show and for a couple of years, on and off, we did 80 episodes.  Then in May 2010, I decided to take a break from the show.  Weeks became months.  I disappeared from the web, for the most part.  Did very little posting on Facebook and Twitter.  My plan was to pop back online in January, but something happened that made me want to get back online earlier than that.  (If you want to know what it is, let me know and I will put a post up about it.)  For the last seven months I have been sitting here taking notes about what I want to do in terms of podcasting.

I’ve only showed my notes to one person, my girlfriend, Erika.  She was hooked.  She isn’t deep into listening/watching podcasts, but is so behind me into doing this project that I won’t back down.

I can promise you one thing: I will be back into podcasting in early 2011.  Average Joe Show will be back!

2. Be Healthier

Most people say, “I want to lose weight.”, and they starve themselves to death and by the third of January call it quits.  That’s not what I’m saying.  What I want to do is to take baby steps to being healthier.  This means that I will cut back on eating junk food, drinking soda, eating more balanced meals, etc.  Not going to do major changes to my diet overnight, just want to make gradual changes so my body doesn’t go into “shock” from it.  Hopefully, I will keep you posted on these changes here.

3. Be a Better Me

I know this sounds like one of those self-help gurus saying it, but I want to make myself a better person on the inside.

I’m not one of those “half glass full” type of people, but more like “how come I don’t have a glass” type of people.  Everything I look at is always in a negative light.  I need to stop doing that and looking at the positive side of things.  I need to be happier about everything and more confident in the decisions I make.

So, there are my resolutions for you to ponder on.  They might not be the most shocking or ground-breaking ones, but these are the ones that I’m going to try my damndest to follow.  So, what are your resolutions for the New Year?

And on that note, I want to wish everyone out there a wonderful New Year and wish the best for you and your families.

She found the place on one of Yahoo!’s map related websites that gives you information about places around you.  The reviews of it were very high, so what could go wrong?

It was about 12:30 and we headed out the back door of the building.  The address was on the street behind us and the number was 104.  Since our building was 100, we had to be nearly on top of it.  Now, if you’ve ever been to downtown Tampa there will be something obvious about all the buildings – THEY DON’T LIKE TO PUT NUMBERS ON THEM!  Okay, that wasn’t a problem.  We headed up one way and found lots of little businesses – copy places, museum, banks, etc. etc. but no restaurant.  We jumped across the street, figuring it was there and headed back towards the building – still nothing.  Made me wonder where the heck this place was.  We must’ve passed it somewhere.  So, we crossed the street again and began our second lap.  There wasn’t any restaurant in the area.  I suggested that she get her phone out and call them to ask where they were.  There were two problems with this.  First off, she didn’t have the number, but we could call information for it.  Secondly, she didn’t have the phone, so the first problem didn’t even matter.  There was a hotel there, so, if anyone would know, they would inside.  She asked them where it was and they had no idea.  Now I wanted to know where the hell this place was!  So, we did what any normal person would do – we began our third lap around the street!

Now, we were looking for this restaurant…. in Florida…. in the summer, where the temps are in the 80s and the humidity was in the 90s, and we were wearing dress shoes.  So, the comfort level was non existant and the deordorant was starting to wear thin. 

About half way through this lap we decided to head back to work and call them up to see where they are.  I was almost certain that we walked by the place and didn’t even notice it.  By this time, my stomach was making some strange noises that the only thing I could think about was lunch!  NOW WHERE THE F*** IS THIS DAMN PLACE?  THEY BETTER HAS SOME GREAT FOOD THERE!

We got back in the office – nearly an hour after we left for lunch, with moisture in places I dare not discuss.  My friend has to log back into her computer and try to find the website to get the number.  Great, let’s add more time until we get to eat!  She pulled up the page, grabbed the phone and dialed the number.

“The number you have dialed has been disconnected.  If you need assistance please dial the operator.”

WHAT?  You have to be kidding me, we were looking for a place the doesn’t exist!!!

So, now the big question is where should we go to eat?  We were both disgusted with the outcome of the first choice so we decided to walk around downtown and see if anything catches out fancy.  We wanted something different and not go to any of the “old standbys.”  After another 10 minutes of walking nothing jumped out to us then I remembered a place called “The Office” that sound some great hamburgers.  She thought it was a great idea so we headed over there.  There was only one problem with this suggestion – they had gone out of business. 

Looks like we were even – she picked a non-existant place and I picked one that was out of business.

So we headed back to work and kept our eye out for something interesting.  Heck, by this time, we would have been happy with a day-old donut from Krispy Kreme.  So, as we got close to our building we decided to go to the one place we didn’t want to go to in the first place – the hotel restaurant located RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE BUILDING!

So, we spent over AN HOUR of walking aimlessly through downtown Tampa just to go to a place that’s less than 2 minutes from our building!

Since work was paying for this – when we sat down and started looking at our menus I said, “I’m having dessert dammit! Not wasting that much time to go and eat lunch and not having desert!”

So after over an hour of trying to get to lunch, a $30+ bill, and some medicocre food – I was content.

The lesson of this story was that she was not allowed to pick a place to go to eat at!

When I was a small child (maybe 2 or 3), my mother would always bribe me to go out with her by taking me out to eat.  (If you look at me now you can tell that she bribed me a lot of times!)

This one time my mom had to go grocery shopping and bribed me with McDonalds.  We went to eat before going shopping.  (This would be a mistake that my mother wouldn’t make again.)

When we get to the store I get seated in the shopping cart so she can keep an eye on me.  We go through the store for a while as she’s shopping, filling up the cart with the standards in groceries – bread, vegetables, meats, cereals, etc.  Of course, since the cart was full some of the stuff would have to sit next to me.  For some reason, I decided to get loud and tell my mom that “I was hungry.”  She kept on insisting that we just went and ate lunch and I wasn’t hungry, but bored.  This would go on several times with people starting to stare at me.

My mom would keep insisting that I’m not hungry.  And, being the brat I am, I grabbed a head of lettuce that was next to me and took a big bite out of just to prove that I was hungry.  My mom got really embarrassed.

(On a side note:  When I tell people that story I tell them, jokingly, that that’s the reason why they put cellophane on the lettuce!)